Oh, it's a priest this morning. That's what I get to do now. Thank you all very much for that. Great song, a lot of depth. I've been thinking a good bit lately about how sometimes it's the things we don't do that become very significant. It's those words we didn't say when we wanted to. It's the letter or the email we didn't send when we really wanted to do it. It's the temptation to which we did not yield even though we really wanted to do that. What we do is important. Sometimes what we don't do carries such impact. Once those words are spoken, once that letter is mailed or the send button is pressed once that temptation is indulged, you can't get it back. You can't roll it back. There's no saying. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's hard to get it back in. That's what happens sometimes with those things that we do or say we really wish we hadn't. Really with me, if you will, from Daniel chapter 1, verses 17-21. Daniel chapter 1, verses 17-21. Speaking of Daniel and his three friends whose Hebrew names are Hannah and I, Michelle and Ezra, verse 17, to these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning, and Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time, set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Hannah and I, Michelle and Ezra, so they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus. Will you pray with me? My father, it is my privilege now and my responsibility to open up the word of God. This is your word, Lord. This is your very word. This is not something that I made up. No, this is making me who I am. It's a very truth of God, not the invention of any man. Lord, that you would help us look into your word now. Eternal biting word of God. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God abides forever. Lord, it doesn't need to be made alive for us this morning. We need to be made alive to it. My prayer now is I preach your words that you would cause each and every one of us in here, every man, every woman, every young person, including this preacher, to be alive to your word. You would use this word, to mold us and to shape us more and more in the conformity with your son Jesus, the living word and his name I pray. Amen. Well, I've characterized the book of Daniel as strangers in a strange land, Robert Heinlein's phrase. Daniel is a manifesto and how to live as God's man, God's woman, God's young person in a foreign and a hostile culture. What we do is important and what we don't do is also important. Just by way of historical background, if you haven't been here and shame on you if you haven't. By the way of historical background, verse one of the chapter tells you in the third year of the reign of Jehoyakim, King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Based on this we know this is in the year 606 BC and the Babylonians have conquered Judah, they've gone to Jerusalem. The first thing they did was to subtract out or extract the best and the brightest of the people of Israel, the people of the northern kingdom of Judah to be precise. And they've taken the cream of the crop. Daniel, Hannah and I and Misha on Azeri, those are their Hebrew names. I told you last week their Babylonian names, their counterparts, Shadrach, Misha and Abednego, Daniel becomes belt to Shazar and they have different meanings. And these four young men along with those are put into a special high octane educational program. They're told making them servants and even advisors to King Nebuchadnezzar. And while they're in this school they experience the tension of trying to remain faithful to the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to what they knew to be true from the Scriptures. And still at the same time to be obedient to the protocols, they're expected to follow their in Babylon. Strangers and Strangers, how would you feel? You got suddenly eggs out from your home, taken away from everything you know to be true and to be familiar and put in this strange school. How would you strange culture? How would you feel? How would you react? I want to take a look at these four young men and how they handled the situation. I want to focus specifically on what they did not do. The first thing you're going to see is that they did not aim for the middle of the road. They didn't aim for the mediocre middle. I have to ask myself, isn't that what I would have done? Would not have wanted to just blend in and you're saying, well I know, have you ever been the new kid in school? Have you ever moved to a new school, not at the transition points of elementary going into middle or middle going into high school? That's rough enough, but you're the new kid in the middle of elementary or middle or high school or even in the middle of a school year. You ever been that kid? Did you want to stand out? Did you want to stick out? No, you wanted to blend in. You wanted to fit in and just be part of the group. Now, imagine. They're in the middle of this high octane place in Babylon and they're Jewish and they already stand out. What would you want to do? They're in the Babylonian equivalent of Harvard and Yale and Princeton and Stanford and MIT and wherever your university is. Let me be politically correct here. UM and UF and FSU and USF and UCF and FIU and the Attention