Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research, released in April of 2018, 94% of people who believe in the God of the Bible say that God knows everything.

86% say that God has the power to change anything/everything. 87% of Evangelicals believe that God is all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful.

In general, these are promising statistics!

The vast majority of Evangelicals who claim to believe in Scripture affirm Biblical truths.

The study continued to unearth some unsettling information, though.

83% of adults aged 18-29 said that they believe in a higher power / God (compared to 96% of 50-64 year old adults).

With that said, only 43% of adults aged 18-29 believe in the God of the Bible.

Of the 83% that believe in some form of higher power or God, only 63% think that God knows everything.

Only 52% of these adults think that God has the power to change anything/everything.

Only 41% of these young adults think that God determines what happens to them at least some of the time.

Church, we are in the middle of a culture shift where people are simply forgetting the sovereignty of God.

Even in the church, there is a growing number of people who are confused or ignorant about how God is in control.

The differences go on and on, but the bottom line is that there is a distortion between what God’s Word says and what people (churchgoing and non-churchgoing) say that they believe about God.

The book of Daniel is first and foremost about the sovereignty of God.

We see that God is in control over all the kings and nations of the earth.

God delivered the Israelites into the hands of the Babylonians.

He used a foreign nation that worshipped false gods to punish His chosen people - do you see the way that He controls all things?

We see that Yahweh is in control and there are several extremely obvious examples/stories about this fact in the book of Daniel that we will be looking at in the coming weeks but at the end of the day the book of Daniel shows that God is sovereign over individuals and nations.

He raises them up and He brings their rule to a conclusion as well.

We also see that God loves for and cares for His followers.

He delivers His people, He answers their prayers and blesses them!

Aren’t you thankful that God is still sovereign today and that He is still in the business of saving souls and answering prayers today as well?!

Let’s dive into our text, Daniel chapter 1.

The book of Daniel is one of the most interesting books in the entire Bible.

It can be divided like this, the first 6 chapters are the stories of Daniel while the final 6 chapters are more prophetic and apocalyptic in nature.

This book is both prophetic and apocalyptic.

Our message today introduces us to Daniel and his 3 friends who stand strong even when it was not especially popular to do so.

Trust God Wherever you Go (1-3)

Dale Davis put it well when he said, “Sometimes God may allow hardships to reach us because he wants his mercy to reach beyond us.”

We know that suffering and persecution and times of trials are difficult and sometimes painful, but we also know that there is a purpose in them as well.

Sometimes it is for God to show His mighty power through our situation, other times it is to strengthen our faith or to do a mighty work in our life so that others might be drawn to Him.

There is often pain in the struggle and many of us can attest to the fact that we have bruises, scars and a injuries suffered from trials and suffering, but the hope from Daniel is that we have an all-powerful, sovereign God.

Bryan Chapell notes that, “He uses His sovereign power to maintain His covenant promises forever.

This message from Daniel should give us courage against our foes, hope in our distress and perseverance in our trials.”

You might be thinking, well that’s great but God rescued Daniel time after time from the claws of death itself, what does this have to do with me?

The same God that Daniel served in Babylon is the same God that we serve today in Conway, Missouri in the United States of America.

He remains the same yesterday, today and forever!

Trust Him wherever you go!

What we see in verse 1 of our message is that Daniel and his friends, who were from Judah, were captured by Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar.

Think of the thoughts that must have been running through their heads during this season of removal and transplantation.

They must’ve been anxious and concerned for their futures.

Whenever World War II was going on, we know that there were many POWs who were forced to be kept in a military camp until the conclusion of the war.

We look through the history books and we see the devastation of the entire continent of Europe from this violent war and we ask ourselves, how on earth did this happen?

Think of the Israelites.

The Northern Kingdom had already been captured and in bondage for decades while the Southern Kingdom had at least been a little better at following God’s commands.

Because of this, they were spared a little while longer, but now in 605 BC the Kingdom of Judah was captured and the Lord delivered the King of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand!

What we know from the Old Testament is that King Josiah was a good king and ruled for a long time.

However, he passed away in a fight against the Egyptians and his son, Jehoiakim, came to power.

