Daniel 1 (A Steady Unquenchable Flame)

Pastor Josh: So Daniel chapter one, I remember the first time.

Being in cities, we would always, in living in a city where we got to set

off fireworks, ourselves, we would, buy whatever fireworks we could afford

growing up, and we would, light them.

And that was exciting.

And I thought that's what 4th of July was.

Until I started dating my wife and she said, we do something different.

We go out on the water at Tahoe and we watch the fireworks set

to music launched from barges.

I'm like, what is this?

What are you talking about?

So far my first experience, we go out, me and her, and we get in this little boat.

And we go to the edge of where they allow you in the water and there's

this floating barge, and then there's a countdown and there's thousands of

people gathered around and they're all cheering and chanting and everything.

And then all of a sudden the music starts, like the fireworks are tied to music and

they start launching and it's glorious.

we're right under it.

You could feel the heat from the fireworks.

That's how close we are.

I'm like worried at least we're in water and it's this explosion

and this chaos and this.

Thundering and this just beautiful and one comes and you think that's the finale.

That's the best.

And then there's the next one.

Spectacular.

You can feel the heat on your face.

Audio, visual, sensory overload to the max.

And when it's over.

Everything's different.

Everybody's, just saw they're in this shock and awe kind of stance.

Drunken boats make their way back to the docks.

The patriotic crowd march to their next celebration, and the smoke begins

to clear in your left alone with the blistering darkness of night.

But as your eyes adjust and you look up into the blanket of night,

you're reminded once again, and for a city boy who grew up in Stockton.

I was really struck the first time at the regal specks of light that

pierced the darkness, the stars that have been anchored there for eons.

And in Daniel 12, chapter three, it says, in those who are wise shall shine

like the brightness of the sky above.

And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

And with one verse, the theme of Daniel has given to us.

How to be light in the darkness.

in our day and age, fireworks are fun and exciting, and now, I

mean, people loud coming on the scene, seemingly making an impact.

This politician or this star, or this leader, charismatic and

this person now they're gonna have it, they're gonna lead it.

And we just find as history repeats itself, just so much noise that dissipates

and is forgotten as soon as the next one explodes onto the scene and the Book of

Daniels about how to be a faithful witness in a dark and a hostile environment.

And what's interesting about the Book of Daniel is, unlike other books in the

Bible, this book is not written from inside Israel, but in exile in a country

that isn't theirs, in a culture that isn't theirs, where everything they

believe in know is turned upside down.

So how to live in God's kingdom in a place that doesn't recognize his rule, how to

live in this city as an alternate city.

How to live is light and salt like we are called to.

So I wanna look at this evening, chapter one, the place, verse one

to two, the pressure verse three to seven, the performance verse eight to

21, and then the power of verse eight.

I will not promise you that will always happen.

In fact, I kind of it sometimes it's cheesy.

Anyways, the place, let's go verse one to two.

In the third year of the reign of Jehovah Kim, king of Judah,

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehovah Kim king of Judah into his hand with some of the

vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of China, to

the house of his God and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God.

Now, I used to have a quote on my desk, when I'd put my studies

together by Warren Weby that said, people don't come to church to learn

about the Hittites, which I love.

It's so true, right?

Please, I just need some grace, please.

But sometimes the context, and we can get nerdy and, lose the forest

through the trees, as they say, but some of the context is crucial

to understanding what's going on.

King Jehovah Kim was Judah's 19th King after King David.

19.

Okay.

Continued to lead Israel in a downward spiral of unbelief,

compromise, and disobedience, and this section of Israel's history.

If you've ever read through the Bible as a rough read, it's rough.

I mean, the northern kingdom of Israel did not have one good king.

and ultimately they're conquered by Assyria.

the Southern Kingdom of Judah fared a little better, and were able to stave

off captivity or exile by Assyria.

Ultimately, they're conquered.

by, Babylon, but it's like holding your breath underwater when you read

and you're like, oh my goodness.

And everybody did what was right in their own eyes or in this king,

they turned his heart away from God.

This king did what was right and this king rebelled against God.

And all of a sudden you get to this king and it's like coming up underwater.

You take a deep breath and you're like, finally someone's gonna follow God.

And even there, it's a little wonky, right?

Sometimes they're like, oh, they make it so far.

They make it so far.

Then the, like Siah, he's just ah, I could be a priest, I'm a king.

I could be a priest too.

And he goes in and gets leprosy and, doesn't farewell.

but then it's back underwater and it's another series and, and of Bad King

after Bad King, and then a good king.

Well, we're getting to the end of that whole rhythm and that whole process.

Now, in the second Kings 24, God warn Israel that if they continue to walk

this path, he would send them into exile.

And so in 6 0 5 BC he kept that Promise.

Dates are actually pretty important to the Book of Daniel, as we'll see

further as we go through this book.

