Who could even everybody? Well, we are we're wrapping up this thriving in Babylon series tonight I hope the last four weeks has been really helpful and Beneficial to you the whole reason that we are doing the series is really is to learn to be faithful to God and to be fruitful for God in An increasingly post Christian and godless culture where yeah All it does is just flip on news on your phone or wherever and it's in its we're face to face with it So as a quick review, let's back up and let me just hit the highlights of where we've been so in the first week You know as we talked about how to thrive in battle and our modern Babylon that we're in the first week We talked about God's sovereignty and now that's the bedrock foundation for everything that has come after that that God is in control of whose in control The second week we talked about trials we talked about trials how the testing of our faith strengthens our spiritual vitality Trials are not a bad thing They are a gift to us if we have the right eyes to see them that way and God is strengthening us where we are weak So we can indeed thrive a third week We talked about hope and when we talked about hope we talked about in the Bible that biblical hope means Certainty it doesn't mean our modern definition of wishful thinking but it means certainty that God is faithful and that his purposes Will always come through Last week the theme was humility was humility having an honest assessment of yourself an honest an honest assessment of ourselves And treating others better than ourselves Which is always attractive and builds influence? This is a truism with humility humility always attracts and pride always repels And so as we've been looking at all these we're really looking at how Daniel exemplified these in his story and tonight for our final night The last trait we're going to look at is wisdom We're gonna look at wisdom and we're gonna look at how wisdom that was displayed in Daniel's life and what God has to say throughout the whole Council of his word about wisdom now before we go any further let me remind you about Babylon Okay, remember what Babylon is at this time. It was a literal Kingdom that was ruling and taking over lots of people okay Babylon as a culture was so bad it Became synonymous with ultimate evil throughout the rest of scripture We read into revelation and it talks about you know when Jesus finally comes back how Babylon will fall And so Babylon while at this time in the story, it's a literal Kingdom It is a figurative illustration of ultimate evil in the world And that's the environment that we find Daniel and we find Daniel not just surviving, but we find Daniel thriving We find him influencing we see him Providing us a blueprint so to speak and how we can grow in a godless culture and we can thrive and we can advance the Kingdom Okay, now one thing I realized we have not done yet And I think it would be really a really good thing to do tonight is really take just a couple minutes We're not gonna spend long on this at all, but to review the book of Daniel, okay chapter one through chapter 12 What does it look like so we're just gonna hit this really quickly chapter by chapter because you know, it's a famous book It's you know is Larry Osborn said I think in the first video, you know, it's a science will teachers dream, you know With all the stories and everything that's in there So let's do a quick overview of the book of Daniel and then we'll jump in read our scripture for tonight watch our video and go on with Our lesson, okay, let's do that so the review of Daniel first in chapter one here's what we find in chapter one Chapter one is the fall of Jerusalem the Babylon Jerusalem is besieged people are taking captive Daniel and his four friends are are taken to Babylon And also they begin to rise into influence in chapter one chapter two is where we find King Nebuchadnezzar has his first dream And no one could interpret the dream none of his you know wise guys his magicians his whoever they couldn't they couldn't interpret the dream Daniel gets called in and he interprets the dream.
It's a good interpretation for the dream and he gets promoted That's chapter two chapter three is where we find Daniel and you know And we find his three friends, you know now they're known as Shadrach, Meshach and Benago They do not bow down to the big statue that King Nebuchadnezzar built of himself and because of that act of defiance against the king because they would only Bow their knee to the Lord God they were thrown into the fiery furnace and they were delivered right great story The guy looks in the furnace. Hey, did we throw three guys in here? Yeah? Well, there's four.
What's that about right? So they are they are delivered chapter four and really this is the last chapter three is the last time we hear from Shadrach Meshach and Benago, okay? Excuse me. Chapter four is Nebuchadnezzar's second dream that could not get interpreted by his people Daniel comes in again He interprets a dream not a good dream to interpret for Nebuchadnezzar It was about Nebuchadnezzar's fall, okay?
