Faithful: Following God While in a Culture That Doesn't | Sermon 1 | Pastor Derek Berry

Over to the book of Daniel.

The book of Daniel, Old Testament.

Look in chapter one.

See some truth there.

I've been thinking of a thought.

And over the next several weeks, we're going to look at faithful.

The word faithful.

And essentially, it's you and I following God while in a culture that does not.

Being faithful.

Following God in a culture that does not.

You and I face many moments in the world that we live in.

Work, school, just going out and about.

The culture that we live in doesn't seem to follow God.

So what do we do as followers of Christ?

What do we do?

We're going to spend several weeks in the book of Daniel.

Today we're going to look primarily in chapter number one and read some truth.

And I'll read the verses as we go.

But there's some things that I want to bring to the attention before we read the word together.

Some thoughts that I jotted down that I hope to get across to you as they came into my heart and into my mind.

Faithfulness begins when God's word settles essentially what you believe.

Faithfulness comes into play, and it's easier to be faithful to Him when God's word has settled my beliefs, not when pressure comes.

Because when pressure comes, that's when everything begins to change.

Sometimes I mess up or whatever, but if I've settled it ahead of time, it's a lot easier to see it through.

So I was processing all of this.

I began to think, you know, there are some times in life where we don't have a chance to make a decision ahead of time.

It's one of those things that it just happens and we have to decide what we're going to do or not.

We don't get a chance to think about ahead, to make the choice or the decision.

We have to make it within a moment's notice.

And then there's other times in life where I get to make choices now that necessarily doesn't affect today, but it could affect the future.

I make decisions, I make choices so that I can protect or to prevent or to help or to fix for the future.

And so as you think about that in your mind, I jotted a few things down.

You don't decide whether you're going to remain faithful to your wife in the moment.

You decide that at the very beginning, right?

When the vows start.

I don't think about every time I speak, am I going to be honest or not?

I just decided a long time ago that I'm going to be an honest person and I'm not going to say a lie.

It was decided long before anything was ever brought before me.

It just is something that God convicted me with, and I'm going to tell the truth.

I don't decide whether I'm going to follow Jesus when the world around me is falling apart.

I decided that a long time ago.

Those are the choices that Daniel made, and those are the choices that we're going to speak about today.

Something that was settled long before the pressure came or the culture changed, long before the world around us began to change.

Because when pressure comes, when things around us seem to be closing in, if you haven't already settled in your mind what you're going to do, a lot of times the pressure around you will make the choice for you.

And that's what I want to prevent.

That's what I want to help us with.

Because the world that we live in, the culture that we live in, this is what it tells us.

You ready for it?

It says, live by how makes you happy.

Live based upon feelings.

Do what makes you happy deep down inside.

That's what the culture that we live in.

The culture we live in says, trust your feelings.

And I learned if I would have trust my feelings 20 years ago, I don't know that I'd be standing here today.

I have to follow the Lord.

I can't trust my feelings.

Last night I uh I made a bowl of chili to watch the Georgia game, just so you know.

I like to make hot wings when I watch a game, but it was cold yesterday and I made a chili.

And you know, what do you think at 2 o'clock in the morning happened?

Heartburn.

So if I'm not careful, those are feelings, right?

Do I know if it's a conviction or if it's heartburn?

I don't know.

I ate the whole box of Tums, I'll just be honest with you, okay?

The kids told me I put too many jalapenos in there, but I it was good, but it caused heartburn.

See, God doesn't ask us to follow our feelings.

You know what he does?

He tells us to follow Jesus.

My feelings may change with my mood, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Sometimes Jesus says things that conflicts with what the world says around us.

So who should I follow?

Jesus.

Sometimes the Bible says things that I don't know if I, is that right or wrong?

But if the Bible says it, it's right.

Maybe I don't want this, but Jesus said this.

I have to follow him.

He's right, I'm wrong.

That's what I have to get my mind to understand.