And as we see in, the verses we just read, the World power at that

time is not Assyria anymore because again, world powers come and go.

Fireworks show up, they blow up, and then they go and somebody else

is on the scene to repeat the whole process, add Naum, but Babylon.

Now Babylon is on the scene and we gotta say a little bit

about Babylon because Babylon.

Shows up all throughout the Bible, one of the most powerful and

largest cities in the ancient world.

Located in modern day Iraq, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Famous for its hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the world.

This city had walls around it that were 80 feet thick.

Now I'm in construction.

This is mind boggling to me.

320 feet tall.

Can you imagine building a wall like that?

Could you imagine what it took without Milwaukee?

18 volt fuel batteries to get it done right.

That's insane.

And Daniel and his friend would've walked around this city.

They would've seen over 1000 temples in this one city alone.

Dedicat all front Gods 1000 temples, a church on every corner.

Right.

Pluralistic incredibly diverse because they were so powerful.

They would go and they would conquer a country and take the most influential

that they could deem the young, the wise, those who were the most.

Uh, had the most potential, and then they would mold them and they

would shape them into their image.

They would integrate them into Babylon.

Now, there's some deeply important symbolism at work here.

Babylon here refers to a spec specific kingdom in sixth century bc.

But in the Bible, Babylon also represents a spiritual power at

work in every secular kingdom.

In every age in the New Testament.

In fact, the early Christians used Babylon as a code name for Rome, even though

Rome was miles away from the ancient city of Babylon, had a no political

connection to Babylon whatsoever.

In fact, in the book of Revelation in chapter 17 and 18, the Apostle John, the

one whom Jesus loved, Babylon, becomes the Apostle John's name for the whole

world system in opposition to Jesus.

And Jesus' people, right?

His disciples, his followers.

So did you notice in verse two though, when I said, Hey, take

note where it said the city of Babylon was to the land of Shiner.

Shiner is the place in Genesis 11, 12, uh, two, where all mankind

gathered together in order to build a great tower and to make a name

for themselves like gambit, right?

I'm about to make a name for myself.

But anyways, and so you remember.

The name of the Tower of Babel, Babylon, and you kinda see what

God's doing there in this narrative.

The point is in the Bible, Babylon is the term for the spiritual kingdom

at work and secular world powers.

Since the Tower of Babel, it's the city of a man.

It's the city of man.

It's the East of Eden.

It's what man builds.

It's cane and his inheritance.

And it's his descendants.

It's that idea.

We're going to manufacture something so silly when we look at it, they

said, can, let's come together.

We're gonna make a tower and we're gonna get to God.

we're gonna reach him.

We're gonna build and we are gonna climb, and we're gonna get to God.

We're gonna pull heaven down to earth.

In all religions, that's what religion is.

All religion that is just on its basis is man's attempt to get to God.

Man's attempt to build some structure, follow some rule, follow

some program, follow some mantra, some savior to get to heaven.

The gospel is completely different 'cause it's the only one out there

that says Heaven came down to earth.

As we'll see, but here is this man city babble Babylon.

The enemy of our souls is always using this manmade kingdom to oppose the

kingdom of light and it will do it.

and we face opposition as Christians in one of two ways, and the temptation

is either to separate or assimilate.

Separate or assimilate.

Think of the church, as a boat, right?

Think of you made this boat right?

You shaped it like a cool boat that you actually like, took some time.

You found a tree trunk, you carved it, you got a boat.

You don't just put that boat up somewhere to sit in a warehouse.

What is that boat for?

That boat is to be in the river.

it's to be, going down the rapids.

It's to go fishing off of the boat is made for the water.

But if you were careful of the way that you crafted the boat,

you made sure there were no holes.

Why?

Because the water's not supposed to be in the boat.

And the church is the same way.

God made the church to be in the world, but the world's not

supposed to be in the church.

But what people tend to do is they tend to too, they either separate,

we're not going in the water, or they become a submarine and they're like,

we are, we're indistinguishable.

We're so in the world that you can't tell the difference, right?

Separate or, assimilate separate.

now Daniel's gonna really deal with the assimilate.

And how the world works to assim, assimilate you into its mold.

I wanna talk a little bit about separate number one, and here's

some homework if you want that.

You see this subculture happening in judges chapter 17 to 18, this Christian

Judges 17 · chapter mention

subculture, this idea, this separation.

But it's like where you go if you have your boat and you just take

some of the water and you make your own pond next to the lake.

It's a subculture.

It's like we want everything cool that they have, but we're gonna do it with

some Christianese on top of it, right?

And we know that we've been around it.

The culture is bad and toxic and pure, so we need to stay away from it, but

we really want the similar things.

And so we christianize everything.

We have Christian movies, Christian music, Christian shopping,

Christian schools, Christian coffee shops named Hebrews, right?

