Anyway, I thought I'd share a text version of the April 26 message I gave at Corona International Christian Fellowship. For church members, it's for you to use if you missed anything (or if you fell asleep ... just kidding!) ... For fellow believers in Christ coming across this blog, I pray you will find encouragement if you are having trouble expressing your love and devotion to your Lord and Savior ... and for anyone else, hopefully it gives you an idea of why I believe what I believe ...
First to set the tone, a song by Tim Hughes called "Give Us Your Courage."
Following Pastor Ed’s April 19 message on change, God doesn’t change us – we are not changed – just for our own benefit. In God’s economy, we are changed to glorify Him, and to show that His ways are the correct ways, His ways have the lasting blessings, His are the ways of the truth and everlasting life in His radiant light.
So we cannot make the impact in the world around us, in the people closest to us, that God desires without character excellence:
James 2:17-18In other words, we can all go around saying, “Praise the Lord!” “God is good!” “Jesus saves!” But what good is that if our very lives don’t reflect the Gospel message of repentance, of grace, of love, of right living in Christ?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (NIV)
James 2:26
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (NIV)
What good is it when we call ourselves followers of Jesus, yet:
- we still live the same life as we did before we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior,
- we go around hitting the clubs where almost nothing but non-God honoring activity happens,
- we constantly pour damaging stuff like drugs, alcohol and tobacco into our bodies,
- we live lives of promiscuity (a big word for “sleeping around”),
- we live lives where we cheat at work or in school, or do less than what we are asked and less than we are capable,
- we have “secret lives” where we sin behind closed doors, thinking no one will see what we’re doing.
What good is it to be a Christian if we are not trying to repent, to move away, from such things and toward a life that honors the One who saved us AND shows others that Jesus really is the truth the way and the life?
If we consider ourselves Christians – followers of Jesus Christ – and proclaim the life-changing, life-saving message of the Gospel, our lives have to be different from the world around us, our lives have to RISE above the crowd. We have to be non-conformists – not in an obnoxious way, because that’s the way of the world – but we have to be non-conformists in the world in the way Jesus was (and is) in order to make a positive, lasting impact in the world around us, just as the Gospel has made a positive, lasting impact in our own lives.
In the Old Testament, the life of Daniel shows at least four practices that enabled him to live above the crowd that allowed him to make the impact God desired him to make. And this in Babylon, the pinnacle of civilization in the ancient world, the place that set the standard of high living, and a way of life that basically said, “Who needs God? We have our own gods.”
SCRIPTURE READING
Daniel 1:1-15
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, 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.Context:
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in 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, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service.
Among these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned 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."
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
At theend of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.
Daniel was taken as a prisoner of war when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah in 606 b.c. Nebuchadnezzar was a shrewd tactician. He took not only the treasures of the temple, but he took young people, the children of the nobles, knowing that if he had them in Babylon he would be able to keep reigns on the puppet ruler who remains behind. Moreover, he took the youth — and he changed their names, gave then a new language, Aramaic, and trained them in something like the University of Babylon The plan was to send them back to Judah to keep things the way he wanted them be.
We have every reason to believe that most of the young people went along with Nebuchadnezzar’s scheme. After all, they were in the grandest palace in the grandest city of their time. They ate his food and drank his wine – probably stuff that would make the best of the food channel look like McDonald’s bargain menu. If there were a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” TV show, or a “Cribs” TV show, or a “Pimp My Chariot” TV show back then, it would be all about Babylon.
But Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah decided to live above the crowd, to make an impact upon that pagan generation. What a challenge they had! Yet they made such an impact that King Nebuchadnezzar said everybody had better worship the God of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah or you’ll be chopped to pieces (Daniel 3:29), and that, in the end, Nebuchadnezzar himself worshiped the one true God (Daniel 4:36-37). Daniel and his three friends were non-conformists in Babylon – and they made an impact for God and brought glory to His name.
The big idea is this …
We make a difference in our world when we live with godly integrity. This is important if we are to show an unbelieving world that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And that requires constant change, constant transformation, constant moving toward being Christ-like, on our part if we are to rise above the crowd.
All well and good, you say. Now, what do we do to get there?
Teaching Point No. 1
We have to decide AND be determined not to conform to the world.
Daniel 1:8
But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
This is pretty easy to understand. You have to decide that you will follow God’s will and do it.
Look at what Daniel did:
- He RESOLVED (DECIDED) not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. Why? Because both were probably initially offered up as sacrifices to pagan idols, and for a Hebrew to partake in such food and wine was a violation of Mosaic law.
- He ACTED by telling the chief official who had been appointed to watch over him and his friends that he should not be sharing the king’s food and wine.
Simply, yes? Yes … but we typically do step one and fail miserably in step 2. We need to not just say what we’re going to do, but DO what we say we’re going to do.
In Matthew 5:37, Jesus said:
Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.This was about making an oath, a verbal commitment before others, to do something. Then, as now, people would say these things and not even come close to fulfilling what they declared.
So If you resolve and are determined to do it, then do it … otherwise, don’t say anything at all .. because to say you’re going to do something and not do it puts you right back into doing what the world does. … and that certainly does not put us above the crowd for the Lord.
Application
So decide AND act in godly integrity, so that the world will see the Lord working in and through you.
Teaching Point No. 2
When you act in God’s will, when you live the way He desires you to, you are sure to be in His favor (blessed).
