Standing Strong in a Wayward World | Daniel 1:1-8 | Gary Hamrick

so as we're leaving the Book of Ezekiel and moving here to the Book of Daniel it's important to note just historically and contextually that the Book of Daniel and the Book of Ezekiel overlap somewhat and so let me kind of frame the historical context Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the same pagan king we've been hearing about through the Book of Ezekiel we're gonna hear about still in the Book of Daniel because Nebuchadnezzar besieged the southern part of Israel over a period of 20 years culminating in the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem the capital city in 586 BC over the course of the 20 years that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Israel he took captive tens of thousands of Jews and deported them to Babylon where they will end up spending the next seventy years and among some of the first Jewish captives that Nebuchadnezzar took prisoner were four young men four teenagers by the name of Daniel Hananiah Azariah and Mishael the first of the guys in that list is the the young man and later the elderly man in the book about whom this book is entitled this is a story about the life of Daniel and the faithfulness of God in the midst of a very difficult time and through the servant Daniel himself and so we're going to be looking over the next several weeks at this book that is primarily about the guy who after whom this book is entitled now remember that the book we just finished Ezekiel was about a Jewish prophet who was exiled among the captives taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon and Ezekiel's primary ministry was to serve as a prophet among the Jewish exiles living in Babylon which again is modern Iraq Daniel however it is deported and he's been in Babylon for nine years before Ezekiel gets it and annuals primary place of ministry is in the palace of the king he's gonna start out serving King Nebuchadnezzar and then successive Kings after Nebuchadnezzar until finally there's a Persian king on the throne then he even ministers and serves a Persian King and so God strategically has placed both Ezekiel and Daniel in Babylon it's unlikely that they knew each other a zq probably knew of Daniel because by the time Ezekiel gets there Daniel has been there again nine years and so his fame and the Royal Palace has probably already been well known but whether Daniel knew Ezekiel it's unknown to us but God strategically has placed both of these guys in very unique roles where Ezekiel has been planted among the people in Babylon to encourage and to exhort and challenge the Jewish people living there as exiles whereas Daniel has been placed by God in the in the citadel of the king in the king's palace where he's going to have influence among pagan Gentile kings and so God's working at both places among the Jewish exiles in Babylon and among the Gentile pagan kings through the Ministry of Ezekiel and Daniel respectively so this book is about Daniels story and I'm going to give you it first a little intro so we can again just kind of set the stage for what we're about to read The Book of Daniel covers about 70 years of history and the Babylonian Empire is in power when the Book of Daniel first begins but by the end of the Book of Daniel the Babylonians have been conquered by the Persians and so the Persians are empowered by the end of the Book of Daniel the king of Babylon that we see in the opening verses of chapter 1 is again none other than Nebuchadnezzar his name in ancient Babylonian language in Chaldean is Nabu Kaduri good sewer which translates Nabu protects the crown Nabu was one of the Babylonian pagan gods the god of wisdom Daniel wrote this book while in captivity in Babylon near the end of his life around 536 BC nine times he mentions his own name as he writes I Daniel's so we know the authorship is attributed to Daniel and Jesus even says so because Jesus quotes the Book of Daniel in Matthew chapter 24 verse 15 about the Antichrist Daniel has a lot to say about the Antichrist which brings me to one more point about the Book of Daniel because of its strong prophetic content it is known as the apocalypse of the Old Testament Daniel prophesies about a lot of things for example he prophesized about the medo-persian Empire and the Greek Empire before they even came into being he told of the break up of Alexander the Great's empire and and how it would be broken into four parts to be ruled by his four generals two hundred years before that happened Daniel also predicted the first coming of Jesus the Messiah to the day we'll talk about that math when we get there and he predicts the rise of the Antichrist something that has yet to occur in our lifetime he talks about the Tribulation Period and he talks about the end of the age and so he there's a lot in the Book of Daniel that is prophetic in nature that's why it is known again as the apocalypse of the Old Testament this book is quite unlike any other book in that obviously through every book of the Bible Christ is revealed so we're gonna see Christ in the Book of Daniel but we also take note of a young man again after whom the book is named who has just tremendous courage and tremendous convictions in the midst of a very challenging environment Daniel is a man of principle and values and a man of faith and he is loyal and true to God above anyone and anything else and it really is remarkable when you think of this story because here he is taken captive at probably the age of 15 he is deported to Babylon that's 900 miles away from his home he is separated from his country his family his language his lifestyle and he's thrust into a foreign pagan culture different language gods okay this is where he's sent now this is where he finds his life and they are wanting the Babylonians are wanting him like all the other Jewish exiles to become absorbed into their culture their values their mindset their language their false gods but Daniel here he just resolves not to bend in the direction of all of that