The scripture reading comes from Daniel chapter 1.
Please follow along on the screen, the bulletin, or your own Bible.
Starting in verse 1, we read,
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand
with some of the vessels of the house of God.
And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God,
and placed the vessel in the treasury of his God.
Then the king commanded Aspenaz, his chief eunuch,
to bring some of the people of Israel,
both of the royal family and of the nobility,
youths without blemish of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom,
endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning,
and competent to stand in the king's palace,
and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate
and of the wine that he drank.
They were to be educated for three years,
and at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king.
Among those were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.
And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.
Daniel he called Balthasar,
Hananiah he called Shadrach,
Mishael he called Meshach,
and Azariah he called Abednego.
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food
or with the wine that he drank.
Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs
to allow him not to defile himself.
And God gave Daniel favor and compassion
in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.
And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel,
I fear my lord the king who assigned you your food and your drink,
for why should he see that you were in worse condition
than the youths who are of your own age?
So you would endanger my head with the king.
Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of eunuchs
had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
Test your servants for ten days.
Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths
who eat the king's food be observed by you
and deal with your servants according to what you see.
So he listened to them in this matter
and tested them for ten days.
At the end of the ten days,
it was seen that they were better in appearance
and fatter in flesh
than all the youths who ate the king's food.
So the steward took away their food
and the wine they were to drink
and gave them vegetables.
As for these four youths,
God gave them learning and skill
in all literature and wisdom.
And Daniel had understanding
in all visions and dreams.
At the end of the time,
when the king had commanded
that they should be brought in,
the chief of the eunuchs brought them in
before Nebuchadnezzar.
And the king spoke with them.
And among all of them,
none was found like Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Therefore, they stood before the king.
And in every matter of wisdom
and understanding
about which the king inquired of them,
he found them ten times better
than all the magicians and enchanters
that were in all his kingdom.
And Daniel was there
until the first year of King Cyrus.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Thank you, Angie,
for reading that long passage.
And good morning, everybody.
Again, great to see you.
And welcome.
Lovely to have you with us.
If you are new to Watermark
and I haven't met you,
my name's Kevin.
And it's great to have you with us today.
Now, we are diving into this book of Daniel,
this Old Testament book.
And the book of Daniel
is about so much more
than lions' dens
and fiery furnaces
and children's stories.
The book of Daniel
really is about two things.
It's about sovereignty
and it's about faithfulness.
And again and again,
in the book of Daniel,
as we go through it
over the next six or seven weeks,
we're going to see that
what God's going to tell us
is that He alone is sovereign.
If you're new to church,
the word sovereign
is a kind of technical word.
It means that God is on the throne.
He rules and He reigns.
And Daniel's going to tell us
again and again
that God is the one
who's on the throne,
not any other power
or political power
or economic power.
But the book of Daniel
is also about faithfulness.
It's about God's faithfulness
and how God calls His people
to be faithful to Him
even in the midst
of living in this world,
this city,
which at the time
was not a very God-honoring city.
And so in many ways,
even while our world
looks very different
to the ancient city of Babylon,
in many of the ways,
the underlying belief system
and the underlying values,
even of a city like Hong Kong,
21st century Hong Kong,
is actually similar
to many of the underlying
belief systems and values
of an ancient city like Babylon.
Babylon was a city
that ran on power.
It was a city
that ran on wealth.
It was a very performance-orientated city.
It was a city
where there was huge
economic inequalities
between the wealthy
and the poor.
And so in many ways,
the values and the belief systems
are quite similar.
And so the question
we're going to look at
in this book
again and again is,
what does it mean,
what does it look like
to be the people of God
in the midst of the cities
in which we live
and for us,
in the midst of 21st century Hong Kong?
Now, today we're going to dive
into Daniel chapter 1.
And the book of Daniel,
the first chapter
kind of sets up
the rest of the book.
In fact, actually,
in the original writing,
chapter 1 is written
in the Hebrew language
and then in chapter 2,
it changes to Aramaic.
And part of the reason for that,
it changes back again later on,
but part of the reason for that
is because Daniel chapter 1
is like a prologue.
It's setting up the themes
that we're going to see
throughout the book
again and again.
And so what we're going to see today
is that if,
for those of us
that are followers of Jesus,
if we're going to be faithful to God
in the midst of the world
that we live in,
in the midst of this city
and the other big cities
to which maybe you move or live,
we've got to remember four things.
There's four things
that I think God wants to show us
in chapter 1 today.
So let's dive in.
The first thing is this.
