April 27, 2025 • 40 mins
What happens when your faith collides with a culture that wants your identity? Daniel's story reveals the power of staying true to God while navigating life in exile.
The roller coaster analogy sets the perfect tone—life's thrilling, sometimes terrifying, but ultimately safe when we trust the One in control. This message explores how Daniel maintained unwavering faith despite being forcibly relocated to Babylon, renamed, and pressured to assimilate into a pagan culture.
Looking through the lens of Israel's gradual spiritual decline over 800 years, we discover how small, seemingly insignificant choices—like being just one degree off course—can lead to disastrous destinations. Daniel's courageous decision to refuse the king's food wasn't just about dietary preferences; it was a profound statement about where his ultimate loyalty resided.
The aviation principle that one degree off course results in missing your destination by one mile for every sixty miles traveled perfectly illustrates how minor spiritual compromises compound over time. Daniel's example challenges us to examine the small decisions that reveal who we truly worship.
Particularly meaningful is the fresh perspective on Jeremiah 29:11—a promise spoken not to people living comfortable lives, but to those in exile. God calls us to thrive where He's planted us, making our communities better through our presence and faithfulness, even when surrounded by a culture increasingly hostile to faith.
Whether you're feeling displaced, pressured to compromise, or simply trying to navigate faithfulness in a complex world, Daniel's example offers timeless wisdom: God remains sovereign regardless of who occupies earthly thrones. Your legacy isn't about building temporary kingdoms but bringing others into the eternal one.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay.
So, poll, participation, poll.
Everyone, get your right handready to raise.
How many of you like rollercoasters?
Okay, so all of us are going toKennywood.
How many of you don't likeroller coasters?
And all of you are going tohold our stuff?
(00:22):
Okay, why, we're on the rollercoaster.
So there was a moment a coupleyears ago I think it was two
years ago so we were atKennywood and we took our kids
to Kennywood for the first time.
And so Griffin's five,Everett's seven, and we're in
like the little kiddie side ofyou know Kennywood that I can't
(00:44):
ride anything, obviously.
And so off in the corner theyhave like this mini version of
the Phantom, which I think ispretty cool.
I like the Phantom, that wasalways one of my favorite roller
coasters.
And so we go over to this likelittle kiddie version of it.
And so Everett Everett's prettybrave, he's starting to kind of
(01:08):
like he's going to be my ridingbuddy, Like I know it.
It's coming Because Danny won'tdo it, Whatever, but Everett's
going to be my riding buddy.
So Everett decides to go on thisride and Griffin decides he
wants to go too, and we kind ofstop and I'm like Griffin, are
you sure that you want to get onthe roller coaster.
(01:31):
I'm like let's stand here andwatch it a few times.
So we get up to where they'regoing and Griffin's like yeah,
yeah, yeah, I want to do it.
And I'm like, all right, I saida little prayer in my head
Because if you met Griffin, Ilove him.
He doesn't exactly likethrilling things.
So they get on this ride andthey go on this roller coaster
(01:53):
and it's really small, lastsless than a minute, and I'm
watching them.
And they get to the end andEverett has this big grin across
his face and right next to himis Griffin, who's like looks
absolutely terrified Not crying,but terrified.
(02:13):
And so the lady on the ridesays to them you guys want to go
again?
Griffin's like no, no, no, no,no, no, no.
So he comes on the ride andnever goes a couple more times
and Griffin is so proud ofhimself and I'm proud of him too
, because that's a big thing andwe kind of talked it up and I
was like you want to do it again.
(02:34):
He said never in my life.
I was like you're fine.
He's like I hated it and I'mlike, well, that's a reasonable
response, right?
But there's something aboutroller coasters that are fun,
because in the back of your mindit's dangerous, but it's not
really dangerous, Because weknow that if everything works
(02:55):
like it's supposed to, ifeverything falls in line like
it's supposed to yes, it'sthrilling, but it's safe You're
going to come out on the otherside of it unharmed.
There's something about livinga life that's focused and
understands that God in hisproper place and God is
sovereign means that everythingwill work out in my life.
(03:18):
Now, it doesn't mean it's goingto be easy.
It doesn't mean it's going tobe easy.
I can prove this, by the way.
Isaiah, chapter 1.
I know we're talking aboutDaniel, but we're going to get
there.
Isaiah, chapter 1, starting inverse 1.
So this is about 100 to 200years before the events of
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Daniel happen.
So Isaiah comes on the scene andhe starts prophesying, says the
vision of Isaiah, the son ofAmos, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem in the daysof Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
Hezekiah and Hezekiah, kings ofJudah.
Isaiah says this hear O heavensand give O earth, for the Lord
(04:05):
has spoken.
Children have I reared andbrought up, but they have
rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner and thedonkey its master's crib, but
Israel does not know.
My people does not know.
My people do not understand.
Ah, sinful nation, a peopleladen with iniquity, Offspring
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of evildoers, Children who dealcorruptly.
They have forsaken the Lord.
They have despised the Holy Oneof Israel.
They are utterly estranged.
Why will you still be struckdown?
Why will you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick and thewhole heart faint, From the sole
of the foot even to the head.
(04:48):
There's no soundness in it, butbruises and sores and raw
wounds.
They are not pressed out orbound up or softened with oil.
Your country lies desolate.
Your cities are burned withfire In your very presence.
Foreigners devour your land.
It is desolate, as overthrownby foreigners, and the daughter
(05:10):
of Zion is left like a booth ina vineyard, like a lodge in a
cucumber field, like a besiegedcity.
If the Lord of hosts had notleft us a few survivors, we
should have been like Sodom andbecome like Gomorrah.
And so Isaiah is setting thetone at this point that Israel
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has failed to live up to itsexpectations.
About 600 years prior to this,they were brought through the
Exodus out of Egypt.
They were brought out ofoppression to serve God
wholeheartedly.
By this point, they failed todo so, Continuing in verse 10,
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it says Hear the word of theLord, you rulers of Sodom, Give
ear to the teaching of our God.
You, people of Gomorrah, whatto me is the multitude of your
sacrifice, says the Lord.
I have had enough of burntofferings of rams and fat of
well-fed beef.
I do not delight in the bloodof bulls or of lambs or of goats
.
When you come to appear beforeme, who has required of you this
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trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings.
Incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and thecalling of convocations.
I cannot endure iniquity andsolemn assembly.
And so we can see that Isaiahis saying very clearly to Judah
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and to Jerusalem you failed tolive up to the God.
You're following Isaiah 39,.
If you jump ahead, there's amoment where Hezekiah's king and
Babylon comes calling.
