chapter one here this morning, the book of Daniel chapter one. This will be a two-part message, so I won't be able to finish it all this morning. So if you can, please be back tonight to hear the rest of it. We're gonna do this, actually this chapter today, Daniel chapter one, and I'll bring the rest of it this evening. But I've entitled this message 10 times better, 10 times better. The book of Daniel chapter one, 10 times better, I received the title. of this message from verse 20, which is actually the last verse or the next last verse of this chapter and talks about being 10 times better. How many of you would like to be 10 times better than what you are right now? Hey man, I think all of us would. We'd like to be 10 times better than all of us, but you know, in the midst of that, in the midst of you trying to be better, there is one that's doing everything he can to keep you from being 10 times better. But you can be 10 times better, and I'm gonna show you how, and that'll be this morning and through tonight. Mostly this morning, we're gonna see, mostly this morning, we're gonna see the one that is trying to keep us from being 10 times better, and then later on tonight, we'll see mostly of how we can be 10 times better, but let's take a look at it. Here in verse one, and we'll begin. The Bible says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. Now there in verse one, one of the things I want us to see, of course, Nebuchadnezzar, this is, of course, before he came to know God. Now a good picture, good representation of the devil and the King Babylon, of course, is a good picture and a good representation of the world. And notice, the Bible says they came unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And good idea, good picture there that we can see of the devil and the world that is after God's people and how their desire is to surround the people of God. Now, the besieging that took place back then was happening in many ways. Oftentimes, the enemy would come in, they would surround the area, they would surround the nation or the town, city, whatever. And the idea was to starve the people out. But they would also, of course, have their military and all their infantry and all the other things, their chariots, they'd have all that around. They would keep anything from coming in and keep anything from coming out. They would in essence do everything they could to surround the people to instill fear. They would do everything they could to starve the people out on the inside so that it even gets to the point you could even see in places of scripture where besieging was taking place of God's people and the people began to turn on themselves and they began to eat their own and literally speaking. And so we can see a number of different things that besieging does throughout the scriptures. And that is exactly what we see here, that Nebuchadnezzar, a tremendous picture of the devil himself, Babylon, a tremendous picture of the world in general, and its way of sin, how it is doing everything it can to come against God's people, how it's doing everything it can to, in essence, starve them out, get them to turn on each other, get them to do everything it can to make this city fall apart. And that's what the goal, of course, of this world is, that is the goal of the devil. Listen, what did the Lord Jesus say about Satan himself? The Bible says, Jesus said himself that the devil came to steal, kill, and destroy. Understand this morning, the world's not your friend, amen? The world's not your friend, the devil's not your friend, so let's just get a good understanding of that. The world and the devil is doing everything it can to besiege our lives, do everything it can to surround us with vileness and evilness and wickedness. Listen, we're just pilgrims passing through this morning. Listen, I'm saved on my way to heaven. My citizenship, when I got saved, transferred from here to heaven, amen. So I'm just a pilgrim here today. I'm just kind of passing through. Listen, as God's people, we just want to be a light to a lost and dying world. But when I die, listen, when I die, I'm going to heaven. I'm not planning on hanging around here. I'm not staying around for this place. Listen, when I die, I'm going to heaven. And I'm looking forward to a heavenly home and a heavenly city that God has prepared for me. And I pray that you are doing the same. But here in verse one, what we see is we see in essence the world and the devil besieging the families of God. We see them coming against God's people. Listen, we see it today. The world and the devil coming against churches. The world and the devil coming against godly families. The world and the devil coming against individuals this morning. Listen, it's happening right this very minute. right this very minute. Even as people are sitting in churches across America today, the devil's doing everything he can to battle them, doing everything he can to fight them, doing everything he can to keep them, to deter them from hearing the word of God, to deter them from hearing the words of truth, to deter them to do everything he can to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel, to keep them from salvation, to keep them from wanting to honor God with their lives. Listen, the devil is in an all-out besiegement