Will you pray with me this morning? Great Father, it is our every intention to set our hope only on Christ. For truly, that is the only place that we actually have hope is in Him. And Father, though we grow tired, all the distractions of life seem to bombard us around. Even things like weather, cold, snow, sun, heat, all those things can become very distracting. And health, just life in general, the curse of sin, it's the fall of sin, all of that becomes very distracting. And we end up becoming cold in our own hearts. we end up becoming hopeless, we end up becoming numb to the work of God in our world around us. I pray, Father, that you would once again stir our hearts with your presence today. and with your power may we rejoice in the greatness of our God. Lord, would you work these truths even though these distractions would come and pull us away from these truths? Would you not let us forget these truths that we would remind each other that we would be involved in each other's lives in such a way that our hearts would resound with the goodness of God week after week after week we would fight through our own flesh, we would fight through our own temptation, and do it with the grace that you provide, the energy that you grant us, that we would never take that for granted, that we would never think that somehow we are the strong ones, we're the ones that can muscle through life, would you cause us always to place our hope and trust in you alone. Father, thank you for the good news of the gospel. Thank you that it is indeed a proclamation. It's not mere information. It is what you are proclaiming, that there is salvation in Christ alone. And so this proclamation comes to hearts that are dead in their trespasses and sin, hearts that actually cannot hear spiritual things. And you, the Spirit of God, proclaims it. And you run past our disobedience, you run past our rebellion, and you grant us faith through allowing us to hear the Word of God. And may this be true today. in our own lives as we hear God's word speak. Lord, I can't help but think as the word of God is spoken even throughout our world that you would continue to call believers to yourself. Lord, I think of John and Becky Knox as they're in Japan even today. Lord, tidying up their last few months and weeks there in Japan before they come back to the United States. Lord, thank you for their faithful service for over 40 years there in Japan. Or did you give them rest as they come back here? Would you provide for that church in Japan? Would the folks that would remain there be people who would stay steadfast? and hearing the word of God and continuing to grow. Lord, I can't help but think of other churches around the world, Lord, little pockets of churches that are being started in Europe. Lord, the churches that are started, Lord, that we found out in Germany. Father, would you take the gospel of Jesus Christ and run it to the hearts there? Lord, even the churches in France, or Spain, other places like this, who at one time had a bounty of the gospel, and now it seems as though, God, you are bringing the gospel back to them. Lord, what a confidence this gives to us to know that Christ is building his church, and there's nothing that will stop it. And Lord, would you come, open the ears of our own hearts this morning, Let us hear Your voice as we read the Word of God. Let us obey and, Lord, follow up after the things that we hear and see through God's Word today. You be our God in every way. And we pray and ask these things all because of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. It's a beautiful Sunday morning here. So glad to see this white stuff called snow. It's beautiful. Love to see it go away, too, as soon as it comes. but I'm glad that God allowed you to be here as well and that I didn't stop you from coming. I'm struggling here this morning with my stuff. I thought, there it is, okay. I'm going like, I know I had my markers in my particular book. Thank you this week, all of you that were part of the cottage prayer meetings for the season of prayer. What a joy that time was. Every night was sitting there with God's people thinking the same thoughts, praying the same thoughts back to God, rejoicing in his loving kindness towards us. What a delight that was. And we are grateful that God in his mercy allowed us to have good weather. And if you weren't with us, we missed you. And we would encourage you jumping on with us again next year. We start the year off with just a whole week of prayer and would want you to be a part of that. Now, if you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Daniel. It's in the First Testament of your Scriptures, the Old Testament. And you'll look right after Ezekiel. Ezekiel is kind of somewhere in the middle. Find it, and then we'll look at Chapter 1 together. It was a thrill for us to hear the good report in two ways on Jorge getting a A kidney this week, amazing. Last week he sat right there, just not feeling well, sick, and God gave them a kidney. And Brian texted me during the singing and said it was three and a half months from the time they found out about his problem until he got it solved through transplant. Pretty cool, huh? God is so good. They had no hope a couple weeks ago that they would ever get this, and look what God's done. Now, we want to come around them and help them, all right? Let's serve them with joy and gladness. If you can serve them by giving financially to help them, do so. There's a link. We'll get that to you. GoFundMe link. and then with cards that they can go and get some food. Remember, it's vegetarian, so we want to think of places that have the vegetarian menu, alright? I don't know of any places like that, but they do, and it's very, very important to them. Also, we've been praying for Pastor Jamie Bronze. Chris, can you give us a brief update on how your mom is? