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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Losing your balance can motivate a person to change. A true story about a 25-year-old German woman. named Inge Bruner. from Tübigen, Germany was visiting her friend in the hospital.
This 25-year-old German lady went up to her friend's room. And she had the audacity to ask. A doctor Hey, is it okay if I smoke in here? What do you think the doctor told her? He said, absolutely not.
This is a hospital. Besides that, it's highly unhealthy for you to smoke. You are forbidden to smoke. Doctor left the room. She lit up a cigarette.
Open the patient's window and Got really, really close, leaned really, really far into the window outside to get the smoke outside.
Well, she leaned a little too far. She lost her balance. She fell out of the window. Sixty-five feet to the ground.
Now her fall was broken by a tree and what do you Listen to the kind of tree that broke or fall. It was an ash tree. Come on, how perfect is that? She's smoking cigarettes, she falls into an ashtray. It breaks her fall.
She hits the ground. She's treated for minor injuries, but she said after that, I learned my lesson. I quit smoking. All because she lost her balance. That's why I say losing your balance can be a great motivation for change.
I want to speak to you a little bit about balance today. Whenever you hear the word, it's a common word. we we often feel guilty. About it. Because here we are in this world we live in, trying to balance so much.
In our lives, we're trying to balance our time: the time we spend working, the time we spend exercising, the time we spend sleeping. We try to balance our responsibilities in our marriage, our career, relationships with kids. Volunteering at church activities. We'll try to balance our diets, make sure we have enough fruits and vegetables as well as protein, ice cream, you know, all the basic necessities. Got to keep it in balance.
Then we have to go home and balance our checkbook, and we go out to the garage and take the car in because we ought to balance the tires. And at the end of our balancing act, We feel exhausted. And we feel guilty that we're not quite balanced enough. It's rare to find a man or a woman that believes his or her life is in perfect balance. I've had seasons of imbalance where I've worked too much and rested too little.
or rested too much and worked too little. I want to suggest to you By looking at the book of Daniel, four areas. in which the man Daniel lived a balanced life. And we're going to look at just a few passages, but mostly an overview today, looking backward on Daniel. having considered it now for 24 weeks.
Yeah. Number one, here's where Daniel lived a balanced life. He worshiped God supremely. but he was involved socially. That's quite a balancing act.
He worshiped God supremely. And at the same time, he was involved socially.
Now I want you to look once again at chapter 1, verse 8. It's the key verse to the book. It's where it says Daniel purposed in his heart. Not to defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies nor the wine which he gave. That is the key to Daniel's life.
That's the key to Daniel's effectiveness. In fact, that might even be a Definition of true worship. where you have this teenage kid Displaced in Babylon. And at an early age, he makes a value statement, a purpose statement. He says, I'm all in for God.
He's number one in my life, and I'm not going to let anything mess with that. I purpose in my heart that I'm not going to defile myself. Not only that, but he lived that commitment throughout his life.
So that by the time we get to chapter six, and the guy's like in his eighties. And he's persecuted because of that worship of God. And he's told not to worship God. Remember what he does? Opens his windows so everybody can see him three times a day, facing Jerusalem, gets on his knees, prays to God.
Daniel was an amazing man, not intimidated by powerful people, not afraid of difficult circumstances. The Babylonians could change his address, change his name. change his Education, but they could not change his heart, they could not change his belief system, they could not change his theology. He purposed in his heart. At the same time, though he worshipped God supremely.
Here was a man who was involved on a horizontal level, on a level with people socially. And so that his commitment with God spilled out to make an impact. on people around him. For example, in chapter 1, It says that in matters of wisdom and understanding, Daniel and his buddies were ten times better than any of the rest who were in the court. In chapter 2, the king promoted Daniel and made him ruler over.
The province of Babylon.
So now he has a key political position. In his culture. Chapter six, Daniel prospered. in the reign of King Darius and King Cyrus. This guy is involved.
Yeah. Now, I'm using that because I'm impressed by that in Daniel. A man who worshiped God supremely, yet was involved. in his culture. And I believe that we could use A few more.
