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Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. Their military size wasn't the type of people they were going to be.
It's kind of one of my favorite things to preach about is the history that can be found so easily in Scripture.
It's amazing how God has been there since the beginning of time to unfold
His plan that we could be converted sitting right here. Look at that. My gosh.
It's like a pack of cockroaches, man. Look at them. Good gracious.
Man, it's like a herd. They just keep going. And there's more coming.
That's right. We got a bunch of pregnant people. Pregnant women. Pregnant women. Yeah, that's kind of redundant, isn't it?
We have started last Wednesday one of the best questions we've ever gotten.
On Wednesday, for those of you who don't know, on Wednesday we take questions. It doesn't matter what the question is.
It can be, I hate God. I don't think He's real. Prove it. And we're like, alright, let's strap it on.
It can be questions like, I don't understand how God can love me if this. And we'll take any question whatsoever and we'll answer it.
Well, one of the questions that was asked was this. Can you take Old Testament prophecy and carry it throughout history and show its fulfillment?
Now, I added the understanding to that with this caveat. I will show you the fulfillment of that, not just biblically, but historically as well.
Now, I know for most of you people in Witten, you're going to go, well, that's the same thing. I get that. Okay? I get that.
But we're talking with a bunch of heathens that actually think there's Bible science and world science and Bible history and world history.
Guys, in the time, space, and matter of human existence, only one thing happened at one time in one place.
And so that's what we're doing. Well, when we started that, I decided, what the heck, man.
We'll just do Daniel chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all the way through 12 in the next five
Sundays so that you'll get an overall view of the book of Daniel. Now, also, what's really cool about Daniel is that you have time stamps.
And if you read in Daniel chapter 1, verse 1, it says, the third year of Jehoiakim.
Now, you have to understand, and we know exactly when that is, not just from the biblical chronology, but also from the
Babylonian Chronicles. And for all of you that are too smart for your own good and too cool for school, you can get on a little plane right now, fly to the
British Museum in London, and look at this thing in real life. It talks about the
Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. So there are extra biblical accounts of this, the historian, he was not a
Christian, the historian Josephus writes about Daniel and the time frame of Daniel and all about that.
So we have a great time stamp. Now, this year that this is referring to is 605
B .C., 605 B .C. And there was a great battle, and you can, of course, check this on your little phone.
There was a great battle that changed world history at this time. It was called the
Battle of Carchemish, and we're going to get into that not this week, but next week a little bit more.
This time frame is the same time frame that Confucius and the Buddha were alive and began their teachings.
This is the same time period that the Acropolis in Athens was being built.
This is all during that world period in history. And you have to understand that at this period,
King David is gone, Solomon's gone, and Israel split in a civil war into two different nations,
Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south, and they were fighting, fighting, fighting.
Well, there was this kingdom named Assyria, and they took over Israel. They took over Israel, and then
Babylon defeated Assyria. And Babylon came, and in 605
B .C., they won at the Battle of Carchemish, and after chasing the Egyptians down, they came back up, hit
Jerusalem, attacked it, and took away a lot of the best people, and that's what's recorded here in Daniel chapter 1.
Some of those people that were taken away were Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel.
They were carried away as captive and taken to Babylon. Now, just for your future edification,
I want you to look, and you remember the world powers. Once again, this is validated throughout any logical person.
Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and one of the ways I remember that is
A, B, P, G, R. That's how I remember it. That's how my little brain works, and so that'll help you remember it as well.
Now, here's the cool thing about Daniel. When he was captured, he was about a 14 or 15 -year -old kid, about 14 or 15 years old, and what's so cool about him is he lived in Susa.
Oh, let me go back. Let me go back. This is a picture of the city of Susa in Iran today as it exists today.
It was a real place, and those are the ruins of it, but anyways, Daniel served four different kings from two empires.
He served Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar of Babylon, or more proper,
Neo -Babylon, and then he served Darius and Cyrus of Persia, and so in those 12 chapters of Daniel, you have about 70 years of history from Daniel's perspective and prophecy about what's going to come, and Daniel's prophecies are absolutely amazing.
