Kingdom of Men Unflinching Faith

Transcript August 27 and 28, 2016

Kingdom of Men | Unflinching Faith

Aaron Brockett | Daniel 6:1-28

Traders Point, how are you? It's great to see you. North campus, I hope you are doing great. And if you're a guest visiting for the first time or maybe you're just checking stuff out online, my name is Matt and I'm one of the pastors here. Like we said earlier today, we're in part 4 of our series called Kingdom of Men where we're taking a look at the Book of Daniel.

So if you've got a Bible with you, go ahead and open it up to Daniel 6. And while you're flipping there, let me ask you a question: With a show of hands, how many of you like to be scared? You like scary movies? How many of you are like that? Okay, a couple of you. Now I know who the crazy people are. I can't stand to feel scared. I hate the feeling of being scared. Whenever I get scared, I get mad and I respond to fear with anger. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing.

Let me give you an example. Earlier this summer I was woken up in the middle of the night by a very, very loud bang coming from somewhere in our house. It immediately scared me right out of bed. I had no idea what happened, I had no idea where this sound was coming from. All I knew was that it came from somewhere upstairs, which is where my wife and I sleep and so do our three small kids.

So immediately I'm jumping out of bed. I'm mad because I'm scared. I don't know what's happening. Immediately I clench my fists, and my first instinct, the first thing I did without even thinking was to start yelling in a really weird way. I honestly sounded like Chewbacca. And I'm not going to replicate it. I'm not going to give you the satisfaction, so just forget about it.

I don't know why I did that. I have no idea why I started to yell. Maybe I thought, "Hey, I'm going to let whoever or whatever made that noise, I'm going to let them know I'm here and I'm going to scare them by awkwardly yelling because they scared me. I don't know why I thought that. But I jumped out of bed and I made a beeline for our door because I wanted to find out what happened. And if somebody broke into my house, it's about to go down. I'm ready for this.

Now, our bedroom has double doors and we leave one door open and one door closed. In the midst of my fear induced anger, you know where this is going, the fact that I'm not completely coherent because it's 1:00 in the morning and it's pitch dark in my bedroom, I run straight, not through the open door, but face-first into that closed door. That really helped the situation. I have no idea what's happening. I'm angry because I'm scared. I'm confused. The only thing I know for certain that is going on is my face is in pain. That's it.

My wife, Kelly, being the bright one between the two of us had a brilliant idea. She had a brilliant idea. She flipped the lights on. She just turned the lights on. So we found out the sound had actually come from our laundry room, which is right next to our bedroom. What had happened was she had put the iron on the top of the dryer toward the edge, and right before she had gone to bed she had thrown a load into the dryer. Over time it had shimmied the iron to the edge, and it had fallen off into a plastic laundry basket on the floor. That's where the loud bang came from.

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Kingdom of Men | Unflinching Faith

August 27 and 28, 2016

It wasn't from an intruder. It wasn't one of my kids. The sound that caused me to jump out of bed, scream like a wookie, and run into the door was the iron. Kelly, bless her heart, she patted me on the back and said, "Good job," and went back to bed. That was a really proud moment for me. I really felt like I did my job protecting my family.

What do you do when you're afraid? How do you respond to fear? We've all faced fear. We're going to. We're going to face fear: fear that something is going on at home, fear that something is happening in the office, fear because of health reasons, or fear because of what we've seen on the news. How do you respond to fear? How should we respond to fear?

That's really where we're going today in chapter 6. And if you've missed any of the series so far, let me catch you up really quickly. What's going on is Daniel and a group of his friends have been taken captive by the King of Babylon, this guy named Nebuchadnezzar. And he takes Daniel and his friends captive. He takes the people of Jerusalem captive and they go back to Babylon to live as exiles. They end up living there for about seventy years.

During that time they are forced to live in this culture that couldn't have been more opposed to them. This is what's going on. And when they get there, they're given new names. Daniel and his friends are renamed. They don't get cool nicknames. They actually name them after pagan gods. It was a way to insult them and just to demean them.

What Nebuchadnezzar does is he takes Daniel and his group of friends and he puts them through this three-year program that's really meant to indoctrinate them to everything Babylon. So really, at the end of this, they're going to have no ties with Jerusalem. They're going to have no ties with the Lord. At the end of this the goal is for them to look, talk, think, and act like Babylon, not Jerusalem. Not where they're true citizenship is.

