Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible> your Bibles to Daniel chapter one, Daniel chapter one,
Speaker 1 00:00:12 We introduced last week, reengaging in COVID times, we're going to continue that this week with another concept, that's important for us to look at
Speaker 1 00:00:32 My wife, Mel is from a Norwegian heritage. And as a result, we get some real benefits at Christmas time with things that she bakes, whether these special things Rosetta's, we have, we have Chrome Kaka. We have funnymen sand buckles, but there's one thing she makes every year. There's very special. It's left side. Now left says a potato and milk batter that sort of like a flour tortilla. And, but there's a special grill for it. And so we had this nice grill that she has about that big around just flat as can be. It only comes out around this Christmas. In fact, it only comes out this day that she's making left side. And along with that grill, there's also this long wooden tool that is used at you slide underneath it as it's baking or grilling, and then you just fold it over, tip it over.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 So you make the other side and it comes out just Brown on when you get done eat at different ways, some people would just butter on it. Someone just playing butter and sugar. It's just really a great item deed at Christmas time. And that grill. When you read the instructions on it, you can use it for anything. You can bake eggs on it. You can do French toast on it. You make pancakes on it, but we don't. That thing comes out one time a year. That one day we bake left Suh. It goes back in the box. It goes up on the shelf and it doesn't come out again because it is set apart for one thing only making left saw. Now you may have something like that in your home too. You may have something in your home that for birthdays, you have that one birthday plate and everybody in the family knows.
Speaker 1 00:02:03 As soon as they see that played out, they know this is it it's birthday time, or it can be special dishes that you have, but somehow you've got something in your home that you've sort of set apart that everybody knows this is it is for a very special event, a special occasion, something it's dedicated to. Well, the scriptures talk about that as well. It uses the word of consecrated. It's the idea that you can take something and Senator apart just for God to make it Holy set it apart. It's used only for one thing to somehow bring honor and glory to God. And it's called consecrated. And the old Testament is used in a variety of ways. You could consecrate things. So when you think of the tabernacle or the temple, when the Jewish people worship, all those items that were in there were consecrated set apart only for God, but you could also
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Do people.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 In fact, the priests were consecrated. There were anointed with oil and set apart just to bring worship and honor, and glory to God. But this is interesting as well after God finds himself. Given the 10 commandments that we talk about, Moses has given the law and in the laws, Leviticus and love. They give it Leviticus 11 and verse 11 or chapter 11 verses 44 and 45. It says this for, I am the Lord, your God consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be Holy for, I am Holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground for. I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Here's what God's saying. When he gave him his people brought him out of Egypt, he set them apart and he said, every one of those Jewish people were to consecrate themselves, set themselves apart from anyone else.
Speaker 1 00:04:13 It tells us there's something important for us to understand. Then when we come to the new Testament, it talks about the same thing that we, as followers of Jesus Christ are to consecrate ourselves, set ourselves apart from other people. Somehow when they look at us, they see something different because we're consecrated to Christ. When we come to the book of Daniel, we've seen how it's unfolded, where these Jewish people found themselves, living in Jerusalem in this life and culture they have, but they were conquered by the Babylonians and never can as, or takes them and brings them all the way over to Babylon. And when he gets in there introduces them to all the culture they have in Babylon, he's training Daniel and his three friends with all the culture they can have. And while they're over here, trying to figure out what to do.
Speaker 1 00:05:04 Jeremiah writes them a letter Jeremiah's letter comes about Jeremiah 29. He tells him, here's what I want you to do live normal lives, but I want to make sure you come together periodically and pray, pray for the welfare of the city, pray for one another. And he brings you together for community. This face-to-face community for prayer and for worship. But there's the second thing we find in the book. If they're going to deal with his life over here in Babylon, they not only need community, but it's also, we find these young men and we find out that they need to be consecrated and how they live for us to think for ourselves during this COVID time during the lives we live now that somehow when people see us, do they see us different to see us consecrated? Do they see us set apart for Christ?
