Daniel Not of This World, Putting God First - Daniel 1:1-21 The book of Daniel

in our account in daniel daniel chapter one we find daniel in a difficult situation and even though he's in a difficult situation taken from his home that he's known his whole life and he is wait for this one he's a teenager when he's taken from his home when he is kidnapped and taken to babylon to a completely different culture that he did not even begin to know at all he was put under the care of a eunuch excuse me under the care of those those who watched over the eunuchs and almost every scholar will tell you that daniel was made a eunuch which is for a teenage for anybody i i was gonna say for a teenage boy that's a horrible thing for anybody to forcibly be made a eunuch would be a horrible thing right and so daniel was made a eunuch and then he was chosen to be in the courts of the king which is one of the reasons that they made them eunuchs because they would be around the harem and so then he was in the court of the king and it would be so easy for him to become bitter to become bitter at god this wasn't his expectation for life that he would never be able to be married that he would never be able to have a family that he would never be able to be sexually involved that whatever his goals were as a as a bright young man in israel all of a sudden all of those things taken from him i've heard people upset and say i will not follow god because these things happen to me there's certain things that happen to me and i'm not following god because these things happen to me daniel would have been a perfect candidate for that but that's not what he did what he did was to stand and stay true and to make sure that he did not become babylonian in his worship to make sure that he was going to follow the true and the living god and what he did takes wisdom perseverance sacrifice faith trust and god met him there and god worked in an incredibly powerful way in his life now let's take some time to consider um the the setting for the book of daniel what was happening and you can go and you can read if you want to study this on your own you can go and you can look up when jeremiah begins to write the warnings to israel because israel had been in the land for about 500 years a little under 500 years and they had they had walked away from god and come back and walked away and come back and walked away and as we're going to see there was a way that they were not faithful for those 490 years and jeremiah was a prophet of that time and he warned them that they needed to return to god that they needed they needed to turn away from the bales that they were worshiping baal is a generic word for god and there was a certain baal that the babylonians worshiped but there were many baals that the canaanites worshipped and they were to turn away from azeroth which asterisk was the goddess of fertility and israel both worshiped baal and they worshipped asteroids the baal that israel worshiped was was the the god of money and uh and of course azerith was the goddess of fertility and we understand that's just like the world today the world lives for money and sex and that's what was the temptation for israel that they would turn away from serving and living for the real god to live for money and sex and that's exactly what they struggled with and they continued to struggle with it ezekiel is another one of the prophets you can go and you can read ezekiel ezekiel gave warnings as well and they were taken into captivity during the reign of ezekiel so there's a lot of opportunities to study but i want to read you second chronicles chapter 36 starting in verse 15. and here we have the account remember chronicles goes through the time of the kings so you have david is the first king and then you've got i think it's zedekiah who is the final king but the last few kings were under the influence of the babylonian king nebuchadnezzar nebuchadnezzar was a general when he shows up here in verse 15. his father nebu plaza is still alive he actually dies while he's sieging jerusalem and he has to hurry back to make sure that no one else gets the throne nebuchadnezzar was a general he was a warrior he was a guy you didn't want to mess with uh nebuchadnezzar um wanted to make sure that he got the throne when his dad died and he went back and he got it in fact he traveled an incredible amount of time and an incredible amount of speed to get back there but he also took daniel and the other three children of israel that we're going to be looking at in this chapter and so let's pick it up in verse 15 and the lord and the lord god of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place that would be jerusalem but they mocked the messengers of god that would include ezekiel and jeremiah ezekiel had great persecution because he told them that uh that he was lamentations he told them you're going to be taken you're going to be destroyed your women are going to be raped your children are going to be killed and they they mocked them the messengers of god verse 16 despised his words and scoffed at his prophets uh prophets until the wrath of the lord arose against his people till there was no remedy they had went past the point of of having any kind of a remedy therefore he brought against them the king of the chaldeans who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and notice who did this he that is god when he came to the end and there was no remedy he brought the chaldeans against them and they killed their young men with the sword in the house of the sanctuary and had no compassion on the young men or virgin on the aged or the weak he gave them all into his hands and the articles of the house of god great and small the treasury of the house of the lord and the treasury of the king and his leaders all those that were took from babylon they burned the house of god they broke down the wall of jerusalem they burned all of its places with fire they destroyed all of the precious possessions and those who escaped from the sword he carried away to babylon this is the last time nebuchadnezzar actually besieged jerusalem three times this is the last