Into The Fire | Week 1 | Sermon

like the human instinct to think that we can make it right all on our own. The truth is I I even learned this the other day as I follow this history site, and they brought up a study that was done back in 1931 by a researcher who worked with with the the smarter animals like dolphins and chimpanzees,

and he was trying to to see what's the limits of them. And he he did a study with a chimpanzee

that he said, hey. They're so close to being like humans, and their speech boxes, they make noises, but they could talk. Could they learn to actually say words if we just put them around humans? Like, what if we raised a chimpanzee like a human?

How human could it be? Could it be better? Could it be the best chimpanzee? Could it be pretty much human like? And so in his study, his and his wife decided that what the best way to do it is they just had a son. So they had a child, and they go, we're gonna raise this child this baby's chimpanzee

like the like it's the brother of our son. And that's what they did. I have a picture here of of it's an old picture, kinda fuzzy.

But they they were raising this chimpanzee like a human. They're playing. They're dressed the same, holding hands, walking, and and and they they fed them at the same time. They just gave them all the same love and attention.

They just said, alright. This is gonna be like the brother, and we're gonna see we're gonna make this chimpanzee better. That's what the study was gonna do improve. And at first, there was a few things the chimp started to do better. Like, he he learned how to use a fork before his brother.

He did learn a couple 100 different phrases. If you tell him to do something, he he understood, but he wouldn't speak. Anything

physical, he was way more agile. I mean, could have told you that. You don't need to be a scientist to know that. And and and and and and so it was they were kinda doing this, letting him live together, let him be brothers and all that. And and they were gonna do it for five years,

but they abruptly ended it at ten months. Because, you know, their intention was to let them live together as brothers so the chimpanzee would start acting more human.

But that's not what happened. Can you guess what happened? Anyone that's actually raised the kid could have told them. It's instead of the chimpanzee becoming more human, he mimicked some of the human characteristics. But what happened is the child started becoming more like a chimpanzee.

His speech, he wasn't talking when he should. He started to he he started to walk on all fours like like the chimps do. You know, like like like, you know, gorillas, you know, they're like this. But but the chimps, when they really move, they use kinda all fours. The little side is like

You know? And and and then the other thing was when he wasn't speaking, they he would start barking like a chimpanzee barks. They they bark too. It's called barking. And especially when they're excited or when there was food was. So when they say it's time to eat, they would both come running and and and the boy, the nonchibat, he would come running food. Like, now

some of you are like, my husband still acts like that when I say there's food. But it scared them. They're like, this is going the opposite. We were supposed to influence and and make the chimpanzee better. Instead, our son started to becoming a chimpanzee.

That can explain the whole story of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. See, God created a a people by calling out a man named Abraham, and he Israel. And what he said is, you're gonna be my chosen people, and you're gonna be a light to the rest of the world to show who I am. And instead, they just thought we're better.

But the longer they existed, the more they started acting like the world around them. The more they started acting like chimpanzees.

It it never crossed their mind that, you know, we're just better, but they slowly started to act like that. Like, would say, we want a king like the other nations. They thought political power. They needed to have their own king because that's what they really needed. And God says, but I'm your king. And they're like, but

that's not what everybody else is doing. And so the whole process is God passionately pursuing his prodigal chimpanzee people that keep copying the rest of the world and ignoring his love and his truth. And what they tried to you do is use their religious ritual and their places saying, we're God's people

to want the blessing they wanted, but the blessing they want is we want the things the world wants. And God says that was never the intention. That was never. So so in other words, what he does is through the prophets, he warns his people. He said, turn to me. I'll turn to you. But in the end, he lets them go into exile.

He basically sends them into the fire. Meaning, if you're gonna constantly imitate and start being like the world, I'm gonna let you be overrun by the world, and you're now gonna live in exile. You're not gonna live in your country anymore. You're gonna live in this other culture.

And that seems like it's just pure punishment, but it's not. God said, hey. I'm gonna send you into this fire. And to those who are humble and turn to me, that's gonna be a refining fire. To those that continue to reject me, that fire is gonna consume you. It's that simple.

And one of those books that talks about this time in exile when the Southern Kingdom Of Judah was sent off is the book of Daniel. And Daniel is is is a young man that gets taken into exile. And what we're gonna see in this story is we're gonna see how can we live in exile. How can we exist in exile?

Because the truth is what they go through and how their faith is being challenged is where we're at today. Because contrary to popular belief,

we now live in Babylon in our world. Our country, the Western world does not stand for Christian values anymore. It hasn't for a long time. And the way you live in that is different than you lived before. And we need to learn how do we go through this fire

and not worry about the place we're at, but we worry about the person we're with and who we're supposed to be. And so what we're gonna see in chapter one of Daniel, as I just walk through, tell the story, and point this out,

is I think this is really true for this whole book. What it's God's trying to accomplish in telling us these prophecies and talking about these guys is simply this, don't be conformed, be transformed.