Speaker 1 00:06:04 And as we come to our passage today, we're going to look at various chapters out of Daniel. And I want you to see there's five things to do. They seem to identify out their life, five things that we should wrestle with on a regular basis in my life do, how do I respond to these five things? Because they make up a consecrated life. And what we find is the way that they live through this difficult time is by being consecrated to God. There's the importance of community that we gathered together. But there's also the importance of how I personally live in difficult times. So what's a consecrated life look like. Well, the first word is defilement. Here's what we read Daniel chapter.
Speaker 0 00:06:52 And starting at verse eight,
Speaker 1 00:07:00 Daniel made up his mind. They would not define himself. You may recall. What's happened up to here is that Daniel's come along. They're told they're going to eat the King's food and drink the King's wine, which is not kosher and violates the law of the old Testament. So Daniel and his friends respond this way, but Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the King's choice food or with the wine which he drank. And he saw permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now, God granted Daniel favor and compassion. The side of the commander of the officials and the commander. The officials said to Daniel, I'm afraid my Lord, the King was appointed your food and your drink for why you should see your faces looking more Haggard than the youth who are your own age.
Speaker 1 00:07:49 Then you would make me forget or forfeit my head to the King. But Daniel said to the overseer made the commander of the officials had appointed, said to the officer whom the commander of the officials at a point over Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah please test your servants for 10 days and let us be given vegetables. So here they are trying to decide what to do and decide not to defile themselves. That is they're not going to eat this food. They're not going to drink this wine. They put a test let's test for 10 days. And how do we do compared to the others? They find out after 10 days, they've not lost weight. They're doing just fine. And the overseer lets them stay on that diet and continue living that way. Here's the outcome that we find dropped down to the end of the chapter here in verse 17.
Speaker 1 00:08:39 And as far as for these use, God gave them knowledge and intelligence, every branch of literature and wisdom and Daniel, even stutter, all kinds of visions and dreams, verse 19, and the King talked with them and out of them, all none was found like Daniel and Hannah and I am Michelle and Azariah so they entered the King's personal service. So what we find is they've taken this decision to not have defilement or defiled their lives. The result of that is that all of a sudden God honors that and they get to serve in the King's court. But the idea of defilement brings on the idea that something you can see, it actually identifies a stain, or if you pollute something. So to understand, when you start thinking of defilement in your life, it's where other people can see that taking place for these young men, they could see what they were eating. Everybody could watch what they ate every day. They could see if they did defile themselves. If they ate that non-kosher food, it was seeing that that happened. The whole idea that we can sustain ourselves. Now, my favorite sweatshirt I have in my closet is run from my Alma mater university of North Dakota. And about the first time I wore it, I dropped something on. I have this grease spot just about right here.
Speaker 1 00:09:56 I never wear that sweatshirt anymore. It's still in my closet because I like it so much. But as a gray spot here, why? And if I go out with you and you see that you see this stain on my sweatshirt and you're thinking yourself, Mike, do you know, there's a state. You get to see it. And defilement means there's something that stains our life, that other people see. Now, if you want to live a consecrated life, you have to make sure there's not defilement in your life. What are the things that people can see in us? That would be two filing us there was about, but the word you use about in the workplace, how you talk to your coworkers, listened to you, and actually you're defiling yourself and your consecration. By the words you use by the jokes you tell, do you find yourself when you swear, when you get angry and you can apologize for it.
Speaker 1 00:10:57 But somehow people hear you taking the Lord's name. Somehow they hear other words out of you. And somehow just by your presence and your word, you are staining yourself and your consecration because you're defiling yourself. How about when you're around other people and you start talking about other people is a gossip in your life. That's how long people listen to you talk. They're aware that they're stains on your life. When they look at you and that they don't see Christ, they see those stains on your sweatshirt. And wondering why, if you were a consecrated follower of Christ, why do these words come out of your mouth? When they come up behind you on your computer, your tablet, or your phone or your laptop. And they see what looking at, is there a stain on your soul that they see? Is it where they watch places that you go, that all of a sudden there's a stain on your soul.
