The Giant of Conformity - Part A

Notice the Daniels choice and with inward conviction purpose in his heart, that is, he made a choice deep inside after soul-searching. He came up with his joints really good all the indoctrination all the intimidation all the isolation orderly designation is met by Daniel termination you in the Bible, determined to live his life for God alone, giving us strength to do the same day on connect with Skip Skip begins a series called hunting John and shears withstand pressures to conform to the world standard first.

Did you know the Scriptures important updates and encouragement on social media. Just follow on Facebook twitter instrument to get the latest from him in this ministry that's at Skip Heitzig at Skip each unified cheesy IG. Now we're in Daniel chapter 1 as we dive into her study with Skip Heitzig throw something up on the screen." Religion must die in order for mankind to live the words of TB host and atheist Bill Marr in 2008. He put out a documentary that was designed to make religious people, people of faith look like utter idiots.

In fact, he called them terrorists to the court again. Religion must die in order for mankind to live.

That is not very different from what Karl Marx famously said in 1843. Religion is the opium of the people. I'm believing that you have probably seen that are heard of that before. That's the philosophy of Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism after Marx came on the scene and people were dazzled by him in Russia. The followers of Karl Marx yanked all the religious teaching from the school system and they outlawed criticism. Anybody who would speak against atheists or agnostics was punished. They then burned 100,000 churches in Russia so the clergy of the country demanded religious freedom. As you might expect. And because they demanded religious freedom. They were sentenced to death. I don't think this happened a thousand years ago. Between 1917 and 19, 30 530,000 Russian Orthodox priests were arrested and 95,000 of them were executed by firing squad. As recent history.

I told you before about my first day of college told you the story.

Many occasions on my professor found out that I was a believer and he stood and in front of the class said, pointing at me. My aim in this class is to dismantle your belief system is this dismantling of our belief system that happens to be the aim of people both outside the church and inside the church. Sadly, on one end of the spectrum you have progressive liberals on the left and on the other end of the spectrum you have Christian deconstructionists all who want to marginalize us as being sheer idiots if we believe in this book.

If we teach our children the truth of the Bible and what they want is basically for us to shut up and go away. That's their agenda. They want to remove our voice from the public square. In short, they want us to conform to shut up and do what we say. A psychologist by the name of Nicholas Humphrey was lecturing at Oxford University and he admitted in his speech. His goal, and I'm in a quoted. His goal is to argue in favor of censorship against freedom of expression, and then he even admitted who he was aiming at. In particular, again he said, moral and religious education, especially the education a child receives at home. I want to see what he said in that speech made a shocking statement. He said children have a right not to have their minds addled by nonsense and we as a society have a duty to protect them from it. So we should know more. Allow parents to teach their children to believe. For example, in the literal truth of the Bible, then we should allow parents to knock their children's teeth out or lock them in a dungeon. Interesting that he would equate teaching your kids the Bible with child abuse.

That is the same ideological stances communist Russia that is the same ideological stances any totalitarian regime.

But you need to know that there is a method to their madness comes in stages. First, they will redefine vocabulary use words are familiar with and dealt on purpose. Choose noble lofty sounding words that nobody would argue against them in who would dare oppose equality who would dare speak out against freedom or science problem is they the meaning they pour into those words are vastly different from the understood meaning of those words so they'll use vocabulary that you're familiar with that they begin redefining it. Second, they will stigmatize their opponents if you don't agree with them. They will label you they will vilify you the call you names will call you homophobic call you xenophobic or is llama phobic or misogynistic or sexist or big one now is racist and the reason they do. This is they just want you to shut up. Don't say anything at all because if you can label somebody is phobic or unscientific.

You can then perhaps take away their First Amendment right of free speech and even get them banned cancel from Facebook or twitter or any big tech platform. The apostle Paul said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. A better translation I think is the Phillips version. Don't let the world squeeze you into its own mold how we do that, how can our little voice in our presence. Stand up to the giant of conformity. Fortunately a little kid by the name of Daniel shows us how in Daniel chapter 1, I don't have time to read and comment on the whole chapter but we are to read sections of it and I want to begin with the predicament that Daniel wasn't only to give you the long and short of it.

Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has gained power. He has taken over the known world.

The world of the Middle East. He has taken captive Jerusalem and he has brought people with him to Babylon, including Daniel and his friends and he is looking for servants for his palace and Babel that takes us into verse four where we read young men in whom there was no blemish but good-looking gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand who had ability to serve in the king's palace in whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans and the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them so that at the end of that time, they might serve before the king now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel Hannah Naomi Seidel and Azariah to them. The chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Delta shahs are to Hanan Ira Shadrach to be trail me shack to Azariah, Abednego I want to fill in a couple of the gaps.

