Standing Strong against Satan’s Schemes

When in Babylon…?
Daniel 1 – Standing Strong against Satan’s Schemes

Satan is seeking to destroy our faith
By indoctrinating our minds (1:4)
By stealing our identity (1:6-7)
By feeding our flesh (1:5)
God enables us to stand strong in our faith
By knowing the Truth(1:8a)
By remembering our Identity (1:19)
By exercising our faith (1:8b-16)

Intro
Slide
Good morning. I am excited you are here this morning. We are beginning a new series for the summer called, “When in Babylon…?”

You may have heard the saying When in Rome, do as the Romans. Well this title ends in a question mark, because we are going to find that, as Christians, we are not called to follow the ways that the world acts. We are called to follow the Lord, in all situations, even when we live in environments and cultures that are hostile towards those who are followers of the Lord.

And the society we live in today, while it is much more advanced technologically, is similar to Daniel’s in that it is not very supportive toward those who are followers of the Lord.

This is why I think studying the book of Daniel this summer will be good for all of us, to encourage us to live for the Lord and remind us that even in a culture that is opposed to following Him, we do follow a God that is completely in control of all things, things in the political realm as well as the future. They are all completely in His hand.

And even for those of you here today who are young, this is a great book to learn and know, because when Daniel and his friends were taken captive to Babylon, they were just teens who were separated from their family, but God used them mightily to bring glory to Him.

He can do the same thing through you, no matter what your age.

So before we get started, I want to give you a little background of the book of Daniel.

Daniel lived approximately 400 years after David and 600 years before Jesus. The book covers about a 75 year period from 605 BC to about 530 BC. In the beginning Daniel is just a teenager, maybe about 15 years old. When the book closes, he is about 90 years old. Over the course of his life, Daniel goes from prisoner to serving as a trusted counselor to a succession of Babylonian and Persian rulers.
http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1999-11-07-The-Four-Freshmen-How-the-World-Tries-to-Seduce-the-Church/

Slide
As we begin the book of Daniel this morning, we are going to learn how the Lord enables us to stand strong against Satan’s Schemes as we get a glimpse of Satan’s playbook for turning God fearing believers away from Him.

So turn with me to Daniel 1.
Slide
If you don’t know where Daniel is, open to the middle of the Bible and then go to the right. Go past Isaiah, and past Jeremiah and past Ezekiel. If you get to a guy’s name you don’t recognize, it is probably one of the minor prophets and you have gone too far. Go back to the left. It is right after Ezekiel.

So beginning in Daniel 1, we read:
Daniel 1
1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.
3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court