Pastor Chris Hodges – The Daniel Dilemma

so let's open up our Bibles to two passages of Scripture everybody and I want you to go to Daniel chapter one and then I want you to go to John chapter eight alright so let's open up to two places I'll read you several verses but I want to share with you a message today based off of a book that I released this past fall and I've actually not been speaking on it I'm not I'm not on any book tour I don't really do that I'm just a local church pastor I actually I pray and ask the Lord what he would have me share and after listening to your pastors messages about the Bible I really felt led of the Lord to bring you this message because I think it kind of think it goes hand in hand because there really is an attack on the church and on Christianity and we live in a culture that is shifting it really is and if the church isn't equipped to be able to handle the cultural shifts you know the it'll eat your lunch and so we have to really be ready and I in 2013 I did a verse by verse study through the Book of Daniel and if you know much about this book it's a it's 12 chapters in all and the first six of them are completely historic so they just cover history of the Jewish people being in exile and in the last six chapters are all prophecy they're dreams that he had and they're prophetic what's interesting to me if you know much about how your Bible is laid out which makes it makes it tough for some people because the Bible is not laid out chronologically so the books of the Bible aren't laid out in in in the order of time you can actually buy a chronological Bible it's kind of fun one year I read through the Bible chronologically so it's so you like when you're reading through Samuel and the life of David it would insert the Psalms that he wrote during during his life so he's a fun it's a fun way to read the Bible but what's interesting to me is that the the book the Bible is laid out in types of books so some of the history books are together the poetry books are together the Prophet what they call the major prophets and not major because they're more important just major because they're bigger books and then Minor Prophets they're all they're all in sections in your Bible here here's my point and that is Daniel is half history and half prophecy and of course I believe not only did the by was the Bible written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but I also believe that the Bible was put together by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and this this history book was placed in the prophecy section and here's my point and that uh that and that is that I believe that the history is prophecy in other words what happened in Daniels life is the playbook for us today because what you'll see when you study when you study Daniels life and we did this in a series in 2013 verse by verse you'll find out that he he had to navigate a Jewish faith in a Babylonian ungodly culture what's interesting about his life is is that he lived it successfully said he not only survived it which is some of your goals and your goals need to be a whole lot higher than that he not only survived it but he had influence in it and he did it without ever compromising his faith and I really believe that's what God has for us today can I hear a good amen everybody so I wrote the title of the book is called the Daniel dilemma how do you do it how do you stand firm and have influence in culture at the same time and I believe most Christians and even some churches believe that those are mutually exclusive so you've got to pick one so if you're gonna be one of those that really stands firm you're gonna kind of be one of those dogmatic always right nobody likes you but you're right you know kind of a Christian or or you're gonna be this person that in order to relate to culture you kind of cave in a little bit can't really give it to you just like the Bible says can't even show you all the really all the truths and actually neither one of those are true that the truth is is that you can do both at the same time so I'm gonna start right in Daniel chapter one and in verse one and it says this it just gives kind of the context of this beautiful book of the Bible says in the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it he he attacked it and and it Bible says that and the Lord delivered jehovah king of judah into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of god these he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god then the king ordered ashpenaz and i want you to remember that name because you're gonna see it a couple of times in this message he ordered ashpenaz chief of his court officials to bring into the king service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility in other words all of these Jewish people are going to be slaves let's go find the sharp smart good-looking ones and let them serve right here in our Court that's what happened here young men without any physical defect handsome kind of reminds you the person you're looking at a man everybody I know that's what y'all were thinking I just anyway showing aptitude for every kind of learning well-informed quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace he was to teach them watch this is very important he was to teach them the language and the literature in other words I'm going to indoctrinate you out of your own culture into my culture and I'm aware you know the language and the literature of the Babylonians the King assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the Kings table they were to be trained for three years and after that they were going to enter the King's service and among those who were chosen from from those of Judah where Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah now some of you're going to know these lat those last three you'll know Daniel but you're going to know these other three by their Babylonian names Shadrach Meshach and Abednego but those weren't their names these were their Jewish names and what you're going to see here is that that culture begins to have an impact or tries to have an impact on them and I really I personally believe that chapter 1 gives us this beautiful playbook and I want to show you three