Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November fifth. Would you describe yourself as a person of principle? The life of Daniel teaches principles on developing the courage to stand by your convictions. Well, I want us to look at the life of Daniel because he is a perfect example of someone who had strong convictions and who lived by them. And I want you to see what was the result of Daniel living by his conviction all these years.
So, let's look at a little bit of the background for a moment. And so, one of the interesting things here in the very beginning of his time in Babylon was this. When they came to serve these young Hebrews, they were going to serve them food and drink that was dedicated to idols.
That's what they served the kings in his crowd. When it came to Daniel, he said, No, I'm not going to eat that and drink that and my friends aren't either. Because it is against the law of Moses. It's against the Word of God.
It's what we've been taught all of our life. We're not going to do that. And he said to the king's helper, they said, Why don't we try something? Why don't you let us eat vegetables and drink water for ten days and see if we don't look better than these folks over here who are going to eat the king's meat and drink his wine? Well, of course, first objection was, you know, the king will take my head. But finally he convinced him and he did so. And ten days later, they looked better than everybody else and immediately they began to progress.
Now, I want you to watch. This is very important. The first test that he had was the test of a teenager. And the test was something sort of simple.
What you eat and what you drink. And so, in the very beginning, Daniel said, I'm not going to eat food offered to an idol. I'm not going to drink wine offered to an idol.
That does not fit who I am as a follower of the one true God, Jehovah. He began by holding to his convictions. And this is why it's so very important for us to teach our children and our grandchildren that holding to convictions will either destroy your character or it will build it.
Depends upon what you're holding to. And so, as a result, he began his life in Babylon saying no to disobedience, yes to Almighty God. He stood by his conviction by what he ate.
Somebody says, oh, wait a minute now. Surely eating the king's meat and drinking his wine, what's that got to do with his faith? Because the law of Moses said you're not to do it. You are a Hebrew. We are God's chosen people.
And we, there's certain things we don't do. And even though he was in a foreign country under the edicts of a king, of a pagan heathen king, and not knowing really what the consequences would be, he said, no, I'm not going to do it. Now, what's the motivation that compelled him to do this?
What is it about Daniel that motivated him this way? First of all, he was taught by his parents. He was over in Jerusalem. He was taught by his parents to obey the law of God, which in essence would have been, for example, the Mosaic law, which was the book of Deuteronomy. He was taught by his parents. Secondly, he studied the Word of God. He knew the Word, so when he was questioned about something, he knew exactly what the Scriptures said, and so he wasn't frightened by anything. Thirdly, his love and devotion to God. The reason he stood by his convictions, he loved God, he loved the Word of God, and he was committed to it. And fourthly, his commitment to obey God. He didn't just study the Word of God.
He didn't just hear it. He didn't just love God. He was committed to being obedient to Almighty God.
And I would ask you a question. Are you that committed? And you hear me say over and over again, obey God and leave all the consequences to Him. Are you, listen, are you committed to the Word of God to obey the Word and walk by it no matter what?
And people can give all kind of reasons for compromising their conviction. Listen carefully. When you compromise your biblically based convictions, you give away a part of yourself.
Your character is diminished. And when I look at the Scriptures and see how Daniel lived his life, his parents taught him. He studied it. He loved God. He was committed to God. And he had a strong desire to influence others to believe what he believed. He had to be different in order to do that. And so, his faith in God that he would be able to wisely counsel the king. In other words, when I look at what motivated him, he was motivated by things built on truth, not things built on untruth.
Now, and this is the most important thing. That is, the consequences of Daniel courageously standing by his conviction. What were the consequences? The first consequence was this. He won in his first battle of standing for his conviction. He said to the representative from the king, No, we're not going to drink and eat what's been offered to an idol. Now, I'll give you a suggestion.
If you'll let us just eat peas and beans and vegetables and drink water, I'll show you that we're right. But he took a stand. He had an alternative.
But look at this alternative. This alternative did not violate his conviction. He just said, Here's another way for us to look our best. So, when I think about the fact that he remained obedient to God, that was one of the results. Secondly, he influenced his companions to do the same thing. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said, No, we're not eating it either.
We're not drinking it either. We're standing with Daniel. So, he had a good influence and testimony on them. Thirdly, this opened the doors of opportunity for Daniel to counsel and influence kings. Now, here's what I want you to see.