(06:58):
The nation of Babylon sendssome representatives into the
city and Hezekiah welcomes themwith open arms, showing them
everything the temple, thecourts, where all the goods are.
And he does this in order totry to make peace.
That was his intention.
If you get to verse 9, he wantspeace.
But this happens.
(07:19):
And when they leave, Isaiahcomes in and says who was that?
And Hezekiah says well, they'refrom Babylon.
And Isaiah goes on in the restof 39 to say yeah, I know, these
are the people that are goingto take everything you just
showed them and they're going totake it in their courts and all
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of these things that arededicated to your God are going
to be in their God's templebecause you have failed to live
up to what I've called you to do800 years, from Exodus to exile
.
(08:06):
It didn't happen overnight.
They started off strong, butprobably not, Because even when
they got on the other side ofthe Red Sea, there was people
complaining already.
Imagine being set free fromEgypt watching the Red Sea part.
By the way, if I lived today,I'd be like having my phone out
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Like this is the weirdest,coolest thing I've ever seen.
Imagine watching God do all ofthis just to get the other side
of it Like, oh, we just want togo back.
So their attitude was alreadywrong.
But over the course of 800years, God was patient with them
.
Of 800 years, God was patientwith them.
But decision after decision,day after day, it slowly wilted
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away.
They lost their focus.
If you guys know anything aboutaeronautics, if you're a pilot
anyone a pilot in here.
I am not.
I am on PlayStation, but that'snot irrelevant.
I knew Greg would like that one.
So if you're a pilot, there'sthis 60 to 1.
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It's not a theory, but whenthey talk about degrees of
separation or degrees of errors,the ratio is 60 to 1.
And so let me read this realquick.
It said in air navigation the 1in 60 rule is a rule of thumb
which states that if a pilot hastraveled 60 miles, then an
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error in track of 1 mile isapproximately a 1 degree error
in heading and proportionallymore for larger errors.
So essentially, what that meansis for every 1 degree that the
nose of the plane is off, every60 miles they travel with the
nose being off, they're one mileaway from their destination.
(09:55):
So that one degree, which isnot very much, if not corrected,
eventually becomes thisinsurmountable situation.
There was a time March 28, 1979,a sightseeing flight crashed
(10:15):
into a mountain in Antarctica,killing all of the 279 people on
board.
An investigation determinedthat the crew had not been
informed of a two degreecorrection made to the plane's
flight path the night before,Causing the plane's navigation
system to route them towardMount Erebus instead of through
(10:38):
the court of sounds.
So again, this small error ledto the loss of a great deal of
life.
So we arrive at Daniel, Becauseover 800 years these little
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decisions led to exile.
Can you imagine hearing thestories of the exodus, but being
the generation that walks intoexile?
You see what God has done foryou, for your people, and all of
a sudden you find yourselfbeing taken captive by the
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nation around you.
Psalm 137, verses 1 through 9.
I promise we are getting to thebook of Daniel, Psalm 137,
verses 1 through 9.
And I want you to understand,as I read this, that this is
written by people who are inexile.
It says by the waters ofBabylon, there we sat down and
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wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows, there we hungup our leaders, For there our
captors required of us songs andour tormentors, mirth, saying
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
So the captives of Zion aresaying Sing one of your songs,
Worship your God.
(12:10):
It says how shall we sing theLord's song on a foreign land If
I forget you, O Jerusalem, letmy right hand forget its skill,
Let my tongue stick to the roofof my mouth, If I do not
remember you, if I do not setJerusalem above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against theEdomites, the day of Jerusalem,
how they said lay it bare.
(12:31):
Lay it bare down to itsfoundations, O daughter of
Babylon, keep in mind I'm aboutto read.
These are people who are ingrief.
It says O daughter of Babylon,doomed to be destroyed.
Blessed shall he who be whorepays you with what you have
done to us.
Blessed shall he be who takesyour little ones and dashes them
(12:52):
against the rocks Again.
I understand that's one ofthose passages that people read.
It's hard, but these are peoplewho are in exile by a nation
that is evil and corrupt and hasdone this to them.
So they're crying out inanguish because they've lost
(13:15):
everything.
Daniel 1.
It said In the third year ofthe reign of Jehokim, king of
Judah.
It said house of God, and hebrought them to the land of
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Shinar, to the house of his God,and he placed the vessels in
the treasury of his God.
So what Hezekiah had beenwarned of happened under
Jehoiakim.
Babylon showed up,Nebuchadnezzar came in and took
them into exile.
And took them into exile.
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Exile is hard.
They lost everything.
They're now in a nation thatreally could care less about
their God.
Part of, when you look at evenwar today, but especially back
then, the whole concept of warwas to dominate.
So you would go into entirecities and you would overthrow
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it, you would besiege it, youwould kill off anyone who wasn't
of value to you.
Your goal was to try to erasethem from the map.
Rome did that very well.
By the way, I know we're notthere, it's a little farther
down the road, but Rome did thatvery well.
Babylon the same thing.
They wanted to make sure thatBabylon would reign supreme.
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So they go in, they overfillthe nation.
By the way, Jerusalem knew thiswas coming.
Isaiah warned them.
He said if you don't stop theway you're headed, it will not
(15:15):
end well for you.
And here we now find the peopleof God living in exile.
I wonder how Daniel felt.
When you look at the text andas you read through Daniel, you
(15:37):
kind of get this idea of thisreally faithful young man who's
dedicated to God.
I wonder how he felt.
He probably didn't feel like hedeserved exile.
No, he was trying to do hisbest, but something about the
crowd, something about thenation had failed.
(15:58):
And all of a sudden they findthemselves sitting on a shore
that's not their own.
And in this moment, Daniel has achoice, and this is where
identity matters.
Because Daniel has a choice, Ithink he has two options.
He can either be mad at Godbecause God didn't give him what
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he wanted, God didn't spare him, God didn't take care of him,
God didn't protect him.
He can either be mad at God andreject him and accept
Babylonian rule by the way.
That's the easy road.
Or he can choose to remainfaithful to God and accept
Babylonian rule by the way.
That's the easy road.
Or he can choose to remainfaithful to God even though he
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doesn't quite understand what'shappening yet.
This is where God beingsovereign matters.
Like a roller coaster.
When you understand that God isin charge, a lot of times you
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and I are just long for the ride.
But we know the destination, weknow the end.
Daniel knew that, even thoughthis wasn't ideal, that God was
still in charge.
So Daniel 1, verses 3 through15, said Then the king commanded
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Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, tobring some of the people of
Israel, both of the royal familyand of the nobility, used
without blemish of goodappearance and skillful in all
wisdom, endowed with knowledge,understanding, learning and
competent, to stand on theking's palace and to teach them
the literature and the languageof the Chaldeans.
