Living Wisely in a Complex World - Part 1 | 12Stone Church

so welcome to 12Stone Les lawrenville campus you help me welcome in all the other campuses around the territory and online and people gathering in groups today uh we start a conversation that I've been looking forward to for two or three months now I've been uh in a journey personally with God and God has given me what I would say a burden for our church for you and I have I have had a prompt to pray for you in in ways that I can't appropriately explain from a stage but there is a there is a weight and a burden and a honestly a beautiful privilege that God's given me in this season because I believe the conversation we're about to have is like a real world conversation like this isn't like a churchy in thewalls of the church conversation this is a reality that I think we live with and if you're a follower of Jesus this is I believe going to speak to some of the things we feel in here the tensions we manage in here the complexity of what we manage in here if you're not a follower of Jesus yet I'm so glad you're with us will you hang through this this series of this of conversations because I believe there's a God who wants to know you personally there's a God who wants to give you freedom from your past and your shame and your stuff and the God's G has a purpose for you to discover and a and a difference for your life to make while you live you're not a mistake there's a God who loves you but equally there is a complex lexity in our world today that if you're a follower of Jesus it's hard to figure out how to live in a culture that is Shifting and drifting at a rapid pace and I'm only 42 years old but I I I've just watched in this last 5 10 years it feels like there's a drift that's happening a confusion that's happening a complexity where we're abandoning sort of biblical standards like what did God say is truth about marriage and sexuality and about how we're to live that that there's this this loss of value of a human life like I watched the news and it's like murder and crime is rampant it's common place where it's like what happened to like the IMO day the image of God the idea that every human was created in the image of God like we're drifting into this weird place of like just a coldheartedness that that we we started to justify our own hate for people who are not like us like if you don't believe like I believe you don't see what I see I I have a right to to not just dislike you but to hate you and somehow are cultures drifting into that there's gender confusion there's mental health there's depression growing guys this is a real world thing it's gotten increasingly complicated fear and confusion is on the rise everywhere I don't know about you I sat and watched the news last night as I'm waiting for flipping rockets and drones to go to Israel like what's going on there's a fear I'm sitting there praying like God what are you doing what's going on like I look around and there's just a weight there's even some Churches and some denominations who have embraced the cultural shift and they've sort of abandoned scripture like we know we know better than God's word and they've just conformed to things and you're like what do you do with that as a follower of Jesus then then on a personal level my own kids your kids Schools they're wondering what is truth how do I live as a Christian like I go I go to Wednesdays and I'm there worshiping then I go to school the next day and it's like it's complicated and I've talked with enough of you like I've sat down coffees and lunches with with dads going bro help me it's gotten really tricky to lead out as a follower of Jesus in a world that's complicated and here's what I believe I believe that the Book of Daniel is a playbook for us today and we're going to walk through the story of Daniel that God in his kindness gave us in his word and I believe it's a playbook for how we engage the world as followers of Jesus and because you can already feel the pin drop Silence of the weight of this conversation I want to give us three risks I think we have in this conversation and I'm probably going to repeat these same three every week of the series and it'll make more sense next week than it does this week but you'll see it as we unpack I think there's three like risks that that are at play the first is this the risk of of making it personal that like something I'm saying is coming at you as a person or this group of people I just want to say this I'm an equal opportunity offender in fact I don't I don't think I've done my job unless at some point in the next six weeks every person leaves a little bit ticked off here's what I'd ask will you give me the grace to speak the truth of God and when you feel that little like ticked off moment will you just make your first response God are you trying to convict something in me are you challenging something in me will you take it to God first before you take it to emails and again my email is kevin. meyers1 12stone.com secondly he's done that to me for like 15 years it's my turn second risk first is we take it personal second is this is that we make it political I'll just say it bluntly will you please not dumb down and lower this biblical conversation to politics like this the kingdom of God is so much higher than political stuff God's not riding a donkey or an elephant folks this is not a political conversation it's a Biblical conversation the third risk is that you just watch one part and