time when he destroyed the whole thing daniel had been carried away some years earlier but whoever was left that wasn't killed was carried away let's pause here for a second and think about this because they began to worship the gods of the canaanites the gods of the people who were around canaan and there are people that are that get upset at god because god raised up the nation of israel and had them jud had them as the judgment tool for the people who lived in canaan god gave them 400 years to repent he gave them 400 years of warnings that's a long time by the way that's more time than you and i have and god gave the canaanites 400 years to repent they did not repent and so god used the israelites to drive them from the land and and people cry foul because of that but now we have israel who for many years have not been following god and god does the same thing to his people god is not playing partiality been it's been a long time there's been a lot of warnings they kept on doing what they were doing they were worshiping baal they were worshiping asteroth and they thought it's okay it's all good it's okay god doesn't care nothing's happened yet but one day judgment came i often say don't mistake the silence of god for the the god's acceptance of what you're doing god's giving you room to repent if you're doing something that's that's that's wrong then stop because sooner or later judgment will come it's it's already on its way and it will be there it's better far better to repent and say god i'm sorry than to think god's silence is somehow approval and so god drives them from the land verse 20 and those who escape with the sword he carried away to babylon when they became servants to him who son until the rule of the kingdom of persia to fulfill the words of the lord by the mouth of jeremiah until the land had enjoyed the sabbaths as long as she laid desolate she kept her sabbath to fulfill the 70 years now this is the weeks of years and we're going to cover this in daniel chapter 9. so i don't want to get into much detail now but i want you to see that that is the context of the book of daniel and the context of daniel chapter nine the weeks of years they not only had weeks of days with a sabbath day rest right on saturday they had weeks of years with a sabbath year rest they had not given it to the land for 490 years this was a lack of faith on their part they were supposed to work the land for six years and then trust god for the seventh and then work it for six years and trust god for the seventh a sabbath year and i've often said by the way i vote for that wouldn't you love to have that we not only have a sabbath week but we have a a we have a sabbath weekend right because we don't have one day arrest we have two right we're supposed to anyway so you know can you imagine that so god keeps them in captivity for 70 years as spoken of by the prophet daniel excuse me by the prophet jeremiah daniel in daniel chapter 9 is reading jeremiah when he says that they're going to be kept in captivity when you when he's um for 70 years and he's been in captivity himself at that point 68 or 69 years and he realizes it's just around the corner sooner or later this is going to be taking place this is going to be taken away from us now just really quick look at verse 22. now in the first year of cyrus the king of persia the word of the lord by the mouth of jeremiah might be fulfilled that is the 70 years were done cyrus was the king now of persia babylon's gone the lord stirred up with the spirit of cyrus of persia that's iran by the way so that he made a proclamation throughout all of the kingdom and so also put in writing saying thus says king sira of persia all the kingdoms of the earth the lord god of heaven has given me and he has commanded me to build a house his house in jerusalem which is in judea who is among all of his people may the lord be with him and let him go up and so they're in captivity for 70 years but the the the when cyrus becomes king he allows jerusalem to be rebuilt again and here's the thing you need to know is that daniel was also a counselor for cyrus or for darius who was a co-regent with cyrus he was also accounts he outlasts this is really powerful he outlasts the babylonian kingdom the babylonian kingdom is so strong israel has no no chance to stand against it it destroys their temple it burns it down it takes its people away captive but god has a plan and there's one man who will be around when the babylonian kingdom is destroyed and he will outlast it and that's the man that we learn about back in daniel chapter one now look at verse one of chapter 1 of the book of daniel in the third year of the reign of jehoiakim the king of judah so this is a little earlier in chronicles if you want to go back and read it you can but it's a little earlier there's five or six final kings in the last 20 years and in the third year of the reign of jehoiakim king of judah nebuchadnezzar king of babylon came to jerusalem to besiege it and the lord gave jehoiakim the king of judah into his hands with some of the articles of the house of god which he carried into the land of shinar to the house of god and he brought the articles into the treasury of the house of god he does this three times he takes things from the house of god and finally gets them all in that portion that i read to you in babylon i mean excuse me in uh in second chronicles um look at the word shinar here that's where babylon is now that may sound familiar to you because in genesis chapter 11 it says that the the people went out to the valley of shinar and they built a tower that was going to reach up into heavens and remember that god looked down and said what will we do now he'll be able to do every anything he puts his mind to and to slow down technology he confused the languages right and that happened in in the in the valley of shinar that's babel now we have babylon built in the valley of shinar that's modern-day iraq by the way you can go to the ruins of babylon in iraq and then you have a future babylon in the book of revelation the whole world is made wealthy is made rich off of mystery babylon and