How To Change A Country

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Lord, it's only fitting that we praise you, that we sing and say praise forever, the King of Kings, because you are there's an eternality to your being.

You are forever.

And so when we worship you, we are practicing here in the temporary what we're going to do forever, because you're the king.

You're not just the king, you're the king of kings, and your kingdom surpasses all the other kingdoms of this world.

All these lesser kingdoms, like politics, money, and popularity, and nonsense.

You're the king of kings, and your kingdom is the only one that's going to endure.

That's why the Bible says the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

And we're here to spread the kingdom.

We're here to live for the kingdom.

We're here to live lives that represent king and kingdom accurately, with gusto and gravity, and gladness.

Lord, from your word and by your spirit, increase our capacity and desire to do those things we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're comfortable, you're free to take your mask off.

It's kind of like a restaurant.

When you get to your table, you can take your mask off.

If you're like, hey, I don't feel comfortable, you can leave it on.

There's freedom here.

Uh if you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Daniel chapter one.

Uh and uh we started last week.

We're preaching through the book of Daniel.

Last week we kind of laid the foundation for the whole book.

And today I just want to talk about how to change a country.

How to change a country from Daniel chapter one.

I'll read the first seven verses.

And while you're finding the book of Daniel, uh, let me just paint a picture in your mind of how this process happens.

Uh, when I was a kid, my my dad and one of my brothers went fishing, and we had a we call it a John boat.

It was an aluminum boat like 14 feet long, and uh it had a little like 15 horsepower.

It's it looked little and you turn the handle on the motor and you steer it like that.

And uh, my dad got us out to where we were going, and my dad got in the front of the boat, and and and and I'm in the middle seat, and the back seat is my brother.

Uh, and and we're sitting there, and I'm kind of we're fishing probably 45 minutes, uh maybe longer.

And I noticed that the water's getting higher up to the sides of the boat.

I kind of glance over and I'm like, and I look back, and my brother is spinning on his finger this little black rubber thing that was about that big around, and it had a silver like aluminum little loop on it.

And and about that time, my dad said, Boy, what are you doing?

My brother had pulled the drain plug out of the John boat and was spinning on his finger.

Now, I'm not endorsing this, but I remember my dad had a uh a fishing pole in his hand, and my dad swatted my brother across the face, jumped over me, grabbed my brother, threw him up to the front of the boat, and I'm thinking, get the drain plug, get the drain plug.

But because I'd never been in a sinking boat before.

Like apparently my dad had.

My dad grabbed the rope, mmm, cranked that thing up, and we took off.

And I'm just thinking, we're gonna ride.

I mean, it was like it was a little sluggish getting out of the hole.

But as we got faster and faster and faster, I noticed this theory, this phenomenon of physics.

Water began draining out of that open, that little open hole in the bottom of the John boat.

And we just rolled into all the water.

And then my dad, with the thing wide open, says to my brother, get back here.

And I'm thinking, you just swatted him in the face with a fishing pole and you're calling him to you?

Okay.

Uh I'm holding on to the sides, going, Thank you, it's not me getting the beating today.

And my brother walks back and he goes, put that drain plug in there.

My brother's crying.

My dad, who just hit him, he has a red whelp across his face.

And my dad's like, Boy, don't be afraid.

Put the thing in there.

You're gonna cry and be afraid of your whole life?

And I'm just thinking, maybe if you hit me, I'd be afraid too.

But anyway, we're and my dad comes back and he makes him put it in.

He says, twist it, get it, get it tight, put it in there.

Now flip it up.

Now then my dad grabs him, got the thing.

We're going the whole time, okay?

All the water's out of the boat.

Grabs my brother by the arm and says, Hey, don't be stupid your whole life, okay?

So if you wonder why I'm like I am, this is how I was raised.

Don't be stupid your whole life, boy.

Now get up there.

We spun the boat around, went back, fished for three more hours.

On the way home, we laughed about it.

We were just like, and I said to my dad, I said, What are you doing?

He said, Boy, if you ever get water in the boat, you don't try to bail that water out, you just get going and just the gravitational force will just suck the water out.

And it did.

Keep that in your mind because when it comes to, when I say how to change a country, what happens is this stuff seeps in a little at a time, and pretty soon the boat is so heavy it can't move anywhere.

Okay?

Just file that away.

How to change a country.

And by the way, I'm talking about Daniel and his three friends in the country of Babylon.

They've been deported from their country, and now that they're going to re-educate them and indoctrinate them.

How do you change a country?

