April 28, 2025 • 23 mins
As we begin our Courage in the Fire series, Pastor Jimmy explores how God works powerfully in the lives of His people, starting with Daniel chapter 1. He challenges us to consider that the same God who intervened for Daniel wants to work in our lives today—but that begins with embracing a different vision for life, one shaped by Jesus rather than the culture around us. Pastor Jimmy explains that true transformation starts with daily, faithful choices—small acts of obedience that align with God’s vision and ultimately shape our destiny.
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(00:01):
This is a reading from Daniel chapter one,
in the third year of the reign of Jehovahand 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 vesselsof the house of God.
And he brought them to the land of Shinar,to the house of his god,
(00:22):
and placed the vesselsin the treasury of his god.
Then the king commanded usas his chief eunuch
to bring some of the people of Israel,both of the royal family
and of the nobility, usedwithout blemish, of good appearance,
and skillful,and all wisdom endowed with knowledge,
understanding, learning, and competentto stand in the king's palace
(00:43):
and to teach them the literatureand language of the Chaldeans.
The king assign them a daily portionof the food that the king eight
and of the wine that he drank.
They were to be educated for three years,and at the end of that time
they were to stand before the king.
Among these were Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria
(01:04):
of the tribe of Judah,and the chief of the eunuchs
gave them names Danielhe called Belteshazzar, Hananiah.
He called Shadrach.
Michelle. He called me Chak and Azaria.
He called Abednego.
But Daniel resolved thathe would not defile himself
with the king's foodor with the wine that he drank.
(01:24):
Therefore,he asked the chief of the eunuchs
to allow him not to defile himself.
And God gave Daniel fever and compassionin the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.
And the chief of the eunuchssaid to Daniel, I fear my lord,
the king who assigns your food,and you drink.
For why should he see thatyou were in worse conditions
than the youth who are of your own age?
(01:47):
So you would endanger my headwith the king.
Then Daniel said to the steward, whomthe chief of the eunuchs had assigned over
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria,test your servants for ten days.
Let us be given vegetablesto eat and water to drink.
Then let our appearancesand the appearances of the youth
(02:07):
who eat the king's foodbe observed by you,
and deal with your servantsaccording to what you see.
So he listened to them in this matterand tested them for ten days.
At the end of ten days it was seenthat they were better in appearance
and fatter in flesh than all the youthwho ate the king's food.
So the steward took away their foodand the wine they were to drink,
(02:30):
and gave them vegetables.
As for these four youths,
God gave them learning and skilland all literature and wisdom.
And Daniel had understanding all visionsand dreams.
At the end of the time when the kinghad commanded that they should be brought
in, the chief of the eunuchsbrought them in before Nebuchadnezzar,
and the king spoke with them in amongall of them none was found.
(02:52):
Like Daniel,Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria.
Therefore they stood before the king,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 enchantersthat were in all his kingdom.
And Daniel was thereuntil the first year of King Cyrus.
(03:19):
Well,good morning and welcome to the weekend
gathering of Christ Community Chapel.
I'm so glad you've joined us today.
My name is Jimmy Kozy.
I'm one of the pastors here.
Really excitedto be with you this morning.
And this morning we are kicking offa new sermon series we're calling Courage
in the fire, in which we are lookingat four events from the Book of Daniel,
(03:42):
which contains some of the most incredible
and dramatic events in all of Scripture.
It's going to be a great series,
but if you're anything like me, sometimeswhen I read events like the events
that take place in the Book of Daniel,I sometimes think to myself,
that's an incredible story.
Just unbelievable things
that that are happeningwhere God is intervening and flexing
(04:06):
and just some powerful stuff happens,but also kind of unrelatable.
SometimesI wonder, what would it look like for God
to intervene in my life,in my situation, in a similar way?
And maybe you have felt the same way.
Well, the chapterwe look at today, Daniel chapter one,
(04:26):
that this chaptersets the foundation for all of that.
And I want you to consider that question.
What would it mean for God to intervenein your life in such an amazing way?
Because the God of Daniel is aliveand well
and active today,and is capable of doing things,
doing things in your lifethat are equally amazing as what he does.
(04:48):
You may not stand before a fiery furnace,
but what if God could put your brokenrelationship back together?
You may not see Godwrite a physical message
on the wall in defiance of a pagan king.
But what if that friend or family memberthat you've been praying
for could be in thisbaptism tub in six months?
(05:11):
You may not stand before a
lion's den, but what if God could use youto transform your neighborhood,
your workplace, your community,and the world?
And in Daniel chapter one, Daniel goes
through a progressionthat I think is important for all of us.
It has three steps.
And that's going to be my outlinefor this morning.
