Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Message 6 | | December 31, 2017

Introduction

Preface in lieu of character study.

This morning we will be looking at Daniel and taking note of some of his marvelous character qualities.

Anytime I study characters, I am cautious of a few things.

First, be like Christ, not Daniel per say.

I don’t ever want to pull our focus away from striving to be like Christ.

We are simply using Daniel as an example of someone who was successful in following God, and we can learn from his positive example.

Second, don’t be discouraged by Daniel’s extraordinary gifting.

God made you to be who you are.

He uniquely gifted you for his specific purpose.

He doesn’t want you to be anyone else.

Be yourself, but don’t ever allow that sentiment to keep you from striving more and more for Christlikeness.

And finally, I need to acknowledge the tendency we have to two extremes.

The first extreme is when we place the development of our holiness entirely into our own hands and in so doing fail to realize that it is primarily a work of God.

The second extreme is when we place our spiritual development entirely into the hands of God, so much so that we don’t personally work towards holiness at all.

We just assume that God is going to do the work in his time.[1]

I make this following statement with great deal of caution . . .

we must strive for holiness as if it were dependent upon our own effort, while always knowing and resting in the fact that any holiness or spiritual development that occurs is entirely a work of God.

Let me connect this to our study of Daniel.

We may be tempted to observe all the wonderful qualities of Daniel and purpose to place them all in our lives.

After all, it is the New Year.

We need to make some New Year’s resolutions.

We’re going to see that Daniel consistently prayed three times a day.

If we were to error in either of these two extremes, we would either error by attempting, in our own effort, to start this prayer habit in our own strength and in about 4 days feel like a miserable wretch for failing or feel like we’re more spiritual than everyone as we succeed.

The other extreme would leave us waiting to pray until we feel a particular desire.

We’d be left just waiting for God to plant within us a desire and motivation to pray three times a day.

Instead, what we need to do is to observe Daniel’s life.

Take note of some of the positive character qualities that he exhibits.

Plan to pursue a couple realistic changes in our life and habits and then pray fervently that God will empower our efforts to be successful.

When God blesses us with growth, we then immediately display gratitude for his gracious work.

Context of Daniel.

This chapter seems to occur shortly after the events of chapter 5.

There is no indication in the chapter that there was a lengthy period of time between the two chapters.

Daniel has been in Babylon for nearly 70 years and is likely between 80 to 83 years old.

We live in a day and age when integrity seems to be little cherished.

Someone who highly values integrity or uprightness is often viewed as a prude, religious zealot, spiritual elitist, or puritanical – and none of those are meant as a positive quality.

And yet it is those same qualities of integrity and uprightness that are so lacking in the world and so cherished by believers.

This is no different than during Daniel’s time.

Many people did not appreciate Daniel’s character and integrity.

As we consider the storyline of , we will see how the greatness of God is revealed through the consistent and godly character of Daniel.

We will accomplish this by (1) assessing Daniel’s extraordinary character, and (2) observing the effects of Daniel’s character on those around him.

Daniel had an excellent spirit.

Excellent Spirit.

Daniel is characterized, in chapter 6, as having an excellent spirit in him.

“This Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him” ( ESV).

There are two other similar usages in chapter 5.

In 5:12, Daniel is considered to have “an excellent spirit” and in 5:14 he is characterized as having “light and understanding and excellent wisdom.”

[2] This word, for excellent, is used in a number of other places with some variance in meaning.

In chapter two, in regards to the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, “You saw, O king . . .

This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening” ().

As well in , in regards to the burning fiery furnace, “the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated . .

.”

Let me point you to one additional usage.

Following Nebuchadnezzar’s seven years of insanity, God returned to him his past glory, and he says, “My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me” ().

This word is used to intensify the nature of something.

Daniel didn’t only have average character.

It was intense.

The fire wasn’t just hot, as any fire would be.

It was overheated.

Nebuchadnezzar was already great, but after his stint with insanity, he was even greater.

Excellent Spirit.

In , Nebuchadnezzar refers to Daniel as the one “in whom is the spirit of the holy gods” and again in 4:18, “for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

It is this same extraordinary spirit that is mentioned by the queen in chapter 5, when she reminds Belshazzar of the man who can interpret the words for him.

She reminds him of how her husband[3] placed Daniel in a position of great authority because he had “an excellent spirit” ().

It was this same extraordinary spirit that led Darius to promote Daniel to a place of esteemed leadership.

The word that is translated ‘spirit’ can be translated as smell, wind, or breath.

Consider the following scenarios: (1) Someone has bad breath or an unpleasant body odor.

What does this do for you?

Do we not often avoid close contact with such people?

We try not to let them speak directly at us, or we joke about them not lifting their hands in the air.

In essence their smell is a repellant.

(2) In contrast, consider someone that wears a costly intoxicating perfume or cologne.

The smell is present before they are and the smell lingers after they have left.

Their presence changes the atmosphere of the room in a positive way.

You find yourself wanting them to be around.

This is maybe a simplified line of thought, but let me ask.

What do you smell like?

I know that may be an odd question.

The question is not meant to have you consider your physical smell but instead your spiritual scent.

Consider yourself in light of the two above scenarios.

When people see you or think of you, do they think of you having extraordinary character and as a result are drawn to be around you? Or, do they see a character or personality that is wrought with bitterness, anger, sinful habits, pride, selfishness, etc? Do people avoid you because you smell bad?

Godly character may, at times, be repulsive.

Some of you may think people may avoid you because you strive to live for the Lord.

This may as well be true.

In our passage we can see that Daniel’s character was both a repellant and a positive draw.

The other leaders hated Daniel due to what his extraordinary spirit produced, and Cyrus (as well as Nebuchadnezzar) had great respect and admiration for Daniel due to his extraordinary spirit.

What did Darius notice about Daniel?

What was the extraordinary spirit?

Darius saw either the direct work of the Spirit in Daniel’s life or what we have come to label “the fruit of the Spirit” ().

The fruit of the Spirit is really the character of Christ being revealed in us as we grow.

The fruit is a product not the goal.

We often want to make the fruit of the Spirit the goal we strive after in our Christian life.

We desire to be loving and gentle and good, so we set those as goals and work at being loving and gentle and good.

Instead of focusing on the fruit (or making the fruit the goal), we ought to strive to have a relationship with Christ.

Christ-likeness ought to be the goal.

When that goal is realized, the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ will be produced.

ESV).

Instead of training you how to be loving, I want to encourage you to know Christ.

If you come to know Christ, you will be loving, but not only loving; for you will produce all of the parts of the ‘fruit of the Spirit.’