August 30, 2026
I’m excited we’re starting a sermon series on choices, looking at the book of Daniel, where Daniel and his three friends make choices—really good choices–that I can’t imagine making. They are heroes of the Bible, because they put their trust in God. They are extremely brave, and full of faith!
I think that at some point, every parent tells their kid, “Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean you need to do it.” Why do parents say that? Because of peer pressure. It’s hard to resist, sometimes you want to fit in, and be like everyone else. Our sermon series today is for all of us, not just for young people. Adults also have a lot of difficulty making a choice and sticking to it!
Like a few months ago, teeth cleaned, and they did the x-rays and told me I had a cavity! Then I went to get blood drawn and found out my triglycerides were borderline high. I decided an answer to both of these issues is less sugar. I would eat less sugar. But then it was my daughter’s birthday party, and I wanted to eat the cake! Everybody else is! How can I say no when there is cake in front of me? You might think it’s easy, you say, “No.” That’s how you say it. Everybody say “no.” Well, I didn’t say no. I ate a piece of cake. And then another, it was good! It didn’t take much for me to say goodbye to a choice I made! I was easily influenced. Have you ever experienced that?
It could be you tell yourself, I’m going to respond kindly, I won’t raise my voice or make some cutting remark when I feel angry at someone. But in that moment, that harsh tone of voice and sarcasm come out.
Daniel lived in a very difficult time. Long before Daniel, in 722 B.C., Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and sent many of the people far away. That was the end of the Northern Kingdom. There was still the Southern Kingdom of Israel. Until 586 B.C., when the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom of Israel, which was called Judah. They destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple and sent many people to live far away in Babylon. The temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious life and the place where heaven and earth met. It’s where you made a sacrifice for God and where you worshipped, in the outer courts of the temple. The temple was huge and magnificent. But now it’s demolished by the Babylonians. Just imagine, what if we didn’t have our church building anymore? It would be traumatic. But at least we could go worship in another place. The people of Judah still had synagogues, but not the temple, the center of their faith. So much taken has been taken away. Many people were forced to go live in Babylon. Psalm 137:4 is a song they sang: “How can we sing the Lord’s song, in a foreign land?” They were depressed!
The story of Daniel begins, with Daniel, who is one of the people of Israel forced to go to Babylon, the capital of that empire. Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian empire, took some of the Jewish men and put them in a three-year training program. They would learn the Babylonian language and literature, so they could serve the king. Daniel and three other Jewish men, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were chosen for this. Their names were changed to Babylonian names. Daniel became Belteshazzar, and the other three became Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So far Daniel and his friends have seen their homeland and the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, they’ve been forced to go to Babylon, forced to serve King Nebuchadnezzar, and had their names taken away. They were about to be given food and wine from the king’s table. This last part sounds pretty good. They’ve lost so much! The good news is, now they get to feast! This is their reward, their luxury! Well, not in Daniel’s mind. This is where he objects.
Daniel 1:8 is amazing. Daniel has gone along with everything the Babylonians did to him up to this point. He’s been relocated, re-educated and renamed. Then vs. 8 says, “But Daniel resolved…” Daniel made up his mind. He made a choice. He determined ahead of time: before he was given the king’s food and wine, before he tasted how good it was, he pre-decided what he would do. He made up his mind not to defile himself. Defile means to contaminate, to compromise himself. What is this about? The royal food and wine. Back home, the Jewish people followed certain dietary laws. There were certain foods they believed God wanted them or didn’t want them to eat. Daniel wasn’t going to go against what he was taught. Maybe the Babylonians sacrificed food to their gods, and Daniel didn’t want to eat food sacrificed to another god. So, Daniel made a decision: this is where it stops. I will not eat the king’s food and wine.
This is a big deal. Daniel isn’t just thinking of today. He is thinking about his future. If I give in now and eat the king’s food, there’s no going back. I’ll be totally Babylonian. I’ll leave my God. He’s thinking about his future. Because every choice you make today is a vote for your future. His conscience was telling him to do something different from what other people were telling him to do. That’s hard for you and me. When our conscience tells us, don’t do what everybody else is doing, what do we do? Should we obey our conscience? Or should we give in? Daniel’s story tells us, you’ve got to do what God is telling you to do, even if other people don’t understand. Or even if you will suffer the consequences!
Daniel is bold! He asks the chief official for permission, not just for himself, but also for his three Jewish friends to not eat the king’s food and not drink the king’s wine. This request to break the rules could have been the end of Daniel. Kings don’t like it when people disobey! But it wasn’t the end of Daniel, because God would come through for him. The chief official likes Daniel, but tells him, “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.” The chief official says no, I can’t help you.
In verses 12 and 13 David then asks the guard who watches them, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” The guard agrees! The guard is open to a test of how Daniel and his friends do while eating food that’s not from the king’s table. Verse 15 says, “at the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.” God comes through! Daniel and his friends pass the test and look great on a no-meat diet! That convinced the guard to let them eat just vegetables.
Eating the king’s food might seem like a small matter, like it wasn’t important. Just eat it. But it mattered to Daniel. It bothered him. Even if he might lose his life, he had to object. Every choice you make today is a vote for your future. Daniel decided God had to be part of his future. He had to follow God. They could take Daniel from his homeland, make him speak a new language, and give him a Babylonian education. But Daniel wasn’t going to let them take away his faith in God. God made things work out for Daniel. In fact, at the end of their three years of training, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah went before King Nebuchadnezzar to see if they were ready to serve the king. Verse 20 says, “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.” God blessed their choice!
This week we lost Dolly Parton. In her life she made a choice to be a kind and generous person. She was an unusual celebrity. Most people with a lot of money, you think they would have more to give. But the percentage of wealth the rich give away is less than the percentage poor people give away. Money has a pull on us. Dolly didn’t consider wealth something to hoard, something you always want more of. Instead, she gave so much away and helped so many people. She changed lives. She saved lives! She chose generosity! She voted for a better future: not for herself, but for children and the world. Dolly was a person of faith who didn’t do what the people like her were doing. She chose to help others.
My challenge for you this week is to consider: what decision do you need to pre-decide now, so that pressure or fear doesn’t decide for you later?
Every choice you make today is a vote for your future. It’s easy to just go along and do what everyone else does, ignoring your conscience. It’s easy to think your decisions don’t matter. Daniel knew there are some decisions that mean everything! So, he risked his life to follow God’s way. He built a future where God was part of his life. God helped him do it! Choose who you will be, pre decide and stand by your choice, and God can help you build a future to be proud of! Amen.