Speaker 1 00:12:07 As they look at you. And all of a sudden our walk with Christ, this will be this consecration that we have, that somehow, when people look at us, they see Christ. Then when Daniel and his friends were looked at, they saw your way and who they followed because of how they lived. Because consecration means we wrestle with defilement and we do not want to defile ourselves as we follow Christ. Well, there's a second word that becomes important. This, we find ourselves in Daniel chapter two, and that word is decision-making. So Daniel chapter two, what takes place is that never can, as there's going to have a dream and he has his dream, he wants to find out what it means. And he's asking all his conjures and all his magician. What does this dream mean? And they're sending out individuals to do it. So in chapter two, here's what we read down.
Speaker 1 00:13:08 The second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. King gave orders to call all the magicians and conjurers of sourcers in the Cal deans to tell him his dream. So they came in and stood before him King said, I had a dream, my spirits anxious to understand the dream, tell the dream to your servant. Well, I'm sorry. Verse four. Then caldron spoke to the King and Aramaic. Oh, King live forever. Tell the dream to your servants. And we will declare the interpretation. King said to the Caldeans. The command for me is from, if you do not make known to me, the dream and its interpretation, you'll be torn limb from limb. Your houses will be turned into rubbish. So the King has a dream. He's not going to tell him the dream to interpret it. He tells them they have to tell him the dream. So it transpires is Daniel and his friends are coming to hear about this. And this occurs when we dropped down to verse
Speaker 3 00:14:03 25,
Speaker 1 00:14:04 Not 25 earlier in that verse 14, we, uh, the decree went out in verse 13. The tree went out for it to all the wise, men should be slain. And they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them. That Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch the captain of the King's bodyguard who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to areola the Kings commander. For what reason is the Cree from the King? So urgent, Eric had informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the King that he would give him time to order in order that he might declare the interpretation that King. So Daniel and his friends are going to interpret the dream. How do they go about doing that? Here's what we read in verse 17. Then Daniel went to his house, informed his friends, Hannah Naya, Michelle.
Speaker 1 00:14:55 And Azariah about the matter in order that they might request compassion from God of heaven concerning this mystery. So that Daniel and his friends might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. So the King has a dream, wants it interpreted. Daniel finds out about decides. What he's going to do is get help. Two things he does. One is he gets together with his three friends. So now the four of them start having a conversation about what to do next in that conversation. They also pray together that God would give them compassion and understanding to the dream. And God actually does that for them. But where I want you to see in this process here of decision-making that during this difficult time, Daniel does not function all alone. He doesn't come to this idea. I need to interpret the string. What do I do?
Speaker 1 00:15:45 And function all alone in his life. He actually pursues counsel from other people. As he finds his counsel from other people, then they sit down and talk and then they pray. And what happens is God actually answers their prayer and he interprets the dream decision-making as an important thing in the life of the believer. But have you ever associated with the idea of your consecration to Christ of how you make decisions? It's been interesting. This COVID time and listening to people and all the decisions people have made. Some of my sorta enjoy listening to of how many people have bought pets during Chris' COVID time and their COVID pets now. And they have all their pets that they have inside. Both some decisions they made, but I've also been entering to watch
Speaker 2 00:16:32 How many people have moved during this time sold houses and bought new houses
Speaker 1 00:16:37 Decisions. That way jobs are being decided. Are you taking a new job or
Speaker 2 00:16:42 Not
Speaker 1 00:16:45 All this is going on? We're making decisions all the time, but decision-making decision-making as we watch these young men
Speaker 2 00:16:56 Was not done all alone
Speaker 1 00:16:59 Decisions where you gather some others with you to help you make a decision, and how do they help you make that decision. They pray with you for that. Essentially you come to Proverbs, Proverbs talks about how you make decisions. It says this in Proverbs 11, verse 14, where there is no guidance of people fall, but in the abundance of counselors, there is safety Proverbs 13, 22 without counsel plans fail. But with the many advisors they succeed. So turning to think through when we start thinking of being committed to Christ and following Christ, we're all making decisions regularly important decisions in our life. But decision-making as a follower of Christ gets involved with other people as well. The part of our decision-making is that we get the counsel from other believers. That's a spiritual decision we're making therefore there's prayer that has made on those behalf too.
