He made a choice deep inside and that choice made him the man he would become. Listen, this verse, verse 8, is the most significant verse in the book because the rest of Daniel's life and influence are all based on chapter 1 verse 8.
Because Daniel purposed what he purposed in his heart, the rest of the book shows the fruit that comes out of that choice. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip concludes his message, Kingdom Living Over the Long Hall, and shows you how God can use your faithfulness to influence countless others. But first, here's a resource all about the Holy Spirit's power and purpose in your life. How deep is your understanding of the Holy Spirit and the gifts he gives?
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Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, now we're going to be in Daniel 6 as we begin today's teaching with Skip. Not only is he in Babylon, but he's not with his family. Mom and dad aren't there. Brothers and sisters aren't there. Rabbis aren't there.
Temple isn't there. The whole religious system, his whole background, anybody that could look in his life from his past is not there to watch him. He could do whatever he wants. He could have easily said, well, I'm so far from home and everybody's doing it, so I'm going to do it. Or I suppose he could have said, well, when in Babylon, be Babylonian. Or he could have said, whatever happens in Babylon stays in Babylon. Or he could have said, you know, I don't want to be legalistic and narrow-minded. There's so many of those people out there anyway.
I'm going to be broad-minded. No, he didn't look for an excuse because he had a purpose. When you live with purpose, you don't look for an excuse. And that's what it says in verse 8. Daniel purposed in his heart.
What does that mean? It just simply means he decided that he would let his convictions dictate his behavior. He would let his convictions dictate his behavior. Some translations say Daniel resolved. Others say he decided. Others say he determined. Another one says he made up his mind.
All that means the same thing. He purposed in his heart. He made a choice based on his behavior. He purposed in his heart. He made a choice deep inside. And that choice made him the man he would become. Listen, this verse, verse 8, is the most significant verse in the book because the rest of Daniel's life and influence are all based on chapter 1, verse 8. Because Daniel purposed what he purposed in his heart, the rest of the book shows the fruit that comes out of that choice. I'm going to throw up a quote on the screen by W.A.
Criswell. He said, All of life is filled with crises and decisions. There are right decisions, wrong decisions, high roads, low roads, and almost every day there will be a fork in the road. Where you are today is due to the turn in the road you took yesterday.
You believe that? Where you are today is due to the fork or the turn in the road you took yesterday. Your life is the product of your life choices. You and I make choices every single day.
Who to have lunch with, what to do, what activities to get involved in, what to agree with, what not to agree with, what computer site to go to or not go to. We make choices every day and your life is the product of those life choices, the purpose of heart. That's why Proverbs 4 23 says, Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it proceed or spring the issues of life.
So Daniel is a teenager. He refuses to sell out. He purposes in his heart. He refuses to adopt their lifestyle.
You can give me a name change, you can give me your pagan education, but this is how I'm going to live my life. It's his refusal to adapt to the lifestyle that's going to get him into trouble. It's going to get his three friends thrown into a fiery furnace. It's going to get Daniel himself tossed into a lion's den in chapter six, but he had purpose of heart. So two traits, two kingdom traits, conviction, courage.
Let me add a third, kindness. Kindness. Notice something in verse eight. Daniel purposed in his heart, that's conviction, that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies or the wine that he drank. Therefore he requested, that's the courage, but notice the word, he requested. He didn't demand.
He didn't bang his fist on the desk and demand, hey, human rights, personal rights. He requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Go down to verse 12. He is speaking in verse 12. What's the first word in that verse?
Please, please. You know there was a day when parents demanded and insisted that all their children use please and thank you in conversations. He was raised right. He said to the chief of the eunuchs, please test your servants for 10 days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Did you just see he requested? He said, please, there's a politeness about him. He's not some holier than thou kid. He didn't say, look here, you filthy pagan. I belong to God and you don't.
None of that. Daniel's conviction and courage is tempered by kindness. And this is an important trait. Daniel modeled what Peter taught. Peter in the New Testament teaches us to do what Daniel did. Here's the verse.
This is 1 Peter 3. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. But do it with meekness and fear.
Or a better translation, do it with gentleness and respect. Daniel did all of those things. He sanctified the Lord in his heart, he purposed in his heart. He gave a reason for his hope. He explained to Ashpenaz, I don't want to defile myself. But he did it with gentleness and respect.
He said, please, he requested. There's something attractive about nice people, right? I know that's such an understatement. But you are attracted when people are sweet and kind and nice. And you are not attracted when people are mean and crumuginy and grumpy and cantankerous. But some people think that's their gift.
