When Belief Gets Uncomfortable | Ken McIntyre

This week, Pastor Ken launches our brand-new series “Uncomfortable” with a message called “This Place is Getting Weird.”

We all crave comfort, but faith often calls us into the uncomfortable — especially when following Jesus means standing out in a world that doesn’t always align with Him. Looking at the story of Daniel, Pastor Ken explores how we can live with conviction and courage when the values of our culture collide with the values of God’s Kingdom.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- What era of history do you think you would thrive in most? Okay. Like, think maybe stone age hunter gatherer type existence, right? Life was short, life was dangerous. You're likely to get eaten by a wild beast, but you don't have to pay taxes. Okay? There's the Bronze Age, right? We're talking about like weapons and tools and writing systems and new farming techniques. There's a classical age. You have to think like democracy and gladiators and aqueducts. The medieval age, this is the one I'm drawn to most. Uh, for whatever reason, whenever I think about the medieval age, I think about stew, and I love stew. And so I just think that I would do well there. . Now, all the ones that I mentioned, and of course many that I didn't, my guess if I was to put money on it, that, not that I'd do that. Okay? But if I had to, my guess is that you're thankful you live. Now, here's why. Memory foam, , coffee, warm baths, indoor plumbing, central air, um, the average North American spends 93% of their life indoors, padded, protected, temperature controlled. We love comfort, don't we? We love comfort. It's an organizing principle in our life, meaning we'll do almost anything to be comfortable and almost anything to shield us from discomfort. But we all know it doesn't matter how much money you have or how proactive you are, discomfort comes for us all. And it comes in small ways, right? Meaning harmless ways. There is no doubt about it. This is gonna happen to someone here today. You're gonna walk out into the lobby and you're gonna see someone from across the lobby, and they're gonna be waving, and you think that they're waving at you. So you wave back. Then you realize they're not waving at you and you're just waving in a thin air. . I remember, oh, I can't believe I'm even saying this. I remember, um, there was this, there was this girl who, she was kind of my semi friend, but I haven't really seen her for a long time. And then I saw her and like she, like was, it was very obvious to me that she, you know, was pregnant. And so I said, congratulations. And she said, for what? And I was like, for the, for the baby. She wasn't pregnant. . Yeah, she wasn't pregnant. And so now actually just between services, I have my friend and my, my real friend, her name's Larissa. I saw her and she was very obviously pregnant, but I'm like, I can't say anything because what happens if this happens again? So I waited for her to tell me I'm 26 weeks pregnant. I was like, okay, well congratulations, . That's scarred. That scarred me. Um, so there's those, those sorts of things, right? Th those could be avoided. Just don't put your foot in your mouth. But generally there's these things in life that just happen to us all. And then there's another category of discomfort altogether, right? There's interpersonal discomfort when, when a relation is strained, there's physical discomfort, right? As our bodies age and, and weaken and the pain that comes with that, there's emotional discomfort, right? We all carry different worries and fears and shame kind of throughout life. And then of course there is spiritual discomfort. And that's what this series is about. It's about the discomfort of trying to follow Jesus faithfully in a world that is not faithful to Jesus. And so the question that we are trying to answer is simply this. How am I supposed to be a Christian in a place like this? And so let me define what this is in a country that is wonderful comparatively amongst others, a place like this that values peace, a place like this that has a justice system, although flawed is based on the biblical notions of justice. A place like this that is so favorable to churches in so many different ways. A place like this that beats the US at hockey, right? A place like this, I'm thankful to live in a place like this, but this place is not the kingdom of God for all of its virtues. There are laws that govern it. There are ideas that animate it, that contradict the human flourishing that is in the heart of God for this land. This place is fractured. It wants the benefits of the kingdom of God, but rejects the king himself. We want justice without the judge. We want reconciliation without the cross. We want peace, but reject its source. And so, how are you supposed to be a Christian in a place like this? It could be uncomfortable. And we have all experienced that. It's that that temptation to just soften right? The edges of our faith, that pull that we experience to compromise what we believe, right? That