So the question that I want to pose to you before we dig any deeper in this is this Who gets the final word in your life?

See, I can only answer that for me.

I can't answer that for you.

Who gets the final word in your life?

Who gets the final say?

Is it your feelings and emotions?

Or is it the word of God?

See, that is something that each individually we must ask ourselves.

And we're gonna begin today, Daniel chapter number one, and here's the sermon for today.

Faith when your convictions are tested.

Having faith, being faithful when your convictions are tested, because you know what?

They're gonna be tested.

It's going to happen.

I don't know if you're like me growing up, I didn't like tests in school, right?

I figured the teacher just asked me a question I'd answered.

I hated the test, thinking about leading up to them.

But yet she said, Derek, I have to give it to you.

That way you know if what I'm teaching you is resonating.

And I understand it as I got older.

But let me tell you something.

Sometimes tests are allowed in our life, and those tests ultimately reveal our true faithfulness.

So we're gonna look at the whole chapter, but I want to read verse number eight.

Verse number eight, I believe, is the hinge to the entire chapter.

I love it.

Look what it says in verse number eight.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

He goes on and says, with the portion of the king's delicates, nor with the wine which he drank, therefore he request, requested of the chief of the eunuchs, that he may not defile himself.

So the very four first portion of verse number eight, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

Now let's think about this for just a moment as a way of introduction.

Daniel was taken from Jerusalem.

Daniel was taken from everything that Daniel ever knew about life.

The land around him was gonna change, the environment around him was going to change, the culture around him was going to change, the education around him was going to change, the literature around him was going to change, the opportunity to worship was going to change.

We know that as we will read the story together, the truth from Daniel 1.

But the thing that my mind continues to gravitate towards and to get a hold of is verse number eight because it said very clearly that Daniel purposed in his heart, that he would not defile himself.

So Babylon was going to come in and take over, and it was going to change the environment.

We're going to read the story together verse by verse in a moment, but it changes absolutely, even to the point where they wanted to change his name.

But what I love is long before any of that ever took place, long before we ever get to chapter number three and chapter number six, and get to read about the fiery furnace that he got thrown in, long before we get to read about the fact that Daniel got thrown into the den of lions because he refused some things, long before any of that ever took place, I get to read in verse number eight, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

He made a choice today that was going to affect tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

He said, I am never going to sway from my core convictions of God, no matter what this world does to me, takes from me, gives to me, shows me I am going to stay true to my relationship with God.

That's what he says.

Long before any bad thing happened, Daniel settled something in his heart.

He knew who he belonged to.

Who do you belong to?

It's easy when things are going easy.

Who do you belong to?

Where does your faithfulness begin?

Because what I love is that you and I are going to see and uncover together today is that Daniel's outward behavior came from something that he had already established inwardly.

What we see on the outside was a result of what he had already inwardly decided.

So let's look together in a few verses.

Oh, I want to give you this sentence.

Oh, I forgot about it.

I almost forgot.

This settle the sentence came to life and it's going to show up throughout the service.

Can you put it up there?

Yeah.

Settle what God has said before the pressure comes.

Somebody needs to do that.

Because maybe the pressure hadn't come yet.

Why don't you settle something?

Let's look at a few things this morning.

Let's look at the first seven verses.

Here's the first thing I want to give you.

Remember who you belong to.

A child of the king, a follower of Christ, a born-again believer.

Remember who you belong to.

Look with me in these verses, verse 1 through 7 here in a moment.

We're going to realize right off the bat that his Daniel's circumstances changed.

Let's look at the first two verses.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and bestaged it.

So we see right off the bat that Daniel's circumstance changed.

It tells us very clearly who the king was, and then it shows us in the latter part of that verse that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, notice the lowercase K there, of Babylon, a foreign entity there, a foreign nation, came to Jerusalem and basted.

And that word bestaged means it came and surrounded, it beset them with a hostile troop, surrounded them, and was essentially going to take over the area, take over the land.