Daniel chapter 1, verse 1.

Daniel 1:1

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

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

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

And then the king commanded Ashfanaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance, and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

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

They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.

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 Belthazar, Hananiah, he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

Very simple, just laid out there.

So how do you change a country?

Now we talked about last week about how Daniel was and his friends were deported.

Uh God, as it says there in verse 1 and 2, God just gave over the city because it's judgment uh to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they capture some of the elite young people of the day.

Take them back from Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon to teach them their ways.

The Bible says the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

Here's how you change a country.

It involves four things.

Number one, isolation.

Isolation.

It's verse three and four.

They're cut off from the people of God.

Tell me if this sounds familiar to anybody you know over the past six months.

They're cut off from the people of God.

There's no spiritual influence, no regular public worship of God, no teaching of God's word or fellowship or experience with the wisdom of the people of God.

Sound like anybody you know?

Now, now the Bible says this in Ephesians chapter 3 that the church, not the building, but the people, the church is the manifold wisdom of God.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

In other words, when you gather today, I never think that every Sunday that you're gathering, like, oh my gosh, Pastor Neil's gonna have something great to say today.

I want the Bible to speak to us.

But sometimes, here's what I mean by the manifold wisdom of God.

Sometimes your big takeaway is gonna be from a conversation you have out in the lobby getting coffee or in one of the side hallways or out front when you're talking to a friend.

Because when you gather with the people of God, you are exposing yourself to the wisdom of God.

Does that make sense to anybody?

Because the Bible says that we're the manifold wisdom of God.

The way we live, the way we love, the way we raise our kids and prioritize our marriage.

Everyone around us in the culture and community around us ought to look and go, look how smart God is.

Now, these men are isolated.

I told you last week, they're between 14 and 16 years old.

They're not old men, they're young men, 14 to 16 years old.

Now, I want you to see verse four the way they describe these people youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge and understanding, learn understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace.

If you're a history person, this should remind you of Hitler's master race.

This is where they get their ideas.

We'll take the elitest of the elite, the best of the best, the best of the brightest and the beautiful, and we'll bring them back in a three-year program, then we'll send them back, and they can't help but think like us, live like us, and love what we love.

They're mature enough to leave home and young enough to be re-educated.

It's every college professor's dream.

And then there's a man named Alan Bloom, he was a professor at the University of Chicago, brilliant man, wrote a great book that I would highly recommend.

It's called The Closing of the American Mind.

And in the book, he says this he says there's one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of.

Almost every student entering the university believes or says he believes that truth is relative.

Relativism is necessary to open-mindedness.

And this is the virtue, the only virtue, which all primary education for more than 50 years has dedicated itself to inculcating.

Openness and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings is the great insight of our times.

Hear this part.

The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad, not angry, but crazy.

All the world was crazy in the past.

Men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism.

The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right.

Rather, it is not to think you are right at all.

This beloved is why they are isolating these men, is to say, hey, listen, I know that in the past you thought that you were right and that your God was the only God, but let's kind of let's help you along, let's isolate you.

So then the second step is so we can indoctrinate you.

Listen, how do you change a country?

Isolation.

Secondly, indoctrination.

We'll pick up in verse the lighter part of verse uh four.

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

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

They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they would stand before the king.

So basically, hey, we got a program, it takes three years.

Uh, and then at the end of this three years, you will be able to stand in the presence of the king and be servants of the king, represent our interests wherever you are.

Hear the phrase, the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

Again, the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

Now, there's a four-step process how this indoctrination takes place, okay?

Now, again, the curriculum is the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

When you send your kid, I would say, off to college, indoctrination used to start in college.

Now it starts in elementary school.

And I'll show you that in just a minute.

And by the way, my kids went to public school.

Okay?

And I'm not making a point about private versus public, and I'm not saying that that public education is bad and teachers are bad.

I am saying that the goal of education is to teach and educate, not indoctrinate.

And you'll see in just a minute that that that that thing has shifted.

And we got a lot of teachers nowadays that think it's their responsibility to indoctrinate our children.

But this indoctrination for Daniel and his friends, it was a four-step process where it involved four things.

Number one, it came disguised as education.

Education.

Hey, we're we're gonna help you learn everything that you need to learn in order to make it in this new world which you're in.

But the problem for Daniel, not for it wasn't a problem for Daniel and his friends, but the problem for Nebuchadnezzar is that you can take Daniel out of Jerusalem, but you couldn't take Jerusalem out of Daniel.