But then by the end of the chapter Nebuchadnezzar's restoration because he repented, okay? That's chapter four now chapter five a guy named Belchazar who is Nebuchadnezzar's son comes into power And this is a story where the hand comes in and writes on the wall, okay? And no one could interpret that Daniel shows up again He interprets the writing on the wall and then he's promoted one more time by Belchazar Chapter six fast forwards and now you have this guy named Darius He comes to power Daniel is set up by some guys in the court that don't like him and he is thrown into the lion's den, okay? Another famous story gets in the lion's den the angel lord gain down close her mountrains into kitty cats and he's great, okay?
And he's promoted yet again, okay? So we keep seeing this we keep seeing this a pattern with Daniel now and Daniel chapters seven through 12 They are very different than chapters one through six Chapter seven through 12 is Daniel recording all the various visions and prophecies that he had but that the ones that he had over his history in Babylon Okay, um, so what we see here before each vision He says during the during this year of the reign of this ruler is when I had this vision So seven through twelve is really it doesn't come after the lion's den It's kind of saying these are visions that I've had throughout my life during the reign of the various rulers And one thing I want to point out in particular in Daniel chapter seven versus 13 and 14 two Extremely important verses in the Old Testament, okay? Daniel seven 13 and 14 this is Daniel's vision where he had the few verses before he had the vision of the ancient of days Okay of god the father sitting on his throne and then in verses 13 and 14 is his vision of the son of man Who was given dominion alongside the ancient of days? Now why is it so important because son of man Was jesus's preferred title in referring to himself during his earthly ministry coming from these two little verses in Daniel And so this is where we get a very clear picture of a preview so to speak of the gospel in Daniel, okay?
So those are two really important because the way jesus like to talk to him talk about himself most was talking about himself as the son of man Okay, so that is our overview of Daniel. Um, so that catches us up So what I want to do now is zoom into a passage that's going to set the stage for us talking about wisdom tonight So we're gonna be Daniel chapter one and we're gonna read verses 17 through 21 It says this says Then oh here we go as for the four youths, okay, Daniel and then the four of his four friends You know, hannah and misha ala sha'a sha'a'a sha'a'a sha'aqimina go 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 that they should be brought in the chief of the eunuchs Brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king spoke with them and among all of them none was found like Daniel Hanania Misha'a'a and Azariah Therefore they stood before the king and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them He found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom And Daniel was there until the first year of king syrus. That's god's word for us this morning This morning this evening I need to go to sleep and wake back up. Um, so these verses tell us about the wisdom of Daniel and his friends But Daniel in particular and Daniel in particular was given these all this wisdom this understanding Do you remember the very first phrase here asked for the four u's god gave them So all this understanding all this wisdom was given by god the places of honor that Daniel was promoted and exalted up to was given by god The control of who's in control now verse 21 um helps us understand remember a couple weeks ago I was telling you how to read Daniel that Daniel wasn't written like a diary Daniel was written more like an autobiography of an old man looking back on his life Okay, um verse 21 in chapter one lets us know that because he says you know He was there till the first year of king syrus from when Daniel was taking into captivity as a youth under king Nebuchadnezzar And you fast forward to king syrus.
Anybody know how long that was Not quite 70 years really close charlie 70 years so these 12 verses These 12 these 12 chapters encompass 70 years of Daniel's life So let's talk about wisdom a little bit as we're gonna look at the wisdom of Daniel and just think for yourself Who's the wisest person you know? Who's the wisest person you know? And aside from what they know because I think oftentimes we attribute wisdom to knowledge They just know a lot of stuff. It's part of it.
But aside from what they know, here's the question. How do they live? How would you describe how the wisest person you know lives? How do they respond to people?
Okay, especially those who have different beliefs than they do. How does that wise person respond to them? What do they make a big deal of and what do they not make a big deal of? Now jesus said in Luke chapter 7 verse 35 Jesus said that wisdom is proved by her children.
