Idol - Culture, Part 1

Is there a clear line where you can say, I don't go there? Dr. Tony Evans says it's time to make a stand for faith instead of caving into the values of our culture. We have too many Christians who haven't decided to draw a line in the sand. This is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. God gave us clear boundaries in life, but people keep moving the lines and smudging the edges. Today, Dr. Evans will explore the importance of taking our cues from God and not from culture.

Let's join him in the book of Daniel. I have some bad news for you. Christians have lost their home field advantage. In sports, a team wants to play preferably on their home field. And the reason why a sports team wants to play on their home field is that's where they're going to get maximum support from hometown fans. They're going to get cheered and encouraged. The other team will be booed because they have the support of the home team crowd. They know when they play an away game, they're going to be playing in an opposing environment where they're going to be booed, rejected, and where the other team will have the upper hand because they will have the encouragement of the whole crowd, the whole looking and listening audience behind them.

So they always seek to win enough games to get home field advantage. There was a time when Christianity in America had home field advantage. That is, the Judeo-Christian ethic and world view dominated the environment.

Everybody wasn't a Christian, but they respected Christianity. However, over this last generation, we have been progressively losing home field advantage. Now, Christianity is no longer the normative world view in the culture.

It is being resisted and rejected in every direction of our society. We are now a minority in a predominantly pagan culture. It is now the institutions have become so dominantly anti-Christian, particularly the institutions of education and media and entertainment, which has defined the world view of the culture, dismissing Christianity, marginalizing serious Christians, that we have now lost home field advantage.

And the loss has been so great that we now have accumulated a whole generation of Benedict Arnolds. These are people who use the name Jesus while playing for the other team. They use the name to sound like they are Christian, but they spend their time changing uniforms at halftime. They'll come to church wearing the Christian garb, but when they leave and have to go to the secular world, they don the jerseys of the other side so that they can be accepted by the culture. So we have lost home field advantage.

No longer will you be automatically appreciated and respected because you claim the name of Jesus Christ. In our passage today, God's people had lost home field advantage. Because of their rebellion and sin against God, God allowed in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, to descend upon Jerusalem, ransack it, and slaughter all gods of people, and then lift people out and bring them to the pagan culture of Babylon.

There are three stories in this book that are well known that will help me introduce to you what we are facing today, this idol, the idol of culture. Daniel finds himself now with his three friends, the three Hebrew boys. Nebuchadnezzar knows if he's going to get the most out of these boys, he's got to de-Israelize them and pro-Babylonize them. He's got to rip away from them their Christian background, and he's got to inculcate within them a secular Babylonian way of thinking. So in order to accomplish this, he picks the best of the best. He says intellectual, good-looking, used with no defect.

Why? Because he's interested in generational impact. So you parents need to know that the culture is after your kids, the generational impact. So he brings these four, among others, to Babylon, and the first thing he does is relocates them. You see, he knows as long as he leaves them in Israel, they might keep running into the true God. So he's got to extricate them outside, bring them to the secular culture. You see, you were raised in church, many of you growing up, but then you went to college and you got relocated.

And when you got relocated, you began to think things you didn't think when you were at home, do things you wouldn't be allowed to do when you were at home because you were no longer accountable to that environment because you had been relocated to the university campus. He had to relocate them in order to indoctrinate them. So he not only relocates them, he re-identifies them. In each of the boys' names was the name of God, Daniel, E-L. L is short for Elohim. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.

L is short for Elohim. So Daniel's mama and daddy named him Daniel so that every time his friends called his name, he was reminded he belongs to God. Every time the teacher called him in class, he was reminded he belonged to God. Every time he met with his friends and played ball, he was reminded he belonged to God. So intent were the parents that they never wanted him to escape God, so they made God part of his name. The other boys that were named I-A-H, Azariah, at the end of the name, I-A-H is short for Yahweh, another name for God. So they all had either E-L or I-A-H because mama and daddy wanted to make sure no matter where they went, they could not escape God.

That's why you parents better give your kid a God name. You better stamp something on them so God becomes inescapable even when they're relocated to the Babylonian university that is secular that they may wind up going to. He relocates them, he re-identifies them, and then he does the biggie. He re-indoctrinates them. It says he sent them to a Babylonian school for three years to teach them the language and the thoughts and the meaning of Babylonian life. He educated them with the goal of them becoming Babylonianized, that is, culturized in the secular thinking. Now, please notice that this education was idolatrous driven because it says he brought them to the house of his God. So this wasn't just going to school, it was going to school to learn the religious worldview behind the educational information that was being handed out in the University of Babylon. So for three years they were secularized in their thinking by education because we're giving people information without ethics.