(17:50):
The king assigned them a dailyportion of the food that the
king ate and of the wine that hedrank.
They were to be educated forthree years and at the end of
that time they were to standbefore the king.
Among these were Daniel,Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah of
the tribe of Judah, and thechief of the eunuchs gave them
names Daniel, he calledBelshazzar, Hananiah, he called
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Shadrach, Mishael, he calledMeshach, and Azariah, he called
Abednego.
By the way, that song we playedat the beginning is probably
one of my current favoriteworship songs, mainly because
they sing about Shadrach,Meshach and Abednego in a song.
I didn't think it was possibleto sing that collectively.
Well, but if you pay attention,the whole song is actually
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talking about the faith ofDaniel, the faith of these three
men, and we're going to unpackthis later, but for now you need
to understand.
They've been taken to Babylon,their names have been changed,
they're being taught and raisedto understand the language of
where they were living, so theirentire identity, the culture of
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Babylon.
Their goal was to make themlike you Verse 8.
But Daniel resolved that hewould not defile himself with
the king's food or with the winethat he drank.
By the way, there's a goodchance that the wine especially
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culturally, the wine and thefood that they were given would
have been sacrificed to othergods.
So Daniel decided that he wouldnot defile himself with this
sacrificed meat, nor the wine.
Therefore, he asked the chiefof the eunuchs to allow him not
to defile himself.
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And God gave Daniel favor andcompassion in the sight of the
chief of the eunuchs.
Again, God is sovereign.
God gives Daniel favor andcompassion in the sight of the
chief of the eunuchs.
And the chief of the eunuchssaid to Daniel I fear my lord,
the king, who assigned your foodand your drink.
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For why should he see that youare in worse condition than the
youths who are of your own age?
So you would endanger my headwith the king.
Then Daniel said to the stewardwhom the chief of the eunuchs
had assigned over DanielHananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
test your servants for ten days.
Let us be given vegetables toeat and water to drink.
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Then let our appearance and theappearance of the youths who
eat the king's food be observedby you and deal with your
servants according.
So this is a big deal.
The chief of the eunuchs couldlose his life for going against
the king's orders.
But Daniel says listen, Iunderstand, Give us 10 days.
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Verse 14,.
So he listened to them and inthis manner, he tested them for
10 days and at the end of the 10days it was seen that they were
better in appearance and fatterin flesh than all the youths
who ate the king's food.
Again, God is sovereign.
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Daniel has an important decisionto make in this time.
Am I going to continue to servemy God, the true God, or am I
going to give in to the culturearound me?
Am I going to give in to theculture around me?
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Am I going to sacrifice myfaithfulness by eating meat,
sacrifice to wrong gods, falsegods?
Again, one degree, one decisionmakes a difference.
Degree, one decision makes adifference.
Daniel makes a decision tofollow and be faithful to God.
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What's interesting to me isDaniel doesn't know what's
coming yet.
He doesn't know about the lions, then, yet he doesn't know
about the fiery furnace for hisfriends.
He doesn't know that he's goingto become an interpreter of
dreams Not yet.
He doesn't know that he's goingto become an interpreter of
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dreams, Not yet he hasn't quitefigured out exactly what God's
going to do over the next sevenyears of exile.
But Daniel resolved that itdoesn't matter what's about to
happen.
He is going to stay who he is.
He is going to hold on to theidentity that's been grounded in
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him, that he is going to servehis God, even if, you know, the
world that you and I live in isfull of things that want our
loyalty.
I mean, just pay attention toFacebook.
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Watch the news Every four yearswhen we vote in this country.
I'm not trying to knock them.
I'm just saying this worldconstantly wants our allegiance.
Who do you follow?
Who do you serve?
Who'd you pick?
We talk about football teams.
I dropped in the the draft andI'm an Ohio State fan.
I love the Buckeyes.
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I'm upset that a couple of themwent to the Steelers because I
don't like the Steelers.
You know how much of a strugglethat is for me, Because I want
to support them, but I don't now, Right, Because the world is
constantly calling us.
Who do you follow?
Who do you live for?
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What do you want to do?
Who do you serve?
We chase after jobs.
We chase after monies.
We chase after careers.
We chase after musicians.
We chase after politicians.
We have all of these thingsthat are constantly pulling us
away from God.
And in this moment, Daniel issurrounded by some of the
greatest temptations and he saysand he stands firmly in who he
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is and he says I will follow Godno matter what.
I came across this quote.
There wasn't an author for it,but I loved it.
It's really simple.
It says your actions reveal whoyou are and who you belong to.
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The decisions you make show whoyou worship.
Daniel had made it very clearthat he was going to follow God
because God is sovereign.
Daniel knew that Nebuchadnezzarwas just another king in a long
line of kings.
Daniel knew that the God whosaved him from the Exodus is the
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same God who can save him fromthe exile.
He knew who he was because heknew who God was, and he chose
to live for God, even if Even ifit all didn't work out the way
he hoped that it did, it wasn'tingrained in him.
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He was taught what to do.
Daniel didn't just wake up oneday and say, oh, today I'm going
to follow God.
Since he was young, the culturehe lived in they talked about
God and the faithfulness.
He heard the stories countlesstimes.
He had made a decision at avery young age that he was going
to follow God and when hestepped into Babylon, he took
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God with him.
He refused to let the worldchange him because he knew God
was bigger.
I was thinking about this thisweek and talking about what it
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is that we're teaching my kids.
Right?
What do we teach the nextgeneration?
You know why I love Sundaymornings?
Because I love when all thekids go downstairs, because I
know they're being taught by GodSorry, about God, not by God.
No one down there is God, Don'ttake that out of context.
But they're being taught aboutGod, and Jesse is doing an
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incredible job of building thisministry and everyone who's
volunteering and teaching.
We're helping the nextgeneration understand the
importance of knowing who theyare.
Because they know who God is.
Their identity is grounded inthe one who created them and
that's significant Because thethings that you do, the
decisions that you make, everychoice is either pushing you
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closer to God or farther away.
But they're grounded and we'retrying to teach them even my own
kids trying to teach them theimportance of knowing who God is
.
There's something about thatrepetitiveness.
There's something about notonly going to kids' church.
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There's something about beingin the Word of God.
There's something aboutassembling together and
worshiping.
There's something aboutreminding ourselves weekly of
who we are and of the God weserve.
It should be ingrained in usthat when we walk into the world
, the world doesn't derail us.
So I was thinking about this,and I was thinking about this in
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light of EMS and, if you haveany, if you've ever been part of
anything.
