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00:04 We're starting a series of uh sermons uh taken from the book of Daniel. Uh why
00:10 are we doing Daniel? Daniel is a uh prophet who prophesied during the most
00:16 turbulent time in the history of the nation. I think in our nation we're
00:21 coming to that time as well. So we thought why don't we bring a um message
00:27 to us living in similar uncertain times uh so that we could reflect how Daniel
00:34 had navigated those turbulent waters and succeeded and perhaps we could learn some lessons from there as well. Uh the
00:41 book of Daniel is uh very unique book. It's the kind of literature inside is
00:46 basically called apocalyptic. So which bas it is basically a kind of revelation. So some of you ladies have
00:53 been studying revelations uh with BSF. Uh this would be a good uh guide because
01:00 the way you interpret Daniel is similar to the way you interpret revelations. There are similar features like mixed
01:06 metaphors, prophecies etc. So uh Daniel uh is a basically narrative. It tells
01:12 you some stories of how he got there and how he managed uh as well as prophecies spanning right up to the end of time. uh
01:20 as well as uh interesting things like uh for the first time in history you actually have a pagan king write bits of
01:28 the Bible you know usually inspired people prophets writing here we have a pagan king Nebuchadnezzar who actually
01:34 writes in chapter 4 if you're interested go to chapter four you see a whole bit written by Nebuchadnezzar uh it is the
01:40 worst period in Israel's history it is a period of time where the the the country is totally devastated and people are
01:46 taken off into exile so let's start with a word of prayer pray. Lord, we ask that you be with us. Help us this day to
01:52 understand how we too uh like Daniel can navigate turbulent times um and still
02:00 honor and glorify you. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now, there will be three
02:06 points which I'm going to make from this particular passage. One, first of all, exile is sometimes inevitable. Two, uh
02:14 exile is an opportunity for faith. And three, God always goes with us into
02:20 exile. So the first point is exile is sometimes inevitable. Let's look at the passage on the third year of the reign
02:26 of Jehookim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. So this is
02:32 Nebuchadnezzar, head of the Babylonian Empire comes which basically swallows
02:38 the whole of the known world coming into inevitably into Jerusalem to attack it.
02:44 And Jerusalem is a country is a city which has been taken three times. The first time in 604 BC. This is when
02:53 Daniel is taken off into captivity. He put a puppet ruler there. Then the
02:58 second time when he rebelled and the third time total destruction in 587 BC
03:04 all by the Babylonians. Um this there's a theological crisis because here the
03:09 Lord gave Johakim king of Judah into the hand into his hand with some vessels of the house of God and he brought them to
03:16 the land of Shina to the house of his God and place the vessels in treasure of his God. If you were Daniel and if you
03:23 remember Daniel at that time is no more than 15 to 18 year old. So this is a
03:29 sermon for youth for young people. You'd always imagine uh um Daniel is that wise
03:36 old experienced prophet but he wasn't he was only a kid 15 to 18 years old when
03:42 he's ripped from the side of his family and basically the Lord gave Joakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the
03:48 vessels and it's so devastating that uh even the vessels the sacred vessels in
03:53 the house of God were plundered and they brought to Babylon into the house and
03:60 treasury of foreign gods. This is devastating. The God whom Daniel
04:06 trusted. They are now marched as captives 900 miles all the way across.
04:11 They're not putting they not put in buses or a Asia. They actually marched all the way there. So, it's not easy to
04:17 do. He's lost his home. His parents probably were killed. He's got zero
04:24 status worse than a foreign guard. He's got no future. And if you read the text
04:31 very carefully, the king commanded Espanas, the chief of the Ununax, to
04:36 bring some of the people of Israel, both the royal family, nobility, four youth without blemish, good appearance, and
04:42 skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace to teach them the literature and
04:48 language of the Calaldians. Notice the word chief of the
04:54 unak. So when you serve in government service in those days or a politician,
04:59 they rip out your genitals. So therefore, you not only lose your home, your family, you lose your future.
05:07 And he's only 15 to 18 years old. Wouldn't you be upset?
