This is what the Lord says Week 1

Oct 11, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: God Controls Who’s in Control

Daniel’s exile began with a jarring truth: “The Lord delivered Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.” Babylon’s dominance felt like chaos, but Daniel saw God’s sovereignty at work. Even when power shifts, oppression rises, or culture drifts, God remains over every throne, leader, and nation. This truth anchors believers in uncertainty. Trusting God’s control doesn’t erase hardship but redefines it as part of a larger story. What looks like defeat becomes a stage for His faithfulness. [19:20]

“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.”
(Daniel 1:1-2, NIV)

Reflection: What “Babylon” in your life feels beyond God’s control? How might Daniel’s perspective shift your view of that struggle?

Day 2: Renamed But Not Redefined

Daniel and his friends received Babylonian names to erase their Hebrew identity. Yet they clung to the God who named them first. Culture often tries to label us—consumer, addict, failure, outsider—but God’s names for His people (chosen, redeemed, beloved) endure. Compromise whispers, “Blend in,” but faithfulness requires remembering whose we are. Identity rooted in God outlasts every cultural pressure. [17:14]

“Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.”
(Daniel 1:6-7, NIV)

Reflection: What labels has culture placed on you? How does your God-given identity confront those false names today?

Day 3: Building Homes in Babylon’s Shadow

God told exiles to plant gardens, raise families, and seek Babylon’s peace—not to conquer or isolate. Engaging culture requires neither surrender nor retreat but faithful presence. Work, create, and love where God plants you. Blooming in barren soil testifies to His life-giving power. Cultural change starts not with protests but with ordinary people living extraordinarily rooted lives. [29:29]

“Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.”
(Jeremiah 29:5-6, NIV)

Reflection: Where has God placed you to “plant gardens” this week? How can your daily work become an act of quiet faithfulness?

Day 4: Praying for the City That Captured You

Praying for hostile cultures feels counterintuitive, yet God commanded exiles to seek Babylon’s peace. Intercession softens hearts—ours first, then others’. To pray for leaders, neighbors, or systems we distrust is to acknowledge God’s heart for redemption. Our battle isn’t against people but for them. Every prayer plants seeds of hope in broken soil. [25:51]

“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
(Jeremiah 29:7, NIV)

Reflection: Who or what in your culture feels hardest to pray for? What might change if you asked God to prosper their redemption?

Day 5: Trusting Sovereignty Over Strategy

Human strategies default to fear: assimilate or isolate, fight or flee. God’s way demands trust in His sovereignty. Daniel didn’t lobby Babylon’s courts or stage a revolt—he served faithfully while kneeling daily before a higher King. Our call isn’t to fix culture but to fix our eyes on the One who holds all things. [31:05]

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
(Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV)

Reflection: Where are you tempted to rely on your own plans rather than God’s sovereignty? What would surrender look like in that area today?

Sermon Summary

Culture is like water to a fish. It is the shared set of beliefs, values, and customs that shapes how a people see the world, and it affects far more of life than most people realize. The culture of the day can feel divided, morally upside down, and increasingly hostile toward Bible-believing Christians. The question is not whether that pressure is real. The question is how God-honoring people live God-centered lives in a culture that is not centered on God.

The biblical narrative gives that question a long history. The Philistines, the Romans, and especially Babylon show that God’s people have often lived under powers that did not pull in the direction of God. Daniel gives a picture of young men who did more than survive Babylon. Daniel and his friends flourished, had influence, made a difference, and honored God in the middle of a godless empire.

Daniel 1 begins with exile, with God-honoring young men being taken from Judah into a polytheistic culture where they did not want to be. Babylon gives them new names and tries to give them a new way of seeing the world. Daniel’s identity, however, does not come from the people in power. Babylon can call him something different, but Babylon cannot give him a different identity.

Daniel also gives the reason for exile in the first verses: “The Lord delivered” Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand. God is always in control of who’s in control. God’s sovereignty does not mean human choices do not matter, or that people are puppets. God’s sovereignty means no decision, action, ruler, or circumstance stands outside his authority or beyond his ability to redeem.

Jeremiah 29 gives God’s direction for life in Babylon. God does not call his people to assimilate, becoming like the culture around them. God also does not call his people to separate, walling themselves off in fear of contamination. God calls his people to build houses, settle down, plant gardens, raise families, pray, and seek the peace and prosperity of the city.

The contrast between assimilation and separation gives way to a better calling: relate, restore, and redeem. God’s people can live faithfully in the place they would rather not be because God himself has not lost control. God’s sovereignty must come before human strategy. Babylon may be real, but Babylon is never bigger than God.

