Who's Shaping Your Identity? - Far From Home - Pastor Trey Hildebrant

[MUSIC] >> First Orlando, so good to be with you today as we continue in this series that we're calling far from home to study in the Old Testament book of Daniel where we're looking at Daniel's example to help us live in a world as followers of God in a world that doesn't follow God. Now before we get into all of that I also want to celebrate fall Sunday, Sunday, but first I got to admit I loved waking up to 64 degrees in Orlando, Florida. And I don't believe this is too far of a stretch but Merry Christmas everybody. We're here, we made it, no. Now next week fall Sunday Sunday, not only will we have the pumpkins and the fun for kids and the in the flannel and the boots, by the way I'm willing fall into existence. My North Georgia personality is fully in effect from October to January. But I want you to know that if you have somebody in your life like Josh just shared who is near to you but far from God, not only is it a great Sunday to come because of the fun but we're going to teach the gospel next week in such a way that we're going to give people the opportunity to stand and say yes to Jesus as their Savior. If you've been wondering hey when's a great day for that person who I love to hear the gospel or that person who I know to hear the gospel in a way that's going to bring them to a moment of decision. That's next week. So pray for us not only invite but pray that God would do a great work next Sunday. But today we continue. We're in the book of Daniel. Daniel is the personal retelling of historical events. It's been referred to as Daniel's diary. Recording the events of Daniel but also Israel, the events of Israel while in exile in Babylon. But then also Daniel holds revelations and prophecies that were given to him by God. Daniel is a blueprint for how to stand firm but love well and we feel this tension every day don't we. Standing firm on godly truth, godly morals and values and this requires great courage in a world that seems to have abandoned him. And loving well is difficult in a world that is fighting against him. So how do we live for God in a world that doesn't. Last week we talked about the history of Israel that led to them being in Babylon and what we learned was that Babylon represents any allegiance that is not of

God. And Jerusalem represents the kingdom of God that they're not just places on a map anymore but Babylon is more than that. Babylon and I'm going to refer to Babylon in this way the rest of the series. Babylon is the prevailing culture and social norms that are under the influence of Satan and in opposition to God. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 through 12 this isn't going to be on the screen reminds us that we have an enemy and that our struggle our battle is not against flesh and blood but against evil spiritual forces. This is important that we know who our real enemy is and I also want to be clear that there are people who are in Babylon's camp. There are people who are in the enemies camp but people are not our enemy people are the prize but we do have an enemy and then there's Jerusalem. Jerusalem is more than a place on the map but Jerusalem represents the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the rank the the rule the the reign and the dominion of God over our lives and we see Babylon and Jerusalem colliding. So it is important for us to know our enemy and that's what we see today in Daniel chapter one Daniel chapter one reveals to us Satan's strategy so our goal today is knowing Satan's strategy because it helps us stand for God in Babylon. There are three strategies in Daniel chapter one of the enemy and then we also see how to respond. Now this sermon today is going to be heavy at times we're going to deal with some sensitive time. and I love His Word. And so together we're going to humbly come under the teaching of His Word as a church. You with me? You with me? Okay. There is a pattern in Babylon. Where Babylon is working a very specific way, it starts with deceitful ideas. There are deceitful ideas that move from out there to in here, and when that happens, it disorders our identities. And then as identity is disorder, it leads to destructive idolatry, destructive idolatry. And Babylon's doing that through Daniel chapter one, and Babylon is still doing that today.

