Live Like a Leader - Lesson 1

One thing you will notice about all of these people is that they made some pretty bold moves while following God, and their loyalty to God was one thing that helped them become better leaders. It's important for us to know about these people and how they followed God, along with some of the character traits God gave them to help them become leaders.

In the process, we may discover some character traits that we have or that we want to develop more, in order to follow God better. As we go through this study, you will see a lot of the hasthtag #livelikeleaders. USE IT!! Look around, and when you see a friend or someone at school living like a leader—using one of the character traits we study—tag them! Let’s see what it looks like to #livelikeleaders today

We need to get in shape.

search for volunteers and begin exercise routine.

· Did you enjoy the workout? Why or why not?

· Do you work out/exercise at other times? Why or why not?

· What would make it easier and more enjoyable to exercise? Give an example.

[If the class is reluctant to eat the lettuce or asks, Is that all? (which they likely will do), ask the following questions.]

· What were you expecting the snack to be?

· What is the purpose of a snack?

· Why would we start our message like this?

· What do we usually think about people who are able to stick to workout schedules and eating right?

Discipline

what is discipline?

“Discipline is training to obey a code of rules or behaviors."

Discipline helps us to stick to what we know to be true; it helps us to become strong. Do you know of any biblical examples of someone who was disciplined?

We could probably name several people in the Bible who were disciplined, but for the next two weeks, we are going to look at Daniel.

Daniel

As we read through some of the book of Daniel, try to start thinking about how this kind of discipline could be good for you in your life right now.

Here’s the setup for the story: The Israelites were defeated by the Babylonians, whose King was Nebuchadnezzar. And the boys who were smart, in good shape and good-looking were taken to Babylon to be part of the king’s court. That may sound awesome—to be taken to live in the king’s court—but they were taken from their families and their way of life, into a new country with strange people.

They were expected to give up everything about themselves to belong to the king, a king who was NOT the God of Israel. Daniel and his friends were Israelites. This meant they had been taught the Ten Commandments, and they were to only worship the one true God.

King Nebuchadnezzar intended to make the boys part of his court so they were expected to ‘become’ like the Babylonians. They even had to take on new names. Their very identity was taken from them.

Daniel 1:3–5 CSB

The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility—young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king.

The Story of Daniel

To be part of the king’s court, Daniel and his friends were assigned a special diet. The diet consisted of foods that were considered unclean by the Israelites.

Daniel purposed in his heart to stay pure, to be true to God—not only Daniel, but his friends, too. They all stuck together and decided to stay true to their God.

They talked to man guarding them and convinced him to try and experiment. For 10 day don’t give us the unclean food the other servants in training eat. Instead, give us only clean/holy food ---water and vegetables. We’ll see how we do.

Daniel 1:15–21 CSB

At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king. In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Earlier, we talked about the definition of the word discipline, and in this case we are talking about discipline in terms of training to be able to obey rules or a code of behavior.

Daniel and his friends had discipline. They had been trained to live by a code (God’s commands). When they arrived at a time in their lives when a choice was before them, they were able to continue to live by their code (God’s commands).

It would have been easier to just go along with the king’s new commands, because the reality is, Daniel and his friends could have been punished or killed just for asking to be exempt from the king’s food. After being taken from their home and family, it would have been easy to just "fit in" and do what everyone else was doing.

Daniel’s discipline and training kept him following God. Check out this verse.

Daniel 1:8 NIV

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.

Notice in verse 8, Daniel "purposed," or "resolved," to keep God’s commands. Discipline is a character trait that helps us make good decisions and then follow through with those good decisions, even if all around us other people are caving in and taking the easier way.

Disciplined Like Daniel

Today, we talked a bit about what it means to be disciplined, and we started to look at an example of this type of lifestyle. In a minute we will close in prayer, but first I want to ask you to think about what discipline looks like in your life, right now. Are you likely to stick to your decisions, even if all of your friends or peers are doing something different? What do you need to do to be more disciplined? Think of someone in your life who can help you.

In a way, we are like Daniel. Every day, we go to a place where our beliefs and way of life are not the same as everyone else’s, like at school. Sometimes, people want us to be involved in things we know are wrong: gossip? Bullying? Disrespect to teachers? Cheating? Ever struggle with any of those? Yep, we all do.

This week, instead of looking for all the ways we are tempted to make wrong decisions, look for people in your life who are disciplined and making right decisions.

#livelikeleaders, and stand out among those around you.

Let's pray.

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