World Changers: Youth Sunday | Part 2

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning, Awakening.

My name is Roland, and I get to serve on our staff team.

Thank you.

And like you heard from Molly and Hannah earlier, we are in the middle of a series where we as a church are orienting ourselves towards the next generation.

Like we said, last week was Protege Sunday, where we got to celebrate a group of young adults who invested a whole year into their leadership and to serve in high capacities at Awakening in a program that I love because I'm also a graduate as a pro or a graduate from that protege program.

And next week, what we get to do is MoveUp Sunday, where we get to celebrate some big milestone grade transitions in the lives of our kids.

And you probably know this already, but today is Youth Sunday, and I'm incredibly biased, and this is definitely my favorite part of this series that we're calling World Changers.

Why do we take three weeks every year to do this?

It's because here at Awakening, part of our dream is we want to be a strategic training center for the next generation of world changers.

So that's that's why we take three weeks, we celebrate our proteges, our youth, and our kids every year.

But if you're anything like me, when we highlight our junior high or high school ministries, it kind of takes you back to when you were a teenager.

At least that's what happens for me.

And I'm not gonna give away too many details, but to give you an idea, like when when I was a teenager, the thing to do, the thing that was going out actually was like white on white, studded belts, and what was coming in was like wearing gray cardigans and the super deep V-necks.

I won't show you.

Right, that was the pinnacle of male fashion as a high school.

I hope that gives you an idea.

Um, or at least that's what it was in Ventura, where I grew up.

It's a little beach town in Southern, or depends on who you ask, Southern or Central California.

Um, but we were grabbed, I was graduating high school, and some of my friends and I, we decided we wanted to ditch the beach and head for the mountains.

And we wanted to go on this camping trip that we would get to celebrate the end of our high school years on this like week-long adventure.

Uh so what we did is we got my friends uh Toyota Sequoia because it could fit the most amount of us with as much stuff as we could.

And this isn't a Toyota commercial, don't worry, but they are nice.

Um, and we got in the car and we headed on the road, and six hours later, I found myself uh in Yosemite with some of my good uh with some of my good buddies.

And on the way there, we kind of started to divvy out responsibilities.

And what my role was, my job was to get out and to pitch our tent.

So we got there, uh, I pulled out our little pop-up tent from the car, and my friends, they started to work on the fire and unloading the rest of the car.

And it took me all about like 15 minutes.

Really easy, got the poles together, put it up, found a nice spot, cleared it for us, and I set the tent up.

And I like took a second, stepped back, admired my wonderful work, and then went to go help my friends because we were really hungry.

We hadn't eaten the whole car ride there.

Um, so in the middle of like chopping vegetables and boiling water to make some really gourmet top ramen, uh this it sounds like college, right?

We we got this like call from a stranger.

Like this this this guy starts running up to us and trying to get our attention.

And without even like having said a word as we looked over, we realized something was really wrong.

Right?

There was a bear, there wasn't a bear.

We looked over and we noticed that our tent was missing, and that our tent wasn't just missing, that the reason this guy was coming over to come tell us about what was going on was that our tent was actually upside down, like kind of nestled up against someone else's tent.

And that was incredibly embarrassing.

Because I realized, right, after we got the said sorry, was like, not squ- we're not trying to like do squatters rights and take your spot too, forgot to put some things down.

I realized, I was super embarrassed, that I didn't like I didn't just forget to put the tent pegs into the tent.

I didn't even know that was a thing I had to do.

Right?

Because when I stepped back, admired my wonderful work, what I did was I was like, okay, in all of my extensive camping experience, as you can tell, I was like, all the tents that I've seen in my life, it looks the same.

And I looked around at the other campsites and I was like, okay, our tent looks like I'm good, I'm great.

It's actually this is the best tent I've ever seen.

So I left it and apparently I did it wrong.

And as I've thought about this story and this morning for us, I I've realized something.

