Daniel’s Stand

Amen.

All right.

Turn, if you would, in your Bibles tonight to Daniel Chapter one.

We'll finish Daniel Chapter one tonight and then from here on out, most of the rest of the sermons will be chapter by chapter.

And so we'll finish up the thought and want to just drive home.

Really, one thought tonight.

This will probably be brief.

We'll see.

But probably, I don't know.

We'll see.

But really, just one thought tonight.

One thought.

Daniel, Chapter one.

Let's look at verse eight again.

We covered verse eight and nine, but let's look at verse eight through the rest of the chapter.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

Nor now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.

And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear, my lord, the king who hath appointed me meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort?

Then shall ye make me endanger my head to the kings.

Why should I give you vegetables and grains to eat, and you guys look, you know, pale and sickly compared to the other students, and I lose my head.

So he was concerned about himself.

Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over.

Daniel, so kind of get the ideal.

You have Ashpenaz, who is the prince of the eunuchs, who is the head.

And then apparently there is a understudy and an assistant under him, Melzar.

Melzar is not necessarily his name, but that's the position he holds.

Whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Verse 12.

Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, 10 days.

And let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.

Then let our countenance be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat.

And as thou seest, deal with thy servants, so he consented to them in this matter, and proved them, tested them 10 days.

And at the end of the 10 days, their countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.

Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse as for these four children, listen.

God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.

And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, that's three years.

Then the princes of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king communed with them.

And among them all was found none like Daniel and Hananiah and Mishael and Azariah.

Therefore stood they before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of of them he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, bless the message tonight.

Bless your word.

We thank you, we love you.

In Jesus name, amen.

Daniel and his three friends are carried away in the first deportation in 606 BC.

So remember now the again, I know we repeat history here, but the northern kingdom was carried into captivity in, you know, 597 and I mean again in 797 BC and then the 722, my numbers 722 is the right date.

Everybody on this side, 722, the Northern Kingdom is carried into captivity.

Everybody on this side, 7:22.

150 years later, about the southern kingdom was captured, defeated, if you would.

And Nebuchadnezzar came in the first time in 606 and took a portion of the children of Israel out, mainly those of the royal king, of those of the royal house, princess, those who were considered the best of the best, the young men.

And so in that deportation we find Daniel.

He's carried him and his friends and probably around 2,000 others were carried into Babylon.

And there they were placed into Babylon University.

Now there really wasn't a university, doesn't have a name, but.

But that's what it is.

It's a good name.

Babylon University.

They were placed into this program in order they might be immersed in Babylonian culture, in the culture.

And we compare this as we think about the application for us today, that we see this in our own society today, where especially our young men and women who leave the home and go into society and enter into college or work or wherever it is.

And there they're immersed into the world system, if you would.

And we all have that application as well as we go to work every day and immersed in the Babylonian in the world's university as they were put into this program by the king of Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar, he that is, those in charge there were attempting to cut off these young men from their home and from the culture and from their God.

They wanted to cut the ties that they had and the beliefs and the things that they were raised and studied under their parents.

He changed the language.

He had them learn Chaldean.

He had them.

He changed their names again, cutting them off from their parents.

He changed their diet.

All these things in order they might abandon what they had been taught in Israel, what they had been taught by their moms and by their dads.

We see this again as a side today.

So much young people, I'm telling you, you leave here, a lot of you guys who've already graduated here recently from any kind of secular college, and even some not so secular, know what it's like to go into a college where many of the professors do not believe God, do not believe in God.

And as they teach, they are teaching from a perspective entirely different than what you were raised under.

They're coming from you at a worldly perspective instead of a godly perspective.

They're coming at you from a, a non biblical authority and a non biblical worldview.

And those worldviews collide.

The word of God and the worldview of Christianity and the worldview of the world are totally opposites.

And that's what you have here.

You have Daniel and his three friends and again, probably around at least a thousand or so others who were put into the same program.

And.

And yet we only find four who took a stand.

Only four?

Only four.

But Daniel and his friends did take a stand in the midst of an ungodly anti God society.