In fact, the smartest man who ever lived besides Solomon was a guy called Sir Isaac Newton, and he, of course, is the father of Newtonian physics.
He said of the prophet Daniel that his writings were so complete and so accurate only a fool could discard them.
It's amazing what Daniel did. So today I want to talk to you about Daniel chapter 1, and I want to talk to you about the idea of compromise.
I want you to look at your own life for just a second, just for a second.
I want to ask you, where have you compromised your faith? I can look at my life, and I can,
I mean, there's some glaring red, you screwed up, son. There are some glaring, you messed up bad.
But there are also some things that I've got to dig at a little bit to come to that same conclusion.
Maybe some of y 'all in here are shacking up. Some of y 'all are shacking up with someone special.
Guys, shacking it ain't hacking it according to the word of God, okay? And the word of God's really clear about this.
It says it is good for a man not to touch a woman. It doesn't mean, like, touch, you know what it means, all right?
We're all past the sixth grade in here, right? You know what that means. And remember, ladies and gentlemen, men are visually stimulated.
Women are physically touched. I always tell husbands, talk, touch, and time.
Those are the three things you need to do with your wife. Talk, touch, and time. There'll be a happy camper, okay?
By the way, Brother Brandon's going to be covering that in the marriage class that he's starting. I'm very excited about it.
So we're going to talk about compromise, that a Christian should not compromise. Now, let's look at our text right here and let's look at the plan of the world to compromise
God's people, starting in verse 3. Then the king commanded this dude, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, in other words, some of the people they had captured, both of the royal family of Israel and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom and endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace and to teach them the literature and language of the
Chaldean. The king assigned to them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank.
They were to be educated for three years and at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king.
Daniel was taken as a captive, but he was not taken as a prisoner.
He was taken to go to the University of Babylon. Now, you might say, hey, that's great.
He won the scholarship. He is a Guggenheim Fellow. He won that Rhodes Scholarship.
But that's not exactly how it happened. Let me explain to you the plan of compromise. You see, the world is going to give you something, but take more than you can pay.
The world is going to give you promises and your lust of your flesh and the pride of your life are going to have you make a plan that your soul cannot cash.
You are going to be set up for failure. Ladies and gentlemen, look what they were given.
Number one, they were given the best of the best of the best. They were given bread and water.
They were given the food at the king's table. They were given steak and pork chop.
Well, they were Jews, so no pork chops. But they sat there and had the best of anything.
The compromise plan is this. The first thing the world wants to do is it wants to change your identity if you call yourself a
Christian. It wants to change your identity. If you read this scripture, it says very clearly that when these
Jews got there, if you look at verse 6, I'm sorry, verse 7, and the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.
Daniel he called Belteshar, Hanaiah he called Shadrach, Meshach he called
Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. Let me ask you a question. How many of y 'all have ever heard of Meshach?
How many of you have ever heard of Abednego? It worked. We in the church actually call them by their
Babylonian change names. We know them from little Bible stories way down here.
Even God's people call them by the identity that they were changed to.
How many of y 'all in here are black? How many of you in here are Mexicans and speak
Mexican? How many of you in here, I'm sorry, brown pride? Huh?
Come on. Yeah, there you go. Muy bien. How many of you in here are
Republicans, baby? Come on. Yeah. Come on. That's right.
Trump. How many of y 'all here are Democrats? All right.
All right. All right. How many of y 'all are Nancy Pelosi fans, right? I better not say that too loud.
What's your identity? Is it really your skin color? Is it really a political party?
What is your original identity gave to you at the conversion of Jesus Christ?
How many of y 'all in here are Baptist? Who cares?
Do you realize when I talk to people about the Lord, you know, the first answer I get, I go to Bellevue.
I like to talk to you about Jesus. Oh, thank you. I go to Bellevue. I didn't ask where you go.
Well, I'm Baptist. I don't care. There are more Baptists going to hell this morning than probably a lot of other folk.
Guys, the world wants to change your identity and they want to split and divide the people of God and they do it through idiotic means like race and politics and all this stuff.
We're so busy listening to the lies of the world to divide us, we don't hear
God say you are one people to be in one accord, walking together in fellowship and in love.