If you're going to be faithful to God,
if you're going to become
the person that God,
the sovereign God,
wants to call you to be,
you've got to remember
who's on the throne.
Who's on the throne.
Now, when we read Daniel chapter 1,
look who's on the throne.
It's fairly obvious.
It's this guy called Nebuchadnezzar,
okay, Nebuchadnezzar II.
And what happened is this setting
is in 605 BC,
Nebuchadnezzar's father
had just recently,
two or three years before this,
demolished the Assyrian empire.
The Assyrians were the world superpower.
He had crushed them.
He came on down to Egypt
and there was a battle
called the Battle of Carshemesh,
I think it was.
He crushed the Egyptians.
He then dies
and his son, Nebuchadnezzar,
gets on the throne.
And Nebuchadnezzar wants to prove
to the world
that he is no slouch.
He has every bit of authority
and ruthlessness
as his dad did.
And so Nebuchadnezzar's on the throne.
He comes to Jerusalem,
605 BC.
He lays siege to the city of Jerusalem.
He wipes out the king
and he destroys it.
Now, at this stage,
he just does that
in the first step of that.
Later on,
he's going to come back
and wipe it out fully.
But in this instance,
what he does
is he takes the king,
the royal family,
high-ranking members of society,
the political,
the cultural elites,
and he takes them back to Babylon
and he enters them
into this three-year re-education program
that Angie read about.
They go to this Ivy League
Babylonian university.
They learn all about
Babylonian culture
and literature
and the arts
and the astrology
and the values
of Babylonian culture.
In a few years' time,
Nebuchadnezzar's going to go
back to Jerusalem
and he's going to
really wipe it out thoroughly.
He's going to pull down the temple,
burn all the buildings,
rip down the city walls,
and march everyone
back into Babylon
in the exiles.
But at this stage,
what he does is
he just takes the political
and the cultural
and the economic elites
with him
back to Babylon.
So look at verse 2
of what Angie read to us.
Nebuchadnezzar takes
the holy things
from the temple
and it says here,
he brought them
into the land of Shinar
to the house of his God
and he placed the vessels
in the treasury
of his God.
So Nebuchadnezzar
goes to the temple
in Jerusalem
and he takes all the
holy and sacred things,
he marches them
back to Babylon
and he sets them up
in the temple
to his false god.
It's kind of like
somebody coming
and taking down
a cross
in our church
and then setting it up
in a Buddhist temple
as a stand
from which to burn incense.
So you take like a cross,
the thing that's
most sacred to us
and say,
oh, let's use this
to burn incense
to our gods, right?
It's absolutely sacrilege.
And so what are
the Israelites thinking?
At this stage,
they're thinking,
where is God?
How can God
allow this to happen?
It seems like God
has become impotent.
I mean,
God is completely weak.
How can God
allow this to happen?
To everyone in Jerusalem,
it seems like God
has fallen off the throne
and is just allowing
Nebuchadnezzar
to run rampant.
But what God
wants us to see here
is actually
over and above
the work of Nebuchadnezzar
and the plans
of the earthly kings
stands the sovereign God,
the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob,
the God of the Bible
who rules over
all the affairs
of mankind.
Look at what happens
in verse 1 and 2.
If you've got your bulletin,
read it with me.
It says,
In the third year
of the reign of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon,
came to Jerusalem
and besieged it.
And the Lord
gave Jehoiakim
into his hands.
So who came
and besieged Jerusalem?
Nebuchadnezzar, right?
Who gave him,
Jehoiakim,
into his hands?
The sovereign Lord.
That's right.
And actually,
the passage we looked
at last week,
Jeremiah 29,
says the exact same thing.
We didn't look,
we didn't pick it up.
But in verse 1,
it says,
Nebuchadnezzar came
and took the exiles
with him back to Babylon.
Verse 4 reads,
Thus says the Lord,
the God of Israel,
to the exiles,
those that I,
the Lord,
have sent into Babylon.
Now,
what God is saying
is that over and above
the affairs of politicians
and kings and rulers,
God sits on the throne.
Now,
we may think,
oh,
that's easy to say
retrospectively, right?
History happens
and then you just write
in your Bible,
oh,
well,
God was involved
in all of it.
You're just rewriting history,
okay?
But actually,
in the Bible,
God often foretells
that this is going to happen.
For instance,
about 120 years
before this happened,
the prophet Isaiah
goes to Hezekiah
and he says this
to Hezekiah
in Isaiah 39.
He says,
Hear the word
of the Lord,
Hezekiah.
The days are coming
when all that is
in your house,
in other words,
your royal palace,
and that which your fathers,
the kings have stored up
to this day,
will be carried off
into Babylon.
