All right, let's get after it. Daniel, grab your Bibles. Open them up to the book of Daniel. Get your notebooks if you got them. Get a pen. We're going to be in this book for a while. If you're just visiting, you came on a great Sunday because it's the beginning of a new book study. And I hope you stay with us through this book study. It's going to take us right up to December, so we got a lot to learn. We're just going to jump right in. Daniel, chapter one. Open them up, turn on your phone. We'll put it on the screen. But it's always better if you see it in front of you. First off, just who is Daniel? Let's. Let's get into some basics here. I don't want to make some assumptions. Let's start with step one. Who is Daniel? Daniel is a prisoner of war. He's a pow. He got taken captive by the Babylonians and the first kind of load of captives they took away from Jerusalem. And he's in that group now. Let's go back a little bit more to have some context. How did he get there? All right, if we start with after the Israelites took the promised land, established themselves, King David kind of establishes the kingdom. Things are going well. He has a son, Solomon, builds the temple, kind of the height of their nation. Things are going great as a kingdom. They his son Rehoboam wants to be better than his dad, so he raises taxes. That doesn't go over well. There's a schism and there's a division in Israel and there's a split, and two kingdoms or two nations come out of that. You have the kingdom of Israel, which is in the north, and the kingdom of Judah, which is in the south. And they have a bunch of different kings over the years. Israel has no good kings, Judah has a few good kings, but neither of them are doing great. And they're not being faithful to God. And prophets continue to come and warn them and warn them and call them back to faithfulness. And then they start to say, you're going to be taken into captivity. The prophets even tell them that. Well, sure enough, that unfolds. And this is how Daniel becomes a prisoner of war in Babylon. So Isaiah, you guys might be familiar with the prophet Isaiah, he primarily ministered to the southern kingdom in Judah, but he warned Israel, the northern kingdom, that. That this is going to happen as well. And sure enough, in 722 B.C. the Northern Kingdom falls to the Assyrians. Well, the Babylonians take over the Assyrians. And they, they continue to get warned. Excuse me, the southern kingdom, through the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is saying, hey, the same thing's going to happen to you guys. You're not walking faithfully with your God. This is. This is coming. And Judah eventually falls in 586 BC, so there's quite a bit of time that goes through there. But about 20 years before the fall of the city, they're already getting bullied and oppressed, and this kind of superpower has kind of come in. And 20 years before the actual kind of fall of the city, they begin to take captives away with them. And Daniel in 605, 606, Daniel is one of the captives taken away. He's part of the first wave of captives. He was a part of the people of nobility, royal family. Some people think that Daniel might be a relative of King Hezekiah, maybe, but he's part of this group of nobles that first gets taken into captivity. And when he gets taken into captivity, he might be 14, 15, 16, maybe. So this is like a teenager. How many teenagers we got here today? You're certainly not going to. A few of you raise your hand like, there's more. It's like, I don't. I don't even want to be here, Mom. I'm going to raise my hand, lean in, all right? Because I'm talking about Daniel, and you probably think of some old bearded Bible guy. He's a teen, all right? So I want you to be challenged by one of your peers that we're reading about today. Now, that's kind of the setup and context. But before we just like, oh, yeah, that happened in history. Could we, like, at least attempt to emotionally relate to this situation? Can you imagine how devastating it would be to be 14, 15, 16, ripped from your home, taken into captivity, taken into by this pagan world power? Just like, how awful that would be. In fact, we get a window into their emotions. In Psalm 137, it says, by the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, and we remembered Zion on the willows. There we hung up our lyres, instruments, and there our captors required of us songs and our tormentors mirthed, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? That's the question. Like, they're mocking them. Hey, sing us one of your songs. How are we supposed to sing a song about our great and powerful God as prisoners? Like, it doesn't feel like our God's that great and Powerful because we just got beat and you're mocking us. How are we supposed to sing the Lord's song as prisoners, as captives in Babylon? How are we supposed to continue to live faithful to our God as captors in Babylon? How are we supposed to be faithful to God in an unfaithful culture? How are we supposed to do that? And why should we? Because maybe that's where they're at. Why should we, God, you put us into this. Like, you didn't protect us, you didn't provide. Why should we? Or you see so much people having fun in the culture. This is where we live. And I just want to get in and fit in. But it's like, why should we stay faithful to God in an unfaithful culture? Because in about 70 years, when