We get so jacked up over stuff that don't matter.
You know why? Because the world has a plan to compromise your calling. Look what else they do.
They want to have them get free education. If you've been watching the news the past week or two, it's amazing.
On the college campuses of the United States of America, America, Palestinian folk, and they ain't
Palestinian, they ain't never been to Palestine. They have no idea what even the heck's going on over there.
Some other dope -smoking, liberal, sandal -wearing idiot said, we're oppressing people, and then every other, have you ever noticed that all these rallies, it's some 20 -year -old female with a shrill voice going, from the ocean to the sea.
It's like, oh my God, can y 'all find someone a little bit more palatable, you know? Good gosh.
Well, I mean, you know, baby, take a MyDoll and sit down for a minute, and let's have an intellectual conversation on what the heck you're screaming about.
No. I don't know. Listen to me. Listen to me.
You peoples, you peoples, that are letting everyone else but you educate your children, do not be shocked and surprised when they're 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22 years old, and you have no idea what happens.
You see, the educational system here in America wants to brainwash your child today.
You say, Pastor, that's ridiculous. Really? Really? You go on any college campus in America today to be in the in crowd, you have to hate what is righteous.
You have to hate this country. You have to hate law and order, or you're a weird person.
Oh, Pastor, you're exaggerating. You ain't been to many college campuses, dude. You ain't.
Guys, that's what's going on here. The same plan Satan had 6 ,000 years ago is the same plan he has today.
He doesn't sit there and attack you with a pitchfork or with drugs. I always hate when people say,
Satan's attacking me with alcohol. No, that's your drunk butt wanting alcohol. What he does is he attacks your pride and sense of identity and your rights.
The minute you start talking about, well, I've got a right to do that, that's that rebellion coming up out of you that you don't want anybody telling you what to do.
Now, let me tell you, ladies, you have a guy like that, I'm telling you right now, your children will be in rebellion and you will be divorced.
You young girls, oh, he look good. He look good. I know he might be beautiful with a smooth bald head and a manly physique like me.
Okay? He might tell you all the things. Listen, I got an
A plus in this. You go to 616, you go to Antenna Club, all the places
Cary Stanley used to go. Nickel Beer Night, Cary was there.
You could saddle up next to some chick after three beers and sit there and start saying things like this.
Wow. Wow, you understand me. I just,
I feel this connection with you. Johnny's over there laughing.
You wrote this, didn't you? I learned this from Johnny Armand. I've never had it.
It's just like this. And they'll abuse you. They'll treat you like garbage.
And the more they treat you like garbage, the more you're attracted to them. You know why? Because you've been compromised and that's all you think you're worth.
That's all you think you're worth. But God, who is rich in His grace and mercy, has called you to be adopted in the singularity of a family and identity in Christ Jesus.
And in Christ Jesus, you are never less than because the price that was paid for you is immeasurable.
That is the blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ. Stop being compromised and understand that the universal and complete symbiotic plan that is presented no matter where you go had to have one author and that author is
Satan himself. It's the same plan that's been going on. It is not a mistake that it's universal.
But the same plan that was defeated in the Garden of Eden at the cross of Calvary is the same plan that can be defeated in your life.
It can be crushed on the heel of Christ. There is a plan to compromise. But I want you to also understand this.
If you look at verse 1 and 2, it says this. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, now read carefully, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
Oh no, it's red alert time. Captain Kirk put on full shields.
Verse 2. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hand, into his hand, and some of the vessels of the house of God.
You want to know the other compromise that's getting God's children? Is we forget who's in charge.
We really do. Now, this November, I'm going to vote. And I ain't going to tell you who
I'm voting for, but I ain't voting for no abortion -loving, godless pig. I'm not.
Now, it looks like the other guy I've got to vote for, he is not number one on my fan list to be just real quiet.
In fact, I think he's a disgusting human being. But I ain't going to vote for no godless pig who is for putting babies and burning them alive in their mother's uteruses and then sucking them out with a shop vac.
Oh, I'm sorry. Did that offend some of y 'all? Take a baby aspirin. Go watch
The Silent Scream on YouTube. Come back and talk to me. Let me say it again. The Silent Scream.