And you read in verse number two, and the Lord gave, you need to underline that and highlight it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinnar, to the house of his God, lowercase G, and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God.

Those first two verses.

Think about this for just a moment.

Daniel had to remember who he belonged to, why?

Because everything around him changed.

It says that they bastage, they surrounded, they beset, they took over something.

Judah was defeated.

Daniel was carried into captivity.

Everything that he had known and understood about life, the things that he had come accustomed to were not just slowly taken away from him.

Everything familiar that he'd ever known was now gone.

Just like that.

He went to sleep this way and woke up different.

Environment changed.

The culture was different.

Everything around him was far different than it ever was.

And what I think is awesome to me as I read these verses, I get to verse 2.

In verse 2 says, right off the bat, and the Lord gave.

And I start thinking about the theological interpretation of this thought, because we all know that Nebuchadnezzar is going to hold his chest high and hit it.

Man, look what I've done.

I just conquered Judah.

But verse 2 says that God, the Lord, gave.

The theological interpretation is that God's still in charge and still on the throne.

Now there's times in our life that I don't understand why God allows this or God allows that.

But we know that God has a purpose and a plan in all that he does.

He doesn't, he is not, he didn't, nothing gets him off guard.

He knows all things.

He's a sovereign God, and he allows things to take place and to happen to achieve what he wants in life, his will and his way.

Now we can chase a rabbit and preach a whole nother sermon on why God allowed this or why God allowed that.

But I'm here to tell you, it's not important.

What's important is we serve a sovereign God, a God that knows all things, and he allowed these things to happen.

So you can't look at it and say, man, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah.

No, we look at it and say, man, God gave it to them.

God gave it.

That's something that I want to make a note about and even highlight.

Babylon did not defeat God.

God put it to him, gave it to him.

Daniel was in Babylon, but God was still on the throne.

You might be facing a crisis in your life, and let me tell you something, God is still on the throne.

He is not clocked out on lunch break, guys.

He's not taking his 15-minute break, guys.

He is still on the throne where he's always been.

He'll be there today, tomorrow, and the next day.

He's always on the throne.

You got to make note of that as we understand this.

Daniel was in Babylon, but God was still on the throne.

What else?

Look at verse 3 through 5.

Notice how they tried to reshape Daniel.

Verse 3 says, Then the king instructed Ashfinars, which is the master of the eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, good looking, gifted in all wisdom.

He was looking for somebody that was smart, possessing knowledge and quick to understand.

He wanted somebody that was smart, that was wise, that could understand things.

Look, he goes on in verse 4 Who had the ability to serve in the king's palace, in whom they might teach the language and the literature of the Chaldeans.

They were trying to reshape Daniel.

They wanted to teach him their language and their literature.

Verse 5.

And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicates and of wine which he drank.

And notice this three years of training for them.

And so at the end of the time they might serve before the king.

So three-year process that they were laying out, where they tried to reshape Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar took some of Judah's finest young men, and their goal was not simply just to hold them captive.

Their goal was to retrain them, to reshape them, to assemble them and to put them into the right spot, to change their environment, to change their language, to change their education, to change their diet, to change their expectation.

That was what his goal was.

And see, Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar wasn't settled with just Daniel and those guys living in Babylon.

He wanted them to ultimately become a Babylonian.

He wanted them to change everything about them to align with his culture, his way, and his wants.

Remember verse number eight.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

Remember, that was their goal, but Daniel said, no, I wasn't gonna stand for that.

See, there's something that you and I have got to remember.

The pressure of the culture is rarely satisfied with just changing us on the outside.

Eventually, the culture around us wants to shape us to be exactly like that culture.

And in 10 years, when the culture changed, it wants to do it all over again.

But sometimes we have to stop and say, I am not going to let it defile me.

There might be somebody here today that says, you know what, I purposed in my heart that I'm not going to let the culture around me defile me.

And that's exactly what is taking place here.

Look at the next two verses, six and verse number seven.

