Daniel (Week 1) - Daniel Resolved not to Defile Himself

This is Daniel one verse 3 through 9.

Then the king ordered Ashronash, chief of his court officials, to

bring into the king service some of the Israelites from the royal

family and the nobility. Young men without any physical

defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of

learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to

serve in the King's palace. He was to teach them the

language and literature of the Babylonians.

The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the

King's table. They were to be trained for

three years, and after that they were to enter the King's

service. Among those who were chosen were

some from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

The chief official gave them new names.

To Daniel the name belted Shazar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to

Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.

But Daniel resolve not to defile himself with the royal food and

wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to

defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official

to show favor and compassion to Daniel.

A couple years ago, on a Friday morning, police and firefighters

responded to a fire alarm at a University of Iowa fraternity

house. When they entered the basement,

they found several dozen young men standing shirtless and

blindfolded. The alarming footage revealed

that these weren't hostages, but they were fraternity pledges.

The university immediately suspended the fraternity and

investigated, and the chapter was later suspended.

Apparently, when the police interrupt your secret initiation

ceremony, the evening has officially gotten out of hand.

Not every fraternity hazes its members, but most fraternities

do have some form of initiation process.

A young person has left home, family, old friends and

everything familiar, and they arrive on campus looking for a

place to belong. And the group comes along and

says we want you. So first comes recruitment, then

the invitation or bid, and after that the student becomes a

pledge, not quite an outsider, but not yet fully accepted.

And during that period, the fraternity teaches him its

history and traditions and vocabulary, values, songs,

symbols. And there may be tests and

secret rituals, assigned mentors, matching shirts, Greek

letters, the whole 9 yards. And the goal of all of this is

clear. Learn our story, adopt our

values, prove your loyalty and become one of us.

The pledges at this Iowa fraternity learn the hard way

that not every tribe has their best interests in mind.

Have you ever? Been in an environment with

people trying to influence you to do something or become

someone for their purposes. You know, maybe that

uncomfortable meeting with the higher ups at work where you're,

you know, encouraged to maybe bend the truth just a smidge.

Or the moms hangout where the conversation topic was about

someone who wasn't in the room and it wasn't necessarily

positive. It's like a river with a swift

current. It is so easy to get swept up

and carried off when you're in an environment that's

influential and impressing upon you every day.

We live in a culture trying to initiate us to its customs and

its norms and values and ideas. We live increasingly in what?

Psychologists and sociologists. Call a post Christian world with

constantly shifting values. You know, the culture of the

1950s post war America where everyone goes to church on

Sundays. That's long gone and even the

influence of moral thought leaders like pastors is waning

as mistrust of religious figures is at an all time high.

And so we need to recognize our American culture is

predominantly secular, not religious.

It's rational. Rather than believing in the

supernatural, and whether we pay attention to it or not, we are

constantly being formed intellectually and spiritually

by the values and ideologies of our host culture today.

The question for us becomes then, how can we live faithfully

to Jesus while prospering in a culture that at best is

ambivalent towards God and at worst is hostile toward Him?

Do we, do we, you know, flex and fight back and resist?

Do we separate and isolate, or is there a different way to

operate? We're going to dive into that

question as we kick off our sermon series in the book of

Daniel. And so we always encourage you

to bring physical Bibles if you have them.

You can open up your phone. Just get this in front of you if

you could. Some way we have Bibles in the

back. It'll be on the screen as well.

And so as you turn there, the book of Daniel has two major

sections. So the last half of the book,

chapters 7 through 12, focus on visions and prophecy in the end

times. But our main focus for this

series is going to be on chapters one through 6, which

detail the life of Daniel and his three young friends from

Judah. OK, so Daniel chapter 1, it's

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

right after the book of Ezekiel. If you're newer to the word,

we're just glad you're here. Daniel one verse one.

It says this in the third year of the reign of Jehoakim king of

Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and

besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoakim

king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles

from the temple of God. These he carried off to the

temple of his God in Babylonia, and put the treasure and put to

the treasure House of his God. So Daniel opens up with the

events taking place in 605 BC. So this is before Jesus and

God's people are being overthrown by this foreign

power, and they're being carried off into what's called exile.

Now, the people of Judah here, they're not overthrown by just

any foreign power. They're overthrown by the big

bad Babylon. OK, now ancient neo Neo Babylon

of Mesopotamia was one of like the major superpowers at the

time. Their driving goal was to

overthrow Egypt and conquer all the other nations around them.

But Judah Daniels, Judah was geographically positioned in a

strategic location for them back of the sort of a buffer to the

other nations. When it comes to the culture of

Babylon, the Greek historian Herodotus claimed that Babylon

surpasses in wonder any city in the known world.