We as followers of Christ need to learn to not conform to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the love of Christ. And we're gonna talk about that, what does it mean, and how do we do that here in a minute. But what I'm really trying to get at is a warning that, hey, maybe this year,

we can choose this year to say, I'm gonna choose transformation, not confirmation. And and and and and the reality is how do we conform? We do it a lot. We're gonna see in the story that what we do is we come to church and we do the ritual. But then we leave church and we act just like the rest of the world.

And we almost we turn God into a resource, not the source. And so our Christian faith, our walk becomes about this game we play. I did the thing you want. I came here. I learned this stuff, and then I pray and pray and pray. But everything we're asking about, everything we fear, everything we fight over, everything we run after is we're like the world.

And that kind of faith is never gonna work. You're gonna end up either frustrated and angry with God or frustrated and angry with yourself and feel defeated, hopeless, shame, and guilt ridden. So what's the answer? It's be transformed. What does that even mean? What do even mean? We'll see. Let's look at the story.

So it starts off.

During the third year of king Jehoiakim's reign in Judah, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave him victory over king Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar

took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure house of his God. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families who had been brought to Babylon as captives. He says,

select only strong, healthy, and good looking young men, he said. So none of us would be on that list. Sorry, guys. No. You're like, speak for yourself. So he goes. So he he brings these captives, and he says, we need to select the best of the best.

What's going on here is how Babylon worked as an empire. When it would take over a people, they had to actually it's a pretty ingenious plan of how they got everyone to not rebel, and they didn't have to keep a strong army presence everywhere all the time. Is when they would take over a place, they would take the elite, the rich, the wealthy,

and and and and and pull them out, all the leaders and all the and and they would take them back to their land,

and and they would try to turn them into Babylonians. And what they would really do is they would take the best of the best and the youngest because they're impressionable. So Daniel and his friends in this story are teenagers. They're probably, like, 13 to 15 years old.

And that's who they look for. They would grab them, and then they were gonna train them up to become Babylonians.

And then they could use them, and their people would accept them. And they could even send them back into leadership positions because they've trained them into their own image. They've given them all this good stuff and took care of them and all that and made them loyal.

And then what they did with everyone they left behind so the people back in in Israel wouldn't always rebel and protest, they left the poor and the outcast and the not the best of the best that didn't have much, and they said, you can live wherever you want. Take his house. That guy had a big nice house.

He had the latest in chariot technology. You know, he's like like, okay. So they what do you think they're gonna act like? They weren't rebelling. They were mad. They're like, hey. Life just got better. They made it rain. You know,

it doesn't matter if you're a dictator or a ruler. People have figured out a long time ago, if you give them free stuff, they won't fight you as much. And and that's kind of what's going on. And and that's what they would do.

So that's kinda what's happening. And Daniel and his three friends are in this group as we keep reading.

It said after he said select only the strong good looking young men, it says he said, make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and they are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.

The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of these young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah.

The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names. Daniel was called Belshazzar. Hananiah was called Shabrach. Mishael was called Meshach, and Azariah was called Abednego. So there you have it.

So they took him, and they gave him this new name. Like, that's interesting. That first time, they gave him new names. And starting with the new names on Orthodox, there's four things they did. And they weren't doing it because they're being nice to the really good, awesome, good looking, popular,

great leadership potential Israelites. They were doing this because they wanted to turn them into Babylonians. And so starting with the names here, the verse says, like, saying, oh, so they changed their names. Why did change their names? Maybe their Hebrew names were hard to pronounce in

in in their language. No. I mean, they're they're not doing that. They're My dad used to do that. When I had friends, if he couldn't pronounce your name or couldn't remember it,

basically, he would just call you what he thought you should be. So my friend Jimmy was Scott. You know, and he would call him Scott. And he would go, my name's Jimmy. Every time. Okay. And then he called him Jimmy. Scott. I finally called my friend Jimmy. I go, you that's not gonna work. That's your name now. When you're at my house, you're Scott.

That's what he would do. And Adam, I mean but that's not what they're doing.

It's all about turning them into Babylonians and trusting the Babylonian gods and the Babylonian ways. They're trying to get them to conform to be Babylonians. Like, look at the the names here. These names, they mean something. In Hebrew and the Babylonian, what they changed them to. You could see their purpose of what they're doing by their names. It's like Daniel, his name in Hebrew means God is my judge. Yahweh is my judge.