Key Takeaways

1. God controls who is in control God’s sovereignty does not erase the pain or confusion of living in Babylon. God’s authority means that evil never gets the final word and no ruler catches him off guard. Daniel’s confidence rests not in favorable circumstances, but in the God who remains bigger than everything Daniel can see. [23:09]
2. Babylon cannot rename true identity Babylon gives Daniel and his friends new names in an attempt to reshape their loyalties and worldview. Daniel’s deepest identity, however, remains rooted in the God he knows, not in the labels imposed by power. Cultural pressure becomes especially dangerous when it persuades people to accept an identity other than the one God gives. [17:14]
3. Assimilation and separation both fail Assimilation loses distinctiveness by becoming like the culture. Separation loses witness by refusing meaningful presence within the culture. God calls his people to remain faithful without becoming fearful, and to live among their neighbors as a redemptive presence. [28:31]
4. Seek the city’s real flourishing Jeremiah’s command to seek peace means more than hoping violence stops. God calls his people to pray and work for the kind of flourishing that points people toward life with the one true God. Love for a broken culture does not require agreement with its idols.

## [29:45]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:25] - Faith and Life Intersect
[03:12] - What Culture Really Is
[07:23] - Living God-Honoring Lives
[09:14] - Babylon as the Biblical Pattern
[12:26] - Daniel Thrives in Exile
[14:32] - Daniel’s New Names and Identity
[19:03] - God Is in Control
[24:37] - Jeremiah’s Instructions for Exiles
[27:19] - Assimilate, Separate, or Restore
[30:37] - Sovereignty Before Strategy
[32:29] - Identifying the Babylon in Life

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Daniel 1:1-7
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 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. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, 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. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.” [14:33]

Jeremiah 29:4-7
“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 'Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” [25:03]

Daniel 1:2
“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.” [19:03]

Observation questions

In Daniel 1:1–7, what actions did Babylon take to bring the young men from Judah into the king’s service, including their education, food, and names? [14:33]
What details in Daniel 1 show that Daniel and his friends were taken from a place of worshiping God into a culture shaped by different gods and values? [16:18]
According to Daniel 1:2, who ultimately delivered Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand, and what does that statement emphasize about God’s role in the exile? [19:03]
In Jeremiah 29:4–7, what specific activities were God’s people told to pursue while living in Babylon? [25:03]

Interpretation questions

Babylon gave Daniel and his friends new names connected to Babylonian beliefs. Why would changing their names be an attempt to reshape their identity and loyalty? [17:02]
Daniel 1:2 says that the Lord delivered Judah into Babylon’s hands, even though Babylon acted violently and wickedly. How can God’s sovereignty give confidence without treating human choices and evil as unimportant? [22:15]
Jeremiah tells the exiles to settle down and seek the city’s prosperity. Why is that different from simply accepting Babylon’s values or agreeing with its idols? [29:29]
Why do assimilation and separation both fall short of God’s purpose for his people? What might it look like for believers to relate, restore, and redeem instead? [28:31]

Application questions

What is a “Babylon” in your life right now—a place, relationship, workplace, situation, or season where you would rather not be? How does it affect your ability to trust that God is still in control? [32:55]
What labels or messages from culture most pressure you to define yourself by something other than your relationship with God? What truths help you remember that your deepest identity comes from God, not from the people or powers around you? [17:48]
When news, social media, politics, or cultural conflict makes you anxious or angry, what would it look like to begin with God’s sovereignty before reacting with your own strategy? [31:00]
Where might you be tempted to assimilate—to soften or hide a conviction in order to fit in? What faithful, gracious step could help you remain distinct without becoming combative? [27:21]
Where might you be tempted to separate—to avoid, dismiss, or withdraw from people who do not share your beliefs? How could you be meaningfully present with them while remaining faithful to God? [28:45]
What is one practical way you can seek the peace and flourishing of your neighborhood, workplace, school, or community this week? How could prayer and action together point toward the life found in God? [29:45]

Sermon Clips

49s

#GodsSovereignty

“God's never caught off guard. He's never surprised at his wits end, backed into a corner without any options. That has never happened to God. God is sovereign. And in the end, everything, and that means everything, everything will be found to have worked together for the good of God's people. Even Daniel, even you, even me, even stuff that we can't can't explain or understand. Daniel knew that God was bigger than what he saw in Babylon.”

48s

#IdentityInChrist

“It's interesting to me because they didn't, put up a a fight when they... These names came out. And I I haven't heard a whole lot of people talk about that, but but I think it's, a really important part of this story to see even though the people in power were calling them something different, they still identified themselves by their god who they knew. That there was something that the people in power couldn't take away from them. They can give them a new name, they could not give them a different identity.”