That's kind of a big claim, surpasses any city in the known

world. It was known for its impressive

fortifications. Its walls were said to be so

grand that Chariots could race along the tops of them.

This is what's called a ziggurat.

It was like the skyscraper of of the day.

Some believe the Tower of Babel was actually not like a pyramid

or a or like a circular tower, but a ziggurat.

It's kind of interesting. But Babylon is more than just a

fancy city or more than just a superpower.

In the Bible, Babylon represented much more than that.

In fact, in Scripture, Babylon represents an archetype of

stubborn rebellion of human achievement, wickedness,

idolatry. Theologian Joyce Goldingay, she

highlights this as she writes, Babylon was synonymous with

opposition to God. It was a place where wickedness

was at home and uprightness could expect opposition.

So the very act of Nebuchadnezzar taking sacred

items from God's holy temple and placing it in the in the temple

of their gods was like a way of proclaiming their God's

superiority over the one true God, Yahweh.

So this is like insult to injury happening here.

Now, at first glance, an outsider might read this story

and see powerful Babylon overcoming Judah as just a part

of, you know, how things work, how nations are conquered all

the time, right? The big guy swallows up the

little guy with his impressive might and his military strategy,

etcetera. And, you know, we might be

tempted to look at Judah and being like, maybe you guys

should have increased your defense budget, you know, or

something like maybe have better allies.

I don't know. But the author of Daniel makes

it really, really clear here that that is not what's

happening here. Daniel 12 the Lord delivered

Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand.

So not just that, it's not just that Babylon's mighty and and

was able to overthrow. No, no, no, this was actually

God's doing. In other words, He's letting his

chosen people be carried away into exile at the hands of the

Babylonians. Why?

Despite God's abundant patience with His children, their hearts

were still just far from Him. They practiced all kind of

idolatry. They were practicing child

sacrifice and more. And all of this led to the

events leading up to Daniel verse 3.

Then the king, this is King Nebuchadnezzar.

Then the king ordered Ashpinaz, chief of his court officials, to

bring into the King's service some of the Israelites from the

royal family and the nobility. Young men without any physical

defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of

learning, well informed, quick to understand and qualified to

serve in the King's palace. He was to teach them the

language and literature of the Babylonians.

So here we see that it's not just the sacred items of the

temple that are taken from where they belong and placed into a

corrupt area. No, it's also happening to the

people. So Daniel and his three friends

here are taken along with the others from the royal line of

Judah. And so Judah's nobility is

captured here. They're hauled away in chains.

They're on a long journey, and they're placed inside a new

culture, a Babylon. Now notice how Nebuchadnezzar is

intentionally choosing young men who already had understanding

and wisdom. So these would have been men who

have been trained in Hebrew proverbial wisdom, and these

would have been men of nobility. So they would have had like sort

of a predisposition towards royal customs and politics.

It'd be really useful as your empire's expanding to have young

men who could you could kind of tame and shape, and they could

be the ones sort of leading in the future.

But they're not just looking for guys with brains, they're

looking for some men with some brown, right?

It's they're looking for the guys without any physical

defect. These are the handsome fellas.

Ladies, where you at? Right like these are good

looking young. Guys here, OK.

Paul dark and handsome. That's what the Babylonians

wanted. So we we actually see that in

ancient Mesopotamia art, they actually valued beauty quite

highly. You can take a look.

I think there should be a picture, hopefully coming up.

Yeah. Take a look.

So whenever you see the Mesopotamians, they're like

fully bearded, great physical features, right.

And look at those outfits. I mean, come on.

Right. The black and the gold in the

middle with the with the loafers, Right.

Like, talk about drip. Like, that's sick.

OK. They valued appearances very,

very highly. And So what we see here is

they're being taken and they're being groomed here.

Verse 5, The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine

from the King's table, King's table.

They were to be trained for three years, and after that they

were to enter the King's service.

Among those who were chosen were some from Judah, Daniel,

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new

names, It's important new names to Daniel, the name Beltigezar,

to Hananiah Shadrach to Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.

So here what we see is that Daniel and his three friends are

being groomed into the evil King's service.

They're being taken away from the people in the land so they

can be fully assimilated into their Babylonian culture.

I don't know if you remember that scene from The Avengers

where like mighty Titan Thanos comes in and he wipes out the

whole population. And then there's this young girl

named Gamora, who like kind of watches her whole thing.

She loses her people. And what does Thanos do?

He he kidnaps Gamora and he trains her and raises her as his

own daughter in order that she could grow up to be one of his

assassins. She's she's grooming her into

the royal service of Thanos. That's kind of what's happening

here with these young men. Daniel and his friends are being

reprogrammed to now learn the ways of Acadian language in

cuneiform writing. They're learning the ways of

what's of these magicians called the Chaldeans.

