Where do you need more courage in your life? All of us, in some way or another, need more courage. Some of us are in a job that really has not got much of a future in it, but we have not had the courage to leave it, because, well, at least it's a paycheck. Others of us are in a relationship that we know is not good for us, but we don't have the courage to leave it, because we might not find someone else. Others of us are in a relationship that has compromised us morally, because we have not had the courage to stand up against the temptation they're offering us. Because, well, we're afraid they'll leave us if we don't compromise. All of us need courage in some way or another in our life. All I can say in these situations is, when you have to start erasing God's moral lines because of people around you, it's time to change the people around you. Courage. Courage. Courage. Where do you need more courage in your life, and to be braver than you actually feel? You see, courage is not a feeling. It's a choice, even when you don't feel so brave. Pontius Pilate almost did the right thing, didn't he? He interviewed Jesus, who'd been accused by the Pharisees of sedition. He interviewed Jesus and declared that he found Him to be innocent, and he wanted to set Him free. But Pilate crucified Jesus because of the pressure of the Pharisees, who said, "If you set Him free, we will report to Caesar that you have set free Jesus, who claimed to be king." Pilate would do the right thing, unless it became risky. That is why I love the book of Daniel. It's all about courage, when the temptation is so enormous to compromise and conform. The message of this book is simple and powerful: Have the courage to be a Daniel. Have the courage to be a Daniel in America today. That is such a much-needed message for Christians today in America. America, if your eyes are open, is a modern Babylon that is trying to brainwash us into erasing God's moral lines. Daily, we are being brainwashed to forget God and erase His moral lines. Let me give you a little bit of background on this. The action of this book occurs 600 years before the birth of Christ. Babylonia is the world's superpower. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, has never lost a battle. He mows down nations like you mow your back lawn. So he conquers Jerusalem in 605 BC and levels the city. And God had warned this was going to happen, through the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 39, verse 7, God said, "And they shall take away your sons, who will become servants in the palace of the king of Babylon." And it happened just the way God warned it would happen, if they did not repent and come back to Him. God warned that He would discipline His people if there was no repentance. But God's people, those who believed in God, didn't listen to Him, and they just kept doing the things that were sin in God's eyes. And finally, God's patience ran out, and He disciplined them, using Babylon to do that. And that's why the scripture I read this morning says that God gave Jerusalem into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar thought it was because of his power. But what was happening behind the scenes is that God was using this king to discipline His people and to bring them back to Him. C. S. Lewis famously got it right when he wrote, "God whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain." Pain is God's megaphone to spiritually deaf people. Pain, sometimes God uses it as hearing aids to us. Some people have to learn the hard way, and that's the story behind Daniel. God warned His people, but they had to learn the hard way, and finally, God had to bring pain and suffering upon them. We sang this morning that God is our good, good heavenly Father. And He is. But He is not a permissive parent. Because a permissive parent doesn't do any favors for their children. Because really, if you love your children, you will discipline them. You'll draw boundary lines, because the road they're on, the farther they go on that road, the worse it's going to be for them. The consequences that are coming. And so God uses pain sometimes to wake us up and get us off of a road that is going to hurt a lot of people, and also bring a lot of pain upon ourselves. Actually, discipline is loving mercy from the Father in heaven, just like from a good parent on earth. God's discipline is like hearing aids for the deaf. Sometimes pain is the only way some people start hearing God speak. Now, I don't want you to think that anytime a bad thing happens to you, you're being disciplined by God. That's not true. Sometimes bad things happen to us because of our own silly choices. We're just reaping the consequences. So don't blame God for consequences of your own choices. And then sometimes bad things happen to us because people do bad things to us. Don't blame God for the sin of other people against you. But then again, sometimes pain in our life is the discipline of God. A person's thumbing their nose at God. They're rebelling against His Word. I see that a lot. And it makes me sad. I'm sad because I know the person who is living in sheer disobedience to God is in danger of the discipline of God. Because God is a loving God, and He's going to wake us up one way or another, even if it takes pain. Some people have to learn the hard way, don't they? Don't you know anybody like that, who's had to learn the hard way? People turn against God when bad things happen. But the question