(05:33):
If you're a note taker, it goes like this.
First we buy in to a different vision.
We buy into a different vision.
Second, a different vision
leads to different actions.
And then third, different actionsshape a different destiny.
But we'll start with that first thing.
(05:53):
We buy in to a different vision.
And in order to understand this,I think it's important for us to spend
some time looking at the contextof what was going on with Daniel.
So when the book of Daniel begins, Daniel
and his people are under occupationby the Babylonians.
King Nebuchadnezzaris the king of Babylon.
(06:14):
He's powerful.
He's the big bad wolf.
He's going aroundconquering and taking cities.
And he has arrived at Jerusalemand he has besieged it.
And so as the story begins, Daniel
and his people are under Babylonianoccupation.
I think sometimes when we think backabout historical warmongers and figures,
(06:35):
we tend to think of them as thesesimple, brutal, bloodthirsty people.
And some of those thingsmay have been true of Nebuchadnezzar,
but Nebuchadnezzar was also strategic.
He was visionary.
He had a plan, a long term plan,
not just for the physical occupationand even domination of the Israelites,
but actually for their long termcultural assimilation into Babylon.
(07:01):
And so to that end, what he doesis he takes some of the best and brightest
young men from Israel,and he brings them to his palace,
and he enrolls them in what amounts to aBabylonian leadership development program.
And Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah,and Mishael, his friends,
they are a part of this groupwho's been brought from Israel
(07:22):
to be in the Babylonian palaceto be a part of this program.
And so they're giving himthe best of everything.
They're given the King's food.
They're given literature to read,they're given training and education
and clothing with the promise of statusand whatever comes next.
Having graduated from this program.
And so they have allof these opportunities in front of them.
(07:44):
Learn the Babylonian language,understand the Babylonian customs.
Because Nebuchadnezzar's end goalis this he's going to send them back into
Israel, they're going to get married,they're going to have children,
they're going to build families,and they are going to build a society
that is no longer Israelite in nature,but is Babylonian, because
(08:04):
Nebuchadnezzar's goal is not just physical
domination, it is cultural assimilation.
And this is the environmentin which we find Daniel.
It's kind of like this.
I don't know what kind of fun you have.
I have an iPhone, an Apple.
The company has done something.
They've mastered something that's subtle,but it's brilliant.
(08:25):
What they've done isthey have created an ecosystem of products
that gets easier and easier to use,and more and more convenient
the deeper you are inside of it.
So, for example, you buy one thing,you get an iPhone, and there's
a lot of conveniencesthat come with one piece of technology.
But then if you go further,you realize, well, if I have a MacBook,
(08:45):
I can send text messages from my computer,
I can have filesthat seamlessly sync between the two.
Then before you know it,you've got an Apple Watch and you're
getting notifications on your wrist.
You've picked up a pair of AirPods.
They seamlessly connect to everything,and before you know it, you're so deep
inside of Apple's ecosystem
you could not imagine what your lifewould be like without their products, nor
(09:07):
could you figure out how you could everextricate yourself from their products.
And they reinforce this subtly.
By the way, for example,if I text you and the message
turns green instead of blue,it immediately changes my opinion of you.
I mean, have
you ever addedone of these people to your group chat?
(09:28):
It ruins it.
I don't understand it,but what I realize is
that's because I have been assimilated.
And something that we need to openour eyes to is that there is a culture
that exists around us that has a goal,and that is cultural immersion
(09:49):
that leads to cultural assimilation.
Our culture is constantlygiving us definitions
for what it means to be human,for what it means to flourish.
It's saying you should pursue freedom.
You should find your identity.
You should find your purpose.
And then it's throwing out possibilityand giving us ideals
for what those things look like.
(10:12):
Daniel realized that this is going on.
If you look in Daniel chapter one, verseeight, here's what it says.
It says, but Daniel resolvedthat he would not defile himself
with the king's foodor with the wine that he drank.
So Daniel was on towhat Nebuchadnezzar was doing.
He understood that it was not just outof the goodness of Nebuchadnezzar's
(10:33):
heart that he was giving them food,and he was giving them clothing,
and he was giving them trainingand a place to stay.
But that Nebuchadnezzar had a long termgoal in mind.
Nebuchadnezzar wanted to assimilate theminto the into the Babylonian culture.
And so Daniel's first step was to noticethat this was going on around him.
But then he did something else.
(10:55):
He also recalledthat God had a vision for his life.
God had a vision forwho is supposed to be.
So Nebuchadnezzar was casting a visionthat was contrasting with God's vision.
And Daniel's first thing was to buyin to God's vision for his life.
And something I'd like you to consider
today is thisJesus has a vision for your life.