steady temptation and that pressure to live a faith that never stands out, that just blends in and never rocks the boat. And in this series, we're gonna walk through the Old Testament book of Daniel to try to understand how to live faithfully for Jesus in a place like this. Now, the book of Daniel, it's a fascinating book. It's 12 chapters in length. The first six are a lot of fun that contain many of the maybe stories that if you grew up in church, you, you knew and they're, and they're fun and they're classic. The last six chapters are, are different than that. They're apocalyptic, they're prophetic, uh, they are filled with, uh, visions and beasts and angels and timelines that are hard to wrap your head around. It reads like the Old Testament version of Revelation. But the very heart of the book of Daniel is simply this, how to live for God in a godless environment. The book of Daniel primarily is not how God will save you from the fiery furnace, how God will save you from the mouths of lions, because sometimes he doesn't. Daniel is about how to live for God in a godless environment. So here's the context. It's one of the darkest eras of history for Israel. The nation has all but been, uh, enslaved and and eradicated by a foreign invader named Babylon. Now 900 years prior to this happening in the book of Exodus, this is what God says to Moses. He, he creates this covenant with the people of Israel. And he says this, he says, I will be your God and you will be my people. Then in places like Deuteronomy, uh, 28, the terms of that covenant are laid out and they're simple. It's if, if Israel is faithful to God, then they will flourish. If they're unfaithful to God, then it's a different story. And on the far end of that unfaithfulness, God tells them there's a potential that you'll be exiled to a foreign nation. And God is not a liar. I give false threats to my kids literally all the time, right? Eat your broccoli or you're never going to see your friends again, right? And you look over at your wife and you both like giggling, right?'cause you just know it's just bonkers. God is not a liar. He's faithful. He's faithful to his own words. At the same time He's long suffering and he's patient. And so for centuries, Israel is unfaithful, but God is still faithful. And he sends prophet after prophet in kindness to them to warn them, repent, return. Come back to me and live. If you want to know the gist of Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, these major prophets in the Old Testament, it's simply this. If you keep Bre breaking this covenant judgment will come. And finally it comes. That's where we pick up the beginning of Daniel. It says this, in the third year of the reign of Joki, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. This is important. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his God in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his God. So the Lord is the one that delivers Israel to Babylon. He's behind it. Now Habakkuk, who's another Old Testament prophet who's contemporary to Daniel just a few years prior to this invasion, he says this about Babylon. He goes, you Lord have appointed them that being Babylon to execute judgment. You my rock, have ordained Babylon to punish. So we have to understand this. This particular Babylonian empire came into existence as a tool to punish unfaithful Israel. Their absolute dominance lasted about 70 years or so. And so they burned bright, but they flamed out quickly. Jeremiah yet another Old Testament prophet contemporary to Daniel, uh, right prior to the invasion said this as well. He said, the whole country that being Israel will become a desolate wasteland. And these nations will serve the king of Babylon for how long? 70 years. But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I'll punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians for their guilt. Babylon, they looked unstoppable. They had the strongest army, they had the greatest wealth. They had a city that the most impressive one the world had ever seen to Israel. This was the eternal kingdom to Israel. This might've been the place that would last forever. But Daniel Allen tells us that Babylon was just a tool in the hands of God. And when their job was done, so was Babylon. So think about the intricacies of that. Every political shift, every military battle, every decision of the kings all orchestrated under the sovereign hand of God for his own purposes. So let me ask you this question. Who is in control of history? God don't ever be fooled. He's always in charge. His hands are never off the wheel. He is in charge of whoever is in charge. He's in control of whoever seems to be in control. There's never not a time when God is not king. So here's what some of you just need to internalize and understand today, the same God that moved empires can move in your life. The same God who governed history can govern your story. The same God who directed the details and the rise and falls of nation can, can direct the details of your life. Do not