Welcome to church. I'm just thoroughly enjoying standing here watching all of you,
looking at you, taking in just who's here. And I'm loving you from
the stage here. I don't know if you knew that you're all paying attention
up there, but I'm so blessed that you came to church. It would
be really rough. It would be a bummer to get up here to preach
a sermon and you not come. I have nobody here that's not good,
never good, never good for a preacher. Welcome though, to church,
Father and Jesus name God. I think you right now that you're going to
give me your word for today. Father God, I thank you right now
that I am found in you. I am in Christ. And Father God,
I praise you that Christ is in me. Father, I thank you
right now that everything of my flesh is done away. But there's clarity in
your Bibles to the Book of Daniel, and I must confess. As I
was studying the Book of Daniel, I was noticing that the pages were a
little too clean, they were a little too crisp. Apparently I haven't spent
enough time in Daniel. So we're going to change that up. And we're
going to get Daniel. Very familiar with us. Amen, Well, I
wanted to let you know that my very earliest years. If you don't know
me, my name is Joel, and I grew up in a wonderful home
with a wonderful mom. I grew up in Phillis's house. Now, I
don't think that many of you have ever visited Phyllis's house. She's gone now,
so no more phyllis House. But Phyllis's House was an incredible place to
grow up. It was filled with love, it was filled with security,
it was filled with goodness. There was another place that I grew up.
Probably spent half of my time at Phyllis's house. She's my mom. And
church. So I was a fifty to fifty girl. I was home.
I took half of my naps at home at church under the pew. Anybody
know that. You know what I'm talking about. Just I was a little
church mouse and that's how I lived. So I grew up. So my
first years were very, very formative of me, very comfortable, very secure.
Everybody says secure. So then that day rolled around and mother announced that
I was going to kindergarten. So I didn't know what kindergarten is. I
pulled on my little red boots and my little outfit, and I marched off
to kindergartens. As the elementary years began to progress, I started noticing this
strange feeling in my soul. It was a feeling of awkwardness that I'd never
felt awkwardness before. I didn't know what to do with it. What had
happened was as I started looking around, and I grew up without a dad.
My dad passed away before I was born, and I thought everybody didn't
have dads. But as I went to school, I looked around and at
school functions, kids came and they had dads. I'm like, what in
the world, I don't have a dad, you all have dad. And
my mom, at that point, she was in well into her fifties,
she had me late, surprise, she had me late, and I looked
around and all the moms that came to school functions were all this was,
you know, early seventies, boufont hair, makeup, all of that crazy
stuff. And my mom came walking and she's gray, no makeup, and
she's old, and I'm like, so I started having this awkward feeling about
me, and I had to wear hand me down clothes. Anybody relate,
I don't know the generations of today, not so much hand me down clothes
and homemade clothes. Homemade clothes. So I felt even more awkward. So
things were, you know, shifting in my soul, and I was living
in these two worlds. I felt like I felt like when I was home,
I was comfortable, but when I went out into school, I felt
awkward. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what to do
with my little self, you know, And here I am, what eight
and ten years old, having these eggs stenil crisis identity moments, you know.
So at one point, like fifth grade, my mom gave me.
She came home. I don't know how in the world she did it,
but she bought me a new jacket, a new winter jacket. And it
was the cool jacket that everybody was wearing. It was navy blue, it
had pockets, I had little snaps. I finally was cool, I was
finally fashionable. I put that jacket on and I did not take it off
for two years. Two years. I finally had outgrown the thing. I
couldn't wear it anymore, but I had that jacket on everywhere I went all
the time. I don't think I slept in it. I don't remember that,
but yes, I did wear it a lot. And so also during
that time, I don't know where I ended up with this, but I
somehow came into the possession of a cross. It was a wooden cross.
