02 "A Sovereign Lord Over Evil Empires" Daniel 1:1-7 | Sunday, September 20, 2026

Daniel chapter number one, we introduced

this new series from the book of Daniel

entitled The Most High Reigns. The Most

High reigns. This morning, we'll begin

to get into the exposition or the study

of this book verse by verse and discover

how God reigns and how we can live

faithfully before him.

I apologize for the exercise, but uh

I'll ask you to stand in honor of God's

word. We will all get our squats in this

morning

as we read our text from Daniel 1:es

1-7.

God's word says, "In the third year of

the reign of Jehoakim, king of Judah,

came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the

Lord gave Jehoakim, king of Judah, into

his hand with part of the vessels of the

house of God, which he carried into the

land of Shinar to the house of his God.

And he brought the vessels into the

treasure house of his God. And the king

spake unto Ashpanaz, the master of his

Unix, that he should bring certain of

the children of Israel, and of the

king's seed, and of the princes,

children in whom was no blemish, but

well-favored, and skillful in all

wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and

understanding science, and such as had

ability in them to stand in the king's

palace. and whom they might teach the

learning and the tongue of the

calaldanss.

And the king appointed them a daily

provision of the king's meat and of the

wine which he drank. So nourishing them

three years, that at the end thereof

they might stand before the king. Now

among these were of the children of

Judah, Daniel, Henaniah, Mishel, and

Azeriah, unto whom the prince of the

Unix gave names. For he gave unto Daniel

the name Belttoazar,

and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to

Mishiel of Mach, and unto Azariah of

Abednego. And we'll stop our reading

there for this morning's text. I want to

speak to you this morning a sermon

entitled A Sovereign Lord over evil

empires. A sovereign Lord over evil

empires. May God bless the reading of

his word. You can be seated. Our father,

we ask you to please

help us to understand your word

to gather the truths that you give us

that are intended to shape and fashion

our lives after the image of our savior

Jesus Christ.

They are intended to help us know how

you would have us to live in the kingdom

where you have placed us.

And so I ask you to help us understand

your word that your spirit would convict

us where needed and enable us by your

grace to live out the truth that you

give us today. We ask these things in

Jesus name. Amen.

I want you to think this morning for a

moment about horses.

Horses are some big, beautiful, and

powerful creatures,

especially in their natural habitat.

I've I'm a fan of the Denver Broncos,

and it's always made me want to see a

wild Bronco out in its natural habitat.

You get a little taste of that when they

enter the the ring, you know, and the

the riders are being bucked by those

Broncos and you see them kick and stomp

and snort and all those things. They're

beautiful and they are powerful

creatures. And because they're so

beautiful and so powerful, they are a

prized possession for ranchers.

But before they can be useful to their

new owners, they've got to go through a

breaking process to bring them under the

control of their master.

And so to gain control of these wild and

powerful beasts, they they of course

capture them and they separate them from

their social structure into the

controlled environment of a corral.

And then the trainer comes and he

patiently accustoms that horse to its

handler. Slowly but surely

they begin to provide them with food and

water so that the horse begins to

connect them with life and sustenance,

relief and reward as opposed to danger

and threat.

They get familiarized with ropes and

straps and the halter and they begin to

slowly learn one new command after

another. They learn to yield to pressure

and give up resistance in the process.

They become desensitized to touch ropes

blanket. It's unfamiliar noises. And

what they're doing is they're trying to

build the trust of this horse in them.

And so as they they work on this,

eventually that trust begins to build to

the point where they can actually accept

a saddle, a bit, and a bridal. This

beast that was out running wild is now

able to be tamed under the control of a

rider. It comes to the place where this

wild mustang allows somebody to sit on

it to determine its direction and its

movement. And through this breaking

process, the horse comes under the full

submission of that trainer.

Only at that time can the strength of

that horse be redirected to serve its

master's purposes.

In a similar way, before an empire can

redirect the strength of its exiles to

serve its purposes,

it must first break their will and bring

them under their control. And that's

exactly what we see in Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

Babylon has conquered Jerusalem

and they carry away captives into their

own kingdom. And at first they did not

uh take the poor and the powerless.

They brought the wealthy and the royal.

They brought the brightest and the most

beautiful, the strongest, the most

skilled, the most educated among them.

