Culture + Christ: How Much Time Should I Spend with God?

This Sunday, Pipeline.Church had the pleasure of hearing from Brett Dood, a pastor from Ripon, CA who is running for Congress in 2024. He shared with Pipeline.Church the story of Daniel and the Lions Den and showed us how we as people can see Jesus in that story and ourselves in that story as well.

Before reading this post, I encourage you to stop right now and read the story of Daniel in your own Bible. You can also click here to read it.

Now, here is a run down of what he shared!

Daniel has been faithful. He stood his ground in the midst of incredible opposition. This has been very difficult.

The culture around him was not conducive to his faith environment, and yet Daniel consistently stood the test when the test came his way.

I want to show you a little roadmap here to understand what's happening in Daniel:
Daniel is serving the third of four kings faithfully. In this story, others plot to overthrow him by getting the king to pass legislation against his faith and values. He's going to have to stand his ground in the midst of that trial. Daniel remains faithful to God despite the cost, and is thrown into the lions' den and, of course God delivers, Daniel and inevitably ends up sharing a witness to the world through Daniel for being faithful in the midst of the difficult situation he was in.

Now, I want to show you three truths that emerge out of this passage that you're going to need to know today. Because, like Daniel, we're living in a culture that is largely moving far and fast away from the precepts of God. We're living in a culture that continues to get more and more broken, and so we're going to need to know these things that emerge out of God's word to be strengthened and to strengthen others so that we can walk faithfully as he did in a culture that is walking away from God.

The first thing that is important that you would see in this passage, is that when we live for Christ in this world, the world will inevitably try to pull us down.

One reason why these administrators didn't like Daniel is that he wasn't willing to adopt their philosophy. He wasn't willing to do what they were doing. In fact, the Bible tells us that they could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.

Now, wouldn't that be nice if we had individuals like that in places of power today that weren't corrupt, that weren't negligent, that weren't out to serve themselves, were actually out to serve people? I wonder, as we think about these axioms that defined Daniel in his life, I wonder if they define us in our life.

Are we trustworthy? Are we not corrupt? Are we diligent? Not negligent? Because these are qualities that define the Christ follower.

You see, Christians should be some of the greatest people to hire on this earth. Amen. Christians should be some of the most fantastic people to ever hire into any organization because Christians know who they're serving. They're not serving for a paycheck, they're not serving for their earthly masters.

The Christians know, as Paul shared with the church in Colossi, that whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters.

Since you know that you'll receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. When you're going to go out to your job tomorrow and you're already thinking, ugh, I don't want to go to this job, think to yourself it is the Lord Christ I am serving, and I'm going to do so with every bit of integrity and honor, and decency that I possibly can imperfectly muster, but I will shoot for to honor my true king.

It doesn't matter how much you go to church or how much Bible you can quote if your life is not guided by integrity. We see this emerging out of this passage. You see, as the world becomes more and more corrupt, honesty and integrity, and honor are going to put you at odds with culture. When you choose to live this way, it will put you at odds with the culture around you.

God elevates those who are willing to live with integrity. He elevates Daniel time and time again because he models not just courage, he models integrity. How about us today? Do we have integrity? Are we honest? Are we hardworking? Does it go ahead of our witness? Because when we live that way, don't be surprised if the world doesn't try to drag you down. Don't be surprised if there aren't people who don't like you. Continue living with integrity because God will raise up your feet to that next challenge.

When the officials could not indict Daniel vocationally, they move on to the next thing that the culture's going to continue to do upon the people of God. That is they are going to indict his spirituality. See, when the edicts of man contradict the edicts of God, the people of God must choose God.

It's the days that we're in. We see that in verse 6 through 10. The men were cunning. They knew they couldn't get Daniel morally. He was incorruptible, at least in that sense, so they went after him spiritually.

They knew that for some it would be an easy thing to give up praying to their gods (small g) for 30 days, and to pray to King Darius. They also knew for Daniel this would be a line of no return. They knew that he wouldn't be willing to do it because they knew Daniel was a man who feared the living God of Israel.

You see, the law of God told Daniel that he had to be faithful. He had to trust and serve and worship God even when the edicts of human beings contradicted the edicts of God. That presented a very tough situation for Daniel, and it will present a very difficult situation for us living in America today.

Now he needs to make a decision that will forsake all of that; to follow man or to follow God. Of course Daniel chose the latter. He chose to honor God.

There's an old saying that says history repeats itself. Solomon said in the scripture that there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new that we're going to experience today that people of faith have not experienced ahead of us. We're not the first generation nor will we be the last that are alive today that are in a theological clash with the powers and principalities within the government around us.

You may have noticed that he went back to his room and he prayed three times a day. Now, this wasn't something he started doing because he was in a dire strait. You ever had one of those seasons where you don't talk to God for a long time, and then you get in trouble and you talk to God three times the next day? That's not what Daniel's doing here. He's been talking to God three times a day on good days and bad days, because this is what the Jewish people do.

In the midst of the conflict he needed a holy habit to go back to the God and direct his steps so he didn't start doing something dumb, so that he didn't rush off ahead of God and start bringing his own will to bear. He didn't get on social media and vent. He didn't pick up his pitchforks and try to lead a revolt. He just simply went back to the holy habit that had guided and directed him previously. He went back and he prayed.