things that that really that culture would try to do just going verse by verse through this first chapter and what you're going to discover is is that culture is gonna try to have an impact on you but I really believe that God God has called us to set the culture not reflect the culture can I hear a good amen somebody in other words in other words we are we are to have an impact on our culture not culture having an impact on us and it will have an impact on us if we're not prepared for it I believe God's called us to be the the thermostat not the thermometer weird we're to set the culture not reflect the culture how do you do that well you can only do that if you understand what cultures effect is going to try to be on us and I think what you'll discover is that you'll see the places where right now maybe even in the life you're living how culture is having this eroding affect on the church maybe on us maybe I'm on our family maybe on our kids and maybe some of you've already bought into some of these lies that the enemy has said and if not you need to be prepared for then here's the first one if you're a note taker and that is that culture will always try first always first we'll try to rename you rename you meaning not not give you literally another name but it will try to change your identity and how you see yourself in fact in verse seven the next verse the chief official this is that ashpenaz guy the chief official gave them new names names were always a sign of ownership it was to obliterate how God has made you and to put inside of you a new a new identity and to Daniel the name Belteshazzar to Hananiah Shadrach - ma'sha'allah shaq - Azariah Abednego whatever they were literally not only going to change their identity but they were gonna really try to obliterate anything that God has spoken inside of you this really hits me personally because when I was a junior higher growing up I grew up and I grew up in a grew up in a Christian home my dad played organ in the church mom sing in the choir I've never missed the Sunday in church in my entire life to date I mean we just always went to church I've never missed Church in my whole life I mean even if I was throwing up there like you can throw up a church get a bag you know I'm saying that was that's how that's how I was raised and so in my tradition I walked the aisle and shook the preachers hand at seven years old I didn't meet God that day but uh but I met my church and and but so anyway I started living life I think I'm a Christian I think everything's going is going you know pretty well and I but when I got in junior high my parents moved from one side of Baton Rouge to the other side of Baton Rouge that was the the town I grew up in and and right in the middle of my junior high years a new school and new friends and I didn't I didn't get I did get the the PE class of my 8th grade I had to go to the ninth grade PE class hope you'll remember this or not but there's a massive difference between 8th graders and 9th graders I mean we had little skinny little white legs and 9th graders had hair on her face y'all know I'm talking about I mean it was it was kind of scary and I got bullied really really badly in eighth grade during this transition it was kind of like the worst year of my life and I remember being bullied so badly I didn't I didn't go into being reserved I didn't go hide I kind of started acting out in a different way I figured I was going to make people notice me and I literally started taking on an identity based off of some of these events that took place in fact it it made me where I was scared to be around people even after I gave my heart to Jesus whenever I ended up at LSU studying accounting I was an accounting major before the Lord delivered me from accounting can I hear a good amen it called me into the ministry but but uh but when I was the accounting major I had a speech class that was required and my sophomore year and I failed my speech class and I failed my speech class in fact I ended up passing it because I talked the professor into giving me a D so I didn't please don't make me get in front of those people again and look what I'm doing today are y'all listening to me everybody that the point the point is is that the enemy was trying to put another label on me that was different from the call of God I was on my life and he'll do the same to you in fact when you look into these names and I don't have time to study them but there are they're a very interesting study of the names because the Daniell means God is my judge Belteshazzar means lady protect the king notice with me they were even trying to create gender confusion in Daniels mind by his label I mean by the way if you'll study it in every pagan culture there has always been gender confusion to Hananiah Yahweh has been gracious oh but you're a good good father we said we sang about that today but Shadrach means I'm afraid of God mom I don't want to be around got notice that every place they're trying to flip the very label and the name that God puts on us and by the way the enemies in the culture is trying to do that inside every one of us as well Michel means who is what God is notice the confidence behind that who is what God is where Meshach means I'm despised contemptible and humiliated notice the front from confidence to cowardice and always trying to reverse always trying to reverse the redemptive name that is on every one of our lives and then Azariah yahweh has helped to a bendigo i'm a servant of Nebo literally trying to change their future i want you look at my eyes in here there's every campus i want you to hear this and then as the enemy has a label for you and for many of us we have bought into that label into that script and it is defining our lives and what god wants to do is redeem not even rename you he wants to bring you back to the name that he always has had for you and the way he does it I'm just gonna tell you straight up how he does it he's gonna make you want to go get it change back to its original name through services like these and messages like these but listen to me but it can't be finished there then you take the next steps and that's what all these classes are all about and the men's summit in a couple of weeks