Babylon tried to redefine Daniel's identity by changing his name.

Verse 6, now from among these of the sons of Judah were Daniel and Hedaniah and Mishael and Azariah.

He lists their names out.

But then you get to verse number 7, and to them the chief priests gave his names.

They renamed Daniel.

He renamed all of them.

Why?

Why would they re-give them new names?

What was wrong with their other name?

Their previous name was Hebrew, and it connected them to the God of Israel.

And so they, trying to change everything about them, says, you know what, we're going to rename you, and we're going to give you a name that resembles our culture and our way.

And so Babylon would ultimately change what Daniel was called, but they never were able to change who Daniel belonged to.

Why?

Because in verse number eight, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

They tried, but it didn't work because he made a choice and a decision long before they ever took him and restructured and reshaped and did everything else.

He knew without a shadow of a doubt that his identity wasn't in an environment.

His identity wasn't in a land.

His identity wasn't in a particular culture.

His identity was in God.

And just like you and I, we have to make a choice today.

My identity is in Christ alone.

The world around me can change.

But if my identity is in him, then no matter what happens around me, there's nothing else that I belong to other than him.

Let me give you this statement, then I'll move on to the next verses.

The culture, the culture around me doesn't determine who I am or who I belong to.

Somebody needs to purpose that in their heart right now.

The culture around me doesn't determine who I am or what I belong to.

My relationship with Jesus Christ does.

And if your relationship with him isn't what you want it to be, hey, listen to me.

That can change.

If you don't know him as your Lord and your Savior, I can introduce you to him and show you how.

Listen to me.

That's where everything changes when my relationship with him, the culture around me, doesn't determine who I am and who I belong to.

Only my relationship with Christ does.

Let's go a little deeper in verse number eight.

My favorite verse.

So we saw we got to remember who we belong to.

Look at the second thought.

We've got to settle.

You've got to settle your convictions before they're tested.

Verse number eight.

Second point.

You've got to settle your convictions before they're tested.

Verse number eight, but God purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

I've been brought to that verse so many times.

Because I think the entire chapter, although there's 21 verses, to me, this is the this verse in verse 21 that we'll get to.

Don't go ahead and read it.

You'll miss it, what I'm saying now.

But those two are the one of my favorite two verses in this chapter.

And I think about when it says it purpose in his heart, and I start thinking, and I start to digest that.

What does that mean?

What does it mean to purpose something in your heart that this wouldn't happen ahead of time?

I wrote this down.

Daniel made an inward decision before taking an outward stand.

And so he purposed something in his heart.

Daniel began at some point in his life to have a moment with him and the Lord, and it settled no matter what was going to happen around in the future, something that he couldn't see, because I promise you, if you would have asked Daniel years before this ever happened, did you ever think there'd be a time where you'd be taken captive?

He probably would have said no.

But sometime before that, he said, I am settling something in my heart to now, today, at this moment, that no matter what takes place, I am not going to wave or sway, waver from my relationship with him.

His outward faithfulness, I believe, flowed from his inward dedication to his relationship with the Lord.

And that could change a lot of things in our lives.

My inward decisions, my inward commitment, my inward relationship eventually will fill on the outside.

We've read that in scripture before.

What's on the inside eventually comes out.

See, what I love about the story of Daniel and reading his life is that he did not wait for pressure to come.

He didn't wait until all things fell apart.

He didn't wait to be, he didn't wait for any of that.

He knew it when everything was going well.

And I want to encourage you so much when it's going well, listen to me.

In life, I've learned following the Lord, especially being a pastor, you have to play offense and defense all The time because the devil's trying to get a hold of you.

And I've got to be ready for it, but also play the other side of the ball at the same time.

I got a target on my back, as does everybody.

Why?

The devil is like a roaring lion, seeing whom he may devour.

I know that.

And I have to be ready for that.

And I'm telling you, my inward decision, my inward commitment, my inward determination changes everything on how I flow on the outside.