Daniel chapter one, starting in verse one. Let's read the history of what happens when Daniel and his friends get to Babylon, and we'll stop a couple of places and unpack what's happening. Daniel one verse one. And the third king, excuse me, the third year of the reign of Jehoakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem, and besieged it. That is Babylon, came to Jerusalem, and they started a war. And in verse two, the Lord gave Jehoakim king of Judah into his hand, and God's people lost. With some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them into the land of Sheinar to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. So the holy, sacred things of God are now scattered among ungodly, unholy places, verse three. Then the king commanded Ashbenaz, the chief eunuch, that is the chief wise man in Babylon, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace. Ladies, if you ever need a good compliment to give your husband, you can use those verses right there, without blemish, yeah, right. Anyway, what did they do? Brought these men over to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were educated, they were educated for three years, and at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hennaniah, Mishael, Azariah of the tribe of Judah, verse seven, and the chief of the eunuchs gave them names, gave them new names. Daniel, he called Belsazar, Hennaniah, he called Shadrach, Mishael, he called Meshach, and Azariah, he called Abednego. Maybe Nebuchadnezzar's aim was that the citizens of Jerusalem would learn to live and to think

like citizens of Babylon. He could continue to fight a physical war, but that would just have the ideologies clash. No, Nebuchadnezzar is doing something a little bit more insidious. The long-term play for Babylon is not just a physical fight of two people going at each other, but it's an ideological fight. Maybe one of the enemy then and now is this, to indoctrinate with deceitful ideas. Verse three said that they were brought from Israel to the palace, that is they were isolated from what they knew to teach them the literature and the language. These young men were first isolated from the influences and the customs that would have helped mold them in the ways of God. They were separated from the public worship of God. They were separated from the teaching of God's word. They were separated from the wisdom of God's people. Notice this. We are vulnerable when isolated from others who love God. We're vulnerable. Our kids are vulnerable. People are vulnerable when they are isolated from the environments and the people that help them follow God. We all need people to stir us up, to keep loving God, to stir us up, to stay on path towards Him when we begin to drift. We need people. Now praise God that Daniel, he had a small group. I don't know if you have a small group, but you need a small group. Daniel had a small group. Him and his three friends, they're in this together and they start this three-year education journey that was designed to reorient them to Babylonian thinking and culture. You see, lying lies is Babylon's primary weapon. are not harmless. All lies begin as

That's all a lie is. And I know the word indoctrinate sounds heavy, but that's exactly what's happening here. indoctrinating needs to condition to fill another's mind with a specific definition of truth. And what we see happening, and I pray that you notice this now, we are in Babylon. These young men were not leaving Babylon, and today we live in Babylon as such that there are people around us who are in the enemy's camp, and that is always going to be true. Therefore, the danger is not Babylon around us, the danger is Babylon in us. When we let it in, see, in developed countries like our own, the risk of being conquered by military force is low. But we are being conquered by content. The content we consume controls us. Babylon is not trying to conquer us now with military force, but with ideas. And today, there are sources that Babylon uses all the time. We're being inundated with messages that are trying to shift how we think with ideas, with lives, to make us think differently about God, and to think differently about ourselves. And this is in social media, and music, and TV shows, and movies, and social structures, and what's allowed in culture to certain educational environments, and even in our schools. Of course, as we watch the news, and sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's a simple little whisper from Babylon that says, "Hey, you know the thing that God calls sin? What a big deal." But other times, it's outright confrontational to godly values. From the exploitation of the needy, to greedy uses of money, to any sexual immorality, any marriage, or excuse me, any sex outside of the marriage between one man and one woman, the affirming of same-sex romance, and how we see sexual immorality all in culture, to the stirring up of hate for people different than us, to indifference to the life of the unborn, to elevating selfish desires and selfish expression as the highest values the enemy is leveraging simple ideas to confuse people and to normalize sin in us and around us.

