We're gonna jump in and look at what the Lord has, I believe, for us this morning. If you got a bulletin this morning, if you grabbed one from the front for you there, of course, our theme for the year is for such a time. We have need of being busy about the work because the night cometh when no man can work. And so for such a time that we've been placed in, we are here by God's design, by God's purpose, and he did not make a mistake putting us in this timeframe or putting this timeframe for us. And so with all of that, we've been looking at the fact that we are here, get used to it, right? No sense of complaining about it to a degree because it's not going to change the fact that you're here and this is the time that we're in. I know we can oftentimes, we can look around, we can see and we can gripe about what the things that are going on around us, you know, where our country is, where other countries are, what's happening, the things that people are trying to do and accomplish that we honestly, biblically cannot agree with. And you can look around and very easily, listen, if you're having a good day, just look outside and see what's going on, it'll ruin it. All right? That's just the way it is. But that's the time frame we're in. And by the way, just so we don't feel special, okay? I'm gonna pop our bubble. But every single generation has had at one point or another, issues that they look and say are unique to their generation. Even those, we could talk about the greatest generation. Yeah, they looked and said, why us? Why do we have to have World War II? Why do we have to see thousands upon thousands dying in one massive battle? You go all the way back to the Civil War, I guarantee you, they were in that timeframe. In this country saying, why us? Why now? I mean, you can look at every aspect of history and we look now and say, why us? Why now? We're not that special. We just have a different issue, but we have issues like every generation has had issues. Now, I believe that things are waxing worse and worse because the Bible tells us at the drawing nigh of the coming of the Lord, things are gonna get worse and worse. So I do believe it is getting worse. I do believe we are facing some things today that possibly have not been faced throughout the world at this level as we are seeing today because everything is gearing up for the return of Christ. But let's not think too highly of ourselves more than we ought in the fact of we're, you know, we're just victims of a way worse scenario than it ever has been. Yeah, that's the modern day mentality about everything. It's worse for me than it's ever been for anyone. I mean, we don't actually look at whatever other people are going through. We just like to say that because it makes us feel better. And if we're not careful, we'll get that mentality about life in general. So let's be just clear about the fact that we are placed here by God. He designed, He set up, He controls time, He controls your life. He put you here, He put me here, He put us here for this time for a purpose. He chose it. This is, by the way, to a degree, when you look at it, we can actually look and say, with the right mindset, it is an honor be chosen of God to be one of the ones that he has placed here for this time. But with that also comes responsibility. So we have looked each month at if we're gonna be what we ought to be for such a time, then there are several things that we have to remember are needed in this time, through our lives. We started off, y'all got to help me, I tried to go back and look at, remind myself of all the different ones, because my brain, it lapses on a couple. It happened last time, too. But we started off with faith. There's your foundation. Gotta have faith for such a time. Then February was our missions conference time frame, so we dealt with compassion. If you don't have compassion, you'll say forget everybody else in the world, I'm just worried about me. So you gotta have compassion for such a time. Then March started our new commitments for missions and getting the gospel around the world. So our new faith promise commitments that we made to the Lord, Lord, I'll trust you and let you know you can trust me to be faithful with that which you've laid on my heart to give for the cause of the gospel around the world. So March started that commitment. So we dealt with commitment for such a time. Then April, this is where I get fuzzy. Help me. All you people that I know pay attention. Okay. April, I tried to look it up. I could not find my, you look up your notes? You're trying to find it? Renewal, thank you. April was renewal. You gotta have to allow God to renew your strength. Y'all ever get wore down? You ever get tired of the fight? You're gonna need renewal on a regular basis, which means we have to go to the source of renewal, which is Christ. Then May, I know what last month was, so y'all gonna help me with May again. Brokenness, there you go. See, I knew I'd remember these things as long as you helped me. So, brokenness, brokenness we dealt with in May because if we're not willing to be broken, we're not willing to let God bring us to the point where he can really use us. Brokenness is a hard one