Nothing will be left
in Jerusalem
and some of your own
descendants,
in other words,
members of the royal family,
will be taken away
and will serve
in the palace
of the king of Babylon.
Now,
what's amazing is
when Isaiah writes this,
Babylon is like nothing.
They're not a world superpower.
They're not very strong.
Assyria is the world power.
Babylon is just
some city
in the far east.
But Isaiah writes and says,
The time is coming
because you are not obeying God
when everything in Jerusalem
is going to be carried off
and taken to Babylon
and some of your descendants
are going to serve
the king of Babylon
in his palace
120 years
before it actually happened.
Friends,
you see what God is saying here?
What God is trying to tell us
is that no matter
in every city,
in every age,
in every generation,
there will be things
that happen
that cause us
to wonder and fear
and think,
where is God?
God has fallen off his throne.
Is God really in control?
And what Daniel
wants to show us
is that over and above
the rule and the authority
and the reign
of kings and queens,
presidents and empires,
stands the sovereign God,
that God alone
is on the throne.
God's people
end up in Babylon
not because of Nebuchadnezzar
but because God sent him there.
The sovereign God
is on the throne.
Later on in the book of Daniel,
this is like one
of my favorite scriptures
in all of the Bible,
okay?
Daniel chapter 5,
Daniel speaks to a man
called Belshazzar
who's a king
who follows Nebuchadnezzar.
So Nebuchadnezzar dies
and this guy Belshazzar
becomes king.
And listen to what Daniel
says to him.
He says,
So talk about
supreme authority, right?
Nebuchadnezzar's like
the most powerful man
of the most powerful nation
of all the world.
If he wants you dead,
you're dead.
He wants you alive,
you're alive.
Supreme authority, right?
But then look at the next verse.
But when his heart
was lifted up
and his spirit was hardened,
said he dealt proudly,
he was brought down
from his kingly throne
and his glory
was taken from him
until Nebuchadnezzar knew
that it's the most high God
who rules the kingdoms
of mankind
and sets over them
whom he wills.
Proverbs says,
The heart of a king
is like a stream of water
in the hands
of the living God.
He directs it
where he wants.
And what we see
in Daniel chapter 1,
it's not only macro events
like kingdoms
and empires,
it's micro events as well.
Look at verse 9 with me.
It says,
God gave Daniel
favor and compassion
in the sight
of the chief of the eunuchs.
Verse 17,
And as for these four youths,
God gave them learning
and skill
in all the literature
and the understanding
of Babylon.
Do you see what God's saying here?
God is saying that
despite how things appear,
God is the one
who's on the throne.
Sometimes we look around us
and we say,
God, where are you?
How could this be possible?
And the story of Daniel
is that over and over again,
God wants us
to have confidence
that he's on the throne.
Now,
why do we need to know this?
Who cares, right?
That's great
for the theology classroom,
but how does that
actually help you
in your Monday to Friday?
Friends,
all of us
are going to go through
times in life
when the storms of life
comes
and the fire comes
and all of us
are going to need
a robust theology
of the bigness of God.
If your view of God
is small
and minuscule,
you'll be tossed
by the wind
and the waves
and you'll be thrown.
But if you're able
to see the bigness
and the majesty of God,
it'll be like putting
roots down
into the foundation
that will hold you strong
in the midst
of the storms
and the fires of life.
Tim Keller
wrote this incredible book
10 years ago
called Walking with God
Through Pain and Suffering.
And one of the things
he says in that book,
amazing insights,
he says,
every one of us
are going to face trauma
and trials in our life.
It's just a matter of time
before we encounter something
that just challenges you
no end.
And he says,
when you face the storms
and the trials of life,
there are three kinds of people.
Some people who are,
let's say,
atheists or agnostics.
You don't have any belief in God.
Okay?
Take one person.
Second person,
someone who's a Christian
but they've got a small view
of the sovereignty of God.
They know God
is kind of,
sort of in control.
Maybe God wants us
to be a good person.
But they don't really have conviction
that God is on the throne.
And the third person
is somebody who knows
that God rules and reigns.
And Tim Keller says this,
when the storms of life come,
when the fires come,
the first person
will say,
oh well,
there's no meaning in life anyway.
Stuff happens.
That's just the way it is.
The second person
will be the most broken by it.
The second person will say,
God, where are you?
You've abandoned me.
How can you let this happen?
I thought you were meant to be good.
But the third person,
the person who has a robust theology
of God's sovereignty
will be able to say,
God, I don't know why you're lying to this.