That following Jesus can often feel like that tent I'll say I tried to pitch.

Right?

When when the winds change, it's just you start to find out what you're really tethered to.

And when it comes to following God, oftentimes we try to do stuff like uh emulate the people at church that are around us, uh, try to say the things that the pastors that we know, what they say.

Maybe on social media we'll post a Bible verse or put it on our shoe because we think that's the way that we're supposed to look, or we'll carry our Bibles around or at least have it in our bag so when we open it, people know that we have a Bible.

And we do all these things because we feel like that's what it's supposed to look like to be a follower of Jesus, right?

That's what it looks like to be a Christian, to follow God.

But what happens is when push comes to shove, when the proverbial winds blow, we realize that we're not really tethered to anything, that we're not really grounded anywhere that's of significance, that it's all just for looks.

And again, I I probably know this best when it comes to our students, right?

Well, when I talk to our teenagers, following God at school seems impossible.

And if not impossible, then almost hostile even.

You see, the the things, what it takes to like do well in school, to succeed, to fit in, uh, it's always like a moving target, right?

It's all it's always being it's always something to chase, and it's always different.

Again, the winds of change fast and furious, blowing against uh blowing against our students, right?

But more than that, the the besides the moving target, things changing, not really knowing what it means to like do well as a junior higher or high schooler to have success or to thrive, is more than that, there's also uh the desire to follow God, and you have all these things, or you have people who are willing to do evil and terrible things and yet fly the flag of Jesus, right?

So another thing that's difficult for our students to say, I want to follow God, but also how do I do that when it's associated with this caricature of what the church is or what it means to follow Jesus, right?

So what ends up happening is it feels like there's two things at odds, right?

Do I follow God?

Can I do that, or do I want to succeed, or do I want to do well, or do I want to fit in?

Whatever it is, right?

It feels like there's two things that are mutually exclusive, that they can't live in harmony.

And the problem with that is that it's actually something that a lot of us can understand, right?

Following Jesus in our world isn't just incredibly difficult, it can even be the have be met with a lot of opposition.

And what I've learned as a youth pastor is that the same problem our teenagers have is the same problem many of us grown adults have as well.

Right?

We're all asking the same question.

And that one question that we all ask is this is is it even possible to follow God in a hostile world?

Is it at all possible?

Can you really do it?

Do we really have a choice when it comes to uh following God in our schools, our workplaces, our sports teams, our businesses, and even our families?

Right?

Because we all know we look around, we see people cut corners, uh, make terrible or make unfair business deals, talk poorly about people behind their backs and cheat on tests, so on and so forth, and they actually seem to be doing well, right?

They seem to be like thriving.

So again, we're at odds.

Can we really follow God uh in our world?

Do we really even have a choice?

And in the past couple months in Awakening Youth, what we've been doing is we've been studying the book of Daniel.

And this book, many of you are probably familiar with, right, because Daniel is this really popular Sunday school character where we know him and his friends for being thrown into this fiery furnace and walking out, right, and surviving.

Or being thrown in a lion's den and coming out unscathed.

All these incredible stories about just being met with danger and and walking away from it.

But the reason we've realized as we've looked at this book, the reason that uh these teenagers find themselves in these predicaments time and time again, is because a common theme and the narrative of the book of Daniel is this that Daniel and his friends that they're faced with a decision.

Are they going to compromise to the culture around them, or are they going to remain faithful to God in the midst of the adversity?

You see, this book is so important for our church today because daily we are faced with a similar question, right?

Are we going to compromise or are we going to remain faithful?

Is following God even possible in our world today?

So this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to look at this book, but we're going to go to the very beginning of the book and just look at chapter one together and see what is it that sets up Daniel and his friends to follow God in the midst of all the opposition, in the face of fire, in the face of lions.

So if you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in Daniel chapter one, and we'll start in the very first verse.

And if you don't, I'll read it for you.

It says this.

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

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

Let's pause there real quickly, right?

