Three Constants in a Chaotic World

Courage in Chaos is our series in the book of Daniel. Good morning, my name's René, another one of the pastors here. So there's a best-selling book called The Worst Case Scenario Handbook. And I really needed this in my own personal life because here is what the authors of the book say. They wrote their book because, quote, you just never know what life will throw at you. Raise your hand if you know this on a personal level. You just never know. And they go on. I love this blurb on the back. Danger. It lurks at every corner. Volcanoes, sharks, sinkholes, landing a plane if the pilot passes out. We are here to help with step-by-step instructions and they go on with about 200 crazy worst case scenarios.

Now, I was thinking of this. Wouldn't it be great to have step-by-step instructions on how to navigate every single chaotic turn of events in life that is possible? Well, that's what I want to give you today. I'm going to give you worst-case scenario survival tips for any circumstance in life. There's just three, only three that you need to know, and they're straight out of the book of Daniel in the Bible. So grab those message notes, open them up to the middle. There's the outline that you can follow along with if you have your Bibles open to Daniel chapter 2 today.

As I said, courage in chaos is the theme for our series in the book of Daniel. And I just have a question for you as we begin. How are you doing? How are you doing today? My guess is that with the events of the last several days, pretty intense news, right? And you probably walked in feeling a little bit heavy for one reason or another, thinking, I sure hope I hear something encouraging today. I sure hope I hear something uplifting, something inspiring. Well, that's not what I have planned. No, I believe you will. Because honestly, I think God is up to something here at Twin Lakes Church.

And I say that not just because of the now about 60 people who have recently professed their faith in Jesus Christ who are going to be baptized at Capitola Beach today. It's remarkable. Last weekend, I ran three baptism classes, got to hear 45 personal testimonies last night. Another seven people came forward for the class, got to hear those seven testimonies, and you're going to see them get baptized at the beach today if you're there. But God is up to something at Twin Lakes Church. And I say that not just because of the 350 people that showed up at our young family's picnic, a hundred more people than we had planned for last weekend. God is moving in that demographic too.

I say that not just because our youth groups are booming at levels that Steve Craig, our youth pastor, says he has never before seen in his life. I say that also because of how I see God orchestrating this series. As usual, we decided to do this series, like with all of our series, months before this month. Months before the events of the last few days in America. But God knew what was going to happen. If there is a more relevant book of the Bible for our current events today, then I do not know what it is.

Just a quick recap from the intro last week. If as a follower of Jesus, you've been asking the question, how can I be calm and courageous in a culture of chaos? A culture that seems to be full of unrest and violence and an unstable political environment, an unpredictable economy, an uncertain world order, not to mention your own unknown personal future at some level or another. As we said, if you think this is describing the world today, guess what this describes to a T, the world of the prophet Daniel.

Because look at the historical context that Daniel and his three friends, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego lived in. They were just completely conquered by, attacked by, the gigantic Babylonian Empire, which gobbled up their tiny little nation of Judah, destroyed their city of Jerusalem, took them as captives to Babylon, and in Babylon tried to steal their identity as young Jewish men. And it is in that context that the entire book of Daniel takes place.

So the book of Daniel is specifically about how these four young men, and they start when they're just teenagers all the way through to their elder years, how they dealt with almost complete and total cultural disorientation and stayed holy and yet without being hermits, stayed holy yet also stayed fully integrated in society, respected by the world, stayed influential. How did they do that? Well, this is their secret weapon: they knew three constants in a chaotic world, three certainties in a world of uncertainty.

It is true that there are worst case scenarios thrown at us every day of our lives, but there are also three truths that always apply to every worst case scenario and best case scenario, and you see them play out right here in Daniel chapter 2. So jot these down in your notes. Number one, there will always be things I cannot control. This is really important. Can you say that out loud with me? There will always be things that I cannot control.

