It’s becoming ever more difficult to know how to live and participate in society as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ in our increasingly post-Christian America. As that nation around us changes at an ever-quickening rate, how should we respond? What should we speak out about? What should we resist or refuse? What should we embrace or simply ignore?

As the traditions, customs, values, patterns, and structures of society evaporate or reveal themselves to be divergent from the path Christ calls us to follow, how should we live as Christ followers? This week we begin our new series, “Glorifying God While Living in Babylon” which seeks to answer these questions through the experiences of the prophet Daniel and his friends living and working in a very strange and ungodly land. 2600 years ago.

Scripture Reference

Daniel 1

Complementary Passage: 2 Kings 20: 19

Sermon Audio

Due to a power outage, there is no audio for today’s sermon. The transcripts is provided below.

Sermon Notes

• God is Sovereign in All Situations
  • What appeared to be disaster (personally and nationally) was God’s will (verses 1-4)
  • God helped Daniel live distinctively (verses 9, 15)
  • God gifted them to serve well in a pagan, foreign culture (verses 17-20)
  • God may not make you like Daniel, but He’s sovereign and will empower you to live and glorify Him.
• Glorify God by Living Distinctively
  • Daniel resolved to live distinctively, God blessed the effort and was glorified
  • Living distinctively today means living in light of the Gospel
  • But don’t be a jerk about it – Daniel and his friends did it quietly and politely (1 Peter 3: 15)
• Glorify God by Serving Well Wherever You Are
  • Daniel and his friends excelled in serving the Babylonian (and later Persian) Empire
  • Wherever your are, serve well and glorify God (Colossians 3: 23) – our world needs more Christ-like teachers, government employees, engineers, architects, baristas, servers, etc.
  • We’re all called to minister and glorify God in our context

Transcript

Does America feel strange to you right now? It certainly does to me. Our social, political, moral, and technological landscape is changing so quickly my head is spinning. Throughout history there have been occasional seasons of dramatic culture shift, and I believe we’re experiencing one today.

Ours is a largely secular, deeply individualistic, tremendously self-centered, profoundly humanistic, and extraordinarily materialistic culture. Old traditions, values, and structures are disintegrating, while new ones are being erected or at least aggressively pushed by would-be culture makers on the left and right.

If you’re a Christian, the chorus of pundits, parties, and interest groups should feel increasingly odd and unfamiliar, because while there is some truth out there, few advocate from a genuinely God-honoring, Christ-following, worldview. There are certainly objectively wrong, false, and evil voices and groups at work in America, and we should oppose them vigorously. However, more commonly groups proclaim a few bits of truth we should embrace from a biblical perspective, even as we politely, yet firmly, disagree with most of what they say or the manner in which they say it.

All this could tempt us to adopt a siege mentality, building high walls around ourselves, our families, and our faith, retreating from the culture and hunkering down inside fortress churches and closed communities while waiting for Christ’s return.

Or it could tempt us to last out angrily at the ongoing changes and celebration of the ungodly around us, becoming embittered, angry, vicious, and ugly. Or it could tempt us to give up and give in, embracing the values of our culture as more valid and valuable than the Bible.

None of these are acceptable responses for Christ-followers. We’re commanded to be salt and light to our community. Retreat is not an option. Ungodly attack is not an option. Surrender is not an option. We’re called to God-glorifying engagement with the culture around us, in which we’re full participants in our society, but not every element of our culture; and we’re a blessing to people and organizations, but aren’t blessing sin. To help us understand how to do that, we’re going to spend the fall examining the lives and experiences of four young Jewish men who were kidnapped from their homes and forced to work for the good of the empire that kidnapped them.

Amidst a dangerous and unstable political environment, through the rule of three kings and two empires, Daniel and his friends successfully navigated tough choices about when to go along with the culture around them and when and how to stand firm for God. They adapted well to their surrounding culture, yet never compromised their faith despite great personal risk. By living engaged, yet distinctive, lives they became people of influence, able to present a powerful testimony to unbelievers, and ultimately leading kings and emperors to knowledge of the one true and living God.

We begin in Daniel chapter 1.

The book of Daniel documents the experiences and visions of four young Jewish aristocrats taken from Jerusalem to Babylon in the year 605 BC. They were forcibly re-educated in Babylonian language, history, culture, religion, and spiritual practices. They were systematically stripped of their Jewish identity, including having their God-honoring names replaced by names honoring the pagan gods of Babylon. This process prepared them for a lifetime of service to the nation that kidnapped them.