So picture this. Daniel is being trained in arts

like divination, like he's looking to the stars and

celestial bodies, looking for phenomenon and astrology.

He's they would even have his practice where they'd cut open

sheep. They'd look at their livers and

by the shape and by the color of their livers, they'd be able to

determine the future. And you thought your health

class was weird growing up, right?

Like I grew up learning reading, writing and arithmetic.

Daniel's learning reading, writing and astrology.

OK, it's, it's a different kind of educational system here.

And verse 7 in verse 7, we see it wasn't enough just to change

their language or their location or their education.

Babylon changed their names. This matters because like Hebrew

names when they're given, when the the Hebrew names they had

were all related to Yahweh, they're one true God.

But now they're being renamed after Babylonian gods, after the

pantheon of gods that Babylon worship the false gods.

And Mishael here, he gets the biggest slap in the face here,

right? So Daniel, his name is Yahweh

was Yahweh is my judge, and he's renamed to something that means

treasure of Bell, which is another name for Marduk, the

king of the Babylonian pantheon. Again, Mishiel, his original

Hebrew name means who is like Yahweh, and then check this out.

He is renamed to Meshach, which means who is like Aloo, the moon

God. This is an intentional slap in

the face. This is an intentional reshaping

and reforming by giving them a new name.

It's more than just a name change.

It's an attempt to imprint an identity onto these young men.

You guys following so far, This is intentional.

What's happening here. Now in our culture, names don't

mean a whole lot. My name is Benjamin, which means

son of the right hand, which is pretty sick.

I mean, that's kind of cool. All right, OK.

But let's be honest. Like, it doesn't impact my life.

It doesn't tell my my story today in our culture, like we

name babies based off like, what's popular, what's trending

or your favorite Harry Potter character or whatever, right?

But in the ancient Near East, a name was so much more than that.

A name represented your origin. It represented your identity.

It represented your destiny, who you were going to become.

And so with names, with these names for Daniel and his

friends, Babylon was attempting to rewrite their identities away

from Yahweh into their gods. So it's kind of like the

University of Iowa fraternity situation all over again here,

right? Like they're reprogramming them.

OK, maybe a bit more extreme, but to recap real quick, the

Babylonians are taking young noblemen from their homes,

moving them all the way across the desert, attempting to

indoctrinate them with their customs, teaching them dark

arts, and erasing God from their names.

And what's remarkable about this story up until this point is

that the young men don't protest it Isn't that interesting?

They're they're not fighting back up until this point, right?

They've gone along with it. In fact, they've graduated Magna

cum laude in their class. They've moved through the

program, and they almost seem indifferent to the names.

They went along with the customs of their culture until they

couldn't go along any further. And it's in this next section

that we see one of the most important verses in the entire

book of Daniel. Here it is kind of our our theme

verse for the morning as well, says this.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal

food and wine. Daniel resolved not to defile

himself. So this is a radical turning

point in the story. Up until this point, all of the

momentum was heading towards Babylon.

All of the momentum was heading towards their gods, their

values, culture, apart from the one true God, Yahweh.

And it's until this moment, this is the moment where Daniel

finally made a choice. And the choice was this, I'm not

going to defile myself. I can't do it.

I have to draw a line. Now, we don't exactly know

exactly what it was about this food and wine that would have

been defiling to Daniel. There's a lot of leading

theories, first theories that the Babylonians, they actually

believe that their statues of their gods were the actual

presence of their God here on Earth.

So check this. They would perform these, like,

really weird secret nighttime rituals where they would attempt

to, like, chant over their statue as an attempt to open

their eyes and open their ears. Creepy, creepy stuff, right?

And what they do is they would even place, like, sacred

ornaments on them. And they believe that they were

actually coming to life in this way.

And they were so dedicated to this idea that their gods were

alive that they would place meals in front of their gods,

and they'd give them privacy behind a curtain so they could

eat them. What's interesting is that the

leftovers of these meals, they would go to the King's table.

So the king would eat the same food as the gods and the same

drink. And in in doing so, by eating

the same food as the gods, what they were doing was they were

receiving the very blessing and divinity of the gods.

So it's almost like saying I eat at the same table as the divine

gods I'm worshiping. Does that make sense?

So that's maybe the first reason is that it was this meal was

literally being sacrificed to an idol.

Second, to receive the King's food was more than just

receiving like a free lunch. In the ancient Near Eastern

Time, royal food of the king signified a covenant

relationship of allegiance to the Kingdom.