53s

#FaithfulInCulture

“And so assimilation and separation are not what God instructs. There's a third option. And the third option, this is what the Lord says, different than the mentality that I usually hear, that it's it's refreshing. God tells them, build some houses and settle down. Make a home. Build a family. Be be truthful and honoring to me as you do that, but you don't have to separate yourself. I will be with you in the midst of this culture, and then pray for them. Pray for their peace.”

42s

#RedeemTheCulture

“You know, peace here doesn't just mean the absence of violence. It means flourishing. It means pray that they may begin to understand that real life is found in a relationship with the one true God, very different than what they believe. But but assimilate and separate are taken off the table, and God says, this is what I want you to do. I know there's a lot of other opinions out there. I want you to relate and restore and redeem the culture, not assimilate to it or separate from it.”

63s

#GodsAuthority

“Sovereignty simply means supreme power and authority. God has it, we don't. And so Daniel is answering this question, how did we get here? By saying it was the Lord who put us here. And God's sovereignty means that Daniel affirms, not that God orchestrates every single action or every decision, like, we're puppets or something like that, but that we we have the freedom to make decisions and are responsible for our actions. Our choices really do matter. But God's sovereignty does mean this, that there aren't any, in the larger scheme, there aren't any decisions made or actions taken that are outside of God's authority or or beyond his ability to redeem them.”

38s

#DanielThrived

“Sunday school stories and prophetic images are not really the heartbeat of this book of the Old Testament. Really, the guts of it is a story of Daniel and his friends who were god honoring young men, who were in an ungodly culture, and how they not only existed, but they thrived. They flourished. They had influence. They made a difference, and they honored God.”

62s

#NeitherAssimilateNorSeparate

“Or separate. I think I've heard this one more. Separate. Don't go near them. Stay away. Don't let their evil rub up on you. You might get contaminated by all these evil people. And it turns out that these are the two popular ideas Jeremiah is writing about this. And God uses the prophet Jeremiah and says, don't listen to him. Neither one of those things are my plan. I don't want you to assimilate. I don't want you to just become like them. You're not like them. You're representing But I also don't want you to separate. I I don't want you to remove yourself, wall yourself off from them. That's not why I've brought you here.”

31s

#GodRedeems

“God's sovereignty does mean that in the larger scheme of things, there aren't any activities that are beyond God's authority, and there are no circumstances that are beyond his ability to redeem them. Would that change the way that you would view whatever is going around... On around you in culture? It sure did for Daniel.”

56s

#GodIsInControl

“This is Daniel near the end of his life. Looking back and giving context, he wants us to know that God is in control of who's in control. This is his interpretation. From the second sentence, Daniel wanted to make clear that he didn't end up in Babylon because of some triumph of evil over good. That's not the story. That's not his understanding. Daniel wants his readers then and now to see God's hand in absolutely everything about his story. Everything that happened, everything that didn't happen, happened under God's watch.”

34s

#TrustGodInTheBabylon

“what's a Babylon in your life right now? A place that you would rather not be but you are and facing the reality of it. And does that make you wonder if God's still in control? And if it does, could you bring that to him? Could you say, God, I I am trouble believing, given this circumstance, my Babylon, that you're still in control?”

48s

#ExileAndFaith

“This is the beginning of the story of Daniel. It's the Babylonian exile. Exile means being taken into a place and forced to be where you don't wanna be. Forced to live where you don't wanna live. Forced to obey things you don't want to obey. And the story begins with Daniel and his friends being taken from their god honoring place in Judah to this polytheistic, not god... Not honoring god place, and their story begins with them being renamed.”

35s

#LiveLikeDaniel

“So Daniel lived in worst conditions that we will ever, have to live in, God willing. And he models how to live. So we are going to, listen to what God taught him and then put it into practice in our lives. How can God teach us? And what Daniel did and what God told him might surprise you because it is not a popular opinion in our day.”

62s

#ThisIsWhatTheLordSays

“But I want you to know, as we launch into this series today, that I'm not going to share the latest, greatest socioeconomics version of what's going on with our culture. I'm not gonna quote the latest pastor or writer or blogger or or influencer. We want to go straight to the source and say, what does God have to say about how to live a godly life and an ungodly culture. And so that's why we've entitled this sermon series, this is what the Lord says. Because, God has and continues to give us very specific directions in how to live godly lives in an ungodly culture.”

67s

#AssimilateOrSeparate

“And the answer seems to be, in Jeremiah, very different than some answers that I believe I've heard for most of my life. the interesting thing to me is it wasn't new. There were a bunch of people all the way back there giving the same answers that I've heard about what are we supposed to do when we live in an ungodly culture? And the the two answers that at least I hear most often, and they can be attached to any number of different experts, whether they're religious or philosophical or sociological or or whatever. These are the two options it, it's often, given for how godly people can live in an ungodly culture. They're just these. Assimilate or separate.”

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