they get an opportunity to go back to Jerusalem, a lot of people didn't. Do you know why? By that time, Babylon was home. Like, this is where I grew up. This is where I raised my family. This is what I know. They just got comfortable in Babylon. Now, we weren't taken captive and led off. We were born here. We don't know anything different. Like, this is our home. And let's be honest, we love our home. Like, America is a great nation. We got some national pride. America's a great place to live. There's prosperity, there's freedom. There's an aspect of like, we love it here. We are proud to be Americans, but yet Peter reminds us of this. Beloved, I urge you as what and what? Exiles? To abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. He's saying, hey, you're exiles. Don't forget that. Here's how Paul puts it. But our what citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews says it this way. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Here's the reminder that we need. Guys, this isn't our home. This is not our home. And I know we've, like, it's all we know. And, like, we just live here. But this is not our home. And we live in a world that has very different worldview than us, has different values, different set of priorities, a different idea of morality, a different idea of right and wrong, a different idea of the purpose of life and the meaning of life. And there's this pressure to conform to this world. It's like a constant pressure, so constant and consistent, sometimes you don't even know it. It's just the Air we breathe, it's just around us all the time. This is how we live. This is how we think. This is how we do it. This is just where we're at. And you just kind of feel, if you're a Christian striving to be faithful, you feel this pressure. Anybody can, like, identify. Like, I feel the pressure to conform. Okay, all right. I was just like, who am I talking to here? If you. If you do. If you feel that pressure to conform, Daniel has a lot to teach us. If you don't feel that pressure, then maybe because you've just gone along with the world so easily. And I hope we can have our eyes open to the call to follow Christ and is a call to be countercultural. So when we get into our text over time and we're in this book, we'll get some more looks at the overview of the book and some things we want to understand. But we're just jumping right into chapter one, and there is a challenge that we should feel, and there's also a promise that we should cling to or a hope that we should cling to. So we're going to get right to it. You guys ready? Daniel, chapter one, starting in verse. Guess which one? One. All right, you guys already know. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Now, pause a little history, Josiah. We'll talk about him in a little bit. He's a good king. He dies in a fight against Egypt, and Egypt asserts its power over Judah, the southern kingdom, and they set up a puppet king. Jehoiakim is that kind of puppet king. He doesn't last long, like, maybe months, but. But that's who they're referring to. But as Egypt's kind of this power, a new power, Babylon, is rising up too, and they come on the scene. So in the third year of the reign of king Jehoiaking, puppet king, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands with some of the vessels of the house of God. And. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. Then you got to remember, like, so much war was just seen as like, whose God's better than whose God? This is about, like, my God's more powerful than your God, because my God, we beat you. So those kind of things. So we're gonna. We're gonna take your God's toys. And we're gonna put them with our God's toys. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of nobility, use without blemish and of good appearance. Now pause here. I think it's funny. Daniel's writing this. You get it, right? He's like, they took the good looking ones, right? And skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding and learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate. They're just not getting royal food. The same food the king ate and the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel, he called Belshazzar, Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael he called Mishael, Azariah, he called Abednego, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You guys know the story? Okay? Those are the name changes. All right. I might have mispronounced one of those in there. You guys get it. Here's what's happening. This is indoctrination. Like, World Power Indoctrination 101. Like, we're gonna come and we're gonna take the people of nobility. And why would we take the people of nobility first? Because if we can indoctrinate them and we can assimilate them into our culture, everyone else is going to follow. So let's get the important people, the people high in status in their society. Let's bring them and we'll get them to buy into us, and then the rest will follow. And who out of the nobility do they get? Young people, because those are the easiest to indoctrinate. And don't think even in our culture, there's not a battle for the minds and hearts of young people. That's why we unashamedly say we're passionate about the next generation. If you missed Danny's message last week, go back and listen to it. It just stirs the heart of who we are as a church. So they're gonna