Temptation - The World

We're going to continue our series on sin and temptation tonight.

And that was kind of like more of an intro text, what Ashley just read.

! We'll probably be revisiting that next week, but I think it's really good.

Tonight we're going to talk about the world and what the world is.

Last week John spoke on Satan, the identity of Satan and his purposes and his desires.

And this week we're going to talk about the world.

And in 1 John here, the verses we just read, the word for world,

it's not talking about the world in terms of like nature, creation, people necessarily.

It's talking about the world more like a negative way.

The way that the world is alienated from God because of its sin and because of the sinfulness of man.

And it has to do with the way of thinking, like an ideology.

It encompasses false systems of religion, false ways of thinking.

It encompasses a lot of different things.

And flip over to Colossians 2 really fast.

This is just another text to look at.

But the world and the devil and the flesh are the three things that we have to do with and fight against here in this life as believers.

And they're not necessarily separated.

As I said a long time ago, they kind of work together in a lot of ways.

It wasn't like today.

It was the devil.

And yet tomorrow is going to be the world.

It's all kind of in working together simultaneously to lead us away from God into sin.

Colossians 2 verse 8.

Colossians 2:8

A great verse to kind of reference when we're looking at what it means.

Like the world, the cosmos.

It says,

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.

According to human tradition.

According to the elementary spirits of the world.

And not according to Christ.

And that word for captive means like robbing, plundering, taking away, taking away from.

And false ideologies and false ways of thinking, false worldviews can rob you of the joy that you're meant to have as a believer in Christ.

And knowing Christ and walking with Christ, it alters how you think.

And if you do that, if you bind to another ideology of the world, you can miss out on so many things that Christ has for you.

And living in sin.

And so, when it talks about philosophy here in Colossians, it's not just talking about like an academic class of philosophy.

It encompassed a lot more back then.

More of like how you do life.

The purpose of life.

Who God was.

How you lived every day.

That's what philosophy really meant more then than like we would think of today.

Our main text, though, is going to be in the book of Daniel.

So, turn to Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

I don't know many other books to look at that speak about how to be in the world, but not of it.

To be the people of God, but at the same time live in the midst of a very sinful and broken and fallen environment than Daniel.

Some of us are just familiar with like Daniel's in the lion den, but you ought to go back and study this book at some point.

And really, ring it out.

It's so rich and powerful.

So, I'll give you a background.

We're going to be in chapter 1.

We're going to go through the first few verses.

We'll read through.

Right now, we'll read 1 and 2.

It says,

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some vessels in the house of God.

And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God.

And to know what's going on a little bit, Judah, do you remember like there was at one point a united kingdom where David reigned as a king and there was this one nation.

And then his son Solomon reigned after that and it was one nation.

After Solomon died, the kingdom split apart.

There was ten tribes that went to the north and that was Israel.

And their capital was Samaria.

And in the south, there was two, and that was Judah.

And their capital was Jerusalem.

The northern kingdom had been wiped out by the Assyrians before the Babylonians were kind of on the scene.

So Judah remained.

But Judah continued to rebel against God and not honor God in the way that they worshipped and with their lives.

They confessed Him with their mouths, but their hearts were far from Him.

And God constantly sent prophets.

He sent Jeremiah.

He sent many other prophets to speak to them and say, this is not good.

You're rebelling against God.

You need to repent and turn back to God.

And they continued on in their sin.

They ignored all God's warnings.

And finally, God gave them over.

He judged them for their rebellion.

And His instrument of judgment was Babylon.

It was Nebuchadnezzar.

And this is around like 605 B.C., so a very long time ago.

So you can go and read about Nebuchadnezzar, even just other literature outside the Bible.

But he was a real guy.

And he took Jerusalem over, conquered the city, and took a lot of the things that were in the temple back to lay before one of his false gods, one of his idols, to kind of just say, you know, look what my God did.

And to mock the God of Israel.

And so God was judging them for their rebellion.

And just to know, like, also kind of what's going on in these first few verses, we'll read the next part right here.

And it says, the king assigned them a daily portion.

Oh, excuse me.

Let's give something I did.

I apologize.

No.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

In verse 3, we begin to kind of see, like, this system that Nebuchadnezzar had in place.

It wasn't just, let's just wipe them out and kill them all.

Let's absorb their culture into the Babylonian culture.

I can't tell you, like, how many ancient cultures I've heard about or read about that existed.

And they once were kind of like a proud and powerful people.

But at a certain point, they were conquered and they were completely absorbed into a stronger country.

