You Gotta Take A Stand
3/29/98 Joshua 24:14-24 Ephesians 6:10-20 Daniel 6
LaKeisha is an eighth grade Christian. She’s new to the school and desperately wants to make some friends. By the end of the week, she’s invited into one of the more popular cliques. She’s thrilled. One day the six of them were are in the hallway. Mary is coming down the hall. Mary is overweight and poorly dressed and always made fun of by others. She says hello to the group, and before LaKeisha could say hi, the other five girls burst out in laughter at Mary. LaKeisha sees the tears in Mary’s eyes as she walks away. Her friends are just being funny. What’s gonna be Mary’s stand.
David is a good looking high school senior. He gave his heart to the Lord a year ago. One of the most popular girls in the school is interested in him. She invites him to come over to her house and meet her parents. When he gets there, she tells him her parents had to leave, but he can come on in. They’re sitting their watching TV. She comes real close to him. David wants to save his virginity until he’s married. She gives him a kiss. She says, "I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m on the pill and giggles. I know my parents won’t be back for at least an hour if you know what I mean." What’s gonna be David’s stand.
John just got a new job in the bank as a loan officer. He’s all excited about helping to make a difference in people’s lives. A friend comes over and says, "John this is off the record, but I’m telling you, the reason the guy ahead of you was let go was he made to many loans to minorities. The boss doesn’t really go for that."
That afternoon an African American couple comes in for a mortgage. They look as though they could probably make the payment without much trouble, but John could probably also justify turning them down. As he thinks of a way he could help them through a special program, the friend who gave him the warning comes by a shakes his head in a way that John knows what he’s thinking. What’s gonna be David’s stand.
We all are going to have to make choices to take a stand? Sometimes somebody is going to ask us to lie for them to cover for their mistakes? Sometimes somebody is going to offer us something, we know we should reject but we’re not going to want to hurt their feelings? Sometimes something we have wanted for a long time is finally going to come our way, but in order to get it, we will have to compromise our commitment to God. Sometimes we will minding our own business, doing what is right, and not bothering anybody, and someone will up against us and force us to choose between God and our position. Have you already made up your mind what you’re going to do?
All of us here can probably recall a time in our lives when we didn’t take a stand and we regretted it. We think, boy if I had the chance to do that again, I would have said, or I would have never, or if only I had do that.
I can recall when I was a freshman in college. I had been a Christian for two years. I had been trying to witness to a group of my friends. We all washed dishes together in the cafeteria. One evening we were coming from work and I wanted to fit in. We were laughing and joking, and someone made a comment about abortion. Trying to be accepted I made a joke about it and they all bust out laughing. The guy who was our supervisor, said laughingly, "I never would have thought you would have made a statement like that." In my eagerness to try to be one of the crowd, I threw away all the influence I had in demonstrating that a Christian is called to be different. I failed that
Let’s meet a person today who knew what it was like to be looked down upon because he didn’t fit with the majority of the people. He knew what it was like to be lied about because of his honesty. He knew what it was like to have his good deeds twisted and called evil. He knew what it was like to have others betray him, when he had done them no wrong. He knew what it was like to have to stand all by himself.
Daniel had been carried way as young teenager as captive to the land of Babylon. He was always a foreigner and a minority. As a teenager he first took a stand not to eat the food of the king, because some of the food violated the law of God. God blessed him for taking a stand, and gave him more wisdom and knowledge exceeding those of all the other students. Later Daniel took a stand to interpret the king’s dream and was exalted to a high place in the government. By chapter six the Babylonian government was overthrown and Darius the Mede took over the country.
We find in the first few verses of Daniel, that Darius appointed 120 satraps or governors to rule over the kingdom, with three administrators over them one of whom was Daniel. The king was no fool, and knew that out of a 120 people, who would be seeing a lot of money in taxes which were to come to him, some of them were bound to be corrupt. He knew some would take bribes, some would skim off the top of the taxes, and some would rule their country to their own advantage. So he set Daniel and two other guys over the 120 rulers.
