"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine..." Daniel 1:8a NIV
Faith Baptist Church
Resolved to be the Remnant
Well, good morning, faith family. Welcome back from summer. Welcome to the cold. I know it's not technically fall, but I turned the heat on today in a house and that in my mind means it's fall. Well, I got a full heart today feeling a lot of things with what Dustin shared there. I'm just so thankful for Dustin's support during the transition. For me, I know that was a scary step for me to move states and leave my old church to come to a new church into a new role and you're quite an anchor for me and I just thank you for that. I know you're an anchor for this church during that time as well. We thank you for that and so in some ways it's our turn to support you in this transition and I know that I can speak for myself and as I look at the faces around here I can speak for them as well that there's going to be support here and your transition and what God's calling you to do. Transitions, they're not easy are they? They're a little scary. There's a lot of people in the Bible who have made transitions. Abraham left a land that he knew to a land he did not know. He walked by faith walking to the sound and the beat of the Lord's drum to that. When Moses left a land he knew to a land he did not know. God had plans Joshua picked up on the edge of the promised land and he left what he knew and walked with God's people in the land he did not know. I was just so blessed by the worship today especially those lines about Jesus is here with us now and as we were preaching last Sunday out at Labor Day at Beads Lake the Lord is our shepherd. He is the one that we follow ultimately and as we enter into the book of Daniel the name Daniel means the Lord is our judge. He's the one that we're putting our eyes on we're going to follow him and he promises to never leave us nor forsake us so we do that. So I want to share a story with you I'm usually not very funny I'm going to try to be here this is a story of a missionary who went overseas into a land he did not know all right and this missionary it's a true story he went to Venezuela as a missionary and he arrived for the first time and he was struggling with the language and didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on intending to visit one of local churches he got lost but eventually got back on track he found the place where he was headed having arrived late the church was already packed and the only seats available were in the front row which we have that available now if any visitors in the back want to come on up says here so as not to make a fool of himself he decided to pick someone to sit next to and to imitate so he chose to follow the man sitting next to him on the front pew so as they sang the man clapped his hands so the missionary clapped his hands when the man stood up to pray the missionary stood up to pray when the man sat down he sat down when the man held the cup and the bread from the Lord's Supper the missionary did the same he just sat there and tried to look just like the man in the front pew then he perceived that the preacher was giving announcements and people clapped so he looked to see if the man was clapping he was so he clapped too then the preacher said some words that he did not understand and the man next to him stood up so he stood up too suddenly a hush fell over the entire congregation a few people gasped he looked around and saw that nobody else was standing but him and this man in the front row so he sat back down after the service ended the preacher stood at the door shaking hands when they were leaving and the missionary stretched out his hand to greet the preacher and the preacher said you don't know if Spanish very well do you he goes no no I don't he says well that's kind of obvious he goes I announced today that the Acosta family had a newborn baby boy and if the proud father would please stand up so here's the question for today is do we know what we're standing up for right sometimes it's easy to just go with the flow right we follow the crowd and yet oftentimes God calls us to places that don't just go with the flow or follow the crowd right there's times that we need to sit down when others are standing there's times that we need to stand up when others have taken a seat we're called to take the stand the church is called to take the stand for and we look to the Lord to do that there's another man who took a stand and it was this man named Daniel and before we get to that I want to give you just some other illustrations about going with the flow raise your hand if you started school here recently we went back to school got some kids in the group alright very good now you're gonna have opportunities in school to either go with the flow okay all the kids sit in the back of the class you sit in the back of the class the kids begin to talk you begin to talk right and yet the key right is to keep your eyes on the teacher and what you're supposed to be doing ultimately your key is to keep your eye on the Lord what he's called you to be doing and that's no different for being in school as a kid being a young family and taking decisions on what goes on your calendar and what doesn't being in the workplace even being retired sometimes we can go with the flow when our eyes should be on what the Lord wants us to do and so this man named Daniel he starts off a very interesting time for the people of God he was on quite a journey this was a young man he was probably in his teens even and he grew up in Jerusalem all of a sudden a lot happened an invading king named Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon came and he wiped out the nation he destroyed the temple where they would worship and he brought a lot of the people with him from Israel to Babylon that's tough that's a tough transition I mean just think of what your reaction would be to that and say God what in the world why did you let that happen you'd have a mixture of grief and anger and pain and fear you don't know where you're going you don't know this language something about Daniel I've come to deeply respect that he's come to learn that God's promises are true wherever he goes he didn't lose faith he didn't think that God had given up on him in that transition even though everything around him was falling apart that's why we're calling this series Heroes of the Exile and the tagline for that is remaining faithful in a fallen world when things are crumbling around you how did these people respond that have put their faith in God and it's very inspiring to me and so let's follow this as this begins in Daniel chapter 1 so here's a tough transition okay in verse 1 it says in the third year of the reign of Jehovah Kim Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it so this Jehovah Kim was the king of Judah he was the son of Josiah and Josiah was a good king Josiah there was a huge revival and they built some great progress in this nation for what God wanted to see happen in a lot of ways our current culture we'd seen a lot of great things happen the previous generation there was a fear for God in the land and in our culture some ways America was known as a Christian nation and yet for these people those that had followed Josiah they'd seen some great things all of a sudden the knowledge just came