But then Belshazzar means bell protects his life. He's like, bell. Bell was a was a was a Babylonian god, like Taco Bell. Does not protect your colon, but will protect your life. Hananiah, Yahweh is gracious. God is the one that has grace. But he changed to Shadrach, which means the command of Aku.

Aku was not like, oh, Gesundheit. It was another Babylonian god. And then Mishael, who is what God is? They weren't real creative with this one. Meshach, who is what Akhu is. They just changed it to a different God. And then Azariah, Yahweh is my helper to Abednego, which means servant of Nebo, one of their other main gods.

Can you see what they're doing? It wasn't about pronunciation. It was about they wanted the people to see them with these names so they'd accept them as Babylonians, but they wanted their new names for them to accept the new reality of it's about these gods.

In other words, all the things they're doing here was to try to change their identity. Because look, there was four things they did here. This was the fourth one. But if if you look back, they they did new homes.

They put them in these new homes. That's kinda like you're now surrounded by everyone lives different than you.

And that's still today. When we live in Babylon now, you're gonna live in neighborhoods. You're gonna kids are gonna go to school, and there's gonna be people at very different parenting styles, very different ideas, and you're stuck with it. You're gonna be living around it. And there's nothing can't win traditionally. You can't just go fight it all the time. But they're like, hey, if you're around that, you'll be tempted to go, you know what? Why don't I just live like them?

And then the next one is they had the new knowledge, this indoctrination. They're gonna give them this education. Then a lot of it was fine, math and science and stuff, but some of it was this magic and enchantment. It was their spirituality that they knew wasn't true, but they had to learn it anyways.

And then the the third one is new food. They're like, you gotta try this dip. It's really good. No. And then the fourth one was the new names that we talked about. You see what this is? It still happens today in the world we live in. All of this is an attempt

from the Babylonian and today there's still the world's way of thinking that's counter to God is to get you to look elsewhere for your identity. So literally why it ended with the names is saying, want you to take a new name because we want you to live differently. So what do they do?

They already got defeated militarily. They're teenagers. They're never gonna overthrow this government. They're never gonna get any new king in that sense. So what's the answer?

Well, the answer is in verse eight, but I'm gonna read past verse eight all the way to verse 20 to just kinda land what happens and then go back and

put this together on how does this work. How do we choose to be transformed and not conformed? Says, but Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.

He said, I'm on the Mediterranean diet and it's really gonna ruin my macros if you make me eat that. No. He said, now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. See, notice notice in this passage what God does versus what they do. God gave them good standing.

But he responded, I'm afraid of the Lord, my king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I'm afraid the king will have me beheaded.

Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Michel, and Azariah. Little point here to pay attention to. What did they call themselves?

All through this book, they call themselves by their original names. They don't go by the new names. Just a thought. Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water, Daniel said.

At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king's food. Then make your decision in light of what you see. The attendant agreed to Daniel's suggestion and tested him for ten days. At the end of ten days, Daniel's and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.

So they put out an ad with the before and after pictures and started a new diet trend. No. That's not what it said. So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others. God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding

every aspect of literature and wisdom. So now here's the education part. God let them be really good at it.

And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meaning and visions of dreams, which was interesting because that's what the enchanters and the magicians did. So instead of him having to fight it, God gave him the ability to spiritually do it from his spiritual giftedness.

And God ends up giving the king dreams that are real dreams, not the whole made up stuff that these magicians were doing that turned into something real. He excelled even in exile. When the training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief of staff brought all the young men to king Nebuchadnezzar.

The king cocked with him, and no one impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Michel, and Azariah. So they entered the royal service. Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment,

he found them to be 10 times more capable than any other magicians, enchanters, or Seahawks fans in his entire kingdom.

It's so funny. No.

They were living in exile and God took care of them and they didn't have to change the culture. All they had to do is don't let the culture change them. That's the point. And and and I and I think they they they they chose to not be conformed like they were trying to make them, but be transformed. How?

How does he do that? What does it even look like? And that's where we go back to verse eight. Because verse eight gives us the heart of how and what. It says in verse eight, but Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given by the king. There's two things there. What does the determine mean?

And then the food. It's interesting for the food part. But first, what does determine mean? In other translations, it means

he made up his mind. Him and his friends made up their mind. But you gotta understand, even that word mind means something very different to their culture. That's when you hear made up your mind, you're like, I'm just gonna, like a New Year's resolution, I'm just gonna be better.

That's not what it means. The word for mind there means something more than just a thought or a determination or a desire. Because when we decide to just make up our mind in our way, I'm just gonna be better and be better, but it can't work because we have chimpanzee sin in our life.

