Sunday, May 16, 2021 AM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC "The Principal Thing" Pt. 2

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All right, good morning. It's good to be here together worshiping together at Sunnyside Baptist this morning.
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If you are visiting with us today we're especially glad that you're here. We look forward to meeting you sometime this morning.
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A few announcements as we get started today. Come back tonight for our evening service that's at 530 here in the auditorium.
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Wednesday we'll have dinner 545 in the fellowship hall down the hall and then at 630
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Bible study and prayer for the adults and tag for the kids. And then coming up a week from today after the evening service for the young adults they'll be truth group that evening and then that following Wednesday of that week at 630 we are gonna have an open night for tags.
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So that's when you're more than welcome to invite friends and family of the kids that are in tag to come and and they're able to see kind of what the kids have been doing in tag and then we'll have a short dessert fellowship after that.
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This week's fighter verse comes from the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26.
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Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the Sun go down on your anger.
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We still have some needs regarding Operation Christmas Child. First of all packing needs for May.
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We've got a box out there in the foyer where you can put yo -yos and jump ropes and and some things there.
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Solid colored t -shirts for pajamas that the sewing ministry is also taking part in sewing some things for.
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And then there's a just a another insert in your bulletin. This will be the last Sunday that I mention it. There is some a need for somebody to help coordinate
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Sunnyside to be kind of a drop -off location for those Christmas shoeboxes.
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But if we don't have anybody maybe it's just not the right time. So if you're interested in that please see
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Jill and she'll be able to coordinate that with you. Needs for nursery.
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We've got June covered but we do have some needs for the month of July. So if you're able to help out in the nursery for July that would be great.
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Mark your calendars for July 24th at the ballpark down in Bricktown.
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It's Faith Night. There's some tickets available that the church has purchased. There's a sign -up sheet in the bullet on the bulletin board out in the hallway out there if you're interested in going.
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Tickets are $5 a piece. Lastly we do need a substitute for a
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Sunday school class next week for the first through third graders. Holly and I have a nephew who's getting baptized and we'd like to be able to go to see his baptism.
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If you're able to help out we would love to do that. They're a really great group of kids.
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Can be a little bit rowdy but that's fun. So if you're interested in helping out with that you can see
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Holly or I regarding that. All right any other announcements before we get started with worship this morning?
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Yes Jenny. This is a baby shower?
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Baby shower. Baby shower for Melissa. All right.
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It's good to be together to worship together. We've got a baptism this morning so we're able to worship in the act of baptism as well.
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We're gonna have a time just of prayer preparation for worship and then when we're done with that Randy will come up and lead us in prayer.
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Father we just want to thank you for the privilege to come today and to worship together in freedom and father we just thank you so much for Jesus and we thank you for what he's done for each one of us and that he's willing to be our sacrifice and that he lives again and that we serve a risen
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Savior. Father I thank you for your great plan for us and I just pray that as we meet together that we will worship you and bring glory to your name.
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I pray that throughout this week father that you'd make us mindful of who we are in Christ and I pray that we would be witnesses and that we'd be able to tell others about the joy and the hope that we have in Christ.
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Father I just want to lift up those in our church body that are suffering today. I pray that you'd encourage their hearts, strengthen them, multiply your grace.
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Father we just I just want to tell you that we love you this morning and we ask these things in your name.
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Olivia Hudson, do you confess that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of the Living God? Is it your intent to be obedient to Jesus as Lord in Christian baptism?
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And it is my duty and distinct honor to baptize you in the name of the Father, the
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Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah.
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Wonderful. Would you stand with me for our call to worship this morning and rejoice with the
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Hudson family. Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 65.
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We'll be reading verses one and two. Read with me together. Praise is due to you
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O God in Zion and to you shall vows be performed.
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O you who hear prayer to you shall be all flesh come.
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And our first song is found in Psalms 65 and you had a handout in the back. Sing together
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Awaiting You in Zion. Our scripture reading this morning is from 2nd
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John. Close to the back of your Bible is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
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John. The reading this morning is from 2nd
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John, 13 verses. The elder to the elect lady and her children whom
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I love in truth and not only I but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.
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Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the
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Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son in truth and love.
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I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the
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Father. And now I ask you dear lady not as though I were writing you a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning that we love one another.
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And this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.
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For many deceivers have gone out into the world those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
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Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward.