It was about four inches high about three inches wide, and it said said
Jesus all over it, and I knew I was a Christian. So I
took that cross and I put it on a little neck. Listen, I
put it on around my neck and I did not take that thing off for
two years either. I was that was me. But I did find that
that jacket did come in handy, because there were times where I knew it
wasn't cool to wear a cross. There were times when I was at school
and I was like, I just want to blend in here. I don't
want to be something, and so I take my jacket and I would zip
it up. That jacket came in very handy, and so then I would
spend the day walking around in my cool jacket, being accepted by everyone with
my cross underneath there. Nobody saw it or knew it. All right,
So now let's turn to Daniel Daniel Chapter one, verse one. We're going
to start the beginning. People, everybody say, beginning, got a long
way to go in about twenty minutes, okay. Chapter one, verse one.
In the third year of the reign of jehoia Kim, King of Judah,
Nebu Canezar, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besee and the
Lord delivered Jehoiakim, King of Judah, into his hand, along with some
of the articles of the Temple of God. These he carried off to the
temple of his God in Babylonia and put the treasure in the treasure house of
his God. Then the king ordered Ashpnez, chief of his court officials,
to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility,
young men without any physical defects, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of
learning, well informed, quick to understanding, and qualified to serve in the
king's palace. This is our first introduction to Daniel. Daniel was one of
those that is who Daniel is. So Daniel lived during the reign of Jehoiakim.
Daniel was a very very he You know, history is long, and
we only get to experience a little tiny sliver of it, and we think
that's all there is, right, It's what it's always been, it's what
it will always be. That's not true. We all are assigned a sliver
of history to live it the way God has intended for us to live it
when we're inserted into history at that moment. Amen. So Daniel was inserted
into this history. Let me give you a little background to his sliver.
Okay. So there was David, everybody knows David, King David of Israel,
and then he had a son named Solomon. His son split the kingdom
into two kingdoms. Israel went into two kingdoms. There's Judah and Israel.
Okay, Judah is the one that Daniel was in. This is about.
So then they had a succession of kings for about three hundred years. It's
called the Era of the Kings, all right. So during that era of
the Kings, if you read through First and Second Kings versus and Second Chronicles,
it's that time frame in the Bible. Okay. So every king that
came along, the very first sentence says and king, whatever his name is,
did right in the eyes of the Lord. Then we knew that for
the next However, many years life went well in Judah. But sometimes some
of those kings, it would say, and this guy did what was evil
in the eyes of the Lord. And so now Israel has set up for
twenty thirty years of evil and horrible idolatry and awful things. So the life
of Judah, the spiritual atmosphere was up and down, up and down,
up and down. Well during those three hundred years. That's when fellas like
Jeremiah came along, and Isaiah and Habakuk and Zephaniah and HAGGII and all those
prophets, and they would come to Judah and to Israel. But we're talking
about Judah today. They would come and they would run around and they would
preach and they would teach, and the words that they would say would be
things like repent, turn, Judgment is coming, watch out, God is
God, There's please. Sometimes they would say God is just yearning for you
to come back. So there's all these books. So these are the things
that Daniel is being saturated. And Daniel is in at the end of this
era of the king. So there's been good bad, good, bad,
good bad, and he is he is inserted during the king the reign of
Jehoiakim. Everybody say Jehoiakim. So Jehoikim is the second of the last king
before Judah is taken away into exile. So the early so they think that
about this time Daniel is about twenty. He spent so this is in the
third year of Jehoiakim. So he spent quite a few of his early years
under the king Josiah. Josiah was a good king. Josiah did what's right
in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoiakim did what was evil in the side
of the world of the Lord. How many of you know what it's like
to be under good presidents and then bad presidents and good there's breaching right there.
Pray for our presidents, hallelujah. And this is an election year.
God is good. Back to the notes. I'm running low on time.
So during this time Daniel's young, he has been schooled in the things of
God. He has read the Psalms, He's read the Torah. He knows
the goodness of God, he knows the loving kindness of God, he knows
the faithfulness of God. He's read David. He's read all sorts of incredible
things, and he knows how wonderful God is and how much he loves us.