wonder, do not doubt, do not worry. God is in control. Verse three says this, then the king ordered Ash Paz. I practice that out loud a lot. Chief, I don't wanna say it again though,'cause I'll screw it up if I say it again. chief of his court officials to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility, young men without any physical defect, handsome showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. And they're to be trained for three years. And after that, they're to enter the king service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah, Daniel, Nanaya, Michel, and Azariah, the chief officials give them new names to Daniel, the name Beltazar, to Hania Shadrach, to Michelle Micha and to Azariah a Bendigo. Now, Daniel and his three friends would've been high school age 15, 16 years old. They marched 800 miles from their home in Judah to Babylon and plunked right into the middle of the kingdom. Uh, who had its leader as Nebuchadnezzar, who is the most notorious and ruthless king the world had known up to that point. And so here's these young, young men, boys really trying to be faithful to God in Babylon. Now in the Bible, Babylon is the personification of evil. Babylon is shorthand for the epitome of human arrogance and rebellion against God. It starts in the very first book of the Bible in Genesis 11, before Babylon was even a thing. Genesis 11 talks about the Tower of Baby, which is a story about humankind, spirit of self exaltation. At the very end of the book, in Revelation, Babylon is the name given to the final opposition against God. So when you hear Babylon in the Bible, yeah, you can think geography, but primarily you need to think spiritually as that which is opposed to God. And so there's these four young men who are smack dab, both in physical and spiritual Babylon. And the first thing that Babylon attempts to do to these men is strip them of their identities. They wanna rename them, reprogram them, hijack them. These four young boys, they're loyal to Yahweh ways that wasn't going to do in Babylon. It wasn't enough just to take them out of Israel. They had to take Israel out of their heart as well. Now, Canada is not Babylon. That is an unmeasured comparison. However, the spiritual war that Babylon wage on Daniel's heart is the same war that is waged on yours. If you are a Christian, if you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that means you are his. It can mean no other thing, but that it means you are named by him. You're identified as his own. And one of the ways that the Bible describes this when you become a Christian is you become a citizen of heaven. Paul says in the book of Philippians, and just like being a citizen of Canada means that you are governed by certain laws, you're influenced by certain cultural values, and you're under the leadership of elected officials. Being a citizen of heaven means you are governed spiritually by heaven's laws, you're influenced by heaven's values, and you are under the leadership of King Jesus. And our greatest loyalty doesn't lie to the country we belong to, but to the God that we belong to. Because in the end, nations rise and they fall, our passports expire, but the name of Jesus endures forever. So that means at times, the kingdom of this world which we live in, and the kingdom of heaven, which we belong to, they're going to collide. And if you do not know who you are, you will not be able to resist Babylon. Now, I wanna be crystal clear on this. This series is not positioning things in any way like an us versus them, like a Christians versus cultural type framework. Christians ought to be the best citizens of any nation. If your disposition is apathy, if your disposition is to disengage because you just think, oh, it's all going to hell in a hand basket, number one, that is incorrect. That's poor theology. Number two, it's unfaithful Christian living. Jeremiah, again, a contemporary to Daniel. He tells the those who are exiled in Babylon, these Israelites to seek the peace and prosperity of the invading nation. Paul tells us to be subject to the governing authorities in New Testament. Jesus says, where we are, we are to be salt and light. Salt preserving what is good and there's some good and light shining on the dark places. And there are dark places. That means we pray for our city, we pray for our country, we work for, its good. We live with integrity in it. When the Olympics are on, we paint our face red and white, we grab a double, double and we cheer our face off. When elections come up, we vote with the word of God and the spirit of God that guide us because politics is one of the avenues in which God can bring about justice and human flourishing. But here's a tension. Our loyalty is always to Christ first. So in the values that animate this land, come into conflict with the values that animate the kingdom of heaven. It's always Jesus first every time, no matter the cost. But if you don't know who you are, you will not be able to resist Babylon. So Babylon, I changes the name of these four young