They took a stand in the midst of a lot of attractions that the world had to offer.

We think about, again, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, fun, fortune and fame.

And yet they rejected that and stood firm in their beliefs, stood firm in their convictions in the midst of the absence of their parents, with no one around to call them out.

And yet they stood firm.

Again, we're faced with this every day.

You are faced with this every day as you go into work and as you go into society.

A need to take a stand, a need to look again through the prism of a godly perspective and not a worldly perspective.

Teenagers, especially, as you continue to grow and as some of you who are still in college need to take a stand.

And Daniel took that stand.

I want to point out tonight, though, something maybe that I didn't point out before is I Just want you to see the respect and the humbleness of Daniel as he dealt with those who were.

He was placed under.

And this is an area, I think, that some Christians really need some help in.

And that is when we are dealing with the world and we are dealing with professors and we are dealing with individuals who.

Who believe, contrary to the Scriptures, that we as Christians do so in humility.

Again, Proverbs says that a man who has a contentious spirit is full of pride.

And when you are one who is contentious, the Bible says you're full of pride.

We got to be careful of that.

And it just, again, it occurs to me that you just continue to see Daniel as he is dealing humbly with those and whom have been put in charge of him.

And though I do absolutely know that Acts 5.

29 says that we ought to obey God rather than man, that God's law is higher than man's law.

Amen.

All the congregation ought to be.

Yeah, that's right.

And I am telling you, we are living a society where this stand is going to have to come at some point where I'm thankful for the little space of grace that we have here as we go forward.

But I'm telling you, the world, America, United States of America, is permeated with people who are anti God and have a totally different worldview than you have.

And those are colliding, and they'll continue to collide until Jesus returns.

And so when Acts chapter five says we ought to obey God rather than man, there'll come a day.

I believe this.

I believe there'll come a day many of you, maybe myself included, will have to take a stand that may cost us more than just, you know, hurt feelings.

Amen.

I'm telling you, the day's coming.

But again, Daniel handled himself respectfully and was respectful and kind and humble.

So we see Daniel's approach as it came to his stand.

I've used cliches like we can disagree without being disagreeable, we can contend without being contentious.

I don't believe you have to, you know, stand in front of an abortion clinic with signs yelling at people, yelling at people who are going into abortion clinic.

Am I against abortion clinic?

Yeah, it's murder.

Bible makes that very clear.

But there is a way in which we can deal with people and we can deal with the world in a respectful way, in a kind way that would be a lot more effective.

And we see this in Daniel's life.

I haven't done this in a while.

Over the years, have gotten away from a lot of The.

A lot of personal illustrations still talk about the farm and some other things, but just a personal illustration.

I've talked about my brother in high school who had a nickname, Dippy Dan the Holy Man.

And I'm thankful for an older brother who's four years older than me that did live not a perfect life, certainly not even a perfect life in high school, but at least lived and had a testimony in high school.

And I followed that.

And even some of the teachers that taught my brother were there.

It's a small school.

We had, you know, about 100 in each grade.

So high school was made up of 400 kids.

Junior high, which was sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, was made up of 300 kids.

I graduated with about 100 kids.

And so as I entered junior high and began to make my way through, I met some of the same teachers that my brother had.

My brother.

My brother was not very good academically.

That caused me to suffer a little bit.

But that's okay.

We got it figured out.

But my brother did, again, have a good testimony.

And as I worked through high school and was raised in a smaller school, there was about 50 or 60, maybe even 70 kids that all of us went to kindergarten together and all of us graduated together.

It's kind of unique to a small town.

Some of you may have got to experience that.

It was pretty cool.

I mean, it was great.

But in that, too, that meant that the kid that knew you in kindergarten now knows you in high school.

And of course, we were so faithful to church.

And my dad was so much involved in church there in Bowie.

And then my dad, when I was 11, helped start a church over in Nocona.

So just that whole thing of being immersed in church and thankfully in a home where what was being taught was also being practiced, I'm so thankful for that.

And then to go to school.