And, all kinds of stuff, it, that stuff's not bad.

maybe the Christian breath min's called testaments are bad.

but anyways, that stuff isn't bad in and of itself.

It's what the end game for it is.

It can be a tremendous way to disciple someone.

But if the idea behind it is to stay away because the world's yucky and

pier and we need to hold out and hunker down until the Lord comes

back, that's when it's bad, right?

God made you to be in the water.

You're to be in the world, just not of it.

And and so there's this subculture, believers observe the external trappings

of Christian faith and practice, but inwardly adopt the fundamental values and

perspectives from the dominant culture.

And we see this happen.

They may not, do the typical, I don't smoke, drink, or chew or

date girls that do kind of thing.

Yet inwardly there is materialistic, selfish, individualistic status and image

conscious as the society around them stay somewhat separated from unbelievers

in various Christian ministries.

Yet they have just sprinkled Bible verses and pist language on a

lifestyle that is fundamentally no different from those around them.

Thus, they're a subculture, just a subset of the dominant culture.

A Christian subculture, right?

So this one takes the water, makes a little pond next to the

lake, the anti-culture homework.

Psalm 1 37.

This is the more aggressive this is.

The anti-culture believers respond to the unbelieving culture with a

sense of superiority and hostility.

They feel polluted by the very presence of unbelieving schools,

entertainment, arts, and culture.

They feel they cannot really function in society without having cultural power.

Believers can consider themselves hostile visitors seeking to undermine the culture.

Some take a more passive approach and withdraw from really any real

interaction beyond denouncing and wailing the moral decay of the day.

Oh, it's so terrible.

Others aim to get the cultural power back.

We're gonna win.

We're gonna get the power, and then we're gonna bring, God into

everything that you've worked for.

Constantine.

Good job.

That's how we killed the movement of the gospel.

Next assimilate.

That's where the boat's in the water, but the boat is in the water so much that it

becomes indistinguishable for the water.

It's like a submarine with screen doors, as Biff Tanner said.

Let's look at that in our next section.

Thank you babe.

Got the reference.

the pressure.

The pressure.

So that's the place we're in Babylon in the city.

America, another country.

There's things that represent Babylon in all of those places that represent

Babylon in all of those places.

that city of man, the values of man power, greed, it was set of the early

church that they were promiscuous with their generosity and their wealth, but

they were guarded with their sexuality.

See, that's an alternate value to the value of the city of man.

The city of man is no, we are protective over our wealth.

We're gonna hoard it.

It's for me, it's for mine that we're promiscuous with our bodies.

And so there's these two contrasting kingdoms at work, and there always

will be the kingdom of man, the city of Babylon, and the Kingdom of God.

And, uh, so the pressure, verse three, the King Commander Aspen as the chief

eunuch to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family of the

nobility, used without blemish of good appearance and skillful and all wisdom

endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning competent to stand the King's

palace and to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

They can assign them a daily portion of food.

That the king, ate and the wine that they drank and they were

to be educated for three years.

And at the end of that time, they were stand before the king.

Among these were Daniel Hanai, Micha and Azariah, the tribe of Judah.

And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.

Daniel.

He called Belt Shaar.

Hanai.

He called Shadrach Micha, he called Micha and Azariah, he called a Bindigo.

So a description of the most tragic and dramatic event that

these people could ever imagine.

These young boys, their homes are of obliterated.

The city is burned, their temple is desecrated.

The Babylonians are going into the temple, and they're taking the vessels

that were set apart to be used in the worship of that temple, and now

they're being used as instruments to worship the Babylonian Gods.

This incredible display of power.

This are God beat Your God.

Daniel's one of four young men, good looking, smart, healthy, athletic.

The best of the best constricted into a Nebuchadnezzar service.

Don't think like this is an episode of The Bachelor, the Hebrew edition, because

verse three says they were put under the chief eunuch, which means they would've

been made eunuchs also, which means their capacity to have kids was quite.

Literally crushed Daniel.

Plato, the historian, said that people enrolled in these training

programs are usually 14 to 17 years old, so we can assume all this

happened when Daniel is about 15.

So you get taken away.

you're town's destroyed, where you go to worship.

Everything that you brought up, everything that you knew, you're taken away,

you're stolen away, your parents are probably killed, and, you're taken away.

And, Made Eunuchs forced into service of the enemy.

Nebuchadnezzar has their names changed.

They had good Hebrew names, which pointed to the glory of God.

Nebuchadnezzar changed their names to speak of the praise of his gods.

Daniel literally means God is, my judge is changed to belt to

Shaar, but Al protects the king.

Hananiah means God is gracious.

He becomes Shadrach under the command of a coup.

The moon, God, Michel, there is none like God changed to Micha.

There is none like a coup.

The Moon God, Azariah God has helped me.

Ab Bendigo the servant of Nebo, the Babylonian God of wisdom.

Now there's something funny that happens in the language and it had.

