Well, I want to welcome you to our first Wednesday night live stream. This is going to be an adjustment for me because I'm used to seeing you here and I'm not sure if I've ever preached to an empty room in all of my life but I'm gonna give it the best that I can and ask God to help me. It seemed like forever since we were able to be here on a Wednesday night and yet it's only been two weeks. Two weeks seems like an eternity. And what I would like to do, as we begin tonight, I'd like to go to God in prayer and ask Him to speak to our hearts as we open God's Word together, ask Him to be with our leaders, and be with our medical emergency personnel, and people treating people in the ERs, and all the people tending to those who are either testing positive for coronavirus or those who are awaiting the test because of symptoms they're having that have caused them to go to a hospital. This thing is spreading as we know like wildfire and we just need to use this as a time to turn our hearts to God and ask for His help because obviously we don't have the answers, but we know the one who does. So I want you to go to God in prayer with me. Father, thank you for drawing us together on this Wednesday night. Thank you for giving us the ability to live stream our service to the people, especially who are accustomed to coming, and the people for whom this Wednesday night service means so much and has become such a treasured part of their week. I thank you for those, Lord, who have expressed support in anticipation of tonight's live stream. We just ask that you speak through the message that goes forth. But in this moment, we want to pause and ask you, dear God, to show your power in this situation as the coronavirus is spreading and especially in the major places of outbreak. We pray specifically for our city and for our region that you would protect all of us, and that you would be with our governor and with the officials who are making crucial decisions to protect us, and those who are taking care of all who are affected. Lord, we thank you that you have ways of reminding us that we are not in charge. You have ways of allowing us as human beings to reach a point of desperation when we have to cry out to you and say, "Oh God, please help us." And I pray that this is a time when more and more people will look up to heaven. That more and more people will be drawn to Jesus Christ. Because Lord we know that you are the help in times of trouble. So we trust the rest of this day to you, and we trust our future to you, and we trust, dear God, that we will hear the news soon that we've reached that peak moment and that we're starting to see a decline in the number of cases that we hear about. We trust this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, for some time, those of you who come on Wednesday nights, you know that I will often make promises about series that I want to begin. And one such series is a series in the Book of Daniel and that's what I'm pleased to announce tonight. We're starting a series, a study, through the Book of Daniel. So I want to invite you to get your copy of Scripture right there where you are and plan on following along with me as we look into the first chapter. But as I set up this first message, I want you to think about all of the times when we find ourselves in situations where it is hard for us to reconcile our circumstances with the sovereignty of God. When it's hard for us to see a way to harmonize things that seem so unexplainably difficult for us to get through with the fact that we also believe God is an all powerful God and that whatever happens, He allows to happen. It causes us sometimes to question what we really believe. And the title of tonight's first message in the Book of Daniel is simply this, God Really Is in Charge. God Really Is in Charge. I want you to open to the first chapter of this prophecy of Daniel and I'm going to read the first nine verses and we'll actually look at the remainder of the verses as we continue, but it begins in verse number one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, young men who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name, Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which the king drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. Verse 10 says the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear my Lord the king, "who has appointed your food and drink. "For why should he see your faces looking worse "than the young men who are your age? "And then you would endanger my head before the king." I want us to stop there and actually just look at this introductory part of Daniel and think about what all of this means. This primarily focuses on the displaced children of God. They were the occupants of the Southern Kingdom, the kingdom called Judah. And Judah, of course, was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, but about 300 years before the events described in the Book of Daniel, the nation of Israel had split into two kingdoms, a Northern Kingdom that was called Israel and a Southern Kingdom called Judah. And about 120 years before these events in Daniel, the Northern Kingdom had been wiped out by an enemy nation leaving only this Southern Kingdom called Judah. The nation of Babylon was allowed by God to conquer the Southern Kingdom called Judah. Now Babylon is an interesting case