to ask a person who's turning against God because of bad things in their life: Should we expect God's favor on our life when we are rebels? Of course not. This is a major teaching of Daniel in chapter 1. The youth of Jerusalem suffered because of the choices of the adults. That's Daniel chapter 1. These youth were carted off to Babylonia because of years and years of sinful choices by their parents and other adults in Jerusalem. The youth of Jerusalem suffered because of the choices of adults. Seems to me that the parallels between Babylon and America are just obvious. Children today are suffering because of the choices of adults. And it makes me sad, because children are so precious. They need adults to be an example of morality. For how else can they learn to be moral, unless they see their parents and adults being moral? They need to see adults sacrifice for them, instead of being selfish, like so many adults are today. And children pay the price for that. To be an example of a clean mouth, not a filthy mouth. And how to control anger. And to love to worship Jesus. If they don't see the adults in their life loving to worship Jesus, how will they ever develop that love? Children in America today are suffering from the choices of adults, just as the children in Jerusalem did. The message of the first two verses of this book is that the youth of Jerusalem paid for the sins of the adults in their lives. Let that sink in. They paid for the sins of the adults in their lives. And that happens still today in America. Jerusalem's children were marched off to Babylon. And the first thing Nebuchadnezzar does is to change their names, to eliminate the name of God in these children's names and insert the names of Babylonian gods. That's what's happening in the changing of these names. On the screen, I give you some examples. Daniel, in Hebrew, means "God is my judge." It was changed to Belteshazzar, which means "Bel's prince." Bel was a chief god of Babylon. So every time he heard his name, it was saying to him, "You are now Bel's prince and servant." Hananiah means "beloved by the Lord." It was changed to Shadrach, which means "worshiper of the moon god." So when he heard his name, he was completely brainwashed into forgetting the God of the Bible. And then Mishael means "who is like God." It was changed to Meshach, "who is Shak," who was a Babylonian goddess. So instead of God, he's been reminded of a Babylonian goddess. And Azariah, "the Lord is my help," to Abednego, which means "slave of Nego." And Nego is another major deity in Babylon. So what's happening here is, Nebuchadnezzar is brainwashing these children by changing their names with pagan content. And then they went to schools that taught them astrology and Babylonian philosophy of life. And the plan was that the secular education of Babylon schools and universities would make them forget God. Honestly, isn't the parallel to America obvious? What we hear is happening in our universities and in our schools, where children are being brainwashed to forget the God that this country was founded upon, Jesus Christ. Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian dissident, was asked why such terrible things happened in Russia. The terrible things that happened. His answer was three words: "We forgot God." You know what really is alarming to me is, so many Christians are not alarmed at the forgetting of God in our country. Because when that happens, the conscience becomes dull and dead. And people, they don't become more ethical. They don't become more kind and more generous. They go the other way. Forgetting God is a very serious thing for the future of our country. Because history tends to repeat itself. And the question we ought to be asking ourselves is, what kind of future are we giving to the children of our country? The Barna Research Group, which is the major research group besides Gallup, has interviewed hundreds of thousands of churchgoers and found this: 60% of churchgoers are not watching worship services and sermons online. 60% say they have not watched a worship service since the beginning of COVID. We are forgetting God. They estimate that 30% of people who were churchgoers before COVID will not return to church after this passes. They've gotten out of the habit of worship and gotten involved in other things. Satan and atheists never waste a crisis. Haven't you heard politicians say that? "Never waste a crisis." That's what's happening here, whether we realize it or not. This crisis is being used to really help Christians forget God, and to secularize them, just like in Babylonia. Daniel and his three amigos, notice, do not object to changes in their name or their education. But they draw a line at eating the king's food. Why? That just seems like such a small thing. But remember, small things lead to other things. And in the kingdom of God, there's no such thing as small disobedience. So why the food of the king? It says in verse 8, "But Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself by eating the food and the wine of the king." Why? First, it had been offered to the idols of Babylon. In all the ancient world, before the royalty ate the food, it was offered in worship to their idols. And so that was forbidden for God's people to partake of, because they would then be partaking of the worship of that idol. That food had been polluted by the idol. And then secondly, because in the ancient world, people were largely ignorant of the