May 19, 2024

00:00:03:22 – 00:00:17:01
The sing to. All right. that would be horrible. was missing her from last week. and her partner in crime sitting next to her.

00:00:17:19 – 00:00:36:17
if you all noticed, they were here when they’re. When they’re not here, I get nervous, like. Like most of you don’t make me nervous if you’re not here. But those two right there, after all I’ve been through with them, I got nervous, like I sent that text that I always sing like y’all are in jail.

00:00:36:17 – 00:00:42:23
Are you? Because if you need bail money, you’re going to have to wait a week because I’m broke.

00:00:42:26 – 00:01:09:29
But it’s her birthday this week, so I wish you a happy birthday. And I think there’s some others there this week. John and Rita, y’all got an anniversary this coming week. Yeah. Same day. How many years? How many years have y’all been married? Oh, she’s asking him your wait yesterday. How long you’ve been married? 31 years. Wow. Well, congratulations.

00:01:10:01 – 00:01:37:23
Congratulations. Well, guys, we got married in 230, but we also have a couple of baptisms here in a few minutes, and that’s going to be good. But this morning, I want to take just a little bit of time to recognize a couple young men with this. And I hope I didn’t miss anybody. I sent out some word a couple weeks ago, and we were trying to gather up and figure out who all of our young people were graduating high school this year.

00:01:37:29 – 00:02:01:04
And just next week. I guess y’all are free, man. After next week, only thing you’re going to learn is the biggest mistake you ever made was accepting that diploma. If I had it today over, I gave it back to let me stay one more year or two more years. All the adults here know what I’m talking about. This is what I was about to get real, but real fun.

00:02:01:06 – 00:02:19:26
And I want to ask Kenneth Williams. Come on up here, buddy. And, Cohen is not with us today, right? He’s with his mom and Cameron. Cameron, come on up here. Cameron got a haircut for the occasion. We’re really glad he did.

00:02:19:29 – 00:02:38:04
So this is Cameron. I’m going to give this to you. You hold on to that for a second, and then, his son goes, I got the authority over here. Oh, yeah? Yeah. You get to give a speech in a minute.

00:02:38:06 – 00:03:10:04
And, Kenneth, this is yours. All right. Ready for. Yeah. All right. These two boys are good. You graduated from both Ivy from ASU, right? Both of them from Azle. And, those are card and a book. And I’m going to tell you something about this book. It’s called God’s Promises for Every day. And, and for you ever need and, I had to get these because when I graduated many moons ago, like, many moons ago, someone gave me this little book I didn’t graduate from.

00:03:10:04 – 00:03:31:23
Boyd. Yeah. and, somebody gave me that book, and I kept it in my rigging bag for years. And a lot of times when I was getting ready to write or something, I would pull it out because it’s full of scriptures. It has all kinds of, scriptures for just about any need in your life. In it.

00:03:31:23 – 00:03:57:23
If all the books besides the Bible, anybody ever gave me it, bless my life so many times, even as an adult, I still have it, and I often look to it because you take you right to some scriptures, whatever you’re struggling with, whatever you need from the Lord. And I hope you always remember that God’s Word and God’s promises are two things you can always stand on, because God will always stand by His Word, okay?

00:03:57:26 – 00:04:16:07
And he’ll never fail you. And anything that you go through in life, God has it in His Word and it’s for you. It is. It’s his love letter for you, instruction for you, and it’s his blessing for you. Every word in your Bible, every word in that book would be a blessing to you. So we love you guys.

00:04:16:09 – 00:04:41:02
Y’all give him a hand. Thank you. Now you want to say now. Oh come on Cameron, Cameron, tell us, what are you going to do after high school? Hopefully make money. That’s fine. It’s a good plan. But you get oh, basically the same thing. Raises survive is to survive. Okay, okay. Well, they got a plan, don’t they? That’s a pretty good point.

00:04:41:04 – 00:04:57:12
It’s a pretty good one. All right, well, my poor Porco. And he’s going to miss out there. I was going to tell you that you also get a free ride today. Cameron. You can get a red bull to you. Okay? Yeah, if I can make. If we make the end of it. All right. Hang on. Let me pray with you, y’all.

00:04:57:12 – 00:05:15:22
Let’s pray over them and ask God’s blessing on their lives. Lord, we thank you for Kenneth and Cameron and Cohen and Lord, all the people and all the kids that are graduating this year. But we especially pray for these young men. Lord, we love them. They’re part of our family and God. I just ask your blessings over them, Lord.

00:05:15:22 – 00:05:41:08
I ask you to guide them as they enter this new chapter of their life, Lord, one that be longer than their childhood. And God, I pray your hand of favor, protection, and blessings be upon them every day and all that they do. Lord, that whenever they find troubles in life and storms in life and God, we know they will, that you’ll always remember to turn to you and to your word and to your promises, because it’s for them.

00:05:41:08 – 00:06:00:05
It’s your love for them. And I pray you guide them, helped them through that. Lord, I just pray that you use their lives mightily for your kingdom sake, whatever vocation you call them to Lord, whatever down the road, the family they have, and just pray you help these young men to be godly men, to stand up for their faith.

00:06:00:05 – 00:06:27:10
Stand up for Jesus. Stand up for their family. Lord, help them throughout every day of their life. Bless them. Bless their families in the future. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen, Amen. All right guys, y’all, listen, I know y’all don’t want to give a speech. if we have anybody here that’s graduating and we missed you, let me know, because I’ve got a few more of those books and a few more cards.

00:06:27:18 – 00:06:37:13
I want to ask you to turn to Daniel chapter one for a minute. And, I’m really.