Speaker 1 00:18:07 And though we may say that often that we pray, it's just pushing back on you. Did you really spend time in prayer as a couple? Did you pray as a family? Did you pray? Did other believers pray with you? Decision-making for followers of Christ are important, but somehow if we're going to have this consecrated life, it means we bring other people into our lives individually to say, I want to talk to you about what I'm working through in deciding, and as I make this decision, I'm asking for your counsel, I'm asking for your advice. And I want you to pray with me as we do this, say consecrated lives are wrestling with questions all the time, but an important one is decision-making of how we make it. Because when we see what God wants us to do and how he's leading as this is next step for us, and we find the spirit of God working among our friends, as we pray to get the direction from God, for another people hear our story, they do hear how, how God has led in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:19:22 They do here, how he's directed us. We do here, how we came from this place to this place. And we get that counsel that abundance, the counselors who come alongside to affirm, to encourage and decisions that we're making, because we're making hard decisions at times, difficult decisions at times. And sometimes we're making those hard decisions. We don't want people to know at the same time that when people need to know to bring in the wisdom of counsel and the leading of God, as we listened to one another, we pray together as we make decisions that somehow when we think of God working among his people, when we think of ourselves living in difficult times, that we know the decisions that we are making are important to get counsel and to pray. Let me give you a third word becomes important to wrestle with. And that word is idolatry turned to chapter three of Daniel, Daniel chapter three.
Speaker 1 00:20:38 Here's what we read to start off with never Condesa is still King. So never <inaudible> the King made an image of gold, the height, which is cubits and it's with a six cubits. He set it up in the plain of dura in the province of Babylon. So it's 90 feet tall. It's nine feet wide. There's a really huge, huge, huge statue. And idol is what it's called is made of gold Nebuchadnezzar verse two Nebuchadnezzar sent King sent word to the assemble. The say traps, the prefects, the governors, the councilors, the treasures, the judges, the magistrates, and all the rulers of the province to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up. Then the Saint traps, prefects and governors, the councilors and treasures, the judges, the magistrates in all the rules of the province were assembled for the dedication, the image that Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up.
Speaker 1 00:21:34 And they stood before the image that he had set up. Then the heard loudly and proclaim to you. The command is given Oh, peoples nations, men of every language that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the liar, the trigon psaltery bagpipe didn't know there were Scottish bagpipes and all kinds of music. You are all to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And so the image is set up 90 feet, tall, nine feet wide. So as I hear all those intro, everybody says fall down and worship, and that is to take place. And then here's what takes place actually happens. So as that takes place, it's all set up. Verse 12, certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and amend to go. These men O King have disregarded you and do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.
Speaker 1 00:22:34 So it continues in Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach Meshach, and the men go to the him and brought them before the King Nebuchadnezzar responded to them and said, is that true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that you do not serve my gods and worship the golden image I've set up. Now, if you are ready at the moment, you hear the sound of the horn flute, liar, trigon, salt, tree bagpipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image I made very well. But if you will not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire and what God is there, who can delivery out of my hands, Shadrach, Meshach and men go answered and said, O'Kane King Nebuchadnezzar. We do not need to give you an answer concerning this. If it be.
