Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Here are my sermon notes from last weekend. May our light shine for God in a dark culture!
1. Live with DETERMINATION. Notice the word resolve in verse 8. Other translations read, “purpose in your heart”.
2. Live with BOLDNESS. Daniel had the boldness to approach Ashpenaz and claim he couldn’t defile himself this way.
3. Live with DEPENDENCE. Daniel asked to eat nothing but vegetables and drink nothing but water for 10 days. This took great faith in God!
4. Live with GOD’S BLESSING. – These four young men stood out from the rest. They were 10 times better than all the other “gifted” people in Babylon. When God’s people determine to live for God with boldness and complete trust in Him then God’s anointed blessing will allow us to shine for Him in a dark culture.
Sacred
living in a Secular Land - Daniel 1
It’s
easy to honor God when we’re in church but it’s difficult to honor him in a
secular culture. Daniel 1 is an
inspirational story of four young men who honored God in a secular culture. The
year was 605 b.c. and Babylon had taken Jerusalem captive.
In the third year
of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to
Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king
of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God.
These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the
treasure house of his god. 3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief
of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal
family and the nobility — 4 young men
without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of
learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the
king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the
Babylonians. 5 The king assigned them a
daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained
for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. 6 Among
these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The
chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah,
Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
The
King tried to conform these young Hebrew men into the culture of the
Babylonians. He focused on three areas
in their life:
1. Change their identity. He
gave them new names.
2. Change their beliefs.
3. Change their
lifestyle.
Culture
wants to conform us but God wants to transform us.
Romans 12:2
– Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your minds.
So what did
these young men do? Read Daniel 1:8-21
8 But
Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he
asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9
Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel,
10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my
lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you
looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my
head because of you.”11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief
official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us
nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13
Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal
food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So
he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.15 At the end of the
ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men
who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food
and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. 17 To
these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of
literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all
kinds. 18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in,
the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19
The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every
matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he
found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole
kingdom. 21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King
Cyrus.
How to live for God in a strange
culture:
1. Live with DETERMINATION. Notice the word resolve in verse 8. Other translations read, “purpose in your heart”.
2. Live with BOLDNESS. Daniel had the boldness to approach Ashpenaz and claim he couldn’t defile himself this way.
3. Live with DEPENDENCE. Daniel asked to eat nothing but vegetables and drink nothing but water for 10 days. This took great faith in God!
4. Live with GOD’S BLESSING. – These four young men stood out from the rest. They were 10 times better than all the other “gifted” people in Babylon. When God’s people determine to live for God with boldness and complete trust in Him then God’s anointed blessing will allow us to shine for Him in a dark culture.
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