When I was going through class,one of the things that they
talked a lot about and itactually drove me nuts, but I'm
glad that they did it but one ofthe things that was kind of
like beat into us was a simplestatement.
You would say BSI, and is myscene safe?
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And I know sounds weird, out ofcontext.
So BSI means body substanceisolation, and so there's this
idea that, as a first responder,that you have to protect
yourself before you protectanyone else.
You can't walk into a housewhere people are shooting guns
and save anyone.
If you get shot, or when you'redealing with people, it's
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important to wear gloves andmake sure you protect yourself.
So this is like ingrained intowho we are, so much so that when
we were doing our practicals,if you failed to say that, they
could fail you Because everyscene you walk into, it's
instilled in you that you haveto protect you, Because you're
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no good to anybody if you gethurt.
And so, when you look at Daniel,it was ingrained into Daniel
that God was in charge.
It was instilled in him, it wasbuilt into him, that he was
going to live for God, no matterwhat.
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Daniel 1, verses 17 through 21.
It says the chief of theeunuchs brought them in before
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Nebuchadnezzar and the kingspoke with them and among all of
them, none was found likeDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah.
Therefore, they stood beforethe king and in every matter of
wisdom and understanding aboutwhich the king inquired of them,
he found them ten times betterthan all the magicians and the
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enchanters that were in all hiskingdom, ten times better than
all the magicians and theenchanters that were in all this
kingdom.
And Daniel was there until thefirst year of King Cyrus.
Daniel, they were blessed, theyhonored God, they set the stage
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and listen.
This is really going to becomesignificant, even more so later
on.
But Daniel understood that inthis highly critical moment of
his life he had a choice to make.
If he strayed even a degree,the outcome could have been
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different.
Imagine if he just decides toeat the food and wine sacrifice
to other gods.
Imagine if he doesn't honor God.
Imagine if his prayer lifebecomes non-existent.
Imagine if he just gives in tothe world around him and he
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lives and acts like them.
This story ends in Daniel,chapter 1.
If that happens, there's nofuture.
He blends into the backgroundand becomes a nobody.
But that's not what happens.
Daniel goes on to do incrediblethings for the Lord 70 years.
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Daniel goes on to do incrediblethings for the Lord Seventy
years in exile and captivity andhe lives for God in abundance.
By the way, I'm going to burstsome bubbles here, so I hope
you'll stay with me.
Jeremiah 29.11 says what AnybodyI know the plans I have for you
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to prosper you, not to harm you, right?
So Jeremiah was a contemporaryof Daniel.
If you read prior to Jeremiah29.11, Jeremiah is telling them
about how they're going to spendtime in exile and he says to
them while you're in exile, liveand prosper, marry, do business
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, serve the city you live in.
Well, because I know the plansI have for you.
When we see that up onsomeone's wall at grandma's
house, grandpa's house, we postthat verse online.
We take it out of context alittle bit and we assume that
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that just means that God's goingto prosper us and protect us
always.
Except for the fact that that'sbeing said, that people are in
exile, I would say they don'tfeel very prosperous in exile.
But God says Jeremiah sayslisten, go and live well, Do
well, Live in the culture thatyou're in, Live where God has
planted you, but do it in such away that it's better for your
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existence, that the peoplearound you, that the city,
benefits from who you are,because I know the plans I have
for you.
Listen, that is the essence ofthe church.
We live in exile, Maybe notlike other cultures, but we live
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in a world that doesn't favorus anymore.
They don't like us.
So much has changed.
But God says even in exile, staytrue to me and watch what I do.
Listen, this city, this areashould be better because we
exist.
That's what the church issupposed to be.
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We should make the thingsaround us better, not just
numerically so we can grow innumbers, but so the people who
live around here their life isbetter because we are Jesus for
them.
That's the entire point.
We live in a place that'sbroken and we can either sit
down and look like the world orwe can choose to follow God and
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change everything.
That's what living in exile isthat, no matter what the world
tells me, I will stay focused onmy God, no matter what I do
with my life.
God is sovereign.
No matter who sits in the WhiteHouse.
(34:43):
God is sovereign.
No matter who sits in the WhiteHouse, God is sovereign.
No matter who rules thecountries around us, God is
sovereign.
No matter if there's tariffsall over the place or not, God
is sovereign.
And no matter what happens inour life, God is sovereign.
He is in all, knows all, seesall, changes all.
And at the end of this world,every king will bow down to Him,
(35:03):
I don't care who they are.
I pray that someday I get tostand in front of a king and
remind them that someday God'sgoing to make them bow down too.
I don't know if I ever havethat opportunity.
It'd be neat, but that's thementality you and I have.
(35:24):
No matter what, God is incharge Sovereign.
My loyalty, my faithfulness isto him and him alone, Because
you and I serve a king that willendure forever.
You and I serve a king thatsacrificed his son.
You and I serve a king wholooks at people like
(35:45):
Nebuchadnezzar and laughs.
And we're going to learn aboutNebuchadnezzar.
That dude was wicked, he wasfull of himself.
He gets warned about a dream.
There's a dream about a statueand the whole idea of it is just
to let him know that hiskingdom is not going to last
forever.
And and the whole idea is justto let him know that his kingdom
(36:05):
is not going to last forever.
And the dude goes and builds agiant gold statue of himself.
Arrogant, he's foolish.
Daniel knows who he is becausehe knows the God that he serves.
Our identity is tied to the Godwe serve.
I love you all, but I don'tlive for you, I live for Him.
(36:28):
I love where we are.
I know that we struggleculturally sometimes, but I
still choose to serve Godbecause, at the end of the day,
he's the only one that's goingto stand.
Anyways, you and I get to be onthis little fun roller coaster
called life.
It's terrible sometimes, but weknew the end.
(36:57):
He lived his life helpingpeople get to the end.
(37:19):
It's powerful.
He lived his life focused onthe commission.
The great commission will getto the end.
It's powerful.
He lived his life focused on thecommission, the great
commission of bringing people toJesus, and there was a piece
about him that only the firsttime I met him, he terrified me.
Like he didn't talk to me, hejust stared at me and I didn't
(37:42):
know what, like I had done wrong.
I thought I had sinned and heknew all of my sins, which
doesn't make any sense.
But he was able to live thelife that he did because he
understood the God that heserved.
Daniel lived the life that helived because he understood the
God that he served.
He understood, as Bill did andas we do as a church, that God
(38:06):
is ultimate.
He's in charge over everything.
Our legacy is not to build achurch in Follandview, West
Virginia I know how dare I.
Our legacy is to build thekingdom.
