Faithfulness | October 29th, 2023
Call To Worship: From Psalm 36. 5-7 & 9-10
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord… How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see. Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you; give justice to those with honest hearts.
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Holy Harvest: Fruits of the Spirit
Faithfulness
Proverbs 3.3-4
CPCC 10.29.23
Big Idea: Choose Faithfulness over Compromise
INTRO: In much of the Bible, two cities represent the struggle between faithfulness and unfaithfulness. Jerusalem which is the City of God, and its antithesis, Babylon.
The Bible mentions Babylon 260 times and usually not in a good way because of her reputation for wickedness. Babylon’s unfaithfulness starts in Genesis with the Tower of Babel, and culminates in Revelation 17 & 18 as a metaphor for religious and political corruption before the return of Jesus Christ.
Babylon is an ancient city linked to the youngest son of Noah. It was a capital city several times under many different leaders and kingdoms. Twice it was a world dominating Empire, most famously under King Nebuchadnezzar, who built Babylon into the world’s first great metropolis. It was the first city in the world to have over 200,000 residents. It was powerful, cruel, magnificent, and imposing.
When the people of God become unfaithful like Babylon, God uses Babylon to punish Judah for her unfaithfulness.
The Prophet Isaiah warns the people of Judah of their coming captivity. He warns that God’s Temple will be looted and destroyed, and Jerusalem would be leveled because of their unfaithfulness to God. 100-years later the prophecy comes true and the Jews are taken captive for 70-years. Nebuchadnezzar destroys the Temple built by King Solomon and carries off all the gold and jewels stored in the Temple vault to Babylon.
But God is faithful. When the 70-years of captivity was over, so was Babylon. Babylon fell to a new Empire under the Persians. The new Persian Kings would set the stage for the Jews to return home, just as God had promised.
God is faithful!
Today’s Holy Harvest Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness.
READ: Proverbs 3.3-4
Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder.Write them deep within your heart.Then you will find favor with both God and people and you will earn a good reputation.
One of my favorite Bible stories of faithfulness is that of Daniel. As a teenager, Daniel was taken captive and sent to Babylon to serve King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel’s life defines what it means to be faithful in an age of compromise.
You probably know Daniel’s story well, so this morning I invite you to hear it in a new light, and discover his faithfulness as he frequently must choose between loyalty to God or compromising his faith. While his situation is more extreme than what most of us will ever face, the challenge to remain faithful and not compromise himself is just as real for us as it was for Daniel.
Daniel chapters 1 & 2
Unfaithful Israel in the north fell to Assyrians leaving the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Judah begins to compromise their relationship with God, and God allows them to be overtaken by Babylon.
Babylon is the new world super power. First they conquered the former superpower, Assyria, and then took Judah. Thousands of people are killed.
The best & brightest teenagers are shipped to Babylon to serve the Empire.
The poor are left behind and told to take any land they want, ensuring their loyalty to the new Empire.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are four faithful teens from Judah who are given Babylonian names, and placed into Babylonian training to learn the ways of Babylonian wisemen. Daniel was called Belteshazzar, and the other three you know as Shadrach, Meshach, and to Abednego.
First Test: While in training, Daniel risks his life asking officials to test him and his friends with a kosher diet instead of the mandated rich diet of the king which included pork, wine and fatty foods. Daniel flourishes while the others grow sluggish.
Daniel and his friends are given positions serving King Nebuchadnezzar
Second Test: Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He calls his entire advising team of Magicians, Astrologers, Sorcerers, and Enchanters, together and asks them to tell him what his dream was and then interpret it to him.
Traditionally the King would tell them his dream and they would consult the books of their respective disciplines and give an interpretation. The advisors protests saying no King has ever asked such a thing.
The King is no dummy. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is disturbing and confusing. He is not going to let the advisors mess it up by making stuff up. Either they tell him What he dreamed or all of the advisors; even the ones not there like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, are going to die a violent death.
Daniel asks to see the King and asks for a little time to seek out his God.
He and his friends are going to die. He does not yet have the ability to know the King’s dream, yet Daniel s faithful and trusts God.
What they do next is an example for us all: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego gather to pray.
God answers their prayer and gives Daniel both the King’s dream and the interpretation.
Daniel will be challenged several more times, most famously when the King’s administrators and officers trick King Darius into ordering everyone to pray only to the King for 30 days, or be put to death in a brutal way. They know Daniel will never compromise his faith, and once the King decrees a law, it can not be revoked, even by the King. When Daniel defies the order and prays to GOD, he is thrown into a Lion’s den to die a horrible death. Instead, God shuts the mouths of the lions and they leave him alone. The next morning the King is overjoyed when he sees that Daniel is alive. He removes Daniel and orders the wisemen who tricked him into the new law, and their families be thrown into the pit instead, and this time the lions did not hold back. Then he orders everyone should tremble with fear before the God of Daniel.
Daniel remains faithful to God through all the challenges to his faith God is honored and Daniel lives to serve Three Empires and Four Kings and the remnant of Judah is protected.
Daniel’s story is important for us because it gives us an example of someone who faced difficult choices and always chose to follow God’s way instead of compromising his faith.
Where are you most tempted to compromise your faithfulness?
