Living for Jesus in a Culture of Compromise
At all of our churches, raise your hand if you’re currently dealing with any relational tension, complex conversations, or if you have friends causing chaos on social media. Go ahead, raise your hand. If you’re online, type “I’m there” in the comments. If your hand isn’t up right now, I’d love to have lunch with you (audience laughs), because everyone else is driving me crazy.
It’s definitely tough in today’s culture, and I don’t know about you, but it feels harder than ever to faithfully follow Jesus and stay close to Him in a world constantly pulling us away. Just think about the messages we hear every day—how do we honor marriage in a society that devalues it? How do we live with sexual integrity in a world full of sexual darkness? How do we raise our children to love and follow Jesus when their friends see no need for Him? And how do we love our neighbors, especially when they don’t even mow their lawns? (audience laughs)
I’ve got a story behind that one. Years ago, we had a neighbor with kids, and one of them came over and told me, “My dad says you have the ugliest yard in the neighborhood.” I replied, “Tell your dad he should spend more time with his kids and less time in the yard.” (audience laughs)
Looking at today’s culture, it feels like more and more people are becoming increasingly hostile toward the values we find in God’s Word. This raises a critical question: how do we stand firm? Do we dig our heels in and say, “This is truth”—even if it costs us relationships? Or do we compromise a little here and there, just to go along with the flow of society?
I want to remind you of something crucial: If we trade our convictions for convenience, we risk losing the very foundation of who we are in Christ. If we start compromising and conforming to the image of this world, we become less like who Jesus calls us to be and more like the world. And if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us.
So, what should we do? How can we stay strong in our faith and love others well? Over the next few weeks, we’ll dive into the book of Daniel and learn from his story and the stories of his friends. We’ll discover how to live with conviction in a culture that constantly compromises.
Let’s pray: Father, we ask that Your living Word speak life to us, building our faith. As we experience Your truth in our hearts, transform us and conform us to be more like Jesus—loving well and sharing truth in love. We pray this in Jesus’ name, and everyone said—Amen. Online, type “Amen” in the comments so we know you’re with us.
Now, let’s dive into the book of Daniel. We’ll start in Daniel chapter 1, where we’ll meet some of the key figures. First, we’ll talk about the wicked King Nebuchadnezzar. Whenever my pastor Nick mentioned him, he always told us to boo. I’m going to mention his name several times, but don’t worry, if you boo too much, you’ll slow me down, and we don’t have time for that. So, in honor of Pastor Nick, let’s introduce one of the main players in the book of Daniel: King Nebuchadnezzar.
(Boo!) That’s perfect, and now we can move on. Nebuchadnezzar was a very evil king. In Daniel 1:1, we read, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.”
For context, Babylon was the dominant superpower of the ancient world, and they were bullies. In 605 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, destroying its walls. If you read about Nehemiah rebuilding the walls, you’ll understand how this destruction was one of the most humiliating and brutal attacks. The most devastating part was when they destroyed Solomon’s temple and took away sacred items of the Jewish faith to mock their belief in God.
But King Nebuchadnezzar isn’t the main character of the book of Daniel. Who is? (audience responds) Yes, God.
