Clash of Cultures Week Two
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As you continue to serve in uniform, you will find yourself in situations from the culture that clashes with your Christianity. Life will put us in those situations as well. Your relationships will sometime make you choose between Christ and the culture.
As you continue to serve in uniform, you will find yourself in situations from the culture that clashes with your Christianity. Life will put us in those situations as well. Your relationships will sometime make you choose between Christ and the culture.
“Every Christian can be confident that when we do not conform to the culture God will carry out his glorious will in our lives”
“Every Christian can be confident that when we do not conform to the culture God will carry out his glorious will in our lives”
1 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits and whose width was six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent for the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, to assemble and come to the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
3 So the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. When they were standing before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up,
4 the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,
5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you are to fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
6 Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.”
7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
1. God is a God of Liberty (2 Corinthians 3:18)
1. God is a God of Liberty (2 Corinthians 3:18)
I am thankful that God does not threaten us with death to serve Him. Some Christians are only Christian because they are afraid of going to hell. May I submit to you that God wants an actual relationship with you. What he is not doing is giving you an ultimatum to serve you. Instead gives us freedom to love him back. What Christ did for us is actually counter cultural. He was crucified for a people who may never love him back. He forgave the very Soldiers who hung him on the cross, spit in his face, and drove nails into his hands.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These pay no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your gods and they do not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”
13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought in; so they brought those men before the king.
14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up?
15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter.
17 If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.
18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”
2. God is a God of Protection (Romans 8:28-29)
2. God is a God of Protection (Romans 8:28-29)
God’s goodness and God’s protection applies to His children. You must abide with Him to get his protection. You must serve him to see His glory.
God’s goodness and God’s protection applies to His children. You must abide with Him to get his protection. You must serve him to see His glory.
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
Don’t conform to the culture, be conformed to the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This means put Him first and let the Holy Spirit transform your life. Even when the Army or your relationships clash with the virtue that God placed on the inside of you.
Don’t conform to the culture, be conformed to the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This means put Him first and let the Holy Spirit transform your life. Even when the Army or your relationships clash with the virtue that God placed on the inside of you.
You may be saying, yeah Chaplain, I have not bowed to another man or statue.
You may be saying, yeah Chaplain, I have not bowed to another man or statue.
Within the context of 2024, this may look different. we may not be subservient to a golden statue that someone built, but it seems the the common theme in our social culture is that we chase the applause or validation of men. When we give other people the authority to determine our value by their opinions of us, rather than what God says about us, we are bowing to them in worship.
Within the context of 2024, this may look different. we may not be subservient to a golden statue that someone built, but it seems the the common theme in our social culture is that we chase the applause or validation of men. When we give other people the authority to determine our value by their opinions of us, rather than what God says about us, we are bowing to them in worship.
Who will you choose to worship with your life today? What image will you conform to?
Who will you choose to worship with your life today? What image will you conform to?
Some of you in the room, feel lost or seem like you just can’t get it right because you are still waiting for mom or dad to say “I am proud of you.” To compensate for that, you place the impossible burden on other people to validate you. I tell you this, the culture of the military will never validate you.
Some of you in the room, feel lost or seem like you just can’t get it right because you are still waiting for mom or dad to say “I am proud of you.” To compensate for that, you place the impossible burden on other people to validate you. I tell you this, the culture of the military will never validate you.
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary,
20 and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.
21 So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire.
22 Because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
23 But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.”
25 He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.”
26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.
27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them.
28 Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.
29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”
30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
3. God is a God of Glory
3. God is a God of Glory
This fire doesn’t represent the random trials of life, though God’s deliverance form them can apply. This fire represents the trial that God allowed, so that as the three Hebrew boys chose him over the culture. God would manifest his glory.
This fire doesn’t represent the random trials of life, though God’s deliverance form them can apply. This fire represents the trial that God allowed, so that as the three Hebrew boys chose him over the culture. God would manifest his glory.