So to eat with someone saying, like, I'm at your table, I'm

with you. And finally, another theory is

that being that Daniel, you know, still ate the vegetables,

maybe it was because the meat that he was being offered wasn't

kosher due to Jewish dietary laws, right?

So for instance, maybe they're trying to serve him pork and

pigs, or maybe they're even trying to serve him horse or

something like that. Which fun fact, I was watching

the like David animated movie and there's this scene where

Goliath comes up and he's intimidating the guys and he's

like, oh, I like eating horses or something like that.

And we're like, that's ridiculous.

But then I found out they used to actually eat horses.

So anyway, it's like true to the culture.

Whatever it was, though, whatever the exact reason was,

Daniel's decision to not eat likely functioned as a boundary

of allegiance to God. Over the Babylonian powers, a

boundary of allegiance to Yahweh.

It's as if Daniel is saying I'll serve in Babylon's court, I'll

learn Babylon's language, I'll even answer to a Babylonian

name. But Babylon's gods and powers

will not become the source of my flourishing, will not become the

source of my identity. It is not the nourishment of

gods or kings of Babylon that blesses me and causes me to

excel. It is only the nourishment of

God. It's as if he's saying if I'm

going to succeed here, if I have to live a life here in Babylon

and I'm going to excel, I'm going to make it clear it's

because I'm doing things God's way.

I'm doing things his way. You see, Babylon had taken God

out of Daniel's name, but they failed to take God out of

Daniel's heart. He was resolved.

He knew who his God was. His core identity was still a

royal member of the House of Yahweh, the one true God.

And it's this moment, right? This moment kind of causes us to

pause and it causes us to ask, like, is that our same resolve

that we have here today? Like is this our approach to

health and success and personal integrity?

Have I, have you, have we resolved to do things God's way

even when it's like completely counterintuitive, even if it's

like greatly inconvenient or costs us a lot or risks our

reputation? Like, is it our resolve that we

will honor God and not defile ourselves?

Daniel made a choice and the choice was not to defile

himself. But he also acknowledges

something. He acknowledges that he's at the

mercy of those who are in authority over him, right?

And so in his God-given wisdom, he follows up his choice with a

challenge. Daniel 18 says, and he asked the

chief official for permission not to defile himself in this

way. Notice this.

Daniel asks for permission from the official to go against the

customs. He's like, is it cool with you?

It's all right with you? Is that all right?

And of course, the official at first, like he's hesitant about

sticking his neck out for this young man and going against

protocol. But know what it says in verse

9. This is important.

Verse 9. Now God had caused the official

to show favor and compassion to Daniel.

Who caused it? God caused it.

God had caused the official to show favor.

In other words, God is still in the story.

Daniel and his friends are hundreds of miles from home.

They're surrounded by foreign gods, foreign kings, foreign

lifestyles. I mean, they've got magicians,

they've got cults, they've got omens, divination, food, wine,

power, women, clothes, vanity, all of it.

And he is literally, in this moment, experiencing God's

punishment and exile because of his people's idolatry.

And yet we see here in this verse, God has not abandoned

him. God has not abandoned him.

God's still in the story, He's still with Daniel and his

friends, even in the midst of exile.

So catch this, catch this, this is a central theme to Daniel.

And it's this, despite present circumstances, God is still in

control. Despite how it may look out

there, despite how it may feel, despite being in some of the

worst circumstances imaginable, God is still in control and he's

still writing the story. Daniel verse one or chapter one,

verse 11 here, next slide. There we go.

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had

point pointed over. Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle and

Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days.

Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then compare our appearance without of a young men who eat

the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what

you see. So he agreed to this and tested

them for 10 days. At the end of the 10 days they

looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young

men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their

choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them

vegetables instead. And all the vegans in the room

cheered and said, we told you so.

OK, In boldness, Daniel gives the challenge.

He takes a risk for God and it pays off.

Daniel proves something here. He proves that you can thrive in

Babylon not by the strength of men or false gods or the

nourishment of the King's table, but by the power of the one true

God. Again, in verse 17 we see God's

hand on them in the midst of hostile territory. 17 says to

these four men God gave knowledge and understanding of

all kinds of literature and learning, and Daniel could

understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

And at the end of the time set by the king to bring them into

his service, the chief official presented them to

Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and

he, quote, found none equal to Daniel Hannan.

I am Michelle and Azariah. So they entered the King's

service. Dana resolved not to defile

himself. And yet he was still crushing

it. He was excelling, right?

I mean, Daniel's on the cover of GQ at this point, you know what

I'm saying? Like, he's headed to the corner

office. He's giving main character

energy. I don't know what that actually

means, but I heard someone say it once.

