because I'm excited to start this six-part series through the first six chapters of Daniel. I'd like for you to go there with me now. We're going to start in Daniel chapter 1 in verse 1. This has been something that's been on my mind for a long time because this book is one of the most important books in the entire Bible. When Jesus is giving his discourse on the Mount of Olives, he actually verifies Daniel's teachings. He says, when you see the abomination of desolation in the temple as written by Daniel, standing in the holy place, and then he goes through and he gives what many people believe to be the last three and a half year timeline of the tribulation period. Lot of critics when I say critics, I don't mean people that like are writing magazine articles. I mean scholarly critics It's actually an art. It's called higher textual criticism and it's the type of criticism that looks at the Bible and Starts off by saying it is not a divine book. It is not a holy book We're just seeking to see if there's anything of significance here in this Bible structure, these books that are put here. Many people of higher textual criticism say that if Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 through 27 is accurate, then this book can be nothing else but divinely inspired. It has to be. Now we've talked at length in this ministry about Daniel chapter 9, but I wanted to look at the first six chapters of Daniel because the 7, 8, 9 and the rest of them are all prophetic. But these first six chapters explain to you what kind of man God was using. There's a lot of people today, today, right now, you're going to see it in our parking lot. Come drive by here on Tuesday morning. You're going to see a lot of man names on signs. Women too. Now I'm gonna tell you what they're running for, what they promised to do. I'm not saying all of them are bad, but they're all vying on their record, their character, their promises to you that you will go into the ballot box and then cast a vote for them. And so many times we find out these individuals who want to represent us are of low character, low morals. There's an amendment on the ballot in Hillsborough County that all of the people who run for school board need to now declare where their political leanings are. Because up until this point, you go look at the Supervisor of Elections website, you go look at the 2020 election, you'll see that all of these school board candidates, their bar is not blue, which represents a Democratic affiliation, their bar is not red, which represents an Republican affiliation, nor is it green, which indicates an independent, it's a yellow. And what does that mean? You don't know. So come to find out, there's a lot of people in COVID exposed this that are getting into what I would say is probably the most important part of raising a family, the education. And you're finding that you don't even have a decision between somebody who has common sense You've got a bunch of people that are pushing an agenda. And COVID showed that. I don't know how many of you remember, week after week, there would be a Facebook live stream of all of these people coming together and making a decision to spend more taxpayer dollars to continue these shutdowns, to continue all these different things. And we, as the American people, should know who we're voting for. We should know what they stand for. Now you say, Pastor, Daniel wasn't running for president or even school board member. I know that. But my point of comparison here is character. Character is something that should be known to people who observe us. We should be men and women of high character. We should be people who display, as the scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5, the ambassadorship of Jesus Christ. You recognize the responsibility that you and I have that we go before the world and say, this is the gospel? This is who Jesus Christ is? We have a very, very important responsibility as ambassadors. And Daniel is in the middle of the worst period of time for Israel at that time. Let's do a little bit of a deep dive on what's going on with Israel at this time. Look in... Chapter one, verse one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. For those of you who are familiar with the word besieged, you understand the severity of what that means. For those of you who might be new to that word, allow me to explain it to you. To besiege a city is to close the walls and say, nobody comes in and nobody goes out. And you think, okay, if I had vacation plans at that time, I can't get out. It's not just the people. It's what the people are carrying. If you can cut off two things from a city, you'll find out real quickly where their affiliations lie. What two things do we need the most? We need food and we need water. To besiege a city was to cut it off from all of those natural resources. The prophet Jeremiah laments as he looks at those who remained after the Babylonian captivity came through and it was besieged, and it was parents eating their children. We have a little bit of a taste of the graphic and gruesome nature of violence that we see in the Middle East with what happened on October 7th in 2023. We saw first eye witnesses of children being ripped from the womb of mothers. We saw heads being removed from bodies. We saw people who were alive being burned on tire heaps. That's the reality of something that happened in 2023. And there's a lot of people, and I'm just gonna say it, because people are dense to history, they don't know their history, who think that what happened then, it was just so egregious, it's never happened in Israel's time. It's happened