Unshakable In A Shaky World

Introduction

ILL. An elderly man lay dying in his bed at home… aroma of his favorite Chocolate Chip cookies… with all his energy he made his way out of bed, out of the bedroom, forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing. With labored breath he leaned against the door frame gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for the pain, he would have thought he was already in heaven! There laid out on newspaper were hundreds of his favorite cookies. Was it heaven or one final act of love by his devoted wife to see that he left this world a happy man? With one great final effort he threw himself toward the table, landing on his knees, his lips parted, the taste was already in his mouth seemingly bringing him back to life. A shaky hand reached for a cookie at the edge of the table when… smack! he was hit with a spatula by his wife. Stay out of those, she said, they’re for the funeral! You know your world is shaky when your not even dead yet and cookies are already being made for your funeral. I would say you don’t have too much time left!

How much time is left for our country? God only knows, but it doesn’t seem like much! On this coming Independence Day we find ourselves grasping for some kind of hope that freedom and liberty will survive, yet it feels more and more like we are being taken captive! That’s why the account of Daniel in the Lions Den is so appropriate for today. Not so much that our country will bounce back and once again be a beacon of Godly hope for the world, but that people are changed in their relationship to God! Nothing much changed in Babylon for the seventy years that Daniel was there, they still worshipped idols and the military was wicked and brutal, yet, many people, including two of their Kings; Nebuchadnezzar and Darius both proclaimed, at least on the surface “ the God of Daniel is mighty and powerful and able to do wonders” (4:2-3, 6:26-27). Believers or not, they gave honor (value) to the God of Daniel. Oh that that would happen in our country today!

Whether that happens or not isn’t the important thing. Sure, for Daniel all his trouble was politically related, but he shows us how to live in spite of what the Government does. That’s how things change! God changing people through us! This is our responsibility and very appropriate for today! That’s what I want to focus on this morning, How to live an unshakable life in our shaky world.

But first a little background on Daniel. Even though this account of Daniel in the Lions Den is a much beloved Sunday School lesson, not many know that the Book of Daniel spans almost his whole lifetime while being 70 years in captivity in Babylon. We first meet Daniel in chapter 1 at age 15 when he is taken into captivity in Babylon and refuses to eat the Kings food as he is training for the Kings court (Much of it was offensive to Jews). In chapter 2 at age 17 he interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream of a huge statue. Chapter 3 brings us to the account of Shadrach, Meshach and abed-nego in the fiery furnace when he is about 20. Then he’s forgotten and there’s the passing of about 25 years before in chapter 4 Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s second dream of a huge tree at about 45 years old. Then forgotten again! Another period of time passes until in chapter 5 Daniel interprets Gods Handwriting on the wall at King Belshazzar’s feast when he’s in his early 80’s. Which brings us to chapter 6 and Daniel is delivered from the Lions Den at about 83 years old.

I mention all this because he remained faithful to God all those years and didn’t give in under the pressure of any other foreign god, nation or leader. Like Pastor Jack said about Caleb a few weeks back, Daniel is one of those people in the Bible where nothing negative is ever said about him. I mention this also because even though he was in a favored position in the kingdom, he mostly remained in obscurity for long periods of time, not being thought of at all except for these few events over the course of his 70 years of captivity (20 years and then 40). It’s almost like Daniel was a nobody until they needed him.

Someone likened Daniel to a Family Sedan! There are many Ferraris, Mercedes and Porsches in the Bible like Paul, David and Moses who speed across the pages of the Bible accomplishing great things for the glory of God. But Daniel is like the safe, trusty, steady family car, nothing flashy, and that gives us hope because we don’t have to be anything special to do great things for God, just faithful across the rest of our lifetime.

ILL. My mother was like that! Some would even call her a Plodder. She even self identified as such! She was nothing special, except to me, she was not a mover and a shaker! but took things slowly, responsibly, and methodically her whole life, and she hated the spotlight! But when she spoke, it was well thought through. She was a great behind the scenes person. I’d like to think I’m a bit like that too, but Daniel certainly was. Every day, three times a day he would go to his rooftop to pray to the Lord for direction and wisdom without any fanfare! He was very unassuming! That means you and I don’t have to be flashy and make a big splash in the pool, just be faithful, and lives will be changed because that’s what God does with our example.

It’s difficult to remain faithful when you are under appreciated, taken advantage of or attacked for your faith, yet, Daniel is a grand example of enduring faith under fire!

