“Courage Under Fire”

**INTRODUCTION 

Welcome to “Key to the Kingdom.” I am Bret McCasland. There are situations and events that happen in our lives that cause us to be apprehensive. We are unsure of how we need to respond and the direction we need to take. We are caught trying to decide if we really want to join in with what others are doing or if we want to do something different. We come to a fork in the road and we need to make a decision. Oftentimes, those are difficult and challenging decisions to make. Other times, however, the answer is clear, and we know how we need to respond. Even if that is the case, it is sometimes hard to go the way we know we need to go. We try to come up with enough courage to do the right thing, even in the midst of the opposition that is all around us. On “Key to the Kingdom,” today, we will look at an example of some men who stepped out in faith, acted with great courage and did the right thing. They had a choice to make and they chose to do something others were not willing to do. They chose to serve and honor God. It is a good story and one that inspires us to do the same thing, when our faith is called into question. For the next few minutes, we will talk about what it means to live with courage in the midst of the fiery trials of life. I hope you will join us, now, as we open up our Bibles and study together.

**LESSON

Several years ago, my wife informed me, one day, there was a possum in the neighborhood. Now, for those of us who don't know about possums, they are typically a little bit bigger than a house cat. They have a smooth but very tough skin, a rounded face and protruding eyes, and oftentimes they come out at night and wander around from place to place. But when she told me there was one of those in our neighborhood, I did not think much about it. She shared that with me again a couple of days later, when she saw it a second time. Again, I did not give that much consideration. But then, a few days after that, she told me that possum is now in our backyard. Well, that concerned me. And so immediately I got up and I found a shovel out in the garage, and I went to the backyard to do something with that possum. And so I began to strike that possum over and over again with the hopes that I would eliminate his life. I was going to kill that possum. And I did that because I saw him as a predator. I did not know at that time that in some ways opossums are good animals. They eat bugs and different rodents and things that might harm people. I didn't understand that. But what I saw was this animal is a threat to my family, and I did not want him to hurt us in any way. And so I struck him over and over again thinking I had completed the task. I scooped him up, threw him over the fence and went around the fence to properly dispose of him. And when I did, I realized he was not there. He was gone. He had got up and moved away and I never saw him again. Now you might ask the question, and naturally so, why would I be telling a story about a predator, a possum, as we think about the Bible? Well, whether it is killing an animal, like a possum, or representing the Lord, it is always a good thing to stay totally focused on the task before us. It is good to know who we are fighting for and what we are fighting against. On that night I was fighting for the sake of our family and I was fighting against something which I thought would harm our family. For several years, beginning in about 597 B.C., the Jews living in Israel and Judah were deported from their homeland into the foreign land called Babylon, and there they were under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar II. The move was ordered by God as a result of His people's continual rejection and disobedience of Him. And it lasted some 70 years, just as had been predicted. It was called the Babylonian captivity. Well, one of those sent into Babylon was a man named Daniel, and he, along with several other young men, were called upon to appear before the king. And they, and many other of those young men who were being transported into Babylon, would be put through a training program. And that training program was designed to make them, and all others, smarter and stronger and more skilled than anybody else who was coming from Judah and Israel. And so they were about to enter in to this training program, and we find a description of that in the first chapter of Daniel, beginning with verse 3. <Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility, young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.> I realize some of those names are hard for us to pronounce, and oftentimes we know them by some other names; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And so Daniel and his three friends, by that name, were living there in Babylon. They were carried away into Babylon because of the bad decisions which were made by some of their forefathers. And now, in that foreign land, they were to live holy lives. They were to repent of any sin they had and the sins of their forefathers; and that would be all for the sake of the next and coming generation. Now, according to Jeremiah's prophecy, in chapter 29, the captives were to live as usual, even though they were living in a foreign land. They were to live as they would back in Judah. They were to live a normal life. And yet at the same time, they were to be very careful not to be deceived or negatively influenced by the people, the culture and the traditions of Babylon. And then after some 70 years, the Lord would fulfill His plans and He would bring them back into the land of Judah from which they had been taken. Now, with all of those warnings in mind, with all of those promises, with all of those instructions, Daniel and his three friends had some decisions to make. What are we going to do? How are we going to respond to the king's demands of us, and how are we going to continue to live the way God wants us to live? And no doubt, those were some very challenging decisions these men had to make. And so they decided to say no to the wine and the food that came from the king's table. Instead, they were content to eat their vegetables and to drink their water. And there are a number of other things that are listed, in the rest of chapter 1, that describe some of the challenges and some of the decisions that were before these four men. And somewhat of a summary statement might go something like this: Daniel and his friends refused to go against the currents of Babylon. They were in exile and living between the world in which they were raised and the world where they were now living. You know, that decision revolved around how to live in the world, but to not become a part of the world. And perhaps we have heard that very same statement before. As Christians today, we have to do the same thing. We have to basically decide where our loyalties lie. We have to think about our priorities. Who are we going to be devoted to? Are we going to listen to and be devoted to the Lord, and to follow His commands, or will we be infiltrated by the cultures of the world in which we live and begin to adopt some of those into our life? Well, Daniel and his three friends committed themselves to live lives of faithfulness. The loyalties they had to the Lord were important, and they trusted Him to provide for them, even in the midst of these uncertain times living in Babylon. Well, at the end of the first ten days, these four men were better in appearance and they were fatter in flesh, as the text tells us. And then at the end of three years, the king's training program had simply backfired. It did not work at all; and, these four men were far more skilled and trained and in better shape than any of the others who were going through the king's training program. We even notice, from the text, that God gave these four men more learning and more skill in literature and in wisdom than what the others had received in that training program. Here's a summary statement from the text, Daniel, chapter 1 verse 20. <In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.