Living in Culture
Notes
Transcript
Daniel 6
Daniel 6
Main Idea: “God’s truth will always oppose our culture”
Me: A little bit about me:
I do not hold a lot of strong opinions movies, TV shows, music, or other things.
But I know there are certain people who do.
And here is what I love to do with those people.
I begin to have really strong hard core opinions on anything and everything they hate.
I know why my kids do this.
I could literally ask my kids what is your favorite color between green and red— and they will both say the other color then where their sister says.
You guys watch star wars in here?
So I have a buddy who hated star wars the last jedi movie— was adamantly against it so I told him it was my favorite.
He is a guy who has a top ten movie list that he has painstaking created and I like to go to IMBD bottom 250 and just pick any of those movies.
Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas is my number one, it has a 1.3 rating out of ten.
Even the things that I love, if he loves them, I hate them.
Some would call me a hero— others would call me a menace— others just a jerk.
He knows I do this and it makes for a fun time.
He the dude who has opinions on everything like what’s your stance on Arbor day?
Do you all know what arbor day is? and Why we even have a day for trees?
Me either— so no I don’t have one— but whatever he is— I am against it!
We: Am I the only one who does this?
Or are there some other hero’s in the room?
Well because I love seeing the world burn— lets play a game.
I am going to give you two things and I want you raise your hand for which one you are for.
You know a good old fashion game of division!
Apple or Android
Taylor Swift or Beyonce
Pepsi or coke?
Favorite Season and why is it fall?
A taco is a sandwich.
Dog or Cat?
Books or movies?
You should never wear socks with sandals.
One should never wear socks to bed.
Pluto is a planet
Harry Potter will never match Lord of the Rings?
Well now I know the kind of people I am talking too.
Just kidding, sort of.
But I see that there are some of us here who are willing to go against he norm.
And that is totally fine!
I am sure we all have people in our life that are going to oppose everything we say and everything that we do.
We all know people who are like this, maybe you are like this.
And some it can be out of fun and some of it is just friends being friends.
But I am sure we can all think of people or situations where we see truth, we even can define truth and there are people who go against it.
2+2=4 it is true and it always has and always will be four.
Doing the right thing will always be the right thing.
But how do we stand on truth.
For starters we must know truth.
And to know truth is to then do truth.
We live in a culture today that does not like this word truth.
Or they like it when it is for their agenda.
To be a Christian in our world is not easy.
Now it isn’t the hardest for us in America.
I mean I think we are finally see more of a targeting against Christians but we are not being killed or anything for what we believe.
However we are experiencing an attack on truth.
We are experiencing an attack on God’s word.
How we should act and behave and even believe.
And this is nothing new.
This is not like God is anxious by this, no He knows that culture stands opposed to Him.
He knows that our world will go against His word.
And He know that those who follow Him will be attacked.
So what I want to talk about today, and helpful encourage you with today is that “God’s truth will always oppose our culture.”
BUT
“When we are rooted in our faith, we can be firm when conflict arises.”
Culture is always going to go against God.
The question is how can I stay true to God’s word in our culture.
How can I remain strong in a culture that say’s God is wrong.
How can do I live counter cultural.
You start today.
You start one day at a time
You begin with knowing who God is.
You start here in His word.
God: I want us to look at Daniel 6 today.
Many of you may be familiar with Daniel and the Lion’s Den
Now as we begin this story I want to just point out a couple of things.
Jerusalem has fallen into captivity with Babylon.
Their temple was destroyed and the people have now been taken in by the Babylonians.
Daniel came into Babylon as a teen.
But as we get to chapter 6 Daniel is not a teen anymore.
Daniel is about 85 to 90 years old
And also Babylon is no more— they have been taken over by the Persians
Meaning that a new King has also been put into place.
King Darius
I know there is some debate about whether King Darius was real or not, I will not be getting into that, but would be happy speak to it after the class.
But what I find is interesting is that through it all Daniel keeps getting placed in high positions.
We see his unwavering character which is due to his faith in the Lord is different then those around him.
As we move into our text this morning, I want to challenge us with this.
“When we are rooted in our faith, we can be firm when conflict arises.”
This is what Daniel did through out his whole life.
The story of Daniel and the lion’s den is widely known, so we are going to be looking at the story with a different angle.
So we are going be comparing the two men in this chapter.
Daniel and Darius.
Because as I was studying this passage, Daniel was hardly in the story, and Darius was in it the whole time.
If it was movie or a play— Darius was in every scene.
Daniel was shown twice.
The first comparison is
Daniel was Dependable/Darius was Desperate (v1-9)
Daniel was Dependable/Darius was Desperate (v1-9)
Explain
It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
As Darius is getting settled in, Darius appoint three high officials, one of which is Daniel and he also appoints 120 satraps.
Here is how that would have looked:
Darius, High Officials and then the satraps
Then we see in verse 3 that King Darius wants to set Daniel over the whole kingdom.
So it would then be Darius, then Daniel, then the officials, then the straps.