Each of us could probably put a long list together this morning. The issues calling us to compromise our faithfulness are the same issues God’s people have been facing since Adam and Eve, just with different packaging:
Syncretism: mixing God’s truth with opposing beliefs. This was the problem many of the Jews faced in captivity. It was a lot easier to get along in society if they would offer a little tribute to the gods of Babylon in addition to keeping their Jewish traditions. Ironically, the Apostle John warns of the same thing in offering a worship tribute to the Roman Emperor in the Book of Revelation. The problem in Babylon was that by the time the 70-years of captivity was coming to an end, most of the Jews were more Babylonian than Jewish. They had embraced the spirituality of Babylon blending in Astrology, mysticism, and the sexual practices of tBabylon that by the time Ezra and Nehemiah lead the people back to Jerusalem, most of the people had no idea what it meant to be God’s people or even Jewish. Being God’s people didn't mean much in their lives.
That’s a similar problem and temptation to compromise that you and I face today. Many id Christendom call themselves Christian, but compromise on what it means to live for Christ. It’s no wonder that people outside of the Church reject Jesus because the Christians they know are no different than anyone else.
How does this happen?
Here’s a very short, incomplete list:
Ignoring God’s Word and embracing culture over Christ
Putting themselves first, and Jesus last if at all
Compromising Sexual purity
Putting comfort, status, finances, control, politics, personal views over Jesus and His teachings.
Living in judgement of others instead of loving others.
Babylon is not just a place 50-miles south of Bagdad, Babylon is any practice, belief, or agenda that replaces Jesus call to obedience and love. It can be any teaching that denies Jesus’ love and grace, and replaces it with rituals or lies. It can be a destructive relationship that pulls you away from God, or a movement claiming to promote justice, while denouncing Christians or our faith. Babylon can be a government, a leader, laws, or a set of beliefs that may be popular, but demands loyalty to something other than God’s Word.
Babylon often finds its way into the Church.
Jesus's Church is supposed to influence culture, not the other way around. Sadly many Churches today preach a False Gospel that is a reflection of the values of a pagan society, embracing views of morality, sexuality and the sanctity of life that are condemned in Scripture, but are embraced by culture. This is not new, The Apostle Paul confronts his church plants many times in the New Testament for doing this, and clearly, it is still a problem. Whenever a church compromises Jesus’ teaching and replaces it with popular, selfish, or feel-good beliefs that conflict with the Bible, the people are captives to Babylon.
The Fruit of the Spirit, Faithfulness, is being faithful to Jesus by doing the right thing no matter what every one else is doing.
Psalm 119:1-4
“Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the LORD. Joyful are those who obey His laws and search for Him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in His paths. You have charged us to keep Your commandments carefully”
I hope we can learn to live like Daniel. Daniel’s faithfulness to God guided him through the challenges and temptations of Babylon, Persia, and the demands of four Kings.
Daniel’s faithfulness grew as he did:
He was 15-years old when he was taken hostage and exiled to Babylon. He could have lived fat, happy and comfortable. Instead, Daniel asked to eat a Kosher diet to obey God, rather than compromise and eat the King’s rich and un-kosher food.
He was 17-years old when he prayed to know Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream.
He was 49-years old when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’'s second dream.
He was 81- years old when he translated the handwriting on the wall at King Belshazzar's feast.
He was 83-when he was thrown into the Lion’s den.
Yet, Daniel’s faith in God never wavered. He outlived Babylon, three-kings and was faithful to God in all things. He never compromised. He never let himself be persuaded the ways of Babylon were better than God’s ways. With every challenge and choice, small or life-threatening, Daniel chose God. Honestly, most of us would probably have chosen to compromise rather than make the hard choices Daniel made.
Here’s something interesting to consider: The only reason most of us know about the King Nebuchadnezzar is because of Daniel, just as we only know of the Roman Governor Pilate because of Jesus.
Both men became a footnotes in the history of the Church. They came and went, but Daniel's faithfulness continues to inspire us in our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
Friends, as followers of Jesus Christ, you will face the challenge to remain faithful to what you know is right or compromise your faith.
Hear Paul’s encouragement to the believers like you at Colossi:
Colossians 2.6-10
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Jesus needs you to be faithful witness of His love and grace to the world. Too many Christians are turning their back to Jesus and compromising their faith by embracing the lies and deceptions of culture, calling “Good” what God declares evil, sinful, and destructive. Jesus calls those who follow Him to be faithful in all things: our actions, our views, our teaching, our mentoring, our encouragement, our support, and our love for others.
Faithfulness is living without compromise.
How are you going to be faithful this week?
If you are struggling with compromise, I encourage you to do what Daniel did, seek out a friend and pray together. Lay your issue before God and ask God for wisdom. Encourage one another. Pray for one another. Stand firm together.
Friends in many ways, we are living in Babylon. The temptations to compromise our faith are everywhere. We need to Daniels to a world that embraces destructive compromises.
Pray
BENEDICTION: Colossians 4:10
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.
Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.
Opening Hymns:
#496 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms v.1-3
#136 Holy, Holy Holy v.1-4
Closing Hymn:
#72 Great is Thy Faithfulness v.1-3