because nobody wants to go through hard things, nobody wants to go through hard times, nobody wants to face loss. But whatever God has to do, I believe that was the timeframe, I think my wife and I sang the song, whatever it takes to be more like you, Lord, that's what I'll be willing to do. That which God plans to use greatly, he will first break. And when broken and poured out, the fragrance of our life can be used in a way that brings him honor. Again, I'm not saying just be broken for brokenness sake. I'm talking about allowing God to break me of anything that is holding me back from being what he wants me to be. And then last month we dealt with courage. It's gonna take courage. If we're gonna be what we're supposed to be for such a time as what we're facing today, it's gonna take some courage. If you don't have courage, you'll tuck tail and run because it's nasty out there. Matter of fact, sometimes it gets nasty in here, okay? It just gets nasty, period. We don't face beautiful flowers and sunshine 24-7. All you born, individual that came through the 60s and you flower children, no. It's all groovy, man. No. Oh, oh, it was groovy, all right, yeah. You ever seen something with grooves? It'll make grooves, all right, but here's the thing. When we are going to do something and accomplish something that follows according to this book, you better have some courage because you're not gonna be popular. You're probably, you don't have to say a word. We've said this many times, ain't gotta say a word. All you gotta do is just live a life that is contrary to the mindset of society, that would be actually in parallel with the word of God, and instantly you will infuriate everybody that doesn't like that life. You don't have to say a word. All you gotta do is live Again, this sounds bad, but I don't mean it bad, but live for yourself to the glory of God. Not living for you, but living, not trying to make everybody else live the way they're supposed to live, but you focusing on you, that you're living according to his will, according to his guidance, according to his way and his word. You just do it for yourself alone, and it will infuriate everybody that hates to see that kind of life. So it's gonna take some courage. And y'all know me, I am not one for brawling and fighting. I don't like to pick a fight. I don't like to go find a fight. Matter of fact, if I can avoid one and defuse it, I'll do that in a heartbeat. But at the same time, there are some things you have to stand for and you cannot run away from. The Bible even says in Proverbs it gives two statements of answer a fool according to his folly and answer not a fool according to his folly. Two verses back to back. I'm not gonna try to quote the remainder of it. Basically what it comes down to is it's giving you two time frames to know when you are to speak to a fool. Sometimes it happens around the world in other countries on a daily basis and they keep going. There are some things you have to still stand for and there are some things you don't have to make a big deal out of. Only the Spirit of God can give you direction as to the wisdom of when to stand and when not to make an issue. But you're gonna have to have courage. Now today, we are gonna look at the focus which is very uncomfortable. Honestly, I'll just be straightforward. You're not looking at a preacher who's got this one figured out. I've got it figured out as far as how it works. I just ain't got it figured out as far as like following it on a regular basis. If you saw your bulletin, the pastor's pen is the focus for this month as well. And that is the word consistency. This is one of the hardest things to do. in life, to an extent. I'm gonna kind of sound like I'm contradicting myself. I'll put it this way. It is the hardest thing to do right because it will exist one way or the other. Some people, what they're really good at, they're consistently inconsistent. As a whole, Consistency exists in one form or another in our lives. The question is, is it the right consistency or the wrong consistency? It's gonna exist, whether it is purposeful or it's a byproduct. It's gonna exist. So we're gonna look, and this first passage of scripture, go with me to 2 Timothy chapter four, and this is just gonna be a launching pad, because we're gonna turn over to another book of the Bible in a moment, and we're not gonna be turning a whole bunch of places. We could, but I'm not going there this morning and just combing throughout the Bible. It would take us way too long, and y'all know I already struggle with time, so I'm gonna try to keep it simple. There's two ways to define the acronym KISS. When your wife looks and says KISS. She didn't this morning, by the way. She's not in here, so I can say whatever I want. But she didn't say that this morning, but there's two ways to define the acronym KISS. It's keep it simple, stupid, or keep it short, stupid. Or you could just have kiss, and that is, keep it simple and short, stupid, all right? But as a whole, I'm gonna try to keep it simple for us because this is a simple thought, but it is a very convicting thought. So in 2 Timothy 4, and look with me, verse number one and verse number two. We've