And it always forces us back. We always fall back. It means something much deeper. It means to to start to look at it it means not just to know something, but to choose a point of view. It really means that they chose before they knew what was gonna happen, these teenagers

decided right off the beginning that, you know what? They may tell us where we're gonna live. They may tell us what our new names are. They can call us what they want. They can teach us whatever they want. They can try to give us this food, but they don't choose who we worship. They don't choose our identity. God did.

And they so they they said that they decided that no matter how we're treated, what we're called, what they do to us, we're gonna take God's point of view on who we are.

And that means the mind means to look at things from God's point of view. And when you look at things from God's point of view, the mind of God, the mind of Christ, you then make your decisions based off that, not on circumstances.

So they made that commitment when they were 15, and that's what led they decided upfront before we know anything. They didn't know if it would work out. They could die for all of this. But the point was

that changed their mind. I'll get more into that in a sec. But what's interesting, the one thing that they chose to stand on of those four things

that they said we can't do. They let them call them whatever they wanted to. They let them teach them whatever they wanted to. They even let them live made them live where they lived. They were okay with all of that. The one thing they knew they wouldn't do,

it says they changed their mind to God's point of view, is because they knew that this was the one thing we can't do according to God's word. Why? Why the food? The food seems like the easiest thing to not worry about. You know? What was the big deal with the food?

What you understand is there's several reasons why they couldn't do it. The first and foremost one is when God asked them to be set apart, to be holy, to to look different than the rest of the world, to be that light, an example of who God is,

he gave them some rules on what to eat. And some of those we know now was God knew health better than they did. He told them some of the animals not to eat. We now know that's not a good animal to eat. And so the Babylonians, what they a lot of that food they're being fed was animals they were commanded not to eat.

Also, they were prepared in ways that they said, don't eat animals. They said, all is symbolic of of Jesus and what he was gonna do later on, but they were told not to do that. And they are also told to not eat food sacrificed to an idol.

And when they would come to the king's table, the the food and the wine that they would give these people, they would always use the best food and wine because they they would give the best to their god. But he didn't actually literally drink it. So then they would take it after they offered it, and then they would eat it.

So they knew that they were getting offered food that had been sacrificed to Aku and Nebo and and and whatever the other guy, Taco Bell, whatever his name is.

And and and and so here's the thing. That was the one action. Other stuff could be done to them, but it didn't have to change who they are. That's the one action that they had to choose to consume. It's more of like, what are you choosing to consume in your life? And they knew I'm not supposed to consume that way.

Also, from a cultural perspective, they knew if they took that, they were agreeing that the king was the provider of their life, and they were saying, we agree with our new names. That's why the one that looks like the dumbest little detail was the most important.

And that's a lesson for us till today. There's some things that God says, don't do this, do this.

And in our world, you think that's a dumb thing that you can ignore. It's not a big deal. And I'm gonna tell you, it's usually those little things you're ignoring obedience to God on that is the biggest deal in your life. You know why?

All of the stuff that God said, don't do this, but do this, and why, and why they knew why the Babylonians wanted them to do it, and what it meant was all about idolatry. God in the tenth man, you will have no God before me.

What does that mean? We think we hear idols and having other gods. You think you have some statue in your house. You're Idol worship is simply this. What do you ascribe higher worth and value to than God? In other words, what do you think you need or need in your life or not in your life?

That if you don't get that, even as saying you follow Jesus, you're gonna get frustrated and mad at God and think you can't live life unless you either get this or he takes something away.

And if there is something in your life that you put above God of trust for your life that you can't trust God on because I either need this or need this to be gone, that is an idol in your life. And you can come to church all you want, sing songs, and act. You are not worshiping God like he asked you to.

If you keep fighting them on money because I I need money, then guess what your God is? Money. If you keep fighting them like, God, you are hosing me because if I don't get this good relationship, I don't get married or if I didn't get this, you're putting a relationship. If you're like it's kinda like we turn idol

idolatry is when you turn God how can a Christian comes to church being idol worship? It's when you turn God into the the the resource instead of this the source. Meaning, I come here so God will give me what I really need.

That's the source of legalism. We play this game. We do the ritual. We come to church. We be good boys and girls, and we do all that. And then we pray about all the things we want

or the things we don't want in our life. Now it's okay to ask for things. It's okay to ask for things to be removed. But the truth is at the end of the day, are you saying, but not my will, thy will be done, Lord, like Jesus prayed and taught it? Or is it all based on whether you get this or don't get that?

See, they knew if they did this, they were worshiping an idol. And I think that's the biggest struggle with our western culture. Even not just individually, but as churches organizationally.

So many churches like, well, the world doesn't like that we say this is wrong because God says this is wrong. So we're gonna say it's okay out of love so people will come to our church. And then they don't come to their church. You know why? Because if you say, let's just all be the same, then they're like, why do I need to waste that hour and a half at your meeting?