And you see this playing out starting in verse one. It says, in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His mind was troubled, and he could not sleep. So King Nebuchadnezzar, let me tell you a little bit about Nebuchadnezzar, and that's kind of a fun name to say. Let's say that together. Nebuchadnezzar. As you know, we just had a granddaughter. We were thinking of Nebuchadnezzar Schlepfer, but that was vetoed. So who was Nebuchadnezzar? Well, let me tell you a little bit about Nebuchadnezzar's conquests.

Nebuchadnezzar didn't just lead the army from sort of his perch, his palace in Babylon. He personally led the armies that in Daniel's lifetime had conquered Egypt and had conquered Phoenicia and had conquered Assyria. And then all of those wars, he turned to the Medes on his northern border and said, listen, I can either conquer you or you've got a very beautiful princess. I could marry the princess and not attack you. And they said, where are you registered? When would you like the wedding to be? And so that became an alliance and he didn't get attacked them, not yet.

So he was a warrior who had literally never stepped into a battle or a negotiation that he had not won. But he wasn't just a destroyer. Let me tell you about some of Nebuchadnezzar's construction. Nebuchadnezzar built the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were a real place. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world. He also was really into construction. Nebuchadnezzar built a bridge that changed history because he covered this bridge with asphalt. And the bridge survives to this day.

Nebuchadnezzar was the first guy to use asphalt on roads. And how a 2,600-year-old road looks better than Soquel Drive today, I have no idea. But, and he got so into asphalt, he ended up using it on hundreds of miles of roads, actually, in Babylon, way ahead of his time, because the Romans kind of went backwards on that one a little bit. He also built spectacular palaces that you can still see today. This is a construction from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, in his day, those walls were covered with bricks that had vibrant colors, and some now survive in the Berlin Museum. This is not a reconstruction. This is original 2,600-year-old tile that was seen by the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel and Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. It's remarkable. Look at the scale of this. And they have an inscription on them that Nebuchadnezzar himself wrote, and it says this, I, Nebuchadnezzar, laid the foundation of the gates down to the groundwater level and had them built out of pure blue stone. Thus, I magnificently adorned them with luxurious splendor for all mankind to behold in awe.

So you get the picture. This is not just a chest thumper. This is a chest thumper with serious cred, right? This is a guy on top of the world. This is the guy who has all the resources to do whatever he wants to do. He is in total control. Not. Because he finds out there are some things even he has zero control over. He has a bad dream. Have you ever had a bad dream that jolts you awake? A bad dream that you just cannot shake, that you still remember to this day? I have consistently, I have these lost sermon dreams where I get up to preach, and I look down at my notes, and it's the grocery list. Get this at Costco. And I start looking through, and I cannot find my sermon everywhere. And meanwhile, while I'm sweating bullets, you're all sitting there staring at me like, well, like you're staring at me right now.

But I wake up, ah, and Lori says, another lost sermon dream? Yes, yes. She knows exactly what it is. Once Lori woke up and sat straight up in bed yelling, oh no. And I said, what's wrong? And she said, I just dreamt that I gave birth to a litter of kittens. And the nurses in the hospital said, well, sometimes this happens. But do you ever have a dream that just gives you emotion that you can't shake? One day, Lori kept giving me kind of the side eye. You know, husbands, you know what I'm talking about? And I said, what's wrong? More specifically, what did I do wrong? And she said, well, I had a dream that you made me really mad. And I can't remember the dream, but I'm still really mad at you.

Well, this is exactly what's happening for the king here. He wakes up, and he's upset by the dream, and he can't shake the dream. And so he calls in his advisors. He says, I want you to tell me what my dream means. But first, I want you to tell me what my dream was. And his advisors say, well, that's impossible. So the king replied to the astrologers, well, then this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me what my dream was and then interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your house is turned into piles of rubble. This is his idea of an incentive program, right?