before. It's in your King James Bible. When you open it and you read it and you see the graphic and gruesome nature that was the result of Israel's disobedience to God, that they went after strange gods. Solomon, the wisest man in the world, used to be a young kid who said, Lord, I'm as of a child. I don't know how to go in and how to come out. I just want wisdom to discern. That same man, because of the company of the people he kept, turned his heart from God and went after the strange gods. You go do some research on Britannica. I'm always gonna tell you Britannica, because they keep it above board over there. Wikipedia is dangerous, okay? Wikipedia's research is kind of ready, fire, aim. You can get a lot of stuff, and you come prepared into your meeting, and it's like, that never happened. But Britannica's very good, and they have a very good article, and it's a free article, on Molech. I would encourage you to go read it. It's not appropriate for me to discuss the details of what those sacrifices entailed. But the wisest man in the world, the representative for Israel, took down the altars to Jehovah, the one true God, amen, and built it to the little G-gods. But those little G-gods cost Israel blood. Their children were sacrificed. Their money was swindled. There were prophets like Jeremiah and others who went and proclaimed, this is coming, the Chaldeans are coming. And then there were false prophets who said, no, don't listen to that. And eventually the time came and God allowed Babylon to be raised up as a rod of chastening against Israel. And this is the time that Daniel finds himself living. I want you to go to 2 Kings chapter 24. We'll look at verses 1 and 2. So on page 452 in a Schofield Bible, the word of God says, in his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and Jehoiakim, we know who that is, he was the king of Judah at the time, became his servant three years, then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him the bands of the Chaldees. That's interchangeable there with Babylon because the issue that was happening, and one of the prophets declared this in his three-chapter book in the Bible, his name is escaping me right now, Habakkuk, thank you. He said they had chariots that were faster than the winds of the east, that when they would go through cities, they would leave it with flattened rubble. There's a description we're going to see in Jeremiah in a moment here that the rubble piles were so fresh and intense from the gory defeat of the Chaldeans that they would hiss. And that's language for us today. Can you put your ear down to a pile of rubble and hear it hiss? No, but you can likely see smoke pushing up from it. The idea is that these cities were burned down to the ground. The Lord sent, verse two, against him band of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrian, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants, the prophets." I'm so glad that Jay shared what he shared this morning, because this was the very, this was the linchpin that Paul put to King Agrippa. He said, I know you believe the prophets. What's the significance of a prophet? He is the mouthpiece of God. He declares what God would have the people know. What did Israel do with the prophets? They slew them. But what did Israel do to Jesus? They rejected him. I want you to, you're holding your spot there in Daniel, but go to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah in chapter 25. verses 4 through 11. This was prophesied. And there's some records in the book of Daniel, chapter 9 and verse 2, that says that Daniel was reading Jeremiah. So this is great for all these higher textual critics that want to try and destroy this book. Daniel wasn't just sitting down somewhere writing some new novel for the comic books. He was studying what was written. And as a matter of fact, he is given the revelation of the details that are in Jeremiah. Belief. When will that be written, not on tables of flesh, but on the heart? When is that going to come to pass? It's not today. And anybody who tells you otherwise needs to study their Bible without a reformed lean, without that little rose-colored glass like that. I think I have the, oh, I'm sorry, did I say 45? I meant Jeremiah 25, excuse me. Nothing like going to Jeremiah 25 and seeing there's six verses and you're starting in verse seven. That's interesting. That's what you call a problem. Look in verse, we'll start there in verse four of Jeremiah 25. This is on page 798. The word of God reads, and the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants and the prophets, rising early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. Can I tell you, yesterday we were at the thrift store, red, white, and blue thrift store, and I heard these two ladies having a discussion about their voting, how they're gonna vote. And I was there, I was literally holding a document, not a documentary, a biography of Abraham Lincoln called With Malice to None. And I was really excited that it was only $4. And I was going to buy it and read it. And I'm sitting there. I'm looking through it, thumbing through it. And I hear these two ladies talking. They say, well, you know, it's my right to go vote. I'm going to go vote. And I'm sitting there going, that's good. That's a good thing. And then the next thing she says just kind of erases what she just said. So I'm just going to kind of eeny, meeny, miny, moe it down the ballot, though. Now listen, the reason why I tell you that, you say, what does that have to do with this? I'm gonna tell you right now, you have not hearkened. If you're trying to listen and hear what people are