heard this recently, even, I believe, last Sunday night, Brother Rick even quoted this passage. But Paul writes to Timothy as a young preacher, and Paul is making a charge to him concerning his ministry and being younger and not as experienced, Paul knows what Timothy will eventually face. And so he is charging Timothy with some very important things to keep in mind as he moves forward serving the Lord. But here's what he says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Now, I am not focused on anything else but one phrase. Be instant, in season, out of season. What is one word to describe that? Consistency. Some people say it's readiness and it's this and that, but honestly, it's consistency. It is instant, in season, out of season. That instant is dealing with readiness. But the focus on readiness, in season, out of season, deals with two different times, the only two different time frames of life. The convenient times and the inconvenient times. Regardless, be ready, be active. That's called consistency. No matter what you're facing, no matter what you're doing, no matter what's happening, you are ready, you are available, you are there when it's convenient, when it's not convenient. So this being instant, in season, out of season, though I do understand, and I said in that pastor's pen there, I do understand that the context of this passage is a preacher of the gospel charging and challenging a young man who is going to be a preacher of the gospel. And I understand it's dealing with his ministry as a whole, but It is important for us to also note that this truth applies to every single child of God. Indeed, as I mentioned in that, I'll kind of read what I put down, but indeed one of the greatest flaws that we all fight in our flesh is inconsistency. We tend to start well But all too often, we fail to finish with a steady consistency. Thus, we find ourselves repeating the same failures over and over again. Anybody here ever started the year off? I'm gonna read my Bible through this year. Anybody here ever got halfway through and realized you got so far behind, you can't even catch up if you tried? You had desire. Somewhere along the line, consistency failed. And then it overwhelmed. Any of y'all, any of you fellas ever planned and said, this year, I'm gonna get the honeydew list accomplished? No, he gave up a long time ago, okay. Y'all ever had a project that you planned to get done and by the end of the year, you had planned every single month to start it and you get down to the last month, it's the last opportunity and that month is booked and you hadn't started yet? Anybody here had a goal of losing weight? And we consistently, We find, that's right, that's right, we find it. The Bible says add to your faith. It didn't say add poundage though, all right, but here's the thing. Consistency is one of our biggest struggles, which means that inconsistency is one of our biggest enemies. And if we're going to be effective for the cause of Christ for such a time, we have to learn to be consistent. in what we do. Let me pray and then we're gonna dig in a little bit. I got several quotes for you as well just to help you out with these thoughts here. But we're gonna get in and I'm gonna, I don't have a passage of scripture for every single element and thing we're gonna talk about. I'm just gonna give you the basic layout of the setting here and all that's going on and we're gonna go to one other passage of scripture to base our understanding of consistency from, okay? Let's pray and then we're gonna jump in. Heavenly Father, again, thank you for today. I pray that you'd help us. Lord, I need your help. I pray that you would give us exactly what we need, that your word be clear, your will and way for our life be clear this morning. Help us to learn, help us to see ourselves, see our flaws, and see how it is that, Lord, you can assist us, you can help us. to be exactly what you desire us to be. We'll trust you for, Lord, what it is that we individually, personally need this morning, and ask the Holy Spirit to do a work in our individual hearts as only you can. We ask it all in Christ's name, amen. So, in 2 Timothy 4, verse one and two, it highlights the understanding and need for consistency. The only way Timothy is going to be what he needs to be is he's going to have to be instant in season and out of season. He's gonna have to be steady. He's gonna have to be, I gotta be careful, I'm getting ahead of myself, but he's gonna have to be a consistent individual in all things that he does. He can't be on again, off again, or as I put it in the pastor's pen there, the whole flippy floppy wishy washy lifestyle is not gonna cut it. And by the way, we deal with that all over the place. flippity-floppity, wishity-washity. I mean, they want, oh, I can't wait to start my job. Two weeks later, I can't wait to leave this job. If I just had this particular car, oh, it'd be wonderful. Ah, this piece of junk, I want to replace it now. Aren't we constantly flip-flopping? We're constantly, and it doesn't matter if it's with the church, which by the way, that's where all the focus normally goes when it comes to preaching. Ministry church, ministry church, let's get