What does that mean? It means this it means wisdom is shown primarily in your living Not your knowledge the results of your life what you're birthing out of your life Okay, so it's shown primarily in our living not simply in our knowledge So when you think about wise people it's much more than just what they know, but it's how they live So we asked this question what is wisdom a few things came to my mind as I study scripture and look through all this So the first thing is this about what is wisdom wisdom is knowledge because knowledge is a part of it knowledge that's gained through experience Knowledge that gained through experience Right, I mean you could be book smart but kind of life dumb you ever know people like that Right, so it's wisdom gained through experience and here's the thing listen when we talk about wise people There's a reason that there's a caricature of wise people as this old guy in robes with a staff, right? Because most wise people are older people they've got life behind them because experience is a key ingredient to wisdom Another part of wisdom is this is discernment. It's looking and understanding past the surface and also I would add down the road So you're just not going to look at the the exterior of something of a person or or something like that And you're just not going to look here and here and now you're going to be able to look and see beyond that and down the road in the future and the Understand the implication of things.
So discernment is a big part of wisdom This last part I think of wisdom is this is understanding What knowledge to apply and what action to take based on the circumstance and people involved? Okay, here's what I mean by that. There's no boilerplate for anything It's not just oh just just do this. Oh just do this.
Oh just do this. Okay, listen life is not an assembly line It's not like you know back, you know and Henry Ford, you know making his cars And he put together this assembly line and these guys just made this little part and these guys just made this little part And this guy you know all you're doing is putting a steering wheel on day So at the end of the day at the end of the assembly line everything that comes off of it looks exactly the same That's not life life is not in the assembly line It's not the same answer the same part for every circumstance no matter what time a day no matter what day of the week No matter what month of the year no matter what decade it's not that We have to understand what knowledge to apply in this particular situation So we know what action to take based on where we're at and who we're with Okay, that's a huge part of wisdom wisdom often understands That in this world there are some things that are black and white There are some things that are right and there are some things that are wrong and scripture is very clear on that But wisdom also understands that there are many things that are gray There are many things that are gray and understanding exercising wisdom in the gray areas means you're able at this time to both honor God and love people well That is exercising wisdom We're going to dive into this a little bit more. We're going to I'm going to pull I'm going to show you some things in scripture that talk about things like this, okay Um, we're getting ready to turn the video on here and I'm going to tell you there's a couple things in this video that might make Some of you a little uncomfortable tonight. All right, so just be prepared you may not agree with some of the things that you see are here And that's okay Pray for wisdom Pray for understanding pray for a non-critical spirit Okay, let's let's let's approach this because this is a really important topic in the day that we're in today This is this is huge.
All right, so check the video out. I'll be back in just a few minutes I warned you it's gonna get in your business tonight So but it's good though, and these are this is where we have got to really wrestle with the real Life everyday stuff that we face especially as we are trying to engage people who are far from God who are in this culture Who do not have the hope of Christ in them? So here's what I want to do We're gonna we're just gonna recap some really big ideas from the video And we're gonna look at some scriptures and the first thing we're gonna look at is where are the wisdom builders? What are the things that we need to practice to help build wisdom in our life?
And they're gonna look briefly at the other wisdom stunters the things that keep us from growing in wisdom So as we talk about wisdom builders the first one we have to talk about there's no way around it because it's the foundation for everything is this The first wisdom builder is the fear of the lord the fear of the lord proverbs 9 10 Says this the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is Insights here is the truth everybody if you are not living under God's authority You will never be as wise as you could be You can't live life Rejecting the creator of life and expect to be truly wise Fear of the lord is the foundation and the source of all true wisdom The second one the second one is this the second wisdom builder is perspective. It's perspective This means having a big picture point of view You're just not looking at the forest that you're in but you're able to you know the trees you're able to pull back and see the beauty of the whole forest You know when we remember we we look in these visions of the daniel have that's in chapter seven through two Well remembering that they happened over a period of 70 years of his time in babylon Now that type of prophecy is typically it's called apocalyptic literature looking down the road end time sort of things right? And so here's the thing about apocalyptic literature end time prophecies They most often occur during times of exile to god's people Why do they because that's when god's people need hope and encouragement that the good guys win in the end? Okay, that's why we have that so it is we look at a man like daniel 70 years in the culture like babylon and god gave him tremendous visions Of the good guys winning in the end through that to help him get through that So we need to have perspective in his book thriving babylon larry osmord has a quote in there about this And he says history is played out over centuries Not decades, you know we get lost in the in the days and the weeks and the in the decades history has really played out over centuries The third wisdom builder is this is expectation is expectation.