Their language was lost.

Everything was disappeared, in essence.

So, it's very crazy in America, in and of itself, that Israel is even there today.

It's nuts.

To see, like, it only has to do with God's grace and God's power that's preserved them.

Because he has a plan to do some things at that point.

And it says in verse 3, excuse me, yeah, yeah, verse 3.

The king commanded Athanas, the chief eunuch, to bring some people of Israel, both from the royal family and the nobility,

use without blemish and good in appearance, and skill in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning,

competent to stand in the king's palace and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

The king assigned them a daily portion of food that the king ate and wine that he drank.

They were educated for three years.

At the end of that time, they were to stand before the king.

And among them, among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.

And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.

Daniel, he called Belshazzar.

Hananiah, he called Shadrach.

Mishael, he called Meshach.

And Azariah, he called Abednego.

So that's going to be kind of our text.

But again, like I said, Daniel is the perfect story to see what it's like to belong to God

and to have a living, walking faith in the living God, but to live in a totally fallen and hostile environment.

So we're going to look at a few things first.

But first of all, it's important to have three points.

But first, it's important for you to know what Babylon is.

And it's not just like an ancient city.

A lot of the guys who have gone to war in Iraq, they can go and actually see a lot of the old ruins of Babylon

and the palaces that are there.

It is a location, but it implies a lot more than a location.

Some of you might remember a little Bible quiz here.

Way back in Genesis, a long time ago, in chapter 11,

God had commanded the people to go and scatter and fill the earth and subdue the earth,

and they refused.

And instead, they built these massive towers to basically glorify themselves

and show the power of their ingenuity.

And they actually say, let us make a name for ourselves.

A name for ourselves.

So in a way, they were trying to show the glory of who man was.

And God, remember, He scattered them.

At that point, the world had one language.

And He scattered them, and He confused their languages, and they couldn't work together.

So that was called the Tower of Babylon.

And that's where we get Babylon from.

And it means like to confuse or to mix or to mingle.

And Babylon symbolizes humanity's ambition to dethrone God

and make their own name rather than to glorify God's name.

It's basically like a worldly city where man tries to exalt himself in the position of God.

So that's what it is.

It's a way of thinking.

It's an idea.

It's not just a location.

It's a location.

It's saying, I'm not going to live for God.

I'm going to live for myself.

I'm going to make a name for myself.

And so here's some of the points I have for you.

The first one, and my goal here is to kind of expose kind of a process of the world around us,

the fallen world, will try to put you through and expose you to as a believer.

And this is going to be a two-part thing.

I'll probably finish this next week.

This week, I'm going to try to focus more on your identity as a child of God.

Next week, it will be a little more, I don't want to say practical,

but it will be like things like media or music, the kind of stuff that we are around all day,

that kind of stuff, and how it's influencing us.

But this is more about our identity as the people of God.

So the first point is, the world will try to befriend you.

The world will try to befriend you.

Look at verse 5.

It says,

The king assigned them a daily portion of food that the king ate and wine that he drank,

and they were to be educated for three years.

At the end of that time, they were to stand before the king.

Okay?

So this was a way of like indoctrinating these guys.

And notice that, whether you know it or not, you've been indoctrinated your entire life.

Like from, you know, when you started going to school,

and the environment you were in, you were told what was important,

you were told what to live for, have a good job, you know, get married,

make a lot of money, be secure, provide.

That's what your goal in life is.

And you're told that at a very early age.

And that's what you kind of go along hearing.

And some of you are even still hearing that today.

So, in this text, Daniel and his friends are offered very rich food

and all the privileges of being in like a Babylonian court, status, comfort.

And their hope is that they can indoctrinate them

and kind of wean them off of their way of like belonging to the true God

and make them actually think and act like Babylonians

and basically just kind of absorb them.

And so, they, we might ask like a lot of nutritionists out there

who try to like argue, well, with Daniel and his friends,

they didn't eat the king's food and drink his wine

and that's an argument for being a vegetarian or something.

And I'm like, what?

That has nothing to do with that really.

But in the text, you should know just like what's going on

when it talks about the food.

Because it kind of is a, they're making a pretty bold statement

when they refuse to partake of this food.

To indulge in the food would be to like honor pagan gods

because this food was dedicated to the gods of Babylon.

And for them to eat of it would be like a way of honoring them

in an Eastern, you know, ancient Near Eastern culture

and then there today as well.

To share a meal with somebody is almost to make a covenant with them,

like to befriend them.

Say like, okay, we're cool.

Let's share a meal together.