This is important because ideas form our identity, strategy too. Not only indoctrinating the ideas coming in, but when we begin to believe, believing deceitful ideas disorders identities. The aim of their education in Babylon was not just academic. Babylon wasn't merely trying to change Daniel's location on the map, it was trying to change Daniel's identity. And verse 7 describes an overt attempt to do this. Verse 7 is where we saw where they gave the Israelite boys a new name. You see, at that time in history, changing a person's name was a sign of having power over that person. These new names were meant to obliterate their Israelite identities. Daniel and his friends are given new names that directly contradict their loyalty to God. I find this fascinating. Let's work through it. The first name in Anaya, his Hebrew name, meant Yahweh has been gracious. The word Yahweh, the personal name of God, Yahweh has been gracious and his name has changed to Shadrach, which means I am fearful of God. From a name celebrating the goodness and the kindness of God to a name that expresses a fear of God as if you were a tyrant. Then Misha'el, Misha'el means who can compare to my God, but Misha'el means I am despised and humiliated, a shift from confidence in God to shrinking our identity. Azariah, the next name, means Yahweh has helped. His name is changed to Abednego, which means the servant of Nebo, from helped by the one true God to a slave to a pagan God. And Daniel, there's a lot happening with this name change. Daniel means God is my judge. Belshar means lady protect the king. His name was shifted from a masculine name that means submitting to God to a feminine name that means you must be the one to help your king.

It was literally the opposite of his Hebrew name. And it shifted the gender of the name. Don't miss this. This is 2,500 years ago. Gender confusion is an age-old tactic of the enemy to subvert a holy view of God by confusing someone's identity. Okay? Hold on. And if you're wrestling with that, we're going in a moment, I hope you feel the love of God, the love of God is there, but we have to be aware of what's happening in Babylon. Babylon is still attempting to redefine gender and sexuality. Why? Why does that seem to be where one of the greatest battles rage? Because if our understanding of our identity is distorted, our view of God is distorted. If I don't see myself the way God sees me, then I'm not going to see God the right way. So the enemy takes an idea, and he distorts my identity, because if I don't live in the identity that God gave me, I'm never going to bow to the real God. See, what's happening with Israelite men is now they have to live inside of a fake identity. These names that they were given, now every time someone calls their name, they have to answer to a name that insults God. So what's our role in this? Know your true name. That you are beloved. Child of God, valuable, made on purpose. Know the name that God has given you so that you can stand against the enemy when he tries to rename you.

This is who our God is. He wants to secure our identity in him where not even our feelings can change our identity. And by the way, like some changing of names is okay, pet names are still for your spouse, still very much approved. If you were to hear me text my wife, voice text, which has happened around here recently, people hear me go, "Hey Siri, text hottest homie." That's my wife's name in my phone. She's my hottest homie. And I'm not going to tell you what my nickname is in her phone for me. So, and don't come ask me afterwards. The story continues. After Daniel has experienced all of this, the education, the offer for food and wine, the changing of the name, verse 8 is really important, but Daniel resolved. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that the king drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs, that's important, and he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. Here's strategy three. The first two indoctrination ideas, ideas to identity. What the enemy's trying to do to get his jump to idolatry is he will impress us with idols. Impress us with idols. We all know what it feels like to be impressed to like something, to like, "Oh, that's cool. That's what the enemy's often trying to do." Like, for example, last night, I was not impressed with the officials in the Florida State Miami game. I see you, Miami Sherton. May the Lord, anyway. I was not impressed, let me tell you something else. Recently, I found myself, I don't know, I go through seasons where I find myself impressed

with really good singers. Like, you watch the voice and you're like, "Oh, my goodness, that person can sing." And I started thinking about how impressed I am with really great singers, and I'm grateful for our worship team, who aren't they just the best, like our worship team, leading us. The team knows this about me. If they want to impress me, just add a key change to a song. I think back to one of my favorite key changes of all time, the '90s worship song, "Shout to the Lord," anybody remember "Shout to the Lord." There was a key change in "Shout to the Lord," where I don't remember how exactly it goes, but I always felt like in the key change, God was going to rip open the roof of the church and he was himself going to come down. In the middle of a key change. You see, like, we all know what it's like to be impressed by something. So the king attempts to impress the Israelite boys with the Babylonian way of life. There was grandeur, there was architecture. to love the things of Babylon, they'll slowly be conditioned to love something other than God. Remember, an idol is simply any replacement for God in our hearts and in our affections. In this case, King Nebuchadnezzar attempts to impress exiled Israelites with food. But Daniel humbly knew that he could not defile himself. He couldn't say yes to the food, so he chooses a different way. Daniel chapter one, verse 12. This is him negotiating with Ashpanasse saying, "Hey, we're not gonna eat the food." He says, and then, verse 12, "Test your servants 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see." That's a bold statement, by the way. He's betting on God. He's saying, "You know what? Not only do I want to deny the food that you're giving me and I'm gonna talk about why in a second, but in 10 days, test it." Why is he willing to test it? Verse 14, "So he listened to them, King Ashpanasse, listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better. Everyone say better. They were better. They were better in appearance and fatter." Everyone say, no, don't say that. They were fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. Daniel was unimpressed with Babylon because he was confident that God's ways were better. Why not eat the food? There's really three reasons why he wouldn't eat the food. First, the food would have violated the law of Moses. Daniel was living according to the Old Testament law of Moses, the Old Testament dietary laws. This is ceremonially unclean food. Also, the food would have been sacrificed to idols. So eating the food in some ways would have represented letting the idol into him.

