How to Thrive When Life Feels Hard

Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.

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Thanks for joining us. Well, good morning Islands

Christian Church, good to be here this morning.

My name is Danny. In case we have not met, my wife

Michelle is over here to my left on your right side.

And it is a delight to be here. As as John mentioned, I do work

and serve as the campus pastor for Christian Campus Fellowship

at Georgia Southern University. And for quite a number of years,

Islands Christian has been one of our ministry and financial

partners. And so my first word to you this

morning is thank you. I am grateful all, all of the

students who are and have been a part of the ministry of CCF are

just grateful for your willingness to partner with and

invest in, in college ministry at Georgia Southern.

So thank you so much for that. I did want to give you a little

bit of a, of an insight and a taste and A flavor of what

college ministry looks like, especially if you're a little

bit far removed from maybe your college age days or you don't

have a lot of folks in that particular age group in your

life. Because it is a very unique

environment and a unique population.

These are all young adults who many of them are just beginning

to stretch their muscles of freedom for the very first time.

And, and yet it can be a very difficult and challenging time

as well. And that's the environment we

minister in and that's the population that we minister to.

And over the course of that time, we have had a laser focus

very much along the same kinds of focus that you would have

here at Islands Christian in terms of mission.

And that is connection. We want more than anything else

to help students get connected in a life changing relationship

with Jesus. And we want them to connect with

the community of faith that exists at CCF.

Because what we know about this generation, we call it Gen.

ZI suppose the younger generation from the 20s on down

is that they are experiencing higher levels of loneliness than

any generation before. And the COVID pandemic only made

that worse with isolation and so forth.

And then there's a desperation for so many people in that age

population. And what we want to do is we

want to proclaim loud and clear to these students that that they

are seeing, that we see them, that we want to get to know

them, and that we love them. But more than that, we want to

communicate that God sees them and that God knows them and that

Jesus loves them and help get them connected with Christ and

connected with our community. And over just the last 12

months, three of our CCF students have made the decision

to connect their lives with Jesus.

And they, we've gotten to celebrate with them as they've

all been baptized. And you know, we don't, we don't

have that. We have a pond that is in a

neighborhood behind. And so we go, we gather our our

troops and we March over to the neighborhood pond and we have

baptisms over there and it's amazing time of celebration.

Now I have been doing this for 30 years, 30 plus years.

We started in 1995. And one of the things with a

long tenure ministry like that is you notice that certain

things stay the same. And we'll talk a little bit

about that in the message. And certain things change.

Certainly culture changes, styles, fashion changes,

technology has changed. But one of the things that is

striking to me every so often is that language changes,

vocabulary changes, The, the, the saying that the kids today

are using changes. And one of the things that's

both interesting, challenging and exciting is to try to keep

up with that. And if you have anybody in your

world that is basically under the age of 28 years old, you

know this, you know that they have language that you sometimes

have to try to decode. And I don't want to go into too

many details, but there there are a few things that for an old

guy like me, it it's hard for me to hear our college student

population use certain words. One of my favorite examples is

the way that the 20 something crowd today uses the word

literally. I had a young lady just last

semester talking to me. We had a prayer breakfast and

she was talking about a big exam she had the next day and her

words were this test is literally going to kill me.

No, it's not. I can promise you it will not

literally kill you. It will figuratively kill you,

which is the opposite of literally killing you.

And there are countless examples of that.

But that's something that's going to come into play in our

story because we're going to take a look at the story of

Daniel. If you have a Bible and you want

to turn along, it's going to be in chapter 1 is where we're

going to spend most of our time. Got a few verses in other places

as well, but that's where we're going to spend most of our time.

I want to begin though, with a prayer and then we will launch

into our message. Godfather, I thank you for the

opportunity of gathering together with this church

community. So thankful for their for their

faith and their their partnership with CCF over the

years and just for the friendships that have been

formed. God, as we are gathered together

this morning, as we lift up our hearts and our minds and our

voices and worship before you as we gather around your table of

remembrance, God, as we enter into this message time, Lord, I,

I just pray that that you would forgive me of my sins and, and

God, I just ask that you would use me and, and allow me to be a

a clean vessel through which your message can be communicated

this morning. And I pray that in Jesus name,

Amen. So I'm going to talk a little

bit about the this idea of surviving and thriving in

Babylon. This is the the message of the

book of Daniel. And we're going to see it as we

explore the 1st chapter of Daniel a little bit.