draw conclusions without listening to the rest of the conversation it's like watching a Netflix show and watching episodes 2 4 and six and skipping episodes 3 five and one I guess whatever number I left out and you're like what's going on with the plot I don't know of course you don't you missed all half the stuff like would you just consider saying I will be here for the next 6 weeks cuz this thank you cuz this conversation Builds on itself I have if if I could do like a 4H Hour podcast and you'd listen I'd do the whole series in one four-hour swoop which you'd all fall asleep so we're going to do it in six conversations over six weeks but they all build on each other today is the introduction the setup for the Book of Daniel and the conversation we're going to be ending you're going to leave going what do I do next perfect we're going to talk talk about it next week but I need to I need to lay out what we're doing because together we're going to explore God's clear and compelling answers for a complex and confusing world and here's the question how do we live wisely in a complex world that's a big question one that's going to take six weeks to cover and because there is a weight to the conversation I want to add a little bit of fun to the conversation how many of y'all grow up and you experienced the beauty of the Nintendo Entertainment System anybody congratulations you're middle-aged welcome to the club I grew up playing this guy man like it was fun Mario I can tell you you're your your order of birth based on the character you played if you're a Luigi you were not a firstborn sorry your older brother or old sister took Mario uh so I grew up playing Nintendo and there was a there was a beauty and a Simplicity to the game like like you just went left to right up and down jump up hit the Box get the money get the the flower get the mushroom to get bigger and you capture the princess or slay the dragon whatever you're doing there was sort of a Simplicity to the left right up down of Mario the 8bit reality of video games and then at Christmas my wife and I finally caved and got our kids a PS5 for Christmas and my wife grew up in the Dr Mario scene and she can like my goodness gracious it it stresses me out she can do like the top level and beat it it's incredible but if you handed her a PlayStation 5 to play not Dr Mario but to play Madden she's lost because Madden is not just up down left right it's three-dimensional in the world and and when I played Nintendo it was like a two button World A and B and a little dial to move left right up down and then I hold the PlayStation 5 and go there's more buttons than I have fingers and if you don't know how to play it's very complicated here's the point our world has gotten more complicated it it it was never perfect and easy but it's certainly become more complicated and many of us are still trying to bring two button answers to like a 15 button world and churches it's time that the church brought the full complete and clear word of God to the complexity of our world and I don't want to I don't want to offer you two button solutions to 15 button complexities and so across this next six weeks we're going to play with this video game thing but really we're going to play with the reality that is the world got gets more complicated God actually has truth and answers for the complexity God's not sitting up there going oh no I wrote the Bible for the Nintendo World it's a PlayStation world what am I supposed to do how I I did not see this coming God's not surprised and his word actually speaks to where we live because listen just if you could be honest with yourself I'm not going to ask her to show a hands if you're a follower of Jesus tell me you've not looked around going this has gotten complicated how do I love God and love people the greatest commandment in a complicated world how do you raise kids in a shifting and complicated culture how do you build a business and a career and a complicated world and how do you do all those things and not lose your soul in the process see we're going to have a real conversation as followers of Jesus for the church that I believe God has complex answers for a complex world and I want to bring us on a journey because like when you start to look around and go I see the world drifting from things are we supposed to like get picket signs and walk around are we supposed to boycott companies I grew up we're in the boycott era where it's like they did something we don't like we're going to boycott is that wor supposed to do how do we live in this world with wisdom like let me say it this way as followers of Jesus where do we need to like just relax like take a breath guys it's okay where do you need to refuse like it's okay for you but for me if I follow Christ I I can't do that and then where do you get to a point where you're like I just have to remove myself from this because I can't even be around this as a follower of Jesus don't pretend this is not complicated but equally don't assume that God doesn't have answers for it and I believe the Book of Daniel is a playbook for us today and in order to get into it I need to give us a little historical context God created his people in the reality of Israel and he said I will be your God you will be my people and it was created as a theocracy and what a theocracy is is this it's that God is the actual King Of The Nation like there's not like elected officials in play like God's the king and for Generation