January 22, 1997

We will now go and study the balance of the chapter in Daniel. Let’s start by reading from v. 3, please, Let’s read together Daniel 1:3-7, Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, [4] youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding, and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. [5] And the king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service. [6] Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. [7] Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abed-nego. The out line of the book of Daniel is very simple from chapter 1-6, it talks about his own personal story of how he was captured and what happened to him when he was living under a pagan king. And as we said last week, this is applicable to us kasi Daniel is one of the key standards in the bible of righteousness and wisdom. And then from v. 7-12, we will be looking at Daniel’s visions, God gave him visions of what will happen in the future. Basically we want to teach you two things at the same time, one is papano kayo magbasa ng bible on your own and secondly we like to teach you some life changing truths that if you apply in your life gaganda ang ating buhay. Therefor the way to make it relevant to you is you must get what we call principles and the way to do that is to take it out of the specific and make it general a universal truth. So let’s explore the universal truth, the specific truth was they were in captivity by the Babylonians and what the Babylonians would do was basically to brainwash them, to educate them to serve the king. That has no relevant to us, so now we try to make it relevant. What’s the meaning? So you take captivity, are we captives? Most of us don’t even know we’re captives but you know most of us are, we are captives, captives to what? To the flesh, okay!, some are captives to their work, money, some are captives to their spouse, let’s turn our bibles to John 8:31-36, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; [32] and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." [33] They answered Him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You shall become free'?" [34] Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. [35] "And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. [36] "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. In Daniel what you have is a picture of you and me, we are slaves or have been in the past to sin and you know what happens? Sin is so deadly, we have no idea how deadly it is, what sin tries to do is like Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. What was the king of Babylon trying to do? He tries to get all of God’s people and change everything about them so that they will conform to his ways. The first principle that we see is the world will try to conform us into its value system and its value system is basically away from God. Most of us are conformist, some people they like to be none conformist, they shave their head, they put earrings on their ear even though they are men or they do something unique so that they will be none conformist and yet when you go through life most of us we are conforming. So we conform? Yeah! In many, many ways and that’s what this little section in first part of Daniel is going to discuss, conformity to the world. What Satan is trying to do is he has his set of values, God has his own set of values, what Satan tries to do since we were slave to him many years ago for a long time, he tries to brain wash us like Nebuchadnnezar brainwash the Jews and how does he do it? if you look at v. 3-7, basically ang pinag-uusapan don sino ang magse-serve sa king? In other words these are positions of power, these are position of honor, these are position of prestige, in other words ang pinag-uusapan diyan ay success. How many of you wants to be successful? Yeah! You know what that means? It basically means you are not yet successful now, you still want to be. How does Satan conform us? Satan brain washes us into a wrong success formula like these guys. If you read the bible that we just read, how did Nebuchadnezzar select the men he would choose, how did he go to the selection process, it will tell you your criteria for success, we call it the three A’s. Can you read your bible what the first A is in v. 3, Age, in other words, what’s the next one? Appearance, Aptitude or Acumen, those are the formulas of success that Satan drives into all us. Do you like this kind of success formula? What will motivate you to move at that kind of ladder? It has to do with the amenities of the world, how will you be motivated? With all of those things going for you the world is very demanding, did you know that? The world Satan will demand everything from you. The conformity that the world demand is _____they even change their name, …because the conformity has to be that pervasive , therefor you change your name to his name. So, that’s what the world is doing, Nebuchadnezzar is doing it then, Satan is still doing it now and you know the sad truth is? Satan like Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in most part. Are we conforming to the world? We are being conformed. Do you know we got some research result from the United States, there’s a book it’s entitled The Day America Told the Truth. It’s out on the shelf that they America told the truth. It’s basically a research, an extensive research of Americans in the United States where Americans began to tell the truth, if will show each and everyone of us how pervasive the conformity is right now.