00:06:37:16 – 00:06:57:18
Kind of trying to get you out of here earlier today, because we’ve got preparations to make up there. a little while, and it’s going to be pretty warm today. And, so I don’t want to keep you long, but I want to share something with you. And I thought, as I was preparing today’s sermon and thinking, what would God have me preach?

00:06:57:20 – 00:07:19:26
I kept thinking about those young men that are graduating and what words of advice that I would give them. More importantly, what words of advice would God’s Word give them and what what verses Scripture. And by the way, I could turn to any passage in the Bible and found good things to share with them. But recognizing that I need to share something with all of you.

00:07:19:29 – 00:07:43:26
So all of you are going to kind of get a sermon today that I think fits them really well. But it honestly fits everybody in this room. And it’s in Daniel chapter one. If you’ve ever read the book of Daniel Daniel, there’s a lot of great stories in the Bible of great men of God who did extraordinary things because they lived an extraordinary life of faith.

00:07:43:26 – 00:08:10:17
They trusted God with all their heart. Daniel was one of those young men. Daniel, when you read the book of Daniel, that you have the story of of Daniel as a very young man. And the reason we get the story of him as a young man is because King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian captivity, they came and took the Jewish people captive and took a lot of the young men from that kingdom, from the Israelite kingdom.

00:08:10:17 – 00:08:48:16
And they enslaved them, took them back into Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, and began to mold those kids to be servants to the king, a foreign king, all their life. The best way I could equate that is, just imagine that the United States of America had an invasion from a foreign country in a foreign leader, and that leader took captive numbers of our young people and decided to take them back to their home country, the king’s home country, and enslave them for the majority of their life and make them servants to him.

00:08:48:18 – 00:09:13:05
That’s the condition that we’re about to read. These young men were in, and I’ll be honest with you, I can’t fully pronounce all their names. But you’re you’re going to read in Daniel one about these young men, Daniel being the leader of them and Daniel being the one who wrote this book. And Daniel was a prophet. But this is what we’re about to read is the early years of his life.

00:09:13:05 – 00:09:34:26
He’s just a boy. And as a boy, he’s he finds himself in this situation where he’s been taken away from his homeland, taken away from his parents, taken away from his family, taken away from the friends that he probably knew has a new set of friends. But he finds himself in a kingdom that is hostile to his faith in God.

00:09:34:26 – 00:10:01:24
He finds himself in a kingdom where it’s pagan worship. As a matter of fact, you may fast forward a little bit to Daniel three, and you read of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who those three young men were in. They were forced, if he would, to bow down to an image, the golden image of King Nebuchadnezzar, and worship it at the Sound of Music, you go forward just a little bit more than Daniel six.

00:10:01:24 – 00:10:43:13
You find the story of Daniel, who continued praying whenever God, had put on his heart to three times a day, bow and prayed toward Jerusalem, praying for his home country, praying for his home people, praying for the people of God. And because he refused to stop praying. The leaders there put together a, a committee, if you would, they go before King Nebuchadnezzar and say, you know, what you need to do is pass a law that anybody who prays to any other God that you, that person, would be imprisoned or that person will be punished or that person will be killed.

00:10:43:15 – 00:11:05:29
And that’s exactly what they did. And so when the time came, the king had been cornered because he really liked Daniel and he didn’t know. And he makes a decree that anybody who doesn’t pray to him only would be put to death. He’s come to find out his trusted servant Daniel is praying, gets arrested. They throw him in a lion’s den.

00:11:05:29 – 00:11:33:20
And you know the rest of that story. He. Here he finds himself in the lion’s den. And. And God closes the lion’s mouth. And when the king came the next morning to the lion’s den, expecting this to find the bag of bones left, or the lions chewing on the bones of Daniel, he found Daniel asleep between two of the lions, and that just proved that God was sovereign and in control, and God was protecting Daniel.

00:11:33:23 – 00:11:56:29
The latter part of Daniel. You read about events that are unfolding as we live today. You find the very idea that we get. If you’ve ever read revelation, you can’t hardly take revelation without the Book of Daniel, because Daniel, God gave Daniel visions later in his life of what was going to happen in the end times, the very hour that you and I are living in today.

00:11:57:04 – 00:12:28:26
Some of the very things that we’re seeing unfold right now in our world are recorded in Daniel Daniel chapter one. You have Daniel, who’s a young man. He finds himself with his new friends. There’s four of them and they’re all or he has three friends. There’s four total in the Bible tells us that King Nebuchadnezzar instructed these young men to be put on his special diet.

00:12:28:28 – 00:13:02:22
They were going to be his great servants. They were going to be his closest servants. And so he wanted them on a special night. So look with me. Verse number. How about verse number three? It says, then the king instructed his, the master of the eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants, and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish but good looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge, quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace and in whom they might teach.

00:13:02:24 – 00:13:28:22
Get this the language and the literature of the Chaldeans, and the King appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies, of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Asherah.

00:13:28:22 – 00:13:52:21
Those are the ones who later would become Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. To them, the chief of the eunuchs gave names to him. The today in your Belshazzar, and to Hannah, Shadrach, and to Michelle, Michelle, and to Ezra at Bendigo. But Daniel purposed in his heart, I want you to get verse eight. But Daniel purposed in his heart. If you underline in your Bible, that would be a good verse to underline.

00:13:52:21 – 00:14:12:04
It’d be a good verse to memorize. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the chief for the unique that he might not defile himself. Now I’m going to stop right there. We’ll pick up in a minute.

00:14:12:07 – 00:14:37:01
So Daniel and his friends, they are brought in. They’re kind of looked at by the king and his men. They look at him and they say, these guys are young, they’re good looking, they’re strong. They seem to be pretty intelligent. All we’ve got to do is reeducate them because, remember, they’re Hebrews. They’re Jewish people. They they’ve been instructed in the law and not King Nebuchadnezzar in the Chaldeans stuff.

