America is primed for decline. You're watching a generation without conscience because all the systems out there has made it sound like it's okay. Dr. Tony Evans talks about preparing our kids to be saints in a secular society.
Yes, you are going to look weird when you make up your mind that that's not how I roll. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. No matter how much we try to protect our kids, sooner or later they'll come face to face with the world's value system and start feeling the pressure to conform to it.
Let's listen in as Dr. Evans talks about how we can get them prepared. You and I are no longer living in the same country that your mother gave birth to you in. You and I are witnessing at warp speed the devolution of a nation. In every arena that you can name, you're watching the unraveling of a culture spiritually.
So how are saints to function in a secular culture? This was the situation in the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 1, verse 2 says, the Lord gave Jehoakim, king of Judah, into his hand. That is, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. Babylon is a secular society, a pagan society led by a man named Nebuchadnezzar. God's people in the southern kingdom, Judah, had rebelled against God.
And when they rebelled against God, watch this, when God's people rebelled against God, he turned them over to secularism. He turned them over to the king of Babylon. He turns them over. He takes the vessels from the house of God. He invades the church. He brings them to the land of Shania, to the house of his God. So the secular God takes over the Christian God. The government secular invades the church spiritually and takes the church and secularizes it. So Nebuchadnezzar takes from God's people from God's house and inculcates it into his secular system.
Then the king makes an order, verse 3 to Ashkenaz, the chief of the officials, to bring some of the sons of Israel, the creme de la creme, cream of the crop, including some from the royal family and the nobles, youth teenagers, in whom there was no defect who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding, discerning knowledge, who had the ability for serving in the king's court, and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. In other words, let's get the next generation. Let's get these young teenagers and let's bring them into our secular culture and let's Babylonianize them. Let's reshape their thinking into who we are, not where they came from. Let's get church up out of them. Let's get their God away from them and let's reorient them.
So how do they do that? The first thing they do is isolate them from their spiritual heritage. They remove them from Israel, from the house of God, to Babylon, to the house of idols, and they relocate them in order to reeducate them. He says, let's bring these young people over and let's isolate them so that they're not being reinforced by their God-centered worldview, their theistic orientation to life. Now, let's not only isolate them, let's reeducate them, because the end of verse four says, teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Chaldeans means Babylonian. In other words, let's bring them to school. In fact, he goes on to say they were given a three-year scholarship. Now, if you're going to a Babylonian school located in a Babylonian city by Babylonian teachers reading Babylonian literature, then you're gonna start to think like a Babylonian.
You're gonna start to think like the culture's influence on you. And then let's add a little something to it. Let's entertain them.
Verse five, the king appointed for them a daily ration of the king's choice food and the wine which the king drank. Let's create hopes and dreams and opportunities and fanfare. Let's make them feel good, because we make them feel good, they're gonna want to be in Babylon.
They're gonna want to hang out with the rich and the famous. And then let's do something else. Let's rename them. Their names coming out of Israel, verse six, was Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. But we're gonna rename them. We have to raise the question, why did they have to change the guy's name? Why can't you just call them what their mama called them?
Why we gotta change the name? So let's learn a little Hebrew right now. Two of the Hebrew boys' names back home, when they they were born and their mama's named them, was Daniel and Mishael. Please notice that those two names end with L, E-L. The other two, Hananiah, Azariah, their names end with I-A, I-A-H.
So now we learn a little bit about their mama and their daddy, because they're the ones who named them. The ones whose name begins or ends with L. L is the Old Testament word for Elohim, God. It's the singular of the plural. In the beginning, God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. That's plural, because God is plural in this person. It's a majestic plural. God is three persons composed of one God, or making one God, three different persons, making the singular God Elohim. But if you just want a designated singular, God said, let us make man plural.
Then he said he made man singular. So you can make Elohim the plural God, or you can use L. I-A-H is Yah. Hallelujah. Hallelu means praise.
