A Time for Heoes

Navigating the Culture

Thank rummage sale people

halloween

Hero quotes 7

"You Either Die A Hero Or Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain."

The dark knight- two face

"If You're Nothing Without The Suit, Then You Shouldn't Have It."

Spider-Man: Homecoming- tony stark to peter parker

"Just Because Someone Stumbles And Loses Their Path, Doesn't Mean They're Lost Forever."

X-Man Days of Future Past (Future Xavier talking to past Xavier through Wolverine in reference to Magneeto

"It's Not Who I Am Underneath, But What I Do That Defines Me."

Batman Begins when Rachel Dawes asks batman for his name in case he dies before fighting the bad guy

"With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility."

Spiderman

"I Can Do This All Day."

Steve Rogers (Scrawny) getting up after taking a beating in an ally

"I believe there's a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally, allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want most, even our dreams."

Aunt May in Spiderman 2 about why it is important to be a hero. When peter was trying to quit being spiderman

My heroes-

Christopher Paolini

George Lucas

Adventures in Odyssey

A Time for Heroes

x

God won't put you where he can't keep you

So, here's the big idea of today's message.

when it comes to your biblical standards and the prevailing culture,

every day when you go to your particular job or to your particular school,

you may feel like you're entering a hostile environment,

and the thought of being in that environment long term just overwhelms you.

So, hear what I said before. God won't put you where he can't keep you.

Now, that's an adage/saying. It's not a Bible verse. But as we'll see this morning, it's an adage that the Bible bears out.

A Time for Heroes

Sometimes heroes are made

because of their courage.

Sometimes they're made by their circumstances.

Other times a person volunteers to be a hero.

And then there are those that become heroes, simply because necessity demands that they become heroes.

During World War Two, a 26-year-old lieutenant in the US Navy, John F. Kennedy was at the helm of a patrol boat that collided with a Japanese destroyer.

The boat was damaged, and the crew was forced to swim three and a half miles to a nearby island.

They were without supplies and terrified because of their proximity to their enemy.

A few days later, they swam to another island that offered minimal food and shelter.

Kennedy who later became our 35th President swam to yet another island in search of resources for his crew.

While there he found help that put him in connection with other allied forces, resulting in the rescue of his men.

Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal and the Purple Heart for valor and the injuries he sustained.

When asked how he became a hero. This was his answer.

It was involuntary, my boat sank.

Sometimes we become heroes because it is necessary that we become heroes.

When our boat was blown out of the water. We had a choice.

allow ourselves to be captured by the enemy.

Sink

or swim,

surrender, Sink or Swim. Those are the choices. I say, we swim for it.

Esther

Review

Jesus has what we need to sail through the most treacherous of waters.

He has what we need to navigate the culture.

in Previous weeks, we realized that we have this spiritual compass that continually points us to our true north.

And our true north is the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we keep our lifetime goal on knowing and loving Jesus,

(I'm telling you, friends, we won’t miss a beat,)

he will see us through the times that we're living in,

and he will bring glory and honor to his name.

When HE is our compass.

So, here's a question every person should ask themselves?

Are you ready for the days ahead?

Or are you doing church as usual?

repeat

Being ready for the days ahead means we're not just going to talk ABOUT God,

we're going to hear from God,

and we're going to speak for God.

Because the wheat is already being separated from the chaff.

Like grapes that have sat too long, God is sorting the good ones from the bad ones

Because the Holy Spirit is calling us

to a renewed,

all-out commitment to Christ

that goes far beyond our desire or expectation of comforts,

repeat

One pastor said, well, there are three types of churches.

Complicit, participating in the culture.

Assimilating

Complacent, disagreeing with but not opposing the culture.

Isolating

Courageous, saying what needs to be said, doing what needs to be done, and accepting the consequences without self-pity or anger.

Engaging

First, we've got to adopt the attitude of the apostles,

who after they were beaten for their witnesses, the Bible says,

they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer this honor for His name

Acts 5:41 NASB95

So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Now that's grit… Holy Spirit grit!

Let’s follow the example of our Spiritual forefathers.

When Russian armies were invading Ukraine

a pastor near Kyiv was asked if he would leave.

He assured his people that he would stay with them.

And then he added: “If the Church is not relevant at the time of crisis, then it is not relevant at the time of peace.”

We have been called to this hour in history;

this is the moment on God’s timeline.

for such a time as this

Let’s commit to not miss one thing that God has prepared in advance for us to do.

I’ll say it again…Let’s commit to not miss one thing that God has prepared in advance for us to do.

This is the moment…my moment, your moment…our moment.

Nothing is worth missing it!

Well…everything I’ve said to this point has been pretty inspiring, but let’s get practical…

“How do we navigate the culture?”

Going back to our model the Old Testament narrative of the Jewish exile in Babylon…we find several parallels to our present living situation in the world.

The Jews were in Babylon as a judgment, for their propensity toward idolatry, but now,

they were to take advantage of this situation and be witnesses of God's grace to the Babylonians.

And that's what we have been called to do.

We must engage this culture with a powerful blend of truth and grace.