We're giving them information that is anti-God. Even in primary school, your children are not learning the evolutionary theory. They're being taught the evolutionary fact because evolution is not just about how the world began. Evolution is about why man doesn't need God. And man doesn't need God so badly that God is not even necessary for creation.

Evolution is a worldview that gets rid of the need for God through science, so called. It is an educational process. Your kids are now learning in school that same-sex marriage is okay. They're learning in school. You don't have to think you're a man or you're a woman. You can be what you want to be because it's your thing.

Do what you want to do. They are learning that in elementary school because the educational process has become idolatrous in the culture so people are being taught, kids are being taught, and adults are being taught anti-Christian worldviews in the name of gaining knowledge, in the name of gaining degrees. The culture has created an idol that is being informed through education. But not only are our kids being re-indoctrinated, you and I are being re-indoctrinated. And the major educational tool that is re-indoctrinating even us as adults is the media. The media is the contemporary idolatrous mechanism to introduce us to the idol of culture so that we are reintroduced to another way of thinking. Things that used to shame you 20 years ago don't shame you today.

Language that you used to say don't talk like that, we get used to hearing it and it's no big deal. Stuff that was hidden on side streets is now on the front screen and you don't have an option if you're going to watch TV for it to pop up sometimes because the culture has used entertainment and the fun it brings to dull our senses about the standards of God. They are creating a God of culture. They're trying to de-Christianize and pro-humanize the society and we have lost home field advantage.

Dr. Evans will tell us how Daniel reclaimed his home field advantage and how we can too when he continues our lesson in just a moment. First though, with the election coming up there couldn't be a better time to talk about the direction our nation needs to go. And Tony's written a powerful and popular book that marks out that path in detail. It's called America Turning a Nation to God. Our country has always been a work in progress but lately it seems like we're making too much progress in the wrong direction.

And if what you see on the news and on the streets these days has you discouraged, you're not alone. But Dr. Evans says things can turn around and it's up to the people of the church, people like you and me, to get the process started. In this book he'll show you how we can use the power God's given us to reclaim justice, morality, freedom and strength for America to spark a revival like our country has never seen. And when you make a donation and request a copy of the book, we'll also give you all eight full-length messages on CD and digital download from Tony's current teaching series American Idols.

This special limited-time offer is our thank you gift when you support the work of the alternative with a generous contribution. Visit us today at tonyevans.org to make the arrangements or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by 24-7 to help with your request. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. I'll share that contact information with you again after part two of today's lesson and this. Far too many of us want to throw in the towel before we've thrown up the prayers. Dr. Tony Evans says Christians have a habit of underusing or overlooking our most valuable spiritual resource. Grace is available but only at the throne, and you can only approach the throne through prayer. You can deepen your connection with the Lord through our in-depth course on Kingdom Prayer at the Tony Evans Training Center. You'll discover how God has wired the world to work by prayer and experience for yourself how it connects heaven with earth and time with eternity.

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TonyEvans.org. Then they tried the zinger. It was the zinger. They said, we want you to eat our food and drink our wine. Eat our food and drink our wine. We're going to entertain you.

We're going to entertain you. The food and the wine was not just food and wine. It says in verse 8, Daniel made up in his mind he would not be defiled by the king's choice food. Daniel googled food and wine. He googled food and wine, food and wine, and up popped Exodus 34, 15. And when Exodus 34, 15, because remember, his mom and daddy named him El.

When Exodus 34, 15 popped up, he says, Exodus 34, 15 says, don't eat meat offered to idols because then you will be whoring with a false god. In other words, it wasn't just eating and drinking. It was adopting the lifestyle, the lifestyle of the pagans.

Because when you eat and drink, you eat and drink as part of a religious party. It was part of the evil living of the day. So it involved immorality. It involved greed.

It involved drunkenness. It involved, because see, the Babylonian god let you do what you want to do. See, that's why people don't want the Christian god because he don't let you do what you want to do. He doesn't let you do what you want to do, how you want to do it, how you want to do it, because the Christian god has a standard, calls us to the standard. See, the reason why folks don't want Christianity is they don't want God telling them what to do. So in order not to have God telling me what to do, I will keep religion, eat and drink, but I won't eat and drink to the biblical god.

