What kind of person do we want to be in this tumultuous world? Join us as Kent dives into Daniel’s resilience and courage. Tune in for a challenging sermon. EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

—————-

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Have you ever heard the saying, “you’re gonna have to hang in there like a hair in a biscuit…”  Lol, I had a buddy say that the other day and it cracked me up.  What he meant was sometimes in life you have to hang on hard to make it through.  

We’ve all ben there right?  When life feels like it’s thrown a wrench at you and you weren’t able to dodge…

WE:

-The moment when the divorce settled in and the night felt darker than it’s ever felt sitting alone in your living room

-The way it takes everything you’ve got to make it through a day to look normal to everyone else since returning from deployment

-Or that time when every day it was literally “which bill do we not pay right  now…”

We’ve all had those moments where you are holding on by the skin of your teeth..

US:

I believe we are in a moment in history where for Christians, you following Jesus is not going to be easy…

ILLUSTRATION:

I was invited recently by a missionary to Pakistan to give a devotion to some people who had converted from Islam to Christianity there.  I wasn’t able to do it, but before I knew that, I asked him what he wanted me to say to them – if anything.  Here’s what he told me.  He said, “Can you encourage them, many of them have lost family, jobs, etc. to follow Christ.  It has cost them everything.”  Then he said something that has been challenging me ever since, “But also encourage them to be bold in their faith and to not be afraid, the world they live in it’s dangerous to be a Christian and they need to know not to be afraid…” 

Reminded me of something Jesus said, 

Matthew 10:28

28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Today in the Story of God we are at a place where those who are left have to hold one with everything they’ve got – like a hair in a biscuit…

I think for us as Christians there is a lot to learn from the guy we are going to look at today…

SCRIPTURE:

The Kingdom of Israel has been split, the Northern tribes have been swept off into Assyria and one will ever hear from those people again…  Now the Southern Kingdom is being attacked by the Babylonians – They will take the entire nation into exile in Babylon.  Much of the rest of the bible – the prophets Jeremiah, Lamentations, Isaiah, and minor prophets – Malachi, etc. either take place during this time frame or right after.  

This moment in history will change the Jewish people forever.  They will move from being a religious group centered around worship at their temple to a group that is dedicated to the Torah (the Old Testament).

b

Rabbis and Synagogues will become a thing.  Judaism as we know it finds its root in the Babylonian exile.

b

The people finally are met with the dilemma, do we obey the covenant with God, or disappear from history? 

b

They seek to obey the  covenant

But even this will become corrupt with rule-following to abandon the God of the covenant…

This moment in history – terrible moment…

Imagine it.  One night you are sleeping in your beds, you’ve been comforting your children all night long telling them it will be alright, the city walls of Jerusalem are strong.  They finally went to sleep but you have stayed up all night listening to the fighting men whispering in the streets as the Babylonian fires grow outside the walls.  The next day attack occurs.  and by the end of the next day you and your children are being forcibly removed from your house, marching without water, men with ropes around their necks and arms tied to horses.  your voice gone from screaming and your tears all cried out.  You do everything you can to protect your children as they watch horrors executed around them.

It’s too easy to read about these things and events and not realize these are real people who are ripped out of their homes and sent to live in lands where they do not speak the language and where they are in captivity long enough for an entire generation to disappear.

That brings us to the collision with this moment in history, one of the people who was captured and taken as a prisoner was Daniel…  You may have heard of “Daniel and the Lion’s Den”  it’s that Daniel and that took place while he was a captive.  

When Daniel is captured he is a young aristocrat – likely in the house of Judah.

The Babylonians had an effective means of assimilating people.  They take the young up-and-coming leaders and indoctrinate them into the society and culture, letting them eat from the King’s table and teaching them the ways of the Babylonians.  

Daniel is one of these young men.  But Daniel is different – he’s gonna hang on like a hair in a biscuit, listen to Daniel

Daniel 1:8

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.

Daniel was someone who understood there was more going on in his world than just being successful in the situation he was in…

As a matter of fact, this is who Daniel is over and over again

The reason you know about him being thrown into a lion’s den is because he is unwilling to stop praying to God, no matter the consequences.

b

Daniel was living for a different Kingdom than the one he lived in.

As a matter of fact, Daniel also over and over again spoke bravely about this Kingdom…  Listen to some interpretations of dreams he gives to Kings:

To Nebechudnezzer who has had a dream about massive statue that represented different kingdoms… Daniel says…

Daniel 2:44-45

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

Or in a vision Daniel had that disturbed him greatly, he saw 4 beasts that represented different kingdoms of the earth and at the end of his vision he saw this:

Daniel 7:13-14

13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,[a] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

b

Daniel isn’t waiting for a Jewish Kingdom, he’s waiting for God’s Kingdom to come!

b

The reason Daniel could stand firm in a corrupt generation is because He feared God more than anything people could do to Him.

b

I believe we are in a time when being a Christian will take engaging God with grit.  

b

Holding on to love with strength.

b

ILLUSTRATION:

I remember being in High school when it hit me.  I have to choose who gets my greater allegiance, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of America?  They are not the same thing, no matter what you’ve been told.  For me, my political persuasion is always held against Jesus and His Kingdom.  The word of God is my standard.  

If you don’t know it yet, Jesus came to fulfill Daniel’s prophecies.

Jesus came to bring a Kingdom that would be subversive and would change the world from the inside out.

b

Through you and me…

Luke 17:20b-21

20b “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

CLOSING:

My poor wife has a curse on her life.  Literally, has the worse luck.  Every restaurant we are ever in, she gets the fork with food on it or hair in her food.  She can tell you what it means to hang on like a hair in a biscuit.  That sucker aint coming out.  What about you?  Have you decided the kind of person you want to be?  Do you want to be a Daniel who hangs on to Jesus no matter what this world throws at you, choosing your allegiance to the Kingdom God has put in you.  Or, do you still want to be the kind of person who eats the food this world puts in front of you, who gives in over and over again to the little concessions that will ultimately assimilate you into a life that’s far from the heart of God?  Make the choice today what kind of person you want to be!