From His Heart

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Do you struggle to say no when people want you to compromise your better judgment or even your morals? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

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I'm not perfect, and you're not perfect. And Daniel wasn't perfect. But he made up his mind he was gonna walk with God. He wasn't gonna defile himself. He was gonna do what God said and let the chips fall where they may and trust God to take care of him. And God took care of him.

And that same God will take care of you if you'll trust him. There is tremendous truth. There is blessed love. There is hope that you always dream of. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

Daniel knew that as a follower of the one true God, he was to let his light shine and to stand up for the truth. Although it was dark in Babylon, he was able to shine brightly for the Lord. And you and I can learn so much from him and from his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who's going to continue to help us learn why and when to just say no. The message is part of Pastor Jeff's empowering series, How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World. We began this lesson last time, but we'll do some catching up and then continue with this timely and empowering truth called When to Say No.

Open your Bible to the Book of Daniel. Here again is Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

How can you and I shine in a dark world? Well, we can learn from Daniel and his three friends. I want to give you three encouragements today as we study the Book of Daniel, chapter one.

One encouragement number one: You and I can commit to God regardless of the circumstances. How are we going to shine? How are we going to get this little light out there and not hide it under a bushel or put it under a blanket or under a coat or under a bed to get it out there on the lampstand? Well, first of all, you and I can commit to God regardless of the circumstances. Daniel had difficult circumstances. Daniel and his three friends were ripped from the land of Judah, from Jerusalem. They were part of nobility there. When Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem and besieged the city in 605 BC, he took back captives. He kidnapped some of the young guys and said, "You're gonna come to Babylon and you're gonna serve me." Well, Daniel had no choice in the matter. He was kidnapped and taken, and all of a sudden, he found himself in wicked Babylon, serving the king.

Then he went through an indoctrination program because they wanted him to go to Babylonian graduate school to learn the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. He had to pour over the books and spend a lot of time preparing while he was in this school. There were pressures put on Daniel and his friends to conform to the ways of Babylon. But Daniel never conformed to the ways of Babylon. Now you and I face pressure to do two things: compromise and conform. That's why the scripture says in the book of Romans, "I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to the world." Philip's translation says this: "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold." We feel the pressure, just like Daniel felt the pressure.

But you know what? Daniel knew when to say no. Daniel said, "All right, I can do that. I mean, you're gonna teach me some stuff I'm not gonna believe, but I can do that. I can learn that. And I'm not gonna believe that, but I can learn your stuff." Daniel said, "You can change my name, but you're not gonna change my nature. You can change what you call me, but you're not gonna change who I am." But then they said, "Now we want you to eat the king's choice food." And it says in verse eight, "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." Daniel knew when to say no because now they were asking him to do something that was going to defile his temple, defile his own body, and that was to eat the king's meat. He said, "If I eat that, I'm gonna defile myself." It says that he made up his mind that he would not defile himself.

Now, it has well been said, beliefs are something we hold, but convictions are something that hold us. And Daniel had convictions. What are convictions? Convictions are predetermined answers. We need predetermined answers so that we can know when to say no. The most important verse in Daniel chapter one is verse eight: "Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food." Your testimony is at stake.

I got an email this week from a dear lady, and I appreciated her email. It said this: "Dear Pastor Shreve, I need advice. I have been living with someone for the past 13 years, and we plan to marry in two and a half years. The reason we haven't married before now is the government. My first husband died working for the government, and the government has a rule that if you remarry before the age of 55 or if you haven't been married for 30 years, the wife will lose her survivor's annuity. My husband and I have been married for 24 years. When he died, I rebuilt my life, and I am in a loving relationship with someone who has brought me to Christ. I feel so unworthy of God's love because of our living arrangement. But it's not my choice to live this way. I depend on my annuity to pay for my house. I'm interested in your advised thoughts on my predicament."

I wrote her back, and I was kind, but I picked up on the fact that she said, "It's not my choice to live this way." I said, "That's not true. It is your choice." I shared a story about my father-in-law, whose second wife, Debbie's mother, died. Debbie's dad remarried, and the woman he remarried had a similar situation. She was going to lose lots of money if she remarried, but they knew it was wrong to live together. They said, "We're just gonna trust God." She got married and gave up lots of money that she would have gotten from her husband's annuity because she felt God wanted her to get married.

I said, "You do have a choice." For most of us, we get put in that squeeze and say, "Well, you know, I mean, this doesn't seem right. I know it's wrong, but we really love each other." And you know what we do? We rationalize. Think of that word: rationalize. We tell ourselves rational lies so it sounds good. We say, "I know this isn't quite right, but..." Your testimony's at stake. Daniel could have rationalized. There were other Jews taken with him and his three friends who ate the king's choice food. They said, "Well, you know, when in Rome, do as the Romans. When in Babylon, do as the Babylonians. What choice do we have? Nebuchadnezzar's not gonna like it if you don't eat his food." But Daniel said, "I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna defile myself."