that's what that's about that we say you know what now I've decided I'm gonna fulfill God's plan for my life but now I'm gonna step into the programming of my church and let God do a work and a healing only inside of me somebody say Amen right there and I'm encouraging you I'm encouraging you with all my heart not to see those things as events see them as steps for you to have your name reclaimed because when culture shifts when culture shifts you've got to know who you are let's look at the second thing the second thing that happened in this story if you just go verse by verse you'll notice that there's food involved ashpenaz was going to try to make them eat nan a food that wasn't kosher and the second thing we learn is that culture will try to change your standards in other words it's going to try to compromise what you once believed was wrong well you know what it's not wrong anymore it's just okay now you know and oh yeah you well that's that's you know that's kind of an outdated kind of an old-fashioned kind of God and man we have a whole lot of that going on luring the church into the forbidden look at verse 8 but annual resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked I love this the courtesy behind this is remarkable to me and he asked a sh pin as the chief official for permission not to defile himself that way so he didn't go no y'all a bunch of devil's going to hell he didn't say that to them alright where you from Alabama you'd say hey oh it's two syllables but anyway no he said you know what uh if it's okay man I have a standard and I'm not putting this on you or anything but I'm gonna live by my convictions Church there's never been a time more important than the one we're currently in to know what we really believe to settle your core beliefs in fact I'm encouraging Christians to even kind of go a little old-school and remember the old fashioned way and the way our grandparents used to do it and not not be modernized into some things that were you know well it's I know this is wrong but you know what I can handle it well that's the problem you can handle it you know what I'm saying and especially in the areas of media I I constantly grapple with how much of the secular I can allow in my life I hope you're grappling with that just you know should we really watch that should we really be listening to that should I really have that in my life when I got saved I finally gave my heart to Jesus you can say it again but I really got born again at fifteen years old by coming to a church like this and I was so impacted by actually we know what touched my life was the worship when I saw people worshiping I've never seen that before I'd always had the whole ride over left and looking forward to being all over it a little bit you know and but these people are on fire for God and I was kind of turned off and attracted to it at the same time you know just like man they I don't know who these kooky people are but I think I want what they have you know what I'm saying and and I was I was attracted I was attracted you know to to the worship and to the people there and I followed God and but I remember when I first got say this youth group what kind of like a rite of passage they told you to bring all your secular music to the youth group next meeting something I'll remember this back in the old days back in the 70s and 80s there was this there's a lot of ministries talking about rock and roll and how in the devil you know there was backward masking you know if you played it backwards the devil saying come you want to get some I oh this kind of right of course the devil doesn't need to do that anymore cuz he's saying it forwards now y'all know that all right anyway so it everybody's like why bring your albums at least break albums and have and I and a 15 years old I made a decision that I would never listen to secular music again I'll be 55 this year so it's been 40 years and to this day I still don't I don't I don't want to listen to anything I don't have it I don't want anything that the world has taught for me I just try to stand far away from this possible and I'm not trying to put that on you I'm just saying all of us need to grapple with how much of the secular we're gonna allow in our lives come on say Amen right there it's important and I want you to think about this because when culture shifts when culture shifts we have to reaffirm our convictions this is what I'm loving about the more than words series right now it's just it's solidifying some things that I believe about the Bible I mean I already knew them but they're kind of getting solidified on the inside I mean here's the third thing you try to rename you it's always going to try to get you to compromise your standards and the third thing you see in the first first chapter of Daniel is that culture will try to test me in fact culture won't even try you gonna be tested like your turn of having an opportunity of what do you believe what are you going to say how are you gonna stand in the middle of it is coming your way and actually I wrote the book really to give there there's a place in the book where parents can even use it for what do you do when you're your student you're your son or your daughter comes home from school and they've met someone who's who's against the Bible or or for some some secular things how do you even navigate that conversation and what is the proper response in those situations and in verse 9 now God had caused the official ashpenaz to show favor and sympathy to Daniel but the official told Daniel I'm afraid of my lord the king who has assigned your food and drink why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age notice culture will try to even reason with you to get you to go their way the King the keynote King will have my head he'll cut my head off if you guys aren't looking as good as he wants you to look and Daniels said verse 11 to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel Hananiah Mishael Azariah please test your servants for 10 days give us nothing but vegetables to eat water to drink then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the Royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see so you agreed to this and he tested them for 10 