WEBVTT 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:03.520 If you brought a Bible this morning, I want to encourage you to open up to the book of Daniel. 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:07.330 We're going to be exploring just kind of a survey of Daniel this morning as a church family. 00:00:07.340 --> 00:00:14.480 We're going through a series on the Old Testament, and the beauty of the Old Testament is we get to see God, revealing 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:17.620 himself and his promise of redemption for mankind. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.980 before Jesus arrives, God's calling his shot for us. 00:00:22.740 --> 00:00:28.720 And we focus on three ministries that Jesus is fulfilling in the Old Testament prophet, priest, and king. 00:00:29.080 --> 00:00:31.580 Jesus fulfills all of those ministries for us. 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:37.520 He is our priest in Hebrews and he is our prophet in Hebrews. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:42.180 And revelation likes to emphasize he is also our returning King. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:46.140 And so everything that we're about here at Alpine Bible Church rests completely on Jesus. 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:49.460 And so we say this men will disappoint you. 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:50.960 If you put your faith in men. 00:00:51.260 --> 00:00:52.070 Men will lead you astray. 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:54.660 Men will disappoint you if you put your faith in Jesus. 00:00:55.260 --> 00:00:56.420 Jesus will set you free. 00:00:57.480 --> 00:01:04.060 Jesus promises that his joy may be in us, and our joy may be made complete through that relationship with him. 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:07.640 It's not about religion, but about relationship with Christ. 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:11.780 God has created you for a relationship in him. 00:01:12.020 --> 00:01:19.180 God, when he created you, the Bible tells us, breathes his spirit into you, that you would reflect his image and goodness in 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:19.820 this world. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:25.240 God created us for so much more than what we tend to live life for in this world. 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:28.540 We have the opportunity in life to live for his glory. 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:32.040 But we tend to elevate ourselves to the position of God. 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:36.680 And we seek after idols rather than the one who created us for his goodness. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:45.160 And in the midst of that idolatry and sin that we isolate ourselves from with God, God continues to pursue us and 00:01:45.340 --> 00:01:52.620 offer us his grace, and to set us free through what Christ has done on our behalf by becoming a sacrifice for us on 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:53.000 the cross. 00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:59.900 We see the tendency of mankind repeated throughout the Old Testament. 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:04.020 Beginning in creation, Adam and Eve are created right after creation. 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:08.840 Adam and Eve have this fall, and then God offers salvation to them. 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:14.940 In Genesis chapter three, it's the first proclamation of the gospel that the Messiah would come to set us free. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:21.020 And he specifically says in that passage that Satan will bruise his heel, but he will crush the head of Satan. 00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:27.640 And then he creates for Adam and Eve clothing, which in the Hebrew translates as priestly garments. 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:35.880 God rips off the fig leaves of Adam and Eve, these garments of a soldier, and he puts on the garments of a priest the sacrifice that God 00:02:35.880 --> 00:02:37.020 made in the garden. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:39.720 The story goes on throughout the Bible. 00:02:39.740 --> 00:02:42.440 That man continues to sin, that Cain slew Abel. 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:42.960 And. 00:02:42.980 --> 00:02:47.980 And God offers redemption through Seth, and that man turns from God, and God floods the world. 00:02:47.980 --> 00:02:50.120 And God then restores the world and man. 00:02:50.380 --> 00:02:52.780 Man pursues God again, but then man flees from God. 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:57.260 And so man builds the Tower of Babel, and God creates the languages and disperses the people. 00:02:57.540 --> 00:02:59.380 And God calls the people back to him. 00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:06.500 And God creates Abraham one one man who would create a nation through which we could identify where the Messiah would come to set us free, that our 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:09.690 joy may be made in him and may be made complete. 00:03:12.160 --> 00:03:19.200 Bible tells us that from Abraham to Moses, the children of Israel end up in Egypt and in bondage, and Moses 00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:21.040 sets them free. 00:03:21.100 --> 00:03:27.300 He brings them out of Egypt through the ten plagues into the land, or outside of the land of Israel. 00:03:27.540 --> 00:03:32.560 And Joshua takes over when Moses passes away and continues the march from Egypt into Israel. 00:03:32.820 --> 00:03:38.000 And he leads the nation of Israel in into the land of Canaan, their homeland that God had promised. 00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:47.040 And through their time in that land, they grow into a mighty nation under under Saul and David and 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:48.360 King Solomon. 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:55.700 And when we get to the king, King Solomon, the nation of Israel then goes through a civil war and splits and the northern tribes of Israel, 00:03:55.700 --> 00:03:57.710 sometimes referred to as Ephraim in the Bible. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:04.180 Ten of those tribes follow the north, and two tribes, which is often called Judah, go towards the south. 00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:08.300 There is a civil war and a divide that happens within the nation. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:16.360 The northern kingdoms never had a godly king after Solomon lead them once, they divided their pursuit. 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:23.620 After God quickly comes to an end and in 722 BC, God leads them into captivity through 00:04:23.620 --> 00:04:24.280 the Assyrians. 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:31.300 So the promise to the nation of Israel is that God would bring the Messiah through them, and he would bless them as they pursued him. 00:04:31.340 --> 00:04:35.360 But if they were unfaithful to him, that they would also be cursed through God. 00:04:36.760 --> 00:04:38.690 And the northern tribes of Israel and their disobedience. 