For those of you who wanted to really listen to the words of Josh Garrel’s song Freedom I have posted it below. Thanks are due to Mary and Ben for pointing me in the direction of Josh Garrel. Ellen and I have listened to him all week! As well some of you may want to check out the play list of worship songs and songs viewed before the service; Lalpi and I are posting these on YouTube at the Cityview Baptist channel.
Here is our Big Idea this past Sunday at Cityvew: Seek to honour Jesus today by learning wisdom from the stories of Scripture. We were camped out in Daniel 5 building on what it means to Live Like Strangers in our culture but not of it. Belshazzar knew the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation and exaltation, but he failed to grasp the wisdom to be found in the story; Daniel had to re-tell the story for Belshazzar now that B. had seen the writing on the wall.
Unfortunately, like Belshazzar we can be the same way about history–we don’t learn from our mistakes or the mistakes of others. The Christian worldview presses us to learn from other people–particularly their stories in the Scripture–without having to learn solely from experiences. There is great benefit in godliness, holiness, righteousness, in living an undivided life from relationship with Jesus; and that benefit can be ours if we learn wisdom from the stories of Scripture. We don’t have to go out and experience ALL THIS WORLD HAS TO OFFER in order to be a whole person. Belshazzar was literally living the last day of the Babylonian Empire in a party of bravado and drunkenness. Devastation was at his doorstep, yet to the end he never humbled himself and declared himself dependent on God as Nebuchadnezzar had done. So… how can we avoid the same mistakes. We can learn wisdom from the stories of Scripture.
1. Listen to the stories of Scripture to enlarge your view of God. Daniel tells a story that Belshazzar knew but had been unable to access the wisdom in it. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
2. Put the story in its context. This was easy for Daniel to do and sometimes more difficult for us. But the context is often where the story begins to show us the HOPE we can have for today and tomorrow. The Apostle Paul highlights gift of Scripture in Romans 15:4; “For everything that was written in the past was written to encourage us, so that through the endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
3. Pay attention to the warnings that illustrate the consequence of being consumed by your culture’s independence from God. Every culture has aspects of it that seek to move us toward independence from Jesus Christ. Nebuchadnezzar’s personally testimony in Daniel 4 was a proclamation of God’s sovereignty and grace: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” Belshazzar missed the warning. In one of his letters to the church in Corinth, Paul seeks to help them grasp God’s purpose for the stories of Israel for them: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11
4. Adjust your belief and behaviour accordingly. A genuine change of heart and is reflected in a change of behaviour. When we change our allegiance from self to Jesus our beliefs and behaviours should reflect His exclusive claim to our lives. The stories of Scripture are used by the Holy Spirit to heal us and to move us into the way and mission of God. Paul reminds his mentee, Timothy, that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Learn wisdom from the stories of Scripture. Hey try it yourself as we get ready for this coming Sunday’s message, by reading and reflecting on Daniel 6.
Our series at Cityview through the first six chapters of Danial has called us to think about how we engage culture: to Live Like Strangers, in the world but not of it. I want to encourage you to listen to this 18 minute talk by Andy Crouch at Q. His talk stepping into culture reviews “postures” and “gestures” toward culture. He ends with 3 good questions: What are you cultivating? What are you creating? And Who are your co-creators? I find Andy’s descriptions of different postures and gestures useful for helping me differentiate between the kinds of responses faith in Christ requires in daily living.
Outrage calmly erupted at my breakfast table when, after reading from James 3:1-12 on the tongue, I addressed every person sitting there with me, “Your tongue is evil.” The retort was, “That’s mean.” My response was, “No, the Truth is not mean.”
I feel that we are inundated with a cultural tide of tolerance that denies the truth for the sake of nice. Our ability to take a stand within these rising waters will be directly related to our ability to hear God’s prophetic voice in His Word as a Word that reveals the truth about us. Just as we may say in organizations, “Facts are our friends,” in the depths of our souls, “Truth is our friend.”
Daniel joined the ranks of the great prophets when he interpreted the dream of the great King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and called on him to “Renounce your sins.” The dream terrified them both. Yet Daniel respectfully and fortunately with a liberty granted by the King pronounced the judgement and hope in God’s graceful vision to Nebuchadnezzar. Then, he says, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce yours sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.” (Daniel 4:27) King Neb did not heed the warning and suffered the full extent of the vision, but he also became the poster child of God’s sovereignty and grace. He experienced the humbling power of God to bring down the proud, but he also experienced the graceful power of God to exalt the humble. As Nebuchadnezzar shares in his testimony contained in Daniel 4, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
For the follower of Jesus, Truth in the Word of God becomes intensely personal for it is the sword of the Spirit. Declaring it does not exempt us from the challenge of “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance,” as John the Baptizer says in Matthew 3:8. But if we value nice we will treat truth as meanness, and we will join in with the throngs who seek a broad road rather than a narrow path. We will abandon our birthright of authority that is intended to accompany the obedience that comes by faith and the sacrifice that comes by love and the endurance that comes by our hope. We will be nice churches–and no one will listen.
The call to honour the Living Trinue God by renouncing sin sounds mean when it challenges the accepted norms of our own goodness, but it is the sound that gracefully invites us to enter the fullness of life.
urbanfoot 