after generation that's how it played out and then eventually God's people started looking around and they started getting like jealous of other countries CU their King was in heaven other countries had real physical Earthly Kings and here's how the story starts to play out in the nation of Israel so all the Elders of Israel gathered together and they came to Samuel who was God's Prophet at the time and they said you are old look at your neighbor say you're old it's okay even if they're not it's timey old it's kind of a dig and then say you look 5 years younger than whatever your age is say it nicely you can you can say that in chur they looked at Samu they said listen you are old and your sons do not follow your ways now appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have this is like if you're a parent you've heard this all my friends have fill in the blank why can't I all my friends have phones I need one you're six shut your mouth you don't have a phone some parents like come on now thank you they're like looking around the other country is like they have Kings and they have Kings why can't we have a king when Samuel heard this he's like he's grieved by it here's how it continues but when they said give us a king to lead us it displeased Samuel so he prayed to the Lord and the Lord told Samuel and this is God speaking now listen to all that the people are saying to you it is not you Samuel they have rejected but they have rejected me God as their King and in that moment Israel made a decision that would lead them down some very complicated path you see have you ever heard the term unintended consequences see when God was their King God was their King then you get an Earthly King and now that's your king but you can't have both see when God was the king he was the one who defended protected provided and then you have an Earthly King now he's the guy who does those things it's like this when I was when I was in an apartment I was like man someday I want a yard I want grass touch grass I want to get out there and I want to be in and I want to have a spot for my kids play ball I want a yard one day I got a yard you know what else I got yard work have you mowed the lawn with pollen it's like an attack on the very soul of who you are I I my God take me home this is miserable see the unintended conert I want I want a real king okay you got it but you got the yard work that comes with that and as that played out eventually God's people got to a place where they rebelled against him they dis they dismissed him and this is how the Book of Daniel picks up because eventually a foreign Nation came in and overthrew Israel Judah Jerusalem God's people and took them away in fact our our guys had a lot of fun with this and I I want to I want to play this out I want to catch us up historically what is the the leadup to the Book of Daniel and to do that I want to play out little Nintendo cartridge those of you who are under the age of 35 you don't know what this is this was a video game back in the day and let me just let me see if we can get this guy to work put it in and uh oh oh you know what you know what you know hold up hold up hold up hold up hold up hold up hold up I don't know what to do with this hold on you know if you know you know nine times out of 10 that's all it takes let's try that one more time and go there we go the year is 605 BC for almost 400 years Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel with Solomon's Temple being the centerpiece of worship for the Hebrew people [Music] but now the nation of Israel has been overtaken by King Nebuchadnezzar and the ever expanding Babylonian [Music] Empire fresh off his Conquest the king requires thousands of young Nobles from influential Hebrew families to be sent to Babylon to assimilate to Babylonian customs and the worship of their [Music] gods Daniel and his friends are among them they now have a simple choice to make bow to the false gods of Babylon or die for Yahweh they chose instead a more complicated third [Music] path to live live wisely in Babylon with Jerusalem beliefs they chose to play [Music] different come on somebody if you can't tell our graphic design team are video game junkies and they're having a blast with this series it's going to be fun here's the point that's that's the leadup to the Book of Daniel they're overthrown these young kids are taken into captivity in fact here's how it says it in scripture this is Daniel 1 vers one in the third year of the reign of jeim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came to Jerusalem besieged it means attacked it and the Lord delivered the king of Judah into his hand along with some of the Articles from the temple of God so he comes in takes it over steals the treasures from God in his Temple and then he carried them off to the Temple of his God in Babylonia and put in the Treasure House of his God then the king ordered ashpenaz the the chief of his court officials to bring into the King's Service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility and these young boys that he's saying you are worthy of being in service to the king of Babylon Daniel was one of these young kids and this is the the the layout of what was happening in This Book of Daniel and these young men didn't have any physical defect they were handsome showing aptitude for every kind of learning well informed quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's Palace saying listen these are the cream of