Scholars like scratching their heads for a while and that's that through the

rest of the book of Daniel, whenever their Babylonian names are given, they're

misspelled in the original language.

And at first we're like, oh, do we have bad manuscript copies?

that's weird that a scribe, they're so careful usually on all this until

all the copies showed the misspelling.

Do you know what it was?

It was like a rebel protest.

It's like this, nah, it's this punk rock kind of.

Oh yeah.

Oh, that's what you're gonna name 'em.

We're not even gonna consider spelling them.

Right?

It's this protest in the book of the Bible.

I love it.

And I love that.

That's God's like, yes.

That is a good, that's a good thing.

but pause for a minute and think about what happened to

the world of these 15 year olds.

Keep in mind, these are real people.

These high school age boys watches their homeland was invaded, their

families killed their temple desecrated.

Their future as husbands and fathers destroyed and their names change

to give praise to a foreign deity.

And then they're in this training program that was designed to assimilate them.

They had years of training under King Nebuchadnezzar.

They're giving Babylonian names.

They're giving Babylonian jobs.

They're studying the language and the literature of Babylon.

In fact, just so you can see how far their inculcation went, part of their

training would've been learning.

a Babylonian spirituality.

If you see in verse 20, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding

about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than

all the magicians, the enchanters that were in all his kingdom.

That's the larger group that they're a part of.

In this process is ingenious.

If you're the enemy, a display of power, first and foremost, we conquered your God.

Where is he?

He shows up in verse two, which shall get to.

He's in verse two, and in fact, he's the one that says,

gave Judah over, Jo came over.

God's still on his throne.

All through this.

God's on his throne.

God's on his throne.

But there's this display of power, these young kids,

and there's this temptation.

For all of us, at least for me.

Don't you want to be on the winning team?

that's just one level working.

Tell them that they're special.

Out of all the people we see potential in you.

You are the best and the brightest.

All those other people, they didn't cut it.

You guys, you are the future of this city.

Remove their physical cultural identity.

Remember, they were circumcised as Hebrews.

And that's removed.

When they become eunuchs.

Remove their spiritual identity, change their names, reeducation,

here's what to believe.

Then the king's food, making them dependent on the king for everything, but

making the king seem like, I've got you.

I'm gonna give you the best.

They're not free.

They're slaves, they're captives, but he's treating them like they're royalty,

except he's, hurt them physically.

He's destroyed their own.

He's changing everything about them, and it's this psychological

warfare that happens even nowadays.

Do you see any similarities in our culture?

Who wants to tell you your identity and what you are?

I.

Constantly, you are what you do, or you are how you perform, or

you are what you can provide.

You are what you accomplish.

Over and over.

The same similar things that keep you captive, that keep you under,

that tries to redefine who you are.

And remember the vibe of the king is giving off this freedom and flourishing,

but that environment, you're just one bad dream away from death.

As we see in the rest of the book of Daniel, they can't interpret one bad

dream, the rest of the magicians, and he's gonna kill 'em all, all the years.

Think of all the money they poured into that program.

He's gonna write it off for tax credit.

He's just gonna obliterate, wipe 'em all out because they really aren't free.

And nobody's free in that identity that's pressed upon them.

You have to look this way.

You have to think this way.

We all feel that pressure in our culture.

There is two kingdoms trying to occupy the same space, and when two kingdoms trying

to occupy the same space, there's tension.

Or we see even the, the person in charge of the whole crew is in fear for his life.

He doesn't wanna step outta line, and the enemy of our souls is after

identity to lie to us about who we are in Christ and to conform

us into the image of this world.

Romans 12, two says, do not copy the behavior and the customs

of this world, but let God transform you into a new person.

By changing the way you think, then you will learn to know

what God's will for you.

Is, Which is good, pleasing and perfect.

Let's see how they do with this pressure to assimilate.

And that in the performance, what do they do?

The test that's before them.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself, verse

eight, with the king's food or with the wine that he drank.

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

And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the E,

and the chief of the Euch said to Daniel, I fear my Lord, the king who

assigned you food and drank for, why should he see that you are in worse

condition than the user of your own age?

So would you endanger my head with the king?

Then Daniel said to the steward from whom the chief of the Euch had assigned

over Daniel Hanai, Michel Azariah.

Test your servants for 10 days.

Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then let our appearance in the appearance of the use who eat the king's food

be observed by you and with your severance according to what you see.

So he listened to them in the matter and tested them for 10 days, and at the end

of 10 days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh.

Than all the youth 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 use, God gave them learning and skill

and all literature and wisdom.

And Daniel had understanding in all dreams and visions and at the end

of time when the king in commanded that they should be brought in, the

chief of the Euch brought them before Nebuchadnezzar and the king spoke with

them and among them was none found.

Like Daniel had and I, Michelle Azariah.

