Through the famous story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we will see an example of courage that could only come from faith in God. These three young men knew that God was bigger than anything life can throw at us. And more importantly, that God was better than anything death could take away. So what does courage look like in your life right now?

We learn that what was true for Daniel is still true now: “There is a God in heaven.” Where human strategies fail, God begins to work. Don’t you want to be part of what God is up to in your community, in your family, in your world?

As we continue our teaching series through the book of Daniel, we’re walking through Nebuchadnezzar’s confusing dream in Daniel, Chapter 2. Through this wild and startling story, we learn to view our culture the way Daniel viewed his—not through assimilation, not through separation, but through transformation. We’re called to participate in what God is doing in culture, not shrink back or isolate.

The world we live in, like Daniel’s, is often very dark and hostile to the message of God. But thankfully, he doesn’t call us to escape this world. He calls us to transform it. We’ll learn that the power to make a difference is only found in the commitment to be different. And one thing that definitely describes Daniel is he was different. So let’s put ourselves in his shoes as we travel back to the ancient near east and are dropped in the middle of Babylon.

We begin working our way through the Old Testament book of Daniel–and it’s about a lot more than just lions. This book is about how to shine, how to thrive, in a very dark and hostile world. Unlike most of the other books in the Hebrew Bible, this one is not set in Israel, but in the heart of an enemy, pagan empire where God’s people have been taken captive.

Today, we conclude our series called, Instead of Me. Every message in this series, Pastor J.D. has shown us how Matthew places people in the story of Jesus that give us possible ways we might respond. Which ones describe you?

We have arrived at the joy of the resurrection in our series titled, Instead of Me. This has been a heavy series, but today we find Jesus alive! And he’s not just alive, he’s alive for me!

If you had been present during Jesus’ crucifixion, how would you have responded? There are four different characters and responses Pastor J.D. is going to walk us through to give us pictures of how we might have responded then and how we can still respond to Jesus today.

Pastor J.D. will help us see how the responses of the people surrounding the events of Jesus’ crucifixion give us pictures of how we respond to Jesus—just as we’ve done in the previous days of this series, called, “Instead of Me.”

The events surrounding the trial of Jesus are recorded to show us that we are the ones who are actually on trial. In these stories we should see ourselves—and they should make us consider how we are responding to Jesus. We are Judas. We are Peter. And today, we’ll see we are also those involved in the trial of Jesus.