Summer Series: Daniel – A Marketplace Ministry Made Easy as 1, 2, 3!

Before teaching I was a youth pastor of a pretty good size church. I was living out my call. All was good! After three years of serving the church a new senior pastor came in and decided there needed to be some changes, which included me. Leaving as if I had failed, I was devastated. It was hard to get over. I had prepared for ministry for years and now there was going to be a change. My idea of ministry at the time was one needed a pulpit to make a difference. I was never told that my job/business is my ministry! Fifteen years ago when I first started teaching I would run into some church friends from my old stomping ground. After some small talk, they would ask what I was doing? When I told them I was teaching I would get the “Oh that’s nice, what happened to ministry” look! I even received the look from pastors as if I was a washed up preacher who gave up on “church ministry”. The very first class I taught was a 5th/6th grade combo class, which only fueled my doubt as to what I was doing. I have to admit, I felt so in adequate, yet every time I talked it over with God, he would say, “Trust me.” A year later I was teaching Bible classes at a local Christian high school and it was here that I found my passion! It is here that I realized that God could use me in my classroom. God began to speak through me just as if I was pastoring. As a pastor I would spend two to three days with teenagers, a few hours at that! Here I was spending time with young people five days a week for up to 6 hours every day! Ten years ago when I started teaching at my current high school, I realized that my ministry is my job! My students and parents are my congregation and I am their pastor! When I realized that, my classes became the training ground to prepare my students to impact their world with the hope of Jesus Christ! I had opportunities to pray with students and parents. Opportunities have risen to lead others to Christ. It gives me joy when I have former students share with me that they used the tools and systems taught in class while in college! Now my passion is to encourage others, as yourself, to understand that your ministry does not have to be behind a pulpit, but it is right there where you work!

Christ challenged us to go into the entire world. He challenged us to make disciples. The great commission, was not only meant for those who stand behind a pulpit. It was meant for you! Your business. Your place of employment. Your opportunity becomes an outreach to impact people’s lives that have been placed in your care. We know what six of the Apostles profession was. Peter, Andrew, James and John, were fisherman. Matthew, was a tax collector. Simon, a political activist. Authors of the New Testament included Luke, who was a doctor. Mark, was a man of wealth. Paul, a tent maker/Pharisee. The gospel did not spread from congregation to congregation. It spread like a wild fire in the marketplace. These men who were disciples, and others described in Acts, such as Lydia (Acts 16:13-15), Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18 1:4), the Ethiopian who was a government official (Acts 8:26-39), Cornelius the Roman centurion (Acts 10), Erastus who was a city official (Romans 16:23), all from the marketplace! Author, speaker and founder of Harvest Evangelism, Ed Silvoso, writes,

“Jesus intentionally recruited marketplace people who were not members of the religious establishment because His objective was to create a new social vehicle – the Church, a movement that was meant to be the counterculrure, rather than a subculture.”

The church was meant to be different than the stabilized institution of the time. It also meant that the believers of Christ were to be “different” from others in the way they acted and did business. They were to be followers of Christ who people noticed something different in them and the way they did business. They were to counter act the norm of their day. If it was producing a product…it was the best product. If it was being the boss, you were to see your employees as children of God. If you were an official, your position was not about individual gain, it was about impacting people’s lives with the position given to you. You were to be a man of your word, not cheating others for personal wealth. It was a shift from the norm. Today that same call beckons us to do the same!

When we take a look at Daniel, he served in the royal palace and over saw all the wise men for the king. Not once did he compromise his faith. Daniel’s marketplace ministry opened doors for God to show himself to a lost and pagan nation. There are two things I would like to point out that we can learn from Daniel and his marketplace ministry.

One, do those around you know who you serve? In chapter five we pick up Daniel serving King Belshazzar. A number of years had passed from the beginning of his reign when King Belshazzar received a visit from God in the form of a hand, writing on the wall (Daniel 5:1-5). No one could read or interpret the words written. Yet the queen mother remembered a man who had the “spirit of the gods” in him, the same man who told and interpreted her husband’s dream (King Nebuchadnezzar). They called for Daniel because they saw God through him (Daniel 5:11-13)!

“There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”

Do people see Christ in you? Is your faith lived out! When doing business, are you uplifting others to greatness or are you leaving carnage behind you. Are you mentoring people under you or using them to get to the next position. People saw God through Daniel. He was different, not in the weird sense, but different, with confidence from God. Do people see you doing business differently than those who may not have a relationship with Christ or is it melted into the norm that no one can tell the difference? When your name is brought up, how do others respond? If we are to be effective business owners/employees we better do business differently!

Two, is God the center of every part of your business/job? In chapter 6 we read the famous story of Daniel in the lion’s den. We pick it up were the satraps (governors of regions) did not care for Daniel overseeing them. They devise a plan to have the King decree a law that would make it unlawful to worship any god other than himself. If caught a person would be thrown into the lion’s den. What I love about Daniel is his example. Let me explain. When Daniel heard this new law, who did he go to? The king? Others to complain? He went to God.

“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.” (Daniel 6:10-11)

This was not just something he started at this moment. Look at the end of the second sentence.

“Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”
This was Daniel’s routine! God was the center of his “business”! Then we read, “…found Daniel praying and asking God for help.” Daniel was not just praying for the circumstance, he was asking God to intervene! John writes,

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

Daniel was probably asking God for direction, wisdom, and to create an opportunity to see God’s hand at work. The Scripture continues and we see Daniel thrown into the lion’s den. Yet again we are given a look into the life of Daniel and how these two points play out in the life of this man, as King Darius speaks to Daniel while in the lion’s den.

So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” (Daniel 6:16)

Daniel’s reputation in the marketplace was greater than any others because he lived out his faith and allowed God to be the center of his “business” and life. The result for Daniels faith is found in chapter 6:23-28.

“The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth:
“May you prosper greatly!
“I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.
“For he is the living God
and he endures forever;
his kingdom will not be destroyed,
his dominion will never end.
He rescues and he saves;
he performs signs and wonders
in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel
from the power of the lions.”

So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

Whether it was wealth, reputation or health, Daniel was blessed! He served four kings in 70 years. What a ministry Daniel had! Living out his faith among the lost! Checkout this video from a late 90's, early 2000 ABC news egment on faith in the workplace and be encouraged!



Now go and make a difference!
His call. His gift to you. Your purpose. Irrevocable.