And so, they were like, we're not going to do that.

It's symbolic.

So, they refused to do that.

And so, I've been trying to really think about the best way to approach this.

And I had a book, I don't know if I brought it up here with me,

but I don't really need it.

It's a book that I read a long time ago when I was in school.

It was called The Paradox of American Power.

And it was written by a Harvard professor called Joseph Nye.

He wrote several books dealing with like diplomacy

and international politics and war.

And he was the former, I mean, in case you just think of just some other wacky dude out there,

he had some pretty crazy experience.

He was the former chairman of National Intelligence Council,

assistant secretary of defense during the Clinton administration.

So, he knows a pretty good bit about foreign policy and diplomacy.

And in this book, he talked about two kinds of power that nations or states or political leaders try to use

when they want to go into another country and move that country towards something,

just like we've done with a lot of the places throughout history,

recently, Afghanistan, Iraq.

So, the two kinds of power are these, and these are helpful to know.

We're going to make a spiritual connection to these.

The first one is called soft power.

Soft power.

It means the ability to obtain what you want through attraction,

by use of your values, your cultures, your policies.

And you go and you try to influence the way they think about things.

You teach them about democracy, that kind of stuff.

And then another kind of power is called hard power.

And that has to do with, like, obtaining what you want through military might,

you know, air, land, sea, type things.

And you, through a coercion, you try to bend them to your will through force.

So, soft power and hard power.

An example is like, you know, America goes into a country somewhere,

and they want to establish it and secure it and make it a democratic state.

That's kind of like their goal.

So, soft power would be like, we come there, we try to educate them,

we give them our entertainment, our movies, our music, our clothes,

and try to show them, you know, what things are like,

and kind of like begin to change their way of thinking.

And, on the other hand, hard power would be what?

It would be like military force, like we've done in a lot of places.

And usually, a political force uses both of those, both hard power and soft power,

to accomplish that.

Two so-called successes would be South Korea and Japan,

whether or not they're really successes.

But they look very Western now as compared to what they did a long time ago.

And Vietnam, not so much.

So, we see where both were used there, and it failed.

So, hard power and soft power is a good way to think about things we relate to the world

and spiritual warfare.

But a spiritual application of this is that Satan is using the world system

of like a Babylonian way of thinking.

He's using both hard power and soft power in the world,

and he's using them both against the church.

So, he really employs hard power.

You could tie that in with like persecution, hostility.

Nations like North Korea or China or Sudan,

where believers are beaten, imprisoned, killed, exiled.

That would be, you know, hard power.

Nigeria, places like that.

People are facing physical persecution and death.

That's the end there.

But, let's see.

What's a lot scarier here is that Satan hasn't chosen to apply that power here at all.

He's chosen something a lot more subtle.

He's chosen to use a soft power approach with us here in America.

And what is his scheme and what is his goal?

How does he apply this?

Let me read you a quote by Charles Spurgeon.

He said,

Prosperity is much harder to bear than adversity.

As the finding pot to silver and the furnace to gold,

so is prosperity to a Christian.

Many a man will pass through trouble and praise God under it.

When he who has tried with no trouble will forget his God,

decline in grace, and grow almost a worldly.

Believe me, there is no greater trial than no trial.

And that's really profound.

I know that to be true.

Think about it.

Like, the wealth and prosperity in America,

that's certainly not a bad thing.

Remember?

Like, those things are not called good or evil.

That's how we use them.

And our fallen natures like to use those things

to indulge in our own simple pleasures,

to use them for evil and not good.

And so the enemy has, like, lulled us to sleep in our prosperity.

We've fallen asleep in our liberty.

Think about it.

Which one would you rather have?

Someone's like,

I definitely don't want persecution.

Please don't send that my way.

I'm pretty comfortable where I am.

But if you want a closer walk with God,

a lot of times,

like I would think,

if you come to me with, like, a sword or a dagger or a pistol,

I'm going to run, like, straight to Christ.

You know, I'm going to, like, cling to Him.

He's going to love me, protect me, give me peace.

Even if I die, I'll die, like, holding on to Him.

And, but, if you came up to me and, like,

offered me on a platter everything that I could possibly want,

everything that my flesh would enjoy,

I might pause and think about it like,

hmm, you know, that looks really good.

So it's very, very, very subtle.

So it's the things of the world,

a Babylonian way of thinking,

like, to help us forget about living for God

and then forget about our identity as the people of God

and live for ourselves and indulge in ourselves

and build our own kingdoms

and build up our own names rather than God's.