And even though it was a good country school, and I'm thankful for my teachers, many of them I would.

Not many, but most of them would say they were Christians, but you would always have that teacher now and again, even in a small town who was not in any way a Christian.

I dealt with not only atheistic teachers even back then, but also teachers who were immoral, who lived an immoral lifestyle, brought the pictures to school to prove it.

A homosexual.

You know, dealing with those things as kids and as a young person and then dealing with your peers and trying to live right and do right is tough.

And by the way, Christian schools aren't perfect either.

I've told you the testimony about my High school biology teacher whose name was Rufus Williams.

He was also a football coach, biology teacher, football coach.

And my dad knew him really well as well.

And we were getting to that subject of evolution.

And he said, he started the class off by saying, I've got to teach this.

It's in the book.

Nobody say a word.

And he taught evolution that day.

And then I went to him afterwards.

I've told you this many times, I've testified to this.

I went to him after class and said, hey, we're not going to teach the other angle, the other, you know, the other story, the true story.

And he says, no.

He said, I can't do it, but you can.

He said, next class you can have the class that's a freshman.

I was thankful he gave me that opportunity.

And I certainly couldn't speak for no hour like he could.

But I did speak for 10 or 15 minutes and gave some, you know, was able to give out some handouts and try to stand for the Lord when it came to creation, that God created all things.

It takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does evolution.

And then creation takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does creation.

In biology class I'd write the.

I would write the answer that the teacher wanted, you know, in the space and then out beside it, I would write the Bible answer.

He always got a kick out of that.

I was respectful about it.

I do remember though of my senior high English teacher, she was a good lady, but not necessarily, not necessarily a believer.

In high school, I don't know if they still do, but in high school, in your senior English class, you had to write a research paper in order to graduate.

I don't know if they require that anymore or not.

Probably not.

Do they?

I don't remember.

It was a 10 page research paper and you had to have all the things noted and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I love to read.

I know that's weird for a high schooler, especially a guy, but I love to read.

My mom got me into reading, my dad got me into reading and I started reading when I was in sixth grade and just became a reader.

Enjoyed that.

So I enjoyed research.

I enjoyed creation.

So my research paper was on creation, that God created it.

All 10 page paper.

And here is my high school English teacher reading that.

And I got an A, not based upon my grammar, I promise you that.

And my sentence structure.

She noted all that.

By the way, she did say at the top though, she said to.

I'm summarizing.

Very good in depth research.

I Appreciate your stand.

I may not believe.

It's basically saying to me, I may not believe what you're saying, but I appreciate your stand.

I cannot say in junior high and high school that I always felt accepted junior high.

I ran for something, I think treasurer of the student body or something.

Didn't even get close.

And then I can remember as a freshman going to my dad, and I'll be very candid tonight, without being too candid, I can remember going to my dad as a freshman, crying to him, saying, nobody likes me.

I don't know if he remembers that or not, but I just did.

It was kind of the summer as I was going into my freshman year and then even the summer after that, freshman into sophomore year.

And, you know, just because if you didn't live the way they lived and you didn't go to the parties they went to, you know, some of you from the country know what I'm talking about.

There was a party every weekend, every Friday and Saturday night in a small town, America, there's a party somewhere and there's kids getting drunk and blah, blah, blah.

That was the big thing Friday, Saturday night, if you weren't a part of that crowd.

Even though I was an athlete and, you know, had lots of friends, I didn't have friends because I wouldn't do those things.

And not that I didn't ever mess up, but I didn't do those things.

I felt that way up until a point.

I know this is a long illustration to get to the point.

I'm getting to the point.

Y'all ready?

The point is this acceptance by the world doesn't matter.

But when you're a young man or a young lady and you are growing up, there is some that part of you who wants absolute to be accepted, to be accepted by your parents, to be accepted by your peers.

And it's a part of the way God made us, right?

We are social beings.

And so that affected me as a young person.

But what I saw as high school went on, and my wife would testify this, as I went on and as I continued to, again, not perfect, but continue to live for Jesus, I began to see the attitude of my peers change towards me.