(11:20):
Jesus created you.
He knows what it means to be human.
He knows what trueidentity, true freedom, true purpose are.
And he is casting a vision for whatyour life could be and inviting you in it.
Jesus has a vision for your marriage.
He has a vision for your finances,for your career,
for how you approach parenting,for how you approach relationships.
(11:42):
Jesus is casting a vision.
And as our creator,he is the one who knows best what it means
to live as a human being and to flourish.
Jesus is making a play for your heartand your mind
and your imagination, in the same waythat the culture around you is.
And if you want to see God do incrediblethings in your life and through your life.
(12:03):
Step one is that you must buy into Jesus vision for your life.
Here at CTC,we like to say we exist so that people
to help people reimagine lifebecause of Jesus.
And that's precisely
what I'm talking about here,that Jesus has a vision for our lives,
and he is inviting us to step into itso that he can work in and through us.
(12:28):
So how do we do that?
Well, that leads to the next step,which is this different vision
leads to different actions, differentvision leads to different actions.
Look with me in Daniel chapter one,starting in verse 11, it says this.
Then Daniel said to the steward, whomthe chief of the eunuchs had assigned over
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,test your servants for ten days.
(12:53):
Let us be given vegetablesto eat and water to drink.
Then let our appearance
and the appearance of the youthto eat the king's food be observed by you.
In deal with your servantsaccording to what you see.
So what happens is, Daniel and his friends
begin to subtly resistthe vision of Nebuchadnezzar.
And so it starts with their food.
Now, there are a lot of reasons why Danielmay not have wanted to eat this food.
(13:16):
It could have been that it violatedthe Jewish law that he was subject to.
It could have been thathe knew that it was offered to idols.
There are tons of possibilitiesfor why that was.
Ultimately, what we knowis that Daniel knew that to eat that food
would be to accept Nebuchadnezzar's vision
and in some wayreject God's vision for his life.
So Daniel and his friends decidedthat they would start with daily, steady
(13:41):
actions of consistent obedience, somethingas simple as the food that they ate.
It reminds me
of something that happened in my own lifeover the last year or so.
So about a year ago, I decided thatI wanted to get a little bit healthier,
and so my thought behindthat was if I could make daily decisions
that were better decisionsabout what I ate, then slowly, over time,
(14:04):
I would become more healthy
and it ended up happeningthat I lost a decent amount of weight.
But something you should know about meis that I don't really dip
my toe in the water.
I either do something at like 129% or 0%.
I'm in or out, so I may have takensome extremes over the last year.
For example,I have probably eaten more cottage cheese
(14:27):
in the last 15 monthsthan everybody in this room combined.
I've established a
definitive fat free Greek yogurtflavor ranking.
Vanilla is king, and that's inarguable.
It's irrefutable.
You know, one of the things I loveabout working at a church is that,
everybody'sjust so supportive of things like this.
(14:49):
Nobody ever makes fun of me. It's great.
One day I was coming to a staff lunchand I set my lunch down.
It was probably tuna and cottage cheese,
and I was sitting nextto a prominent staff member.
I'm not going to out anybody,but you'd recognize them.
And this person just looks me in the eyeand says,
that looks terrible.
(15:10):
Finally,I knew I had reached my breaking point
of going too far last weekwhen I found myself
with my friends trying to convince themthat when eating together, cottage
cheese and bananasactually tastes just like cheesecake.
Look, I know that's crazy.
If they don't taste like cheesecake,it's probably more
analogous to bananapudding or something like that.
(15:31):
But what I knew was that daily steady
habits were going to bewhat ultimately led to transformation.
Daniel realized the same thingthat the way
to step into God's vision for his life,
that the way to buy into God'svision for his life was going to work.
That was going to requiredaily, steady, repeated
acts of obedience to God.
(15:54):
And here's my point in all of this.
You know, partof having a relationship with God
is embrace is embracingJesus as our Savior.
What that means is that we trust in himbecause he's the one who died
so that our sins could be forgiven,our record wiped clean
so that we could be made righteous.
When God looks at us, he sees Jesusrighteousness instead of ours.
(16:15):
And it's because ofJesus that we can be with him.
But then the very next thing that comeswith that is embracing Jesus as our Lord.
That means looking to Jesus and saying,Jesus, what do you have to say
about how I am to live?
What do you have to say about my marriage?
What do you have to say about my finances?
What do you have to sayabout my parenting, my relationships,
(16:38):
and all the way down the line saying,Jesus, I understand
you have a visionfor what it means to be a human being.
You created me.
You love me.
What is that visionand how do I take steps into it?
How can I daily take steps of obedienceto Jesus vision for my life?