Yah means God. So those two boys were named after Jehovah, which is God's self-revealing name. So now we learn a little bit about these four boys, mama and daddy. They wanted these boys to be baptized with God's name, so that they could never get away from God.
Because every time you call their name, they had to be reminded of El or I-A. They had to be reminded that they had a God stamp on them. Your job, mothers and fathers, is to stamp your children with God, so that when they go to Babylon, their name has already been stamped on them. That they can't go. Anytime you say, Daniel, Azariah, Mishael, anytime they were called God, God, God, I keep bumping into God. Now I know some of your kids are fussing that you make them go to church.
I understand that. But the reason why you should be making them go to church, if they get a vote, you're a bad parent. If your kids get to vote while they're in your house, or whether they go to church, you are an embarrassment to the kingdom of God. They don't get a vote. You didn't ask them to vote whether they go to public school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday just because they don't like school.
Why? Because you know that an education is essential to their well-being and being productive in an American capitalistic society. Well, if they don't get to vote on eight hours a day, five days a week, how do they get to vote on two hours once a week? My father never gave me a vote.
Do you want to go to church today? They don't get that vote. Why? Because when Babylon captures them in college, when Babylon captures them in society, when Babylon captures them by media, you want to make sure they got an L or an I on their name. Because when Babylon gets them, it's gonna try to rename them. And look at the names. The names are Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
In other words, they're all Babylonian names. But Daniel made up in his mind he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank. Daniel says, I got my limitations. Because he's raised in a theocentric, theistic, God-centered environment. He's probably 15 or 16 years old when we read about him in Babylon.
And I know exactly what he's thinking. He's thinking Exodus 34, verses 14 and 15. For you shall not worship any other God. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
He doesn't like competition. Otherwise, verse 15, you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice. When we pick up our message again in just a moment, we'll see how Daniel kept his spiritual identity intact. Stay with us. The threat of global catastrophe looms over us. Earthquakes, fires. It seems like the world is falling into turmoil. Are you ready to face Armageddon? Dr. Tony Evans' latest book, Thy Kingdom Come, emerges as a light amidst the sin-ridden depths of our world, guiding you through the murky waters of uncertainty. Within these insightful pages, wisdom intertwines with revelation. You'll dive deep into the mysteries of enigmatic prophecy, where solace awaits the weary soul.
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Do not be caught off guard. Many of us are concerned about the direction our country is heading, and we often feel helpless to do anything about it. But as we've been hearing from Dr. Evans today, we can not only live as saints in a secular society, but we can also help turn that society back to God. Today's message and the sermon series it comes from, Turning a Nation to God, help demonstrate how Christians can work together to usher in a revival.
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Right now, let's get back to today's message. Here's Dr. Evans. Daniel googled food in a foreign land. And when Daniel googled food in a foreign land, up pops Exodus chapter 34, verses 14 and 15.
I am a jealous God, and in the foreign land, they're gonna try to feed you food that have been sacrificed to a foreign God and then ask you to come eat with them. You ought to be smart enough, Daniel, to know this food is not just about eating. This food is about fellowshipping around that God, because we've already been told in verses 1 and 2 that he took out of the house of God and brought into his house that served his God. He knew the food had been offered to God, so he knew to fellowship around the food was not just to eat, it was to fellowship with Babylon's God.
Watch out when they invite you out to dinner. No, it may not only be about food. Like people who do business deals around food, they call you on Let's Have Lunch to discuss the deal. Daniel knew, Let's Have Food to discuss the God. He knew that this was about eating, about idolatry, about the worship of another God, and I hope you understand that's what the culture is offering you today in the name of secularism, in the name of political correctness. What they're offering you is another God.
I don't want you to miss something. He would not eat the king's food, but he did take the king's job. He did accept the king's salary.
You'll see that when you read the chapter. Because God is not asking you to isolate yourself from the culture. I mean, you got to work somewhere.