That's the goal To make surethat I take as many people with
(38:28):
me to heaven when I die as Ipossibly can, because that's the
only thing I can take with me.
My family, your friends, yourfamily, our neighbors are the
only thing that can go with usand, in a world that is pulled
in so many different directions,when it all comes down to it,
(38:54):
living in exile, do you know whoyou are and do you know the God
you live for?
Let's pray.
Okay.
So, poll, participation, poll.
Everyone, get your right handready to raise.
How many of you like rollercoasters?
Okay, so all of us are going toKennywood.
How many of you don't likeroller coasters?
And all of you are going tohold our stuff?
(00:22):
Okay, why, we're on the rollercoaster.
So there was a moment a coupleyears ago I think it was two
years ago so we were atKennywood and we took our kids
to Kennywood for the first time.
And so Griffin's five,Everett's seven, and we're in
like the little kiddie side ofyou know Kennywood that I can't
(00:44):
ride anything, obviously.
And so off in the corner theyhave like this mini version of
the Phantom, which I think ispretty cool.
I like the Phantom, that wasalways one of my favorite roller
coasters.
And so we go over to this likelittle kiddie version of it.
And so Everett Everett's prettybrave, he's starting to kind of
(01:08):
like he's going to be my ridingbuddy, Like I know it.
It's coming Because Danny won'tdo it, Whatever, but Everett's
going to be my riding buddy.
So Everett decides to go on thisride and Griffin decides he
wants to go too, and we kind ofstop and I'm like Griffin, are
you sure that you want to get onthe roller coaster.
(01:31):
I'm like let's stand here andwatch it a few times.
So we get up to where they'regoing and Griffin's like yeah,
yeah, yeah, I want to do it.
And I'm like, all right, I saida little prayer in my head
Because if you met Griffin, Ilove him.
He doesn't exactly likethrilling things.
So they get on this ride andthey go on this roller coaster
(01:53):
and it's really small, lastsless than a minute, and I'm
watching them.
And they get to the end andEverett has this big grin across
his face and right next to himis Griffin, who's like looks
absolutely terrified Not crying,but terrified.
(02:13):
And so the lady on the ridesays to them you guys want to go
again?
Griffin's like no, no, no, no,no, no, no.
So he comes on the ride andnever goes a couple more times
and Griffin is so proud ofhimself and I'm proud of him too
, because that's a big thing andwe kind of talked it up and I
was like you want to do it again.
(02:34):
He said never in my life.
I was like you're fine.
He's like I hated it and I'mlike, well, that's a reasonable
response, right?
But there's something aboutroller coasters that are fun,
because in the back of your mindit's dangerous, but it's not
really dangerous, Because weknow that if everything works
(02:55):
like it's supposed to, ifeverything falls in line like
it's supposed to yes, it'sthrilling, but it's safe You're
going to come out on the otherside of it unharmed.
There's something about livinga life that's focused and
understands that God in hisproper place and God is
sovereign means that everythingwill work out in my life.
(03:18):
Now, it doesn't mean it's goingto be easy.
It doesn't mean it's going tobe easy.
I can prove this, by the way.
Isaiah, chapter 1.
I know we're talking aboutDaniel, but we're going to get
there.
Isaiah, chapter 1, starting inverse 1.
So this is about 100 to 200years before the events of
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Daniel happen.
So Isaiah comes on the scene andhe starts prophesying, says the
vision of Isaiah, the son ofAmos, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem in the daysof Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
Hezekiah and Hezekiah, kings ofJudah.
Isaiah says this hear O heavensand give O earth, for the Lord
(04:05):
has spoken.
Children have I reared andbrought up, but they have
rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner and thedonkey its master's crib, but
Israel does not know.
My people does not know.
My people do not understand.
Ah, sinful nation, a peopleladen with iniquity, Offspring
(04:26):
of evildoers, Children who dealcorruptly.
They have forsaken the Lord.
They have despised the Holy Oneof Israel.
They are utterly estranged.
Why will you still be struckdown?
Why will you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick and thewhole heart faint, From the sole
of the foot even to the head.
(04:48):
There's no soundness in it, butbruises and sores and raw
wounds.
They are not pressed out orbound up or softened with oil.
Your country lies desolate.
Your cities are burned withfire In your very presence.
Foreigners devour your land.
It is desolate, as overthrownby foreigners, and the daughter
(05:10):
of Zion is left like a booth ina vineyard, like a lodge in a
cucumber field, like a besiegedcity.
If the Lord of hosts had notleft us a few survivors, we
should have been like Sodom andbecome like Gomorrah.
And so Isaiah is setting thetone at this point that Israel
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has failed to live up to itsexpectations.
About 600 years prior to this,they were brought through the
Exodus out of Egypt.
They were brought out ofoppression to serve God
wholeheartedly.
By this point, they failed todo so, Continuing in verse 10,
(05:54):
it says Hear the word of theLord, you rulers of Sodom, Give
ear to the teaching of our God.
You, people of Gomorrah, whatto me is the multitude of your
sacrifice, says the Lord.
I have had enough of burntofferings of rams and fat of
well-fed beef.
I do not delight in the bloodof bulls or of lambs or of goats
.
When you come to appear beforeme, who has required of you this
(06:17):
trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings.
Incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and thecalling of convocations.
I cannot endure iniquity andsolemn assembly.
And so we can see that Isaiahis saying very clearly to Judah
(06:38):
and to Jerusalem you failed tolive up to the God.
You're following Isaiah 39,.
If you jump ahead, there's amoment where Hezekiah's king and
Babylon comes calling.
(06:58):
The nation of Babylon sendssome representatives into the
city and Hezekiah welcomes themwith open arms, showing them
everything the temple, thecourts, where all the goods are.
And he does this in order totry to make peace.
That was his intention.
If you get to verse 9, he wantspeace.
But this happens.
(07:19):
And when they leave, Isaiahcomes in and says who was that?
And Hezekiah says well, they'refrom Babylon.
And Isaiah goes on in the restof 39 to say yeah, I know, these
are the people that are goingto take everything you just
showed them and they're going totake it in their courts and all
(07:44):
of these things that arededicated to your God are going
to be in their God's templebecause you have failed to live
up to what I've called you to do800 years, from Exodus to exile
.
(08:06):
It didn't happen overnight.
They started off strong, butprobably not, Because even when
they got on the other side ofthe Red Sea, there was people
complaining already.
Imagine being set free fromEgypt watching the Red Sea part.
By the way, if I lived today,I'd be like having my phone out
(08:28):
Like this is the weirdest,coolest thing I've ever seen.
Imagine watching God do all ofthis just to get the other side
of it Like, oh, we just want togo back.