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, continue to pray. They got almost, they got all the tumors that they could see? That's good news. Good news. All right. Let's get into the Word of God today, shall we? Daniel chapter one. If you weren't here last week, you'll have to get the book. And read through, we just had two verses last week, but what a start. It was a running leap of a start, and what a joy it was. But we will start with verse three, all right? Today, three down to verse 21 of this particular chapter. This is God's word. Look at verse three with me. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish of good appearance, and skillful in all wisdom, and endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years. And at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. And among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel, he called Belteshazzar. Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael, he called Meshach. And Azariah, he called Abednego. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor. and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who assigned your food and your drink. For why should he see that you were in the worst condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king. Then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this manner and tested them for 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables. As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. And at the end of the time when the king had committed that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them. And among all of them, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore, they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and chanters that were in his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. This is God's word. If you're not fascinated by this story, then your fascinator needs to get fixed. And I'm not sure if you've gotten the memo yet, but let me just let you know that we no longer live in a Christian nation, if you haven't figured that out yet. secularism, and humanism are rather established in our American society today. There was a time, I think, that Christianity had a shaping influence into our culture, which made our democracy, I think, function well, and it has for a long time. I mean, Christians used to be viewed generally, maybe, as a little irritating, perhaps, or perhaps a societal benign goody-two-shoes, as it were, But that no longer seems to be the case. In fact, Christians today are often now portrayed as the source of the worst kind of people and even the source of evil in our society. Christians are the unloving, they're the bigoted, they're the arrogant, and they're intolerant people that makes our world full of hatred, that divides our world, and all things xenophobic. Our country bows down to what I believe is their holy trinity of materialism, relativism, and individualism. And it's crushing the country that we knew as America. And for some, I think Christianity sees that this is kind of something new, but it's not new. Solomon warned us that truly there is nothing new under the sun when we went through Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse nine. So for anyone who seeks to understand the Bible, you will connect the dots that just like in the Garden of Eden, clear back in Genesis two, there has been this constant vicious battle that has gone on between two foes that could not be more opposite. The aggressor in this war is Satan and the forces of evil. The conqueror is the God of creation, the God of might, and the rightful sovereign king of the universe. And so when you begin to see this battle going back and forth, you understand that it's the battle between light and darkness, two opposites. And while it continues today, while this battle continues fiercely today, the battle has already been won. Christ has already won this battle. So when we look at this text, last week we began the book of Daniel and we said that Daniel's name resonates with the reality of God is the sovereign God. Remember that His name is God is our judge. God rules me. And it was interesting, I said that really we should kind of remind each other of this every day, and we could just do this by calling us Daniel. Just say, hey, Daniel. And three times this week, I got called Daniel, and I'm like, I'm honored with that, that's okay, that's fine. Because it just reminds us, it's a healthy, control-all-delete, kind of a reboot of our lives, thinking that God is our judge, and someday we'll stand before Him. He is the final word to all of life. and so I was blessed to be reminded of that. Daniel, though, teaches us things about life that I think is very, very important. He teaches us how to live well. He teaches us how to live without retreating. You won't find fear in this book. There's no hand-wringing or panic in this book. Neither will you find any apathetic or disengaged actions borne out by a smug, well, God is in control, so it doesn't matter anyway, kind of thinking. You also won't find in here any kind of call for