Pastor Taylor Shippy - Daniel 1:1-20
Have you ever felt the friction of trying to live out your faith in a culture moving in the opposite direction?
Throughout history, God’s people have often found themselves swimming against the cultural current—facing subtle daily pressures to compromise their convictions. That’s precisely where Daniel and his friends found themselves.
Their story begins with a crisis: four young men—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—are carried away captive to Babylon. Stripped of their home, language, and culture, these royal captives are recruited into the service of a pagan empire. Their world changed overnight, but what about their allegiance to God?
The Book of Daniel traces how ordinary people navigate the subtle currents and overt pressures pushing them to abandon their commitment to God. Noticeably, these young men don't flee the culture, attempt to overthrow it, or quietly assimilate into it—instead, they learn how to remain faithfully devoted to God within it.
Join us for the first conversation of our six-part series through Daniel 1-6 as we learn how to stand firm, hope deeply, and trust God in our own modern-day exile.