study in Scripture. It goes all the way back to the 10th chapter in the book of Genesis where the civilization that was labeled Babel originated in what was called there the plain of Shinar. It's even mentioned here, Shinar, in our passage. It was the home of that notorious construction project called the Tower of Babel. I'm sure if you're familiar with Bible history you've heard about the Tower of Babel. It was the place where God scattered the people according to the division of languages. He used the introduction of linguistic barriers there at Babel and the very word babel means confusion. In Scripture, this place has come to symbolize the rebellion of mankind against almighty God and it also is indicative of demonic activity. So God has sent confusion to these people years ago in Genesis chapter 10, and now he's raising up a revived version of ancient babel in this nation now called Babylon. And as a major world power, Babylon sought to extend its kingdom throughout the known world as has been the case throughout time. When any kingdom in that part of the world seeks predominance, that land that we call Israel becomes a hotly contested piece of property. In fact, you have heard me say many times, it is the most prized piece of real estate on planet Earth because there is no other piece of real estate that forms a land bridge between three continents of the globe except for Israel. And so Babylon, like all ancient world powers, coveted control of that and seized control of it. And as they seized control of the Holy Land, they began deporting the inhabitants of the Holy Land, who were the Jews who belonged to that remaining Southern Kingdom, and they turned them into exiles and they took them into the Babylonian empire which is modern-day Iraq. So what I want you to understand as we go through this is whether we're connecting dots all the way back to Genesis chapter 10, or we're looking at the significance of Babylon in the Book of Daniel for the Jewish exiles who were living as strangers in Babylon because they have been stripped out of their homeland, or whether we even will occasionally look ahead in time to the Book of Revelation which foretells or prophesies a last days revived Kingdom of Babylon. The significance of Babylon, whether it's in Genesis, or Daniel, or Revelation, cannot be overstated. So what I'd like for us to do is to jump right into the main points of the message and I hope that you can write these down because I'm drawing them right from the principles that we glean in this passage of Scripture. And the first thing I want you to write down is that God can use evil to accomplish His purposes. God can use evil to accomplish His purposes. It's interesting when we look in verse number two. It says that the Lord gave Jehoiakim, that was the name of the king of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar, who is the king of Babylon, invaded Judah. It says that God handed the king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar. Now, God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the king and the kingdom of his holy people who were the last remaining remnant of the comprised corporate people of God. Verse two makes it clear that the only reason Nebuchadnezzar was allowed to do what he did, the only reason his empire was allowed to export and to deport these inhabitants of Judah, these Jewish people, the only reason is because God allowed him to do it. And I want us to step back and think about this because it's basically saying that God is so big and God is so powerful that God can harness the forces of evil and use them to accomplish His purposes. And that includes evil people. And if anybody was evil, Nebuchadnezzar was evil. He was the king of Babylon and he attacked Jerusalem around 605 BC, he followed it up with another assault in 597 BC and then a final attack, when he brought the city to utter ruin, was in 586 BC. Apart from worshiping other gods, let me tell you about Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was a bonafide certifiable egomaniac. And yet a bonafide certified egomaniac is someone that God in His sovereignty chose to use to bring about His purposes. God can use evil to accomplish His purposes. These Babylonian people who were led by Nebuchadnezzar, they were just as evil as he was, and yet God used their armies to plunder His Holy Land and to deport His precious people. So think about this. God was using wicked people, God was using painful circumstances, God was using unexplainable situations as now all of these Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas are finding themselves living as exiles in a completely foreign land where their God is not worshipped. There was nothing familiar to them in this strange land. This is a reminder for all of us that we cannot tell God how He can work. We would like to say, "God, I don't mind you using godly people in my life "to accomplish your purposes, "but I'd be just as fine "that you didn't use ungodly people in my life." God says, "You don't tell me how to work in your life. "I choose how to work in your life." "Well God, I wish you'd just use pleasant circumstances "in my life. "That you would speak through good times in my life." God says, "You don't tell me what kind of circumstances "through which I will work. "I reserve the right to be God "and to work through any