boys. They obliterate their identities, try to have them question who they are. So for Daniel, they change his name to beza. Daniel means God is my judge. Beza means bell, protect his life. Bell is the Babylonian God named Du. So there's a shift there, right? Accountability to the one true God, or from the one true God to this false Babylonian God. Daniel's three friends all have very similar name shifts. Now, in those days when a, when a a conqueror invaded a nation and they were integrating those slaves into their culture, they would change the name to indicate ownership. These four young boys, they were no longer Israels. They were now Babylon. See, Babylon, what they're trying to do is attack their identity. Our enemy, Satan attacks our identity. If Satan can get you to believe that you are something other than what God has already defined you to be, the walls of your life are down. And Satan can come in and take what doesn't belong to him. And so I wanna ask you this question. Do you know who you are? Do you know who you are? If you know who you are, not only can you spot the lives of the enemy, not only can you summon the courage needed to live faithfully for Jesus in a place like this, but you can withstand the pressures that come at you on a daily basis. And so I want to confront two big lies that we're attempted to believe when it comes to our identity. Number one, the first lie, you are defined by you. The second lie is this, you are defined by others. Now let's deal with the first one. You are defined by you, the mantra of postmodern Canada, okay? Which is just postmodernism. Just the, the soup we live in, in the culture is sort of unseen. The mantra is this. And you guys are gonna be familiar with this. Live your own truth, right? Post postmodernism is known for its, uh, relativization of truth, right? Live your own truth, right? Throw that on your Instagram bio, right? Declare it right? When you run up to an idea that you don't really like, I'm just living my own truth, right? It's like the ultimate Trump card. If live your own truth is a guiding principle, then essentially nothing is sacred, right? Nothing is set. Only two or three decades ago, things that were not up for grabs are suddenly up for grabs. Gender, marriage, sexuality, morality, all these things can now be changed and redefined because you are living your own truth. The problem with that is that it doesn't work. Even if you wanted it to work, it falls apart almost instantly on the ground in real life.'cause if you're living your own truth and you run into someone who is living an opposing truth to you, well, we all know both things can't simultaneously be true. My 8-year-old knows that this is a very unsophisticated way to navigate through life. But here's the thing, you don't even want that to work. Live your own truth. It sounds freeing, but it's absolutely crushing because of what is true is constructed by you. That means you have to construct your own identity, which means you have to justify your existence to the world. You have to prove that you're worth something. You have to prove that you're lovable. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, he calls this the burden of self creation. And modern thinkers believe that it's the main cause of the doubling of depression and anxiety in our country over the last 20 years. You are not defined by you. Jeremiah once says this, this is God speaking before I formed you in the womb. I knew you before you were born. I set you apart before you were in the womb. When I like to think of the earliest version of myself, I like to think of me in the womb. I can't really think of me earlier than that. It's hard for me to even understand that. Like my fourth birthday is like my, my earliest memory. But I was saying before you were you, God knew you. Think about that before you're even the womb. God knew you. Genesis 1 27 says this, so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God. He created them, male and female, he created them. The center, the very core of who you are is simply this. You're made by God for God to reflect God by God. Meaning you're not an accident for God. Meaning you're made for relationship with him. And to reflect God, meaning your life has a greater purpose than you could ever imagine. You're made for by and to reflect God. Line number two is you are defined by others. As kids, we would say, right, sticks and stones may break my bones, but name would never hurt me. Uh, baloney, right? I would rather get whacked in the back of a calve with a stick. And some of the names I've been called, maybe you are carrying some things, some names, some labels that you have assumed into your own identity. And this is particularly what, uh, Babylon is trying to do to these four young men, right? By changing their names, Babylon saying, we are going to tell you who you are from now on. And if you don't know who you are, you're gonna be tempted to listen to that. And I wonder if you have allowed others to be the primary formational force in your life. Maybe