It did.

It became from an attitude of rejection and just, you're a, you know, Christian mamby, pamby, whatever, to an attitude of respect.

And that happened as I became a senior in high school, especially when I became a senior high school.

The year prior my junior year, they began to vote for class president.

All those things for the following year.

The president of the student council.

Do they even have student councils anymore?

I don't know.

We were growing up.

You had student council.

And so several of my friends who I grew up with since kindergarten said, you should be the president of the student body.

I said, nobody will vote for me.

And so instead of going for president, I went for vice president.

And sure enough, I got it.

And a girl got the presidency.

A girl that I grew up with, who I've known since.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

Should I tell that story or not?

Small town America, right?

President of the student body was normally a guy.

Normally.

And that guy had to kiss the homecoming queen at the football game when she was presented her crown.

Happened every year.

You couldn't do that today.

They'd be sued 10 times over.

So my future wife had to sit in the stands as I kissed the homecoming queen at the homecoming football game.

And she sat there smiling right now.

So you get to know a little more about me tonight.

Maybe you don't like it and I have to tell the truth because my dad's here.

Did you kiss her on the cheek?

I did kiss her on the cheek.

Yes, I did.

I did kiss her on the cheek.

And then my future wife made me wash my mouth before I kissed her on the cheek and maybe on the lips.

But anyway, the point is, because I really am hammering in on just one point tonight.

The point is, when you again, none of us are perfect.

And I could go back, I have friends in high school again, have known me all my childhood, who would say, well, you messed up there, you messed up there.

We all have done that.

But when you try to live right and do right, and though you may find yourself in a position where some people make fun of you, I am telling you right now, at some point, the Lord will turn that around.

This applies to all of us.

It applies to you at your work, when you seemingly others are sneering at you or making fun of you because you won't do certain things or you won't cuss and you won't tell the dirty stories and you get known for a certain thing.

I'm telling you at some point, I'm telling you right now, at some point when they need something that when they need advice or some relational issue or some health problem comes into their life, I promise you they're going to come to you.

And they may stare at you now, but there'll become a time, as over the long haul, that they'll respect you.

I got voted as the most likable in high school, my senior year.

How that ever happened, who knows?

I may have a little bit of an add problem.

I used to park out front of the high school with the thugs.

In a country, country town.

There was.

There's absolute groups.

I don't know if that there were high school.

There were groups, right?

You had the thugs, you had the, you know, the preppy kids, you had the cowboys, you had the athletes, you had the.

The mechanic.

Those.

Anyway, I don't know.

There was like five or six or seven groups.

I would just hang out with them all.

I just enjoyed myself.

I parked out with the thugs.

I enjoyed working on vehicles.

I rebuilt a motor.

And, man, they'd come up to me and say, what do you got in that thing?

I said, this is what I got.

And my old truck, I set at a stop sign or a red light.

And that cam was so big in that thing, and the truck would shake.

Dad remembers that one.

I just enjoyed.

I just enjoyed.

I just enjoyed it again.

You live for Jesus.

You do what's right, whether you're in sixth grade, fifth grade, or whether you're 45, working at Lockheed, or working wherever you're working.

If you'll live right, do right, strive to do right.

God will help you do that.

Amen.

God will help you do that.

Holy Spirit will empower you and strengthen you to do that.

I'm telling you, there'll come a time when they'll stop sneering at you and they'll start coming to you, asking you to pray for them.

Stand for.

Right.

But all that's contingent upon this, I believe this.

Humility.

Humility.

It's a fine line, right?

It is understanding and knowing that I'm not better than them.

Hello.

And because I think I'm not better than them.

I don't come across that way over time.

Now, at the beginning, they may see me that way.

They may say, well, you just think you're better than us.

But over time, humility just drives that away.

Humility.

When I'm talking to them, not beating them in the head with the Bible, I'm talking to them about the Bible.

I'm inviting them to church or I'm inviting them to a special program.

Maybe I'm inviting them to the men's campout or maybe something they wouldn't normally attend.