Speaker 1 00:23:22 So our God, whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of the blazing fire. And he would deliver us out of your hand, Oak King. But even if he does not let it be known to you, Oh, King, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. So they would just set up. Everything happens. Everybody bows down these three young men, and I was aware that they didn't worship the idol. All of a sudden idolatry becomes an important thing in the life of every follower of Christ. And for these men following your way, there's, I cost to them. They're gonna be thrown into a fiery furnace. We find the furnace bade nine times hotter than normal King watches. It happen, hoping it doesn't hurt them, but anticipating it will kill them. And their willingness to go that far at that high cost of their life in order that they do not worship an idol identifies that we're wrestling with idolatry in our lives. When it comes to following Christ. Idolatry is something that can happen to all of us, that somehow we have this opportunity to fall down and worship other things, then Christ or the King of Kings and our heavenly father that somehow we can worship other things and not follow Christ. And all of a sudden to pause, ask ourselves a question in my consecrated life. Are there idols that I find myself giving to as opposed to following Christ and idolatry can show up in so many forms.
Speaker 0 00:25:11 It's where do we spend my time?
Speaker 1 00:25:14 I look at all the time I spend on things. It's where do I spend my money on the things I purchased and have to have when I start thinking of the idols that are in my life, what they could be of where I spend time and spend money. And all of a sudden it's like, this is what I have to
Speaker 0 00:25:33 Have.
Speaker 1 00:25:35 This is the sense of that. All of a sudden you're in pursuit of prominence that you just want to be known or looking for a promotion at work that you're striving so hard for that. Are you going after financial wealth in such a way that you have to have more money than what you have? Is there a pursuit in your life that you find it is driving you for everything you want to do? And it becomes an idol in your life.
Speaker 0 00:26:04 Will you take your extra time
Speaker 1 00:26:06 Outside of work and where do you spend it? Are there hobbies you have? Are there addictions you have, are there things that you pursue that when somebody watches their perception is there's this idol that you have in your life. And for us as followers of Christ, to know that on a regular basis, we're wrestling with this question of idolatry. What is it that I'm truly pursuing with my life? What is it am I really trying to accomplish? What is it that I give all my time to? What is it that I spend my money on? What is the idol that I have in my life? Cause I, dollar tree is one that comes forward. We have to wrestle with when it comes to having a consecrated life as a follower of Christ and we have your fourth word, that's witness, good chapter four situation arises here, or the King comes again.
Speaker 1 00:27:10 And Nebuchadnezzar is what we read Nebuchadnezzar. The King of all the peoples nations of men, of every language that live on the earth. May your peace have down. It seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders, which the most high God has done for me. How great are his signs? How mighty are his wonders? His kingdom has an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation to generation. He continues. I never can answer was that my ease of my house and flourishing in my palace, I saw a dream. It made me fearful. And these fantasies lay on my bed and visions in my mind kept alarming me. So he has this vision, having this vision. He now is looking for an interpretation of the dream. No one's able to interpret the dream until Daniel comes along and gives an interpretation. And as he gives the interpretation, we find it coming forth in a verse 19 and introduces a Daniel whose name as Belshazzar was appalled for awhile.
Speaker 1 00:28:16 As his thoughts alarmed him, the King responded and said, Belshazzar, do another that the dream or its interpretation alarm you Belshazzar answered and said, my Lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you, it's interpretation to your adversaries, but he identifies the dreamers about him. When it comes to work its way out, we get down to verse 23 and we find out that dream comes to fruition. The dream has been that he's going to have a time where he's going to find himself for a year or so, going out into the woods and subscribe this way. And this happened in network has, or the King, 12 months later, he was walking on the roof of that Royal palace of Babylon King reflected and said, is this not Babylon? The great which I myself have built as a Royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my match.
Speaker 1 00:29:08 So he's boasting while the word was in the King's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying King Nebuchadnezzar to you. It is declared. Sovereignty has been removed from you and you will be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be the beast of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle. Seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is a ruler over the realm of mankind, into his bestows it on whomever he wishes. So what happens is the King finds himself now out in the woods for 12 months, finds us now scouring through the woods and everything like he's insane for over a year. That was the dream he had. That's actually what happened. It's what Daniel told him would take place. This is the same Nebuchadnezzar who saw the three men come through the fiery furnace.
