Daniel: Stand Firm

Daniel: Stand Firm Daniel 1:1-20

Opening illustration At a drive through wildlife park when I was younger. Rounded the corner and mom cried out. I didn’t get scared immediately cause let’s face it, girls can sometimes send mixed signals. That can mean anything from there is a child in the road to I just realized I left my lipstick at home. But when I did look up I saw that 50 feet away were three giant buffalo trotting towards us. They looked mad and we were scared. All the sudden I got really worried. Were they going to run into the van, would the break the windows, would they drag me away and make me their little buffalo slave… I didn’t know but all the worst things imaginable were running through my mind. They came up to the van and I closed my eyes ready for the world to end. They just kinda moved off of the road and kept walking on by. That’s just like life. We get in a situation and instantly start worrying about all the possibilities when most of the time it’s not even going to happen. When we stop focusing on our situation and start focusing on our savior everything changes!

Some of you right now are in a pretty overwhelming situation and you aren’t sure what to do or what’s going to happen. Throughout this weekend we are going to see some snapshots from the life of Daniel who found himself in a bunch of really overwhelming circumstances. It started for him when he was middle school age in the very first chapter…

Let’s turn to Daniel 1 – As we do let’s pray. Read Daniel 1:1-7

King Nebby was brilliant. When the Babylonians invaded a nation they knew the people wouldn’t obey them if they just came in and lorded over their rule. Instead they came in found the best and the brightest young men, the popular, good looking kids that would have influence. They kidnapper them from their family and drug them away. King Nebby was going to slowly turn these guys into puppets for Babylon and then turn them back into the nation of Israel so that everyone would follow their lead.

He realized that was gets your attention will ultimately determine your direction. He wanted to get these guys attention in order to get the attention of the whole nation so that he can change their direction.

In these 7 verses we get a glimpse into… Satan’s Strategy to Destroy You #1 - Remove you from the presence & people of God - The people of God would keep Daniel on fire for God and so King Nebby did everything in his power to take him away from their presence and isolate him. - You know this! You’ve been doing it for years. Fired up at Super Summer…busy with football, cheer, band…no time to really give God and His people the best…you make excuses (they’re not friendly, it’s boring, they’re hypocrites)…and your spiritual life tanks. It’s predictable…I have bets on it with Vegas and I’ll make a ton of money because you’ve done it every year. - Satan does this because you are dangerous. If you stay connected then you’ll get passionate for Jesus and make others passionate for Him. You leave and you’ll cool, doubt, sin, and destroy your life. #2 - Create a new purpose for your life - King Nebby was saying forsake your God and His plan…it’s dumb…look where it’s gotten you. Come with us and you’ll be something significant and be happy. - God made you on purpose to make a difference. Never give up God’s purpose for you for anything. Don’t choose being cool, accepted and popular instead of holy, obedient, and passionate. - Pursue pleasing your coach over pleasing your savior. Pursue placing at nationals over serving in God’s church. Put your Saturday night plans over your preparation for proper worship of God on Sunday. Pursue facebook more than scripture. Text more than you pray. Pursue that 4.0, making varsity, success, money, next level of halo over participation in the bride of Christ. - Satan wants you to pursue everything but the one thing that really matters. To get you to think that it’s really worth the investment of the best years of your life. #3 - Change your identity - Literally! His actual name was identified with His God. . - Daniel = “My judge is Elohim” – Belteshazzar = “Bel protect the king” - Hananiah = “YHVH who is gracious” – Shadrach = “Command of the moon god” - Misha’el = “Who is like Elohim?” – Meshach = “Who is what Aku is?” - Azariah = “YHVH has helped” – Abednego = “Servant of Nebu” - This book is called Daniel, and that’s huge! It’s not called Belteshazzar! Daniel never allowed others to change his identity. If you and I want to be victorious we can’t take on the identity of what has enslaved us! We have to stop identifying with who we used to be or what we have done and identify ourselves with Jesus because if Jesus is your Lord and Savior than you aren’t a slave, you are a blood bought born again new creation in God. - Dog Food and Fruit Illustration: I brought something today I think you will enjoy – Do you like pineapple? I love pineapple! Is there anyone here who doesn’t like peaches? What happens if I don’t like peaches? Maybe I like applesauce instead. (Take the applesauce label and put it onto the same can) Great! Now I can have applesauce. Anyone want some applesauce with me? What? You mean we can’t just change the label? Why not? It says applesauce. Oh, well… let’s have some pineapple then... Open the can of dogfood. Oops… this is not pineapple. This is dogfood…. Looks like sometimes labels can be wrong. - It doesn’t matter what label others try to put on you, it’s what is on the inside and what your creator says about you that counts. - Satan wants you to embrace any label other than Child of God and make that change what is on the inside of your. - Shy, homeschool, jock, funny, goth, gamer, preppy, boyfriend, girlfriend, depressed, abused, lonely, musician. Anything will do for him. It doesn’t matter. If you find your identity and security in anything other than Christ then Satan absolutely wins. - Your identity can either come from what you've done, what they've done or what He's done. #4 - Use compromise to lure you into allegiance - They didn’t line up a bunch of idols and make him worship. They didn’t set a man in front of him and say “murder him.” They didn’t bring a temple prostitute to them and say “sleep with her.” No! That would be way to overt and wouldn’t have worked. - They went subtle. Let’s put delicious food in front of them that’s just barely outside what God says. Let’s just get them to take a little step towards disobedience. Not all at once but by social pressure (everyone is doing it) by minimizing the significance (it’s a dumb rule anyway or there’s a lot worse things) by peer pressure (those followers of God do it then I guess I can too) - I can listen to this music. That movie isn’t that bad. It’s just a joke. It’s just a little skin. I’ll only do it once. God will forgive me. It’s not as bad as so-and-so. I’ll stay up late and not give God my best on Sunday morning. I’ll just get a little help on this one test. I’ll show up late to church. I’ll facebook instead of in my quiet time. I’ll do everything but go all the way. - Then we make excuses. Church is boring. I don’t have time for a lifegroup. I don’t know anyone. They’re not friendly. It’s too deep. It’s not deep enough. I’m too busy. - When we choose to compromise in the little things unfaithful in the big things always follow.