Christians to go out and redeem the culture. You won't find that either in this book. But what Daniel does show to us is how to address and rightly live in a pluralistic, ungodly world that is hostile to the holiness of God Himself. He shows us how to live wisely, how to live faithfully, courageously, and to do so through rather common spiritual disciplines. There's no magic here. There's no hocus pocus. There's no voodoo that goes on here, but a very quiet disposition of faith in God who is resolute in His faithfulness to us. And here's where we learn what this book is teaching us, and I want you to see this again this week. This faithful sovereignty of God becomes our pool our source of resilient faith. You and I, we don't have in us the ability to be resilient in our faith. But as we're walking with Christ in us and us in Christ, this becomes the source of resilient faith to hit any kind of world that God would put in front of us. And my friend, you must believe this. if you're gonna understand this book. There's two parts to Daniel's writing. There's chapters one through six, and basically it's an introduction to the prophet himself, the man. And then chapter seven through 12 introduces us to the prophecies or the message from this man. And Daniel is the central figure, obviously. It's the book called Daniel. The contents of this book span the time from 605 B.C. to 539 B.C. and Daniel uses both narrative as well as what we call apocalyptic writing and he does so to encourage people that they must center their attention on God. It's as if Daniel says what we've said here. All of life is all about God. But he says it from a very real point of view in life that is somewhat unlike what we see in our own world. One writer points out three basic themes that Daniel, that naturally flows out of this understanding that God is himself the source of our faithfulness. And he uses this theme, God is able to rescue and reward faithful servants. This is what we will see in the very first few chapters. Secondly, God holds accountable people and kings who oppose Him. And we'll see this in chapters 1 through 6. And then finally, in the end, God will replace all earthly kingdoms with His eternal kingdom. So you see this beautiful picture, and as we go through the book of Daniel, we will remind you that this is what's happening. And so the first one is God is able to rescue and reward faithful servants. That's where we are this morning. So let's take a look at this truth. Notice first of all, in our text, understand this in general about life, okay? And Daniel wants us to understand this. Life will throw at you endless opportunities for unbelief. Let me just say that again. Life will throw at you endless opportunities for unbelief. If you look carefully in our text, you will begin to see this endless duel between darkness and light. And it goes like this. The kings of the earth versus the God of Israel. And notice how Daniel writes it. Look at verse one. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. We saw that last week. And then verse two. And the Lord gave. Now look at verse three. Then the king. And if you follow this, you'll have this ping pong effect. Here's what God does, here's what man does, here's what God does, here's what man does. And in the very first scene of our narrative, it is all about endless opportunity set in front of these four teenagers. These guys are like 14, 15, or 16 at the very most. And these guys have every reason given to them to turn from trusting the one true God and just go for whatever their heart would want. It was all placed right in front of them. They were very young teenagers. Life does this sometimes, doesn't it? Remember what it was like for you to be a young teenager thrust in a very ungodly scenario. The temptations were overwhelming. They were lifted from their family. They were taken away from their friends. They were taken away from their traditions and lifelong loyalties and were dropped in the middle of sheer evil and darkness. So how do you live in Babylon? That's the question. Your life as you once knew it is gone. It's gone politically, it's gone religiously, it's gone ethnically, and it's gone geographically. You're not in Kansas anymore. It's all gone. But then it sets in over time that God seems to be gone. Where is God? And maybe in just a small way, this is you this morning. In some sense, you're in the middle of a situation that's dark, very painful, and confusing. And you're not sure what this even means for you. You're not sure what you should do next or even think next. And even a room full of people like this this morning, you feel alone and you feel isolated. And maybe the most disorienting thing of all is that you're not sure what God is up to. In fact, you're not even sure where He is. And if you're a Christian, What might be scaring you most is you're starting to not even care if there is a God. Some of you have gone down this street before. You know what this is like. Pain numbs you. Then all of a sudden, on top of everything, your whole world is turned upside down. You go from what you thought was a stable, right way of living, and now it's not stable, and it just doesn't even begin to feel right. And the pace, or the place of provision that you want to is no longer an upward glance to a creator of all things, but a very wealthy, ruthless, and evil man in government is placed over you, offering to you tantalizing and tempting things, and not just material