How are we walking in Babylon
How are we walking in Babylon?
Daniel 6:1-15 (NASB95)
1 It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they would be in charge of the whole kingdom, 2 and over them three commissioners (of whom Daniel was one), that these satraps might be accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss. 3 Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom. 4 Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs; but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him. 5 Then these men said, “We will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.” 6 Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows: “King Darius, live forever! 7 “All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den. 8 “Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document, that is, the injunction. 10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.
1) Babylon is a contrast to God’s kingdom.
· They have power
· They have money
· They control the government
· Babylon is not your home
2) What made Daniel stand out to Darius and the other leaders?
- How is that relevant to us?
- What are the struggles that we deal with?
- How have you overcome obstacles in your life?
3) Daniel had a life plan: To serve God without compromise in Babylon. What is our life plan?
In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey discusses the importance of having a personal mission statement. A mission statement is a document a person writes that sums up his or her personal philosophy or creed. Covey likens it to the United States Constitution. The Constitution is the standard for our nation. A personal mission statement should articulate the values that represent the person.
As an example, Covey quotes the personal mission statement of his friend Rolfe Kerr. Here are some of the things Kerr included:
• Succeed at home first.
• Never compromise with honesty.
• Hear both sides before judging.
• Obtain the counsel of others.
• Defend those who are absent.
• Develop one new proficiency a year.
• Plan tomorrow’s work today.
• Maintain a positive attitude.
• Keep a sense of humor.
• Be orderly in person and in work.
• Listen twice as much as you speak.
• Concentrate all abilities and efforts on the task at hand, not worrying about the next job or promotion.3
James Farrar said, “Several years ago, as I was edging gingerly through the door of mid-life, I decided to come up with a mission statement of my own. I’d been reflecting a bit about the first half of my life, and I was doing some hard thinking about the second part. You may find this odd, but it didn’t take me several days to come up with my mission statement. It didn’t even take a day. I didn’t even have to go away to some island or retreat center to think about it.
Quite frankly, it took me about two minutes.
I’ve had this mission statement for over four years now. Covey says it’s not unusual for a person to modify or amend his mission statement as time goes by. Yet my statement is going on five years old, and I haven’t changed one word of the original two-minute composition. Here it is.
——Don’t screw up.——
That’s it. It’s not real long, it’s not real sophisticated, it’s not real polished, and it’s not real religious. But it is real. As I look over the rest of my life, I don’t want to screw up. Do you? Of course, you don’t. I don’t know any man who wants to screw up. Yet men screw up all the time. My goal for the second half of my life is not to screw up in a major way.
• I don’t want to screw up my marriage.
• I don’t want to screw up my relationship with my kids.
• I don’t want to screw up my integrity.
One day in the future there will be a funeral. My funeral. After the funeral, they’ll get in the black limos and head for the cemetery where a brief graveside service will be conducted. Then everyone will head to the house and have some food.
As my family and friends are eating at the house, the workers at the cemetery will be using a small tractor to dump dirt over my casket and put the sod back in place over the fresh grave. In another day or so, another worker will lay the marker over the grave. Usually a marker will have people’s names and the dates of their birth and death. It’s also common to have a few final words inscribed on the marker.
Have you ever given any thought to what you’d like to have inscribed on your grave marker? I have. It would be fine with me if my grave marker read like this:
Steven James Farrar
Born: 1949
Died: ——
He Didn’t Screw Up [1]”
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3 Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 106.
[1]Farrar, S. 1995. Finishing strong : How a man can go the distance . Multnomah Books: Sisters, Or.