Now here’s a Daniel, a minority in one of the top three positions. But Daniel did his job so well it got him into trouble. The 40 leaders under him were obviously less corrupt and probably turned in more money. Daniel probably didn’t have any problem firing officials who were not doing their job or who were cheating the king. King Darius noticed, Daniel was out doing both of the other two leaders, and he decided. "Wait a minute, I think I ought to put Daniel over everybody."
Now what happens, when a minority is placed over everybody else. Now just suppose for a moment a school that’s 95% white has three assistant principles. 1 black and 2 white. If the principal who was white resigned, do you think the white community would have a problem if that black assistant becomes the new principal. Would they think he was the most qualified, or did he get it because he was black. Do you think the other two assistant principles would be willing to stay in their jobs. What would happen if a black college was interviewing three candidates for president, two blacks and one white. If the white candidate was chosen, would the Black community immediately assume the committee picked the best candidate? Would they say, they’re just in love with skin color.
You know what. I think in both situations, they would do the exact same thing which the people of Daniel’s day did. When they heard a minority was going to get the job they got busy. "At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent." They went looking for some dirt to bring up on Daniel as to why he shouldn’t get the job. They all knew Daniel was qualified for the position, but they were prejudice. Why should an outsider especially a minority get the position?
Can Christians be prejudice. Can Christians have the same feelings of racist attitudes in them once they know Christ? Let me ask you something, have you ever listened to someone tell a racist joke or ethnic joke and you laughed with the rest of the crowd. Did you not laugh, but show your approval by not telling the person, "What you said was wrong, and I don’t care to hear anything like that again." People will say in your presence, what they think you will allow them to say in your presence at school, at home or at work. Are you taking a stand in this little innocent area, or do you just keep quiet not to offend?
Peter was one of the great apostles, preachers and teachers in the New Testament. He walked with Jesus from three to five years. He was part of Jesus’ inner circle. God gave him dreams and visions, but Peter was still a racist when the time was ripe. The Jews and Gentiles did not care much for each other. The Jews considered the Gentiles to be unclean and even called them dogs. Peter was a Jew. God showed Peter he was not to call anybody unclean. So Peter started accepting the Gentiles as equal Christians.
He would eat with them at the table, visit their homes, and just be one of the guys. Especially when he was out of town in Antioch. One day Peter and some other Jews were having a good time with Gentile brothers in Antioch. But then some Jewish brothers called Judaizers came down to Antioch from Jerusalem. These important brothers didn’t believe in Jews and Gentiles mixing together unless the Gentiles first became Jews by observing all their rituals.
They jumped on Peter’s case for intermingling with the Gentiles in such a fashion. "Man what you doing hanging with these guys. You really going to hurt your image if people back in Jerusalem find out you’ve become a Gentile lover. Man you better get away from them people. You can’t trust them. They’re not even worth your time."
Peter had a chance to take a stand and let them know, Jews are no better than Gentiles in Christ. But do you know what saved, Holy Ghost filled Peter did. He excused himself from the table of the Gentiles. Peter you coming over to eat tonight? Oh no fellows, I ahm I got to do a ahm bible study with some other guys. Do you act differently with members of the other race, when members of your own race show up, especially when you’re by your self?
When Peter’s Jewish friends who had been with him in Antioch saw what he was doing, they also started to withdraw from the Gentiles. The next thing, even the outstanding encourager Barnabus got caught him in their hypocrisy.
Peter, Barnabus and the others all failed to take a stand for their Gentile brothers and sisters. In so doing They became hypocritical. They said one thing (We’re all one in Christ) but lived something else (We don’t want to be seen in public with you).