things, but things to think on. things to dwell on, emotions to play with, and it's even tempting your will to go there. And these temptations become very personal. No longer is this nationalistic rhythm of life that they were used to, where everyone was doing the same thing. Now there's a choice of what you do, and what you do becomes very personal. And in many ways, you have to put your big boy pants on and you have to make decisions according to what is right, not who is right. And it's throwing you off. And even as you talk to your dear friends, we don't even know, did they know each other before? We don't even know that. They know each other well now, and this becomes a crucial part of the narrative of what God is teaching us through this book. So look at all that is coming to these guys this morning. Will you look at this? Notice first of all, what I call symbolism and substance. Now you've heard me speak before, and so you know that one of the things that we talk about in the world, that often the world desires symbolism over substance. But if you look closely at verses three and four, the information that is given is very intriguing. Because many people go for the best and the brightest, but only in appearance. And if anything, you have to at least look like you know what you're doing. But Nebuchadnezzar's no dummy. His strategy is a good one, and he tells this man, Ashpenaz, to scour the land and choose people of Israel, but get them from the royal family and the nobility. Do you see that? Understand at this point, Nebuchadnezzar isn't trying to overcome Judah completely. When you see this, if you remember last week I said there were three sections of time that Nebuchadnezzar came and went after Jerusalem. He actually left a fellow by the name of Zedekiah as ruler over there, not the Zedekiah of Scripture. or Zechariah, Zechariah, not the Zechariah of Scripture, and a very wicked, wicked king. And you just kind of put him in there just to kind of keep things copacetic. But he's no dummy here. And so he goes after the very core of Judah's culture. And so he goes after the symbolism of royalty and nobility. You see, royalty is seen immediately as these young men were from the line of Judah, of the line, and particularly of King Hezekiah, of the line of David. And he goes to select strong, healthy, good-looking young men. So, just understand, that would have ruled out you and me, probably. We wouldn't have counted here, all right? But they go after these guys. Also, these young men were well-versed in every branch of learning. They were gifted with knowledge and good judgment. I mean, they're suited to serve in the royal palace. So not just how they looked was important, but how they actually were. So how do you most effectively corrupt a national culture and society and its government? How do you do this? Nebuchadnezzar knew. You go in and you corrupt the youth. Get them while they're very young. It's both insidious and it's clever at the same time. capture people by force, then slowly convert the young people, the best of the young people, to not only a new way of life in a foreign culture, but change its own culture from within so that these people would someday stop thinking of themselves as a Jew and to begin to actually think as a Babylonian. That was his ploy. This is so typical of the work of Satan, isn't it? He can't create his own, so he takes and he mimics, and he takes and he tries to rob and change up culture, remove them from every sign of Christ's finished work and dangle a whole new world in front of them. And yet, my friend, if we're honest, we would say we still buy into it, don't we? Look at how much of the world system we buy into. Whenever I say the world, I'm thinking of the system of man with God left out. We're quickly buying into it, always in life. And so, he wanted symbolism and substance. He wanted it to look good, and he actually wanted it to be good. Nebuchadnezzar was no dummy. Notice, secondly, indoctrination. Verse 5 tells us this. Look at verse 5 with me. He says this, the king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years. At the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. This was an amazing indoctrination. It was a three-year plan to completely change them from the inside out. change their cultural eating habits, change their religious and cultural ways of thinking, and give people skills to stand in the presence of the king himself. I mean, this is pretty slick of him. Brainwashing was to begin immediately in a world unlike anything they'd ever known. The University of Babylon would give them a first-class secular education, a PhD, as it were, in Babylonian language, philosophy, literature, science, history, and astrology. Religion would have been a part of the curriculum as well, as they taught the mythologies of Babylon, the greatness of Marduk, the importance of the polytheistic deities that dominated the ancient Near Eastern world. Dream interpretations were huge to them, and omen reading would also be on their required course load. So this whole thing of new age that's in our world today really isn't new, is it? It's simply the old age wrapped up in a different t-shirt. And so they taught them a new song, Think Like a Babylonian. It was the popular song these Hebrews were to learn and to love to sing. So identify with all things new. It's a pretty dark place. And with that comes verses six and seven, what I call identity confusion. Verse six and