Okay, this is where we're talking about respecting differences Respecting differences between people not always agreeing but respecting okay When it comes to expectation we cannot expect a non-christian to think and act like a christian And it's very easy for us to fall into that trap, isn't it? Why well because we know we have the truth we know what's best for people I mean we because we know what god's word says and we know his design for life And so I think you know i'm not going to throw us under the bus if we fall into this because I really think it comes from a good place Right, but we can't expect a non-christian to think and act like a christian You know so take a minute and think about your frustrations Think about your disappointments think about your conflicts that you have You know and really is a lot of that coming from is it centered around those frustrations those disappointments those conflicts Are they centered around unrealistic and inappropriate expectations that you have and somebody else? I think the answer to that probably more often than not is yes This is you know, this is where you know one of those verses that he referenced in first Corinthians chapter 5 verse 12 says this it says For what have I to do paul writes with judging outsiders meaning those outside the church non-christians Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? Verse 13 actually goes on and says god judges those outside, okay You know, we don't we don't judge outsiders because they don't live by the same convictions that we do Okay, that's not our place to sit in judgments So expectation is uh is a wisdom builder the next wisdom builder is this is personal honesty Personal honesty and I want to we're gonna I really pray you guys hear this one This is about knowing how to divide your personal preferences and convictions from god's law It's knowing how to divide your personal preferences and convictions from guys law Let's look in Romans chapter 14 and see what paul wrote there.
So Romans 14 verse 1 Says this as for the one who is weak in faith welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions over opinions Verse 2 says one person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables Now dietary issues back in this time were a big deal because so much meat Uh that was available, especially in a Roman culture was just it was just earlier the day It was sacrificed down the road at the temple right? So this is idle sacrifice That's one so this is a huge issue when we read Romans and Corinthians it keeps bringing food up That's why but let's jump down and look at verses 5 and 6 It says one person that steams one day is better than another while another steams all days alike Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the lord the one who eats eats in honor of the lord Since he gives thanks to god while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the lord and gives thanks to god So do you see here? This is this would be one of those gray areas that I talked about earlier So when it comes to food when it comes to certain days and it was what paul is talking about here Listen, he says there's room for opinion and personal conscience and conviction because god doesn't give us a clear answer here We're going to exercise wisdom based on our knowledge our circumstance the people that we're with okay So personal honesty knowing you know and here's guys listen We've got to understand that a lot of the things that we may hold convictions on Um with how we live our life out as a christian has a lot to do that we live in america in the 21st century Okay, we live 500 years ago. It would maybe look a little different if we live another part of the world It might look a little difference okay because there is some cultural influence on how we view things That's just how it works.
So we need to have this is again It's where humility comes in and being honest. Okay, so personal honesty the third wisdom builder is exposed I mean the next wisdom builder is exposure exposure this i'm talking about seeking to truly love and understand those different from you Okay, those who are different from you. It does not mean endorsing it does not mean endorsing what i'm talking about Let's look at it. Let's look at a little thing off of jesus life Remember that kias that we little man was he right?
Um bad dude as far as jews go in that culture trader is what he was extortionist is what he was What did jesus do? He went and had dinner with a guy at his house and he's catching all sorts of flak from the fairies season all that sort of thing Okay, just because jesus went to zakias his house And by the way, he never told zakias what we're told in scripture He never said hey, you should stop being a tax collector and you shouldn't you should return all that jesus We don't we don't have a record that he said that but what we see is jesus went to his home He dined with him. He shared table with him Which is very intimate in this culture that does not mean that jesus endorsed the lifestyle and the vocation that he was doing and because of the love that he Was shown that kias his heart was changed and zakias made repentance didn't he okay? So but we have to we have to expose ourselves to people who are different from us if we're gonna have any hope of influence Okay So those are the wisdom builders.