But we live in a world that is sometimes not friendly and

oftentimes even hostile to people of genuine Christian

faith. Now I would not suggest in the

United States where we have all kinds of freedoms and

protections that we have it terribly bad.

There are certainly places, I know of people right now who are

ministering and missionaries in the Middle East where it's a

dangerous place to be a Christian.

Certain places in Africa, it is a dangerous place to be a

Christian. India, in many cases it is

dangerous to be a Christian and and their lives are very much in

danger. But here in the United States we

don't face that specific danger. We more face hostility from the

wider culture. And so I want to take some

lessons from Daniel that we see about not just surviving but

thriving in Babylon and apply them to our lives and situations

because I think it has a lot of application for our student

community and it has a lot of application for all of us

generally. Maybe you're involved in the

public school system, maybe you work at Gulfstream or, or some

other business or plan or factory around here, and maybe

you've experienced some challenge and hostility living

out and authentic Christian faith.

I want to start though, with Jesus.

Jesus is gathered together in this particular scene in John

John 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 and he is getting his disciples ready for the big

moment. In just a few short hours.

He is going to be arrested and he is going to go through a sham

trial and he is going to be crucified on a Roman cross and,

and he's going to die and he's going to be buried and he's

ultimately going to rise again on the third day.

And He is trying desperately to get his disciples prepared for

that. And He's in the upper room.

And it's a long discourse. It starts in John 13, and it

continues on for several chapters.

But I want to look at John 16 verse 33 after sharing all of

John 16:33

this stuff to help prepare him, Jesus says these words.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace,

for in this world you will have trouble.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

Jesus says in this world you will have trouble.

Jesus doesn't say might. Jesus doesn't say maybe, he says

will. The idea though is that that God

has peace available and we can take heart because Jesus is the

one who has overcome the world. And that is a valuable message

for his disciples 2000 years ago and a valuable message for us

today. Because sometimes we can, I

guess, think a little bit incorrectly about what me being

a follower of Jesus has to do with problems and adversity.

Sometimes we think that that maybe that's a ticket out of

difficulty, challenge or adversity.

And Jesus is like, no, no, no, you're going to have trouble,

but I'm going to be with you and I'm going to see you through

that. And in the midst of that, you

can have peace. The great Devotion writer Oswald

Chambers 100 years ago said these words.

He said the typical view of a Christian life is that it means

being delivered from adversity, but it actually means something

very different. It means being delivered in

adversity. In adversity.

This is hard for us because we would much rather be delivered

from adversity. That's the way I pray.

Maybe that's the way you pray. But the reality is sometimes we

have no control over our circumstances.

Maybe limited control over the outcome, but we don't have

control of our circumstances. What we do have control over is

how we respond to our circumstances.

And that's the beauty of the story of Daniel in Daniel

chapter one. Let me set it up for you and

then we're going to jump in. In chapter 3.

We are told right at the very beginning that this happens

during the reign of a guy named King Jehoiakim in Judah.

Now the third year of his reign. So that allows us to place this

particular chapter on the timeline.

We can tell exactly when this is happening.

Joiakim's his third year as king in Judah was six O 5 BC.

So that's when this story is happening.

And the big bad bully on the block in that day was Babylon.

And the king of Babylon was a guy named Nebuchadnezzar.

And Nebuchadnezzar has gotten tired of all of the of the the

problems that he's been having with Judah.

And so he and his army come and they besiege the city of

Jerusalem and they capture it. But he has no interest at this

point in time in, in conquering it.

He just wants to punish the Jewish people.

And so he does that by by looting the temple, taking out

all kinds of valuable things. And he also takes a number of

people into captivity. And that's where we begin our

our reading in verse 3. Then the king, which is

Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, he ordered his chief

Ashpinazz to bring into the king service some of the Israelites

from the royal family and the nobility, young men who had no

physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind

of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and

qualified to serve in the King's palace.

So we see right here that he's collected a number of young guys

who are among the best of the best in Judah, and he's brought

them back to Babylon, 700 miles away.

And Daniel is one of these guys. And I would point out in verse

4, when it gives us that term, young men, that's a very

specific Hebrew term that does mean young men like teenage

boys. It refers to people who were not

of military fighting age. And so when we read this story,

we need to be thinking about all of these guys, the young nobles,

all of the young royal family members, they are teenage boys.

When they are taken, this entire story is filled with teenage

boys who are responding to challenges.

Get in your mind that Daniel is probably about 15 years old when

this is happening, 15 years old. And so they find themselves in

the King's palace. He's going to be teaching them

the language in the literature of the Babylonians.