00:14:37:04 – 00:15:03:01
And so he says, look, if we can just bring them in, I’ll feed them. Well, we’ll we’ll teach them literature, we’ll reeducate them, and as we reeducate them, we will we will get them to conform to our standards, to our community and and even to our culture. Now, you’ve got to understand, to be a Chaldean and to be a Jewish person that was as different as night and day in cultures.

00:15:03:08 – 00:15:23:02
It was kind of like the hour you and I are living in today. You have one culture that is anti-God and one that is pro God. You understand where I’m at this morning? You understand there is a spirit sweeping our world today, the spirit of Antichrist. Or you’ve got the Holy Spirit over here bringing revival. It’s one of two.

00:15:23:07 – 00:15:47:24
There’s no in between. Have you have you noticed, even in the day that you and I live in that it is it is becoming easier and easier to see light in darkness. It’s not too many gray areas anymore. I mean, you don’t have to wonder where or what side people are on. Just listen to them for a few minutes and the way they talk, the culture they embrace and you find out who side there are real, real quick.

00:15:48:00 – 00:16:06:19
And we’re watching that. And don’t misunderstand me, I’m not against education. If you’ve been around me, I think everybody needs an education. I think education is opportunity. I tell all of our young people told my own kids get as much education as you can, but I wouldn’t send my kids to an Ivy League college where they become an idiot.

00:16:06:21 – 00:16:29:23
It’s just my opinion. Amen. They’re going to stand outside and protest Israel. They’re an education doesn’t make you blessed. The word of God brings wisdom and that’s what blesses you. An education just gives you an opportunity to navigate through all the crazy stuff in life. And so they want to reeducate them. Which, by the way, if you haven’t noticed, that’s what they’re doing in our schools today.

00:16:29:25 – 00:16:49:23
If you haven’t noticed, that’s what I’m not against. Public schools listen to me carefully. But that’s what they’re doing in our public schools today. They’re trying to confuse kids to don’t know what a man or a woman is, much less what riding and and math and English and science and history. We we don’t teach too much of that anymore.

00:16:49:27 – 00:17:22:08
We’re too busy. And it’s not teachers fault either, by the way. But it’s it’s an education system of the government that is saying we want to train up a generation that will fit the culture. Well. I want you to understand some God’s kingdom has always been against the culture of sinful man. Have you figured that out? And whether you start in Genesis or you go to revelation, it God’s kingdom has always been against an evil culture, much like you and I are living in today.

00:17:22:12 – 00:17:50:23
So what was the solution? They were wanting them to just conform to an evil culture, an evil way, in a way that would have violated their conscience? Listen to me. It would have violated their conscience, and it would have violated their the commandments that they had. I want to I want to say something real quick. Be careful and beware of people who will push their convictions on you.

00:17:50:23 – 00:18:16:09
What do I mean by that? Some people, and I’m going to speak among Christians. And by the way, I grew up, I’ve seen a big long spectrum of Christians in my way. When you say Christians in America today, that can mean a lot of anything. But I grew up in a time, and I grew up in a church where, when I was little, believe this or not, that our preacher would say something crazy like this.

00:18:16:19 – 00:18:46:15
women should never wear pants. They should always wear dresses. Men should never have hair that touches their ear because that makes them look like a woman. And men should never wear a necklace. Because that’s necklace. That’s what he would say. Which, by the way, had nothing to do with the Bible. And so he had all these. And by the way, you, if I can remember our preacher coming to my parents house and my brother on Friday night, I mean, he was sitting there watching, you know, how many of y’all as I am, but you remember Friday night, CBS 7:00?

00:18:46:17 – 00:19:12:16
It was the real original Incredible Hulk. The real one, not the cartoon. I’m a. Y’all remember that? And then at 8:00, it was on. It was The Dukes of Hazzard. The Duke boys, I mean, and I was taken driving lessons every Friday night at 8:00. People say, man, why do you drive so crazy if you knew what I watched every Friday night as a kid growing up, you’d understand cars were made to jump.

00:19:12:18 – 00:19:36:12
Yeah, I started out at five years old in my huffy bicycle. By the time I was 15, 16, 15, I was jumping daddy’s truck. 16 I jump in my own truck. it was just that was just too great. And then bye bye, 9:00. It was Dallas, you say? Well, what does that mean? Well, our pastor came over one day, and y’all just bear with me because I’m real, okay?

00:19:36:12 – 00:20:04:20
I’m real right here. He comes over one Friday evening. I’m his family, and my parents had the TV on the television. And he liked you. Had a conniption fit. That is the devil’s workshop. He’d just been doctor naming your kids with some crazy stuff. Them boys are sitting there watching Daisy Duke. I’m going on. And she’s my first love.

00:20:04:23 – 00:20:32:00
Yep. We sure were. And he would tell my mom, dad. And I’m so thankful. My parents love our pastor. But they were like, listen, that may be your conviction, but that’s not our conviction. Now, I want you to understand some there are certain things in the Bible that are non-negotiables. Okay. So in other words, when you say to me or someone says, well, I believe Jesus is one of the ways to heaven, I’m like, that’s non-negotiable.

00:20:32:02 – 00:20:51:14
Jesus is the only way to heaven. If you believe he’s any there’s any other way to heaven, then you’re not a true Christian. Because Jesus said, I am the way, I am truth. I am life. In other words, that that’s a very exclusive statement and a very concrete statement. And so when someone says, well, are you one of those Christians that believe in the virgin birth?

00:20:51:14 – 00:21:09:03
I’m like, yeah, if I can’t believe in the virgin birth, how can I believe in the resurrection? Because I serve a God of the impossible. I serve a God who can do anything he wants to do. And so I believe in that. Those are non-negotiables for a Christian. Do you believe that the Word of God is the infallible or the perfect Word of God?