So, the Babylonian way of the world

will try to lure you in

and get you to do that.

Turn to James 4 real fast.

We're constantly bombarded by a message

that says that Christ is not enough.

We have to have Christ plus all this stuff to be happy.

Turn to James 4, verse 4.

James 4:4

Remember, part of the tactic is

the world wants to befriend you,

just like we see in our story here.

James 4, verse 4.

James 4:4

James is telling them how it is.

He says,

You adulterous people,

do you not know that friendship with the world

is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world

makes himself an enemy of God.

James was written a very long time

after Daniel and his buddies were in Babylon.

But they knew this.

They understood this truth.

But hundreds of years before James wrote that,

so what did I say?

No.

We won't compromise.

We will not give in to this.

We're not going to worship your gods.

We're going to remain who we are.

So, if you remember,

eventually,

they bargained with the king,

verses later,

and say,

give us vegetables

and all that kind of stuff,

and we'll see who does better

and performs better,

and they actually do.

So, the king is cool with that.

So,

we are the people of the living God,

and we can't be friends with the world.

The world is not

really wanting to be your friend.

It's wanting to lure you in

and destroy you.

So,

that's the first point,

is the world will try to befriend you.

Secondly,

second point is,

the world will try to tell you

what is important.

And you need to kind of hold your hand in Daniel,

so go back to Daniel,

and just kind of keep your hand there.

We're going to flip back and forth there

throughout the night.

But,

back in Daniel.

So,

the world will try to tell you

what is important.

It said,

the king commanded

Athanas,

the chief eunuch,

to bring some of the people of Israel,

both of the royal family

and the nobility,

used without blemish,

of good appearance

and skillful and all wisdom,

endowed with knowledge,

understanding,

and learning,

and competent to stand in the king's palace,

and to teach them the literature

and language of the Chaldeans.

So,

they only got the very best.

They got these

really young,

strong,

educated,

part of the nobility of Judah

to come and be in the court,

and in hopes of,

like,

changing their worldview

and absorbing them

into a Babylonian

way of thinking

by teaching them the literature

and the language

of the Chaldeans.

So,

what's kind of,

what can you learn here

about the Babylonian way

of thinking,

as opposed to what

the people of God

should live for

and think?

And it is this,

and it's so true.

Satan in the world

will tell you

that your beauty,

your youth,

and your intelligence

are the most important things

to live for.

And,

that's why you see

all these people

on TV

just trying to,

like,

extend,

you know,

trying to live it up

like they were

their teens

and,

you know,

young adult life

when they're 50 and 60.

the world

will tell you

that youth,

beauty,

and intelligence

are the most important things.

And that's what you should

vigorously devote

your life in,

to being in those things.

That's what the world

will teach you.

You should pursue

those things.

So many of you

are stressed out,

depressed,

and lonely

because you're trying

to prove yourself

to others

and to yourself

as well.

And so many of you

have bought into

that lie.

And,

the more and more

you can think

with a different worldview

that this is not

who I am.

I'm not to live this way.

These are not

the things that are important.

Youth,

beauty,

and intelligence

are all going to fade.

Every one of you

pretty girls in here,

you know,

you might not look so

pretty when you turn 80.

You know,

and eventually when you die,

you're definitely

not going to be looking pretty.

Okay?

If something can be

taken away from you,

it's not worth living for.

That's what I tell people

all the time.

If it can,

it's not worth it.

If you can,

but if you can be

in a prison

and be beaten

and tormented

and even killed,

they can't take Christ

away from you.

That's like worth living for.

Christ is,

is the only valuable thing

that will last.

And it can't be

taken away from you.

And He won't leave you.

He won't let go of you either.

So,

your youth,

beauty,

and intelligence

are not

the most important thing.

So,

what I'm going to do here,

right now,

I'm trying to be careful

in my language.

I'm trying to

just show you

that I care,

that I'm not just trying

to deliver a sermon.

It's the kind of talks

that I have to tell

people every day,

occasionally

share with a girl,

and I have to

preach this to myself

every day.

but,

I'm going to address

this girls and guys

separately.

But first,

I have some harsher stuff

for the guys,

hopefully,

later.

But,

for girls,

you need to understand,

you've heard this

probably many times,

but I don't think

a lot of you understand

that your worth

is not

in your outward appearance

at all.

But the world

would have you

think that way.

You're concerned

with so many things.

I talked to a girl

that I'm really good

friends with,

and I think that she

leads a lot of women

here,

and Christ Family,

and on campus.