The king will assign them a daily amount of food and wine

from the King's table. They will be trained for three

years, and after that they will enter the King's ServiceNow

What's happening here is that from a worldly standpoint, this

king, Nebuchadnezzar, is engaging in a brilliant

strategy. He is taking all of the best

young guys from his enemy, and he's taking them completely out

of play by bringing them back to Babylon.

And not only that, he's going to train them up.

And when you see train, you should read that as

indoctrinate. He is going to indoctrinate

these young guys for three years so that they will be his loyal

servants. It's a pretty brilliant strategy

from a worldly standpoint. And among those who were chosen

from the tribe of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and

Azariah, And the chief official gave them new names.

To Daniel, he gave the name Beltashazzar to Hananiah

Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednego.

So right there we were introduced 4 people that you're

probably familiar with, Daniel and Hananiah, Michelle and

Azariah and their their names are all changed.

Those first set are there are there Hebrew names?

And, and even today, sometimes names have great meaning, but in

the Hebrew language and and culture, they had great

significance. The names meant something and

every one of these names means something.

And so it's very purposeful to re name these guys and let me

show you why. I'll just run through their

names real quick. Daniel, Daniel and some of you

may know this. Daniel means God is my judge.

Anytime you see a Hebrew name that ends in the with the 2

letters LEL, that's the Hebrew word for God.

And so Daniel means God is my judge and he is named

Beltashazzar, which in Babylonian means Bell, one of

their gods protect the throne. So that is his name change

Hananiah. Hananiah is the Lord shows

grace. And when you see that iah on the

end of a name, that's the the same phrasing as Yahweh.

So the Lord, the Lord shows grace.

He is he is given the name Shadrach, which means the

command of Aku, another one of their gods, Mishael.

He's got that El. So that means who is what God

is. In other words, there's no one

greater than God. And then his name is changed to

Meshach, who is what Aku is, is now his new name.

And then Azariah. Azariah the Lord helps becomes

Abednego, which is servant of Nebo, another one of the

Babylonian gods. Now the whole point of changing

the name is to work on changing the identity.

Now that's Daniel going to Belshazzar, Hananiah going to

Shadrack, Michelle going Meshach, and Azariah going to

Abednego. Curious question.

We know Daniel by his Hebrew name and we know the other three

guys most prominently by their Babylonian names, right?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Why is that?

Don't know, got no idea. If you do, let me know.

I have no idea, but that is odd that we know Daniel by his

Hebrew name and the other three by their Babylonian names.

But that's what they're trying to do.

They're trying to take these young guys and they're just

trying to indoctrinate them and turn them into loyal servants of

Babylon this three-year period. But here's the key.

We're going to get into verse 8 right now.

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 in this way.

So God had caused this official to show favor and compassion to

Daniel. And the official told Daniel, I

am afraid of the Lord, my king, who is assigned your food and

drink. Why should he see you looking

worse than the other young men your age?

Then the king would have my head because of you.

Daniel then said to the guard on whom the chief official had

appointed over Daniel and Hananiah, Michelle and Azariah,

please test your servants for 10 days.

Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat

the royal food. And you treat your servants in

accordance with what you see. So the man agreed to this and

tested them for 10 days. So there's the, the, the diet

that Daniel is, is, is requesting of just vegetables

and water. And at the end of 10 days, they

that's Daniel and his three friends.

They looked healthier and better nourished than all of the other

young men who ate the royal food.

So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they

were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

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.

And so at the end of the time set by the king to bring them

into his service, that's three years, the chief official

presents them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talks with them, and he

found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah.

So they entered the King's service in every matter of

wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them.

He found them 10 times better than all of the magicians and

enchanters in his whole Kingdom. And Daniel remained there until

the first year of King Cyrus. That last verse seems a bit of a

throwaway verse, but it's not. It lets us know that Daniel was

in Babylon until the first year of King Cyrus.

And we know when Cyrus and the Persians took over.

The stories actually recorded in the book of Daniel as well as in

the history books. That is in the year 539 BC

Remember, Daniel was taken into captivity at six O 5 BC.

That means Daniel is in Babylon for 66 years.

His entire adult life is spent in Babylon.

As far as we know, he never goes back to Jerusalem.

That's his home. That's where he was born and

raised and grew up, and he never goes back to Jerusalem.