And among those group, that group of

people was Daniel, Haniah, Mishel, and

Azeriah. the four main Jewish characters

of this book. The king seeks to redirect

their strength to stand before him to

serve in his kingdom to fulfill his

purposes for them.

But before they could do that, he had to

bring them through this lengthy process

of breaking them into submission

under his control.

But isn't that

what Christian exiles

can experience today?

We are citizens of Christ's kingdom. But

it's as though we live as exiles held

captive in a nation ruled by politicians

who seek to gain control of the people

who seek to ascend to greater power

in the nation.

They want to win your votes,

to silence your voice, to desensitize

you to evil, to re-educate you, to

redirect your strengths to serve not the

purposes of God, but theirs.

We can find ourselves living in the same

environment.

Many Christians unfortunately succumb to

the pressure.

They go right along with the evil

agendas of this world. And many are

deceived because the attempt is often

subtle,

tactical,

and strategic.

And the process

takes time.

And what can happen is without even

recognizing it, your entire world view

and morality can change over a period of

time.

How do you remain faithful

to God

under the control of evil empires?

We're going to spend the next several

months fleshing out many answers to that

question.

But today we focus on how it starts.

There is something fundamental

to recognize how we come under the

control of evil empires

that can help us live faithfully

before God.

Daniel 1 shows us how these young

Israelites came under Babylon's control.

And so, if we are to remain faithful,

we've got to first recognize how we come

under a kingdom's control.

I want you to notice, first of all, that

empires gain control through political

conflict.

Political conflict.

If you look at verse one, it says, "In

the third year of the reign of Jehoakim,

king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king

of Babylon, unto Jerusalem

and besieged it." What this tells us

from the very start is that Daniel and

his companions have come under Babylon's

control through a political conflict

between two kings, Jehoakim and

Nebuchadnezzar.

But who are these kings? Let's take a

moment here to establish the historical

background. It'll help us with our

understanding of the rest of the book of

Daniel. Jehoakim was one of the sons of

the godly king Josiah.

And after leading a national revival,

Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Niko, the

king of Egypt. And Jehoahaz was or

replaced his father Josiah.

But then Jehoahaz rebelled against

Pharaoh Niko. And Niko came up to

Jerusalem and he carried Jehoahaz away

captive down to Egypt. And he placed his

brother Eliakim

as king of Judah. He changed at that

time Eliakim's name to Jehoakim.

And so while Jehoakim is king of Judah,

he is appointed by the king of Egypt.

You know what that means? He's under

Egypt's control.

And so he is established in that way.

And Daniel begins by saying that in the

third year of King Jehoakim,

Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged

Jerusalem. Now who is Nebuchadnezzar?

He's the king of Babylon. And what had

happened was uh Nebuchadnezzar's father

Nebo Pelasser was the king of Babylon.

And after his uh or while he was still

reigning as king, Nebuchadnezzar

defeated Pharaoh Niko at the battle of

Carcamesh. And he assumed control then

over all the territory that Nico had

control over, including Judah. At that

time he brought King Jehoakim to Babylon

and made him swear loyalty and

submission now not to Egypt but to

Babylon. And Jehookim served the king of

Babylon for three years.

But when Nebopasser died and

Nebuchadnezzar became king, Jehoakim

rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. And

thus Nebuchadnezzar came and surrounded

Jerusalem,

besieged it, starved them out, brought

them to surrender, slaughtered men,

women, and children in their streets,

and carried away some of the best and

brightest captive into Babylon.

That is how these four young men came

under the control of Babylon.

It was through political

conflict. They were just caught up in

the midst of it.

And how they fell under the control of

Babylon is how we fall under the control

of different empires today as well. It's

through political conflict.

Just like Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar

wanted to put Jehoakim under his grips,

people in political power want to put

others under their grips. And in the

process,

Christians find themselves caught up in

the middle of it all.

Whether it's be Christians who are

finding themselves today in wartorrn

countries in Russia and Ukraine

or if we're talking about Christians

living under Islamic regimes in the

Middle East who are hiding on

underground churches and where many have

been beheaded

or if it's a pastor in Dearbornne,

Michigan who is told by his Muslim mayor

that he is not welcome in his city.

Even here in the United States, there

are political parties and subsects who

are trying to gain control.

Some try to restrict religious speech.

Others drag Christians into court for

refusing to bake a cake or for praying

with players on a football team.

