Set Apart (Daniel, Chptr 1)

You know what was really annoying about New Years this past year? I kept trying to find coverage that my children could watch too, you know? I just wanted to find some fireworks and a flashy count-down ball, maybe a musical guest like the disney Christmas parade style stuff. And so I turn on my first choice, I don’t even remember what it was - we’ve got some sparkling juice for the kids and some snackies - oh, and this is a life hack if you’ve got small children. We watch the “ball drop” in Hong Kong on Youtube at 8pm. I think I was in bed by 10:30 that night, because we know how to party. hashtag dad life. So, it’s New Year Eve and i’m looking for coverage, something to watch for a little while before the ball drop. And the first thing that comes up was like a news story and the lady says, “in our year end review of 2024, we will now go summarize the worst criminal court cases of 2024 starting with this serial killer and rapist… Grab the remote, grab the remote! I can’t remember what we did, but I think we just watched a movie. It’s a sad state of affairs when you can’t even watch the news with children in the room. I don’t know what I was thinking. But after New Years there was this clip that went viral from peacock. NBC did a show with Kenan Thompson and Kevin Hart called “2024: Back That Year Up” and they had guests video in or interview or whatever. And there was a moment where they brought on comedian Nate Bargatze, he was on a zoom call. If you don’t know, Nate Bargatze is one of the biggest comedians in the world right now, but he sticks out a bit, because he is what we would call a “clean comedian.” He doesn’t curse or tell vulgar stories. He’s a comedian you can watch with kids in the room.

And during the show, Kevin Hart asks him, “Nate you don’t cuss on stage, do you ever drop f-bombs at home?” And Nate says “No, I don’t.” And he starts talking about to help them cuss less. He goes into this thing about how comedians used to have to go on TV, and they had to be clean because TV censors stuff, but nowadays everything is found online, so comedians don’t have the filters they used to have. And Kevin Hart, who is a very funny and successful comedian, says, “Well look, here let me show you how TV works” and he starts spitting out all the curse words he can think of. And he gets a laugh from the crowd because they know it’s going to be bleeped on TV, and then he invites Nate to curse. He says, “go ahead, gimme one Nate, just one time.” And there’s a pause where Nate looks so confused and then he goes, “oh, no - I’m not going to do it.” And he was actually like, “i didn’t realize you were talking to me. That’s not my thing.” Now I’m not going to get into the ethics of curse words - the bible talks about avoiding words that are foul or abusive, and that’s not the same as a list of words you can and can’t say - I think you can avoid curse words and still use your words to hurt people. That’s a whole other message, that’s not my point -  But that clip went viral because it was sort of this very public display of peer pressure, “Come on, do a thing that’s against your conscience in order to fit in, in order to be like us.” In the comedy world, being a clean comedian sets Nate apart. Do you ever wonder, in your life, what sets you apart? In the way you live your life as a husband, wife, parent, co-worker, student, what is it about how you live that sets you apart as a Christian?

Today we are diving into our new series called Resilient - a life built to last, and we’re in the book of Daniel, chapter 1. If you want to open up your bibles or look it up on your phone. In this new year, i think a brilliant goal is to bring your bible to church. I say this all the time, if you bring it - I promise we will open it. But if you don’t have a bible, or you forgot yours at home - we do have a whole shelf in the back where you can grab one if you like. Or there’s some really great bible apps out there that are super convenient as well. While you’re flipping over to Daniel, chapter 1, if you were here with us last week, we sort of set the stage a little bit. The short version is that Daniel is a young Jewish man whose city was conquered by the empire of Babylon. Then they deported him, as an exile, to the capital city of Babylon. Exiles were stripped of their identity and usually made to be servants or slaves of the captors. So Daniel and his buddies are going to go work for King Nebuchadnezzar. So that’s all in verse 1 and 2 of the book, and we’re going to dive into verse 3, [read v.3-4]. Okay, so I know it’s kind of a bummer that they have to be servants in the palace or whatever, but looking at that job description “strong, healthy, good-looking young men who are well educated and suited to serve….” I mean, [pause] it’s kinda flattering, you know what I mean? Yeah, sure - they’re servants, but these are like primo, top notch, ivy league status servants. The king tells the chief of staff to find the young men and start training them. 

