Dare to be like David

This morning's sermon was by Dr. Steve Griffiths. Text was taken from Daniel 1:1-21
Sermon title: God at work.

Dr Steve Griffiths spoke about how we as Christians can shine and glorify God and share the good news in our own school/workplace/family/friends. He spoke about how God was at work during Daniel's training in Babylon. Although, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were chosen to serve the king, and they had to have their names changed and to learn new language and literature, however, Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine that were offered by the king. The reason why Daniel rejected the royal food was because he does not want to be "contaminated" because the royal food were offered to the babylonian gods before them. that is one reason why Daniel rejected the food.

Also, Daniel do not want to be bought by the king. Because he knew that if he were to accept the food and wine that the king had offered, in the future, it is very difficult to refuse the jobs given to him by the king. and should the jobs offered to Daniel were against our God, Daniel will be caught in the situation such that he cannot not defy the Lord, neither can he defy the orders of the king.

However, God was at work! God has caused the official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel when daniel refused the royal food and asked for veg and water instead. The Babylonian king was able to change Daniel's name, BUT, he cannot change Daniel's nature. Daniel was obedient and turned to God everyday. He remained faithful to God throughout the 60 years living in a highly hostile environment.

We often thought that it is impossible to glorify God or to do His works in a what seemed to be an unfavourable environment. be it in the workplace or schools, or even in our own family. However, we fail to realize that God is always with us and all we have to and need to do is to rely on Him, do what He tells us to, and He will make our paths straight. Daniel kept God at the center of his life and God sustained him. Many people, even ourselves, at times will conform to what the world think and do. That is very ungodly and we as children of God should not be doing.

Today's sermon served as a very good reminder to me especially, when so many times i felt bitter about not being able to own smth (itouch/iphone etc) that my friends and even my own sisters owned. However, today, God reminded me that earthly treasures should not be something which we should be going after. ultimately, one day, all of us will have to return home to the Lord and these earthly things which we owned, we will not be able bring them with us. Rather than spending our time slogging away to earn more money to buy the earthly treasures, why shouldnt we spend more time in sowing and harvesting for God and build heavenly treasures? In Psalm 62: 11-12 "One thing God has spoken, two things have i heard: that you, O God are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done."