Therefore, they stood before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and

understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10

times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in his kingdom.

And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus, and here they are in the

king's palace eating at the king's table.

And you've got to recognize this would've been the best food in the country

prepared by the most talented chef with the most expensive wine every day for

them, the most expensive ingredients.

But verse eight says, Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself at the King's

food or with the wine that he drank.

He says, I won't do it.

I'm not going to eat the King's food and drink his wine.

And here's the thing, we don't exactly know why he refused to do this.

It could have been everybody's debated, all the commentators and the scholars.

It could have been.

that there was a kind of, the kind of food they were eating.

Maybe it wasn't permitted in some of the Jewish dietary laws, but the wine

would be, or it could have been the use of the food that they were eating.

It had been previously sacrificed to Babylonian gods.

It could have been all those reasons, but we don't know because

it doesn't tell us explicitly.

But here's what we do know, that Daniel and his four friends,

it says, would've been defiled.

If they crossed that line, it would've made them impure.

It would've been contrary to their convictions in God.

And so he said he resolved not to eat it.

So Daniel asks, and that he and his friends be able to eat a different menu.

Now that's pretty anno annoying request for a prisoner to be asking because nobody

in charge of feeding groups likes it.

When people demand.

Different kinds of food, right?

Can I get an amen from the moms?

Andrea loves nothing more than one of our kids asking for a different meal than

what she's prepared for the family, right?

But anyways, so they do make their quest.

Now, please don't be shortsighted as we read this and think that

Daniel gave you just now tonight exclusively some super secret.

Jesus powered keto diet, right?

That's the, this is it guys.

Some of your, because we're actually told when they ate this, they got

fat, which I think is the opposite of why some of us diet anyways.

Maybe not.

but some of you are like, I knew it.

Vegetables and water.

I bet that meant only whole grains and non GMO stuff, right?

But that's not the point.

And this is the point.

I love John Cleese.

He's the British comedian.

He said, if God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why

did he make them out of meat?

I thought, I always love that.

But anyways, you're free to follow this Daniel diet, but that's

not the point of the chapter.

Daniel said, let us eat vegetables and water.

It's interesting.

He didn't come out and say, Hey everybody, I'm a Christian.

You're wrong.

I'm right.

Check me out.

Where's my promotion?

He comes.

Respectfully to the person.

He makes the request and the chief eunuch says, listen, yoni king's food, you're

gonna get all skinny and scrawny and look pathetic, and it's gonna come back onto

me while you're feeding these young guys.

So look, verse 11.

Then Daniel said to the steward, okay, you've gotta notice Daniel is not

talking to the chief of Eunuch anymore.

He switches up to somebody else.

So he's resilient.

He doesn't give up.

He's not like, well, I tried it for God,

you know?

Struck out.

Struck out for Jesus.

He's no,

I'm going.

And he doesn't give up.

He's resilient.

He keeps going.

He tries another route.

He talks to the steward and they get fatter.

Verse 15, which back then was the standard of beauty because if you're working out

in the field and you were muscular and tan, admit that you weren't well to do,

but if you were puffy, that was awesome.

That meant you had, that meant you had servants.

That meant you could, kind of thing, but everybody is blown away

because God causes them to flourish.

And this story raises an interesting question.

How do we know where to draw the line in the city in which we live in the

culture in which we live in the city of man as people of the kingdom of God?

And it's really fascinating in the story.

Daniel.

Takes a Babylonian name, he does a Babylonian job.

He learns their culture, their language, their spirituality,

but he won't eat the king's food.

Why this and not that?

Well, it doesn't tell us why.

There's no clear biblical laws that make first simple explanation of why

he did one thing but refused another.

And this is not the only line that Daniel and his friends drawn.

Remember, they're like, we're not worshiping your stupid, idol.

no, I'm gonna keep praying with my windows open.

He probably could have closed his windows and avoided all conflict,

but he, for some reason, you'll see in the story, he's gonna draw line.

He's gonna say no.

To go beyond this would be compromise.

I would lose myself if I crossed this.

Line and he ends up in the lion's den or refusing wealth.

Remember to interpret the handwriting on the wall.

He's like, your kingdom's going away anyways.

Why this not that?

See, when it comes to where to draw lines in ethical situations, we want

God to give us the rule to make it explicit, but God wants us to use wisdom

and so let's apply that in our context.

How do we know where to draw lines?

How do you know where to draw a line at work?

I think about this all the time.

This is a big one.

Do you participate when people at work are talking bad about a coworker?

Ooh.

Is that a line?

Do you defend them?

Do you participate?

The juicy gossip?

Do you slam their character to make yourself look, oh, it's so tantalizing.

How do you know where to draw the lines?

What about honesty?

What about cutting corners?

Yes, you get the job done quicker, but are, is it, is it good?

Is it good work just to do it in order to meet a deadline?