circumstances of my choosing." Sometimes we think we should be able to tell God how to work, but we can't always do that, and I'm gonna tell you something else. We can't always predict how God will work. I mean I know I'm talking to someone out there and God has surprised you on many occasions because He is often unpredictable. Now, please understand I am in no way suggesting that God will ever violate His character. He is consistent, He is a God of integrity, and He honors what He's written in His Word, but that does not mean He's always predictable. We can't always predict what He's going to do. And I'll tell you something else. We cannot always understand why He chooses, how He chooses to work, how He works, and the timing in which He works. But thankfully I don't have to do any of the above. All I have to do is to trust Him and know that He's a big enough God that yes, even He can take evil people and evil situations and accomplish His purposes. There is no doubt in my mind God's purposes were being accomplished through the pain and the agony that these Jewish exiles were experiencing. The second thing I want you to write down though is this. God expects us to live among evil without conforming to it. I'm gonna give you time to write that one down. God expects us to live among evil, in the midst of evil, without conforming to it. Without becoming like it. Here were these Jewish people in this ungodly land. There is no doubt about it, they were far outnumbered. They were the minority to put it mildly. And so here they are as displaced Jews in a foreign land, away from all that was familiar and sacred to them. And the king to whom they must yield their allegiance, Nebuchadnezzar, he enters into this forced agreement with King Jehoiakim of Judah whom he had conquered with God's permission. And this is what the king says to Jehoiakim. He says, "I want you to help me find the best "and the finest and the choicest of your young men "among these exiles that we have held captive "and stripped from their homeland. "And what I want to do is, "once we put them through the screening criteria, "only the best of the best will make the cut, "and I'm going to enroll them in an educational program "and they're all going to be part of my administration. "And they're all going to be part "of the Babylonian government." Many preachers have referred to this training opportunity as Babylon University. Babylon University, according to the text, the king said it'll be a three-year program. So it's a three-year degree, enrollment is compulsory, and just to go along with what we're hearing about, the tuition is free. I don't know if that means they're gonna cancel all student debt from those who've gone through before and who worked hard and saved and sacrificed, but let me not get distracted. See I don't even need you in the room to get sidetracked on why socialism is such an abomination. But let me stay focused. (chuckles) Did you see the characteristics? And you could look in verse number three and see these were the characteristics of the cut of these Jewish young men. The criteria were this: no older guys just young men, no physical defects, they gotta be handsome young men, they've gotta be intelligent, they've gotta be educated. And by the way there's a difference between intelligence and education. Everybody knows that. There are a lot of people who don't have a formal education who are very intelligent and there are a lot of people who've got more degrees than a thermometer and yet they're dumb as dirt. But let me stay focused here. They've gotta be fast learners and they've gotta be adaptable to acclimate to serving the decrees of the king. Now all of those things are outlined in verses three and four. So let's just back up and see what's happening. Nebuchadnezzar has begun deporting all of these Jewish families into Babylon, stripping them from their homeland, and now he's got this enrollment program where he says, "I want the finest Jews you can find that I can educate, "that I can bring on board to help me "in my rule as king over Babylon." And of course Nebuchadnezzar wanted to be king over the world. Can I just tell you that what Nebuchadnezzar had in mind was not just to educate but to indoctrinate. Write that down. He did not want these these young men without blemish, handsome, good-looking guys, intelligent as well as well-educated. He did not want them just to educate them, he wanted them in order for him to indoctrinate them. And you see there is a difference between education and indoctrination. Now literally the words are close in their definition, but I think you know what I'm saying when I say that there's a difference between learning facts and being told how to think rather than being told what to think. And what Nebuchadnezzar wanted to do, it's what I call the Babylonian system. He wanted to indoctrinate these young men and cause them to disregard everything they'd been taught and to believe according to Babylonian ways. Not only that, but write this down. His purpose was not just to educate but it was to alienate. You know what he wanted to do by enrolling them in this university system for three years? He wanted to separate them from their families, he wanted to separate them from their scriptures, he wanted to separate them from their God. In other words, his goal was not just to give them a