it's when you're a kid, when the other kids called you fat, when the coach picked you last, when your parents compared you to other siblings. Maybe it's something that's happening now. The posts that make you feel ugly, the spouse that makes you feel dumb, your friends who make you feel poor. There's a whole litany of psychological names for this. There's the looking glass self. And that's this theory that we become what we think other people see in us. These the labeling theory, which means if you're labeled something long enough, you just begin to believe it, internalize it. There's something called the Rosenthal Effect, which just means we live up or we live down to the expectations of others. But all of these patterns, they describe the ways that we allow other people to define who we are, but they not and ought not to have that power in our life because there's only one who gets to name you. Only our God has the right to tell you who you are. And let me read what God says about you. Number one, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are chosen. You are God's workmanship. You are forgiven. You are co-heirs with Christ. You are a citizen of heaven. You are God's temple where his spirit dwells. You are free in Christ. You are a new creation in Christ. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. You are reconciled to God in Christ. You are more than a conqueror through Him who loves you. You are a friend of Jesus. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit. You are hidden with Christ in God. You are complete in Christ. You are the bride of Christ. You are his treasured possession. You are inscribed on the palms of his hands. You are never alone or forsaken. You are a son and a daughter of God. Do you know who you are? Do you know who you are? I was short on sermon space this week. And so I was coming to the end of my sermon and I'm like, oh, dang, I, I haven't finished the ideas yet, but I have no more space. And so this happens to me every time. So I have to go back in my sermon and say, what are the things that I thought was important? But now that the whole thing's come together aren't that important? And it's always the intro, nine times outta 10. So like, ah, that intro was dumb. Okay, let just get outta there. Right? Saves me like 300 words. So I was going back and I was looking at the intro and I'm like, I'm just gonna delete this line of questioning, right? That, that idea of what area right of history do you think you'd thrive in? Like cute, fun, whatever. Okay, but not, not really important. No one's remembering that. So I highlighted about to delete it and just read it over one more time. And then I looked at the, the medieval era part, and I started thinking about Stew again. Um, and then I just started thinking about other things. Medieval, I, a lot of my favorite movies and shows are kind of from that timeframe. Then I was like, well, what is my favorite movie? From that timeframe, I started thinking of the Lord of the Rings. And this scene just kind of popped into my head from the second movie, the Two Towers and Lord of the Rings. And it's a scene with King Thein. Um, if you're familiar, this is gonna make sense if you're not YouTube. This clip, I actually watched it this morning just to kind of jack myself up . Um, but there's, there's this scene with King Thea in and uh, he was once this, this mighty king, but now he's under this, this spell that's mediated through his advisor named Worm Tongue. And Worm Tongue is constantly just kind of whispering into his ears and telling him things that are not true and sort of directing him in that sense. Now, this king, he's hunched over and is throne. And he's weak. He's frail, he's withered. Uh, he's unkept. His eyes are sort of glossed over and he's just a shell of who he once was. It's this image of a lost identity. Gandalf who, um, I didn't plan it like this, but I was choosing what to. I don't really pre preplan what I'm gonna wear. I just, in the morning, I just say, what, what works? And, and so I didn't plan it like this, but he's wearing this gray like coat and he comes in. He has like this white underneath. It's not really white. But anyway, it seems like I was thoughtful. I wasn't thoughtful. It just happened like this. So Gandalf, he comes into the room and he silence his worm tongue that the first thing he does, he shuts down the lies. And then he speaks, uh, freedom, uh, over, over King Faan. And wait, you see what happens? There's this resistance at first, but eventually what happens is a spell is, is sort of broken over King Hayden and his, his, uh, his face gets its color back and his eyes become clear and he starts to stand up straight. And, and the evil that he wants to come to, he now sees clearly what it was. And he has this courage to stand up to it. I'm like, oh, that's it. That that's, I'm not getting rid of that intro. That needs to stay. 