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Daniel 1

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Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. We are opening the book of Daniel tonight. Starting the book of Daniel. We are so excited to be able to, get together at Rob and Vicky's home here in Bremerton and to have a meal together, to minister and pray to one another, and to study God's word, and to worship the Lord. And for those of you that are at home that are watching, we just welcome you, and, we're gonna open with prayer now. Father, we come before you. And first and foremost, we just praise and worship you, Lord. We exalt your name. We thank you, Lord, that, Lord, our every hair of our head, every everything about us is, under your sovereign control, your perfect will. And, Lord, we as we see the world implemented, Lord, we know that, you're not the author of confusion, and, we know the wicked one is trying to deceive people. And, Lord, we thank you tonight that as we study your word, we can see a God of order who tells us ahead of time of what's gonna happen and just with such incredible accuracy, Lord, and it just builds us up and strengthens us in our faith and makes us love prophecy even more. And, Lord, we pray that that what you teach us, we could use to, provide an answer of the hope that's within us with people who are out there, Lord, wondering, how can we have hope as we're looking up. So bless Lord tonight, part in the Holy Spirit. Heal Sally, Lord. Heal my dad. It's his birthday, 88 years old, and I just pray you bless his evening tonight as they have a little family, a little party for him. Be with Mike Goodson and help him as he continues to improve. And Betty and Ray, please help them to improve and help Mike with his back. And, Lord, we pray that you you heal his back. We pray for Debbie and Jerry, the things that they're going through, that you comfort them, that you give them your peace that surpasses all understanding, Lord, regard their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And, any other unspoken requests, Lord, we just lift them up to you and ask that you bless, Lord, pour out your spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright. Let me turn this up just a little bit. Can you hear me? Can you out there? God sent his son. Because he lives and face tomorrow. Amen. And all that we do, we're gonna seek ye first the kingdom of god. Right? Jump over here. You go. Thanks, Rob. Alrighty. Daniel chapter one. You guys ready? Father, we thank you for the sweet time that we could spend having a meal together and enjoying this wonderful weather and the deck out here that Rob and Vicky and Brandon prepared. Thank you so much for their hard labor. And, Lord, thank you for the sweet time of worship. And now as we study that your word, we ask that you would teach us, Lord, that you'd open the scriptures to our understanding. And, Lord, that we could, comprehend and come to a greater, love and a knowledge of who you are and our walking relationship with you, Lord. Please reveal yourself unto us. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. The book of Daniel was written in June, so the sixth century, and, he was deported to Babylon along with, many others when he was about 13 to 17 14 to 17 years old right in there. And his lineage, links him to the Davidic line. So he's, we'll we'll see that there. Nebuchadnezzar wanted some of the nobility, to be there. And, this time frame, around the world, what was happening also simultaneously during this time where Daniel was in, Babylon, the construction of the Acropolis in Athens took place. The Mayans were flourishing in Mexico. Aesop was writing his fables. Confucius and Buddha were alive. Greek art began to excel. The Greeks introduced the olive tree to Italy. The Phoenicians made the first known sea journey around Africa. So that gives you an idea of globally what was happening around the world. The July, the 10 northern tribes of Israel were destroyed by the Assyrians. The Assyrians tried and tried to subdue Judah, which is made up of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, but to no avail. And, 40 some cities were wiped out by import cities fortified cities, but, they couldn't handle, taking out, Judah, so God preserved them. And then, pharaoh, Pharaoh began to raise up his his head, pharaoh Necho, to try and help out with Judah, and Josiah got killed meddling in that war, getting involved in that. And so gradually, Babylon began to rise the power to succeed to exceed the Assyrians and the Egyptians and everyone around. So the theme of this book is basically the times of the Gentiles. And you remember what the times of the Gentiles are? In Luke twenty one twenty four. Somebody wanna read Luke twenty one twenty four. Then I'm gonna ask what is the fullness of the Gentiles so we don't confuse the two of Romans eleven twenty five. And, when you're when you're looking at the times of the Gentiles, Luke twenty one twenty four, you could also, somebody read, Revelation 16 verse nine. And so, Brandon, he's got it. Revelation sixteen nine. Okay. Ralph. No. Ralph? Oh, he's in 20 you're gonna do Luke first? Oh. Okay. Ralph. Ralph. Ralph. My dad? Luke 2124. Happy birthday, Ralph. Oh, I'm coming over there. And people said they love this. They love as Raul brings the camera around and the And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations. Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles has been fulfilled. Okay. So you prophecy students, what is that explaining? This time the Gentiles are living and the Jews are being subjected. They're not in Jerusalem. The destruction in seventy AD of Jerusalem. Right? The destruction. Right? Yep. And gonna be trodden underfoot thereafter by by the Gentiles. So because they rejected the Messiah, they're not gonna be able to enter into all the promises, the messianic hopes, all that that are there because Daniel nine twenty six tells us that Messiah would be cut off, that he'd be rejected. And so as Messiah is cut off, it starts it triggers the times of the Gentiles. And the times of the Gentiles is Gentile global rule. Right? So when we get to chapter next week, chapter two, and the statue of Nebbe, we've got four dominant Gentile kingdoms. The first is in our chapter here, which is what? Babylon. Babylon. Right? The head of gold. Right? And then what is the breastplate of silver? Persia. Persia. So in Daniel five, you've got Belteshazzar, who is Nebuchadnezzar's, who's the king, grandson. And in Daniel five, he's having a party, and Cyrus Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede, they overthrow the Babylonians. And then you have after that, the Medes and the Persians are overthrown by who? By Greece, Alexander the Great. And when we get there, we're gonna even see picture of of real details concerning Cleopatra and the Grecian Empire and its and its breakup and all. And and we're gonna we're gonna see the Roman Empire is the fourth one. Right? The Roman Empire? And and the Roman Empire is gonna continue or continued broken half. We're gonna see that where it's gonna break in East West. And and so the rebirth of this Roman empire is going to be the rebirth of that fourth empire, which is the empire for the Antichrist. And then after that, we have the stone not cut with hands in Daniel two speaking of the Messiah Jesus. In his return, according to we're gonna see that Revelation sixteen nine what he does. So Brandon's got that. Sixteen Sixteen nine, his second coming in Armageddon destroys Babylon destroys the Gentile nations. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which had power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory. 1619? Oh, '19. Sorry. Was a preamble. Yep. Great. In every speaking voice. Great voice. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And a great and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Alright. So Babylon, in Genesis ten and eleven, it's where the rebellion the human rebellion against God originated. What is the rebellion before the human rebellion? The angelic rebellion in Isaiah 14. Right? And Lucifer rebelled against God. What is the name of the book that Solelinsky wrote that Hillary Clinton and Obama and everybody follow today? For radicals. Rules for radicals. And who does Soleynski dedicate it to? Lucifer. Lucifer, the first radical, the rebel rebelling against God. They don't hide it, do they? They don't hide it. Okay. So Nimrod, the ruler of of Babylon, and he think that he was a Nephilim, and and God said that there wouldn't be anything, you know, outside their reach with their technologies and stuff. So he confounded the language, and he made what's called nation states. And then he thereafter, he brought forth Abraham, and he was gonna make a nation from Abraham that in his seed, nations of the earth would be blessed, and Abraham's a Hebrew. So the Jews are originate with God, God's idea. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans, so he came from this general area of Iraq. That's where Abraham came from his family. And, but God, brings forth a new nation from his loins, speaking future of the Messiah that would come and the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the intention was that God would raise up the Jews to be a blessing to the Gentiles, and that the Messiah would come forth, and that all nations of the earth would be blessed, through the Messiah Jesus. And so that's God's intention. The nation of Israel, unfortunately, fell into disobedience. Two types of disobedience led to their incarceration. One was idolatry. They began to follow the idols of all the nations around them. Second Kings twenty one one through 15 and the golden calf and all that. And, and then the second thing was is that they disregarded the the word of God in that they didn't allow the land to, rest, every seventh year. So over the course of four hundred ninety years divided by seven, they owed God seventy years. And Jeremiah, twenty nine ten lets everybody know, and Daniel was a student of Jeremiah. So contemporary of Daniel would be Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk are contemporaries of, Daniel. And so Daniel being a student of the word, being anywhere from 13 to 17, he's able to, learn from Jeremiah that, you know what? We're gonna be overwhelmed by the Babylonians, and God's going to, take into captivity a remnant of people of the nation of Israel into Babylon. You're gonna spend seventy years down there. So Daniel knew that he'd be there for seventy years, and Daniel was a part of king Jehoiachin's reign. That's when he went. Pharaoh Necho appointed Jehoiachin. And then and then during the lifespan of the reign of, Nebuchadnezzar. And then after Nebuchadnezzar, he's there for Belteshazzar, the grandson. And then he's there for Cyrus and Darius the Mede. And, so by the time the Lord is done with those those empires, Daniel's approaching over 90 years of age by that time, and, and he's there to see the fulfillment of of, Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. So we see twenty nine ten, the seven years, but one of your favorite verses is Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. Right? I know the what? Thoughts that I have for you, they're good thoughts. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Right? So he's let them know, even though I'm judge I'm gonna judge you, I'm gonna spank you, I'm gonna eventually bring you back, and I'm gonna bring you back into the land. And so, we'll see at the end of the seventy years in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, we see the walls being built and the temple Zerubbabel's temple, being, started, you know, to be rebuilt. The time of Jesus, the the continuation of the rebuilding of Zerubbabel's temple, the second temple period with Herod the great. And then in seventy AD, the temple destroyed, and we're on the cusp. We're on the verge of watching or seeing all the implements and everything ready for the third temple, the Antichrist temple. And then, the temple that we studied in Ezekiel 40 through 48, the fourth temple, the millennial temple. Now the authentication of this book, this book is so accurate, prophesying, and as you analyze history, so accurate, so incredibly accurate that textual critics and and liberal so called theologians say that, oh, there must have been a second Daniel, just like they say a second Isaiah because it's so incredibly accurate. For you and I, that's very exciting because we know it as the more sure word of prophecy has great great evidence that our faith isn't based upon dreams and visions of YouTube prophets, but actual dreams, visions, you know, solid scriptural reference, that God gives and lets us know ahead of time what's happening. Then when it happens, it's just so exciting. So 300 prophecies fulfilled in the first coming of Jesus, and every day, more and more prophecies are being fulfilled pointing toward the establishment of the beast system, which would be the final seventieth seven of Daniel, the final, seven year period, that that they owe, the lord. In his first coming, he came after four hundred and eighty three years, and then there's seven years left on that on that balance. And so that's the time of Jacob's trouble, and Daniel's gonna talk a lot about that. But he starts out with the topic of the times of the Gentiles. Then the fullness of the Gentiles is what? Blindness in part has happened unto Israel in Romans eleven twenty five until what? For the poor of the Gentiles coming. And what does that mean, Vicky? The the last believer trust in the Lord. And the rapture happens right there. Yep. And that last person's gotta be at Calvary Birmington. Somebody's holding back. Right? Because I wanna somebody I'm begging every week that somebody in that audience receive the Lord. But, that's the fullness of the Gentiles. So in this present dispensation, the church starts out by being Jewish, but then, moves in a direction in chapter eight to the Samaritans, in chapter 10 to the house of Cornelius, and then explodes with growth among the Gentiles. God always has a remnant. That's another facet of this book, is God always has a Jewish remnant, a believing remnant. Arnold Frutkenbaum said that the 6,000,000 Jews that were killed during the Holocaust of Hitler, there were still 275,000 of them that believed in Jesus, a remnant. And times of Elijah, where Elijah thought that he was the only one left, God said, have how many? 7,000. 7,000. Have them bow their knee to the prophet Baal. Right? In the tribulation period, he's always got a remnant. There's a one third remnant in the tribulation period that refused to bow the knee to the, Antichrist. And, so God's always, has a remnant. He's never gonna be without witness. And even though you may not see a whole lot of people coming to Christ in the time that you're living in a time of great apostasy, Jeremiah is still a witness. He's still a witness against the nation of what what God requires of them and, their need of repentance. So, the refusal to repent led to judgment. Jeremiah for forty years let him know about it. Daniel was schooled on it. So Daniel finds himself in exile with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego also. Now the first deportation was in 06/2005. The second one was in May, and that was the one that Ezekiel got deported in. And Ezekiel's in a different Babylonian city, near the Tigris River. And then May, the temple's destroyed. So Nebuchadnezzar, three huge campaigns against Jerusalem, even put a vassal king there, Jehoiachin, and because he didn't obey Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar is forced to go and destroy it all and and bring it to the ground like God God said he would. Now authenticating the book in in Matthew 24 verse 15, what did Jesus say? When you see the abomination of desolation Yeah. Spoken by who? Daniel. The prophet Daniel. So Jesus is authenticating the authorship of the prophecy of Daniel. So you don't need to go any further than that against the critics Jesus is quoting. Another one to keep in mind is that Jesus quotes concerning Jonah. So when people doubt the story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, Jesus authenticates that book and even uses it as a picture of the resurrection. Right? Yeah. So it's much easier just to believe, I think, than to try and go against God's word. Alright. So verse one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, to besiege it. So as I said, this is in June, and, Nebuchadnezzar's dad as Nebuchadnezzar is out in the area of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar's dad died, and then Nebuchadnezzar received the kingship, if you will, in June. And we see this in in second Kings 24, you know, one through one and two and second Chronicles thirty six five. And it says, and the lord and here the Hebrew word is Adonai, and, he's a sovereign. And now in Daniel chapter nine, is where we see the lord as y h v h, the consonants for Yahweh, and it's used seven times in Daniel nine describing God as Jehovah or Yahweh. And so Adonai, the Lord, gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. So God raises up kings and he sets kings down. Right? We're gonna see in chapter four where Nebuchadnezzar says, is not this not great Babylon which I have built? And at the end of the chapter, he's humbled, and he realizes that God puts in the power of those he wants. He's able to abase the proud, you know, and he's raised up the, you know, the the lowly. And, and so God gave the nation of Israel, gave the king into the hand of the Babylonians. So the Babylonians become a servant of the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar is servant of the Lord and the instrument of judgment against, God's own people. Now Babylon is also the center of world, idolatry. And so, the children of Israel, one of their one of their demerits, one of their things that caused this judgment was that of idolatry. And, so the Lord puts them the very capital, the very center of idolatry to rub their nose in it and get them to the point where they're so disgusted with the, religious practices of the heathen that they'll never, you know, go that direction again. And, and for the most part, it worked. The Jews to this day still are not, enticed by idolatrous practices. There may be some offshoots of Judaism that are occultic and such, but as a whole, as a nation. They're basically atheistic at this point in that they don't believe in Jesus, don't even believe in God, but there's a resurgence that's starting to take place. And unfortunately, they're gonna try and restart Judaism, during the tribulation period. They miss out on the whole point that Jesus, is the fulfillment of all that they were all that they were studying, all that they were living after. Alright. So the lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of god, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god, little g god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. So there was a time in in, second Kings chapter I think it's not not 20. Let's see here. Isaiah 39. Isaiah. Isaiah. Let's see. We'll find it. I think it's Isaiah. No. No. Isaiah twenty four one through six maybe. Second Chronicles second Chronicles 36, five. Anyway, I'll tell you the story. Isaiah the prophet came to Hezekiah, and he told Hezekiah that, your sickness that you have is unto death. Get your house in order. And so Hezekiah went against the wall as Isaiah is leaving the temple area, and he begins to weep before God and cry out to God, and God gave him fifteen more years. And the Babylonians had heard about the sickness of Hezekiah, So they came from Shinar, from Babylon, and they came to visit Hezekiah. And he brought them into the house of the Lord and showed them all of the vessels, all the gold and the silver and just all the treasures of Jerusalem that Solomon had, you know, built for the temple and everything. And, they didn't have idols to take to Babylon because the children of Israel didn't make idols, but they had these vessels, the vessels that the vest the very vessels that Belshazzar was using, to desecrate the Lord in Daniel chapter five that he's drinking out of and everything when, Cyrus came and and subdued the city in Daniel five. And so, Isaiah the prophet came back and said, well, you're not gonna die. You're gonna get fifteen more years and all. And, and, unfortunately, during that period of time, Manasseh was born. And Manasseh reigned for fifty and five years, and he was the most wicked king, far more wicked than all the kings before him, than the nations You know, offered his own children on the Baal, you know, as a as a child sacrifice and all. And so he's bringing them back to the land of Shinar. Shinar is where the idolatry originated in Genesis ten and eleven, which speaks of Babylon and, and offers them unto his god, little g god, that Abel or Marduk, And and Exodus 20 verse four, the children of Israel not to be given over to idolatry, to idols. Don't be making any graven image, you know, of the lord. And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz, the master of the eunuchs. So here's the head guy underneath Nebuchadnezzar