They followed the crowd simply because they put pressure upon them—even when they knew better. They esteemed some persons better than others , (indicating Jewish Christians were superior to Gentile Christians. ) But God always has somebody whose going to take a stand. Paul was one of those rare Christians who felt no need to impress anybody, and no need to please anybody except Jesus Christ. That’s where Paul gets his affirmation. Now Paul is a Jew like Peter. When Paul comes back to Antioch, and sees what’s going on he is like wait a minute. I see Jews over here and Gentiles over there, but I don’t see Christ. Paul does not try to sweep this thing under the rug.
In front of everybody, he said , "Peter you are low down hypocrite. Now you know you use to treat these brothers and sisters like family until the Judaizers arrived. Now you acting like you all that. You even got Barnabus and the rest of them acting like they too are all that. Here me on this brothers. None of us are anything because apart from Jesus Christ we are all worthless.
We are not going to allow the racism of the world destroy the church for which Christ died. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, black nor white nor brown nor red nor yellow. After Paul’s public rebuke, Peter changes once for all and never waivers again on the issue.
My friends it is important that we take a stand in our lives for God as early and as often as possible, because someone is going to go looking into our past when God gets ready to promote us to bigger things or better situations. Those governors and satraps searched and searched to find something on Daniel. Thank God, Daniel had said no way to the bribes during his many years of service. Thank God he hadn’t brought women into his office and sexually harassed them. He hadn’t fooled around with anybody’s wife. Thank God he hadn’t fudged and kept a little money to himself when he thought no one was looking.
Thank God he was willing to check up on his people to make sure they were doing what he told them to do. Thank God he was a person of honesty and integrity. The Scriptures said they couldn’t find a thing. Some of you here God is seeking to exalt to some very high places, are you keeping your record clean so that you can take it when God offers it. The little stands you are taking now are going to count in the long run.
The men said look, "We not going to find any dirt on Daniel. The brother is too clean, and we’re not going to be able to make any lies or rumors stick. The only way we can get him is to force him to choose between obeying the law and obeying His God. After all these years, he’s not about to go against God." Isn’t it something when the folks who don’t know God, know you love God so much, they can count on you to do the right thing in relationship to Him. You see once we make our position with the world clear, they stop trying to tempt us to do some things.
Now how can we get the king to make a law punishable by death, which Daniel won’t obey. Someone said, "well you know old Darius has a serious ego problem. He’s got a big head and we can use it to our advantage. Let’s appeal to his pride." So they went to big headed Darius. They said king, you are great and there is none other like you. All of your officials from one end of the kingdom to the other have made an agreement that you should pass a law, that for the next 30 days, no one in the entire kingdom is to pray to any god except to you. If the person disobeys, the person shall be thrown into the lion’s den. And this law shall be irrevocable so that if anyone breaks it, there will be no room for mercy.
If the king had not of been so caught up in himself, he would have known they were lying to him. I know one government official who didn’t agree with this recommendation and probably was not told about it in advance. That would have been Daniel. But the king took their word and signed it into law. Now some of us would not miss praying to God for 30 days. We would have said, well secretly I’ll pray to God. Or I’ll do it in hiding where no one could see me. But that wouldn’t have been taking a stand. It would have been compromise.
When Daniel gets news of the law, he does not run in and beg the king to change it. He does not cry out "oh God how could this happen. " He does not agonize over whether or not he could go 30 days without prayer. He didn’t go hide in a cave to pray. There are some 50,000 Jews minimum in the kingdom who are looking to see what Daniel is going to do. What Daniel does is exactly what his enemies believed he would do. The brother took a stand. He leaves the office and goes home that day. He goes upstairs into the room with the windows opened toward Jerusalem and starts to pray. The Bible says, three times a day he prayed, just like he did before. It doesn’t matter what law Congress passes approving sin or what the Supreme Court rules in opposition to the word of God, a Christian is to always be subject to obeying Jesus Christ.