05:14 Wouldn't you be bitter and absolutely terrified? This is a prophecy to Hezekiah some years before. and some of
05:21 your own sons who will come from you whom you will father shall be taken away and they shall become unnox
05:27 and the place of the king and the unak is unclean in Israelite culture you can't even go into the temple so it's
05:34 absolutely devastating for a young boy to go through this and why somebody else's sin uh the this is just Ezekiel
05:41 he writes some years before this the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they dealt so
05:48 treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries and they all fell by
05:54 the sword. I dealt with them according to the uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from
05:60 them. It is the sin of the nation. It is not Daniel's sin. It may not even be his
06:05 family sin, but it is sin of the entire nation. Somebody else took the money,
06:10 right? But you have to suffer, right? And and that sounds familiar, doesn't it? You get really upset. Somebody else
06:17 has sin and I've got to pay for all this. Um uh this is a interesting story
06:23 that came out of a true story of Dr. uh Aiden McCarthy uh who's a he who wrote
06:28 this book called Doctor's War in during last World War II on the uh in 1944 a
06:34 group of them of prisoners prisoner of war 1300 of them were transported from
06:39 Java to Nagasaki in a cargo ship
06:44 all was sleeping on the lower bunk bulkhead right under the in the bottom
06:51 of the ship and then suddenly uh he was awakened Why? Because he was struggling with a huge rat would have descended
06:58 upon him and started to bite him and he had been So he got up, fight with the rat, take him away because it was
07:03 entangled in this mosquito net. Uh and right then he heard a huge bang. Boom. A torpedo hit the ship. The entire ship
07:11 shook because of the force of the of the the torpedo was great. It ripped apart. The hull is started falling, started
07:17 sinking. and he looked around and he saw the 1300 uh prisoners hardly anybody got
07:23 up because the shock of the reverberation from the torpedo because it's a steel hull right transmitted to
07:30 their necks cause whiplash injury they all broke their necks so he was saved by what a rat so when rat comes and bites
07:39 your butt it's not necessarily a bad thing and so therefore exile is you see
07:44 sometimes exile is inevitable bad stuff happens to us all all the time, but it's
07:49 not necessarily uh without purpose. And and and basically exile is not God
07:55 saying, "Okay, I have plan A didn't work out. I try plan B." Plan exile is not
07:60 plan B. Exile is plan A. Because if you look in Jeremiah 24, it says, "The word of the Lord came to me. Thus says the
08:06 Lord, God of Israel, like these good figs, so I will regard as good the
08:12 exiles from Judah." This is prophesied before they went to exile. uh uh whom I
08:17 have sent away from this place to the land of the calaldanss. I will set my eyes on them for good. I will bring them
08:24 back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know I am the Lord and
08:31 they shall be my people. I will be their God and they shall return to me with all their hearts. So the hearts of the
08:36 people are idolatrous. their hearts have gone dark and so therefore you know to
08:42 bring them back God sends them into exile so that they have a change of heart human nature you know uh and then
08:49 he brings them back so it's a purpose to bring him back to themselves God loves Israel when he sends them exile he
08:56 doesn't hate them I have forsaken my house I have abandoned my heritage I
09:01 have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of the enemy not the note the emphasis I have I have I have my house,
09:09 my heritage, my beloved of my soul. This is what how God feels for a people. And
09:14 yet because of that, because of their sin, he has to let them go. It's not much different from a father having to
09:21 send a child off to be punished. Exile is an opportunity for faith. It's
09:26 not plan B, it's plan A. It's an opportunity for faith. Um, this is
09:32 Babylonian point of view. They got all these young people to train
09:38 so that they would be competent to stand in the king's palace and teach them the literature, the language of the Calaldian. So he wanted them if you are
09:45 Nebuchadnezzar and you're conquering the whole known world, what you will need is civil servants, JKR people, right? And
09:53 you to make sure that they do the work. And so therefore, you have to train them according to your your way. So therefore
09:59 he gets the best and brightest from every nation he c he conquers and he brings them into the palace into called
10:04 the king's college they call right and he trains them so that they will be administrators and they will work for
10:11 him. This is called cultural colonization and the king assigned them daily portions of food that the king ate
10:18 and the wine that he drank and they were educated for three years. At the end of that time they were stand before the
10:23 king. Among those were Daniel, Haniah, Michelle, Ezariah, Azariah of the tribe
10:29 of Judah. And the chief of the Unix gave them names. Daniel he called Bel Shajah.
10:34 Hananiah Shadrach and Mach he calls uh Mishel he calls Mach. And Azariah he
10:40 called Abad Nigo as an obliteration of their ethnicity. Not very much different
10:46 from the Chinese of Indonesia, isn't it? If you're in Indonesia, you'll be called Rudihatono,
10:53 right? you won't be called Wonga, right? Yeah. In Malaysia, thank God it didn't happen. But what they wanted to do is
10:58 obliterate all ethnicity. So you get the kind of homogeneous population that they
11:04 can control. And basically uh their names were beautiful names. They were Hebrew names that reflect their loyalty
11:12 to God. Daniel is God is my judge. Haniah is the Lord is gracious. Michelle
11:18 is who is what God is which is taken from I am who I am. asariah is the Lord
11:24 is a helper. These are the the the the words the names that that so your father
11:29 choose to reflect who you are. You know like my mother when my father when I was born chose the Chinese name you know
11:36 Wingpan glorious gentleness didn't quite work out. I'm anything but that. But but if you
11:43 were to change the name you'd be very upset because they they want their son to reflect that. And here is a name
11:48 given by their parents to reflect their faith. And this is what they have done. The Babylonians. Daniel becomes God is
11:55 by judge becomes Bel Shaja. Bell is Maduk. Maduk is a idol. Marduk protect
12:01 his life. Not Yahweh anymore. Haniah the Lord is gracious. Shadrach command of
12:07 Aku moon God. Uh Michelle is who is what God is. He changed it to Misha who is
12:14 what Aku is. So it's a parody of your name. He take
12:19 your name and make fun of it. All right. So, so this is what they do to make you feel small. I remember u working in
12:26 Australia many years ago as a young student and we had this horrible professor Maher. I can talk about him
12:32 because he's died already who didn't like Asians at all. All
12:38 right. And if you entered his class, he was already a tyrant and horrible fellow. And he used to take your name
12:43 and just rip it apart. Ching Chong. And then you love my name. nog. It goes
12:49 all over the place. Basically, what they try to do is parody your name to put you down to make sure you know who is the
12:56 king. Right? Your god has been defeated. So now you will be who is aku not who is
13:01 Yahweh. Aariah is the lord is helper and said is abno servant of nebo which is
13:06 their god. So try to obliterate and take away their identity so that their
13:12 identity their loyalty and their self-esteem comes from Nebuchadnezzar. This is what society tries to do. Uh it
13:20 is a very sophisticated society. In many ways they are lucky. Okay. Uh but um
13:27 they they have this is the Hamurabu steel which is a basically codified
13:32 laws. One of the first few societies in the world actually have laws were very well codified in kuner form. If you look
13:40 in your hand watch, your watch is a Babylonian invention. You know that 60
13:46 minutes to an hour, 60 seconds to a minute. That comes from Babylonia. Uh
13:53 you look at longitude and latitude, 60 minutes in a degree, 60 seconds in 1 minute. All from Babylonia. Very
13:59 sophisticated society. Architecture is brilliant. Uh the hanging gardens of
14:06 Babylon are one of the world's greatest seven greatest wonders. Nebuchadnezzar
14:11 loved his wife. His wife was a country girl and he went to the land of Shina which is basically flat. She hated it.