It keeps going, in verse 5, [read v.5-7a]. Now, when you’re dealing with tricky names like “Mishael” And “Azariah” I could understand wanting to give them new names, because that’s tricky to say. But.. [read v.7b]. Because we all know that the most handy and common replacement nickname for “Daniel” is Belteshazzar. Mmmmmm, catchy. But of course, this isn’t about giving them easier names - and we talked about this a bit last week - this is about giving them babylonian names. We’re stripping away their identity as people of Israel, as people of God, we’re giving them brand new names. Come on, get with the program, be like us. And then we get to the most important part, [read v.8]. Now, to understand that line we have to back up a little bit. Way back in the book of Leviticus, hundreds of years before Daniel, the people of God were given something called the “levitical code” - it was this list of do’s and don’t, like a legal code. Long story short, Israel gets out of Egypt and they’re headed to the promised land. When they get there they are going to mix with a lot of people who are not the people of God. Those people have strange practices and rituals and worship other gods. And so God gave his people a code that would set them apart. Some of it was “here’s how you do sacrifices and here’s how you do ritual cleanings” - which is a little bit boring and little bit gross, and it’s why most of the coffee mug bible verses are NOT from the book of Leviticus. But it also included bits about what they would eat, and what they could wear, and how they trim their beards. And it was designed as a system that would make them stick out - they would be different from their neighbors, because they were God’s people. 

Now, I know this is a bit of a tangent, but this is really important. There are some old testament laws that are moral codes, designed to help us follow the way of Jesus. Don’t have sex with anyone or anything that’s not your spouse. Don’t murder people. Don’t lie. These are easy moral codes on how to live, and they show up again in the New Testament - these continue to be effective in our lives. But then there’s this other bucket of laws designed to set the Jewish people apart. Here’s how you’re going to be different. Here’s how you are going to be God’s people. And here’s why this is so important - when Jesus came, he gave us a new standard that sets us apart. The standard is not our beards or our food or our circumcisions, the standard is our love of God and our love of neighbor. Christians are set apart, not by a levitical code, but by how much we love.

There’s this really cool story in the new testament with Peter - I’m just going to paraphrase it because we don’t have time to get into it, but it’s in Acts chapter 10 if you want to go look it up afterwards. And in it, Peter receives a vision from God, where this sheet comes down from heaven and there’s a bunch of animals on it. Animals he’s not supposed to eat because of the levitical code. And a voice says, “go ahead, eat.” And Peter, like the good jewish man that he is, says, “oh no, our jewish laws declare that unclean.” And the voice from heaven replies, “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” And that’s super important - it was unclean, but God has made it clean. Meanwhile there’s this Roman soldier named Cornelius. And he asks to speak with Peter. Now the Jewish rules, the levitical code says “don’t hang out with non-jewish people.” But Peter just had this vision from heaven, and he’s looking at Cornelius and he’s thinking about the vision and he says, this is chapter 10, verse 28 [read it]. Jewish people were set apart by this code of behavior - eat these foods, wear these clothes, hang out with only these types of people. But Jesus taught Peter something different. Jesus cracked open the holiness code and said, “the thing that is going to set you apart is not your menu, it’s your love.” 

And the reason that I get so fired up about this is that sometimes I will hear people say, “if you eat shellfish and you’re a christian, then you pick and choose which rules to follow.” And it’s like, NO! We are applying a consistent interpretation using all of scripture - Peter and Cornelius gives us a new model- because it used to be unclean, but God has made it clean. Because that’s what God does. He makes the unclean clean. The bible is the best way to interpret the bible. Sometimes people will ask me about my tattoos. I thought the bible says that tattoos aren’t allowed, how can you have tattoos? And they’re right. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 27. No tattoos. Wait, that’s verse 28… verse 27, says don’t trim your beard. And let me tell you, if I believed that having no tattoos is how we are supposed to be set apart in the world as people of God - I wouldn’t have tattoos, and my beard would be even longer. But at the time of the levitical code, there was a people that lived next to Israel - and they had ritual tattoos as a sign of devotion to their false god. It was like part of a grieving process to permanently mark their skin. And so having no tattoos was a way to differentiate, to be set apart. And if I lived back then, I wouldn’t do it. But God has taken what was unclean and made it clean. And modern Christians are set apart, not by a levitical code or having no tattoos, we are set apart by how we love Jesus.

