In c. 605 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took control of Judah and began the destruction of Jerusalem and the southern Kingdom as had been prophesied.  At this time he carried away some of the Jews including those who had royal ties.

Daniel was among those taken…  But what stands out about Daniel is the strength of his faith in spite of his circumstances, in spite of hardship, in spite of worldly pressure, in spite of compromised religion.  Within the court of a pagan king his faith flourished.  It stood strong.

In fact, that is why Chapter 1 begins and ends the way it does.  Throughout his life (from the age of 15 well past 80) he stood strong

I want to begin a sermon series on the book of Daniel, but I am not going to focus so much on the prophecy even though there is plenty of that in the book of Daniel, and direct tie ins to the book of revelation and the last days.  What I want to focus on is this thought…  STANDING STRONG

We have all seen the pictures of houses falling off the sides of cliffs because the foundations upon which they stood were eroded out from underneath them.  It is no different with our faith.  There are forces at work eroding the foundations upon which we would stand.

In order to stand strong, we must first deal with those things that undermine the foundations of our footings.  Until we recognize and deal with these issues we will never stand strong

 CHAPTER 1 – ERODING FOUNDATIONS

 1.    Internal Desires

2.    The Flow of Cultural Pressure

3.    Carnal Christianity

4.    Fear of Failure

5.    Cost Compromises