(16:58):
Let me tell you this
your daily habits are the number oneindicator
of who's vision for your lifethat you have bought into.
And this is super important for us
because different actions
ultimately shape a different destiny.
And that's my third point.
Look,if you've ever read through the book of
(17:20):
Daniel,there are some incredible things coming.
If this is your first time through,
I can't wait for you to seewhat's going to happen next.
But I'm going to steala little bit of thunder.
Next week we're going to see Daniel'sfriends, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael.
They're going to be standingbefore King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar
is going to have created a golden statue,and he's going to say,
(17:41):
bow to that thing, worship it as God,or I will throw you into this
fiery furnace that I heated upso hot that it'll kill you in.
And I, as Ryan Michelle, will look at himand say,
you can do whatever you want with us.
That statue is not God.
We are not going to bow.
And then ultimately,God saves them from the furnace.
(18:01):
A few chapters later,we're going to see Daniel
in the upper room of his house,having just received a decree
that says nobody is to pray to anybodyexcept for the King himself.
And Daniel is going to take that decree.
He's going to fold it back up,and then he's immediately going to turn
and pray to the one trueGod, the king's people.
Some of his guys are going to see thistake place.
(18:24):
They're going to reportDaniel, Daniel is going to be dragged in
front of the king,ultimately thrown into a den
of ravenous lions all the way, saying,you can do whatever you want with me.
Throw me to the lions.
You are not God. There is one true God.
I am going to step into his visionfor my life, even if that means you
(18:44):
throw me through, throw me to the lionsand God's going to save him.
You know, we we tendto think of these mountaintop moments.
And one of my questions that I've wrestledwith as I prepare
for this message isif I'm the person recording all this,
putting together the book of Daniel,I have all this great material.
Why do I start with this story?
(19:07):
Why start with what
seems like a relatively benign anecdote
about Daniel and his friendsasking for different food,
asking about their dietary restrictionsin the palace of Babylon?
Well, the reasonwhy is because I think that this event
is foundational to everything elsethat you see in the book of Daniel,
because different actionsultimately shape a different destiny.
(19:32):
We think of Daniel in those big momentsthe fiery furnace,
the lion's den, the writing on the wall.
But in the real, in reality,those were just everyday for Daniel
and his friends,because every day they woke up saying,
whatever comes my way today.
Today I am going to step into God's visionfor my life
(19:54):
by daily,steady acts of repeated obedience to him.
And so on
this day that we look at today,that means eating different food,
vegetables, and waterinstead of meat and wine.
Next week it's going to meannot bowing to an idol.
The week after that is going to meannot praying to a king.
But for Daniel and his friends,it was the same muscle
(20:16):
that was being exercised every timeand that's what I mean
when I say different actionsultimately shape
a different destiny.
And so
what I want to say is thiswe need to understand that
buying into Jesusvision is not just about the big moments.
It's about the little moments thatwe think about the bow or die moments.
(20:39):
But in reality, every little decisionwhere we have a choice to follow Jesus
or follow somebody else'svision for our life is in and of itself,
a bow or die moment.
And what I want you to know is
that God has already shapedand yet is actively shaping our destiny.
And here's what I mean by that.
(21:00):
When Daniel and his friendswent through this situation,
these situations, they went through themhoping that God would come through.
So, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael,they stand before the fiery furnace.
They step into the fiery furnace thinking,I'm probably going to die here.
Hopefully God comes through,but even if he doesn't,
I'm going to continue to obey him.
(21:21):
Daniel standsat the mouth of the den of lions,
and he says, I'mprobably going to die here.
Hopefully God comes through in some wayand that ends up happening.
We have an enormous advantage over Danielwhen it comes into
stepping into God's vision for our lifebecause of Jesus,
because while Daniel, Hananiah,Azariah and Michelle looked for hope
(21:44):
that was yet to come, we hope in somethingthat has already happened,
which is the life, death,and resurrection of Jesus.
If you ever wondered if God is capable
of interveningin that situation in your life,
all you have to dois look back to the cross.
If he can do that, he can do anything.
(22:04):
If he can raised Jesus from the dead,he can heal your marriage.
If you can raise Jesus from the dead,he can bring that friend
to faith in himself.
If he can raise Jesus from the dead,he can work powerfully
to transform you to your very core.
So my challenge to you today
(22:24):
is this eat your vegetables.
Buy in
to a different vision,to God's vision for your life.
The vision of Jesus,the one who loved you,
saved you, and gave himself for you.
And then see what amazing things
he can do in and through you.
(22:47):
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, thanks for today.
Thank you for the crossand for what it means for us
that we can look back in faith
at what your son did for us
and know that going forward,you're with us.