What we find is that Christians find

themselves caught up in the middle of

nations and political groups who are

battling it out for control.

And we may be like Daniel and his

companions here where we're not

personally involved in in the conflict,

but we find ourselves dealing with the

fallout of it. It feels like everything

that affects our lives is out of our

hands. Whether it's our economy, our

education, our 401k, our children, it

just seems like like the the political

world has a strangle hold on the things

that affect our day-to-day lives. We're

caught up in the middle of it. But while

political empires wage war against one

another, our text very quickly clarifies

that empires do not gain control by

their own power.

but rather evil empires gain control by

the sovereign will of the Lord.

Because if you look at verse two,

it says that while Nebuchadnezzar has

surrounded Jerusalem, it says, "And the

Lord gave Jehoakim, king of Judah, into

his hand." The Lord gave him over.

Notice that this word in your Bible,

Lord, is not in all caps, which would

signify God's name Yahweh or Jehovah, as

you might know it.

This does not have the all caps, which

means that the word that Lord is

translated from is the Hebrew word

Adoni.

You might be familiar with that. Adoni

is a word that means owner,

master. It speaks to the supreme

sovereign control of the Lord God in

heaven. The one who created it all. The

one who rules over it all. We're talking

about the most high God. He is the one

who is really in control. That while

Jehoakim was reigning over Judah and

Nico was reigning over Egypt and

Nebuchadnezzar is reigning over Babylon,

the most high God is reigning over them

all. He reigns

Nebuchadnezzar did not take Jerusalem.

He did not take Jehoakim,

though he may have seen it that way. It

says, "The Lord gave them into his

hands."

But we also notice in verse number two

that the Lord gave his own vessels

into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. It says with

part of the vessels of the house of God

which he carried into the land of Shinar

to the house of his God and brought the

vessels into the treasure house of his

God. The land of Shinar.

That should stand out to us because it's

only mentioned in a few places.

The land of Shinar is where the Tower of

Babel was built in Genesis 11. in a

direct defiance of God's order to

scatter throughout the world and

replenish the earth after the flood.

And from that time forward,

the land of Shinar, the tower of Babel,

where the empire of Babylon was founded,

it becomes synonymous with rebellion

against God, counterfeit religion.

It becomes the epicenter of imperial

tyranny and opposition to God's people.

It is the epitome of wickedness.

And yet that is the land God gave his

king and his people and his vessels

over to.

In that ancient warfare, when you

conquered a particular nation, you would

take the instruments of the worship of

their god and bring it to the house of

your god. And what that demonstrates is

that your god is more powerful than

their god. Now, we know that no one is

more powerful than our god or the god of

Daniel.

But for a while,

God gave not only his king and his

people,

he gave his glory over into the hands of

this evil empire.

And the question that would come to our

minds is why in the world would God do

that? Why would he hand over his king

and his people and his vessels into the

hands of this wicked evil empire? Isn't

that what we cry today? Why would God

ever let Hitler come to power? Why would

God let a North Korea have nuclear

weapons or Iran? Why would he allow this

evil empire to rise?

Second Kings 24:3

2 Kings 24:3

tells us exactly why this happened. It

says that the commandment of the Lord

came this upon Judah to remove them out

of his sight. Listen for the sins of

Manasseh

according to all that he did.

Manasseh was the great grandfather of

Jehoakim.

The father the grandfather of Josiah.

He was the worst king Israel ever had.

He was uh the kind of king who reared up

altars for Baal. He worshiped the sun,

the moon, and the stars.

He was the kind of king who built altars

to idols inside the courtyards of God's

temple. He offered one of his sons as a

burnt sacrifice to a pagan god. He even

set up an idol in the very holy of

holies where God's presence dwells.

He practiced witchcraft,

magic, and sorcery, which God says is an

abomination

to him.

That's who Manasseh was. It even says he

filled Jerusalem with innocent blood

from one end to the other.

See what happened

is even though the nation of Israel was

founded as one nation under God,

when it splintered and rebelled against

God,

God put them down.

Because that is what God does to any

nation who rebelss against him. Even

when they were founded as one nation

under God.

While his grandson Josiah led a great

revival,

it did not last long because his son

Jehoakim returned to the evil ways of

Manasseh.