As New Testament Christians living 2600 years later, there’s a great deal we can learn from Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about how to live and navigate our schools, jobs, communities, and culture in a way that glorifies God. Today we consider three principles found in chapter 1.

The first and most fundamental is that God is Sovereign in All Situations. This is the dominant theme of the entire book of Daniel. God has supreme authority over every situation, no matter how unpleasant or strange. Verses 1-4 introduce us to what appeared to be both a national and personal disaster: the temple of God was looted by a foreign invader along with the best and brightest of Jewish youth. Yet verse 2 says this was God’s doing, “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God.“

Daniel and his friends couldn’t have been happy about being dragged from their  homes in Jerusalem and forced to live in an unholy foreign land. I assume they were heartbroken, homesick, and probably angry with God, but they didn’t pout about it and they never quit on God. Their confidence in God’s sovereignty sustained them through their darkest times and introduced kings and emperors to the Living God.

God sovereignly guided, protected, and sustained them through decades of service to both the Babylonian and Persian empires. While Daniel and his friends largely accommodated the culture around them, accepting their change in name, education, and employment, they resolved to maintain some separation from the Babylonian culture, determining to do so through their diet, and God assisted their efforts to glorify Him.

Trying to pass three years of training on a diet of water and vegetables was risky for those responsible for them, so God intervened to help, first with Daniel’s initial request, in verse 9, “And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs” and then with the result, “At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food.” This isn’t extolling the virtues of vegetarianism, it’s celebrating the sovereign power of God!

Furthermore, God specifically gifted these young men to effectively serve this ungodly foreign culture. Verse 17 reports, “As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” The net result of God’s sovereign handiwork is described in verse 20, “And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.” Verse 21 reports that God gifted Daniel to serve for 66 years, until the year 539 BC.

My friends, God remains sovereign over everything. He still enables and empowers us to glorify Him in the foreign culture in which we live and operate when we ask. He might not make us especially brilliant, insightful, beautiful, or supernaturally healthy. However, I guarantee He will empower you to glorify Him if you make that your highest priority, and pray consistently for Him to be glorified by your words and actions.

You might find your current situation at home, school, or work frustrating, discouraging, exhausting, demeaning, or painful. But trust that God remains sovereign even in those situations and He can still be glorified through you. If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, then you have the Spirit of God within you, and He’ll gift you and empower you to be faithful and firm, at peace and joyful, even when chaos, strife, and suffering swirl all around. He’s the sovereign God of the universe, His will is to be glorified by your life, and His Word promises that if you pray His will, He’ll grant your prayers. 1 John 5: 14-15 promises this to every Christian, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” God is sovereign in your situation!

The second principle is to Glorify God by Living Distinctively. Daniel and his friends resolved to live distinctively and God blessed their efforts and was glorified. Back then those distinctions involved dietary and cultural matters. Ordered to eat the rich and excellent food and wine from the King’s table, they chose instead to live on vegetables and water. This wasn’t simply a matter of keeping kosher, because there are  no dietary laws restricting wine. It wasn’t simply a matter of avoiding food offered to idols, because the vegetables were likely offered to idols as well. Their decision seems to be about self-control and maintaining some cultural separation from the decadence of Babylon.

Today living distinctively means living in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We should have an entirely different worldview, spirit, and attitude from our non-Christian neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and friends. As Christians, our primary distinction should be our love, optimism, gentleness, courage, integrity, patience, and peacefulness. These flow from God’s Spirit within us as we embrace our inability to save ourselves from our own mistakes and sins. Christians acknowledge that we, like every other person on earth, have often thought, said, and done terrible things that hurt others and offended the pure, perfect, and holy God of the universe.

We understand just ow powerfully rebellious these decisions are and that as acts of rebellion against God’s good plan for the world and human flourishing, we deserve to pay a terrible penalty for our sin, namely an eternity of separation from God, enduring His anger for what we’ve done. We understand that no amount of rule following, good behavior, moral actions, or gifts to charity can ever be good enough to offset the evil we’ve each committed.

We admit that if God gave us what we deserve, it would include death and suffering, yet in His infinite love and mercy, God instead gave us a gift we don’t deserve. In His grace, God offered a path to forgiveness and cleanness that isn’t based on our flawed efforts, but rather on faith in the perfect work of His eternal and holy Son Jesus Christ, who gave Himself up to be an innocent sacrifice of blood to pay our penalty and suffer God’s wrath toward us, even though He didn’t deserve it.