verse seven is an amazing picture of the extent to which Nebuchadnezzar went to. This is remarkable. Daniel would, I think, remember well this day. It would have been confusing for these guys, and I would imagine that he didn't fully grasp everything that it meant. These are Hebrew names. And one of the things about the Hebrew names, in particular their names, was that each of these men had names that pointed their soul daily to God. Daniel, we've talked about already. God is judge. Emphasizing God's sovereign rulership. The holy standard bearer, as it were, who will judge wickedness. Hananiah means Yahweh is gracious. Emphasizing God's grace to all who would trust Him. I mean this was a privileged position to be called this and to be given this name. Yahweh is gracious. Mishael means who's like God? What a question. It's a question And a name. Who is like God? It asks this rhetorical question to emphasize God's uniqueness. I mean, there is no one like the one true God. Do you believe that? I mean, call me, Mishael. I like that. Who is like God? And finally, Azariah. We don't hear these names much anymore, but it means Yahweh is my helper. I think I said this to myself probably 40 times this week. Yahweh's my helper, Yahweh's my helper. Just call me Azariah, just call me Azariah. Yahweh's my helper. And now they get new names. Names that would seek to erase all connection with Israel's God. Crazy. Do you think they sat down and thought about this? Folks from Nebuchadnezzar, hey, give them new names. In particular, erase their name and point it in another direction. I think they did because there's commonality here. Each of them grasped what their name meant. and flips it around and points it in another direction. Such a ploy of Satan. Does this all the time. Takes what God has created, reverses it, and seeks to make it good. And so you have this shift that goes on here. You have Daniel becoming Belteshazzar, which means, may a God protect the king. Think of that. Which God? Any of them. May somebody protect the king. Come on, do something. Lots of assurance there, right? May God protect the king. This is a shift in authority and an allegiance from the God as judge to a pagan un-God. How comforting that would be. God protect the king. And then there's Hananiah. His name would be Shadrach, which means the command of Aku. This command of Aku shifts from God's grace to a legalistic ritual worship of the destroyer God. The destroyer God, or the storm God of Babylon. Does that sound like graciousness to you? Yeah, Mishael becomes Mishak, means who is like Aku. Oh. Let's think of that. It takes the question about the uniqueness of the true God and it shifts it from that rhetorical question to another to consider the supremacy of another pagan God. Another God that isn't. He's the un-God. And then Azariah becomes a bednego. Servant of Nego. And this shifts from the worship of the creator God, who is the transcendent God of all of heaven, and now services the God of plant life. Wah, wah, wah, wah. You're just going like, can you imagine being these guys? Going like, hey, plant life, God, wow. Romans chapter one, professing themselves to be wise, they really are foolish. It is totally the desire to disconnect these young men from the family of origin and the God of origin by simply changing his name and thus changing his whole trajectory. You would think that's insignificant. That's not such a big deal, is it? Is it? I mean, this sets a new place of insecurity in their lives, great confusion, and even bewilderment for these young men. How are they gonna survive in this? How would you survive? I mean, everything in this story cries disadvantage. The victory looks certain before it even starts, and if you read down to verse seven, when it comes to the end of verse seven, it's already looking like they're transformed citizens, and they all have new names. Forget the past, you're doomed. Their value system is challenged, the culture is defiled, and Nebuchadnezzar went even after their conscience of how they drew lines in their own life. There are so many ways to attempt to live in this deeply troubling environment, and our modern Christianity has often chosen two ways. And when I was studying through that this week, I'm going like, oh my goodness, this is what we see like all the time. Here's how modern Christianity attempts to do this in our dark world. First of all, one idea, one extreme is Christ against culture. And it could be summed up with one word, the word isolation. You just come out of the world and be separate. You don't have anything to do with the ungodly culture. Now on the opposite end of the spectrum is Christ transforms culture, summed up with the word accommodation or assimilation. And this view essentially says we need to be involved in everything so that we can redeem the culture, we can transform the culture. Things are kind of neutral, so get in there and change them. And so this begs the question, those are the two extremes, what route did these guys take? Because they faced this dilemma. And the answer is, neither. The Bible often warns us about taking fixed answers to dilemmas such as this. That one answer fits all of that. It's not pragmatism, it's not your gut that God recommends It's wisdom. You say, what are you talking about? Well, let's watch how these guys take care of this. It's fascinating. That leads us to our second point from verses eight through 13. And I think it's important for us to realize