God sent a message from Jeremiah the

prophet in a scroll to Jehoakim warning

him of the Babylonian Empire that was

coming to conquer them as part of his

judgment for his greatgrandfather's

sins. He said it's coming. But it tells

us in Jeremiah 36 that God did it so

that every man would turn from his evil

way. That God may forgive their sins.

God was still being gracious to this

hardened and rebellious nation. And you

know what King Jehoakim did?

He had his servant take a pen knife and

cut up the scroll. And Jehookim threw it

in the fire.

That's what I think of God's word.

See,

Judah has come under the control of

Babylon

not because of a political conflict.

It's because the Lord gave them over. He

put their own evil empire down and gave

them over into the hands of another evil

empire because they had rebelled against

him.

Can I say to you today

that though you may be redeemed by the

grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, though

you may be forgiven, though your sins

may be remitted,

should you rebel against God, he will

put you down.

That doesn't mean he will cast you into

hell,

but he will humble you and bring you to

your knees.

Judah was a part of God's people and yet

he gave them over

because of their rebellion.

And you know what happened?

Daniel and his companions

found themselves caught up in the middle

of it.

We can tell through the accounts in the

book of Daniel that it was not their

fault that somehow in spite of how evil

their fathers were and in spite of how

rebellious they were against God, they

were not rebellious against God. They

were faithful to God. They did what God

required of them even in a very

challenging time under this wicked

empire.

And yet they found themselves under

Nebuchadnezzar's control, not just

because of political conflict, but

because of the sovereign Lord's will.

And the same thing can be true for us

today.

Because the most high reigns over all.

No matter what nation you live in, no

matter what political leanings it may

have, no matter what kind of government

structure it may establish or what

conflict we are caught up in, every one

of us can know that we are here by the

determination of the sovereign Lord's

will.

It is not an accident that you are a

citizen of the United States of America

in this particular time period that we

live in. You are here by God's will.

We may even be like these four young men

who clearly were not a part of the

problem and yet God still gave them

over. God still put them in the hands of

this wicked king to be brought into his

palace. You may be minding your own

business, worshiping the Lord,

faithfully serving God. Maybe you don't

partake in any of the evil being

perpetrated by our rulers or our society

as a whole. And yet God still gives you

over to the fallout of their decisions.

And when the Lord gives us into the

hands of evil empires,

we will often find ourselves caught up

in a breaking process

that seeks to bring us under their

control.

We find ourselves there.

All

evil empires

share the exact same blueprint

to bring you into submission under their

control.

And the blueprint is this isolation,

indoctrination,

and reidentification.

Would you read with me in verse number

three?

And the king spake unto Ashpanaz, the

master of his Unix, that he should bring

certain of the children of Israel, and

of the king's seed, and of the princes,

watch this, children,

in whom was no blemish, but

well-favored, and skillful in all

wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and

understanding science. and such as had

ability in them to stand in the king's

palace

and whom they might teach the learning

and the tongue of the Calaldanss,

isolation

and indoctrination.

The king first instructs this ranking

officer to bring the best and the

brightest of the children of Israel, the

king's royal seed, the ruling princes of

their nation. And we notice in verse

four that they are children.

The king wants to isolate the best and

brightest kids and teens away from their

parents, their culture, their religion,

and their way of life to bring them to

us so that we can indoctrinate them in

our culture and in our religion and in

our way of life for this purpose that

they might stand before us.

an idiom for becoming their servants

to put them under our control so they

can serve our purposes and our agenda.

The king says separate them, isolate

them that we may indoctrinate them that

they may serve our will and come under

our control.

But then we also notice the blueprint to

change

their identification.

It says in verse number five, "And the

king appointed them a daily provision of

the king's meat and of the wine which he

drank, so that nourishing them three

years, that at the end thereof they

might stand before the king." Do you

know what he's saying here?

Let's feed them every day with our royal

delicacies.

Let's make them dependent on us

so that if they ever choose to revolt

against us, we can starve them out and

get them back under our control.

So they stand forever in our palace.

But then notice

they changed their names.

It says in verse six, "Now among these

were of the children of Judah."

I'm going to give you what their names

mean.

Daniel,

God is my judge.

Haniah,

God is gracious.

Sha uh uh uh Mishael

means who is like God.

Azeriah

means servant of God.

It says in verse number seven unto whom

the prince of the Unix gave names

for he gave unto Daniel the name of

Beltoazar.

May Bell protect the king.

And to Haniah

of Shadrach,

helped by a coup.