You're capable of transforming us,and that you are
actively engaged in our redemptionand our transformation.
(23:11):
We pray that we as a people,would buy into your vision for our lives,
that we would pursue you in hopeand confidence, knowing that you love us
and you're with usbecause of Jesus, in whose name we pray.
Amen.
This is a reading from Daniel chapter one,
in the third year of the reign of Jehovahand 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 vesselsof the house of God.
And he brought them to the land of Shinar,to the house of his god,
(00:22):
and placed the vesselsin the treasury of his god.
Then the king commanded usas his chief eunuch
to bring some of the people of Israel,both of the royal family
and of the nobility, usedwithout blemish, of good appearance,
and skillful,and all wisdom endowed with knowledge,
understanding, learning, and competentto stand in the king's palace
(00:43):
and to teach them the literatureand language of the Chaldeans.
The king assign them a daily portionof the food that the king eight
and of the wine that he drank.
They were to be educated for three years,and at the end of that time
they were to stand before the king.
Among these were Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria
(01:04):
of the tribe of Judah,and the chief of the eunuchs
gave them names Danielhe called Belteshazzar, Hananiah.
He called Shadrach.
Michelle. He called me Chak and Azaria.
He called Abednego.
But Daniel resolved thathe would not defile himself
with the king's foodor with the wine that he drank.
(01:24):
Therefore,he asked the chief of the eunuchs
to allow him not to defile himself.
And God gave Daniel fever and compassionin the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.
And the chief of the eunuchssaid to Daniel, I fear my lord,
the king who assigns your food,and you drink.
For why should he see thatyou were in worse conditions
than the youth who are of your own age?
(01:47):
So you would endanger my headwith the king.
Then Daniel said to the steward, whomthe chief of the eunuchs had assigned over
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria,test your servants for ten days.
Let us be given vegetablesto eat and water to drink.
Then let our appearancesand the appearances of the youth
(02:07):
who eat the king's foodbe observed by you,
and deal with your servantsaccording to what you see.
So he listened to them in this matterand tested them for ten days.
At the end of ten days it was seenthat they were better in appearance
and fatter in flesh than all the youthwho ate the king's food.
So the steward took away their foodand the wine they were to drink,
(02:30):
and gave them vegetables.
As for these four youths,
God gave them learning and skilland all literature and wisdom.
And Daniel had understanding all visionsand dreams.
At the end of the time when the kinghad commanded that they should be brought
in, the chief of the eunuchsbrought them in before Nebuchadnezzar,
and the king spoke with them in amongall of them none was found.
(02:52):
Like Daniel,Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria.
Therefore they stood before the king,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 enchantersthat were in all his kingdom.
And Daniel was thereuntil the first year of King Cyrus.
(03:19):
Well,good morning and welcome to the weekend
gathering of Christ Community Chapel.
I'm so glad you've joined us today.
My name is Jimmy Kozy.
I'm one of the pastors here.
Really excitedto be with you this morning.
And this morning we are kicking offa new sermon series we're calling Courage
in the fire, in which we are lookingat four events from the Book of Daniel,
(03:42):
which contains some of the most incredible
and dramatic events in all of Scripture.
It's going to be a great series,
but if you're anything like me, sometimeswhen I read events like the events
that take place in the Book of Daniel,I sometimes think to myself,
that's an incredible story.
Just unbelievable things
that that are happeningwhere God is intervening and flexing
(04:06):
and just some powerful stuff happens,but also kind of unrelatable.
SometimesI wonder, what would it look like for God
to intervene in my life,in my situation, in a similar way?
And maybe you have felt the same way.
Well, the chapterwe look at today, Daniel chapter one,
(04:26):
that this chaptersets the foundation for all of that.
And I want you to consider that question.
What would it mean for God to intervenein your life in such an amazing way?
Because the God of Daniel is aliveand well
and active today,and is capable of doing things,
doing things in your lifethat are equally amazing as what he does.
(04:48):
You may not stand before a fiery furnace,
but what if God could put your brokenrelationship back together?
You may not see Godwrite a physical message
on the wall in defiance of a pagan king.
But what if that friend or family memberthat you've been praying
for could be in thisbaptism tub in six months?
(05:11):
You may not stand before a
lion's den, but what if God could use youto transform your neighborhood,
your workplace, your community,and the world?
And in Daniel chapter one, Daniel goes
through a progressionthat I think is important for all of us.
It has three steps.
And that's going to be my outlinefor this morning.
(05:33):
If you're a note taker, it goes like this.
First we buy in to a different vision.
We buy into a different vision.
Second, a different vision
leads to different actions.
And then third, different actionsshape a different destiny.
But we'll start with that first thing.
(05:53):
We buy in to a different vision.