> Wow, that's impressive, isn't it? You know, these four men, Daniel and his friends, were blessed because of their devotion to God. They had made the decision to have a single minded focus to serve the Lord and to remain true to Him. They made that decision to stand firm against that which was not right. They said no to the king, and to the training program that he was imposing upon others; and instead, they stood up for the Lord and they continued to follow His commands for their life. It would have been rather easy for these men to have grown bitter while living in Babylon: They could have become very bitter about the situation and wondered what life would have been like if they had stayed back in Judah. Perhaps some of their family members were still there. They had their life plans all worked out and thought everything would be smooth. Oh, these four men could have gained some deep insight and wisdom from the people there in Babylon, and learned a number of things about the culture and the traditions of that land. These four men could have gained some insight and understanding about deep theological matters that would have allowed them to rise in the ranks within the Babylonian governmental system. Oh, they could have done a number of things, but they didn't do that. They did not complain. They did not groan. They did not fuss about their situation, at all. Instead of doing all of the things that the Babylonians wanted them to do, all of the things that the king wanted them to do, they said no to all of it and they remained focused on serving God. They remained focused on pursuing His will for their life and being obedient to His commands. In the midst of a worldly environment, these four men found their strength and their identity in being a child of God. They stayed true to their convictions and to their belief in Him; and as a result, God blessed them for that. Sometimes today, in our world, people are rewarded for their good appearance, for their skill in pursuing wisdom and understanding. Others might be recognized for their education or for their ability to lead large groups of people. And yet, the danger is always there for us to pursue such things at the expense of pursuing a relationship with God. As was the case with Daniel and his three friends, we are to remember to Whom we belong. Yes, we are called upon, from time to time, to make some big decisions about things that are happening in our life. And oftentimes those things revolve around matters of right and wrong, justice and injustice, and obeying the Lord or getting accustomed to the world in which we live. Now, some of the decisions we make in that regard are easy, while others of them are rather difficult and require a great deal of time and attention. But the culture of today's world constantly challenges us. Pursuing what the world believes to be important takes away from pursuing our relationship with God. And as it was with these four men in Daniel, it comes down to a matter of our convictions. It comes down to a matter of our priorities as to what we're going to do. Yes, in some way the story of Daniel and his three friends is our story. And as we navigate our way through that story and through the challenges of life, we keep in mind these words from the Apostle Paul, which are found in Romans chapter 12: <Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is -His good, pleasing and perfect will.> Certainly we are to take advantage of the opportunity to learn and to grow and to experience the many good things which God puts before us. And yet none of them can become more important to us than pursuing a relationship with the Lord. And that is the message of passages like 1st John chapter 2, beginning with verse 15: <Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world -the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life- comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.> All of us have to decide: We have to make a decision in regards to which world we're going to live in. How can we live in this world yet not become a part of this world? James, the brother of Jesus, learned a great deal about what it meant to live between two worlds. And even though he was not perfect, as was his brother Jesus, the example Jesus left upon his life impacted him a great deal, to the point he wrote these words in James chapter 4: <You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity with God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.> My guess, today, is that most of you have many friends in your life. And that's good. I'm glad that you have people in your life you can count on, people you enjoy spending time with on a regular basis. You call them your friend. You do things together. You eat together. You travel together. You have a network of friends, and that's important. And likewise, they call you a friend. They like you. They enjoy spending time with you. And we all have that network of friends. I have that, too; and I'm thankful for it. I hope you are my friend, and I want to be your friend. But out of all of the people in the world, if there was one with whom I want to be a friend, it’s God! I hope you would say the very same thing. And that's the point that James makes here. We don't become a friend of the world, but we want to strive to be God's friend. We want to be recognized by Him as one who belongs to Him. Daniel and his friends spoke up for what was right. They looked to the Lord for guidance and for courage. They lived lives of faithfulness and obedience. And as a result, they were blessed for it. In Acts chapter 20, the Apostle Paul spoke some very important words to the church leaders from Ephesus. And in part, this is what he shared with them, according to verse 24: <I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.> Paul, let it be known to that group of church leaders that he was not interested in anything else, but one thing, to complete the task God wanted him to complete. He wanted to finish his race. He wanted to do a good job of what God asked him to do; and that was first and foremost in his life. He wasn't concerned about pursuing any of the interests in the world around him. He was concerned with pursuing God's will. He had a single-minded focus to do that very thing, and that alone. He wrote something else in that regard, over in the letter called Philippians in chapter 3, verse 8: <I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus, my Lord.> Once again, only one thing mattered to him, and that was pursuing Jesus, knowing Jesus at all cost. And everything else that seemed to matter to him or to anybody else, he counted as loss, as nothing but waste. On that dark night in our yard a number of years ago, I was fighting for the well-being of our family, and I was fighting against an un-welcomed predator. And that was the single-minded focus I had at that moment. And I was focused on accomplishing the task that was before me. As fellow Christians today, I trust we know who we are fighting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what we are fighting against, and that is the things of this world that distract us from knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord. You know, I really hope and pray, today, that we are in the moment and we are focused on knowing God and pursuing a deeper relationship with Him, more than anything else this world might present to us. Here's one final thought for us to consider. May the conveniences and the culture of this world never become more important to us than the eternal world in which we will someday live with the Lord. I hope you can say that. I hope that is the motto of your life. And the next time you think about attacking some kind of predator in your yard, remember to stay focused on the task at hand, and the next time you find yourself in a battle between the culture and the things of this world and having a relationship with God, remember to have that single-minded focus to pursue the Lord. I trust that today you will find your single-minded purpose in life, to pursue Jesus Christ.