So their attitude was alreadywrong.
But over the course of 800years, God was patient with them
.
Of 800 years, God was patientwith them.
But decision after decision,day after day, it slowly wilted
(08:51):
away.
They lost their focus.
If you guys know anything aboutaeronautics, if you're a pilot
anyone a pilot in here.
I am not.
I am on PlayStation, but that'snot irrelevant.
I knew Greg would like that one.
So if you're a pilot, there'sthis 60 to 1.
(09:13):
It's not a theory, but whenthey talk about degrees of
separation or degrees of errors,the ratio is 60 to 1.
And so let me read this realquick.
It said in air navigation the 1in 60 rule is a rule of thumb
which states that if a pilot hastraveled 60 miles, then an
(09:34):
error in track of 1 mile isapproximately a 1 degree error
in heading and proportionallymore for larger errors.
So essentially, what that meansis for every 1 degree that the
nose of the plane is off, every60 miles they travel with the
nose being off, they're one mileaway from their destination.
(09:55):
So that one degree, which isnot very much, if not corrected,
eventually becomes thisinsurmountable situation.
There was a time March 28, 1979,a sightseeing flight crashed
(10:15):
into a mountain in Antarctica,killing all of the 279 people on
board.
An investigation determinedthat the crew had not been
informed of a two degreecorrection made to the plane's
flight path the night before,Causing the plane's navigation
system to route them towardMount Erebus instead of through
(10:38):
the court of sounds.
So again, this small error ledto the loss of a great deal of
life.
So we arrive at Daniel, Becauseover 800 years these little
(10:59):
decisions led to exile.
Can you imagine hearing thestories of the exodus, but being
the generation that walks intoexile?
You see what God has done foryou, for your people, and all of
a sudden you find yourselfbeing taken captive by the
(11:23):
nation around you.
Psalm 137, verses 1 through 9.
I promise we are getting to thebook of Daniel, Psalm 137,
verses 1 through 9.
And I want you to understand,as I read this, that this is
written by people who are inexile.
It says by the waters ofBabylon, there we sat down and
(11:48):
wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows, there we hungup our leaders, For there our
captors required of us songs andour tormentors, mirth, saying
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
So the captives of Zion aresaying Sing one of your songs,
Worship your God.
(12:10):
It says how shall we sing theLord's song on a foreign land If
I forget you, O Jerusalem, letmy right hand forget its skill,
Let my tongue stick to the roofof my mouth, If I do not
remember you, if I do not setJerusalem above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against theEdomites, the day of Jerusalem,
how they said lay it bare.
(12:31):
Lay it bare down to itsfoundations, O daughter of
Babylon, keep in mind I'm aboutto read.
These are people who are ingrief.
It says O daughter of Babylon,doomed to be destroyed.
Blessed shall he who be whorepays you with what you have
done to us.
Blessed shall he be who takesyour little ones and dashes them
(12:52):
against the rocks Again.
I understand that's one ofthose passages that people read.
It's hard, but these are peoplewho are in exile by a nation
that is evil and corrupt and hasdone this to them.
So they're crying out inanguish because they've lost
(13:15):
everything.
Daniel 1.
It said In the third year ofthe reign of Jehokim, king of
Judah.
It said house of God, and hebrought them to the land of
(13:46):
Shinar, to the house of his God,and he placed the vessels in
the treasury of his God.
So what Hezekiah had beenwarned of happened under
Jehoiakim.
Babylon showed up,Nebuchadnezzar came in and took
them into exile.
And took them into exile.
(14:07):
Exile is hard.
They lost everything.
They're now in a nation thatreally could care less about
their God.
Part of, when you look at evenwar today, but especially back
then, the whole concept of warwas to dominate.
So you would go into entirecities and you would overthrow
(14:27):
it, you would besiege it, youwould kill off anyone who wasn't
of value to you.
Your goal was to try to erasethem from the map.
Rome did that very well.
By the way, I know we're notthere, it's a little farther
down the road, but Rome did thatvery well.
Babylon the same thing.
They wanted to make sure thatBabylon would reign supreme.
(14:53):
So they go in, they overfillthe nation.
By the way, Jerusalem knew thiswas coming.
Isaiah warned them.
He said if you don't stop theway you're headed, it will not
(15:15):
end well for you.
And here we now find the peopleof God living in exile.
I wonder how Daniel felt.
When you look at the text andas you read through Daniel, you
(15:37):
kind of get this idea of thisreally faithful young man who's
dedicated to God.
I wonder how he felt.
He probably didn't feel like hedeserved exile.
No, he was trying to do hisbest, but something about the
crowd, something about thenation had failed.
(15:58):
And all of a sudden they findthemselves sitting on a shore
that's not their own.
And in this moment, Daniel has achoice, and this is where
identity matters.
Because Daniel has a choice, Ithink he has two options.
He can either be mad at Godbecause God didn't give him what
(16:19):
he wanted, God didn't spare him, God didn't take care of him,
God didn't protect him.
He can either be mad at God andreject him and accept
Babylonian rule by the way.
That's the easy road.
Or he can choose to remainfaithful to God and accept
Babylonian rule by the way.
That's the easy road.
Or he can choose to remainfaithful to God even though he
(16:40):
doesn't quite understand what'shappening yet.
This is where God beingsovereign matters.
Like a roller coaster.
When you understand that God isin charge, a lot of times you
(17:00):
and I are just long for the ride.
But we know the destination, weknow the end.
Daniel knew that, even thoughthis wasn't ideal, that God was
still in charge.
So Daniel 1, verses 3 through15, said Then the king commanded
(17:28):
Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, tobring some of the people of
Israel, both of the royal familyand of the nobility, used
without blemish of goodappearance and skillful in all
wisdom, endowed with knowledge,understanding, learning and
competent, to stand on theking's palace and to teach them
the literature and the languageof the Chaldeans.
(17:50):
The king assigned them a dailyportion of the food that the
king ate and of the wine that hedrank.
They were to be educated forthree years and at the end of
that time they were to standbefore the king.
Among these were Daniel,Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah of
the tribe of Judah, and thechief of the eunuchs gave them
names Daniel, he calledBelshazzar, Hananiah, he called
(18:16):
Shadrach, Mishael, he calledMeshach, and Azariah, he called
Abednego.
By the way, that song we playedat the beginning is probably
one of my current favoriteworship songs, mainly because
they sing about Shadrach,Meshach and Abednego in a song.
I didn't think it was possibleto sing that collectively.
Well, but if you pay attention,the whole song is actually
(18:37):
talking about the faith ofDaniel, the faith of these three
men, and we're going to unpackthis later, but for now you need
to understand.