OK. Like Daniel was able to thrive

in exile by remaining true to his identity and allegiance to

Yahweh alone. He was able to thrive because

God was with him, even at great risk to he and his friends

well-being, their reputation, and their future God.

Or Daniel decides not to defile himself.

And So what we see here is that Daniel offers us a different way

to resist, a different way to thrive in the ungodly culture of

our influence and influence of our host culture.

No, like Daniel's not thriving through violent uprising.

He's not resisting through outrage or through revolt,

right? And it's not even just, you

know, through his clever subterfuge or mind games that

he's playing. That's not how he is succeeding

here. But, and, but what he's doing is

he's resisting through a quiet, resolute decision to do the

right thing, A quiet. There's all that he has in his

heart to say. I just can't do it.

Honouring the authority over you as far as you can until you

can't go any further. This was Daniel's way.

So Daniel learned the ways of Babylon.

He studied hard. He did what he was told.

And he still found a way to bloom where he was planted.

But he also knew when he couldn't go any further.

Theologian Tremper Longman puts it this way.

He he writes, Daniel endured much cultural assimilation, yet

he knew where it was appropriate for him to draw the line of

distinction. In other words, he knew when to

say, I can't do it. It's not who I am.

It's not what I'm meant to be doing.

Again, verse 8, Daniel resolved not to defile himself.

Daniel knew we had to make a choice and he knew where he had

to challenge his culture back. So the question for us then

today is how can we know when and how to draw our line of

distinction and our host culture, right?

Like when do we, when do we draw the line?

How do we know when too far is too far here in our world today?

And what can Daniel teach? Us about thriving in our sort of

Babylon that we live in. First, one of the most important

things that we need to understand is that each of us

are currently living in a form of exile here and now, today.

In fact, the idea of God's people being in exile is

highlighted all throughout the Bible from the very beginning

with Adam and Eve. What do we see?

We see that Adam and Eve were banished from their home and

they had to live in hostile territory because of their

breaking fellowship with God and their sin.

In a similar way, we as believers, we have to recognize

that you and I, we're not ultimately where we belong.

We're we're not where we're meant to be.

Ultimately, Hebrews 1314 reminds us that here we do not have an

enduring city, meaning like this city of Ankeny is going to be

long gone one day. The the state of Iowa or the

Kingdom of America or whatever, all of it is going to pass away

at some point in time. It's just a matter of hundreds

or thousands or 10s of thousands of years.

But it's all going to go away here.

We don't have an enduring city. But what does it say in verse

14? It says, but we are looking for

a city that's yet to come. We're looking towards heaven,

we're looking towards eternity, Philippians 320 reinforces as

Paul says, but our citizenship is where in heaven, say it with

me in heaven. That's where we ultimately

belong. In fact, the idea of believers

currently living in exile, Peter makes it really explicit.

Check out what he says first, Peter 1, he says Peter, an

apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect.

That's us. And he says exiles scattered

throughout the provinces. He literally calls the believers

exiles. And then he buttons up his his

letter in verse in chapter 5 by referring to the church as this

she who is in what Babylon? Isn't that interesting?

He's saying church, you are exiles, you are in Babylon.

You're the ones living far from home in a land that is not your

own, in a you are. You are not citizens ultimately

of this place. You belong to a higher Kingdom.

Why does he refer to the the church as being in Babylon?

Why? It's because like Daniel and his

friends, we too are far from home.

We're in a corrupted host culture and we are waiting our

return to our future Eden, the future garden where all things

are made right. Like Daniel in the Christians

living under the hostility and influence of Babylon and Rome,

we too now live under the hostility and influence of post

Christian Western culture, which by the way, raises all sorts of

questions about how we're meant to live here and now.

Practically, would you agree? It is not easy to to to navigate

through through this world and through our culture right now

for most of us, unlike Daniel, chances are, chances are that

like you and I aren't going to, you know, get thrown into a

Secret Service van and be like driven to Washington, DC, to the

White House and like offered a Big Mac that's been, you know,

sacrificed and offered to a God of consumerism or pride or

wealth or whatever, right? Like that probably isn't going

to happen to us, unlike Daniel. And yet each of us still has to

face choices and make choices every single day, right?

It's we have to make this difficult decisions to remain

faithful and distinct in our time.

We have to answer questions like, should I send my kids to

public school or to private Christian School or

homeschooling? I figured we we could just take

a vote right now on which one's best.

OK, just kidding. All right?

We're not going to do that. I don't want people rioting.

OK, can I, can I watch Game of Thrones and still pursue

holiness as a Christian? Do we attend the same sex

wedding of our beloved family member?

Do we use preferred pronouns with our transgender friends?