00:21:09:03 – 00:21:34:24
No fault, no problem, no issue? It absolutely. I knew from cover to cover. I believe every word of it. That’s a non-negotiable. But no, when it comes to convictions, I know very good Christian people. I have some in my family who who worship a little different than even we do here. And they they would never dream of walking in the church with their hat on.

00:21:35:06 – 00:21:59:09
you have no idea. See, I, I went to seminary with some city boys. Okay? Like where we had to wear a suit and a tie and look like monkeys or fit like that. I did that in. Man, I was it was. It was a hard time for me because I, I got demerits. You know what the demerits when it right you up, you know, you get some strike against you I, I like you got demerit it out of college my first year because I’d up in boots and jeans.

00:21:59:09 – 00:22:18:20
I had been supposed to be wearing slacks and a jacket and a tie, and I used to tell the professor, I said, listen, I am pretty sure that on the day of judgment, God is going to line up all the suits, the ties and pretty shoes and cast him into the lake of fire. And never will forget. You think this is crazy?

00:22:18:23 – 00:22:38:29
True, I never will forget my first day of seminary and they have this manual. You know, in seminary you have to learn all the Bible stuff, plus all the college stuff and any other. You know, first two years is just like any other college. And so we’re learning all that plus Bible lessons. So, you know, when you go, you talk seminary, you’re talking college and biblical training.

00:22:38:29 – 00:22:57:20
It’s a lot. You get an education doing it and I’m grateful for it. But the first day I’m sitting there and they pull out the handbook and the handbook because now I get ready to go there. And this really wasn’t going to be a problem for me, because at that time, I couldn’t grow two pieces of peach fuzz on my face.

00:22:57:23 – 00:23:21:02
Still barely can. But they, they, they going through the handbook and then men, you need to know that here we don’t allow facial hair, facial hair. And it’s like, boys, you got to be clean shaven when you come in here. And if you come into class with facial hair, you’re going to get a demerit. Here goes my hand.

00:23:21:04 – 00:23:46:16
I said, sir, if you believe in no facial hair, shouldn’t we all come to class with our eyebrow shaved tomorrow? I got it, America. Just made sense to me. I mean, no facial hair. Why don’t you shave your eyebrows and be consistent with your beliefs? But what I’m trying to tell you is there are some people in the world that will try to push their convictions on you.

00:23:46:18 – 00:24:20:08
And don’t ever let anybody, including a preacher, push their convictions on you or their preferences. Because let me tell you something, number one, your conviction. And here’s the difference in a conviction and a preference, a conviction is something you will die for. You will die for your conviction. I believe in the First Amendment of our Constitution. That’s a conviction to me that every person has the freedom of conscience and the freedom of speech.

00:24:20:15 – 00:24:46:06
And to back up my belief of the First Amendment, I exercise my Second Amendment. I pack more heat on a normal day than most people do in a lifetime, because I’m going to make sure I am able to protect my First Amendment right now. That’s I’m talking gun here. But now, when it comes to the Bible, when it comes to the Bible, do you do I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven?

00:24:46:08 – 00:25:17:16
I so believe that that if they threatened to chop my head off, they can do it. And while it’s rolling down the street, I’m still going to be preaching for about 30s. I’m going to. I believe that I will die for that conviction. Now, if you ask me, do you like rock and roll music, country music, gospel music, I mean, whatever genre you want to throw in there and you say, well, I’m going to play this when I get in your car or when you ride with me.

00:25:17:19 – 00:25:38:21
That’s a preference. I can, but if you I can pass on preference. Preference is not something mean. If you say, hey, we’re going to go to Braum’s and eat chocolate instead of vanilla or I’m going to I eat whatever you’re buying, I don’t care. It’s a preference. Matter of fact, you can make us all happy and make it a swirl for all I care.

00:25:38:26 – 00:26:02:00
I don’t care. That’s that’s, you know, I’ve always heard people do this. I’ve heard people, you know, that that will argue and I love. I have an, I have a lot of fun with atheists. Y’all ever met a real atheist? There’s not really an atheist. God put in the heart of every human eternity. But you have those people who think they’re atheists, and they’ll sit there and begin to argue about God, whom they do not believe exists.

00:26:02:07 – 00:26:23:07
And I normally end the debate by this. I’m like, you know what? I don’t believe in leprechauns, I just don’t. Therefore, I have never debated anybody about the existence of leprechauns. If you believe there’s leprechauns, then go give them a four leaf clover for all I care. I don’t care, I don’t believe in leprechauns. And that normally ends that deal real quick.

00:26:23:11 – 00:26:43:18
But see, what I’m trying to tell you is people have preferences and a preference is something that we can do or not do. We can pass and not pass. But when it comes to convictions, number one, I think you ought to be men and women. We ought to be men and women who have certain convictions. There ought to be certain convictions that we will die for.

00:26:43:21 – 00:27:00:17
And by the way, my convictions may not be your convictions. No, I’m not talking about truth. Truth is truth. Well, there’s your truth. My truth? You said. God said. I don’t believe in gravity. Well, you jump out of that plane, that parachute about 30s later. You going to believe it be too late. But whether you believe it or not, you’re about to encounter it.

00:27:00:17 – 00:27:28:21
Okay, so I’m not talking about truth. I’m talking about convictions. We all have certain convictions as a believer that that God, the Holy Spirit, puts in us and he he gives us these convictions. And those are things that you should never compromise. Because let me tell you what happens when you compromise your convictions. When you compromise your convictions, you’re violating your conscience.