I don't know what's going on
but I know one thing.
I know you're good
and I know you're on the throne.
Do you see what this means?
It means for those of us
that are followers of Jesus,
if you're a follower of Jesus
but you haven't wrestled
and come to understand
that God is the one
who's on the throne,
when the storms of life comes,
when the fire comes,
it will throw your faith.
You'll feel abandoned
and let down.
But if you know
that God rules and reigns,
you might not understand
why he allows what he allows
but you'll have the confidence
to know that God is in control.
He hasn't abandoned me.
Does that make sense?
Okay, I hope that makes sense.
Okay, are you still awake?
Okay, great.
This is the point of Daniel chapter one.
That even though it looks like
Nebuchadnezzar's on the throne,
actually God is on the throne.
He rules and he reigns.
And Daniel's point here
is that if we,
who are followers of Jesus,
are going to be faithful to Christ
in the midst of our city,
in the midst of what's going on,
you have to learn
the lesson of Daniel.
You have to know
that Nebuchadnezzar's not on the throne,
Caesar Augusta's not on the throne,
Jesus is on the throne.
Okay, second thing is this.
Character trumps gifting.
Now, Daniel is obviously
a very gifted man, right?
You read the book of Daniel
and he's super smart.
He's very clever.
He's a genius.
He's got profound wisdom.
I mean, just look at what he says here, right?
The way he negotiates
with the chief of staff of Nebuchadnezzar.
God gives him supernatural gifts and talents.
He's obviously a very wise
and incredibly gifted man.
And this is, of course,
exactly what Nebuchadnezzar's looking for.
Look at what Nebuchadnezzar says
to his chief of staff
when he sends this guy
on a recce trip to Jerusalem.
He says, listen, I want you to go.
Look at what he says in verse three and four.
Bring some of the people of Israel,
members of the royal family and nobility,
youths without blemish,
people of good appearance,
skillful in wisdom,
endowed with knowledge,
understanding and learning,
and competent to stand before the king.
So Nebuchadnezzar is looking
for all the kinds of things
that we look for
in potential spouses
and in future employees, right?
Someone from a good family background,
someone with good looks,
okay, that helps,
someone that's got intellectual smarts,
and someone that has good social EQ,
okay?
All the things that we look for in society.
And,
but what God is showing us here
is that actually what God wants us to see
that those things,
though Daniel has them,
those are not the standout quality for Daniel.
In God's kingdom,
what sets you apart
is not your family background,
your intellectual credibility,
your social EQ,
your good looks.
What sets you apart in God's kingdom
is actually character.
It's actually character.
At the time that Daniel and his friends
go to Babylon,
they're teenagers,
they're 16 year olds,
and they are seduced
and wined and dined by the king.
The king pays for the Ivy League education.
The king is bankrolling their board and lodging.
The king is setting them up,
feeding them with stuff from his table,
his food,
and all that.
And amazingly,
Daniel and his friends
fully engage in the culture
and the city that they're part of.
They absolutely do
what Jeremiah tells them to.
They put down roots,
they settle,
they are loving the city
in which they're part of.
But there comes a point
where there's a line in the sand
that Daniel knows
for him to cross that line in the sand
is going to go against
who God is calling him to be.
And so look at what happens in verse 8.
It says,
Daniel resolved
that he would not defile himself
with the king's food
or with the wine that he drank,
and therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs
to allow him not to defile himself.
The word resolve here
talks about setting your face
determined on something.
It's actually the word
that's sometimes used in the Bible
for like a cast
that you put over your arm.
Someone breaks their arm,
you put a cast on them,
the hard cast
that's going to keep
that arm firm and fixed.
Daniel resolves,
he's got this resolution
that he says,
I know where I stand.
He's got the strength of character
to know where his convictions lie
and where not to cross that line.
Remember how in,
earlier on in the Bible,
Samuel goes to this man called Jesse,
and God tells Samuel
to anoint one of Jesse's sons
to be the new king of Israel,
the first king of Israel.
And so Jesse brings out all the sons
and Jesse does exactly
what Nebuchadnezzar does.
He brings out his sons
that are good looking,
intellectually smart,
social EQ,
good background, right?
And he says,
here's my eldest son.
He's strong,
he's fit,
this man will make a good king.
And he goes through all the sons
and God says,
I haven't chosen any of them.
And God says,
man looks at the outward appearance,
but God looks at the heart.
In the language of the New Testament,
Paul says the same thing.
Paul says,
it's not your spiritual gifts
that God looks for,
things like speaking in tongues
or leadership
or prophecy
or words of knowledge.