That's what they're called to do, to be ornery and obnoxious. Listen, I'm so glad this church is who this church is. Everybody that visits this, this is the most loving church I've ever been to. But I've talked to other pastors throughout my many years as a pastor who have told me the reason they quit the ministry is, in their words, because sheep bite.
They bite each other, they bite me, and I'm just done with it. But of all the people in the world who ought to be nice and sweet and show life change and kingdom values, it's us. We follow the one who said, I am gentle and lowly in heart.
That's the one we follow. So kindness, he has conviction and courage, but it's tempered with kindness. Let me give you a fourth and final trait that kept him over the long haul, consistency. Who he was is what he always was. Who he was when he was young and the decision he made when he was young is what he always was and never changed from that. So let me take you to now to the last verse of chapter one.
It's really just an historical reference marker. Verse 21 says, thus Daniel continued, get this, till the first year of King Cyrus. Cyrus is not Babylonian. Cyrus was Medo-Persian. Cyrus is the king of the next empire that overthrows this empire. So 605 BC, Daniel is 14 or 15 years of age.
The first year of King Cyrus is about 536 BC. So between the first part of chapter one and the last verse of chapter one, that's 70 years. So it's to say, Daniel's influence lasted for 70 years through two kingdoms and at least four kings. Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar in chapter five, Darius in chapter six, and Cyrus also mentioned here in chapter six.
Two kingdoms, four kings. Daniel was there influencing those people. Okay, now let's close by turning to Daniel chapter six. So turn to the right, go to chapter six, and let's look at a few verses.
By the time you get to chapter six, everything's different. New kingdom, new management. Babylonian empire is over. The city is still intact, but it is run by the Medo-Persian empire. Darius, the Mede, who is the viceroy of King Cyrus.
So look at verse one, chapter six. It pleased Darius, or you can call him Darius, however you'd like to say it, to set over the kingdom 120 satraps. Now a satrap isn't like a mousetrap. A satrap is an administrator or a provincial ruler to be set over the whole kingdom and over these three governors of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them so the king would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and the satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.
This happened to Daniel earlier, it's happening, it's like a rerun to him. So the governors and the satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel. They're jealous concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or fault because he was what? Faithful. Faithful. Faithful. He was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
Let's stop there. In chapter one, Daniel was how old? Fourteen or fifteen. In chapter six, he's eighty-seven. Eighty-seven years old. He's pushing ninety. Now, when a guy's pushing ninety, you know, you say, you know, Daniel, you may want to just, like, get a little house by the Euphrates and hang out. You know, you don't have to do this anymore.
Retire. But he's still at it. He's still faithful, he's still fruitful, he's still valuable.
People see his value and he is promoted. And I love that it says he is faithful. Faithfulness is not doing the right thing once.
Faithfulness is doing the right thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Just keep, just repeat. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat.
Just keep doing it. One of my favorite stories is about William Carey. William Carey was the great missionary to India. When he was young, he told his father, I want to go to India and be a missionary. His dad said, I wouldn't go. He tried to dissuade his son from being a missionary. He said, you're not prepared, you're not adequate for the job. You lack the qualifications to be a missionary in India.
You don't know the language, you don't know the customs, you don't know the culture. It's hot over there, on and on and on. And then he said to his son, what makes you feel like you are qualified to be a missionary to India? Young William Carey said this to his father, because I can plod. P-L-O-D. I can plod. You know what a plod is? It's one foot in front of the other. Just sort of, just keep going.
Ever ready, buddy? Just keep going. Make progress. Just plod along. It's amazing what God can do with someone just willing to plod. To just put one faithful foot in front of the other and keep showing up. Keep moving forward.
Keep trudging. That's consistency. Daniel's still doing it. So, he's promoted again.
There's 120 provincial leaders, there's three administrators. One of them is Daniel. Daniel is a cut above everybody else. Let's make this guy in charge of everything.
He's 87, but he's awesome. Give him the job. He can rule it all. The other guys are jealous. Without reading all the verses, they get a law passed, and the law says for 30 days no one can pray to any other god except the king. They've got to pray to the king and deify the king. And so, he is a target of their envy and their criticism.
By the way, anyone in prominent position is the target of envious people and critical people. Daniel is 87. He knows the law has been passed. He's at the end of his journey, right?
He's almost 90 years old. I'm not going to live that much longer, he's thinking. So, what am I going to do?