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Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have
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God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the
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Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
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Though I have much to write to you I would rather not use paper and ink.
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Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
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The children of your elect sister greet you. That's second
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John. Excellent words from the word of God. Pray with me.
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Father what a blessing it is to have your word so readily available in our own language that we might read it that we might study it and memorize it and meditate upon it that we might come to know you in a deeper way to know your truth your commandments your love.
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May we not take your word for granted but we might treasure it as being precious as a love letter.
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I pray these things in the precious name of our Savior the
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Lord Jesus. You may be seated.
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We're going to continue our song service in our little black hymnals hymns modern agent. You would turn to page one hundred and thirty one.
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We'll sing Wonderful Merciful Savior. Wonderful Counselor, Comforter, Keeper, Spirit we long to embrace.
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You offer hope when our hearts have hopelessly lost the way.
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Oh we hopelessly lost the way.
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You are the one that we praise.
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You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace.
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Our hearts always hunger for.
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Our hearts always hunger for. Almighty infinite
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Father. Faithful in love in your own.
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In our weakness you find us.
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Falling before your throne. Oh we're falling before your throne.
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And you are the one that we praise.
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You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace.
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Our hearts always hunger for.
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Our hearts always hunger for.
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And our last song is
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Jesus is mine. Sing the first two verses together.
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Earth has no rest place.
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Jesus alone can bless.
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Jesus is mine. End is a fragile peace.
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Jesus is mine. Through tearful nights of grief.
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Jesus is mine. His voice commands the storm.
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His presence fills my soul. He will sustain my hope.
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Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine.
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Jesus is mine. When all else fails he still remains.
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Jesus is mine. When on that final day.
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Jesus is born. His radiant face.
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Jesus is mine. He saved me.
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His arms are clean. Praise him
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I say again. For Jesus is mine.
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Jesus is mine. Still remains.
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Jesus is mine.
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Go to the
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Lord together in prayer. Father I thank you for gathering us here on this day.
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For already reminding us through the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
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Through the reading of your word and through the prayers of your saints. You've already reminded us of how good you are.
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How holy and powerful. Perfect.
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Faithful. We give praise to our savior and sovereign
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Jesus Christ today. Who is still building his church. The gates of Hades will not prevail.
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But Christ prevails. I pray that you would help us to remember that.
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As we look at your word. As we consider its truth. I pray that you would give us grace to worship you.
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And that we would be the amen on earth of your will which is in heaven.
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We pray these things asking for these mercies as we look to your son
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Jesus Christ. The one with whom you are well pleased. Amen.
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I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Daniel chapter 1.
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Daniel 1. We'll be reading verses 1 through 7 in a moment. Daniel chapter 1.
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Last week we began our hearing of this book with some general introductory information.
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I want to add to that as well. As clarifying even more how relevant, how important, how vital this
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Old Testament book is for where we are today. The book of Daniel is often divided into two parts.
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Chapters 1 through 6 and chapters 7 through 12. The first part being labeled as historical narrative stories.
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Things that happened in history. And then chapters 7 through 12. Apocalyptic, prophetic, visions, dreams, prophecies.
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And that is helpful so long as we remember that there are prophetic elements in the first half.
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And a whole lot of history in the second half. So it's not a hard and fast division in that regard.
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And Daniel is of particular interest to believers in every age. Because his stories and his prophecies demonstrate that history, all of history, is about Jesus Christ.
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The entirety of the created order revolves around the Incarnation. And it's by living, and when we live by faith in Jesus Christ.
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To live by faith whether the old covenant believers looking forward through the shadows to Jesus Christ.
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Or new covenant believers resting our faith in Jesus Christ as well. It necessarily means that we resist the oppression of false religion.
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And we see that exemplified in the lives of Daniel and his friends. The book of Daniel is also helpful because it explains how
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Judah's exile came to an end in one sense. And how their deliverance awaited another set of events in another sense.
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Remember that Judah has been exiled to Babylon. Actually Daniel was exiled in 606
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BC. The first of three Babylonian sieges where the
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Jews were taken away to Babylon. The third one 586 was when Jerusalem was utterly destroyed.
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So there are the Jews living in a pagan land, living in Babylon. And yet the promise from Jeremiah about 70 years of Babylonian dominance.
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And then they could return to the land after the land had had its fill of Sabbath rests.
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A promise that God was going to initiate something new. The new covenant from that land, even from that city
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Jerusalem. And so they were to live in exile. They were to prosper.