And then finally, it would have implied alliance with the pagan culture. Babylonians get to know the Israelites and they think there's a difference, but you see the Israelites eating the same food that we're eating, there must not be a big difference that they would assume there's alliance with pagan culture. You see, it may seem like it's just food, but Daniel perceived it as an effort to seduce him into the lifestyle of Babylon through the enjoyment of what Babylon enjoys. Today, Babylon tempts us and impresses us primarily through pleasure. Pleasure. Hey, you're gonna feel better if you do that. Pleasure through sex, money, even substances that change how we feel, endless entertainment and more. Man, are we more impressed by bank accounts, Instagram followers, power and pleasure? Or are we impressed by a love for God? Are we impressed by a love for people with things like patience and grace and sacrifice and healthy relationships? I pray that we would be a people that are wowed by the things of God, impressed by God above everything else. Because if we say impressed with him that, oh my goodness, look at what God is doing. Man, the Babylonian temptation to pleasure

is always gonna fall short because God always meets our greatest needs. He is the one who fulfills us at the soul level and anything less than him, any idol at the center of our hearts breaks our hearts, destroys us. Think about people who are living just caught up in sin in a sinful lifestyle. Maybe it offers pleasure for a moment, but people caught up in sin are the most miserable people. Statistically, this is the most free time to sin in the history of mankind. And statistically, we are the saddest we've ever been as humanity. You think those two are connected? Ideas, identity, idolatry. So what's our response to Babylon? First, I want you to hear this. If you feel caught up in Babylon today, if you feel caught up in deceitful ideas and distorted identity, destructive ideology, No matter where you've been or what you've done, no matter what you did last night, Jesus is saying, "What you come home to Jerusalem." And that invitation never goes away. Do you know that? It never goes away. He loves you enough. He's done all the work for us in his life, death, and resurrection, that if you are far from God and Babylon,

you can say yes to him in Jerusalem right now. But what's our response? If you're a follower of God, what's our response? Scripture said in Daniel chapter one verse eight, but Daniel resolved. Daniel resolved. What resolved means, resolved simply means to make up your mind. Daniel made up his mind to do what? To stay rooted in Jerusalem while living in Babylon, while never losing his heart to reach Babylon. To stay rooted in the things of God, in the kingdom of God, in his heart, while never getting so heart into Babylon that he didn't want to reach Babylon. There was some tension in these two, but Daniel was able to navigate that tension because he predesided that God had his heart. And so how do we stay rooted in God? First and foremost, it is through the word of God. It is through the Scripture. It is through allowing this to protect our minds and our hearts. The Bible is fascinating to me because somehow it works like an anchor. In like, if you're a ship and the waves are tossing and philosophy and principles over here and sinful ideologies, all around us and the ship is tossing

