The Fantastic Four: Choosing a Life of Significance

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The Fantastic FourChoosing a Life of
Significance

• Part 2- Know the Race

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Review

• Success is when I add value to myself.
  Significance is when I add value to others
• Unshakeable belief that I have something of value
  to offer the world around me

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• Interpret experience through thelogy
• Success doesnt last. Significance never fades

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• Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his
  court officials, to bring in some of the
  Israelites from the royal family and the
  nobilityyoung men without any physical defect,
  handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of
  learning

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• 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

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• ...Among these were some from Judah Daniel,
  Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief
  official gave them new names to Daniel, the name
  Belteshazzar to Hananiah, Shadrach to Mishael,
  Meshach and to Azariah, Abednego. But Daniel
  resolved not to defile himself with the royal
  food and wine, and he asked the chief
  official for permission not to
  defile himself this way

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• ... Now God had caused the official to show favor
  and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told
  Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has
  assigned your food and drink. Why should he see
  you looking worse than the other
  young men your age? The king
  would then have my head because
  of you Daniel 13-10

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• When it comes to living a life that matters, the
  issue is never what you have or dont have
  relative to someone else, but what you do with
  what Gods given you
• Its not until youre tested
  that you find out whats
  really inside

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• Determining factors
• They know who they are and what theyre about
• The know what they will and will not do- their
  limits
• They live out cooperation without
  compromise

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• Vs. 8- But Daniel resolved not to defile himself
  with the royal food and wine, and he asked the
  chief official for permission not to defile
  himself this way
• Daniel asked for permission

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• Vs. 9- God had caused the official to show favor
  and sympathy to Daniel
• When Gods people get out of the way and give God
  room to work instead of forcing their own
  solutions in their own power to get
  what they want from people or
  circumstances, God blesses it

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• The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.
  He turns it like a watercourse whichsoever way
  he pleases - Proverbs 211
• The eyes of the Lord range to and fro across the
  earth to strengthen the hearts of
  those who are fully
  committed to him
  - 2 Chronicles 169

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• Its a faith thing- it means giving up forcing my
  way and fighting for my rights and instead
  praying and trusting that if this is from God,
  hell bring it to pass
• Daniels not yelling or throwing fits or
  threatening Gods wrath. Instead, he simply asks
  for a chance. He gives God
  room to work and puts God on the
  line to deliver

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• Daniel knows his limits. But he also knows the
  power of his God, regardless of what the
  situation looks like

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• How it all turns out
• Vs. 15-16- At the end of the ten days they looked
  healthier and better nourished than any of the
  young men who ate the royal food.
  So the guard took away
  their choice food and the wine
  they were to drink and gave
  them vegetables instead

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• An official in the kings court was willing to
  risk his life to allow 4 guys from Jerusalem to
  follow their conscience and go vegetarian rather
  than eat food that might defile them. Why?

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• Because Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah
• 1- Knew their limits
• 2- The lived cooperation without compromise
• If someone compels you to go
  a mile, go the second mile as
  well. If someone wants your
  coat, give em the shirt off
  your back as well- Jesus

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• 3- They knew their purpose- glorify God. They
  were playing to an audience of One