00:04:38.900 --> 00:04:41.070 God allowed them to go into captivity. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:48.440 God had the tendency to allow hardship to fall upon them, to remind them of their need for the Lord in their lives, and in those hardships, they would turn 00:04:48.440 --> 00:04:49.670 back to him. 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:57.740 But in the hardness of the northern tribes within their hearts, they continue to stray from God, and in 722 BC they 00:04:57.740 --> 00:04:58.940 are led into captivity. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.700 The southern tribes of Israel of Judah had some godly kings throughout their time period. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:13.500 By about 606 BC, there comes the Babylonian nation into Israel. 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:15.100 They were the world power at the time. 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:22.240 And they begin to take the nation of Israel captive from 606 BC to 586 BC. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:29.560 There were three waves of Babylonian power that came through the land of Israel, and they began to pull out the people of Israel and taking them into captivity. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:37.840 The way that the story goes is when the Babylonians first came into the land, the people that they first took out of the land into captivity were people of 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:41.320 prominence, people of influence, people of power, people of wealth. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.200 The lower and middle class were left in the land. 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:53.920 Later, the Babylonians came back and then decimated all of the southern tribes of Judah and brought them into 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:54.770 captivity. 00:05:54.820 --> 00:05:58.760 And so when you read about these accounts within Scripture, you will find various prophets. 00:05:59.140 --> 00:06:02.960 Speak to what's taking place here, particularly the prophet Jeremiah. 00:06:04.460 --> 00:06:10.120 Jeremiah is one who writes about the seeds that takes place against the southern tribes of Judah. 00:06:11.380 --> 00:06:12.280 His book of Lamentations. 00:06:13.460 --> 00:06:18.960 He's referred to as the weeping prophet because his ministry was one of destruction and despair. 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:26.300 And he writes the Book of Lamentations, which is the book of weeping, recording for us the devastation happening in 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:29.650 Judah because of the persecution that's coming their way. 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:32.460 Through Jeremiah. 00:06:34.580 --> 00:06:35.320 God gives them a promise. 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:43.440 So we have this tendency when things aren't going this way to our way, to have a doom and gloom attitude. 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:47.660 We look at the way that God identifies himself and the way that the world walks. 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.400 Contrary to who the Lord is, we. 00:06:50.580 --> 00:06:57.580 We acknowledge that things may look bad, but when it comes to Christ, there was always hope and restoration through his 00:06:57.580 --> 00:07:00.790 power and mercy and grace being made known. 00:07:01.580 --> 00:07:04.200 God always gives us reason to hope in him. 00:07:05.640 --> 00:07:13.020 You could think maybe if you lived during that time period in a in a nation came in and conquered your land and a 00:07:13.520 --> 00:07:18.150 third of your people are just massacred and the rest are just taken in into captivity. 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:20.940 What you might think about that nation. 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:30.360 God writes to the people of Israel through Jeremiah and he records this for them in Jeremiah 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:35.610 29 and verse 4 to 7, the responsibility that God sees for them as they're being led into captivity. 00:07:35.940 --> 00:07:38.900 He says this thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:46.520 To all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, and plant gardens, 00:07:46.580 --> 00:07:53.720 and eat their produce, take wives, and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear. 00:07:53.840 --> 00:07:56.530 Sons and daughters, and multiply there, and do not decrease. 00:07:57.100 --> 00:08:02.420 Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. 00:08:02.900 --> 00:08:06.620 For in its welfare you will have welfare. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:09.200 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:16.500 Do not let your prophets who are in your midst, and your diviners deceive you, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name I have not sent 00:08:16.500 --> 00:08:17.600 them, declares the Lord. 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:24.980 For thus saith the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:26.340 bring you back to this place. 00:08:26.520 --> 00:08:33.520 For I know that the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans of welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and 00:08:33.520 --> 00:08:33.880 a hope. 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:36.780 Israel. 00:08:36.780 --> 00:08:38.520 I'm leading you into a new land. 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:42.080 A place that looks foreign for you. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:46.080 And what I desire for you to carry is a hope for that place. 00:08:47.520 --> 00:08:54.700 Wherever God guides you in this world, God desires for you to be an influence in the culture around you 00:08:54.700 --> 00:09:00.000 for the sake of Christ and what he has called you to represent him in this world. 00:09:01.780 --> 00:09:08.920 You can think of all the ways that God leads us and all the frustrations that we go in world, and all the excuses that we could give as to why we shouldn't stand 00:09:08.920 --> 00:09:09.840 for him in particular. 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:10.480 Reasons. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:10.600 Because. 00:09:10.940 --> 00:09:13.200 Because people may rub us the wrong way. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:20.200 And if ever there was a group of people that had an excuse not to love someone else, it was the nation of Israel being led 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:22.500 into captivity by the Babylonians. 00:09:24.560 --> 00:09:24.800 God. 00:09:24.820 --> 00:09:25.200 We don't. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:26.370 We don't want to love them. 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:27.640 God. 00:09:27.680 --> 00:09:31.350 We're just looking forward to an opportunity of just getting out of that place. 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:33.540 I mean, look at their wickedness. 00:09:34.660 --> 00:09:35.650 Aren't we so much better? 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:38.550 I mean, we're your chosen people, right? 