against the families of God today, but listen, but not just the families of God, but the world in general, because the devil doesn't want anybody to get saved. Jesus said, I came to seek and to save that which is lost. He says, I'm not willing that any should perish, all should come to repentance. And because God sees the value in every single soul, listen, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, God sees the value of every single person, of every single soul. And that's why he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for every single one of us here this morning. all of us as sinners, all of us needed to be saved, all of us was destined on our way to a devil's hell, and there was only but one way that we can get to heaven, and that is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing, and the devil is in a besiegement, the world is in a besiegement against you, against your family, against the churches of God, against the house of God, against this nation, and against every nation that is on this planet. Listen, the devil desires And we can see that there in verse one. Verse number two, the Bible says the Lord gave Jehoiakim. the king of Judah into his hand. Now, why did that take place? Well, because there was evilness and there was wickedness taking place. And so God said, listen, you wanna live away from me? You wanna live a life apart away from me? And God says, all right, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll just give you exactly what you want. And so God gave them over. Listen, God gave them over to the nation of Babylon, but understand this, Babylon had already taken over in their heart before they had ever been taken over. physically speaking. Does that make sense? They had done given themselves over to idolatry on the inside, spiritually speaking, the people had done given themselves over. And so in essence, the Lord says, well, if that's what you desire, and that's what you want, and that's how you wanna live, then I will let you have that what you want. Listen, be careful, at least God, give us what we think we desire and what we want in our lives. I tell you what, I don't know about you, but how many have ever been thankful for some unanswered prayers in life? How many have ever been thankful that you look back behind and you begin to think to yourself, man, I tell you what, I thought I knew what was best. I thought I knew what was right. But I'm thankful that there's a God in heaven that can look down the road and sit around the corner and see the things that I can't see and didn't give me that which I wanted, didn't give me that which I desired at that moment because we have a faithful God in heaven that loves you and can see ahead of you that listen, if you only knew what you were praying for, if you only could see what was down the road, you would definitely change your mind, but because you can, I'm gonna help you out today, and I'm not gonna give you that which you think that you desire, but listen, these folks right here, they had gotten their hearts away from God. God did give them over to Babylon, but Babylon had already taken over on the inside. God just gave them. that which they wanted. And so we can see here in verse two, we can see the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, has now, there in verse two, the Bible says, 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. We get into verse three and the Bible says, and the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed of the princes. I want you to notice something between verses two and verse three. Notice between verses two and three, did you go at Jehoiakim and the people of God today, were they given over to Babylon? Yes, they were. As I said, they had done left God in their heart long before any of this had taken place. God just gave them that which they thought they wanted. But I think we can also see here that whenever whenever Babylon came in, what is it that Babylon took first before they took the people? Did they come in and kill the people? Yes, they did. Did they destroy the city? Yes, they did. They did tremendous evil, wicked atrocities to God's people. But understand, we can see right here between verses two and three, what is it that they took first? They took the vessels of the houses of God. They took the treasures. They took the gold and they took the silver and they took all of these things. But then who was taken next? It was the people that were taken next. You say, why were the people taken next? Well, I just thought it was a good picture of us to see of how the world sees and how the devil sees God's people as really just kind of second rate. Listen, the world cares more about the things that can get out of you than you yourself. The devil can care less about you. All he cares about is what he can take from you. And so they took the vessels of God, they took the treasures of the house of God, they took the gold, they took the silver, they took everything that they thought was of value, and then the next thing was, okay, now, well, now we'll just go to the people. They were just kind of second rate. You ever heard of somebody, you ever heard of somebody say, well, maybe somebody just maybe considers you a second rate person or a second rate something. Well, that's what God's people kind of looked