But he also knows in the back of his mind he's got Isaiah,
he's got Jeremiah, and he knows that sometimes sometimes things don't go right because
the people of God have sin and they've gotten themselves out from underneath the protection
of God, and there's enemies out here. Amen. So he knows all
of this. This is something the church needs to know about right now,
because at the bottom, at the end of the day, God is not
only the God of the good times. God is also the God of the
hard times, because what he's doing during the hard times is bringing our he
arts back to him. So I know this. Why are you going on
about this? I know this because in this these first couple verses, it
says, and the Lord delivered Jehoia Kim into the hands of Nebukanzer. How
many of you when things get hard, you start going, huh? Is
there really a God? Where is he? I thought he loved me.
I thought he loved me. God, where are you? How can there
be something hard? How could it be? Now? I could take the
rest of this sermon and go towards Why is there suffering in this world.
I'm not going to because I have to do Daniel, but I will tell
you. Please keep in mind what Daniel knew was that God is with us,
not only in the good, but he's with us in the heart and
in the chaos. He's right in the middle of it, and he is
never out of control. Even go it might not be going like we wanted
it to go. We know that very first little sentence there that he says
is that the Lord put Jehoya Kim, gave him into the hands of destruction.
That is telling me that Daniel had a mindset of trust in God.
That is telling me that Daniel was not sitting there worrying and wondering and looking
around. No, he was firmly entrenched in the God that he knew and
heard of from his mother and is from his father and from his past and
from his place. Daniel has has and his friends at this point, they
have gone from being royalty now to chains, from living a life in a
holy nation to now in the most occultic city that's ever been known. And
he is willing to say, yes, God is still in control, no
wavering God is in control. I'm not gonna hate you because I just lost
my house and my home and my land. I'm not gonna I'm going to
gently submit myself to you. And because you are sovereign and I give you
me, I will not fight that. How many of you have ever thought
I wish I would have lived in another time they had it easy. Well,
God has you right here for a reason. And same with Daniel.
I'm totally off my notes. Pray for me right now. Daniel was firmly
entranched. Daniel was. He was in the category of handsome. He was
in the category of smart, of perfect, of well learned. All of
that. He was. He was in a royal family, he was of
noble birth. He was in a position to become very great. And now
he and chains. How many of you've ever found yourself knowing what's inside of
you is there's so much more inside of you, but outward circumstances it pushed
you down. I am here to tell you that God is in the middle
of your circumstances, and that is not the end of it. He has
placed you right in the middle of your circumstances, with all your giftings,
with all your talents, with all of your noble birth, to say it
is time to rise up in those circumstances. I'm getting ahead of myself.
Now say go back to the word. So Daniel one, let's go back
to I'm going to start at verse three. Put my little eyeballs on.
Then the Lord of the King ordered Ashpenez, chief of his court officials,
to bring in some of the Israelites of the royal family of nobility, young
men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning,
well informed, quick to understand, and qualified for service in the King's
palace. He was to teach them the language and the 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
would enter into the king's service. Among these were some from Judah, Daniel,
Hannanaiah, Michel, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names,
to Daniel the name Belta Shazar, to Hananaiah Shadrack, and to Michael
Mishak, and to Azariah a Bendigo. So what Nebrakenezer would do is when
he would overtake a city or a people, he would bring the best of
the best, because the best of the best had the most to lose.
Lose. They were fast tracking to leadership in there in their country. They
had the most to lose, and they're the most traumatized because now they stand
in chains. So then he would spend the next three years. He would
bring in the best and he would begin to brainwash them. He would begin
to bring to them a new identity. He would be begin to uh uh
indoctrinate, indoctrinate them. So he would teach them the language. He would
teach them the literature. He would teach give them the king's food and the
king's wine. He would say, Okay, now listen, you do really
good. You're gonna be in my service from here on out. You can
you can serve in my court. You can serve in my court. And
then they would change their names. So here's what their name changes really meant.
Can I tell you what their original names meant compared to what their new
names were. Okay, you ready, here you go. Daniel means God
is my judge. Belta Shazar means I will protect the king. Nebukanezar Hannah,
and Ayah means Yahweh shows grace Shadraq means Aku, the moon god of
Babylon, shows grace. Michiel says, means who is like God. Me
Shaq means who is like Akh? Who as Aryah means Yahweh has helped me.