In verse 9 it says: “Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel … “
Again, pretty simple, yes? Do what the Lord asks you to do, and reap the reward of being obedient. So Daniel knew the Mosiac law, part of which said not to eat food or drink sacrificed to false gods. And he had to know:
Deuteronomy 29:9So what happened in the 800 years between the time Moses handed down God’s law to the Israelites until the time Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem? God’s chosen disobeyed Him, broke His covenant repeatedly and fell into idolatry. Yes, there would be periods of repentance and turning back to the Lord, but then they’d fall under the influence of the world again – even as the Lord sent prophet after prophet to remind them of the principle of Deuteronomy 29:9 and 30:17-18.
Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.
and
Deuteronomy 30:17-18
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
Given numerous chances to move away from worshiping false gods, the one true God was true to His word and sent His people into exile. First, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians, then the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians.
But Daniel and his friends, because they resolved and acted to follow God’s law, even in a foreign land hostile to the Lord – the Lord caused the Babylonian official to show sympathy on them and allowed them to follow God’s will and not share in Nebuchadnezzar’s royal menu.
The payoff of being resolute in following God’s will was this:
Daniel 1:15 (NIV)
At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.It wasn’t about the food … it was about obedience to the Lord. That’s is what He rewarded here.
Application
Bottom line: When you follow the Lord’s commands and experience His good favor, He raises you above the crowd, and the world will see the Lord working in and through you.
Teaching point No. 3
In many cases, when we follow the Lord and He raises us above the crowd, we’re not going to be very popular, and that will challenge our resolve to do the right thing.
Jesus said it Himself: “All men will hate you because of me.” (Luke 21:17)
Let’s skip ahead briefly to Daniel 3 and Daniel 6.
In Daniel 3, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah refused to bow down and worship the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. It was not just a statement of their faith in the one true God, but also that the one true God was sovereign over all, even the “mighty King Nebuchadnezzar.” So the king, in his anger, tossed the three men into the fiery furnace. What happened? Because they stood up for the truth, as unpopular as it was, as unlawful as the king made it out to be, God delivered them from the fire. And Nebuchadnezzar saw this with his own eyes and declared that the God of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah was the one true God.
In Daniel 6, when Daniel was likely in his 90s, there was a new king in town, Darius the Mede, who conquered Babylon. Darius had great respect for Daniel (Daniel 6:3) because of his integrity and forthrightness, and he was put in charge of Babylon. Others in Darius’ court were jealous of this, and they tricked the king into declaring a decree that anyone who prays to any god other than Darius for a period of 30 days had to get thrown in the lion’s den as punishment. Daniel still did the right thing, and kept up his daily prayers, three times each day, to the one true God. That got him thrown in the lion’s den. What happened?
- Darius said, “May the God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”
- God delivered Daniel from the lion’s den because Daniel had done stood up for the Lord and did the right thing.
- God raised Daniel above the crowd, yet again, by working through Darius to decree that “in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.” (Daniel 6:26)
In our day, one way this played out was last weekend and was all the rage in the news for the week following. You may have heard bits and pieces of it: first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who is a follower of Christ, was asked by gossip writer/blogger Perez Hilton, who was a judge for the pageant, what she thought about gay marriage.
"We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."And you know what that got. While there were some cheers in the audience, there were also an equal amount of boos, according to the news accounts. And then the firestorm came, led by Hilton, who, based on what I’ve read, had a truckload of really unkind words about her. Anybody with an opinion and a blog just basically put this poor young woman in the fiery furnace – they just basically torched her – just like Nebuchadnezzar did to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. And her reaction was to stand in the fire and let God handle everything.
While talking to Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show she said, “I knew at that moment after I answered the question, I knew I was not going to win because of my answer, because I had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God. … I wouldn't have answered it differently. The way I answered may have been offensive. With that question specifically, it's not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct.”
On the Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity program, Prejean shared, “You know, I forgive him. I know that he's angry for whatever reason. I know there must be a bigger issue going on in his life.”At the Gospel Music Awards this past Thursday, the audience gave her a standing ovation. The whole thing seems to be calming down. The rumor now is that she and Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps are an item. It’s a rumor … I just happened to spot it in being like a Berean as part of the research for this message. You can see what the world deems is important by that.
Seriously, only the Lord knows how this will all eventually play out: The debate over same-sex marriage is going to continue.
But I do know this. In Matthew 10:22, Jesus said:
All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.Application
Bottom line: When you follow the Lord’s commands and stand up for what is right and what is true, you’re not going to win many popularity contests on this side of heaven. What is important to remember is, that in the end, the Lord’s truth will prevail, and so will you.
Teaching point No. 4
To rise above the crowd and live a God-honoring, God-glorifying life that points to Jesus as the way, the truth and the light, we have to realize we can’t do it alone.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah had each other to fortify their faith, to pray with, to encourage, to be accountable to if they started slipping.
In the same way, we are starting the accountability groups here at CICF. Yes, this is an encouragement for each and every one of you to get involved in that, and to be persistent in keeping them going. So often we’ll start something, and it goes great guns for a time, then it falls apart for whatever reason. I am encouraging each of you, exhorting each of you, in some cases, strongly urging you, to be a part of an accountability group.
If you are still thinking about going solo, think again:
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12And most important, we need to help each other put on the armor of God DAILY:
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ephesians 6:10-18Remember, Paul wrote this to a community of believers in Ephesus, not to an individual. The implication being this: we help each other put on the armor of God, and like good soldiers, we do our best not to leave anyone behind.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Application
We are not solo Christians. God put us in a community of believers to help each other grow. Find someone with whom the two of you can be accountable to each other. Help each other put on God’s armor DAILY.
If you want to truly change the world around you for the better, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, if the Gospel is truly changing you, your life should reflect all that and you should be rising above the crowd. It’s not easy, it’s not the popular thing to do, but in the end, when it REALLY matters, God’s truth – and you – will prevail.
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