Where do we draw the line?

the Bible's clear.

You have to draw lines, but the scripture doesn't tell us where those

lines need to be drawn sometimes.

Now, some situations are black and white.

Don't lie, don't cheat.

Don't participate in wickedness.

Those are pretty obvious, but some areas are gray Now, we wish that

there was a simple answer to all this.

What if God doesn't want to simply tell us what to do in every situation,

but invites us into deeper maturity, into deeper community, into deeper

reliance on him in every circumstance.

And one of the things that, has been helpful to me is in one Corinthians

six 12 with this whole wisdom thing, and, one Corinthians 10 23,

it says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

At 10 53, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify and those are an

amazing thing for being in this worldwide because what it says, number one, it

says, man, you're freer than you think.

Whom the suns free is free indeed.

Not freedom like the world.

The world sees freedom as like no boundaries, but we flourish.

In the right boundaries we're like a fish, right?

If a fish is man, I'm not experiencing freedom.

I wanna live on the land.

very shortly he is going to experience death, but he'll flourish in the

environment that he was created for.

But I love the old King James that says.

All things are lawful, but not all things are expedient.

It's such a good word.

What it means is it means you're running your race with endurance,

looking into Jesus, the author of the perfecter of our faith, right?

And you're casting aside every weight in the sin, which so

easily ens snares us, right?

And then you're looking un Jesus.

That's Hebrews right?

And he, and you're looking into him now.

Is there anything slowing me down?

Yes, I could do it, but man, is it speeding me on.

I used to, I'm not gonna tell the whole story, but I used to, when I started

swim team, I was so embarrassed.

And so I would swim in these huge cargo shorts and it was like

swimming with a parachute on.

And then they told me and I practicing them, and I would not change.

I say, you gotta wear Speedo.

I'm not gonna wear Speedo.

You gotta wear Speedo.

I'm not gonna wear Speedo.

I don't, I know I'm not gonna do it.

And then finally, I was not gonna be able to.

Swim.

I had worked months of my life preparing.

So finally I went and I bought it and then, I wore my towel up on

the starting block 'cause I was so embarrassed and the gun went off.

I threw off my towel and dove in and one stroke, and one junk.

And I got half the pool on my jump.

And I came up and I was the head of everybody, and then I was to the wall.

I didn't even get to do flip turn.

And then finally I came back.

Guys, I was so proud of my speedo.

I was walking around.

I was just like, yes,

why?

I dropped the weight.

Yes, it's lawful.

Is it speeding me on my course?

Okay, all things are lawful, but I won't be brought under the power of Vinny.

See how this starts to work in wisdom?

If you're under its power, you're not free.

Are, am I free If you're under its power?

No.

Okay.

And then the mo, one of the most important, all things are lawful,

but not all things edified.

That's the context of the church community.

Does it help the church community thrive?

Does it build them up?

Because I'm not Josh Ka over here, Christian by myself.

And then we come together and I report how I'm doing as a solo Christian.

We are the body of Christ together.

And we bear one another's burdens and in doing so, thus fulfill the law of Christ.

It doesn't happen any other way apart from the body.

And man, wisdom again, we want God just to give us a rule,

but God wants us to use wisdom.

I love you.

Read in the book of Proverbs and it'll say, do this, and then another

place that will say, don't do this.

And you're like, is that a contradiction?

And you say, how do I reconcile that?

What's he saying?

He's saying sometimes you do it, sometimes you don't.

What's the thing that you use to decide wisdom?

I.

So how Daniel and his friends not only have the wisdom to draw a line

in the sand, but the power to do it.

And so let me wrap up with the power, verse eight.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's

food or with the wine that he drank.

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

Now, the Hebrew word here for resolve literally means

that he decided in his heart.

He made an internal commitment that would determine his external actions.

Somebody once said, this is really good.

Integrity is setting your priorities before your opportunities.

He fixed his heart on something.

Jesus says in Luke 1234 where your treasure is.

Your heart will be also,

one of the most gospel freeing things I, is the whole idea of willpower.

because

for years I was like, try harder, do better, jump faster.

I wanted to be the bionic Christian, how do I do this?

And, I would read dedication.

A previous rededication of a previous rededication.

I like this time.

It's serious.

Try baptism again, being, come on.

What's happening?

No, I'm going all in this time.

I'm serious.

I go to a camp, throw away all this stuff that held me back, those

weights, this time, I'm serious, Lord.

Make it a week.

Boom.

The thing about an athlete, and Paul gives us this picture of

an athlete, is that the athlete.

It's not like they don't like ice cream.

I'm sure they love gold Medal ribbon from Baskin Robbins or peanut butter chocolate.

the difference

is that they have a greater desire

and that's to win the crown.

And so they bring all other desires.

And submission to that greater desire.

It's not that they have to not ice cream, it's that they remind themselves what

their true north is that true desire is, and that's what Daniel is doing here.

