I want to start with a quote today.  

“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa

We will come back to that quote.  

Real quickly, let’s look back at last week.  I wanted to bring up a huge point Sam gave us last week.  Daniel wasn’t a preacher.  Daniel wasn’t a king.  Daniel wasn’t a social media influencer.  Truth was, Daniel started out as a prisoner of war.  However, because of how Daniel lived, the king demanded that everyone serve God.  How does something like this happen?  It happened because of how Daniel lived.  When the world screamed at Daniel to change, Daniel lived out his faith.   

This is such a huge point because most people conclude, ‘My life is so hard, I can’t live out what God wants from me. ’  Or, ‘If I had more influence or if I had the right title, then I would live out my faith.’   But the truth is, it’s how we live, right now, that makes the difference.  At home.  At work.   In school.  In church.  

Do you remember Sam’s asking, ‘Why is it that you don’t immediately go to heaven?’  Because you were made by God for God to make a difference in this world through you.  We are here to live out our faith.  Sam said, When you live out your faith, it inspires others around you, and it is a powerful example to those who don’t know God.  It’s the story of Daniel.

Now back to the quote.

“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa

So many people miss this.   Why?  Because they don’t understand how much living out their faith, right now, impacts those around them.  They don’t see it.  And because they don’t see it, they can live passive lives waiting for others to inspire them.  

Today, we go to Daniel 9.   Let’s jump right in.

Daniel 9:1 It was the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, …who became king of the Babylonians. 

When we started the bible study on Daniel, Daniel was a fifteen-year-old.  He was a prisoner of war.  He was in a three-year-long program to erase who he was.  Erase his culture, his religion, his language, his name, everything.  He had every reason to be angry with God and conclude, ‘Life is too hard, I can’t live out what it means to follow God.’  But Daniel doesn’t live like that.  Daniel wasn’t a victim.  Daniel thrived; he didn’t just survive in Babylon.  Throughout his life, Daniel walks through hardship after hardship.  He was a POW.  His friends were thrown into the fiery furnace.  He was a political target for those jealous of him.  He was thrown into the lion’s den.  Here we are in Daniel 9.  He is 85 years old and now he is serving under the third king.

Let’s keep reading.

Daniel 9:2 During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. NLT

Do you see the phrase, ‘I learned from reading the word of the Lord’?  Daniel is reading what Jeremiah wrote.  Jeremiah is still in Jerusalem, while Daniel is in Babylon.   Jeremiah wrote down what God said, and Daniel was reading it.  God said that the Children of Israel would be in captivity for 70 years.  The 70-year time period is almost over, and Daniel wants to go home.  But he also knows Israel hasn’t turned back to God.  So, Daniel prays.  He repents to God, saying, ‘We are a mess because we have rebelled against You.   All we have to show for our lives is guilt and shame.’

I want to read a little bit of Daniel’s prayer.

Daniel 9:8 We have sinned in every way imaginable. We’ve done evil things, rebelled, dodged and taken detours around your clearly marked paths. We’ve turned a deaf ear to your servants the prophets, who preached your Word …You have done everything right, Master, but all we have to show for our lives is guilt and shame, …God, we’ve been exposed in our shame, …because of our sin. MSG

What is happening?   Daniel is up against something too big for him to handle.  He can’t make Israel turn back to God.  He can’t make these big things happen.  He’s overwhelmed.  Daniel loves God, but those around him are pushing God away.

Do you remember I shared a few weeks ago and said, the stories in the Bible are stories about us?   The story we read in Daniel 9 is a story about us.  It’s a story about Daniel living in a period when people clearly understood what God wanted, but pushed God away.  That had to be painful.  It would have been a huge challenge for Daniel to walk through.  It would have been so sad to see so many around him who were lazy and indifferent about God.

I must ask you, are you experiencing this struggle?  You may feel connected with God, and your passion is to see others enjoy God’s grace.   But the reality is, they push God away.   They push their spiritual family away.   They refuse to make choices that would transform their lives.  And you walk in pain because of it.  

Think about this for a second.  How many people in your family and extended family are connected to God?  I didn’t ask if they believe in God; lots of people believe in God.  I asked if they are connected with God, reading the Bible, and praying.  Maybe it’s your spouse.  Maybe it’s your parents, your adult kids, your brother, or your sister.   How many of your friends, those you go to church with, those in your neighborhood, are connected with God?   And you walk with a weight because you know they are pushing God away.  That’s what Daniel is facing.