the crop we're taking the best young minds of Israel God's people bringing them to Babylon why because he told them he was to teach them the language and the literature of the Babylonians saying we want to go take this conquered nation and take their young people bring them to Babylon and enculturate them into Babylonian culture and this is how it would work back then of course you would overthrow other nations and then you'd make them part of your nation and you would teach them how to do this and this is where the Book of Daniel picks up and now God's people have been overthrown and they're now all Exiles and Exiles is not just a Bob Marley song for those of you who are older I'm trying to give you a little little help there Bob Marley uh here's what an exile is it's a person who is removed from their home country and located to a foreign one they're taken from their home pull out and put in a brand new place and the complexity of a of a new land to live in is it has new languages new Customs new clothing new values new priorities and they don't share in the worship of the one true God of Abraham Isaac Jacob Israel and you're like thanks for the history lesson bro but what does this have to do with us we're getting there but I want you to see it so Daniel was probably and his friends were probably about 16 years old when this happened so they had experienced 15 years growing up in Jerusalem in Israel and what was Israel Jerusalem like Israel and Jerusalem there was they were not perfect obviously they had Rebellion they had they had their own issues inside of Israel but for the most part there was an agreement on we acknowledge God is Lord and for the most part there was an an agreement on Godly principles and beliefs and there was sort of a shared common value system and priorities if I was to give you a picture it'd be this if you were to jump into the river of Israel and Jerusalem the current of the river would push you towards God and although they didn't live it perfectly they had an agreeance that what God Said was up and down is up and down What God Says wrong and right is wrong and right what God says good and evil is what they believe was good and evil Jerusalem that at 16 years old Daniel and these young boys get pulled into a very different culture different Nation different world so what would have been like living in Babylon where in Jerusalem God is King in Babylon Nebuchadnezzar is King we just read the name there's Babylonian principles and beliefs and culture where they don't share the same values as the Bible we have or The God that they serve they don't share God's value systems or priorities and if I was to say it again back to the whole river thing if you were to jump into the river of Babylon the current would push push you away from God and they don't agree with what God says is up down What God Says is good bad What God Says is right and wrong they didn't share those things and so here's the reality it's harder to live for God in Babylon than it is in Jerusalem and the story of Daniel is the story of four teenage boys trying to figure out grew up in Jerusalem I know oh this God we speak of now I'm in somewhere new how do I do this now because in Babylon if you're going to continue to honor and serve God you're swimming against the current in Jerusalem if you want to honor God you can sort of hop in sit on an inner tube and it'll slowly take you in the right direction at least and I just I want to I want to say this clearly what was physical and material for Daniel they were physically removed from Jer Jerusalem and brought to Babylon that's not our reality what is true for us that is similar to Daniel is that we have a spiritual reality that we have today we're not physically moved to another country but there's a spiritual thing at play and I need to say this clearly I am not paralleling Israel to modern-day America we are not the new Israel I already said this so I'll just say it again Israel was a theocracy we are a democracy I don't know about you I've never had the option to vote for God in an election who you vote for God duh me too did he win of course he's God I never had that option I had people on the ballot we're not a theocracy I'm not paralleling this I'm using Babylon the same way that the New Testament uses it in Revelation and a few other places in the New Testament it uses the word Babylon not as a place on a map not as a place of geography but as a spiritual disposition where something demands allegiance to an idol that is not God and that is what Babylon is and just to be super clear we have never been a theocracy here and we have never been a modern-day Israel if if so why 2,000 years ago did Peter and Paul write these things to the early church he said this dear friends I urge you as foreigners and Exiles foreigners and what Exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul what is he saying you are in Exile you're not at home this is not your home your address and your home are two different places spiritually speaking here's how here's how Paul says it but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body saying listen your citizenship is not here spiritually speaking you live here but your citizenship is somewhere else and by the way this is not just America anybody who's listening to this we have people listening in Canada and Europe in Africa right now wherever you live you are not living in Jerusalem you're living in Babylon here's how I'll say it we are