14:18 There's nothing here. There's no animals. So therefore he built a garden for her and some gates like the Ishtar
14:23 gate where you can see whole ps of animals so that she will feel as if she's back in the farm. I don't think it
14:29 works but you know he he did the best that he could. This is taken from the uh
14:34 Pergamin Museum in Berlin. If you're ever there, there's a reproduction of that. It's beautiful.
14:41 Uh this is Genesis 11, which is basically the place where they first started the power of Babel, which then
14:47 gives rise to Babylon. And these are the people they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower in the top
14:53 of the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed on the face of the whole earth." This is the
14:59 organized rebellion against God. They build a city not to honor God. They build a city to make a name for
15:06 ourselves. You know whose name did we make for the twin towers? Anybody know?
15:13 Mahat isn't it? He's wondering the other fellow build anything. Nothing. So, so at least he's got the
15:19 twin towers. Everybody builds a tower to make a name for themselves. They'll remember him forever. No matter what happens, they'll remember him because of
15:26 that. So, we all make a name for ourselves. So basically the land of China, Babylon is based on making a name
15:33 for ourselves. We have two kinds of cities. The Bible use cities as metaphors for the way you live your
15:40 life. If it's Jerusalem, you look in Hebrews chapter 11, it says for he was
15:45 Abraham was looking forward to a city that has foundations who designer and builder is God. So you kind of live in a
15:52 kind of Jerusalem in the world where like Abraham you look forward to Christian values, godlike values, a
15:59 designer builder. The foundation is basically on what God would want you to do. Or you build your city like Babylon
16:05 on yourself, making a name for yourself, human effort, human technology, human
16:12 desire. They build a ziggurat. The first tower of Babel is probably a ziggurat.
16:17 And the ziggurat is basically making a name it themselves. You know why? They don't want god. They make their own god. At the top of the ziggurat they worship
16:24 their own gods. And Babylon has many temples. It is estimated to be 195
16:30 temples in Babylon itself. There is a big ziggurat there. And the architectural plans of the zigurat are
16:37 now in the British museum. If you go there, it was a kunafon tablet that will show you the architectural plans. It is
16:43 buildings there that the world had never seen. So it is the most technologically advanced city in that time. And yet when
16:51 the Bible looks at cities like Babylon, this is a reading from Babel from
16:56 Revelations. It tells you this. After this, I saw another angel coming down
17:01 from heaven having great authority and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with mighty
17:08 voice, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place for demons,
17:14 a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a horn for
17:19 every unclean and detestable beasts. For all the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
17:26 and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.
17:34 This is a picture of the metaphorical Babylon which is basically it could describe New York, Koala Lumpo, Bangkok
17:41 areas where we live to basically further our own names. Daniel has to make a
17:48 stand. Now Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food
17:54 or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the un so to allow him not to defile himself.
18:02 Now, this is very, very startling because here you have a young boy, 18
18:08 years old, ripped from his mother's arms into a foreign country where he's
18:13 basically castrated, suffering, lonely, homesick, and they
18:18 give him food, the king's food, and he doesn't want to defile him. So, he says no. You know, usually what happens to
18:24 people who say no to King Nebuchadnezzar, he has an awful habit of putting a spear through them and then
18:30 roast them, roasting them alive. That's what he does. And Daniel says, "No, I'm
18:36 not going to eat it." Uh seem like Joseph, you know, Joseph and Daniel are
18:42 the two Bible figures that are very similar. Both have nothing bad said of them. You
18:48 know, you know, we we human beings all got one bad side. If you look hard enough, you'll find something. But these
18:54 are two figures that never had anything bad said about them. And these are two figures who are actually taken from their homes into exile. Joseph into
19:01 Egypt and Daniel into Babylon. And they both undergo the same trial. Here you
19:08 have food given. And for Joseph, he uh Pyafa's um wife
19:16 comes and makes advances against him. And then but he refused and says to his
19:22 master's wife, "Behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house. He has put everything he
19:29 has in my charge. He is no greater in this house than I am. Nor has he kept
19:35 back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin
19:42 against God?" ripped 900 miles from his temple.
