Dharius Daniels - Conniving Co-Workers

Well, listen. Daniel chapter 6, verse 7 says, «The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human during the next 30 days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lion’s den.» This ends the reading of God’s Word. I want to talk from the subject of «Conniving Coworkers» during our time together today. Are y’all ready?

Last week, family, we started a series of sermons on the subject «Labor Pains.» Everybody say, «Labor Pains.» The primary premise of this series is that your place of employment, no matter how unexpected or undesirable it may be, could be your place of deployment. I’m simply articulating that I believe God places certain people in certain spaces during certain seasons for certain reasons. That is not to say that your job is your purpose because the thing that feeds you is not always the thing that fulfills you, but that is to say there is purpose in your job, and there is purpose at your job. If your job is not your mission, your job might be your mission field. Even if God is not using you to change the people at your job, God might be using the people at your job to change you. I should have gotten a better «Amen» than that right there!

Because of this reality, family, the enemy engages us in a unique kind of way at the workplace. He orchestrates what we call labor pains. Labor pains are inconveniences, agitations, and attacks that the enemy orchestrates at our place of employment to distract us from our assignment. The enemy is not just a destroyer; he’s also a distractor. I believe this is our season and our time to refuse to be distracted. If I’m teaching, are you all ready? Wave at your boy and say, «You’re preaching to me!» Yeah, this is the season. One of the avenues through which the enemy attempts to afflict us with labor pains is through, listen to this, conniving coworkers.

This is my fifth time this weekend speaking this message—once last night and my fourth time today. Each time I’ve reached that point, the energy in the room feels very similar, which says to me there’s a possibility some people are waiting to see how you connect with this message through your experience. I’m with that because you’re thinking and flowing and following with me. Yet, at the same time, I’m a little concerned because it may mean that some of you are with conniving coworkers and you haven’t discerned it. It is possible that some of us are being manipulated so well that we don’t even know we’re being manipulated. Because contrary to popular opinion, all manipulators aren’t mean. There are some people who are praising you, affirming you, and applauding you who, at the same time, can be manipulating you.

This text here in the book of Daniel exposes us to the experience of a man named Daniel who ends up in a lion’s den, but he ends up there because of conniving coworkers. Ooh, what do you mean? Right here in Daniel chapter 6, historically and contextually, this is what happened. We studied Daniel chapter 2, right? Daniel was working for a Babylonian government under the leadership of a Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar. Well, in Daniel chapter 6, Babylon has been conquered by another kingdom, Persia. Persia is under the leadership of another king, Darius. So now those countries that were subject to Babylon are now subject to Persia. Follow me? Alright, so that’s what happened historically and contextually. Now, let’s take what happened historically and use it metaphorically to appropriately apply it to this preaching presentation.

This can be seen as a corporate takeover: one company, now a stronger company, buys out a smaller one, and now they have to decide which employees to let go and which employees to keep. They decide to keep Daniel. Not only do they keep him, but they give him a position where he is one of three VPs responsible for providing oversight to 40 regional managers. The Bible says something in verse number three: «Daniel distinguished himself from everyone else by his exceptional qualities.» One translation says, «his spirit of excellence.» Notice what it didn’t say: it didn’t say Daniel distinguished himself because of his excellent ability. Or, if you’re churchy, I know some of you are churchy, it didn’t say his excellent anointing. It says he distinguished himself by his exceptional qualities. So it wasn’t the ability that distinguished him; it was his intangibles.

John Maxwell’s book called «Beyond Talent» argues that the most impactful people in human history were people who had more than talent. They had talent plus perseverance because you won’t make the impact you could make if you aren’t willing to press your way through when you want to quit. He says they need talent plus teachability because you don’t go to the next level; you grow to the next level. You can only go to the level you’re willing to learn on, so whenever you stop learning, you’re stopping yourself from moving. He says we need talent plus, watch this, initiative because you don’t have to be great to start, but to be great, you gotta start. Where you end up in life isn’t just about where you start; it’s about whether or not you start. Are you hearing me? He’s saying Daniel had some exceptional qualities that distinguished him from everybody else, and now his king says, «You know what…»