at here. They cared more about Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, cared more about the riches that they can bring into the treasure house of God to honor their God than they did really about the people that were there. Did he want the people? Yes, he did. He wanted the people too. Now, the people were a treasure. I just don't think they were quite as valuable. But we can see there in verse three, and this is one of the things I want us to see, the very first truth between verses two and three is the imprisonment. Listen, if I wanna be 10 times better than what I am now, then I'm gonna need to do everything I can to keep my heart in the right place, to keep myself in track with God, walking with God. And the Bible shows us here in verses two and three, of course, they had done left that, the people of God had done left that in their hearts And because of that, they left themselves open to that which they desired. And so in essence, they were overcome, they were besieged. And we can see in verses two and three, that everything that they had was taken and they themselves were imprisoned. Listen, there's a lot of people today living in prison. And I don't just mean in the jail cells today, but yes, that is true. But I don't just mean out there. I mean, there's a lot of people today even sitting in pews across America today in good godly believing churches that are in prison in their heart by certain things, in prison in their body by certain things they're battling and struggling with and they can't defeat and they can't. seem to get victory over, they're certain that, man, there are people that are battling in their mind, battling in their heart, battling in their bodies, battling in their emotions, battling, I mean, battling in every single way that you can possibly think. And we can see right here that what the devil's desire, Nebuchadnezzar's desire, and the world's desire was to take away everything that everybody had, but not only that, take away all that they have, we'll put what you have in the treasure house of our God and then we are going to take you and we are going to imprison you. And that's what the devil does and he holds and he'll captive people in their sins. He besieges them in their life, does everything he can to get them bound in this and he'll captive in that. Listen, there's people all across the world today bound and he'll captive, as I said, in all different types of things, whether it's, and we can list them all here this morning, and we can just obviously begin to understand what they are. Yes, drugs, yes, alcohol, Yes, pornography, and yes, all these other things, and there are so many other things. Yes, bitterness, and unforgiveness, and envy, and all of these things that the host of this world of people that are battling and struggling within their life, and the devil's doing everything he can to imprison them in this life. And we can see, and he was very active in doing that, and the Bible shows us here in verse three that the king spake unto Ashpenaz. We can see their imprisonment. They came, they besieged the city. Not only did they take everything that they had, but they took the people. And the Bible says, he told Ashpenaz there in verse three, the masters of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel. Now I want you to understand that, certain of the children of Israel, that's one group. And then notice he says, and of the king, seed, and of the princes, that's another group. Notice there in verse three, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel. That just goes to show us today, listen, the devil's out for everybody, not just God's people. Amen. The devil's out for everybody, not just God's people. The world wants to corrupt everybody, the world system in general, to corrupt everybody, not just God's people. Listen, anybody that the devil can get to hell is perfectly fine. Anybody that the world can keep from going to heaven is perfectly fine, because that would be one less soul that is in heaven serving God. That would be one less soul down on this earth that has been a light to a lost and dying world. Listen, this world and the devil is out for the children of Israel, it is out for us here today, and we got to see and understand that if we're not careful, the devil will put us in this place of imprisonment, but the way to get there is for our hearts to get away from God. And when we get our hearts away from God, we open up ourselves to allow the devil to come in and do some horrible things. The Bible says the way of transgressors is hard. Listen, living life, living the Christian life can be difficult at times. How many of us, we fight every day, right? None of us are here just when we battle, we fight every single day. But the ways of transgressors is hard. The Bible shows us here in this text, we see the imprisonment of the world. that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, that's everybody. But then notice he also says, not just the children of Israel, he says, but I also want of the kings a seed. And the prince says, man, what a good picture of God's people there. Listen, I don't just, the devil don't wanna just take lost people to hell, but those that are on their way to heaven, listen, if he can get good godly people to stumble and to fall and to get out of