good education, it was to accomplish a complete alienation from their ties to Judaism and to completely immerse them in the Babylonian way. In our translation we were reading from, it's called the way of the Chaldeans. It means the same thing as the Babylonians. So I want you to think about it. Indoctrination, alienation, but write this down. His goal was not just to educate, but to assimilate. Assimilate. You see, Babylon sought full assimilation. And that means that they're going to shift their loyalty from their nation, from their written scriptures, and from their God and their loyalty is now going to be to the state. Their loyalty is now going to be to the culture. Their loyalty is going to be to the king. You see assimilation means veiling your distinguishing characteristics so that you blend in with the larger group. That's what he was going for and let me tell you something. That was the goal of the Babylonian system back then and that is still the goal of the Babylonian system today. And this might have been a three-year program for the young men who would be enrolled by compulsion in the king's University of Babylon, but I believe this is much of what is going on in the state-funded educational system of our own country. It is the goal, I'm not speaking here of good, godly, sincere teachers in the system, administrators in the system, but at the highest levels where curricula are written, where outcomes are generated, it has gone from reading, writing, and arithmetic to indoctrinating young people on how to think about moral issues, on how to think about cultural issues, and on how to be accepting of things that God is condemning in the Bible. The Babylonian system has not changed, it just operates under a different banner. Now that's where I just want to run out here and get myself an amen 'cause nobody's here to say amen. Amen, AG! All right, I feel better now, I got my amen out of my system. Now I want you to note there's nothing wrong with a liberal arts education and I'm not ready to say there's anything wrong with a public school system education. I'm a product of that. You say, "I knew you had problems." Well, what I do believe is this. Whether it is through what we are exposed to in a public school education or going to a public university, a liberal arts institution of higher learning, I believe this. You can expand your horizons without forsaking your convictions. You see, God nowhere prizes ignorance. We're not to be sequestered off in some cave somewhere, oblivious to the different philosophies that have entered the world of ideas. We're not to completely isolate ourselves from the current trends of thought. We're certainly not to be unaware of the different things that have happened in the course of world history and certainly in the history of our own nation. We are not in some way to equate godliness with ignorance. But I believe it's possible to have an exposure to the different worldviews, the different competing systems of thought, even world religions, as long as our exposure to those things and our willingness to learn about those things does not cause us to dispense with what we know the truth to be. And the fact of the matter is this. All competing worldviews and systems of thought (chuckles) are inferior to the biblical view that is given to us in the inspired Word of God. In other words, the biblical worldview can stand the test of being cross-referenced, cross-examined, and held up against the competition. It is the time-honored book that the Bible says endures forever. The grass withers and the flower falls but the Word of our God stands forever. Now, I want us to think about this idea of compromising. Look in verse number eight. And if you've got a pen or a pencil, underline verse eight. It says Daniel purposed in his heart. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies nor with the wine which the king drank. He said dear God with your help, I know that to eat this food that the king is going to serve us, would be compromising my convictions. I know that drinking the wine that the king is going to serve us would mean compromising my convictions. Now, why would it be compromising his convictions? Because as a faithful Jew, as a faithful follower of the law of God, he knew that there were things the Babylonians ate that were considered unclean in his sacred Scriptures. And Daniel said, "I know for me it would not be right to eat those things." He purposed not to do it. And he said, "Not only that, "but the wine that the king is going to serve us, "I am going to purpose not to drink the wine "served to us by the king." Not only did he struggle with this because it would be a violation of the dietary laws of the sacred law of Moses, but another thing to remember is that the food and the wine that would be served to Daniel, and to these other young Jewish men who made the cut and passed the muster for the criteria the king had set, these different foods and this wine had been consecrated to the gods of the Babylonians. And for these young men, including Daniel himself, it would violate their convictions to eat food and to drink wine that had been dedicated to the Babylonian gods. So for all of these reasons, Daniel said, "I may be surrounded by evil, "but I do not have to conform to it." What a wonderful example Daniel is because you and I would agree we too