Suppose he'd have said, Well, let's forget it. Why? Listen, we're already in Babylon. We are slaves to some degree. We'll probably never go home again.
This is Babylon. We just got to fade into the society. You'd have never heard from him. He wasn't interested in fading in society. He was interested in standing true to God.
You know why? Because he knew who God was. He had an experience with Almighty God. Now, he didn't have Jesus as we do because Jesus wasn't there at that particular point, but the Spirit of God was. He knew enough about Jehovah God.
He wasn't about to compromise his convictions. And as a result, look at what God did in his life. Now, I want you to see what God did in his life. He's not going to do the same in your life.
Listen to this. He's going to do things that are equal to that in the twenty-first century that fit who we are living in the society in which we're living. We're living in a fallen society, in a rebellious society, unhealthy, unsafe, ungodly, reckless, immoral, you name it. This is the society we live in.
Now, watch this. Suppose he'd have said, Nah, we're going to do what everybody else does. He wouldn't have influenced anybody.
First of all, they wouldn't have been asking him anything. This is why, listen carefully, this is why it's so very, very, very important that we train our children early in life to stand for the truth no matter what. And that we teach our grandchildren, stand for the truth no matter what. And that we, husbands and wives, men and women, stand for truth that is uncompromising no matter what.
Do you think God's just going to ignore that? No. Do you say, Well, does that mean that I'm not going to hurt, not going to suffer anything, not going to lose anything? No, I wouldn't say that. But I'd say this, character. Character is far more important than what you gain.
Character is far more important than what you lose. Character, being a godly person. Listen, being a servant of the living God and every follower of Jesus is called to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you see, you're going to be able to touch people I couldn't touch because they're not going to come to church. Then I think about the fact that God gave him favor with the kings. Every single one of them, after Daniel had borne witness and uncompromising in his conviction, every single one of them, listen, through the halls of four kingdoms resounded this truth.
The God of Daniel, the God of Daniel, the God of Daniel. And here he was, he was still a foreigner. He was still a Hebrew. Now he's in a foreign country in what? He has the place of authority second only to the king. Suppose he had eaten and drank what they offered him at first, it would never have happened. Somebody says, Well, look, I've been compromising all my life so it won't make a difference to me.
Yes, it will. If you've been compromising, decide today before you walk out of this place, I have compromised enough. I've given myself away. I've sold myself. I've sold my convictions. I've sold my conscience.
I'm not doing it anymore. I'm going to be the person God wants me to be. And from this point on, I'm not for sale and you can't bargain what I believe.
That is the important thing. And he fearlessly confronted these kings. Fearlessly.
And look, what I want you to see is every one of them back down. Listen, instead of persecuting him, they raised him up and made him second only to themselves. And when he had to throw him in the lion's den, he threw him in the lion's den and couldn't sleep, fasted all night and prayed to this God of Daniel. And he said, I do believe that your God will deliver you. And sure enough he did.
And all the folks who had him thrown in there, they and their families were destroyed. Listen to this. You don't have to worry about the people who try to convince you and persuade you. You be true to God.
God knows how to deal with the people who would lead you astray and who would cause you to do things that you know in your heart absolutely not right. So, I would simply ask you this. Are there things that you won't drink? Do you have any conviction about what you won't drink? Do you have any conviction about what you eat? Do you have any convictions about where you go? Do you have any convictions about who your friends are?
Do you have any convictions about what you watch on television? What are the convictions in your life? If your son or your grandson walked up to you and said, Gramps or Grandpa or Papa, whatever they call you, tell me what you believe.
Would you violate what you believe? Listen, what they're asking is this. They're saying, Papa, whatever they call you, do you have any character that can't be changed by fear of loss or prosperity?
Tell me who you are deep down inside. Because when you give in, you give up your character. And you can, listen, people can, they can argue with you. They can give you all kind of excuses for disobeying God.
But you know what? Deep down inside, they know better. And when I look at how God blessed him, he fearlessly confronted these kings. He was promoted to the highest places of authority in every single kingdom. He could remain fearless in the presence of certain death. And every time he objected to what they wanted to do, it was fear of certain death, but not with him.
Here's why. Watch this carefully. You listen and say, Amen. He died as a teenager to what the world had to offer. And so he didn't have to go through life saying, Shall I do this? Shall I not do this? Shall I not do that?