And in order to understand this,I think it's important for us to spend
some time looking at the contextof what was going on with Daniel.
So when the book of Daniel begins, Daniel
and his people are under occupationby the Babylonians.
King Nebuchadnezzaris the king of Babylon.
(06:14):
He's powerful.
He's the big bad wolf.
He's going aroundconquering and taking cities.
And he has arrived at Jerusalemand he has besieged it.
And so as the story begins, Daniel
and his people are under Babylonianoccupation.
I think sometimes when we think backabout historical warmongers and figures,
(06:35):
we tend to think of them as thesesimple, brutal, bloodthirsty people.
And some of those thingsmay have been true of Nebuchadnezzar,
but Nebuchadnezzar was also strategic.
He was visionary.
He had a plan, a long term plan,
not just for the physical occupationand even domination of the Israelites,
but actually for their long termcultural assimilation into Babylon.
(07:01):
And so to that end, what he doesis he takes some of the best and brightest
young men from Israel,and he brings them to his palace,
and he enrolls them in what amounts to aBabylonian leadership development program.
And Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah,and Mishael, his friends,
they are a part of this groupwho's been brought from Israel
(07:22):
to be in the Babylonian palaceto be a part of this program.
And so they're giving himthe best of everything.
They're given the King's food.
They're given literature to read,they're given training and education
and clothing with the promise of statusand whatever comes next.
Having graduated from this program.
And so they have allof these opportunities in front of them.
(07:44):
Learn the Babylonian language,understand the Babylonian customs.
Because Nebuchadnezzar's end goalis this he's going to send them back into
Israel, they're going to get married,they're going to have children,
they're going to build families,and they are going to build a society
that is no longer Israelite in nature,but is Babylonian, because
(08:04):
Nebuchadnezzar's goal is not just physical
domination, it is cultural assimilation.
And this is the environmentin which we find Daniel.
It's kind of like this.
I don't know what kind of fun you have.
I have an iPhone, an Apple.
The company has done something.
They've mastered something that's subtle,but it's brilliant.
(08:25):
What they've done isthey have created an ecosystem of products
that gets easier and easier to use,and more and more convenient
the deeper you are inside of it.
So, for example, you buy one thing,you get an iPhone, and there's
a lot of conveniencesthat come with one piece of technology.
But then if you go further,you realize, well, if I have a MacBook,
(08:45):
I can send text messages from my computer,
I can have filesthat seamlessly sync between the two.
Then before you know it,you've got an Apple Watch and you're
getting notifications on your wrist.
You've picked up a pair of AirPods.
They seamlessly connect to everything,and before you know it, you're so deep
inside of Apple's ecosystem
you could not imagine what your lifewould be like without their products, nor
(09:07):
could you figure out how you could everextricate yourself from their products.
And they reinforce this subtly.
By the way, for example,if I text you and the message
turns green instead of blue,it immediately changes my opinion of you.
I mean, have
you ever addedone of these people to your group chat?
(09:28):
It ruins it.
I don't understand it,but what I realize is
that's because I have been assimilated.
And something that we need to openour eyes to is that there is a culture
that exists around us that has a goal,and that is cultural immersion
(09:49):
that leads to cultural assimilation.
Our culture is constantlygiving us definitions
for what it means to be human,for what it means to flourish.
It's saying you should pursue freedom.
You should find your identity.
You should find your purpose.
And then it's throwing out possibilityand giving us ideals
for what those things look like.
(10:12):
Daniel realized that this is going on.
If you look in Daniel chapter one, verseeight, here's what it says.
It says, but Daniel resolvedthat he would not defile himself
with the king's foodor with the wine that he drank.
So Daniel was on towhat Nebuchadnezzar was doing.
He understood that it was not just outof the goodness of Nebuchadnezzar's
(10:33):
heart that he was giving them food,and he was giving them clothing,
and he was giving them trainingand a place to stay.
But that Nebuchadnezzar had a long termgoal in mind.
Nebuchadnezzar wanted to assimilate theminto the into the Babylonian culture.
And so Daniel's first step was to noticethat this was going on around him.
But then he did something else.
(10:55):
He also recalledthat God had a vision for his life.
God had a vision forwho is supposed to be.
So Nebuchadnezzar was casting a visionthat was contrasting with God's vision.
And Daniel's first thing was to buyin to God's vision for his life.
And something I'd like you to consider
today is thisJesus has a vision for your life.
(11:20):
Jesus created you.
He knows what it means to be human.
He knows what trueidentity, true freedom, true purpose are.
And he is casting a vision for whatyour life could be and inviting you in it.
Jesus has a vision for your marriage.