Do we attend the bachelor party with questionable entertainment?

These are all questions we have to answer in our culture and our

world today. Do I DoorDash McDonald's for the

second time this week? All right.

And if that's not OK, is Chick-fil-A more appropriate?

Right? Like we all have to figure it

out. Look, we're faced with choices

every single day about how we're going to respond to the world

around us. And when confronted with the

values that conflict with our own, we have to make a choice.

Are we going to retreat and separate ourselves?

Or maybe we're going to like fight back, right?

We're going to get on Facebook and we're just going to start

blasting the the people we don't agree with, right?

Owning the libs or whatever, whatever people do on on social

media, right? Like, or do we keep our heads

down and we blend in just kind of like looking like the culture

around us? How should we respond to our

culture in 1951? There's a man named Richard

Nieber in his influential book Christ and Culture, and he

identifies 5 general ways we can view and relate and react to our

cultural moment here today. So I'm going to lay these out

real quick. Five, I'm not going to go

through them all, but there's five different kind of options

that he sees when it comes to Christians reacting to culture.

Number one is Christ against culture.

This is the idea that that Jesus and the surrounding culture are

fundamentally and always in conflict and that faithfulness

requires separation. Are fighting back, right?

So this may include people like the Amish who are like, I'm not,

we're not going to be corrupted by all the like fancy bells and

whistles of society and all the allurements of modern world.

We're actually going to go off and do our own thing.

So it's Christ against culture. For many people, they react by

#2 which is the Christ of culture.

So this is the idea that Jesus is presented as the fulfillment

of culture's highest needs in that moment.

So as many, many of the people who subscribe to this, they say,

well, well, Christianity needs to mold and it needs to adapt.

Like it needs to be able to accommodate itself to the, you

know, the values that are considerable considered most

admirable in society today. So this is like puts a high

emphasis on like social reform and social values, but maybe at

the expense of like personal holiness and the conversation

about sin. Next is Christ above culture.

4th is Christ in the culture paradox.

It's basically the idea that we live in the paradox of the fact

that we have two competing kingdoms happening

simultaneously. Yes, we ultimately belong to

God. We have to follow, follow his

ways, his values, but we also are called to live under the

Kingdom of our governments, our authorities over us.

So there's like a paradox that happens like an overlap of two

kingdoms, but the fifth one is the one I want to focus on.

And this is the idea of Christ, the transformer of culture.

It's the idea that culture is fallen, yes, but it's

redeemable. It's the idea that Christians

are to enter into society, enter into education and politics and

art and economics and other institutions, right?

Where we're to press in to seek to bring them under the lordship

of Jesus, not just run away from them, right?

So it's the idea that Christians, we carry with us

Jesus, we carry with us the power of the Holy Spirit to come

into any environment in which we come.

And we can be light in the darkness.

We can actually be agents of transformation wherever we may

go and whatever sphere we find ourselves in, right?

And so it's not that we run away.

It's not that we just shake our fist and blast people on social.

It's the idea that we are carriers of the mercy and grace

and love and holiness of God himself wherever we find

ourselves in Christ. The transformer of Christians of

culture, the transformer of it. The last view of this idea of #5

is what theologians would call a creative minority.

It's a community of followers of Jesus that seek to rediscover

the teachings of Jesus and the practices of the early church

and apply them to the very soil of our post Christian world.

It's the idea that we're not to just survive our times, but we

are called to thrive as we seek to bring the transformative

power of Jesus everywhere we go. Daniel didn't retreat.

Daniel didn't revolt, but he worked with the culture to bring

influence. But you and I have to ask.

It's a very fundamental question.

You and I have to ask this. Do I really believe that I can

flourish in this world without compromising?

Do I really believe that? Do I really believe I can

actually excel and live out my purposes without having any

compromise right when when I'm gunning for the promotion at

work? Do I really believe I don't have

to compromise when when my grade depends on tomorrow's test and I

could use a little help? Do I really believe I can thrive

without compromising when my friends invite me out on that

Saturday night get together or whatever, right?

We have to ask ourselves, do I really believe that God's way is

better, even when it's counterintuitive or it's harder

or it's scary? Look, like us, Daniel lived in a

culture that was counter to the ways of God.

Like Babylon, our culture sees the rise and fall of regimes as

being at the hands of men and their strength.

Yet we learn that it's God who raises up kings and removes who

he pleases. Like Babylon, our culture looks

to outward appearances, but we know that God looks at the heart

of a man or a woman. Like Babylon, our culture trusts

in systems of human learning and education, But it's God who

gives true wisdom through his Word and understanding through

his Spirit. Like Babylon, our culture takes

what is sacred, marriage, children, sexuality,

Christianity, and attempts to defile and deform them into its

own image. But we have an opportunity as

Christians to elevate what is beautiful, what is sacred, and

what is good for the positive transformation of our world.