down practical. How about your job? You work hard, you don't work hard. You work hard, you don't work hard. You work hard, what would get you to work hard? Give me something I wanna do. That's not instant, in season, out of season, is being consistent, whether it's something I like or something I don't like. Convenient or inconvenient? I hate it when it's hot outside. Work. My wife would be like, yeah, you listen to yourself every now and then, it'd help. But the other day, July 4th, it was hot, it was muggy, it was nasty. I had no desire to go outside. My wife's like, let's go do a trail. Let's go do something. Eh. That's right, that's right. I am doing something. I'm nice and cool. I'm enjoying the inside. I made a mistake. I came over to the church. That wasn't good. She's like, it's July 4th. Everything is shut down. Why are you going over there? Because there's something on my mind that I want to get off of my mind, so I've got to finish it real quick. She's like, don't go to work. I'm consistent. As a whole, as a whole, we struggle with this thing of consistency and finding ourselves repeating the same failures over and over again. Here's a statement by the name of G.V. Wigram, I'd like a name like that, Wigram. So here's what he said. You could never tell what Christ would have you to be about, but you, I'm sorry, if you go with him in everything, there will be consistency with the ways of Christ. If you go with yourself, you will find a stop. You may not know what all God's gonna do in your life. You may not know all the places He's gonna take you, but if you go with Christ and you follow Him, you will always find a consistency in Christ. But if you go with yourself, you'll find a stop. How true that is. Nearly every individual mentioned within Scripture presents either the power of consistency or the failure of inconsistency. I say nearly because there are some individuals that I just mentioned very quickly you don't really know anything about their life. But almost every single individual mentioned in scripture presents to us an evidence of what consistency does or an evidence of what inconsistency. does in life. Go with me very quickly to our passage that we're going to stay in for the next just little bit and look at one of the greatest individuals that comes to mind when it comes down to consistency. Go with me to the book of Daniel. It may seem kind of cliche to go to Daniel because a lot of people do that and we've dealt with Daniel several times, but you can't get away from what is presented in the life of Daniel. We're going to chapter six, Daniel chapter six, and we're gonna stay right there in that chapter. We're just gonna look at a few different verses that reveal some things concerning consistency. Now, just get ready because this is gonna hit home. And it's meant to. The word of God is supposed to hit home so that we take a personal examination by the leading of the Holy Spirit. So, To start with, let me give you three things concerning consistency. To start with, the elements of consistency. The elements of consistency. Here they are, write them down, just two of them. Time and determination. Time and determination. Those are the elements of consistency. It takes time to prove something consistent. You don't do something one time and have the ability to claim I'm consistent with that. With what? Yeah, did it once. That tells me nothing. It tells me you have the ability to try it once. It doesn't tell me you actually have consistency. Oh, what if I do it two, three, or four times? Okay, that tells me that you're doing pretty good for a while. Any of y'all started stuff and you did good for several months? So you have the ability of consistency. It still does not say that you have consistency. Consistency is only revealed with time and not just a little bit of it. By the way, how often when it comes to young people, if you raise children or help to raise children, how often do, when they make a mistake by accident or by choice, and they ruin the ability for trust to be something that you can just offer constantly because they've kind of severed trust for a little bit. Now, one of the things I had to learn in my rebellious teenage years is it was so frustrating that when I decided I'm gonna change, and I would change, but then my parents still wouldn't actually let me do things. I'd get so upset. I'd get so mad. I'm like, here I am, it's been two weeks and I haven't messed up once. It's even been a month, it's been two months. My parents constantly reminded me to destroy a reputation takes a moment. To build one to begin with or to rebuild one can take a lifetime. But I promised I wouldn't do it again. Yeah, and it's gonna take a lot of time before that actually reveals that your promise is kept. And with time, you will prove consistency, and with consistency will come the ability for trust. But as an impatient teenager, many times I would get so bent out of shape over the fact that I'm trying hard, why can't they see it? It has nothing to do with them seeing it. It has to do with the fact that there's not been enough time to prove that it's real and not just for a temporary timeframe. You see, anybody can do right for a little