not living in jerus Jerusalem we are Exiles in Babylon and I need us to start here because we have to have a common understanding to even have the rest of the conversation because we live in Babylon but Babylon is not our home you were created for heaven you were created for your father in Heaven and and I'm I'm having this conversation because I've talked to enough people that feel like am I the crazy one when I look around at the world around me I'm like I guess everybody else is like this is how it's supposed to be and this works and this makes sense and I'm sitting here quietly like in a corner going this place feels so foreign to the things I I believe about Jesus and the things that the Bible says am I the crazy one no you were created for Babylon you're just currently stuck in Jerusalem you're created for Jerusalem you're currently stuck in Babylon don't mix that up is why I'm teaching this and I I just want to give you a glimpse because those boys would have had a culture shock from Jerusalem to Babylon and there would have been this confusion of like what do I do with picture yourself at 16 I was ill equipped to do what Daniel and these boys did and I want you just to see some of the confusion that would have come and I'm going to unpack this in Greater detail next weekend but here among those who were chosen were some from Judah Daniel hananiah mishel and Azariah and I want you to see what they did for the confusion the chief official gave them new names see those names are Hebrew names Jewish names the names their parents gave them this is who you are son you are Daniel and they went we're going to just twist some things up and they said that we're going to change him from from Daniel they gave the name belshazzar to hananiah Shadrach to Mel meach and to Azariah Abednego and you're like what do those mean I'm going to tell you next week because when you see the name changes it actually reveals the agenda the objective of the evil one and of Babylon and we're going to unpack that next week and you need to be here for it but here's the point they're trying to reorient these kids to accept the identity of Babylon even though they were born to be God's people if we have a human moment there's a weight to this conversation by the time we're done at the end of week six the weight will have hopefully subsided and the hope will have replaced it because this is not a hopeless situation as we're going to see with Daniel and the boys just because they were exiled from Jerusalem doesn't mean that they were exiled from their God and there is a Beauty to the story and a road map to the story but when I say these things there's a human nature where you don't want to believe it like this isn't Babylon or how how long are we going to be stuck in Babylon like I don't want it to be true can we just can we go back to Jerusalem whatever that means why because like Jerusalem was simpler wasn't perfect but it was easier when I jump in the river of Jerusalem it takes me towards God that's awesome when I jump in the river of Babylon Takes Me Away from God and I'm just exhausting myself trying to swim against the current there's can please tell me this doesn't have to be this way I thought he was fascinating this same sentiment existed back then the book of Jeremiah Was Written great parts of it were written contemporaneously to the Book of Daniel so at the same time Daniel's alive Jeremiah's alive and Jeremiah was a prophet of God where God would speak and he would tell people what God's saying at the end of Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter 28 Jeremiah is rebuking another Prophet named hananiah not the one you know that's famous a lesser known one because God struck him dead because he lied but anyway we'll get to that we'll get to that later so Hanan is a prophet back then and he's speaking what the people are hoping to hear he's saying things like this like here's the the big picture don't unpack your suitcase in Babylon you're not going to be here very long and he started saying things like this God is going to show up and overthrow Babylon and within 2 years you're going to be back home again in Jerusalem and you know what I would have done if I lived back then I think You' done the same thing when you hear a prophet say what you want him to say you know what you say won't he do it I claim that hananiah you are God's chosen man I claim in the name of Jesus may we be back to Jerusalem within 2 years we'd have been celebrating platforming res sharing that guy cuz that's what I want to hear take me back to Jerusalem and Jeremiah had to go oh goodness okay then rebuked that prophet and he wrote a letter to the Exiles in Babylon by which Daniel would have read this letter I love how the Bible connects dots so this this letter written in Jeremiah 29 Jeremiah's going let me tell you what God's saying to those of you who are in Exile in Babylon and it's f fascinating this is what the Lord Almighty the god of Israel says to all those that He I carried into Exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and settle down in other words unpack your suitcases we're going to be here a while and then plant Gardens and eat what they produce how long does it take for Gardens to make fruit and food it's not overnight you're going to be here a while and then marry and have sons and daughters find why for your sons and and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters increase in number there do not decrease in