dangers of some food. And so in the Bible, you find a list of food that is prohibited for God's people, in order to protect their health. They didn't understand the risks. One of those foods, of course, was pork, because we know now today, you have to be careful with pork. It can carry parasites and all kinds of other things. They did not know that in the ancient world. So to protect the people, God had a forbidden list of foods. And of course, the Babylonians were eating all of those foods. And so to partake of the king's table was to cross a line that God's Word had drawn. Daniel draws a line not because of his palate. Not because of his personal taste preferences. He draws a line because God drew a line there. End of story. Only Daniel and his three amigos draw a line. I pointed it out in the scripture reading, that the other youth that had been deported from Jerusalem were eating of this food. They were not drawing a line where the Word of God drew a line. They enjoyed the luxury of food from fine-dining restaurants. But for Daniel, if God's Word says no, then end of story. If God draws a line, Christians, too, ought to draw a line. End of story. This needs to be seared into our mind. Where God draws a line, we need to draw a line, if we're going to be followers of Him. Otherwise, we're rebels. Daniel made up his mind not to compromise. No matter how many of the others compromise, Daniel would not. Patricia Heaton is a star in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. She's a Christian. And she was part of the presenters on the stage of the American Music Awards when, in the middle of that, she walked off the stage. Why? Because she said the humor had crossed the line into vile vulgarity. And she refused to be part of that vulgarity. She drew a line in speech where the Bible draws a line, against vulgarity, and walked off the stage. You can guess what followed. She was accused of being judgmental and of being self-righteous. Judgmental of people who did not think there was anything wrong with a little vulgarity. This accusation against Christians, of being judgmental if they draw a line morally, is so common. And I'm sure, if you've drawn lines, you've been accused of being judgmental. And what I want to tell you is, you must not be cowed by this. You must stand up against this really deceitful accusation. And I say that because of how she answered those who accused her of being judgmental. This is what she said, and I quote: "But aren't you judgmental of me when you accuse me of being judgmental?" Think about that. Exactly. When you say I should not draw a line of vulgarity, aren't you being hypocritical and judgmental, because you are drawing a line against me for refusing to tolerate vulgarity? You accuse me of being intolerant. But aren't you intolerant of me and my morality? Absolutely right. We need to get this into our mind, because we're being brainwashed that to draw any moral lines means that we're self-righteous and we're judgmental of people. That is just not true. It's really silly and duplicitous when the world says Christians ought not to draw moral lines. Everyone you know draws moral lines. My guess is, you don't know a father who doesn't say, "You may not rape my daughter." Drawing moral lines. You don't know a person in business who doesn't say, "You may not cheat me financially." I think it's going to be really hard at the Super Bowl today to watch people in line, and somebody cuts in line for a ticket, and people don't draw a line and say, "Hey, wait a minute. The end of the line's back there." Everybody draws lines. Except when Christians do, they get accused of being judgmental. We ought not to be intimidated by that. Following Jesus as a Christian is like art. You must draw moral lines where He does. If not, you aren't living as a Christian. Just as an artist who will not draw lines is not an artist. Think about that. That's why Dante, the great epic poet, put who he called the morally neutral, those who refuse to draw lines, he put them in hell. Because not drawing moral lines helps evil to advance and prosper. You cannot be morally neutral and be a Christian. It took courage for Daniel to obey God rather than compromise. Just as it takes courage to be in modern-day Babylon, called America, today. So the question is, how do you have that courage to draw moral lines? First, make up your mind whose applause you want. God's, or man's? Because often you cannot have both. Whose applause do you want? This is a true story. A person who had trained for years to be a classical pianist was to play the most important concert of his career. It either would launch him or really banish him into oblivion. When he finished, the audience jumped to its feet in thunderous applause for his performance, except one man sitting in the front row. A New York Times reporter interviewed him after the concert, and he was just elated. It was such a beautiful performance, and the next day, the papers would be making him famous for how well he did. But he could tell he was worried and bothered by the man in the front row who did not stand and applaud. He said, "You ought to forget that guy. He doesn't matter. What matters is the applause of the audience." And the artist said, "That guy in the front row who is not applauding was my teacher. He's the only one I play for. What matters most to me is what he thinks, not what all the rest of the people think." That's the beginning of courage. There may be