So this is a beautiful story for any of us who feel like we live

in a time and a culture and an environment, a society that's

hostile and hard to remember that Daniel is in this place

called Babylon, which was certainly hostile and hard to

anyone who had faith in God. And he didn't just survive, he

thrived. And so I want to figure out what

we can do. How can we, when we're

confronted with difficult situations and circumstances,

not merely survive but thrive as followers of Jesus?

Well, I think there are at least three general ways that we

respond when we have adversity and and difficult situations.

The first way is to just give in to despair and and depression.

And that of course leads us down a very dark path and it can

ultimately lead into really, really bad decisions and bad

mental health outcomes. So we can give in to despair,

depression. Sometimes we can just go with

the flow. Hey, why, why should I rock the

boat? Yeah, I know it's hard to, to,

to stand firm for my faith and in these environments, but I'm

just going to kind of go with the flow.

Why not just go along with the, the, the tide of culture?

And then the third thing is to have the courage to act on your

convictions. And that's what Daniel does.

And again, keep in mind this is a 15 year old kid in a hostile

land, a hostile land. What's the key for Daniel to

have the courage to act on his convictions?

Well, I would say there's 3 words in Daniel chapter one

verse 8 that tell us all we need to know.

And those 3 words are but Daniel resolved.

If you understand that, you understand how he is able to

survive and thrive in Babylon. He this is, this is not just

accident, it's not just good luck for Daniel.

This is a determined act of the will.

He decides even as a young 15 year old Jewish boy that he is

not going to go with the flow of Babylonian culture, that he is

going to stand strong for God. So I want to just give you a few

takeaways as we as we kind of move through this story.

There are more lessons than this, but these are our five

that I would love to highlight and point out.

The first one is this. This story reminds us that this

world is not our home. This is not our home.

Babylon was not Daniel's home. Jesus makes this clear

throughout his ministry for those of us who are Christ

followers. He says in John 18 verse 36, My

John 18:36

Kingdom, He tells Pilate, is not of this world.

My Kingdom is from another place.

Yes, Pilate, I am a king, but my Kingdom is not of this world.

Paul reinforces this in Philippians chapter 3 verse 20.

Philippians 3:20

He says our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a

savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The way that Daniel understood his life in Babylon, the way

Jesus understood his Kingdom, the way Paul is sharing it and

understanding it in Philippians, it is to remind us that as

followers of Jesus and his people of faith, we are, we are

in Kingdom outposts, if you will, here in this, in this

world. But this world is not our home.

And the risk is to not get too comfortable, but it's easy to

get comfortable because there's a lot of stuff that's

comfortable out here. And we want a life that's

comfortable. And the world tells us that

that's what we want. And guess what?

That's what, that's what Nebuchadnezzar was offering all

of these guys, right? All the good food, all the good

accommodations they were getting, all the good stuff

offered to them so that they could get comfortable.

But we are a part of Kingdom outposts as followers of Jesus,

remembering that this world is not our home.

The second take away from Daniel's story here in chapter 1

is the importance of developing a strong foundation.

Developing a strong foundation. When I was in seminary, I had a

theology professor who is my favorite teacher, who always

said this dig your well deep. Dig your well deep.

And you got to do that ahead of time before you're in difficult

times. The idea behind a well, if

you've, if you have any knowledge, knowledge of that is

you want to get down deep, not just to where you barely touch

water, but you really want to get down deep so that when, so

that when things get dry and deserted and arid that you're

able to have that fresh water come up.

You want to dig your well deep, do that sort of thing.

We know the, we know the steps, we've just got to do them.

We've got to have consistent daily time of reading our Bible.

We got to be praying consistently.

We need to be worshiping together consistently,

fellowshipping together consistently, studying and

serving consistently, and doing all of those things to solidify

our foundation before we encounter these times of

difficulty. So the world is not your home.

Develop a strong foundation and #3 make sure you have your

people before you need your people.

Was Daniel alone here? And, and yes, I know God was

with him, but I'm talking about other people.

Yes, he was, he had those three guys, Hananiah, Michelle and

Azariah. And it's very clear they knew

each other. They were all nobles and royal

family members from way back in, in their time in Jerusalem.

So they grew up together and they forged and developed this

godly friendship together. And, and when, when they're

first experiencing the challenge in Babylon, what do they do?

They get together and they talk it out and they figure out what

they are going to do. How are they going to respond?

There's so much strength in community and you know this.

That's the value of getting in small groups.

That's the value of making connections in youth groups and

things like that. Just have your people in place

before you need your people. The fourth thing that I think we

can learn from this is that when it comes to matters of

character, we need to draw a bright red line in advance.