days and this would begin the first of many tests if you read the first six chapters of Daniel you're going to see the lion's den test you're going to see the worship test you're going to see the prayer test you're going to see who's God and your life tests there's all these tests this intimate Church and those tests are coming our way now I can remember my first real test and I'm also a little bit reluctant to tell this story because I always remember of our brothers and sisters who Ephesians says we're to remember their hardships while we sit in these nice air-conditioned rooms there are there are believers who are really like really being tested for their faith but I remember my first test of my faith came I was a sophomore at LSU and my mom was secretary to the Chancellor at the LSU Law School and so she got me a student job between classes it's the funniest thing ever in the maintenance department which is funny because I can't fix anything but anyway I was in this maintenance department and and really honestly we didn't have much to do we sat there waiting for a phone call from somebody in the LSU law school of something's broken there was there's a light out you kind of get the idea so I sat there a lot until they asked me to do something still getting paid for that so I was really on fire for God 19 years old and so I'd bring my Bible instead of study and I was reading my Bible and my boss al toll had a had a friend from the LSU Police Department named Mohammed and he'd come by every day just to hang out with Al and they is a really nice guy and I got to know him and we were good friends but when I was sitting there reading my Bible in out Altos office and Mohammed walked in he goes you know I can prove to you that you don't believe everything in that book and that my first thought was man he's found he's found out he's found gotcha verse and I won't have a good response and this is gonna be a bummer and because he's gonna get me he's gonna get me and I'm not I mean it's not right but he's just a study that more than I have and I felt ill-equipped and I said well I decided to go a little bold I say no if it's in here I believe it if it's in here I believe it he goes no I can show you something you don't believe all you know if it's in there I I really I think I really believe and so he walked he walked over and I had my Bible open I'm sitting down if he could pictures I'm out of desks and Mohammad walks over and I think he's gonna flip my Bible and then show me a verse and say AHA there it is you know I'm kind of waiting for that and so I'm looking at my Bible and I'm just kind of waiting for him to come over there and flip it and when he gets up to me y'all he slapped the fire out of my face I mean hard off in a car pal I wasn't expecting us like Mohammad I said why did you do that and he put his finger in my face he said if you believe this Bible turned the other cheek and I said are you serious this is your test this is a are you serious we do go around slapping Christians what are you doing man like what are you doing he goes and he had his finger I'll never forget it's faint hand was shaking he was kind of like he looked mad and I never seen him mad before if you believe it turn the other cheek and I thought well surely he won't slap me again I had this little courage come up on the inside of me come on y'all I'm like go ahead then and it means something to ya go ahead hit me he goes no you don't believe it I like hit me brother hit me Pam he hit me again y'all he didn't hit me as hard a second time that first time was hard and so he was kind of like he just stood like that second time he goes well he took it I never forget this he took his his hat off he goes well I found my first real Christian and I thought my brother is that what you've been doing to find Christians garage slapping people in the face and that actually for the next six months opened up dialogue between Mohammad and myself about Jesus and about Christensen's about some of his misconceptions and it was it was very very I enjoyed every minute of it but the truth is I want you to hear this and that is cultures going to give you opportunities like that like if it's going to happen I truly believe that the Book of Daniel gives us a prophetic warning of the fact that as our society and our culture changes in many cases moves away from God man we've got to stand firm in the middle of it but here's the key that when culture shifts we also have to respond the right way in fact it's critical to respond the right way and I'm urging believers I did the best I could as I wrote this book to urge Christians not to fall into one of the two extremes don't fall into the extreme of well I'll just be right God didn't call you to be right God called you to be effective the point that the goal is not to prove your point and then go to hell the goal is to win them over - for them to understand our God but at the same time we don't need to fall into this other extreme where some people some Christians even in the name of love or treating others as if they love them more than God loves them Oh a loving God would never tell you to not do that I know the Bible says that but loving God would never say that when truthfully the most loving thing our God does is call us out of our sin Amen everybody and change us and do a work on the inside of us but there's a way there's a way to respond the right way and one of my deepest passions honestly you if you cut me I bleed evangelism I love seeing people come to Christ and I have become convinced that Daniel and really better yet Jesus gives us the perfect balance of the way we should do it I want to read it to you in John chapter one then we're going to go to John 8 in a second but John chapter 1 says this he says that the words speaking of Jesus the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us now watch this we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only son who came from the father every voice at every campus read the last phrase out loud here we go full of grace and full of grace and truth grace and truth when Jesus loved people he with both grace notice grace comes first and truth we connect before we correct that we're going to love people we're gonna we're