I think to really understand this incredible story that our youth ministry has spent a couple months in, uh, we got to really see what's going on.

And already in these first two verses, you get the setting for what's gonna happen for the rest of the book.

Uh, in these first two verses, we we re we learn that Daniel and his friends, that their story takes place when the Israelite kingdom, right, Jerusalem was conquered by the like big, bad, and most powerful empire called Babylon.

And more than that, right, the king of the king of Babylon, or or the ruler, the president of this nation, whatever you, whatever is gonna help you understand what's going on, what does he do?

Right, he just conquered Jerusalem and now he has a new, he has, he has more power and decisions to make.

And instead of just completely demolishing the city and destroying uh this group of people, he does something really interesting.

What he does is he decides to take captive some of the best and the brightest Jews and and then bring them back into Babylon.

And part of that crew of people that he decides to bring into Babylon and essentially make exiles is Daniel and his three friends.

And what we learn in the next few verses, like three to seven, uh, it tells us that King Nebuchadnezzar, remember King of Babylon, the big bad empire, uh, wants them to start dressing like Babylonians, knowing the literature and poetry and all that of the Babylonians, and even taking on Babylonian names.

And that's where some of you might be familiar with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinnego.

That's that's actually their uh Daniel's friend's Babylonian names.

And it might seem innocent at first when you're reading this, right?

I I can imagine myself reading this for the first time and saying something like, oh, like, look at that King Nebuchadnezzar, what a stand-up guy.

He just wants to give these kids a good education and clothe them and give them a cool nickname.

Like that's what I do with my friends, right?

But what we really have to see is we we gotta really consider this story that's going on.

Gotta read our Bibles a little bit more slowly.

What happens here, this the situation that we find these four boys in is they are ripped from their home, right?

And taken into a foreign land.

And they not only find themselves in this new culture, it's more than that.

They're actually in a they now find themselves in a world that's uh vehemently like opposed to their way of life.

That the Babylonians, they hate uh the very core of these of these four teenagers, it's their Jewish identity.

You see, Babylon in the narrative of the Bible, in the entirety of scripture, uh Babylon it represents like the big, the empire that is evil and always opposed to God, to Yahweh, the key, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So this culture, it wasn't just opposed, it was actually hostile to the way of life for Daniel and his friends.

So now, right, the four boys and their Jewish identity and their desire to follow God, it's now challenged by the literal and overt hostility of the people around them.

And in the most powerful nation, what they're doing uh is the uh is that they're not just being uh given these new things, they're actually uh being convinced or tempted to believe that the the real way of living a good life is to just indulge in the world's pleasures, is to take part, forget about God, forget about following Yahweh.

No.

Wear these clothes, learn this language, take on a new name, enjoy these pleasures.

That that's the real way to live life.

We want you to just forget about all that.

And doesn't this kind of sound familiar for some of us?

Doesn't this kind of ring a bell as we think about our lives?

At your desk, in the gym, on the internet, on social media, don't you get glimpses of when your desire to follow God is met with some kind of just incredulous look or some comment?

Like, that that's what you want to do with your life?

You want to follow God.

What good is that?

Let me show you something better.

The world around you, right?

But in this story, what we see, right, is that that the boys they actually go along with it, right?

They they take on new names, they're fine with that, they learn the language, they they they uh get to experience all these things, but where they draw the line, right, is when the king offers him food from his table.

Right?

Where essentially uh the the the it's funny because I I saw this when I was preparing for this, like this is probably the only time in history where teenage boys would turn down free food.

Right?

Like, why?

Like you're gonna say you're okay with a new name, but not the free Okay.

Okay.

But for these boys, right, they realize it it's actually more significant than just eating food.

Right?

It actually is like shirking off the God that they cherish and love, who they know has saved them again and again and again.

So with all that in mind, let's read the rest of uh let's read uh verses eight through fifteen together.

And remember, so right when Daniel has made this decision not to eat the king's food is where we'll pick up.