Just go watch it. It's actually an ultrasound of an abortion. If you have any questions on what an abortion is, this will clear it up for you pretty quick, fast, in a hurry.
Whoever becomes president in November does not alter or change God's plan at all.
And I'll let you in on a secret. God ordained it. If Joe Biden is elected president,
I'm going to say, as God wills. And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do the same thing on November 7th that I did on November...
November 9th that I did on November 8th. And you know what's going to matter to me in the eternal nature of things?
Absolutely nothing. Because God is in total control. It says, and he gave
Judah into his hand. But now listen to this. Church, you Southern Baptists, pay attention.
You Pentecostals speaking tongues, but you Baptists, listen up. And God also gave the vessels of the house of God over 30 years of pastoring and preaching.
30 years. It has amazed me about this. How people have more respect for a building and a sanctuary than they do the holiness of God.
Oh, they ain't going to mind gossiping, lying, hating, being vindictive, causing cliques in the church.
But oh God, if someone doesn't wear a suit, a tie, a dress, or God forbid, has a hat on in church, ha, ha, ha, oh!
It's just, oh, let's get all up in arms. You understand what God says here? God let the holy of holies be desecrated in that temple.
God allowed that sanctified, separated, oh, the altar and the miters and all of that stuff to be carried away as nothing but loot and put into a heathen
God's temple. And you know what God did? The same thing he was going to do before it happened.
You know why? Because God should be the center of our attention. Not a church building or a religion.
Not how that person is dressed, but where is that person going to spend an eternity.
If you are concerned about that person's soul, then quit worrying about what they look like and invest in their life.
You know the people who are in this room. Who's hurting? Who needs an attaboy?
Who needs a, hey son, you might want to think about doing this. How much of your personal time are you willing to put on the altar of Jesus Christ as a sweet incense to Him to invest in somebody else's life?
Man, it's a pain in the butt. It is. I ain't going to lie to you. It's a pain when they call you.
And God still call you with no questions at all. Hey, pastor? Yeah.
Justin used to do this when he was younger. Oh my God, he still does it every once in a while. Yeah, I remember
Justin, he was like this. He couldn't decide whether he was going to be gay or whether he was going to be a redneck.
He just vacillated. His identity changed every other week. Now he's a cop and he's both.
But anyways, Justin would walk up to me and he'd go, hey pastor, hey pastor, hey pastor.
Yes, Justin. He was like 17, 18. You might be way taller than I am.
Nah, son. You've grown into a full -sized man. It's amazing. He didn't really want to ask a question.
You know what he wanted to do? Get my attention and spend time talking with me.
It's a pain in the butt. It is. I'm not trying to be mean.
Y 'all know what I'm talking about. No. I just want to sit in my recliner and be left alone.
Right? Or I want to go out in my shop and work. Or I want to do anything that is of what
I want to do instead of what God called me to do. Can we be real?
That's the compromise that we've been trapped into. Where our identity, our wants, and our needs supersede what
God has called us to do. Man, do you really think Do you really think it's going to matter on Judgment Day how much your money made or what your bonus was or what your job was or what your stupid skin color was or what you called yourself?
Are you going to hear, Well done, thou good and faithful servant because you refuse to compromise to the world's standards or to your own lusts?
That's what God's going to say well done for. Second thing. Not only is there a plan to compromise, ladies and gentlemen, there needs to be a resolve in your life.
There needs to be a resolve to resist. Guys, if there is a resistance, it ain't from Antifa.
If there is a real, eternal, both spiritual, physical, and intellectual resistance that absolutely incorporates the trichotomy of human nature, it is a resistance to the world and an absolute submission to God.
That is the biggest reality in this world today. And I want you to see how
Daniel did it. Now, if you look here in verse 8, it says this, But Daniel resolved, and I'll be honest with you,
ESV left out a couple of really important words. It should say, But Daniel resolved in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank.
Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
Just if we could for a second, I want you to turn with me to John chapter 17. John chapter 17.
Just for a second. I won't take too much of your time. John chapter 17, verses 14 through 17.
Jesus is about to go to the cross. And before he does, he prays over his disciples.