saying, you'll hear where their heart lies. But I walked away, that conversation ended with a concluding thought in my mind. People don't care to know. They don't care to know. Because there's a lot of distractions out there. There's a ton of distractions out there. People are more concerned, ready, willing, and able to vote for dancing with the stars. than they are to do anything politically. Israel heard the truth. And what did they choose to do? They did not listen, hearken. They did not listen to it. They did not incline their ears. So there came a time where they just rejected what was said. They said, The prophet said, verse five, turn ye again now everyone from his evil way. We're not talking about eternal life here. We're talking about the profitability of that nation. Can God use Israel in the condition that it was when these prophets were coming in? And the answer was no, because the promise that they made, we're gonna serve you, we're gonna keep your law, they could not do. and from the evil of your doings and dwell in the land that the Lord has given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever. And go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them. And provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you no hurt. Yet you have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore, that's probably, that's a very heavy word. In light of these things, therefore, because you didn't listen, you got consequences. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, verse nine, behold, which means look, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. That's wild. That's a wild statement. My servant? This guy serves false gods. How could he be called a servant of God, but he serves false God? Because God's will will come to pass, amen? And he's gonna use these nations as a chastening rod. And there's coming a time they're gonna get theirs, and Jeremiah talks about that, and will bring them against this land. What land? The promised land. And against the inhabitants thereof. Who's that? The people of Israel. and against all these nations round about and will utterly destroy them and make them in astonishment and in hissing and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. What is that? That's all the fun stuff. That's the weddings. That's the engagements. That's the celebration of a good harvest. That's music that is playing. That's joy. The sound of millstones and the light of the candle, that's the work that brings those times. It's all gonna go silent. What does that mean? People have died. There's no more profitability in that land when this is done. And this whole land, verse 11, shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Now you go back to your scripture in Daniel chapter 1, that's where we find Daniel. Verse 2 of Daniel chapter 1. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of the eunuchs, this is where our buddy Daniel comes in, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes. This is the quality in which these children of Israel were going to come in and serve Nebuchadnezzar in a royal position. children in whom was no blemish, but well-favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. And such had an ability in them to stand in the king's palace, in whom they might teach the learnings and the tongue of the Chaldeans." Which was Aramaic, which is why you're gonna see, you're not gonna study Aramaic today, or at any time during this six-week study. But this is why the book of Daniel is so influential in history. It has Aramaic in it. Well-preserved Aramaic. Aramaic that couldn't just be duplicated five or six hundred years later, as some believe this book was written. They wanted young guys who could learn their ways. Verse five, and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, and that at the end they might stand before the king. Now here's our characters of our study. It's Daniel and his three buddies, okay? And I love that his three buddies are there because Daniel is an example of servant leadership, and it's something that we desperately need in the church. We need people who are not only doing this, My uncle would call that jaw jacking. He's here, he can verify that. We need people who do this. They walk way more than they talk. We got plenty of talkers out there. People who can tell you what's wrong. You ever run into somebody like that? You're doing some work and somebody comes up and suddenly they're the public commentary. Well, that was wrong. Really, let's come down here. You know? I don't know why you did that. Really, don't you have somewhere to be? I can arrange it, you know? He's an example, and he's got his buddies here. Look what happens. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name Belshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael, Meshiach, and to Azariah, Abednego. Now I'm not gonna make any jokes about that, because you've already thought about them, okay? So that's it. But I want you to focus on verse eight here. But Daniel, purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." This is a really crazy claim. First of all, this is not your country. As a matter of fact, our nation bested your nation, and not only did we best it, we took your prized possessions and brought them into our treasure house. So basically, what I say you're going to eat, that's what you're going to eat. But look at the first part of that verse. He purposed in his heart. I want to talk to you something, share with you some things about those few words there. This shows that Daniel was a man of determination, discipline, and faith. That regardless of what the circumstances around him concluded, he was not going to defile himself. I want you to take your Bible and go to, hold your spot in Daniel, go to the book of Psalms in chapter 119. Psalms 119. I want to go a little quickly here, starting in verse number nine. Psalm 119, verse nine, page 658. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? What does it mean to cleanse your way? It means to make it known. to make it right. How is that gonna happen for a young man? How's it gonna happen in our culture today? Can I tell you with really sad confidence that it's not happening? It's just not. Young men are getting in the dirty way all the time. It kind of breaks my heart that Trenton has had to come up here twice and talk about young people who have lost their lives due to some type of violence. It ought not be that way. How's a young man gonna do right? How's he gonna have footsteps that are easily guided? What's gonna be the example to him? It's on the young man. We say, oh, they're just kids. They don't know any better. But you know what? They can know better. They can. Something magical doesn't happen when they turn 18 years old and all of a sudden they have all the wherewithal to take care of things. This argument is on the conservative side all the time. Well, these kids, their brains aren't fully developed until, who cares about how developed their brains may be? Can young kids make discern between right and wrong? Yes, they're gonna be held accountable on the choices they make. And if that makes us uncomfortable, we may need to ask a question why we're not living by example. How's that young man gonna cleanse his path? How's he gonna know what to do right? By taking heed thereto according to, and here it is, thy word. There's a song that's written from this. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. That's a direct quotation from Scripture. In this chapter, look at verse 106. You gotta turn the page for that one. Page 660. Thy word is the lamp unto my feet and the light unto my path. I have sworn and I will perform it. And I will keep thy righteous judgments. That's what Daniel said. These things that you're asking me to eat and drink, the law forbids me. So I have already purposed it before I was brought into captivity, before any bad times were happening in Israel. I made a decision, I'm gonna do what God wants to do. So I'm gonna hold up that decision. Look at verse 115 on page 661. Depart from me, ye evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Amen. We need more men like Daniel. Look in 1 Corinthians. Hold your spot in Daniel, you can let Psalms go. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter four in verse two. We're gonna talk about this tonight and draw some comparisons to the obligation that we have to go out and cast an educated vote. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 2 says this, page 1215. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Can I tell you that when I understood what this verse meant, it lifted almost all the burdens that I had at that time. I don't think that God really is concerned with the results of my labor. There's coming a time where I will get the results of those labor at the judgment seat of Christ. I believe God knows how hard it is to just be faithful. I was talking to somebody when we were on vacation, my wife's cousin, we were chit-chatting back and forth, and when Matthew and I talk, we drill deep, and I'm all for those conversations, I love that. And I was encouraging him not to look at his whole life as an opportunity to serve the Lord, but just today. Just do it well today. And I got a Bible verse for that. Matthew 6, Jesus says, take care of what's going on today. Sufficient is evil for today. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Are we promised 1146, which just happened? Are we promised anything past that? No, we're not. Are we promised tomorrow? So what do we got to do? We got to steward what we got, which is right now. That's what we have. Go back, I want you to go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and let Corinthians go. Daniel knew God's will and endeavored to keep it. He strove for faithfulness to God, not the favor of the world. Listen, he was in probably one of the most coveted positions. If there was a place with air conditioning, it was where he was, all right? He had good food, all right? This was meat that was well prepared. He was gonna be educated, so he was gonna be taken care of. He was an investment. But he led his friends in the way a husband should lead his home, a pastor should lead his flock, and a king should lead a nation. Look at 2 Timothy 2, this is on page 1280, verses one through three. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. There's our source, there's our well that we draw from. And the things that thou hast heard, young Timothy, of me, old Paul, among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall also be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness. You think Daniel was in a hard spot? Absolutely. There was every right for his head to be removed from his body. And you're gonna come to find there were several attempts on his life because he decided to stand for the Lord. He was delivered each time. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of your nation, your ethnic background? No, no. of Jesus Christ. Look at 1 Timothy 6. I know we're moving quick, but I really want to set aside time for communion this morning. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11. I love, love these verses. Page 1277. I'm kind of done saying, this is my favorite blah, blah, blah. I just love it all. Amen? It's all good. It's all good. But thou, O man of God, flee these things. See, I got no problem as a man running from sin. The world would say it's a weak thing to run. You got to stand and fight. Now I'm going to run into my Father's embrace. I'm going to do that with confidence. I'm instructed to do it. flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. The one that I like the most there outside of love is meekness. That's strength held in reserve. We got a lot of young men today that want to be heard. And they'll make it so that you hear them. Then we got other people, church leaders, who say, well, we don't want to offend anybody. People don't even know what offend means in the King James Bible. They have no clue. You know what it means to offend? When Jesus says, don't offend these little ones, he's not saying don't hurt their feelings. That's not what he's talking about. To offend in the King James Bible means to cause stumble. How do you cause stumble? You mess up what someone's walking on. By the way, when someone trips and falls, There's a process. There's a little stumble, there's a little bumble, and there's a rumble, you know what I'm saying? You don't see people just all of a sudden, face down. He fell. There's a process. What is being instructed of young Timothy here is to lead with your strength held in reserve. Daniel didn't get up and declare to everybody, you all are making a mistake. I'm not gonna eat this meat. Hashtag Daniel, hashtag Lion's Den. You know, he's not, none of that, none of that. You know what he did? He said, I'm not gonna do it. And his three friends decided, we're not gonna do it either. Look at verse 12. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. People were watching Daniel. There's no live stream camera at that time, but people were paying attention to what was going on with him. Go back to the book of Daniel. I want you to see the results of this man's determination, discipline, and faith. What an example. What a encouragement for you and me today. Let's read the rest of the story. Are you excited? I'm excited. Now verse nine, now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs, and the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who at the point of your meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall he make me endanger my head to the king. So yeah, they were buddies and all that, but this guy at the end of the day looking out for that neck, he's like, listen, I know you want to take a stand, I understand, Off with his head's gonna be me in charge of you and you're not eating what you're supposed to eat. He's got an opportunity to demonstrate his faithfulness. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom was the prince of the eunuchs who had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech thee 10 days, give me 10 days, let them give us pulse to eat. What's pulse? This is the veggies, okay? Now listen, if you're here this morning, you're going, this is my passage for that vegetarian way. There's good things in this world, there's bad things in this world. God has given us things to enjoy in moderation. We see the pros of a vegetarian diet, we see the cons. We see the pros of a carnivore diet, we see the cons. Let's just serve the Lord and not our bodies, amen? Prove thy servants I beseech thee 10 days, let them give us veggies to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenances, our pretty little faces, be looked upon before thee. And the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he basically said, let's see what happens. He didn't call Nebuchadnezzar a thieving, conniving, law-breaking, he just said, let's see what happens. So he consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat." So basically, the beauty contest, the result of these courtly people, which I didn't have time to get into this, but that was a requirement. If you're going to serve in the court, you had to be Good looking, you're representing the nation. So Daniel and his buddies, they looked healthier, more attractive, following what God said is right compared to what Nebuchadnezzar said was right. You're gonna come to find out God's playing a hand with Nebuchadnezzar here too. He's using a faithful man to do it. Thus, Melzar, the guy worried about his neck, took away the portion of their meat and wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. As these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. I want you to see here that God meets the provision when we take a stand for Him. I want you to look just as a reminder at verse four. Children in whom was no blemish, but well-favored, skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understanding science, such had ability in them to stand in the king's place, in whom they might teach the learnings in the tongue of the Chaldeans. Daniel needed this, as well as his friends, they needed this knowledge and education to be able to continue living, to see as profitable in the king's court, in Nebuchadnezzar's court. God gave them all that they needed. He supplied their needs. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. This is very important, as you'll see next week, that Daniel was able to discern some prophetic visions that were coming to pass. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, the big guy. And the king communed with them, and among them all was found, none like Daniel. There's a, I don't want to say a proverb, it's something else that's escaping my memory right now, but it's a type of teaching that Jesus does, a parable, excuse me, a parable of the wheat and the tares. And there's a story about the wheat and the tares and what's going to be pulled from those. It was very hard to discern what's wheat. You want wheat, by the way. Wheat thins exist because tare thins would kill you. There's no profitability in tares. Amen? Some of you, that's all you took from today. Right? Tare thins will kill me. Write that down. Write that down. But there was a time that was coming when there's a threshing floor and the significance of a threshing floor is it was a Floor that was caught it was it was caved like this So that as the the farmer would go in there and he would beat the floor With the wheat and the tears that the tears in the chaff which are lighter than the wheat because they don't have any Profitability would be kicked up and the wind naturally would go in there and just take it right out It's almost like creating a little vacuum of sorts and what remained was the wheat and that's how you provide it for your family. So I see similarities to that story here and to that parable that Jesus taught and to some similarities here. Daniel was somebody who purposed his heart to do what God said. And he was in the midst of a bunch of people in his nation, whether they were from Israel or they were of the Chaldeans, that had purpose to do what Nebuchadnezzar thought was right. And at the end of the day, Daniel stood. That's exactly what this says. None was found like Daniel. Look at verse 19. or Hananiah, Mishael, or Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." Can you think of how shocking that is to Nebuchadnezzar? He has the most profitable nation of his time. going against Israel, the one that has Jehovah. And he took it, and he captured it. And these four dudes here not only rejected the food that he provided, but they were better than the ones who had been eating his food for years. They were better. Why? Because God's working something good. But can I tell you, this all falls apart if Daniel decides to cave. If Daniel says, it's too much, I can't do it, I'm gonna lose my life. If he has that kind of fearful attitude, this doesn't come to pass through him. God will have to use somebody else. That's why I wanted to teach this series. You need to be like Daniel, as do I. This world, the circumstances are tightening. You can feel it around your neck. You can literally feel it tightening. I thought to myself, may I just be plain here, and you can take this how you want. I thought to myself, I was talking to my wife after we got back from the trunk retreat, by the way, very successful. I thought to myself, I cannot imagine, I just can't imagine a presidency in which the Democratic opponent wins. It's hard for me to think of it. It really is. It's hard for me to think about it. But regardless, I need to be like Daniel. My wife is depending on me to be like Daniel, as are you as we lead this church. I'm dependent on you to be a man or a woman who is purposed in his heart, you're gonna do what God says regardless of what this world says. You realize how close we are in this state? to having a few more election cycles away, very likely abortion on demand. You realize how close that is? I casted my vote, and I voted according to what the Bible says is right. But I also know the culture is showing they're gonna get that 60% supermajority that they need. Am I gonna leave this state as a result of that? Am I gonna give up on my community? I've already purposed in my heart, I'm gonna do what God says is right. You're here today. I want you to be a person of purpose that stands up for something beyond the convenient, the thing that keeps you safe. Stand on the word of God. And don't be loud about it, just stand, amen? We need people to stand. Daniel stood. and the Lord increased him, amen? Take your Bibles, go to 1 Corinthians. We're gonna go into communion now. We're a little behind schedule, but hey, that's all all right. We ain't got nothing to do. The Bucs aren't playing until tomorrow, and we already know what's gonna happen. You say, who are they playing? They're playing the refs. Oh, excuse me, the Chiefs, same thing. And let me tell you, we're looking for a new youth director, right? Trent with all this Georgia stuff. You're out of here. I'm just kidding. I watched that game yesterday. It was terrible. I knew we were going to lose. I sent out the good games to all my friends and all that, but at the end of the day, it was hard. And plus, I don't know if you watched that game. That poor kid, Aiden Warner, literally a walk-on. I want to see what his day was like leading up to that. Coach, you need me? What? I'm from Yale. You could see it. Every time he snapped the ball, his eyes were like, He was terrified. But it's good to be able to joke about these things and know there's something so much greater than all that. If you're here this morning and you don't understand the purpose of communion, let me explain it to you. Communion is for those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. Earlier, I asked if there was any new visitors here today, and the indication was that everyone's been here before. But we still need to be reminded of the gospel of Jesus Christ, amen? We observe communion because of the power that is demonstrated on the cross. We don't believe in transubstantiation. We don't think that this bread and this grape juice literally becomes the body and blood of Christ. We don't believe that this brings us closer in some type of spiritual ascension, that Christ now dwells even closer with us. We believe that this is exactly as Christ said, this do in remembrance of me. We are to remember that Jesus Christ went to the cross. that He offered His body and His blood to pay for the sins of the whole world, and that He proclaimed, after all that suffering, it is finished. Amen? If you want to know for sure that you're going to heaven when you die, this is how you can know. This hand represents you, me, and everybody in the entire world. This block of sin represents sin. I put this on top of my hand because the Bible has said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God loves us, hates our sin. It separates us from Him. We have to be perfect to get to heaven, but we all fall short. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God, and a literal and fire-burning hell. The Bible also says without the shedding of blood is no remission for sin. There's no amount of good works, good deeds, promises that could be kept, money that could be given that would ever be enough to pay for our sin. We'd have to be able to say that our good works are on the same level, equal to the shed blood of Christ. Perish the thought. It's blasphemy. So we have a problem. We can't save ourselves. The best of us couldn't go and represent human race. We need a Savior, capital S, Savior, amen? This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man. And what Jesus did as a demonstration of love was for God so loved the world, that's you and me, that he gave his only begotten Son, that's Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, which means go to hell, but have everlasting life. Salvation is this. Jesus took your place. You want to have that salvation applied to you? It's a Bible word. It's called imputed. It means counted to or put to. The same way we make a minimum payment towards a credit card. Imagine somebody came and paid the entire debt and put it to it. It doesn't count until it's put to the balance. The Bible says that Jesus died for all the sins of all the world, but you could still end up and go into hell. You say, how so? You don't believe on Him. So right where you are this morning, if that makes sense, would you put your trust in him? I know I'm speaking, I know almost all of you personally. But I want you to be reminded, this is why we observe communion. It's not just because, that's the first of the month. We gotta do something with this grape juice. That's not the purpose, folks. We're to remember what was done for us. In a moment, I'm gonna ask for heads to be bowed, knives to be closed. I'll give an invitation. But after that, we're gonna take about two minutes of silent reflection. I want you to go to the Lord and do what 1 John 1.9 says, confess your sins. Not to be saved, but to restore the quality of your walk with the Lord. And once you have confessed your sins, then I want you to dwell on the price that Jesus paid. Pastor, that makes me uncomfortable. May I say good? Well, Pastor, I already know. Well, think about it more. The brutality and the gruesome nature of the cross is not just supposed to shock us, it's supposed to show us what our sin did. this do in remembrance of me." Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, please. Nobody's looking around. If you're here this morning, you say, pastor, would you pray for me? I just put my trust in Jesus Christ. I walked in here thinking that I could get to heaven by my own good deeds or my own religious system, but I've changed my mind and I've put my trust in Jesus Christ. Would you pray for me? I know I'm going to heaven. If that's anyone this morning, would you slip your hand up and let me know? Raising your hand doesn't save you. It just signifies to me as the pastor here that somebody trusted in Jesus Christ. It brings joy and encouragement to all of those who are praying for you. Anyone before we go to communion. Dana's gonna be playing the piano softly here. That's not to stir up any emotionalism in you, but I want you to be talking to the Lord. You got sin in your life? Brother, we all do. Bring it to the Lord and know that it's forgiven. And then dwell on the sacrifice that Christ made. I'll be back with you in about two minutes. Let's have the gentlemen make their way down. It's custom to have a prayer before each part of the element, but for today, we're going to pray for all of these things at once. We'll still read the scripture together. When we pray, we thank God for Jesus, specifically for sending, or we thank God for Jesus because He offered His body and His blood. Hebrews chapter 10 goes into the significance of these things. But the warning to the church in Corinth was that they were treating this thing lightly. When we pray today, it's to give solemn thanks to God for Jesus, who offered His body and shed His blood to pay for our sin. Let's pray for both of those things. Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for Jesus Christ. First off, for who He is. An eternal Father has an eternal Son. Before the foundation of the world, He is the Lamb slain. We see that climax in history at the cross when his body was beaten beyond recognition, not a bone broken as prophesied in the Psalms, but surely injury was taken. He was mocked, ridiculed. They spit in his face and said, tell us who strikes you. He went and paid for that man's sin. He shed his blood, precious blood, sinless blood. and then offered it for the payment of our sins. Let us not grow weary in well-doing, let us reflect on what Jesus did. And we give thanks to you, God the Father, for these things. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. you you So, First Corinthians chapter 11 in verse 23 reads, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Ahem. you The scripture reads in 1 Corinthians 11, 25 and 26, after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.