This is verse eight.

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

Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs, or like a guard, right, to allow him not to defile himself.

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

And the chief said to Daniel, I fear my lord, the king, who assigned your food and and drink, for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths uh who are of your of your own age?

So you would endanger my head with the king.

So what what is this guard saying?

He's like, if I do that, it's not just me letting you do whatever you want.

It's basically treason if I decide to disobey my king's orders and and just let you change your diet.

Like that's actually that would that would endanger me, is what the guards are saying.

So then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuch set aside over Daniel, Hananiah, Meshah, and Azariah, Test your servants for ten days, let us be given vegetables to eat and what and water to drink.

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

So what does he see?

He say, let us try it.

If if you're right, if we are obviously it's not working for us, then deal with us harshly.

Do what you need to do.

Verse 14.

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

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

So so what happened here, right?

Well what what did we just read?

Daniel and his friends, they're faced with a decision to draw a line in the sand and to either abandon their commitments to God or to claim allegiance to King Nebuchadnezzar and to Babylon.

Do they remain faithful or do they turn?

And this decision made by this teenager Daniel is one that our students make every single day, right?

That our tech workers face, that our families face, that our parents face, that that that our church faces every day.

Are we going to remain faithful?

And can we really follow God in our world?

And what we see from what we just read is Daniel says yes.

Daniel says yes.

And here, what I want to do is I just want to point out three things.

Three things that we learned that Daniel does to do so.

Three things that set up Daniel and his friends to follow God in a hostile world.

Uh the first thing that Daniel does is actually something that he has way before he even steps foot into Babylon, right?

That this thing, uh this first thing is something that before they're even taken into exile, that they have uh from some context that we have, right?

The king said, Go take the ones of royalty and nobility who are smart and well read.

And for us, what what we know with that background in mind is that these boys that the king wants to take, they're actually really well learned.

That they are actually really know Torah or their Hebrew Bibles.

In other words, they really knew uh the wisdom and discernment of God that that they had spent their lives reading about about the God or about God from their scriptures.

And the first thing, what is what's the first thing that they have?

It's that they had a firm foundation.

Right?

They had a firm foundation, something that these students or these kids valued in their families, was to build a firm foundation and knowing what does it mean to actually follow God.

It's to base their lives on the scripture that they had.

And you know, in a world where we're just really thirsty for the newest thing, especially being in the Silicon Valley, um, and just wanting the newest phone or the newest shoes or whatever the newest technology, and I'll be the first to admit I'm at the front of the line for that.

It's something pervasive in our culture where we just want the newest thing.

That that that that want and desire for something new, it actually seeps into our spirituality as well.

Right?

We we go to our churches, we go to our small groups, and unknowingly, there the thing that we hunger and thirst for is something new, right?

Uh uh something new to learn, some new revelation, some fresh insight.

That that's what we want.

But all the while we forsake and we forget and we ignore the basics, right?

The the foundation.

It's kind of like that tent that I tried to pitch, right?

I could set it up, look at it, maybe put some string lights on it, make it really hip, find like a rain guard for the make pretend rain because it'll look cooler.

But if doing all that doesn't matter if there's no foundation for it to lay on, right?

It doesn't matter because we all know that the firm foundation, what that means for a structure is it determines the rest of the building.

And that's why we offer things like school of faith, right?

And classes on prayer and the basics of Christianity.

And that's the reason why, in our awakening youth, we open our Bibles every week on a Tuesday night or a Sunday morning.

Why?

Because we know that it is essential in following God in our world to have a firm foundation, to know what is it that God wants to say to us?

What is this narrative that He has for us to find ourselves in?

Right?

This foundation that needs to be soaked in the knowledge of who Jesus is, what the character of God is like, and how that affects every part of our life.

And I love that because it actually illuminates the story further, right?

When we recognize that these four boys, they had a firm foundation, they knew what it meant to really follow God, we start to recognize that they were unafraid to engage in the Babylonian culture, right?

