Posted January 10, 1999
"SPIRITUAL GATORADE"
Daniel 1:1-7
Why do some people achieve so much and other so little? Is it because the achievers are more talented than those non-achievers? Not necessarily.
Why is it that some people are excited and enthusiastic about what they are doing and energized to do well? At the same time, others with the same responsibility seem to be lackadaisical about the whole idea and have virtually no enthusiasm.
And why is it that 2 people can work sid by side at the same occupation, and one is productive and the other not as productive? One is charged up and the other is not.
And how can 2 children from the same family be so vastly different? One makes A's and B's and the other brings home D's, E's and F's. Why?
What accounts for the difference? Two people can sit on the same church pew and listen to the same message. One can be thrilled about the Lord, desirous of pleasing Him, and applying spiritual truths. The other is blase about it and never seems to make an application, never makes a note, never carries a Bible. The person is just there, and sometimes it is hard to figure why.
The difference is dreadfully simple -- MOTIVATION. One person is motivated and the other is not. One is turned on and the other is not.
Motivation is the drive within us. It is that something within us which moves us, stirs us, punches our buttons, gets us moving. Different factors, of course, motivate different people. For example, some people are highly motivated by the approval of others or highly motivated by a sense of position or prominence. Others are motivated by more money; others by their appearance, others by unusual stimuli.
Let me ask, though, what motivates the people of God? What motivates you in your commitment to Jesus Christ? If commitment is the willful surrender on my part to Jesus Christ as Lord, what is required in order to motivate me to fulfill my Christian commitment?
If you are saved, you made a commitment to Jesus Christ. You promised Him, in essence, "Lord, from this point on in my life, this is what I am going to do. I am going to do this, and I am not going to do the other."
What motivates you to fulfill your commitment and follow thru on it? In the life of Daniel, certain incidents served as specific motivators of his commitment.
We often express simplistically, "Well, you know, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, that ought to be motivation enough." True, but for many professing Christians that does not seem to be enough, sad to say. God uses many forms of motivation, and we are motivated by different factors.
The backdrop of the Book of Daniel was the invasion of Judah by cruel, oppressive Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. He carried away King Jehoiakim, spoils from the Temple, and splendid young men of Judah,
"Young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of they might serve before the king. Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego." (Dan 1:4-7)
The position in which Daniel and his 3 friends found themselves was not enviable.
Nebuchadnezzar was a vicious, vile heathen, possessed with cruel barbarity. Nebuchadnezzar is often mentioned in Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar enjoyed pillaging and plundering. One of his favorite pastimes was killing a man's family while the fellow was forced to watch. he also often had his captive's eyes burned out or had his prisoners boiled over a hot fire.
Daniel and his Hebrew friends were at the complete mercy of this Babylonian fiend. At any moment he could have had them tortured and then killed.
So, immediately these young men were faced with the royal command to transgress the Hebrew dietary and worship laws. Let's look at Exodus 34:14- 15:
"'(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), "lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,"
The word jealous does not mean jealousy as we think of it among courting couples or husbands and wives today. It implies that He wants us to worship Him because it is for our good that we worship Him and Him only. In other words, He has the right to expect complete and undivided service and worship from us.
Daniel and his friends were keenly aware that the food and drink offered to them were dedicated to the false gods of Babylon. How, then, could they possibly survive and still live holy lives, refusing to defile themselves physically or spiritually? How could they remain true to Jehovah God and at the same time live in Babylon? You see, God had a reason for sparing them when so many of their kinfolks were wiped out by the Babylonian invaders. Now they were in a strange land, a pagan society.
So, 2 alternatives were offered them. They could have protested in this manner. "Well, we're just not going to do what you ask. We believe in Jehovah God. You can do whatever you like to us, but we are not going to follow your instructions.
But God gave unusual wisdom to Daniel and his friends as they responded wisely. Look at verse 8:
"But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself."
The first portion of spiritual gatorade, when it comes to obeying God and carrying out our commitments to Him is right here. You and I have made certain commitments to God. You have committed yourselves to trust Him as Savior, and since then you no doubt have committed yourself to Him again and again. You have yielded yourself to live in submission to Jesus Christ. That is, to live under the authority of His Lordship. You have affirmed, "Lord, You are the Supreme Head of my life. I acknowledge that, and I choose to be obedient to You."
What, then, should be that spiritual gatorade that would cause us to carry out that commitment and to fulfill it, being obedient to Him?
First of all, inscribe DEVOTION on the tables of your mind. Express your simple, personal, loving devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. One primary reason Daniel would not defile himself was that very devotion.
To express devotion to God implies that you honor Him as the only true God, that you recognize Him as the only One, that you worship Him as the only One, that you are loyal to Him and to Him alone as your God, and that you affirm your deepest love toward Him.
Now, let me pose a question:
What governs whether or not you live committed to God.