that watches over the eunuchs. And according to Isaiah thirty nine seven and second Kings 20 verse 18, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, who she's smiling at me. I have a scripture that And what is it? Hezekiah. Yeah. But you just said it. Second Kings twenty eighteen. There you go. There you go. Where Hezekiah is. Okay. Praise the lord. Praise the lord. Alright. I wasn't lying. It was true. Alright. And so now you come to the eunuchs, and that's in, second Kings 20 verse 18. And so Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had to be castrated to be a part of the, those that serve the king. And, some say the reason is because the king has a harem, and he doesn't wanna worry about all of his wives and concubines by a so, you know, you're gonna be made a eunuch. And the other thing is if you're made a eunuch, it's a a privilege, and so you're dedicate yourself 100% to serving the king rather than serving your wife and having a family and all, to be divided in your loyalty, so to speak. And so so this guy, this Ash Ashphinas, the master of the eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed. So Daniel's of the king's seed of the Davidic line and of the princes. So Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are of the princes. They're of nobility, but not necessarily in the Davidic line, whereas there's a distinction always made between Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. The bible distinguishes between them. And so a means of social engineering, these guys are gonna go to a deep underground bunker for three years, and they're gonna be hooked up to all sort of computers and things and stuff, and they're gonna be reprogrammed. Elon Musk gonna put a chip in their head, and and they're gonna learn languages of artificial intelligence and and all the occultic things and everything, and they're gonna be like born, Jason Bourne, you know, the and, as when they come out of there. And so their use now their age is around, as I said, about 14 to 17 years old. And in whom was no blemish. So these these are the things that they look for, that these guys, fulfilled. So there was no blemish but well favored. So that means they were very handsome. These were handsome guys. King apparently doesn't want any ugly dudes around him, so, gotta be handsome. And then, skillful in all wisdom. You know, which means, they need to have quick minds. How fast does your mind work? Does your man mind does your mind work as fast as AI? Now here's something that we need to remind ourselves. Your brain is far better than any AI, any computer, any of that. Presently, the ability of AI have been reading, is 70% wrong in facial recognition of you. So they'll want you to think and believe that they're 100% right, that the machines don't lie, they don't lose. You know? But, somebody just told me recently that their husband, you know, got a prostate cancer operation and that it was done by, robot. You know? Well, I I don't know, man. I don't think I'm ready for a robot messing with me. You know? And I think I want a guy that's well rested, that's done about a thousand of them. And he's eating. He's sleeping. He's good. He's not drunk and everything. And he's on his game. You know? That he's done a thousand of these sex successfully. And I and I've also heard that the technology is such that you can be in Texas, and the robot's there in Texas, but the doctor that's operating the robot through the five g, six g, seven g real time over the Internet can be moving the sticks and that sort of thing, you know, here in Washington. Don't need to travel there. I mean Oh, good thing. Oh, yeah. Internet going out. Yeah. Yeah. What if they don't Yeah. The anesthesia the anesthesia wears off and oh, man. That's that's a bummer. Alright. So, anyway, these guys, these guys are going through a whole procedure to bring them into conformity to the Babylonian culture. So they need to they need to be aware of of where they're at. And, so well flavored, skillful in all wisdom, and gifted in knowledge, and understanding science. So these guys were not flat earthers. Okay? They were not. The Chaldeans are astrologers, And the word Chaldee, they're astrologers. They look at the stars. And, in case you don't know, I'm not afraid of this topic. I I lay off it for a while because the people are rabid, you know, that are following it. But, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis recently on Harbinger, came forth with an article where he said this flat earth thing is exploding in popularity. So what do you think is driving it? The AI through social media? People are just adopting this, you know, like crazy? And, even Elon Musk said he saw the files and that we really didn't go to the moon and stuff like that. But anyway, Ken Ham said, so you got so much misinformation, so much stuff circulating, and that's the purpose of it, to get you to doubt, you know, what is true. And, so Ken Hemp said when the astronauts, when everybody looks out there, everything's sphere. Everything all the planets, all the moons, everything's spherical. And so they're proposing that this one's flat. Well, he said he has three astronaut friends that have been to the space station, that have been out in space on many occasions, and they actually take videos for him and send it back to him proving that it's a sphere, that it's a globe. And, but that's not good enough. And even some of his guys took some of the Flat Earthers to Antarctica and proved to them that it's not flat. This whole Antarctic thing with the wall and all that, you're gonna fall off the edge and and the the light and the and everything. Prove to them. And one of the leading flat earthers said, well, we got it wrong. But they they don't give up. They're like cult people. They they still don't give up. Well, there's some you know? So, anyway, Daniel is not gonna present to Nebuchadnezzar a flatter theory, or he'll lose his head. He will lose his head because there are people there that, know the truth. And, you look at the magi. You look at the magi that came at the time of Jesus. These guys were from Babylon, wise men. Right? And how did they how are they inspired to come from Babylon all the way to Bethlehem, all the way to where Jesus is? His star. They followed his star, the star of David. Now these guys are astrologers. They're looking up, and they see the Nazareth and all that. And so they're able to they're men of knowledge, and they're able to follow the star that's moving. And then we're told the star hovers over the house where Jesus is in Matthew two. Right? Two years later, after the birth in Bethlehem, he's in a house now. He's not in, you know, the manger anymore. And these these magi have come all this way. King Herod wouldn't even make the the the trip over there. And and so it's a Shekinah glory of God. Jesus is the star. You know, we've done a a study on that. So, anyway, Daniel is skillful, in learning and science, and, they're gonna they're gonna go to school here for three years. They're gonna be schooled, by the by the Babylonians. And such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. So, basically, what's happening, they're being polished, and these are these are guys with great giftedness. Some people are gifted with a mathematical ability. Some people are gifted with an ability with music. It's just in them. You know? And I don't know that I have any gifts, but but in any event, the Lord gives us spiritual gifts. All of us have spiritual gifts too. So these natural gifts that these guys have, if you yield them to Jesus, that's the highest use of the gifts that God's given you. And so a lot of people sell their soul to the devil for rock and roll, you know, but not these guys. Alright. So they have an ability to stand in the king's palace and and whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans. So the tongue of the Chaldeans is Aramaic, and Daniel actually learned so well, to speak Aramaic that from chapter two verse four to chapter seven verse 28, Daniel writes it in Aramaic. Isn't that amazing? So you're thinking in terms of, hey. This is written in Hebrew. And then those that were in the, here in Babylon for seventy years, when they were released later by Cyrus, many of them didn't go back to Jerusalem. They went to Alexandria, Egypt, and they they began to, want the Bible once again, but they weren't, leaning toward, speaking Hebrew. The Hebrew language eventually be lost and have to be resurrected later. They opted for the Greek language, because the Greeks were overthrown the eventually overthrown the the Medes and the Persians. And so in seventy days, 70 scholars wrote what's called the Septuagint. They took the Old Testament, the Masoretic Hebrew text, and they translated into into Greek. We have our New Testament written in Koine Greek, which was the dominant language of the time that Jesus came. The Romans dominated the Greeks, but the Greek culture dominated the Romans for the most part. So very powerful language that most of the known worlds were speaking at the time. And so, anyway, Daniel has a real good rapport with languages, and he learned the Aramaic language. And and so the tongue of the Chaldeans. So the Chaldeans were the astrologers, and, they were, religious priests and such. And so, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would be trophies for Baal. And, so the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's food. So in chapter in chapter one here verses one through seven is outlining the deportation. In chap from verses eight to, 16 is the testing of these guys, and in verses 17 through 21, the blessing. So we're still looking at being deported, and part of what came into the deportation was his education here. And so and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's food. So you got the worldly view versus the secular view. The worldly secular view versus the lord, the biblical worldview. Excuse me. So the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's food and the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end of them, they might stand before the king. So they're gonna have a moral crisis here. They've got an authority crisis where they're gonna have to give over to the sovereignty of Nebbe. They've got a moral crisis here that, you know, what do I do? This is gonna violate my walk and relationship with the Lord. I'm not to eat, you know, any pig food. I'm not to eat pig. I'm not to eat pork if I'm a Jew. Right? And I'm not to I'm not to eat a horse. I'm not to, eat the fat. I'm not to, you know, eat any blood, and I'm not to eat any meat that's been