It's not spiritual gifts
that make you great in God's kingdom.
It's spiritual fruit.
It's the fruit of the Spirit.
It's things like patience.
It's things like kindness.
It's things like gentleness.
It's things like having grace
for those that have hurt you.
It's things like being merciful
to those that society looks down upon.
Those are the things
that God actually looks for.
The gifts of the Spirit
are just the things
that God gives us
by his sovereign will.
God anoints you,
that's wonderful.
But it's the fruit of the Spirit,
the fruit of walking with Jesus
that actually God is looking for.
And friends,
in our city,
we love to invest
in our skill sets,
in our abilities, right?
How many of us are parents?
We are always sending our kids
to extracurricular activities, right?
Extra Chinese,
extra maths,
extra tennis lessons,
extra piano lessons,
extra whatever lessons.
Think about in the marketplace.
We're always trying
to build our resume,
our CV.
But what God is looking for,
he says those things are not bad,
but actually the kind of people
that are going to make
a difference in the city,
if you want to be faithful to Jesus,
it's not just our resume,
it's actually our character.
God wants to build our character.
How do we build our character?
What does it take
to build our character?
Well, let me just run through
a couple of things quickly.
The first thing is actually
it takes deep reflection of God.
Have you ever spent time
with someone
that is really outstanding,
someone who's brilliant,
and you go away
from being with that person
and you just want to
become better yourself?
Do you know what I mean?
You spend time with someone
who's so compassionate,
so kind,
and you feel like
you want to be kinder yourself.
The more time we spend with God
and reflect on his nature
and his character
actually develops within us
a longing to become more like him.
Deep reflection on who God is.
How do we become people of character?
Well, you go through trials
and tribulations.
We mentioned this earlier,
but nothing will shape your character
like the fire and the storm.
But as Keller reminded us,
when you go through
the fire and the storm,
the difference between growing you
and destroying you
is whether you can hold on to God
in the midst of it.
There's nothing like the fire
and the storms of life
that's going to grow your character
and make you to become
a person of substance.
And that's actually one of the things
I find hardest
about being a parent.
On the one hand,
I want to deliver my children
from the difficulties of life
because my heart goes out to them.
But I also know
the difficulties of life
is actually what's going to grow them
and mature them, right?
And God is the same.
He allows us to go through challenges
to grow us.
But you know the other way
that you develop character
is through cultivating
a life of repentance
and confession.
As Christians,
one of the things
that we do as Christians
is we are called
to examine our hearts,
to constantly reflect,
where am I being defensive?
Where am I being proud?
Where am I blaming others?
Where am I pointing my fingers
to other people?
Where am I living
for my own glory
rather than God?
And God says
as we cultivate
a habit of reflection
and repentance
and confession,
actually we shape the character.
We become the kind of people
that God's calling us to.
And so while Nebuchadnezzar
is pleased
that he scored
these young guys
with the perfect resume,
what sets them apart
in Babylon
is not just their resume
but actually their character.
The kind of people
that God's called them to be.
And friends,
if we're ever going to serve
our city
by remaining faithful to Jesus,
we've got to become
the kind of people
that are growing
our character as well.
Okay?
So that's the second thing.
Third thing is this.
I'm going to run through this
really quickly.
Is if we're going to become
the kind of people
that love and serve our city,
we've got to know
what it means to worship.
What it means to worship.
Look at Daniel
and his friends here.
They go to Babylon
and amazingly,
they say yes
to all sorts of things
in the city.
They say yes
to new names.
So Nebuchadnezzar
gives these guys
Babylonian names.
They say yes to that.
They say yes
to Babylonian education.
They say yes
to Babylonian culture.
They say yes
to all these things.
But there's one thing
that Daniel and his friends
say no to.
What is it that they say no to?
It's the food
and the wine.
Right?
Now,
why does Daniel do that?
Well,
the point that Daniel's making
is not that we should
all become vegetarians.
Okay?
That's not Daniel's
main point here.
And he's not saying
that alcohol is bad
and we shouldn't drink wine.
Okay?
And this is not also
some secret code
for Christian dieting techniques.
Okay?
Sometimes,
I don't know if you've ever
heard this,
when I was growing up
people used to talk about
the Daniel diet.
Okay?
We should all do
the Daniel diet
and eat more vegetables.
And that's probably
good for us.
Dr. Graham,
you can tell us
vegetables is probably
a good thing, right?
But that's not the point
of Daniel chapter 1.
What's going on here?
Well,
remember in the Bible,
having a meal with someone
is always a sign,
it's always symbolic
of saying,
I welcome you,
I accept you.