00:09:39.880 --> 00:09:47.280 And God uses Jeremiah to say to the nation of Israel, wherever I guide, I desire to provide, 00:09:47.520 --> 00:09:50.810 have an influence on the culture around you. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:58.320 Just because a culture seems godless doesn't mean God's people walk hopeless. 00:09:59.920 --> 00:10:02.000 God uses us to make the impact in the world. 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:05.780 I love the way that the Genesis expresses our creation. 00:10:07.380 --> 00:10:14.800 I mean, you read Psalm eight, Psalm 19 describing the creation of the world, and it says that all of creation is 00:10:14.940 --> 00:10:16.480 evidence of the glory of God. 00:10:17.660 --> 00:10:24.940 But most specifically when he made you and he made me, he breathed his spirit within us, sang the 00:10:24.940 --> 00:10:32.140 identification of where God's glory should be made most known as through the identity of the one who 00:10:32.140 --> 00:10:34.080 was sculpted in his image. 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:37.350 We become his mouthpiece of proclamation. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:46.180 That while the world points to his glory, we're the very verbal expression and the lifestyle of living that says, 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:53.220 yes, indeed, this was made by God, and we are intended to have that relationship with him and enjoy him for eternity. 00:10:53.220 --> 00:11:00.640 And so, Jeremiah, when you go into this land, understand what I'm calling you as a nation of Israel to is to represent me to these people. 00:11:02.800 --> 00:11:10.160 We said in recent weeks, there are three tendencies that we can have as individuals when we represent God 00:11:10.160 --> 00:11:10.960 in this world. 00:11:11.300 --> 00:11:17.640 You see that example played out beautifully in the New Testament when you read about the Pharisees. 00:11:17.900 --> 00:11:19.620 They were religious legalists. 00:11:20.420 --> 00:11:27.500 They tend to be isolationist and separatist, meaning when they when they went into a culture to influence that, their idea of 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:32.160 influence was to hide themselves behind a fortress and not associate with the pagan world. 00:11:33.380 --> 00:11:39.700 You see the way that they treat Samaritans within Scripture, the people that are believed to be half Jews, they look down upon them. 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:44.400 So much so that when they would travel, if they needed to go north through Samaria, they would cut around the land. 00:11:46.300 --> 00:11:48.580 The other alternative is to be like the Sadducees. 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:57.320 The Sadducees invited Roman influence into their world, and they were looked at as liberals, meaning they began really to define 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:01.300 what was right and wrong, rather than listening to God for the sake of fitting into the culture. 00:12:01.300 --> 00:12:03.360 So much so that they forsook truth. 00:12:05.300 --> 00:12:06.160 And then there are the disciples. 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:10.920 A desire to be in the world, but not of the world. 00:12:12.160 --> 00:12:19.720 The two examples of text that we give for that passage of Scripture comes in Jude chapter one and verse three, in first Corinthians 922. 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:22.900 We think about walking in this world, a disciple for Christ. 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:27.020 There's always this tension of how to do that appropriately for him. 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:34.220 But in Jude one three it says this I felt compelled to write and urge you contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted 00:12:34.220 --> 00:12:35.790 to God's holy people. 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:41.120 Sometimes when the Bible talks about the word of faith, we've got to ask the question what exactly it means by that word. 00:12:41.180 --> 00:12:48.120 Sometimes it means the faith of trust that we're putting into something like trust and believe in have faith in Christ. 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:56.060 Other times it's talking about the faith, the doctrinal truth that represents what Christian Christianity is about, the very pillars that we 00:12:56.060 --> 00:12:56.820 stand upon. 00:12:57.700 --> 00:13:04.860 Meaning Jude one three tells us when we're walking in culture, the tendency is for culture to try to redefine what we are in 00:13:04.860 --> 00:13:08.420 God, but we stand on the faith in him. 00:13:09.040 --> 00:13:10.700 We stand for truth. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:13.470 We don't have the right to change truth. 00:13:14.300 --> 00:13:16.340 God has already determined truth, and truth is absolute. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:25.480 It's our responsibility to pursue it and to proclaim it and to live it, earnestly 00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:27.360 contend for the faith. 00:13:27.780 --> 00:13:32.860 But the way that we do that we refer to as contextualization, right? 00:13:34.220 --> 00:13:41.240 I know that I need to live for the truth, but how do I do that in my culture, the place where I live? 00:13:42.160 --> 00:13:45.460 The contextualization of God's Word is important for us. 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:52.460 Not that we isolate ourselves like Pharisees, or we live liberally like the Sadducees, but we represent God in 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:53.680 our culture with integrity. 00:13:55.280 --> 00:14:02.820 And so in First Corinthians 922 it says this by Paul, I became all things to all people, so that by all means possible I might save 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:03.420 some. 00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:10.100 It's important for me to understand how to relate the truth of God's Word to other people. 00:14:10.100 --> 00:14:17.120 And so in order to best express that, I became all things and understanding that they may clearly understand the truth of what God stands 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:17.260 for. 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:21.320 We contextualize truth. 00:14:21.780 --> 00:14:23.570 So people can best understand it. 00:14:24.520 --> 00:14:24.940 And embrace it. 00:14:26.760 --> 00:14:27.220 Can I tell you? 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:32.560 One of the primary avenues through which we contextualize truth is through the thought of love. 00:14:34.800 --> 00:14:39.240 And the way that God has communicated His Word to us is full of grace and love. 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:42.300 From first John 419. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:44.980 We love him because he first loved us. 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:50.900 He contextualized his truth by becoming flesh. 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:56.760 And demonstrating to us what it means to live in relationship to the father. 00:14:59.100 --> 00:14:59.900 He became flesh. 