They men know where to find Daniel praying. They get the evidence. They take it to the king. Say king, you remember the law you passed about people praying only to you for thirty days. The king says, "yes, not only law, that law is irrevocable and nothing can change it." Well king, you’re not going to believe this, but you’ve got a foreigner, a minority person, who does not pay attention to your law even though it’s written out. The guy’s name is Daniel. He still prays three times a day, and he’s not praying to you because we heard him for ourselves.
The king is greatly troubled inside. He finally realizes he has been set up by the other leaders just to get rid of Daniel. He gets people searching the law to see if an exception could be made. He does not want to lose Daniel and his skills. It’s getting night and he still does not have a solution. And the rulers come back and said, now king you remember the law can’t be changed and we have Daniel down here with us so that you can pronounce the sentence.
What is King Darius going to do now. He can not take a stand and say the law is stupid even though he know it is. It would make him look bad. So he shoves the problem back into Daniel’s hand.
He says, "Brother Daniel, I ahm hope the God you serve continually is able to save you from the lions. They throw Daniel into the dens with the lions and seal the top of it with rocks. Daniel is there to face a bunch of hungry lions with no natural weapons. He does not go in trying to do Kung Fu or Jo Jitusu or whatever on the lions. He is willing to face whatever came his way. He is now about 80 years old. He has served God for too long and too well to back out now. As the old spiritual says, "I think I’ll run on and see what the end is going to be."
But the funny thing about that night isn’t that Daniel isn’t afraid. The strange thing is the king can not sleep. He doesn’t eat anything that night. He doesn’t want any entertainment. He keeps wondering what time it is. Is Daniel still alive? What’s he going to find when he removes the rock from the cave. Is Daniel’s God really God. Why did he let the others trick him into getting rid of Daniel.
On the other side of town, it’s party time. Daniel is lion meat and gone for good. One of the good ole boys would get his position. There would be a little more freedom to cut corners and take bribes without ole honest Dan, Mr. Integrity himself around. What a victory celebration. It all went along according to plan, but. But what. But God. Your enemies can plan your defeat, but God. Say it, But God. But God can make a difference.
At the first crack of dawn, the King gets up and run’s to the lion’s den. The king said "Somebody move that stone out of the way. Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve continuously been able to rescue you from the lions."
Daniel yells back, "Oh King, I’m straight. I’m a little hungry and the lions are too. You see when I got down here, a couple of lions started to growl, but ahm before they could do anything, God sent an angel and closed up their mouths. They haven’t hurt me, because God found me innocent. King you know I have not ever done anything wrong in your sight.
The king is overjoyed to hear Daniel’s’ voice. " What are you waiting on, quick get him out of the den." Daniel comes out without a scratch on him, because he had trusted in his God. The king orders those who had tricked him to check out and see if the angels were still holding the lions mouths. No sooner than they got near the bottom, the lions overpowered them and crushed their bones. Their plot of evil had come back on their own heads.
The king made a new law. Daniel’s God is the true and living God who can do all kinds of miracles. Let everybody in my kingdom fear and reverence the God of Daniel.
When Jesus called us to follow him, Jesus didn’t promise a bed of roses. He didn’t promise a life free of problems. He didn’t promise everything will turn out okay. He did promise us the truth. The truth is, all of us are sinners who have broken the law of God and headed for hell and eternal punishment. But God loved us all so much, He’s made it possible for us to have life forever in Jesus Christ. We’re not going to be able to take the kind of stands that Daniel took by ourselves.
We need God’s spirit to dwell inside of us. We also need to agree with God, there is no temptation which comes our way, that God won’t provide a way for us to escape it if we want to escape it. Now Jesus did not die for us to become part time Christians. Jesus said, first sit down and count the cost to see if you’re going to be willing to stand for me when times get hard. If you’re not gonna stand, you cannot be my disciple. But if you intend to give it your best shot, and you’re willing to get up and try again when you fail, I’ll always be there for you. Together we can stand, and after its over, we’ll keep on standing.