But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream. And they'll stare back at him and they go, we can't, we don't know, we can't. Inception technology has not yet been developed. We can't do it. And so the decree was issued to put the wise men to death. And men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. And this is a stroke of really horrible irony for Daniel, right? Because when we last saw Daniel last week, he'd just been promoted to the rank of spiritual advisor to the king, one of the magi. And days later, apparently, he gets the memo, oh, going to be some cutbacks around here, starting with your head. It's going to be cut back.

One of the things you learn in every single chapter of Daniel is life is going to throw you curves. It seems like every time Daniel and his three friends get settled, there's another curveball. There will always be things you cannot control. You cannot control your future. You cannot control your health. Not entirely. Certainly, you cannot control your family's health. You cannot control your kids' attitudes. How many parents have discovered that about your kids? You cannot control your parents' attitudes. How many grown children have learned this about your parents, right? So many things, your boss, your friend's opinions, but there is a second constant in a world of chaos.

There will always be things I can control. There will always be things that I can control. So I love the Lord of the Rings books. And in the book, Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo, the hobbit, is talking to his friend Gandalf, the wizard. And I know this is like nerd alert. René is talking about hobbits and wizards. Just listen. They're in a time of chaos, of war. I wish it need not have happened in my time, said Frodo. So do I, said Gandalf. And so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Don't pretend you don't think that's deep. That's deep stuff, right? We don't get to decide, you know, what headlines come our way. We don't get to decide what happens with our family. But yours is to decide what to do with the times that are given you. So you say, well, what do you mean? What can I control? There's always things you can control. And specifically what we learn in the book of Daniel is I can always control my response. I can always control my response. I can make a bad situation worse or better by how I respond to it, right? The news you can't control it, but you can control your response. Very relevant for right now.

So what did Daniel do? Well first, and this may sound like a surprising point but it's huge and very consistent throughout the book of Daniel, be polite. Look at the next verse. This agent of the king comes to kill him. And Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. Spoke to the agent of the king who's there as an executioner with wisdom and tact. Everybody say wisdom and tact. Wisdom and tact. Wisdom and tact means you don't insult people. Wisdom and tact means you ask questions before you give answers, as you will see in this story. Wisdom and tact means you respect people. You show respect even to your enemies.

You know, I strongly suggest every single morning, praying, Lord, along with everything else you pray, Help me speak today with wisdom and tact. How much do we need to hear this today? We have an online culture in America. Maybe, you know, maybe it's an overstatement to say it is the problem in our country right now, but it's not helping. It's polarizing our culture. It's politicizing our culture. It's poisoning our culture. And you know what else? It is training, it's discipling, even Jesus' followers to respond to everything with anything but wisdom and tact.

I was thinking if he was a typical online influencer these days, it might read, Daniel spoke to him with foolishness and rage. But we need to remember, Jesus said, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Peter said to share the reason for your faith with gentleness and respect. And this means if anybody that you follow, no matter who they say they are, is a person of non-gentleness and disrespect, of foolishness and rage, and not wisdom and tact, stay away from them because they're going to influence you to respond to everything that way as well.

So watch how Daniel speaks with wisdom and tact in the next verse. He asked the king's officer, why did the king issue such a hard, harsh decree? Kind of like, I know you're just doing your job. And Ariok, this is the guy, then explained the matter to Daniel. Daniel never disrespects anybody. And again, such a contrast to the way people today use language about their opponents. They're not just wrong, they're demonic. And Daniel never uses that kind of villainizing language. And he's in Babylon. And the Babylonians are the villains in this story. He's always polite. That is a very, very, very important way for him as a young man to behave in this culture that's antagonistic to him.

And then the next thing I see in this verse is don't panic. Don't panic. He's so calm. He doesn't panic. Speaking to an executioner, that's so far from, I see the CHP a mile back in my rearview mirror and I panic. Not Daniel. At this, Daniel went into the king and asked for time. He goes to the king that he may interpret the dream for him. So cool under pressure. And I don't want to beat a dead horse, but again, this is the opposite of online culture. Somebody said we're in an overreaction epidemic. Everywhere you look, no matter left or right or up or down, everybody is in full-on freakout mode. Everybody is escalating. Daniel, you'll see all throughout the book, he always brings the temperature down. Deescalation is his middle name.