the whole world weeps over the destruction of babylon so babylon throughout the bible babel babylon with nebuchadnezzar and babylon in the future is a type of this world when you're studying the scriptures babylon is the type of this world you and i are not part of babylon we are part of the kingdom of heaven and when we realize that this world is like babylon then it makes it easier for us to go we are not supposed to be worldly we are not supposed to be carnal we are not supposed to be part of this of this world in um let me just give you a couple of let me just give you a couple of verses um in john and first john 2 15-17 we're told that um we're not supposed to be part of this world because all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is perishing but we are of the kingdom of god and we are eternal we should not be part of this world because this world is passing away and it gave us the list of those three things and then it says we're eternal and we're going to outlast it so why would we be a part of it well what three things were they there was the lust of the flesh that's your desires that are ungodly we have desires that are godly but we also have desires that are ungodly that's called the flesh the bible says in the book of galatians that the flesh battles against the spirit and the spirit battles against the flesh so we don't always do the things that we want to do and every one of us here says amen i know that battle i wish i didn't have that battle but i know that battle i know what paul was talking about when he wrote that to the galatians and he said the spirit fights against the the flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit fights against the flesh also in that same area he said if you sow to the flesh from the flesh you're going to reap corruption but if you sow to the spirit from the spirit you're going to reap life i'm just want to read this list i'm going to read it pretty quick but i want to read this list that comes from galatians these are the deeds of the flesh these are w when john says all that is in the world the lust of the flesh here's what he's thinking of um well let me get to the right place here um now the works of the flesh are evident all right we don't we don't even really need to talk about it he's gonna say it's they're evident and then he gives a list and it's not a complete list he says which are adultery fornication uncleanliness lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentious jealousy outbursts of wrath selfish ambition dissensions heresies envy murders drunkenness revelries and the like i tell you beforehand just as i have also in times past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of god paul is saying this is not who we are the key word there is practice it's all about practice those that practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of god they are the lust of the flesh we practice righteousness if we love him we want to keep his commandments again it's not that we might not do these things and find and ask him to forgive us and struggle and have a stronghold we have to overcome and take our thoughts captive but though that's what the lust of the flesh is and when we're given a definition of the world in john chapter 2 the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes this is the desire to surround yourself with beautiful things the way you get beautiful things is through money the word of faith false teaching teaches that god wants you rich the bible says in the last days men will teach will heap up for themselves teachers who will tickle their ears the largest churches in america are word of faith churches because they're going to church and hearing that god wants them rich what a coincidence i want to be rich too i like going to church and being told that god wants me rich but first timothy chapter 6 says if someone is teaching you godliness as a means of financial gain withdraw yourself from them if you're watching this if you hear or under word of faith teaching and they're telling you to get rich and maybe you've even been ministered to them but you need to love god more than you love a doctrine love god more than you love a church love god more than you love something that's spoken to you and if it is wrong and if it is heresy which was listed here as the deed of the flesh by the way if it is heresy then get away from it but the bible goes on to say but godliness with contentment is great gain if someone is teaching godliness as a means of financial gain get away from them but godliness with contentment with what god's given you is great gain and it's not a problem of being rich because james wrote and said tell those who are rich not to trust in the uncertainty of riches and be willing to share so the bible isn't is it if you're here and you're rich it's not a hater on you it's just saying don't trust in that and be willing to share what god has given you but we want to surround ourselves with beautiful things and that's the lust of the eyes that's part of this world that's the definition of the world find the final definition that he gives in for in 1 john chapter 2 is the pride of life this is wanting to be known this is wanting to be famous this has happened in social media all over the place with people that don't have any skill or or any way they're becoming really famous and we have to watch it as christians because the pharisees had the pride of life as well jesus said don't be like the pharisees when they stand on a street corner and pray to themselves when they do the things that they do their charitable deeds just to be seen by men they already have their reward so as christians we can fall into the pride of life as well we can want to be well known as a spiritual person and that's the pride of life instead of saying to god i give you my life i give you the sphere of influence that i have for your glory use it for your glory but instead we want that pride of life so that's the bible's definition of the world of babylon lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and the pride of life and it becomes really evident that we should not be a