while. Anybody can do what is best for a little while. Anybody can do something hard for a little while. Only those who have become determined to stick with it will prove over time that it's now become consistency. So time and determination are the elements of consistency. Daniel chapter six, verse number 10, if you would look at that with me. It says, now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house. Now, most of y'all know the story, but just in case somebody's not familiar with it. There has been wicked men who don't like Daniel. Daniel's a slave, and yet at the same time, Darius has lifted Daniel up, and Daniel has found favor in the eyes of the king, and Daniel has, as a non-standard citizen, as one brought in from the outside, Daniel has been raised into prominence and been given the leadership over all the princes of the entire area of the kingdom and those that are natural born citizens of that kingdom don't like him. This slave, this someone brought in from the outside, why do we have to obey him? One of us should be the one in charge. But Daniel found favor in the eyes of the king and the king loved Daniel and he lifted him up. So these evil men decide that they're going to find a way to trick him and they're gonna find a way to get Daniel to where he will be removed and possibly even killed. We don't just want him out of leadership, we want him completely out of our sight. They wanted him dead. So a lot of things happen. A decree is signed and basically the decree declares that no one is allowed to pray to anyone save the king for a period of time. Now that's a problem for Daniel because Daniel followed Jehovah God. And Daniel had a habit of praying before his God and to the Lord. And we see here in verse number 10 when Daniel finds out about the decree that has been made, watch. When he knew the writing was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, and here it is, as he did aforetime. So, What is it about Daniel that you find brings him to doing this? There's been a lot of determination and a lot of time of sticking with that determination that he is going to pray and he is going to be before his God. That when it was inconvenient, he still consistently did what he's always done. His consistency was already present. I have a whole message that I don't know if I preached it, I don't know if I preached it here or not. I know I've preached it to young people entitled, Who Will Starve the Lions? Daniel did not starve lions when he got thrown in the den. He starved them long before then. Because you and I don't have the ability to be what we're supposed to be in the moment we need to be there when we just find all of a sudden in the struggle, oh, I'm gonna drop and get right with God. That doesn't work that way. You can drop and get right with God, but it's not gonna put you into His presence. It's not gonna put you having walked with Him. Your experience with Him is not gonna be there. Matter of fact, Your tendency to fall on Christ for strength is not even going to be there. Why? Because if that's not what I've been consistently doing with my life, that's not what I'm going to all of a sudden start doing when it gets hard. Now I might say, Lord, help me, because I want him to bail me out, but I'm not leaning on him because I'm not used to leaning on him. I'm used to leaning on myself. But then when I'm stripped out of the way and I have nothing to lean on with myself, where do I go? What do I do? Oh, the anxiety. Right? Why? Because there's no consistency of leaning on him in the good times. Therefore, there's no consistency of leaning on him when times get bad. Daniel, though, on the other hand, had through his determination and a lot of time of sticking with it, had already made a habit of consistency to pray before God three times a day, come before his God, and he didn't have a problem doing it openly, and he didn't change anything about what he did, even though the situation was inconvenient. He opened a window, he knelt, He prayed as he did aforetime. The elements of consistency, time and determination. But then the speech of consistency, and here's where this really hurts. We just got two more. The speech of, what does consistency say? Write these down, three of them. There's probably more, but here's the three that'll help you as it helped me. Number one, consistency says, this matters to me. Number two, consistency says, I have decided. And number three, consistency says, You can expect it. This matters to me, I have decided, and you can expect it. Consistency tells everyone what matters to me, what I've decided to do, and what they can expect to see. Daniel in chapter six, look at verse number four and verse number five. We see this lived out in Daniel's life. Verse number four says, then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion nor fault. They're trying to find error, like, you know, he did something wrong. For as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him." Now he wasn't a perfect man, but when it came to his work ethic, when it came to what he did and how he lived his life and how he operated, Daniel was not one who cut corners and lived in the gray area. It was clear where