He died to all that. When the people all around you work with you, for example, when they say, and tell you this latest joke I've heard, and as nasty as it can be, what do you say? You say, Oh yeah. Is that what you say?
Or do you walk off saying, You know what? That's not who I am. That doesn't fit who I am.
They can name you anything they want to, but you remember this, God's already named you, child of God. That means obedience and holiness and righteousness is a part of our life. It doesn't make any difference what they think. And you know, I think about people who are so concerned about what other folks think rather than what God thinks. And what happens? They're your neighbor, let's say for example, your friend, and about a month from then, they move all the way across the country and you never see them again. And you sold out your conviction for somebody who doesn't care about you and that you'll never see again. And I think about people who commit immorality of all sorts.
And people who say, Well, nobody's perfect. That's not the issue. The issue is what does the Word of God say? He says abstain from all sexual immorality. Abstain from it.
That means stay away from it. No amount of arguing, reasoning, talking about what other people do, nowhere in the Bible does it say look around and do what other people do. The Bible says, Come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, so that there's something about that. You say, Well, I'll lose my friends.
You got the wrong kind. If you lose friends because of what you believe, you believe the Word of God, you have the wrong kind of friends and God just cleaned the house so He can give you some friends that'll help you. To become the person God wants you to be. He enjoyed success in every one of these range and God endowed Him with one of the most important prophecies in the Word of God. Listen, you go through the Scriptures and you come to that sixth chapter, the seventh chapter, and the rest of the chapter, watch this, the rest of the chapters in the book of Daniel, all the way through the twelfth chapter, is one long prophecy of future things that's repeated nowhere else in the Bible.
And if you don't understand that, you will never understand the book of the Revelation. And He gave it to Daniel. Why'd He give it to him? Because he was a trustworthy servant of God. And in all those many years, he lived in Babylon.
All these kingdoms, in spite of all of that, he stood remaining the obedient servant of God and the most important prophecy in the Old Testament and the longest one, and the one without which you will not understand future things, He gave to Daniel. Why? I'll tell you why.
Because as a teenager, He said, I'm not going to drink that and I'm not going to eat it, period. When He said to Nebuchadnezzar, here's what's going to happen to you. You're going to act like a crazy man. You're going to be out there with the beast of the field. Your house is going to be soaking wet. It's going to be long. The dew is going to be on you.
You're going to eat like cattle and your life won't be fit for anything. It's because he and those Hebrew children said, you can throw us in the fiery furnace if you want to. We're ready to go, but we're not going to do what you told us to do. Because they took a stand. They believed something with all of their heart. And they got tested and tried in every way. Daniel was tested and tried in every way.
Threw him in a lion's den. Most people said, well, I love God, but. And you know there are people today who have paid the ultimate price because of their conviction. They didn't all live in the Old Testament and New Testament days.
The question is not what other people know, what are we doing? And I would ask you is that you claim to be a follower of Jesus. Do you have convictions that are immovable, unchangeable, and nothing anybody says for the threats or payoff? You will not sacrifice or compromise your godly convictions. Is that the kind of person you are? That's the kind of person God's looking for.
And so the question is this. How will you live your life? Will you live it obediently before God and stand when you need to stand for something?
Or will you compromise your convictions? Watch this carefully. You don't know who's watching. You don't know who's watching you. And somebody may be watching you, listen, watching you and hoping and praying to God that you're who they think you are. When people are searching oftentimes, they don't want you to violate your convictions. And so the issue is, am I going to be a man of character?
Or am I going to compromise what I know is right? One strong, non-compromising, obedient child of God is a powerhouse for influence and impacting our nation. And my prayer to God is that you and all of us will be that. And Father, how grateful we are that we have You standing by our side.
Living on the inside of us in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. And how we do pray today, dear Father, that all of us and every person who hears this, not only in this country but around the world, will take a fresh new stand about their convictions, about their beliefs. And Father, we know that there are multitudes of people who have lost their lives because of their conviction and their unwillingness to deny that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. So Father, in every area of our life we ask You to so enable us to walk obediently and to relate to others in an obedient fashion.
In Jesus's name, amen. Thank you for listening to part two of The Courage to Stand by Your Convictions. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
