HCC Weekly - April 27th, 2026

Above Reproach

Pastor David

Many people know the story of Daniel and the lion's den. Daniel is serving under his third leader (Darius) in a foreign land. Darius decides to split up the governing of his land between 120 people (each having their own region to worry about). There are three others in charge of these 120 regional leaders, one of which is Daniel. Because Daniel does such a good job at managing the leaders under him that Darius appoints him to be over everyone. This seems to make some of the leaders under Daniel jealous of his position and they start looking for ways to bring something against Daniel to have him removed from his position.

Daniel 6:4-5 (NLT)- Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. So they concluded, “Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion.”

Daniel did his work so faithfully and trustworthy that even when people came to “audit” him and find issues to use against him, they could find nothing. Daniel did his work with so much honor that the people coming against him had to turn to his faith (because not only did Daniel work honestly, he was also faithful to the Lord and prayed three times a day) in order to try and get him into trouble. And even then they had to make up a new law to get Daniel in trouble because of his faithfulness to God. And we know the story from there.

Talking to Titus, Paul writes: Titus 2:7-8-And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.

“Have nothing bad to say about us” - this should be a standard that as Christians we live by in order to properly represent Jesus to those around us. What a statement to live a life so honest and true that people who view you as their enemy have to turn to your faith in order to try and hurt you because you don’t give them ammo to do so in any other part of your life.

So, how much ammo have you handed the people around you to use against you? And what needs to happen so that you stop handing out that ammo?