In the thought patterns and the scholarship of the very nation that was opposed to them, they were they were willing to be in close proximity.

They could wrestle with these ideas instead of being afraid of them or having to hide from them.

But why though, right?

Why could they go to their universities and do all that?

Why?

Is because the wisdom and discernment that comes from the creator of the universe, they knew they had that in their back pocket.

It's in the teaching of Jesus that we can know where do we draw the line.

And the reason, right, that that Daniel draws the line at food is kind of interesting.

It's not simply because uh he didn't like wine or didn't want to eat meat.

It's not like at youth when we have pizza for the like 50th time where you don't want to eat it.

It's none of those.

Right?

It's not even about like maybe being like ceremony unclean or breaking some Jewish tradition or law.

Because we we read further on in the book of Daniel where the author tells us that Daniel is willing to eat wine, or eat wine, drink wine, drink wine and eat meat.

Right?

So it wasn't it wasn't about breaking a law, it wasn't about preference or anything like that.

Uh it's something else.

One of my professors loves to say this, and I think it's really important for this moment is remember when we open our Bibles, when we open scripture, what we're doing is we're having a cross-cultural experience.

Right?

We have to remember that this book, it wasn't written uh for our target audience of our junior hires who have a colorful language, let me say.

Right?

The perspective and all that, it it was for uh for the people of the ancient Middle East, right?

The ancient Near East, as some might call it.

So when we open our Bibles, we have to do our best for at least recognize that there's this dynamic coming into play, that some of these things don't might not make sense because of cultural things, because of the audience it was we're into, all that.

So with that in mind, we remember we know that the by Middle Eastern standards, to share a meal wasn't just to like, wasn't just to hang out, wasn't just so you could have sustenance with a friend.

It to share a meal means something far more significant, right?

It was it's to commit oneself to a friendship.

It was like to commit to a covenant of significance.

And eating a meal carried uh an incredible amount of importance and say about what you were doing and who you were aligning yourself with.

So Daniel, right, he he accepts re-education and a new name, but he draws the line at the king's food because he knows this: that by eating from the king's table, it would meant that he was pledging allegiance to King Nebuchadnezzar and forsaking uh the God that has that has built the foundation of his life, that he knows is good, that is for him, that loves him.

Daniel refuses to do that.

And again, Daniel could only do this.

Why?

Because he had a firm foundation that helped him discern and figure out what's what's really important here.

Right?

For Daniel and his friends, they could take on a new name, they could learn all this stuff, but they knew that it was at the food where they had to draw the line.

So my question for us today is this have you considered your firm foundation?

Well, do you need to consider what our school of faith classes look like?

Do you need to go back to the basics and consider uh uh what you've been looking forward to and hoping that you could build your spiritual or your Christian faith on?

How's God pressing into you, pressing you to invest in your foundation?

The second thing that we learned from Daniel is that to follow God in Babylon, when when the whole world seems to be uh opposed to you following him, is this is that you need intentional friendships.

Right?

Imagine Daniel being taken from uh his home in a new place, and he has he has the choice to like hang out and be with whoever he wants.

He there's no there's no expectation, he's in a new place.

He could have done so, he could have rebranded himself and found a new group identity with a new group of friends.

He could have just chose to hang out with Babylonian people because that'd be far easier and probably more advantageous for him.

Or he could have gone the opposite way, where Daniel could have just foregone relationships as a whole, where he could have just gone the lone wolf route, right?

Where he could have said in this high, uh this high stress and traumatizing experience that relationships are actually a little too messy for me.

So I'm just gonna focus on myself and just like and and not let friends make this any harder.

Because that's what a lot of that's that's a common refrain that we hear in our world, right?

Friends are messy, people are messy.

But Daniel he doesn't do either of those.

He doesn't make, he doesn't forsake relationships and he doesn't uh make this new group of friends or just is unthinking about who he hangs out with.