Remember,
Jesus is always
getting in trouble
because he's always
eating and having meals
with the people
that the Pharisees
don't want to accept
and welcome.
And so he's having a meal
with the tax collectors
and the sinners
and the Pharisees
are saying,
how can you welcome them?
How can you love those people?
You should be rebuking them.
Jesus is having meals
with them
and he's always
getting in trouble
because it's Jesus' way
of saying,
I'm not just opening
my home to you,
I'm opening my heart.
I'm welcoming you.
And friends,
that's why actually
having communion
when our hearts
are bitter
with other members
of the church family
is actually a very
hypocritical thing to do
because when we take
communion together,
it's a way of saying,
I recognize you,
I welcome you,
I accept you.
But if there's
unforgiveness in my heart,
that's actually not
a good thing to do.
And so having a meal
is always a way
of welcoming someone,
of accepting them.
Now look at what's going on
here in verse 8.
Verse 8 says,
Daniel resolved
that he would not
defile himself
with the king's food.
The word defile
is in the Old Testament
a word that has to do
with worship.
Remember,
God's people
were not allowed
to go to the temple
if they were defiled,
if they were unclean.
And the issue
for Daniel here
is not the food,
what tastes good
or doesn't taste good.
The issue for Daniel
is there's something
going on here
that Daniel knows
that if he crosses
this line,
for him,
that in his heart
would mean
I'm moving into
Babylonian worship.
Okay?
There's something
going on here
for Daniel
that he's saying,
at this point,
if I say yes to this,
I'm selling my soul.
Daniel knows
that for whatever reason,
for him to say yes
to Nebuchadnezzar
at this point
meant that he
couldn't come before God
with a clear conscience
in worship
and say,
you are my God,
I live for you.
Now,
friends,
for all of us,
that's going to be
a different thing.
The Bible doesn't
actually say,
there's some things
the Bible's clear on,
right?
Like,
don't have sex
before marriage.
That's just,
it's just clear.
It's pretty hard
to say yes to that
and come to God
before worship
and say,
God,
I live for you,
right?
The Bible's pretty clear
on those kinds of things.
But there's a whole bunch
of things
that actually the Bible's
not clear on
and we've got to know
in our heart
what is our conscience?
What is the line
in the sand for me
that if I say yes to this,
it's going to be really hard
for me to come before God
and worship
and say,
Christ,
I live for you,
I give you my all.
For some of us,
maybe it's
what we do with our money.
For some of us,
maybe it's
what we do with our time.
For some of us,
friends,
it's going to mean
maybe even saying no
to a certain job
or a pay rise
or a certain promotion
because saying yes to that
is going to be,
in a way,
selling our soul.
It's going to be engaging
in the act of worship.
It's when work
becomes more than work,
work becomes worship
to our culture.
Friends,
though the pressure
is great,
will you dare
to be like Daniel
and resolve
in your heart
that while God
has called us
to love and serve
the city,
he hasn't called us
to love the things
of the city primarily
but to love him
and thereby
to serve the city.
And Daniel knows
that for him
there's a line in the sand
that moving beyond that
goes from just serving
the city
to worshiping the city.
And Christ calls us
and says,
the best way
that we can serve
our city
is to make sure
that our love for Christ
is preeminent.
Okay,
maybe I'll just
leave that point there.
I hope that makes
some kind of sense.
Okay,
fourth thing is this.
Last one is this.
In order for us
to really love
and serve our city,
for us to be faithful
to God
in the midst of Hong Kong,
we've got to understand
God's redeeming grace.
Look at Nebuchadnezzar's
strategy here.
Now,
Nebuchadnezzar's
is a smart guy.
Look at what he
does here
in chapter one.
Nebuchadnezzar
is pillaging
Jerusalem.
Okay,
and he's getting
all these exiles
to leave Jerusalem
and to come
and work
as slaves
in his Babylonian empire.
But Nebuchadnezzar
doesn't want
a refugee crisis
on his hands
and he doesn't
want
a rebellion
on his hands.
And so,
what he does
is he's going to
come and decimate
Jerusalem,
but the first thing
he does
is he gets
the cultural
and the political
elites
to leave Jerusalem
and he comes
and inculcates them,
indoctrinates them
in Babylonian culture
15,
20 years
before the rest.
Okay,
does that make sense?
So,
he gets
the noble
families,
the king
and the queen,
the nobility,
the royal members
of the family,
et cetera,
the political
and cultural elites.
he brings them
to Babylon
and he indoctrinates
them in Babylonian
customs and culture
so that when
the rest of Jerusalem
comes there
15 years later,
they see their leaders
and they say,
oh,
I guess life here
is not so bad.