1. 87% of those in America that were asked this question, they don’t even believe all of the ten commandments are relevant and binding only some not all.
2. 91% of Americans lie, as a way of life.
3. 75% of employees claim they do not exert their best effort.
4. The majority in the work force admitted goofing of an average of 7 hrs./week.
5. 50% admitted that they would call in and tell their boss I’m sick even though they are perfectly well.

Do you think God likes that? do you think it should be the values of a believer? We believe we should be the best worker that there is. We need to raise a standard if you claim to be a born again Christian, the devil wants to bring us down to conform to his values. How many of you saw that movie "Indecent Proposal?" Robert Reford believes he could by anything, any woman, everyone has a price, inofferan niya 1million dollar I sleep one night with your wife, they struggled through an evening until finally… but they agreed, their life was never the same. What would you do for ten million dollars? What would you be willing to do for ten million dollars? That’s an interesting question isn’t it? Here are some of the answers:

1. 25% fifty fifty split between husbands and wives, say that they would even abandon their families, for ten million dollars.
2. 23% said they would become a prostitute for one week. Do whatever you like to me.
3. 7% would agree to murder a stranger for ten million.

What’s our price before we disobey God? What’s our price bago tayo makuha ni Taning? What’s our price? Do you come cheap or high? Sa ating buhay sometimes because our formula for success is wrong we are willing to pay much higher price than ten million dollars. What’s the price that we pay? I’ll tell you what I pay, many people are like me we pay an extremely high price. Sabi ni Jesus what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world? If he’s the most successful and yet he looses his soul, that’s the most valuable thing you have, your soul and that’s what the devil wants to get. Are you willing to pay that price? When they talk about the indoctrination of this young Jews, if you will look at v. 4, he order them to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

The bible is warning us all of us including me, including your leaders and your elders, the ways of the world are very, very attractive. Is sin nice? Of course it feels nice, if it were not nice we would not do it, we would not do it. let’s turn our bible to 1 Peter 1:14-16, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, [15] but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; [16] because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." God is a holy God, you turn to the 1 John 2:15-17, Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. [17] And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever. There is abundant warning for us that we should not be conform. Romans 12:1, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Did you notice, how long were Daniel and his companion going to be train? Three years, that tells you that brainwashing Cannot happen quickly it takes a long time. How long have you been under sin? 35 years? no wonder behave the way we behave, we’ve been under the devil for such a long time. The corrupting influences, I will show you a chart about their names, when they first came, their names spoke, Daniel meant my God is judge, Hananaiah, Jehovah is gracious, Mishael, who is what God is, Azaraiah the Lord helps, what does this tells you, this names? It tells you that these kids were amazing, that this kids were raised by godly parents. Parents I speak to all of us, we have a major tremendous responsibility to raised our children. Did you know that’s a high responsibility as a father? That’s more important than your work, so what if you become president or owner of a company and then your son goes to hell. The brain washing, all brain washing, lahat yung values it really in the end has to do with God, they changed the name. Daniel’s name is now mean Bell that’s the god of Babylonian protect his life, the next one the command of Akhu another one of their gods who is what Akhu is imbes na si Jehova, servant of Nebu, Nebu is the son of Bell, it’s very pervasive. As we close this evening we think about ourselves will look at the work place businessmen and women, do you think the Christians in the work place distinguish themselves versus the none believers or they’re just the same? How many think that there’s no mark difference between the Christian and the Pagan? How many think that there’s a lot of difference? Sometimes the Christians they distinguish themselves for the wrong thing, they’re reading the bible during office hours, no good! And this is what Daniel wants to teach all of us as businessmen, as businesswomen you are primarily first and foremost a believer. I like to show you and end with this the example of Jesus, because ang pinag-uusapan dito si Nebuchadnezzar siya ang king, the issue is who is your king, who will you serve? Sometimes we delude ourselves. Question to you tonight, what price is Satan offering to you? whatever it is general will you accept it? Hopefully No, but I’m sure each of us we will struggle. Let’s bow our heads.