Daniel is Faithful Let’s see how this little middle schooler named Daniel responds to this all-out assault on him and his relationship with God. Read Daniel 1:8, underline “But Daniel”

Listen, Daniel didn’t know much about God. God didn’t come down to him and saw hey Daniel don’t give, be strong because one day there’s gonna be a book of the Bible named after you, people are gonna name their kids after you, there is gonna be a Veggie Tales character of you. He didn’t have that. All he knew is that he was in a circumstance that was trying to define him but God is bigger than my circumstance and he is able to pull me through.

Read Verse 9, underline “Now God”. This is important because God is a right now God. Too many time we think of God as a back then God or a but when God. But the Bible says God is with us right now!

Read Verses 10-20

#1 - Daniel resolved in advance - He had a plan and was committed to it long before the attacks came - He knew God’s will for Him and he’d decided to live by that no matter the consequences. King Nebby tried to get him to compromise but Daniel that God could accomplish more through his conviction than he could through his compromise. - Others caved in. Why? No plan. Fear, popularity, comfort, success. - What will people say about me? What if I get made fun of? What if I won’t have any friends? - You don’t know how rejected I’ll be. I don’t want to be on the outside. I don’t want stick out. - I’d rather play video games. I have too much homework. I have practice. I’m too busy. I want to get a scholarship. My coach said I wouldn’t play…let me tell you this…God, won’t let you play in His game if you put other things first…period! Which do you want? #2 - Daniel respectfully stood firm - God didn’t deliver Daniel from his circumstance, he delivered Daniel through his circumstances. The same God that did that for Daniel can do that for us! - Game time came. Battle was on. In the heat of the moment. He didn’t argue with his teachers. - Others took shortcuts. It’s too hard. - God let it be game over for them. Nothing is written about them. They lived meaningless lives and died having denied the living God. How do you think that went for them on judgment day? - Goose Illustration: At the park with Caleb feeding ducks. This park had tons of ducks that were really tame but it also had some geese that used to smoke crack cause these geese were crazy. We’re feeding the ducks and all of the sudden I hear a hiss. I turn around and about 10 feet away is a giant goose with his neck stretched out and he’s hissing at me! I was like who does these goose think he is, you wanna go right now? But then the goose lost his mind and started charging right towards me. Now at this point I had two options sho my son how to be a man and stand up to this animal or turn and run for my life. So I grabbed Caleb and started running and screaming like a little girl. I had been running for like 15 or 20 seconds when all of the sudden it dawned on me. I am 6’1, 170 pounds… I am bigger then that goose. So I stopped turned around pointed at the goose and yelled STOP, I will punt you! I think I gave that goose the biggest scare of his life cause he pooped a little gave a big squawk and went running the other way. Why do we run from something that we have power over. You don’t have to be overwhelmed by a situation that in Christ you can overcome because God is bigger and greater than whatever is chasing you!

#3 - Daniel rallied Godly friends - He didn’t do it alone. - Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. #4 - Daniel revealed God’s power - He lived it. He wasn’t all talk. He was action and God provided and protected - Others blended right in. There was no way to tell a difference between the chosen people of God and the Babylonians. They looked exactly the same. Daniel showed us that God can give us power to be different!

Read John 16:33 - Almost everyone in here is looking for peace. Jesus says something crazy. He is talking to the apostles, the closest people to Jesus and he says in this world, you’re GOING to have problems. But then he says But take heart! I have overcome the world! Jesus overcame. He was not overwhelmed by his circumstances, instead he overcame!

Read Revelation 12:11 - We can overcome by the blood of the lamb, the death of Jesus gives the power to overcome. And by the word of our testimony, there is unbelievable power when you stand up for Jesus and share the testimony of your life and the gospel.

• Satan and the world want to destroy you: – By removing you from the presence of God & His people – By creating a new purpose for your life – By redefining your identity – By subtle compromise • You can be protected and blessed by God: – By resolving to do the Godly thing in advance – By respectfully standing firm – By rallying together with Godly friends – By relying on God’s power

What about you? What will you decide this summer? • Will you decide to be like Daniel? • Or will you decide to be like everyone else? • Is Christ really enough for you? Do you even know Him? • It is impossible without a personal, obedient relationship with Jesus But when you have a growing loving relationship with Jesus you understand that God is greater than what you’re going through and he is able to take you through it!