19:48 Daniel can uh Jo Joseph, sorry, go less few few miles down from from Egypt down
19:54 to from Israel down to Egypt. Joseph can remember that his God goes with him and
19:60 he doesn't want to sin against his God. Uh he makes a stand. So for Joseph, this
20:05 is temptation. For for Daniel, this is the temptation. Wongpowish,
20:11 $1,000 a kilo. Um if you ever tasted this um the king's food, the king don't
20:18 eat talapia. Okay, the king does not eat talapia. He eats wongpula or garupa or chachin pan
20:25 or something like that. He gives him that and he wouldn't eat it. I mean, wow, what you know what a temptation. Um
20:32 you put it this is Kayla Müller, interesting young lady who worked for Christian Aid and who was captured
20:38 outside Syria helping children. uh she was actually uh taken prisoner and was
20:46 threatened by the ISIS to renounce Jesus Christ and become a Muslim. Uh she
20:51 refused. So she was taken in as a wife of the chief guy Baghdadi and she was
20:56 raped multiple times uh and tortured multiple times but she refused. Every time she was asked to renounce Christ,
21:03 she said no. And in the time she was there, she actually uh helped other
21:08 girls escape. this a Yazidi girl who is now uh in Jenny who is now in Stockholm
21:14 and she gave the interview and she told how Kayla helped her escape and wouldn't
21:19 escape as well because if she escaped at the same time because she's American they will spare no expense in finding
21:24 them and her. So she let the Yides go. Four other uh captives testified to her
21:30 bravery uh and refused to give in and they basically killed her. But she stood
21:37 firm food. They would not defile themselves of food there. You either think that
21:43 this food is kosher food because you go to Babylon, they won't be eat they may be eating pig or of or some sort of
21:49 fish. So therefore, he didn't want to eat it. But the problem with the text is that it's is talking about wine. Wine is
21:56 kosher. You're allowed to drink wine. So why didn't Daniel want to drink wine? So the
22:03 reason is that if you got 195 temples all over the place, what do you think will happen to your wine? It'll be
22:08 offered to the gods. So most of the food would have been offered to the gods. But the other animatic thing is that he
22:15 decided to eat vegetables and water. So but vegetables can also be offered to
22:20 the idols. So basically he had to make a conscience choice. The important thing
22:26 is that he asked the chief unite to allow him not to defile himself. There are certain foods which he felt could
22:33 defile himself and dishonor his God and he made his stand there. Okay? So
22:40 it didn't work well. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of units. And the chief of unut
22:46 said to Daniel, "I fear my lord, the king who assigned your food and your drink. For why should he why for why
22:54 should he see that you were in your worst condition than the youth who are by your own age so you would endanger my
22:59 head with the king. So what he's saying is that if I let you eat vegetables and and and I mean not eat the king's food
23:06 you will wind up very skinny and what happens is that they will take off my head. So they say no I'm not you have to
23:12 eat the king's food. So what would you do if you're Daniel? Most of us will do what hunger's right. No, stand up for
23:20 your rights. He doesn't. And you see what Daniel does very boldly. He does this. Uh basically Daniel said to the
23:27 steward whom the chief of the Unex had assigned over Daniel, Haniah, Mishach, and Azariah, test your servant for 10
23:34 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. He boldly suggested
23:39 an alternative, right? And they gave him 10 days and it worked out. So basically what we learn
23:46 from this is that what Jesus says, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and
23:53 innocent as doves. So here is Daniel being innocent and yet wise, not
23:60 standing up at the wrong time. Uh there's a difference between boldness and presumption. You could be in a
24:06 difficult situation like this and be presumptuous. Presumptuous means you're standing up in order to get glory for
24:12 yourself. If you're standing up to get glory for God, then God will basically
24:17 honor that. And what he did was they embraced the culture. At the end of the time, the king commanded that they
24:24 should be brought in. And the chief of the unut brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with
24:29 them. And among all of them, none were found like Daniel, Haniah, Michel, and Azariah. Therefore, they stood before
24:36 the king. and in every manner of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired them, he found them to be 10
24:41 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. This is amazing because you're talking
24:48 about all the professors and PhD in the whole kingdom. These three fellas be barely 50 to 18 years old are 10 times
24:54 smarter than them, right? That's absolutely amazing. But
24:60 they embrace the culture. And what we will learn from this, we learn that the fact that that for as Christians like
25:06 Daniel, we all live in exile. This world is not our home. The culture is not our
25:11 home. The world tries to merge us and stamp its image onto our identity and
25:17 take that identity of God away. That's what it's doing all the time. And so therefore, we actually have to grapple
25:22 between the social realities of survival in this society as well as the spiritual ethical requirements of the gospel. And
25:28 there's a tension. And if you're really honest, we will fail many of these times. And what we have to learn from
25:35 Daniel is how how do we cope when we live in exile. Uh Michael Crane wrote a
25:40 book and he describes three possible ways in which we can cope as a
25:45 church in this city of Koala Lumpo. Uh you can actually cope by city against
25:50 the church against the city or the city for the church or the city that transforms the church. So the idea is
25:58 that Jerusalem is a holy city. We live in Jerusalem and we don't like Koala Lumpo because it's represents all the
26:05 making a name for themselves. It's secular. It's it's not Christian. So what do you do? We we are the church
26:12 against the uh the city. And this is a response of the Puritans. They left England. Why? Because of the corrupt
26:19 government there. They went to America because they want to start a Christian colony. Look what that turned out today.