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They were to multiply. They were not to diminish and decrease. But live in faith and hope of what
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God was going to do in future generations. What Daniel tells us, at the time comes and the exiles start heading home.
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But it wasn't every last bit of the promised deliverances that God had spoken of through his prophets.
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In fact, they would wait longer than 70 years. They would wait 70 weeks of years for their full deliverance to take place.
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When Messiah would come. And that's another reason why the book of Daniel is helpful.
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It puts a timeline for the Messiah. It's also helpful to remember that the book of Daniel was written in both
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Hebrew and Aramaic. The language of the Jews and the language of the nations.
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And the book of Daniel speaks of the intertwined histories of the
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Jews and the nations. And these histories intertwine and come to their intersection at the crucifixion and the crowning of the
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Messiah. Who is the one that declares the hope of the gospel for all people.
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So Daniel is helpful in that regard. And those who turn to Christ in the fear of the
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Lord. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament.
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And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. It's the promise of Daniel 12 verse 3.
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Let's read the text together. I invite you to stand as we hear the word of the
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Lord from our King Jesus Christ. Through his prophet
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Daniel. Chapter 1 verses 1 through 7. This is the word of the Lord. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah.
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Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.
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With some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar. To the house of his
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God. And he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. Then the king instructed
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Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs. To bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants.
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And some of the nobles. Young men in whom there was no blemish. But good -looking gifted in all wisdom.
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Possessing knowledge and quick to understand. Who had ability to serve in the king's palace. And whom they might teach the language and literature of the
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Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies. And of the wine which he drank.
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And three years of training for them. So that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.
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Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
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To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar.
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To Hananiah Shadrach. To Mishael Meshach. And to Azariah Abednego. This is the word of the
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Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. The title of the sermon is
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The Principal Thing. Referencing Proverbs. The principal thing is wisdom.
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Get wisdom. Sound counsel for a young man.
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Solomon provides for his son. Sound counsel for Daniel. Who is suddenly at a very young age whisked away to a pagan land.
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Immersed in pagan ideals. He needs wisdom.
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We need wisdom. Last week we discussed pagan rising.
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How we live in a day that is similar to the days of Daniel. Paganism is simply one -ism.
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You feel this expressed by our culture as the state.
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Whereas the assumption is the state is one. And everything else are parts of the whole. We all belong to the state.
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And so the state has jurisdiction over family. The state has jurisdiction over the church. The state has jurisdiction over business.
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The state has jurisdiction over how you think. That's paganism.
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And that's classic paganism. Where one -ism is expressed in terms of the state.
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And everything else has parts to the whole. That's classic paganism. That was the way it was in Babylon.
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The way it was in Rome in the time of Jesus and the apostles. And it's the way it is today. Why do people just naturally assume without any given thought.
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That the state is in charge of everything and everyone and everything that happens. It is the assumption of paganism.
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That's one -ism. Two -ism is this. There is a creator.
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And then there is his creation. That's two -ism. And so God is in charge of everything.
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God is in charge of the state. And God is in charge of the family. And God is in charge of the church. And God is in charge of everything.
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Because he is Lord and he is creator. And every one of these institutions has their own sphere of authority and governance.
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And sometimes they may interact. But they certainly have their own realms of responsibility.
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The family has a government. As described in the scripture. The church has a government. Described in the scripture.
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And the state has a government. Described in the scripture. And God says this is what the state is for. And this is what the family is for.
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And this is what the church is for. And I'm the one who determines what is right and wrong. And the actual right interactions of all three spheres of governance.
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And whatever else we may encounter. But the idea that you can have different spheres of sovereignty.
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Different spheres of government. Depends on the fact of two -ism. That there is creator. And then there is his creation.
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And that you can have this. It all traces back to whether you believe in a triune
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God revealed to us in his incarnate son. Or you just naturally assume that everything is one big blob.
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Two -ism versus one -ism. We live in a day of pagan rising. The cult of paganism makes for a culture of pluralism.
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Which makes for a society that is totalitarian. We live in a burgeoning soft totalitarianism.
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A totalitarian society is one in which an ideology seeks to displace all prior traditions and institutions.
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An ideology must displace all prior traditions and institutions.
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This is what's going to happen with Ashpenaz and Nebuchadnezzar. Dealing with Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael.
