Living In A Strange New World

Scripture: Daniel 1:1-7;Matthew 22:27; Psalm 119:105; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 6:5-13; Matthew 5:13-16

Theme: Staying True during Exile

Title: Living In A Strange New World

We live in an interesting world to say the least. We live in a time when a great deal of upheaval is happening all around us. A great many of our traditional Christian beliefs are either being replaced, ignored or reinterpreted. How do we stay faithful?

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Let’s travel back in time this morning to around 586 BC.

You and your friends are between 18 and 20 years of age. You live in the city of Jerusalem. You are part of the tribe of Judah and for the past 400 years one of your relatives has been the king.

Life has been good. It’s always good if you are a part of royalty or at least related to royalty. You have never known what it meant to want for anything. It’s been a good 400 years for the most part.

But now all of that was yesterday. It’s all history. Because today, you and your friends find yourself being led out of Jerusalem with chains around your feet. For the past few months King Nebuchadnezzar’s army has been trying to tear down the walls and conquer your city and as of yesterday they finally succeeded.

Today, you are a captive. You and your friends are now captive slaves, being forced to walk towards the city of Babylon. It’s a journey which will take you and your friends at least 3- 4 months to finish.

Your life and the lives of your friends will never be the same.

Most of the homes of Jerusalem are in flames. The Temple of the LORD GOD Almighty has been ransacked. Your home has been turned into rubble. Everything you and your friends possessed is now gone.

The king has been taken captive and most of governmental leaders have been put to death. Sadly, that includes most of your relatives. The ones that are left are in other groups walking in chains as well. You know deep down that many of them won’t make the 3–4-month journey alive.

How did all of this happen?

Where is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY in all of this?

Without being able to go to the Temple how does a person worship the Lord God Almighty?

These Babylonians who are taking us captive don’t speak our language, they don’t share the same values as we do, and they are making us leave the place that we love.

That is where we find ourselves as we look at the first part of the book of Daniel and that is where I would like for us to spend some time this morning.

The book of Daniel is not only an interesting book, it is one that if we read it, study it and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, it can help us live in the world in which we find ourselves today.

We live in an interesting world to say the least. We live in a time when a great deal of upheaval is happening all around us. A great many of our traditional Christian beliefs are either being replaced, ignored or reinterpreted.

Traditional views of what is right and wrong, views on gender and sex, views on Jesus’ identity, views on the Incarnation and Resurrection along with what it truly means to be Born Again and filled with the Holy Spirit all are under some intense scrutiny.

A great many things that were considered either right or wrong now are being questioned.

This has not only been happening outside of the doors of the church but in many places even inside the doors of the Church.

1. Does the Church still believe in the statements that we find in the Apostle’s Creed?

2. Was Jesus born of a Virgin or was that just a made-up story to make Jesus look like a god figure?

3. Did Jesus really raise from the dead and does it even matter?

4. Is the Bible right in saying that God made male and female and can that be a fluid and every changing existence?

5. Do you really need Jesus, or can you just replace Him with some other religious person, belief or philosophy?

6. Does any of this really matter?

Like Daniel we find our present world becoming unlike the world that we grew up in and with values that are so different than the values we were taught as children and young adults.

Daniel’s life story can help us this morning if we allow it.

After arriving some like Daniel were given the chance to begin a new life in service to King Nebuchadnezzar. It was to be a life that would require them to forget about their past lives and take hold of their new lives.