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:02.980 We love him because he first loved us. 00:15:04.160 --> 00:15:06.640 In John 1335 it tells us. 00:15:06.640 --> 00:15:11.640 But by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. 00:15:11.680 --> 00:15:18.780 If you contextualize this truth that I'm expressing, Ephesians 415 tells us, speak the truth 00:15:18.780 --> 00:15:24.160 in love, meaning stand for the faith and reach the culture that you're in. 00:15:25.380 --> 00:15:26.980 Express their need for Christ. 00:15:28.760 --> 00:15:35.780 Jeremiah writes about his experience during this captivity and conquering of the nation of Israel through 00:15:35.780 --> 00:15:43.140 through Babylon, telling the people of Israel to have an influence on the culture in which God is drawing you into the Babylonian 00:15:43.140 --> 00:15:43.560 nation. 00:15:44.760 --> 00:15:51.760 And Daniel, as we look at him this morning, was one individual that was brought out of the southern tribes of Judah in the 00:15:51.760 --> 00:15:55.700 first wave of captivity that Babylon brought onto the nation of Israel. 00:15:57.160 --> 00:16:02.660 Daniel was brought into the land of Babylon at a young age. 00:16:03.880 --> 00:16:08.840 He came in to Babylon as a teenager, and he stays in Babylon into his 90s. 00:16:10.920 --> 00:16:14.260 Daniel grows up in his faith in the Book of Daniel. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:22.880 Daniel's life is a wonderful expression to us of what it means to live for God in the midst of a pagan culture. 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:32.040 The theme of Daniel reminds us that in a hopeless culture, there is always hope in God and 00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:36.500 in the vulnerability of the nation of Israel through their weakness. 00:16:36.520 --> 00:16:39.250 God's glory can be best seen. 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:47.620 Book of Daniel is a powerful prophetic book dealing with many of the things contained in this book are found in the Book 00:16:47.660 --> 00:16:48.330 of Revelation. 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:57.660 The first six chapters of this book are historically based, describing what life was like for Daniel, which is where we'll 00:16:57.660 --> 00:16:58.840 put our emphasis this morning. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:04.940 The last six chapters deals with prophetic fulfillment of the Messiah for us today. 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:06.810 You can see the contents of it in revelation. 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:13.800 Daniel was a young boy as ripped from his home, and he grows up as an older man. 00:17:13.800 --> 00:17:15.079 We won't call him an old man. 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:15.260 Right? 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:18.180 That's just subject to whatever age you want to be old at. 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:25.740 But Daniel grows up in the faith, and he demonstrates what it means to stand for God in a broken culture. 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:28.430 How to be a leader for him. 00:17:29.740 --> 00:17:33.000 The Babylonian nation is much like America today. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:40.200 It is a hodgepodge melting pot of different people, groups that have come together with different ideas and beliefs 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:42.360 about what life should be about. 00:17:42.500 --> 00:17:46.040 And Daniel was called in this culture to stand for the Lord. 00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:54.700 And so the question just ask is to look at this text, knowing that God has called us to contend and to become all things. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.650 How do we influence an ungodly culture in a godly way? 00:18:01.620 --> 00:18:05.700 Bible tells us in Daniel chapter one this is what happened in Daniel's life. 00:18:05.800 --> 00:18:12.820 It says in verse four, young men, this is what Babylon was seeking after they were after young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing 00:18:12.820 --> 00:18:19.080 aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the King's palace. 00:18:19.080 --> 00:18:22.200 He was he was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. 00:18:22.780 --> 00:18:28.960 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 00:18:29.020 --> 00:18:34.680 So they entered the king's service, by the way, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 00:18:34.740 --> 00:18:41.900 If you never you ever heard those names before in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten 00:18:41.900 --> 00:18:45.780 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. 00:18:46.860 --> 00:18:49.200 From the beginning you see God's hand upon Daniel. 00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:56.280 But when Daniel is brought into the culture, the first thing that Daniel is able to do is to learn about the particular people that God has called 00:18:56.280 --> 00:18:56.980 him to reach. 00:18:58.840 --> 00:19:05.880 They take from the nation of Israel, the people that score 120 or what he said, no, no, 30 or above on their 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:06.230 act. 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:06.560 Right. 00:19:07.620 --> 00:19:10.310 All all the smarty pants is that you chase after in school. 00:19:10.390 --> 00:19:14.140 The ones that get to stand on stage and deliver those valedictorian speeches. 00:19:16.320 --> 00:19:17.720 The ones of prominence and wealth. 00:19:19.080 --> 00:19:22.130 And Daniels brought into this culture as a person of influence. 00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:28.440 And it tells us that he begins to learn about the people that God has called him to represent the Lord to. 00:19:29.760 --> 00:19:36.760 And I would say on the backdrop of this thought, we as individuals who pursue Christ don't get involved in 00:19:36.760 --> 00:19:39.340 culture primarily because we think culture is cool. 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:43.140 We involve ourselves in culture. 00:19:44.800 --> 00:19:49.060 Because God has called us to care for the people that we desire to reach within that culture. 00:19:50.800 --> 00:19:52.260 It's never about the culture. 00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:54.390 It's always about the people. 00:19:55.940 --> 00:20:00.600 And if your heart is to reach them, it works in your favor to understand them. 00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:03.960 That you can learn how to best communicate God's truth to them. 00:20:05.820 --> 00:20:09.180 Daniel learning about the culture still walked with integrity. 00:20:10.620 --> 00:20:15.340 It tells us in verse eight that his pursuit was holiness and intimacy with God. 00:20:15.360 --> 00:20:19.900 And it says, But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. 00:20:20.200 --> 00:20:23.880 And he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:26.880 So Daniel wasn't about to compromise. 00:20:29.280 --> 00:20:33.860 I, and reading this text found multiple ways to justify Daniel's position. 00:20:35.600 --> 00:20:40.590 You've just been drugged out of your homeland to a people that you shouldn't desire to love and reach. 