Decide in advance who you will trust. This is the bottom line. This is exactly where it should be for all of us. Who are we going to trust in this world? Some sort of humanity? Some part of human existence? Or are we going to trust the Creator God? And what Daniel does here is nothing short of amazing. I don't know who his father was, but it'd be interesting to hear how he was trained in order to do what he did. But somewhere in the early parts of his existence, he was a young man thrown in over his head, and yet he has something in his heart already figured out. And you see this in verse 8. Look at 8. You see that word, but, Daniel? If you haven't done anything yet as you're reading scripture, grab onto those conjunctions. Do you see it now? As if Daniel goes like, no, it wasn't either one of those things. Daniel does this. The conjunction pivots us away from all the distractions, all the allurements of human attractions of the flesh and the powerful pride of life. and he switches gears here, and basically it comes down to this. Arrange your life under what God says, but Daniel. So in contrast to everything, Daniel has already made up his mind, I'm gonna do what God says. Stop, full stop. Is that you this morning? This message is not about you daring to be a Daniel, although there's some wonderful lessons that we can learn. Parents, are you doing what God says in parenting? People, are you doing what God says about how you are living your life within the framework of the church? Or is it always something cooking and boiling up in your own imagination, in your own thoughts, going like, I need to do whatever I want to do. We look at Nebuchadnezzar and we go, bad. And yeah, there's a part of Nebuchadnezzar in all of us. But Daniel. Purposed in his mind. Now how did he get to that conclusion? How did he conclude that what I must do is what God says? I think he knew the Bible. You say, how do you know that? I think he understood the scriptures. And he gave himself to what God had said. You see, he has no other option but to obey what God says. They can rename him, for sure. They can live somewhere else, for sure. They can control their schedule and even their education. But Daniel says, you know what? God has told us what we are to eat. And so you are not telling us what it is that we're going to eat. These other things, I can kind of see how God probably would be okay with that, but God's not okay with you telling me what to eat. And it's a real sense that he understood the book of Deuteronomy. The explanation of the law. There's a real sense of wisdom here. That he goes like, I can't figure everything out, so what I must do is I'm gonna take a step back and say, okay, what does God say? Does God say you never can have a name change? Doesn't say that. Does God say you can never be in another country? Doesn't say that. But God does say, here's what you're to eat. And so Daniel drew the line there. That's wise. That's wisdom. There's a sense of real wisdom. He's not jumping into culture blindly. It's not just a free, I'm free here, I'm gonna do what I'm told to do. He's also not trying to immediately fix everything, is he? He's not. He is, however, going to live by what God says. Pretty simple way of living, isn't it? I wonder if that's how you live your life. Does that ring a bell? Arrange your life under what God says. Notice secondly, seek the good of those around you. I love this. Look at verse nine. Notice what he does here. So God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, So it would endanger my own head. Daniel goes, yeah, right, that's what happened. So yeah, let's see what we can do here. And basically what he's going like, he could have gotten up and said, no, I'm an Israelite. I trust God and you should too. So I'm gonna do what God says, but also I'm not gonna do what you say. Now he did say that. But what he also said was quite amazing. He's very wisely pushed back on the dietary issues and then gave a creative alternative. In other words, they had two options, defile themselves and their consciences before God, or their friend Ashvanaz loses his head. That's it. And so what he does is he drops down to the chain of command of the steward, or literally the guard of Ashmanaz assigned over him, and he purposes solution number three. None of the above. Test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given veggies and water, and then let's see who looks best. And Daniel simply asks for a test. In essence, he puts God to the test. And his faith is very strong here. that he's believing in God's promises. He's believing that if I do what God tells me to do, because if you remember, how many times have we talked about the curse and blessing motif that's throughout scripture? And he's remembering, if I just do what God says, I'll be blessed. I don't think at this point he understood what that blessing would look like. And I don't think it really mattered to him. other than that God would take good care of him. So he's believing in trusting God to honor their convictions and commitments to obeying his word. Now notice, if you would, this is the second time that God gave. Did you pick up on that? God gave them what? Favor. God gave Daniel favor. The diet would be very simple. And in the process, it would not break Mosaic laws. It would not be stuff offered to pagan gods. And it would not unduly obligate the four Hebrews to the Babylonian king. Daniel knew that defilement would only further distance