A Godly Life In Ungodly Times Series

A Godly Life in Ungodly times

A godly life should expect opposition

A godly life should expect hard choices

Living a godly Life in ungodly times requires that we know Who we believe in

Living a godly life brings blessing and peace

Slide

Intro

Good morning. It is hard to believe that the year is half over already. Time goes by fast. Not only does the year seem to go by, but the years seem to go by.

In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 236th Birthday of our country.

Even though we were not there, there have been a lot of changes in our country over the last 236 years. In fact in the last 50 or 60 years there have been incredible amounts of change. Some of those changes have been good and some, not so good.

The technological and medical advancements of the last 50 or 60 years have been incredible. But I think also, over that time, we have seen our society as a whole devolve into a society that is less moral which has made it less safe.

Changing Times

I was at a family reunion yesterday and we were talking about how my mom and her cousins would at 15 or so years old, take the train from Morris down into the city by themselves and go to a Cubs game and then take the train home that got them back about midnight.

I told them not allowed to talk to Melanie, because I would not allow her to do that at her age without an adult with them. It is not something that would be safe for a few 15 year old girls to do in our day and age, and that is largely due to the moral decay of our society.

Transition

I would argue that the reason that we have suffered such moral decay is because America has become less of a God fearing nation than it was when it was originally founded, and that it was even 50 or 60 years ago.

Liberty vs. License

Our country was founded upon a principle of Liberty, which is freedom and rights that come with responsibility. People today want license, or, freedom and rights without responsibility.

I would also argue that our view of our responsibilities, our view of what it means to live in a way that we take our responsibilities seriously, comes from our belief in God.

And as the people of our country have become less of a God fearing people, our nation has become a more difficult place to live with the freedoms that we have.

In fact, our second President and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence said

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Adams - Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, 11 October 1798

As the morals of the people of our country continue to devolve and decay, I believe it will become harder and harder to live a godly life for those who are followers of Jesus Christ, believers in the God of the Bible, because as we give responsibilities to our government, we are also going to lose freedoms, and as we lose freedoms, we, as people who fear and seek to follow the Lord, are going to be put in some very difficult positions.

Transition

This is one of the reasons that I thought it so appropriate to be studying Daniel this summer.

Daniel and his friends were living in a society that was similar to our own, they were self-focused and they were a great and mighty nation in that day.

I want us to be able to look at Daniel and his friends and see some of the things they faced as men of God, so that we can know

what we can expect as we strive to live godly lives and

how we might better prepare ourselves

To live a godly life in ungodly times.

Slide

Turn with me to Daniel 3.

We are going to read about Daniel’s 3 young friends as they strive to follow God the best that they can as their government seeks to force them to worship other gods and live and act in ways that dishonor the Lord.

We are going to start by reading

Daniel 3:1-12

3:1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. 3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.