They've been taken to Babylon,their names have been changed,
they're being taught and raisedto understand the language of
where they were living, so theirentire identity, the culture of
(19:01):
Babylon.
Their goal was to make themlike you Verse 8.
But Daniel resolved that hewould not defile himself with
the king's food or with the winethat he drank.
By the way, there's a goodchance that the wine especially
(19:25):
culturally, the wine and thefood that they were given would
have been sacrificed to othergods.
So Daniel decided that he wouldnot defile himself with this
sacrificed meat, nor the wine.
Therefore, he asked the chiefof the eunuchs to allow him not
to defile himself.
(19:46):
And God gave Daniel favor andcompassion in the sight of the
chief of the eunuchs.
Again, God is sovereign.
God gives Daniel favor andcompassion in the sight of the
chief of the eunuchs.
And the chief of the eunuchssaid to Daniel I fear my lord,
the king, who assigned your foodand your drink.
(20:07):
For why should he see that youare in worse condition than the
youths who are of your own age?
So you would endanger my headwith the king.
Then Daniel said to the stewardwhom the chief of the eunuchs
had assigned over DanielHananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
test your servants for ten days.
Let us be given vegetables toeat and water to drink.
(20:30):
Then let our appearance and theappearance of the youths who
eat the king's food be observedby you and deal with your
servants according.
So this is a big deal.
The chief of the eunuchs couldlose his life for going against
the king's orders.
But Daniel says listen, Iunderstand, Give us 10 days.
(20:52):
Verse 14,.
So he listened to them and inthis manner, he tested them for
10 days and at the end of the 10days it was seen that they were
better in appearance and fatterin flesh than all the youths
who ate the king's food.
Again, God is sovereign.
(21:16):
Daniel has an important decisionto make in this time.
Am I going to continue to servemy God, the true God, or am I
going to give in to the culturearound me?
Am I going to give in to theculture around me?
(21:38):
Am I going to sacrifice myfaithfulness by eating meat,
sacrifice to wrong gods, falsegods?
Again, one degree, one decisionmakes a difference.
Degree, one decision makes adifference.
Daniel makes a decision tofollow and be faithful to God.
(22:12):
What's interesting to me isDaniel doesn't know what's
coming yet.
He doesn't know about the lions, then, yet he doesn't know
about the fiery furnace for hisfriends.
He doesn't know that he's goingto become an interpreter of
dreams Not yet.
He doesn't know that he's goingto become an interpreter of
(22:32):
dreams, Not yet he hasn't quitefigured out exactly what God's
going to do over the next sevenyears of exile.
But Daniel resolved that itdoesn't matter what's about to
happen.
He is going to stay who he is.
He is going to hold on to theidentity that's been grounded in
(22:55):
him, that he is going to servehis God, even if, you know, the
world that you and I live in isfull of things that want our
loyalty.
I mean, just pay attention toFacebook.
(23:18):
Watch the news Every four yearswhen we vote in this country.
I'm not trying to knock them.
I'm just saying this worldconstantly wants our allegiance.
Who do you follow?
Who do you serve?
Who'd you pick?
We talk about football teams.
I dropped in the the draft andI'm an Ohio State fan.
I love the Buckeyes.
(23:39):
I'm upset that a couple of themwent to the Steelers because I
don't like the Steelers.
You know how much of a strugglethat is for me, Because I want
to support them, but I don't now, Right, Because the world is
constantly calling us.
Who do you follow?
Who do you live for?
(24:00):
What do you want to do?
Who do you serve?
We chase after jobs.
We chase after monies.
We chase after careers.
We chase after musicians.
We chase after politicians.
We have all of these thingsthat are constantly pulling us
away from God.
And in this moment, Daniel issurrounded by some of the
greatest temptations and he saysand he stands firmly in who he
(24:22):
is and he says I will follow Godno matter what.
I came across this quote.
There wasn't an author for it,but I loved it.
It's really simple.
It says your actions reveal whoyou are and who you belong to.
(24:47):
The decisions you make show whoyou worship.
Daniel had made it very clearthat he was going to follow God
because God is sovereign.
Daniel knew that Nebuchadnezzarwas just another king in a long
line of kings.
Daniel knew that the God whosaved him from the Exodus is the
(25:15):
same God who can save him fromthe exile.
He knew who he was because heknew who God was, and he chose
to live for God, even if Even ifit all didn't work out the way
he hoped that it did, it wasn'tingrained in him.
(25:37):
He was taught what to do.
Daniel didn't just wake up oneday and say, oh, today I'm going
to follow God.
Since he was young, the culturehe lived in they talked about
God and the faithfulness.
He heard the stories countlesstimes.
He had made a decision at avery young age that he was going
to follow God and when hestepped into Babylon, he took
(25:58):
God with him.
He refused to let the worldchange him because he knew God
was bigger.
I was thinking about this thisweek and talking about what it
(26:19):
is that we're teaching my kids.
Right?
What do we teach the nextgeneration?
You know why I love Sundaymornings?
Because I love when all thekids go downstairs, because I
know they're being taught by GodSorry, about God, not by God.
No one down there is God, Don'ttake that out of context.
But they're being taught aboutGod, and Jesse is doing an
(26:42):
incredible job of building thisministry and everyone who's
volunteering and teaching.
We're helping the nextgeneration understand the
importance of knowing who theyare.
Because they know who God is.
Their identity is grounded inthe one who created them and
that's significant Because thethings that you do, the
decisions that you make, everychoice is either pushing you
(27:06):
closer to God or farther away.
But they're grounded and we'retrying to teach them even my own
kids trying to teach them theimportance of knowing who God is
.
There's something about thatrepetitiveness.
There's something about notonly going to kids' church.
(27:27):
There's something about beingin the Word of God.
There's something aboutassembling together and
worshiping.
There's something aboutreminding ourselves weekly of
who we are and of the God weserve.
It should be ingrained in usthat when we walk into the world
, the world doesn't derail us.
So I was thinking about this,and I was thinking about this in
(27:49):
light of EMS and, if you haveany, if you've ever been part of
anything.
When I was going through class,one of the things that they
talked a lot about and itactually drove me nuts, but I'm
glad that they did it but one ofthe things that was kind of
like beat into us was a simplestatement.
You would say BSI, and is myscene safe?
(28:11):
And I know sounds weird, out ofcontext.
So BSI means body substanceisolation, and so there's this
idea that, as a first responder,that you have to protect
yourself before you protectanyone else.
You can't walk into a housewhere people are shooting guns
and save anyone.
If you get shot, or when you'redealing with people, it's
(28:35):
important to wear gloves andmake sure you protect yourself.