Two weeks ago, Karen had friends from college come and stay the weekend with us.  They were missionaries in Cambodia for around 20 years and just recently got back.  They talked about their adjustment to coming back to the States and noticed that the North American Christians seem to be less than passionate about God.  They said they think being a pastor here in the States has to be the hardest thing to do.  They asked me, ‘How do you do it?’  How do you keep your heart soft and passionate?  I stumbled a little and decided to give an honest answer.  I said, ‘Honestly, I have walked with depression for most years.’  I told them I am trying to figure out how to enjoy life while at the same time seeing so many people in our culture being lazy and indifferent to the things of God.   I watch people hear about the grace of God and walk away.  I see Christians shuffle between churches with no real sense of being in a spiritual family.  We beg people to be connected to God daily through reading the Bible and praying, but it seems like too big a task.  And I’m not sure I have figured out how to enjoy life knowing that their eternal destination is at risk. Can you connect with that?

Listen.  We have the greatest message of hope for our world.   The God of the universe sent Jesus to die on the cross to break us free from the demonic curse of sin.  And when we accept Jesus as our personal savior from our sin and rebellion, that curse is broken, and we can live in freedom.  I want to be clear about something.  What Jesus did doesn’t cover our sins.  It means God becomes one with you.  Think about that, you can be one with God.  God absorbed the pain, the judgment, and the cost of your sin so that God can be one with you.  God purifies you and restores you to Himself.  God becomes human to be the human I could never be for myself.  So that I can become the kind of human I could never be on my own.  Despite your deepest flaws and failures, God loves you and wants to redeem you.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. NIV

That means every day you wake up, you can experience God’s grace again through reading scripture and praying.  Every day you can know, God paid the price so I can be righteous and be one with Him.   That is God’s message to our world.   To accomplish His mission, God built His kingdom in this world, which is called the church.  It’s the primary way God wants to redeem the world.  

I want you to hear this scripture.

1 Corinthians 12:27 You are Christ’s body - that’s who you are! You must never forget this. MSG   

God’s message of hope changes everything, doesn’t it?  And God’s plan to redeem our community through His kingdom, the local church, is our greatest opportunity and priority to be kind to others, isn’t it?  

But people push God away – don’t they?  They push their spiritual family away – don’t they?  What do we do?  How do we live with that reality?

I want to give you three things to help.

First, be human.  That simply means, see your limitations and turn to God for help.  This is what made Daniel so special.  He knew his limitations, and he turned to God for help.  He didn’t play God; he went to God for help.  

Over the years, I have met so many people.  One of the common themes in people’s lives is their desire to see things happen, good things.   By the way, me too.  They get so passionate about what they want to see happen, they can burn themselves out and wound the relationships they are in.  And all along, they were trying to make something happen for God that only God can do.  

We see Daniel feeling the pain of this struggle and turning to God.  He wore rough burlap and sprinkled himself with ashes.  Why?  It hurt him to see people push God away.  What does he do?  He turns to God for help.  We can too.   

Listen to this verse.

Psalm 55:22 Give your burdens to the Lord. He will carry them. TLB

To be human means I accept my limitations and I turn to God.

Secondly, the purpose of the Christian life isn’t doing more things for God or fixing people, but to love people where they are.  No, I didn’t say you celebrate open sin.  I said, you can love people, be kind to people, listen to people, and show them their value.  This can be hard for Christians who view themselves as mature.  What do we want to do?  We want to fix people and things.  We want to produce for God.  We want to be examples to others.  And we can become burned out because our loved one isn’t listening to us.  And as we are doing these things with passion for God, sometimes we forget our purpose, love, to be kind.

1 Corinthians 13:2 If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. NIV

Our goal isn’t to do what only God can do.  Our goal is to love.

Lastly, it’s probably going to hurt.  I can’t take that away, I wish I could.  I struggle at times with myself not to be depressed about it.  Truth is, I don’t think we can be involved in people’s lives and not take the risk of feeling the pain in it.  

Listen to this quote.

Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames? – Henri Nowen

I think we can live in the illusion that we can make a difference for God without hurt or pain.   To be deeply involved in people’s lives means it’s probably going to be messy, and it will probably hurt.  And there is no greater reward than when they experience God’s grace.

How do we live in a world when those we love the most push God away?  We remember we are human.  We have limits and must turn to God.  We remind ourselves, God saves, we love.  Lastly, the reality is, it’s probably going to hurt.  That is the cost others may have paid for you, and it might be the cost you make for others.