crashing down one generation later what a mix of feelings I'm sure they had as they saw those changes what fear what grief probably overtook them and in some ways rightly so but God had plants God had plants for his people even yet this word for Babylon it comes from the word confusion we see it back in Genesis there's the tower of Babel which was one of the first civilizations and the people and their pride gathered together and got confused their languages and so this Nebuchadnezzar from this land of confusion he came to Jerusalem Jerusalem means teaching of peace and so if you just want to play along with me just the definitions of these words it's if I were to insert the definitions for these names it would say that Nebuchadnezzar king of confusion came to the teaching of peace and besieged it so he came against what was peaceful and truthful teaching the people that served a true God and he besieged it and he brought these people to a land of confusion of mixing of ideas and it was going to be a huge test I mean Daniel could totally lose his identity in this transition a lot of our transitions they test our identity I remember going into the ninth grade and I remember thinking new school and I was so fixated on what color my backpack would be I finally got the school colored backpack it was green and I was so excited and my mom goes you think you're maybe a little too happy about that backpack but for me I was it was identity it was fitting in and going at the flow it was testing who I was transitions do that for us and it's going to do that here to Daniel verse two it says that the Lord delivered Joachim king of Judah into the hand of king Nebuchadnezzar 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 so here we see Jerusalem something that stood for what was right and good it's being besieged it was delivered over carried off and plundered and noticed that it didn't say the Lord was surprised he had forgotten about that Nebuchadnezzar no the Lord was orchestrating this he was in this some of it he used to discipline his people that were forsaking him again and again he was doing it to test and to refine his people and to use them to witness to the world I find it fascinating even as you hear the war in Israel I mean all throughout time I've seen it I've heard about it but even now the Jewish faith they believe that no one sets foot in Jerusalem without God's permission there's not a fear there they know I mean the Old Testament makes it really clear any king from outside Jerusalem that came was given permission they believe that God is in control of that God is in that and yet it still hurts when you feel those things crashing down around you they probably felt kingless their Christian president was gone the world as they knew it was collapsing into confusion verse 3 here's the next scene the king then ordered Ash Penez these court officials to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility young men without any physical defect handsome showing aptitude for every kind of learning well informed quick to understand qualified to serve in the king's palace so here enters a remnant of God's people and I'm just so interested here how are they going to react to this right are they just going to fit right in and go with the flow are they going to start protesting against Nebuchadnezzar what are they going to do here what are God's people called to do how are they to remain faithful in a fallen world and here was the plan he was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians they're going to teach them all the culture they're going to brainwash them they're going to try and uproot their identity and replace it with something different the king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table and they were to be trained for three years and after that they were to enter the king's service that word for service literally means they will stand they will take their stand in the king's presence after that so for three years they're going to be trained okay our school system does 12 universities do four okay but there's a real chance you lose yourself when you allow those other influences into your life to just go with the flow to take a stand for what you shouldn't take a stand for to sit down when you should be standing and they're getting food right from the king's table that word appears five times in this chapter they're going to get bribed a little bit they're going to get bribed with the food and the wine a little bit of reckless living self-indulgent a little bit of a play hard work hard play hard attitude and yet in verse six here introduces our characters it says among those who were chosen were some from Judah and enter four friends in their teens imagine them as sophomores in high school Daniel, Hanania, Michael, and Azariah and they were given new names Babylon didn't like that they had names that each name referenced God Daniel means God is my judge some of these others mean God is my helper their identity was rooted in who they were in relationship to God and yet they didn't like that so they tried to root up their identity and gave them new names names that did not focus on who they were in relationship to God but who they were in relationship to each other who they were in relationship to the king of Babylon maybe we should name our kids some of these names more I was with my best one of my best friends in Minnesota yesterday he's got a three-year-old little Daniel but maybe we need a Hananiah and a Michael and Azariah see if that would definitely be standing out from the crowd when it verse eight this is a key verse for us this first two words but right whole new identity brainwash system everything's been crumbling I mean what if the book just ended right there that's it that's it but here we have but but one guy one fifteen year old kid he'd heard stories of what had happened in the revival during Josiah in his grandparents generation when a people followed after God he's in a new land with incredible adversity and this kid goes you know what we faced hard times before you know what we faced enemies before to what God wants to do you know what we've seen God come through time and time again so this kid he sets his mind and his heart his courage that's what that word resolve means made a choice and resolved not to defile himself his first instinct wasn't what Nebuchadnezzar should do or even what his buddies should do he looked inward and he thought what does God expect of being in this season that he has called me to and he resolved not to defile himself the opposite of the word defile is to purify because God I want to be right before you that's my number one goal here in this new land with lots of confusion people are standing and sitting and no one knows what to do because I just want to be right with you let that be the starting place don't let me be polluted by all of these influences I'm going to watch what I'm consuming the information that's coming to me the media I'm soaking in the relationships I have because I want to follow you God and I want the influences in my life that are going to follow you so he did not defile himself with royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way not everybody did that there were God's people that went to Babylon and they had not resolved they had no resolve and when the people came