And this is a small part of his prayer for his people. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth.
Your word is truth. You know what we've got to do, church?
If we want to quit compromising and start resisting, we've got to man up a little bit.
I'm just going to be honest with you. We've got to get a little bit tougher. I mean, seriously,
I saw a meme on the Facebook thing and it was so perfect. It said, McDonald's can screw up your order 370 times and you'll keep going back.
One thing happens to you in church and you leave for the rest of your life. We've got to get a little tougher, man.
Because there are some of you who are going to split the gates of hell wide open because something happened to you ten years ago in some stupid church.
You see, what you're doing is you're making a plan to fail rather than a plan to succeed because you're submitting to your feelings as you are
God rather than submitting yourself to the holiness of God. Look what Jesus prayed here. He said this,
God, I don't want you to take them out of the mess. I don't want them to be gone.
I want you to give them the strength to walk through the mess. See? You want to resist?
You've got to be here to resist. You've got to be in the fight to fight.
When I coach fighters, I'll sit there and there are these two young guys and it's funny to watch. They'll sit in there like,
Oh, come on. You put them in the ring and they're like this. And they'll walk around each other for like 45 seconds.
You know why they're scared? They're scared. They're afraid to throw the first punch.
They want to have a conversation rather than a fight. Christians, let me tell you something. Conversation time was over.
It was over when Jesus Christ got up out of the grave and said, Go ye therefore. You see, conversation time's over.
Obedience time to go and preach the message of Christ, that is what we need to be doing now.
In that plan to resist, it's got to be first a resolve in your heart.
You've got to mentally and spiritually decide before an action takes place.
If you're just walking around waiting for God to lead you somewhere.
Look, man. Look. Hold on a second. Hold on. I got one right here.
Look. Here we go. Here. If you want to feel lead, here is a 9 millimeter, 117 grains of lead.
Come up here and feel lead and stop ever using that term again in the church. There is no feeling lead with God's people.
God said, Go. Well, I'm going to church. I'm giving money.
I read my daily bread every day. I'm just waiting for God to give me directions.
No, you're apathetic. You're apathetic. You're wanting excuses rather than obedience.
God said, what baby? You're checking boxes. That's exactly right. You're checking boxes. You ain't really looking for a plan to resist.
You're looking for a way to get out of it. Same thing with fighters. There are some guys that don't want to be in there and they want to be in there long enough just to say they did it and look respectful, even if they lose.
That ain't a way to win. That's not a plan to resist. The only way we win is by lifting up Christ.
Now, here's how we do it, church. Notice what Daniel did. Daniel got together four or five guys.
He got them together. Found a couple of Navy SEALs that were in prison with him that were in that University of Babylon.
And he said, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to make some zip guns and some shanks.
And then what we're going to do is we're going to wait for the guards to pass by. We're going to give them, take their weapons and this is sport on and we're going to win.
Right? It was Braveheart time. No, man. This is what Daniel did. He walked up to the guy in charge and he said, excuse me, sir.
I don't mind you changed my name because that's not my identity anyways. I don't mind that you changed my living conditions because I'm just a visitor here.
I've got my home in the kingdom of God. But here's the problem I've got. You are commanding me to do something that doesn't violate my customs, that doesn't violate my heritage.
It violates the Word of God and that's why I've got to draw the line. But here's how Daniel fought.
He simply said, could we come to a mutual understanding? I'm not asking you to be a right -wing
Republican. I'm not asking you to bow down to me and to serve me.
I'm not being some entitled person that everything's got to revolve around me. Here's why I'm just simply asking.
Could I worship my God and be obedient to my God and can you let me do this by eating the food that God commanded me to eat?
And the guy said, you understand, you die,
I die. The king will kill me. He ain't going to kill you. He's going to kill me. You're like Mr.
Knight in shining armor. You're going to learn. You already know the Hebrew language. You're going to learn the Chaldean language.
You're going to be an interpreter and strengthen what he's already conquered. He can't lose you.
I can't speak no Hebrewese. Daniel said, look man, let's do this because he got told no once.
So what he did is he came up with another plan. Tell you what. And he didn't say it, but he said this.
