From His Heart

Speaker 1

It's the question of all questions for everyone. Why in the world were we created? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Daniel, I think we would all agree, is like that guy, man. He made an impact. Daniel made an impact on kings and kingdoms. And sometimes it's easy. You read about Daniel and you hear sermons about Daniel, and the common expression was "dare to be a Daniel."

Well, it's easy to say "dare to be a Daniel." I don't have the tools that Daniel had. Daniel was somebody special. I'm just little old me.

So here's our question for today: How can you make an impact for the Lord and his kingdom? There is treasure, there is bless, love. There is hope that you always dream of. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

Jesus never said that living the life of faith was going to be easy. In fact, the opposite. The good soldiers in Christ's army must suffer hardship, remain faithful till death, all the while shining for the Lord. And to this end, that he or she might make a full impact on the Kingdom of God.

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who has a pointed message today that will explore the life of the Old Testament prophet Daniel and how his life did and our life can have real positive influence on others. Ultimately, a full impact for the Kingdom of God.

Today we'll start the fourth message of five in Pastor Jeff's series, We are Soldiers. If you missed any, you can listen again online after they've aired. When you go to fromisheart.org, click the listen tab and you can download a free MP3 of the broadcast as well as the sermon outline notes from Pastor Jeff, all for free right now.

Open your Bible to the book of Daniel and turn to chapter six. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve to explain how our life can and should make a full impact now.

Speaker 2

Daniel, Old Testament Daniel. Daniel lived. He was born probably 620 B.C.; we don't know for sure, but somewhere around there. And he lived well into the 500s. He was prime minister in Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and had a key position in his government. Then he had a key position in the new government under Medo-Persia. The Medo-Persians were the ones who came in in 539 B.C. and overtook Babylon, really beating them even without firing a shot, so to speak. Daniel became one of the principal men in the government of Cyrus the Persian, also known as Cyrus the Great.

Daniel, I think we would all agree, is like that guy, man. He made an impact, and he did. Daniel made an impact on kings and kingdoms. Sometimes it's easy to read about Daniel and hear sermons about him. The common expression is "dare to be a Daniel." Well, it's easy to say "dare to be a Daniel." I don't have the tools that Daniel had. Daniel was somebody special. I'm just little old me. I mean, the scripture says about Daniel that he was good-looking, wise, courageous, brave, intelligent, diplomatic, and so on. The list about Daniel goes on and on. Daniel is a five-talent guy.

Remember how Jesus told the parable about the master who went on a trip and entrusted his possessions to his servants? To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent. When I was in seminary, my preaching professor, Wayne McDill, in preaching delivery class, had a classroom full of guys studying this thing called preaching—guys getting ready to go into the ministry. He said, "Hey guys, some of you are five-talent guys. You have a lot of ability. God's blessed you with a lot. Some of you are two-talent guys, and some of you are one-talent guys."

You know, the one-talent guy can get mad because he doesn't have as many gifts and talents as the five-talent guy, and he can bury his talent in the ground like the story in the book of Matthew, like that one-talent guy did. Or the one-talent guy can follow in the footsteps of the five-talent guy. The five-talent guy took his five talents and made five more. The two-talent guy took what he had and made two more. And the one-talent person can take his one talent and use it to the full for the glory of God.

In my house, Debbie has a cabinet filled with light bulbs. She's just a boy scout. I mean, that girl is just ready to go. We have two of everything, so when you're out of something, you've got it right there. It's like, "We don't have any more of this." "Yeah, we do." She pulls it out of the drawer, you know? We have lots of light bulbs, and there are different wattages on those light bulbs. We have some light bulbs that are 100 watts, some that are 60 watts, and some that are 40 watts.

The thing about a light bulb is that the 40-watt light bulb isn't sitting there thinking, "You know, I could really do something if I was a 100-watt bulb, but I can't do much." You know what you can do when you're a 40-watt bulb? You can shine 40 watts. You can shine to the full. If you're a one-talent person, you can use your one talent to the full. Daniel, as we're going to read about, is a five-talent guy. To whom much has been given, much shall also be required. Daniel shined; his life would shine for the Lord to the full, to the maximum. He shook kings and kingdoms.

So here's our question for today: How can you make an impact, a great impact, a full impact? Whether you're a five-talent person, a two-talent person, or a one-talent person, how can you make a full impact for the Lord and His kingdom? Let's look at a very familiar passage in Daniel chapter six, Daniel in the lion's den. We run into Daniel chapter six, verse one, and immediately there's a problem. It says, "It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they should be in charge of the whole kingdom." Critics of the Bible go ape on Darius because they say, "Hey, there is no archaeological evidence for any king in Medo-Persia named Darius."

We don't hear about that. We know that when Babylon was taken out, Cyrus the Great was the king of Medo-Persia. The Medes and the Persians got together and had the Medo-Persian Empire. Cyrus was the guy. So they struggle with this Darius. Who is Darius? Well, number one, Darius is not somebody's name; Darius is a title, like the title Pharaoh or the title Caesar. It means king. This is the name that means king. This guy they called Darius was king—not his name, but his title.