And to Mishel

of Mach,

which means instead of who is like

Jehovah,

it is who is like Aku.

and to Azeriah the servant of God.

Abednego the servant of Nebo.

What they have done

is they have changed

who they identify with.

We want you not to identify with the

royal delicacies that you receive from

the king's palace back in Judah. We want

you to identify with the delicacies that

you receive from us. The sustenance, the

relief, the reward. We want you to see

that doesn't come from back there. That

comes from right here in the palace

where we have put you.

But we also want to change your identity

from the God you serve back there to the

God we serve here.

We're going to call you something

different.

than what you were assigned at birth.

Such is the blueprint

of every evil empire.

It is isolation,

indoctrination,

and reidentification.

And this blueprint is still being

implemented in our day and in our

nation.

No, let's think about it for a moment. I

want you to understand when we come

through Daniel

that one of the key statements

throughout Daniel or words throughout

Daniel is the word wisdom.

That God wants his people to have

understanding of the times. And God has

given us this book to help us understand

not the times they lived in but the

times we live in. Would you listen for a

moment?

See if this sounds familiar.

Let's pass policies

that make the cost of living too

unaffordable

for a single inome home

so that mom and dad both now need to go

to work. And we will open these

facilities where we can isolate the

children from their parents and call it

daycare from their infancy.

And then we will put them in our schools

for eight hours a day from the time they

are 5 years old until they are 22 years

old. So that we can teach them our views

on life and religion and morality.

Our version of history, language, and

science

will immerse them in our culture of

human sexuality, marriage, and family.

Listen to this.

Let's bring them in from foreign

countries

and give them asylum.

And let us develop a system of

socialized medicine and meals and

housing. And let's make them all eat out

of the palms of our hands. And we'll

give them citizenship. And we'll let

them rise up into government positions

and political power.

And what we will do is in having them

eat out of the palms of our hands, we

will gain their allegiance, their votes,

their identification and affiliation.

And therefore, they will keep us in

power.

Let's change

their identity.

Let's call them something different than

what they were assigned at birth.

And when we give them this new name and

we give them this new pronoun

only we will sympathize with them and

thereby gain their allegiance, their

trust and their loyalty so that they

continue to perpetuate our policies and

our ideologies so that we gain the

majority and stay in control.

Whoa.

The blueprint

is still in place.

It goes by the title

Marxism,

but we could really call it

Babylonianism

and communism

and socialism and potentially even

capitalism

if the wrong people are in charge.

And the reason why this blueprint stays

the same from every nation and

generation is because there is a ruling

power of the air known as Satan whose

kingdom is set up to destroy the kingdom

of God and to wear out the saints of the

most high as we see in the book of

Daniel. But God God understand this that

that when we consider this blueprint, we

find ourselves caught up in it. It can

be very frustrating because their desire

is to uh isolate and indoctrinate and

reidentify you so they can bring you

under their control and redirect your

strength to serve not the purposes of

your God but the purposes of their

agenda and their plans.

That is the reason this blueprint is

still in place. But listen believers,

just as these four men fell under that

blueprint by the sovereign will of the

Lord, so have we.

This is the generation.

This is the year. This is the time that

God has sovereignly chosen to place us

in this country under this government

and these policies. It has not happened

through political conflict alone. It has

happened by the sovereign determination

of God. But listen, he has not placed us

here so that we would succumb to it. It

is so that we might positively impact it

for God's glory.

Because in spite of this blueprint, what

we are going to see is that these four

men never became a product of their

environment.

I want you to think about for a moment

that they are in Babylon as a direct

result of the moral and spiritual

failure of their fathers

where they grew up. the kings who ruled

over them

that and yet these men came through that

and they came through being carried away

in chains and they came through this

Babylonian educational system and they

remained faithful to their god. We find

that they refused to eat of the king's

delicacies.

They did not bow to Nebuchadnezzar's

idols or to Das's sanctions against

their worship. Even in the face of a

fiery furnace, even in the face of a den

of lions, that is courage. That is

determination. That is faithfulness to

God in the midst of a time when it would

be very easy to just succumb to the

difficulties and the blueprint that's

around you. And yet we find they

faithfully served God. They boldly

proclaimed that the most high reigns.

They prayed when prayer was banned. They

stood for their convictions.

