Standing Out Pt. 1 Series

Standing Out

Series: The Book of Daniel

Slide Introduction

Today we are starting a brand-new message series on the book of Daniel.

And what we are going to do in this series is look at some of the important point’s in the life of Daniel and some of his friends. We’re going to look at some of the moment’s when Daniel and company took a stand for what is true and what is right. We’re going to see how Daniel and company choose God over culture and comfort.

We’re going to talk about taking a stand. Because here’s the deal, we all stand for something, right? We all make our own choices, we all express our own views and opinions, right? We all take a stand on something.

And so, as Christ followers we want to make sure we are standing out in the right way, at the right moment, and for the right reason.

And so, for this week and next week, we’re going to talk about standing out

And so, what I want to do right now is give you a little bit of the back story as to what is going on in Daniel 1.

For years and years, the prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Micah had been warning the Israelites, ‘Hey you need to get your act together. You need to turn from what you are doing and what you are living for and you need to turn back to God.’

And yet, there was just this constant rebellion from God’s people and so God finally has had enough and He sends the Babylonian’s into Judah too over take Jerusalem.

God’s basically, saying, ‘All right I warned you time and time again to clean up your act and get right with me. You’ve worn out my patient’s and so I am sending this pagan nation to overtake you.’

And the Babylonian’s are some bad, bad people. They are led by a King named Nebuchadnezzar and they’re a fearsome bunch but they’re also very smart bunch.

For example, when they invaded a country-it’s a guarantee victory. And so, the Babylonians would usually take the most talented and useful people back to Babylon and they would leave the poor behind to take whatever land they wanted.

It was actually a clever system because they were actually creating this system of loyalty. You’re giving land and resources to people who never really had anything to begin with and you’re also taking the best of the best, brainwashing them, retraining them, and putting them into some kind of civil service.

Kind of smart on their part, and we’re going to see this unfold in Daniel 1

Slide During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 

Slide The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god. Daniel 1:1-2 (NLT)

I’ve warned you, and warned you and now I am going to allow the enemy to overtake you. God allows the Babylonians to overtake the Israelites. And yet, we see in the coming verse God’s mercy and grace as he allows this small remnant to remain while in exile.

Slide Verse 3: Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 

Slide “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace.”

Slide “Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service. Daniel 1:3-5 (NLT)

Now here’s what I want you to know, this was very intentional and very strategic, and the whole purpose behind this was to transform these young men from young Jewish boys to Babylonians.

And so not only were they taken to a whole new land, but they’re also going to get new names, they’re going to have these new customs, these new ideas, and a new language.

Basically, for the next three years, these teachers are going to try and indoctrinate these young men to think like Babylonians thought, behave like Babylonians behaved, and believe what Babylonians believed.

And yet, this what the church is accused of doing, right?

But the reality is this is what the world is doing to the church. The world is enticing the church to step away from its calling and teaching to follow it.