A battle had just taken place. One of the most famous battles in history of your history buff, you'll know this, the battle of Karsh Amish happened in 605 BC Karsh Amish is an area today in present-day Turkey. It is where Babylon defeated the combined armies of the Syria and Egypt.

When that battle was won. Nebuchadnezzar was large and in charge. He was the new sheriff in town the rest of the world was easy pickings so he could pick off less powerful kingdoms, including the kingdom of Jerusalem.

So in that same year, 605 BC, he attacked Jerusalem he did it again in 597 BC he did it again in 586 BC. The last time he did it he destroyed the city burned the temple with fire. But on that first date, 605 BC is when Daniel was kidnapped from his home and taken 1600 miles away to live now in the courts of the Babylonian king, I told you on a few occasions that I've been to Iraq a few times the area of Babylon first time I went was in the goal for the first Gulf War and we were trying to get in planes could not fly into Baghdad so we had to take a taxi from Amman, Jordan, all the way across the Jordanian and Iraqi desert to get to back edits 25 hours one way and 25 hours back when suite we did this drive and we hired a taxi driver who was a chain smoker. I just want you to feel for my predicament.

One cigarette after another after another after another all day long, and his favorite music was Madonna so he had a stack of Madonna tapes and a carton of cigarettes I felt like I was in the Babylonian captivity has nothing at all to do with this tax just wanted to throw that in free of charge. Nebuchadnezzar had a four tiered process to get to these kids never want he isolated them. He took them from their home. Took them away from their friends took them away from their parents took them away from their temple, their worship, their religious influence and sequestered them in a new environment.

He isolated second thing he did is he indoctrinated them he reeducated them. Notice it says they were taught the language and the literature of the Chaldeans that you read the angle that's not so bad.

That's like a free college education. The government's plan for that language and literature, the Chaldeans, sign me up, but the goal was not just academic goal was to re-orient their way of thinking to a Babylonian worldview was a three year program. The literature of the Chaldeans promoted the Chaldean worldview of many gods. There's not one God like they were taught in Israel in Jerusalem.

There are many gods and so the worldview change their thinking about God, about life, about mankind.

Archaeology also has shown us that the Babylonians practice divination. They look at the stars to predict the future. They took the livers and entrails of animals and put them on a plate and let them wiggle around and somehow they look at that and could predict the future. All of that Daniel and his friends would be taught in school basically was a three year cultural assimilation course to get them to forget everything they learned as kids. I do know that sounds to me a lot like college.

I want to poke fun at college, but a lot of you know how true that can be that like in my case, you'll get professors were paid to teach integrative zoology or biology or whatever is the discipline and the go out of their way not to teach that. But to undermine what you taught actively so. So they were isolated they were indoctrinated third thing that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to do is intimidate them.

They were intimidated in verse five we read that they were given a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank again, that didn't sound bad at first blush year in college, and you get free food right sign me up for that. Especially this food.

If you're a Jewish kid eating falafel's in Jerusalem every day and now you're in the biggest city in the world. Given delicacies. Those are perks like desserts and fine meals and all the wine you can drink Leo Oppenheim, the scholar said, but the food that was offered in the Babylonian court was first offered to Babylonian gods and then brought to the king's table so all of that would be would be used to intimidate these young Jewish minds and they would start thinking thoughts like will, why should I believe in my God. First of all I never ate like this in Jerusalem. Second, my God couldn't protect me from all of this and Babylon itself was intimidating the Greek historian Herodotus says the walls of the city of Babylon were 80 feet thick, 320 feet tall and 56 miles long. If you walk through the center.the opening to to the town called the Ishtar gate, which I have done in its rebuilt ruins your on a street that 65 feet wide, made out of limestone flanked by red tiled sidewalks ornately decorated the river Euphrates runs through the center of town parallel to that street you would see the most magnificent palace in the world and one of the seven wonders of the world called the hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Any Jewish teenager would drop their jaw at wonder why M why this is awesome to be enamored by and then the fourth thing Nebuchadnezzar did.

Is he really designated them. He took away from them. Their most personal, private possession, their name and gave them new names is basically social engineering. So the name Daniel his Jewish name is a name that means God is my judge's new name given by Nebuchadnezzar's belted shadows are which means made. They'll protect the king Bell is one of the cheap deities of Babylon.