We're not called to conform. We're called to be transformed. And that's why they knew that was the stance. They they they knew. And it's also hard because they're surrounded in their new homes by people that are getting these things. And we're surrounded in a culture where you are inundated

on on all of our our, you know, social media, TV, movie. Everything says this is the lifestyle. This is the food you should be eating. And God says, we need vegetables and everyone's eating steak and potatoes. And you're like, I want that. And God says, no, but you need to make up your mind. What does that mean?

Well, it means a couple of things. First, it means don't focus on what's changed or needs to change. Focus on the one who doesn't change, God.

And how? What does this look like? Well, Daniel had figured something out that the New Testament explains very clearly after Jesus had come. The book of Romans, the first 11 chapters, is all about what God did for us. How we were chimpanzees, and he died to make us humans.

He died to make us what he may what he intended us to be, to take care of our sin and our issues. And it's all about what he did and how he loved us. And then chapter 12 switches. Okay. So then how do I live? We don't live for his love. We live from it. So based on what he's done for us, what does that mean? What should our response be to really live life? And chapter 12 verse one and two answers it. And it uses some of the same phraseology as Daniel of this mind issue. So what does it look like? Let's go into he says, and so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he's done for you. So how we worship him is not coming to a meeting and doing some ritual.

It's we give him our life. When he says your body, that means your actions, your choices, the way you live. We worship him by trusting him with how we live our lives. And and he says, let them be a living and holy sacrifice. So Jesus died for us so we can live for him.

Our sacrifice for him is to live in trust of what he died to give us. And he says the kind he will find acceptable, a living in all that kind. What is that? This is truly the way to worship him. See, if I come to church and and and say words and believe who Jesus is,

But then when my everyday decisions are always going after the things of the world and not trusting God

the way he asked us to trust him, not serving him when he served, not using our gifts the right way, not using our talents, our treasures, our time, not our relationships the right way. When I don't do that, I am not giving acceptable worship to God. And that's why, pardon the throw punch,

if you're not worshiping Jesus all week with your life, you tend to not wanna sing on the weekend.

A lot of us don't praise God through song, not just because we don't like the songs, because you got nothing to sing about. And that's the truth. And then you get mad at me for telling you that. But it's reality saying, God does not accept that form of worship. So what are we supposed to do? Verse two

says, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. Don't copy. In in the in the in the Greek, it uses the word don't be conformed. So I said don't be transformed. Conformed.

It uses that that Greek word for a form, a mold, like if you're pouring concrete or if you're making a statue and you pour it into a mold until it dries. It says, do not let your life get molded into the ways of the world. He says, but instead,

let God transform you into a new person. So the problem is many of us, we come to church, but we're letting the world mold us. So our life is lived in the mold of the world, but we come here and we try to praise Jesus. But what we really want is we want this mold.

And God's like, I don't want that. And that's why he'll throw us in the fire. In other words, I will break that concrete. I will bust that mold in your life. And you think, why does God hate me? No. He loves you more than you love yourself.

He's trying to bring you back to him. He wants to transform you into this new person. Why? How? Here's the part we need to do. Exactly what Daniel said. By changing the way you think. In the in the other translation, the Greek says, by the renewing of your mind.

Says renew. That's the thing you gotta keep doing. In mind, it's not people read that. They think, oh, go to more bible studies. Learn more information. Argue with more people on social media. Instead of pointing people to Jesus, we point Jesus at people. That's what we think the mission is. And no, the renewing of your mind is renewing yourself back to the mind of God. It means I will accept God's point of view.

The Bible says there is a way that seems right to man, but the end it leads to death. I've this is like my soapbox because it's over and over. We fall for this all the time. What he's saying is we act like chimpanzees.

We think like chimpanzees. There's ways in our world that says, God says do this, but this seems to make more sense doing it this way.

If I really feel attracted to this, I should go after it. Right? And God says, don't do that. That's not healthy. This is the way you wanna go. But that seems right. He goes, well, that's gonna end in death. Not that God's gonna kill you. It's that you're not gonna find what you're looking door for down there. God says at some point, you're gonna realize what I built you to long for, that will never fulfill it.

See, we always have idols because we are designed to worship. You can't sit there and go, I don't worship anything. Yeah. You do. Every one of us worship something

because we're built for it. But are you gonna worship something that actually deserves to be worshiped, which is only God? Or are you gonna worship all these other things, which in the end are really you're worshiping your own selfishness. You're worshiping yourself, and you are gonna let yourself down.