And if you want to not panic, you know, for the sake of your spiritual life and for the sake of your blood pressure, you really don't have to be online all the time. You know how long it takes to get informed about the news? Maybe 20 minutes. The rest of the time, it's reaction. So what do you do with all your time if you're not doing this for hours every day? Well, how about this? Instead of panicking, do pray. Do pray. Look at what Daniel does, verse 17. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known to us as Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed.

Now, this is very important because these guys are basically Daniel's small group. You really cannot face the chaos of life alone. Daniel had his group of friends. Jesus had his group. And I hope you have yours friends or family. This is why we always offer home groups. For example, every fall we study material together, studying this Daniel material. You can pick up the whole curriculum, a free book of all kinds of questions for discussion and meditation about the book of Daniel the next seven weeks. And that's available for free at tables outside today. I encourage you to do that.

But look, do you see these three things that he did? He was polite. He calmed down. He prayed with friends. The point is, like him, you can control your response. But the world's behaving so badly. If you feel the world's behaving badly, the counterweight to bad speech is better speech, right? The counterweight to bad behavior is better behavior. And you see Daniel practice that over and over again. So there will always be things I cannot control, but there will always be things I can actually control.

And then finally, point three, there is always someone, capital S, who is in control, and that's the Lord. In verse 20, during this prayer meeting, you know, with his friends, Daniel just goes on this riff. He just starts to worship God. It's just awesome. He says, praise be to the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons. He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with him.

What Daniel is in essence saying is, I am not in control of this situation. The king is not really even in control of this situation, but there is one who is in control, and that's God. And when you are overwhelmed by the chaos of life, that kind of worship is so important. There's a reason that there's a word attached to the worship experience, transcendence. Transcendence means you're rising above the fray. When you're focusing on God, you're transcending all of these things that are causing you so much stress and concern, and you stand in awe of the power and the mystery of God, and somehow it right-sizes you.

In fact, here's the key difference between the two main characters in the story. Here's Nebuchadnezzar, right, and here's Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar, when he experiences something, even some little thing like a dream that is not in his control, what does he try to do? He goes into overdrive trying to control it. I'm going to try to control this. I'm going to try to control all my wise men. I'm just going to put the gear shift down into uber control, turbo control. And it doesn't work. But it's exactly what I try to do, right? I encounter a problem I can't control. Usually I try to control it through worrying, through arguing, through anger.

But here's Daniel. There's Nebuchadnezzar. That's his choice. Here's Daniel. What's his choice? Before he even knows how it's going to turn out, before he has an answer, before there is a resolution, he says, well, God is ultimately in charge. And then he goes to sleep, not worried at all. However, it turns out, God's in charge. And when he's asleep, God reveals the dream to him. He wakes up, rubs his eyes, goes to the king, says, okay, here's your dream. Daniel says, you dreamt of a giant statue with a gold head and a silver chest and a brass torso and iron legs and feet of clay mixed with iron. But then all of a sudden, a tiny little rock was thrown against the statue and the whole statue falls over. And then this rock starts growing, and it becomes as big as a mountain, and then as big as the entire world. And then you blinked and woke up.

And the king says, that's it! What does it mean? And Daniel says, wouldn't you like to know what it means? And I want to ask you, wouldn't you like to know what it means? That's next weekend. No, just kidding. Daniel says, O King, here's what it means. He says the head of gold stands for the Babylonian Empire. In fact, he identifies it here. And then later in Daniel, in chapter 8, he identifies the next two empires. He says the silver chest is Persia, which followed the Babylonians. The bronze belly is Greece, which followed the Persians. So it's like a political cartoon, right? It represents all these nations.