himself from his Lord, and he would risk it all to keep that from happening. It was worth it to him. So he offers the third way so that everyone would win. He could not have been super sure by then. But for him, it wasn't about merely saving his bacon, as it were. It was about him seeing the good of the people around him and securing God's blessing on them, which would in turn bless everyone. Do you understand that when you as an individual, even in your own workplace, even amongst all ungodliness, you decide you're going to follow the one true God and listen to him and believe him, it brings good to everyone around you. You bring blessing in by that, and he understood this. So God was blessing them. So here's the point. Here's the application. Decide right now who you're going to listen to in life. Some of you struggle with that. You live your life constantly by Facebook posts, Instagram posts, TikTok posts, TV. Fox News. Some of you live your life filled with that kind of stuff. And you don't know how to decipher that from what God says and how wise things should be in appropriate ways of living. So decide right now who you're going to listen to. Who are you going to listen to? You? People around you? God. Daniel chose God. Thirdly, here's what I want you to see. Trust God through the darkness. Trust God through the darkness. You see, this is verse 14 through 21. Look at verse 14 with me this morning. This is quite amazing. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter. Can I just tell you, there was no guarantee that there would be some sort of shine on their face by day five. There was no guarantee that by day seven, Everything was going to be okay. Every day for 10 days, it was a test. Is this going to work? Is this going to work? This was no picnic. It was the roll of the dice, as it were. It was dark all around them with cultural wickedness, with godless enticements, and reckless, selfish arrogancy that thumbed its nose against the one true God. And yet these young men stuck it out for 10 days. The great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, said this, unless there is an element of extreme risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith in God. And he's not wrong. There's little doubt here that God would bless and honor their devotion. However, it carried the element of extreme risk. This is what freaks some of you out. Because you don't know. You can't control that. You're guessing at best. And the risk potential would involve the death of Ashfenaz, his steward, and perhaps Daniel and his friends, as well as the reputation of God himself. And however they had settled in their hearts long ago, that it didn't matter what the results were, they were going to do what God had bid them to do. And God honored this and did so in unimaginable ways. And this text outlines for us three places of God's unique blessing. See this this morning. Notice first of all that God blesses them physically. And you see this in verse 14. So he listened in this manner and tested them. At the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter. What a sigh of relief that must have been to those guys. And while I think it was probably a very good diet, can I just say this? The emphasis of Scripture seems to be more on God's blessing rather than the physical food they ate. because some of you are sitting there right now going like, see, we should just be eating vegetables and drinking water. I don't think that's the point of this particular text. I think probably vegetables are good for you. They probably are. I was listening to my son wisely say this yesterday. I was like, dude, where have you been all of our life? Mom's made vegetables all of our life for you, and you're like, nah. Now it's like, oh man, I think I just eat vegetables at night. Okay, whatever, all right. but they look more physically fit and they were healthier. Just note though, can I just give you this note? This is not a promise that all who eat veggies and water will be healthier. The point is God's blessing when they sought to live God's way and do what God says and listen to His voice. Note also that their diet was private. There's no show here, no pomp about what they got to eat versus what everyone else had to eat, what they would do, what they would not do. For these young men, it was more about God's glory than their own glory. Most of us today can't handle that part very well. Because what we think we do well, everyone else should do like we do. And can I just caution you about that? If you don't eat barbecue hot Doritos, I don't blame you, I don't need them either, but some people do and some people like them. You say, should you? Can we not talk about that? That's not what this is dealing with. God blessed them physically though. Also note that it did not exempt them from further testing later. I passed the food test, man, I ate my veggies. But there's other testing because our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. We want control somewhere, and we're gonna find it somewhere. If it's not in what we eat, it's somewhere else. But God blessed them spiritually, too. That's the second part, verses 17 and 20. Look at verse 17, I love this. As for the youths, God gave them learning. Here God gives the youths learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. Verse 20 informs us that in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in his kingdom. 