And you'd think that going through this these guys would isolate themselves, they would hunker down. Guys, let's circle the wagons. Let's put our shields up so no one can get to us. We won't let anybody get to us. We'll just hold on and live this thing out. But that's not what they do. They don't isolate themselves. They don't protest in some destructive way.

No, in fact they go head-first into the culture. They dive straight into it. In fact throughout the Book of Daniel they are looking for God to show them, "God, give us wisdom. Give us discernment on what we're supposed to do. How are we supposed to live? How are we supposed to serve here? How can we best reflect You?"

And this humble demeanor overwhelms these guys and it becomes extremely attractive and winsome to the people in the culture around them. They're blown away by this. Why are these guys not isolating? Why do they serve us? Why do they treat us like this? Why?

And one of the application points we see throughout the Book of Daniel (and Aaron hit on this last week) this is one of my favorites, this is what they're wrestling with, "How do we live for God effectively within the kingdom of men? How do we do that?" That's what Daniel, that's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that's what these guys are trying to figure out.

The reason for that is missional, it's missional. We're called to be on mission. God's people are called to be messengers in culture. God's people are called to be ambassadors of His grace. People should look at

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Kingdom of Men | Unflinching Faith

August 27 and 28, 2016

us and say, "You know what? There's something different about those people. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something different about them." And that difference is supposed to be good.

We're called to be servants. We're called to make disciples. We've got to be right in the middle of where the people are. We've got to be right in the middle of culture, not separated from it. Now if you've got any church background at all, you've probably heard somebody say something like, "We need to be in the world, but not of it, in the world, but not of it." And that's a really tough balance.

I've not perfected this. I haven't. Now I don't know if I ever will or not, it's a tough balance. As Christians, we don't want to blend too much in the culture to the point where we're not recognizable. At the same time, we don't want to stand out for the wrong reasons. We don't want to stand out in a negative way.

I'm painting with a really broad brush here, but in our culture, as Christians we're known more about what we're against than what we're for. It's not supposed to be like that. Sure, there are some things we are against, absolutely. We're against the damaging effects of sin. We're against that. We're against biblical injustice. We're against abuse. That's what we are against. We are never against people. We're against the things that destroy people because all people are created in the image of God.

But what we want to be known for is what we're for. We are for Jesus. We are for people. We are for people meeting Jesus. We are for our communities, our city, our country, and the world thriving. Men, women, kids, families, communities, cities, countries thrive through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we're for and we'll let that drive being in the world but not of it. That's what's going on in the Book of Daniel.

And yes we're called to proclaim the gospel but proclamation is not the only thing we're called to. We're also called to be an authentic representation of the gospel. And we start doing that by serving, serving other people around us including the people who oppose us. Being in the world but not of it, it's just like grace and truth. Jesus balances grace and truth better than anybody else. He's the example of being in the world but not of it.

After Jesus, I don't think anybody has done it better, inside the Bible and out, nobody's done it better than Daniel, being in the world but not of it. And today we're jumping in. Last week we were in chapter 3, today we're jumping all the way to chapter 6.

So let me give you a 10,000 foot view of what happens in chapter 4, and then next week we'll talk about what happens in chapter 5. Chapter 4 is really the end of Nebuchadnezzar. His reign comes to an end, and what's going on is throughout Daniel so far, you kind of get glimpses with Nebuchadnezzar that maybe this guy's getting it. Maybe he's turning around. Maybe his eyes are being open to who God is, and then he says or does something and you're reminded that he's a little off still.

Like all of us, Nebuchadnezzar really struggles with pride. If you pull back the veil on any sin, I don't care what sin it is, pride is at the root of it. Nebuchadnezzar really, really struggled with pride. And every single person who has ever walked the face of the earth and whoever wills, all of us, at one point are going to take a posture of humility before God, we all will. The good news is God gives us the choice. He says, "I'll let you take that posture on your own, or I can help you with it" I've been helped more than once by the Lord with that.

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With Nebuchadnezzar, he didn't take it on his own so God helped him take that posture of humility. He humbled him. But being humbled by God like that is an act of grace. He humbled him so He could open his eyes.