church and stop praying and to stop doing all that and to stop serving God, listen, if the devil can get good godly people that are supposed to be a light to a lost and dying world, if he can do everything he can to put that light out, and do everything he can to so that your light does not shine so that nobody sees it, then he may in essence not be able to take your soul, but he has done a really good job of making your light as dim as possible. So see a good picture. Right here, listen, the devil in the world's not just interested in just the children of Israel and just the world in general, though it is, it's also interested in the king's seed. Listen, I'm a child of the king this morning, amen? If you're saved here today, you're the very same thing. And anybody can be a child of the king, amen? Praise the Lord for that. God's no respecter of persons, so we can see the king's seed, but notice also there in the text, I want us to see, and of course, every age group and every age bracket is important, but here in our text, the Bible says there in verse three, that he should bring certain of the what? The children of Israel. There in verse four, he also says what? Children. and whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding of science and such as ability in them to stand in the king's palace in whom they might teach the learning of the tongue of the Chaldeans." I want us to see not only the, I want us to see their imprisonment and their desire, what they desire to do. The desire was to take God's people, the ones that they did not kill, the ones they did not destroy, was to take those people, not just God's people, but whoever they could get, and to change them, to transform them, to do everything they could to, do everything they could to, in essence, provide for them, as we're gonna see here in a moment, a daily provision of the king's meat. The desire here was to do one thing, and that was to grab ahold of those kids. That's one of the reasons why the Good News Bible Club is so important. The world and this devil's doing everything he can to grab ahold of the kids. Listen, the church can only do so much. The church itself as a building and as people that gather in this building, we can only do so much because the church is us, not just the building, amen, not just the building, but we are the church. But as we gather here to hear God's word, whether it's from the pastor, whether it's from Sunday school teachers, or whether it's from other people, the church itself cannot do but so much. Parents at home have to teach their kids too. Does that make sense? Parents at home have to do their due diligence and training up their kids and raising them up in the ways that they need to follow God. And we can see right here, we can see the world and the devil is after the kids. He said, bring the children. He says, we want the children. Listen, every ministry is important. That's why even today, we're going out to Autumn Care and the seniors that are down that way. We're gonna go down there and be a blessing to them. Listen, every single age group is important. And we can see right here, they're in verse three. One of the things Nebuchadnezzar wanted, one of the things the world wanted, is they said, bring the children. There in verse four, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored. Listen, we wanna go out there and we wanna grab ahold of these young folks. We wanna grab ahold of these kids. You know why? Because the devil, he knows, listen, the devil been around for a long time, he knows that if he can stifle the next generation in his spiritual growth, if he can rob them of zeal to follow God, and to trust in God. If he can do everything he can to distort the doctrines of the Bible and spread all kinds of terrible fallacies against the church and God's word and God's people, then he can do everything he can to turn the next generation away from the Lord. And then you come up, then you come up with a generation where the Bible teaches us there in the book of Judges where we see that the Bible says that, and then they did, that the nation did what was right in their own eyes. And listen, if we're not careful, we'll become a nation does right in our eyes, not right in the eyes of God. And when we begin to do things that's right in our own eyes, we are heading down a path of death and a path of destruction. The Bible shows us here, he says, we want the children. And how is he gonna get the children? How's he gonna get the children? All kinds of ways. How's he gonna do that? Well, of course, I mean, how's it happen today? Well, we see it happen through social media. We see it happening through all the different social apps that we have today. There's so many, I can't even name them. And I mean, they're all over the place. But not only that, but you see that the devil reaches the kids through the music industry today. Listen, I love technology, I love science. I'm not against none of it. Nobody go home, so that preacher down there, He's against technology and he's against science. Nothing of that at all, but I am against good stuff. I mean, I am for good stuff, amen? I am for good stuff. And listen, technology can be good, but it's just like anything else. It oftentimes is who is wielding it that makes the difference. And what I'm trying to get