Preparing for The New Normal // Dr. Jeff Warren
Channel: Park Cities Baptist Church
Date: 2020-06-07

Daniel 1

Central Truth: We must determine ahead of time whom we will serve. 
A completely disruptive, “new normal” has arrived without invitation. One thing is certain: Our new normal is uncertainty. Daniel’s new normal was more dramatic than anything we are, or will ever, experience. In Daniel 1:8, it says, “But Daniel resolved that he would not to defile himself…”. Daniel decided ahead of time what kind of person he wanted to be, or more likely, he knew ahead of time who he was. His identity was already established as a worshipper of YHWH. A crisis doesn’t change you as much as it reveals you. Like grief, it doesn’t change you but it reveals you- what you “worship”, what you want to hold on to or can’t live without. To face the new normal we must start with a resolve to live differently. We must decide that Jesus is Lord (Leader, Master) of our lives. We’ll begin the series by setting up the exile and the deportation of Daniel and his friends and how his determination ahead of time set the course for his ability to flourish in exile. The Babylonians sought to change their identities (by changing their names and indoctrinating them). So, the strategy was isolation (pull them out of their culture), indoctrination (a 3-year graduate course to forget your past and learn a new way- apart from the way of the Torah), intimidation (of his past and all he had known- given the food they ate, was like worshipping with them), then a new identification. They were finally given a new identity- they took away their own name. They wanted to utterly control these deportees. The food was brought to pagan gods then to these young men. Babylon was the largest city in the world at the time (about 200,000 people), and Euphrates River ran right through it. The palace of King Nebuchadnezzar was in the center of the city and had the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon”, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We can do the same, but we must first resolve to worship God and live out of the new identity he has given us. All of this happened because of 1:8 - “But Daniel”. This sets up the entire book. Courage begins internally and a determination to follow God no matter what. Courage is always an inside job, when your convictions guide your decisions. Everything is the story now is determined by 1:8. When your core identity is secure, you don’t need to make certain decisions- they’ve already been made. The direction in Daniel’s life was determined by the decision in His heart. In 1:1, Nebuchadnezzar is King, in 1:21, Cyrus is King (4 kings, over 70 years, Daniel was an influencer). A key equation in life, throughout this series: Are you a thermometer of thermostat? A thermostat is not changed by the temperature, it changes the temperature. Will you purpose to be unmoved?

Prior to, and into, the coronavirus, we focused on “Practicing the Way of Jesus” (in this year of fixing our eyes on Jesus). Coming out of the pandemic we reenter society together, and we’ve been given a chance to adopt some rhythms that are good for us. Will we just surrender the gains that we ‘ve made or will we choose to stand by some of the practices and rhythms that God has placed in our lives? And if there haven’t been new rhythms for you, it’s time to live in this new normal we find ourselves in. If we feel that little has changed for us spiritually in 2020, we need to seek grace and ask God to do a new thing in us.