temptation of his environment he instead is going to resist the political and the cultural pressure to conform to his new environment that's why this book is it's timeless because every single one of us will be confronted with an ever pressing temptation to become just like our culture around us we will always as Christ followers as Christians be confronted with this sense of you know who's whose are we you know are we the world's are are or are we the Lord's and to whom will we be most loyal and and you know who really defines us and shapes us and molds us will it be the Lord or will it be our culture will it be the world will it be the environment to which we are exposed and this is Daniels story this is our story quite honestly it's about a man it was not afraid of the consequences for resisting that political and cultural pressure because his conviction to honor and please God always outweighed the temptation to fear and please man everybody hear that because this is an important principle even for our lives he was always under the conviction to honor and please God more than the temptation to fear and please man he was a God pleaser he was not a man pleaser he lived for the glory of God even from such a young age and you know truth be told all of us want to fit in you know all of us want to be accepted all of us you know want to want to find approval in the eyes of people it's a dangerous thing but it's just an admission I think all of us should recognize that nobody wants to feel like odd-man-out and for that reason it's very easy to get seduced by the culture because nobody wants to feel like that you know you're just odd and so the trend to be seduced by the culture the environment in which we live and and society is is constantly assaulting us as it was for Daniel here and and so what happens is when we constantly feel this pressure and and the temptation to conform and to be molded by the culture and the environment in which we live it results in the systematic seduction that renders us irrelevant for the kingdom because when when Christians when people who are Christ's followers end up just living like the world talking like we're doing everything the world does then then it's a subtle tactic of the enemy to render us ineffective and irrelevant for the kingdom so God always is calling men and women and young people to stand out for what is right and true and honorable those things that will bring praise and glory to God and to resist the constant pull of the culture of the environment so Daniel is thrust into this kind of a culture against his will taken captive taken away from everything comfortable familiar all of his surroundings all of this thrust into this cultures very opposite of what he was used to different gods false gods different language different experiences all of this stuff and he's got a decision to make am I gonna just get absorbed into my new life and my new surroundings and just kind of deal with it and give in or am I still gonna be a principled man my values intact my faith intact my my loyalty to God intact am I gonna be a man who just continues to please God no matter what my environment or am I going to be a man who just becomes molded by my environment Daniel is a wonderful example for us and so I've entitled today's teaching standing strong in a wayward world standing strong in a wayward world in Daniel chapter one let me read the first eight verse if you have your Bibles still open there I'm gonna read the first eight verses and it'll give us a sense of what's going on here Daniel 1 verse 1 in the third year the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar as Babylonia to the house of his God and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God then the king this is Nebuchadnezzar instructed ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the Kings descendants and some of the nobles young men in whom there was no blemish but good-looking gifted in all wisdom possessing knowledge and quick to understand who had ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans which is the Babylonians and the King appointed for them a daily provision of the Kings delicacies and of the wine which he drank and three years of training for them so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah to them the chief of the eunuchs gave names he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar to Hananiah Shadrach to Mishael Meshach and Azariah Abednego but verse 8 Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the Kings delicacies nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself alright your attention will pause there for a moment the Babylonians rose to world domination by defeating the Assyrian Empire which was before them we know this historically and the Babylonians were very different from the Assyrians in the way that they waged war some of their military tactics that they employed the Assyrians were a brood and ruthless people the Assyrians would conquer a town and then pillage it rape the women make slaves of the children and filet the men and as history tells us that the Assyrians would actually skin men alive the ones that they had taken captive when they conquered these neighboring towns and cities the Assyrians would skin men alive and use their hide as wallpaper to adorn their homes that's the Assyrians the Assyrians were also known when they took people captive for stringing them together with hooks through their noses and then stringing them with a rope and hooks kind of like you would string fish through their gills and then you have a bunch of fish on a string this is the way they would treat human beings with hooks through their nose you know now it's like quote cool to like get your nose pierced but like it wasn't in the day right and and and so if you want to go a syrian style that's up to you but anyway and so this is what they do and so then they pull people strung together back into their their territory their region which again is still the same areas as babylon like we're talking iraq and iran