00:27:28:23 – 00:27:47:11
Paul dealt with that in the Bible. Early in the Christian church. There was this thing that is going on. I think Gator and I were at this restaurant, a couple of weeks ago, and this guy, I think it was right around Passover. And this guy, that was our waiter. He like, oh, man, we stopped to pray for you and the waiter.

00:27:47:11 – 00:28:07:23
He said, man, that’s so cool that you guys are praying. I’m a Christian, too. And he goes out. But, you know, I’m a real Christian because I worship on the Sabbath, which is Saturday, not Sunday. And, he goes and looked at me and after the guy walked off, I explained, I said, there are some believers who say, well, the Jews worshiped.

00:28:07:23 – 00:28:28:14
On Saturday and that was their Sabbath. Christians have traditionally traditionally worshiped on Sunday because the first day of the week, that’s the day Jesus rose from the grave. Paul dealt with that because in the early church there was Christians on both sides of the issue, very devout followers of Jesus. Like, no, I’m more holy because I worship on Saturday.

00:28:28:19 – 00:28:46:16
And so I’m hearing a lot more holy because I worship on Sunday, the day our Lord was risen. And those over here will know, the Lord said. And they would just argue this back and forth. And Paul said, it doesn’t matter what day you worship the Lord as so much as you do it unto the Lord. In other words, that that’s that’s a preference.

00:28:46:16 – 00:29:17:20
But if it is your conviction, stick with your conviction. Because if you ever give up on your conviction or you ever compromise your convictions, you will violate your conscience. And how many of you know what your conscience purpose is? Your conscience is your soul’s warning system. See what happens when we begin to violate our conscience. The voice of God gets quiet and quieter and quieter.

00:29:17:20 – 00:29:45:02
How many of you have ever heard of someone with a seared conscience? That can happen. And so for these young men, this all became an issue of violating their convictions, which were biblically based. They would had been forbidden to drink of the wine and eat the foods that the king would have served because they weren’t kosher. They weren’t they were approved by the law that they were to live under.

00:29:45:04 – 00:30:05:19
And so to eat his food, it would have gave them, given them more favor and and probably a better status. It would it would just it would have made them stand out in the King and they could have advanced and their life not be so hard, except the fact that they would have been violating their convictions and their conscience, which was before God.

00:30:05:21 – 00:30:26:17
And that’s the reason they’re like, no, we can’t do this. We can’t eat of this. even though the King wants us to, even though he’s making all these promises, we just can’t do it. So look at verse eight. It says. But Daniel proposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor the wine which he drank.

00:30:26:20 – 00:31:01:25
Therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Verse nine. So God had brought Daniel into the favor, and good will of the chief eunuchs to stop right there. Who did it say, brought Daniel into good favor and good will. God, here’s here’s one point I want to make to you when you live your life by the convictions that the Holy Spirit gives you, and when you live your life to, to approve of, to the approval of one, and that is God and God alone.

00:31:01:27 – 00:31:30:26
When you do that, then God’s favor will rest upon you. Education is a wonderful thing. It’s an important thing. But can I tell you where education has gone wrong? Most of you, most especially young people here you would never remember this day. But those that are older than me would. There used to be a day that in the schools, the public schools, part of the required reading in our public schools?

00:31:30:26 – 00:31:51:29
Was this book the Bible? But somewhere along the way, we decided that wasn’t that wasn’t legal. Somewhere along the way, we decided to quit teaching there somewhere along the way to decided, well, let’s do away with the Ten Commandments and we’ll just give them some rules for living. And my question, Robert, is how’s that working out for you?

00:31:52:07 – 00:32:16:26
our schools and you got to have metal detectors and kids still get stuff, do metal detectors and still shoot kids in schools. And, you got to understand something. When you remove God’s word from education, you’re you’re not just removing knowledge, you’re removing wisdom. Anybody can go earn $1 million. It takes wisdom to know how to invest it, keep it and multiply it.

00:32:16:28 – 00:32:53:15
And we don’t teach our kids wisdom. We don’t teach our generation. We don’t teach this culture wisdom. There’s not a value on that. It’s just education, education, education, which is all important. But if it lacks wisdom, what uses it? And so Daniel wanted to be approved by God that that’s who he that’s what he wanted to do, is look at verse ten, it says, and the chief of the eunuchs into Daniel, I fear, my lord, the king who has appointed you, and your food and drink for wine, should he in your faces look worse than the young men who are of your age, then you would endanger my head before the king.

00:32:53:15 – 00:33:16:29
In other words, I can’t do that. Because if you guys look worse at the end of this three year period, then. Then my king will cut my head off. But these four young men brokered a deal. You let us eat what God says we can eat, and you let us do that. And you see if our appearance is not better than the others.

00:33:17:05 – 00:33:44:06
After ten days, ten days. Daniel says, I just need ten days. You know why he did it? You had a conviction. He had conviction that God would would favor him and his obedience can I just tell you, God always, always blesses obedience, no matter how crazy it seems in this world to be obedient to God’s Word, he always blesses obedience and listen to me carefully.

00:33:44:12 – 00:34:14:14
God never, never, never blesses disobedience to his word because that takes no faith. Obedience to God’s Word takes faith, and the Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith. In other words, you can’t walk in his favor. You can’t walk in his blessings, and you can’t walk in the the favor of God without obedience. And Daniel knew what God’s Word said, and he trusted God for that.

00:34:14:14 – 00:34:32:26
And so for ten days they did not eat what the King wanted them to eat. They only ate vegetables. They drank water. And it looked like, well, sure enough, these young men would would fail. I mean, this would this would sure enough be the deal that this would not work out. So look down at verse 17, I promise I’m almost done.