00:20:40.600 --> 00:20:41.500 And yet you are. 00:20:42.600 --> 00:20:49.160 And you're brought into this land, and they're forcing you to eat things that you shouldn't have to eat according to your God. 00:20:49.300 --> 00:20:50.900 But you have every excuse in the world to do something. 00:20:51.860 --> 00:20:59.480 You're not providing the food by coming before the king and mentioning that you don't want to eat the food that he's provided, and you're putting your neck on the line, right? 00:20:59.560 --> 00:21:06.580 But Daniel had already determined in his life that he wanted to stand for integrity, the way that Daniel was able to influence this godly, 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:14.480 ungodly culture and a godly way is that Daniel, before all things, when he thought about reaching these people, he was determined to seek 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:18.060 intimacy with God and to honor him with his life. 00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:23.180 Nevertheless, not my will, God, but your will be done. 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:29.220 And Lord, as I'm learning about these people as you've told us to in Jeremiah 29, to have an influence upon them. 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.800 God, I want you to know that I'm still standing with integrity for you. 00:21:35.800 --> 00:21:39.520 If you want to reach people for the Lord. 00:21:39.520 --> 00:21:46.600 It's good to have an understanding of their values, though you may not hold to their values so that an understanding the idea of 00:21:46.600 --> 00:21:53.320 who people are and the culture in which they live, you can best reach them for the Lord. 00:21:54.340 --> 00:21:55.040 Do you know what that is? 00:21:55.820 --> 00:21:56.560 That just expression. 00:21:58.080 --> 00:21:58.940 Its missionary training. 00:22:00.740 --> 00:22:04.620 I spent this week in the team from Idaho was helping me serve. 00:22:05.940 --> 00:22:09.300 We served a team of missionary church planters in the state of Utah. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:10.020 Right? 00:22:11.040 --> 00:22:12.140 Utah has its own culture. 00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:14.540 To be effective. 00:22:15.780 --> 00:22:16.810 It's good to know the culture. 00:22:18.500 --> 00:22:23.920 You don't have to necessarily hold the values of the culture, but if you desire to reach it, to express truth to it. 00:22:25.600 --> 00:22:26.710 To go for the people. 00:22:27.820 --> 00:22:29.720 What God desires is the heart of people. 00:22:31.140 --> 00:22:36.500 If you serve in any foreign land, the thing that they tell you is you desire to go into that foreign land and serve the Lord. 00:22:36.780 --> 00:22:39.220 They'll tell you, let's learn about the culture before you get there, right? 00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:40.710 It's probably good to know their know. 00:22:41.060 --> 00:22:44.360 Know how to eat what they eat and speak the way they speak and do what they do right. 00:22:45.580 --> 00:22:50.920 I had a friend that went to a country that, uh, he could lose his life for. 00:22:50.980 --> 00:22:58.040 But before he got there, his training onto that field was that he was to eat the food for a year before they 00:22:58.040 --> 00:22:58.400 got there. 00:22:58.500 --> 00:23:00.820 So that when he got to that country, he smelled like the people. 00:23:01.860 --> 00:23:02.180 And that. 00:23:02.180 --> 00:23:09.440 Interesting because they found that the remark of the peoples when he, when he got there is that the tendency of Americans was that we smelled 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:10.900 like beef and baby powder. 00:23:13.230 --> 00:23:14.510 And sort of fit in the culture. 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:16.700 He decided to smell different than that. 00:23:18.420 --> 00:23:20.670 But being relevant to the people you're around. 00:23:22.460 --> 00:23:23.660 The second thought is this. 00:23:23.860 --> 00:23:27.420 Daniel goes on to share another story as he's seeing his influence in the culture. 00:23:27.580 --> 00:23:31.640 But this time, the story that he shares isn't even specifically about him. 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:34.700 It's about his three friends that we just talked about. 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:42.440 His three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are walking the same way with integrity before 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:42.940 God. 00:23:44.520 --> 00:23:47.080 And Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:54.560 Under this time, and during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he creates this giant image and he tells the people of Babylon, I am 00:23:54.560 --> 00:23:57.190 God, and you need to bow before this image. 00:23:57.540 --> 00:24:04.510 And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego know on the inside that there is only one God to whom we bow to, and there's only one God who exists. 00:24:04.540 --> 00:24:07.560 All others are idols, and so we will not bow to this God. 00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:09.640 And so they refuse to bow. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:13.660 And these three men are brought before the king. 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:16.220 And the king begins to express his frustration. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:17.500 And he says this. 00:24:17.640 --> 00:24:23.980 Now when you hear the sound of all the kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:28.840 But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. 00:24:29.180 --> 00:24:29.960 Then what? 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:32.280 God will be able to rescue you from my hand. 00:24:33.660 --> 00:24:34.680 This is what they say. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:42.760 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you 00:24:42.760 --> 00:24:43.340 in this matter. 00:24:44.320 --> 00:24:46.280 We're thrown into the blazing furnace. 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:49.080 The God we serve is able to deliver us from it. 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:52.790 And if he will deliver us from your Majesty's hand. 00:24:53.640 --> 00:25:00.900 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold 00:25:00.900 --> 00:25:02.200 you have set up. 00:25:02.980 --> 00:25:08.060 The Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. 00:25:08.100 --> 00:25:12.320 He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, and commanded some of the strongest soldiers. 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:14.360 Throw them into the blazing furnace. 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:21.560 So these men were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace, and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up 00:25:21.560 --> 00:25:23.200 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 00:25:23.560 --> 00:25:26.520 And these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. 00:25:28.360 --> 00:25:35.440 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, were there three men that we tied up and threw 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:36.120 into the fire? 00:25:36.120 --> 00:25:37.740 And they replied, certainly, Your Majesty. 