So we are welcomed into this new regime, Daniel finds his way into being mr dependable.
That is who Daniel is:
And it made people mad- let’s continue:
Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
AFTER 70 YEARs THEY FOUND NOTHING— no complaint, no fault— who can say this?
That over 70 years and there was nothing against Daniel— no scandal, no gossip, no complaints, no faults.
It is no wonder that the kings wanted this guy in a leadership position.
Yet the others in the office, if you will, were a not a fan of Daniel.
They wanted to attack him.
So what did they go after?
Not his political power.
They went after his faith.
Everyone knew Daniel was a follow of God.
He was not secretive about his faith at all.
So these men— the schemers they were going to put Daniel in a position to follow God’s law or to follow man’s law.
Here is how they did it.
Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.
King Darius was stepping into this role we was looking for peace.
The Persians were moving in and taking over.
They needed Babylon to fall into line with how they were ruling.
It is a new team coming in, they were clearing out the old guard and bringing in the new.
I believe Darius wanted the people to be united.
Daniel 2. A Treacherous Plot (6:4–9)
Archer states: “The suggested mode of compelling every subject in the former Babylonian domain to acknowledge the authority of Persia seemed a statesmanlike measure that would contribute to the unification of the Middle and Near East.” Thus Darius was not proclaiming himself to be a god but during this thirty-day period was acting as mediator for the gods of all the nations subject to him.50
So knowing that this was Darius’s goal the schemers- schemed.
They came forward and laid out a plan that would surly bring unity and peace to the land.
And Darius who is desperate to see peace play out— he signs it.
He wants peace— his officials who, he should be able to trust— had a plan.
Before we throw stones at Darius don’t we do this.
Not set our selves up as god, but make decisions out of desperation?
And when the risk is high, or the more stressful the situation it seems like the more desperate we become.
Apply
We become desperate.
And when we get desperate we make bad calls.
We settle for a date that goes terribly because we just want to be in a relationship.
We settle for the house because we desperately believe this is the best we can do.
Out of desperation we leave one state because we just need something new.
We make quick decision without thinking on why we have to make a decision anyway.
It is easy to look at Darius’s life and laugh, and call him a fool— but I’ve made bad decisions based on desperate choices.
That were 100% foolish as well— haven’t you?
The desperate need to seek joy or pleasure in things like gossip, lying, pornography, drinking, sex, and other temporary fixes that if I had remained dependable in my faith, I may not have made that choices.
You see Daniel was bold— dependable— He was blameless.
Folks— it would be awesome to be Daniel in this story!
To be the guy that kings want to lead!
I want to be that guy!
I want to be like Daniel, but over just my last ten years my life looks way more like Darius then it does Daniel.
How about you?
So maybe you are like me as well, maybe we are more like Darius then Daniel.
Maybe, just maybe we are not the heroes of this story.
Because Daniel he was dependable and Darius he was desperate.
Our second comparison is:
Daniel was Dedicated/Darius was Divided (v10-18)
Daniel was Dedicated/Darius was Divided (v10-18)
Explain
Here is what makes Daniel amazing and also someone that I don’t think I can hold a candle too.
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
Daniel knows that the decree has been passed.
He was not going to pray to any other person.
And look at how he deals with this— He goes up to his room and he prays.
And he shows us why he has been dependable all these years.
Why he can stand bold, because he continues to be dedicated to God and God alone.
Yet this decision to not follow this law was set up all the back in Dan 1.
Daniel failed to compromise because he was committed to God before this law was ever passed.
In chapter one when Daniel was first brought into Babylon he asked if we could eat veggies and water instead of the Kings food.
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
“Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”
Daniel was did not compromise.
And we could look at this and say, you know the food choice is that really a big deal Daniel.
I think it was.
Here is why:
“Our resolve not to compromise in the small things gives us strength for the bigger things.” (Scott Wilson)
This was a no brainer for the dependable follower of God.
Back in the text:
Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.
We see the schemers— scheming and they soon find Daniel praying.
They go and tell the king.
Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
Did you catch what these officials called Daniel?
He was still viewed as an outsider, even after 70 plus years of living in Babylon.
He was lived in Babylon probably longer then most of the high officials and satraps.
That is messed up!
People who are out to get you in this world we will remind of your past— while those who want the best for you will remind you of your potential.
Then in verse 14 we Darius become divided.
Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.
He wasn’t furious at Daniel for praying to His God.
Not Darius, he is troubled, he is divided.
He knows at this moment that those schemers used him to hurt Daniel.
He would spend the next day trying to find a way to help Daniel.
He liked Daniel.
He wanted Daniel on his team.
And he could have made a decision to not uphold the law, but that would have repercussions.
Daniel would be spared but the unity he was going for— would no longer be there.
He would look like a weak ruler— it would seem his mind was a loof.
So he could free Daniel or he could uphold what he said.
So that is what he does.
He says bring we Daniel and he throws him in the pit.
But before he did— Darius say to Daniel,
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”
What is interesting is that Daniel does not say a word about this.