You know, whatever you want to think, big old fat magic marker

or whatever red. Draw that line in advance.

As far as these are lines I will not cross, non negotiable.

Now I have to confess I did a terrible job at this when I was

a college student. A lot of college students do.

But I did. Rather than during a bright red

line in advance, I drew my line with a pencil because what's the

benefit of drawing a line with a pencil?

Well, you flip it over and you got an eraser.

You just sort of erase that line.

And the line doesn't mean a whole lot if it's if it's just

in, in pencil. And, and I see this all the time

I experience. I was desperate to fit in like

so many other people. And I was willing to to do a lot

of things even though I'd grown up in church, even though I'd

already given my life to Jesus, I made it.

I made compromises that I should not have made, did things that I

should not have done, interacted with with groups of people doing

things that just desperate to fit in.

And, and so when, when we read about Daniel and him drawing

that line and it comes to to the dietary stuff, don't just look

at it as well. These are those weird Jewish

dietary laws cropping up again. No, that's not it.

The whole reason Daniel understands why these dietary

laws are so important is that they mark God's people as

distinct. This is a way, when people

adhere to the dietary laws or any other laws in the Old

Testament, for God's blessing and favor to be poured out on

those people out of obedience because they have made the

decision to follow God's instructions.

They are marked and it is for their good, even if they don't

understand it. So don't think that this is just

a matter of, well, Daniel wants to just sort of follow some

silly Jewish dietary law. There's a reason for that.

It is all about character. And it's true in our college

ministry as well, whether it has to do with students and, and the

physical aspects of dating, relationships or thinking about

alcohol, thinking about whether you're going to be honest or

not. What about interactions with

social media and online behavior or friend groups or all of these

sorts of things. The lesson from Daniel as a 15

year old Jewish boy? Draw those lines of character.

Bright red lines in advance. Not negotiable.

See, here's the thing. Like Daniel, I would rather be

remembered for standing out than forgotten by blending in.

Remember, Daniel and his three friends are not the only Jewish

guys who are taken in captivity. There's a lot of other ones.

They're the ones who are eating the King's food.

They're the ones who are probably a little salty at

Daniel when their King's food got taken away and a bunch of

vegetables got thrown before them.

You know these guys. We don't know how many, as a

matter of fact. What do you know about the other

people that were taken into captivity along with Daniel and

his three friends? Nothing.

They made no mark. They fade.

They made no impact. But we know Daniel, and we know

his three friends when it comes to matters of character.

Draw that bright red line in advance.

And then finally, trust that God is always at work, even in the

hardest of circumstances. This is the most Pagan nation in

the ancient world, the Kingdom of Babylon.

If there is a truly godless society anywhere in the Old

Testament, it is Babylon and God is at work in and through all of

this. Just pay attention to the God

sightings in chapter 1 alone. In the second verse it says and

the Lord delivered Jehoiakim. It wasn't an accident because of

the disobedience of the of the king of Judah and the people.

God delivered them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

In verse 9, it says now God had caused the official, the royal

official, to show favor and compassion to Daniel.

And in verse 17, it says to these four young men, God gave

knowledge and understanding and all kinds of literature and

learning throughout this chapter.

No matter how dark it is, God is there and God is willing and

ready to work to through those who will allow it through those

who are willing to be used by God.

As a matter of fact, I would argue that it when culture is

the darkest, that's when having a bright light of character

shines the brightest. Daniel and his three friends

chose to be a light, and they were able to have an enormous

impact on the most powerful empire in the world at that day.

So the lesson is when the culture, when the world is the

darkest, whether it's at your job or in your community or on

the campus of Georgia Southern University or wherever, when the

culture and the world is the darkest, the need for the light

of God's love is the greatest. But the lesson is as a faithful

follower of Jesus, you and I, we can be that light.

The key is to learn from 15 year old Daniel in the Old Testament

and be resolved. But Daniel resolved.

That's it. Let us pray our God and our

Father, we we thank you for the story of Daniel in this in our

scriptures and and just as the the the wonderful and beautiful

reminder that this world is not our home and God that even in

the midst of difficulty and adversity and challenge that

that your desire is for us to experience peace for us to have

the opportunity to not merely survive, but to also thrive by

shining the bright light of Jesus into the darkest of

places. So God, rather than complaining

about this, let us be willing to be that light like Daniel and

his three friends. God help us to have the courage

to do that to be strong in our convictions and to be resolved

to be faithful followers of you. We pray that all in Jesus name,

Amen.