And then the legs of iron, Rome, they weren't identified by Daniel, but it was very soon after the composition of Daniel. This was widely understood like 200 years before Christ even, right as Rome was emerging. It was understood to be about Rome. And then the feet of clay and iron, some future alliances that follow that fourth kingdom. What Daniel seems to be saying here, the point is that one human empire follows another. And no matter how great they look, none of them last. And then something from outside the whole empire system, this little rock, that stands for the Messiah. Who brings the kingdom of peace on earth and puts an end to all of those corrupt governments.

Like Daniel says, in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it itself will endure forever. In other words, one day God will set all things right. Now, what's the deal with the rock growing? Well, God's kingdom starts small, yet it grows. Jesus had a more pastoral metaphor for the same point. He talked about mustard seeds. They start so tiny, no giant palaces like in Babylon, no giant armies like in Babylon, just a little harmless seed. But they grow to carpet the countryside.

When I think of Daniel before the king, I can't help but think of Jesus before the leaders of his country and of the Roman Empire. When he was arrested, when he was threatened with death, he was calm like Daniel. He didn't insult or threaten. And then they killed him. And it seemed like the legs of empire had crushed the Christ. But he rose again and that small stone grew and grew and what happened to all those empires? The Babylonian Empire long gone, the Persian Empire long gone, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, nobody says I'm a Babylonian today in the sense of that empire. But that rock kept growing and about a billion people call themselves his followers today. And they believe he will one day return and establish God's kingdom on earth visibly and there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more death.

And in the meantime, we live according to the kingdom values. We love our enemies. We bless those who curse. We forgive. We serve because then the rock keeps growing. So how would you summarize this prophecy in a sentence? What's the big picture here? Well, how about this? Human kingdoms come and go, but God's kingdom lasts. Look, all the empires of history, gold, silver, bronze, iron, and time, they will fall to dust. So listen, that's why it's foolish to tether your faith to any human kingdom because every earthly kingdom crumbles. Focus on the one kingdom that lasts, the kingdom of Jesus, right? Even though right now it may look as insignificant as a pebble, but it grows. And God will prevail. His kingdom will prevail. It will never be destroyed.

This concept has brought hope to centuries, millennia of people throughout the ages and all kinds of worst-case scenarios. You know, the other day I was reading something by G. Campbell Morgan. He was a great Scottish preacher at a church in London. Now get this, he was the pastor at this church in London during World War I and during World War II. Whatever we're going through, he was a pastor in London during significantly more chaotic times than what we're experiencing. But I read something he said at the end of one of his sermons that I think Christians today need to hear.

And I'm not an expert at doing a Scottish brogue, but I think you need to hear him, need to imagine him doing this in his Scottish brogue because, well, you'll see. He says, I have no sympathy with those who tell us these are the darkest days the world has ever seen. The days in which we live are appalling, but they don't compare to the days of the first Christians. Notwithstanding, the dominant tone of their letters is one of triumph. In fact, we never see them cast down. We never see them suffering from pessimism fever. They're always triumphant. If ever I am tempted to think that religion is dead today, it is when I listen to the wailing of some Christian people, everything is going wrong. All be quiet. Think again. Judge again. Not by the circumstances of this passing hour, but by the infinite things of our God.

Isn't that good? That makes me really wish I was Scottish. Every single thing I say would be twice as good. But this is exactly what Daniel does. Things look bad now, but God will be victorious. And guess what? It's not like we're waiting, you know, in some kind of a cesspool until that happens. Good stuff happens even before then. Because look at this. Then the king placed Daniel in a high position, lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon, placed him in charge of all of its magi. And moreover, at Daniel's request, he's looking out for his friends. The king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.

God worked through this worst-case scenario to put these godly men in positions of influence, right? Again, you know, they didn't compromise their integrity, and they were well respected by a culture maybe, you know, not prone to respecting them from their background. But they showed themselves to be faithful, to be people of integrity. And they were able to serve in positions of high authority and administrative positions where they could influence policy and so on. And they're not just looking out for themselves. They're really looking out for the good of all the people.