sacrificed onto idols. So a lot of the best meat, a lot of the cheapest meat for the apostle Paul was the meat that came out of the secular idolatrous temples. And they offer a cow under their little g god, and Paul told told the church of Corinth, you know, don't even ask questions. If you're invited over to pastor Rick's house and and you're worried about where pastor Rick got that meat and you're worried and your conscience is is weak, well, I got it down at the local idol. You know? And but you don't wanna ask that question. You wanna eat giving thanks. Right? That's what Paul said. So, also, if Paul's eating with you, if we're eating with you and me eating meat, a tomahawk, or whatever violates your conscience and it's bothering you, then Paul says, out of love, so I don't stumble you, I'm not supposed to eat meat around you. I'm supposed to eat some veggies or whatever it is that you do as a vegan. Now if in actuality that ever happens between me and you, it only happened one time. Right? K? One time. I will never eat with you again. I learned my lesson. Alright? But out of kindness out of kindness and love for you, I will eat broccoli. Okay? Alright. Because I love you. But I will never, you know, violate my conscience by drinking alcohol if you present alcohol at the table. That violates my conscience. That bothers me. But you're free to drink alcohol around me as long as you don't get drunk. And if you wanna smoke around me, you can smoke around me. If you wanna wear shorts around me, wear shorts around me. You know, I don't care. Those are all peripheral things. It doesn't matter to me. Jesus said it's not that which goes into a man that deposes a man, but that which comes out. So a lot of these dietary laws is a result or a part of their no refrigeration. You know? And, god protecting them from various parasites, and and they had a cleaner diet that he was, imposing upon them to keep them safe in in their culture. So even even, even pig today, I tell Kathy I don't wanna eat any more pig because Chinese bought up the largest pig manufacturing. And pretty soon, I'm not gonna be able to eat meat at restaurants because Bill Gates is getting his way by vaccining all of them and poisoning all of it. Even if it's an organic apple, it's got his appeal on it. And the ranchers are all allowing these injections and IGH hormones and everything to be put in this cattle, so it's gonna get into us. And, so we're gonna have to buy locally. We're gonna have to buy food locally. So a few years ago, some of the pastors, came up with the Daniel diet. I wanna lose weight. I'm gonna go on the Daniel diet. What's the Daniel diet? Any of go on that Daniel diet for twenty one days? Veggies and water. Did you like it? Did it make you look better? You know? Alright. So these guys these guys, they they're they're concerned they're gonna violate their walking relationship with the Lord. So what this means is these guys are young, and they have a strong relationship with Jesus. They have a strong relationship with the Lord even though they're 14 to 17 years old, even though they're away from home, there's no parents watching them, even though there's all kinds of decadence and evil all around them, like Joseph, far away from home, and Potiphar's wife making passes at him. You know, he's about 17 years old. His hormones are raging. He's a virgin, and this woman's coming after him. And he says, how could I do this great evil against God? Right? It's his relationship with God that kept him pure. And and so so they're gonna have the king's appointed them a daily provision of the king's food, of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end of them, they might stand before the king. So after three years, they need to stand before the king. Hey. Fatten these guys up. Fatten them up and make them look like a, you know, like a a Babylonian. Now among these were of the children of Judah. So we know, again, the royal line, children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So these four are many others are singled out and possibly influenced, as I said, by Jeremiah. They they're contemporary Jeremihs. They're they're you know, they like Jeremiah. Listen to Jeremiah. Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of Meshach, and Azariah of of Abednego. Now what's clicking in your head right now is VeggieTales. Right? You're thinking of VeggieTales. You met these guys. Now Daniel, his name means god is my judge. And when it's changed to Belteshazzar, they're saying, may Baal protect his life. So they don't want people calling Daniel, you know, in the king's court there, God is my judge, you know, Yahweh. They wanna change him completely and, change his identity, an identity change. Hananiah, the lord is gracious is what his name means. They changed him to Shadrach, and so Rak, the Rak part, is a sun deity, is rock. Rock is a sun deity, so he's illumined by rock. Michel, who is what god is, they changed it into Meshach, which means what is what. Aku is Akan god, something like that. Ku is god. There it is. In Azariah, his name means the lord helps. They change him to Abednego, which means a servant of Nebo. And so so they get their names changed. Whole new schooling. And so from eight to sixteen, it's gonna be a time of testing. Every single one of us as Christians are tested. We go through times of testing, times of trials, and God is wanting to strengthen our faith as we go through these times of testing. We may not wanna be tested. One of the things I was thinking about on Sunday's sermon of perils and difficulty and all, you can you can stagnate the growth of your child by spoiling them, by not allowing the circumstances of their actions to correct them and test them and bring them around. And, when you have a guy that can circumvent all the rules by simply marrying the pastor's daughter and he gets a silver spoon put in his mouth, you're crippling him. You're actually crippling him that he doesn't get to go through the school of hard knocks like everybody else. And he may rise to a certain position, but, everyone watching knows that he's not called of God, that it's not a gifting that's been given him of God, and he lacks the character. He'd be like a king Saul lacking the character, and God says, I want a David, a man after my own heart. Now David, he's he's groomed in a school of ten years running from king Saul. And Abraham is groomed twenty five years of denial of having a baby and walking with, you know, Sarah, his beloved wife, looking for a city whose builder maker is God. Moses is groomed, to be a leader. Forty years tending sheep for his father-in-law, Jethro, in the deserts of Midian. So forty years in Egypt, all the privileges and everything. Forty years of being emptied of Egypt. Egypt, the type of the world. And then his last forty, equipped, ready, and he doesn't think he is in Exodus chapter four. He tells God, go get somebody else. And, God says, no. You're gonna do it. So forty years of leading the children of Israel. So there's always that season of of being prepared. And, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they only need one thing, and that's when they're tested, keep putting Jesus first. Just put the Lord first. Now watch how the Lord, works with them. They've got some decisions to make. But but in contrast to the direction the king was trying to move them, and he's almighty sovereign, he can lop your head off. So nothing to mess with. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's food nor with the wine which he drank there, for he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. So Daniel purposed ahead of time. He knew he knew ahead of time in his mind, he could see the ramifications, the consequences of obeying the king. So when you heard the king tell you that you had to wear a mask, you couldn't go to church, you couldn't sing, and you couldn't do communion, you had to immediately evaluate that edict and determine if you're gonna obey God rather than men. Right? Because once the state, once the ruler crosses that line, as we see in the book of acts, we'll obey God rather than men, they've crossed the line. And your faith won't allow you to even take a pinch of incense once a year and say, is Lord. You're not gonna do it because you put God first. So you have to first purpose in your heart that in the eventuality, somebody at work is, fraternizing with you, flirting with you. You already in your heart have imagined that scenario, and you you prepared your heart and mind ahead of time of what you're going to do and what you're not gonna do. If you play around with it in your head and you feed that, it becomes a lust, and now you're setting yourself up, for failure. You're setting yourself up to give in to, the temptation the temptation that the devil's gonna bring. So, one of the things I like to remind you of is that all of us remind us of that sin sin enters our minds through a thought. It starts as a thought. So you remember sow a thought, what? Reap what? You sow a thought, you reap what? An action. You sow an action, you what? Reap what? Habit. I got this habit on Facebook. I can't break it. It's just like every few minutes, I'm like, check. Sow a habit, reap what? Character? Sow a character, reap what? A destiny. Alright. So in second Corinthians 10 verse five, we're told to casting down imaginations. So what are imaginations? People imagine things today. We want reality. We want truth. But you're fed imaginations. You're fed lies, and you imagine a different you, a different reality, a reality where it's the golden age. You know? You imagine a golden age. You imagine a false in that false teaching that you're gonna be able to usher in Jesus in the millennium by taking control of the world. There's no scriptural basis for it, but you imagine it. You're following fables. You're following men, interpreting in an allegorical, you know, manner and, symbolically rather than literally. And, so you begin to build a, you know, an imagination for people, casting out imagination every high thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and taking into captivity see, taking into captivity every thought. So as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The devil knows, the communist know, you've got to indoctrinate the children with false thoughts. You gotta deceive them. You gotta tell them there's no god, that we evolved through evolution. Those are thoughts that are that's that's that's a indoctrination, to go against their conscience, to go against the science, the self evident science of Romans one, God of creation, you can freely see him. And