Not only is our testimony at stake, but our attitude is critical when it comes to how we express our testimony. It says this: "Daniel made up his mind that he wouldn't defile himself, so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself." He sought permission. He didn't just lash out, "How dare you? I'm a Jew! How dare you offer me this food, sacrificed to idols?" He humbly and kindly asked for permission to not eat that. "Listen, Ashpenaz, I can't eat that. You know, I learn all your stuff, and you can change my name. Call me Belshazzar, whatever you want to call me, Mary Jones, I don't care. But listen, I can't eat that because if I eat that, it's going to defile me because I follow Yahweh God, and he's told me I can't eat that. I have to be faithful to him." He was just humble and kind. He didn't have a holier-than-thou attitude. Our attitude in how we respond, how we let our light shine, and how we tell people no—that's important. Daniel did it the right way.

So you and I can commit to God regardless of the circumstances.

Second encouragement: We can trust God, regardless of the consequences. It says in verse nine, "Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials." 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?" I like you, Daniel, but if you don't eat this food, Nebuchadnezzar's not gonna like it. You're gonna look scrawny and puny and skinny and weak and sick compared to these other guys, and then my head's on the chopping block.

But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days and let us be given some vegetables and grains to eat and water to drink. 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." So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. 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. So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them vegetables.

Man, Daniel trusted God regardless of the consequences. This isn't telling your boss, "I'm not gonna lie on this business deal." When you do that, your boss could say, "Hey, you're gonna either do it my way or you're gonna hit the highway. I'm gonna get rid of you if you don't do what I say." It's like, "Well, I can't do what you say because it's not right. You're cheating." Just do it. Well, you can say no, and you may lose your job. Daniel's saying no to Ashpenaz, who works directly for Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world. Babylon is now the big bad boys on the block. It used to be Assyria, but they wiped Assyria out in 609. Now they're the king. They wiped out Egypt. It's Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful man. To say no to Nebuchadnezzar doesn't mean he'll say, "I'm gonna put you in timeout." He would just as easily say, "I'm gonna kill you."

Daniel was probably 15 years old. He was a 15-year-old kid, and he stood his ground. When Ashpenaz said, "Well, Daniel, I like you, but I can't do that because you make me forfeit my head to the king," Daniel said, "Well, okay." So he backed up and then he came and told the assistant to Ashpenaz, "Listen, how about this ten-day plan? Surely we can go ten days. Nobody's going to lose their head over ten days." The guy said, "Okay, we'll try it." And then God intervened. You don't look more healthy if you just eat vegetables and water while the other guys are having filet mignon. But you do if God intervenes. And God did intervene.

Hey, mark this down: God promises to honor those who honor him. Daniel honored God; his three friends honored God, and God honored them. 1 Samuel 2:30 says, "For those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed." Daniel stepped out in faith. He said, "God, I'm putting my life on the line here." And God honored him and his friends. God works miraculously when you and I work faithfully. That's just the way God works. You honor God, and he honors you. You're faithful to God, and you step out in faith, and God begins to work in your situation. He works miraculously.

It goes on to say through this chapter that after the three years of Babylonian graduate school, Daniel and his three friends were ten times better than anybody else Nebuchadnezzar had in his kingdom. They had more understanding, more knowledge, more wisdom, and more ability. It's like, wow, are Daniel and his three friends really ten times better than everybody else? They were faithful to God, and God worked miraculously for them. God allowed them to understand things that they wouldn't understand otherwise. God blessed them because they were faithful.

The scripture says this: "In all labor, there's profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Sometimes in the Christian life, we can be lazy. We can just kind of say, "Well, you know, I'm a Christian." We come to school and we don't study, and then we want God to bail us out. We're taking the test, and we say, "Well, God, help me. Help me to understand these things." Well, did you study? "No, but God, you know them, and you can tell me that." God doesn't work that way. He's like, "No, I'm not gonna tell you because you didn't apply yourself." God blesses miraculously when we work faithfully.

You know who the best workers ought to be in any job? The Christians. Because they're the ones that are doing it for the Lord. When you really understand, and Daniel stood out, he let his light shine in a dark place. He didn't learn the literature and language of the Chaldeans through osmosis. He didn't put the books under his pillow and say, "Somehow this information is going to trickle into my head." No, he had to work. How do you learn a language? Akkadian is a hard language to learn. How do you learn it? You have to study. There are no shortcuts to it.

I remember when I was a young Christian, I would hear Christians quote scripture, and I thought that was the coolest thing. I was out witnessing with a guy, and he was quoting scripture. I thought, "How, man? How do you know that?" He said, "Well, you take the scripture and you read it over, and it's like memorizing anything. That's how you do it." I learned, hey, it's not magic; it's just slugging it out, repeating it, writing it out. You can learn all sorts of things. You can memorize all sorts of things. You can take scripture, put it on three-by-five cards, put it on your mirror, and in the morning when you're getting ready, you can read that verse over and over again. You can have those in your car, and when you're at a red light, you can flip through those and read scripture and memorize scripture and get the Word down in your heart. There's no substitute for that. It takes hard work.