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The Chaldean ideology. The Babylonian ideology. Must displace and break up and change everything that once was.
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This is why history must be revised and monuments must be destroyed. A totalitarian society is one in which an ideology seeks to displace all prior traditions and institutions.
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With the goal of bringing all aspects of society under the control of that one ideology.
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One -ism. Paganism. Now we live in a burgeoning soft totalitarianism.
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Which always comes with the idea of helping and healing. In hard totalitarianism, conformity is rather easier.
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You know, Soviet Russia, you just make sure your papers are in order. Soft totalitarianism is more insidious.
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It demands not mere external conformity but an expression of support for something that violates your conscience.
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In the days of the apostles, it was this. Caesar is Lord. Cast your incense. C .S.
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Lewis comments on soft totalitarianism when he writes. Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims.
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A tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims might be the most oppressive.
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It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
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The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep. His cupidity at some point may be satiated.
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But those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end.
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For they do so with the approval of their own conscience. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult.
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Why? Because we're put on the level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason.
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Or those who never will to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. You don't know what's best.
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The experts will tell you. And the experts will tell you to do what everybody else is doing.
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Oneness. Oneness. Everybody must be the same. So, we live in a world of paganism.
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Daniel lived in a world of paganism. Daniel is incredibly applicable to our times today. Consider that dissent against the science of LGBTQIA+.
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I think I got that in order. Dissent against the science of COVID compliance.
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Dissent against the truth of critical race theory and intersectionality. And its little cousin, liberation theology.
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Dissent against the truth of unquestionably fraudless elections.
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Notice that this dissent is not tolerated. Notice that such dissent is suppressed and canceled.
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Also notice that support for these, support for these, and whatever else will get added to the list, curries the favor of the cultural elites, and you get to keep your platform, and you get to keep your job.
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You might even get a raise. What is this in which we live? This pagan rising, which demands some kind of totalitarianism, whether soft or hard.
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Which is why we need wisdom. Daniel and his friends needed wisdom to address the paganism of their day.
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We need wisdom to address the paganism of our day. We need the wisdom of Christ.
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We need the wisdom of Christ to see how things really are. Wisdom is the principal thing.
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We need wisdom, and wisdom is stored fully in Jesus Christ. We're told that all the wisdom of God, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, are stored up in Jesus Christ.
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And so he is what we need. We need him. So we may understand what the enemy is up to.
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So we can be prudent. We can be precise. Harmless as doves. Wise as serpents. Sheep among wolves.
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Overcoming. Conquering through our shepherd, Jesus Christ. Which is why our analytical tool, our analytical tool for resisting paganism, is the wisdom of God and Christ.
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Last week we talked about the sovereign shake -up in verses 1 through 2. How everything changed, but it changed according to God's timing and God's purpose.
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This morning I want us to look at the pagan power play in verses 3 through 7.
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And understand it from the position of wisdom. Consider what's going on in verses 3 through 7 from God's point of view.
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We need to mark the aspects of this power play. Understand them through the person and work of Christ, how we're to respond to them.
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The first aspect of the pagan power play is immersion.
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Immersion, verses 3 through 4. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs.
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This term is not a physiological term. It is a political term.
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Potiphar had the same term applied to him in Genesis and he was married. This is talking about some kind of satrap, some kind of ruler or official, a bureaucrat.
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The master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good -looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the
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Chaldeans. Remember the Nebuchadnezzar when he besieged
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Jerusalem, was able to take away some of the treasured vessels out of the temple.
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He grabbed the best dishes he could find because he didn't find any idols there. He grabbed the dishes and brought them back home and put them into the house of his
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God, a symbol of him conquering his God, conquering Yahweh, of Nebuchadnezzar conquering
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Judah and Jerusalem. But he didn't just grab dishes.
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He also grabbed people. And he grabbed the best -looking, best -equipped, most serviceable kind of human beings he could find.
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He grabbed the noble young men. And just as the dishes after their journey would have been washed and polished and then put on display to glorify his pagan
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God, so these young men were to be immersed, subverted, and converted.
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So Nebuchadnezzar assigns Ashpenaz the duty of cleaning up and polishing and repurposing these vessels or vassals, shall we call them,
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Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. They need to be cleaned up, readied for Babylonian purposes.
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Ashpenaz is a name which either denotes a stern look or a brilliant mind. But in either case, he is Professor Ashpenaz.
