LIVING LIKE DANIEL

Book of Daniel
September 11, 2016

Does anyone wanted to be successful? (Careers, Relationship and Ministry). There is

no short cut in success. In order for one to be successful, he/she is to take a journey. As
one is taking his/her journey there are surely ups and down that he/she will be facing.
These obstacles will either break you or motivate you.
Success nowadays is always (most of the time) incorporated with compromise. The
world tells us that compromise is normal in order for people to achieve success.
Comprise could be in any form. We can be doing it consciously or unconsciously that is
why one should always be careful on his/her steps in achieving success.
Compromise is defined to accept (something) what is lower than desirable (standard). In
a Christian’s definition, it is accepting less of what God had prepared for you (Best).
Christians are meant for a successful in life (Jeremiah 29:11). But these success is only
guaranteed if one is to do, only what God wants him to do.
Today we will look on how 4 great men were able to be successful in their lives without
compromising their faith to God.

Background
After King Zedekiah’s rebellion against King Nebuchadnezzar, The whole
Southern Kingdom of Judah was taken captive by Babylon. The King carried away the
temple treasures together with some of the Israelites to Babylon.
The whole Israel together with some other nations were totally subdued, resulting
to an empire that is so great. With that situation present, the Babylonian people needed
extra manpower. Slaves who were capable for government administration were chosen
and went under training of the Babylonian culture and laws. Four of them were Daniel
(Belteshazzar), Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach) and Azariah (Abed-nego).
1.) Compromise of Pleasure/Temptation

Daniel 1:5
And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies
and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so
that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.

Daniel and his friends were among the chosen Israelites to be trained of
the Babylonian culture and laws. Including in this training is for them to eat
Babylonian foods as appointed by the King.

Just like today, Christians are put on these situations. The world offers us
plenty of things. Things that can bring us pleasure. Pleasure are things
which gives us a feeling of happiness and satisfaction. It can be good or
bad. (ex: Vices, Social Media and Tehnology)

God given pleasures draws us closer to Him, because God will never
give us anything that will pulls us away from him.

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down
from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of
turning.

James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may
spend it on your pleasures.

What to do with wrong pleasures? Why did they refuse to have the
Babylonian diet? (Unclean, Offered to Idols) Daniel knowing that these
foods will make him sin against the Lord immediately made an unwavering
resolve.

Daniel 1:8
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with
the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank;
therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not
defile himself.
 This was Daniel and his friend’s resolve! A resolve so firm that they even
made Ashpenaz (master eunuch) agree with them (Daniel 1:10-14).

Daniel 1:14
So he consented with them in this matter, and tested them ten days.

Christians should always have this kind of resolve in situations like

this.
Matthew 5:37
But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more
than these is from the evil one.

With this resolve that Daniel and his friends have, God rewarded them
(Daniel 1:17-20).

Daniel 1:20
And 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.

2.) Compromise of Pattern/Norms/Tradition

Daniel 3:4-5 (Amplified)

Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “You are commanded, O peoples,
nations, and speakers of every language, that at the moment you hear the
sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon (four-stringed harp), dulcimer,
bagpipe, and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the
golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

King Nebuchadnezzar thinking of himself highly decided to make an

Image of Gold. During these days, worshipping this image is a lifestyle.
Every time the Babylonians will hear the sound, they are to worship it.

Today most people think that the majority is the basis of what is right. In
Filipino’s term “Normal/Ayos lang iyan. Sila nga eh!“ like other
Christians. They tend to make the norms/lifestyle of today as an
excuse/license for them to compromise. (ex: Night Life, Live-in Relation
and Extra-Marital)

Jesus told us to be SALT and LIGHT (Matthew 5:13-16). What happens if

we do this so called “Norms”?
Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it
be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot by men.

Once we live in compromise we will eventually lose our God given

purposes. This event will be the beginning of our downfall.

But despite of these Babylonian lifestyle, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah

decided to follow the precepts of the Lord (Daniel 3:1-18).

Daniel 3:17-18 (Amplified)

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace
of blazing fire, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if
He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to
serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up!”

With this resolve of these men, the king’s rage went so high that
immediately they were ordered to be thrown on the fiery furnace. The
furnace was heated up to 7 times its normal heating, that even the soldiers
who took these men were killed instantly (Daniel 3:19-20). But God never
failed them!

Daniel 3:25-26
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the
fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of
God.” Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery
furnace and spoke, saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego,
servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here.” Then
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire.

This resolve also lead to the glorification of God!

Daniel 3:28
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel[a] and delivered His
servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and
yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god
except their own God!
 So with us today, we should not make the majority an excuse for us to
compromise.

Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform
you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn
to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

With these faith and obedience of these men, God was glorified! Then the
king promoted these 3 men.

Daniel 3:30
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the
province of Babylon.

3.) Compromise of People.

Daniel 6:4
 
So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against
Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault,
because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him.

Other government officials during Daniel’s time was so jealous of him

because King Darius was in favor of Daniel. Why? Because Daniel was
totally different. He always sought the Lord. Since they couldn’t find any
fault in Daniel in regards to his work, they attacked his lifestyle.

Christians whether we like it or not, aware or unaware, we are observed

by people.

2 Corinthians 3:2-3
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by
everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our
ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on
tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Just like Daniel’s life, there be will always people around us that will pull
us down for so many reasons. In order for these people to stop, some
Christians give in to them. But the most impacting reason why some
Christians give in is because of the “FEAR OF LOSS”. (Family, Friends
and Colleagues)
But in spite of these, Daniel did not mind them! The more these people
tried to pull him down, the more he focused on GOD!

Daniel 6:10
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in
his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down
on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his
God, as was his custom since early days.

Just like Daniel, we today as Christians should focus more on what God
will say rather than what people around us will say!

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy
set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God.

Daniel living a life of following God from beginning to the end resulted to
his unremarkable success.

Daniel 6:28
So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus
the Persian.
Conclusion:
Daniel and his friends had a thousand of reasons to compromise, but all these
reasons were nothing because of their will to please God rather than men.

There was a story:

A giant 400-year-old redwood came crashing down one day, could figure out
why. The tree had survived four centuries of storms, lightning, and earthquakes--
what had felled it?

"On closer inspection, investigators found that tiny beetles had found their way
inside its trunk and had begun eating away its life-giving fibers, weakening its
mighty bulk from the inside out.

Same with our lives today. One preacher quoted. “Satan wants to gradually and
steadily minimize your impact for Christ, one compromise at a time.” When we
compromise, we are accepting a lifestyle that makes less of an impact on others,
than of what God desires.

Just like Daniel and his friends, we should always aim to please God. Surely
when we do that, we will never regret it. For every time we do things that will
glorify Him, God will reward us.