that whole region so that was the Assyrians very ruthless very brutal the Babylonians not the same when they would attack a country a city a nation they would employ seductive tactics here's what they would do they would take you captive and then they wouldn't put hooks through your nose they would just lead you the 900 miles in the case of Jerusalem the 900 miles to the ancient city of Babylon where you would be enamored with the opulence and the splendor and the beauty of Babylon and once they got you there you see you wouldn't want to go anywhere else you would look around and you would be wide eyed you'd be like wow this place is beautiful and the Babylonians are be like yeah and you get to live here just come on in eat our food enjoy our homes start you know having families settled down is in this place beautiful and all the captives would be like yeah this is beautiful now Herodotus describes the splendor of Babylon in its waning days Herodotus would describe it he's an ancient a story and he would talk about how Babylon as a city was roughly 200 square miles along the Euphrates River that's about three times the size of Washington DC nearly 60 miles of walls around the city 300 feet high these walls and 80 feet thick a hundred brass gates 220 high towers the Euphrates River was diverted around the city of Babylon as a defensive moat and diverted under the wall of Babylon in through the city should be like this beautiful meandering river through the city of Babylon rising from the center of the city of Babylon was this pyramid like structure called his ziggurat and it was a terraced structure and on each terraced level were planted beautiful gardens so that you would look at this beautiful flowered pyramid rising up 400 feet and it was the reason why in ancient history the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were considered one of the seven ancient wonders of the world and so you have to imagine now as a Jew you've just been transported 900 miles a lot of it desert you're tired you're hot and you walk in through the gate and you're seeing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the freight is river and palm trees it's like you're stepping into the Magic Kingdom at Disneyworld and you hear the music it's a small small Babylonian world after all there's cotton candy in the air and popcorn and you're like this isn't so bad this is wonderful this is how the Babylonians would do it you see they would seduce you by the beauty and the splendor and all of this and then they would just kind of absorb you into the culture before you knew it you were just like they and that's how they did it and despite all that Daniel resisted such a thing Daniel refused to be molded and shaped by his new environment he would stay in Babylon for the rest of his life but he would never Bend he would never conform you know he would be it could be said of him living in Babylon of course but he would never allow Babylon to live in him that's the big difference and boy if that doesn't speak to you then I'll say it again because we need to recognize the same thing today he was living in Babylon but he never let Babylon live in him he would be true to the Lord in an uncompromising way and what is so amazing to me is that when this book starts listen to me if you're young if you're a teenager in this room when this book starts he's about 15 years of age when this book ends he's about 85 to 90 and not once it's not recorded at least I'm sure he's not a perfect man like none of us is perfect right but not once does it expose any compromise he was true to the Lord whether as a teenager or a senior adult drawn social security in Babylon he was just faithful to God in every season of his life so whether you're here kind of on the young end of the spectrum or the more mature end of the spectrum you have a responsibility I have a responsibility and it's possible to live in Babylon without Babylon living in you so we need to be aware of some of the tactics of seduction that Babylon employed to try to get people to conform and to be molded and to be shaped into the image of their new environment and here are these three things I'll share with you first was physical isolation they would take you away from your country your family your language your culture even the worship of your God everything familiar to you and they would isolate you they would take you off to Babylon they would get you away they would put separation between you and everything that was your support structure everything that was familiar the worship even our God especially if we they figured if we can just separate you from some of that then eventually you'll be more likely to abandon the way that you used to live and and become more like us and take on our values and take on our gods and take on our language and but but they had to isolate you to to weaken you to separate you from all the things that were basically your support structure so that they could get you to a place where now you were more malleable you could be shaped into the image of their values and their cultures let me tell you one of the first times that this is tested in in modern terms and that's when kids go off to college because all of a sudden you're isolated for the first time you might go to the same school as a friend of two of yours okay you might have you know some kind of familiarity but by and large the first time kids go off to college they're they're kind of isolated they're separated from everything that was so familiar up to that point in their lives they're separated from their family the support structure you know all the things that were you know most comfortable and and supportive and now they're thrust into an environment that you better believe is going to try to shape them into its environment and as a Christian here's what here's what happens when a kid goes off to college that for the first time sometimes for the first time their faith and their values and their principles are going to be really test be tested like never before and