get this high status people, young people, and they're after indoctrination, and they're very methodical or intentional in their strategy in doing this. This isn't the first kingdom they've taken over and they give them new names. Daniel, his name means God is my judge, or Elohim is my judge. And they call him Belshazzar, which means, may Bell protect his life. It's like, no, bell's one of our gods. Not Elohim, but Bell. Like, we're changing it for you. Hananiah is Yahweh is gracious. His name's changed to Shadrach, which means a coup is exalted. And a coup is a Babylonian God. Mishael, who is his name, which is kind of odd names. Who is what? Elohim is. Well, Meshach is changed to Means who is what? AKU is. This is Babylonian God. Azariah means Yahweh is my helper. Changed his name to Abednego, which means a servant of Naboo. This is social engineering. Like, we're going to bring you into our culture and we're going to give you new names because we want to give you a new identity. And in your new identity, we want to give you a new object of worship. We don't want you to stay faithful to your gods. Your gods failed. We beat your gods. You need to worship our gods, and we're going to give you a blasphemous name and remind you of that every time we call you that. Our gods are the real gods, and they're trying to just change who they are. I'm going to give you a new education. For three years, you're going to be in our education system where you're going to learn our creation stories, our flood stories about our gods, our way of life, our values. We're going to give you a new lifestyle. You come into the king's palace. You enjoy the king's food, the king's wine. You enjoy the prosperity and the luxury of Babylon. And this is an attempt to conform them into their culture. Do you think we deal with that? Maybe it's hard to see because it's like, we weren't here and then taken somewhere else. We were just born here. It's all we know. We just grow up to it. I mean, it's the air we breathe. Secular humanism is just our culture. And you hear it all the time, that you need to trust you and you need to look out for number one, and you're the most important, and you need to follow your heart. And you deserve better, Right? And if it makes you happy, do it. And you're the source of your own truth. Like, this is constantly everywhere. Like and then you can get into our educational system, right? We'll teach you an origin story. There was nothing, then, bang, you come from nothing. But then there was monkeys. And you eventually come from them. And you can't question that. That's science. That's our God, right? And then you can watch our shows and listen to our music. And it just constantly reinforces a perverse sexual ethic, a love of materialism and money, the value of greed, social status, constantly just reinforcing everything that you entertain yourselves with. The things that you listen to. Like this song. It's like, oh, it's catchy. Do you know what it says? Like, you just hear it all the time. The shows that renormalize sin constantly in fashion. Like, this is what people wear, Sex sells, sexualization of a culture and just kind of join in and start them young in the American dream. Yeah, it's the American dream that you try to get healthy, wealthy and wise and bigger and newer and better and prosperous and have a great retirement. Embrace it. It's just constantly put before us. And the hope would be that someday you wouldn't want to leave even if you had the chance. You love it here. This is great, right? I mean, sure, someday when you die, we'll want to go to heaven, but I don't even. We don't even know if there's anything after death, but we know now. So eat, drink and be merry. Tomorrow you die. And that's just the way of our world. And even if you kind of stamp a Christian idea to it, it's like we're still like, I just want to push off death as long as possible. I want to live here, I want to thrive here. I want to enjoy here. And yes, someday long when I'm kind of old, die in my sleep peacefully, then go to heaven, but I don't want anything before that. And Jesus, don't come back too soon. Certainly not before the fourth season of Stranger Things. Because I really want to see that and, like, going, and I got plans. I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want to see my kids get married. I want to retire. I want to walk on a beach. Like, everything is like, I got this plan and Christ, if you come back, you might disrupt my plans. And I love it here. And there's a dulling of our Christian identity and a strengthening of our American identity. And there's a dulling of our eternal longings and a strengthening of our temporal longings. This is a. This is a great time to be alive. This is A great moment. Because as we see a greater contrast between the world and what Christ calls us to, it brings us to. Like this fork in the road. Like this brought Daniel to a fork in the road. Who are you going to be? What are you going to make your life about? What are you going to pursue? And you are at that same fork in the road. Who are you going to be? Are you willing to be different? Are you willing to be set apart? Are you willing to be faithful in an unfaithful world, no matter what the cost may be? And what if you were? What might it do in you? And what might that do through you? So. So let's. Let's get into this. Look at the verse. The very next