And she told me

a while back

that probably eight

out of ten girls

really, really

are self-conscious

about going to wait.

They're always thinking

like,

man,

I just don't,

I don't look good.

I'm constantly,

I constantly be

dieting and exercising

just to slim down.

And,

like,

glamour and fashion,

some of you spend

hours in front of a mirror.

Some of you

spend so much money

just to make yourself

really pretty

on the outside.

Here's a journal

from a girl

from, like,

the late

1990s.

She said,

this was like her

goal.

I will try to make

myself better

in any way

I possibly can

to help with my budget

and,

with my budget,

making money

from babysitting.

I will lose weight.

I'll get new lenses.

I'll get a really

good haircut,

good makeup,

new clothes,

and all the accessories.

That's like,

kind of like a,

that's what her goal

was,

just to,

in her life,

was to do that

at that point.

all kind of

magazines

for teenage girls

that are indoctrinated

with this stuff

at an early age

and they're told

this is the most

important things.

They're told things

in, like,

magazines,

like Teen Magazine.

I've never read one,

so don't think that,

but,

like,

I've seen them around.

I know they exist.

And,

they'll,

they talk about,

like,

the latest fashion styles

and beauty tips

and the celebrity gossip,

all that kind of stuff,

just to,

to suck you right in.

And,

they have these questions,

like,

they send into these,

magazines,

where they,

there are things like,

you know,

my mom won't let me

wear makeup,

like all my other friends

and my face

looks so dull.

What can I do

to look more pretty?

And,

I'm like,

oh,

just,

you know,

wash your face

and exfoliate.

like,

that's not going to help.

Because,

there's a deeper problem there.

All that's revealing,

I mean,

you're,

you're told that

from a very,

very early age.

And,

all it reveals

is that

so many of you

are self-conscious

and insecure

and you feel invisible

and you have to,

like,

make yourself visible.

And,

some of you

are depressed

and lost

because you feel that way.

but,

I want you to,

to hear this word

from Proverbs 31,

30.

I'll read it to you

and then we'll turn

to a different placement.

It says,

charm is deceitful

and beauty is vain

but a woman

who fears the Lord

is to be praised.

That's very,

very powerful.

We've got to just

commit that on the memory

and every time,

every morning,

just think about that.

A woman who fears the Lord,

respects the Lord,

knows the Lord,

is to be praised.

We'll turn to

1 Peter 3

really fast.

Some verses

for you to meditate on.

1 Peter 3,

1 Peter 3:3

verse 3.

It says,

Do not let your adorning

be external,

the braiding of hair

and the putting on

of gold jewelry

or clothing you wear,

but let your adorning

be the hidden person

of the heart

with the imperishable beauty

of a gentle

and quiet spirit

which in God's sight

is very precious.

That's amazing.

That's beautiful.

That's something

that can't be taken away

from you.

It's the work

that God has done

inside of you

and He's made you

who you are

and you found

your identity

in Him.

And because He says,

you belong to me

and I love you,

you don't need to care

about what any guy

thinks about you

at all

or what anybody

says about you.

You're accepted

in your love

because of Him.

I read a really

tragic story

about a woman

in 1980

named Judith Bucknell.

She was like

a lot of women

today.

She wasn't like

her struggles

weren't unusual.

She struggled

with all the stuff

that most people do,

getting old,

getting fat,

getting married,

surviving,

making enough money.

That's the kind of stuff

that she had to deal

with every day.

She wasn't a prostitute.

She didn't sell drugs.

She wasn't on welfare.

So a pretty normal woman.

She exercised.

She wore designer clothes.

Had an apartment

that overlooked

the San Francisco Bay.

She had a lot of friends

or so-called friends.

She had a lot of acquaintances.

And in 1980,

she was 38 years old

and she ended up being

homicide victim

number 106 in Miami.

She was murdered

during the summer.

She was stabbed seven times

and then she was

strangled to death.

And she kept a diary

of her very,

very lonely life.

And this is how

we know.

This is what

she was seeking,

you know,

to be loved by a man.

This is what happened.

She says,

I'm alone

and I want to share

something with somebody.

Where are all the men

with the flowers

and the champagne

and the music?

Where are all the men

who call and ask

for a genuine,

actual date?

Where are all the men

who would like to share

more than my bed,

my booze,

and my food?

I would like to have it

in my life.

Once before,

I pass through my life

in a kind of

sexual relationship

which is a part

of the loving relationship.

I see people together

and I'm so jealous

and I want to throw up.

What about me?

What about me?