He didn't talk to any other person but God alone because he knew that in the midst of this trial he needed God more than he needed man. In the midst of this world that we live in, my friends, I cannot encourage you enough, talk to God about the things that are going on in this land before you rush off and talk to another. Get the influence of scripture before your heart, before you start believing the words of other people. Believe God's word more than you believe any person in power of any level of any place. Let God's word guide you and direct you to know how to stand in the midst of the trial.

We live in a culture today that is shifting. In the blink of an eye it feels like what has been considered broken has been considered righteous, and what is considered righteous is now called broken, and that is exactly what the scripture promised. Over the last five to six years, I've seen depravity move forward in our culture at light speed. Things that were once considered culturally unacceptable even within secular culture are now applauded and embraced, and are forced upon every single person, that if you don't applaud those things too, you are the enemy.

That's what's happening today. How you live now, and the holy habits you cultivate today will prepare you for the day when conflict comes. I wonder how many are reading God's word every day? We have a saying in my church that I deeply believe that if you give God 10 minutes a day when you're at your mental best, it will change the way you live your life. If you just simply give God 10 minutes a day in the word, sit down with His word, and allow it to wash over you, guide you, and you pray and say God, I want to be like you. I want to know your mind.

I want your mind to be my mind. I want your thoughts to be my thoughts, your words my words. If you sit down with the Lord for 10 minutes a day at a minimum every single day, it will change the way you live your life. That's my challenge to you today, Pipeline, if you're not already in God's word every day, that you would consider taking me up on this challenge. Set a timer and place it before you, 10 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye.

Imagine what it's like as we cultivate holy habits we can go back to when the day of conflict comes, because if we don't have a mooring to God, we will be swayed by the world. Daniel held holy habits to discern and direct his way when the edicts of the king contradicted the edicts of God, and so must we. 

The final truth that emerges out of this story, is one that I think we need to hear today even in the midst of what can feel like a really dark and gray cloud that surrounds us culturally, is that even when things seem hopeless, God can.

That even in the midst of a very broken world when things seem lost, God can. 

Daniel would not compromise his faith in God by following his earthly king. Where did that get him? It got him thrown into the lions' den. It's been described by late writers of antiquity that the lions of Babylon were famously only fed human flesh. They were fed no other meat. They were only fed human flesh, so that when a human was brought into the lions' den, they knew a meal had arrived. This is the situation that Daniel found himself in, a hopeless one to say the very best. It's here in this passage that something amazing happens.

Daniel gets thrown into this hopeless situation, dropped into the lions' den that are literally trained to eat him. The Bible tells us that an angel of the Lord touched the mouth of the lions and delivered him.

Why does it say he was delivered? Did you catch that in the passage? It says he was delivered because Daniel trusted in his God.

 What does it mean to trust someone? It means to trust is to believe that someone is good even in the midst of bad things. It means that we have confidence in someone because they have proven through abundant evidences of grace that they love us and they're for us.

We can trust that person in high times and low times because they've modeled in all times that they're for us and they love us. It's here that Daniel was protected from certain death because he was faithful and trusted his life into God's hands.

God delivered him, and He will do so again and again. Does that mean, as we read this passage, that we should have some kind of utopian view that if we just trust God enough we'll never experience pain, hardship, or suffering?

No.

That's not what the scripture says. We follow a savior who experienced the totality of hardship and suffering, and He was as faithful as it could be.

We will experience hardships, but Jesus says take heart, I have overcome the world. It means that we can trust God in the midst of good times and bad, that He is for us, that He loves us. That even in the midst the very difficult things, God can and will come through, and He can even deliver us from certain death.

Let me wrap this up by giving you the gospel in Daniel, if you haven't caught it already. The story of Daniel and the lions' den, and the cross of Jesus Christ are remarkably similar, aren't they?

Daniel was sentenced to death for serving God.

Jesus was sentenced to death to come and to serve and to save mankind.

A stone was rolled in front of the lion's den with the king's seal. It was to be Daniel's tomb. A stone was rolled in front of the tomb of Jesus Christ both sealed on the authority, one of King Darius, one of Pontius Pilate.

Neither Daniel or Jesus was supposed to live through their sentence, but remarkably, both did. Jesus lives because He trusted in the Father's plan, that in dying, in surrendering His life, He would give life to all who trusted and believed in Him. He knew that was the ultimate goal though it was difficult.

Jesus did what none of us could do. In perfection, He came in the incarnation. In perfection He lived in complete surrender to his Father's will being sinless. In perfection He died to satisfy the father's wrath against your sin and mine, and in absolute perfection He rose again from the grave according to the scriptures. Jesus did what no human being could do. He was perfect, and He died in perfection, and He rose in absolute perfection.

Today, by trusting in Christ, we are delivered from the lions' den that no doubt would inevitably bring us certain death.

It's a death that the Bible tells us our sin deserves.

Jesus Christ has come that we could be delivered from those sin, all of them, and brought into a new life in relationship with Christ.

The gospel is good news. That's what the word "gospel" means. It means good news. Why is it good news?

It's good news because we're all sinners in need of saving, but God in His mercy sent Jesus Christ to save us that by faith in His death and resurrection, we could be forgiven, we could be set free.

No matter what you've done, no matter how bad you've been, Jesus is willing to accept you and deliver you from the line of death today.