They said, "Well, who is this? If Cyrus is the king, then who's this guy?" Some have postulated that this is the governor or the general under Cyrus, and they said that's Gubaru. They've done some research and said that's Gubaru that they're talking about. Here's what I think: I believe Cyrus the Great, Cyrus the Persian, was known by another name, Darius the Mede. It says in the last verse of chapter six, "So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." You say, "Well, that's obviously two different people." It sounds like two different people unless you translate "and" as "even," which in the Aramaic can be translated that way.

So if you read it that way, you find that it says, "So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius, even in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." So that one question comes up: I believe Darius and Cyrus are the same guy. It says this: "It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they should be in charge of the whole kingdom and over them three commissioners, of whom Daniel was one, that these satraps might be accountable to them and that the king might not suffer loss."

Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom. Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs. But they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.

Hey, how can you make a full impact, a great impact for the kingdom? Four essentials. Essential number one: you can get serious about the Lord. Get serious about the Lord. Daniel was serious in his relationship with the Lord. Now, Daniel's life, like I said, he was born probably about 620 B.C. When he was 15 years old, in 605 B.C., that's when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, first came upon Judah and attacked Jerusalem. He came in, slapped them around a little bit, and took back captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. Daniel was one of those guys, probably 15 years old when he was taken from his home and from his homeland, along with other choice men of Judah.

They were taken hundreds of miles back to Babylon. Now we know that he came with three of his buddies. We know them as Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, but we know them better by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were with Daniel. They came in 605 B.C. as 15-year-olds, away from mom and dad, away from home, away from everything that was familiar, to a dark place, to a wicked place. They were the defeated remnant of Judah, and they had to hear the taunts and jeers that "our God whipped your God" and that kind of thing.

They were put into Babylonian graduate school and had to learn the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. Daniel was given the king's food to eat, and the king's food had been offered to idols, and he wouldn't eat the meat offered to idols. The scripture says in Daniel chapter one, verse eight, that he determined not to defile himself with the king's choice food. Daniel was a guy from the time he was a teenager; he was determined to follow the Lord no matter the cost. He was serious in his walk with the Lord.

Hey, are you serious in your relationship with the Lord? One of the reasons that God blessed Daniel so much and used him so greatly is that Daniel was serious. Daniel didn't have a "now you see it, now you don't" attitude. He wasn't a fair-weather follower of the Lord. He was going to follow the Lord and be faithful, as it says in Revelation 2:10, all the way to death. That was Daniel. God is looking for some people who will be serious about Him, and He can strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

He was serious. Now, verse three is a key verse. It says, "Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself." In the Aramaic, that word means to glitter from afar. When we talk about the Bible being written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the Aramaic is in Daniel because Aramaic was the language of international protocol. From Daniel chapter 2, verse 4, to Daniel chapter 7, verse 28, that's the portion of the Bible that's in Aramaic. Every other part of the Old Testament is in Hebrew, but this part's in Aramaic because that's the language of international protocol.

Daniel is dealing with international things as he deals with Nebuchadnezzar and now Darius or Cyrus the Persian. But it says that he distinguished himself among the commissioners. He glittered from afar. Daniel's a 100-watt bulb or a 150-watt bulb; he is shining for Yah, and people notice. People notice when you shine; mark it down. People notice your conduct; they notice. You tell people you're a Christian, and they start to watch you.

You know when it says that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution? Well, the persecution that you're going to suffer is not necessarily that they're going to stick your little finger in an old-time pencil sharpener and sharpen it up like, "Ah, we got you." Persecution means to pursue. They're going to come after you, and they're going to start watching you to see what comes out of your mouth, to see where you go, to see what you do. People notice your conduct.

It says in Proverbs 20:11, "It is by his deeds that a lad distinguishes himself." If his conduct is pure and right, by his deeds, people are watching. If you start to shine for the Lord, that gets people's attention. Daniel shined; he was shining, and he was different from the other guys. Why? Because the other guys were all corrupt. One of the reasons that the other guys didn't like the idea that Daniel might be head over all of them is that they were cheating the king. They were taking a little on the side as they had leadership in government, and they knew, "Hey, if this Daniel gets in there and he's over everything, he's going to shut down our little pool here of corruption."

So they didn't want him in that position. They noticed him. When I was working a summer job, I'd been a Christian for about two years, and I was told by some Christian friends, "Listen, when you go into that summer job, let it be known early that you're a Christian. Let people know in your job that you have given your life to Christ because that's going to set the tone for your witness there." So I did that, and I let them know early on. I worked at Shell at the information center in Houston, and I let them know early on that I was a Christian.

Man, they watched me. How do I know that they watched me? Because one of the guys, I overheard him talking to another co-worker, and he said this about me: "You know Jeff, he wouldn't say the S word if he had it in his mouth." He thought that was real funny, you know, he was kind of clever. But I thought to myself, I sensed the Lord saying to me, "He's watching you. You're doing good." Why? Because you're not participating in the things they're participating in. They're listening to what comes out of your mouth.