part of that when we understand that no wonder the bible says that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of god when your friendship is with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life you have now made yourself an enemy of god and james told us in james 4 verses 4 through 6 don't you know the spirit of god dwells in you jealously and he calls them adulterers and adulteresses don't you know that friendship with this world makes you an enemy with god the bible also tells us not to be conformed to this world romans chapter 12 don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind this world it conforms us it can't you imagine that daniel in babylon was was being conformed all the things that happened to him the change of his name that we're going to read about in just a moment but instead being transformed the bible also says set your mind on the things in heaven and not on the things of the earth be heavenly minded we have a god in heaven we have a destination in heaven don't let anybody tell you that you're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good the truth is it says you're not heavenly minded you are no earthly good it's putting our mind on the things of god and knowing that we have an eternity and all of this is perishing all of this is fading and we have a mind that is set up on god just a couple more philippians 3 20 21 says we are citizens of heaven and not of this earth not only are we to be heavy heavenly minded but we are citizens not here on earth but we are citizens in heaven we're just passing through like abraham who looked for a city whose foundations were built by god you and i are not supposed to be citizens of this earth in fact in the last days the bible said god will pour out his wrath on this world on those who dwell on the earth earth dwellers literally revelation 3 20 and the end of the book of luke where it says pray that you would be counted worthy to escape all of these things that are going to come to pass on earth dwellers on those who dwell on the earth our citizenship is in heaven we're just passing through finally jesus said if you love god if you try to love god and mammon at the same time remember the love the pride of life excuse me the lust of the eyes if you try to love god and money mammon riches at the same time you're going to end up loving one and hating the other if you're trying to walk that fine line being that carnal christian i'm in the world but i love god i'm going to do both of them you're going to end up being worldly completely or you're going to finally abandoning the world and turning towards god the sad truth of the matter is is there are many that have not stood like daniel stood there are many who did not make that kind of a stand and so we go back to daniel chapter one look at verse three i can't believe we're only done with two verses so far then the king instructed aspenaz there's a name for you looking for a son to have a name ashpenaz that name's got panaz right aspinas then the king instructed aspen as the master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles young men in which there was no blemish good-looking gifted in all wisdom possessed in knowledge quick to understand who had the ability to serve in the king's palace of whom they might learn teach the language and the literature of the chaldeans sons of kings and noblemen good-looking bright what kind of a future did daniel have since he was one of these men who was put under the care of the master eunuch and as i said scholars all agree that means he became a eunuch forced to be a eunuch and the king appointed them daily provisions from the king's delicacies so what's happened here is that nebuchadnezzar hears his father dies he goes back nebu plaza he goes back and he and he's got all of these these chaldeans and all of these wise men these are the wise men by the way that went to visit jesus and remember that's after daniel so these are the wise men who had read daniel's writings and he's got all of his father's wise men but but nebuchadnezzar's his own man we're gonna learn a lot about nebuchadnezzar as we make our way through here nebuchadnezzar as i said is a general king and he wants his own guys so he brings them in and daniel is one of them and he shares his food and his drink with them he takes the food that is provided for the king and the wine that's provided for the king and he gives it to them because it's the very best and he wants his advisors now these young men that he's making into he who he wants to be right babylon is conforming to this world and he's making them who he wants to be and he gives them the food from his own table and the wine from his own table it goes on to say here then for the middle of verse uh well let's go five verse five again and the king appointed for them daily provisions from the king's delicacies and the wine which he drank and the three and three years of training for them so that the end of time they might serve before the king now from among those of the sons of judah were daniel hananiah michelle and ariza excuse me azariah all of those names have god in it all of those names speak of god they were godly parents or they were parents that knew about yahweh and they named their children with connections to the name of yahweh every one of them hananiah michel and azariah you know as um shadowrak meshach and abindigo that's their babylonian names daniel will always go by his hebrew name they will go by their babylonian name and so in verse 6 it says now from among these the sons of judah were daniel hananiah michelle and azariah and the chief of the eunuchs gave names to daniel to daniel he gave belt belted shazaar and i always confused beltachazar with belshazzar belshazzar is the last king of babylon we learn about him i think it's in chapter six chapter five or chapter six with the hand writing on the wall that's belshazzar so it's talking to adam about that and one of our pastors here and my son-in-law too by the way and uh he said remember belt to shazar that daniel has the belt of truth belt the shadow that's daniel he's got the belt of truth that's how you