Here's what's going on. Nebuchadnezzar loses his mind. He goes crazy and he goes off into the wilderness by himself for days, and days, and days. It says that he crawls along on all fours like an animal. He eats grass like a cow. His hair grows out long and nappy and his fingernails are just raunchy and long. Picture the nastiest looking dude you can imagine, that's Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4.

Then after a while God says, "That's enough," and He gives him his mind back. And He says, "Here, I want to humble you so you can see who I really am. Nebuchadnezzar, you're King of Babylon but you're kingship is temporary. My title is King of Eternity." And Nebuchadnezzar is transformed because humility is the pathway to transformation.

Listen to verse 37 in chapter 4. This is the last thing we ever hear from Nebuchadnezzar. After this we never hear from him again. Daniel 4:37, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and His ways just; and those who walk in pride He is able to humble." Humility is the pathway to transformation.

Then in chapter 6, a lot of us might be familiar with the story in chapter 6. You might be familiar with this but maybe you've never heard the details that go into it or the context that is around it. So, look at chapter 6, verse 1. "It pleased Darius," Darius is the new king, "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." Basically, these guys are the ones who collect money as a tribute to the king.

"Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him." That's important, remember that. "And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 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.'"

This is one of the things I love about Daniel. I want my character to be like Daniel's. His enemies go straight political on him. They try to start this smear campaign on Daniel but they can't find anything. They can't find anything against this guy. They can't come up with this commercial that runs over and over again on TV that depresses everyone about how horrible Daniel is. They can't do that because the guy is just faithful. Faithful to what?

Well Aaron hit on this earlier in the series. Jeremiah 29 is a letter written to the exiles in Babylon. This is something Daniel would have taken to heart. So listen to Jeremiah 29, this is verse 12. This is God speaking. He says, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord..."

And that's something Daniel took seriously. He sought after the Lord. And this promise in Jeremiah 29, we see this throughout Scripture that whenever you seek God you will find Him. I love how God says it in James 4. He says, "If you draw near to Me, I'll draw near to you." Maybe this is your first time in church.

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Kingdom of Men | Unflinching Faith

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Maybe you're not a Christian. Or maybe you're just trying to figure out, "Does God even exist? Let alone that He loves me. That's way too much. I just want to know if He exists or not."

If you seek Jesus--Jesus is God, He is God--if you seek Jesus you'll find Him. You will. And if you want to grow in your faith this is a promise that's in Jeremiah 29 and throughout the Bible. This is a promise that you will grow, you will have guaranteed growth if you seek after Jesus and you seek after Him with your whole heart.

So here's the question you have to ask yourself: Who are you seeking? What are you seeking? What are you seeking? The reason that Daniel's character is rock solid, it's why he's about to get promoted again, is because of his excellent spirit. And the reason Daniel had an excellent spirit is because he faithfully sought the Lord. The more you seek Jesus and the more time you spend with Him the more your character and your spirit are going to reflect His.

And we know this is true in every other aspect of our lives. We know it's true. We know the people you spend your time with are the people you become like. Like your character starts to reflect theirs, your attitude is like theirs, even your personality can reflect theirs. That's why my wife and I are already praying for our kid's friends and their friends in the future. Because you become like the people you spend your time with. So who are you seeking? Who are you spending your time with?

Here is the thing about Daniel. Daniel was distinguished. He stood out, not because he was good at his job and not because he had success. The reason Daniel stood out was because of his excellent spirit. You are distinguished not by your success. You are distinguished by your spirit.

We all know people who are successful. We all know successful people. And there are also people that nobody wants to be around. It's because of their spirit. As Christians one of the things we want to be known for is people who have an excellent spirit. That should stand out in us. Right now I'm looking around the room and I'm seeing faces. And that's how I would describe you: You have an excellent spirit, an excellent spirit.

There're people at North right now. I know you guys. You guys have excellent spirits. That's something we want to have stand out about us. That's something people should notice in us as Christians. Look at verse 6, he keeps going, "Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him," they are conspiring.

"`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."

Okay, so here's what just happened. Daniel just lost his religious freedom. It's what happened. It's a credit to his character that even his enemies knew he wouldn't compromise his character. Even his enemies knew, "If we want to go after Daniel, we've got to go after his relationship with God." They knew he wouldn't compromise.

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