Look at Jeremiah 29 if you want to get an angle on that one. The exiles in Babylon were called not just to look out for themselves but to look out for the prosperity of all of Babylon because Jeremiah tells them if it prospers you will prosper and so that's the guiding light for these people. So they're in positions of influence. However, life always throws you curveballs and they're about to be thrown a big one. They say, okay, welcome into the king's service. And this is kind of like our initiation ritual that the king decided on this year. He made a gigantic idol out in this gigantic plain. And if you don't bow down and worship it, well, you get thrown into the pizza oven. You get thrown into the fire. And they won't do it. And they are thrown into the fire.

How in the world are they going to survive that? Are they going to survive that? That we will find out next weekend. But let me close with this. Years ago, a friend of mine passed away, a good, good guy from cancer, a man named Ron Singley. Always had a smile on his face and if there was a phrase that Ron was famous for it's this: God is at work. God is always at work. He'd say that all the time. Even when you'd say I'm so sorry about your cancer, Ron, he'd smile and say, well, God's at work. God's always at work. And that's the big idea of the book of Daniel: God is always at work through it all.

It's true what the authors of the worst case scenario book wrote: you just never know what life will throw at you. But you can know this: there will always be things I cannot control. There will always be things I can control, and there will always be someone who is ultimately in control. So listen, in a world where so much seems to be out of your control, instead of trying to control it, will you put your trust in him, in that someone today? Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.

With our heads bowed, I would just love to ask you to make this prayer very personal and just tell God right now about the things that are out of control in your life that are causing you stress and worry. Maybe it's something at work or maybe something in a relationship in your life or a diagnosis or an addiction or anger or your news consumption or whatever it is that's out of control. Take some time in silent prayer right now and just say, Lord, this is the struggle in my life right now. Just give it to him silently in your heart.

Lord, we give you those situations. Please grant us wisdom to know what we can change and what we cannot change, to control what we can control, namely our response, and give us peace as we trust in you for the rest. We want to trust in you completely, Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.

So we're going to close the service a little bit differently than normal. I just would love for you to relax and receive a song that Trent's going to be singing. This is a song that I first heard just, I think, about a week after Trent wrote it. It was at my mother's memorial service. My mom was famous for a line she would say. In fact, it was so well-known in our family that we put it on her tombstone. It was, the Lord will provide. You see it right there. I asked her one time what advice would you give to a woman who was a widow with young children like you were, and she thought for a long time and she said the Lord will provide because she said I'd seen that true in all my life in all the ups and downs ultimately the Lord will provide. She knew that to be true through it all, and so the song was particularly relevant for her memorial service.

But that's true for you too. From your salvation to your provision, the Lord will provide. So receive these words and apply it to whatever situation has you stressed out today.

Amazing grace and mercy that drew me from afar I had no way, no hope in my own righteousness But Jesus, He loved me through it all All the beauty of a heart's redemption All the healing in my soul I will see forever of this mystery Jesus who loved me through it all And the wounds and scars are many on my battlefield And often the arrows round me fall But I will not fear This faithful promise is my shield That Jesus will love me through it all And though temptations, Lord, may pull me under Though my feet may wander far I will claim the one whose grace is greater still Jesus who loves me through it all Through it all Through it all You are my life, my only hope Through it all, through it all Oh my Jesus, you love me through it all Through it all, through it all You are my life, my only hope Through it all, through it all Oh my Jesus, you love me through it all And no empty fate, no fortune can my faith command No treasure dissuade me from my goal As I'm pressing on to freedom in a better land To Jesus who loves me through it all And when the evening of my life grows deeper When I hear the final call I will run and fall into the waiting arms Of Jesus who loves me Jesus who loves me my Jesus who loves me through it all.