Many of us these days feel like our country has lost the ideal of “we the people” in our leadership, and the Government has become much more Tyrannical. As you know, Christians are being ignored as far as our Christian faith is concerned and even attacked for daring to say anything Biblical. Well, I say, so be it! But, instead of giving up, we need to learn from Daniel and his account with the lions, how to remain faithful followers of Christ when times get rough over the long haul. We do that by “Daring To Be A Daniel”, following his example of: Being strong in character (vs.1-5). Being strong in our commitments (vs. 6-11). Expecting to be challenged by others (vs. 12-15), and Expecting the consequences of a life lived by faith (vs. 16-28). First of all, Daniel was:

I. Strong in Character (Read 1-5...).

Daniel wasn’t always in a prominent position as he ends up here in chapter 6. As a matter of fact, until chapter 5 where he is summoned to King Belshazzar’s feast to interpret God’s handwriting on the wall, it had been almost 40 years of living a normal faithful life with nothing else happening! Yet, the Queen remembered, there was this guy… (Vinnie)… Daniel, a long time ago who helped your father King Nebuchadnezzer with his interpretation of dreams (Amazing she remembered him…). He has an extraordinary spirit (6:3, 5:12, 4:8,), maybe he can help you! So they call him in, he interprets the handwriting, King Belshazzar promotes Daniel to 3rd in the Kingdom (5:29), as promised, then the king dies leaving the invading Darius the Mede, as King.

What does it mean to have “an extraordinary spirit”? Because Daniel was made 3rd in the Kingdom under Belshazzar, he certainly was not going to be looked over for King Darius’s administration, even though he was in his 80’s! He was made a high official and began distinguishing himself above all the other commissioners (vs 3). So much so that Darius planned to appoint Daniel over the entire kingdom. Verse 4 tells us why. Those who became jealous of him could find no accusation against him, no corruption, no negligence in anything, basically Daniel was a humble, faithful, loyal, honest guy who always did his very best, and people noticed it! Which by the way, most times is going to be rewarded by an attentive boss.

I think of the young people in our church who have their working life ahead of them, especially my own grandchildren! What an opportunity you all have to distinguish yourselves above other young people by having an exemplary character as you live your life. To be humble, honest , loyal, not argumentative or complaining, blameless in your dealings with people, always doing your very best! This gives honor to you as a person (value...), and brings glory to God. It’s not only doing good work, it’s how you do work that counts. When you break down the word Re-liable, Re means to do over and over again. Liable means, like in insurance (liability), to be be responsible for a certain part of it. Put them together and reliable means to be responsible over and over again, it means you are counted on to get things done!

This also apples to the rest of us whether we are a parent, employee, a boss, or a leader of our cities, states or federal government! If you have an exemplary character in a world where most people are in whatever they’re in, only for themselves, you will stand out in an amazing way. Oh that we would have Statesman again in Government, people of integrity truth and honesty in office! May we be of such character that Jesus is seen and praised because of us.

II. Be Strong in Your Commitments (6-10…)

Unfortunately, one thing you have to realize is that when you are strong in Character, people will become jealous or think you are trying to be better than them and attack you, so you have to be strong in your Commitments. You can’t let anyone dissuade you from the truth.

In Daniels case, all the other jealous commissioners knew of his steadfast faithfulness to God, and devised a plan to trip him up “in regard to the law of his God” (5). Because he was reliable in all his other work, they decided to use his personal prayer life against him. Playing to King Darius’ vanity, they approached the king with a petition saying if anyone prays to any other god than you for a period of thirty days, they “shall be cast into the lions den” (7).

During Covid some “officials” used Covid 19 restrictions to try and close all churches to leverage authority over them. They knew that people will always respond best if you resort to fear tactics, So they overstated the facts (a nice way to say, they lied to us)! It was a great but devious plan to begin making churches bow to the Government, disguised as something good and beneficial. Constantly be aware that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Cor.11:14-15). The facts were falsified and most churches gave in, but ours did not because we did not want to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25), the Bible being our higher authority! We need to be strong and be watchful for Government over-reach while maintaining our commitment to the Lord.