He has a vision for your finances,for your career,
for how you approach parenting,for how you approach relationships.
(11:42):
Jesus is casting a vision.
And as our creator,he is the one who knows best what it means
to live as a human being and to flourish.
Jesus is making a play for your heartand your mind
and your imagination, in the same waythat the culture around you is.
And if you want to see God do incrediblethings in your life and through your life.
(12:03):
Step one is that you must buy into Jesus vision for your life.
Here at CTC,we like to say we exist so that people
to help people reimagine lifebecause of Jesus.
And that's precisely
what I'm talking about here,that Jesus has a vision for our lives,
and he is inviting us to step into itso that he can work in and through us.
(12:28):
So how do we do that?
Well, that leads to the next step,which is this different vision
leads to different actions, differentvision leads to different actions.
Look with me in Daniel chapter one,starting in verse 11, it says this.
Then Daniel said to the steward, whomthe chief of the eunuchs had assigned over
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,test your servants for ten days.
(12:53):
Let us be given vegetablesto eat and water to drink.
Then let our appearance
and the appearance of the youthto eat the king's food be observed by you.
In deal with your servantsaccording to what you see.
So what happens is, Daniel and his friends
begin to subtly resistthe vision of Nebuchadnezzar.
And so it starts with their food.
Now, there are a lot of reasons why Danielmay not have wanted to eat this food.
(13:16):
It could have been that it violatedthe Jewish law that he was subject to.
It could have been thathe knew that it was offered to idols.
There are tons of possibilitiesfor why that was.
Ultimately, what we knowis that Daniel knew that to eat that food
would be to accept Nebuchadnezzar's vision
and in some wayreject God's vision for his life.
So Daniel and his friends decidedthat they would start with daily, steady
(13:41):
actions of consistent obedience, somethingas simple as the food that they ate.
It reminds me
of something that happened in my own lifeover the last year or so.
So about a year ago, I decided thatI wanted to get a little bit healthier,
and so my thought behindthat was if I could make daily decisions
that were better decisionsabout what I ate, then slowly, over time,
(14:04):
I would become more healthy
and it ended up happeningthat I lost a decent amount of weight.
But something you should know about meis that I don't really dip
my toe in the water.
I either do something at like 129% or 0%.
I'm in or out, so I may have takensome extremes over the last year.
For example,I have probably eaten more cottage cheese
(14:27):
in the last 15 monthsthan everybody in this room combined.
I've established a
definitive fat free Greek yogurtflavor ranking.
Vanilla is king, and that's inarguable.
It's irrefutable.
You know, one of the things I loveabout working at a church is that,
everybody'sjust so supportive of things like this.
(14:49):
Nobody ever makes fun of me. It's great.
One day I was coming to a staff lunchand I set my lunch down.
It was probably tuna and cottage cheese,
and I was sitting nextto a prominent staff member.
I'm not going to out anybody,but you'd recognize them.
And this person just looks me in the eyeand says,
that looks terrible.
(15:10):
Finally,I knew I had reached my breaking point
of going too far last weekwhen I found myself
with my friends trying to convince themthat when eating together, cottage
cheese and bananasactually tastes just like cheesecake.
Look, I know that's crazy.
If they don't taste like cheesecake,it's probably more
analogous to bananapudding or something like that.
(15:31):
But what I knew was that daily steady
habits were going to bewhat ultimately led to transformation.
Daniel realized the same thingthat the way
to step into God's vision for his life,
that the way to buy into God'svision for his life was going to work.
That was going to requiredaily, steady, repeated
acts of obedience to God.
(15:54):
And here's my point in all of this.
You know, partof having a relationship with God
is embrace is embracingJesus as our Savior.
What that means is that we trust in himbecause he's the one who died
so that our sins could be forgiven,our record wiped clean
so that we could be made righteous.
When God looks at us, he sees Jesusrighteousness instead of ours.
(16:15):
And it's because ofJesus that we can be with him.
But then the very next thing that comeswith that is embracing Jesus as our Lord.
That means looking to Jesus and saying,Jesus, what do you have to say
about how I am to live?
What do you have to say about my marriage?
What do you have to say about my finances?
What do you have to sayabout my parenting, my relationships,
(16:38):
and all the way down the line saying,Jesus, I understand
you have a visionfor what it means to be a human being.
You created me.
You love me.
What is that visionand how do I take steps into it?
How can I daily take steps of obedienceto Jesus vision for my life?
(16:58):
Let me tell you this
your daily habits are the number oneindicator
of who's vision for your lifethat you have bought into.
And this is super important for us
because different actions
ultimately shape a different destiny.
And that's my third point.
Look,if you've ever read through the book of
(17:20):
Daniel,there are some incredible things coming.