Daniel could be anywhere, anywhere, and he's going to be the people of God.

He's going to act in keeping with what he knows to be the truth.

And so this indoctrination comes disguised as education.

Secondly, it starts with changing a person's worldview.

They want to change their worldview to the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

We want you to think like us, value what we value, love what we love, and basically see the world through the lens which we see the world.

When I say it starts with a change in a person's worldview, let me define a worldview.

A worldview is a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world.

What I would say to my girls when we're raising our kids is hey, the way your mind is oriented towards the truth determines how you see the world.

The way your mind is oriented towards the truth, that determines how you see the world.

Now, this indoctrination process for them basically was, hey, we're going to learn the worldview of God's enemies.

This indoctrination, like I said a minute ago, used to start in college.

Now it starts at elementary school, which is why a lot of schools are adding to the curriculum critical race theory and white privilege as a part of what you're teaching kids.

And let me just say this: I don't think children by nature are racist.

I think they get taught to be racist.

Allow me to demonstrate.

My children went to public school, elementary school right there, middle school right there, high school right across the street.

Okay.

And so my daughter's first uh not her first birthday, but her sixth birthday.

She was in the first grade, however old were you supposed to be then.

Uh, we we said, because we went to one the week before.

I don't know if you know this or not, but birthdays in Fort Bean County are a competition between mothers.

It is not for the kids.

I went to one the week before, I'm not making this up.

They had moved all the furniture out of their house and they had it, these, these, these PlayStations set up in every different room.

And I drove and I took Madison and I was just kind of like, hey, babe, your party next week is gonna be lame to these people.

She goes, I'm okay, Daddy.

I just want to pay my friends.

And so, and I'm such a bad parent.

I said, You're six years old, you can have six people.

The party the week before, 35 kids.

Yes, sir.

And so the late the mom that had moved, I said, Where's your furniture?

She goes, Oh, we put it in storage.

The next week she comes to my little Rudy Pudy house, and she said, This is kind of an old-fashioned party.

And I heard in my mind the Holy Spirit say, get her, get her.

And I said, Yeah, and she goes, Did you not get many RSVPs?

There's only six kids.

I said, My kid's six years old.

I said, however old they are, they can invite that many people.

And but I cap it and like when they get 18, 18.

No, she goes, but she's not gonna get that many presents.

And I said, I never want my kid to get 35 presents in one day because she's not that important.

To which she, oh so what are you saying about my party?

I said, I don't even think about your party.

I forgot your party when I drove away from it last week.

And my wife's over there kind of going.

But here's where I come from.

You come in my house, you insult me, you deserve whatever I give you.

If you don't like it, leave.

The door hinges both ways.

And she's like, Well, this is kind of refreshing.

That's not a word I use to describe that monstrosity you had last week with a petting zoo in the backyard after everything was over.

Oh, just so you think the fun doesn't, here we go.

And I was like, Oh, for the love.

But it's a party where there's six kids.

The same lady said, So where did these kids come from?

And I said, Well, uh, those two right there are from India.

I think that one there's from Nigeria, these two from Mexico, and the white-bred kid's mine, and there's one of her white friends.

These are all her friends.

And no one had to say, now hug each other for the picture.

They were all over each other.

Why?

Because kids are not born racist, you have to teach them to fear other races.

That's why in elementary school, curriculum is being adopted right now, as you said in this room, as a solution to the problem of a racist country.

By the way, critical race theory, you're like, what is that?

It is the belief that all law and institutions are racist by nature.

That's what critical race theory is.

And you you probably should know about it because it is becoming part of the curriculum in public school.

And I just say you have to teach little kids to be racist.

These girls are hugging all over each other, and each one will get their present.

They come sit on the Ottery and put their arm around Madison.

We didn't say, hey, put your arm around each other and make it look like you like each other.

No, the Indian kids hugged, the Nigerian kids, the African-American girls hugged, they're all just loving on each other.

And the lady couldn't help herself.

She said, So did you invite all just girls?

Because I had boys and girls at my daughter's party.

I said, Yeah, you're teaching your girl uh some things you don't want to teach her at a very young age, but that's your party.

Your party was last week.

This is my party right now.

Well, I I was just curious.

No, well, okay.

You know, you're not really curious, you're really passive aggressive.

It's not curious, but go ahead.

And she's like, Well, okay, I think I'm getting on your last nerves.

Getting now I'm just having fun with the lady, but I'm like, are you are are you serious?

Here's here's my point.

You have to change a person's worldview in order to redo in order to indoctrinate them.