are surrounded by so much evil. But the choice to conform is in our court. Here's the third thing I want you to write down tonight and that is this. Get ready now. Our opportunities are not always compatible with our preferences. Our opportunities are not always compatible with our preferences. Now, we're getting a glimpse in verse eight of the kind of man Daniel was. He was a godly man. He was a spiritual man. He was a biblical man. He was a man whose heart was totally given to Jehovah God. And to think that he is now going to be in the service of a wicked man like Nebuchadnezzar who led a wicked and ungodly empire and kingdom like that of Babylon. I'm telling you, for Daniel, this is not the career path he would have chosen. And when we get to looking at these three young men who were very good friends of his, the men that we call Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, this was not the path they would have chosen their lives to take. They would not have said, "Okay, serving God in our homeland, our covenant land, "the land of our forefathers, the land promised "to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "and to be able to go to our Holy Temple in Jerusalem "for the prescribed festivities and holidays "on the sacred Jewish calendar, "or living as exiles in this land, "being indoctrinated by the Babylonians, "and now having to be prepared to serve at the beck and call "of this pagan king named Nebuchadnezzar? I'm telling you, Daniel would not have chosen this, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego would not have chosen this. But God does not always give us the option to choose where he assigns us. Our opportunities are not always compatible with our preferences. You know something? When you read these verses as I read a moment ago, I mean this indoctrination system was so intense. Did you catch this when we were reading it in verse seven? In verse seven it says and these three young men, and Daniel as well, they had their names changed. The chief of the eunuchs of King Nebuchadnezzar changed their names. Your name is who you are. And for each one of these men, their name revealed their faith. For instance, you know what Daniel means? It means Jehovah is judge. God is judge. But the chief of the eunuchs changed Daniel's name to Belteshazzar. Now, I don't know about you, but just whatever Belteshazzar means or doesn't mean, who wants to have your name changed to Belteshazzar? But that's what his name was changed to. And do you know what Belteshazzar means? It means may Bel, B-E-L, protect his life. Belteshazzar, my name now means may Bel. Who was Bel? Bel was the chief god of Babylon. May the chief god of Babylon, lowercase G-O-D. May the chief god of Babylon protect my life. So your name has gone from being Daniel, almighty God is the judge, to now Belteshazzar, the Babylonian god is protecting me. What a violation to have your name changed, and in your new name, you're acknowledging a false god. And then the Bible tells us that Hananiah, his name means Jehovah has been gracious. I mean what a beautiful name, Hananiah, Jehovah has been gracious, to now Shadrach. Shadrach is a reference to a pagan god. Mishael means who is like God? I mean, think about that. Why haven't more people name their kid, Mishael? Who is like God, what a glorious confession of faith just in a question, but Mishael had his name changed to Meshach. And Meshach was another reference to a pagan god of the Babylonians. And then the name, Azariah, means the Lord helps. I mean what a name like the Lord helps. We need to be reminded of that in our own circumstances today. And yet, Azariah's name, which meant the Lord helps, was changed to Abed-Nego, which means servant of Nebo, and Nebo was the son of the Babylonian god, Bel, after whom Daniel's name change was made. To have their very names changed is an indicator of what the king hoped to accomplish in their minds and in their hearts. What an act of blasphemy. And so this leads me to ask the question. When you think about what these men are going through in Daniel chapter one, what should we do, you and I, what should we do when the opportunities in which we find ourselves are not what we had hoped? When we find ourselves in situations where we are faced with circumstances beyond our control, and sometimes there are circumstances which are unjust, and in the case of Daniel and these three young men, circumstances in which it seems that evil people are making decisions that affect your life with no input from you. I want to give you some suggestions. The first one is this. Pray for a change in your situation. Aren't you glad that God gives us the freedom to pray? He says we can pray for whatever we want. He's big enough to sift through it. If I'm praying for something I shouldn't be praying for, He's big enough to say, "Well, I'm not gonna answer that prayer," but He's told us to pray about everything. And so it may be a marriage, it may be a working situation, it may be just living in a society now that has been brought to a screeching halt. And we just think this doesn't seem fair and so many innocent people are suffering. God says we can pray for a change in our situation. But I want to tell you something else you can do. You can ask God to help you in your situation. When we study how these young men responded to their adverse circumstances, I