That's what he's talking about.

He didn't wait till the pressure came.

Convictions are the strongest, I think, when you settle and make your choice now.

If I'm not ready for it, I may mess up.

I want you to be ready for it.

What else about verse number eight popped out?

I wrote this down.

Daniel's conviction was based upon God's standard.

I know that because he says it like this.

He defiled, he said, I will not defile himself.

He had to get that standard from somewhere.

And it wasn't from a feeling or a choice or something that he arbitrarily just thought of.

He obviously had the scriptures there at some point.

He had the first the law of God.

You and I have the luxury of having the full 66 books of the Bible.

And you and I have things that previous generations did not, right?

We have the ability, I mean, yes, there's been books and such, but man, sometimes studying is so much easier when I can look at five different books at the same time by doing a search than it was to pull them all where they at on the shelf.

And even though I alphabetized them or whatever, I'm still having to find them.

I can look a little bit different, so I have less of an excuse than maybe a hundred year ago generation had.

Why?

Because I have resources that they did not have.

It was based on God's standard.

What was God's standard?

God's standard wasn't something that he just created, it was something that he studied and he researched.

See, Daniel wasn't creating his own definition of right and wrong.

This sounds like something, right?

The world we live in.

What's right to me is right to me, and what's wrong to me is wrong to me.

That's not God.

No, we know that there's a standard that he has.

And this was an authority outside of Daniel.

This wasn't Daniel's authority.

No, Daniel's authority was God.

And you and I are gonna read this and think about what where did he get his authority from?

From God.

He said, I don't want to defile, because Daniel knew if he defiled himself that he would essentially defile God.

Same thing for you and I.

I don't want to do that.

The same reason why I don't want to sin against him because it breaks his heart.

I don't want to defile him.

And there's something that you and I have got to distinguish between a biblical conviction and a personal preference.

What's a personal preference?

I like it this way or that way.

What's a biblical conviction?

God said this or God said that.

So we all have personal preferences, right?

You have a personal preference?

Maybe your favorite color.

What's my favorite color?

Hey, y'all knew it was.

I ain't wearing blue today.

You know why?

Because Megan bought me this shirt and said I better wear it today, okay?

She said it matches her dress, so I wore it.

But I got blue in my socks, just to be honest with you, okay?

So that's my preference.

What else?

Let's go to breakfast and see how you like your eggs.

Right?

Some like them scrambled and some like them fried.

Some like them over medium and some like them over easy.

Now listen, I don't mind uh my yolks a little runny as long as the hash browns are right.

But one thing where I draw the line when the white's a little runny.

You know what I'm saying?

I have a, I can eat an oyster, but I can't eat eggs that are not fully cooked on the white side.

You understand what I'm saying?

It's just something odd about it.

But I'll go to breakfast with you and you can eat them that way, it's no problem.

Why?

It's a preference.

It's a choice that you have that you like because of how your mama or granny or somebody cooked them or how you prefer them.

But that's not a biblical conviction.

So what is it?

So a personal preference is the way I like it, the biblical conviction is to what God said.

I tried to hunt down a biblical conviction definition, and here's what I came up with studying.

It says this that I wrote down.

Biblical conviction is a settled determination to obey God's word, regardless of your feelings, or regardless of the pressures around me, or regardless of the consequences that may follow.

That's biblical conviction.

Doesn't matter what happens, what matters that I gotta stay true to what God says.

I mean, strong feelings about something, this or that, does not equal biblical conviction.

I was reading in the scriptures, even in the New Testament, when Paul was trying to encourage young Timothy and told him that all scriptures give my inspiration, right?

We know that all scripture is breathed into an existence.

Yes, God used the pen of uh of different people, but God ultimately spoke it and breathed it into an existence, and he gives you an easy and either reason as to why, for correction, for reproof, right?

He tells us all those things for doctrine.

He wants us to know those things.

And so as I understand what Paul was telling young Timothy, and now I understand what Daniel is at right here.