so that thought that's there, I've heard I've heard it said that that first look that you women have when you see somebody as handsome as Daniel, that first look is not a sin. It's that second look. It's that second look and third look. It's that your head head on a thing falling. Oh, wow. Who's he? Yeah. Oh, he's my gym crush now. Oh, yeah. And every day you imagine you're thinking about it, entertaining it, And look at Vagi. She's guilty. Look at how guilty she's guilty. No. Just kidding. I'm kidding, Vagi. I'm kidding. Oh, her husband. Oh, her husband. Yeah. She her husband's hot. She doesn't need to look anywhere. Stan is really hot. Okay. Alright. So you know where I'm going with this. Starts with a thought, and you gotta take that thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So so Daniel's purpose in his heart that I'm gonna bring this whole thing back to the obedience of Christ. God, what would you have me do? And the Lord's saying, you're not doing that. You know? I don't want you doing that. And so that's that's how we win is because the devil's using a thought process. He's trying to throw thoughts, fiery darts at her head. He's trying to throw images in all the billboards and television and media, and and it's everywhere. And it it Daniel's got idols, fertility idols of you know, like in Ephesus, they have multi breasted statues. So the men would be men and women would be stimulated. They would be enticed with these images and, and then later go act them out. But he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's food nor of the wine. So let's say I'm in high school. My kids are in high school and I'm trying to keep my kids from doing drugs and alcohol and all that stuff. So I'm trying to get them to understand that if I let you go to this party after the football game, that there's going to be alcohol there. There's going to be kids driving cars having drank alcohol. There's going to be people there with drugs. What are you going to do in that situation? So you have to help them see the situation that's in front of them and teach them to say no like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they're confronted with these truths because we can't take them out of the world. They're gonna be in the world. Right? We don't wanna be of the world, but we're still in the world. This is the world we live in. And so we would love if our kids would learn the word no. No to the world. No to the peers. No to their friends. No to all that. The peer pressure is so great. They wanna be liked. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be thinking, you know, I can get in really good with the king if I just ride this this Trump train, you know, if I just do everything they want me to do. But there are things that are violating my conscience, and I have a walking relationship with the Lord, and I don't I don't want to do that. In Luke nine twenty three, Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself daily, take up his cross daily, and follow me. So you're gonna have to deny yourself. You're not gonna be able to go after everything the world has. And also Romans twelve two, be not conformed to this world. Don't be conformed. The conformity of the world. They're trying to press you into its mold, and that's what Nebby and the guys are trying to do here. Who wants to read Colossians two six through eight? Colossians two six through eight. Somebody have that? Debbie's got it. Alright, Debbie. Thank you. This is Debbie and Eddie here. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. So do you see that? Do you see the philosophy of the world, the rudiments of the world, and you shy away from the word of God? So today in the churches are overwhelmed with the rudiments of the world, the philosophy of men, which is Freud and Reud, which is psychology, which is self help, which is feel good messages. It's man centered, and it doesn't feed your spirit. It's sensual in nature. It appeals to your senses. It's designed to try and make you feel good rather than be holy. The objective of the bible is that we be holy. So it may hurt a little bit, but it it sure feels really good when I'm driving home and I realize that I'm walking in obedience to the Lord, that I said no to the temptation. So how do you say how do you deal with temptation? If you're if you're Shadrach, Meshach, and Bedugu, and Daniel, how did you deal with the temptation of your boss saying, gonna lose your job if you don't take the job? How did you deal with it? How did your friends deal with it? How did your family deal with it? He said no. Vicky said no. I know. Sorry. Did you pray about it? Did you say I'll let you know next week? Was it real quick in your heart and mind? Did you I know I know people that came home, and I know one guy, they wouldn't let him off of the ship he was on. He was a coast guard, and so the boss on the ship was making them all get the jab. And they weren't gonna let him off unless he took the jab, or he'd lose his job. Yeah. Reverend. Right there. So he calls his wife, and they cried, and they just determined that it wouldn't be appropriate to lose the job and lose their house and all that, so they took the job. He's healthy today. Praise the Lord. Didn't didn't have any, you know, ramifications yet, but he's a young man. You know, a lot of these terrible cancers and stuff are kicking in just now, years later. George? Yeah. I was, you know, on the car, so I didn't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's good, bud. Yeah. So from a medical standpoint, your research, I'm not gonna do it because of medical. And for most of us, we don't do things because it violate our walking relationship with the Lord. You know, like when they say, hey, pastor Rick, you gotta shut the church down, that would greatly violate my walk with the Lord. I would feel like such an incredible, ugh, I I I I I like I let the Lord down. That on my watch, let him down, that I gave in to fear. And then the next part of it was, not only have to shut the church down, but James Lee was saying you guys can't have communion. You can't sing. Yeah. So what am I supposed to do as a pastor? Should I put up plexiglass, shut the church down, and not let anybody sing? Should we be mimes? How do you do that? You know? You know? I mean and why is it you can have you can have six people at a table. If a seventh one goes there, you've got COVID. You know? Who comes up with this stuff? Right? The the lines you're walking the wrong way in a on an aisle at at Walmart and there's arrows. You're walking you know, they're all freaking out, you know, going crazy. And I got kicked out of so many places because I wanted to test I wanted to test the whole system. So I'd go in without a mask on and just wait and see if they'd kick me, and they do. They kick me out. You get kicked out. But, anyway, at church, we're gonna honor God. We wanted to honor God. Now it's gonna happen again. So are we any wiser this time, the next time? I hope so. So I I just I'd have to leave the ministry if if I became a pastor for the state. I I couldn't do it. I just absolutely couldn't take the money, no matter how much money they're offering me, and shut the church down. I my my walk with the Lord would be trashed. There's no way in my mind I could I could justify that. I I and there's no way the Lord's telling you through Franklin Graham that even Jesus would take it. That's a bold faced lie. And it just it comes down to discernment. It comes down to purposing in your heart ahead of time. You've had decisions like this your whole life long, and you're wise to it. You're not gonna be tricked by the devil. A whole lot of people are are not wise to these things. They compromise, and they see it as, oh, it doesn't matter. I was violated when I had the flat ear thing rammed down my throat. I begged the person that was presenting these videos repeatedly to not send these videos. She went around me and began to send them to all of you. Then I felt compelled. I wanted to just go away, but I had to deal with it because it would shipwreck you in your faith. You start to doubt God's word, you're gonna be shipwrecked. Down the road, you're you're gonna believe more lies. So we had to try and nip it in the bud and do the best we can to to salvage those that we can. But so many left delusional, acted delusional, saying that we weren't loving. That's not loving. You're hurting people's feelings. I'm sorry if your feelings are hurt for a lie. You're on the wrong side. You know? We're more concerned about about the truth, and honoring God is the main thing. I wanna honor God. I wanna honor him and his creation. I don't wanna sit there and give in to a demonic speculation or theory that, can't be proven in science or any other way, and biblically speaking goes against the word of God. Alright. So you got a purpose in your heart. Am I gonna obey God or man? Your life's gonna be easier if you give in. Your life's gonna be easier if you, like a salmon, just go with the current, the current of the world. If you as a pastor, you as a Christian, if you go with the mores, you go with what the media is saying, if you go with go with it, your life's gonna be a much easier life. If you challenge lies, if you expose lies, your life's gonna be a hard life. You're gonna constantly be persecuted, hated, ridiculed, mocked, all of that. So it's Jesus said if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. I don't see Jesus being invited over to Herod's house for dinner. You know? I don't see Jesus going golfing with these guys and hanging out with them and yucking it up with them. You know? He called them out, and and they didn't like him for it. And he called the religious leaders out, and they didn't like him for that either. Yep. White box. They don't like it. They don't like being exposed. So but you gotta purpose that in your heart. You gotta settle it in your heart that you're ready to die for the truth. So is Daniel settling that in his heart? Is he ready to die? Yep. Yep. Is he saying I'd rather die on this on this hill right here Yep. Than to violate my conscience, my walking relationship with the Lord? Yeah. But he's using wisdom. Maybe there's a way I can keep my job. Maybe I can get a religious exemption. Yeah. Exactly. Maybe I can satisfy the state and satisfy my boss' demand of their boss' demand demand. And maybe I can get a medical slash one religious exemption, and then the state of Washington recently passes what? No more medical or religious exemption? They're getting ready for a two point o, aren't they? Getting ready for the next one. Okay. So then then what happens is you have to go to the constitution, and then you have to go to the bill of rights because these are not privileges. They're rights. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. So your body doesn't belong to them to inject things into nor your children nor your children. I mean, get a clue here. But you gotta be willing to pay the price. There's gonna be a price. And so requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. So he doesn't he doesn't wanna eat meat that's sacrificed under those pagan deities. He doesn't wanna do it. Now God had brought Daniel into favor. Now a lot of times we pray, Lord, please give me favor with this guy. If you've got a meeting, if you've got an important appointment or whatever, and, Lord, please give me favor with this this person, Lord. And, Lord, please give me an open door to share the gospel with this person. You know, you're asking the Lord to move on their heart. And there's a proverb that talks about when your ways please the Lord, even even your enemies would be pleased with you. You know, have you'll have favor even with your enemies. So just seek to please the Lord. Don't compromise. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and compassion, so they actually love Daniel. They have compassion towards him with the prince of the eunuchs. And, so this is grace, God's unmerited favor unto him. And so this is Ashpenaz. And the prince of the eunuch said unto Daniel, fear my lord I fear my lord, the king who has appointed your food and your drink, for why should he see your face worse looking than the youths who are of your age? Then shall he make me endanger my head, saith the king. So Daniel Daniel is asking this eunuch that he he would not have to eat this food, that he would defile himself. And now the god brought Daniel into favor with him, and the prince of the eunuch said unto Daniel, I fear my lord. I'm gonna lose my head if I give in. I got a direct command from straight from, Nebuchadnezzar about this. And, you know, a headless eunuch is is worse than being a eunuch. You know? And, so which king are you gonna follow? Then said Daniel to Meltzer. So Daniel recognized that Asphinus is directly under the chain of command of Nebuchadnezzar, but now there's a steward underneath Asphinus that Daniel says, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna go around him, and I'm gonna go to another guy that has a closer, you know, dealing with me on a daily basis. He's a steward. So he's the one that's left with the implementing of of these of these commands. And it's not a suggestion. It's a command. So then said Daniel to Meltzer, so this is the warden. This is the steward, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishal, and Azariah. Test thy servant. So he's saying, let me let me do a ten day test. Let me eat the way I wanna eat, the way that we like to eat, and then you evaluate our faces after ten days. And so test thy servant, I beseech thee for ten days, and ten days is a number of testing. And, and let them give us, pulse. It's changed in your bible to vegetables, but pulse actually means anything that grows from the ground. So it could actually include grains also. We always talk about don't eat grains. Don't eat grains today because the grains have been genetically altered and, very harmful for us. That's why the bread, if you get fresh bread with fresh grain, it goes bad quickly. So Ken Hoven is the one that said this. He said, so what they do, they genetically altered the grain, and they made it so the Wonder Bread could stay on the shelf for weeks. Right? But it's not good for you. It causes a lot of problems. So, you wanna find the grain. And Kathy and I were talking about heirloom seeds today. We're driving. And she said the reason, you know, they have seedless watermelons is they don't want you to be able to grow watermelon with the heirloom seeds in the watermelon. Right? They wanna be able to control the food and have you do the genetically altered food. So these guys, are gonna eat some veggies. And, for ten days, let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. So no wine. We just want water and the veggies. We want a kosher Daniel diet. A kosher Daniel diet for twenty one days. Right, Rob? I don't know if you lose any weight on it. Maybe you do. So Leviticus 11 and Leviticus seven twenty six, no pig, no horse, no no, no blood, no fat, and, and nothing that's been offered unto idols. Exodus thirty four fifteen. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee and the countenance of the youth that eat of the portion of the king's food, and as thou seest, deal with thy servant. So pastor Chuck loved to do youth camps. He got saved at a youth camp as a young man. And so even though he's he's this busy, busy pastor, every summer, he would teach at the youth camps. He loved to teach at the youth camps. And his passage one of his primary passages is right here. So he's looking at the youth who are 14, 12, 13, 14, and he's trying to instill in them a relationship with the Lord, also the relationship with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and also of Joseph. And he's trying to get them at that point in their life to purpose in their heart before they go to high school that they're not gonna do the drugs, they're not gonna do the alcohol, they're not gonna do the promiscuity, That they're gonna put Jesus first and get through that very, very difficult time of, high school. And then college is where many of the kids that raise in Christian homes, that's where they crash. Vast majority of Christian children crash during college. And they opt for careers, and they opt for ways to advance themselves, and they are made to feel inferior if they don't believe evolution and all the other myriad of different philosophies that are presented to them in college. So a different Jesus, a different gospel, a different spirit, still act like you're Christian. So now they're sleeping with people, smoking pot, doing all these things, and they come from a Christian home. And so pastor Chuck knew that, alright. We gotta get these kids while they're young. And d James Kennedy, is out of Florida, he said, if you put your Christian child into the public school, will they come home a Christian? They're gonna have eight hours a day of indoctrination like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are getting right here with foreign ideas, worldly, secular, idolatrous ideas. And as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. It's gonna shape their character. So I know some of you, oh, they're missionaries. No. That's long gone. That's long gone. They're victims. Especially during the formative years, they're victims, and you have no control. Some of you say, well, when they come home, we we sit down with them and we reprogram them. We ask them what they learn. We look at their stuff, and we we do the damage control of spit out the stuff that's bad and get them back on track and all. And, others say, well, you know, there's Christian school teachers. A lot of Christians in the school system. And, well, how effective are they in reading the Bible during school or having Bible clubs or, you know, those sort of things? Some of them can, some of them can't, but can we afford a Christian school? Can we afford homeschooling? Can we get by on one income? Those are all things we have to consider, but ultimately, the objective is to get our kids into heaven. So that's the greatest treasure that we have. And Kathy and I, we homeschool both our girls. And, you know, Jessica got seduced and, you know, and doesn't walk very close to the Lord. So, she chose to not say no. She knew the truth, but she chose to go with and what's interesting with Jessica, it wasn't the public school, it was the church. She went to a local church here in the youth group. It was so incredibly worldly, it wore her down. It wasn't it wasn't the world. It was in a youth group where she was, seduced. So I like what, Judah told me. There's a youth group that he attends, and I'm very worried about him. But he said, grandpa, there's lots of adults there. I like that. I like that there's parents there because the in my idiocy, in my naivety, I thought these pastors were working the same way I was working, thinking the same way I was thinking, that they protect my daughter, that they wouldn't have guys on staff, in the worship band and all that sleeping with the girls every week, and drugs and alcohol. I I that's just if you're in the world, that's what we do. But at church, we don't do that, but they do, and they have a culture of it. So I I was naive, and my girls went to this youth group of 400 kids on Tuesday nights. We we didn't know any people here. And and that's where where Jessica Brittany was able to say no. Jessica was craving friends, and that's where she went, and she got she got off track. And had there been had I went with her to the youth group? Had I had some other adults there? But shouldn't you be able to trust the pastors that they're not gonna let guys in the worship team or youth pastors be the ones preying upon your kids? You know, my daughter Jessica was raped by a youth pastor. How's that happen? How's that even happen? How how could that possibly happen? But it did. So this is serious. You gotta try as much as you can. Get it through to them because you can't be there with them all the time. And at a certain age, as teenagers, you start to release them, you start to let them go and they've got a they're gonna be faced with these temptations like these poor Hebrew youth, you know, away from home. Many of you guys raised in Christian homes and then you go in the navy. You're away from home and you do things in a foreign port that you'd never do, you know, back at home. So it comes down to Joseph, your vertical relationship with the Lord. Now God had brought Daniel into favor. Okay. We were there. Then shall you make me endanger my head with the king? Verse 11. Then said Daniel to Meltzer, Meltzer, that name means, steward, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel. So the prince of the eunuch is Aspisael. Remember that? And it said over Daniel, Hananiah, Michel, and Azariah. Test my servant test your servant for ten days and let them give vegetables to eat water, and drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee and the countenance of the use that eat of the portion of the king's food and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So let's have a test. Let's take the 450 prophets of Baal, and let's see what you got. So Daniel's saying, let me put a test forth. Let me let