us to see here this morning is that the devil is using all different kinds of avenues to infiltrate and besiege our lives. And if our heart on the inside is already walking away from God, the devil's gonna take advantage of that. What's the Bible say? He walks about seeking whom he may devour, right? He walks about seeking whom he may devour. The devil's goal in life is to devour you, to devour that which you love, to devour your church, to devour your family. And the Bible shows us right here, he says in verses three and four, we're going after the children. We wanna imprison them, and then we want to indoctrinate them. We wanna teach them that which we think that they should know. We wanna teach them that which we believe they should hear. And so that was part of the purpose, not just the imprisonment, but the indoctrination of the kids. A Jewish child was considered anybody that was 19 years and younger. Today we consider an adult 18, but the Jewish, they considered 19 and younger. 20 years old, you paid the temple tax. 20 years old, you went and you was able to go and you fought in the wars. 19 and younger was considered a little child and here they are looking for the children, children in which was no blemish, but well-favored, skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge and understanding science and as such as ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans. Indoctrinate the kids, imprison them, indoctrinate them. Notice what else we see there in verse five. And the king appointed them, watch this now, extremely important. The king appointed them, king who? King Nebuchadnezzar. Good picture of the devil. The Bible says, and the king appointed them a what? Somebody say that next word. Daily. The king appointed them a daily provision. of the king's meat. Listen, I want us to get an understanding of that. The Bible says the king appointed unto who? These kids. A daily provision of the king's meat. Every single day. Every single day. We just think about, apply it to our lives today. Every single day. The world energized by the devil himself in this world system is standing around, what can we provide for everybody today? Let's infiltrate their families, let's infiltrate their lives through all avenues possible. Social media, yes. Internet, yes. Radio, yes. Songs, yes. All these different things. And what's so strange is at the time sometimes we don't even realize it. You ever had something going on? You ever had something happen and you didn't even realize it was happening until after it happened? You thought, man, how did this happen? You never saw it. You never recognized it. You never knew it. But then, but because the devil has a way of making things work and behind those scenes to such a degree that he has a way of infiltrating people's lives and infiltrating certain things so that you never see it coming. What does the Bible tell about Satan himself there in the book of Genesis? The Bible says that he was more subtle than any beast of the field. The devil has his ways of creeping in. The devil has his ways of getting in. Oftentimes, it's the small cracks that bring down the dams. The water has its way of finding its way through to ultimately and eventually bring everything down. The Bible shows us right here, he wanted to imprison them. He wanted to indoctrinate them. And then we can see there in verse five, The Bible says the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat. And every single day, understand this, I'm gonna be honest with you. I mean, this is church, we gotta be honest. I mean, this is real world. Every single day, the devil is doing all he can, the world's doing all they can to daily provide a provision of the king's meat. What the devil desires, what the world desires to distribute amongst the people. Every single day we see it. As I said, on the internet, we see it on the news, we see it on the television. Listen, you see it in commercials, certain things. I mean, I have never in all my life, I've never in all my life seen such commercials that come on today that even when I was 20 years old, a couple years ago, when I was 20 years old, that I thought I'd never see in my whole life. Thought I'd never see anything like that. I'll be honest with you. I thought I would, I thought, I mean, I know when I was growing up, I heard the talks and stuff, but I really just never thought I'd ever see a day just in my Christian life where I would see that marriage would not no longer be between a man and a woman. I just never thought that. It never even entered into my mind these things. But now you got, what's the world doing, man? And I'm just harping on this one thing this morning. It's broad, there's a whole bunch of things. But I'm just simply saying here today that the world's doing everything it can to, the world's doing everything it can, the devil's doing everything it can to indoctrinate the people of this world so that we become desensitized to what's going on and we just agree with them, just say, well, it's okay because we always see it. and it's always there. So you get the people to where they just come to this place where they just agree and just accept what it is that's going on. I mean, here today, we sit down, you watch television, a commercial comes on, and you see homosexual couples on there, sitting