He settled something in his heart because he didn't want to defile himself.

If I'm not careful, I'll let scripture, I'll look at scripture and say, I want you, I'm gonna find a verse to affirm something.

And what I need to do is look for scripture to correct me, because that's what scripture is for.

I was born imperfect because of the sin that had that I inherited it and my dad inherited all the way back to Adam.

And the only way for me to be right is to align with what the Bible says, not to try to find a verse to align with the current way that I am.

And that's the truth that you and I have to get a hold of.

And that's what Daniel could sit there and say long before pressure came and say, Man, I have in my heart decided that I am not gonna defile myself.

What else about these words?

God's word is not, it's gotta be the final authority of my life, not just uh a good feeling.

Because the culture around me changes, but the word of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let me give you this sentence and then we'll move on a little bit.

Let me give don't wait until the moment of pressure to decide what you believe.

Because that could change what you believe.

This is this is what's supposed to dictate what I believe.

Let's go a little deeper, the latter part of verse number eight through verse number sixteen with this.

Stand with conviction without losing your character.

Stand with conviction without losing your character.

Notice what Daniel ended up doing here in this text.

At the latter part of verse number eight, he had a conversation with the head eunuch.

Then you get to verse number nine, and look what he says.

Now God had brought Daniel to the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuch.

That word goodwill means kindness.

And the chief of the eunuch said to Daniel, I fear my Lord the King, who has appointed your food and drink, for why should we see your face looking worse than the young men who are your age?

Then you would endanger my head before the king.

So Daniel didn't want to eat what the king had to offer.

And he goes and conversates with the eunuch, the head eunuch, and says, Bro, I don't want to eat this stuff.

And so what I know in verse number eight is that Daniel refused to compromise.

And in that moment that he refused, he's not negotiating whether he'll obey God or not.

He's working through, I believe, how to obey God in the situation.

He was never trying to decide if I am or isn't, or if I am or am not.

He's essentially just trying to say, how am I going to obey God in the situation that I have found myself in?

And what I love how he did, look at the difference in verse, when I, the verses that I just read through 10.

In a sense, although he was taken captive and put into a place that he didn't want to be in, he did not approach the situation with hostility.

Essentially, I think it says with goodness, with kindness.

He just approached the head eunuch there and said, bro, I don't want to eat this junk, but I want to eat something else.

That's paraphrasing, obviously, that's what he said.

And what happened?

The head eunuch says, bro, I'm I'm nervous because what's going to happen?

He's going to realize, the king's going to realize that you didn't eat right because you're going to look not look good.

And so he makes the request.

Then he even starts to kind of negotiate.

Having a conviction does not require me to be hostile, you know, hot with have some level of hostility.

No, it's just that's the wisdom that God granted him.

He was smart the way he handled it.

Notice in verse 11.

So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel.

Verse 12, please test your servants for ten days.

Look at the wisdom that he uses.

And let them give us vegetables to eat, and water to drink.

Then let our appearance be examined before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delegacies.

And as you see fit, so deal with your servants.

So he contested with them in this matter, and he tested them for ten days.

So he, with wisdom and night and being kind, he basically laid out an opportunity, an option for him.

And I get it.

The head eunuch was legitimately concerned.

If he would have not gone with the king's order, he would have probably been killed.

But Daniel still refused to compromise.

He wasn't going to compromise his faith.

He would have died if that was the case, but he just simply said, bro, how about we eat some vegetables for a little bit?

Now I know to some of y'all that sounds nasty, I'll be honest with you.

My kids are looking like this, right?

We'll have broccoli for dinner only, right?

My kids are going to be in a fast for a little while, okay?

They'll say, Dad, the Lord just said to fast tonight, right?

They're not going to eat it.

Now, I don't mind broccoli if it's cooked right.

I don't mind vegetables if they're, but there's some vegetables, you know, zucchini, I mean, unless it's fried.

I doubt they're fried it, to be honest with you.