00:25:38.040 --> 00:25:43.350 And he said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:50.940 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! 00:25:51.040 --> 00:25:51.460 Come here! 00:25:52.180 --> 00:25:54.850 So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. 00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:58.220 And they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies. 00:25:59.620 --> 00:26:01.370 Nor was a hair on their head singed. 00:26:03.140 --> 00:26:03.600 The rope there. 00:26:04.280 --> 00:26:09.600 Their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them. 00:26:11.280 --> 00:26:17.880 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. 00:26:18.020 --> 00:26:25.240 And they trusted in him and defied the king's command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any God except 00:26:25.240 --> 00:26:26.220 their own God. 00:26:26.500 --> 00:26:33.500 Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be cut into 00:26:33.500 --> 00:26:39.110 pieces in their houses, be turned into piles of rubble, for no other God can save in this way. 00:26:41.320 --> 00:26:44.160 See the thought of Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego was this. 00:26:45.100 --> 00:26:48.360 You may take my life now. 00:26:49.540 --> 00:26:52.180 But there is redemption to come in the Lord. 00:26:53.720 --> 00:27:01.360 You may physically do things that harm us, but ultimately our peace rests with God. 00:27:03.280 --> 00:27:05.620 To endure hardships in this life. 00:27:07.380 --> 00:27:10.800 We must have a hope and a God who will sustain us. 00:27:14.040 --> 00:27:16.200 Knowing that we live in a fallen, sinful world. 00:27:18.260 --> 00:27:21.920 Had the tendency to think that all of us will walk through the fire at some point. 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:26.970 The question is, who do you want on your side? 00:27:29.300 --> 00:27:29.920 A king. 00:27:31.220 --> 00:27:32.630 Desires to make you live in fear. 00:27:34.560 --> 00:27:37.720 Where God in your humility, who desires to lift you up. 00:27:39.740 --> 00:27:45.170 I heard someone share on this passage once and they said, do you know much of our faith? 00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:49.820 Is preparing us for the final moments of life. 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:54.420 For many of us, there will come a time. 00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:57.520 What our lives will be coming to an end. 00:27:59.580 --> 00:28:05.580 And you may be in a hospital room, left to yourself, all alone with your thoughts. 00:28:07.660 --> 00:28:08.400 And in those moments. 00:28:10.060 --> 00:28:11.040 Where we might wonder. 00:28:13.820 --> 00:28:19.920 What joy it is to rest in the hope of one who will redeem us. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:29.020 Regardless of what happens to me today, my hope rests and 00:28:29.020 --> 00:28:32.600 the one who can always supply for my every need. 00:28:34.780 --> 00:28:37.540 Whether it be in this world or what is to come. 00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:39.220 God is able. 00:28:41.600 --> 00:28:43.640 To make an influence in a culture. 00:28:45.600 --> 00:28:52.920 Not only do you desire or should you desire intimacy with God and honoring him, but to know that there is a God 00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:56.590 who will walk through the fire with you. 00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:05.020 You know, the joy of these three men and Daniel in these moments is that they begin to discover 00:29:05.020 --> 00:29:06.810 the genuineness of their faith. 00:29:08.040 --> 00:29:08.520 That was strange. 00:29:10.780 --> 00:29:17.940 Can I tell you this morning that it's not until our faith really costs us something, that we have the understanding that our faith 00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:21.500 is truly genuine in our relationship to God. 00:29:24.460 --> 00:29:26.750 Has your faith ever cost you something? 00:29:28.060 --> 00:29:30.880 Have you ever made a risk for the Lord? 00:29:32.940 --> 00:29:40.110 I mean, have you ever given sacrificially to him or trusted in him in a moment when things seem difficult? 00:29:40.360 --> 00:29:41.920 Does your faith cost you? 00:29:44.940 --> 00:29:46.520 It's the evidence of the genuineness. 00:29:49.180 --> 00:29:56.240 James opens up his book in James chapter one and verse two and three, and he says this consider it all joy, my brethren, when 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:01.840 you endure various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 00:30:03.940 --> 00:30:04.560 It's real. 00:30:06.120 --> 00:30:08.180 Jesus is real to you. 00:30:09.020 --> 00:30:16.140 The promises and the hope that God gives is real to you to influence the culture. 00:30:16.140 --> 00:30:23.260 Seek God with intimacy and understand that God will walk with you through the fire and give you a 00:30:23.260 --> 00:30:26.420 hope far greater than anything this world can promise. 00:30:28.520 --> 00:30:29.180 Third is this. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:35.140 Daniel took intentional risks to honor God. 00:30:35.700 --> 00:30:38.880 As Daniel rose to prominence in the land of Babylon. 00:30:39.360 --> 00:30:46.440 The Bible tells us that the Medo Persians then came in to conquer that land, and Daniel stayed as a 00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:53.940 as a man of prominence, and King Cyrus and Darius ruled the medo Persians during that time, and they began to 00:30:53.940 --> 00:31:00.960 issue laws again in Daniel chapter six, after they see such a glorious representation of God in Daniel chapter three and Daniel 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:08.260 six, Daniel has to represent God to that culture one more time, because they begin to make laws of outlawing the worship 00:31:08.500 --> 00:31:09.720 of Daniel's God. 00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:14.270 And these men that are jealous of Daniel say, how are we going to get Daniel out of his position? 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:16.940 We need to bring him down so that we can elevate ourselves. 00:31:17.180 --> 00:31:18.710 And they thought to themselves, you know what we got? 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:20.240 Let's let's outlaw prayer. 00:31:20.340 --> 00:31:22.460 No one can pray to anyone but the king. 00:31:24.560 --> 00:31:27.830 And Daniel took intentional risks to honor God in those moments. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:31.060 Tells us in Daniel chapter six and verse three. 00:31:31.100 --> 00:31:38.160 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators in the satraps by his exceptional qualities, that the King planned 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:39.850 to set him over the whole kingdom. 00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:44.580 At this the administrators and the satraps tried to find ground for charges against Daniel. 00:31:44.600 --> 00:31:46.600 They could find no corruption in him. 00:31:46.600 --> 00:31:53.640 Finally, these men said, we will never find any basis for charges against this man, Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God, the 00:31:53.640 --> 00:32:00.880 royal administrators, the perfect perfect satraps, the advisers, the governors, and have all agreed that the King should issue an edict 00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:08.420 and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any God or human being during the next 30 days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall 00:32:08.420 --> 00:32:09.560 be thrown into the lions den. 00:32:10.420 --> 00:32:12.760 So King Darius put the decree in writing. 