'cause that's what I want to talk about. That's the image of identity restored. We have this temptation to become a shell of ourselves. And maybe today you would say I'm a shell of myself. We have this potential to go through life deceived, to have the lies of our enemy mediated to us nonstop. We believe things about us that are not true. We can be weak, spirited, cowardly, unclear of our identity, unclear of our purpose. But I want you to know that Jesus restores that in you. That Jesus restores that strength. He restores truth, courage, and identity into your life. Here's the gospel. You are created in the image of God made for him to reflect him to the world. That's what you're made for. That image bearing nature is broken due to sin, due to rebellion against God. That sin nature, you can say the spirit of Babylon. The effects are wide reaching. It fractures your relationship with God. It fractures your relationship with other people, and it fractures your relationship with yourself. If you allow it to run rampant in your life, you'll become a shell of who you are. Jesus God in the flesh, breaks into human history and lives the life we never could. And on the cross, he bore every lie that you've ever believed about yourself, every label that's ever been spoken over you and every sin that you've ever committed. And he took those lies, those labels, and that sin. And he took 'em to the grave with him. Three days later, Jesus rises from the grave. But those lies, those labels and that sin stays in the grave, which means if you belong to him, you are not, uh, tied up in those things anymore. Your identity is tied up in the risen Jesus Christ. That's where your identity is. Do you know who you are? You're Christs. You're Christs. That's who you are. And if you are here today and you have not made a decision to follow Jesus Christ, that means that your identity is in something else, likely in how you've defined you or how others have defined you. But if something in your inner person, your spirit would say, has just sort of come alive, it's jumped at what I've been talking about today, understand that is God knocking on the, on the door of your soul, just saying, let me restore you. Let me show you what your identity truly is, letting you restore truth into your life, courage into your life. Bring the sparkle back, the strength back, the courage back. And that happens through surrendering your life to Jesus Christ and making a decision to follow him. If that is you today, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna ask you to pray along with me and everybody else, if you can just pray along with me as well. Jesus, we thank you for this moment. We thank you that your word has gone forth and your promise is that it will not return void. And so, Lord, I ask that the Spirit of God would move upon the hearts of those who so desperately want to know you today. Lord, I pray that there would be just an overwhelming sense of the Father's love. That they would know, that they would know, that they would know that even though they haven't lived a life that is pleasing to the Lord, even though there's regrets in their past, that God you love them and they would know that spirit. I ask that you would impress upon them to repent of their old way and to take on the yoke of Jesus Christ, which is light. Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest. Those are your words, Jesus. Would everybody hear today? And who listens to my voice? Who wants to come to you? Would you give them rest? Would you help them to rest in knowing that they are yours? That they're not defined by themselves. They no longer have to justify their own existence. They're not defined by the lies of the enemy or the labels of others. Only by what you say. And you say, we are loved and we are your children when we come to receive Jesus Christ as Lord. And so I pray that, Lord, for those brothers and sisters here who are in the faith, Lord, and their courage has been weakened, where maybe there has been lies that have believed in their life, Jesus, I pray that you would restore to them, Lord, their full identity in you, that they would have strength, Lord strength, to raise their family the way that you'd want them to strength, to navigate through life, Lord, with, with integrity, Lord, that the fruit of the spirit would grow in their life. That they would be more loving and patient and gentle and kind and faithful to those around them. Lord, that we would know, that we would know that we are yours and there's no other source of identity. We pray this in the wonderful, powerful name of Jesus Christ, the victorious one. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you're here today and you prayed that with me, and you want to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, um, we're gonna have a team up here on the front left who would love to pray with you. If that's not something you'd like to do today, you're not ready for that, or you gotta go, there's a QR code on the seat back or on the screen you can scan that can help you take your next steps. Thank you so much for being in church. Be here for the rest of the series. It's gonna be great. See you next week.