it'll be in those moments that they will begin to realize who they really are or aren't and it'll be an opportunity for them to become stronger in their faith values and principles like Daniel or to become more absorbed by the environment in into which they are now moving and and and so that's why parents listen lay that foundation early and repeat it often because at some point every single one of us has to grow up and own our faith and if that foundation is not let listen somebody laid a foundation Daniel's life because he's 15 and he goes off to a foreign country for the first time completely separated from everything that was familiar to him and yet he remains so strong to the Lord somebody mom or dad somebody's pouring into him a praying grandma grandpa somebody is helping it delay that foundation you don't get strong like that in 15 short years and live out the rest of your life with unwavering integrity unless somebody has invested in you and poured into your life and Daniel is such a guy that he's that it's it's like he's ready he's ready for this well we all have to be ready at some point and this doesn't just apply to kids going off to college every single one of us who live in a real world work a real job go to a real school live in a real neighborhood your values faith and principles will constantly be assaulted this world Babylon is not interested in helping you to grow in your faith with Jesus that's on you okay they are not they are not going to help you Babylon is not gonna come alongside if you can say you know let me help you to read your Bible but let me help you to pray do you want to go to church we'll take you the world's not going to do that the world is just constantly going to be assaulting assaulting assaulting so we have to know okay who we are here because the world's goal intentionally or unintentionally is to put separation between you and the Lord that's the goal to put separation between you and Lord that's the isolation if the world if the environment the culture can just isolate you away from everything familiar and everything important and and the Lord and and your Bibles and and and prayer all that you see then we become weakened and we're more likely than to be absorbed into our environment which is why it is so important listen I say this not as a matter of legalism but as a matter just practical encouragement it's important for you to stay regular in your own personal Bible study and in your own prayer times because if you isolate yourself in that way from the important underpinnings of your faith then let me tell you just make yourself more vulnerable to the philosophies and values of our of our culture and so don't deny it in a personal way and let me let me say this too don't deny it in a corporate way you know we need the fellowship of one another corporate worship church coming together worshiping God encouraging one another having corporate Bible study together you know being a part of God's family helps us strengthens us to go out and face a real world and hopefully make a difference in our real world but we need each other this is why the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:25 exhorted do not forsake the assembling together do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching why do you think Hebrews 10:25 says that to us because God knows we need each other as part of a mechanism to strengthen us to face a world that's constantly assaulting our faith in our values and our principles so don't deny your personal time of Bible study and prayer and don't deny the corporate time of Bible study and prayer and worship and and let me just you know say this to with a very pastoral loving heart okay and I know you might say well the people need to hear this aren't here maybe point noted but also I know that you know this might come in handy at some point down the road so let me just say this receive it if it relates to you you know listen corporate worship don't forsake the assembling together right you have six other days of the week to work on your miserable golf game I'm serious I hear people like I'm gonna go golfing good yeah you're not PGI quality anyway what what are you doing is that you're never gonna get there why don't you just give the Lord the first part of your week and and and by the way and this is this is a little touchy in Loudoun County but you have six other days of the week to get your kids involved in sports hello I tell you what listen listen you know in the last like 10 years the whole Sunday travel league sports stuff it's only been in like in the last 10 years when our kids were growing up they didn't have Sunday travel sports they didn't have leagues you know on Sundays and so now it's kind of a cultural phenomenon but it used to be that sports clubs and business establishments would at least respect the lord's day enough not to necessarily encourage you to go to church but so as certainly not to discourage you if you if you chose to go now it nots competing with us and people have to make a decision you know and and some business establishments are already you know people who you know like the leavers who like Hobby Lobby and and chick-fil-a they're like closed on Sundays because because they get that kind of thing right and and yet I can all honesty how many of you have been like hungry for chick-fil-a on a Sunday and been mad okay that's got a chick for Sunday those Christians but but you'll get my drift right the whole point is we have to decide what's priority what's priority in our lives and how are the little subtle ways that our culture in our environment is trying to absorb us and put separation between us and the Lord so physical isolation is one number two they would also resort to mental and Doctrine ation look here in your Bibles with me versus verses starting at verse three again it says in verse three then the King instructed ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the Kings descendants and some of the nobles young men in whom there was no blemish but good-looking gifted