00:34:33:01 – 00:35:02:03
It doesn’t ask for these four young men. God gave them. I love that part. As for these young men, God gave them. Listen to me, all of you young people. You can spend your life seeking the approval of other people. But can I just. I’m going to tell you something. This is an old guy talking. This is a guy that has lived my life at times seeking the approval of others.

00:35:02:05 – 00:35:24:27
The same people that will approve you today will disapprove of you tomorrow when you don’t fulfill their agenda. Marked that down. The same people that approve of you today will disapprove of you tomorrow when you don’t fulfill their agenda. Live your life for the applause of nail scarred hands. And that’s it. I don’t need anybody else’s applause in line.

00:35:25:05 – 00:35:49:12
I just need Jesus applause. Because if I’ve got that, then I’ve got his favor and I’ve got his blessing on everything I do. That’s all you need. So these these guys weren’t living for the applause of anybody else. And so the Bible says that God gave them their meat is on. Every good thing you will ever experience in life will come from God.

00:35:49:15 – 00:36:06:13
The Bible tells us in James that every good and perfect gift comes down from our father above. So I want you to remember that if you want to seek blessing, you want to seek success. You want to seek $1 million. You want to seek whatever it is in your life you’re pursuing. That is a good, by the way, pursue it.

00:36:06:13 – 00:36:35:11
$1 million. I didn’t mean to give it. I got it back. That rewind. It’s okay to pursue $1 million, as long as you’re doing it for the right reason to honor God with it, to bless your family with it, to bless others with it. Nothing wrong with riches except the purpose. The reason you pursue it. But whatever you’re pursuing and whatever you’re looking for it, you want the blessing in the favor of God because it says these guys eat vegetables for ten days.

00:36:35:18 – 00:36:57:28
And it says, as for these young men, God gave them what knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. These dudes became sharp in their mind, the man they were head and shoulders above everybody else. It wasn’t just these four. There was among a lot of others, but these guys.

00:36:58:04 – 00:37:30:24
In ten days, God used them to show the king, to show the kingdom that he was God, and God was favoring and blessing their life. And it stood out. It was undeniable. They could see it. People. People could not deny what was going on. And so verse 18, now at the end of the days when the King had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought brought them before King Nebuchadnezzar, and the king interviewed them, and among them all of.

00:37:30:24 – 00:37:54:29
No, no, none of them was found. Like Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Shadrach. Or that would be Shadrach window go. And and he says, therefore they serve before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding, about which the king examined them, he found them. Get this. How long was the test? I just told you, let us eat vegetables for ten days.

00:37:55:01 – 00:38:24:15
Look what the Bible says. And he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. Thus Daniel continued into the first year the king of Cyrus, about seven years. Wow. In ten days God made them ten times more outstanding than everybody else. And by the way, God didn’t need it ten days.

00:38:24:15 – 00:38:50:21
He could have done that in a day. But you understand the difference. God’s favor was on them. Why? Why why was God? Because of obedience. They were willing to just obey God. They knew the law of God. They didn’t. They didn’t grab, you know, they didn’t burn flags in the street. They didn’t protest, shoot cops and, you know, burn down the city because of their protest.

00:38:50:21 – 00:39:10:16
They just simply, simply came before the King made this request to honor God and see just just ten days, see if it doesn’t matter. And in ten days, what does God do? He makes it so apparent they don’t have to say anything. It just shines on them. When you got God’s favor on you, people won’t have to ask you about it.

00:39:10:21 – 00:39:33:20
They’ll see it. It’ll glow on you. They will know there’s something different. Your boss. You’re the people you work with, your family, your spouse. They will see the glow and the favor of God on you. And it will be evident because you’ve been obedient in faith to God’s Word. So like those young men, when I gave them that book, I said, listen, you just mark this down.

00:39:33:20 – 00:40:00:28
God’s promises and God’s Word are always something you can stand on. Why do I say that? Because the Bible tells me that God will always stand by His word. Think about education. Think about universities. Think about job opportunities. Think about everything life has to offer. Did you know the Bible says that one day God’s going to burn this world and everything up in it in a fervent heat?

00:40:01:00 – 00:40:30:11
Did you know that everything that you and I can see or touch tangibly right now, one day will be gone? It’ll be done. All those poor folks trying to save trees. God’s going to burn it up. By the way, I’m not a I’m not an environmentalist. You know, I believe in taking care of the environment because we’ve been entrusted with God’s world, and he gave man dominion over it.

00:40:30:13 – 00:40:57:22
But I’m sure not hugging trees and I’m not bound down worship animals. I recognize that everything in our world was given to us by God for man’s blessing, and we’re to be good stewards of what God, including the environment. And we’re to be good stewards of it. But listen, I realize that everything in this world one day is going to burn up, and the only thing the Bible tells us that’s going to last forever.

00:40:57:25 – 00:41:43:28
The Bible says the grass withers and flower faded, but the word of our God stands for ever. I’ll never forget I was young man, young preacher, and it was my first funeral service to do on my own. And the day of that funeral service, I’m listening to Kbia 90.9, and they’re having the funeral service of longtime pastor First Baptist Dallas Criswell, a guy that I had listened to and studied from and still listen to his sermons today, have a study Bible by him, just a a giant of a man of the faith for over 50 years pastored the same church, was one of the greatest expository Bible preachers to ever live, just verse by verse

00:41:43:28 – 00:42:13:05
by verse by verse of the Bible. Just, just phenomenal. And I remember the news crews were there. And so I’m getting ready to go in to do the funeral that I’m supposed to be doing. But I’m listening to his funeral service. And one of the the people that this service commentator, they said, we we walked by while ago to say we’re having the viewing of Doctor Chris and the guy was coming and he said the most amazing thing he said, there he was in his suit, look, look really nice.