One of the privileges you have as a parent is to not just educate your kid, but disciple your kids.

Teach your kids that the boat in the water, because I would say to my kids all the time from my experience when I was fishing with my dad, hey, the boat belongs in the water.

Water does not belong in the boat.

You are the boat.

And they're like, Okay, dad, got it.

That's right, you're the boat.

Driving to elementary school, you're the boat, be the boat today.

Boat in the water, not a problem.

You're not responsible for all these foolish people.

Believe water gets in the boat, the boat's going down.

Seventh grade, my daughter came home and said, Yeah, my friend says she likes girls, so getting dressed in PE is kind of awkward.

You're the boat.

Don't let that water, that foolishness, that untruth get in the boat.

That that's just that that's water in the boat.

We don't let I know, Dad.

I'm the boat.

Okay.

Don't forget that.

You're the boat.

You are the boat.

Here's the third step in indoctrination.

The goal is to train Daniel and his friends, train them to think like Babylonians rather than Israelites.

Think like Babylonians rather than Israelites.

The big picture goal is to obliterate any memory of Israel and God from their minds.

That's why they changed their names, but I'll show you that in a minute.

Here's the last step in this indoctrination.

The ultimate goal is to instill in them a total dependence upon Nebuchadnezzar for everything they need.

The ultimate goal is to instill in them a total dependence upon Nebuchadnezzar, the king, for everything they need.

Hey, you get the king's food and the king's wine.

What a great king.

You're not eating bread and water like a bunch of peasants.

You're eating what I eat and you're drinking what I drink.

What more do you need?

Be careful.

Be careful.

Pretty soon.

The government, I mean, King Nebuchadnezzar got you.

You're just living on the dole.

You're just living on the dole.

Call it welfare, whatever.

They got you.

Hey, hey, we're giving you all this stuff.

Now remember this come November.

Here's the thing.

Here's the payout for those in charge.

King Nebuchadnezzar basically says, you can't trust anyone else.

Look at what all we provide for you.

Just trust us going forward.

Now, I know what's happening in this room right now, okay?

Because I've already gotten texts after the first service.

Oh, you were kind of on a rant today.

Oh, you're kind of passionate about this today.

You know, we got a lot of school teachers in our church.

Yeah, your job is to educate, not indoctrinate.

Here's a quote from a school teacher from last week.

Let's you think, oh, you're just crazy.

This is a man that teaches school in Philadelphia.

His name's Matthew Kay.

He tweeted this, and then it was like, uh oh, hey, by the way, anytime you write something, before you hit send, ask yourself if you want to be remembered for this.

This is what Matthew Kay, because sometimes you can't hide who you really are.

This man teaches, he's an English teacher, by the way.

English.

English teacher.

This is what he says.

So this fall, they're having a big conversation with teachers about virtual classrooms, online learning, and their concern is that parents are going to be in the room hearing what their kids are being taught.

This is another free thing, teachers.

Uh, your job is education, not indoctrination.

Number two, our kids are not your property.

Just because we drop them off, you don't say leave us alone and come get them at 3:30.

Because I'll get up in your business.

Yeah.

You got to stop being lazy, mom and dad.

Engage.

Take less vacations and more initiative.

Go to your parent-teacher conference.

Read what your kids are being told.

Because you got Yahoos like this moron out there who said this.

So this fall, virtual class discussion, we'll have many potential spectators, parents, siblings, etc., in the same room.

We'll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse.

What does this do for our equity inclusion work?

How much have students depended on the somewhat secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability?

How many of us have installed some version of what happens here stays here to help this?

While conversation about race are in my wheelhouse and remain a concern in this no walls environment, I am most intrigued by the damage that helicopter snowplow parents can do in the host conversations about gender and sexuality.

And while conservative parents are my chief concern, I know that the damage can come from the far left.

I mean from the left too.

If we are engaged in the messy, hear this.

This is an English teacher.

This is not a sociologist.

This is a man who's way out over his skis and thinks far too much of himself and his responsibility and therefore fails at his core responsibility of educating.

If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kid's racism or homophobia or transphobia, how much do we want their classmates or parents piling on?

This is a public school teacher.

He teaches that the science leaders.

Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Did I say he teaches English?

Not gender equity and inclusion work.

This is a man who thinks it's his job to indoctrinate your students, not educate them.

To deconstruct the messy work of the destabilizing their racism or their homophobia, their transphobia.

See, there's something wrong with your kids if your kids believe that things are sin.

This is the way indoctrination works.