We must take advantage of our situation, every situation (good or bad), to be witnesses of God’s grace to a crooked and perverse generation

God calls us to move towards the broken, hurting, confused, messed up humanity…

not to stand over them, and surely, not to run away from them.

We've got to be like Jesus!

Rebecca Manley Pippert said it so well when describing Jesus

What do you do with a man who's supposed to be the holiest man who has ever lived

and yet goes around talking with prostitutes, and hugging lepers?

What do you do with a man who not only mingles with the most unsavory people,

but actually seems to enjoy them?

The religious accused Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton and having tacky friends.

It is a profound irony that the Son of God visited this planet and one of the chief complaints against him was that he was not religious enough.

Wow. Does that description of Jesus describe who we are becoming?

What do you do with a man who's supposed to be the holiest man who has ever lived

and yet goes around talking with prostitutes, and hugging lepers?

What do you do with a man who not only mingles with the most unsavory people,

but actually seems to enjoy them?

Are we going around mingling with the rejects, the sinners, the unclean, the dirty, and unsavory members of our culture

and are we enjoying it?

I know that I try, but I don’t always enjoy it.

But when I’m in tune with the Holy Spirit and letting Him lead the way, I find a joy that passes understanding, and a compassion that is beyond me.

I begin to see them as God sees them.

As we move on, here's a valid question. “How can we engage our culture without compromising our convictions?”

Lets look back at the narrative of Daniel and his friends

Daniel 1:3–8 NASB95

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service. Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego. But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

In the narrative it isn't long before four young Hebrew men emerge.

Many of us have heard these names. We've grown up with them if we were in Sunday school, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men were conscripted to work for the king of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar, whom history tells us, was the cruelest man in his time,

He was known as the man who threw Jewish babies against the rocks.

And yet God places Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar’s court and expects him to seek the well-being of a man like that.

Why?, because Daniel and his friends were called to prove that the presence of God was more powerful than the presence of evil.

I don’t care what political party you identify with, that shouldn’t prevent you from praying for our president. And not in the country way

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill And knocks you in the head like I'd like to

I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls I pray all your dreams never come true Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you

These four men had deep convictions and had to grapple with the question, “Where do we draw the line?”

We can learn a lot of principles from Daniel and his friends.

God would give them wisdom as to where to draw the line

and eventually they would have to prove their loyalty to God

and put their lives at risk.

Daniel faced Lions

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced the fiery furnace

But for now, they were to connect and actually help a pagan government,

not run from it.

they were considered wise men and advisers to the king

They teach us that you can actually serve a person who is evil

if we remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit who lives in us,

and we learn where to draw the line.

These four men had quite the assignment.

Buy they knew that Nebuchadnezzar had to be introduced to the one true God

and they were the messengers.

So, let's stop there. Let's get it right.

We are not so much involved in a cultural war, as we are in a spiritual war.

Ephesians 6:12 NASB95

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Please always remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against this dark world, and against spiritual forces of evil.

Friends, our assignment is to bring freedom to those who are held captive by the schemes and lies of the devil.

That's the assignment.

The Lord has set us free.

And now we have the message to bring those people to a place of freedom.

And that freedom is found in Jesus Christ.

According to Daniel, 1:3-4, these four Hebrews were to be immersed in all things Babylon,

their philosophies,

ideologies,

mythologies,

in order to serve the Babylonians.

For three years they were educated by the brightest and best of Babylon.

Yet these three men endured pagan indoctrination without losing their faith in Jehovah… the one true God.

Just think about that. The worst public school in America does not hold a candle to Babylonian indoctrination that these men endured.

Yet they never lost their faith.

How?.

There was a limit to the concessions these men made to the pagan Babylonian culture.

Daniel 1:8 reads:

Daniel 1:8 NASB95

But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

One of the lines drawn by these four youths dealt with food.

We don't know a lot about this food.

We can confidently say that it was not kosher.

And then we probably can venture a guess that it was offered to idols.

But that really doesn't matter.

What matters is this, that the food issue was a non-negotiable for Daniel and his friends.

Daniel drew the line, and offered an alternative meal plan,

one that was accepted,

one that was found to be successful,

and then all the trainees were put on The Daniel Plan.

Now, this was not the only place that these men drew the line:

Shadrach, Meschach, Abendigo, an idol and a furnace

Daniel, prayer and lions.

These men had rock solid convictions.

There were concessions but no compromises.

There were some “non-negotiables.”

Daniel’s position:

“I can help the king, but I will not compromise my faith in Jehovah.

This matter is resolved: and it had been resolved.

You see, Daniel didn’t wait until he was in the thick of it to make certain determinations…

that was done long before he landed in Babylon.

Why do Christians fail where the 4 Hebrews succeeded?

My thought…because some of us actually think we can be “wishy washy” before the heat is turned on.

And, that somehow when it does get turned on we’re going to muster up great courage and resolve.

It doesn’t work like that! You have to put something into the bank account,

if you expect to get something out of the ATM when needed.

Does that make sense?

Bowling

you have to know ahead of time how to respond

Broomstick game?

it only makes sense when you know the rules

Business person, you had better have those non negotiables written down before you accept that promotion, that pay raise, those perks.