going to show them grace truthfully the way I like to say it is that truth without grace is mean it's just it's right it's just mean I this past year somebody our church gave me a gift certificate to get a custom-made suit I've never had one before I'm not wearing it right now but but but but he gave me this that I've never been to a tailor I've never been where they measure everything head to toe and just make a suit for you from scratch and so I'd gone in there and it's little Hindu guy about this high head his Hindu gods all over the wall this tailor and he was the most pleasant wonderful man and after after we'd been it took two hours this process he's we walked Tammy and Navy to her together walked us out back to our car I like was he always do this and when I got to my car he says you're different than what I was expecting I said what do you mean he goes well I've met some Christians in fact a bunch of Christians they've just looked at me and said I'm going to hell and you didn't say that to me now I agree it theologically if he doesn't know Jesus I actually agree with those Christians how many all know they were right but not helpful amen everybody it's because the goal wasn't the goal wasn't to be right in that situation the goal was to win him and I said well listen to me I just want you to know that I love you and I would love to talk to you sometime about your spiritual journey that your own and and he said I would like that very much and then he said he said would you mind if I came to your church sometime and I said would I mind come on my brother I'll put you on the front row and we have struck up a little relationship truth truths without Grace's mean listen to me grace grace without truth is meaningless if we just saw all we just love you you don't you don't need no the truth is what sets us free we help people we're gonna we don't get to that but you know what I discovered you can't ever win your enemies to Christ you got to love them you have to connect before we crept so said truth is out Grace's main grace without truth is meaningless you put truth and grace and truth together you get good medicine can I hear a good amen somebody and if there's a story that just it just me I love it so much it's the story in John chapter 8 let's close with this one because I think there's no better story to show how Christians need to be relating to the culture all around us John chapter 8 verse 1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives but earlier the next morning he went back again at the temple a crowd soon gathered and he sat down and taught them and as they was speaking the teachers of the religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery I always wondered what in the world were they doing there if they caught her in the act but anyway that's a good question in it they put her in front of the crowd and said teacher this woman was caught in the act of adultery in the law the truth a Moses says stone her what do you say and they were saying that to trap him into saying something they could use against him but Jesus Stoops down and starts doodling in the dirt he just writes with his finger in the dust and they kept demanding and answers so he stood up and he said all right but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone what an amazing response and then watch this he stooped down again and wrote in the dust and when the accusers heard this they slipped away one by one beginning with the oldest until only Jesus was left in the middle of crowd by the way we don't know what he doodled in the dirt we don't know what he did I have a theory I just want to throw out there for y'all because the Bible says they leave one at a time I think he was right now in the dirt their mistresses Martha Sally anyway that's oops that's mine I better go anyway so yeah watch this and we close and he says then where are your accusers didn't even one of them come to continue and she says no Lord watch this and neither do i condemn you there's grace now go leave your life of sin there's truth that grace watch this church grace invites us to be free so that the truth can set us free I don't know if you came to this place today feeling the the weight of your sin or your guilt but listen to me Jesus loves you just the way you are but way too much to let you stay that way too and I want to encourage you if you've not had your sins forgiven so that your sins be forgiven in Jesus name can I hear a good amen but if you have had your sins forgiven let that grace be the invitation for God to take you on a journey every honest instance because God has more for you to to help you have confidence in the middle of a shifting culture to have your name redeemed to have your faith strengthened and prepared for every test let's bow for prayer father I thank you so much for this amazing church and God I truly believe that you've called every single one of us God to stand in the face of culture and be successful and to follow you and to know you God and I pray for every person that's here today who's far from you maybe they're carrying their own sin and their guilt if you're here today and you're cut you're you you feel the weight of your own sin listen to me you can leave it with Jesus right now the grace of God Jesus doesn't condemn you he loves you in fact he's not even motivated for what you do for him he's motivated by what he's done for you he loves you now all you have to do is say I surrender my life to you completely and father I pray that every person who's far from you leaves here today but their sins forgiven and god I pray for every person in this church to take the steps the journey of faith to walk out grace to truth to set them free I pray God God as we step into classes and conferences and groups God's we follow you Lord father redeem your people I pray like only you can we father we promise that we'll give you all the glory in Jesus mighty name everybody set a good amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

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Keywords: Christmas, gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, Chris Hodges

Id: -vRB_Hk7jXA

Length: 31min 10sec (1870 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 09 2018