Take A Stand
Part Three: Live Your Stance
By Remy Diederich
Text:Daniel 5 and 6
Outline:
1. What influences your need to take a stand?
a. Money?
b. Power?
c. Guilt?
d. Pride/Insecurity?
e. God?
2. Live your stance before you speak your stance.
3. You can only take a stand if you fully believe in the stance you take.
4. There is no power in a stance unless you are willing to sacrifice for it.
5. When you do the right thing, with the right attitude, you can trust God with the results.
Message
During World War Two, Adolph Hitler was committed to exterminating every race of people
that he considered inferior to the Germans. Amazingly, hundreds of German Christians sat back
and did… nothing. In fact, I heard one person recount how their church was next to the railroad
tracks where Jews and gypsies traveled in boxcars to their death in concentration camps. To
drown out the cries of these people the church would rise and sing as loud as they could.
But not everyone compromised their faith. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who not
only disagreed with what Hitler was doing, but felt he needed to do something about it.
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to
speak. Not to act is to act.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer and others conspired to kill Hitler by planting a bomb in his headquarters. The bomb
went off but Hitler wasn’t killed. Bonhoeffer was arrested and hanged for being part of the plot.
I tell you this because I’m in the middle of this series called, Take a Stand. We’ve been looking
at what is necessary to take a stand for God and do what is right. I’m concerned about this
because through the ages Christians have risked their lives for their belief, but today, at least in
this country, that’s not true. It’s easy to say you are a believer. And people often “take a stand”
for God with words only and no true sense of the cost of commitment.
To help us learn about taking a stand, we’ve been tracking four teenage boys in the book of
Daniel in the Old Testament. They were taken captive by the Babylonians and developed as
future leaders in Babylon. This happened about 600 years before Jesus was born. Twice we’ve
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seen these boys risk their lives to take a stand for God, and we’ve learned some important
lessons from them along the way.
Today we are going to zero in on Daniel, but he’s no longer a teenager. He’s an old man. The
first king, King Nebuchadnezzar, has died and his son is in power, but not for long. Let’s pick up
the story in chapter 5:
King Belshazzar gave a big dinner. He invited a thousand of his nobles to it. He drank
wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to his servants.
He commanded them to bring in some gold and silver cups. They were the cups his father
Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Belshazzar had them brought in
so everyone could drink from them. Daniel 5:1,2
Just a little backstory: when the king’s father destroyed Jerusalem and took people captive, he
also stole the golden cups from the temple. These cups were used by priests to offer sacrifices to
God.
Now, Belshazzar decides to pull them out of storage to impress his guests. It’s the ultimate act of
contempt for the Jewish God.
So the servants brought in the gold cups that had been taken from God's temple in
Jerusalem…As they drank the wine, they praised their gods. The statues of those gods
were made out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood or stone. Suddenly the fingers of a
human hand appeared. They wrote something on the plaster of the palace wall…The king
watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale. He became so afraid that his knees
knocked together. His legs couldn't hold him up any longer. Daniel 5:3-6
Can you imagine being at a party where a hand appears and starts writing on the wall? I think
that would sober you up pretty fast. But the king didn’t understand the language that the words
were written in, so he called for his magicians to decipher the message. They couldn’t do it. Then
his wife remembered Daniel. So the king tracked him down, and said:
I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you. I've also heard that you have
understanding and good sense and special wisdom…I hope you can read this writing and
tell me what it means. If you can, you will be dressed in purple clothes. A gold chain will
be put around your neck. And you will be made the third highest ruler in the
kingdom." Then Daniel answered the king. He said, "You can keep your gifts for
yourself. You can give your rewards to someone else. But I will read the writing for you.
I'll tell you what it means. Daniel 5:14-17
Daniel refused to be compensated for his interpretation. Why? I think it was because he didn’t
want the power to influence his answer. He wanted his only influence to be from God. And that’s
important when it comes to taking a stand.
You see, it’s important to take a stand, but too many people take a stand for the wrong reason.
We need to ask ourselves what’s influencing our need to take a stand? What’s the REAL reason I
want to make this statement? Is it because of God or for some other motivation?
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For example, you could be influenced by money. Let’s say you are a business owner; maybe if
you take a stand on some issue you could swing more business your way. Or you could be
influenced by power. If you are a politician you might mention your church attendance, or the
Bible, just to get Christians to vote for you.
Some people take a stand out of guilt. They’re afraid that if they don’t agree with their friends, or
church, or boss on some topic that they won’t be thought of as a very good person. So they take a
stand for something they don’t really believe in.
Or you might take a stand out of pride. Your insecurity causes you to take a stand on some hot
topic so people will perceive you as more spiritual, or courageous, or superior in some way.
So…be careful when you take a stand. Check your motives. Make sure that you are taking a
stand because God wants you to. When you take a stand for the wrong reasons, or go about it in
the wrong way, it can backfire. People will sniff out your motives and turn against you, not
because they are anti-God but because you are a hypocrite!