Speaker 1 00:30:01 As he saw that he found himself overwhelmed by the God that they believed in and actually makes declaration about this. God. And now he has his vision. Interbrand by dangling. It actually comes to fruition. It happens when it all gets done. Here's what takes place next for him. Look at verses 33 and following Amelie, the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind, began eating grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the Dew heaven until his hair had grown like Eagles feathers and his hands like birds claws. But at the end of that period, this is now his testimony. I never can answer. Raise my eyes towards heaven. By reason returned to me, I blessed the most high and praise and honored his him who lives forever for his dominion, his everlasting dominion, his kingdom Everleigh endures from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of earth are accounted as nothing. But he does. According to his will in the host of heaven, dropped down to verse 37. Now I never can. As her praise exalt and honor the King of heaven for all his works are true and his ways just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride.
Speaker 1 00:31:23 The reason I would use the word witness here, it's because of the words, the witness and testimony of these four consecrated followers of Yahweh. They told him about Yahweh. They told them about their faith. And as a result, all of a sudden you have Nebuchadnezzar making a statement of faith as well. And that someone would think of a consecrated life. There's somehow a witness that we have as well. It's not just how we live. It's how we speak as well. That we think of the difficult times we live in working with coworkers and zooming and all that takes place. When I'm trying to connect with family and all, when we start thinking of people who do not know Christ, that we have a responsibility to be a witness just by our life of how we live. But by our words that we speak, I want you to think about that.
Speaker 1 00:32:19 When's the last time you actually spoke of Christ, spoke of Jesus Christ to a neighbor. When's the last time you actually shared Christ with maybe somebody at work. Almost. I talk to a family member who doesn't know Christ and actually spoke your testimony of how you came to Christ. When's the last time you actually witnessed with your words about Christ. Sometimes I feel as though what we want to do is just be accepted by our neighbors, just that they like us, because if I speak, I might offend them, but somehow a consecrated life of following Jesus Christ is that somehow we witness with our words, as we say, here, we not just go grow and overcome. We go, we go.
Speaker 2 00:33:22 Why to make disciples.
Speaker 1 00:33:25 There's words that we speak. We witnessed that we have that takes place when we're consecrated to Christ. Our final word is prayer. This comes in chapter six, where Daniel finds himself in a situation where they pass a law in the nation, that you can not pray to any God except the gods of the Babylonians. And Daniel's aware of that document. And it's finally set signed in verse nine of chapter six, therefore King Derrius signed the document, and that is the injunction verse 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house now in his roof chamber and the windows open towards Jerusalem. So he can be seen by everyone. He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had done previously, then these men came by. Agreement, found Daniel, making petition supplication before his God.
Speaker 1 00:34:28 Then they approached and spoke to the King and they told him, did you not sign that man who makes petition to any God or man besides you O King for 30 days is the cast. And the lion's den the King answered and said, the statement is true. According to law of the Medes and the Persians, which may not be revoked. And this is Derrius the King, this is not Nebuchadnezzar. And as a result of this, Daniel is thrown into the lion's den. And once again, God saves him out of the lion's den. Like he saved his friends out of the fiery furnace. But what did identifies is that a consecrated life is one of prayer. And him for Daniel was public prayer that it can be seen by others. And just thinking about our prayer life of how we spend time in prayer or how often we get those emails, those Facebook posts now where people say, here's, what's going on in my life.
Speaker 1 00:35:24 And we respond praying for you. And the question are we really praying for them? Did you really pray for them? Or is it just words we pass on? I found for myself that I was doing that. And after a while I realized I didn't pray for them. I just said I was going to pray for them. And I realized now I do not respond until I pray. And then I don't say, I'm praying. I said, I prayed for you because I actually prayed. But somehow when it comes to prayer, the prayers, the life of a consecrated believer, one who follows Christ and that somehow people could watch us see us in some way. They know we pray. Some would gather with our friends that we pray. Some there's even public prayer that they may see. And maybe when you have meals together, when you go out with your family in public, maybe it's at work, but somehow prayer becomes part of your life. It becomes the anticipation of a consecrated life is that we pray. That's why tonight we're having a prayer night. Why? Because that's what believers do. Not just in difficult times, that's the Mark of a consecrated life to do that. So we start thinking of this consecrated life of these men. Well, we have to realize there's a high cost and a high commitment. And following Christ means there's a high cost. There's a high commitment. There's a cost to following Christ.