Let's finish up real quickly here And we're gonna only look at three wisdom stunters three wisdom censors the first wisdom stunters this and it's really in direct opposition To the first one to the first wisdom builder the this wisdom stunters this fear of anyone or anything other than the lord Fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom fear of anything else is gonna stun your wisdom Okay, this includes people it includes governments it includes culture it includes satan Proverbs 29 verse 25 says the fear of man lays a snare But whoever trusts in the lord is safe and then matthew chapter 10 verse 28 Jesus says and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell So listen, you know scripture is so clear I mean fear not is like one of the number one commands that we have and the only person we're truly supposed to have fear of from a worship Respect honor Submission those sorts of things is the lord we don't have to fear anybody or anything else So fear of anyone or anything about the lord is a wisdom stunter the second wisdom stunter is this is legalism This is what later was talking on the video legalism which is basically means making your preferences or convictions that you have a right to Okay, I mean we have a right to them, but when you make your preferences and convictions rules for everybody that's legalism Okay, let's look at collashians chapter two collashians chapter two verse 23 23 it says It says if with christ you die to the elemental spirits of the world Why as if you were still alive in the world you submit to its regulations do not handle do not taste do not touch Referring to things that all parishes they are used according to human precepts and teachings There is a key phrase according to human precepts and teachings according to people's opinions Verse 23 these have indeed why they have an appearance of wisdom In promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh so listen Man-made rules man-made opinions is not going to get you anywhere It's not going to get you anywhere and like you mentioned the video you may be able to chapter in verse it But here's the deal most often you're going to be pulling that out of context and you're going to miss the heart of god's word Hosea 6 6 says you need to learn what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice and Jesus said that again in Matthew chapter 9 verse 13 He says he told the fairies you need to go learn what this means I desire mercy not sacrifice stop trying to impress me with your quote unquote holy life That's not getting you anywhere because there's no mercy in your hearts So legalism is the second wisdom center the third wisdom center the last one is isolation isolation Creating a Christian subculture versus engaging the culture with the gospel We create a we create a Christian subculture versus engaging the culture with the gospel Listen as Christians, what do we have we have our own schools man? We have a school right? We have our own schools We have our own stores Right because I'll guarantee you listen if we're gonna go like do some crafts We're gonna hobby lobby before we go to micha's most often right we're gonna go eat a chick-fil-a in pizza ranch We're gonna go to our own restaurants. We're gonna watch our own movie movies.
We're gonna get our pure flix subscription at home We even have our own Christian threads with our own life We're gonna take like this pop culture phrase and we're gonna. Jeezify it right put Jesus in it somewhere Right and we're gonna have wear our own clothes now listen. I'm not saying all that's bad by any means They're good things. They're good things But if the motivation for having all those things and going all those places is rooted in this fear of contamination like a spiritual cutie thing if it's rooted in fear Or rooted in a judgmental spirit I'm just saying you might have some praying to do that's all I'm saying Okay, if you only hang around Christians at Christian places you have isolated yourself from your god given Mission field.
That's what you've done We are called to be salt and light. Jesus says this in the beginning of the greatest sermon ever You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world and here's the thing with salt and light They're only good when they're applied Salt doesn't do any goodness in the shaker. You got to put it on that piece of meat right Light does not do any good if it's if it's put under a bowl It's gotta be it's gotta be set for this gotta be applied to things, right?
We are in the world proximity We are not of the world identity Yet we are sent to the world and that's our mission We've got to get this everybody listen on john, uh, I think let me read this for you because I think we messed the slides up Sean 17 Jesus high priestly prayer listen these few verses Jesus praise this for you and me I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one two very different things They are not of the world just as I am not of the world Sanctify them in the truth your word is truth as you sent me into the world so I have sent them Into the world. We are sent into the world. We are sent into babylon everybody We are living in babylon and god sent us here Why because we can't influence it from a distance We can't fluence we can't influence anybody or anything from a distance You will never gain the wisdom needed to love and speak into a non-crician's life much less the culture if you always remain isolated And at a distance we have to apply the salt and light that we have and that we are That's what this is all about this and listen as we do this It's hard. It's risky.