Mall, Miami-Dade, okay. They're in the Babylonian equivalent of all these high octane schools. Would you want to stand out? Would you want to set the curve? Or would you want to blend in? Let me ask this a different way. You're driving up 95 or down the turnpike and you see a state trooper. Is that the time you want to demonstrate your mad skills and the way you handle that automobile behind the wheel? No, you want to blend in with traffic. You want to be as invisible as possible to that man with that badge and those blue lights on top of his car. I would have weren't just blend in. Maybe a little above average. I'm a good student. I would not have wanted to be the guy who set the curve but not Daniel, Han and I, Michelle and Azaria. No man. They excelled. Verse 19 again. The king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Han and I, Michelle and Azaria. So they entered the king's service and every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them. He found them ten times better than all the magicians and the chancers his whole kingdom. They excelled. They graduated with honors. They were summa cum laude. They were top of the class. You know they had to make them popular in the men's dorm. Yeah, thank you very much. You bunch of Jewish imports from making the rest of us look bad. I can remember to this day and it's been a few years in a seventh grade classroom science test and it just destroyed us, including me. All of us did badly on it. We're commissary. Oh, I made such a bad grade. I got this. I did worse than that. And what's going to do to our grade for that we were doing six weeks at the time. What is going to do to us and then Mike walked over with a big smile in his face and he said, I made an A. I am not 100% sure. I can't document it if that's when the word swirly entered the English vocabulary. You men know what I'm talking about. We did not take kindly to Mike coming along and demonstrating that he had done so well and all of us had done so poorly. Daniel and the boys, I'm just going to call him that from here on out because there's too many syllables. Daniel and boys and they didn't make a B line for the mediocre middle. They excelled and under other difficult circumstances. I remember he was one of those little one liners a red years ago that said the only thing you find in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead possums. That's not where you want to be. Can I be honest here on Labor Day, by the way, thank you for being here Labor Day. You get bonus points for God just for showing up today. This one's worth two normal Sundays. No, you do not get mixed Sunday off. Thank you for asking. I know your thoughts. Some of you should be ashamed. He really hurts my heart. No kidding. When I'm here an employer or boss say so and so is my worst employee. He's my worst worker. And he's a professing Christian. It literally makes me ill to hear that a Christian, professing Christian, when he maybe wears his faith on his sleeve. And he's a worst worker that that company has a worst worker under that man's supervision. I think it makes God sick too. I really do. We can't all be the best. We can't all be the top of the class. We can't all be the valid twins. But we can all give our utmost for his highest. Whatever it is God has given you, whatever he's put into your mix, whatever gifts and talents and abilities he has given you, we can all give our utmost for his highest. We can do that. Statue of Liberty. Maybe you remember some of us were remember back in 1985, 1986, when it was given a much needed facelift for its centennial of being standing high at top, the harbor there in New York City. When the Statue of Liberty was given that makeover, the artist and the craftsman who did the work, they went over with the fine tooth comb and they were astounded. They were amazed at the quality of the workmanship that the Frenchman, whose name was Frederick Bartoldy and his workers had put into the Statue of Liberty 100 years earlier, including if you don't know this and assist from one Alexandria Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. He helped them know how to make her stand so tall and straight above the harbor there and they were amazed at the detail that they applied to it. Nothing even overlooked, even the top of Lady Liberty's crowned head, the details were exquisite. And here's the funny thing, when Lady Liberty was unveiled to tens of thousands of Americans on October the 28th, 1886, by my math, that's about 17 years before the Wright Brothers flew. Nobody could see the top of her head except a few seagulls. Nobody was going to see what was on top of her head and yet they put such painstaking detail into the top of her head, not knowing that they would come when people would hover over the top of that statue from a helicopter and be able to see the level of dedication and artistry they put into Statue of Liberty. Excellence characterized by the design of Liberty's crown, whether or not anyone ever stopped and noticed or admired it. They didn't name for mediocrity for the middle of the road. It's what you do folks. I can hear somebody saying, we have a, that's great if you're talking about a teenager or young adults, but come on, I'm 50, I'm 60, I'm 70, I'm 