And so the problem is, he says, don't go that way because I love you. But instead, look at my way. Think from my way. Commit to my way. Determine in your point of view to say, don't even I don't know. A lot of times you come here and I go, well, you're telling me that God's word says this,

but I gotta think about this. You've already lost the battle. You're not worshiping God. Because a true worshiper of God says, I have already made up my mind. I am on God's point of view, and I'm gonna do that, and I'm not gonna worry about the consequences.

God will take care of it. And look in the story. Everything they did, it looked like they were gonna die any second. Instead, they excelled all by the power of God. They didn't have to do the fight. They just had to stay faithful

and hold on to God's point of view. Does that make sense? He goes, because then when you do that, you change the way we think. Then here's the beauty. Here's the blessing. Here's what we miss out on when we fight God, and we either live in defeat or live in arrogance and we're angry at God,

is we miss God's real will in our life. And here's what he says. When you actually do it, you will learn to know. That does not know what it is. It's when you actually follow God's will from his point of view, you'll now know. That's the word in Greek that means intimacy.

You will intimately experience by firsthand experience that God's will for you is good and pleasing and perfect. Even though there's a way that seems right to man, a lot of times, well, it's like, that doesn't seem good and perfect and pleasing from my point of view. Exactly. It is from his.

And when you do it, you'll find out for yourself. So a lot of us, you're sitting here and your face never getting us where going because there's a few things in your life. And you're like, I follow God on all these things, but I'm holding on to this.

Well, if you're holding on to one thing, then you're got an idol and you're not worshiping God. That that's the challenge of changing the way you think, is decide upfront, I'm gonna do it God's way. That's all we need to do. God brings all the power. He brings all the he he fights the fight.

You don't have to go force the victory. You just gotta experience what he has. Are you willing to do it? And

the reason it says renewing in some is this isn't a one and done thing. They decided as a 15 year olds, but they kept doing it. They kept doing it. Matter of fact, you know the story of Daniel in the lion's den? Happens when they see him praying and the people that are mad because God has actually blessed them even in this land where he shouldn't be blessed. He sends up less. And so the magicians and the enchanters, they get him thrown into a lion's den by tricking the king. You know you know, we're gonna talk about it in a few weeks. You think that's just a few weeks later. Right? Because this is all a matter of a few chapters.

He's 15 in chapter one. He's 80 when he gets thrown into the lion's den.

The battle is always there. The world is always trying to make us conform. The presence, the pressure is always always there. So we need to constantly renew our mind. How do we do that? What is the way we actually do fight? If God's the one that fights the victory, what is our fight? Second Corinthians 10 verse five says this.

Changed up there, didn't she? There it goes. We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Notice it says, don't take every feeling captive. We as Christians in our world is all about if you feel it, it must be right.

Follow your heart. That's not true. You need to follow God's word.

And and what he's saying is you take the thoughts captive. There's always gonna be thoughts. There's always gonna be this bombardment. There's always gonna be thoughts that can create feelings that make you want to not do it. He says, what you need to do is that's where the battle lies. You take that thought captive. How?

By putting it alongside God's word, and you just know it for a lie, and you know that it makes you feel this way, but you just can't do it. You're gonna say, I know this isn't true. And that's a constant thing. Like I said, Daniel was 80, but that's how you win.

How we win is the way Daniel won. Even if your life doesn't go the way you think, you'll understand God's will and God will use you. What's funny about how Dan Daniel used these guys, it went beyond just their life. It wasn't just about their current circumstances. See, when when we get focused on ourselves, we think that all about the blessing of the God and all about the story of God is all what he does in my life.

And we never see from his per because we can see from his point of view, but we'll never totally see his perspective. He sees through all of time. Have you ever thought that some of the things he's gonna take you through, the fires he's gonna the places he's gonna take you, he's gonna use you to do something that's gonna affect things hundreds of years from then?

Daniel, the area he was at, hundreds of years later, we just talked about what happened. The story of Jesus being born. And in that story, it talks about how a group of wise men followed a star.

Now first of all, go read your bible. There wasn't three of them. They brought three types of gifts. There was probably hundreds of them because it would have to be a caravan that big to be safe, and it would have to be that big to get the attention of the city of Jerusalem that that many people from that far away showed up looking for the newborn king. It was a huge conglomerate of people from the East. Guess where they came from? Where Daniel was from. Guess where they even knew about this one true God and the star,

the book of Daniel. This was hundreds of years after he lived and wrote. And now you've realized God's plan was to use them in that land to establish a remnant of people that would believe in God and not be conformed. That hundreds of years. They're one of the first groups to show up and see Jesus.

You ever thought that maybe what God is taking you through right now, you might not see the result of it, but God might establish a legacy of something through you that will come true long after you're gone.