Speaker 4 00:36:52 It
Speaker 1 00:36:52 Costs these bins, potentially their lives. There's a commitment in following Christ. And that we become aware of that turn to Romans 12 with me, Romans 12, verses one and two,
Speaker 4 00:37:10 As Paul
Speaker 1 00:37:11 Writes, Romans, he goes to the first four chapters and he lays out the foundation of salvation, the need for salvation and righteousness with our sin. He identifies where justified. And he gets us up to chapter five, verses chapter six, seven, and eight. He comes along and talks about how we wrestle with the Christian life. We wrestle with license legalism. We live by the spirit chapters, nine, 10, 11. He talks about the role of Israel or what God's plan is for them. And then he comes to his application of the truth of justification by faith. And he comes to his therefore in Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. And this just brings to bear for us as followers of Christ that we find in the old Testament. We find true here as well. He says, I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, to what present your bodies, to dedicate your life, to consecrate yourself a living and Holy sacrifice, acceptable God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is. That is good and acceptable and perfect. He says, present your bodies as living sacrifice has been sense that by some, the only problem with a living sacrifice on an altar, as it keeps crawling off,
Speaker 1 00:38:37 No for us, we need to pause at times and realize, is there a place to rededicate our lives? And we're talking about consecration here, you've come to Christ you following Christ, but is there a place where you pause and stop and say, you know what Lord I need to, I need to re consecrate my life. I realized there's areas that I've taken back and taking control of, or there's things I'm doing that I need to give back to you. Maybe you're defiling yourself in some way, and you realize, I need to give that back. Maybe you're making decisions without including others. Maybe you're aware of some idolatry in your life.
Speaker 0 00:39:25 Maybe you see there's not the prayer
Speaker 1 00:39:28 That should be in your life. And somehow when you look and reflect on your own consecration
Speaker 0 00:39:36 Of how you
Speaker 1 00:39:36 Should live in difficult times, there's some recommitment that you need to make rededication of some kind, all we do this regularly with youth, youth conferences are always built around this. You may recall, in your own youth days, you go to the conference, they all run about the same way. Friday night starts all raw. Saturday all works up to the Saturday night event where somehow there's a cross and you're putting nails in it or post-it notes on something recommitment to Christ. And then you celebrate on Sunday, what you're going to do. But somehow as adults, we don't pause at times to reflect, to rethink even recommit.
Speaker 0 00:40:23 The question is, where are you in your walk with Christ?
Speaker 1 00:40:26 Where's your consecration? What have you taken back? What do you give back? What do you need to rededicate? What is it that when people look at you, their awareness, that that is somebody being conformed to the image of Christ because you're consecrated to Christ and they can see it by your witness. In your words, by the fact that the stains are removed
Speaker 0 00:41:00 By the prayers that you pray by the decisions that you make
Speaker 1 00:41:07 By the idols, you don't worship consecration. A consecrated life
Speaker 0 00:41:18 Is high commitment, high cost,
Speaker 1 00:41:24 But also requires a dedication to that. I'm going to close in prayer, but it's going to lead us into communion, which is a time of recommitment. I think of where you may be. So as we go do that, we're going to prepare our hearts and we'll have some time of silence for you, but I'm just going to close for prayer for us
Speaker 0 00:41:53 In our preparation with that.
Speaker 1 00:41:56 So Lord, as we look at your word here, and that That life you call us to as followers of Christ, that consecrated life, uh, there's a way for your spirit to work in us right now. Lord, I'll convicting convicting, but for those who have set themselves apart in our following, just to encourage them, that they are following you, the Lord, if we're wrestling with an area, if there's something we've taken back, let's find a time now where we can give it to you for that.