in all wisdom possessing knowledge and quick to understand who had ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach notice the language and literature of the Chaldeans okay that Chaldeans is just an ancient word for Babylon Babylonians through language and literature they understood we will capture the hearts and minds of the next generation they took the brightest young men and indoctrinated them with babble of a babylonian mindset so that they would be the best representatives of a babylonian worldview it was all intentional was indoctrination language and literature we're gonna teach them language in literature we're gonna make their minds Babylonians and then they will represent a babylonian mindset now we all understand that education can be a very powerful tool either a powerful tool for good or a powerful tool for evil so we have to be very discerning and recognize what is education for the sake of the advancement of knowledge the increase of knowledge and what is education in respect of indoctrination look at Nazi Germany Hitler's youth movement of the 1930s millions of children and teens were indoctrinated with rewritten history and distorted biology about quote a super a superior race thousands of teachers throughout Germany joined the Nazi Teachers Association and believed propaganda and spread the propaganda so you know nobody can argue that all education is good just got a good education there's some bad education out there Nazi Germany is an historical reminder to us of Education that is really indoctrination used for evil Adolf Hitler and mine Kampf said this quote through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell and also the other way around end quote we have to be wise about various ways that information today is being circulated whether it's through institutions of higher learning or through media or through the internet to convince us about things that are not true as if they were I mean there's even social media engineering now we understand this to control who sees what with manipulated feeds manipulated search results and sophisticated algorithms to tailor information that that they want you to see so that you will believe what they want you to believe we have to sift through all of the Babylonian mindset with a biblical mindset now let me just touch on one example and I want to be very tender in this topic because it is certainly a topic it needs to be handled as some sensitivity the transgender debate is something that the church needs to gently wade into because there are some hurting people and Confused people who need answers in our world today but the answers that the world is presenting on this topic are quite honestly intellectually and biologically dishonest Facebook a couple of years ago decided in their drop-down for the gender that you wanted to select when you started a profile a few years ago Facebook added 71 gender identities 71 now after enough pushback they decided alright let's just allow people to customize it and decide whatever they want to be that is just intellectual and biological dishonesty because even and I say this again with sensitivity four people are confused about gender identity it will not ever change your DNA chromosomal makeup that God created you to be either male or female and it doesn't matter how many surgeries you have or how you personally identified that will not change the way that God created you to be and you know I want and I hope you do too I want people to know the transformation of heart soul and mind that happens in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ so that an individual through a relationship with Christ can then rest in the Wonder and the beauty of the design as God originally created you either male or female but I can tell you I feel the challenge of trying to present that truth because our culture in our environment is being intellectually and biologically dishonest and their loud voices are drowning out the truth that you and I believe that can be liberating to people who need it so we're in a culture right now that is that is struggling in regards to what is real truth and we have to be involved enough to sift through this stuff and not just accept it because a few scientists or five justices and black robes or really smart people or even a majority of people sometimes will tell you what is true we have to sift through all of that through a biblical worldview to understand what is up from what is down let us write from what is wrong what is true from what is false Joseph Goebbels Hitler's minister of public enlightenment and propaganda said quote if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually come to believe it end quote we're exposed to all kinds of indoctrination parents watch closely what your kids are learning in school I support our school system I support you know we have some great Christians even at Cornerstone who were teachers in the public school system but parents you are your primary child's educator not a person in a classroom you are and so learn what your kids are learning [Music] alright number three I've already gone over my time so I got a I got a race through this number three is identity alteration this is another tactic of Babylon this is something I think that we wrestle with today Daniel 1 verse 7 just one verse here says this verse 7 to them the chief of the eunuchs gave names he gave Daniel the name belteshazzar to Hananiah Shadrach to me Xiaomi Shaq and Azariah Abednego these are for Jewish young men who had strong names that they were given at the time of their births that reflected a confidence in God Daniel's name means God is my judge Hanna Naya's name means the Lord is gracious Mishael means who is what God is or who was like God as the Ryan means the Lord helps well they get over the Babylon and the Babylonians are like not gonna have any of those names anymore we're gonna change your identity we're gonna give you new names and so did Daniel that gave the name Belteshazzar which means Maybelle protect my life Bell