other words build your families in Babylon continuing also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into Exile pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper and by the way pray for Babylon can I be blunt like that's not what I would have expected I'm Daniel I'm 16 I watched an enemy Nation come in overthrow God's Nation bring me into Exile into a pagan ungodly Nation with an ungodly culture and he says build a house build a career build a life build a family pray for Babylon that's my enemy God how can I pray for them God's going no this is what you do because your peace and your Prosperity is forever linked to the nation I put you in and here's the reality we are going to have to figure out how to live in Babylon because there's not another option and church I have a burden over the next five weeks because we have to learn how to live where we live because there's no other place to run and when you believe the Prophecies of hananiah and go it's two years you know what you tend to do hunker down try to survive just tight it up we got to just avoid everything and eventually it'll get good and God's going you're not going to live for what ended up being 70 years in Babylon that way we got to learn how to build houses and lives and careers and earn a living in Babylon have to learn how to build families and raise kids in Babylon we have to learn to seek the peace and prosperity of where God's put us and pray and ask God to prosper the place we live all of that without drifting from Biblical truth drifting from loving and worshiping God or loving and and caring for people we can't do all that and then make the people of Babylon our enemy and attack them we're supposed to pray for them we can't be in Babylon and then bow to their Idols my goodness the complexity of all of this there is a reality that we are in Babylon for the Long Haul we better learn how to live here and the only time that this will cease to be Babylon by the way is when Jesus returns there is not a Jerusalem that will come to where we live and change everything and make it Jerusalem because it never was and it won't be again until Jesus comes new heaven new Earth New Jerusalem he makes all the old things new again he cleans up all the results of our sin that's what the cross started that's what he finishes when he returns and that is where we we live inside of this and it's why we're playing around with the video game thing because I believe there are problems that all we have as a church that we're equipped to answer with is two button Solutions and I don't want that to be the truth anymore I want to give us 10 and 12 and 15 I didn't even count them I probably should have 15 button answers to the complexity of the world we live in you know what's fascinating about Daniel he served under multiple Kings in Babylon and had favor and influence with every King he was let me just say it blunt he was liked by every King and he he did that also without losing the faith influence obedience to his God there is a way to Walk This World by which you don't have to sacrifice the truth of God or the relationships with people that's what we're going to unpack over the next five weeks in fact I have a specific burden as I read that passage from Jeremiah they say build your homes raise kids get married build families I have a burden for families because I'm in it with my kids how in the world do you teach your kids the truth of the Bible without sending them to school and they become either weird or they become haters and jerks it is hard it's why we're doing this this month in the series April 29th right here at the lawrencville campus 7 to 8:30 pastor Kevin and I are literally just going to do 90 minutes for parents if you are a parent that is raising kids or a grandparent raising your kids or a foster parent if you're raising kids in this culture of Babylon we want to teach you how to do that it's not going to be streamed not going to be available either you're here or you're not we'll do it for 25 people we'll do it for 00 people but there's a burden that we have to get into the nitty-gritty the weeds of how we do this and parents we want to help you in that so if you want to get in on that text parent night to 37748 you can do it now we'll talk about this for the next couple weeks and on that form you'll you'll sign up to be there and then there's a place for you to ask questions and I want to I want to do our best to answer your questions like you might be in the middle of something and parenting going how in the world world do you do it I'm not pretending like I have it all solved but I think the Bible has answers that speak to where we live and for parents I want to invite you to be a part of that because here's the framework that we'll use for parent night and for the rest of the series we've established we live in Babylon and there's nowhere to run or go we have to figure out how we live in Babylon and the truth is there's a Continuum to how you live in Babylon and I already said it but I'll say it on this now where do you need to relax in Babylon some of you are like when when that hits you and you're like you can't relax in Babylon God might be talking to you in the series there are there are places where you don't have to fight every battle that hits your world relax and God might whisper to your soul there's places you need to relax and then equally where do you get to places where you have to refuse Babylon you do you boo boo but for me I