If this is your first time through,
I can't wait for you to seewhat's going to happen next.
But I'm going to steala little bit of thunder.
Next week we're going to see Daniel'sfriends, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael.
They're going to be standingbefore King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar
is going to have created a golden statue,and he's going to say,
(17:41):
bow to that thing, worship it as God,or I will throw you into this
fiery furnace that I heated upso hot that it'll kill you in.
And I, as Ryan Michelle, will look at himand say,
you can do whatever you want with us.
That statue is not God.
We are not going to bow.
And then ultimately,God saves them from the furnace.
(18:01):
A few chapters later,we're going to see Daniel
in the upper room of his house,having just received a decree
that says nobody is to pray to anybodyexcept for the King himself.
And Daniel is going to take that decree.
He's going to fold it back up,and then he's immediately going to turn
and pray to the one trueGod, the king's people.
Some of his guys are going to see thistake place.
(18:24):
They're going to reportDaniel, Daniel is going to be dragged in
front of the king,ultimately thrown into a den
of ravenous lions all the way, saying,you can do whatever you want with me.
Throw me to the lions.
You are not God. There is one true God.
I am going to step into his visionfor my life, even if that means you
(18:44):
throw me through, throw me to the lionsand God's going to save him.
You know, we we tendto think of these mountaintop moments.
And one of my questions that I've wrestledwith as I prepare
for this message isif I'm the person recording all this,
putting together the book of Daniel,I have all this great material.
Why do I start with this story?
(19:07):
Why start with what
seems like a relatively benign anecdote
about Daniel and his friendsasking for different food,
asking about their dietary restrictionsin the palace of Babylon?
Well, the reasonwhy is because I think that this event
is foundational to everything elsethat you see in the book of Daniel,
because different actionsultimately shape a different destiny.
(19:32):
We think of Daniel in those big momentsthe fiery furnace,
the lion's den, the writing on the wall.
But in the real, in reality,those were just everyday for Daniel
and his friends,because every day they woke up saying,
whatever comes my way today.
Today I am going to step into God's visionfor my life
(19:54):
by daily,steady acts of repeated obedience to him.
And so on
this day that we look at today,that means eating different food,
vegetables, and waterinstead of meat and wine.
Next week it's going to meannot bowing to an idol.
The week after that is going to meannot praying to a king.
But for Daniel and his friends,it was the same muscle
(20:16):
that was being exercised every timeand that's what I mean
when I say different actionsultimately shape
a different destiny.
And so
what I want to say is thiswe need to understand that
buying into Jesusvision is not just about the big moments.
It's about the little moments thatwe think about the bow or die moments.
(20:39):
But in reality, every little decisionwhere we have a choice to follow Jesus
or follow somebody else'svision for our life is in and of itself,
a bow or die moment.
And what I want you to know is
that God has already shapedand yet is actively shaping our destiny.
And here's what I mean by that.
(21:00):
When Daniel and his friendswent through this situation,
these situations, they went through themhoping that God would come through.
So, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael,they stand before the fiery furnace.
They step into the fiery furnace thinking,I'm probably going to die here.
Hopefully God comes through,but even if he doesn't,
I'm going to continue to obey him.
(21:21):
Daniel standsat the mouth of the den of lions,
and he says, I'mprobably going to die here.
Hopefully God comes through in some wayand that ends up happening.
We have an enormous advantage over Danielwhen it comes into
stepping into God's vision for our lifebecause of Jesus,
because while Daniel, Hananiah,Azariah and Michelle looked for hope
(21:44):
that was yet to come, we hope in somethingthat has already happened,
which is the life, death,and resurrection of Jesus.
If you ever wondered if God is capable
of interveningin that situation in your life,
all you have to dois look back to the cross.
If he can do that, he can do anything.
(22:04):
If he can raised Jesus from the dead,he can heal your marriage.
If you can raise Jesus from the dead,he can bring that friend
to faith in himself.
If he can raise Jesus from the dead,he can work powerfully
to transform you to your very core.
So my challenge to you today
(22:24):
is this eat your vegetables.
Buy in
to a different vision,to God's vision for your life.
The vision of Jesus,the one who loved you,
saved you, and gave himself for you.
And then see what amazing things
he can do in and through you.
(22:47):
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, thanks for today.
Thank you for the crossand for what it means for us
that we can look back in faith
at what your son did for us
and know that going forward,you're with us.
You're capable of transforming us,and that you are
actively engaged in our redemptionand our transformation.
(23:11):
We pray that we as a people,would buy into your vision for our lives,
that we would pursue you in hopeand confidence, knowing that you love us
and you're with usbecause of Jesus, in whose name we pray.
Amen.
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