Welcome back to Book
of the Books, friends.
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We are looking at the book of
Daniel and we are in Chapter 1.
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James, I think that is
important to come back to
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where we left
off before the break.
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In the first segment we were
talking about Divine providence.
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We were talking about how God
orchestrates certain things in
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our lives, He doesn't micro
manage the world, He is not
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sovereign in the deterministic
sense, where every single thing
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that happens is the direct
result of God pushing be zap
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button, for instance, and
making things happen to people.
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But we do know this, that
Scripture points out that God
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who is in love with every
member of the human family,
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so much so that He
gave His only begotten Son,
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to die for the human race.
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That God regards each one of
us as dearly beloved to Himself.
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That God looking down from His
vantage point of infinite wisdom
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knows what's best for us.
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In knowing what's best for
us, God makes judgment calls
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sometimes, He chooses to allow
the results of our choices to
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take place sometimes, even
though suffering is going to be
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involved, He is not the direct
result of imposing suffering
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on us, but He does allow us to
experience suffering sometimes
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in order to
arrest our attention.
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To wake us up, to turn us back
to Him and so God does these
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things from the
standpoint of allowing.
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Absolutely, and one of the
things Ty, that is important or
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significant in relation to this,
is recognizing that God does not
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separate from us through these
sufferings, through this pain,
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through this evil,
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through these trials.
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Now you not only see this in the
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context of the book of Daniel,
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but you also see it in the
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context of the cross.
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God is demonstrating in the
cross be He suffers with us.
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Isaiah 63:9 says, "in all their
affliction He was afflicted. "
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So when you look at the context
of this heathen nation coming in
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and taking God's beloved captive
you recognize that God Himself
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is being taken into captivity.
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The vessels of His
house are going in there.
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He is being lightly
esteemed by this heathen nation.
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They are looking at Daniels
God as and insignificant God.
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His reputation is on the line.
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Moses pled many times for his
people and their transgression
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and disobedience, he said spare
them, do not do this to them.
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Because what will they
even say about You, Your name?
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Your name, about
Your character? Exactly!
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So we see the same
thing happening here.
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God is actually establishing
the principle of the
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cross right here because the
principal the cross is that He
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humbles Himself so
that His character, His love
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can be exalted.
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So here as God's people go into
captivity, God goes with them.
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He bares reproach, He
bares affliction with them.
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When we go through trials,
individually and personally,
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God feels our pain.
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God feels are
suffering. God is there with us.
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As a parent hurts for a
child, so God hurts for us,
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but even more so.
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This is a vital point, that
God doesn't stand aloof from us
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in our suffering,
He's with us in our pain.
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Like it says in Hebrews
4, Jesus is touched with the
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feelings of our infirmities.
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He doesn't give us over to
pain-and-suffering, and to our
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bad choices because He wants
us to suffer, and He certainly
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isn't separate from us.
God feels the pain that touches
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each of His children.
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Absolutely and so as the chapter
develops as we move through
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Daniel 1, we see God
present with His people.
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You would think Daniel, man
he went through some terrible
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experiences, been
separated from his family,
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been taken to this
heaving court and made a Eunuch,
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but God is with Daniel.
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God, it says in verse 9,
God brings Daniel into favor and
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tender love with the
prince of the Eunuchs.
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In other words God is working
through Daniel's experience.
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He is there for Daniel.
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He's bearing with him
and He wants to bless him.
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He wants to give him favor
in this heathen court, in this
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foreign nation, He wants
to give him favor because
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God has a purpose.
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What we have mentioned a few
times that God's wisdom in this
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matter of Daniel's captivity,
and the captivity of Israel
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to Babylon
involves infinite wisdom.
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God's wisdom is so
infinite in fact James,
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He has multiple things
going on here at the same time.
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Not only is He chastising
His people in seeking to arouse
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repentance in their hearts, but
simultaneously God in His wisdom
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looks down and says, I see My
son, yes my son Nebuchadnezzar.
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This heathen king, God
even loves and wants to reach
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his heart so He says, from His
standpoint, not only am I going
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to work this for the good of
My people in their captivity,
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but I am also going to pull off
conversion of Nebuchadnezzar.
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This vicious war mongering King
that is the enemy of My people,
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I can actually use Daniel
by strategically placing Daniel
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in this situation.
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I can work for the
conversion of Nebuchadnezzar.