Are you following me with all of that? And so Daniel is presented with this meal - and he has to make a decision. Verse 8 says, Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. Daniel was this kid captured and taken to a foreign land. And he’s trying to figure out - how do I remain a man of God and stay true to honoring God in a world that is encouraging me to just fit in - and holy smokes, isn’t that exactly the question for you and I today? How can we live as men and women of God in a world and a society that just wants us to fit in? How can we be set apart in a world built on a foundation that is different than the teachings of Jesus? 

Let me give you an example. When I was in college, I would come home during the summers and work for the City of Troy (it paid better than TCBY). I had a job in the parks department - did a lot of weed whipping. And it was mostly seasonal summer workers - college students, and then a bunch of older blue collar construction guys who worked on the streets crew. It was the kind of job where you had to buy your own steel toe boots. And not to stereotype, but when we would eat lunch, there was sort of a cafeteria area, and the conversation could sometimes get a little, colorful. A lot of the guys like to talk about some of the women they had been with. Now I could have just kept my mouth shut, eat my sandwich and go back to work. I didn’t have to participate in the conversation. But I remember, I had this nudge, this conviction from God - this isn’t how I’ve taught you to treat women. And so when the conversation got to me, and it was all, “heyyy I bet you got some stories.” And it was like, “Oh. No. I’m a virgin.” I was like twenty two at the time. And at the time, like -I don’t know what it’s like with young people nowadays, but back then telling people you were a virgin was like admitting you were a loser. And so I spoke up and said, “yeah, no - I don’t think that’s how we should treat women - like objects to be used, I’m not good with that. That’s not how I was raised, and that’s not how I want to follow God. I’m a Christian, so I’m not going to have sex until I get married.” And I know I lost a lot of social capital that day, they definitely did not label me as one of the cool kids after that. Some of the guys respected it, even if they wrote me off as crazy. How can we be set apart in a world that is built on a different foundation than the teachings of Jesus? Well, one of the ways for me - I do have a list of all the women I’ve ever slept with. But I just call it my marriage license. And I want to say - I don’t say that in judgment. If you’re in here this morning, and things have happened in your life, there is grace. There is forgiveness, there is healing. I’m not better than you. I’m not better than other people - but that was one way for me to be set apart as a Christian in this world.  

And I think for Daniel - it’s sort of obvious. God says don’t eat this, the king says, “Hey, eat this thing” - No, I’m not going to do that. That’s an obvious choice. But sometimes in life, it’s not that obvious - what we should do to stand out. What should we do when it’s not black and white, with the gray areas? I remember there’s a story in the book of Corinthians, and there were these Christians who were struggling with the food in the marketplace. Imagine this. Imagine you go to the grocery store, or over to Byron Center meats, and you find out that some of the food - some of the meat for sale came from a sacrifice to a false god. In some pagan temple they have a sacrifice, they bbq up a cow do their sacrifice and then put the extra meat in the market for sale. And the question is, “are you allowed to buy that meat?” OR if you eat that meat, would you be supporting that pagan god? Actually think about that for a second. If you found out some of the meat at the grocery store was sourced from some pagan temple up the road - would you buy it? You know, there’s FDA approved pulled pork, and then there’s the organic grass fed beef, and then there’s the pagan temple pork chops. And the Christians in Corinth, they were divided on this. Some of them were like, “yes, it’s fine it’s just meat” but others were like “no, dude - don’t touch that meat!” If you want to go look this up, this is 1 Corinthians, chapter 8. And Paul has this brilliant response. He says, “look, okay - we know that the food doesn’t matter. You can eat it or not eat it, doesn’t matter. What matters is your heart.” He has this nuance, he says, “Look, some of you grew up eating food sacrificed to idols, and so if you eat that meat - in your heart, you feel like you are worshiping this false god.” chapter 8, verse 7 he says, [read v.7-13]. Isn’t that beautiful? Is eating this meat sinful? Technically no! I know it’s just meat. I’m not worshipping a false god when I eat it. But to my friend, if he eats it it IS sinful, because he IS worshipping another god. So even though I know it’s just a BBQ sandwich, when I hang out with that guy - I’m not going to eat the meat. Because I don’t want another believer to stumble. I want us both to succeed at living set apart. Sometimes the line is so clear and so obvious, but in the gray area - the question is “how do you remain set apart as a follower of Jesus?”

