4/8 Sermon on Book of Daniel, Pt. 1

At the Family Church here in Gainesville, Florida, senior pastor Philip Griffin began a new sermon series, Counter Culture, going through the Bible's Old Testament book of Daniel.  Last Sunday was the first installment, titled How to Live Out Conviction in a Culture of Conformity, and focused on the passage Daniel 1:1-21...click on it to read it via Bible Gateway...

As Daniel opens, the setting is the Babylonian conquest of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar and the taking of its best and brightest young people back to Babylon for training and assimilation into that country's society.  Daniel, along with his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, is among them.  They are renamed according to the Babylonian religion and reeducated.  But when offered Babylonian food that violates their own dietary laws, Daniel draws the line and insists on a strict regimen of vegetables and water...

So how can people live out their convictions in a culture of conformity?  Using Daniel's experiences in Babylon as a model, Pastor Philip gave five steps: (1) no matter how bad it gets, know that God has not forgotten you, (2) choose your battles...if everything is a bad, nothing will be won, (3) purpose in your heart to trust and obey God, (4) don't treat people as enemies, and (5) live to bring glory to God.  Since neither learning about other cultures nor being renamed are violations of scripture, Daniel conformed in these with the dominant society...but chose for his battle the food they would be eating since, as I mentioned before, it would involve breaking dietary laws.  Philip pointed out that they wouldn't sit at the King's table and partake of the food because it was regarded as a sacrifice to idols, sitting there implied acceptance of Nebuchadnezzar's oppression, and they had entered into a time of fasting.  Yet Daniel did not treat his Babylonian captors as enemies...and we should avoid this temptation in our own circumstances to either assimilate into the world's system or isolate from it, as our pastor stressed.  Instead, using salt as a metaphor for our proper role, we should engage and be the salt of the world (Matthew 5:13), a salt which preserves and purifies...

You can watch this message through the church's YouTube video website...click on the following link: [TFC Video].  Located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, the Family Church holds its weekly services on Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30.  Besides the sermon there is praise and worship music, prayer, refreshments in the hospitality room, and opportunities for fellowship and discipleship.  Daniel will continue next Sunday...