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And God pulls it off!
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I like that Ty, because even
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what we have been talking about
this heathen king, God loves.
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As if it was a surprise,
it is a surprise, it is a
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surprise to us as human beings.
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But it is not a surprise when
you know the character of God.
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When you understand that God
is love, that there is no other
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option for God but than to love.
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God loves every
single person in this world.
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When we look at the worst
we see that in Nebuchadnezzar.
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We will get to that as we
examine his character and come
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in contact with who he is.
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As we look at the worst and
think how could God love that?
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But indeed the Bible teaches
us that a God of love, loves
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every single human being and
sends His people on a mission
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to rescue those whom He loves,
who He has created, and redeemed
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through the
blood of Jesus Christ.
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The playing field is so leveled
James, that I heard somebody say
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one time, when we get to heaven
we are going to be amazed at
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some of the people we see there.
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Then another person said when
we get to heaven some people
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are going to be
amazed to see us there.
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I mean it is not that there is
some kind of hierarchical sense
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in which God had disdain
for some and loves others.
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He loved Nebuchadnezzar and is
working through Daniel to reach
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Nebuchadnezzar's heart.
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It's incredible!
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Now having said that of course
we recognize that there is a
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disdained that God has for pride
for sin, for the wickedness
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in this world.
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So God is working to separate
us from that wickedness.
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He is helping us to
realize our need for Him.
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Now Nebuchadnezzar does not
obviously feel his need of God.
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He is a powerful monarch,
he is a very wealthy man.
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He is basically in
charge of the world.
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He goes in and takes Jerusalem,
he takes Judah, and he takes
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captives, puts the vessels in
his, with his gods in his temple
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and basically says educate
these boys and see what they
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can give us, see what they can
give to the kingdom of Babylon.
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I'll give them a test in about
3 years and see what happens.
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Basically he is pretty, and you
would be too, he is pretty proud
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of his accomplishments, of
who he is, and where he is at.
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He doesn't feel his need
of God until he has a dream.
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That is interesting, because as
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we get into the book of Daniel,
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we recognize that while men
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work with chariots and horsemen
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horsemen with guns with military
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might, God can actually
work things like dreams.
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If you can imagine He could
topple nations and He can help
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people to realize their need
by just giving them a dream.
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Until the point that
Nebuchadnezzar receives that
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dream, I think is incredible to
realize, as we read the story,
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that the whole
time that Nebuchadnezzar
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is going along doing what he
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thinks he ought to do.
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It is his right to do, this
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powerful monarch just being
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governed by arrogance and pride.
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The whole time he is utterly
oblivious to God's consciousness
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of him, he doesn't even know
that Daniel's God is the only
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true God and that Daniel's God
loves him and is looking down
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upon him and is working
out a plan to reach his heart.
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He is unaware of
God's awareness of him.
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Finally he becomes aware, wow!
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Finally this God of Daniel has
been pursuing me, Nebuchadnezzar
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all along and brought Daniel
here in captivity in order
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to reach me, he finally comes
to realize that as we will see
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later on.
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We are believers, we follow God.
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We believe in evangelism, we
believe in sharing God's love.
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How do you reach a king?
How do you reach a world ruler?
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How do you reach a monarch?
How do you reach a man that is
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so powerful, so wealthy
that he has no needs whatsoever?
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How do you reach
someone like that?
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Well look at Daniel 1:8, "but
Daniel purposed in his heart
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that he would not defile himself
with a portion of the kings meat
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nor with the wine which he drank
therefore he requested of the
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Prince of the Eunuchs that
he might not defile himself. "
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This is how you reach anybody.
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You are particular about
the very small details of your
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relationship with God.
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He comes first,
before anything else.
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It's a heart work,
it is not a profession.
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People see right through
profession, they see right
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through hypocrisy, they see
right through all that show,
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that religious show, that
religious garbage, if you don't
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mind me saying that?
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That glitter and falsehood,
they see right through it all.
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They are looking for it,
they are looking for people who
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are dedicated to
God, surrendered to God.
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Who in their worst times, in the
worst of the their experiences,
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you know it's one thing to say
well if you become a Christian
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everything is going to go well,
and you are going to get all
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the things you need,
and all your bills are
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going to be paid off.
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You're going to have the right
things at the right time and
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God is going to bless you
completely, and with that,
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Oh well, then
I'll be a Christian.