Instead, what we read in the story is a young man pursuing intentional friendships.

And not just in chapter one, but in the whole narrative of the book of Daniel, when you see Daniel's name, there close by are the names of his friends as well, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinigo.

Time and time again, when Daniel's name comes up, so there is his community as well.

And we get the sense as we read this time and time again, we get the sense that for Daniel to follow God in a hostile environment, he needed to surround himself with people on that same pursuit.

Friends, that would both encourage him and to in when life was difficult, and also to challenge him away from maybe conformity.

And I think many of us here, it's not something that we would really necessarily argue with.

We would all agree that the people around you, your community, uh, has a very significant role in the kind of life you're gonna have, the kind of person you're gonna be.

I don't think many people would would argue with that.

But to have in intentional friendships, at least for the church, right, is to let people know you and to follow God together.

Far different than just having friends, right?

Intentional friendships.

And personally, I think in the last couple years, this is something that I've gotten to see a lot of growth in, right?

It's something that I've strived for in the last year, um, especially as uh as like COVID has changed the way we've all done relationships for a while, right?

And changed the way our communities worked.

That uh as I strive for this, I've seen God bless this effort in two ways.

In two ways.

Uh the first, I think, is my small group, where each week we get to get together.

And what I love about our small group is that Ari and I, we we can share about the difficulties and the hard things that are going on in our lives.

And in the same vein, we have other people sharing about their doubts and their struggles.

And it doesn't just stop there, right?

It's not just throwing all these things out there.

There's a comfort level is one to like just spill.

But we throw these things out there and we also get to lament with one another, to challenge one another, to pray for one another.

And it's in my small group that I've realized that following God with friends is all the more possible and even more fun, right?

We also celebrate together.

We celebrate when we see God uh answer prayer in ways that we can see.

We get excited when when we see people taking steps of faith in our small group.

And the second way I've seen God bless this effort in my own life, and I really think has been the secret sauce to any success I've had in the last season of my life, is uh is this is I've tried to move past some of the stereotypical guy friendships, you know, where like you and your your buddy you just like play video games or shoot hoops or or swing golf clubs where you're just side by side and you like hang out all the time, but you don't really know each other, you right?

You know what I'm talking about?

I've tried to move past that in this last season of my life.

And what I've done with a small group of friends is a couple times a month, we'll we'll put it on the calendar, we'll plan it on a couple Thursdays, Thursday nights a month, we commit to three things.

And when we see it on the calendar, we know three things are gonna be true each time.

One, we're gonna share a meal.

Two, we're not gonna talk about basketball.

I'm not kidding.

And three, what we are gonna talk about is what's what's hard in our lives, what's difficult, and how can we keep one another accountable to following God together and accountable in the relationships of the people around us?

Those are the three things we commit to.

And I gotta say, it's something that has that God has blessed my life with and has also blessed my effort in it.

And it I can't imagine trying to follow Jesus without these group of guys knowing uh me more than a lot of other people would.

And in awakening youth, we know that these intentional friendships are so crucial.

That's why you hear about uh a summer camp that we're going to, or why we would take high schoolers on a on a mission trip, or even why we would have all these events throughout the year, is because we know, we so believe that to follow to follow God in our world, intentional friendships that will both encourage you and challenge you and spur you on, they're needed.

They're needed.

They're needed for our students and they're needed for you and me.

So my question for you is is this my next question is have you surrounded yourself with people that will keep you accountable?

What kind of intentional friendships are you investing in right now, if any?

Do you have any friends that will help orient your life toward following God?

Daniel had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abnegal.

Who do you have?

And finally, the the third key to following God in a hostile world is this is Daniel.

He had a faith of conviction.

Verse 8 in this whole chapter is kind of the hinge moment, the like important part where things kind of change, or the thing that you highlight.

And in it, it says that Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself.

And that same resolve that Daniel has is actually one that is essential for us as well.