on there, loving on each other, kissing on each other, holding hands. It don't matter if it's a commercial for traveling or if it's a commercial for medical supplies. It don't matter if it's something for cups and suitcases or deodorant. It makes no difference whatsoever. It is out there. And the devil in this world is doing everything he can pump it out there so that we as a nation will come to the place where we just say, well, yeah, you know, this is fine, this is great. And as I said the other week, listen, what's right isn't always popular, but what's popular is not always right. And you've heard that before, but just let that sink into the depths of our soul this morning to understand that these things are against God. And if we are a nation that in our hearts turn away from God, God will give us exactly that which we're asking for. And when that happens, then we become a people that is imprisoned and indoctrinated by this world and the devil that is in this world that keep our minds blinded from the gospel of the truth of God so that the devil can lead more people into a devil's hell that God did not create for people. Does that make sense? Listen, God did not create hell for you and I. The Bible says explicitly itself that it was created there for the devil and his angels, but people go there because they reject God. That's what it is. That is the truth of the word of God. Jesus said, God says I'm not willing that any should perish. He desires that all should be saved. But we see right here how the world energized by the devil himself, how they besiege our lives, how they besiege our homes, how they besiege us personally. how they besieged churches, bring them down into submission, get them to a place where they begin to change their doctrines and become more conformed to this world. The Bible shows us there in verse one, they besieged it, and what did they do? They took everything that the people of God had, and that's what the devil wants to do, and that's what the world wants to do, is to besiege your life, besiege your church and everything that you believe in, and hold dear to your heart, besiege it and take it all away. so that it's like it never existed. Bible shows us there in verse 3, coming after the kids, they want those children. Because we can see in there in verse 4, they can indoctrinate those kids and those kids will then, they can use them to indoctrinate others. And use them to teach others and use them to indoctrinate others. The Bible says in verse five, he appointed them, the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat. Let's just be real. Every single day it's happening. You gotta think about this. Every single day, the devil, this world, is providing a daily provision, a daily provision. So we gotta ask ourselves, if our kids and we ourselves are being fed every day, by the doctrines of this world and the devil himself who is seeking to lead us astray. If we are fed every day through multiple avenues, every single day, then what else are we feeding on? Are we feeding on anything else? Because I can tell you this, if we think for one second that we can just show up on a Sunday morning service, and listen, I'm not saying it don't help, it does, but I'm just trying to get us to see and understand. Listen, there's a lot of people, they think, well, I'll just show up on a Sunday morning service and I'll just let the preacher feed me for 30 minutes and then we'll go home. Listen, your body would not do well surviving on a 30 minute meal. Amen? On one meal a week, you would not do well than trying to survive on eating one time a week. I'm just trying to get us to see the devil every single day. And let's think about this now. Let's think about how long, I call it plugged into the system. How many hours a day are not just the world, but even God's people, are we plugged into the system? That we're feeding ourselves off of everything that the world wants us to see and hear. and we're getting energized and nourished by the things that the kings meet. And we think about that, and then we think about, okay, how much am I allowing God to feed my soul? How often am I coming to God for God to feed my soul? Listen, I can feed you here on Sunday morning, I can feed you here on Sunday night, I can feed you here on Wednesday night, but I can guarantee you, listen, if you're a person of God, you're a child of God, you ought to be hungry on Monday, you ought to be hungry on Tuesday, you ought to be hungry on Thursday, you ought to be hungry on Friday, and you ought to be hungry on Saturday. Amen? I'm just being honest with us all here this morning, that's the way it should be. A daily provision. And man, our kids get plugged into the system and they hear more TV and they hear more internet and they hear more about these things. Not just kids though, I'm not harping on them. I'm talking everybody, adults, people all across, people everywhere. We are plugged into the system. And for hours and hours and hours a day, I heard somebody say this one time. They said, you know what, if our screen time matched our prayer time, how much different would things be? Now let's think about that here for a minute. How many of you on your phones, maybe on Sunday, that's what pops up on mine, on Sunday it tells us what your screen time was that week. Now