Started, it's not new, it's been going on since the time of Daniel.

Here's a third way you change the country incorporation.

You still with me, by the way?

I felt you drift away there.

You're like, oh, he's mad now.

No.

No, I just I'm just tired of school teachers indoctrinating kids and not teaching.

And I think a lot of them should be fired.

If they didn't have such a good union, most of them would be fired because you're terrible.

You're not good at your job.

You're lazy.

You have the same lesson plan for 15 years.

And you're just a bully.

Yeah, I'd like to come to your class one day.

You talk about the messy work.

I got some messy work in mind.

And it involves deconstructing, but not your worldview.

But I digress.

Anyway, uh when I say incorporation, what do you mean?

They just kind of fold them in to what they're already doing.

It's verse 5.

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

They were to be educated for three years.

Didn't at that time they were to stand before the king.

And this is great.

What a generous, benevolent king.

He's not better than us.

He's eating what we're eating.

We're drinking what he's drinking.

This isn't the two-buck chuck we're used to.

This is good stuff here.

But notice this that Daniel, look at verse 8.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that the king drank.

Now why?

There's a lot of ink been spilled over this.

Some people say it's because this food was offered to idols.

If the food, if the meat was offered to idols, so was the vegetables.

And Daniel ate the vegetables.

It can't be that.

Some people think, well, having a meal with someone is the last step in signifying a covenant between them.

I don't think it's that either.

I think it's as simple as this.

In Daniel's mind, he looks around and he thinks, there's got to be a part of my life that is not dependent on the king.

There's got to be a part of my life that is not dependent on the king.

Daniel looks around and sees the water outside in the lake, getting higher up to the sides of the boat and thinks, wait a minute, we're taking on water here.

Whoa, hang on just a second.

I love what the message, how the message translates Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.

Romans 12:1

Think of Daniel looking around and kind of going, no, thank you.

I appreciate the offer.

Oh, we're gonna have the Perry's pork chop every day and a nice Merlot.

No, thank you.

Romans 12, 1 from the message.

So here's what I want you to do: God helping you.

Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life and place it before God as an offering.

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.

Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Now, for Daniel, this wasn't just, I want you to notice it wasn't just a spiritual principle.

Daniel had to act with what I call just this bold creativity.

He said, What do you mean?

Look at verse 8 again.

After he says, Hey, I'm not going to defile myself, keep reading.

Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

And God gave, that's that second time that phrase appears.

And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.

And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my Lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink.

For why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age?

So you would endanger my head with the king?

In other words, I ain't doing that, man.

Look at verse 11.

Daniel goes, Well, I prayed and it didn't happen.

So, no, no, no.

He's boldly creative.

He he asked the chief of the eunuchs, and he goes to the guy right under him.

Verse 11.

Then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

He said, Test your servants for 10 days, and let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

And then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.

So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food.

So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.

As for these four youths, in other words, the steward says, I want everybody else to get on Daniel's program.

Verse 17, as for these four youths, God gave them, there's the phrase again for the third time in this one chapter.

God gave the city into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

God gave Daniel favor.

And here, God gave them learning and skill and all literature and wisdom.

And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

See, boys and girls, students, the thing is not, I'm not going to learn anything because I'm a Christian.

No, no.

It's be the smartest person in the class and hold on to your Christian worldview.

That's what the call of scripture is.

At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king spoke with them.

And among all of them, none were found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Nazariah.

Therefore they stood before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all of his kingdom.

And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.

What am I saying?

I'm saying that they just kind of fold these guys in.

And Daniel says, no, can't do that.

Can't do that.

I cannot be fully dependent on the king because then the king becomes my God.

I gotta have some space in me.

So let me just let me just creatively negotiate.

Let me be creatively bold and let me go to this guy, the chief of the eunuchs, by the way, is who he goes to.

Now, this is just a biblical fun fact here.

Uh, this is a man named Ashpanaz.

If he's the chief of the eunuchs, then he's the person over the eunuchs.

So if you're under him, he's the chief over you, he's the chief of the eunuchs, the person over the eunuch, you're under him, that makes you a eunuch.

Then the question becomes okay, what is a eunuch?

A eunuch or servants or slaves that have been castrated to make themselves reliable servants of the royal court.

Let me say that again.

A eunuch is someone who's castrated.

It's a servant or slave that's castrated to make themselves a loyal servant of the royal.

In other words, you ain't gonna be distracted with anything.

All you've got to do is whatever we tell you.

Translation, they were genderless servants of the government.

He's the chief of them.