was a Babylonian God to Hananiah they named him Shadrach meaning illuminated by the Sun God rah another Babylonian God to me Shaq sorry to Azariah they gave the name me Shaq meaning who is what aku is another Babylonian God and ameesha all they named him Abednego meaning a servant of Nebo so they stripped them there's strong godly names and gave them Babylonian names it's all part of the indoctrination and the a bite and the isolation and the alteration just you know how are we going to get you to be like we are well we're gonna change your identity at least that was their attempt but Daniel never lost sight of who he really was because he was grounded in in God he was grounded in the Lord and let me tell you another way that they tried to mess with these guys I when these guys were taken into the service of the king's court which is where they were assigned they were chosen they were hand-picked to serve in the king's court their boss you might notice there who's the guy who changed their name they're in verse 7 the chief of the eunuchs his name was a back in verse 3 ashpenaz listen to me on this it was mandatory that in those days that if any male served in the king's court he was made a eunuch he was castrated so that there would never be the possibility that any male serving in the king's court would ever sleep with the Queen get her pregnant and then spoiled the Royal line by seed that was not royal so to play it safe every guy that worked in the king's palace was made a unit you talk about an identity upheaval these are 15 16 year old guys who are made eunuchs for the purpose of serving in the king's court I mean that's devastating for any man but you're 15 or 16 young young man coming into manhood and this is what happens to you they went to every extreme to get you to completely see yourself totally differently but see for these guys you know it's like you can take me from my country you could take me from my language you can take me from my family you can even remove some physical parts of my anatomy it does not and will not change who I am in the Lord and we need to get this to because too many people have their identities and all other kinds of things and people and people have their identities and a husband they have their identities and a wife they have their identities and a boyfriend or a girlfriend they have their identities in a job or a title or a rank or a trophy or a ring let me tell you something all those things eventually will either fade or fail you but never the Lord that's why we have to be grounded in who we are in Christ we have to know who we are in the Lord because while things and people will fail us and fade away and irrelevant Jesus never will and so we have to be rooted and grounded in who we are in him one last verse what was Daniel's response to all of this here are the two words you can write him down personal resolution personal resolution all these things were coming at him to try to conform him personal resolution look at verse 8 of chapter one verse eight says but Daniel purposed in his heart and IV says he resolved it makes a personal resolution that he would not defile himself with a portion of the Kings delicacies nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself now it's the first time but it won't be the last time that we see the courage of Daniels convictions he goes to his boss and he says with all due respect my conscience convicts me about some of the spread here that that the King has put out you know all the delicacies all this food or all the wine now again remember ladies a teenager what fifteen-year-old would refuse a free buffet and a few and a free open cash bar and mom and dad aren't even around but this guy's like you know what see he's living under a kosher standard as a Jew he's like this food isn't kosher no doubt this has been offered to idols what the King says is acceptable my King says is not I serve a greater King than King Nebuchadnezzar I want permission not to eat this stuff and not to drink the king's wine and ashpenaz reluctantly agrees but he's like you're gonna look sickly you know Kings gonna be able to notice because you're gonna start to get really thin and you know and he and he goes no no I just trusted Lord he ends up you know being favored by God because he honored God more than indulging right more than indulging in all the delicacies of the world and so God was honored because he made personal resolution I want to honor God more than I want to enjoy all the delicacies of the world friends listen this is a guy I'll say it again for like the third time who was living in Babylon but Babylon was not living in him and may his example be a reminder to us this world is going to try to absorb you and seduce you into its mold okay we have to go out in a real world and live real lives and rub shoulders with real people and we need to be the influencers we need to be salt and light and we need to know who we are in Christ to be unmoved and not persuaded to become like Babylon we might be living in it but may it not live in us Amen let's pray together father and having me thank you for the introduction of the Book of Daniel and we thank you for the example of a man who followed you and loved you and held on to his integrity for in his entire life his faith his values his principles we're constantly being assaulted but he was unwavering in his devotion to you help us to be so help us to be wise about the different ways that our world either intentionally or unintentionally is trying to squeeze us into its mold may we continue to walk in the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ representing you Lord wherever we go influencing our world for the glory of God for your praise for your honor help us to stay strong in a wayward world Lord to be men and women of integrity and principle and values and faith but above all you are glorified in our lives we pray this in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Length: 43min 4sec (2584 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 03 2019