00:42:13:05 – 00:42:40:18
You know how you’re dressed up and you’re dead and he’s in his casket. And the guy got choked up and he said, the most amazing thing I think I’ve ever saw. They had his Bible open. And he said, I heard that was his request. And they had his finger pointed on that verse in Psalm. The the grass wither and the flower faded, but the word of our God shall stand forever.

00:42:40:20 – 00:43:02:12
If God’s Word will stand and lasts forever, isn’t it something you can count on? Isn’t it something you should build your life upon it? There’s a lot of things you’re going to try and life that a fail I’ll never forget. I’m closing right here. I’ll never forget. As a young man, I learned a lot when I’m still learning.

00:43:02:12 – 00:43:22:05
But I learned a lot. I go to this pastor’s conference, and I’m one of the youngest pastors there at the time. And and there’s these two older pastors. One was from Midland, one was from Odessa. They were both best friends. They both pastored over 40 years in the same in each of their respective churches. They retired the same year.

00:43:22:11 – 00:43:44:15
They now became neighbors and they played golf together. I wasn’t there for the golfing. I’m not that crazy, but I’m I’m there to hear these guys. And I remember I was one of 20 that got to go in this room and sit down. And they’re up on the stage here sitting in chairs and, and we all got to just ask them anything we wanted.

00:43:44:18 – 00:44:02:02
I’ve been pastoring for about two years at the time, and I don’t know how many of you know, we pastors, we’re always thinking of things and thinking of ways to minister to people, to grow the church, to, you know, to meet the needs to do this, this, this. You know, we we have all these thoughts in us and we do all these things.

00:44:02:02 – 00:44:33:10
And by that time, in two years of ministry, it seemed to me like everything I tried failed. I mean, I was I went there that day feeling like I’m ready after two years of ministry just to quit and get out of ministry, like everything I’m doing is just failing. And I never forget getting to ask those guys. I’m like, hey, Doctor Johnson and whatever the other guy’s name is and all those years of pastoring, how many things did you try and fail at?

00:44:33:12 – 00:44:51:16
And I’m thinking they’re probably going to tell me 1 or 2, maybe three things, you know, and all those years because these were really successful pastors and I’ll never forget him looking at me lowers his glasses and he kind of snickers. He goes about 99% of things I tried. I failed in. Then you got this big multi member church.

00:44:51:16 – 00:45:15:05
You you’ve been there all the years. He goes, yeah. He says but it’s that 1% of things at work that you know is the favor and the blessing and the will of God. And those are the things that God blesses mightily, puts his hand on and says, I’ll bless you. I’m gonna pour my favor out upon you. And that’s what had happened.

00:45:15:08 – 00:45:33:05
I’ll never forget that. So I want to just tell you, there’s a lot of things in life you’re going to try and fail it. I think most people in here my age should be able to look at those younger than us and say, most of the things, you’re going to try and laugh, you’ll fail at, and that’s okay.

00:45:33:08 – 00:45:43:08
Fail forward sevenfold. The Bible. There’s a reason the Bible says a righteous man falls seven times, but he gets back up.

00:45:43:10 – 00:46:13:02
The here’s why I want to remind you of and I’m done. If you be like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and you’re just not in obedience, trust the word and the will and the promise of God. You’ll never fail, not the way you think, because it’ll be that one time that you really get desperate and you really seek his will, and you really dig into his word.

00:46:13:02 – 00:46:32:25
And there’ll be that crossroads moment of your life where you can go one way or the other. Which way will it be? What decision will you make? And for some of you, you may be there right now. And I want to encourage you to read His word, trust his word. Stand on his word because His word is never fail.

00:46:32:28 – 00:47:04:27
Amen. Because God always stands by His Word. Remember what I’m about to tell you. Not one time in all of human history, not one time in all of eternity, has God ever had to say, oops, I’m sorry, I forgot I messed up or I failed you and you won’t be the first person he ever tells that to. How did Daniel and them get such blessing in their life?

00:47:05:00 – 00:47:31:19
They were willing to just trust God, His word and his promise and his will. And the Bible tells me in you that after ten days, God gave them ten times the favor and blessing that tells me that there never be a day of your life teacher, obedient to God, and that you trust God and you keep your faith in God.

00:47:31:22 – 00:47:54:19
You believe God’s Word that he will not bless you. He’ll bless you every day. It may not come to form you think, and you may not think. The value of it at that moment is very great, but there come a day you get old enough to realize. I woke up this morning. Man, that’s pretty valuable. I’m. I’m in pretty good.

00:47:54:19 – 00:48:15:03
I’m not laying at the hospital this morning. My, my, I get the last county messenger. How many of y’all ever do this? I go into the grocery store in the last county messenger update. For those of you from my county, your sister paper gives you yesterday’s news or today’s. And you know what I always read first? You know one guess.

00:48:15:03 – 00:48:37:07
The obituary. It always tells who died. I’m not just looking. Say who died. I’m just making sure my name’s not on there. And when I see that my name’s not on there today, I’m rejoicing saying, Lord, thank you. I’m alive. I made it another day. That’s a blessing. Blessings come in all forms and fashions. But my prayer for you.

00:48:37:09 – 00:49:34:28
Is it God’s favor and blessing be upon your life? And if you trust him, be obedient to him. He’ll bless you in ways you can’t measure. Let’s down. Pray. Lord, thank you for your word today. Thank you for everybody that’s here and everybody listening online. And I pray, father, that today we will go away from this service more resolve than ever to trust you, to trust your word, to trust your promises, to listen to the Holy Spirit, to stand for our convictions and never compromise, Lord, that we would be like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and even in the face of impossibilities and adversities, even in the face of a culture that is so anti-Christ

00:49:35:01 – 00:50:05:08
Lord, that we would with concrete, resolute in our hearts, trust you, stand on your word and never waver. And for that we thank you. We love you. We praise you. In Jesus name. Amen. Melissa, come on back up here. I’m going to ask her and Brant to sing one song y’all can sing with them. And while our our young guys get ready for baptism, we’ll have two baptism Timothy and be sure and get a bulletin before you leave today.