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He is Professor Ashpenaz. He's in charge of the re -education camp, in which
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Daniel and his three friends will be spending three years so that they will become the king's men at the end.
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And what does Nebuchadnezzar want? He wants these young Jewish men to be immersed.
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He wants everything about them to be saturated. These guys are not lacking in character.
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They're not lacking in physical fitness. They're not lacking in wisdom, education, intellect, or poise. Why do they need any education at all?
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Why do they need any improvement at all? He wants every favorable characteristic of Daniel and his friends to be thoroughly immersed in Babylonianism, Chaldeanism, paganism.
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He wants them marinated in that so they will think properly.
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Now, the literature and language of the Chaldeans would include the study of Sumerian and Chaldean, Akkadian, Aramaic.
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They would learn the mythological texts. They would study history. They would study astronomy.
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They would study mathematics and medicine. A lot of things to study. A lot of reading to do.
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And they would be immersed in Babylonian literature and lore. That alone may have done the trick.
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That alone may have had the desired result of assimilation. But when someone, and you notice this, when someone is immersed in a worldview, incessantly studying all manner of topics from that single pagan perspective, one naturally tends to take on all those assumptions and values and conclusions.
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Just like steak takes on a marinade. Immersion was the first part of the power play.
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The question really is, how is Daniel and his friends going to keep from drowning in all things Chaldean?
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In all things pagan? Well, they needed the wisdom of God, which begins with the fear of the
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Lord. The fear of the Lord. Have you noticed the immersion in our day?
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It is part of the pagan power play to thoroughly immerse our senses and our thinking in paganism, which is why promiscuity and pornography are everywhere.
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Why we constantly see transvestites and cross -dressers. Why there are sodomite affections in every story.
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And every news cycle echoes the same sentiments. Every business billionaire and billboard says, do your part.
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And the volume from almost every source in our life increases with the same pitch and tone and message, comply, comply, comply, comply.
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Until one begins to feel that compliance is good. And grows irritated with those who will not comply.
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That makes things so much more difficult on the rest of us who are trying to love our neighbors. Believers can begin to merge, you see, merge the paganism around them with their faith within them.
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But that is a mutant spirituality, which does not have a future. It cannot survive.
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There are a lot of folks today that think that the more immersed in the world they are, the more immersed they are in the world's cultures and the world's spiritualities and the world's philosophies, the more excellent
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Christians they are. But you know, there's only one outcome of fancying outhouses as well houses.
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Don't go to the outhouse to find water. I'm almost, I'm almost quoting
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Jeremiah on that. We are in the world, but we must not at all be of the world.
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All that is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is passing away. We must rather in the fear of God marinate our lives in the seasoning of his word.
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Psalm 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight, his delight is in the law of the
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Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaves shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
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What did Jesus tell us? What did he pray for? He prayed for his followers.
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How did he pray for us? He said, Father, do not take them out of the world. He said,
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Father, do not take them out of the world. He wants us here for a reason, salt, light.
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But what does he want from us? He wants us to abide with him, to abide with him and his word to abide in us.
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Immersion is effective in forwarding the pagan power play, but it is all the more effective when it is followed up and combined with subversion.
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That's verse 5. That's verse 5. Verse 5 becomes a controversy.
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Verse 5 becomes a problem. Verse 5 becomes a sticking point for Daniel and his friends that they respond to and resist.
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Now, Daniel's later resistance to the edict restricting prayer, his friends' resistance to the compulsory idol worship, those are famous.
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The fiery furnace, the lion's den, those are famous stories in Christianity, famous examples, easily understandable.
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We can quickly grasp how right it was for them to draw the line in the sand at those critical moments.
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What we must understand is that those acts of resistance that we so give praise to and rejoice in and are encouraged by did not come out of the naked blue.
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They resisted about smaller things way earlier, and this is one of them.
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This is one of them, and this involves all four of them. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank in three years of training for them so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.
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So you see how long their education was going to take, three years of training. But notice the flow of verse 5.
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Three years of language study, mathematics, and so on, a pagan satrap does not make.
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Three years of studying literature, history, astronomy, and medicine from the Babylonian perspective, that would have an impact for sure.
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All of it would be from the perspective of the pagan gods. Astronomy would be astrology. Medicine would be witchcraft.
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But even that would not really be enough. Three years of study must be accompanied by something else.