A Bendigo means I am the helper of Nebo, another one of their
gods. There was a complete reversal, and this is what the enemy likes
to do. There is a fight right now for your identity. We might
not have been carted off to Babylon right now, but we have been sitting
in our own personal culture and it has changed around us, and it wants
to indoctrinate us. It wants to change our identity. It wants to get
us speaking its language. It wants us to read its literature and wash our
brains. It wants to feed us its food, its nourishment. And it
wants to change your name. It wants to change your name. So and
with the lure of serving in the king's courts. So I'm thinking, we
don't know how many young men there were, these noble birth, wonderful,
handsome, smart ones, cream of the crop there were. But I do
know afore it was almost as if Nebeknezzar was saying, I see you,
I see the holy upbringing that you have had. I see you, I
see how you have, what the things that you know. Now put this
jacket on, zip it up, and become what I want you to be.
Don't be that anymore. Don't be that anymore, don't talk that way,
don't think that way, and the lure of it. For Heaven's sake,
why not? What do we have to lose? And I can almost
see that whole group. I don't know how many they're kind of like,
well, you know, I mean, I'm gonna do it. I just
I'm gonna do it. Man. I've been through so much. I have
so much to lose. I have so much that I have already lost.
I have a wife and a family. Maybe I don't know what they're saying,
but they're saying, I've got too much to lose to sacrifice here.
And they begin to put the jacket on. But let me tell you what
Daniel does. Let's keep reading verse eight. But Daniel resolved not to defile
himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief officials for
permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to
show favor and sympathy to Daniel. But the official told Daniel, I am
afraid of my lord, the king, who has assigned your food and drink.
Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age.
The King would have then had my head because of you. Daniel then
said to the guard, whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hannanayah,
Michel and Azariah, please test your servants for ten days. Give us
nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with
those of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants
in accordance with what you see. So we agreed to this and tested them
for ten days. At the end of the ten days, they looked healthier
and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.
So the guard took away their choice food and wine and they were to drink,
and gave them vegetables instead. So Daniel decided to not defile himself.
Now it doesn't talk about language or names or any of the other stuff,
but Daniel drew a line in the sand on the food you would think that
would be the easiest thing to get around, right, Come on, Daniel,
just eat the food. Just eat the food. Stop making waves.
It ain't worth it. Just eat the food. Problem is that food was
meat sacrificed to idols, and that was an abomination. The problem with the
wine is that in those days in the courts, they would lift the wine
before anybody drank and gave of libations to the gods of that nation of Babylon,
and they would go through a huge worship service. Daniel was drawing a
line and saying, I push back right here. I push back right here.
I will not take into my inner man the nutrition of meat sacrifice to
idols. I draw the line. He pushed back. He would not defile
himself. Let's keep moving verse seventeen. To these four young men, God
gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. Take note of
that. He put himself through the learning and the literature and the understanding of
the new culture that he was in. He did not go throw his head
in the sand. He spent time preparing himself to become one of the most
influential members of the court. Hear me, now, people, because some
people in the church want to separate out and run away from culture. Daniel
was smart. He knew what to draw the line on, but he knew
where he needed to prepare within. Just think about that for a minute.
So God gave him. This was God's plan. God gave him knowledge and
understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could and everybody say,
and see, here's the difference between Daniel and every other student in that
classroom. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. In other
words, since Daniel put God first and within his spirit inside of here,
he refused to be defiled. Within. God gave him not only wisdom and
knowledge within the worldly realm of this new kingdom. He gave him the ability
to know spirituals, to know mysteries. People of God, I am here
to tell you that you are dual citizens. God made you out of the
dust of the earth. He gathered that clay together. You are of this
natural realm. But when He breathed his r breath inside of you, and
you took your first breath, you are now a dual citizen. You are
a citonizen of this world. Yet you have a spirit. You are a
spirit. And when you accept Christ into your life, if you give your
life to God like Daniel did, Jesus hadn't come yet, so Jesus wasn't
a part of that. He wasn't wearing no crosses at this point, but
he was wearing God. And Daniel was fluent. He became very fluent in
the world as far as wisdom and knowledge. He was smart. He did
not put brain Binkie's in People of God, we cannot succumb to the pressure
to just sit and scroll mind numbing things, watching movies over and over and
over and watch, just filling our minds with nothing. When the world needs
leaders. He prepared himself and I would say, people of God, I
don't care where you are at. Become smart, don't waste your time.
But yet he was fluent in the spirituals. It was incredible what he was
setting ou himself up to. Daniel. Two, We're not going to read
the whole thing. Praise God. I'm one minute late, but I'm a
God. I'm gonna land this plane. You're ready, Daniel too. Here
he is, He's just living his life, pushing back where he knows to
push back, learning, growing, becoming getting ready. All the whole time,
he didn't even know he was getting ready. He was just doing his
days in and out, in and out. How many of you know that
you're doing your days in and out, in and out. And as you
leave your days and you lead your days under his auspices, how many of
you know you're getting prepared, You are being prepared for your moment. So
Daniel one night has or not, Daniel Nebekin has or has a dream.
Everybody's sleeping nicely, pleasantly. He has a dream, wakes up in the
middle of the night, so shaken by the streams, he starts screaming and
yelling, calls the astrologers and all of his magicians, and they come and
they come running in. What King, Oh what you know this? Because
this king go have your head if you don't do things just right right.
So they come run in and he goes, I had a dream, and
they go, oh you did. Okay, this is our We can tell
you about what this is for what it's all about. Yeah, I had
a dream, but I'm not even gonna tell you what the dream is.
You have to tell me what my dream was, and you have to tell
me what it means, and you better do it now. And they're like,
ah, so let's read chapter two, verse ten. The astrologers answered
with the king, there is not a man on earth who can do what
the king asks. No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked
such a thing of any magician, or enchanter or astrologer. What the king
asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the
gods. They do not, and they do not live among men. See,
this is how the world is. They know all sorts of things,
but when it comes to spiritual things, they don't get it. They don't
get it. So Nebi Keneher says, hey, excuse me, Well,
if you can't figure this out, then you guys are fakes. You guys
aren't really real. I'm paying your good money and you can't do this.
What are you telling me? You are not for real? Okay, I'm
gonna have your heads. So the next day they start gathering them all up
to chop their heads off. Dan He's like, hey, what's going on.
Daniel's like, hey, nebekanizzer, people give me one night. Give
me one night. He went to his friends said, pray, pray,
we need God. How many of you are in a situation where you can't
fix it, You don't know what to do. I would say, pray
because you are dual citizens. You are not limited just with the natural mind
and the natural self. You have the spirit of God, the rook inside
of you, and you are born of that spirit. They prayed, and
Daniel doesn't say if he went to sleep or not. How many vote he
went to sleep. I don't know. Maybe no, yes, no,
I don't know. But it said in the night God gave him the dream
and the vision. So he woke up in the morning. And you know
how sometimes God gives you things and you're like, uh, was that you
or was that not you? It could go either way. But he trusted
in God. And he came out and he said to his official that was
over him. Take me to the king. And he went into the king's
chamber and the king says, what do you got? And Daniel started talking.
He started prophesying it with stuff he didn't know. He started speaking words
that he did not learn. It was a dream he had never had,
and he began to tell well the king his dream and that he began to
tell the king what it meant. And I will tell you even now,
this book, this dream is so right on to history. It is so
prophetic that many, even liberal theologians, say, no, Daniel could not
have written this in five hundred BC. This was written well after Daniel.
This is such a farce because it was so perfect. Let's read one last
passage, verse forty six of chapter two. Then King Nebukanizer fell prostate before
Daniel paid him honor and ordered that an offering an incense be presented to him.
The king said to Daniel, surely, surely, surely now I know
for a fact now that you have heard from your God and brought the spiritual
into my physical. I have seen this. Surely your God is the God
of gods and the Lord of kings, and as a revealer of mysteries,
for you were able to reveal this mystery people of God. I don't know
what twenty twenty four is going to bring, but I will tell you he
needs heroes, He needs his people of God in position. He needs his
people of God. So imbedded, imbedded both feet on the traumises of God
and who he is, and will not waver whatever happens. Listen, COVID
happened, and so many Christians. Did you know where God was in it?