This is the gospel and it should completely transform the way we approach life and interact with others. As Christians, we should live distinctively in light of the cross of Christ – where by faith alone, we received forgiveness,  hope, peace, and eternal life from the God who loves us. Because of the cross, we can live a life of humility, sacrifice, hope, confidence, peace, and love toward each and every person, because God first humbled Himself and sacrificed Himself on the cross to create peace with us, and demonstrate His love for us. As Christians, we’re distinctively able to forgive, heal, make peace, and show love, because of the cross.

The presence of God’s Spirit in our hearts should lead us to live very distinctively because we should choose not to participate in certain elements of our popular culture for the simple reason that they don’t glorify God. This means rejecting some common positions, habits, beliefs, and attitudes of our respective generations, ethnicities, social, and political classes no matter how popular or satisfying they might be because they don’t glorify God or affirm the fundamental dignity of His creation.

But we must also remember that God is glorified by the way we live distinctively, so we mustn’t be jerks about it! When Daniel and his friends resolved to live distinctively, they didn’t stage a hunger strike, blog or tweet about it, or go to the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal to editorialize about it. They quietly went to their manager with their request. When it was denied, they quietly went to a lower-level manager and asked permission to conduct a short experiment. They maintained their distinctiveness with dignity and decorum, which is a wonderful model for us, because Romans 12: 18 commands every Christian, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.“

We’re to maintain our distinctiveness – so that God is glorified and the world becomes increasingly aware of His goodness and sovereignty. But we’re to do it gently, lovingly, and with dignity. Our life and attitude should be so distinctively positive and confident in God that we’re invited to tell people about Him as 1 Peter 3: 14-15 describes, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” That’s the culture transforming impact of a distinctive, God-glorifying life.

The third principle is to Glorify God by Serving Well Wherever You Are. Daniel and his friends didn’t serve the Babylonians grudgingly or half-heartedly. They excelled. They studied hard and worked hard – not out of fear, but out of a desire to glorify God by serving well where He had placed them.

They understood that God sovereignly placed them where they were and gifted them to serve well. Daniel ultimately served three kings and two empires, rising to an extremely high position of influence. God honored their commitment to serve well amidst a hostile environment. This was God’s will for them, as expressed in Jeremiah 29: 7, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.“

We’re living in exile here on earth. We’re citizens of heaven, ambassadors of Christ, living in the United States of America, which is a nice, but increasingly strange place, and certainly not our eternal home. We should follow Daniel’s example and Jeremiah’s instruction to seek the welfare and pray to God on behalf of our earthly home. So wherever you are, whatever your job or situation, serve well and glorify God. Colossians 3: 23-24 commands, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.“

Yes, this world is temporary. Yes this culture is flawed. Yes, there’s a place for firm and godly Christian critique of our culture and nation. But that doesn’t change our obligation to serve well in whatever context God has placed us. Wherever God has placed you – in your neighborhood, community organizations, schools, and places of business, recognize this is your ministry and mission field and glorify God where He has placed you.

Be a blessing and not a detriment to your employer and coworkers. Don’t waste time. Don’t gossip. Don’t complain. Don’t cheat your employer or customers. Obviously don’t break laws or violate God’s commands. In all ways, reflect Christ as you work or study.

I have the privilege of having been called into vocational ministry – serving God through the church. As much as I love that, I realize that I have far less potential missional impact for the Kingdom of God than most of you, because the overwhelming majority of my day is spent around people who’ve already accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.

My calling is primarily about Building Up, so you can Reach Out. As much as I enjoy that, please be encouraged that America doesn’t need more pastors nearly as much as it needs more truly  Christ-like school teachers, government employees, engineers, construction workers, servicemen and women, baristas, servers, police officers, nurses, mechanics, technicians, and chefs.

Daniel had tremendous influence over world leaders, not by running from or criticizing the culture around him but by diligently serving it with the very best gifts, talents, and abilities given to him by God. Every single believer in Jesus  Christ is called to minister in their context – to their neighbors, classmates, and coworkers. If you’re a Christian, you have a ministry that’s far more influential and powerful in our lost and broken culture than mine, because ministry isn’t what you do in spite of, or after, work or school, ministry is what you do where God has placed you. So glorify the sovereign God of the universe by living a distinctively Christian life and serving and ministering well wherever God places you.