and turning in the world, but we have an anchor of truth. It doesn't shift. And then also, Scripture is a sword. And if we are in a spiritual war, which we are, the Scripture calls itself in Ephesians chapter six, a sword, why in the world would we go into battle without our sword? We go into battle with the word of God and we begin to read the word of God, love the word of God, memorize the word of God, put the word of God in our minds, in our hearts, I've seen it a million times in my own life and a million times in other people's lives. The enemy runs at the word of God. So we stay rooted in the Scripture. (congregation applauds) But we have to pre-decide. I will live for God in a world that doesn't. Got to resolve. At home, at work, at school, on the team, in the neighborhood, even in voting and how we engage the community is our allegiance first to King Jesus. I want to talk about voting for just a moment because it's coming up. Our goal is to prayerfully align our vote with Godly values as best we can, humbly, compassionately, and truthfully.

We vote for policies and platforms because people change that align as best we can see because this is complicated with Godly convictions and concern for our community and our country. If you love Jesus, I encourage you to vote. Open early voting starts tomorrow in Florida and vote through the election. Here's a guide that I use as a filter for how I vote. Maybe this is helpful for you. This is personal for me. I want to help give you a filter. If you're wondering, hey, I feel kind of lost in this. Think this phrase as you vote. Biblically conservative, compassionately engaged. Here's what I mean by that. Biblically conservative simply means that I allow the word of God to help me see the world and truth the way God has revealed. Compassionately engaged means that I never will sacrifice anything if it hurts someone else. I care for the poor, the marginalized, the vulnerable. And I carry those two things. Biblical conservative, God's word guides me on how I see life valuable from the womb to the tomb. How I see stewarding money with wisdom. Are my kids safe? Like I care about this stuff. Are their minds and hearts safe in the community? Like I care about this stuff. But I also care deeply for the poor

and the marginalized and the vulnerable. See, voting is a gift. So we should see it as a gift. Believers in Babylon didn't get the chance to vote. King Nebuchadnezzar was not elected. So how do we see it? Hey, vote as you seek the Lord. But also this, if our preferred candidate doesn't win, we don't despair. We respond with hope and continued engagement for the good of our community and our country. By the way, if you're lost in all this and man, I need more help than that, firstrelando.com. candidates fall, and then you can prayerfully make a decision. FirstOrlando.com/vote. You know, for some of us, our worst fear is to live in a world that is opposed to God. Well, Daniel and his friends did, and watch God still come through. How Daniel handled this situation is helpful, because it all comes back to reach. Daniel gauged his responses in Babylon by his foundational desire to reach one more person, one more Babylonian to faith in the one true God. By the way, that's the best way to take a ground from the enemy is winning people to faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 8 even shows us how Daniel did it, his approach. Verse 8 said that Daniel asked permission, which was a gentle approach. He asked permission to not eat the king's food. And in verse 9 reveals how Daniel's approach impacted the Babylonians. Verse 9 says, "In God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. God used Daniel's approach and wisdom to open the door to favor."

He stood firm on his convictions and treated Babylonian leaders with dignity, and God granted him favor. We see this play out in Daniel 1 down to verse 17. After all this, they were tested. As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. The king spoke with them, and among all of them, none were found like Daniel, Hanania, Meshael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king, and in every way, in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. They were found ten times better than their Babylonian counterparts. Give your heart to Jesus, and we could test it today. Try marriage, parenting, finances, business, character, and purpose. Try it God's way, and check the results in ten years. Try it away from God. Try it Babylonian's way, and check the results in ten years, and let's compare. God's ways are better, so Christians, First Orlando, hear me, don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic in Babylon. You know what Daniel often did? He relaxed. He took a chill pill. Christians, we are so busy fighting culture wars that don't matter that people don't want to hear about the Savior who has changed our lives. You know I love Christmas, I joke around about it a lot, but as we enter into the Christmas season, it won't take long before on social media somewhere. The Christian culture Christmas wars are going to pop up, and it's going to go something