believe that more than just praying for a change in their circumstances, they were asking God to do something in them to make them stronger in those circumstances. So we can pray for a change in our situation, but we can also ask God to help us in our situation. Because all of us have been in situations in our lives when we've asked God to change what we have to deal with, what we have to live with, and He simply seems not to be listening because nothing has changed. And it could be that God says, "I'm not going to change what you're going through, "but I'm gonna give you the strength to get through it." I'll tell you something else. You can seek the right time to make an appeal in your situation. You can seek the right time to make an appeal in your situation. All of us have been in circumstances in which we have had to pray about whether or not to have that that crucial conversation. Whether or not to confront that particular circumstance that we know should not be ignored for much longer. We've all been in moments like that and seeking God's direction is something that every believer must do because the problem is this. If you don't make that appeal, if you don't attempt that conversation in God's timing and with God's discernment, it can cause irreparable damage. And we looked at it in verse number eight where it says that when Daniel purposed in his heart, he couldn't compromise on these delicacies and these food items and the wine that the King was gonna give him. It says in verse number eight, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. What I'm saying is he went to the guy in charge of this whole program and said, "Could we talk about something?" And I'm sure he did it respectfully. We have every reason to believe he did it humbly. But what he was saying is "I need your help with something. "I know that what I'm going to be offered to eat and drink "is going to be a violation of my deeply held beliefs." He had a crucial conversation but I believe he prayed about it. Let me give you something else that I want you to write down, very important. Ask God for the favor of those over you. For the favor of those who are over you. Those who have a position of authority in your life. In verse number nine, I want you to underline this. It says, "Now God had brought Daniel into the favor "and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs." Stop and underline that, please. This chief of the eunuchs, to whom Daniel was going to make his request, that he be given a waiver on this diet deal. It says in verse nine God had given Daniel favor in that man's heart. God had already gone ahead of Daniel and turned the heart of the one in charge in a favorable, charitable, lenient direction in Daniel's favor. Now, I can't hear you, but I want you to say favor out loud. Would you say it? Favor. Say it again. Favor. You see, one of the things that we can do prior to a crucial conversation like the one Daniel had is to bathe it in prayer and say, "Oh God, please give him favor before I talk to him. "Oh God, please give her favor "before we have this conversation." Prepare, soften, get her, get him ready for the conversation that we are going to have. There was another guy who prayed a prayer like this. His name was Nehemiah, I know you've heard of him. And Nehemiah was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, and you know the story. He was led by God to go back to the Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had ruined and destroyed and to rebuild walls that Nebuchadnezzar and his armies had torn down. But as he was praying about talking to the king and asking his boss's permission for a special waiver, in Nehemiah chapter one in verse 11, Nehemiah says this. O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you, but look at what is underlined here. He prays to God, please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Please put it into his heart to be kind to me. Now that is one powerful prayer. Before Nehemiah had the crucial conversation, he said, "Oh God, please grant me favor in the king's heart. "Please prepare him for the request "that I'm going to make to have a special exception, "to take a leave of absence, "and to go back to the land of my forefathers "and rebuild the broken down walls." You see, no matter how powerless you may feel in whatever situation you are in, you know the one who holds the key to releasing favor in your life. And God is not bound by any woman, any man, any force any government. God is not bound to the power your spouse may seem to have over you, or your boss, or whoever it may be. God holds the key that can unlock the door of favor in the lives of His children. Praise His holy name. Now here's what I want you to write down. This is main point number four if you're tracking. God is faithful to work on our behalf as we trust Him. Please let that sink in tonight. God is faithful to work on our behalf as we trust him. We saw that Daniel made his appeal and the chief of the eunuchs agreed because God had already given Daniel favor in that man's heart and life. And here's what the chief of the eunuchs said. He said now my problem with this is, the diet that's been chosen for all the people, all these young boys in Babylon University, what we're gonna serve them down in the cafeteria in the dorms where they'll be staying is food that