00:32:14.220 --> 00:32:14.400 Now. 00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:21.680 When Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem. 00:32:23.080 --> 00:32:23.880 Three times a day. 00:32:24.620 --> 00:32:26.110 He got down on his knees and he prayed. 00:32:27.320 --> 00:32:33.570 Giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 00:32:34.010 --> 00:32:36.090 Daniel wasn't reckless in pursuing hardships. 00:32:38.290 --> 00:32:39.070 What he was faithful. 00:32:41.930 --> 00:32:46.900 Can I tell you when you think about influencing people and culture for the sake of Christ? 00:32:48.020 --> 00:32:55.530 Faithfulness in adversity is one of the primary ways culture has best influence for 00:32:55.530 --> 00:32:55.860 the Lord. 00:32:58.050 --> 00:32:59.710 And the darkness of the night. 00:33:00.570 --> 00:33:03.070 The glory of his light is made known. 00:33:05.290 --> 00:33:06.390 When it costs you something. 00:33:07.730 --> 00:33:11.410 The beauty and the love of Jesus shines through. 00:33:13.930 --> 00:33:18.970 We're not simply taking stands to prove how tough we are or how big of jerks we can be. 00:33:19.690 --> 00:33:20.990 Some Christians are great at that. 00:33:22.450 --> 00:33:25.090 But just a point to the glory of the one who is good. 00:33:27.210 --> 00:33:34.680 Daniel took intentional risks before the Lord, and his story expresses to us this beautiful relationship 00:33:34.950 --> 00:33:35.650 with God. 00:33:37.530 --> 00:33:41.990 And Daniel in these moments prays as he takes a stand before God. 00:33:43.630 --> 00:33:50.370 And based on this verse ten, we learn that Daniel was accustomed to thinking God and praising God in his life. 00:33:50.530 --> 00:33:56.310 His heart was always in the right place as he represented God to the Babylonians. 00:33:58.570 --> 00:34:05.790 The Bible tells us in these moments as he goes to his room and he begins to pray in verse 11 that these men 00:34:05.790 --> 00:34:09.030 find Daniel praying, asking God for help. 00:34:10.810 --> 00:34:13.790 What Daniel was seeking after in these moments was help. 00:34:15.310 --> 00:34:22.270 He understood that if he desired to have any impact in the culture, it wasn't coming through his own power ever to begin with. 00:34:23.830 --> 00:34:24.330 Putting God's. 00:34:26.210 --> 00:34:26.949 There is prayer of help. 00:34:28.409 --> 00:34:29.590 Daniel identifies for this. 00:34:29.870 --> 00:34:34.949 Living in an ungodly culture isn't easy, even for a godly person. 00:34:36.010 --> 00:34:37.210 There is prayer for help. 00:34:37.210 --> 00:34:41.070 Daniel identifies that God supplies through his prayer for help. 00:34:41.070 --> 00:34:46.510 Daniel identifies that he wants intimacy with a God as a fire walking God in the midst of this trial. 00:34:48.790 --> 00:34:51.679 Daniel shows his concern for the people in his own land. 00:34:53.210 --> 00:34:56.170 Daniel desires for the Lord to be made known. 00:34:57.290 --> 00:35:02.490 And Daniel understands that it's the Lord who's going to move within the hearts to change the people. 00:35:05.190 --> 00:35:08.610 Daniel was ready for God to answer according to his glory. 00:35:10.530 --> 00:35:12.690 So Daniel goes to his room and asks for help. 00:35:14.770 --> 00:35:16.690 This passage in the Bible. 00:35:16.690 --> 00:35:20.770 If I'm just being fleshly, would I would acknowledge and tell you makes me angry. 00:35:22.110 --> 00:35:22.490 At first. 00:35:23.910 --> 00:35:31.570 And the reason why is this when I go before God in prayer in the midst of my struggle, this is what I think God should do in his answer in 00:35:31.570 --> 00:35:34.550 my struggle, right? 00:35:34.710 --> 00:35:38.810 Daniel goes before the Lord and he asks for he asks for help. 00:35:39.850 --> 00:35:42.130 And so then the next verse should tell us. 00:35:42.150 --> 00:35:43.690 Then Daniel got help and everything was better. 00:35:43.690 --> 00:35:45.590 He changed the law and Daniel could pray, right? 00:35:46.630 --> 00:35:52.350 And looking at this, a man who's grown up in the Lord, who's been faithful to God at all expense. 00:35:52.430 --> 00:35:54.470 In these moments he prays to God for help. 00:35:54.650 --> 00:35:55.830 And what's God's answer? 00:35:57.670 --> 00:35:59.290 The lion's den. 00:35:59.830 --> 00:36:00.890 I don't know about you, but. 00:36:01.030 --> 00:36:03.310 But if someone catches me praying, I'm asking God for help. 00:36:03.490 --> 00:36:06.370 And then I'm finding that it's taking me to the lion's den. 00:36:06.770 --> 00:36:06.830 My. 00:36:06.890 --> 00:36:08.710 My tendency would be to say, you know what? 00:36:08.890 --> 00:36:09.130 God? 00:36:09.290 --> 00:36:10.450 God, I guess didn't hear that. 00:36:10.450 --> 00:36:11.840 I didn't pray right or something. 00:36:12.090 --> 00:36:15.010 Obviously this is not his will, right? 00:36:15.030 --> 00:36:18.910 I mean, how can a lion's den factor into what God desires for me? 00:36:21.370 --> 00:36:22.550 Matter of fact, I may even get angry. 00:36:24.850 --> 00:36:27.050 And just being honest with myself and with you. 00:36:27.630 --> 00:36:29.560 You probably would too, right? 00:36:30.570 --> 00:36:30.810 God. 00:36:30.810 --> 00:36:31.990 Why is that like that? 00:36:32.470 --> 00:36:34.550 God, why are you answering that prayer that way? 00:36:35.350 --> 00:36:36.270 Did you not hear me? 00:36:36.490 --> 00:36:37.350 I'm the good one. 00:36:37.350 --> 00:36:38.350 I'm the faithful one. 00:36:38.570 --> 00:36:39.470 You're putting me. 00:36:39.470 --> 00:36:39.810 Where? 00:36:41.270 --> 00:36:41.950 It's not here. 00:36:43.170 --> 00:36:44.170 And I prayed for, like 20 minutes. 00:36:45.450 --> 00:36:46.390 Could you just give me one answer? 00:36:48.830 --> 00:36:49.760 Think of those lines. 00:36:51.830 --> 00:36:52.670 I mean, if you grow up. 00:36:53.590 --> 00:36:54.490 In church at all. 00:36:54.490 --> 00:36:56.070 You've heard the story, right? 00:36:57.650 --> 00:36:59.560 Daniel goes into the lion's den. 00:37:00.530 --> 00:37:02.590 God shuts the mouth of the lions. 00:37:05.710 --> 00:37:12.750 Turns out God knows far better what would bring him glory than we as people often think that we 00:37:12.750 --> 00:37:13.870 might perceive. 00:37:15.690 --> 00:37:18.210 See my thought to Daniel would be in that moment. 00:37:18.270 --> 00:37:22.550 God, you answered Daniel's prayer because the people saw you praying and you get the glory because the laws changed. 00:37:23.690 --> 00:37:25.620 God says, no way. 00:37:26.290 --> 00:37:33.570 I want to take this moment, and I want it to get even darker, because when my hand steps in to answer 00:37:33.570 --> 00:37:40.650 this prayer, there is no excuse among the people as to who provided in these moments that 00:37:40.650 --> 00:37:42.630 I may get the glory. 00:37:44.650 --> 00:37:47.030 Well, that changes the way I think about prayer. 00:37:48.670 --> 00:37:53.690 I mean, if I said this morning, God, I want to represent you in this culture and God, of course I want to stand for you. 00:37:53.690 --> 00:37:56.000 I'm going to be just like what you said in Jeremiah. 