I believe in my God so much that even if it defies the laws of physics and logic, I believe my
God will honor what I stand for him for. So here's what I want you to do.
I don't want to eat any more of the king's food. I don't want to drink no wine. You give me, this is for Ed Lindsey, you give me vegetables and water and in ten days we will look better than those people.
Vegetables and water? Now you sit there and say, well yeah, vegetables are really healthy. Guys, you start a broccoli diet today.
Okay? Look, I weigh about 175. Okay? Okay, we're going to have to work on the whole laughter thing and where to do it.
I weigh 279. That's how much I weigh now. I could start eating broccoli tomorrow for the next ten days.
I ain't going to gain no weight. Okay? It's not going to happen. I don't drink anything but water and broccoli or cucumbers or carrots.
I ain't gaining no weight. Okay? I'm going to lose weight. This was not a, and I've heard
Christians talk about this is God's will that we don't eat meat. Really? I ain't what his word said when
I showed up on the beach. Jesus was having a steak and fish fry. Right? This was supernatural.
See? They ate vegetables and water for ten days and they gained weight. They looked healthier.
Understand this was a miracle of God. The unit goes, dadgum, y 'all look better than the mother boys.
And so he kept sitting there. You see, Daniel's plan to resist was not an armed resistance.
It was something of respect. And Christians, this is something we've got to get back to. The word of God tells us to live at peace with all men as much as possible.
As much as possible. I am to obey the laws of man until they violate the laws of God.
Resisting this world doesn't mean that you go buy 30 acres in Fayette County and start homesteading with an
AR -15 because you know that North Koreans and the US are together and they're going to start airdropping people out of the sky.
Not saying that you shouldn't own an AR -15. I'm just saying. You know? Guys, we've got more people putting more effort and money into prepping for the end of the world than the arrival of Jesus Christ.
Guys, I ain't scared of the end of the world. That's just the finish line for me, baby. Bring it.
Bring it on. You see, our plan of resistance we start thinking in the flesh rather than thinking in the
Holy Spirit. And then, I want you to understand this. No matter what
Daniel was facing his allegiance, no matter if they changed his name changed his education changed everything about him his allegiance was still
God. I want to tell y 'all a story. There was a guy named George Shultz. Some of you my age and older may remember him.
He was the Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan. God, that was a president.
Whoo! Y 'all are too young, most of you, but he was stud. Ronnie Reagan. Reagan was the president.
George Shultz was the Secretary of State. And he was in charge of ambassadors to other countries.
And here's what he would do. Let's say like they assigned Lee to Ginger, Ireland, okay?
They would bring Lee in and George Shultz would sit there and go there's a globe. I want you to point to the country.
I want you to point to your country. And so the guys would go up, spin around he'd point to Ireland. You know?
Like if Paul came in as an ambassador Paul would point to Texas, right? Different countries.
Well, there was this one guy who was made an ambassador and he walked into George Shultz's office and George Shultz did it to him.
He said, find your country on the map. And he was actually going to England. And the guy spun the map until the
United States was sitting here and he was like, that's my country. He was like, no, but you're going as an ambassador.
I'm here to represent this country. This is my home. This is where my allegiance to no matter where I go.
Daniel was the same way. It didn't matter where he was living or the circumstances he was living under.
His first allegiance was to God and the Word of God that God had set up.
I want to ask you, what's your plan to resist this stuff? Last thing. There's a plan to compromise you.
There's a resolve to resist. But I want you to understand this. God also has a plan.
God also has a plan. And that plan of His is absolutely sovereign.
Look at verse 9. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in sight of the chief of the eunuchs.
In verse 12 it says, test your servants. Guys, are you afraid to get tested?
How many of you are so scared of the other shoe to drop? You're walking on a tightrope and you don't want to step out in faith because something might change.
You've gotten into that comfortable rut where you feel like all the plates are spinning and you're in control.
Guys, that's a dangerous place to be because God has a tendency to make you grow by going boop or trip.
Oh, baby fell down. It don't take. Come on, get back up. Get back in the game. Oh, you fell down again.
You think you're in control and you have what you have because of your greatness or your control.
