Decide What You Believe Before It Costs You | A Sermon on Daniel
Sean McDowell
apologetics
August 25, 2026
Here's a question worth sitting with: what are the principles you actually live by? In this message I look at Daniel. They changed where he lived, what he studied, the language he spoke, and even his name. But the text says he had resolved not to defile himself (past tense). He didn't develop those convictions under pressure. He arrived with them.
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0:00 — What principles do you actually live by?
1:15 — A lesson from my dad
3:06 — Daniel: a man of principles
6:08 — Daniel 1: the siege of Jerusalem
11:01 — Why Babylon actually won
13:42 — Chosen for the king's court
17:16 — Living somewhere unsympathetic to your beliefs
19:38 — They changed his name
21:09 — Why the food?
23:59 — What hills will you die on?
25:43 — Jana and the assignment she wouldn't do
27:20 — An athlete who walked away
29:31 — What Os Guinness told me about legacy
30:56 — Decide before the pressure comes
Scripture
DanielDaniel 1
Topics
kirk cameronhellgavin ortlunddoubts about hellchristian debateafterlifereligious discussionbible teachingschristian apologeticsend times