It's scary, but in that we find that we can thrive And that's where we find we have the opportunity to greatly influence people for the advancement of the gospel and the growth of the kingdom And where people who are living in a fear-driven dark world find hope and find light Daniel was given a pagan name And he learned all there was to learn about babylon their cultural culture their religion their language He spent 70 years living and working and following and honoring godless people and rulers He may have done some things that we wouldn't agreed with he was exercising some wisdom He may have held some opinions that we wouldn't have held but wisdom guided his decisions and his actions and god kept raising him up and promoting him Same thing with jesus, right? Do you just do the same thing? Have you ever stopped to think about all the people that hung out with jesus The tax collectors the prostitutes the beggars just the all-around sinners that love to hang out with jesus Listen, you know who you want to be around you want to be around the people that love you and accept you Right and give you life. That's the people you want to be around not the people who judge you and are prideful, right?
These people hung around with jesus because he was giving him life. He was loving them. That's why they were hanging out with him You know listen, I saw this quote somewhere. I remember I put on social media And it's keen my mind was writing this too the people that we spend most of our life trying to avoid are the people that jesus spent most of his life engaging That's how jesus looked just like backwards from us You know one of the worst things that jesus was called about the Pharisees other than a blasphemer Luke 734 You know what they called him a glutton a drunkard and a friend of sinners Because who was hanging out with what he was eating what he was drinking?
That's what they called jesus. It's the worst they can call him other than a blasphemer And you know what jesus said right after that verse I read it earlier wisdom is proved You call me that look what's going on look what's happening with my life though And look at the people that are finding hope and love listen are the glutton jungers and sinners are they your people because they were jesus people They need to be our people Listen is society getting darker? Sure is sure it is You know the Christians are the ones getting blamed and sued for things now. That was different 50 years ago The value of life is becoming diminished Immorality is normalized and championed government is not for the people It's for the powerful and government is terribly polarized But here's the truth about the dark The darker it gets the more powerful even the tiniest of light is That's what we need to remember.
We are not in a hopeless time. We are in a hope full time Daniel was a powerful tiny light. He was one of four guys In an entire kingdom Don't be afraid of a dark culture everybody. Don't hide don't complain Don't wish for better days gone by because they weren't that great really To thrive in our current Babylon we've got a trusting god sovereignty We have to embrace the trials that are going to grow our faith We have to hold on to hope we have to practice humility and we have to be a person of wisdom Easter is coming up You live you work you go to school you shop you go to the gym Next to someone in our current Babylon that's lost in the dark We are preparing to celebrate the greatest light the world has ever seen In Jesus resurrection from the dead You need to invite those people here for Easter You need to invite them into this light But you know what you need first Do not invite them into your light until you go into their darkness That's what Jesus did for you.
That's what Jesus did for me The darkness of this world did not phase him And it should not have to phase us because we have this because we have his spirit inside of us Let's go into their dark And then bring them into our light and that's where we'll see god do great and amazing things You will thrive they will thrive and we will see this culture have a dent in it for the kingdom of god Amen, let's stand let's pray together Father god Some big concepts rest to wrestle with And we need wisdom that is rooted in the fear and worship and honor of you Lord help please help us to repent and we're holding on to our opinions and our preferences and we're making rules for everybody Lord help us to repent of our fear Help us to repent of our isolation Lord build up help us to build these wisdom builders in our life So we can thrive in this Babylon Lord the people that we rub shoulders with every day Can find hope They will not come on their own god. We need to go grab their hand We need to boldly go into their darkness and love them And be there for them even when it's hard and even when we're uncomfortable And earn that right to be heard because we love them so well because of your great love for us Lord I know there are thousands of people They're just waiting for someone to come into their darkness and love them And bring them into the light that's only found in your son Give us boldness and give us courage and give us faith and help us to thrive because you are a good and you are a great god And you have given us hope and you give us humility and you give us wisdom Lord thank you so much for coming into our darkness and help us just to be about your business now with joy and with expectation We love you Thank you so much for loving us so well And we pray this in jesus mighty and holy name and all guys people say it together Amen All right, love you guys. See you sunday