me have ten days to show you. Now it wasn't the vegetables that did it. It was the Lord. The Lord honored Daniel's in the boy's position. The Lord supernaturally because veggie diets make you sunken face. Right? I mean, I don't know. I don't eat veggies. How's it work for you? I'm just kidding. I eat veggies. I love a salad. I want a salad. Alright. So then let our countenance be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the use that eat of the portion of the king's food, and thou seeth deal with thy servants. And so what's your countenance like? Not your physical, but your spiritual countenance. You know? In Psalm 42, David said, why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? There's times where our countenance is kinda down, and and we can't let it persist. We can't allow it to continue. All of us experience down days, down adverse circumstances, but we can't stay there. So David answered the question, why? Hope thou in God is the answer. Get our eyes back upon the Lord and hope upon him. And The joy of the Lord is our strength. Going to church, going to Bible study really helps my countenance. I I love being with the saints. I love being with God's people. And I love talking about the Lord. I love knowing that the angels are listening. I love knowing that God is writing in the book of remembrance the times that we talk about him, that every tear he stores in a bottle. I love the intimacy and the blessing of being a Christian and being with God's people. And you guys you guys help with my countenance, my wife's countenance, my family's countenance, and none of us are alone. We have fellowship. We have koinonia. We have Jesus we can all talk about. You ever in a situation with family members and people where you can't talk about Jesus? You know, at work and stuff, it's so hard, isn't it? It pulls you down. So he consented to them in this matter and tested them ten days. So this guy's putting his neck on the line. He could get in trouble from Ashfinaz, you know, and from Nebbe. So there's a dependence upon God here. God, we're gonna depend upon you. Lord, I don't know how I'm gonna pay my bills, but, I'm gonna seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness, trusting that all these other things would be added unto me. You know? And who wants Colossians four verse five? First Thessalonians four twelve. Four twelve. Matthew three fifteen. Matthew three fifteen. K. Matthew six thirty three, I just did. Colossians four five. Okay. And then, first Thessalonians four twelve. Matthew three fifteen? Matthew three fifteen, Colossians four five, and first Thessalonians four twelve. Four eleven and twelve. Eleven and twelve. Yeah. K. So Matthew three fifth or excuse me. Not Matthew. First Peter three fifteen. Who's doing that? First Peter 315. I thought that was Matthew. It's Peter. First Peter. Oh, Peter? First Peter. Oh, yeah. Yeah. First Peter 315. You got it? We'll let him. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. Okay. But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to do But do this with gentleness and respect. Oh. Oh, wow. Okay. But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. Keep a clearing conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. So live it and let them ask questions about what is it about you? You? Where's your hope? Everything's falling apart, but and you've got this hope. And, Rob posted a video about the rapture, and, you know, that's our blessed hope. I never get tired of hearing about the blessed hope. It always, always blesses me that Jesus is coming again. Colossians four verse five. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time. So Daniel has to walk with wisdom. Daniel is hoping for an open door to tell him of the hope that's within him of why he doesn't wanna eat the king's food. Questions are gonna come up. First Thessalonians four eleven and twelve. And that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that ye may walk honestly towards them that are without and that ye may have lack of nothing. So when you're at work, you mind your own business. You do your work as under the Lord. He's your boss. And you let your work speak of your work ethic and honesty, all that hard work. Let let it speak volumes to, those that are evaluating your Christianity. Let them see it in that way. Verse 16, thus or I have a question. So if we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, we purpose in our heart, what's another way that you combat temptation when you're tempted? Run. Flee. Yeah. Paul told told Timothy to flee youthful ass. Joseph fled, Potiphar's wife. Run. Run. Get out of there. Not a place. You you get into a place where you're sensing, hey. I'm unequally yoked with unbelievers. You know, this isn't good. Run. Yeah. Yeah. Run from that devil with the blue dress on. Get out of there. What else? Pray. Pray? You wanna pray? That's a weapon. Yeah. In Ephesians six, you've got a prayer weapon to pray. You know, Daniel in chapter 10 is praying twenty one days, fasting and praying. What else? It's coming in your head. What did Jesus do when he was tempted in Matthew four? It is written. It is written. It is written. It is written. Sword of the spirit which is the word of God. So devil's going to bring lies to you. You're gonna teach your kids that, hey. They're lying. You're gonna get the word of God into your kids. The word of God into your home, you're lying. When the devil presents a lie and he's real slick, you come back with the word of God. It is written. You combat the lies, and, you stand upon the word of God. What else? One of the best ways I found to deal with temptation, and it always goes away, is just give into it. Think of your diet. Think of your diets. How many times we failed at our diets? Man. Oh, man. I made it all day, and it's 10:30 at night. And, man, all I have to do is just get to sleep. Oh, And man. Oh, man. Oh, man. I'm not tempted anymore. In fact, I broke my fast. I might as well eat three more. Alright. There you go. Oh, I tell you. Weakness. Alright. So he so he took away the portion of their food and the wine that they should drink and gave them vegetables. So this humility there of of of of Melsar, he's he's humble, and the humble obedience of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And now comes the blessing of doing it God's way. Verse 17. And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom. I mean, this is above all the other, you know, guys that Nebby has, all of his wise men and everybody. These guys are 10 times, it's gonna say here, 10 times greater than Nebby's guys. They're gonna stand out from the rest of them. These are the these are Elon's Silicon Valley dudes. You know? These are the real heavy dudes here. And so these four you now now that's a good thing to to think about. It's not just secular knowledge that these guys have or wisdom whenever. It's spiritual. Pastor Chuck was saying that you could you could go to a college and take a bible course taught by a guy that has a PhD in bible. And you can go there and take that course while you're going to college. I'm gonna take the bible course. But a sixth grader who knows Jesus, who's born again, would be a better teacher and better insights because he would be able to bring forth the spiritual part of God's word and who he is. Right? The natural man understands not the things that God needed, can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. So there's facts and figures and things like that, but they they don't know the Lord. I think it was Mark Twain or somebody said that, there was a time where somebody asked for, him to, you know, quote Psalm 23, one of those guys. So he got there with his all of his oratory skills and everything and quoted Psalm 23. And then a humble pastor, He too quoted Psalm 23, and the secular guy said the difference is I know the Psalm, but he knows the writer of the Psalm. You know? Big difference. The author. Yes. The lord is my shepherd. It's personal. Personal. And, so he gives them knowledge and skill. So the gifts are given, the skill in using the knowledge. We have knowledge, but we need wisdom in how to use that knowledge. We might know how to split an atom, and we can use it to, make energy, or we can split the atom and use it to, kill people. What would wisdom tell you to use it for? So knowledge and skill and learning and wisdom. And Daniel had something more than Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel had understanding and vision and dreams. So Daniel was gifted even to a greater degree than Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but they're all gifted. And you talk about testing, wait till we get to chapter three, and they're in the fiery furnace. Right? So this decision here leads toward the next test. COVID in the past and all the decisions you've made in your marriage to be faithful to your spouse lead toward the bigger test, more tests, things down the road. So if you if you get this one right, the next time around, it might be an even bigger test, but, you're gonna get there. Now David, when he's facing Goliath, was that his first test? What did he say? He killed a lion and a bear, but have you ever killed a lion and a bear? Not me. So David's looking at it, and he brings it into the spiritual, and he sees Goliath as this uncircumcised Philistine, defying God defying God. Right? And then he realized the battle belongs to the Lord. And Paul would say, since God's for us, who can be against us? Greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. And so in his humility, in his dependence upon God, he couldn't use a secular guy like Saul. He couldn't use his armor. And Goliath was a trained warrior from his youth. From his youth, he's trained to be a warrior. Not David. David's just a shepherd boy. But God prepared him in his walk and relationship with the Lord, his confidence, dependence upon the Lord, and and Goliath was no match for David's laser guided GPS directed stone that hit him right in the only spot, and I saw him in VeggieTales, the only spot Mhmm. That there was no armor to protect him. Hit that one spot, you know. And then not only that, but then he falls like a big tree, and he goes over and cuts a guy's head off with that guy's sword because he doesn't even have a sword. You know? So when we're dealing with COVID, it's it's it's teaching like that. It's lessons like like Shadrach, Meshach, and Benno, David Goliath that so incredibly, you know, inspire us to learn from. Alright. So wisdom and Daniel and understanding all visions and dreams, very gifted. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, So this is graduation day. Then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. So this is three years later and, God's servants. And the king conversed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Meshach, and Azariah. Therefore, stood they before the king. Who wants to read Psalm a hundred nineteen ninety seven and ninety eight? Alright. That's a big Psalm. Yeah. Okay. It was Psalm, what, one nineteen? One nineteen ninety seven ninety eight. Mem. Oh, how I love thy law. It is my med meditation all the day. Thou through my commandments has made through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever with me. Would it be great to be wiser than our enemies? And I get so frustrated because we as Christians, we're as dumb as stumps today. It's so sad. They're tricking us, lying to us, getting us to do all kinds of crazy stuff. There's a famine and a land for the word of God, and the children of this age are wiser than God's people in many cases. We we don't know the scriptures. We don't know prophecy. We don't teach prophecy. We don't have confidence in the authority of God's word. And and this is a classic case of truth versus lies and the authority of God's word, and the word prevails. The other aspect of this is we see there's always a believing remnant, these four guys representing that remnant. But like Caleb and Joshua, sometimes you can be held back by the sinfulness of your nation, by the sinfulness and the unbelief of those around you. And so as much as you wanna set this place on fire and go for it and do everything you can, it's those 10 unbelievers, those 10 unbelieving spies. It's the nation that gets permeated and melted with unbelief that holds a Caleb and a Joshua back. And it's not that God's not in it. It's that it's that they don't believe. And if you don't believe, what are you gonna do if you're trying to pastor a group of people that won't believe, that won't trust God? How do you take the city? How do you take the mountain? And so finally, Caleb's able to take the mountain later when he's 85 years old, but you're held back. So one thing to learn is there's always a remnant of believers, time of apostasy. And second is, you as part of that remnant are gonna recognize that you're gonna suffer with the nation. You're gonna suffer right along with America if it's taken down even though, you know, you're a believer. Now you're not gonna suffer like those in the tribulation period because you're not subject under God's wrath. You're gonna be raptured away. But, the Christians at the holocaust, 275,000 of them wound up suffering. The Christians in China, the Christians in Iran right now. The fastest growing church in the world is in Iran. So if somebody gives the green light to new Iran and go to war with Iran, how many they call it collateral damage. How many Christians are gonna die, you know, in that in that whole exchange? So so, anyway, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they're preserved as as part of a remnant, especially Daniel. He's gonna live till, you know, old age, over nineties, and, God's gonna use him mightily and use Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego too. So in all the matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all of his realm. So these are God's elite. If God be for you, who can be against you? It's the spiritual man in competition or going against the natural man. And you got the Lord on your side. That's why I said recently, I think yesterday about debates or we got the truth on our side. And if we know the truth and we take that sword of the spirit out, it's the enemy that's that's backing on his heels. So when Jesus says, upon this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Do you see what he's saying that the saints are gonna storm the gates of hell? We're not running from the devil. We're going to storm the gates of hell to preach the gospel to the lost, those that are perishing. The gates of hell will not prevail. They're going to lose. And we're on the winning side. And you think of the book of Revelation, you think of the remnant there. You think of those, the one third remnant Jews. You think of the 144,000 Jews. You think of the innumerable multitude of people in Revelation six and seven who do lose their life, but they gain eternal life by refusing the mark of the beast. Everything's gonna come down to purposing in your heart that you're not gonna take that mark. So right now, I can get the Cathy and I have the REAL ID, and we did the REAL ID when we were, driving truck. Our our, license came up. So we're at the DMV. And I said, hey. They called it something different then. They called it, like, what do you call it? Hands. Yeah. Hands. What's that? Well, you can get into Canada and Mexico. So I was gonna go on a mission trip down to Mexico. Hey. That sounds good. And sometimes we get to go up to Victoria. Hey. That sounds good. So, yeah, let's do that. And I didn't think anything wrong of it. You know? And then you get to the airport now, they're taking a picture of you, you know, the whole thing. I don't care. They got my picture. It's everywhere. I'm famous. You know? So that doesn't matter. And so I'm not worried at these preliminary means of what's leading toward the beast system. But at a certain point, I might have to make a decision like, you know, I don't like how intrusive this iPhone, Apple phone is. You know? I might I might wanna go back to a place where I lose the convenience of this thing taking pictures of my grandkids and all that and posting all that fun stuff and connecting with people I haven't talked to in forty years. I might need to go to a flip phone or I might need to, you know, get some pigeons and just use little notes. I I don't know. Mhmm. But it's it's a progressive thing. So in my mind, though, if I'm wrong about the rapture, it's a big if. Right? Yeah. Big if. And I were in the tribulation period? I've already purposed in my mind. I ain't taking no mark of the beast. Is that is that what we would call a no brainer for you? That's a there we don't even need to pray about that one, do we? I say that loosely. So I wanna pray about everything. But so they're 10 times better. God's elite. And Daniel continued even under the first year of king Cyrus. And so he's gonna go all the way, chapter 10 there with Cyrus and, May. So he's gonna be there with Darius in chapter six on the lion's den, and he's got a great career in front of him. And one of the things that you'll find out, worldly people, when they recognize God's hand upon your life, when they see your countenance, that you're glowing, that you got the joy of the Lord, that you're not depressed, that Jesus is just, I mean, mind blowing. When they see that you're gifted, that you have a giftedness, they're gonna covet what you have, and they can't have it because what you have is Jesus. Right? And so he, in many instances, is gonna set you apart. Now people in the world have a much easier time in a lot of ways because it's based upon lying. I mean, you can prosper just by being a murderer. You know, we're we don't get to murder people. Yeah. But the globalists get to murder people to prosper. It doesn't matter how big Hillary's list is or whatever. So they're prospering in a certain way, but but they can't get any satisfaction. They don't have the true wealth. And so we can we can be just a normal person working a job, family, kids, the whole thing. And you watch them, they're jealous of your kids. Your kids are just shining bright. Your grandkids are shining bright. There's happiness and joy and blessing and going to church and being with the saints, and they're seeing something. They're looking at something that is spiritual. And they're demons. Their demons hate you. They just hate you. Brittany said, dad, they all hate us. No. They don't, honey. They don't hate us. You know? But Jesus, we know. Paul, we know. But who are you, you seven sons of Sceva? You know? And so so Daniel remember, Daniel's gonna have people around him getting very jealous about his skill and his ability to interpret dreams and all, and they're actually going to make up new laws to try and get Daniel killed. They're gonna make a law that you can't pray three times a day. Do you remember that? Yeah. And he's gonna face he's gonna open up his windows, and he's gonna face Jerusalem. He's gonna continue to pray as he always has because he purposed in his heart. Right? And then he's gonna be and Ahasuerus can't change the law. He got tricked into writing the law. So even he as a king can't change that law, and so Daniel has to go into the lion's den. Right? And, God, again, he has favor with God. And the lions don't munch on Daniel. And, those that were concocting this conspiracy against Daniel, they and their families' bodies didn't even reach the bottom, and the lions crushed them. Know? So God shut the mouths of the lions as Daniel's sleeping there. You know? And, so there's gonna be a great jealousy. The religious leaders had a great jealousy against Jesus, the things that he's able to do. They had a great jealousy against the disciples, the things they were able to do. You know, what are we gonna do with this guy? We know that he was impotent. He couldn't walk for forty years. What are we gonna do? Everybody in the whole town knows that Peter and John as they're walking by, just their shadow touched them. Silver and gold have we none. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. It's a known miracle. It's a fact. It's a fact that Lazarus was raised from the dead. What are we gonna do with this Jesus? You know? That's what our life should be like. The worldly guys should be jealous. We should provoke them to jealousy because of our walking relationship with the Lord and the way that He's using our lives and the way that He's blessing our lives. And they look on, and they want an answer of the hope that's within us. What is it? What is it about you? Tell me about your Jesus. You know? And that's the objective. So alright. Let's let's pray. Father, thank you for the night. You that we could be students of your word, disciples. And, Lord, we have so much more to learn in the book of Daniel. We pray that as we study, as we read ahead, that, Lord, you'd stimulate our hearts and minds that we would be able to teach these things to our children, and that we, along with our children, would have purpose in our heart that we would dare to be Daniel's, Lord. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen. Amen.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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