80. I mean, what am I going to do? It's what you do, not win. It's what we do, not when we do it. Mickey Mammal, the age of 20, had 23 home runs as first total season in the majors. That's great. Ted Williams, at the age of 42, had a home run, his last official at bat as a major leager. William Pitt II was 24 years old when he became great, the prime minister of Great Britain. And Gold of My Year was 71 when she became the prime minister of the nation of Israel. Mozart was seven when his first composition was published. And George Bernard Shaw was 94 when one of his plays was first performed on stage. And then Benjamin Franklin, he became a published newspaper columnist at the age of 16 and he was a frame rather constitution at the age of 81. It's what you do, not when you do it. If you're here and you're breathing, as my dear old friend Jack Peters used to say, if you are vertical and on the right side of the grass, that's got you here for a reason. You are not here for decoration, you're not here taking up space. You are here for a reason. He's got something for you to do and he wants you to do it with excellence. He has not done with you yet. Daniel the boys, they didn't name for the mediocre middle, they didn't settle for mediocrity. They also didn't get seduced by the high class paganism of Babylon. Listen, they weren't just taking Babylonian underwater basket we've been folks. They were getting the highest octane, the verse 17 says to these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. The Hebrew word that translated knowledge there, the Hebrew word madah means scientific knowledge. Whatever the state of the art of the scientific knowledge of Babylon was at the time and for that era, they were the state of the art. That's what they were learning. Understanding of all kinds is from the Hebrew word bahaskeel and it means wisdom and philosophy. They're exposed to the greatest philosophers of their day and their age and literature and learning comes from the Hebrew word seafar and it means book learning. Scientific knowledge, wisdom, philosophy, book learning, they're getting exposed to the highest octane of all of it. They dump the whole Babylonian truck on these young men. I'm sure they told them. I'm sure they told them in Babylonian. This is what all educated people believe now. This is the consensus in scientific thinking of our day and time. This is what all those who go far in the king's service believe and embrace. This is what you will agree to if you ever want to receive tenure at Babylonian University. Aren't you glad we were all so far since then? In case you're ironically challenged, I mean extremely sarcastic. This is exactly what goes on today in popular culture in the halls of academia. They faced all the economic and the social pressure to conform to be one of the Babylonians, to be one of the respective ones, to be a part of the inner circle. Not only was it prestigious, it was seductive, not just intellectually but morally and ethically as well. It's the Babylonian gods and their three main gods had the interesting names of Bell, Marduk and Nibbo. And the way that you worship Bell and Marduk and Nibbo was you got drunk and you had orgies. Let me tell you, what do you think of it? That's a heck of a church growth program ladies and gentlemen. The way you worship Bell and Marduk and Nibbo was you got drunk and you had orgies. Contrast that with the worship of Yahweh. Who said, you can read this in Leviticus 19, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt now, the house of bondage. You are to be holy as I the Lord your God am holy. In case they didn't know what that meant, what did that look like? You can go back to Exodus 20, you can read it there. You don't have no other guys before me. You're not to make any idols. Don't profane my name. Don't take my name and name instead of one day and seven, one day out of your week for worship and rest and recreation. Honor your parents. Honor your mother and your father even when they don't act in an honorable way. Don't murder even when you want to. Don't commit adultery when you feel like it. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't covet what your neighbors have. That's what holiness looks like. Now you make the choice here. You got a choice, Daniel. Hand in hand. I have Michelle Azariah. What's it going to be? The demanding worship of Yahweh. Holiness. Holiness is what you want from me or the soft, subtle, easy worship of the pagan gods and goddesses around them. What's it going to be? Now paganism is alive and well with us today, but are just so much more sophisticated now. Our paganism is so much more sophisticated. I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual. I'm spiritual. I just don't find organized religion translation. I can believe whatever I want to believe. I can do whatever I want to do. No sacrifice, no discipline, no accountability, but I'm spiritual. Our paganism looks like this. Sexuality, it's a matter of your DNA. It's free to determine when you're born. All sexual lifestyles are equally valid. All forms of marriage are equally valid. How can you be such a hate-monger to think otherwise you're not allowed to disagree? Our paganism turns a legitimate concern for the environment into a