let's just think about this. Now listen, I'm guilty. But I'm just saying, we have this, we are plugged into this system, this indoctrinating world system that is filling up our minds with a bunch of vileness and filth. And if we stay plugged into that all the time, and we're only allowing, we're only allowing certain times of the week for God to speak to our hearts, And we're expecting something big and something huge to change in our lives and we're not even giving God a chance. The Bible says right here that they were given a daily portion of the king's meat. You know what I see right here? I see the world and the devil investing in the kids. Investing in the kids. Not only do we see Not only do we see the imprisonment, not only do we see their indoctrination, but we also see the investment. The Bible says in verse five, and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat. Not anything that they had had before, but something different. Not something they were used to, but something different. A daily provision of the king's meat. That which the king desired for them to have. Not God, not anybody else, but what the king desired for them to have. And of the wine which he drank. Watch this now. So nourishing them. His desire was to nourish them. To give them every single thing that they need to be like him. Notice he says, and nourishing them three years. And at the end thereof, they might stand before the king. So the king and the world system was wanting to invest in these young people, was wanting to invest in these kids for them to, for three years. And he says, and at the end of three years, after I indoctrinate them and after I imprison them and force feed them that which I want them to have. I don't want them to hear nothing else. I wanna block out anything that God's people have to say. I don't want them to hear nothing. I want them to get a daily portion of what I want them to have. I don't want them to hear nothing else. I don't want them to see nothing else. I want them to stay in prison, in that prison, and I'm gonna feed them what I want them to have, and they're gonna stay in that place for three years, and after three years, you bring them to me, and let's see the difference that we've made in their life. Let me just let that sink in for a minute. Imprison them for three years. Block out everything that would be good for their life. The light of the gospel, the Lord Jesus. Block out all this stuff. Only get them to hear what the world has to say. Only get them to hear what the devil has to say. That's all I want for them. And let's do that for three years. And then let's bring them up here and let's see how much we've changed them. Because that's what the devil wants to do and that's what this world wants to do, is to change. Change, not for the good. Not for the good. A daily portion of the king's meat How much of the word of God are we getting into ourself daily? How much time are we spending talking to the Lord daily? How much time are we spending praying and letting God speak to us and serving the Lord and coming to church? How often are we doing these things in our life? I would dare say most of us are extremely guilty, all of us are extremely guilty of taking in more of the king's meat than maybe that which God would have us to have. The Bible says there in verse five, for three years, in verse six, not only do we see their investment list, and we need to, as we leave that truth, just understand that investing in the kids is important. The devil wants to do everything he can to get to them, and investing in them is important, just as it is all the other age groups. And we're gonna stop with this truth right here. The Bible says, now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel and Ananias, Michel, Azariah. Unto whom the prince, there in verse seven, of the eunuchs gave names, for he gave unto Daniel the name Belshazzar, and unto Hananiah Shadrach, and unto Michel Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego. I want you to notice something else that got changed. Not only was their location changed and they were in prison, not only was their daily provisions changed, it became now a provision of the king's meat, but now their names were changed. The devil's desire and the world's desire was to completely steal their identity. Completely change who they are. So that whenever they saw themselves, they no longer thought of themselves as how they used to. To get them to a place where they would say, I'm no longer Daniel. I'm Bel Shazar. Have we ever lived in such a time where people are so confused about their own identity and it's all this world? I believe we look around, I mean, people don't know which bathroom to use anymore. People don't know who they are anymore. Some people just think they're animals. I'm being honest with us this morning. I mean, we are living in a time where folks don't know what bathroom to use, they don't know what a man is, they don't know what a woman is, they don't know what marriage is, they don't know the difference between themselves and animals. And the devil is doing everything he can, this world is doing everything it can to steal the identity of the people where they no longer look at themselves how they were. their opinion of themselves and how everybody else now looks at them