February 12, 1997 - Joni’s-Mkt.

Daniel 1:8-21

But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. [9] Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials, [10] and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king." [11] But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, [12] "Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. [13] "Then let our appearance be observed in your presence, and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king's choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see." [14] So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. [15] And at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food. [16] So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

[17] And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. [18] Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. [19] And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's personal service. [20] And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. [21] And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.

Daniel 2:1-13

Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. [2] Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. [3] And the king said to them, "I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream."

[4] Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: "O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation." [5] The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, "The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. [6] "But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation." [7] They answered a second time and said, "Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation." [8] The king answered and said, "I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that the command from me is firm, [9] that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation." [10] The Chaldeans answered the king and said, "There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean. [11] "Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh." [12] Because of this the king became indignant and very furious, and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. [13] So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them.

The Book of Daniel, the key verse 11:22, let’s read together. The people who know their God will displays strength and take action. Just to quickly review, ano ang nakikita natin sa chapter 1, what is God selection? Faith, faith in Him; therefor Hebrews 11:6,

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. What we want to tackle tonight is if we study chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Daniel, nakikita natin that si Daniel was a Man of Faith. He knew his God so he displayed strength, inner strength, he had the conviction, I will not defile myself and that inner strength displayed itself in his taking action. Now, many Christians, many of us we agree with that, we have no problem saying what God is looking for is faith and how many of you believe in God? Very good, we want to affirm that there are many believers in God in this room but you know, the scripture say very clearly, many people will claim to believe in God and it’s easy to believe in God where in a class like this but what happens? Why do we see many Christians, many believers they are being exposed right, left and center, some of them are major leaders who are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and yet they fall, they do not believe, why? Because it’s easy to believe when we’re sitting in an air-conditioned and you’re not very threatened, every will say I believe but if there is now pressure when the stakes are high, are much higher, will we still believe in Jesus Christ? The Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 and in other places tell us many people they like to sing praises to God. They say I believe in God but when the pressure and the tribulation come what happens to them? They fall away, they depart and many of them have been studying the bible for a long time and they fall. In fact the question of Jesus when He said, "What will I find, will I find faith when I come back or will I find a lot of people compromising?" it’s easy to say, ‘I believe,’ but when the pressure is on, Do you really believe? Why is it that many people fall away? After a while they stop believing. Let us go to one of the key verses in the bible in Daniel 1. Daniel in v. 8, he resolved, I will not defile myself v. 9, God calls the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel. What did the official tell Daniel in v. 10? Let’s all read together. But the official told Daniel, I am afraid of my Lord the king who was assigned your food and drink. Why should they see you looking worst than the other young men your age. The king would then have my head because of you. What is the moving force behind the official? Fear. In other words he was hesitant to accept the plan of Daniel because he was afraid that if he adopted it something bad would happen to him. Do you know it’s the same thing with us believers. Are we afraid? You know we studied that the world chooses based on the 3 A’s but you know the motivation of the world and the Christians hardly difference; many believers they will fall away for exactly the same reason, they are afraid. What are they afraid of, what was the official afraid of, what was he afraid of? The bible calls that The Fear of Man. It is fear of men, what other men will do to you, what other men will say about you that controls our behavior and it force… one day. What are we afraid of? Many times fear controls our behavior, the what we do in life, what we don’t do in life is controlled by our fears and how many of you have some kind of fear? Very good! As a little exercise can you tell me what you are most afraid of? Fear of failure, when you are doing something and then you fear, what else? What does fear do? Basically notice the commander God had already given him in his heart, he was already favorably disposed toward Daniel and here was Daniel giving him a plan and yet he would not accept it immediately. Basically for us fear it does two things, the first thing it does, it undermines our conviction such that you will become paralyzed, and to understand fear look at this official, look at this statement to Daniel, why is he afraid? His head would be cut of, how do you make that a general principle? Basically if you will make it general, the focus of the fear is on potential harm to you, something bad or harmful might happen to you see it’s now general; we’re trying to teach you on how to study the bible on your own. So the key thoughts are potential harm to you. Now fear works on the key word potential. How many of you are scared of rats? Can the rat kill you? who can do more harm to who, can the rat harm you really and truly or can you harm the rat or the ipis? Can you imagine that just emphasizes to you potential, it is where, where’s the fear? In your mind. The ipis cannot possibly hurt you, you can do more harm to the ipis. So, fear works on potential. The fear becomes intensified when the potential harm is present. Once the harm is there it is present. Now translate that please in your own life, we have fear of failure, we have fear of rejection, which make us do things which prevent us from having faith in God because the very essence of faith, fear will prevent you from trusting God because the essence of faith, faith works with things that we cannot see, Hebrews 11, Is the assurance of things that we hope for. The enemy of faith is fear. You can say I believe in God then you are in the work place