That obsessive compulsive thing where you're like, okay, okay, okay. And you're constantly in anxiety and fear of the other shoe falling loose and all.
Guys, it ain't the shoe you got to worry about. You obey God and trust in Him.
The blessings will be there beyond your capabilities or control. And Daniel sits there and he sits there and he goes, verse 17.
Read verse 17, it says for this, as for these four years, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom.
And Daniel had an understanding in all visions and dreams. It's amazing.
Marty Wilson told me this story a long time ago. A young fella and his dad had an asphalt business.
And his dad got was it a backhoe or front end loader or something? I don't remember what it was.
We got this new piece of equipment. Marty had never seen it. And this is for YouTube. Okay?
Kids, when we were younger, we were poor, we learned how to do stuff because we couldn't afford anybody else to do it.
So we had to figure it out without YouTube. Nowadays, you know, Samantha Dillon changed out a manifold on a 350
Chevy with a YouTube, right? So Marty's sitting there and his dad says, you're driving this thing.
And Marty was like, oh my goodness. He's a little nervous. A little nervous. And he was sitting there going,
I hope I can drive this as good as Pastor Jeff. If you didn't believe that, go ask
Marty the story. And Marty said this. Now, this is kind of childish of Marty. Marty prayed.
And he said, God, give me the wisdom and the understanding to be able to do this. Next day he went out and like he'd been driving it 20 years.
Now, you could say, well, he's just a good old boy, redneck. Guys, that ain't in people's
DNA. Okay? I can run a trout line, skin a buck. That wasn't in my DNA.
God supernaturally gave him an ability above and beyond that which he had. Right?
They already were educated. It says in verse 17, because of their obedience,
God gave them greater understanding. Greater. Guys, how much more do you want?
Do you want a plan of God to come up in your life? Understand this. It's going to cause you to have to do more than what you're doing.
Sitting in church is not ministry, y 'all. It's not. What are you involved in?
Who are you helping? And guys, some of you could be like Daniel. Now watch.
Some of y 'all could be sitting there and the plan of God is greatness but you're sitting there, you're bitter with God.
I'm looking at a couple of you guys right now. You're bitter with God because God abandoned you to a foreign country and you ain't done nothing wrong.
God ruined your life. God won't answer your prayers. You sit there and say,
I didn't have no choice in the matter and this bad thing happened to me. I got divorced.
My son is in rebellion. Whatever it is. And instead of looking at God's sovereign plan and having faith and hope in Him and embracing that and moving forward and seeing the greater blessing that God gives, you sit stuck in neutral complaining about where you're at.
I'm going to give you a plan for success and it's part of the plan to resist. Part of the thing that you've got to resist the most is yourself.
It's hard. You think resisting cocaine's hard? I beat that 30 years ago.
You know what I still fight every day? It's Jeff God. Jeff has to be
God. And guys, I'm going to be honest with you. If all you people would just follow me and do everything
I say to do, your lives would be great. Y 'all would be screwed up.
And I know that. But I still keep doing that for myself. Here's what
God's word says. Here's what Jeff wants to do. Do y 'all know what
I'm talking about? You want a plan to fail or fail to plan?
If you fail to plan, what you're really saying is I'm going to stay in neutral and do what I feel, what I want, what
I need, rather than what God's calling us to do. Do you want that greater wisdom and understanding?
God's not answering my prayers. Yeah, he is. You're just too dumb to understand it.
Well, how do I see it? Growing wisdom and understanding. If it's happening to you, it's
God's answer and it's God's plan. But pastor, what about all the bad stuff? God's wisdom,
God's plan. What about if this doesn't go right? According to you, you arrogant person, according to you, that's the problem to begin with.
It's according to God's will. Well, I don't know what God's will is. Yes, you know, been sitting here for 6 ,000 years and it ain't changed.
And it says that the finish line is not your retirement, the finish line is not your success, your finish night is not your suburban comfort, the finish line is glory.
Where are you at this morning? I'm going to ask the music peoples to come up. And I'm just going to know, are we doing music peoples?
We are doing music peoples. That's alright. Go make me a sandwich.
So listen, yeah, it was so, Brandon was so rude.