He's recognizing his true treasure before he even headed there.

This is his treasure.

He resolved that he would not.

He set his heart, he fixed his heart.

He said it on God.

In fact, a lot of people say, man, all these crazy desires and why we

fail is that we feel so strongly.

I love CS Lewis.

He says, it's 'cause we don't feel strongly enough.

Man, God invites you to have all of them that you want.

Draw near to me.

The God of the universe says, come get me.

have all of you that Paul, praise that the Ephesians might.

Expand their ability to take in all the fullness of God.

Like he's get more.

Then you might be able to comprehend the height, the width, the depth, and the

breath of the love of God Our Lord, man, he wants to pour it out so there's this

true north, there's this prize, this.

I'm not finicky go blown about with the wind.

I'm not, deciding later.

But there was something in their hearts where they're

like, man, this is the anchor.

And why is that important to decide?

Because in cities like Babylon, being different won't happen naturally.

What's natural, what's human nature is to try to fit in, to follow the

crowd, to go with the flow, to take the path of least resistance, so you'll

never drift into being set apart.

And Daniel felt the pressure, no doubt about it.

He was surrounded by pressure.

He was working in Babylon with a Babylonian name.

He's very much in the city, but he knew his limits and he drew

a line that he wouldn't cross.

Now why?

Why won't he cross these lines?

Because God's people are called to be set apart, to be

different, to be salt and light.

Someone once said, you can't make a difference unless you're different.

Now one huge caveat.

I'm not talking about being weird.

we can be weird as Christians sometimes.

I'm talking about being different.

That salt and light, that's different.

The light, the city that set on a hill, it was set of the early Christians.

This is by Rodney Stark, stood in stark contrast to other Roman citizens

because they were promiscuous, which means dispersing freely their

money and guarded with their beds.

Romans were guarded, stingy with their money and promiscuous with their beds.

Take power for Babylon.

Whatever power you have.

Press it to your advantage.

If it's your looks, use that.

If it's your money, use that.

If it's your talent, use that.

Whatever power you have is to be held onto and pressed for advantage.

But the Christian sees any position of power and privilege

like Jesus did something with which to serve and lift others up

we're only to use power to serve.

That's the crazy upside down nature of being a.

A child of God, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and

to give his life as a ransom.

Do you understand how crazy that is?

The God man, the one who holds the universe by the word of his power.

The uncaused cause.

No beginning, no end.

The alpha, the omega.

He came to wash your feet.

Man.

All power, all authority, he says is given unto him, right?

And.

We've fallen short.

So is the thing today like determined to be a Daniel and

try really hard to be different?

Let's pray.

Is that the lesson?

But here's the thing, we can't do it in our own strength and we haven't done it.

We've fallen short.

And if we try to do it on our own strength moving forward,

we don't lean into this vision.

And so often I am co-opted by compromise.

We can't do it, but Jesus did.

And God's grace is at work already in chapter one and in all of it.

And that's what from the very beginning of the book, Daniel.

Remember back in verse one, it says, king Nebuchadnezzar, Bessie,

Jerusalem, and then in the second verse it says, and yet the Lord

gave Jerusalem into his hand gave.

It's saying, yeah.

The kingdom of this world are making decisions and moving parts, but

ultimately God is sovereignly at work, orchestrating all of this.

And so then you look at verse nine, it says, God gave Daniel favor and compassion

in the sight of the chief eunuchs.

So there's this clue at the beginning of the story of God's favor, of God's grace.

He's showing his compassion.

And then you get to verse 17, and it says, as for these four use,

God gave them learning and skill and all literature and wisdom.

So you have this phrase being repeated three times.

In the first chapter, the Lord gave.

The Lord gave.

So this story isn't about how great Daniel is.

It's about how gracious Daniel's God is.

Amen.

God gave him favor and God gave him learning and skill.

And as we keep reading, we'll see that God is the one who makes.

Daniel Excel, he gets all the glory.

So this book of the Bible is beckoning us to look not at Daniel, but to

look at the God of Daniel who is sovereign and gracious and accomplishes

his purpose through his people.

See, Daniel was imperfect, but risked his life to be faithful to God's purpose.

But Jesus was perfect, the greater Daniel.

And not only did he risk his life, he gave his life to fulfill God's purpose.

We shouldn't just be moralizing.

The book of Daniel saying, be more like Daniel.

Try harder to be like him.

No, Daniel is ultimately pointing us forward to Jesus.

And Jesus scripture tells us, set his face towards Jerusalem where

he was going to be crucified.

Do you know what that means?

It means he resolved in his heart

why

we're told that in the book of Hebrews.

He went to the cross because of the joy set before.

What was the one thing God didn't have

you and me in Right relationship with him?

Is that like crazy and audacious that God's you're the joy.