So this is like ingrained intowho we are, so much so that when
we were doing our practicals,if you failed to say that, they
could fail you Because everyscene you walk into, it's
instilled in you that you haveto protect you, Because you're
(28:57):
no good to anybody if you gethurt.
And so, when you look at Daniel,it was ingrained into Daniel
that God was in charge.
It was instilled in him, it wasbuilt into him, that he was
going to live for God, no matterwhat.
(29:20):
Daniel 1, verses 17 through 21.
It says the chief of theeunuchs brought them in before
(29:51):
Nebuchadnezzar and the kingspoke with them and among all of
them, none was found likeDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah.
Therefore, they stood beforethe king and in every matter of
wisdom and understanding aboutwhich the king inquired of them,
he found them ten times betterthan all the magicians and the
(30:12):
enchanters that were in all hiskingdom, ten times better than
all the magicians and theenchanters that were in all this
kingdom.
And Daniel was there until thefirst year of King Cyrus.
Daniel, they were blessed, theyhonored God, they set the stage
(30:38):
and listen.
This is really going to becomesignificant, even more so later
on.
But Daniel understood that inthis highly critical moment of
his life he had a choice to make.
If he strayed even a degree,the outcome could have been
(31:00):
different.
Imagine if he just decides toeat the food and wine sacrifice
to other gods.
Imagine if he doesn't honor God.
Imagine if his prayer lifebecomes non-existent.
Imagine if he just gives in tothe world around him and he
(31:24):
lives and acts like them.
This story ends in Daniel,chapter 1.
If that happens, there's nofuture.
He blends into the backgroundand becomes a nobody.
But that's not what happens.
Daniel goes on to do incrediblethings for the Lord 70 years.
(31:46):
Daniel goes on to do incrediblethings for the Lord Seventy
years in exile and captivity andhe lives for God in abundance.
By the way, I'm going to burstsome bubbles here, so I hope
you'll stay with me.
Jeremiah 29.11 says what AnybodyI know the plans I have for you
(32:08):
to prosper you, not to harm you, right?
So Jeremiah was a contemporaryof Daniel.
If you read prior to Jeremiah29.11, Jeremiah is telling them
about how they're going to spendtime in exile and he says to
them while you're in exile, liveand prosper, marry, do business
(32:28):
, serve the city you live in.
Well, because I know the plansI have for you.
When we see that up onsomeone's wall at grandma's
house, grandpa's house, we postthat verse online.
We take it out of context alittle bit and we assume that
(32:49):
that just means that God's goingto prosper us and protect us
always.
Except for the fact that that'sbeing said, that people are in
exile, I would say they don'tfeel very prosperous in exile.
But God says Jeremiah sayslisten, go and live well, Do
well, Live in the culture thatyou're in, Live where God has
planted you, but do it in such away that it's better for your
(33:12):
existence, that the peoplearound you, that the city,
benefits from who you are,because I know the plans I have
for you.
Listen, that is the essence ofthe church.
We live in exile, Maybe notlike other cultures, but we live
(33:35):
in a world that doesn't favorus anymore.
They don't like us.
So much has changed.
But God says even in exile, staytrue to me and watch what I do.
Listen, this city, this areashould be better because we
exist.
That's what the church issupposed to be.
(33:57):
We should make the thingsaround us better, not just
numerically so we can grow innumbers, but so the people who
live around here their life isbetter because we are Jesus for
them.
That's the entire point.
We live in a place that'sbroken and we can either sit
down and look like the world orwe can choose to follow God and
(34:21):
change everything.
That's what living in exile isthat, no matter what the world
tells me, I will stay focused onmy God, no matter what I do
with my life.
God is sovereign.
No matter who sits in the WhiteHouse.
(34:43):
God is sovereign.
No matter who sits in the WhiteHouse, God is sovereign.
No matter who rules thecountries around us, God is
sovereign.
No matter if there's tariffsall over the place or not, God
is sovereign.
And no matter what happens inour life, God is sovereign.
He is in all, knows all, seesall, changes all.
And at the end of this world,every king will bow down to Him,
(35:03):
I don't care who they are.
I pray that someday I get tostand in front of a king and
remind them that someday God'sgoing to make them bow down too.
I don't know if I ever havethat opportunity.
It'd be neat, but that's thementality you and I have.
(35:24):
No matter what, God is incharge Sovereign.
My loyalty, my faithfulness isto him and him alone, Because
you and I serve a king that willendure forever.
You and I serve a king thatsacrificed his son.
You and I serve a king wholooks at people like
(35:45):
Nebuchadnezzar and laughs.
And we're going to learn aboutNebuchadnezzar.
That dude was wicked, he wasfull of himself.
He gets warned about a dream.
There's a dream about a statueand the whole idea of it is just
to let him know that hiskingdom is not going to last
forever.
And and the whole idea is justto let him know that his kingdom
(36:05):
is not going to last forever.
And the dude goes and builds agiant gold statue of himself.
Arrogant, he's foolish.
Daniel knows who he is becausehe knows the God that he serves.
Our identity is tied to the Godwe serve.
I love you all, but I don'tlive for you, I live for Him.
(36:28):
I love where we are.
I know that we struggleculturally sometimes, but I
still choose to serve Godbecause, at the end of the day,
he's the only one that's goingto stand.
Anyways, you and I get to be onthis little fun roller coaster
called life.
It's terrible sometimes, but weknew the end.
(36:57):
He lived his life helpingpeople get to the end.
(37:19):
It's powerful.
He lived his life focused onthe commission.
The great commission will getto the end.
It's powerful.
He lived his life focused on thecommission, the great
commission of bringing people toJesus, and there was a piece
about him that only the firsttime I met him, he terrified me.
Like he didn't talk to me, hejust stared at me and I didn't
(37:42):
know what, like I had done wrong.
I thought I had sinned and heknew all of my sins, which
doesn't make any sense.
But he was able to live thelife that he did because he
understood the God that heserved.
Daniel lived the life that helived because he understood the
God that he served.
He understood, as Bill did andas we do as a church, that God
(38:06):
is ultimate.
He's in charge over everything.
Our legacy is not to build achurch in Follandview, West
Virginia I know how dare I.
Our legacy is to build thekingdom.
That's the goal To make surethat I take as many people with
(38:28):
me to heaven when I die as Ipossibly can, because that's the
only thing I can take with me.
My family, your friends, yourfamily, our neighbors are the
only thing that can go with usand, in a world that is pulled
in so many different directions,when it all comes down to it,
(38:54):
living in exile, do you know whoyou are and do you know the God
you live for?
Let's pray.
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