They're just folding them in.

Here's the fourth way you change a country.

Identification.

Identification.

Verse six and seven.

Among these, these people that were qualified, they're gonna be indoctrinated and stand before the king.

Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah of the tribe of Judah.

And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.

Daniel, he called Belshazzar, Hanani, he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

Sounds like no big deal.

They're not just changing their names, they're changing the orientation of their being.

There's a phrase you didn't hear this week.

They're changing the orientation of their being.

Look on the screen.

Their names, uh, their Hebrew names mean one thing, their new names, their Babylonian names, mean something totally different.

Totally different.

Daniel, God is my judge.

His new name, lady protect the king.

Hananiah, Yahweh is gracious.

Shadrach, I am very fearful of God.

Meshal, who is what God is?

Meshach, I am of little account.

Azariah, Yahweh has helped.

His new name, Abednego, servant of the God Nebo.

Nebo was the god, one of the false gods of the Babylonians.

See, this is the goal.

Again, it just changes the orientation of their being.

And that goes all the way back to the garden when the serpent said to Adam and Eve, Surely did God say?

Doesn't sound like any big deal.

I'm just checking to make sure.

Surely did God say, Well, I don't want to be like, I don't act like I'm right or anything, but I don't know.

You tell me.

I mean, I mean, how do you hear it?

See, they just the culture that Daniel lived in.

Nothing like the culture nowadays.

It just wants to change the orientation of your being just a little bit.

Then it doesn't matter if you're male or female, it doesn't matter as long as you just, hey, hey, if you want to get along, you want to be accepted, you want to get promoted.

I tell you what, if you want to be in this company, you gotta go, you gotta undergo some some sensitivity training.

It just changed the orientation of your being.

And pretty soon you lose sight of who you really are.

See, when you lose sight of who you are, you think you're moving towards freedom, but you're really moving towards bondage.

Allow me to demonstrate.

I'm flipping channels a couple, three weeks ago, and I come across this political convention that's on, and they have a Zoom call, which if I if I don't have to be on a Zoom call the rest of my life, I'll be I'll be happy with that.

Can't stay in Zoom.

But I just thought, this is interesting.

Not really, I don't agree with anything these people are saying.

I don't recognize the country they're talking about, but I just watched, and all of a sudden, I was like, why am I watching this?

This is like a wreck on the freeway.

I couldn't look away.

And I'm like, and then all of a sudden this guy popped up and his title at the bottom of the screen.

I paused the TV and got a pen, I wrote it down.

So you wouldn't think I made it up.

His title, his self- this is how I identify is a non-binary, gender transcendent mermaid queen king.

And I just thought, holy crow, I'm so glad I have a DVR.

I paused it in the kitchen, got a scratch piece of paper.

And then basically, here's what's worse: this person is a participant in a panel discussion that is formulating the platform for a certain party in America.

A non-binary, gender-transcendent, mermaid queen king.

This is this is how far we've gone.

But see, look at me.

All they've got to do is just tilt the orientation of your being a little, just half a degree in the beginning, away from who God created you to be.

And you think this is freedom.

I'm throwing off all these cultural mores and restraint.

Next thing you know, you're a non-binary, gender-transcendent mermaid queen king.

And here was the part that just floored me.

I looked around to make sure my kid wasn't in the room.

I don't want that, I don't want this water getting in her boat.

They were listening to this person like he he should be taken seriously.

It was just, hey, give us this, give us this, give us this.

And I'm I'm sure you don't do this in your house.

I was talking to the TV.

I said, How about a clue?

Can somebody give you a clue?

You just clue you in here.

But again, this is what happens.

This is how you change a nation.

This now I'm talking about Daniel.

I'm not talking about right now.

I'm just talking about Daniel.

I'm not talking about any nation you live in.

Now, by the way, here's a fun fact.

We're almost done.

You still with me?

You people at home, set up, pay attention, stop slouching.

Uh, Daniel never gets angry in the entire book of Daniel.

Some of you people just got disqualified right there.

Some of you are still mad about that tweet I read from that teacher.

Like, I tell you what, my God, I'll go up there with my AR-15.

Hey, by the way, white people parading through the streets with AR-15s is just as tragic as people looting and rioting.

Oh, I lost you there.

Y'all photo y'all like, dang, what, my god.

No.

See, here's the thing you have to come to understand.

The only, and we'll get to this in the next chapter.

See, y'all, y'all think you're picking on them.

No, no, no.

I'm just the only kingdom that's gonna stand is the kingdom of God.