verse. This is important. But Daniel, what's that word? Resolved? That he would not defile himself with the king's food, with the wine that he drank. So you get this setup. You get the situation. Like, externally, we see what's happening. Babylonians took captive Judah, led captives, had to rename them, educate them, give them, like, bring them into the palace, like, all these external things that are happening. But in verse eight, we get a look at the internal. This is all happening to us. But Daniel's saying, but this is what's happening in us. I am resolved to not to defile myself. I made up my mind. I drew a line in the sand. I establish a conviction. I'm not doing it. I'm not gonna be that guy. I'm not going there. I'm not gonna engage in that. Like, he was resolved. Now, can you say that in any aspect of your life? I don't. I don't do that. I don't watch that. I don't wear that. I don't say that like I don't. Like you've made a resolve for you, and is it about God, or is it just like. I don't do that because that wouldn't help my marriage. I don't do that because that would be bad for my career. I don't do that. Cause I would get in trouble with. Like, there's all kinds of external motivations to be. To pursue right living. But what's Daniel's motivation? I don't want to defile myself before my God. Like, he's motivated to honor God in all of his life. Listen, if you don't have conviction, you will experience conformity. Like, if you don't have a conviction of what's right and wrong and true and what the purpose of life is, what the meaning of life is, if you don't have a conviction on that. You will experience conformity. It just. Over time, the ways of this world will just shape you because you have nothing anchoring you. And the prerequisite, hear me now, the prerequisite to conformity is the erosion of conviction. Is that really wrong? I mean, is it that big a deal? I don't see what the big deal is. Everybody seems to be doing it. Did God really say. You may have heard that one before. Kind of just this erosion of conviction. For Daniel, he's saying, like, I'm not, I'm not going there. I'm not doing that. I'm not going to engage in it. And you got to get this. He made a food decision. A food decision, right? And this is not some Bible coded diet plan, okay? So just stop it. It's not like, it's like, see, we're supposed to be vegetarians. This is not. If you want to be a vegetarian, you go knock yourself out. Just don't make it biblical because that's not what's going on here. Okay? There are a few things going on here. One, the king's meat would have been leftovers from offerings to idols. So there's like, even the food system's part of their pagan worship. But also, it's probably not kosher. There's dietary laws for the Israelites, however, the wine would have been. They could have drank in the wine, but they said no to that too. The king's wine and the king's food or the king's meat. So it seems like Daniel's saying on a couple levels here, one, we're not going to engage in idol worship. Not happening. But two, we're also not going to get pulled into this life of luxury with the king's wine and the king's food and the king's luxury. We're gonna maintain an exile mindset. Almost like Daniel saying, like, okay, we've been sucked into this. And they're trying to, like, you hear prisoner of war, you miss it. There's a little bit of like, we're recruited for indoctrination so others will follow. And Daniel's saying, no, don't get too comfortable. This isn't our home. Like, don't buy into this. Like, you ever think like that? You ever think, like, I can't get too comfortable here. I can't get too comfortable in this life. I can't get too comfortable. Like, this is my home. Because for Daniel, it's not just, I'm resolved not to sin morally. Although that's part of it. But also I'm resolved not to drink the Babylonian Kool Aid. I'm not going to buy into this life of luxury and, and prosperous like pleasure and self exaltation and prosperity. Like, I'm not, I'm not buying into this. Like, this is what life's about for us. Maybe our dream shouldn't be the American dream just to get more, do better, be successful, retire. Well, I mean, we live here. And I'm not saying any of those things are in themselves wrong. But as the people of God, shouldn't we have different dreams? Shouldn't we have bigger dreams? The glory of God and the spreading of the gospel and the growing of his church and the return of our king, shouldn't those be our dreams? Now we're just saying no to food. And it seems like a pretty small thing. I still struggle with it, but it seems like relatively, you would think everybody would understand considering the circumstances. Like, Danny, you can eat the food, but he doesn't. It seems like this real small matter. Like, I'm not going to eat that. It's kind of like, I'm not gonna watch that, I'm not gonna wear that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna. Like, it seems like a pretty small thing. But this is setting up the rest of Daniel, because pretty soon they're gonna be like, I'm not bowing down to that. I'm not praying to you. Throw me in the furnace, Throw me in the lion's den. I ain't doing it. And it all starts here with this simple decision of like, I'm not eating that. And guys, faithfulness in big things starts with faithfulness in little things. Are you with me on that? Like, faithfulness in big things. It