Dedicated believers in places of social responsibility, political responsibility, while maintaining spiritual integrity. Daniel struck a balance between worship and work. or what we might want to say is upreach. and outreach. Like Jesus Christ himself.
Who came to this earth principally for salvation? He came, he said, to seek. And to save those who are lost. Nobody will dispute that. He didn't come to just be a nice guy and give a good example, he came to save people from their sin.
But at the same time, Peter, one of his apostles in Acts chapter 10, noted. When he said, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit and he went about doing good and healing those who were oppressed of the devil. Yeah, he was saving souls. But he was helping people around him. and thus attracting them to the salvation.
of their souls. I think that there have been other notable people throughout church history that have done exactly like Daniel. One that comes to mind is John Wesley. If you know church history, you know John Wesley immediately what comes to mind is: yeah, he was an evangelist. He was an itinerant evangelist.
He rode on horseback. Get this, 250,000 miles on a horse in his lifetime. As a street preacher, as an evangelist. But did you know that John Wesley also took up certain social causes? During his time.
The abolition of slavery was one of them. Human trafficking. Also, the mistreatment of animals. Public drunkenness. but most notably the elimination of the African slave trade.
And he interfaced with another man who was a political man named William Wilberforce, also a committed believer. And three days before Wesley died, In seventeen ninety one, He wrote a letter to William Wilberforce, who was then in the Parliament. And he said, I believe God has raised you up for this glorious enterprise to end the slave trade. and urged him not to become weary in well-doing. Worship God supremely.
also involved socially. I believe that we evangelicals have a tendency. And the tendency is to be escapists. to sort of use the church to hide from the world. Oh, we have our occasional raids into enemy territory where the the drawbridge goes down, we cross over the moat, we have our Christian event and then quickly run back into the castle and drawbridge goes right back up.
Yep. This may not be a tendency for most of us here because we live and work in a secular world, but I will tell you one thing: this is a danger for people who work on a church staff. Who are around church people and talking about all the events that go on in the castle? all week long. This can become a danger to us.
Mission. is the human responsibility to the divine commission. And Daniel, I believe, was both salt and light. He was salt, and salt in those days was used As a preservative to stop the decay that would happen, it was rubbed into meat. And I believe that believers like Daniel can be in their society and stop, retard the corruption that has a tendency to go on.
At the same time, Daniel was also light. Shining the light of the glory of God in Babylon, in the court where he was with Nebuchadnezzar, and leading people out of spiritual darkness, letting them see the true God. One thing we must never become like. is that country preacher When a homeless lady came to him for help. And he sort of patted her on the head and said, Well, I'll say a little prayer for you and send her away.
And she wrote this letter from her shelter where she was staying. I was hungry. and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger. I was imprisoned. and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked. And in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless. And you preach to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely. And you left me alone. to pray for me. You seem so holy, so close to God. But I am still very hungry and lonely and cold.
Daniel struck a balance, worshiping God supremely. but involve socially. Second area of balance. Daniel stood alone. But he walked with others.
Now let me flesh that out for you, because this to me is impressive. I am continually impressed as I go through the book of Daniel. That this guy was never afraid. To stand alone. if he felt like God wanted him to.
to act alone. to stand up for his convictions. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before today's message continues, there's a special offer for your family this Christmas. Hey, this is Nate Heitzig.
And if you're like me, one of the best parts of the Christmas season is gathering your kids to share the story of Jesus in a way that makes it come alive. That's why I wrote Christmas Under the Tree, a beautifully illustrated book and companion audio experience for families of all ages. My hope is that this story helps you and your kids connect the cradle to the cross and treasure the true meaning of Christmas for years to come. Christmas under the tree is yours when you give a gift of $25 or more to help more people discover God's word through Connect with Skip Heidzig. Request your copy at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922.
Mm-hmm.
Now, let's get back to today's teaching. For example, in chapter one, Daniel acted alone. In protesting the king's diet that he was trying to impose upon everybody, he said, I don't want to do that, we don't want to do that, and he was the spokesman. We don't want to eat that. We don't want to drink that.