And there's so much, there's only so much salt and pepper you can mask some things with, right?

I don't sound too good to me, but but notice how smart and wise that he was.

Conviction, I think, tells you where you cannot compromise, but wisdom helps you respond to it.

And that's what we see here in his life.

Conviction showed him what he couldn't do, but wisdom from the Lord, man, showed him how to handle it and how to best go with it.

Look at verse 15.

Daniel trusted God enough to leave the results to him.

He says in verse 14, Test us in ten days.

Verse 15.

And at the end of the ten days, their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who had ate the portion of the king's delicates.

Thus the steward took away the portion of the king's uh of the delicates and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.

And so you think about this process.

After ten days, him and his friends look fine.

Now, what I want to look at, and just for a second, chase a rabbit, and don't think for a moment that this is teaching you and I said if I obey God, everything's gonna work out to my liking and I'm gonna be all comfortable.

Because you've got to remember, we're gonna read in a few chapters that Daniel got thrown into the fiery furnace because he obeyed.

You and I are gonna read that he obeyed God enough to now be thrown into the den in the lion's den, right?

So just because I obey doesn't mean that everything around me is not gonna feel tough.

Doesn't matter.

God's still on the throne, and I still got to obey God because one day I'll gonna answer to him.

That's what we got to look at.

Daniel, I don't think Daniel doesn't obey because he knows the outcome.

He obeys because he knows God.

That's the difference.

I can stand up for what I believe in because I know the God that I serve.

And I'll let God deal with how the chips fall.

Because if I do it right, God will handle everything else.

And that's what we got to do in the world and the culture with which that we live in.

See, I would argue this.

Obedience isn't obedience if I only obey when I can be guaranteed the outcome.

Because if I only obey when I know the outcome, is that really obedience?

Daniel is obeying God and faithful to God when he didn't know what was going to happen.

He could have been immediately killed or locked away in the dungeon forever.

He didn't care.

Why?

Because he stuck to his core convictions.

Let me give you this little line and then we'll move to the final verses.

Stand firmly for truth, but do it in a way that reflects the God whose truth you're standing for.

I think we should all, we can all learn from that.

All right, let's look at the last few verses, 17 through 21.

Trust God with the outcome.

Trust God with the outcome.

Now, I love this because God was working through this entire chapter, from verse 2 when he gave the land over to verse uh number 9 when we were reading uh uh primarily about how God had brought Daniel into favor and to uh the goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.

And now you're gonna get to verse number 17, and you're gonna see that word give again.

As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

He goes on in verse number 18.

Now at the end of the days, when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

And then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel and his three friends.

Verse 20.

In all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.

Verse 21.

Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.

What why is that important?

Look at the pattern.

God gave, God brought, God gave.

But what?

Daniel was faithful.

Daniel to me is not the story, the hero of the story, though.

You know who he is?

God.

Bye, why would you say that?

Because in verse 2, God gave the hand.

Verse 9, God brought them into favor and kindness with the eunuchs.

And then in verse number 17, God granted wisdom and understanding and all the visions and all that was within that.

So to me, God's the hero of all of this.

Daniel's faithfulness existed because he was faithful to a God who was faithful all the time.

The same thing could be said about us if we remained faithful.

See, faithfulness means obeying God with what I can control and trusting God when I can't control it.

I love how this flows verse by verse, but one of my favorite parts has got to be verse 21.

8 and 21, I believe, is my favorite two verses in this chapter.

Why?

Daniel didn't, he started, didn't just start out being faithful, he remained faithful.

Notice in verse 21, Daniel continued.

I circle that just like you did, maybe in verse number eight, that he purposed his heart.

Daniel continued.

What does that mean?

Daniel didn't stop.

And what you will find and you study his life long enough is that the kings changed, but Daniel continued.

You'll read that governments changed, but Daniel continued.

You can even read that the culture around Daniel changed time and time again, but Daniel continued.

You'll realize and understand that Daniel will get older, just like you and I do.