we know will fatten them up, food that will correspond with the physical regimen, food that's going to continue to make them strapping specimens of Babylonian manhood. And Daniel's request was to put them on an all vegetarian diet. Now I just want to say right now, I admire people who are on the Daniel diet. (laughs) I admire vegetarians and I really admire vegans, but I just want to thank God that I haven't been given that calling. I haven't been given that conviction. I mean, I pray to God that He'll keep my cholesterol under control, but I have to have me some meat. You know what I'm saying? I gotta have me some chicken, I gotta have me, every now and then, I don't do it a lot, but I like some pulled pork. I gotta have me something that you have to bite down into and that has protein in it. And I'm not talking about tofu, I'm talking about real meat. But I'm getting off track here. (chuckles) Daniel said we need a vegetarian diet. And the chief of the eunuchs said this, he said, what if I allow you, and those three, to have a vegetarian diet, and after the 10 days that I come back to inspect their condition, what if they look weak? What if you don't look as strong as you should on an all vegetarian diet? Daniel said just try it, please try it. He said I'm telling you God will make sure we have the nutrients we need. God will make sure we have the protein we need. If we eat according to what He's told us, we know he'll bless us. And when you look down in the 15th verse, it says at the end of 10 days, please look at this. At the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of all the king's delicacies. In other words the guys who went with God's diet plan looked better and stronger, and the New King James says fatter, healthier, than those who ate what had been served by the king. And this is a reminder to us that God can be trusted. That God Himself is faithful to work on our behalf when we trust Him. We've heard our pastors say this over, and over, and over again that God assumes full responsibility to take care of us when we trust him and when we obey him. And 10 days into this they looked better than the other young men who were on the king's diet. I want to put verse 17 on the screen for you. It tells us that these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel, in particular, was given understanding in all visions and dreams which would come in very handy. Notice it says God gave them these things. It was like God said, "Okay, you're going to refuse to compromise "when you're surrounded by evil. "You are going to trust me when the circumstances around you "are not compatible with what you would have wanted. "You're going to trust that I'm big enough, "that I can even use evil to accomplish my purposes. "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, "I'm gonna take care of you. "I'm gonna open doors for you. "I'm gonna give you insight. "I'm gonna broaden your mental capacity. "I am going to give you favor, "I am going to give you advancement, "and I'm going to give you the ability "not only to survive in Babylon, "I'm going to give you the ability to thrive in Babylon." Oh what a good and awesome God we have. (laughs) And so the chief of the eunuchs says, let's go, let's go. Appear before the king, the wicked egomaniac king. That's right, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar the blasphemer. Nebuchadnezzar the invader. Nebuchadnezzar the man who destroyed the Jerusalem, God's holy city. Let's bring these guys in front of him. And in verse 19 of chapter one it says the king interviewed them (chuckles) and among them all, look at this, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, (chuckles) he found them ten times better than all of the magicians and the astrologers who were in all his realm. You know what I love about that last verse is that the testing time on the contrast between diets, you remember how long it was? 10 days, they honored God for 10 days, and trusted God for 10 days, not defiling themselves on the Babylonian diet. They did it by faith. And it says here that when they were examined and put to the test, they were found to be 10 times better than all of the others who served at the king's command. They honored God for 10 short simple days and they were viewed as being 10 times better than everyone else at the end. God knows what He's doing and He can be trusted to take care of us when we defy our own understanding, when we keep believing past what seems logical, and when we completely put our lives in His hands. You see, Babylon demanded, give me your best. But what God says is not give me your best, what God says is give me your all. I hope today you will not just give God your best, you will give him your all. Let's pray together. Oh God, how thankful we are for this powerful book of the Bible. How we praise you for the example of Daniel and for his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, as we know them. And we thank you that you demonstrated just in this first chapter how you will take care of us when we trust you. Oh God, we trust you, but teach us to trust you more. In Jesus' name, amen. Now let me just tell you I won't be greeting tonight. God bless you and I'll see you Sunday morning. And right now the plan is that I will be preaching the live stream Sunday morning. Hope to see you virtually then, thank you.