Amen. Like Babylon, our culture

imposes and imprints its own identity, its own plans for us

onto our lives. But God has already mapped out

His plans and His identity for your life.

And His plans are this, that you would be saved, that you would

be sanctified, and one day you would be glorified as an adopted

child of the Almighty God. That is your true identity, and

nothing the culture can do can take that away from you.

You are a beloved child of the one true God, the King of Kings,

the Prince of Peace, the one who is above all names.

You belong to him. That's who we are.

Daniel thrived in his culture, and he did it God's way.

In other words, it is possible to resolve to resolve, not to

defile ourselves. It is possible, even in the

midst of a Dark World, to not defile ourselves.

Look, church, there's a lot of things you can't control in this

world. You can't always choose the job

that you want. You can't always choose who's in

charge of you. You can't choose where you're

born or the culture that you grew up in.

We're in control of far less than we would like to believe,

right? But sometimes the only thing you

can control is whether or not you're going to do the right

thing, whether or not you're going to resolve not to defile

yourself. Sometimes that's all you got.

So don't lose it. Is your identity in Christ

strong enough to resist culture's attempts to imprint on

you? Do you?

Do you know who you who you are and who's you?

Who's you are, right? Is your identity strong enough

to resist? Look, Daniel may have been in

the courts of Nebuchadnezzar, but he remembered that

ultimately he belonged to the courts of Judah, right?

Daniel knew his real name. He hadn't forgotten it.

Daniel knew his family line and where he came from.

He knew that he was royalty. He knew that he belonged to God.

It was his identity that gave him strength.

Daniel's identity. And God was strong enough to

withstand the forces and influence of those around him.

How about your identity? What about you?

Have you settled? Have you settled in your heart

and your mind that your your truest identity is in Christ, in

Christ alone? Have you resolved that no matter

where you're placed, no matter what names you're called, or no

matter what what kind of unholy things people put on your plate,

have you resolved that you can live a holy life in an unholy

world just like for Daniel? Remember that that God isn't

somewhere far off back in Judah. God is right here in your actual

life. He's in every decision.

He's in every interaction. He is in every moment of our

lives. He is a very and very present

help in time of need. He is with us.

And so, let me put it this way, don't miss this.

Our ability to live for God is determined by the strength of

our identity in Jesus. Look, you are not going to be

able to live live for God in a world like we have out there

unless you are just rooted in your identity in Jesus.

First Peter 115 says, But just as he who who called you is

holy, that's Jesus, just as he has called you is holy.

So be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy

because I am holy. Since you call on a Father who

judges each person's work impartially, live out your time

as what foreigners here in reverend fear.

Peter's addressing the exile and he calls them like Daniel to

live holy. He says to all the aliens and

the foreigners in this strange world have a reverend fear for

God above fear of man. In other words, you can live

like Jesus, you can be like your Savior, you can live like Jesus

who left his perfect home. Live like Jesus, who is willing

to become an exile in the world that was hostile to him.

Like Jesus who overcame every influence and every temptation

known to man because he knew that this world didn't belong to

Nebuchadnezzar. Jesus knew that this world

didn't belong to Caesar. He knew that this was his

Father's world and that he reigned supreme and he was in

control. Jesus, who ushered in the

Kingdom how would last for all time.

Jesus himself resolved not to defile himself, and it was

because of that, and he was willing to go to the cross to

pay for your sins and mine, that we could live eternally with

Him. If we put our faith in that, we

too can live a life of holiness, even in exile.

It's not by our own wisdom, smarts, power, or good looks.

Not all of us have that, but by the power of the living God

living in US and through us, never forget what Jesus prayed

for his followers when he prayed.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that

you protect them from the evil one.

We may be in the world, but we are not of it.

And so as, as we begin to close, I just want to ask you, between

you and the Holy Spirit here tonight or this morning, are

there any areas of compromise in your life where God may be

calling you to have courage? Are there any areas of

compromise where God is calling you to have courage?

Look, church, I personally have had many, many moments where I,

I partook in something or I did something where I knew it went

against my identity in Jesus and my calling to minister.

I've done many things. Well, it was, you know, caving

into peer pressure and drinking in college even though I was a

ministry major at a Christian School.

Or whether it's not just like watching the movie, but like

buying it, even knowing like there's like really shady scenes

in it or even like listening to the podcast that, if I'm honest,

makes me angry towards Christians or angry at the

broken church rather than loving them, right?

Like whatever it is, for me, it wasn't just about what I was

letting into my mind and my body.