So let’s jump back in with Daniel. Sorry that was a bit of a rabbit’s trail, but it’s really important for us to understand. Daniel lives under the Levitical code. This was how his people showed their love for God, they were set apart by what they eat. You might remember - no bacon for Jewish people. These people, they knew what it meant to sacrifice for God. And so he’s in the palace, and he’s recruited for this servant job, and they’re going to give him food that he can’t eat. And so here’s what he does, [read v.9-10]. The chief of staff is like, “Look, I like you - but I’m trying to do my job here. I don’t want to get in trouble.” [read v.11-14]. So Daniel proposes a test. Let me follow my God’s instructions for ten days, and see what happens. It finishes up, [read v.15]. So in this little story, following God works out great for Daniel. He’s able to stay set apart and doesn’t have any bad consequences. If you know the book of Daniel, you’ll know that this is pretty much the only time it works out that way for him - but we’ll get to that later. 

The good news that I have for you today, the thing I really want you to hang onto is that God sets us apart. Literally the definition of ‘holy” is set apart. God wants us to be holy.  Jewish folks, like Daniel, were set apart because of their diets, grooming, ritual cleaning and sacrifices. But for Christians - we have the same need to be set apart - the same need to claim our identity as God’s people. I’m going to follow Jesus, so I’m going to be different than the rest of the world. But Jesus taught us that it’s not going to be about our meals, it’s not going to be about our clothes, it’s not going to be about our rituals. What sets us apart will be our love for God and our love for neighbor. John 13, verse 35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Love for God is obedience to his word, following the way he teaches us to live, and love for neighbor is sacrifice and service to the other people in our lives. That’s how we will be set apart from the rest of the world. Because let me ask you this. If you did not own a church shirt, or a center church bumper sticker, or a little cross necklace. If you don’t have religious tattoos or a little Jesus fish on your car, sticker on your laptop - if you have NO labels that tell the world you are a Christian - would they be able to figure it out from just how you live your life?  Do you live your life with a radical level of love that the only way people could explain it is obedience to God? They look and they say, “The way that guy loves people, he’s probably a Christian.”

Because here’s the thing - and we talked about this a bit last week. The world is changing. It wasn’t that hard to follow Jesus when everyone around you was doing the same thing. Our parents and grandparents who went to church back in the glory days - all their friends were Christians, and the programs were bursting in every church - they did not face the same world that we do. They did not have to deal with the same obstacles and temptations that we deal with. Our exile has become more obvious. And we can bemoan that, or we can embrace it! We have an opportunity with this to be set apart - it’s easier than ever!

So let me ask you one question to finish out this morning. Where do you need to be “set apart” to align with God’s way in a world that’s going the other way? I think about the people of Corinth, and how they had to figure out how to be set apart for God with the whole pagan temple meat issue and I think about Daniel, trying to draw his lines with this new servant job and the food he’s allowed to eat - and so in my life, I’ve had to draw some lines - what are your lines? Maybe your line as a parent, if you’ve got little kids, is refusing to compromise with screens or technology just “because everyone else has.” Maybe you’re competing with a co-worker on who can take the best vacation, and you draw a line, let them win and take your vacation fund and give it to a homeless shelter. Maybe there’s a substance in your life - drugs or alcohol or pills or whatever - and you need to draw a line and get that addiction out of your life. Maybe you draw your line with social media and that’s going to mean you’re a little out of the loop - you’re not up to date on the latest internet gossip, because you were spending time with God instead. “Ah, no I’m a little behind on that tv show - I just needed to prioritize my time with God a bit.”  Maybe it’s saying “No” to traveling sports teams because it removes you and your family from the family of God for too long. I’m not going to turn this into a levitical code - I just want you to take some time this week, look at your life and ask - where do I need to be “set apart’ in how I live and how I love so that my life lines up with the way of Jesus. Let’s Pray.