I don't know either, but I'm not gonna doubt him. No,
I shouldn't say I don't know. That's a whole other sermon. Okay,
I could say something. I don't want to say the wrong words here,
but I'm in a hurry. Can you tell my mouth? He's going on
thousand miles an hour right now? We need to be so firmly God,
You are my God. I know who you are. You are the God
of the good, and you are in and you never leave me. And
when it's not so good, you're right there in the middle of it.
Did you know? Did you know that there is no other major religion where
the central event is, in fact, the very deepest humiliation of its God.
He knows suffering, He lived through it. He doesn't leave you.
He doesn't leave you. He needs you and I to be fluent in the
things of the world and in the spirit, because we're gonna be asked things.
We might not go in and talk to Biden, though I wish I
could have a few words, But you're gonna be talking with your bosses.
You're gonna be talking with the people that you're you're gonna be there. You're
gonna be right there, and they're gonna be stumped on something and you're gonna
say, hey, let me pray about this, and you're gonna come back
with the answer. Because that's what God does. He solves the mysteries of
this world. When the world is confounded and dumbfounded and does not know what
to do with its problems, that's when God has you show up. I
was talking to Angela before first service. Angela Morales. Come on, people,
sweet dear, sweet Angela Morales. She works for the DSHS and she
goes into all these cases. They have learned to call her the exorcist in
the Washington State DSHS Department. They love her and whenever there's a hard thing,
they go to her. Come on, people, you will have the
answers because you have the God of mysteries inside of your soul and he's breathing
in and out and he wants to come out of you. Be his hero
and Jesus name, stand up. Let's do this. Let's do this.
Nebukanezar changed in a moment when the man of God sought God and it all
started by drawing the line, the simple line, why why, what's the
big deal. They were all being handed jackets, blue jackets that were really
in fashion and cool, and they were zipping them up, and Daniel's like,
mm m, I'm zipping this baby down. I'm gonna show the God
I serve. I'm gonna show the God I served. This is our time,
this is our sliver, this is our moment. Rise up. God
is in the goodness and in the chaos. Draw the line, and don't
defy yourself. Push back where you know you should push back. Become fluent
in the natural and in the spiritual realm. Take out your brain binkies.
Grow in knowledge, become skilled, Become amazing in what God's called you to
do. Engage, Engage in society. Don't run and hide. You know,
mister Rogers used to come home into his little house there and he would
take off his shoes and he'd put on loafers. I'm telling you what,
children of God Mighty Armor are army here. You don't have no time to
take off your battle shoes. No loafers for you. When you come home.
You keep your battle shoes on, You keep your combat boots on,
and you war for your family, and you war for your people, and
you war for your life, and you are for your nation. People of
God. Refuse the jacket. It might be cool, it might look good.
Refuse the jacket. Know who you are, Know what he has called
you to be, Know what he has named you. Do not let the
world can now listen. In the middle part of the Book of Daniel,
they are called builta Shazar and all their other new names. But at the
end of the book, when there's another dream and another king in desperation,
he says, called Daniel, call Daniel, because he never left his true
identity. Oh Jesus, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. How many
of you want this, How many of you want this? Oh Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus. Right now, hallelujah, hallelujah. Give yourself to the
Lord. Right now, give yourself to the Lord. Give yourself to the
Lord. Be moved by his word. Hallelujah. Give yourself to the Lord.
Give yourself to the Lord. Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, Take my flesh
and fill it with you. Lord. Everywhere I walk, I will shine
for you. I will not compromise. Holy Spirit, And use me,
use me, use me. Use me. Hallelujah. God. I pray
over this nation right now. I pray over my neighbors. I pray over
our family. I pray over me and Jesus' name. God. I thank
you right now that you are gonna change us. That kingdom was changed in
a night, and he God needed a man of God ready to step in.
I'm here, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready.
I'm ready. Fear, get off of my people, distraction, get
off of these people. Set us up for a year. Ready, ready
to overcome the darkness that seems so prevalent. God, I say, right
now, this is not going to be in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Let's
sing, Ondie