Click here to see the sermon discussion questions or see them listed below. We highly encourage you to listen, think, and talk about the sermon. These are questions you can reflect on by yourself, with your family, or with your small group.

Sermon Discussion Questions

1. In your experience, what is, or has been the greatest challenge to your faith?  Can you think of any reason why you might abandon your faith in God altogether?  What if you were taken into exile into a hostile foreign land and removed from your family, friends, and church…would your faith remain?

2. How does your belief in God’s sovereignty help you through times of trial and tribulation?  What is it about God’s nature that keeps you from falling into despair when faced with the question, “if God is indeed sovereign, in control of all things, why would he allow evil, suffering and pain in my life”?

3. What do you think God desires from us when we suffer?  How does Jesus’ suffering on the cross for our sins put our own suffering into perspective?

4. Rather than killing them, why do you think Nebuchadnezzar brought the young people from the royal family back to Babylon to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans?  Why might this subtle strategy be more effective than brute force?

5. It shouldn’t surprise us that Satan continues to use this same subtle strategy against the church.  In today’s culture, how does Satan try to isolate, entice, and confuse Christian youth to “change masters”?  

6. In our passage this week, Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the temptations of the Babylonian king.  How can Christian parents help our children develop this same resolve? What sacrifices must parents make to protect their children from the alluring enticements of the world?

7. What is God doing in your life right now to cause you to look up?