can't I can't play like that like I I I I follow God and he has things and standards and he says left right right wrong I I can't I'm not trying to change you Babylon I just can't play in what you're playing and then eventually where where should you consider saying I have to remove myself from the things of Babylon I can't even be around this stuff it's more rare than you probably think if you're wired to live this way but there are consequences to making that decision that you can't avoid either we're going to talk about that the story of Daniel walks us through all of this and we're going to unpack that next week because I think there are people that are prone to just live down here and the complexity of Babylon makes you say I'm out do whatever you want tired of trying to decipher how to live for God here I'm just going to relax on everything and God might say hey I need to bring you this way there's others of you that you're living down here sort of going I'm just not playing any part of Babylon I'm out of all of it and God's going really what's that whole Salt and Light thing I told you about like like to be Salt and Light in a dark world like you can't just live in like a nunnery up on top of a mountain the rest of your life there's got to be some and I told you some point you're going to be ticked at some point in the series and it's going to probably come in this coming ation we're going to talk about that and unpack that next week and the and the thing that's fascinating to me is that for Daniel it was very obvious I used to live here on the map I was taken now I live here and today you're going back to the same house and the same world the same geography but maybe with a different understanding and maybe the places you used to get angry at the world around you God might just whisper hey do Babylon being in Babylon of course they don't follow the same things we do as followers of Jesus they've not met Jesus why would they bow to this stuff you might have a compassion and empathy for people you didn't have equally there might be a new awareness of like oh my goodness I have to if I'm not swimming I'm drifting because the current's pushing me this way my goodness I can't just go complacent in Babylon because the current push is this way it's not Jerusalem doesn't push us that way I know it's heavy but let me just say it this this way you can live out Jerusalem values while in Babylon because Daniel and the boys did they were 16 and we'll see as we walk through the story of Daniel that they had been removed and exiled from Jerusalem but they had not been removed from their God and parents there is hope we're going to unpack it singles there is hope there's hope in your dating There's Hope in your marriage There's Hope in your career there is a God who wants to teach us how to live wisely in a complex world and if you want to get ahead for next week read Daniel chapter 1 that's where we're going to sit we're going to be to unpack this piece here and I asked the campus pastors this week if I could close with prayer because I want to I want to close this way and I want to I want to go and give you the question we're asking next weekend it's this how do you stay rooted in the culture that's drifting and the current's pushing you this way how as followers of Jesus do we stay rooted we're going to unpack it so here's what I want to do can we stand here and across all the campuses and as you stand the prayer teams they can start to make their way to the front and here's what we do every week and I'll tell you this week if there's something you want prayer for we'd love to pray for you doesn't have to be something something crazy big you can just say I'm discouraged in this area pray we say yeah it can be something big it can be whatever prayer teams Chris you can come on and bring them out right now I want to pray for us I just want to invite you I know there's a heaviness to the start of the conversation but there has to be a heaviness in in order for us to unpack the hope that is Jesus and the hope that is God With Us in Babylon so please be with us next weekend but I want to pray so bow your heads so Jesus thank you that you are victorious over sin and death death thank you for your Holy Spirit now in us no matter where we are on a map you are in us and God I pray that over the course of the next five weeks would you deepen our understanding of who you are deepen understanding of your word give us a compassion for people and teach us how not to mismanage how we carry the name of Jesus in a world like this would we be known for our love and our kindness and equally would would we not trade love and kindness for your truth that we bow to you only and still love people God would you help us in this season as a church would this be a season by which you take us to new levels of depth and maturity would there be parents that go I get it now I know how to disciple my kids would there be people that go I get it now it's why I'm drifting and would you call a church up to live like Daniel we would live for God even when we're in Babylon Jesus name amen as we leave for God is good all the time and all the time I'll see you next week

Channel: 12Stone Church

Views: 18,892

Keywords: 12Stone, 12Stone church, church, online church, faith, hope, forgiveness, redemption, salvation, Lawrenceville, Georgia, Atlanta, Jesus, God, Kevin Myers

Id: f9w4Mk1hNs8

Length: 42min 21sec (2541 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2024