like this. Did you guys hear that fill in the blank department store? It's no longer saying Merry Christmas, but they're saying Happy Holidays, and people are going to lose their minds. Listen to me church, no one has ever won someone to Christ by Christians picking a fight about how greeters at Walmart say hey. Christians have never won somebody to Christ through an argument in the comments section of a Facebook post. Dying on wrong mountains the wrong way is the quickest way to limit influence in Babylon. Our struggle is that we have Jerusalem expectations for Babylon, but Babylon is going to Babylon. People who don't know God are going to act like people who don't know God, so stop being surprised if they don't know God and act like they don't know God. We cannot expect Jerusalem. We cannot expect Babylon to act like Jerusalem. What we're missing here is our goal, who cares if they say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas that they don't love Jesus. We want their hearts, not just their behavior, do you see this? So sometimes you know what we should do in order to win one more to Christ is relax because God is not rattled. He is not alarmed. Christians get rattled so easily and it's bizarre because we follow a God who is never "will not prevail against it." We know the end of the story. So live like it, live like it. Now, of course we should contend for what's of God. Jude chapter, Jude verse three says, "Contend for the faith." We don't take sin lightly, especially when sin is embedded in society and culture and government, when the holiness of God and the dignity of people is violated, we stand up, we should take a stand.

Absolutely, we should remove ourselves and our family from ungodly, unholy influences. Speak up for the truth, like I have a little bit today. Live boldly for Jesus, however, how we stand for God matters, how we do it matters. Guys, one of my favorite things to do is to be right. Like I love being right, ask my wife, I rarely think that I'm not right, but as I was wrestling through Daniel chapter one, the Lord arrested my heart with this thought. If we aren't reaching people for God, then who cares if we're right? I don't wanna be right if it means I'm not effective. We can't win people to Jesus and pick fights with them at the same time. I wanna be effective. This is the final thought, and we're gonna pray. And what you see is how Daniel loved Babylon, allowed him to reach Babylon in really specific ways. If you jump over to Daniel chapter two, Daniel and the wise men of Babylon are facing punishment because they're different things haven't been working for the king. They're actually all about to get killed together, and Daniel is the one that steps in to provide salvation, even for the wise men of Babylon. Check out Daniel chapter two, verse 24. Therefore Daniel went into Ariak, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon.

He went and said this to them, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation. So Daniel offers his services, why? To save the very people who had once been trying to influence him away from God. I'm shaken by this thought. That Jesus died not only for me, but for the people I call my enemies. And if he died for me, then he died for them. Whoever them is to you, if he died for you, he died for them too. Which means Jesus died for Republicans. And out of love, he died for Democrats. And Jesus died for Muslims and atheists. He died for fundamentalist and liberal college professors and racists. He loves the billionaire and the homeless. He died for criminals, wall street suits, and politicians, believe it or not. From the suburbs to the streets, from the churches to the prisons, he died for all of them. Regardless of race, ethnic background, or language, he died for you. He loves the people who hurt you, and he loves the people group that you can't stand, and he's coming again one day. And he is longing to call as many people as possible.

He's longing to call as many people as possible, home to him in heaven. Now, people must still bow and surrender their lives to Jesus to experience the saving power of his love, but even while they, even while me, even while they were still sinners, Christ died for them. And knowing how much God loves everyone helps us live in Babylon. What's interesting, here's the cliffhanger for next week, is Daniel begins to rise and influence in Babylon. Imagine that, he gets position and power in Babylon. God's using him, but as he rises to influence in Babylon, Babylon's expectations for Daniel grow, that Daniel would bow to what Babylon bows to, and we see it still today. If we were to live for God in Babylon, Babylon will expect us to bow to what Babylon bows to, and listen to me, we simply cannot. And that's where we're going next week. For now though, let's pray. Father, we love you. And God, we're so grateful that you loved us first. Lord, protect our minds and our hearts from the schemes of the evil one, protect us from ideas, identity and idolatry. Lord Jesus, would you give us the strength Well, we know stories of people coming to faith. Next Sunday, Lord, what hundreds of people move out of Babylon and into Jerusalem.

We pray this together. Amen, amen, amen, amen. (applause)