religion and we're not allowed to challenge the dogma. Our paganism says the secret to success is to listen to the power of the God within. Paganism is alive and well and living right here on this. We got a choice. We're going to listen to the soft and subtle and easy, seductive voice of paganism which makes no demands on us. It's the soft thrill, it's the easy path. Other worship of God Almighty, I am the Lord your God and you ought to be holy as either Lord your God am holy. We got a choice, folks. I want to say this to my younger friends. You got a choice on steroids. You know this if you're already in college or if you're off away from home at your workplaces. You know this. Paganism, it's in your face, it's howling and screaming in your face. Come on. Leave that old fashioned, that old demanding stuff behind and come on in where it's soft and it's easy. We have a choice to make like Daniel and the voice. We've got a choice to make between the soft, easy, seductive, paganism and the holiness and the demanding worship of God. Who's alter will we bow ladies and gentlemen? At which altar will we bow? In every matter wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found then ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. It's interesting, the magicians, these are ancient Persian astronomers and susaders. They're the four runners of the Magi or the Magi that we meet in Matthew chapter 2 that came to see Jesus after he was born. Let me say again, they wouldn't come the night of his birth. It came sometime after that, but that's they're the descendants of these men we're reading by here in Daniel chapter 1. The enchanters, it's interesting word and as rude it may have met snake charmers. The other guys have played the flute while the cobras came up and did their thing. The magicians and the enchanters and King Nebuchadnezzar finds Daniel boys ten times better. It's probably just a colloquialism like we would say something as the hottest thing or the worst thing. It's probably a colloquialism. It's probably not meant to be taken literally at a factor of ten, but whatever we take that to mean, it does mean Daniel boys are heads and shoulders above all the rest. They're the best. They have gone into the crucibles of the highest halls of pagan academia and they've triumphed. They've looked the dragon in the eyes and they've conquered it. They didn't blink. I thank God for my professors. The ones I got to work with in seminary at RTS Orlando at Covenant, theological seminary St. Louis. The ones who were as reformed as orthodox as anyone you'd ever want to meet, but they had gone into the halls of academia in the liberal schools and they looked at eyeball to eyeball. And they said, no, no. It's very subtle. It's very seductive. It's very respectable. But no. I am staying with what I know to be true and they were able to then come and instruct people like me and help us to look the dragon in the eyes too. Let's say no. That's safe, the Lord. This is where I plant my flag. It's fascinating to me that probably about seven or 800 years before this episode in Daniel, Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 14, through Moses, God says, the nations that you will dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcerer, divination. But as for you, the Lord of God is not permitted you to do so. I want you to look at that verse for a minute. Those who practice sorcerer, divination, as for you, the Lord of God is not permitted you to do so. Daniel, Hannah and I, Michelle Ezra, you have a choice to make to go with these seductive soft arts to succumb to the temptations of the paganism of your time or stay true to the one true God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Boys, you got a choice to make. And then that passage goes on to say this first will be more familiar to many of you through Moses. God says, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. Seven or 800 years before Daniel and the boys have their encounter with Nebuchadnezzar. God had prophesied through Moses. We look at that verse and we think of Jesus as the ultimate prophet who would come. The ultimate problem from among their brothers who would come and we should listen to him. But here is a foreshadowing of Christ in the persons of Daniel and Hannah and I, Michelle Ezra, a foreshadowing, a partial fulfillment of that prophecy right here in Babylon in the year 606 BC. Daniel and the boys, they didn't name for the middle of the road. They didn't settle for mediocrity. They didn't get seduced by high class paganism. And they didn't forget the source of their superiority, the source of their supremacy. You got to remember these guys, they're highly intelligent. They've worked very hard in their school and they knew the difference between knowledge and information and wisdom. They didn't get, they didn't just settle for what their Babylonian counterparts did. They knew what their Babylonian counterparts did. They didn't. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not the worship of Bell and Marduk and Nebo. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Trimper Longman in his commentary on this makes this observation. So they didn't get physically fit by swallowing what the king had provided for them. And they didn't get intellectually and morally and ethically fit by swallowing what the king's teachers taught them. No, they knew the difference between what was good and bad, between what was right and wrong, between what was okay and what was absolutely the best. They got where they were by God's grace and in spite of what their culture threw at them. Maybe you know the story, if you're a fan of Shrek Holmes, the time he and Shrek Holmes and Dr. Watson go camping. After a nice meal, they settled into their tents for a good night's sleep and a few hours later, Shrek Holmes nudges his friend and says, Dr. Watson, look up this guy and tell me what it is that you see. Watson wipes his sleep from his eyes and says, I see thousands and thousands of stars, Holmes. Holmes says, that's good. What do you do from that? Watson's well. Astronomically, I see that those thousands of stars are just a fraction of the millions and millions that are out there and potentially the billions of galaxies. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo chronologically. I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I can tell that tomorrow is likely to be a beautiful day and theologically, I can deduce that God is all powerful. We are about a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes? Holmes says, it tells me, Dr. Watson, someone has stolen our tent. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. We live in an age where knowledge is everywhere. You can get more at the click of a mouse or the tap of a key than our parents could have massed in a lifetime reading. It's all their knowledge is there exponentially, but wisdom is scarcely to be found. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom academically, Daniel and the boys. They were at the head of the class, but that's not what truly set them apart. What truly set them apart was that they understood that the source of their wisdom was Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Israel. Somewhere around 800 years, no, 700 years or so, after this encounter, the Apostle Paul wrote these words that people can't, who have been barred by Greek philosophy in the high culture of ancient Greece. Paul said to the Corinthians, the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him. He cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgment about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. I want you all to know, I find myself in situations all the time, not occasionally, constantly. I find myself in situations all the time, where I say, seminary didn't prepare me for this. I don't find a verse in the Bible that says, let's say it's the Lord, I don't know what to do. I have both feet firmly planted in midair. I'm not sure which way to go. And I come to this passage, and I say, but we have the mind of Christ. It's not we're going to get the mind of Christ someday. We hope to work up or somehow ascertain or aspire to the mind of Christ. No, we have the mind of Christ. And in that security, I say, okay, Father, I'm going to then prayerfully boldly go where no Presbyterian pastor has gone before or something like that. And I'm going to say, with the mind of Christ, this is what I believe to be right. Now, Daniel and the boys lived 600 years before Jesus was born. They could not know what the fulfillment, the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecies were for them. But we know, we know 2000 plus years later, we know what the source of their wisdom to the is. And is that we have the mind of Christ, the road not taken that actions they did not do, the words they did not speak. They didn't name for the middle of the cell from mediocrity. They didn't get seduced by the high class paganism of ancient Babylon. They didn't forget the source of their supremacy in their environment. Daniel, Hannah and I, Michelle and Ezra, they face the choice. They could receive the accolades and the applause and the affirmations of their time, of their culture, of their peers, of the superiors. Or they could wait to hear the only affirmation that truly counts, well done, good and faithful ones, well done. We have that choice today, ladies and gentlemen, we have that choice today, which voice will we listen to, which road will we take? The narrow road, one leads to faith in Christ, or the broad and easy road, the one well traveled, the one less traveled, and that's our choice today. It's a prayer together. My father, I thank you that you've given us the grace and the mercy and the wisdom all there in Christ, spelled out force in the scriptures to choose that which is best and not just that which is easy. We're in my prayer today for everyone in this place, including this preacher, for everyone who will hear this word on the internet, or the Jude impress upon us, to reach for the high road and the upward calling of Christ, to give our utmost for your highest. So for anything less, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you again for being here today. I hope you have a great rest of your Labor Day weekend. God bless you as you do your jobs faithfully as unto the Lord and not for men as well. We're receiving the Lord's benediction. Go now in the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit, live the life. Amen.