We'll go on the special fast. That was Daniel. He did it single-handedly. In chapter 2, it was Daniel alone. who approached Ariok, the captain of the guard, and eventually the king.
And said, I'll give you my guarantee, I will interpret that dream for you. In chapter Five Daniel alone stood against Belshazzar. In chapter 6, He also stood alone against the band not to pray. and he alone faced the lion's den.
So here's a guy who over and over and over and over again made a stand.
Sometimes all alone. But But He was never an island. He was never an isolationist. He shared companionship and fellowship. with his brothers while he had them other Jews in the kingdom.
Example, chapter one. Daniel is noted. As one among four other Jewish young men: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. They're all four named as a group. In chapter 2, when the edict came to kill all the wise men of Babylon, including Daniel.
We are told Daniel went to his house. Made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, his companions. The word means. those he was in constant fellowship with. That they might seek mercies from the God of heaven.
So, as soon as he finds out the problem, he goes, Boys, we got to pray, and we need to pray together. He was able to stand alone. Because he walked with others. You and I will be able to stand alone for God in the workplace only when we walk with others in fellowship. That's where we get the strength, the platform to do that.
True. Which is why we need fellowship. Koinonia is the Greek New Testament word. Most of us have heard that term before. Most everyone here has heard the word koinania.
In fact, you've been a Christian like a month. I know that. I know Greek. Koinania. Fellowship.
Partnership, communion. It actually means to share something with someone else. But let me tell you, if I may, what fellowship is not. Fellowship is not just hanging out in Jesus' name. We have an interesting habit, we church people.
We are able to sanctify just about any activity we do or hobby. All we have to do is add fellowship on the end of it. We have our Weightlifters Fellowship. We have left-handed basket weaving fellowship. Just add fellowship to it, and it's cool.
But it means much more than just a social activity. We're getting together and we're with each other and we're hanging out, so we're fellowshipping. Fellowship always has a spiritual component. Fellowship means that I am adding something to your life, you're adding something to my life. That we're mutually encouraging one another in spiritual matters, stimulating spiritual growth.
One author wrote this. Our churches are filled with people who outwardly look contented and at peace. But inwardly, they are crying out for someone to love them just as they are. They're crying out for fellowship. If they had true, authentic fellowship.
they wouldn't be crying out. There's an old Jewish proverb that says, A friendless man is like a left hand bereft of the right hand. I would add to that and say, an isolated Christian. First of all, it's an oxymoron. You can't have an isolated Christian.
A Christian is part of the body of Christ. But an isolated Christian is like the right hand bereft of the left hand. In Proverbs 18, we are told: a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment. We have a need.
to interact. We have a need for a family. Years ago, I was impressed by a little-known fact, at least I didn't know it until that time, a little book that described Adolf Hitler. And um Kind of what made him tick. And I guess his closest associate was a guy named Albert Speer.
And Albert Speer, though he said I'm his closest associate, I was never his friend because Adolf Hitler, he said, had no friends at all. He said, one of the things I noticed about Hitler. is that he repelled, he always repelled friendship. He wouldn't let anybody get too close to him. He always had his guard up.
And I can I cannot Say with authority, said Speer, that Adolf Hitler died without any friends. Daniel was able to stand alone, but walk with others, be connected with others. His life was in balance. There's a third area of his life that brought balance. And that is, he saw into the future.
But he lived in the present. One of the big features of the book of Daniel we notice from chapter. Um six, actually seven, all the way to chapter 12, the second half of the book. Is it's mostly all future, it's all prophetic. From Daniel's standpoint, it's all yet to come.
Daniel is sort of like the equivalent in the Old Testament of The Apostle John in the New Testament both were given apocalyptic visions. Both were able to see the coming kingdom, the coming Messiah, the tribulation. The Antichrist. Et cetera. Daniel From his vantage point, he saw what was going on around him and what would come after him in terms of.
the Babylonian Kingdom, Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, the Roman Empire. What's really fascinating to me is that he wasn't the first one to see it, but King Nebuchadnezzar was. Daniel merely interpreted what the king saw. And if you remember back to chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream a large image, a polymetallic image, gold, silver, bronze. Iron, iron, and clay.