can remember him so there you go belt of shazar um and then he named uh be named daniel beltashar he named hananiah shadorack he made me michelle meshach and azariah of indigo and these are all babylonian names of gods so what the world does is it conforms us and they're taking these young hebrew men taking away their names and changing them the world is even trying to change your identity it's trying to it's trying to change who you are you're trying to try to change how you talk and how you think it tries to change your sexuality that's the world that we're living in it tries to change everything it's happening through it's happening through schools it's happened it happened it's happened at the university level for a long time it's happening at high school levels it's happening in junior high levels it's happening in in elementary levels now where the world is trying to change them they wanted their names to be changed they wanted them to be different people but we pick it up now in verse 8 but daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies nor with the wine which he would drink therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might decline that he might uh not defile himself he did not want to defile himself with the food and the wine that the king had because the food and the wine was not kosher we know that food has to be kosher the wine had to be kosher as well there was culture in ancient israel there was kosher wine as well and the kosher wine had nothing to do it had everything to do with with jews making it with people from israel making the wine that's what made it kosher and that it wasn't handled by gentiles it had to be gentle by by and be handled by jewish people to make the wine kosher and this he saw it as defiling himself i'm going to eat this food that's been sacrificed to idols i'm going to drink this wine that has been handled by people that worship and serve idols and i don't want to defile myself because of what had happened to daniel how easy would it have been for him to go you know what when in rome i'm a roman when in babylon i'm a babylonian all this has happened to me my whole world's turned upside down all my plans are gone i don't know if daniel is a young man had a had a girl that he was interested in probably right teenage boy probably then to have what happened to him happened to him he could have very easily said i don't care if i'm defiled give me that king's delicacies and give me that that wine i'm ready but he didn't do that he went to his authority that he might be able to say i don't want to be defiled that might have been a hard thing for him to do by the way in verse 9 it says now god had brought daniel into the favor and the goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs now god not only brought daniel into babylon but now god's working with daniel while he's in babylon it reminds me of joseph god brings joseph into egypt he has a plan but god is with joseph while he's in egypt and jesus prayed in john 17 i think verses 14 through 15 that we would be in this world but not part of the world that is that is ultimately achievable for you and me that we would not be defiled by this world because jesus prayed for it think about it jesus prayed for that for you that you would not be part of this world that you would be able to be in the world but not part of it god loves this world he loved it so much he gave his son but satan is the god of this world and so we have to learn how to walk that line of being in the world but not part of the world not being worldly not being carnal not giving in to those things which are part of the world and daniel wanted to make sure he didn't and so he approached respectfully and he had been given by god favor so so what might seem impossible and what might seem like you might not be able to do because god's with you and because jesus prayed for you you have favor as well you've been given favor to be able to do this if tonight god convicts you that you have not even been thinking about being part of this world and that you really want to be set apart that you want to be in the world but not of the world then you will have god on your side and the chief of the eunuch said to daniel i fear my lord the king who has appointed you food and uh and drink for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are of your age then you would endanger my head before the king and this chief over the eunuchs has a good reason to be scared of nebuchadnezzar one of the kings of israel he brought him before him killed his children in front of him and then gouged out his eyes so the last thing that he would ever see would be his children dying that's nebuchadnezzar the bible has nebuchadnezzar roasting people alive that's nebuchadnezzar and i could keep going nebuchadnezzar this general king is not anyone you would mess with this chief of the eunuchs is like why should i lose my head by by you looking worse and so daniel responds it says um you would endanger me before the king the rest of verse 10 and then so daniel answered the steward whom the chief who was the chief of the eunuchs had said over daniel hananiah michelle and azariah please test your servants for ten days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink he would be able to eat the vegetables they would be kosher he'd be able to drink the water it wouldn't be a problem with someone making the wine who was a gentile someone who would have defiled it and uh this has nothing to do with being a vegetarian by the way because you know you'll see as we read on here and you can imagine where people go with this okay it is a complete misuse of the text and it drives me crazy when people use the text for what it's not meant for this is meant to show that when you make a decision to not be defiled and stand faithful with god god will work with you in the new testament the idea of vegetables comes up as well remember some eat meat and others eat only vegetables because the meat had been defiled offered to idols was the same kind of thing and so daniel comes up with this suggestion and i love that about daniel daniel didn't just say