10 times better. Hello, Nebuchadnezzar. You ought to learn something from that. These guys have something your men don't have. You see, Babylonian wise men are not so much incompetent as they are just plain false. They just don't speak what is true. They claim to receive their wisdom from gods whom the Israelites recognize as non-existent, or worse, from the dark side of divination and occults. But these men were Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 men who walked not with the ungodly, but delighted in the law of the Lord and thus had the ability to see the things of life and this world from God's perspective and learned how to act accordingly. These were Proverbs type guys. Proverbs 4, 5 that talks about seeking wisdom, getting wisdom, getting understanding. And there's such irony here that Nebuchadnezzar so badly wanted to change their thinking and thus change their trajectory. And yet again, God is the one who now this third time in verse 17 gives them understanding. My friend, do you see three times God gave, God gave, God gave. This is how we should pursue in our lives, the gifts from God, the word of God, this is all of God. And then thirdly, God bless them socially. I think this is amazing. Verses 18 through 21, you begin to read this and there's this wild comparison that goes on. And you see this at the end of the time when the king had commanded that they should be brought in. The chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king spoke with them. Among all of them, none were found like Belteshazzar, right? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right? Survey says no. They have their Hebrew names here. They have their Hebrew names. And they're 10 times better than all the musicians. And Nebuchadnezzar gave these Hebrew guys key administrative positions. He was confident that they would serve them well and represent them well. Therefore, they entered into the king's service, verse 20 says of them. They didn't carry into that world their Babylonian names. Somehow, God preserved them in such a way that they were called here at the end, after the three years, by their Judah names, Judean names. These men went in there as merely young servants of the king, but God sent them in as bold ambassadors for his kingdom work. And what God accomplished? God's kingdom work. And yet they survived socially. They didn't just survive, they excelled exceptionally. And so what we find finally in verse 21, that God blesses Daniel extensively. I love this. I mentioned this last week, really because I couldn't help but pop that bubble. God's extensive blessing is always over time. What you see in verse 21 is 70 years. Between verse 3 and down to verse 21 is 70 years of existence. These guys lived here. And what this says is that he's the eternal king of the universe. Time is no object to God. It looks bad, sounds bad, it was bad, but ultimately God was in charge and Daniel outlasted his conquerors. Daniel outlasts the darkness, and light is unveiled only over time. You see, God's eternality is seen in this picture, and I love John's words in John 1, 5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Let me ask you a question this morning. Do you believe that? It's this constant state of shining of the light of God into the darkness that gives us hope even today. From that time until this time, until all of our future, darkness never overcomes light, never, never. We're going into 2024 and you can see the storm clouds rising, can't you? Who's gonna be president? I mean, the wickedness is just huge. It's thick. It's choking. If you look at it, my friend, don't keep staring at it. Look up and see the great God of history. This is His story. This is not our story. This is His story. And this is how life works. Daniel and his friends stood firm for God's glory. Daniel and his friends stood firm for his will, his honor. And Daniel and his friends worshipped God in the darkness. And God in time over and over and over and over blessed them. Why? Because he's God. He's a man of his word. This is how life works. God's faithfulness from even before creation becomes the pool of blessedness for our life in creation, in this world, and it's a blessed, but it's only in and through him. He's light. Trust him alone. Will you pray with me this morning? Father, what joy you've given to us today, and thank you in your divine providence of shifting a very gray, cold, murky day into a bright, sunny, still cold day, but the warmth of your presence is overwhelming, and your power, your light always outdoes the darkness. Father, stir up our hearts of belief and confidence, not in ourselves, not in a country, not in a culture, not in a diet or non-diet, but in you alone. Father, keep us from straying from what you say. Help us to be wise people, not caught up in either extremes. learning how to discern through life, learning how to refrain from sin, walk away. And when it's times of great dilemma, when it's time of great murkiness, that we would take a step back and we say, okay, what does God say to address this particular situation? And may we run to God's Word and find it whole, find it complete, find it rich with nutrients, rich with presence and power and glory to the one true God. Keep us from serving our idols. Keep us from serving our own wills and our own selves. Lord, continue to break us. and cause us to see you high and lifted up and worship you alone. And we pray and ask these things all because of what Jesus has done for us. Amen. Will you stand with me?