is completely different. I'm no longer Daniel, I'm Belshazzar. You say, well, what's so bad about it? There's a lot of things that's bad about that. We think about what these names mean and we're gonna stop with this, mostly promise. We can see the names that were given to them And I wrote them down here in my notes. Give me a second. When you look at my Bible and you see chicken scratch like this written all over the place, you understand why I have a hard time sometimes. We can see their names. Daniel had the idea. Well, let's just start with this one. Abednego, the name that Michelle was changed to, means servant of Nebo, which is like the servant of Ishtar almost. Belshazzar means Baal protects his life. Meshach means shadow of the prince. Shadrach means command of Aku, which is like the moon god. And these were different gods that they served. Daniel's name actually means God is my judge. But let's change God is my judge to Baal protects his life. Let's have Hananiah, whose name means God is gracious, Let's change his name. The Bible shows us Michael, whose name means the mighty one. Let's change his name. We see Azariah, whose name means Yahweh has helped. Let's change his name. For the purpose of getting God is my judge and God is gracious and who is like the mighty one and Yahweh has helped to now go into the command of Vahku, who is the moon god, the servant of Nebo, who is Ishtar, Belshazzar, which is Bell protects his life, Meshach, which is the shadow of the prince. Let's get them to forget their complete identity. Let's get them to forget their traditions, Let's get them to forget their God. Let's give them a new identity and everybody will call them something different. And that's where we're at right now. That's where we are right now. But I'm gonna give you one thing here this morning before we leave. And I'll finish this message tonight. So I pray that you come tonight and hear the rest of it. I'm gonna give you one thing. Notice the next text. The Bible says in verse eight, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor the wine which he drank. No matter what we're surrounded by, no matter what is infiltrating our life, no matter what is besieging us, there's one thing that we need to make sure that we do as God's people, is that we purpose in our heart that we're not gonna partake of the king's meat. Because the devil's doing everything he can to supply a good daily portion of what he has. To get you to forget all these things. To continuously and daily, to get you to see and hear that which only he desires for you to see and hear. To block out the truth. To block out the light. So that you follow the path of darkness. Here this morning as we pray, I don't know who's saved in here and who's not, I just know me. But here today, if you're not saved, the greatest thing that you can do as the light of God has been shined upon you today is to trust Jesus as your personal savior. And Christ can save you, no matter who you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done. The Bible says that where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. His hand is not shortened that he cannot save. So if you need to get saved today, you can call out to the one who is willing to save you. And I can guarantee you, you lift up your hand, you say, Lord, I need to be saved, you'll find that God's hand's already there, willing to save you. Let's pray this morning. as the music plays whenever they get ready. You ask yourself today, if I died today, do I know that I would go to heaven? Not I think I would or I might, but do I know? Do I know without a shadow of a doubt that if I died today, I'd go to heaven? Scripture tells us Your life is but a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. The Bible tells us it is appointed unto a man once to die and after this the judgment. Every single one of us here today must be prepared for an eternity that is no more than a heartbeat and a breath away. So I'm encouraging you, and I am pleading with you here this morning, that if you are not saved, or if you have doubts on whether or not you're going to heaven, that you make sure today that you get those things right. Because eternity is a long time to be wrong, and eternity is a long time to live in darkness. So if you're here today, you're not saved. If you'll put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll pray this morning from your heart, and you ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you and to save you, he will. As we stand to our feet here this morning, Brianna's gonna sing here in just a second. But as you stand here this morning, if you need to get saved, there's no greater time than right now. So if you're here today and you need to get saved, as we bow our heads and we close our eyes here, would you just slip your hand up so I can see you, preacher, I need to get saved this morning. I'd like somebody to take the word of God and just show me how I can get saved. I'm not gonna call you out, I'm not gonna come to you. You just raise your hand. Preacher, I'd like for somebody to show me out of the word of God how I can get saved. Anybody like that here this morning? The altar's open, I encourage you to come. As you're on your way, if you need to get saved, you make sure you let me know, Brandon's gonna sing. you