00:50:05:18 – 00:50:22:21
there’s some things up coming this week. Next week you’re going to want to know about, you don’t want to miss out on it. 230 bull riding today. And then if you’re visiting with us, we just want to say welcome. Thank you for worshiping with us today. We’re glad you and your family chose to do that.

00:50:22:24 – 00:50:40:10
If you would take a moment in the service and, we’ve got some cards back there on the table and you can fill those cards out. Just let us know who you are and your visit today. We just like to reach out to you later this week, let you know how much we appreciate that and and answer any questions you have about the church.

00:50:41:03 – 00:50:59:06
but we’re certainly glad you came to worship with us. we’ll pass an offering plate. We we do receive an offer for the Lord, but it’s in the mail. Can back there. If you want to give to the Lord, you can. There should be offering envelopes in the chairs in front of your son back there. Also, you can also look on the back of your bulletin and there’s a QR code if you want to give.

00:50:59:22 – 00:51:13:15
you can do that online that way also. Okay. can y’all y’all lead us in one song? And, I think Chris and Jayden, you’re back. They’re getting ready right now.

00:51:13:17 – 00:51:31:26
So we’re getting ready for baptisms. Nice for you guys to stand on this one again. We’re going to do holy water again. Just listening. pastor speak. I know each and every one of us have had our moments of not being obedient things that we know that the Lord convicted us of, the things that we know we wanted to be better.

00:51:31:26 – 00:51:56:09
And please him. With that, we’ve said, Lord, forgive me, but his forgiveness is so sweet. So everyone who has been forgiven, let’s stand and sing this song. Listen, Joy. He is. They.

00:51:56:12 – 00:52:53:04
Said he. They they got him on their knees again. God! I’m begging. Please. Again. I need you. Oh, I need you. We walking down these dancing rounds. One from a thirst soul I need you, oh, I need you. This. Yeah. Forgiveness. He’s like sweet, sweet honey I’m my lips like a sound of symphony to my ears. Like holy water on my skin.

00:52:53:06 – 00:53:14:10
He is dead man walking, slave to sin I want to know about being born again. I need you, oh, God, I need you telling.

00:53:14:12 – 00:53:45:03
Me. Wait. Hey. Yeah. Forgive me. Saying it’s like sweet, sweet honey on my lips. Like the sound of symphony to my ears. Like holy water on my skin.

00:53:45:06 – 00:54:14:03
Yeah. Forgiveness. Like sweet, sweet honey on my lips. Like some that symphony to my. It’s like holy water on my skin.

00:54:14:05 – 00:54:33:03
Take me down the river south. Take me on to baptized I need you, oh, God, I need you. Yes. Hey.

00:54:33:06 – 00:55:03:21
I don’t want to abuse your grace. God, I need it everyday. See? You know, one last thing that ever really makes me want to change. I don’t wanna be lose your grace. God, I need it every day. See you on my thing. That ever nearly makes me want to change I don’t wanna abuse your grace. God, I need it every day.

00:55:03:23 – 00:55:39:26
It’s the only thing that ever really makes me want to change your heart. Forgiveness is like sweet, sweet honey of my heart. Let like sound of symphony to my. It’s like holy water on my skin. Like holy water on my skin.

00:55:39:28 – 00:55:51:20
Hey, what?

00:55:51:22 – 00:56:16:17
It’s just, Lord willing to help. She want to take pictures. All right, all right, y’all, we got two brothers today getting baptized, Chris Harwell and Jason Harwell. Y’all, way to gateway over to him. Just give him a big way. He says no, this is their dad, Brad. Or when Laura over here. I married them ten years ago next month.

00:56:16:17 – 00:56:43:00
Ten years ago. Wow, wow. All right. This is the oldest one. Are you? The rich has a good looking one, Richard. Both. Yeah. That’s what I always say about me and my brother. He may get to riches, but I got to look all right. Grace, do you know the Lord Jesus is your Lord and Savior? You trusted him and committed your life to follow him.

00:56:43:03 – 00:57:07:25
Okay. Know upon your profession of faith we baptize you, our brother, in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit buried in the likeness of his death and and raised to walk in the newness of life. Yeah.

00:57:07:27 – 00:57:25:03
Quinta was telling me about teaching these boys a couple weeks ago in children’s church, and he said, man, them boys know about Jesus. That’s all they talk about back there. All right. this is Jaden. Jaden. How old are you? Good.

00:57:25:19 – 00:57:57:18
All right. How old are you? Oh. You six. Okay. Are you better looking than your brother? Yeah. Okay. Jaden, have you asked the Lord Jesus to come into your heart, be your savior? Yes. Yeah. You committed your life to follow him. Yes. All right. In upon your profession of faith in Jesus, we baptize you, our brother, in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, buried in the likeness of his death.

00:57:57:20 – 00:58:05:09
He raised to walk in the newness of life.

00:58:05:12 – 00:58:25:17
Let’s sing a lot of expressions on people’s face going down. But he just disagree. Grin and all right, that’s awesome guys. Y’all be sure to come by and hug these boys neck. Let them know how proud you are of their decision to follow Jesus. Okay, God bless you. Thank you for being here. Look forward to seeing you next week.

00:58:25:17 – 00:58:47:29
Wednesday Night Bible Study 6:00 correct. It’s 230 bull riding up there. Remember those that are sick this week? few of them I mentioned. You see somebody that wasn’t here. Reach out to him, let him know you missed him. Okay? God bless you. Y’all have a good week.