Not the kingdom of America.

Someone said to me recently, Did you know that that America's nowhere?

Like in Revelation, talking about all these different nations.

America's not in there because America's not gonna stand.

They did not like that answer.

Because it rots from the inside out.

And here's what happens: affluent white people who have the capacity to move to the country and buy some land.

You abandon the city because you you don't want to engage.

You don't want your kid to raise their hand and go, I object with everything you just said, and I will slay you fools in about four minutes.

Who wants to come to this party?

That's what C.S.

Lewis did at Oxford.

He was a professor there, these pagan intellectual kids were raised in affluence.

Just all they did was just regurgitate.

It's like a punk kid in a Harvard bar talking to Will Hunting.

Not gonna go well.

C.

S.

Lewis would be over there having a pint here, some kid say something, he would stand up with his pint and go, I challenge that.

We'll go over and sit down and just deconstruct our insufficient worldview.

And remember, Daniel never got angry.

Over the course of the semester, that kid would come to faith because he wanted to know the God that C.S.

Lewis knew.

So it's not about being angry, it's about being engaging.

Two things I want you to remember about Daniel and his friends.

Number one, it was people over place.

Despite all that these men were subjected to, this hostile culture that's hostile to the gospel, they were able to work for the flourishing of the community that they lived in.

They didn't compromise, uh, they didn't form a Christian ghetto, they didn't get to Christian yellow pages, and I'm going to the Christian dry cleaner, into the Christian auto repair shop, into the Christian coffee shop.

No, no, no.

They were surrounded by pagans and they lived in such a way the boat was in all this water, this polluted diseased water, and none of the water got in the boat.

So much so that other people begin to say there's no God but the God of Daniel.

Because they were people overplaced.

They didn't have to be in a safe place out in the country where they have a little vegetable garden, and everybody around them looks like them, thinks like them, believes like them.

Some of you, that's your utopian American dream, and that's a nightmare.

You're gonna spend the last 20 years of your life traveling around in your RV collecting spoons from all the states you visit.

You're not gonna be a good churchman, you're not gonna be a good churchwoman.

You're just you right now you've got this plan of, hey, we're we're gonna pay the price, get our kids out of school, and then we're out of here.

That's escapism.

And it's an offense to the gospel that says, engage, engage, engage.

And your plan is to escape.

Now, I'm not saying don't have a plan.

I'm just saying, how does your plan for how you're gonna live the last 20 years of your life, how does that square up with the gospel?

They didn't have to be in a perfect place because wherever they were, they're gonna be the people of God.

We'll see in a couple chapters later.

They're in the furnace, it is heated up seven times hotter than normal, and they're still the people of God.

Here's the last thing about these cats is that they they maintain their status as exiles.

They just didn't fit in.

What do you mean?

Exiles.

Exiles are people who share the same home country, but they aren't home yet.

Let me say that again.

Exiles are people who share the same home country, but they're not home yet.

That's why St.

Patrick's Day is more vigorously celebrated in Boston than in Ireland.

I mean, Ireland, there's a couple of guys in a pub, hold up paint again, it's going, hey, here's to you, mate.

In Boston, they shut the city down.

They turned the river green, they have a parade, men put on kilts.

I mean, they got bagpipes, it is full bore.

I mean, the House of Pain is filming the jump around video.

They are going crazy over St.

Patrick's Day in Boston.

And you're like, what's the deal, man?

Those are people that are from the same home country and they're not home.

And stop me if this sounds familiar.

They gather as often as they can to remind each other.

Hey, remember what home is like?

Okay, we're from this, we're we're we're from that country.

Let's don't forget that.

You say, I don't know what that's got to do with me.

As Christians, we're people that share the same home.

And we're not there yet.

So we gather once a week to remind ourselves and reorient ourselves, not around our retirement dream.

Oh, yeah, can't wait to do nothing.

Just check out and just just check into church online.

Here's my concern about COVID is that the church in America is going to neglect gathering as exiles, not out of fear, but out of convenience.

And that water has already gotten somebody else's boat.

You're just like, sure, it's nice sitting on the couch, Pastor.

Sure, go to your deer stand and watch.

It's great.

And you're divorcing yourself from the manifold wisdom of God that happens when the people of God gather.

Someone wanted to have a discussion with me this past week.

And I said, I like what John Calvin said.

He said, You cannot take God as your father without taking the church as your mother.

There's a churchless form of Christianity.

And I even told the guy, I said, You're like that one caribou that gets cut off from the herd.