Though these men grew up under the

blueprint, it never defined who they

became. And I want to say to you that

your past, no matter how bad your father

was to you, no matter how how much of a

wreck your mom was, no matter what how

how badly your marriage may have gone in

the past, no matter how difficult your

upbringing was, it does not have to

define who you are.

>> You are not a product of your

environment. You're a product of the

divine grace of God and his mercy in

Jesus Christ.

These men were positioned by God in an

evil empire to impact that nation for

God's glory in the king's palace.

And so I want to say this to you.

Faithfully serving God

under an evil empire's control

starts here.

recognizing

that I am here by the sovereign will of

my sovereign Lord.

You're not here by accident.

You're not here in the fallout of what's

going on in the world. You are here for

God's plan and God's purposes in this

very place, thi this very state, this

very city. Do you know what's going on

in Colorado right now?

a mass exodus.

Everybody's leaving. Why? Economy is

hard.

Marxism and socialism is on the rise.

Our education system is spiraling

downward into a culture of

indoctrination. And therefore, people

are leaving. And the reason that happens

is because we fail to recognize that

perhaps God has placed us in this very

city and in this very state to shine the

light of his glory and to proclaim the

cross of his son, Jesus Christ.

I don't I don't tell people where to go,

but I want to say this. If you're

contemplating leaving this state that

desperately needs Jesus, you better make

sure that that is by the sovereign

determination of the Lord. and not your

attempt to escape where God has put you.

You know what we heard around the

election time? All these people saying,

"I'm moving to Canada. I'm moving to

Italy. I'm getting out of here." Let me

just tell you, whether it's your

preferred candidate or somebody who's

the total opposite end of your world

view, don't think that just because

they're in power, it means it's time to

leave.

God has brought them into power,

even through our votes.

And he wants us to stand in public and

declare his name to an evil empire.

That's what God wants us to do.

See, we can become

so angry and insensed with the blueprint

that we fail to recognize God's

sovereignty in it.

Just as he raised these men up to impact

this evil empire, God wants to raise up

a faithful generation of Christians who

will stand for him and display his glory

and magnify his name in this nation as

well.

Listen, while we live in this world

under this blueprint,

we wish for better days, don't we?

Don't we long for the days of the Great

Awakening,

the American Revolution, when most

people were Christians and Christians

were respected. We long for those days,

but that's not where the Lord has placed

us.

He raised

those men up

like a George Whitfield and a John and

Charles Wesley

and a Jonathan Edwards.

And he raised up some godly men among

our founding fathers for such a time as

theirs.

But he has raised you up for such a time

as this.

as he told Esther while she was queen of

Persia,

a Jewish girl

ascended to the right-hand woman of the

king. and her uncle Mori had to remind

her God has raised you up for such a

time as this

to stand in the king's palace and to

speak up for the people of God that they

might be preserved from the enemy's plan

to destroy them.

God's raised you up for such a time as

this.

And so what that means is that we need

to understand that listen, yes, it can

be disheartening.

It can be discouraging. It can

especially be so sobering

when we realize

that when our nation that was founded

under God begins to splinter

and begins to rebel against God that

he's going to give us over into the

hands of his enemies.

That's a sobering reality.

But I want to give you some hope here.

that lies behind the language that

Daniel is using.

Would would you look at at Daniel

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and verse

four?

Children in whom was no blemish,

but well favored,

skillful in all wisdom, cutting in

knowledge, understanding science. Such

as that ability to stand in the king's

palace.

You find this language in other parts of

scripture.

And what we find here is a biblical

pattern that consistently stands through

scripture. That is this. God always

brings a deliverance

after giving his own over to his

enemies.

Joseph

was given over

into the hands of the Egyptians.

Into the hands of the Egyptians. You

know what he is called? Well-favored,

goodly, handsome, understanding, wisdom.

The same character traits given here.

Well-favored. And yet God God gave him

over into the hands of the Egyptians to

raise him up in a king's palace to bring

salvation for Jacob's family.

Moses

was a goodly child and well favored.

Put in a in a basket and sent down the

river after the decree to kill all of

the little Hebrew children.

and his basket floats and God hands him

over to the hands of Pharaoh's daughter

where he is brought up in all the

learning and the language and the

education system of the Egyptians to

stand in Pharaoh's palace and then lead

a great exodus of God's people.