26:26 Not very good. Two candidates running for president both lie. So what do you do? Uh so they run away, start their own
26:33 place. Uh what about the Menanites? They they form their own society. They
26:39 they keep on to the old clothes, horse and buggy because they don't want to be contaminated by the city and all this
26:44 modernity and all the contamination. Um what then there are ones who become
26:50 monks. There are many monasteries all over the world where Christians sequestered themselves away from the
26:55 influences of the world. Hopefully, they will continue to live holy lives. Uh I remember a member of our church who
27:02 actually forbid his children. Uh you go to his house, there's no TV, there's no internet, and certainly no Harry Potter.
27:11 And you go to certain churches in this city, in the church I used to come from when I was very young, they do not have
27:18 drums. They do not have electric guitar. These are instruments of the devil.
27:24 So this is a theology that that how do we cope in Babylon? We we turn away. We
27:31 we we we separate ourselves because Babylon is ugly. Babylon is secular. Babylon is is is going to make us
27:37 compromise. So therefore we we form a barrier and we live a different life. Um uh next one coming up. Do we have
27:42 Pokemon Go? Uh so if you are the kind that think that the church is against the city, we will never have Pokemon Go.
27:49 Um Lipo Karawatchi uh is a township just outside
27:54 um Jakarta. It is built by a Christian gentleman
27:59 called uh James Riyadi, very rich gentleman of the Lipo group. And they
28:04 build a huge international school which is based on the Christian curriculum where children will be brought up in
28:10 Christian education and disciple at the same time. And then the surrounding places will be Christian mall and homes
28:16 and all that. All the Christians going to be living in a fantastic city like that with beautiful full water supply
28:22 seir while the rest of Jakarta has no proper sewage and terrible infrastructure. So this is another way
28:28 where Christians would move away and form their own unclavves and and leave the city behind. But essentially this is
28:35 a very selfish way of living. All right. Uh the other idea is the church for the
28:40 city. What about a church going into the city mingling helping the poor a and being part of the problem is this is
28:48 that if you go in you'll be transformed yourself sometimes this is the world council of churches it says in 1966
28:55 wrong spelling thereh the world must set the agenda for the church that mean church setting agenda the world sets
29:01 agenda for you you'll be transformed itself uh this is a book in 1922 which is actually a bestseller by Bruce Barton
29:08 he wrote uh that the classic account of Jesus as a business entrepreneur. One of
29:14 the bestselling books of the 20th century is the Bible. He says Jesus is a businessman and he said the parables are
29:21 the most powerful advertisement of all time. And when Jesus said these words, I'm about my father's business. He's talking about business.
29:28 So therefore, the Bible is about business. So here you you come so close to the city that this that the city of
29:33 Babel influences the church. uh then we can see Joyce Mayor and all this you
29:39 know all the preachers that come up nowadays they they actually pandering to society they become so much part of
29:46 society they think about power thoughts you know God is not mad at you God loves you and everything else uh this is a a a
29:52 1991 article in the New Yorker which actually criticizes the church and this
29:57 is what I want to read to you the preacher instead of looking out onto the world looks out at public opinion trying
30:06 to find out what the public would like to hear. Then he tries to duplicate that and he tries to bring his finished
30:12 product to the market place in which others are trying to do the same. The public turning to our culture, the
30:18 church culture to find out about the world discovers there is nothing but its own reflection. The unexamined world
30:25 meanwhile drifts blindly into the future. So what he's saying is that
30:30 modern preachers look into the world to see what the world wants to hear. And
30:36 then you come out books like that. And so when the world then looks into the church, it doesn't see anything other
30:43 than its own reflection. And then the world drifts blindly off into the future. That is not how the church is
30:49 supposed to be. The church is not supposed to follow the world.
30:55 This is Richard Nebo. He writes uh on Christ and the culture liberalism consisting of a god without wrath
31:03 bringing people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross. So you take off
31:09 all the sticky bits and and then the same thing what you do when you talk to non-Christians. You take out all the sticky bits about dying on a cross.
31:15 That's so embarrassing. Uh and then of judgment. Oh that's even worse. You stick out all the sticky bits. Toer
31:21 talked about this many years ago. He said the old cross slew men and the new cross entertains them. The old cross
31:27 condemned. The new cross amuses. The old cross destroys confidence of flesh. The new cross encourages it. With a new
31:34 brand of Christianity when this church is for the city, right? Uh and and and
31:40 you you basically can't tell the difference. It's so subtle you cannot tell. You go to many of the churches
31:45 today, this has taken over them. uh story was told of a US immigration
31:51 uh um border guard who was totally convinced that this fellow driving this
31:56 truck across the Mexican border was transporting some contraband or cocaine.
