I Dare You: Be Balanced! - Part A

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. Balance in life seems elusive to many of us these days. It's rare to find someone who feels they've got it worked out, but as Skip shares today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, the life of Daniel teaches four important aspects of a truly balanced life. Now, check out this month's special resource that'll help you know and follow God's will for your life. What is God's will for your life? Skip Heitzig has biblical direction. The will of God is not some mystical, impractical, ethereal process that makes you weird. It is not a maze.

It is not a puzzle that you have to put together and figure it out. In fact, sometimes the will of God is so plain and straightforward, the Bible just tells you what the will of God is. Shed the Bible's bright light on your path ahead with Discovering God's Will, an eight message package from Pastor Skip. You can uncover and understand what the Lord wants to show you about his will.

It's not always easy, but the answers are in there. We want to send you these insightful messages as thanks for your gift today to support Connect with Skip Heitzig and help expand this teaching ministry to more major cities in the US in 2023. So request your copy when you give today and begin to let God direct your path for your good and his glory. Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.

That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's turn to Daniel 1 as we join Skip for today's study. Losing your balance can motivate a person to change. A true story about a 25-year-old German woman named Inge Bruner from Tübingen, 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. The doctor left the room. She lit up a cigarette, opened the patient's window, and got really, really close, leaned really, really far into the window outside to get the smoke outside. She leaned a little too far. She lost her balance. She fell out of the window 65 feet to the ground. Now, her fall was broken by a tree. And wait till you listen to the kind of tree that broke her fall. It was an ash tree.

Come on, how perfect is that? She's smoking cigarettes. She falls into an ash tree. 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 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 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. And then we have to go home and balance our checkbook.

And we go out to the garage and take the car in because we got 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. 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 one, verse eight. 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 am 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 80s, 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 worshiped 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 one, it says that in matters of wisdom and understanding, Daniel and his buddies were 10 times better than any of the rest who were in the court. In chapter two, 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. 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 were 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. Now, 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 1791, 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. Worst of all, he said, I believe God has raised you up for this. I believe God has raised you up for this.

I believe God has raised you up for this. 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 drawbridge goes down, we cross over the moat, we have our Christian event, and then quickly run back into the castle, and boom, drawbridge goes right back up. 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 sent 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 preached 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 involved 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 in the middle of the world. I was never afraid to stand alone if he felt like God wanted him to, to act alone, to stand up for his convictions.

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 two, it was Daniel alone who approached Arioch, 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 six, 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 two, when the edict came to kill all the wise men of Babylon, including Daniel, we're 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 gotta 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, 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 Koinonia.

In fact, you've been a Christian like a month. You know, I know that. I know Greek. Koinonia, 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'm 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 till that time, a little book that described Adolf Hitler and kind of what made him tick. I guess his closest associate was a guy named Albert Speer. 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.

I can 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 6, actually 7, 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 and the New Testament. Both were given apocalyptic visions, both were able to see the coming kingdom, the coming Messiah, the tribulation, the anti-Christ, etc. Daniel, from his vantage point, 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 poly-metallic 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.

He saw 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, whoo! That's how we write our history. God sees the same thing, but he gives you the heart of it.

There are 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.

But though he saw into the future, he lived responsibly in his present world. That's a balancing act. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series, I Dare You.

Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, let's go in the studio with Skip and Lenya as they share some thoughts on how they pursue balance in their lives. In today's day and age, it can really be hard to live a balanced life. We have to juggle jobs, relationships, church activities, hobbies, and the list goes on and on. How would you encourage someone who's feeling overwhelmed to keep a proper perspective on what's really important in life? Well, I'll tell you what, I remember looking at Daniel's life and looking at how he was able to bring balance to it.

And here's what I mean. He worshiped God supremely, but he was also involved socially. He didn't separate social, even political involvement from his relationship with God.

He mingled them both. He balanced them both. So he worshiped God, but he was involved in his culture, in his society.

That's one area of balance. A second thing that stood out to me is that he stood alone, but he walked with others. So he made these incredible choices, he purposed in his heart, he had a line drawn where he wouldn't cross, but he had a gang, not just to God, he had a gang.

And the gang helped him, prayed with him, and supported him in that. And then a third area of balance is that he saw the future, but he lived in the present. He saw what was coming, he was given this backbone of prophecy, as we're called, even to the exact day when Messiah would come in Jerusalem. But he lived very much in the present. He was responsible in the present.

He didn't just, like, throw that off because I'm living for La La Land. And then the fourth area of balance is that Daniel aged gracefully, but he influenced mightily. As he grew older, he grew better, and he was able to influence not a king, but four different kings. So a kingdom, dare I say? Kingdoms.

Nebuchadnezzar the First, Nebuchadnezzar the Second, Belshazzar, Darius the Meat, Cyrus the Persian. So four kings with a couple of different kingdoms, and I would say his influence still is with us today. We still read it, and we're blessed by his life.

So talk about a balanced life that was able to influence generation after generation. It's enough to say, he had to be my hero. Thanks, Gippin Lenya. We hope this conversation has inspired you to faithfully tell others about the hope they have in Christ. And we want to invite you to help others find the same inspiration with a gift to keep these biblical teachings on the air. Give a gift today at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate, or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Join us again tomorrow as Skip concludes the I Dare You series with some final words about Daniel's life of balance and far-reaching influence. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. A connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.