They just passed a law. I can't pray to anybody. So, does that mean I'm going to stop praying?
What does he do? Now, before we read what he does, he had options. He could have easily said, it's just 30 days. God knows my heart. I'll be praying again in 30 days. Or he could have said, I'll still pray, but I'll pray inwardly. Nobody will know I'm praying. I'm not going to go to the restaurant and bow my head and fold my hands and pray publicly.
I'm just going to pray in my heart because that's all that counts anyway. He had a few options. He could have said religion is a private matter. This is what he did, verse 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, so everybody can see him, he knelt down on his knees three times that day.
Not once, not twice, three times. That's Jewish prayer, morning, noon, and night. Three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, look at this, as was his custom since early days.
That's important. Daniel prayed to God even though the law was signed, not because he wanted to be in their face, not because he wanted to be cantankerous and rub their noses in it. Daniel was doing what Daniel always had done. He always prayed from the beginning. He purposed in his heart in verse 8 of chapter 1. He's 87. He does what he always does. He came as a teenager, made a decision. I'm not going to defile myself, not going to live your lifestyle. I'm going to pray to my God. There it is.
Now, in doing that, he wins the first prize of getting a sleepover. With the kitty cats of Babylon. Babylon was very famous for its lions.
The lion is built into the walls and art of the city. I have been to Babylon and I have seen in Iraq the pit, they believe, to be the lion's den of Daniel. He gets tossed into the lion's den.
And we know the story. He gets out of the lion's den. He's quite alive and victorious and it makes an impression on the kingdom and Darius and Cyrus. So go all the way down now to the last verse of that chapter. Look at verse 28 of Daniel chapter 6. Again, a historical note but important. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. He made it all the way through, influencing two kingdoms and four kings. From a young age over the long haul to his old age.
Now why am I saying all of this? Because from time to time I meet people who as they age they change their convictions. They change their spiritual temperature. They were once on fire for the Lord. Now they're a little older and crustier and less on fire. They were once so passionate about the things of God. Now they're just sort of lukewarm, Jesus would say. They once purposed in their heart but not so much. The flame has waned. In a word, in a nutshell, they began well but they're finishing poorly.
They become cynical and skeptical and calloused. And you know, we have plenty of examples of this in Scripture. Abraham started out well. He went from word of the Chaldeans, went to the Promised Land, but you know the rest of his story later on in life. He lies about his wife, almost gets her killed down in Egypt.
Abe, what happened to you, dude? Noah obeyed God, built an ark, and saved his family. He ends up naked and drunk in a cave. Samson took a Nazarite vow as a young man but met a girl named Delilah. He lost his strength, lost his eyes, lost his life. Solomon started well, worshiping God, praying to God, sacrificing to God, took on many foreign wives, and eventually he split the kingdom because of it. Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament started well, part of the early church, but lied to the Holy Spirit and lost their lives. Hey, Judas Iscariot seemed to have promise. He followed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in the flesh for three and a half years. He ended up losing his soul.
And when I read that and I look at those people, I think of what Paul said to the Galatians. He said, you were running well. Who hindered you? You were doing so well. You're on the racetrack. You're running. You're keeping pace. You started awesomely. Who hindered you?
What happened to you? But not Daniel. Daniel was faithful, and he was faithful over the long haul, influencing two kings or two kingdoms and four kings. Let me give you another way.
This sort of introduces us to the season, perhaps. There's another way I think Daniel, his influence lingered on. Five centuries later, five centuries after this, some men from Babylon show up in Jerusalem chasing a star. They're called the Magi. We know them as the wise men, but they come from this area of Babylonia.
They're a priestly cast of Medes, actually, and they have been part of that ongoing system for generations. They come to Jerusalem, and they say, where is he who has been born the King of the Jews? We have seen a star in the east, and we have come to worship him. How did people in Medo-Persia, ancient Babylon, end up in Jerusalem looking for a Jewish king?
Well, they didn't. They were in Jerusalem looking for a Jewish king. Could it be that Daniel's influence tipped them off?
I believe that's the answer. If you know the rest of the book of Daniel, you know that Daniel prophesies this king, this Messiah, who will come and rule the world. Five hundred years later, they show up knocking, where is he who has been born King of the Jews? So, Lucille Ball may that the secret to a long life or secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. But all that aside, the secret to being faithful over the long haul, conviction, courage, kindness, consistency.
Daniel exhibited all of them. That's our mandate. That's what we're called to be and to do.
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