Daniel and his friends are given over

into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar only

before God leads an exodus from Babylon

back to Judah to rebuild the temple,

rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

But we also have another young man

who at the age of 12, it says he grew in

wisdom and in stature and in favor with

God and man. In John 3:16 says, "For God

John 3:16

so loved the world that he gave his only

begotten son that whosoever believeth in

him should not perish but have

everlasting life." The Bible says the

apostle Peter said that God delivered

him up according to the predeterminate

counsel and fornowledge of God.

Friend, when you are living under an

evil empire and oppression and

persecution comes your way, you remember

in the back of your mind that your

savior did the same thing. that he was

given over by his father into the hands

of the wicked Roman Empire to hang on a

cross and to spill his blood to atone

for your sin so that you could be

forgiven so that you could have eternal

life. God's only son was given over into

the hands of his enemies.

But it was only for three days

because after three days in that tomb,

God raised him from the dead and laid

and led an exodus from that grave and

raised his son to glory, crowned him

with honor.

Christ is king.

You know what Daniel shows us?

that while God's people are given over

into the hands of the Babylonians and

the Meo Persians and the Greeks and the

Roman Empire and the coming antichrist,

a greater exodus is coming because the

son of man is going to come with the

clouds of heaven and he's going to

overthrow every evil empire and he's

going to raise the dead unto life

everlasting and he is going to establish

his eternal kingdom that rules with the

kind of justice, righteousness, and

peace. peace that our hearts long for.

What this means is when you are given

over to this blueprint and when evil

seems to be raging and the saints of the

most high seem to be wearing out, lift

your eyes unto heaven as Jesus said,

"For your redemption draweth nigh. An

exodus is coming and it will be a final

exodus when we live forever with the

King of Kings and the Lord of Lords

around his glorious throne." That day is

coming, believers.

Even though we are given over

for a short time,

a short time.

If we're to live faithfully under evil

empires with evil blueprints, it starts

with recognizing we are here by the

providential will of our sovereign Lord.

He's in control

when the world seems out of sorts.

Why is it important to recognize that?

When you know why you are here,

you can live with purpose.

When a football team sets its sights on

the Super Bowl,

they can live every practice with that

purpose in mind. When a hockey team sets

its sights on the Stanley Cup, they're

going to come into that long 84 game

season and all of those practices and

that training camp and they're going to

put their heart into it because they

know the end that they are striving for.

If you know that you are here by God's

sovereign plan, then you are going to

realize that he has placed you here for

his purposes and not the purposes of the

blueprint that's being carried out

around us. Listen, believer, he has

placed you here not to blend in with the

culture, but to stand out among it. We

have too many Christians that are

content to live like the world and look

like the world and sound like the world.

But listen, Satan is using this world's

evil blueprint to try to draw you away

from God's purpose and to suck you into

their purpose, distorting the truth,

confusing the lost, indoctrinating.

Don't give yourself up to the blueprint.

Don't be a product of your environment.

Don't blend in with the culture. Stand

out among it. The greatest impact you

can have on the lost people around you

is not by continuing to blend in the

world that you came from, but by seeing

a radical change in your life that

totally transforms everything that you

were into something new. That kind of

sounds like the Bible.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new

creature.

Old things are passed away, and behold,

all things are become new.

a new creature.

That doesn't mean that a leopard

continues to look like a leopard. It

means a leopard becomes a lion.

That's different.

It means that a a lion cub becomes a

bear. There's a fundamental shift in

your life, not just a continuation of

how things were. Don't be a product of

your environment. God has placed you

here to stand out from all of that and

to declare that he reigns. How do I know

that he reigns? because my life is

submitted to him.

He's placed us here not to hide in the

safety of our homes or to worship in the

confines of our closets,

but to publicly proclaim Christ is King

and the Most High reigns.

Some try to tell you

that Christians should stay out of the

political arena,

keep politics out of the pulpit.

But we need to understand the times.

That mindset is a blueprint

to try to indoctrinate you

that their positions are political and

not moral.

Sex at birth

is a moral issue, not a political issue.

Gender is a moral issue, not a political

issue. Abortion is a moral issue, not a

political issue.

Strangling your three children is not a

political issue.

That is a moral issue.

>> Amen.

We cannot let this world's blueprint

redefine that which is moral.

We have been called to stand for truth.