To make this injunction iron clad, King Darius was encouraged to sign it “according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked” (8). This law meant that it was basically irreversible by anyone, even the king! The reasoning in the ancient world was that once you show your weakness as a ruler in changing your mind and going soft, your word would not be as respected, because the gods don’t make mistakes! As Wesley in the Princess Bride says of the dread pirate Roberts, “Once word leaks out that a pirate has gone soft, people begin to disobey, well then It’s nothing but work, work, work all the time”. That’s true enough at your work place as well as in your family! Maintain strong commitments to what is right and good.

So, Daniel finds out about the injunction and what does he do? He does what he always did, praying and giving thanks to God in front of his open rooftop window, he did not change a thing (10-11).

What a commitment and confidence in the God he says he believes in! Sometimes there’s a difference between what we say we believe and what we do! Like the Apostle Peter..., what would it take for you to slip away from your commitment to the Lord? FEAR? money? It doesn’t happen all at once, but slowly over time. Every decision in life will either strengthen or weaken your commitment to the Lord. Every decision! Whether it’s affected by Money, Fame, Success, or the fear of what the Government might do to you? That’s very possible today! Hopefully, if you won the lottery, it wouldn’t change a thing. If you earned the praise of man, it wouldn’t change a thing. If you landed your dream job, it wouldn’t change a thing. If Christians once again were persecuted for our faith, it wouldn’t change a thing, you would be strong in the Lord and the power of His might (Eph.6:10). In Ephesians 4:14-15 it talks about using our spiritual gifts and not being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes”. Paul may have been thinking about Daniel! Do you believe there are deceitful schemes afoot? Your enemy the devil is trying to deceive you by using the foolishness of man and human wisdom to water down your commitment to the Lord.

A lesser man may have given in, after all the injunction was only for thirty days, and he didn’t have to believe in what he was doing, just fake it. Why risk his high position in the empire? And besides, why pray in public since God hears us in private as well? We are always tempted to Compromise! To be unshakable in a shaky world you have to “Stand for something or you’ll fall for anything!”. Daniel did not allow himself to be driven from the acknowledgement of his God, even by the fear of death (10).

III. Expect to be Challenged by others (11-15…)

Having an exceptional Character and strong Commitments are essential elements in being unshakable in a shaky world, but to hold up under the pressure to conform to what everyone else is doing, you must also expect to be Challenged by others. If you are living to be popular or to fit in with everyone else instead of asking yourself what will bring glory to the Lord, you will fall by peer pressure or government pressure.

Daniels enemies were watching and waiting for him to mess up because they already knew his character and commitment would prove his faithfulness to his God. There was no doubt in their minds that he would continue doing what he always did and thus the king was in a spot with his irrevocable injunction. With the insistence and joy of these two other Commissioners being obvious, King Darius realized to late that it was a trap and that he had made a serious mistake.

Don’t expect people to love you when you stand for what is right but it’s culturally unpopular! Expect the opposite and you won’t be disappointed. Whenever you do good, or you stand up for truth, or even are just different from the norm, you will have people ready and willing to make fun of you, try to get you to mess up or simply be jealous of you and try to make your life miserable as here in Daniel. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 4:12 that we are not to be surprised at troubles that come upon us as if something strange were happening to you! Testing is how we grow and prove our commitment and character. Daniel passed the test with flying colors and we can too!

When I was in High School I was not as popular as I am now, but I made some good decisions; not to go to “those” kind of parties, not to do drugs or alcohol, not to get involved with the wrong people... but preferred to hang out with Christian kids on the weekends, and even had a part in starting an on campus Christian group through Youth For Christ called Campus Life! By choice I had to be content with doing the right things and being unpopular or trying to be popular by doing the wrong things. My Classmates didn’t outright challenge me in those days, but every time we sponsored events at the school or in the community, people would know at school who we were and we always got sideways looks like well, your just weird, your no fun, when actually I was having the time of my life living for Jesus!

As an Uber driver, once people found out I was a Pastor, most were interested and had questions for me which was great, but sometimes there were those who outwardly opposed Christianity and wanted nothing more than to argue and try to make you feel dumb for your belief. I refused to go there because nobody is ever argued into the kingdom.