You got to earn money doing something. He even wind up going to the king's school for three years. He went to a secular university. The issue is not did he go to a secular university, it's did he lose his identity in a secular university. The issue is not that he worked on a secular job, the issue is did he lose his identity on the secular job in which he worked. The issue was not did he make a good salary, he's working in the king's court. He's gonna be well-paid. In fact, he climbs the ladder of success very rapidly in the king's court, because even the king wants somebody he can trust, and then even the king wants somebody who's gonna make him more profitable. The problem is not that he worked that job, the issue is that the job didn't work him.
Daniel said, I've got my limitations. I'm gonna work for you. I'm gonna do good for you.
The company's gonna benefit because I'm here and working hard and being productive, but you have to understand I have my boundaries. College students, your friends ought to know there's certain parties I don't go to, that I am identified with God, so there are certain things that I don't go to. There are certain things I don't participate in because they have religious connotations against God. Verse 9, Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the command of the officials. Okay, wait a minute, stick with me here. In verse 8, we got but Daniel. In verse 9, we got now God. Everybody wants God's favor, God's compassion, God's blessing, when they've made absolutely no commitment. They have been said, I'm taking my stand with God, and then see now God. We want to see God now, and we want to be blessed first, and then we promise what we're gonna commit after we get blessed.
That's called backwards Christian soldiers. God's not gonna make the decision for you. He will honor the decision if it's the right one made, but he will not make the decision for you because then you're no longer the free agent he created you to be, but he will respond to the right decision. You're saying, God, bless me in my career, and God's trying to see whether you've made up your mind.
Are you taking him into that career, or you just want him to bless you even though you're gonna forget him in your career? This is radical stuff. It used to not be radical stuff, because a lot of the people that were around you were like you. Now you will find yourself like Daniel and the three Hebrew boys, the odd man out. To make up your mind and not go with the crowd and not be politically correct, you're going to find yourself the odd ball. Let me tell you now, when you don't go with what's politically correct, when you won't go the way of a crowd, when you seek to be a Daniel in a Babylon and still retain the L on your name. I ain't talking about going to church. I'm talking about not eating the meat.
I'm talking about not compromising with the standards of God in order to be accepted by the culture. America is primed for decline. You're watching a generation without conscience.
I hope you're seeing that. All this stuff that you're seeing kids doing at younger and younger age is because they have no conscience. They don't have a sense of this is wrong, this is shameful.
They don't feel that bad about it, because all the systems out there has made it sound like it's okay, and everybody's doing it, and you don't have to feel bad about it, and it's no longer sinful. It's no longer evil. It's no longer something you should refrain from. It's no longer something you should say, that's not right. Yeah, I did it and it was wrong.
It's now the end thing. Yes, you are going to look weird, because you're living in a culture that says it's no longer weird. So you're gonna look strange when you make up your mind that that's not how I roll, because I got L on the back of my name, or Aya on the back of my name. And how did you get L on the back of your name, and Aya on the back of your name? And then you can say, let me tell you about my mama and my daddy. They named me this, and every time I looked up, it was God this, and God that, and Jesus this, and Jesus that, and the Bible this, and the Bible that.
Yeah, your kid's not gonna like it. It's gonna get on your nerves, but when Babylon tries to own them, you've given them a name to remember, and something to reel them back in if they depart. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from. You will give God a fishing reel and a line to reel them back in on. So don't think you're wasting your time when you pray with them, and pray for them, and ask them, what did you learn in Sunday school, and have devotions with them. I know they're falling asleep. I know they're not paying attention. I know it looks like they're not interested, but if you give them L on the back of their name, I on the back of their name, you have given them something for God to use when Babylon takes over. In just a moment, we'll hear more from Dr. Evans as he wraps up our time together with a final word of encouragement.
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Right now, let's listen in as Dr. Evans wraps up today's teaching. And so what is God calling us to be? He's calling us to be saints in the secular society. He's calling us to go against the grain when the grain is going against God, because that system out there is sophisticated. Nebuchadnezzar has got this thing organized to keep God out, to redefine value systems, to redefine morality, to redefine order, to redefine—that system has been set up to only. That is, unless you know your name.