And that's what we need to realize. Because if you look at what they did with Daniel, look at verse 21. It's like this chapter ends trying to say this very point of how you really went.

As it says, Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus. Now if you don't know biblical history, that's like, okay. Great. So you just let us know that it's like just giving you some information. What he's saying is these guys at 15 years old decided

we're gonna renew our mind. We're gonna decide to live our lives from God's point of view and let God take care of the rest. And faith is when I step out in fear against the things that everything in the world says that's not gonna work. You need this. You need I'm just gonna just trust God.

And what it's saying is they decided that as teenagers. King Cyrus was about sixty some odd years later. He was the fourth king now that Daniel served under. And it wasn't just four kings, it was three different empires. So Daniel lived through the Babylonian Empire, came and went,

and he was still the prime minister, still number two in all the land. Then the Mede Empire came, he was still number two. They went. The Persians came and became the Medo Persian Empire, and he's still there. Why are you so worried about who's gonna be president? If you're faithful and you choose transformation

instead of confirmation, you're not gonna be so paranoid about how we have to win in politics to win.

You're just gonna outlast because the word of the Lord stands forever. God's people stand forever. And maybe God's gonna use us in exile like he used Daniel to reach people and to be very critical in his mission. And instead of worrying about winning what you way you want everyone else to live, choose to live in a worship of God and stop worrying about the rest.

Now I'm not saying don't have opinions. We're called to be good citizens. Go vote. Have an opinion. But some of us at the level of talk and hate, that is fear speaking. And you think that's the only way to win, and that's not the way we're gonna win. You do not change a culture through laws. You do it through love. Our

culture is the way it was and and had Judeo Christian values because the people that founded the country had Judeo Christian values, and so did most of the people living. You lose the political argument the second you actually lose the hearts of people.

You point people to Jesus by loving them. You don't point Jesus at people and threaten them. We live in exile. We need to start acting the way we should. And the part we need to look at is, are you faithful? Do you live your life from God's point of view? Or do you have an idol? And understand you can outlast?

We don't win the traditional way. But you know how we win? This year, I hope the first sermon the year is to say, what if we made this our resolve this year? I'm just not gonna lose. Sometimes that's what what a victory is. It's just to choose to not lose. Because he not losing is not the same as winning.

It's just saying, they that's what they said. We don't know how this is gonna work out. We might die. We might not get it. But you know what? We're not gonna lose our faith.

We're not gonna lose who our real name is. We're not gonna lose our love for God. We're not gonna lose our true worship. And we're not gonna lose that. Doesn't matter if we don't win, but we're definitely not gonna lose. And that's really what we need to commit to.

Because if you live in exile, you live in the world we live in, that's how you're gonna win.

And I learned this when I was in middle school, PE. And back when I was in middle school in PE, it was a brutal thing, man. Some of the stuff PE teachers did, parents would be so mad. Moms would hate it. You're like, you humiliated my child.

You made him look stupid in front of everybody. It was just obvious. Like, you'd pick teams. Pick the two best athletes. They start picking. Well, guess what? If you're not that athletic, you're the one standing there waiting like, uh-huh. And then the last you're the last person. This happened to me when I was a sickly little kid. The two co the two other teams would argue over who had to take me, not who got me.

And and then and so we we did this section where we had to do wrestling.

And there was 20 of us guys in the class, so we split up. And the teacher went down, and he goes, you're one, you're two, you're this, all the way down to 20. And what he was doing was, one was the biggest, strongest, and knew the most about wrestling. 20 was the littlest, the weakest, and knew the least. I was 12.

I was number 12. I was a little bit less than average. I was a little bit taller than everyone else, but I was so skinny. I was a little scrawny asthmatic kid. So I might have been taller, but I didn't weigh nothing. Number one,

blew away even number two. I mean, nobody wanted to wrestle number one. Because number one was that kid that when he went to the parent teacher conference, people thought he was the parent. He shaved already. He got stubble in a beard. He weighed well over two hundred pounds.

He was on a wrestling team. I think he was the son of the chimpanzee test. He's a actually, would have been more like an ape.

And and nobody wanted to wrestle him. I mean, they're either he was Billy Madison and going back to the last year of school he ever got out, or he had a thyroid issue. I don't know which one it was.

So then at first, he's calling these numbers. He's like one and two, one and he was calling them really close, but one just destroyed everybody. One beat two in, like, less than thirty seconds. It was Greco Roman where you gotta get on the ground, one on all fours, the other one hugs you. Awkward. Who wants to do that?

And and and he's just destroying them. Embarrassing. Like, he had to wrestle number four, number four just went out there and fell down. Just let him be pinned. Didn't even try because at least I got that over with, and I didn't get hugged by a sweaty guy.