starts with faithfulness in little things. And we want to change our community and we want to reach the lost and we want to see God pour out his spirit and we want to see him do amazing, powerful things. But we won't stop watching trashy TV shows or loving money or dressing provocative or talking foolish or gossip. Like, there's a disconnect there. And the little things matter. The little things matter a lot. Now here's a question. How did he know that? Like, how does a 14, 15, 16 year old kid do this? That he's put in this situation and he makes that resolve and that commitment, he stands his ground. How does he do that? Because you don't just have resolve in the moment. Sometimes we think that way. It's like when the moment comes, don't. Then I'll do the right thing. Not if you're not doing the right thing. Now, we think we're going to like, shine in the moment. But you don't just shine in the moment. You prepare for those moments. Like, you see, they were prepared to get thrown into a fiery furnace. They were prepared to get thrown into the lion's den because they're saying no to food, right? You think they're going to say no to bowing down to a statue if they're not even gonna be faithful in the little things? Like faithful in the little things. Prepared them for faithfulness in the big things. Okay, so what prepared them for this? Because not everybody that gets taken into captivity is saying this. There's a lot of people not being faithful. Why is Daniel standing strong here? This is interesting. If Daniel was 16 in the year of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, when the Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon besieged it. So we get, we get a time stamp in this story. It's the third year of King Jehoiakim. So Daniel 16 at that time, that means he would have been born in around 622. Let me tell you what happened in the year 622 in the Kingdom of Judah, King Josiah opened the doors of the temple that was sealed shut by his grandfather Manasseh. Now, Manasseh was an awful king, maybe the worst. There was a lot of bad kings. He was really bad. He led them astray. Shut up. The temple set up pagan gods, led them into all kinds of immorality. Well, Joshua, or excuse me, Josiah, he takes over. He becomes king at 8 and at 18, where are the college kids at? Alright, lean in. At 18, Josiah opens the temple doors and the priests rediscovered the word of God and a great revival began. Guys, Daniel grew up in that. That was his upbringing. Now when Josiah died in battle against Egypt, things for Judah went downhill fast again. But when Daniel was growing up, he grew up in a revival. He grew up in a community that renewed its passion for the Word of God, renewed its passion for the character of God, the truth of God. Like that's what he knew. You could put it this way. He was prepared for exile. Parents, are your kids prepared for exile? Like when they go off to college and there's all kinds of indoctrination to do this and think this and believe this. Are they prepared to say, I'm not doing that, I'm not buying into that, I don't believe that. I'm not engaging with that. Listen, don't underestimate the importance of a church that teaches God's word and being in it, not just attending it, but being in it, being shaped by it, being involved, forming your community here and your identity through the truth taught here. Don't underestimate the importance of that and raising your kids in that. And I'm a parent and I talk to parents. I get it. It's like my kid, he didn't want to come to church. I get it. I'm guessing he doesn't want to go to school either. But you make him go. And you know why? Because as Americans, we know what it takes to get ahead in this world. And to get ahead in this world, you're going to need to get a good job. And to get a good job, you're going to need a good education. So we see the value in that. But are we valuing success over faithfulness? And if so, how American of us to do so? And it's like, Jake, are you trying to tell me that church is more important than school? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And if you want to argue with me, let's talk in a million years and we'll see which institution is still standing. Don't underestimate the importance of being engaged in a local church that teaches the word of God. To be faithful to God in an unfaithful world, we need to be resolved. But to be resolved, we need to be informed. Daniel knew the word of God, he knew the character of God. And he knew the prophets of God, like Jeremiah and Isaiah, that told them stuff like this. This is Isaiah 39. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up to this day shall be carried to Babylon. So this hasn't happened yet. He's saying this is going to happen. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away and shall be the eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Now this is to King Hezekiah. And some people look at this and think Daniel is a potential relative of Hezekiah. But this is a prophecy of what's going to happen, he says. Another one. This is Jeremiah. Excuse me. This is Jeremiah 25. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then, after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. Now what he's saying is, I'm going to discipline you because you're not faithful. I am going to use the Babylonians to discipline you. Chill out. I know they're not faithful either. I'm going to use them for a period of time, and when I'm done with them, I'll deal with them. But this is what's going to happen. Then he says this to them for some comfort. Jeremiah 29. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and will fulfill to you my promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for evil. To give you a future and to hope. This is like Daniel knew this. Like he goes into captivity. It's like I know that my God is in control. He. He told us this was gonna happen. What he said is happening. Like he's in control of all this. In fact, look how Daniel explains this captivity. Go back to verse one and two. In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord, what gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands? I'll tell you why we got taken captive because the Lord gave us into him. Nobody came and took us. Like Nebuchadnezzar's got nothing unless God says so. Nebuchadnezzar doesn't have the power to come take his people. We're captive because God gave us into his hands. God is sovereignly in control over these events. Listen, this is the why behind Daniel's resolve. This is what he knew about God that strengthened his resolve to God. God has control over all of this. Us not being faithful to him is what got us into this mess. So why would I not be faithful to Him? Now he's in control of everything he gave us into his hands. Nebuchadnezzar's got nothing unless God says so. So I'm sticking with God. He's sovereign over everything. And when you understand God's sovereignty, it should increase your boldness. You see this with the disciples as well. This is in Acts, chapter four, when they heard it. And the it is the warning to stop talking about Jesus. They lifted their voices together to God and said, sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. They're kind of recognizing his creation, his power over everything. Who, through the mouth of our Father David, Your servant said by the Holy Spirit. Why did the Gentiles rage? And they. And the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. Now that's. Go back there. That's from Psalm 2. And the whole psalm is like, how foolish is it that these nations are trying to set themselves against God? Like He's. He's in. They're no match. Like, this is ridiculous. They plot in vain. They're powerless against our God. And he goes on and kind of applies it to their circumstances. For surely in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom youm anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, those are some powerful people, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. So here's what the disciples are realizing. It looks like we're losing because you killed our leader. But here's why you killed our leader, because God said so. That was part of God's plan. And you have nothing outside of God's plan. And even though it looks like you're the ones in power, here's what we know. You're not the ones in power. I know the one in power. And his plan is unfolding. And guess what happens when you know that. Look at the very next verse. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all what boldness. They're leaving there more motivated to be bold because they realize God is in control. And Daniel goes into Babylon motivated to be faithful because he knows his God is in control. He sees it. Look what happens. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him to not defile himself. And God, what gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs? And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my Lord the king who has signed your food and your drink. For why should he see that you are in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king. So you're saying, like, why would I do this? Because if it doesn't go well, guess who's going to get their head cut off? This guy. But here's the crazy thing. He does it. Why does he do it? I Mean the text is confusing. The guy, the guard, saying, like, why would I do this? Like, what do I have to gain? I'm just going to lose my head if this doesn't go well. Why does he do it? God gave him favor. God is moving even in the heart of the chief eunuch there. Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Let our appearance and the appearance of our youths who eat the king's food be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh. Now I just want to point out, better in appearance and fatter are going together. I'm just like, let the text speak. You can just apply that however you want. But it's in here. It's the word of God. Better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. As for the four, use God, what gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Guys. Their obedience to God led to closeness with God. And you might be like, wait, where's that at? I don't see that. What do you mean, closeness to God? We can tend to have, like, a mystical type of thinking. We put on top of Christianity of what it means to have intimacy with God or closeness with God. So if you want to be close with God, you probably got to be alone in a room with candles lit and, you know, like that kind of thing. It's just not. That's prevalent in the world, but not in the Bible. When Jesus is talking about abide with me, which is meaning like, be close to me, be connected to me. Do you know what he says? Those who keep my commands, abide in my love. He's