I want to apologize to all our lady visitors in here. When he said women don't have the skills to do crafts and stuff.
My wife, every Saturday afternoon crafts me a perfect sandwich. Every Saturday afternoon.
That was so rude, brother Brandon. My wife would make me another sandwich.
Alright, so guys. I'll make the car, she makes the sandwich.
Guys, listen to me for a second. Listen to me. If you're in here today and church don't do it for you,
I'm going to let you in on a secret. Church don't do it for nobody. Because church is full of crap just like everything else in life.
It's filled with imperfect people. Religion, that's right out the door. Religion is the greatest thing
Satan ever invented. You want to know what Jesus Christ is and the peace that comes with that?
It ain't praying a prayer. Listen to me, it's not praying a prayer.
Or it's not believing in God. Demons believe in God. See, it's you submitting to God as Lord.
And I always love it, we always talk about Jesus forgave me. How do you know that? Well, because he said he would.
Where? Uh -huh. And that's your plan and your insurance against the pit of hell.
I don't know. I guarantee that's probably most of your answers in life. Let me ask you a question.
Do you want to know for sure? Word of God tells us these things that we know we can have eternal life.
I don't guess. I know. Not because of what I do good or what I do bad.
But because I put my faith totally I ain't got nothing else to fall back on. But God. You know how much
I got in my retirement program? About twelve hundred bucks. After thirty years in my 401k
I got about twelve hundred bucks. You know how worried I am? I ain't. I'm not.
God's got me. And I got five kids. I just sofa surf all over my head.
I ain't worried about it. I'll build me an apartment in the outdoor shed. I'll live under that tree.
I don't care. But I want to spend the rest of my life doing what God's called me to do. So when I stand before Him, He's going to look at me and go
Atta boy! That's my bullet right there! That's what I'm looking for.
See? That's the plan. If you do not know where you're going, don't come to me.
Don't come to this silly church. Come and let me show you the word of God. It will change your freaking life.
It will make you crazy. People won't understand what happened to you. But it be straight because you're going to be on the right path to heaven.
Okay? I remember people told me, dude, you've taken one too many hits of acid. You're on a bad trip.
Well, dude, I've been on a bad trip for thirty -five years and my life's never been better. Okay? Number two.
If you are a Christian but you just can't seem to keep it going, the momentum going, you're like, and you sit there about five, six, seven years and you hear another sermon or someone late night on TV and you're like, oh my
God, that was a beautiful song. God forgive me. And you know, you go for a couple more and then you fall down again and you're there for another five.
If you're tired of that cycle, stop the insanity for a second. Here's how you do it.
God invented this thing called the church. And here's what the church is for. I know you've been taught differently.
It is not for you to dress up, come and sing a few songs, get your little feelings tickled.
Get your little feelings tickled by a song and a sermon and just go home to house. That ain't what it's for.
Here's what it's for. Where you at, girl? Did you read your Bible yesterday? What'd you read?
You didn't read it? What's going on? Tara, I'm talking to you. Hey, Tara, Tara, Tara.
That's what a church is for. And yes, it's annoying as crap. Yes, it is.
It's annoying. It's frustrating. It's invasive. It's all up in your business.
But unless you have someone doing that to you, you're going to, Kendall, stumble and fall, stumble and fall, stumble and fall.
If you ain't a member of a church and if you're looking to sit on a pew, man, go on down to Bellevue. Man, they got plenty of them there.
Go on down there. Go on. But if you want to be a part of a family and get bigger, better, faster, stronger, come on with it.
Last thing. If you are a Christian and you're a new Christian, and I got to make this announcement, thank
God, we have a lot of new Christians in here. You ain't never been baptized.
First thing Jesus Christ said, get your butt baptized. In other words, put a wedding ring on for the world to see that you are now symbolically mine instead of theirs.
If you ain't done that, come on down here and say, hey, we got to do it. Last thing. If you need some help with, oh my
God, have I been preaching that long? Sorry, y 'all. If you need some help with some repentance, come down here.
We're going to help you too. I'm done. Everybody stand up. You people sing. Let the Holy Spirit move and let's rock and roll.