Friday, October 30, 2015
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If you come into my office, there'll be a hanging up on the wall there. It says, "Core Values." If you walk around our headquarters, many places you will see that same framed picture up there of "Core Values." You see, many years ago when we were first starting our ministry, I thought maybe we should take a look at how ministry was done in the Word of God. So I did some research, and within the best of our ability, that Bible study came down to about twelve core values. How many times we're in a meeting, "Well, what should we do?" We'll point and say, "Look at number 5. Look at number 10." And the decision was made years ago about what we should do, even though we hadn't faced this situation. Your core values - your non-negotiables - pre-made your decisions. It makes life a whole lot simpler.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Simplify Life's Choices."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 1. I'll begin reading from verse 8. Let me give you a little background in case you slept during that part of Sunday School when they talked about the life of Daniel or you weren't in Sunday School. You might remember that Daniel had been carried away from his homeland of Israel, and he was now in the Babylonian Empire; one of a select group of young men who were being groomed for leadership in that empire. And they wanted to feed them a special diet so they would become strong, and wise, and become the most promising leaders in the kingdom.
Unfortunately, it will cause Daniel to go against his convictions about what kinds of food would defile him according to Jewish law. What's he going to do? A lot at stake here! Verse 8: "But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel." The rest of the story tells us that Daniel was allowed a chance, because he had stated his convictions to not defile himself. And he ended up doing better than all the rest of the people who were on the special diet, and he had a meteoric rise to power in the Babylonian Kingdom.
Now, in this story Daniel's under heavy pressure to do something he did not believe in...just like you are maybe. You are in an environment where wrong is considered normal. There's pressure to get sexual experience and a lot of mockery if you haven't. Pressure to lie for the company, to cheat in school, to laugh at what's dirty, to party, maybe just to get into the group that puts people down, that gossips, the back stabbing. Look, if you are a follower of Christ, in most environments today you are under heavy pressure to compromise and retreat a little.
Well, Daniel's answer to peer pressure should be yours. Make up your mind, settle it, take your stand. He let people know what to expect from him and they backed off. It may be that you haven't taken your stand, so guess what? They keep coming back to you because they're not sure what to expect from you. But they could be, if you would clearly tell them your conviction and consistently stick to it. Those pre-decided core values; those non-negotiables.
Now, they may not agree with your conviction, but I have found that often people will back off once you consistently take your stand and they'll respect you for it. In many cases I've even seen people defend somebody's convictions and say, "Don't try to get him to do that. He doesn't do that. He's not that kind of person." Sometimes even people wish they had the courage to do it and take that stand themselves. You know how you spell relief from peer pressure? Not compromise, not caving-CONVICTION; a conviction that you stick to.
See, as long as those people around you aren't sure what to expect from you, as long as they think you're like them or that you're undecided about who you're going to be, they will keep pushing you again and again. But once you tell them to expect you to be different; once you let them know clearly and consistently who you are and who you will be, in most cases they'll let you be that.
Had enough peer pressure? Here's the prescription for some relief, It's called conviction. The decision that "I will do what's right no matter how many other people do what's right."