And you remember, when it comes to how you present yourself and how hard you work, if you're gonna be faithful, people are watching. It's easy to compromise, but compromise is a killer. I heard a story about a man from New York who moved west and bought a ranch. He had some friends come from New York to visit him at his ranch. They said, "Hey, what's the name of your ranch?" He said, "Well, we really struggled with the name for the ranch. I wanted to call it the Bar Jay Ranch, but my wife wanted to call it the Suzie Q Ranch. My oldest son wanted to call it the Flying W Ranch, and my youngest son wanted to call it the Lazy Y Ranch. So we called it the Bar J, Suzie Q, Flying W, Lazy Y Ranch." They asked, "Well, where are all your cattle?" He said, "They all died during the branding." Compromise is a killer. It's a killer. Daniel wouldn't compromise. He trusted God, and God showed up. He was ten times better to the king—wiser, smarter, more able than all, it says, than all the magicians and conjurers in Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

You know, it's easy. As I was studying this, I thought about Daniel and said, "Man, I'm not Daniel. I can't be Daniel." You know, everybody's got these books out, "Dare to be a Daniel." You say, "I've blown it. Daniel didn't blow it. I've blown it in my life." You know that verse in Proverbs that says, "Like a muddy fountain and a polluted spring, that's me." I've sacrificed and compromised my integrity before the wicked. You say, "Jeff, I wish I could let my light shine, but man, I have let my mouth loose in profanity before people, and I have done this bad thing and that bad thing. People know my reputation and what I've done, and I feel like there's no way I can let my light shine because of the things that I've done. I wish I could start over, but I can't."

Encouragement number three: We can return to God regardless of the failures. I don't care how you failed. I don't care how you've messed up. I don't care how bad you've compromised in the past. Failure is not final. That's good news. That was what they told Peter when Jesus rose from the dead. The ladies were there at the tomb, and the angel said, "Go tell my disciples." His disciples. And Peter, he's risen. Why did he put in Peter's name? Because Peter had denied three times that he even knew him. Man, you talk about compromise. You're talking about wilting in the face of pressure. Here's a guy who said at the Last Supper, "I am ready, Jesus, to go with you to prison and to death." Then he's at the courtyard, warming himself by the fire. "You're one of his disciples." "Oh, I'm not. I don't know who you're talking about." "Yeah, you're one of them." "No, I don't know the man." Then the servant girl said, "Surely you're one of them. Your Galilean accent gives you away." He cursed and swore and said, "I don't even know him." The Lord turned and looked at Peter. It was a look of wounded love. The cock crowed, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. "Go tell my disciples or his disciples. And Peter, he's not here. He's risen."

Man, Peter, God's not through with you yet. And you who have failed and say, "I don't know how I'm going to ever be a Daniel because I failed." God's not finished with you yet. Failure is not final. Now, when you fail, this is what happens: The devil will move in and tell you, "Give up. Don't let your light shine. How can you let your light shine? You're a hypocrite if you try and do that. Give up." The devil's good at just beating us down. He wants us to take our light and just put it in our pocket, never let it shine, just shut your mouth. You're not gonna be a witness. So he says, "Give up." God never says give up. You know what God says when we fall? "Get up. Get up." A righteous man falls seven times, rises again.

Man, you've been messing up with drugs. Get up. Get up. Your failure is not final. God wants to work a miracle in you. If he can do it in Peter's life, he can do it in yours. I'm not perfect, and you're not perfect. And Daniel wasn't perfect. But he made up his mind he was gonna walk with God. He wasn't gonna defile himself. He was gonna do what God said and let the chips fall where they may and trust God to take care of him. And God took care of him. That same God will take care of you if you will trust him.

You got a light? Does the Lord come into your heart? Is the light of the world? Does he live inside you? This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Who would say that today? I'm gonna let my light shine. I want my light to shine for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1

No one is perfect, but we can make our minds up to not defile ourselves, to not compromise our beliefs in order to go along with the world and its ungodly culture. That's what we're learning about today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. In the message "When to Say No," you heard part two of this lesson from Pastor Jeff's six-message series that we just began yesterday called "How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World."

You know, being a Christian in today's world is not easy. There are opportunities and temptations for compromise everywhere you turn. When you say yes, often you're compromising your Christian witness to those around you and even in your own heart. But when it comes to God and what He desires for you in your life, compromise should not be a part of the plan. Earlier this month, Pastor Jeff taught through his new series, "Overcoming the World, the Flesh, and the Devil," where we learned how to fight the compromising spirit in us all and become empowered to fight the good fight.

This new series, "This Is War," is our gift to you for your support to Promise Heart this month of any amount. It's available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 digital download—your choice. When you make your gift today of any amount, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) to make your gift or go online to make a secure gift at fromhisheart.org. Request the series "This Is War." You can also find out how to get the series that we're in now, "How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World." Call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. Thank you for helping From His Heart reach this unchristian world through broadcasting the truth of God's Word.

As we close out today, a poignant reminder from God's Word found in Joshua chapter 1, verse 9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." What a blessing that is!

Hey, we trust that you'll be right back here with us tomorrow for the second lesson in the series "How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World," when we'll learn if our faith is real or if it is just practical atheism. Join us then when we'll again open God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His Heart.

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Real love Real.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at fromhisheart.org.