out of Babylon 70 years later they stayed they still had no resolve just going with the flow but Daniel made a different choice and because of his stand he got three buddies that stood with him said you know what Daniel is onto something because God had told us not to be influenced with these foods so we're going to obey that we're not going to compromise on that we're going to stand with Daniel and because of these four guys taking a stand later on there was an Ezra and there was a Nehemiah who also had faith that God would work in the next generation and there was an Esther who took a stand there were prophets hey yeah and Zechariah during this time who took a stand I just love how it says because Daniel resolved to make himself right with the Lord what a simple I should say it's not complicated but it's hard to take that humble look within and just say God what do you want to do in my life what would it take for me to be holy devoted to you we're still learning from his example verse 9 it says now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel the official told Daniel I'm afraid of my Lord the king who has assigned you 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 this official he feared the king and yet Daniel's name means God is my king God is my judge Daniel did not fear that king he feared God then a verse 11 he goes you know what let's play this out I'll prove to you in my living that God's ways are best he says verse 11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the official had appointed over Daniel and I and Michiel and Israel please test your servants for 10 days give us nothing but vegetables to eat water to drink he goes watch me follow God for 10 days and I bet you'll see a difference I love that I bet the same in your lives there's a change that you need to resolve to make give it 10 days have that quiet time with the Lord for 10 days or come to church 10 Sundays in a row go to your small group 10 weeks in a row go get 10 friends that want to follow after Christ or surround yourself with those kinds of influences see what will happen test it test it you know I'm not afraid of the foolishness of the world because it's going to be seen as folly it just yeah there's some damage along the way but eventually the next generation is going to look back and say oof you know that that free love moving in the 70s out maybe that wasn't so good right I mean we look back we go man I mean folly is eventually proved and truth is eventually seen and it's beauty and that it works so they test it so in verse 13 he says compare our appearance then with that of the young men who eat the royal food who treat and treat your servants in accordance with what you see so he agreed to this and tested them for 10 days and at the end of the 10 days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food see the influences they were letting into their life was coming out where they had their roots allowed them to grow and it was seen can't argue with that people argue apologetics and the Christian faith but then they look at your marriage that's still together and say wait a second how did how did you do that? right they see joy when they know that you're going to cancer treatments and they say hey wait a second where does where does that come from? the world has legitimate questions that they're trying to answer we have some legitimate answers as a church verse 16 continues the story that the guard he took away their choice food and wine that they were to drink and he gave them vegetables instead so over the next three years they're allowed to live a different lifestyle to these four young men God gave knowledge in understanding all kinds of literature and learning Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds what started as just an inward look of God if there's anything that's keeping me from you take it away what started there became amazing empowerment to the Holy Spirit to do tremendous service D.L. Moody was a preacher in the late 1800's and his called the ministry involved hearing evangelists to give a challenge that said that the world has yet to see what God can do with the man fully consecrated to him D.L. Moody wrote by God's help I aimed to be that man Daniel aimed to be that man so after these three years verse 18 at the end of the time that had been set by the king to bring them into his service the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar the king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Hanania, Michael and Azariah so they entered the king's service as the king talked with them questioned them he found man there's something about these people of God it's different it's different than all the rest verse 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 and whole kingdom we have good answers church they really are sometimes the world's got to see it lived out but we got good answers verse 21 I love this this is so inspiring to me and Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus a 70 years later wow Daniel embraced his call there's five recorded kings that Daniel served with during this exile at the time there's probably even more in between that but there's five recorded different administrations it goes from Babylon to the Persians Daniel still sees himself called to show each new administration each new political party this is the true God that I stand for three times and edict was sent out to the whole known world after they'd witnessed Daniel stand firm and said yeah this is the true God this is the answer we've been looking for this is because of three things he let God work in him his own heart first he made up his mind about the influences he led in his life and then he took his stand and then he took his stand and the king's presence he took a stand when it was time to take a stand he didn't stand up when he had no idea what was going on and the pastor was asking who had a baby boy he took a stand at the right time for the right thing he called what was good good and he lived it out in his life people couldn't argue with him later on some people tried to get him into a lion's den and yet they couldn't find any fault with him the only thing they could pin him on is that he wouldn't stop praying maybe we could be a church I couldn't stop praying a church that remained faithful when everything else is following now before this is just a morality pep talk that's strength that Daniel was not his own strength was it? the resolve of Daniel was not just his own resolve he was empowered by the Holy Spirit that was the strength and the power of God he abided and God empowered the same promise is true today as we partake in the blood and bread of Christ his blood and his body shed on the cross we are purified we are not the file but we are holding his sight without blemish and free from accusation and as Colossians 2, 6-8 mention just as we've received Christ Jesus as Lord we're to walk in him we're not to let others as verse 10 says not let others judge us based on worldly standards or even in the church with man-made rules but we're to find our identity firmly being purified by the blood of Jesus and that just as we received it to walk in and to let God use us in a fallen and broken world and the world is watching church faith Baptist has a reputation people look at us with a big question but if God is real