32:03 So therefore every time he saw him he took special effort to check very meticulously even ripped out the seeds
32:09 to check you know for month after month after month the guy came and he could find nothing even one stick of ganja.
32:18 In the end, the immigration guard retired and he met this guy who drive
32:24 the truck every week in a bar and he told the guy, "Hey, look, I know you,
32:30 right? I have not uh found anything. I've been trying to catch you for months and
32:35 years. I'm now retired, you know." Okay, you tell me. I'm sure you're a smuggler, isn't it? You look like one nar look,
32:41 right? So, and the guy said, "Yeah, I'm a smuggler." Right? Then, what do you smuggle? Oh, you don't know. Every week
32:48 I smuggle one truck.
32:54 See, it's so obvious. You're looking for all the small little bits here like Pokemon here and there, but they already
32:59 smuggle you the truck already. You know, you're talking about electric guitar. You're talking about everything else, but they already smuggle the whole
33:05 truck. The whole kind of culture comes into your bedroom already. And and the Christians still standing there talking
33:11 about Pokemon. There's so many areas in your life. So therefore the the subtle influence of Babylon is so so pernicious
33:19 you can't tell. The the last paradigm is the one that we should adopt as Christians. The church transforms the
33:27 city. This is Jerusalem. This is Babylon. And what they do is that
33:32 basically you have the church two cities inside one. Okay. This is Jeremiah. Jeremiah says,
33:41 "The Lord, the thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from
33:46 Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses, live in them, plant gardens, eat their
33:53 produce, take wives, have sons and daughters, take wives for your son and
33:58 daughters. Give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there. Do not
34:04 decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord on his behalf for in
34:11 its welfare you will find your welfare. So wherever God sends you, this is Koala
34:18 Lumpo. If God sends you to Sydney or Melbourne or Jakarta or Kolkata, it doesn't where you go, seek the welfare
34:26 of that city. You see what I mean? And in its welfare, you shall find your
34:32 welfare. All right? The reason why is because if you think about it, we are
34:37 the new creation. We are redeemed human race. And if you're a redeemed human race, we are, as Paul says, all things
34:45 are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or keepers of the world or life or death or
34:50 present or future, all are yours. And you are Christ and Christ is God. Which means basically if you're part of the
34:56 new creation, Christ will inherit the entire world. What do you think? Heaven will be
35:02 upstairs. Heaven is down here. So therefore the challenge for us that all
35:07 this belongs to you actually every single bit of it even the bit in damasara which you're looking for you
35:13 know it all belong to you one day because it belongs to Christ. So therefore we actually have a creation
35:19 mandate to basically influence and transform the city for our Lord. Augustine of Hippo says in truth the two
35:27 cities are entangled together in this world intermixed until the last judgment
35:32 effect their separation. So we are living as Jerusalem we are living in
35:38 Koala Lumpo but for Jerusalem you see what I mean intermingle separate only a
35:43 time of judgment. So Daniel had no trouble embracing the culture scientific
35:49 discoveries. Do you know the Babylonians could chart the course of Jupiter 300 400 years before Christ? They can
35:56 chart the course of Jupiter. They have advanced mathematics. Um so we too as
36:01 Christians need to inhabit science, engineering, farming, medicine, government. We can't be like the others
36:07 of the church against the city where we we don't want all those technological advances. We need to inhabit them like
36:13 uh like Daniel did. And yet Austin Augustine Hippo says the best citizens of the city are citizens of the city of
36:20 God. They know the shortcomings of the city and minister to its true needs. Only if we inhabit all these areas of
36:28 technological advance shall we know the shortcomings and minister to its true needs.
36:34 How do you minister and yet not compromise? You could be a doctor today
36:40 or an architect, real estate person. you you you you go and become the best in
36:46 your field like at Daniel and his friends were 10 times better right but how do you minister in such a way that
36:53 you don't compromise Oz Guinness put down two his famous philosopher put down two reasons two things that will
36:59 distinguish you from them the giver must be in the gift and the receiver must
37:06 know and receive the giver in the gift that mean otherwise if you just focus on
37:12 the gift then the gifts become idols we use I use science and technology when I
37:20 operate on people all right the only difference between me as a Christian surgeon and a non-Christian surgeon that
37:25 we both use science and technology but the Christian surgeon acknowledges the healing powers of the body and the
37:31 technology comes from the ingenuity which God put into our minds and put into our hands while the non-Christian
37:37 will say oh happened by accident you mean that's the difference and so therefore The more technology one
37:43 embraces, the more wonder one feels about the power and and creativity of
37:49 God. This is Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel ministered to Nebuchadnezzar.
37:54 Time and time again, you look in chapter two and three, you'll find that he had a series of visions that Nebuchadnezzar
38:00 had. And nobody could interpret those visions. Only Daniel could. In fact, if
38:06 you look in chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar was very had a dream. And what he did was he tell all the wise men you tell me
38:14 the dream and the interpretation. Most people tell you the dream then you tell all sorts of interpretation. Right? He asked them to tell me the dream first
38:20 and then interpretation. Very very difficult. But each time when he was successful you know what Daniel said
38:26 it's not me it is God. He always acknowledged the giver with the gift.