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But it is completely another
thing for us recognize that
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Daniels life was
completely devastated.
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I mean it is devastated.
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At that point Daniel said,
everything I have and everything
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I am I'm giving to God
and I'm standing for Him.
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This is not the one of the most
meaningful and significant lines
00:10:06.03\00:10:10.43
of Scripture,
it just stands out.
00:10:10.46\00:10:12.31
Daniel purposed in his heart,
that he would not defile himself
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This is the power of decision,
this is the power of integrity.
00:10:17.43\00:10:21.78
Daniel makes this decision and
at this point he is a young man
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as you said, he's a teenager.
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He is determining that he
will not violate his integrity,
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he will not violate his
conscience, he will continue
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serving the Lord his
God, regardless of what comes.
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The result is verse 9, through
his integrity, he comes into
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favor and tender love
with the Prince of the Eunuchs.
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Later on in Daniel 1, it says
they were found, Daniel and his
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friends, in verse 20, were
found to be 10 times better
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then all the
magicians, and astrologers,
00:10:55.88\00:10:59.69
of the realm of Babylon.
00:10:59.73\00:11:01.41
It was evident that these
guys were under God's blessing.
00:11:01.44\00:11:06.59
Now let's go back, verse 9, 17
this is your reference, here it
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is, the question was how
do you reach these monarchs?
00:11:10.34\00:11:14.08
How do you reach
the these power people?
00:11:14.12\00:11:15.93
How do you reach
anybody in the world?
00:11:15.96\00:11:17.47
Well notice the
two phrases here.
00:11:17.51\00:11:18.95
Verse 9 says, "Now God
had brought Daniel into favor
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and tender love", verse 17 says,
00:11:23.98\00:11:26.07
"As for these 4 children, God
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gave them knowledge and skill
00:11:28.16\00:11:29.75
in all learning and wisdom. "
00:11:29.79\00:11:31.66
What we recognize here is a
00:11:31.70\00:11:33.50
principal and that is, it's God!
00:11:33.54\00:11:36.32
Not us! We don't
do it! We can't do it!
00:11:36.36\00:11:39.41
God is calling us to surrender
and He is calling us to be
00:11:39.45\00:11:41.75
faithful, He is calling us to
give everything into His hands.
00:11:41.79\00:11:45.47
He is the one who accomplishes
His purposes through us when we
00:11:45.51\00:11:49.16
surrender our life
to Him. That's God.
00:11:49.20\00:11:50.20
It's incredible that not only
are we recognizing this as we
00:11:50.24\00:11:55.64
read the book of Daniel.
00:11:55.68\00:11:56.65
But Daniel later on as we'll see
00:11:56.66\00:11:59.71
in a program in the future,
00:11:59.74\00:12:01.51
Daniel says to the king when he
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is brought before him to give
00:12:03.12\00:12:04.58
and interpretation, he says
King I want you to understand
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something, I'm going to give the
interpretation of your dream,
00:12:06.90\00:12:10.25
but it is not because I am wiser
or smarter or better then any
00:12:10.28\00:12:13.60
of the other wise men in
your kingdom, there is a God in
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heaven who reveals these
things and that God want you to
00:12:17.54\00:12:21.39
understand your dream.
00:12:21.42\00:12:23.30
That's how I can tell you,
it's God every step of the way.
00:12:23.34\00:12:26.11
Ty if we can only understand
this truth, if our viewers
00:12:26.14\00:12:28.84
could only understand this one
truth that it is all about God.
00:12:28.87\00:12:32.93
It is not about us.
00:12:32.96\00:12:33.93
Daniel recognize this because
he had nothing, he had nothing
00:12:33.97\00:12:37.55
left in his life, nothing
he could point to, nothing that
00:12:37.58\00:12:41.12
he could attribute to himself.
00:12:41.16\00:12:43.61
Everything was gone and
when everything was gone friend,
00:12:43.65\00:12:48.30
Daniel gave it all to God and he
had nothing that he could point
00:12:48.33\00:12:52.46
to himself and say this was me.
00:12:52.49\00:12:53.95
Everything, everything directed
the mind of the King and the
00:12:53.98\00:12:58.23
mind of anyone who looked on,
to God and we are praying that
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will be your experience as you
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give your heart
fully to the Lord.
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