Parents…you must instill those biblical truths into your child before he/she rides their first school bus.

And home school and Christian school parents remain alert.

It's not like the devil approaches certain places and says,

Oh, wow, this is not a public school building. I guess I'll just leave.

He's called the snake for a reason.

He will slither into the tiniest of cracks.

We make determinations,

we resolve matters in our hearts. Now.

This is a non- negotiable, and by the power of God,

I will do everything to stand and after I do everything to stand by his power,

I will remain standing. I cannot cross this line.

As I come to a close. Here are four principles to follow in order to know where to draw the line…

1 We must see God

As far as Nebuchadnezzar was concerned,

his god Marduk was greater than Jehovah.

After all, he had sacked Judah, and leveled Jerusalem.

But the Bible gives us a fuller picture.

I love that the Bible always gives us the behind-the-scenes operation.

It’s revealed that God gave the Jews into the hands of their enemies.

And God gave Daniel favor.

Then we read about these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning,

and… Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

Daniel 1:17 NASB95

As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

Bottom line friends: God is sovereign.

Jesus is the Ruler,

nothing happens without God's permission.

It's God who calls all the shots.

And what appears to be a satanic victory is in reality, an eternal defeat.

Just think about the cross, think about Jesus death on the cross.

The devil thought that he had Jesus beat,

surprise, surprise,

when the Son of God comes back on the third day, just as he said he would.

So when it appears that the devil might be winning,

and it appears like this would be the moment to make a compromise,

we say No Way.

Because our God is always working,

he is always dealing,

he is always doing something.

And we want to be a part of that.

Let's not ever divorce God from our predicament,

but rather see him in it.

The promises of God for His people are in place.

1 Peter 2:9 NASB95

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

second principle to help us draw lines

2 We've got to distinguish between… Association and Participation

These four men could be associated with an evil ruler

and even help him as long as they did not participate in his evil ways,

and they did not.

And in our day, that means that a Christian doctor can associate with an abortionist,

because that's quite different than participating in an abortion.

That means that a public-school teacher can associate with his or her colleagues who disagree on matters of sexuality.

What the Christian teacher cannot do is teach ideas that are clearly contrary to the Scriptures.

Paul said we should not associate with Christians who are living in obvious willful sin,

but he makes it clear that we must spend time with the unconverted.

Listen, if we only associate with “good people”

our circle of influence will be very small.

We must all broaden our friendships,

and yet determine where we draw the line.

When faced with a decision, here’sa promise to rely on:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all… (James 1:5a).

James 1:5 NASB95

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

When faced with a dilemma, let’s call on God for wisdom.

3 We must have deep personal convictions

I covered this earlier, but friends, you have to name the non-negotiables before you face the dilemma.

And parents, we must teach our children to have deep personal, scripture-based convictions.

So they can say!

“I refuse to be defiled. I refuse to compromise, regardless of the prize offered. I will not yield to sexual pressures of the culture.”

4 We must commit to radical obedience.

God had a two-fold purpose in bringing the Jews to Babylon.

One was to humble them,

so they would learn to hate idolatry.

The other reason was to be light to the Babylonians,

so He would be revealed as the Promise Keeper.

He kept His word, after 70 years, the Jews returned to Jerusalem

and He gave them a “future and a hope.”

God took them “to and through” Babylon,

not to destroy them but to refine them.

No mention of idolatry from that point forward.

Could that be God’s purpose for the Church today?

“He’s humbling us for the purpose of ultimate, eternal triumph!”

In the meantime we are called to be His witnesses.

God wants us to represent Him…

even at the time when He appears to be losing.

So God won't put you where he can't keep you.

Wherever he's put us. That's where he's going to show himself strong in us.

ALTAR CALL

We're gonna open these altars because as always how we close. And maybe you're sitting here or you're participating online.

And as you've been hearing God's word, you've thought about places where maybe you did cross the line where perhaps you did compromise.

And maybe the enemy has used that, to just stop you from your pursuit of all that God desires for you, you've got to remember that we serve the Redeemer.

That doesn't mean that he only redeems us once.

He's the Redeemer.

He knows how to redeem those times those decisions.

So HE does as we bring them to the Lord.

Father, I was convicted of this and this was a compromise and I asked you to forgive me that I repent of that and, and whatever ground was lost in my testimony to others. I want that taken care of. I want to get back on track.

Well, you could take care of that at this altar

Or perhaps you're in this room or you're online.

And you haven't even entered the race yet.

You haven't entered the battle?

If you haven't surrendered your life to Christ.

There's one who loves you.

This one who can make sense of everything that is swirling around you.

Jesus loves you like no one else will.

start on the course friends to remove that barrier between each one of us and God.

That barrier is sin,

sin is living life on our terms, with no regard for him.

It’s time. It's repent, turn to Him and be born into relationship with a living god for Jesus Christ speaking to you, as you come to these altars.

Or perhaps you're just tired, just worn out.

come and be refreshed

Let us pray for you.

Let's get reinvigorated in the Spirit of God.

Well, you may have another need. Let me pray for you.

If you need prayer, then I will be by the piano.

These altars are open.