38:33 That's the difference when we actually minister. So in the end you know what chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar non-Christian
38:39 king says now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven
38:46 for all his works are right. His ways are just and those who walk in pride
38:51 he's able to humble mean meaning himself. Here you actually have a young
38:56 kid torn from the bosom of his family, castrated,
39:01 works inside the kingdom of Babylon. And you have the ultimate king humble
39:08 himself and honor God. What a extremely
39:14 remarkable witness, isn't it? This is Robert Littenham, a former
39:21 director of World Vision's International Urban Advance. uh he works in social circles as a pastor to transform the
39:28 city. It says in America there are two kinds of uh of churches uh one that
39:33 doing not doing well and the ones are doing well. A lot of churches are declining in America and then there are
39:39 a lot of churches who are not who are doing well uh uh growing and say what are there only three factors that he
39:44 found in this study. The three factors are one the church has a common focus of missions. Two, commitment to outreach is
39:51 assumed by the whole congregation means everybody is focused on missions and outreach, not just the leaders. And the
39:58 third one is the members are empowered to discover their own ministry. These are the three most common factors of a
40:06 church that can transform the city. Uh a and God puts us all with our different
40:12 personalities and different opportunities in different ministries. King Ahab was a very bad king. uh he led
40:20 Israel away from God. He had two prophets who were working with him. One
40:27 was Obadiah and the other was Elijah. Elijah stood outside and condemned him
40:32 to his face. You and your wife steal money. Okay? You and your wife doing all
40:38 the bad things and he challenged him was very belligerent. Obadiah on the other
40:44 hand was in the party. you know, he was the chief of staff. He was in the palace
40:51 and they both didn't get on. God used both of them. One God used Elijah to confront Ahab and God used Obadiah to
40:59 save 100 Israeli prophets from death because Jezebel was going to put them to death. One works against the system, one
41:07 works with the system. But they both work to honor God and transform the
41:13 city. uh National Catholic Bishop's Conference this year came up and said
41:19 the National Security Council Act of 2016, the country's financial situation,
41:25 the loss of jobs and government wastages are among the problems that need to be tackled immediately. Like it or not, the
41:32 Catholics in this country are like Elijah. They often come up and stand up
41:37 for righteousness and stand out for the faith. Other Christians don't do this. Perhaps they do like Obadai. work within
41:44 the government and try to affect changes. Uh this is um Sam Shoemaker,
41:51 one of the 10 most prolific preachers of his time, famous for what he actually
41:56 started Alcoholic Anonymous, being a Christian to transform the city, use Christian principles in Alcoholic
42:04 Anonymous and use that movement to touch people all over the world. Um Frederick
42:10 Bner writes, "The place God calls you to is a place where your deep gladness and
42:16 the world's deep hunger meet." So therefore, God is looking to all of us.
42:21 If we are going to transform this city, we not only have must have a mission focus which we incorporate into our
42:27 souls and our and our desires and our ambition, but each of us should look for a ministry to work in. And that ministry
42:34 be where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger is met. the two that
42:39 meet together and then you when the two meet together where you're gifted to do and there's a need for you to fill
42:44 that's what we call the sweet spot when you can feel God smiling at you. Lastly, God always goes with us in
42:52 exile. When we suffer, God does not go away. He doesn't leave us alone. Uh look
42:59 at all the verses in the chapter. Okay, there's if you underline on all the
43:04 verses with God, you will see the Lord gave Johakim, king of Judah, into his hand. You see, you you can't defeat
43:10 Judah unless God gives you um therefore he asked the chief Uno to allow him not
43:16 to defile himself and God gave Daniel favor and compassion. You see, God gave
43:22 as for these four youth, God gave them learning and skill, all literature, in all literature and wisdom and Daniel had
43:28 understanding in all visions and dreams. Behind every single thing is God. And he found them 10 times better. Why? Because
43:36 God gave them. So the message behind Daniel chapter 1 is not that Daniel at
43:41 18 years old is so brave and so smart and so wonderful. That is because God
43:48 allowed this to happen. God gave him favor. If God didn't give him favor, they would have roasted Daniel already.
43:54 When he say, they would have roasted him already. All right. So, so the same thing happens
44:01 with us. Wherever we are in exile, God is there with us. This uh I would end
44:08 with two stories. This is a true story written by uh Dan
44:13 uh Dan Don Cormarmac who look who chronicled the life of the church during Paul's time uh where there's great
44:22 atrocities being committed in Kerr in in Cambodia. 5 million people were killed. Um and he tells a story firstly of how
44:30 God goes with you in exile. There was a young man called Rada and he accepted Christ in 1973 by the ministry of the
44:37 Marinatha church and uh as a young man new Christian suddenly the the Kamar
44:43 Rouge took over and they drove the entire population into the villages away
44:49 from the cities and they starve them make them all work. He was put in the work gang of 10 people and of 10 people
44:56 every day they share one tin cup of rice that's all they had. Many of the people
45:01 died. They were beaten and it was horrible. And he had no chance to go back to his village. Um each time many
45:08 of his relatives would die, he'd ask permission. They says, "You go back, no use. You cannot bring them back to life. So you cannot go." And finally one day
45:15 his father died. And some months after his father died, he finally managed to go home. And and then Daniel and and
45:22 Rada had this one precious possession in his life, his Bible. There's a red
45:29 cardboard Bible which he kept and that was like his life sustenance. Every day he would take one verse and read it and
45:34 chew over and just meditate and that kept him alive. He left his Bible behind. He went back to his village. He
45:39 saw his relatives and his father died. His mother was very sick. He was totally devastated. He asked himself why is God
45:46 letting this happened? Nothing. I've been praying all day and night and nothing has happened. When he came back to his uh h to his quarters, he found
45:55 the cover of his Bible lying on his bed. But the cover has no pages. All the workmates had taken the pages of Bible
46:01 and used for toilet paper as well as roll up churut to go and smoke the tobacco.
46:07 And he's asking God, "Where are you?" And finally 1978 after years of
46:12 suffering uh they were celebrating the takeover of Paul. 1978 they had this
46:18 festival where they force people to get married. What they would do is force people to get married uh young couples
46:24 who don't even know each other at all. watch them together. They they they stay for a couple of weeks and they separate
46:30 them back into work gangs and there are 19 couples put together and uh and he
46:36 would be marrying a total stranger and he couldn't say no. If you say no then you get buried and so therefore he was
46:42 thinking about 2 Corinthians 6:14 I should not be unequally yolked. He says God where are you? Every time I pray you
46:49 take something away my Bible you took away. Now you're going to give me a non-Christian spouse. I'm so upset. And
46:54 so therefore uh they had a ceremony. He got married and the first meal they sat down together. He was looking at this
47:00 guy. He did not even look at the girl. He was looking down and she was looking down. They're both like upset. And then
47:06 he he bowed to say grace. And when he said grace, his wife let out
47:12 a scream. Ah, and frightened the hell of him. He thought he going to in his pants. You know why? Because oh I found
47:18 she found out I'm a Christian sailor, right? You can't be a Christian because you get killed. And turned out she was a
47:25 pastor's daughter, pastor Choi of Nonen.
47:30 And out of all that turbulence and pain, God guided him to marry a Christian. And
47:36 that was a sign by God to him that you gone into exile, but I haven't let you
47:44 go. What are the odds? Forced marriage out of thousands and millions of people
47:49 that you would marry a pastor's daughter. And God gave him the desires of his heart. They escaped Cambodia and had a
47:55 happy ending. God went with him in exile. But then
48:01 there was another pastor and he was captured by Kamill Rouge. A horrible story of them going to be executed
48:09 and one of his children, one of the young boy I think ran off into the forest alone and the Kamaru is going to
48:16 kill all of them. And and the father knew the pastor knew that if he ran off into the village
48:22 um out of the village into the forest he would die because he was young about five six years old and he could not have
48:29 actually get food for himself. So he called him back say never mind son come back
48:35 together we will die for Christ together. He persuaded the son to come back and
48:41 the son sat next to him and the whole family and they were all killed.
48:47 Question number one, was God with one but not the other?
48:53 Was God with Kayla Müller who was then killed by Baghdadi in ISIS? You see,
48:59 people like to tell you good stories of Rada, found a wife, but they don't tell you about the others. You see, God is in
49:05 both stories. You understand? Because God is beyond this world. God decides to
49:12 take Caleb Müller because she was taken as a slave, sex slave to Baghdadi, take
49:17 her early because goes back to heaven and so he decides to take that pastor's uh family but he decides to keep Rada.
49:25 In either which case, God goes with you in exile. You cannot
49:31 dictate to God that you want the Rada story but I don't want the other story. Faith is believing that though he slay
49:37 me, yet will I fear him. So sometimes exile is inevitable. Pain
49:46 will come upon us, but it is an opportunity for faith. Exercise the
49:52 faith. You see, exile is not plan B. If you've got a bad thing coming upon your
49:57 life, it is still plan A. God will use that and it will turn it into an exercise of faith where you will glorify
50:03 God. And no matter what, God goes with us into exile.
50:09 and it will provide the best outcome because you know why we know this 2,000
50:14 years or 3,000 years later on Jesus Christ came into exile
50:21 right wasn't his fault he died for other people's fault Daniel suffered for other
50:27 people's sin Jesus came and died for our sin and so therefore Christ goes into
50:33 exile together with us so at the deepest point of suffering we can turn to a
50:39 savior who's been there and who is still with you every step of the way. Let's
50:45 pray. Father Lord, we just thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. For although
50:53 he was rich, he became poor. Although he was God, he became man. And he went to
51:00 the exile for our sake. And he paid the ultimous price for our sake. So that when we go into exile, we will never go
51:07 alone. Whether we live or we die, we are with you. Father, we thank you, Lord,
51:13 that you are our everlasting hope. You are everlasting strength. You are everlasting joy. We pray as we depart
51:20 from here that we be a church that's totally overtaken by a vision of
51:25 mission. when we go back to the city that we will endeavor with your strength
51:30 to make a stand to see our lives however difficult it is be an endeavor of faith
51:37 that we will transform this city because you own this city because everything belongs to Christ and Christ belongs to
51:43 God we ask this for Jesus sake amen