We should just
follow those guys.
We should do
what they do.
So,
Nebuchadnezzar
wants to get
the leaders
and get them
on his side
first
before he brings
the rest of the nation.
Okay,
does that make sense?
Very smart.
But friends,
what the Bible says
is that what man
intends for evil,
God intends
for good.
Because look at
what God does here.
God does the exact
same thing.
God sends
15 years
before the rest
of Israel
going to Babylon,
God sends
a bunch
of faithful,
character-filled
men that have got
resolve and character
ahead
so that when
the rest of Israel
come 15 years
later,
they see Daniel
and these other guys
that have been put
in positions of prominence
serving Babylon
and yet faithful
to God
and the rest of Israel
can go and say,
let's follow those guys.
God does
what Nebuchadnezzar
was hoping to do,
God does
for his kingdom.
And what that means
is that as Israel
gets to Babylon
and they see
Daniel and his friends
serving faithfully,
they can remain
faithful to God
and 70 years later
they will go back
to Israel
and rebuild
the temple,
rebuild Jerusalem,
re-engage God
and become faithful
to God's people
once again.
But notice here,
it's not just that
God is being
good to them
because he's a nice guy.
Remember,
why is Israel
in Babylon
in the first place?
Remember what we said
last week?
The reason God's people
are in Babylon
is because of their
constant rebellion
and their rejection
of God.
For hundreds of years
God has been saying,
turn to me,
don't reject me
and they constantly
reject God.
So eventually,
God brings the Babylonians
as his instrument
of discipline,
his instrument
of punishment,
his instrument
of judgment.
God takes Israel
into Babylon
as an act
of discipline.
Okay?
Does that make sense?
But as my friend
Stephen Rain points out,
before God
has even instituted
the discipline,
he's already working
on their redemption.
Before God
has even brought about
their punishment,
he's already working
the plan
to bring about
their restoration.
Before God
has even finished
the correction,
he's already putting
in place a plan
to bring about
their renewal.
Israel hasn't even
gone to Babylon yet,
they're still on
their way there
and God is already
putting in a place
to send the leaders
ahead so that
they can restore
Israel and save
them and redeem
them.
It's kind of like
this, okay?
This is my friend
Stephen Rain,
this is his analogy.
He says,
it's like imagine
your child does
something really,
really naughty,
okay?
Really bad
and you send them
to their room
and you say,
you go to your
bedroom and I'm
going to come in
there and I'm
going to deal
with you,
right?
And they go
to the bedroom
and on the way
to the bedroom
you see this flyer,
this amazing holiday
to Disneyland,
Europe.
And you're like,
oh, that's a good
idea.
And you go online
and you book
this amazing holiday
to Disneyland.
On the way
to dealing
with your child
you're already
thinking of the
restoration plan.
That's what God
is doing here.
As he sends
his people
into Babylon
to deal
with them
and to punish
them,
to discipline
them,
he's already
instituting the
plan for their
correction,
their restoration,
their renewal,
and their redemption.
And that's
actually what
the last verse
of chapter 1
is all about.
Look at the
very last verse.
It says here,
Daniel was there
until the first
year of King Cyrus.
Well,
who is King Cyrus?
Well,
King Cyrus is the
leader of the
Persian Empire
who overthrew
the Babylonians
who turned
to the Israelites
and said,
I don't need you
in my kingdom.
Why don't you
go back to
Jerusalem and
rebuild the
temple,
rebuild the
city,
rebuild your
walls?
Why don't you
go back and
worship your
God back in
your nation?
At the very
end of the
very first
chapter,
God is putting
a little hint
in store here.
He's saying,
yes,
I'm going to
send these
guys to Babylon.
Yes,
I'm dealing
with them.
But this
isn't the
end of the
story.
This is a
temporary
arrangement.
Actually,
what I've
got in
plan is
their
redemption
and their
restoration
and their
renewal.
Even before
God's people
have come
to Babylon,
God is
already
putting in
place
their
renewal.
And friends,
it's the same
thing we see
in the
book of
Ruth.
Naomi is
convinced
that God
has abandoned
her,
he's rejected
her,
he's done
away with
her,
things are
going wrong
in her
life,
and the
very last
verse of
the first
chapter is
a promise
of hope.
God is
not done
with her,
but God
is going
to redeem
her,
heal
her,
and restore
her.