But, man, they'll come to a men's breakfast or they'll come to a special event like Fall Fest or whatever, and inviting them to those special events.

Because my church has given me opportunities that I Can invite others to church in a non church setting even.

It's a great opportunity.

Easter's coming up.

What a great opportunity to invite somebody to church.

Daniel was respectful when it says that he found favor with the eunuchs.

It meant that him and his three friends acted right.

They lived right.

Of course God intervened there as well.

Somebody said it this way.

They may never agree with your philosophy, but they will appreciate your stand when you do so.

When you stand in humility.

We ought to be firm in our conviction, but gracious and humble when we stand.

They went through this 10 day test.

And by the way, if you look here, it's really says that the first time Daniel asked that his request was denied.

And then he goes back to the understudy and he asked him again.

He said, hey, what about a 10 day test?

So I mean Daniel even after he asked the first time, had an excuse to just go eat the king's meat.

He could have said, hey Lord, I've already asked and they won't let me.

But he very kindly went, went back again and back again and made the request.

Daniel made a humble decision and God honored it.

God honored it.

Daniel wasn't looking for excuse or a way out.

He was looking to not defile himself.

And then God demonstrated his faithfulness to him.

We see this in verses 17 through 24, 21, where God again the reward, right, that the king and those found these teenagers had more wisdom.

10 times more wisdom 10 times if he would smarter.

And this is it tonight.

And I'm done.

God takes care of those who put his will first in their lives.

God takes care of those who are obedient to his will.

These four men became counselors to the king.

God prospered Daniel because of his commitment.

What seemingly was political suicide by him taking a stand became his graduation became a stepping stone for him to succeed and go forward.

Because again, God blesses those who stand.

In verse 21.

I do want to point this out.

Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.

You realize that Daniel served for over 60 years.

He served four Babylonian kings.

Two of those were assassinated.

And yet he continued to serve in court.

How in the world he was never kicked out or you know what I'm saying?

I mean that don't even happen in America.

You know, 60 plus years, at some point somebody takes him out.

But he didn't.

God blessed him continually.

That's my point.

Because of his obedience to God's will.

Because he took a stand and did so humbly go.

God blessed him continually.

He Went through four kings of the Babylonian kingdom.

And then when Medo Persian defeated the Babylonians and Cyrus was the king of the Medo Persians, he served under Cyrus all the way to the point of he served long enough that when Cyrus made the decree for the children of Israel to go back and rebuild the temple, guess who was still there?

Daniel.

Daniel was still there, still had influence.

My opinion is if we get to heaven, we'll find out.

But my opinion is that Daniel was pointing to Cyrus, said, hey look, you're in our Bible, you're in our scriptures.

It says you're going to allow the children of Israel to go back and rebuild the temple.

Look at this prophecy.

Your name's there.

You think Daniel wouldn't point that out?

Man Daniel had a continual long term blessings of God on his life because he purposed to do right, because he was faithful to God's will.

And God is always faithful to those who do right.

And he will bless those who are obedient to his will.

Again, let me clarify.

We're not talking about God's love.

I'm thankful.

God's love is unconditional.

But blessings are contingent upon obedience.

First Samuel 2:30 says, them that honor me.

God speaking them that honor me, I will honor.

I will honor.

As we demonstrate, as we determine to do right, as we determine to do and obey God's will.

He will do his part.

He will do his part not only blessing us now, but blessing us long term.

Isn't that a blessing?

That's a blessing.

God blesses those who are obedient to his will.

That's all you got to know tonight.

Are you obedient to his will?

Have you young person, determine your heart?

You're not going to defy yourself, are you going to determine your heart to do right, leaning upon the Holy Spirit, his power and strength to do so, all of us should purpose to do right.

God will bless it.

Though we may get a little bit of taunting.

I am telling those same people who taunt you, those same people who make fun of you, those same people who talk behind your back about your Christianity will be the same people who eventually will respect you, will come to you in their time of need because God honors those who honor him.

Let's all stand.