connecting obedience to abiding, obedience to closeness, obedience to intimacy. And Daniel is obedient. He's resolved to be faithful. He's obedient. And what does he experience in his obedience? The provision of God, the faithfulness of God, the closeness of God. He's met in his obedience. Faithfulness to God, experiences the faithfulness of God. This is the promise in James 4, 7, 8. You can look it up another time. But he's saying, hey, resist the devil. And he'll what? He'll flee from you. But then when it goes on to say, draw near to God. And he'll what? He'll draw near to you. That's a promise. He's saying, guys, I'm telling you, stop flirting with evil. Stop like playing games here. Draw near to God, and I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen. He's gonna draw near to you. You're gonna experience God. He's real. He'll meet you. He'll provide for you. He's faithful. And guys, I'm telling you, you stop this lukewarm kind of flirting with just the ways of the world, and you fully devote yourself to God. You experience God. It's so much like the pastors are greener, the joy is sweeter, the fellowship is real, and he's calling them. And here's what Daniel wants his readers to get. God can be trusted. Even in Babylon, even in America, even in that hard job, even in that hard marriage, even in that hospital room, in any and every circumstance, God can be trusted. He. He is sovereign over food. Like, where do you think you get your health food? God. God does that. That's the whole point. This isn't like, hey, eat vegetables. No, it's like God miraculously provides for them. God sovereign over guards. It's like that guard's not in power. I'm in power. I'll give you favor with the people I want you to have favor with. God is sovereign over knowledge. I'll make you smart. I'll give you wisdom. I'll give you the skills you need. God is sovereign over kings and kingdoms. Do you think Nebuchadnezzar is in charge? Because he's got a lot of chariots. He's only here because I said so. Daniel wants his readers to get this. Because here's how the situation might look to someone who doesn't know. God got beat. I mean, he got beat, right? Jerusalem goes down to the Babylonians. What's that say? Babylonian gods stronger than Jewish gods. God, right. We're going to take your items of worship out of that temple. We're going to give it to our God because our God is better than your God. He won. Like, that's how it might look to people that don't know, but what's it look like to people that do know? God keeps his word. He did exactly what he said he was going to do. He named the kingdom. He named the time period. He said this is what's going to happen. And guess what? That happens. God's hand is in everything. But. But are you more concerned with how things might look to people that don't know? They don't know the promises of God. They don't know the faithfulness of God. They don't know the word of God. But they might think you're silly and you'd hate for that to happen. They might think you're kind of lame. Why don't you eat the food, Daniel? What's your problem? Listen, resolving to be faithful to God is a hard decision you will never regret. And going along with the world is an easy decision you will always regret. And I get it. We have this longing to fit in. We want to belong. We want to be affirmed. We want to be liked. Not as exiles. We're called to be set apart. We're called to be different. We're called to be salt. And what good is salt if it loses its saltiness? And the whole reason that Israel is in Babylon is because they lost their saltiness. We're called to be different. And guys, obedience to God is the key to making an impact for God. Hear me now, okay? We don't make an impact by fitting in. We don't make an impact by kind of blending in and going along. We make an impact by standing out. I'm not going to eat that. I'm not going to bow down to that. I'm not going to stop praying. I'm not going to watch that. Not going to wear that. Not going to do that. Not going to say that Obedience leads to impact. We have no power to change a human heart. Who's the only one who can do that? God. Which means. Think about this. Which means it's more important to pursue God than it is to pursue people. Or I would put it this way. The best way to reach people is to pursue God. We saw that in Acts 2 a couple weeks ago when we looked at that, they were devoted to God. And what happens at the end of the section there? And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. Guys, personal holiness creates a contrast. It creates a contrast in this world. Hey, the world lives this way. We don't. They do this. We don't. They don't do this. We do. Holiness creates a contrast. And a contrast shows the world something different. And the contrast of our personal holiness by God's sovereignty is a conduit for God's power in our world. And you see that here. Here's what I Want you to remember. Resolve to be obedient to God. For closeness with God and impact for God. Let's see how this plays out. Verse 18. At the end of the time when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and. And the king spoke with them. And among all of them, none was found, like Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king required of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. Guys, Daniel, before this is all over, he's going to help run two world empires.