**VIDEO CLIP

As I drove along this street a few minutes ago, I saw some people walking down the sidewalk, and obviously they needed some help. They needed somebody to pay attention to them, to give them some money for some food or whatever it might have been, I'm not sure. But that happens quite often driving up and down this road: We see people who are in need. And what do we do with that? Well, as Christians we have the privilege and the opportunity to serve such people. We do so in a compassionate way. But at the same time, we also take a risk in doing that. We don't know for sure their background. We don't know their story. We don't know their name. A lot of things happen that we really don't know about; but yet, they are people. They are people who need to experience the love of God. They need some kind person to come along and minister to them, perhaps like Jesus ministered to people when He was living upon this earth. Well, it takes some courage to step out in faith to do that, doesn't it? We might be criticized, we might be laughed at, because we're helping somebody we don't even know. And yet, that's okay. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as our self. And that includes a wide variety of people, not just the person who is living next door. As you think about practicing your Christianity, as you think about living out your faith in the Lord, I would encourage you to do so in a courageous manner. Don't let anything hold you back, but reach out to and bless and minister to the people God puts into your life.

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for tuning in for today's message on “Key to the Kingdom.” The Lord promises to provide for us when we live our lives full of courage and faith. And even though it may not be the popular thing to do, it is always the best option. This message, entitled, “Courage Under Fire,” has been uploaded onto our website at keytothekingdom.com. There you can find it in audio, video, and written formats. You can also download it without any charge or commitment. This and many other episodes is our gift to you for joining us for today's broadcast. Short One minute and two minute videos are also on the website. They provide a practical thought or daily devotional idea to consider. If you would like to receive a Sunday evening message from us, please find and follow us on Facebook®. It is our privilege to share this mass-media ministry with you in so many different ways. I hope you will find those which are easiest for you to use. Please consider joining us again next week as we continue to study the Bible on “Key to the Kingdom.”