What is going to,

who is going to love

Judy Buck now?

I feel so old,

unloved,

unwanted,

abandoned,

and used up

and I want to cry myself

to sleep every night.

That's,

a lot of you,

you feel that way.

And,

her heart died

long before

she was murdered.

That's the,

that's the truth.

And that's what

a continual indoctrination

into the world

and giving in to sin

and what sin looks like,

that's like what

it will lead to.

It leads nowhere.

It leads to,

to misery and death.

And,

you need to be told

that your value

is not in your outward appearance.

It's,

it's in the hidden

portion of the heart.

It says that God

formed man

from the,

from the dust,

from the earth.

And he will go back to that.

I will and you will.

And,

there's something,

there's a spiritual significance

in that.

And it's to say

that your,

your,

your worth

and your value to God

is not in your outward appearance.

Because you're going to go back

to the dust.

It's something else.

It's just who you are.

It's your,

your spirit inside.

And here God's made you.

So,

don't buy into those,

those lies.

It's very easy to do.

You're told that every day.

And so guys,

like the next,

it's,

it's,

it's for us.

A lot of the girls do what they do

because we tell them

that's what we like

and that's what we expect.

So I,

I think the blame

goes all the way back to us.

It's,

it's completely

our,

our,

our issue

to deal with.

Some of,

some of us spend

hours looking in front of the mirror.

They might be in the weight room

and not in the glamour room.

We,

we watch ourselves

work out.

We,

we like how we look.

There's,

there's two different kinds of guys.

A lot of times

there could be more,

but there's one time

that they're going live

is just to work hard

to,

to stay athletic,

um,

to show off

and,

uh,

to get a good job

and a good looking wife

and make lots and lots of money.

And that's what they're indoctrinated with.

And they,

they vigorously pursue those things

with everything that they are.

And their,

their ego is to conquer the world

and conquer women

and their power hungry

and they're bent on making a name

for themselves.

So,

God despises that.

He hates that.

And if you keep going that way,

um,

it's going to end

in your eternal ruin.

Uh,

your,

your kingdom is made of sand

and your glory is fading

very,

very fast.

Um,

I'm only 29.

I already feel like,

man,

I can't do nothing like I used to do.

No,

I know Nathan feels it

and a lot of us

who are a little older than you guys

are already,

are already feeling it.

We're not even

have gray hairs yet

and we're feeling it.

So,

those kind of guys,

you should know,

like,

women are not like toys

for your amusement.

They're,

they're beautiful.

They're actual people

and they're creating the image of God

and you're to,

to love them

and honor them

and protect them

and not to use them

for your own entertainment

and amusement.

Um,

it really

is aggravating

and

I have a hard time

dealing with guys like that

and I have a hard time

loving guys like that.

Um,

that's probably like

the hardest time for me

to sit down

and actually share

the gospel with.

And,

um,

turn to this,

Jeremiah 9,

a verse,

a verse for you guys

and for everybody else too,

but,

uh,

Jeremiah chapter 9,

Jeremiah 9 · chapter mention

go to verse 23.

So,

what is,

so what is,

what is God,

what does He value

in a man?

Jeremiah 9,

Jeremiah 9:23

verse 23.

It says this,

Thus says the Lord,

Let not the wise man

boast in his wisdom,

let not the mighty man

boast in his might,

let not the rich man

boast in his riches,

but let him who boasts

boast in this,

that he understands

and knows me,

that I am the Lord

who practices

steadfast love,

justice,

and righteousness

in the earth.

From these things

I delight,

declares the Lord.

So,

a man who knows God,

a man who fears God,

loves God,

walks with God,

and wants to live

and die for God.

That is what

a man is.

So,

that,

that one power-hungry,

egotistical man,

there's another kind of

a breed that really develops,

particularly like in an

amusement-centered culture,

is the lazy

and apathetic man

who,

his goal is just

to abuse himself

to death.

To always have,

he's the guy

who spends hours

sitting in front of

Xbox,

watching TV all day.

That's his goal,

just to get home

and do that.

To get my stuff done,

just isolate myself.

And,

I don't want

problem with nobody,

I just want to chill

and just be relaxed

for the rest of my life.

And,

those guys,

you should know

that men

were not made for that.

You weren't made

for laziness

and sitting on your butt

all day.

Men were made

to work,

fight,

labor,

and conquer

for God

and his kingdom.

To go out

and to live for him

and to share the gospel

and to lead others to him,

to serve him

for the glory of God.

Another verse

I'll read to you

if you don't have to turn there.