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A spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. The carrot to erase the need for the stick.
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Three years of the king's delicacies and the king's wine the king's man will make.
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This is what they resist, the king's delicacies. It was not the paganized education per se, though that was a problem.
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It was the incentives, the incentives to compromise, the incentives to partake.
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This was not the issue of Jewish dietary law. Vegetables as well as meat and wine could be offered to idols. We find
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Daniel actually drinking wine later on in the book. The point is the king's supply.
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That's the issue. Daniel knew that to eat from the king's table meant to be incorporated with the king, united with the king.
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Let's go back to a story in Samuel. Things are getting tense between King Saul and King David, or David before he was king.
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Things are getting tense. At some point Daniel doesn't show up to the king's table.
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Saul gives him one day, and the next day his anger is fully aroused.
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Where's David? Now we don't, you know, it's like, hey, if somebody from the office doesn't show up to eat lunch with the group two days in a row, we're not losing it, ready to fire him.
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But there was a point. To eat with the king meant I am loyal to the king.
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To sit at the king's table and eat the king's food is to say I'm on the king's side. I am with the king.
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I am incorporated with the king. And for David to not show up and eat with the king,
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Saul interpreted as an act of sedition. David was acting the part of a traitor.
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And thus Saul got angry. And so it needed to be asserted from the very beginning that Daniel and his friends, though they were in Babylon and though they would be eminently useful to the
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Babylonian and later on the Persian regime, it was very important that they would not become
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Babylonians themselves. That they would never be Nebuchadnezzarites.
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They would not eat from the king's supply.
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And we'll look at more of that next week. We talk about the godly battle plan. But the point here is that the pagans first seek to immerse and then to subvert.
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But our analytical tool for resisting paganism is the wisdom of God and Christ. Why did
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Daniel and his friends refuse to refuse the king's food and wine? They were using wisdom.
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Proverbs 23, verse 1. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.
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Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. And that's why
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Daniel and his friends don't eat from the king's supply. They were employing wisdom.
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Wisdom is the principal thing. They needed wisdom and they resist. Daniel and his friends recognized the pagan power play being made on them, and so should we.
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So should we. Tax exemption, accreditation, blue check marks, oval office meetings, publishing deals,
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TV interviews, it all comes with strings. All of it does at some level, doesn't it?
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Do we recognize that? Are we aware of that? Are we responsive to that? When Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary took
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Kern Family Foundation money, they had to invent an entirely new Kern Family Foundation degree program concerning social justice.
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You take the money, you do their bidding. It's that way throughout evangelicalism today.
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Do not desire the delicacies of the ruler. They're not worth our integrity, not worth our lives.
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Whose table do we eat from? Whose table do we eat from?
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Who are we with? We eat from the table of Christ. We come together and we eat his bread and we drink his cup.
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We're with him. He's king of kings and he's lord of lords. He has our loyalty.
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We're with him. That's the table from which we eat. It's his delicacies that we take in.
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We're incorporated with Christ. By using the wisdom of God as our analytical tool, we are to expose the deceptive incentives.
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Do not desire his delicacies, they are deceptive food. The deceptive incentives of paganism's soft totalitarianism and rooting ourselves in the fear of God, we can resist paganism in the name of Jesus Christ.
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Thirdly, the third aspect of the pagan power play is that of conversion. We start off with immersion, we move to subversion, and now conversion, verses 6 and 7.
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Now from among them, those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
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To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.
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It's clear by these last two verses that it will not be enough for Nebuchadnezzar to merely immerse and further subvert
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Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and the rest. As with the vessels, so with the vassals, they must be thoroughly repurposed.
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They must be converted. Paganism is not satisfied with anything less than your soul.
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It will drown you, bribe you, annihilate your identity, all to claim you, own you, and finally absorb you into its bleak, despairing monolith.
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Zion does not have anything to do with Babel. There is no agreement between Christianity and paganism.
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They're as different as one -ism and two -ism. And only fools seek a synthesis.
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Look at what Professor Ashpenaz does on the first day of class. Look what he does on the first day of class.
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He renames his students. Their worldviews must be obliterated.
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Their self -understanding must be replaced. You don't know who you are. Your parents named you, but that's not true.
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They brought you up to think of yourself in X, Y, and Z in the fear of the Lord. That's not true. Your identity is not true.
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It's false. Here's your new identity. Think of these beautiful names. Daniel, God is my judge.