It doesn't end well for him.

He goes, What are you talking about?

I'm like, you don't have the discovery channel?

That's how the wolf pack gets lunch.

They separate you from the herd.

And here's my favorite part some of you cats have checked out, you go to other churches.

Oh, I want to go to church and hold my grandbabies.

That's worship, but you're worshiping the wrong thing.

But then you want to call back here and say, hey, my God is not very good at counseling.

I want to come see you.

And I say, No, I pastor these people, not the people from the other church, that the guy doesn't have time or the wherewithal to pastor.

And I'm the bad guy.

I'm not here to pastor Joe Osteen's people.

Yes, that happened.

And I just said, go make an appointment with your pastor.

Well, my pastor is a celebrity.

That's part of your problem.

And then I'm such a jerk.

I said this.

The two goals of a pastor is to be anonymous and content.

There's too many pastors in America that are pastor famous.

What does being pastor famous mean?

Only Christians know who they are.

You're pastor famous.

Oh, you're big at life way.

But the people in the bar, they only don't know you exist.

Can you feel how awkward it is here right now?

Y'all are like, you're not talking about my favorite podcast preacher, are you?

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Sure am.

Again, these men were exiles.

They they weren't angry.

They weren't, oh, we're from Jerusalem.

We're not, we're not.

They so engage.

They were so good at what they did.

They were 10 times smarter than all these other pagans around them.

I'm gonna close with reading 1 Peter chapter 2, because Peter's writing to people that are exiles and he's encouraging them.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

This is how you live.

This is what he says, beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable.

Do you hear that?

Don't be some obnoxious political junkie who just puts stupid stuff on Facebook.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of his visitation.

Be subject, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor or supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

For this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Live as people who are free.

Hear that again, beloved.

Live as people who are free.

Not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

Again, these men were able to do what they did because it was people over place.

They're gonna be the people of God of whatever place they are.

And secondly, because they they held on their status as exiles.

Hey, we're from another home.

This is not home, and we're not home yet.

And I just say to you and to me, this this is not home.

Don't be miserable, don't be cranky.

No one likes that person.

Enjoy your Your life, but but don't let so much water seep in the boat that pretty soon when it comes time to move, you just sluggishly just can't go anywhere, so you just sink.

And then they folded you in, and you're just I'm just like everybody else.

Whatever.

You're exiles.

Let's pray together.

Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today.

The truth is in your word, it's why we read it, teach it, pray it, sing it.

Truth is in your word.

And so by your spirit, God, I pray that you would uh churn up in us what needs to be churned up.

Let die what needs to die as we think reflectively about questions on the screen and what we just heard from the Bible.

We say with the psalmist, I lift my eyes up to the heels.

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord.

Said differently, we turn our eyes to you.

So keep our eyes on you.

Remind us, God, it's not about being angry or obnoxious, it's about being intentional.

That makes people want to know the God that we know.

Not everybody that disagrees with us, or they're not bad people.

They just their hearts never been ravaged by the gospel.

So they have a lot of emotional compression.

And this is a safe place to get it out.

And so, Holy Spirit, remind us to engage the culture and not escape in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for being part of our service.

You're always welcome here.

Uh you can fundamentally disagree with everything I said today, and I still want you to keep coming.

Uh, because I'm not trying to win an argument, I'm trying to just unfold and unpack what the Bible says.

Uh, and so the book of Daniel is a great parallel of where we are in our culture today.

Uh, we'll pick up and continue next week.

I tell my wife every week I want to get shorter, but the more I study, the more that's there.

And so our service went a little longer today.

That is my fault.

Okay.

Uh, and so if you're bothered by that, I'll wait right now and you can come tell me.

And I will feign interest in your offense.

Uh I'm good at it.

Uh and so I'm married, I'm good at it.

Anyway, uh uh we have a video we want to show you, but I I don't want to show, I want you to leave with this taste in your mouth.

We'll email it to you uh so you can see the announcements for this week.

Uh again, if you're a guest, hopefully you had a chance to put on those guest cards in the seat back pocket in your row.

If you would just drop that in the wooden boxes by the door on your way out.

Uh, we'd love to have a record of your presence here, how we can help you engage in your spiritual journey.

And also, if today's the day where you practice stewardship, that's where you do that as well.

We'd like to finish our service with a spoken blessing.

So stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

You are not just the boat, but the boat was fitted, was built and prepared for the storm within which you find yourself.

Therefore, do not seek to escape.

Engage.

The boat can take it.

Depart now and be the boat.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.