Now, sometimes we can learn things in the Bible from what we don’t read. We can read between
the lines. One thing I don’t see here is Daniel drawing attention to himself. If he wanted attention
he would have accepted the robe and power. But Daniel just wanted to speak God’s word and go
home.
We saw this in the first two stories I told this month. Daniel and his friends always took a stand
in humility. They took a stand by the way they lived their lives.
You’ve probably heard the quote from Francis of Assisi:
Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.
This is appropriate when it comes to taking a stand for God. We need to LIVE our stance before
we SPEAK our stance.
What I mean here is: I don’t want you going to your family and friends and taking a stand for
God verbally if they can’t see you living it. That’s hypocrisy and you’ll lose credibility with
them, then they won’t take you seriously.
For example, if your family reunions always end up in a drunken brawl, taking a stand doesn’t
mean you tell them they are all sinners and you never want to spend time with them again.
Taking a stand might just mean going for the first two hours of the party and then leave before
everyone gets drunk.
You see, taking a stand doesn’t require a confrontation. There’s no need to lecture your family or
show them any disrespect. If they ask you why you leave early, you can just say that you enjoy
seeing everyone but you don’t enjoy what happens after everyone has had too much to drink.
When people see you living what you believe, you’ll gain their respect.
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That’s what happened with Daniel. Daniel’s integrity gave him the right to confront the king. He
didn’t hold anything back:
You have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You had your servants bring cups
from his temple to you. You and your nobles drank wine from them. So did your wives
and concubines. You praised your gods. The statues of those gods are made out of silver,
gold, bronze, iron, wood or stone. They can't see or hear or understand anything. But you
didn't honor the God who holds in his hand your very life and everything you do. Daniel
5:23
Daniel was saying, You don’t realize this, but you just messed with the wrong God. Your gods
are made by human hands out of metal, stone and wood, but my God made humans. He is the
living God. He’s personal, and because he’s personal, he took notice of your arrogance.
So he sent the hand that wrote on the wall. "Here is what was written. MENE, MENE,
TEKEL, PARSIN. Daniel 5:24,25
This meant that the king had been weighed in the balances and found wanting. He came up short.
As a result, God was going to let the Persians overthrow his government. Surprisingly the King
listened to Daniel and still made him the third highest ruler in Babylon.
But Daniel’s word came true faster than anyone realized:
That very night Belshazzar, the king of Babylonia, was killed. His kingdom was given to
Darius the Mede. Daniel 5:30,31
Daniel had such a good reputation that Darius, the new king, retained Daniel as one of his
advisors. But, like often happens when a new king takes over, there was a power struggle. And
some of the other leaders wanted Daniel out of power.
These guys couldn’t find anything wrong with Daniel, except his faith in God. So they rushed a
bill past King Darius stating that anyone who worshipped another God would be fed to the
lion’s. They must have tricked the king into signing it, because the king liked Daniel. But once
the king signed it, it was too late. It was a law.
So Daniel was put in a tough situation. He had three choices:
He could deny God and live.
He could pretend to deny God and live.
Or he could openly worship God and be eaten by lions. What would you do?
It would be pretty tempting to keep my belief secret and just lie about it. Death by lion has its
disadvantages. But let’s look at Daniel’s response:
Daniel found out that the king had signed the order. In spite of that, he did just as he had
always done before. He went home to his upstairs room. Its windows opened toward
Jerusalem. He went to his room three times a day to pray. He got down on his knees and
gave thanks to his God. Daniel 6:10
Once again, Daniel took a stand for God, but this time he stood by kneeling. It would have been
so easy to pray with his windows closed but it was his practice to pray with the windows opened
toward his homeland. So he just kept on doing what he had always done.
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For Daniel, taking a stand didn’t require a big protest. He didn’t call a press conference to
complain about the injustice of the new law. In fact, taking a stand didn’t require any words at
all. It just required Daniel to live out his faith. Sometimes that’s the strongest statement you can
make.
Worshipping God was so important to Daniel that he was willing to die. That’s amazing. And it
tells me something else about taking a stand: You can only take a stand if you truly believe in the
stance you take. If you don’t fully believe in your stand, your commitment won’t stick. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer put it like this: He who believes does not flee.
How do you know if you truly believe? You truly believe if you are willing to sacrifice for what
you say you believe. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice for what you say you believe then you
aren’t taking a stand. It’s just words. You’ll flee the minute you are put to the test.
So here’s a question: If you believe you need to take a stand for something, what are you willing
to risk for it? I’m not just talking about your faith in God. There are probably some of you here
who don’t believe in God yet. But these principles apply to a broader area than just God. They
apply to any area of your life where you feel you need to do the right thing: it might be fixing
your finances, or dealing with an addiction. It might be losing weight, or setting boundaries in a
relationship. It could be getting the counseling you need to deal with some issue.
What are you willing to put at risk to in order to do the right thing?
Are you willing to walk away from a relationship? Are you willing to quit a job?
Are you willing to lose money? Are you willing to lose your friends? Sell your house?
Are you willing to move?
Are you willing to commit the time and effort necessary to see it through?
Are you willing to be misunderstood and lose your reputation?