A few chapters later, Daniel gets the same information, same revelation about four successive kingdoms, but he doesn't see a statue. Do you remember what he saw? He saw four beasts. Four rapacious beasts destroying each other, eating one another. And I submit to you that what Nebuchadnezzar saw.
is history from the human viewpoint. What Daniel saw is history from God's viewpoint. Human viewpoint is always impressive, shiny, awesome. Look at the gold, silver, woo! That's how we write our history.
God sees the same thing, but he gives you the heart of it. They're a bunch of animals trying to destroy each other. Remember the scripture when Samuel was looking for the next king of Israel after Saul, and he went to the house of Jesse and he looked at Eliab, the oldest guy. He was so handsome and so, well, he looked like a king. And God said, I have rejected him.
For man looks at the outward appearance. But God looks at the heart. Nebuchadnezzar saw the outward appearance. God was showing Daniel the heart of the matter into the future. And so here is Daniel able to see from his shoreline, his vantage point, all of history all the way to the coming of the Messiah.
and the setting up of that kingdom.
Okay. But though he saw into the future, He lived responsibly in his present world. That's a balancing act.
Now let me share with you something that I've believe is very important. I have taught the book of Revelation. I've taught you the book of Daniel most recently.
Some believe that it's unhealthy to teach prophecy. It's a bad thing, they would say. They say if you teach prophecy, it's distracting, it's unprofitable, you're getting people's minds off of what is real and important now. It was a pastor that actually boasted. Saying, I never teach my people prophecy.
I believe it's too distracting. A friend of his heard that and said, Well, then you've got to admit, God has put a lot of distractions in the Bible. Right? Because like a fourth of the Bible is prophetic.
So it's like God wrote it for you to be distracted a little bit about what's coming in the future. And here's why. It's not distracting, it's motivating. When you study prophecy, it will do something for you. Number one, it'll make you confident in God.
Because you realize as you read what God writes is coming in the future. God takes nothing, or nothing takes God by surprise. He sees it all. He knows the future. He knew all about Alexander the Great, all about Seleucus, all about Antiochus Epiphanies, because he wrote in detail about it and gave it to Daniel.
Which must mean He knows all about you. And Jesus said, The very hairs of your head are. Numbered. Which is a daily task for God, I would imagine, because For some people it's growing on more and some are losing it. A second thing studying prophecy will do, it'll clean up your life.
There's always a close relationship between prophecy and godliness. Did you know that? When Peter predicts the end of the world and the coming of the end of the age, in 2 Peter, this is what he said. Since all of these things around you will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? When you see what is coming, and that this world is going to be burnt up.
It changes the way you live. It makes you less a materialistic person and more a spiritual person. It'll clean up your life. Number three, It'll comfort you in your sorrow. All of us have had loved ones, relatives, friends.
Who have died? They're no longer with us. We study prophecy and we're told about not only the coming tribulation, but the coming king, the coming kingdom, coming rewards, and a coming reunion with those who have died in Christ before us. That gives us comfort. Number four.
It'll call you to service. It'll motivate you to serve the Lord. Because you read as the Bible speaks about the future. that in the future, you're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And he's gonna say to you who were faithful, well done, good and faithful servant.
You've been faithful in a little, I'll bless you with much. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And you go, hot diggity dog. I want to serve the Lord. With that motivation in mind, there's nothing wrong with that.
In other words, studying the future gives you a solid foundation in an unstable world. That's why Daniel was so balanced. He was able to see into the future. but with that information use it to live responsibly in the present. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skiff Heidzig.
Before you go, don't miss your chance to request Christmas Under the Tree, the beautifully illustrated book and audio experience by Nate Heitzig that helps your family see the Christmas story with fresh wonder and excitement. It's yours for your gift of $25 or more to help reach more people with biblical teaching through Connect with Skip. Call 800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskiff.com slash offer. And don't forget to sign up for the free weekly devotional for encouragement from Pastor Skiff right in your inbox. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skiff Heitzig.
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