He does not try to plead his cause.
And Darius knows that Daniel has always continually followed after God.
He knew what was going to happen.
He know that he could have not prayed or he could have been more quite about it, but He was not going to hide who he was.
Nor was Daniel going to bow down to an earthly king.
He resolved not to compromise in the small things, and because of 70 plus years of faithfulness we see Daniel having the strength to do the big thing.
To meet death by lions was a big thing.
He was to remain faithful to God however.
Illustrate
I read a tweet this week that goes like this.
“Jesus said the man who builds his house upon the sand is a fool. There are a lot of Christians out there acting like God’s word was written in the sand. Every major storm washes it away. Either God word is everlasting to everlasting or its completely worthless.”
I would like to add to it: with how you live you life tells everyone which of these you believe.
Many of us do this, we want to follow God and his word, but we treat his word like written words in the sand.
Apply
There is a contrast between Daniel and Darius here.
If we were faced with this decision today, to pray to God or be thrown into the lions den, can you honestly say that you would not be divided on this?
And if that is the case then again we look more like Darius then we do Daniel.
Do not let this world divide you—
I’m afraid of what I see in churches and what I see in believers.
Are you being divided by this world or are you living a life of dedication to God?
Daniel he was dependable and Darius he was desperate.
Daniel was dedicated and Darius was divided and the last comparison is:
Daniel was Delivered/Darius was Delivered (v19-28)
Daniel was Delivered/Darius was Delivered (v19-28)
Explain
Recall at the beginning here- Darius has just had a sleepless night.
He was divided on putting Daniel in the lion’s den.
Picking up in verse 19:
Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions.
And so as soon as day broke— he was out the door with haste moving to the tomb.
A big reason was, is because if Daniel somehow survived, then he would be spared.
He would have been weighed and measured and found innocent.
So he is walk or running to the tomb and he gets there and he cries out in anguish.
As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”
And Daniel speaks to him.
My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
Daniel is saved from the lions den!
HA ZA
God rescued Daniel from death!
Seeing that Daniel was innocent and that Daniel God’s delivered Daniel out of the pit— Darius gains this new level of confidence that has not been seen yet.
And he throws the one who deceived him into the lion den with their families.
Which is sad, and no one cheers for this judgement.
It was done so, no one in the family could seek revenge.
Back to the end of the chapter here.
I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,
for he is the living God,
enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues;
he works signs and wonders
in heaven and on earth,
he who has saved Daniel
from the power of the lions.”
While it is easy to see that Daniel was delivered from the lions den by God.
I want to look at how Darius was also delivered in this moment.
Because it is Darius not Daniel who is ordering a new decree to be sent out to override the other one.
We see Darius claim God as the living God who endures forever.
He rescues and delivers.
He honors God in the end.
Am I saying that we will see Darius in heaven , we do not know.
Nothing is said out it after this.
Could it be possible sure.
I mean who in this story had transformation?
It’s not Daniel— he has been a rock the whole time.
Dependable and dedicated.
From start to finish.
It is Darius who changes the most through all of this.
Which maybe it is enough to just say that Darius was delivered from his desperation and the division that lived in his soul.
Apply
While we have found ourselves looking more like Darius than Daniel, another comparison that we see is Jesus is the good and better Daniel.
Jesus was faced with the same dilemma death.
Daniel was faced with death by lions
He was faced with death on the cross in light of false evidence against him.
And as Jesus went to the cross to pay the debt that we owed, he did it in silence.
He never questioned the claims.
Both men were arrested while they were in prayer.
We know that God has the ability to step in and rescue as he did so with Daniel in the Lions den.
While Jesus would not be saved from his execution as He was the one doing the saving.
Saving The Darius’s of this world.
Jesus would endure the full weight of sin so that we could enter into a relationship with Him.
Jesus died for us.
Jesus died but yet like Daniel who walked out of that tomb after one day— Jesus emerges from that tomb 3 days later—
Alive for death he had concurred.
So that we could have new life.
So that our lives could be transformed.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
While you may be desperate and divided— today you can become new.
You can feel love.
You can hold on to hope that when we leave this place and we are thrown into the pit/ into the tomb/ into the den that we have someone who has gone before us.
Hold on to Jesus.
Daniel never wavered from his faith in God.
Can the same be said about you?
Maybe it can.
Daniel stood boldly for his faith.
Have you lately?
And when you do stand boldly what does that look like?
Do you respond like the world or do you respond like Daniel
As you leave today— I want to challenge you to keep digging in, stay rooted— Don’t stop living for God— The world will tell you that it is folly but jesus knew that.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
As we all can relate to Darius let us strive to be like Daniel in our words, in our actions and in our committment to God.
It was Daniel’s actions that left Darius with a lasting impression.
Maybe just maybe if we remain faithful consistently we can make an impression on those around us without us even saying a word.
I will leave you with this:
“Our resolve not to compromise in the small things gives us strength for the bigger things.” (Scott Wilson)
Lets pray