Well, then I'm sitting there watching it, and and then the teacher got typical PE teacher. I'm gonna be a little sadistic. One, twelve. What? So I had to go out there. This guy's already wrestled a few guys, so he's a little bit moist. That's a terrible word. I hate that word. And now he's hugging me.

His chin's double scratching my neck. I can feel the sweat. I'm looking at everybody going, this is really embarrassing. Some of you are embarrassing for me right now, by the way I'm sitting. And I'm like, what am I gonna do? I have no skill. I know I can't beat them. I know I don't have the strength,

and I know I don't even have the skill. I don't know how to wrestle. If we were to fight, my dad taught me I could punch him. I could do that, but not wrestle. And so I was like, I guess I'm gonna lose, but then I determined in my mind. I said I'm not gonna win, but I'm not gonna lose.

And that was my plan. What did that look like? She said go and if you get pinned for a slap of three, you're out. So the second he said go, I was faster than I can do in my old age. I was like this already. I was instantly flattened by him,

and he was just pushing me down. And the teacher would start to go, one, two. And I'd wait till he hit two, and I'd go, yeah. And I'd give everything I had and just get enough off that the count would start over. And then I'd get knocked back down. One, two. Yeah. One, two.

All I knew how to do is this guy's doing wrestling and I'm doing yoga. I'm like, upward facing dog. I can't get bit. Alright. Then I'm down. One, two, one. I did this for five minutes. I did it so long that the class who was embarrassed by used to fight for who had to take me is now going, Billy,

Billy, Billy. They're cheering for me, which motivated me to not quit, which is kinda what the church should be for each other, by the way. And I was like, ah,

ah. And it was like and then it got even worse because then he started dripping sweat. So now I'm getting rained on, like, but that ain't water that's hitting me. And then I could sense as pushing, He started breathing sore. And he's and I'm like, I think he might barf.

And then I'm like, gross. Now I'm getting rained on with sweat, hugged my guy, scruffy chin stubble scratching my neck, and now he's gonna puke on me.

I'm like, I can't lose though. I can't lose. And then finally, there's moment the last time I kinda went up, I felt different in his weight. And I went back down, and he wasn't pushing anymore. I felt like he was just laying on me dead weighted like this. And

so I thought, I think he ran out of gas. And I go, I think I got one more push. I don't know how to wrestle, but I know how to roll over. So I just went, and he rolled right over too, and now I'm just laying on him like this. And without even touching him or moving, teacher goes, one, two, three.

Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy. I won. And I didn't do one wrestling move. I never had the strength or the power. I didn't overthrow him directly. I didn't do anything but not lose. And I not lost long enough that he just went away. That's what Daniel does.

He goes through one, two, three, four, every three different empires. Who cares what's going on in this world? The way we win is holding on to God's point of view, the mind of Christ. We don't have to do the victory. We just have to not lose, and God's power will take the energy and the steam out of the sails because exile is not the end. And contrary to what you think and how this world works, God is in control of it all. He controls what happens, and he can allow every one of us chimpanzee to make the most chimpanzee decision in our life that we want. And he can still declare,

in the end of time, it's gonna end like I said it's gonna end. Do whatever you want, but time's ending where I said. So who cares how dangerous you look? Who cares how overwhelmed you see? Who cares what's up against you this year? Who cares about those fears? You don't have to make it work yourself. You just have to not lose.

Don't lose your testimony. Don't lose your faith. Just take the mind of Christ.

And that's why you need to be in the word, cause that's where you find the mind of Christ. The enemy likes giving you new information and getting us bogged down. Can't read the bible, but we can watch TV twenty hours a week. We can go to sports events. We can we can look on social media and listen to all those lies and trash out there.

But you can't study the word of God? You don't think there's a real enemy, not a political enemy, a real world enemy that's causing you to feel like you can't do it? Don't lose. Because if you don't lose long enough, God brings the victory. Amen? Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you.

Oh, man. I thank you that you'll help me survive because I've turned into the big fat guy that sweats a lot.

Lord, seriously, thank you. Thank you that when you ask us to trust you in this way, like in Romans 12, that you already did Romans one through 11. Thank you that you love us so much you won't let us go. You'll throw us through the fire to get our attention.

So I pray for myself, everyone in this room, everyone online that we would humble ourselves before you, that we would ask you to search our hearts, and may we commit to the renewing of our mind. Can we simply just look at it from your point of view even if we don't have your total perspective?

And may we just choose to not lose. And through that, Lord, may you transform us into all that you died to make us And don't allow us to be conformed, but transformed. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. Love you guys. Thanks for being here. Happy New Year. Thanks

for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.