Cadyville Wesleyan Church
These are confusing times for many Christians. Traditional biblical values are not only rejected; it seems as if they're attacked on every front. It's all happened at warp speed, leaving many of us spiritually and culturally disoriented or even fearful, frustrated, and angry. How can we spiritually survive in an increasingly spiritually hostile environment? And is there any hope for the next generation?
In this 8-session sermon-based series, based on the book by Larry Osborne, we will be introduced to a man forced to live in a fast-changing and godless society. This man faced fears about the future, concern for his safety, and the discouragement of a world that seemed to be falling apart at warp speed. That man was Daniel, and with the power of hope, humility, and wisdom, he not only survived, but thrived.
Thriving in Babylon challenges us to hope in God and strive to live in a unique way, even compared to other religious people. In what appears to be an increasingly godless society, we are called to live as people of hope, humility, and wisdom. Though Daniel lived thousands of years ago, he has much to teach us today.
Daniel serves as a reminder that even in the worst of circumstances, even when surrounded by evil, even in a world gone haywire,
we can thrive!
“He found a way, in a culture far more wicked than anything we face, to glorify and serve God with such integrity and power that kings, peasants, and an entire nation turned to acknowledge the splendor of the living God.”
- Larry Osborne
“[American Christians] have to come to terms with the brute fact that we live in a culture, one in which our beliefs make increasingly little sense. We speak a language that the world more and more either cannot hear or finds offensive to its ears.”
- Rod Dreher
John 15:18-19 NLT
Matthew 5:11 NIV
You might be shocked to live in a culture that seems foreign to you, and that appears to align against your beliefs.
But remember, this isn’t news to Jesus. This isn’t a surprise to him.
The question the church is asking:
How do we respond to a culture that is rapidly changing and feels incredibly unfamiliar to us?
How does the church thrive in a Godless culture?
The first response to a Godless culture:
1) Engage in a culture war.
“Since their values and practices shaped culture for so long, they had the impression that they owned the culture in some sense. These Christians want their country back, and by that they mean they want their cultural power back. This anger can lead to hostility against those they believe have taken it, fear that this trend will continue and lead to their marginalization, and confusion as to what to do about it.”
- Ed Stetzer
In a culture war, you may force a change in behavior, but you can’t legislate a transformed heart.
The Bible teaches that faith in Jesus precedes following the commands of Jesus.
Our cultures wars at best leads to the kinds of people Jesus described as: “whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.”
- Matthew 23:27
1 Samuel 16:7 NLT
Mark 10:42-45 NLT
History tells us that the church is at her worst when it attempts to use coercive power to subjugate a culture.
Culture wars won’t accomplish the change in heart that God is seeking.
The second response to a Godless culture:
2) Run and hide.
“Left to ourselves, we lapse into a kind of collusion with entropy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that there’s nothing much we can do about them.”
- N.T. Wright
“[The church too often has] responded to the cultural crisis by going into survival mode. [They] have taken a defensive position—hunkering down in their churches hoping the immorality of the culture does not creep in.”
- Kevin Ezell
Matthew 5:14-16 NIV
“When it's dark, the problem isn't the darkness. It's the failure of the light.”
- Ron Hutchcraft
“Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
- John 20:19b-22a
Jesus always comforts & confronts us:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
The third response to a Godless culture:
3) Embrace our
God-given mission
Matthew 28:19 NLT
Acts of the Apostles 1:8 NLT
“The church does not simply have mission as one of its objectives; the church is always to be on mission.”
- Kevin Ezell
The church is to be a model of Jesus’s will for earth, to establish God’s Kingdom here on earth.
God changes the world one person, one family, one home, one neighborhood, one community at a time!
Our mission as a church is to see God’s will be done in Clinton County as it is in Heaven.
In Cadyville as it is in Heaven.
In Morrisonville as it is in Heaven.
In Saranac as it is in Heaven.
In Plattsburgh as it is in heaven.
In Dannemora as it is in heaven.
In Peru as it is in heaven.
In West Chazy as it is in heaven.
We are a church on a mission, sent by God to change the world, not from the top down, but from the bottom up.
The church is a sent body filled with sent people. We are each called to be on a mission, to reach people with the radical, paradigm-shifting, world-changing love of God.
Matthew 16:18 ESV
Jesus doesn’t promise a successful defense against hell.
He promises victory over hell!
The answer isn’t a culture war. Forcible behavior change doesn’t change a heart.
The answer isn’t withdrawal. Withdrawing blinds a world desperate for light.
The answer is a church on a mission, committed to seeing God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.