Hannah Anaya met the love of the Lord. But his new name was Shadrach, which means illumined by coup, the moon God Misha L. Means, who is like God. But the new name me shack means who is like coup, the moon God and Azariah means the Lord is my help. That's his Jewish name but he was given the name Abednego, which means servant of Naboo.

All of these are pagan deities that so many that they worship what I want to latch onto is that they are banning words there are banning foreign names and the only words aloud is the words. This new culture has provided for them. Sound familiar, so that's the predicament they weren't.

Now the predicament takes us to the second phase that is the protest so we read what we read the look of verse eight was the first word in the verse, but it's a good sign, but Daniel didn't say and Daniel are so Daniel therefore Daniel. But but Daniel so immediately.

We have opposition to the pressure. The pressure represented in the first seven verses is met with a black Daniel a negative conjunction. On the contrary, what we have going here is Daniel young Danielle young teenage Daniel making the choice and the choice he is making is will I conform or will I not conform so look what it says but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the chief of the UNIX that he might not defile himself notice the Daniels choice began with inward conviction. It says he purposed in his heart, that is, he made a choice deep inside after soul-searching. He came up with his choice. This is really good news all the indoctrination all the intimidation all the isolation all the redesignation is met by Daniels determination you have a young teenage boy who's been abducted saying at this point, no not going to cross that line.

So he's determinedly purposes in his heart. Listen the power to not conform to the culture around you is always an inside job. It always begins on the inside and it happens when your decisions become your convictions. Anybody can make a decision, a choice Windows decisions and choices become your define the nature your conviction. This is who I am. It's different.

Ellis and the effectiveness of the rest of Daniel's life depends on this very moment. If he doesn't make the right choice. Daniel would not make the right impact this choice that he makes that day will determine the man that he will become everyday after this day is making a very very important choice, I want to see what W.A. Criswell he's been in heaven a while but look at what he said about this is that all of life is filled with crises and decisions. There are right decisions, wrong decisions. Highroad slow roads and almost every day. There will be a fork in the road where you are today is due to the turn in the road you took yesterday. You are the product of your choice.

You are where you are because of the choices you have made and you have many more to make. So your decisions must become your convictions.

Purpose of heart purpose of so began with an inward conviction but notice something else. It included a spiritual definition. Notice the Daniel doesn't see the delicacies offered him as delicacies.

Daniel sees the delicacies offered him his defilement. He didn't go hot dog I'm a teenager I get all the wine I can drink all the desserts I can have even see it that way, we could birthday. Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested that the chief of the UNIX that he might not defile himself. I know you're still thinking what's the big deal. Food is food not to Daniel. He's a Jewish kid and according to his law. Jewish law there certain kinds of food you can eat certain kind you can't eat and when you can eat it. It's called kosher cuisine and when you can eat it. It's on closer and it's a practice still to this day. So, according to Levitical laws.

You certainly couldn't eat stuff that has been sacrificed to pagan gods and the way the Babylonians prepared it evidently was not according to Jewish kosher law, so he disses negative and he said I don't want the wine because the wind had been poured on to pagan altars, was their practice and then the rest of the wine was taken undiluted and the Jews didn't drink undiluted wine they would mix their wine 20 parts water to one part of wine because line was basically used by the Jews to kill germs. So the idea of something that was offered to a foreign God that might give me an altered state of consciousness as well as this pagan revelry. No I'm not going to do it so he called it a defilement and I know you might think. Yeah, I still don't see what the big deal is. I mean Daniel is not in Jerusalem he's in babble, and so do to accommodate right honey when in babble and live like the Babylonians Europe. Your parents are even around your friends are being argued around the rabbis are here nobody's in the sea doing you want a lot of excuses that's that's the deal.

Daniel wasn't looking for an excuse because Daniel was living with her then execute the message from the series contingent tissue about a great resource that will deepen your knowledge of God's word even more rotator and crucial moments in decisions where everything changes. We called in pivot points here. Skip, I think in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while if need be. You have been grieved by various trials. Computers actually saying that there are times when God knows you see trial say exactly what you can prepare for inevitable upcoming pay that point in your life receive your copy of Skip's pivot point collection of six messages point package sticks to marriage – depression recovery. The future and moving to a new location, or job.

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Thank you for partnering with that tune in tomorrow if Skip Heitzigs of shares how God blesses your obedience and devotion to live for him easy thing to go along with it.

Everybody, thanks for Danville's pickup that's easy. Anybody. Everybody doesn't go against the alveoli system go against stand up for trying. Don't be ashamed of it