00:37:59.070 --> 00:38:00.690 But not the lion's den. 00:38:02.190 --> 00:38:03.580 Now you make it easy for me. 00:38:04.430 --> 00:38:06.130 I'll do it with no sacrifice. 00:38:07.810 --> 00:38:08.480 I'll give you Sunday. 00:38:09.230 --> 00:38:09.550 All right. 00:38:09.890 --> 00:38:12.590 You do what you need and give me the rest of the week. 00:38:15.010 --> 00:38:19.490 Daniels taking this story and communicating to us in the midst of darkness. 00:38:19.970 --> 00:38:25.100 You don't understand how great God's glory can be displayed in those moments. 00:38:25.190 --> 00:38:32.490 Just trust in him and be faithful to him and look to him because he is a fire walking 00:38:32.510 --> 00:38:34.870 God in those moments. 00:38:41.310 --> 00:38:41.390 God's answer to prayer. 00:38:41.390 --> 00:38:42.290 It was always about his glory. 00:38:44.650 --> 00:38:46.570 God's desire for us. 00:38:47.770 --> 00:38:54.470 And the midst of what we're going through regardless on the mountaintop or valley, is that his glory would be made known. 00:38:54.630 --> 00:39:01.650 And you, being created in his image, having His Spirit through the promise of Christ, could be the proclamation of the truth 00:39:01.650 --> 00:39:03.390 and beauty of who Christ is. 00:39:06.490 --> 00:39:08.970 Got in the darkest of moments. 00:39:09.690 --> 00:39:13.950 Let your glory shine through that your hope would be made known. 00:39:15.570 --> 00:39:16.330 And I love what Daniel does. 00:39:17.610 --> 00:39:19.270 He describes here what the King says. 00:39:20.550 --> 00:39:27.750 I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom, people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, and 00:39:27.750 --> 00:39:28.990 he endures forever. 00:39:28.990 --> 00:39:32.650 His kingdom will not be destroyed and his dominion will never end. 00:39:32.650 --> 00:39:33.980 He rescues and he saves. 00:39:34.110 --> 00:39:37.050 He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. 00:39:37.070 --> 00:39:39.590 He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. 00:39:41.590 --> 00:39:44.310 And how humbling this passage comes for us. 00:39:46.570 --> 00:39:49.800 Who proclaim that we care about the place that God calls us. 00:39:51.470 --> 00:39:58.610 Because it puts us in a position to be honest and say, and even in the moments of darkness, are you willing to 00:39:58.610 --> 00:40:01.430 be faithful that my glory would be made known? 00:40:03.210 --> 00:40:04.670 How far? 00:40:06.070 --> 00:40:07.190 How far will you go? 00:40:09.450 --> 00:40:10.970 You think of the example of Christ? 00:40:12.970 --> 00:40:13.850 To the ends of the earth. 00:40:16.110 --> 00:40:17.730 For the hope set before Jesus. 00:40:17.810 --> 00:40:20.360 Hebrews tells us he endured the cross. 00:40:22.470 --> 00:40:29.450 And for the hope set before this land, how far will you go to influence the culture? 00:40:33.620 --> 00:40:34.310 If you want a faith. 00:40:35.810 --> 00:40:38.700 That reflects, like Daniel in the lion's den. 00:40:39.150 --> 00:40:45.350 I got to be truthful and say, in studying all this, man, I was up and down emotionally this week, man. 00:40:45.570 --> 00:40:51.030 But I get to the end of this and I see what God did and his glory made known in this prayer, and Daniel coming through on top, proclaiming God. 00:40:51.070 --> 00:40:53.480 I'm just saying to myself, man, I want to be like Daniel. 00:40:55.190 --> 00:40:56.690 I want to stand up to the lions. 00:40:58.130 --> 00:40:59.830 Man, I want his glory made known. 00:40:59.970 --> 00:41:00.070 How? 00:41:00.250 --> 00:41:01.030 How does that happen? 00:41:02.790 --> 00:41:03.610 Can I tell you the secret? 00:41:05.730 --> 00:41:07.850 It happens in Daniel chapter one and verse eight. 00:41:09.510 --> 00:41:15.680 The reason Daniel was faithful in the lion's den is because Daniel had determined long ago that he would be faithful to God, even in the small things. 00:41:17.430 --> 00:41:18.490 The king brings food. 00:41:19.750 --> 00:41:20.650 It's against his faith. 00:41:22.210 --> 00:41:25.610 He denies it out of integrity for God and intimacy with him. 00:41:27.710 --> 00:41:34.710 To stand against the lions in a culture, to contend for the faith and become all things for all 00:41:34.710 --> 00:41:34.810 people. 00:41:36.590 --> 00:41:39.070 That story starts in the beginning of your relationship with Christ. 00:41:39.170 --> 00:41:40.570 Not not when you get to the lion. 00:41:43.250 --> 00:41:44.050 To be a Daniel. 00:41:46.130 --> 00:41:48.090 God desires for us to influence our culture. 00:41:49.850 --> 00:41:52.210 To be in it, but not of it. 00:41:53.550 --> 00:42:00.570 To not look at the hurdles of life as obstacles that need remove, but as an opportunity for God's glory 00:42:00.570 --> 00:42:01.730 to be made known. 00:42:03.350 --> 00:42:09.550 This morning in honor of Daniel, we've got something that we're going to give you guys on your way out. 00:42:12.050 --> 00:42:13.140 This is a bracelet. 00:42:15.070 --> 00:42:16.390 It's in honor of the persecuted church. 00:42:17.450 --> 00:42:19.670 It's called it, says one with him on the front. 00:42:20.750 --> 00:42:28.030 And the point is this all over the world, there are people whose faith has been proven in 00:42:28.030 --> 00:42:28.290 the Lord. 00:42:29.870 --> 00:42:33.170 Meaning they're giving the greatest sacrifice for Christ. 00:42:33.210 --> 00:42:38.770 As a matter of fact, on your way out, if you want to pick up a bracelet, there's also an information sheet at the top persecuted countries in the world. 00:42:39.990 --> 00:42:40.200 Do you not? 00:42:40.410 --> 00:42:43.260 Not too long ago, on the top of that list was a country called China. 00:42:45.510 --> 00:42:50.020 And the people of China continued to be faithful to God in the midst of trials. 00:42:50.650 --> 00:42:58.010 And now statistics say that the church in China is now over 10% and the fastest growing church in 00:42:58.010 --> 00:43:00.350 the world is in China. 00:43:01.030 --> 00:43:01.650 Why? 00:43:02.970 --> 00:43:04.630 Because they walked with God through the fire. 00:43:06.690 --> 00:43:13.730 This bracelet is intended to remind you to pray for those people, but it's also intended to remind us of the 00:43:13.890 --> 00:43:14.870 faith of those people. 00:43:16.470 --> 00:43:23.470 Through all generations, from Daniel to today, looking to a God to change this world, being faithful to him and saying God in whatever 00:43:23.470 --> 00:43:25.870 adversity I face, I face. 00:43:25.910 --> 00:43:28.370 I'm trusting, I am trusting in you. 00:43:28.570 --> 00:43:35.890 And you look at that bracelet and you're reminded we're one with believers all around the world making sacrifice for Christ, 00:43:36.330 --> 00:43:40.690 determining within our hearts that his glory would be made known in the midst of our darkness. 00:43:40.910 --> 00:43:45.230 Because our hope is far greater than anything this world has to offer. 00:43:47.790 --> 00:43:48.570 Dare to be a Daniel. 00:43:50.390 --> 00:43:50.470 God. 00:43:50.530 --> 00:43:52.190 May we be faithful like Daniel. 00:43:53.730 --> 00:43:54.640 Whatever the cost. 00:43:55.750 --> 00:43:57.180 May we stand for you. 00:43:58.650 --> 00:44:00.170 Make a difference in your culture. 00:44:01.270 --> 00:44:02.550 Here's how. 00:44:02.870 --> 00:44:03.820 We'll take the easy road. 00:44:05.650 --> 00:44:07.560 But take the glorious one that God has paved. 00:44:08.530 --> 00:44:11.010 The evidence of his glory would be made known.