I'll create a cultural god that will let me eat, drink, and party, party until I can't party no more. And so that was the entertainment of the culture using religion to justify lifestyle. And that is why you hear Christians today justifying things that the Bible condemns. You hear Christians talking about shacking up and living together while going to church looking like a couple.

We got Christians today who are not being true on their jobs, stealing from their boss because everybody else in the office is doing it. You see, you can use God to make you okay with what you want to do as long as it's not the god of the Bible, but it's the god of the culture. And you see, they tried to get Daniel with a cultural god. But the text says in verse 8, Daniel made up in his mind. He would not defile himself.

Now let me don't go too fast. Let me start with what he did do. He did go to the king's school for three years. He couldn't control what people called him, so he had to wear the king's name because that's what they were calling him. He was now getting ready to be employed by the king's business because he was going to work in a secular job for the king Nebuchadnezzar. So he has to adapt to the new reality that he's no longer in Israel. This is no longer his mama's nation. He's in a secular culture. And the reality, saints, is that's where we are.

Shouldn't be here, don't want to be here, but get real. That's where you are. You are now living in non-Christian America.

That's where you are, okay? But even in non-Christian Babylon, he made up in his mind there are some things I won't do. I will not defile myself. I'm not going to sleep around. I'm not going to get drunk. I'm not going to be a bad employee. I am not going to contaminate myself because I need my God more than I need y'all. So he made up in his mind, I will not defile. I am not going to contaminate myself with worshipping the culture just because everybody else is in the culture. We have too many Christians who haven't decided to draw a line in the sand. I'll do this, I'll do this, and I'll do this, but we ain't going there.

We ain't going there. Now, all of this preparation by the culture was designed to prepare him, it says, for the king's personal service. This is an upgrade in employment.

One minute you are a slave being brought to the land, and now you are being trained to be in the king's personal service, to be in the secret service. You're being prepared to go to the top of the heap. I mean, that means you're going from rags to Neiman Marcus. That means you're going from a bicycle to a Benz. That means that you're going from Old Spice to now. The top fragrances, that means that you're living large because now you're going to be in the king's top service.

But the scripture says, Daniel made up in his mind, car or no car, suits or no suits. I don't care what you're offering, this is my line, and I don't go past that line. So the question I have to ask me, you have to ask you, is have you drawn the line yet? Is there a clear line where you can say, I don't go there?

Why? Because you may call me something else, but I remember L is in my name, that I belong to the living and true God. Now, he did it respectfully. He said he made up in his mind privately, I'm not going to define myself. But then he went and said, may I not define myself? So he was being respectful, but he was determined. If he had to go down the ladder, he was going to go down the ladder not to be defiled, not to lower the standards of God to satisfy the idol of culture or the desire, here it is, watch this, for success.

See, because folks will compromise to get success. If I can get a greater name, if I can get a better job, then I'll lower my standards if I can get a promotion. I'll lower my standards if I can become more well-known. I'll lower my standards if I can get more acceptance.

I'll lower my standards because I haven't drawn that line in the sand. I will not defile myself. Watch verse nine. Verse nine says, now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander. Oh, everybody wants favor.

Everybody. Everybody wants favor, but God did not show him favor until he drew the line. See, we want favor without drawing a line. We want blessing without drawing a line. We want the supernatural, but we won't draw the line. We want God to give us a mate while we shack up. We want God to bring somebody in our lives while we live immorally.

We want God to do this and God to do that. And we haven't drawn a line. He didn't get favor until he drew the line. You draw the line first, then you look for the favor. You don't look for the favor first. You draw the line because God wants to know if you serious, are you playing him for a fool? You know, we don't like people playing us. God don't like folk playing him.

He drew the line and then he got favor. It says God gave him favor more than all the other youths. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about the importance of listening to our Creator instead of our culture, part of his brand-new teaching series, American Idols.

This eight-lesson collection includes material we won't have time to include on the air, and it'll help you identify and avoid dangerous hidden idols that can come between you and the Lord. Available on both digital download and CD, these messages are great discussion starters to use with your Bible study or small group, or just to review on your own. And for a limited time, we're bundling the entire series along with a copy of Tony's powerful book, America, Turning a Nation to God. We'll send both of these valuable resources to you as our gift when you help support our work on this station and around the world with a generous contribution. You can make the arrangements online at tonyevans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are always on hand to help you. Again, that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. You've probably heard it said that Christians are supposed to be in the world but not of the world. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will talk about why that balancing act is often so difficult and outline ways to keep our feet firmly planted in the kingdom. Be sure to join him.