many who believe in Jesus, but the applause of people matters more to them than the applause of Jesus. Don't be in that group. To be faithful, you have to decide whose applause means the most to you. You could call it crazy love. You know, crazy love: when a man's in love with a woman, he does crazy things, 'cause he loves her. Like helps with the dishes. Crazy things, you know. There's crazy love spiritually. You could call it crazy love when a person does not have sex outside of marriage. "That's crazy. Why not? Enjoy yourself." You could call it crazy love when people make worship on the Lord's Day, the Sabbath, a priority instead of sports. "Ah, that's crazy. You're too serious about your religion." Yeah, they call it crazy love when you forgive someone, and people around you say, "You should not forgive that person. You should make them pay." Crazy love. Obedience to the ways of the Lord always looks crazy to the world. You must be prepared for that, because you are in love with Jesus. And Jesus said, "If you love Me, you'll obey Me." Living the Christian life requires being a rebel against the world. You must be a rebel against Babylon and what it's trying to teach you. Romans 12:2 says, "The opposite of courage is not cowardice. It's compromise and conformity and being squeezed into the mold of the world." Conformity. Compromise. That's the opposite of courage. So let me ask you: Where are you being brainwashed and squeezed? Where are you seeking the applause of people, rather than applause of the One who died for you? Remember, even dead fish can go with the flow. Takes courage to swim upstream. Second, build up courage by remembering this verse: "God granted Daniel favor." You want the favor of God in your life, believe me. People talk about the cost of obeying God, but they ought to talk about the cost of disobeying God. It will cost them the favor of God. Jeremiah 7:23 says, "Walk in the ways I command you, and you will have My favor in your life." There's another loss besides the loss of favor, and that is a broken relationship with Jesus. The loss of spiritual intimacy and power with Jesus. Because you can't hold hands with Jesus when you're walking away from Jesus. You lose the intimacy of Jesus, and the power. Don't be fooled. It's not just how you feel in worship. It's whether or not you really have power, which comes from holding hands with the Lord. Daniel and his three friends had the favor of God on their lives. That didn't mean that they weren't thrown in the fiery furnace. It didn't mean they weren't thrown into the lions' den. But God's favor was still with them, and they came out, landed on their feet, and were blessed. I don't care what your temptations promise you. No matter how pleasurable it looks, short-term gain is not worth losing God's favor. So where are you tempted? Because that temptation is seeking to brainwash you, and lose God's favor in your life. And third, to have courage, we must be willing to let drawing lines cost us. To pay a price, sometimes. NFL star Reggie White was invited to speak to the Wisconsin State Legislature. And what does he do? He spoke against same-sex marriage. Well, most of the chamber got up and walked out. The media called him a bigot and narrow-minded. CBS Sports canceled his $6 million contract. Do you know what Reggie said? "Jesus owns me, not CBS." To have courage, you must be crystal clear on who owns you. Must be willing to pay a price. There will be people around you who say you're taking your religion too seriously. "Loosen up. Don't be so self-righteous." All I can say is, again, when you have to start erasing God's lines because of people around you, it's time to change the people around you. Amen. Some of us have been paying a price for sticking with Jesus. Some of you have paid a price. Sooner or later, the world, Babylon, will make all faithful people pay a price. Sooner or later. And sometimes, all we can do is suffer faithfully, just as Jesus did. Remember that. Sometimes we must just suffer faithfully, 'cause that's the price we must pay in Babylon. One of the most powerful quotes I have ever read in my life is not from C. S. Lewis. It's from Jim Elliot. He was studying at Wheaton to be a missionary, and to go to Stone Age tribes in South America to evangelize them. And he was asked, "Why would you risk your life to share faith with Stone Age Indians?" And this is what he wrote: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." And in fact, he was killed by the Auca Indians as he shared faith. But he had courage, because he had an eternal perspective. Let me pray for us. With your eyes closed, you know, I just wonder if any of us has been living as a rebel. On the surface, we're Christians, but down deep, we're living a rebel life. Maybe it's time to make this your prayer, and pray it after me, silently: Jesus, I've been living as a rebel. Please forgive me. Break the chains in my life. Give me Your blessing. I want Your favor on my life. I ask You to forgive me of my rebellion. Change me into a follower of You. Give me the power to follow You, to have the courage to do so. And maybe some of you never asked Jesus into your life as Lord. Maybe you would make this your prayer: Jesus, I ask You to forgive me of things I've done that have hurt people and been wrong. Forgive me of my rebel life. I ask You to come into my heart and break chains. I ask Your favor on my life, and to help me to become a follower of You, faithfully. Amen.