Are you willing to die for your belief?
You see, taking a stand puts you at risk of losing something valuable. But if nothing is at risk,
you haven’t taken a stand. When you take a stand, something is on the line.
When Daniel chose to pray, he put his life on the line. And he paid for it.
So the king gave the order. Daniel was brought out and thrown into the lions' den…A
stone was brought and placed over the opening of the den. The king sealed it with his
own special ring. He also sealed it with the rings of his nobles. Then nothing could be
done to help Daniel. Daniel 6:16,17
Nothing could be done to help Daniel. I want you to feel the weight of that sentence. What a
hopeless place to be: when you really believe that nothing can help you. Have you ever been in a
place like that?
The seals proved how hopeless this was. If anyone would have broken the seals to rescue Daniel,
they would have been thrown in the lion’s den with Daniel. The writer of this story mentioned
the seals to show us that Daniel was in an impossible situation. No one could come in the night
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to rescue him because of the seals.
God is making a point here: the reason we often don’t take a stand is because we are afraid it will
put us in an impossible situation. But Daniel’s story tells us that it’s not our job to speculate
about the outcome. It’s our job to take a stand for what’s right and let God solve any problem
that comes.
The king agonized over throwing Daniel to the lion’s. So the next day the king ran down to see
how much was left of Daniel. When he got there, Daniel was in one piece and said:
My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me,
because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you,
Your Majesty.” The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den.
And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had
trusted in his God. Daniel 6:22-23
Daniel trusted in his God and God saved him. Now, for the sake of “truth in advertising”
remember what happened to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Just because you trust in God doesn’t mean
bad things won’t happen. Some people die a martyr’s death, but they die trusting in God. Here’s
a little credo that I have tried to live by: When you do the right thing, with the right attitude, you
can trust God with the results.
There’s been many times in my life when I had to make a decision and I wasn’t sure how things
would work out. I feared that my decision would put me in an impossible situation. But I’ve
always answered my fear by saying, Remy, if you do the right thing, with the right heart, you can
trust God with the results.
Now, granted, sometimes you need to make choices based on the expected outcome. That’s the
wise thing to do. I even talked about that last week. I talked about “playing the movie” meaning
that it’s wise to look down the road and see what the consequences will be of your possible
decisions. But sometimes you don’t know the outcome. So that’s when you need to do the right
thing with the right attitude and trust God with the results.
Not only was Daniel spared by God’s hand, but listen to how the story ends:
Then the king gave another order. The men who had said bad things about Daniel were
brought in. They were thrown into the lions' den... Then King Darius wrote to the people
from every nation and language in the whole world. He said,
… "I order people in every part of my kingdom to respect and honor Daniel's God. "He is
the living God. He will live forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed. His rule will
never end. He sets people free and saves them. He does miraculous signs and wonders.
He does them in the heavens and on the earth. He has saved Daniel from the power of the
lions." So Daniel had success while Darius was king. Things went well with him during
the rule of Cyrus, the Persian. Daniel 6:24-28
Good things can happen when you do the right thing. And God is glorified.
What’s the “right thing” that God is calling you to do? A message like this hits everyone in a
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different way. For many of us, the right thing is to put God first. Maybe you realize that you have
never made Jesus the Cornerstone of your life, the first priority, and that’s what you him God
saying you today.
For some of us, we need to obey God’s call to serve. You always say you’ll do that some day but
you keep putting it off. Maybe God is saying, “Today is that day. I’ve got something I want you
to do.”
For others, the right thing is engaging with your family. He wants you to quit the excuses. And
for others it might be facing a habit or an addiction that controls your life.
Last week over two hundred of us stood up saying that we wanted to take a stand for something.
If you stood up last week I hope you put some action to your commitment. So as I close today, I
want to keep praying for us to do the right thing…to do the hard thing, and take a stand.
Prayer: Father, thank you for Daniel’s example. He set an example as a teenager and fifty years
later he set the same example of putting you first. God, we’ve been given the example, now, help
us to follow it. Help us see our compromises and excuses and obey what you’ve called us to do.
Thank you for forgiving our past. Might we receive your grace and strength to do you will in our
future. Amen.
Going Deeper: Use the following questions for personal reflection and/or to discuss with your
family, friends and small group.
1. When you think of the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den, what comes to mind?
2. Did the message change your thoughts about this story in any way? How so?
3. When you consider the stances that you’ve made or others you know, what are some of
the inappropriate influences you’ve observed? What were some of the influences Remy
mentioned?
4. Why do you think people are so quick to “take a stand” verbally but not with their life?
How are you impacted by people that only take a stand verbally? How are you impacted
when people live their conviction first?
5. Why is full belief central to taking a stand?
6. Why is a willingness to sacrifice necessary to taking a stand?
7. Remy said, “When you do the right thing, in the right way, you can trust God with the
results.” Do you agree? Why or Why Not? Can you give examples?
8. What role does humility play in taking a stand? Why?
9. What role do you think prayer played in Daniel’s ability to take a stand?
10. What will help you to stand strong this week?
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