It's worth going back

and reading.

It's in 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10.

And in this text,

David is starting

to be surrounded

with a lot

of different enemies

and he sends

his main dude,

Joab,

who is a pretty

awesome dude.

He's a warrior

if there ever was one.

And he took some

pretty beastly guys

with him

and they went

to the battlefield

and they were surrounded

on both sides.

And Joab

told him,

his buddy,

he said,

you take some men

and go fight those guys.

I'll take some men

and go fight those guys.

And if you need help,

I'll come help you.

And if I need help,

you come help me.

And this was his line.

And I say this

because this should be

our mentality

for the kingdom of God.

Very awesome verse.

I think people should memorize.

Guys should memorize.

They knew what they should do

and they trusted

in the sovereignty of God

and they just went right at it.

This is what he said.

And this is what he told

his guys.

He said,

Be of good courage

and let us be courageous

for our people

and the cities of our God.

And may the Lord do

what seems good to him.

That was kind of like

his thing.

Let's go

and let's go

and let's do battle

for our people

and the cities of our God.

That's what we are made for.

We are made to live,

to work,

to conquer

and live for

the kingdom of God.

Not to waste hours

sitting on our butts

watching television

and playing Xbox.

So there's

two different kinds

of guys there

in a lot of ways.

I'm sure there's others,

but there are two

that I see a lot.

And

which leads us

to our third point.

We'll deal with

some more of that

other stuff later

about how the world

tries to

indoctrinate you

and tell you

what's important.

Number three,

the world will try

to make you

forget

who you are.

The world will try

to make you

forget

who you are.

And I'll go back

to Daniel.

Daniel,

I'm going to look

at verse

six and seven here.

It says,

Among these

were Daniel,

Hananiah,

Mishael,

and Azariah

of the tribe

of Judah.

And the chief

of the eunuchs

gave them names.

Daniel,

he called

Belshazzar.

Hananiah,

he called

Shadrach.

Mishael,

he called

Meshach.

And Azariah,

he called

Abednego.

So this isn't

just like a

cool thing.

I don't know

any name.

You know,

we can go to

some countries,

you know,

other places

in the world,

like give me

an American name.

What an American name?

It's not like

a cool thing

like that.

This is another

way of like

indoctrinating them

and changing

the way they

thought.

Taking their

minds off of

God and who

they were as

the people of

God.

It was a way

of brainwashing

foreigners to

the ways of

Babylon.

And think about

this.

These guys

were part of

the nobility

of Judah.

They were like

the royal,

you know,

of that royal

line.

And as

people who

are saved

and who know

Christ,

we are part of

like the nobility

of Christ.

We are joint

heirs with

Christ.

We are a

part of a

spiritual,

far greater

nobility than

something this

world could

offer.

And that's

who we are.

And their

names,

there's a

Hebrew name

connecting them

to the

living God,

the true

God.

And Daniel

means Yahweh

is our

judge.

Pretty

powerful.

It means

like God

will always

do what's

right at all

times.

those are

the name

he was

given means

Baal,

protect the

king,

the false

God.

He was

given that

name.

Hananiah

means Yahweh

has been

gracious to

us or

has been

good to

us.

Shadrach,

the name he

was given

was called

command of

Akut,

another

pagan

god.

Mishael,

it says,

it means

who is like

our God

or who

is equal

to God

or Yahweh.

His name

Meshach

was called

Abednego,

a servant

of Nago

who was

the god

of vegetation.

And

Azariah

means Yahweh

has helped

us.

And

so

they were

given these

new names

to basically

change who

they were

to make

them think

differently

because their

names reminded

them every

day,

like,

I belong

to the

living God.

I serve

the true

God.

I'm a son

of the

real God,

the living

God.

And so

they changed

their names.

So,

what's profound

here,

guys,

is like,

there's many,

many other

people that

are taken,

you know,

thousands

of Jews

were taken

into captivity

in Babylon.

many of

them.

And

only these

names are

the ones

recorded or

remembered

by people

that wrote

these down,

you know,

and told.

It's the ones

that Daniel

wrote later.

And

so,

it means

that they

were just

like absorbed

into the

Babylonian

culture.

They became

like Babylonians.

And

that's very,

very scary.

Years and

years later,

okay,

like hundreds

of years

later,

Cyrus conquered

Babylon.

He was from,

you know,

the Persian,

the Persian king,

the Medo-Persian

empire.

And part of

his policy

was like,

let all the

other people

go back to

their homeland.