But he continued.

Nothing stopped him, prevented him from continuing to serve and do what he had set out to do.

Verse number eight, he purposed in his heart not to defile himself.

Nothing stopped Daniel from doing that.

I like this thought.

I'll put on the screen for you.

Obey God with what you can control and trust God with what you can't.

There's a lot of things in us life I can't control.

I can wish and hope and really like for something to happen, but I can't control it.

I gotta trust God in all that.

And as I close, I want to put this all together, and I cannot stop but going back to verse 8 and verse number 21.

I don't want you to miss that he purposed something in his heart, verse 8, verse number 21, he continued.

So you might ask yourself, how do I continue in my faith time and time again?

Preacher, how do I continue in my faith when the world around me is changing?

How do I continue when things that used to make sense don't make sense?

How can I do all of that?

You got to go back to verse 8.

He purposed in his heart.

At some point, each and every one of us have to stop and purpose in our hearts something.

He purposed in his heart that he would never defile himself, which ultimately meant defile God.

What he settled in his heart as a young man became the way that he lived.

And maybe you're here today, and you could have begun like that.

Man, I'm not gonna settle.

I'm not gonna settle for anything.

I'm gonna continue on.

Now, I want you, if you hadn't to do that, say, man, I don't I want to live a life, a faithful life for the Lord.

Well, if that's the case, you can't do it based on feelings or how everybody feels or even what's popular.

You gotta do it based upon God's spoken word.

And the worst thing that you and I could ever do is try to renegotiate something that God's made out clear.

I don't know about you, but sometimes it's not good to try to renegotiate with something that's already settled.

And God's already settled it.

So I shouldn't try to renegotiate anything.

I should just give in to Him.

Maybe your feelings are telling you one thing, but Scripture's telling you something else.

Well, as your pastor, I'd encourage you to follow the scriptures.

Maybe the pressure around you is getting stronger.

Well, if it is, the question you've got to ask yourself, who gets the final word?

Is it your feelings or your emotions, or is it God?

Only you can answer that.

See, Daniel knew when he decided not to bow to the king.

He'd already decided that he wasn't going to bow to the king.

It wasn't something that he had to make in that moment.

He already knew.

In church, I want to encourage you before I close in prayer, I don't want you just to have one moment of faithfulness.

I want you to have a lifetime of it.

It's easy to have one moment of faithfulness.

But how about a lifetime of it?

Meaning in in verse 21, he continued, what if we could say that about any one of our names?

In years to come, so-and-so still following Jesus.

So-and-so still believing God's word.

Put your name in the pot.

So-and-so still loving people and trying to lead people to Jesus.

So-and-so still standing for the truth.

Remember, verse 8, Daniel purposed in his heart, verse 21, Daniel continued.

I'd love for that to be said about you.

He's still trusting God, or you still trusting God.

Anybody can have faithfulness for a moment, but God wants us to have faithfulness for a lifetime.

Has your faithfulness?

But you pray as I do.

God, I come to you.

In this moment, Lord, reflecting over chapter one of Daniel.

God, my prayer is that it's not, these words don't just resonate to our minds and our ears, but God, I pray that they would go deep within our heart.

Your word is powerful.

Your word is real.

Your word's alive.

And Lord, I pray that it's not my words that offer a conviction, but it's yours.

Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here under the sound of my voice that doesn't know you as Lord and as Savior, maybe they wandered in today, got invited in, or just saw the sign and came in, doesn't know you as Lord and as Savior, maybe today.

Lord, your spirit can draw them unto you.

Allow me or somebody else to lead them straight to you.

Lord, I pray for that one that's here today that knows you as Lord and as Savior, but maybe they have it settled in their heart.

They have it purposed in their heart that no matter what, they're gonna follow you.

God, I pray in the name of Jesus that you speak right to that heart.

Let us decide now that I'm gonna serve you no matter what around me changes.

Lord, have your way in this moment of invitation.

I do pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand.