Living Your Convictions

Ps Andrew Scott (0:04)

Welcome to the City Lights Church Podcast. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing today, we hope this message inspires you to follow Jesus. You can find out more about City Lights Church at city-lights.church.

Ps Andrew Scott (0:23)

We're in the middle of a series called Thriving in Babylon. And Thriving in Babylon is all about following Jesus in difficult and challenging circumstances. And this morning, the title of my message is called Living Your Convictions. Living Your Convictions. Our convictions are what we are convinced about. What we believe is right. What we believe is true. What we think is reasonable. What we think is truth about ourselves, but also about the world around us. Our convictions are our deeply held values and beliefs. And they sit at the very core of what the Bible would describe as our heart. The Bible describes our heart as the center of our being, the center of our will, our thinking, feeling, the center of our wants and our loves, of which outflow our words and thoughts and decisions and actions. And this morning, we're continuing looking at the Book of Daniel, where three young men had the opportunity and a unique opportunity to live out their convictions. Now, before we go any further, let me give you a quick recap of what was happening at this time, so we can set the scene. King Nebuchadnezzar was at the time of Daniel, the Babylonians were a regional superpower. They were literally an evil empire with King Nebuchadnezzar as their leader. Here's what he was doing. He was brutally wiping out nations, countries and cultures through war, starvation and siege tactics, torture and psychological warfare. One of the things that he did and one of the places that he conquered was Jerusalem. He completely destroys the city and also the temple. Untold numbers of people were slaughtered and thousands of people are kidnapped and taken to Babylon in what is known as the exile. Now at that time, Babylon was an impressive and beautiful city. It was the center of the economy. It was the center of culture, and it was the center of the government of the Empire of Babylon. Now what's happening is, as the Empire is expanding, there is a skills shortage. So as they're conquering all these people and conquering all this territory, they actually need to find people, find staff, find workers to run the Empire. And so what they do, which seems a little strange, is they actually start to recruit some of the people and the peoples that they have conquered. All of these people are four young Jewish men. Their names are Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Now they are given new names. Daniel's names becomes Belteshazzar, and the others are given new names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So, this is really fascinating and very strange. They are recruited to work and serve in the empire that has just captured them, enslaved them, destroyed their families and their hometown. Very strange situation. And this story is so extreme and so challenging that one of the things we recognise is it can bring us courage in even the most difficult and challenging circumstances. Now, in chapters one and two, Daniel and his friends continue to, sorry, they commit to serving the empire. They say, we're going to do the best job possible. Daniel himself is helped by God to serve King Nebuchadnezzar and doing so saves the lives of his co-workers. You can read this in chapters one and two. And his co-workers were magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers. Now, as a result, Daniel and his friends get promoted. And that's where we are in chapter three. Now, in chapter three, King Nebuchadnezzar, probably the definition of a narcissistic boss, what he does is he decides to make a gold statue that's 27 meters high. Now, if you're in the room, you can look up to the roof. I'm going to say that's roughly nine meters, roughly nine meters to the roof. OK, three times that. That's how high this gold statue is. And here's what he says. He says, when the music plays, everybody should bow down and worship me. That's the call. That's what he says is going to happen. And he says, if you don't, here is a fire, a big furnace. I'm going to throw you in. So here's your choice. Either bow down and worship this or you're going to be burnt alive. Not a very, very pleasant thing. Now, here is what happens of the four young men that we've talked about who were in that place at that time. We don't know where Daniel was, but three of those young men, they refused. And here is where we pick up in Daniel chapter three and verse eight. It says this, But some of the astrologers, we got to be thinking maybe these are the same astrologers that Daniel actually saved. Some of these astrologers went to the king and informed on the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, long live the king. You issued a decree requiring all the people to bow down and worship the gold statue. When they hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither. Everybody say zither, zither. I had to search this up. It's a mini harp. You don't often say zither. We're going to get one. All right. Make a note.