And that's a

good way to

control them,

you know,

cooperate with

them,

give them,

you know,

back their

homeland.

As long as

they like show

homage and

give us money

and respect us

and obey our

commands,

that's cool,

but let them

go back to

their homeland.

So,

he allowed

all the Jews

to go back

to Judea

and to

Jerusalem.

And that's

where you get

the books of

like,

you know,

Esther,

Nehemiah,

Ezra,

that's where

those books

kind of come

into play.

And in

Nehemiah,

something really

crazy you

could pick up

on is that

he noticed

that a lot

of the children

that were there,

they didn't even

know the language

of Judah.

they had been

taught the

language of

all these

other nations

that were in

and they

had broken

God's law

about intermarrying

because that

was the way

of God

preserving his

identity.

It's like,

it'd be like

a believer

marrying a

non-believer

today.

And eventually,

like your kids

don't know,

like the language

of the living

God,

they speak the

worldly language

and the

language of,

you know,

building your

own kingdom,

the language of

Babylon.

And this is

what he said,

Nehemiah 1324,

he says,

half of their

children spoke

the language

of Ashdod

and they

could not

speak the

language of

Judah,

but only the

language of

each of the

people.

So,

the point

here is like,

will you

last?

And,

will you

last?

Will you

remain the

people of

God or will

you be

absorbed by

the culture

and ideology

of the

world of

the Babylonian

way of

thinking?

Fraternity

people,

sorority

people,

will you

be renamed?

Will you

take on a

new name?

Like,

yeah,

this is who

I am most

of the time.

They call me

this and

that's who I

really am.

I find my

identity in

that persona

or in that

way of

thinking,

you know.

People in

the military,

who's going

to influence

who?

You know,

a lot of

people are

going to go

there and

I'm going

to be

Jesus in

that place

and maybe

three months

later,

they're like,

man,

I made a

bad call.

They're

influencing me

far more

than I'm

influencing

them.

And years

and years

now,

when you

look into

the future

after school

and all

that,

will you be

speaking like

the language

of the people

of God

or will you

be totally

off?

The world

is that

deceptive.

It'll pull

you right in.

It's very,

very good.

It's so

subtle.

There's things

that look

good,

but they're

not God.

It's not

the blatant

things.

It's the

things that

are not

evil in

themselves

that we

turn into

evil.

So,

don't be

renamed.

Don't be

absorbed in

the Babylonian

way of

thinking.

Last text

we'll look

at,

Deuteronomy

7.

Deuteronomy

7.

Turn there.

And like I

said,

guys,

next week

we'll try

to look

at some

more of

the everyday

things that

we engage

in that

the world,

the system

of the

world,

and Satan

uses to

actually

change the

way we

think.

Deuteronomy

7.

And you

should know

like in

this context

God is

speaking to

the people

of Israel

that he's

brought out

of Egypt.

But they

were God's

chosen people.

At that point

he chose

that nation

to manifest

himself to

and to

give us

commands to

not necessarily

to save

them all

because a

lot of

them

were

about

against

God

and

were

killed

but

to

manifest

himself

as

God

to

them.

And in

the same

way,

believers

are the

people of

God.

We are a

chosen race,

a royal

priesthood,

a holy

nation,

a people

for God's

own possession.

This is

who we

are.

So we

need to

understand

a lot

of it

is an

identity

thing.

We must

understand

who we

are.

You have

to be

told

every day

this is

who I

am.

I belong

to Christ.

He bought

me with

his blood.

I'm a

part of

his body.

He's my

savior.

I love

him.

I want

to follow

him and

live for

him.

This is

who I

am.

I'm a

new

creation.

The old

is gone

and the

new

has come.

You have

to think

that way

every day.

And if

you don't,

you're

going to

begin to

buy into

this thing

that your

worth and

your value

and all

that is

found in

another

place

outside of

God,

the one

who actually

listen to

this.

This is

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 7:6

7,

verse 6

and 9.

Yeah,

verse 6

through 9.

It says,

For you

are a

people

holy to

the Lord

your God,

set aside,

you know,

set aside

for God.

The Lord

your God

has chosen

you to

be a

people for

his

treasured

possession

out of

all the

peoples who

are on

the face

of this

earth.

It is

not because

you were

more than

number than

any other

people that

the Lord

set his

love on

you and

chose you,

for you

were the

fewest of

all the

peoples.

So in

other words,

it wasn't

how cool

you are.

It wasn't

what you

could do.

It wasn't

how beautiful

you were on

the outside.

It didn't

matter.

It didn't