You're the sunrise on the other side of the resurrection, on

the other side of the cross.

What?

That he longed to save you.

He endured the scro cross, despising the shame.

But for the Joyce set before him, he went, he was resolute.

He had decided he had set his face toward Jerusalem.

He had set his heart.

He resolved to go to the cross, that he was willing to be cast out on our behalf,

that he was willing to bear our shame.

See, the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was crucified, not in the city of

Jerusalem, but outside the city Gates.

Guys.

He was exiled.

He was cast out so that we might be brought in and given a

place at the table of sons and daughters of the Kingdom of God.

So complete was this.

Redemption.

So complete was this salvation.

I love somebody who was telling me as we were just thinking about the cross and

good Friday when Peter, comes and Jesus is being arrested and it's all chaos.

And Peter takes out his sword and he cuts off the high priest servant's ear, right?

Boom.

Guys, what would happen to Peter if that's how it ended?

He'd be arrested.

He'd be tried.

He did committed violence.

Do you know what God does?

God picks up the ear and fixes it so well.

It's like it never happened.

And so too, that's what he did with our sin.

He bore it and paid it in full.

He said to tell the sky it's finished, it's complete as far

as the east is from the west.

I remember your sin no more.

There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Guys, the redemption in the rescue.

And so Jesus dies on the cross verse in, he rises from the grave so that

we can have new life in him and so that we can experience the city on the

hill that he calls us to be a part of letting his light shine through us.

And so through Christ, through trusting the finished work of

cross, getting that story into our hearts and letting it simmer.

And boil, then we can actually fulfill this vision at work.

They take sheet metal and they try to bend it into place

sometimes, and guess what happens?

As soon as they let go, it goes back into place and so many

of our hearts are like that.

We hear something and we're like, yeah, I'm gonna do it.

And our hearts are like W.

But what they do when they want it to stay is they take a blowtorch

to it and they melt that sucker and then they bend that thing and they

can shape it any way they want.

And so to the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.

Which is the power of God comes into our heart and His grace in His mercy in his

favor is shed of brought in our hearts and our affections deeper than emotion.

It's the taste buds of the soul is stirred and we see and we savor the good, kind,

awesome, gracious king who did that in our place and our hearts, like the disciples

who say, did they not burn within us?

And so by God's grace, he makes us different guys.

By God's grace, he is our wisdom.

It's literally says He's the wisdom come from God.

So we, we know when to resist and draw the line.

By God's grace, he has strength and we cast ourselves on him.

By God's grace, we could trust God for the results.

And yet God is sovereign overall.

The Lord gave Wendy Witter.

God is in control no matter how things look in his kingdom on one day fill

the earth no matter how things look, no matter how they look to Daniel

and his friends, he's in control.

And it would be easy to look at these verses.

And if we didn't see verse two there and guess that God isn't in control,

but in Daniel, we learn as we do in so many other scriptures, trials

are not obstacles to God's purposes.

They're instruments of his purposes.

And then I love in verse, this is a little bit of application.

I don't do this often, so enjoy seven in verse one.

In 21 you have the span of 70 years.

Sometimes we read this story and we think.

This week, it's the food.

Next week it's the lion's den, or next week it's the idol.

It's the furnace.

70 years.

This all takes place

and it's just steady patient endurance by these guys

just waking up every day like Daniel enjoying his God.

Next parenting.

Whatever they did in those 15 years, they killed it.

Be not weary and well doing for induced season, you shall reap if you faint.

Not

it's hard,

but God loves them more than we do.

But just that steady faithfulness.

There's some patient endurance.

Number three, friendship.

Daniel Shadrach me.

In a bene go, somebody once said, show me your friends

and I'll tell you your future,

man.

What a treasure some godly friends are.

There's a difference between friends who are Christians

and friends you like weep over the gospel with, and oh,

that it would all be the same.

But the truth of the matter, that's not always the case,

but to pray and to be the friend that sticks closer than

a brother to be the friend.

Next is, so you have separation and assimilation.

Where's the middle?

Last bit of homework.

Jeremiah 29.

You have the exiles waiting outside the city and they're

waiting for like revival to happen.

They're promised by a false prophet in chapter 28.

That revival's coming.

Just wait, hunker down.

And Jeremiah sends him a letter and he says, go in and seek the

piece of the city plant vineyards.

Oh, does that mean we're gonna be here for a while?

Seek the flourishing.

Buy houses, get married, move in, become the alternate city in the city,

all that Christ has done in us.

All the mercy and the compassion that he's shown us when we

were enemies, Christ died.

You now take that to your neighbors, to your coworkers, to

everybody you encounter, and you become a light that's undeniable.

Yes, we'll be distracted by fireworks.

That when the dust clears and the smoke clears the love of God through his people

is undeniable and will last much longer than a couple of minutes, but forever.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word this evening.

We thank you for your rescue of us and God as we,