he stood. He was faithful, he stuck with it, he was consistent. Verse number five, then said these men, we shall not find occasion against this Daniel. They said, we're going about this the wrong way. There's no way we are gonna find occasion against him trying to find where he has done something wrong or against the current law. because he is, by the way, the word upright. He is an upright individual. He's one, he's squeaky clean. We can't find any dirt. He doesn't live shady. He's not trying to pull tricks to benefit himself. He's just doing right. We're not gonna find anything to accuse him of going this route. And I can Bible and live in color, I can picture one of them like, I've got an idea. I know, I have watched him, I have observed him. We've been tasked with trying to find something. I've dug into his whole life. There's one thing I can tell you that is without fail gonna be in his life. And that is this. We're not gonna find occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. Now, why was it they said, we can't do it the way we would do with everybody else. We're gonna have to look and find a way to get him in this area over here when it concerns his faithfulness to his God. Now why is that? Because Daniel's life over a long period of time and great strong determination had proved a consistency of what mattered to him, what he had already decided to do. Bible says in the first part of it, he purposed in his heart not to defile himself, and he purposed in his heart over and over and over and over and over again, not to defile himself. Not with just the meat, but also with the manners. He's not gonna fall for the manners of everybody else. Mannerisms of the world are not gonna fit me. I gotta do things according to the mannerism of my God. And so he had decided that he had already made his decision, this matters to me, this is what I've decided, and here's what you can expect. And they said, there's only one way we're gonna catch him. We're gonna have to figure out a way to twist things so as to go against him in what he believes and what he does in his life when it comes to his God. And this we know, he is not gonna fail to fall into the trap. If we can set it, his life proves we'll catch him. Why is that? Because they knew what to expect out of him. They knew what mattered to him. They knew that he was already determined and he had made a decision. And they knew that they could expect, if they could just twist things, he can't help himself. He will fall into the trap. By the way, with that, remind you, people are watching. And here's one that'll hit home, especially your children and your grandchildren. Henry Ward Beecher said this, children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they are gonna catch you in next. How true that is. By the way, how embarrassing that is too. Here's the last thing. The elements of consistency are time and determination. The speech of consistency is this matters to me, I have decided, and you can expect it. And then the product of consistency. Three things, usability, dependability, and stability. usability, dependability, and stability. In Daniel 6, verse 12 through 16, let me read this very quickly, and we're gonna wrap this up and be done. Daniel 6, verse number 12, says, dealing with these men, then they came, they got the whole thing signed, he's now, he's opened, the window's open, he has prayed, he has been caught, Says, then they came near and spake before the king concerning the king's decree. Hast thou not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within 30 days, save thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Then answered they and said before the king, that Daniel, By the way, finger pointing has always been something men have done. That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day. He doesn't just do it once, he does it three times a day. He's mocking you three times a day. Here's what I want you to see, verse number 14. Then the king was furious and wanted Daniel to die. No. Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself. All of a sudden, reality hits and he realized, I've been duped. I let these jokers trick me. This whole thing has been a ploy just to go after Daniel. Now watch. This is a heathen king. And yet look what he thinks of Daniel. Bible says the middle part of verse number 14, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men assembled unto the king and said unto the king, no, O king, the law of the Medes and the Persians is that no decree nor statue which the king establisheth may be changed. Like the king needed a reminder. He knew that. They just didn't like the fact that he was trying really hard to find a loophole. Last verse, verse number 16. Then the king commanded, he had no choice. commanded and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, thy God, whom thou serviced continually. Can I give you another word for that? Consistently. He will deliver thee. You see, the king, when he saw Daniel, and he saw over time and determination, Daniel's consistency, he understood that according to his consistency, Daniel's life said, here's what's important and what matters to me. Here is what I have decided and