A good example of what not to do is in a recent Mark Cahill newsletter called “Where are the men with a Biblical Backbone”. Mark mentions Anthony Bass a relief pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays who posted a Tweet about boycotting Target and Bud Light for their stance on the Gay Pride agenda, good for him! YEAH! Canada’s a free country too, and he did nothing wrong! But under pressure from the Blue Jays organization, apologized for the Tweet and is “using Blue Jay resources” apparently to help make him more sensitive, all presumably to save his job! Even though he did what they asked, they canned him anyway! He could have been a hero for the right and stood for something, but he caved under pressure for his job with the same end result. How embarrassing! He now has to live with his cowardliness when he started so good. The moral of the story? Stand up for what you know is right to begin with, so you don’t look stupid later on being labeled a hypocrite! Meet your challenges head on! James 1: 2-4 reminds us to “Consider it all joy… when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it’s perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. That’s a great Bible verse, but it does you no good unless you believe it! Expect some challenges and stand firm in the Truth.

IV. Expect Consequences from your faithfulness (16-28 No...).

We usually only speak of consequences as being negative, but consequences are the outcomes of our actions and they can also be positive. In 16-19 we see the negative Read…

So, Daniel gets thrown to the lions, drug under the bus, betrayed by brutal and jealous individuals, all because of his religion! Sound familiar? Yet King Darius, who was an unsuspecting pawn in all this, hoped Daniels God would save him (16). Did Daniel know for certain he would not be eaten? I don’t think so, none of us can really know the outcome of what God is going to do in our trials or the events of our life, it takes faith that God knows best! but I believe he took courage in the fact that , Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego just before their furnace experience said (Dan.3:17-18… ). Queen Esther said… “If I perish, I perish”. We need to expect some fallout from our decision to stand firm, be different, to be righteous, to be God honoring even though we don’t know what God is going to do next.

Negative consequences will always be a part of standing up for what is right and good and honorable, in one way or another, whether it’s losing friends, having your job on the line, being put in jail or worse! Especially if you’re vocal about the rights of the unborn, the truth of the gospel, the morality of our nation, or the simple facts of science which don’t even matter anymore!

But, faithfulness to God will also have it’s positive consequences. (20-28). Somehow, believing enough in Daniels God that he could be miraculously saved from the lions, King Darius finds Daniel alive and unharmed; Read 22… Daniels innocence was vindicated “because he had trusted in his God” (23). King Darius was very pleased Daniel was alive and took measures to get Daniel some justice! Read 24… Gross yes, but here’s the principle: the man is responsible for the family, how the man goes, the family goes! Biblically, negative consequences follow down generational paths unless God interrupts it by a person’s repentance. So, to stop these men’s families from continuing, Darius put and end to them all.

The consequences also rest with the man today both Spiritually and practically. Think of it this way; studies show that if you have the children of a family come to church, you have the children. If you have the wife come to church, you have the children and their mother, but if you can get a dad to come to church, you usually get the whole family. Thus the influence and importance of Men’s ministries for turning our country around.

The greatest positive consequence of living a life of faith though, is that it changes people and gives glory to God. As I said at the beginning, it’s likely that Darius wasn’t a full on believer in the one true God, but he recognized Daniels God as a respectable, powerful, living god, maybe even on par with his own gods, but at least Daniels actions and his faith stamped a positive mark on King Darius and probably many others. Read 26-27… As I’ve said before, some people believe the Wise Men from the east in the Christmas story, may have been left overs from Daniels years of influence!

Even though we may not see how our life is making a difference, we need to live like it’s happening, because it is! We need to give God something to work with in making His name known by being faithful. People are always watching to either tear you up or to see if there’s any truth in this world. ILL. Your writing the Gospel a chapter a day… How you live your life makes a difference. Each of us has the responsibility to represent Christ in a positive way to our world and bring glory to God. The outcomes and the results will tell the story. Read 28…

Conclusion

To wrap this up for Independence day, let me acknowledge that there doesn’t seem to be much to celebrate about our country anymore, and some people get pretty down about it. But don’t let that drive you to give up because you never know what God’s going to do. He has always promised to do what is best for His children, so we can be confident in sticking our neck out at times. Scripturally, our place is not to solve all the problems people get themselves into and save our Nation, only God can do that if He chooses to, but our place is to live like there is a God in this world Who is powerful, Who is in control, Who is trustworthy and willing to pardon sin in those who come to Him through Jesus. To be able to even have a chance at restoration, we have to be God’s faithful people to our world! No matter what happens in our country or to us, WE have to be like Daniel… 1) Strong in Character 2) Strong in our Commitments 3) Expecting to be Challenged by others and 4) Expecting the Consequences, both bad and good, because we are not in charge of the whole earth, God is! And He expects us to simply be faithful!