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Hananiah, the Lord is gracious. Mishael, who is, what God is. Azariah, the
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Lord is a helper. Beautiful names. Names given to them by God -fearing parents who wanted to praise the
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Lord, wanted their children to fear the Lord. Well, that all has to be changed.
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Because that speaks of two -ism. And that needs to change. And new names are given to them.
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Pagan names that invoke the help of pagan Babylonian gods. Each name given to them has a soft reflection of what their original name meant, but invoking the name of pagan gods.
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The gods Marduk, Bel, Aku, Nebo. Their new names are synthesized with the pagan pantheon.
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Your old way of thinking is insufficient. You must think differently now. Their former identity is thus scheduled for a three -year obliteration.
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Consider what is lost with the declarations of their names. What assertions being made about God and those beautiful names, what assertions about God are being canceled here?
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About God being judged, God being provider, God being glorious. All these things have to be canceled in paganism.
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It's only by fearing the Lord, only by thinking of Him first and most, only by fearing the
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Lord, thinking of Him first, thinking of Him most, do we see how diabolical this power play is.
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Paganism excels, excels, changing one name for another. Always changing one name for another.
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If everything is one, everything is fungible. Men are women, women are men, boys are girls, girls are boys.
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It's all interchangeable. It's all fungible.
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You can change one name for another name. Here's an exhortation. 2
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Corinthians 10, 3 through 5. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. No, we're wrestling not against flesh and bone, neighbors who are wrestling against evil philosophies, false teaching, demonic deceptions.
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For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, pulling down what?
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Casting down arguments. And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, thinking of Him first, thinking of Him most.
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Someone says, your self -understanding is wrong. This is who you really are.
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And you say, oh yeah, what does Jesus have to say about that? Every thought brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ, who is
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King, who is Lord. We are in very grave danger of believing in the names the pagans give us.
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Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael would never have resisted paganism. They would have bowed to the edicts to not pray.
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They would have bowed to the edicts of worshiping idols. They would have become, in every sense of the word, the king's men.
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If they believed in the names the pagans gave them, and when the church, brothers and sisters in Christ, if we listen to the names the pagans give us and begin to believe in them, then we will change our affections.
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We will not stand for Christ. We will make compromise after compromise until our faith perishes in a synthesis.
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They name us by their gods. Have you noticed this? They call us radical because they control the guillotine.
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They call us racist because all they see is skin. They call us phobic because all they know is fear.
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They call us unjust because they love partiality. They call us fools because they are suicidal.
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They call us blind because they cannot see. They call us hateful because they breathe in anger and exhale venom.
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Don't believe it for a second. They called Jesus Beelzebul because they serve demons.
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And if they so treated our Lord, what should we expect? Don't believe them when they call you by the names of their gods.
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Submit your thinking, your affections, your way of life before the
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God with whom we have to do. And His word is sharper than any two -edged sword. It cuts right to the heart of the matter and tells us what's right and wrong about us.
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How we need to repent, how we need to think better, how we need to grow in Christ. We have all the analysis we need of who we are and who we are to become in the
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Word of God. So beware of the pagan power play.
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Immersion, subversion, conversion. Let us be aware of it and respond to it in the wisdom of God and Christ.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had in your word. Once again, we are reminded of how sufficient and perfectly written it is.
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How well -aimed for our needs. Lord, we need courage. We need wisdom.
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Help us to fear you. Help us to respond rightly to the paganism rising around us.
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And Lord, we do so in great hope and great confidence that your
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Son Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. That he has lived and died and been raised the third day and ascended to your right hand and upon him and upon his gospel he builds his church and the gates of Hades will never prevail but he will.
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So, Father, we thank you for bearing with us with our weaknesses. Thank you for loving us through your
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Son. We pray these things in his name. Amen. Brother Michael's preaching came to mind a verse.
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Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it in teaching Israel ordinance and statutes.
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Thank you for that challenge, Pastor. Would you stand with me for our benediction song?
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We're going to sing page 483. Lead on, O King Eternal.
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Let's sing the first two verses. Lead on,
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O King Eternal The day of much has come
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Its morning beams upon us
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But it shall be our home Through days of preparation
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Your grace has made us turn
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Lead on,
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O King Eternal Dissipate what shall cease
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And holiness shall whisper peace
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For the kings of the
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Holy Kingdom All is calm
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May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.