It's by his deeds that a lad distinguishes himself. If his conduct is pure and right, people notice your conduct, and people discern your character. Character is what determines conduct. Why do people act the way they do? It's because of their character. Now, conduct, you can think about it this way: conduct is how you act; character is how you react. See, when something happens to you, when something happens to me, when we're in traffic, when somebody cuts you off, when someone does something to you unexpectedly, you just react.

So how do you react in that situation? Conduct is how you act; character determines how you react. My pastor in Houston, Damon Schook, used to say, "Hey, your life's like a tube of toothpaste. The mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. When you get squeezed, when the pressure comes, what comes out is what's inside." Daniel was a man who had impeccable conduct because he had impeccable character. When you would squeeze Daniel, out would come godliness because he was a godly man.

When they investigated the life of Daniel, they couldn't find any dirt on him—no dirt on Daniel. So they said, "We can't find anything; we're going to have to find something about his relationship with God." Hey, what's the first essential if you're going to make a difference and an impact in your home, in your community, in your business, on your team, in your school, in your class? What are you going to need to do? First of all, you're going to have to get serious about the Lord. You're going to have to get off the fence of this thing we call compromise, and you're going to have to get serious.

Secondly, you're going to have to refuse to compromise. Refuse to compromise. Verse 5: "Then those men said, 'We shall not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.'" Man, you got a good testimony when the only thing that people can get you on is that you love the Lord too much; you're too serious about your relationship with the Lord. And that's what they said about Daniel.

Then it says in verse 6: "Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king, and they spoke to him as follows: 'King Darius, live forever! All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors, have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and make an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any God or man besides you, O king, for 30 days shall be cast into the lion's den.'"

Now, notice that was a lie because all the commissioners hadn't come together; they didn't talk to Daniel about this. But they made the king think, "Hey, we've all gotten together, and we think you should be king God for a month. I mean, you're a great king. You're Cyrus the Great. You should be God for a month, and nobody should be able to pray to anyone except you for 30 days."

He says in verse 8, "Now, O King, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked." Anytime you signed a document that was according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, that was written in stone; you couldn't revoke it. Therefore, King Darius signed the document that is the injunction.

Verse 10: "Now, when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house. Now, in his roof chamber, he had windows open toward Jerusalem. He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had been doing previously." Here's the deal: they saw that Daniel prayed three times a day. They knew that that was his practice; that was his habit. They said, "That's how we can get Daniel. We'll get the king to sign a law according to the Medes and the Persians, which can't be changed, that he is the only God that we can pray to for 30 days, and we'll put the squeeze on Daniel."

Now, how would Daniel react? Daniel could have said, like many of us would say, "Well, man, Lord, I'm in a tight spot here. Lord, I'm going to have to check in with you in 30 days. Because if not, they said they're going to throw me in the lion's den. And God, it's a law by the Medes and the Persians, and the king can't change it. And so, Lord, I'm in a bind here. You know what? I just have to go along with what they said, and I'm not going to be to you for 30 days."

Daniel knew he couldn't do that. Some say, "Well, man, why? He can just pray. You can pray all the time. You don't have to announce it. You don't have to say, 'Hey, hold on, time out now. I'm going to pray now. Everybody quiet down. I'm going to pray.' You don't have to do that. You just pray to yourself." You know, they say we can't pray in school. Kids pray in school all the time before tests. They're praying, you know, so they're still praying. They're not having public prayer in the schools, but you can still pray.

It could have been said of Daniel, "Daniel, you don't have to open up your windows in the roof chamber of your house and look toward Jerusalem and pray in the morning and at lunch and in the evening. Don't do that. Just go pray in the bathroom where nobody can see you." Daniel didn't do that. Daniel knew that if he changed anything in how he worshiped God, that that would be a retreat and a defeat and a compromise.

Speaker 1

Do you find that you compromise your life's Christian testimony? Do you compromise on biblical principles in your family, at work, even in your own thought life? Well, today we heard part one of the lesson called "Full Impact" from Pastor Jeff's series "We Are Soldiers." You can find out more about the series when you go to fromisheart.org and click the listen link now.

It's no secret that we live in a world overflowing with lies, half-truths, and confusing narratives. For many, it's harder than ever to discern right from wrong. So how do we do it? This, of course, is one of the most pressing questions of our time, and it's why we're so excited to be on mission with you at this critical moment in our culture.

At From His Heart, we've committed to sharing real truth, real love, and real hope for the last 20 years. We're in our 21st year now, and as we step into the next two decades of ministry, we are committed to continue to share this critical news in a fast-changing world. Because the truth of it is, only God's Word can cut through the fog, reveal the lies of the devil, and provide insight and clarity, direction, and real life, giving hope to all who seek it.

Now that's a mouthful, but it's also very true. The support you give helps us to do just that. For your gift of any amount to the ongoing work of From His Heart, this month we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's five-lesson series, "Discernment in the Day of Deception." Request it when you make that gift today by calling 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org.

Hey, thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be here tomorrow for part two of this exciting lesson from our "We Are Soldiers" series. It's entitled "Full Impact." That's on Wednesday when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's Word and again share real truth, real love, and real hope From His Heart.

Speaker 2

From His Heart.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener supported broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Sri speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more@fromisheart.org.