Do you watch to see which way your friends are going? Do you sit on the fence and fall off on the popular side? Or is your devotion to Christ like an anchor that keeps the soul, an anchor that causes you to remain steadfast and true because of your loving devotion. Receiving your spiritual gatorade thru your thanksgiving and praise for His saving and keeping you as one of His own?
How deep is your LOVE for God? How can you measure it? The next time you are tempted to follow along with the world, your response to that temptation will divulge to you the degree to which you are devoted to the Person of the true and living God.
Daniel had determined within his being, the inmost depths of his heart, not to violate the wishes of his God. When he was challenged to violate the very precepts his parents had taught him, he refused to compromise. He made up his mind to obey God.
Have you ever made this sort of commitment?
There is a second portion of spiritual gatorade I want you to view Daniel's portion of spiritual gatorade came from having a clear direction. Daniel could have decided to say, "I'm not going to do what you are asking," but more than likely he and his friends would have been executed within a matter of hours.
When Daniel and his companions began to pray, God gave them an alternative to dogmatically violating the king's command, which could have cost them their lives. God placed them there for a reason, and He gave them an alternate approach. They would humbly address the king's master, and ask a fair concession: "Allow us to drink water and eat vegetables for 10 days while the others are drinking wine and eating meat. Then check us out and decide whether this diet was worthwhile. All we ask is a 10 day trial period. Then you be the judge. See if we don't look as well or even better than those on wine and meat."
This relates to us where we are. Whenever you are tempted to violate your conscience and the leading of the Holy Spirit, when you are challenged to violate God's plan and purpose for your life, do not try to be a big, brave martyr. You may end up being one, but do not make that your first choice.
You make your first choice to seek the mind of God and ask, "Lord, is there an alternative? I am not going to violate Your will. Is there a way I can be submissive to those in authority over me, and at the same time not violate my conscience as it is controlled by the Spirit?"
Daniel realized that God had spoken clearly about what he was to do, and so he was willing to risk his life by humbly challenging the command of the king thru his servant, Ashpenaz.
There is a 3rd portion of spiritual gatorade that becomes a factor here: THE DISCOVERY OF WHAT GOD WILL DO IN YOUR LIFE.
How was Daniel to live in a pagan society with a totally different language, different culture, different lifestyle, where people worshipped pagan gods? How was Daniel to serve a king who would almost identify himself as a god? A king who had the power of life and death over his subjects, who could have them killed at a moment's notice?
What God did was plant in Daniel and his companions a hungering, thirsting, yearning desire to know HOW GOD COULD USE THEM AT THAT POINT IN THEIR LIVES. How could God use one Hebrew teenager to bear a witness for Him in an absolutely totally pagan society which believed that its god was greater than the God of the Hebrews because they had conquered those Hebrews?
Have you asked yourself lately, if ever, "What can I do?" Have you talked with the Lord? "God, what could you do with me at this point in this society, if I yielded myself totally to You and withheld nothing from You. What if I gave myself to You without reservation? What could you do with me?"
Does that excite you?
Does it give you a shot of spiritual gatorade? Or have you already decided to put a clamp and a lid on what God wants to do?
You may rationalize, "Well, God can't do much with me." SAYS WHO? "Well, look at my education." "Look at my shortage of the social graces." "See how bashful and shy I am." God is not worried about that. God is interested in men and women who are willing to commit themselves to Him without reservation and who have this same sense of commitment Daniel had.
God wants people who will declare, "Lord God, I am committed to obeying You, regardless of the circumstances."
The real question is not what can He do? It is: what will He do if you make a commitment to obey Him at this point in your life, and from this point further by the power of God the Holy Spirit and thru the indwelling Christ, who is your life? What will God do in and thru your life if you follow thru on your commitment to Him?
Well, are you ready for your shot of Spiritual Gatorade? After all is said and done, a sincere, committed child of God will ultimately ask one primary question: "What will it take for me to be obedient to God? Then, as God shows you, ANSWER YES! When we love the Christ and His cause, we will make the irrevocable stand.
Then you can say; "you remember I had a covenant with God -- still do. I too remember and I too still do. God put pressure on me to keep me in the pathway and following Him without reservation and hesitation. If God has not put any pressure on you, you have an exhilarating experience in store. If you are His child, He will have to exercise His constraint on you. God should not have to force spiritual gatorade on you, but He will if He has to. The more compulsion you feel, the more pressure, the more important it is in the economy of God.
We hear about "laid back" Christians. I never knew a totally committed Christian who was laid back. There is a compulsion, a compunction, a constraint. There is an urgency about doing God's will.
What will it finally take to have you voluntarily drink of the spiritual gatorade, that will cause you to make a commitment to Jesus Christ?
Right now will you, in your own words and in your own way, make a commitment to Him? "Lord Jesus, I commit myself to You, that by the power of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling Christ, I will obey You regardless of the consequences."
No one, not even God, can force you into that commitment. But you should make it because of who you are and Who He is -- and because of His purpose in your life.
Will you do that now as we sing?
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