Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

What does it mean to be salt and light?

How do we have a Christian witness in the world that desperately needs Christ.

How do we reach them with the gospel?

I don’t think many Christians would say it in this many words, but most have been discipled and bought into the lie that the best way to reach the world for Christ is by being friends with the world with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in.

But what does God’s Word say?

In Daniel 1:8-21, God shows us what it looks like to faithfully live in a pagan world where the darkness seems overwhelming and not lose our light.

And more than that, to let our light shine like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Here’s the BIG IDEA I want you leaving with today.

God faithfully keeps believers from conforming to the world to make them salt and light for the world.

Last week we looked at a Theology of Faithfulness.

The essential building blocks to a biblical worldview that we, as the people of God, must build our lives upon to live faithfully in a pagan land when the darkness feels overwhelming.

Our lives must be built on the truths that 1. God is the Sovereign Judge of all men.

2. That He is a Gracious Savior for all those that trust in Christ and His sacrifice to save us from the wrath and judgment of God and forgive our sin.

3.

He is One.

The only God.

The only One who is worthy of all of our love, worship, and obedience.

And 4.

He is Our Deliverer.

That when it feels like we might drown swallowed by the flood, God is with us, and keeps us by His grace.

But this week, we are going to see what it looks like to actually live faithfully in a pagan land, and how our salt and our light, is all just a work of God’s amazing faithfulness and grace.

And it all starts with this: We must not allow ourselves to be conformed to the World.

I. Do Not Be Conformed to the World

Daniel 1:8 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.

Remember where we are in this story.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had laid seige to Jerusalem and took young men from the royal family and nobility back to Babylon with the purpose of indoctrinating them with a Babylonian worldview.

With Babylonian values and ideals by teaching them for three years the literature and language of the Chaldeans (Daniel 1:4).

In other words, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were prisoners of war in a spiritual battle between Babylon, the Kingdom of Darkness, the World, and the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of light.

Nebuchadnezzar’s goal was to shape and use these men to further the purposes of the Babylonian Empire.

To convert them from soldiers of the Kingdom of God to generals of the Kingdom of Darkness.

And here was the danger.

Potentially, Nebuchadnezzar hoped to set one or more of these men over the people of God to serve as a double agent for his wicked kingdom.

The people of God would trust these men because they were one of them.

They were even members of the royal family.

Handsome, smart, wise.

Everything you could want in a leader.

And so whether Nebuchadnezzar knew it or not, his goal in indoctrinating these men, was a spiritual one.

Satan and the principalities and powers under his control were trying to seize the day and snuff out the Kingdom of Light with the Kingdom of Darkness once and for all.

Now this was all in vain because God’s purposes will not be thwarted, but in His providence a major battle for the Kingdom of God rested on the faithfulness of these four men.

Which kingdom would win the day?

The Kingdom of Darkness manifested in the Kingdom of Babylon, or the Kingdom of Light and God’s Sovereign and blessed rule?

Essentially, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to turn Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into Babylonians.

He wanted to conform them to the pattern of this world.

To shape them and mold them into everything opposed to God, His holiness, and His Kingdom.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.

Now this wasn’t just any food and any wine.

This was the king’s food and the king’s wine.

That for the entire three years these men would be reeducated in the Kingdom of Darkness, they would only eat and drink the best.

Bribes

This wasn’t out of Nebuchadnezzar’s kindness and generosity.

This was a bribe.

Well we don’t want to lose out on the wonderful things Nebuchadnezzar is giving us.

Maybe we will just go along with the program.

I mean we don’t want to be slaves or worse...

Maybe we can do both.

Maybe we don’t have to give up all of these good things and still hold onto our faith...

And it is here that we see one of the primary tactics of the world, to sell out, soften our faith, and go along to get alone.

In an effort to get you to conform to the world instead of Christ, to dim your light so that the evil works of the world can stay hidden.

Money

And these bribes come in all shapes and sizes.

When the government gave us stimulus checks that was not them being kind.

They stole our tax dollars and the futures of our children to try and bribe us and placate us into letting them have a little more power, and a little more power, and a little more power.

Money is a big bribe used by the world.

Our comfort and our way of life.

Jesus didn’t really mean that our commitment to following him needed to be one that is willing to sell everything.

Willing to give up everything to seek Him and His Kingdom.

Come on.

That’s ridiculous.

You can serve God and Money.

God wants you to be happy.

Well actually, God wants you to be holy, and the number one way to do that is following the first commandment: You shall have no other God’s before me including money, comfort, luxury, security, and ease.

Sin

Another bribe is sin.

You can have the desires of your flesh.

You can have almost any sin you want, and we will never judge you.

Our highest command is love which means full unquestioned approval.

As long as you don’t hurt anybody else, live according to what you believe is good.

What a tempting bribe.

You mean I can have what I want most and not feel guilty about it?

You mean I can be my own authority, my own determiner of truth?

My own god and make my own commands?

Sign me up!

Approval

Another big one is the promise respect and a great reputation in the World as long as you go along with the program.

You don’t want to be like those people do you?

You’re not one of them that really thinks homosexuality and transgenderism is wrong?

You’re not really the kind of person that thinks a woman should be forced to give birth to a baby are you?

I mean, you’re not racist, you’re for equality right?

You’re not like one of those Christians, really?

And out of a desire to be loved by the world, many who profess the name of Christ have turned aside because they bought the bribe not realizing it makes them a slave.

There’s more we could probably say, but you get the point.

All of this is why God so adamantly says

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

If we love the world or the things in the world, if we love the bribes we will be conformed to the pattern of the world.

To a way of thinking and living that is opposed to God and in rebellion to Him in every single way.

The call to follow Christ is a call to come and die.