Like for me, it's, it's not what went in that defiled me.

It's what it was producing in my heart.

You know, it was more about the fact that that I knew that I

knew God had clearly told me where he said something like,

you know, others may, but you may not.

And it was it was the violation of the defilement of that, like

that calling and that identity in so many ways throughout

throughout the years, right? Like that's what is at stake

here. That's what it means to not

defile ourselves. And so are there any areas of

compromise in your life and just be honest about that.

Allow the Holy Spirit to search you in the what is it for you?

Maybe it's alcohol. And please hear me like I'm not

saying that having one drink, you know, with friends is

automatically the issue. But but maybe for some of you,

like drinking has slowly become more than just the enjoyment.

Like maybe it's how you relax or how you cope or how you avoid

what's really going on inside of you.

Maybe for others of you, it's it's your sexuality, right?

Like maybe you keep crossing the boundaries and telling yourself,

that's OK, we love each other. It's not hurting anyone.

Maybe it's pornography or a secret relationship or even just

like a private message you know you shouldn't have sent, but you

you wouldn't want your spouse to know about it.

For others, maybe it's your kids activity, right?

Like sports are good and the show choir concerts are good and

opportunities are good, right? But like, maybe your family has

become so busy chasing all of these opportunities that things

like worship and community and rest are like the first things

that are being sacrificed for, for some of you, maybe it's

money or consumerism, right? The bigger house, the newer

vehicle, the next renovation, the next vacation, whatever it

is, keep spending the money so you can maintain a lifestyle

that you're not even sure you're enjoying anymore.

Maybe it's work, right? Like I'll just bend the truth a

little bit. I'll just kind of cut the corner

no one will know about. I'll just leave that one detail

out or I'll just choose to take the credit, right?

After all, I got to make the sale and I got to do whatever it

takes. Maybe it's politics, allowing

politics and news stations, allowing your party or a

candidate or a network to disciple your emotions and

attack other people. Maybe it's gambling, or maybe

it's gossip or whatever it is. Are there any areas of your

life? Or, if you're honest, you may be

compromising and the goal of sharing these things is not to

to like, shame you into legalistic behavior.

It's not. It's not the goal, as a matter

of fact, it's to free you from the shame you're already

experiencing and you may not acknowledge.

Does that make sense? If there's one thing the entire

Bible in the mission of Christ is all about, it's helping

people be free from their guilt and shame.

It's helping people embrace and experience the love of Christ by

finally having some means by which the sin and the darkness

and the burden and the pain and the guilt can somehow be

released and placed onto something else that is higher

than us. You and I were not designed to

carry the weight with the weight and the burden and the pain of

shame and guilt and sin. We were not called to bury the

bear, the weight of defilement. We are called to live in

freedom. It is for freedom that Christ

has set you free. And so maybe there's a way.

You just need to consecrate yourself before the Lord.

And it may mean praying something like this just in your

heart. You can even pray it now,

praying something like Holy Spirit, Come search my heart

like only you can. God, I want to be fully open and

honest with you. I want nothing in the way of

your deepest desires for me. Holy Spirit, would you bring to

the surface everything you want to forgive and set me free?

Maybe you want to practice consecration by just inviting

the Spirit to convict you of sin, or show you burdens or

fears or doubts, disappointments.

Whatever it is, there's there's a long list here.

Just invite the Holy Spirit to search your heart to test you

and to see if there's any unclean way within you.

And look, if you if you carry shame, if you've done some

things that defiled you, hey, you're, you're in good company.

We've all been there. But we are people to pursue

holiness. So as we close to the outside

observer, the first chapter of Daniel, Daniel appears to be

about how the strong conquer the weak, how those who are

beautiful and powerful get the opportunity, how the clever

young Daniel outwitted this rival by his own smarts.

And it may even be tempting to treat Daniel and his friends as

the heroes of this story and the ones we're going to talk about

in the future. And you may be hearing the

story, maybe thinking to yourself, look, I'm not wise.

I'm not beautiful. I'm not resolute like Daniel.

I don't have that type of conviction in you.

But one thing as we close, I want to make really clear as we

read this story about Daniel, it's that God is the hero of

this story and Jesus is the hero of your story.

It was God's presence in exile that enabled Daniel to thrive,

nothing more. So in the same way, church,

because our God is present here and now, even in our hostile

culture, we can remain faithful to our identity in Christ.

We can refuse compromise, we can seek the well-being of our city,

and we can flourish wherever God has placed us because God is in

control forever. And because of that fact, we can

honor him today. May we all learn from Daniel.

May we all learn from Daniel that it's possible to not defile

ourselves in our world today.