you king can expect it. And because of that, The king saw in Daniel one who was usable. The king saw in Daniel one who was dependable. And the king saw in Daniel one who would be stable as a leader. Why do you think that Darius placed him over all the other presidents and princes of his kingdom, and he wanted Daniel to be the one in charge that all the others answered to. He was the one that kept them accountable. Why? Because out of all these guys, there's only one who is fully usable, who is completely dependable, and totally stable. What taught the king that? His consistency. because he saw Daniel and Daniel didn't change. He watched Daniel and Daniel didn't change. He challenged Daniel. I guarantee you there were challenges to what Daniel was doing with the job he was given and yet Daniel didn't change. The king came to know what he could expect. And the king, because of what he knew he could expect, he knew that there was character in this young man. He knew that there was determination in this young man. He knew that there was faithfulness in this young man. And he knew if he'll do this for his God against all odds, I know he'll do it for me as his king with the job I give him. He's my usable man. He's my dependable man. He's my stable man. And when these other jokers tricked the king and the king realized what had happened, he wasn't mad at Daniel. He wasn't even mad at them. He was mad at himself. I know better. As soon as I read this, I should have known Daniel's not gonna fall for this. He's not gonna go for this. I know his consistency. I know what he does. I know his tendencies. I know his faithfulness. I know the kind of person he is. That's why I put him where he is. You would think the one that the king trusts the most would be the first one he thinks of and says, yeah, no, this is really gonna cause a problem for him. But in that moment, the king allowed himself to think about the praise he was gonna get. And he didn't even think about Daniel, whom he trusted. And when he figured out, I've been had, he was so mad at himself, he spent all night trying to find a way, trying to find a way to help Daniel out of his stupidity. But when he couldn't, he said, thy God whom thou serviced continually, he will deliver thee. I believe that a heathen king just had enough of watching Daniel that he believed if his God is that valuable, then his God is that powerful. F.B. Meyer said this, it is impossible to be our best at the supreme moment if character is corroded and eaten into by daily inconsistency, unfaithfulness, and besetting sin. Your coworkers are watching. Your boss is watching. Your church family's watching. Your children are watching. Your friends are watching. Your grandchildren are watching. Your parents are watching. Your extended family is watching. And they're all wondering, what really matters to you? What have you decided is important? And what can I expect out of you? Some reason, and sometimes, I should say that sometimes the reason that people don't expect that we're gonna be at the house of God when the doors are open is because we've given them cause to doubt that it matters that much. I'll just be honest with you. I was raised, even if somebody came in, this is just me, I'm not saying anything, I'm just telling you openly, If somebody came in town, here's what my dad would say. Glad that y'all are here. Y'all are welcome to stay. We're going to church. Want y'all to come with us. If you don't, we'll see you afterwards. Matter of fact, there were times when he looked and said, if you're gonna stay in my house, you're going with us. My house will be locked until we come back from the house of God. You say, well, that's just hard-nosed. Yeah, but people knew where he stood. And his consistency, they believed it. Trust me, my dad's philosophy is, you say, dad, I'm not feeling good. Did you throw up yet? No, sir, I just don't feel good. You're not sick enough, let's go. So I had it figured out. Next time, I made sure I was sick enough. I said, Dad, I'm not feeling good. He said, did you throw up? Yes, sir. Bathroom's a mess. He's like, great, you must feel a lot better. Let's go. Couldn't win for losing. There are times we laid down on the back seats. Now, again, I'm not saying be ridiculous. If you're sick, stay home. I don't want it. But what I'm telling you is this much I knew about my dad and about the way we were raised. There wasn't a question. Even if a hurricane was coming in, if we're not leaving until Sunday evening, guess what we're having on Sunday morning? And it might just be five of us, but we're gathering together and we're gonna spend time and then we're gonna pray for the entire area with the storm coming in and then we'll hightail it out of there. but people are gonna see the doors open. People are gonna see individuals at the house of God. People are gonna see the work of God. People are gonna see individuals going out knocking doors. People are gonna see that it matters to us. This is what we've decided, and this is what you can expect. And I'm just gonna stick with it consistently. Heavenly Father, Again, thank you for this morning, for the house of God, for the people of God, for the chance to be here.