Jehoiakim was not a good king, in fact Danny Akin notes that he was one of Judah’s worst kings!

God handed him over to the Babylonians along with some of the other articles from the temple of God.

The chief God of Babylon was Marduk.

One of the ways that an ancient culture would “prove” that their God was superior was to defeat you and bring key things from your temple into the temple of one of their most powerful gods.

This signified that their god was stronger and better than the opposing god.

To a 3rd party who watched Babylon capture Jerusalem, it would have been pretty obvious that the gods of the Babylonians were superior to the god of the Israelites - however Daniel will show us that this is not the case!

In fact, the reason that they are being defeated and brought into exile is because the real God is judging them.

Even in defeat and exile, God is extending his presence among the nations.

Even when His people sin and disobey Him, He is still at work.

This picture reminds me of parent.

Your child messes up and you punish them, to someone on the outside it might come across as harsh or mean, but in the end you are doing this for their good.

The difference with God is that His ultimate goal and plan is His glory being seen throughout the World.

Sometimes, that means that a “bad” thing happens in order for His name to be magnified to and made known to the lost.

We see that the people are scattered in verse 3. The people are being deported off to Babylon.

Again, in we see that there are covenantal curses that would come the way of the Israelites if they failed to obey the Lord.

Some of these curses included economic depression, military defeat and deportation.

shows us that God has kept His Word.

What verse 3 shows us is that Ashpenaz, an official from Babylon, was in charge of bringing over some of the royal family members from Israel.

This was a notable decision by Nebuchadnezzar because he did not kill the entire royal family, instead he brought the best and brightest over to benefit Babylon instead of being able to lead Israel.

What we must see from this is that even in defeat, God is working His master plan out in this deportation because the young men being brought over to Babylon would stand firm and trust in God even in enemy territory.

The city of man is being invaded by the city of God, as Augustine noted.

Even though Israel is scattered, the nations will now have a witness among them to see who the living and true God is.

So, church, how well do we trust in God whenever our circumstances are not exactly ideal?

It would have been easy for these young men to abandon their faith and learn and trust in the gods of Babylon, after all, the gods of Babylon had defeated the god of Israel in the eyes of many ancient near eastern citizens!

Why would they stand firm and trust in Yahweh?

Because they knew Scripture and they had faith.

We should do the same!

In looking at the story of these young men, we must be mindful that they are not the heroes of the narrative.

We are not the hero of our storyline.

The hero of Daniel and the hero of our life is the all-powerful God of grace.

We must remember that, even though our society and other “Christians” try to tell us otherwise.

Be Prepared for Challenges (3-7)

We read the following verses and we see the ungodliness in Babylon and we can be quick to think of the ungodliness in our society today.

We live in a post-modern and post-Christian context.

Our society and its direct opposition to the Bible is not a new thing, in fact it is exactly what Daniel and his friends faced in Babylon - in the words of Solomon, there is nothing new under the sun.

Let’s think of the challenges faced by these young men.

They were isolated from their homeland and their families!

This would have been a very traumatic experience for them.

According to Plato, the education of Persian youths began in their 14th year, so it is reasonable to think that the Babylonians picked young men around the age of 14.

Daniel and the other men were probably 14-15 when taken into captivity to be trained.

The strategy being deployed by the Babylonians was a great one, separate these young men from their family and their structure and introduce some new ideas to them in order to break them of their past and get them to be devoted to your cause!

Essentially, to change their worldview to that of the Babylonian worldview.

Sadly, this same process is used in our world today, is it not?

Parents tell their kids to go to church when they are young and when they turn 18 they go off to college and many of them stop going to church completely!

We ask, where did we go wrong?

Is there something inherently wrong with non-Christian universities?

No, I don’t think so.

However, we must at least realize that whenever a child goes to a school like this, they will be taught from a worldview that is not a Christian one.

This could be a very difficult place to be a Christian at because there are challenges.

Whenever 18-19 year olds experience freedom for the first time and have the option to go or not go to a church, many times they walk away from church and they leave their faith in Christ in the dust.

Friends, we must raise up the next generation to love Jesus Christ, to know Him intimately and be prepared for view points that do not line up with what they were raised up with.