What we see in the book of Daniel from

start to finish is Daniel is standing

before kings and captains and

politicians

confronting their sin, confronting their

morality,

calling them to repentance, calling them

to trust in the God of heaven.

That's the reason why the most f uh uh

the most frequent title for God in this

is the most high is because they were

declaring among these who worshiped all

of these pagan gods that god reigns over

them all. It was so that Nebuchadnezzar

after after receiving this this vision

that he was going to become a beast out

in the the wilderness eating and looking

like an animal and acting like an animal

that when that actually happened well

Daniel called him when he had this

dream. Daniel called him, "Break off

your sins." to the king. He went to the

White House and he got in the

president's face and he said, "You're in

pride.

God has given you this kingdom. You have

not taken it for yourself. This is not

your glory. This is his. And if you

don't break off your pride and break off

your sins, God is going to bring you

down.

You know what Nebuchadnezzar did?

A year later, he sat on his palace

rooftop and said, "The kingdom that I

have built

and the glory of my majesty."

And he heard a voice immediately. It

said, "The kingdom is departed from you.

Go on, get."

And he went out in that wilderness and

lived like an animal for seven years

until he says, "I lifted my eyes to

heaven and I knew that the most high

reigns in the kingdom of men and gives

the glory and the dominion to whomsoever

he will."

It was to where Nebuchadnezzar

because of Daniel's stand and because of

Daniel's confrontation, he too came to

recognize that the God of heaven is the

king uh is the Lord of kings and the God

of gods.

You know why God's raised you up in this

time?

It's not to sit silently by.

It's to stand for truth. is to stand for

God's glory, to proclaim his gospel

and declare his name.

That's what he's called us to do.

It's time for us as Christians

to stop playing the victim.

We are not victims

in the fallout

of elections and political conflict.

We are placed right where we are by the

Lord's sovereign will

to declare his name to a world broken by

sin,

to a world that rebelss against him.

I'm not saying that God has called us to

be militant revolutionaries as though

we're just to go up and stir up riots in

the streets. No, that that's not the

weapons of our warfare as the New

Testament says. We proclaim the gospel

of Jesus Christ. We live a life that

reflects his goodness and his glory. And

God uses our lives and our stance and

our proclamation of his gospel to break

the pride of the rebels to bring them

humbly to their knees before King Jesus

in confession of their faith in him as

Lord and Savior because of the blood of

his cross and the glory of his

resurrection. Our weapon is the word of

God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So don't stand idly by

hanging on till Jesus comes.

We're here on purpose

and that's to faithfully proclaim the

gospel

because when Jesus comes back,

he's going to lead an exodus.

He will either lead us in an exodus of

salvation to the father's throne

or he will lead us

to an exile

of endless judgment in hell.

I wonder

when the son of man comes with the

clouds of heaven where will he lead you?

Will it be to the Father's eternal

throne in heaven? Or will it be to

endless exile and judgment in hell?

God wants you there. And Christ wants

you there. So much so that God gave his

son into the hands of wicked men to pay

the atoning price for your sin. So much

so that Christ sent his gospel into all

the world where you could hear it this

morning. He so wants you to be there

that the father made salvation by grace

alone through faith alone in Christ

alone. All you must do to be saved is

acknowledge I'm a sinner and believe

that Jesus died for my sin and rose

again and to call on him to be my Lord

and Savior. And when you repent of your

sin and you place your faith in Jesus

and you confess your faith in Jesus, God

wipes out your sin and accepts you as

his child and Christ will bring you to

his throne. Friend, trust Christ today.

Church,

we may not like

all that our city, our state, our nation

is or is becoming.

But we are here by God's plan and for

his purpose.

And if we're to live faithfully for him,

it starts with recognizing his sovereign

will over where we live, where we go to

school, where we work, where we minister

as a church.

God has raised us up in such a place for

such a time as this. And that is a

glorious responsibility

from him.

May we faithfully

serve him together. Our father, you

reign on high.

You are God and you alone.

There is none but you and there is none

beside you.

And today as a church we surrender our

lives to your sovereign will.

We recognize you have placed us in

Boulder and Boulder County and Colorado

and the United States of America

to impact this world

for your glory.

May your grace enable us to take what we

have heard today and apply it to our

lives tonight

that we might declare the gospel of your

son

that many might come to faith in Christ.

I ask you to bless in our time of

response and that your holy spirit would

enable us to live out your word in

Jesus' name. Amen.