And so
right at
the outset
of the
book of
Daniel,
God wants
his people
to know
though their
sin is
great,
his
redeeming
grace and
his mercy
is greater
still.
You see
that?
Though
their sin
is great,
his redeeming
grace and
his mercy
way outstrips
even their
worst sins
and failures.
God wants
his people to
see that
though their
rebellion calls
for judgment,
his mercy and
his heart of
compassion calls
for their
restoration and
their renewal.
If only they'll
humble themselves.
If only they'll
come to him
with faith and
repentance.
Friends,
isn't the
redeeming,
restoring,
renewing grace of
God simply
incredible?
Isn't it amazing
that when we're at
our worst,
God is already
orchestrating a plan
to redeem and
renew us?
Friends,
you know,
the Bible says
that actually
the story of
Israel and
Babylon is the
story of every
single human
being.
The Bible says
that when we
were at our
worst,
God was
already putting
in place
plans to
redeem us
and to
renew us.
The Bible says
that while we
were still
enemies of
God,
while we were
shaking our
fists at God
and saying,
we don't want
your way,
we want to be
our own
king,
while we
were still
sinners,
God sent
his son,
Jesus Christ,
to die on
the cross.
And do you
remember the
words of
Jesus while
he's on the
cross?
While he's
being nailed
to the cross
by his
enemies,
Jesus prays
his prayer
and he says,
Father,
forgive them.
They do not
know what
they do.
Friends,
when you were
at your
very worst,
when you
had abandoned
God and
when you
had wanted
to be on
the throne
of your
own life,
when your
life was
wrecked with
sin and
guilt,
Jesus went
to the
cross for
you.
Jesus had
not abandoned
you.
Jesus had
not given
up on
you.
Friends,
when you
didn't know
Jesus,
Jesus knew
you and
he went
to the
cross for
you.
How
astounding,
how awesome,
how unbelievably
incredible is
God's redeeming
grace.
Friends,
you know what
the secret is?
God's renewal,
God's restoration,
God's great
redemption isn't
automatic.
It's free,
but it's not
cheap.
It requires
our humility.
It requires
our submission.
It requires
that we come
to him in
faith and
repentance.
It requires
that we come
to him and
say,
Jesus,
have your
way.
Friends,
the story of
Daniel is that
God wants to
show us that
he is on the
throne,
that no matter
what's going on
in our world,
God rules and
reigns,
and we can
trust him,
even in the
midst of the
storms and
the trials of
life.
Daniel 1
wants to
tell us and
show us that
character trumps
gifting every
single day.
And God wants
to show us that
if we're going
to be faithful
people of God
in the city,
we need to
know what it
means to
worship him.
We need to
know what
does it mean
to put Christ
first,
even in the
midst of the
most trying
and difficult
circumstances
of our life.
But ultimately
God wants to
know that
there will be
days when we
fail.
There will be
days when it
doesn't work
out.
There will be
times when
serving God
in the city,
we mess up
and we fail.
And God
wants us to
know that
even on our
very worst
day,
God is not
withdrawing from
us,
he's moving
towards us
in unbelievable
grace and
mercy.
This is the
God we
serve.
This is the
God we
love.
This is the
God that
has called
us to
love and
serve our
city.
Let's pray
together.
Heavenly
Father,
we come
before you
this morning
and we
need you,
God.
God, we
want to
become the
people that
you've called
us to be.
As a
church, Lord,
we want to
love and
serve our
city.
We want to
bring salt
and light to
our city.
God, as a
church, we
want to be
those that
bring the
good news of
Jesus to
our city.
But Father
God, first and
foremost, we
need to be
those that
have been
touched and
transformed by
the redeeming
grace of
God.
And so,
Christ, we
pray, come and
work in our
hearts.
God, I pray
for those of
us this
morning that
are feeling
like we
desperately need
your grace
this morning,
God.
God, those of
us that need
redemption in
some way, maybe
our marriage
needs redemption.
Maybe our
relationship with
our children is
healing.
God, maybe
some of us
have sinned
in some
great and
grievous way
and it
feels like we
are beyond
forgiveness.
Oh, God,
won't you wash
us with your
grace?
Won't you flood
us with your
mercy?
Won't you,
Jesus, remind
us that of
your redeeming,
incredible
redeeming grace,
God?
Jesus, I pray,
also won't you
help us to,
like Daniel and
his friends, to
have deep
resolve, to
know that no
matter what
the cost, we
will serve
you and
worship you,
God, that you
will be first
and foremost in
our hearts and
our lives.
Christ, come and
lead us in your
mercy, we pray.
Amen.
In your
awesome name,
Amen.