Right?

It's something that we need.

It's this white, hot conviction to remain faithful to God.

And this resolve, this is probably the part that we need to know, is this resolve, it does, it's not born in the moment.

It actually comes from like a pre-decision.

It comes ahead of time to say, I'm not gonna gossip with my family, I'm not gonna try to cheat someone out of in this business deal.

I'm not gonna do that.

Like Daniel, right?

He before he's like, I'll change my name, I'll take the education, whatever, but I will not associate, I will not pledge allegiance to Babylon.

That's not what I'm gonna do.

And where does it all come from?

Yes, a firm foundation, conversations with your friends, and it all leads to a faith of conviction to make this decision ahead of time.

But I love how how Daniel does it too.

Notice that he has this strong desire, this unwillingness to be moved and to follow God.

But when he brings that up to the guards, he doesn't like demand his rights or say, you have to let me do this.

Instead, he's actually really winsome about it.

Right?

He he shows concern for the guard's well-being.

He's willing to consider that at the same time as he wrestles with what he need knows what what lines he can and cannot cross.

And he has a stern decision made, yet, full of grace and love, he acts on it.

And what happens at the very end of this chapter, right?

When when Daniel uh follows these three things, when he like uses these three keys, it says this.

The author writes, as for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom.

So what happens when when when Daniel and his friends they follow these three keys, God blesses it.

He blesses it.

And even more interestingly, right, he he actually helps advance the society of the very place that is so opposed to him.

He seeks the well-being of Babylon while at the same time it it is, it seems like everything against his ideals.

God blesses him.

So what did we learn, church, from this is that God always blesses these three keys.

What does that blessing look like?

Might look different.

It's not necessarily always gonna be come being smarter and well-read and advancing in uh the corporate ladder.

But it's always gonna be blessing.

Good blessing from God.

And these three things, right?

A firm foundation, intentional friendships, and a faith of conviction, what they're what they're really like are kind of like those tent pegs, I forgot.

They're important, they're essential, they're needed.

But I want to end with these words from Dr.

Timothy Keller, this really well-respected pastor and author.

And he has this illustration when he talks about the the strength of our faith juxtaposed with the object of our faith.

And when he tells this example, he says this Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and you begin to fall.

Just beside you is a branch sticking out of the edge of the cliff.

Is it your only hope?

Or it is your only hope and seems more than strong enough.

How can it save you?

If you're certain the branch can support you, but you don't actually reach out and grab it, you're lost.

If instead your mind is filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved.

Why?

Because it is not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that actually saves you.

Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

So, church, when when I talk about these tent pegs, right, a firm foundation, tensual friendships, and a faith of conviction, they're good, important, and all that.

But the thing that matters most is what we drive those tent pegs into.

And it's the object of our faith, is the one that we ground these things into, and that's Jesus.

Right?

The good news in following God on this side of the cross is this is that Jesus, he offers us the Holy Spirit.

A helper, a comforter, the same spirit that rose Jesus from the grave, right?

All these things.

We have access to the full power and might of God.

So, uh in other words, it's no longer dependent on our strength and our ability.

We now tap into the power, strength, and ability of our good and faithful God.

And we look to Jesus, the one who, in our unfaithfulness, is all the more faithful.

The one who brings us into a community called the church, uh, the one who we can plant our tent on and know that we are in a firm and immovable foundation in his love for us.

And what we're gonna do next is we're we're about to sing.

Right?

And as we sing, what we get to do is we remember that Jesus sacrificed his body, he shed his blood, that we might know the full measure of his love for us.

And what does that mean that we can ground our lives in that?

In worship, we remember that though we live in a world where it might seem impossible, hostile to follow him, we know that he has defeated the ultimate form of opposition and impossibility and sin and death.

And in that, in the love and trustworthiness and the goodness of Jesus, we can we can follow God in this world.

So, Church, would you join us as we sing about that good grace in our lives?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded.

And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.