i don't want to eat this he said let's try this for 10 days he had a plan by the way that's always better that's always a good way to move up the ladder in management is to not just pick out a problem but to have a solution to the problem to suggest a solution anybody can talk about how bad something is but having a solution is sometimes difficult and daniel has the solution for his test that he would eat only vegetables and drink water for 10 days verse 13 then let our appearance be examined before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies and see fit um and as you see fit so deal with your servants so daniel now puts things back in the hands of god do this for us for 10 days look at us and compare us and then as you see fit let it be done he trusts god to be able to come in and rescue him at this point and so in verse 14 so he consented with them in this matter and tested them 10 days and at the end of the 10 days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portions of the king's delicacies that's a god thing all right because when you eat vegetables and drink water you don't get fatter they got fatter that's what it says right you eat vegetables and you drink water you get skinnier but god was doing something god honored his desire to not be defiled do you have an honor to not be def you have a desire to not be defiled do you have a desire to say i don't want to be a part of this world i want to be part of the kingdom of god i want to be in this i want to be in this world but not of this world and god will honor you in that as you take steps forward to make that happen it's it's ultimately doable because jesus prayed that for you and god will even begin to make that happen god will work within you that you'll be like daniel where you're not defiled thus the steward took away their portions of the delicacies and the wines that they were to drink and gave them vet them vegetables verse 17 as for these four young men god gave them knowledge and skill in all literature wisdom which daniel already showed in this first chapter and daniel had understandings of visions and dreams now at the end of those days when the king had said that they should be brought in the chief of the eunuchs brought them before nebuchadnezzar then the king interviewed them and among all and among them all none were found like daniel hananiah michelle and azariah therefore they served before the king and in the matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them and he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in the realm thus daniel continued until the first year of king cyrus who was king cyrus the persian king that destroyed babylon daniel made a commitment to not be defiled and god had him outlast the babylonian kingdom in that great god gave him wisdom god met him where he was i think of the passage that tells us that if we sow to the flesh from the flesh we will reap corruption if we sow to the spirit from the spirit we will reap life what kind of things do you think that god will do for you if you take that and say god that's a promise and i am now going to sow to the spirit i'm going to sow the things of the spirit i'm going to put away the things of the flesh of the world and all that is in it the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and i am now going to live for you that ultimately this will be more than doable and ultimately you'll outlast everything because that passage goes on to say all of those things are doing what passing away but you are of the kingdom of god which will last forever that's what 1st john chapter 2 says what a great encouragement for us what a great encouragement for me i found myself in the midst of this study saying god i i don't want to be a part of this world god renewing that desire with inside of me that i don't want to be worldly i don't want to be carnal i don't want to be conformed by this world but i want to be transformed by god and daniel gives us that great example now daniel is going to give us it's going to talk about things that happened before daniel he's going to talk about things that happened during the time of daniel it's going to talk about things a few years after the life of daniel that he couldn't have possibly known about that he wrote about and it's going to tell us things of the end of the world that are going to happen which he possibly could not have known about as well and all of this is made possible because as a teenager not as a 30 year old man not as a as a teenager he had enough character to say i don't want to be defiled i don't want to i don't want to be pressured into becoming a babylonian i wanna i wanna keep things right between me and god and god honored him and i think god will honor us when we make those kinds of decisions stand with me would you and let's pray together father we want to thank you as we take time to look here at this passage and we are so encouraged that we would not be a part of babylon we know that even in the future babylon is going to be a part of the last days and we may we may know it now we may be living in it now trying to conform us to be like the world and lord forgive us when we love the things of the world or we love people's suggestions or we love ideas or or we love just some something that's in the world more than we love you we know that we're supposed to love you with all our heart soul mind and strength and not anything that is in this world and so lord we pray that you would help us that we would be able to stand solid and strong that you would renew our inner man that you would stir up inside of us that desire to not be defiled you said that if we love you we'll keep your commandments that's what we practice so we pray that we would practice those things help us to be of that because you prayed for that in the name of jesus we pray amen i'd like you to keep your heads bowed plead please and your eyes closed for just a couple of minutes i'd also like to ask that no one would leave early we're almost done we'll dismiss you here shortly but i want to give you an opportunity if you're here today and you've never committed your life to christ the bible says that as many as receive him he gives the power to become a child of god the bible says that anyone who is in christ is a new creation old things pass away and behold everything becomes new god will get a hold of your life and he'll change you as you say i want to live for him it doesn't happen by osmosis it doesn't happen just because you start attending church it doesn't happen because you grew up in a religious family you have to say i want you in my life you have to open up that door and he'll come in and dine with you he'll fellowship with you remember the vast majority of us only dying with people we like and jesus says i want to dine with you he wants to know you if today you would say i want to follow him you may also have followed him at one point in the past but you've walked away for whatever reason maybe you drifted away maybe you made a decision for sin i want the sin of my life instead of serving and following god and it's time for you to come home now it's time for you to find the forgiveness the bible says if you ask him he's faithful to forgive you it's time for you to find that forgiveness come home and be who you are supposed to be be transformed instead of conformed if you're here today and you want to come back to christ or you would like to give your life to christ then i'm going to ask you to do something simple just raise your hand every head bowed every eye closed lift your hand up now lift it up high so i can see it i'd like to acknowledge your hand i'd like to pray for you if you're online you can respond if you're listening on reach radio you can respond i'm just going to scan the room one more time [Music] all right is your hand up there all right okay let's pray in fact i'm going to lead all of us in prayer i would like everybody in here to pray this prayer including those who have responded online or on reach radio dear heavenly father i confess that i've sinned and i know my sin has separated me from you but i also understand that i can be forgiven by the death of jesus on the cross so i invite you into my life and i turn from my sin in the name of jesus amen welcome to the family of god amen and i believe there are those who are watching online who responded and came home and i believe that there are those listening on the radio and you can send us an email at savedcalvarytucsun.com we'll have people who will respond to that we'll get you whatever you need we'll pray with you we'll help you um with uh with what you have um maybe most of you know that a pastor of a large church in new york carried on an affair for about six months and was removed from his church and i don't want to bring up his name and i don't want to tear him down but i just want to say that in order to do that he had to be conformed to this world he was sowing to the flesh and from the flesh he reaped corruption and the big the biggest destruction in it was what happened to his wife and children going from a place of being very well known pastoring a large church being placed there by god and that is suddenly be taken away because somehow he thought or somehow he allowed himself to be conformed to this world again i don't want to go over all the details but those kind of things stand as a warning to us don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind don't live for the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life for those who are all passing away and you're going to live forever let's live like the children of god that we are the king's kids that we are let's live with the righteousness that god has for us standing strong for him now may the lord bless you and keep you may make his face to shine upon you may he lift up his eyes upon you and give you peace would you guys lift up your hands to god bible says lift up holy hands and pray and i want to pray for you father i want to pray as we lift up our hands to you god and we ask you now in the name of jesus that you would touch and heal those who need healings you're a god that heals and i pray lord that you would move and touch and heal you know every detail and every life that is in here more than we do lord i also pray for those that are distraught and just depressed i pray for those that are on the edge as this crisis in our country continues to go on i pray for those that just are at the end of their rope bring them peace i pray for those that are here who didn't want to respond tonight to come back to you that they would i pray for those here that have been dabbling in the world that you would convict them they would turn from it remember and you prayed that we would be in the world and not of it ultimately ultimately doable we thank you for this in the name of jesus we pray amen i love that that was part of jesus's prayer for us don't you that we would not be in the world are we in the world but not be part of it because again he prayed for it he prayed for me that i would not that i would be in the world and not be part of the world he prayed for you so it's ultimately doable as we set out like daniel and just start to do it god will meet us there and it will become doable all right i'm gonna hand things back over to sean he's going to lead you in a final song and he's going to dismiss you we'll see you guys this coming up week we're going to be talking about gabriel and mary as the announcement to mary that she's going to give birth to the son of god so look forward to covering that passage with you guys god bless you

Channel: Calvary Online & Hot Topics with Robert Furrow

Views: 1,632

Rating: 4.9298244 out of 5

Keywords: Not of this World, Robert Furrow, calvary church, calvary tucson, to be in the world not of it, putting God First, Daniel 1, Daniel 1:1-21, The book of Daniel, Prophesy, put god first, put god first and everything else will follow, put god first everyday, put god first in your life, put god first morning motivation, always put god first, how to put god first, how to put god first in your life, what does it mean to put god first, what happens when you put god first

Id: VBLj0Ouh0v4

Length: 45min 17sec (2717 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020