Transcription
Foreign, it's breathing, trying to talk to me. Come, what freak? It's gonna be exciting. Do you want to, want to go on a journey with me today? Oh God, ah, yeah. Thing is breathing and alive. It's breathing and alive. Yes, it's a journey of a lifetime. It's a journey of lives that were set apart for God. People that made mistakes, but God used them anyway. People that were unworthy and rejected from the world, but God used them in mighty, powerful ways. We all qualify. It's not about an age. Did you know Daniel was a, as a teenager? Yeah, I used to be a teenager. Yeah, I bet you, you're a teenager. You're a teenager. Yeah, come on. And you're gonna be a teenager someday. So when you want to know how maybe a teenager responded to God, and how he lived his life for God, and found favor with God and with man? Ah, come on. Yeah, let's go on a journey. Let's go find out who Daniel was. You ready? Let's go. Come on, let's go. It's, you know, the start of Daniel 1. We're gonna jump through some scriptures. You know, um, the biggest thing is, is take back to God and spend some time with God and read the stories and ask God to give you your own understanding of what he's saying. Yeah.
So Daniel was this amazing young man, you know, and he, we don't know a lot about who he was, but we know that him and three of his friends were taken out of their nation and taken into another nation to serve another guy or another king. Yeah. So can you imagine, ah, you know, as a teenager, what if it's like, you know, you have a problem in your family and your family split up and you end up getting put in foster care? Yeah, it's not fun. You know, what about, you know, if you lose a family member? You know, and you know, like me, like when I was 14 years old, I could relate to some of you. I was 14 years old and my sister was killed in a drunk driving accident. She was like my best friend. She was 18 years older than me, so she was kind of like another mom. And her daughters were my age, and we were living in the same bedroom. So I was sharing a bedroom with my sister and her daughters. And so I had this amazing friendship with my sister and her and her daughters. And all of a sudden, it's all changed in a moment. Now I'm in my bedroom by myself and I have to look at the bed and my sister slept in every night. And it was tough because, you know why it was tough? Because nobody told me that this was alive. No one told me that I could look to hear for answers. No one told me about finding a relationship with God that he could talk to me, that the Father loves me so much that he wants to come into my heart with Jesus and Holy Spirit and live in me and help me walk out my life. I was all alone. Yeah. And a year later, my dad is killed in another accident, work-related. So man, what do you do as a teenager, 15 years old, this had two people that died in my family. And my dad, he, he's the one that took care of us. He's the one that put the food on the table. He is a provider. What does my life gonna look like now? You know, we didn't have a lot of money, but the person who was the support of your family is not there anymore. My life changed and I didn't have this to rely on. But you do. Let me show you how you can take this and get it into your heart and let it become who you're called to be. Yeah. Come on, let's go on a journey.
So Daniel is this young man, probably vibrant, full of life, healthy. He has honor and integrity. I bet he had compassion. I bet there was a love inside of him that just leaked out of him that was full of God. And you know, that love can change the worst person in the world. You know, it might not change them right away, but you just keep loving them. Doesn't mean that you have to accept what they tell you. Does it mean you have to, um, bow your knee to what they have to say? I'm not saying to be rebellious. I am not saying that. But let's go on a journey and find out what Daniel did when he had to serve a king that was probably not a nice person. Yeah. You know what? Nebuchadnezzar wasn't a nice king. He was not. And he just destroyed Daniel's nation and he took over Daniel's nation. So he takes him and he puts him in his court. And so that meant that he brought him into his family. So he wants Daniel to become part of his family, to act like his family, to serve him in the way that Nebuchadnezzar needed to be served. And he was going to train him for three years, for three years. And so they were going to be given the royal treatment. Oh my gosh, can you imagine? Whoa. You know, you're taken into another family and you can eat everything that you want. Can you imagine all the hot wings? Oh man, all the McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, every day, all that you want. Can you imagine drinking whenever you want to drink? Oh my gosh, can you just imagine like food galore, all kinds of food? Exciting, isn't it? It's exciting. Like look at that, like, oh man, this and all that fried food, all those high calories. Uh, but I bet you have a favorite dessert. You imagine that dessert there that you can eat before you eat anything else? Oh my gosh, can you just imagine? Oh man, I could. It looks pretty good. He had this picture. Take a moment. Picture that. But if you ate that every day, how would you feel? You wouldn't be very healthy, would you? You know, and I'm, I know a lot of us were probably not healthy. I'm not healthy yet, but I'm working on it. It's a progress. And so Daniel gets this understanding. And I believe it had to be from God. And he gets this amazing understanding that there's some foods on this table that are not foods that God wants him to eat. So in God's world, that if he ate those foods that God didn't want him to eat, it would be disobedient. And it's not me telling you that you can't eat this or that. It was Daniel had the understanding of something that was against God that they wanted him to eat. I don't know what that might have been. But all this great stuff, and there's something on this table that he would probably be required to eat. And he knew that it would not be good for him, that it would go against who he was as a Jewish boy. Yeah. There's things in our life that we would probably not shouldn't eat. You know, and if it's put before you, would you eat it even if you knew it was wrong? You know, maybe alcohol. You know, maybe drugs. You know, maybe someone wants to give us something that would hurt our body or hurt us or hurt someone else. I don't know what that might be in our life. But I think you could probably picture that. And so Daniel finds an opportunity and he goes to the official that is overseeing him, that's helping him and his friends become healthy. They want them to be vibrant, healthy young men to serve them, to be able to think fast, to be able to do what they want them to do. You know, you know when you, when you put into a foster family or when you're adopted, you know, when you're in a new school, when you're in a new job, there's bosses or there's families want you to be accepted. They want you to come into knowing that you're welcome. But also sometimes it's not a healthy welcome. And and we have got to understand that it doesn't matter if it's an unhealthy welcome. How can I be the best person through God that I can be? And how can I love these people so much that they will give me favor and they will show me honor as I show them honor? How can I honor someone who I really don't like? And how can I learn to love them? And I think, I think Daniel is a really good place to start. Yeah. Let's check this out. So the guy, he says, I'm afraid that the Lord, the king who has assigned your food and drink, that he would not be happy because he wants you to be healthy. He wants you to be healthy. And so Daniel says, hey, you know, and I believe that he gets wisdom and knowledge from God because he serves, he serves a living God. He serves God Almighty. And God Almighty talks to us and we can hear him every day. We can hear him every moment. We can have a relationship with him. And in that relationship, we can have an understanding of how to walk out my life today. And how can I take back to scripture and find out how someone else walked out their life so that I could take their victory into my life and claim victory in my life today? And so he said, test us. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink and test us and compare us to all the other healthy young men and see how we're doing in 10 days. And they found out something. Oh my gosh. Do you know what they found out? That all those vegetables that they ate, there's things you probably don't like to eat, all these vegetables and all that water. They didn't eat any of these amazing foods out here. They say those things, they were healthier and stronger and they looked better than all these people that were eating everything from the king's table, all the royal food. They were healthier. And a light bulb goes on. They start to find favor. Wow, that's amazing.
So what was his gifts? How did God use him? Let's go find out. So Daniel and his friends, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel can understand visions and dreams of all kinds. And we go down here and it says, in every manner of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the whole kingdom. And so an enchanter and a magician actually doesn't rely on God for information. And they tap into other sources that were not from God. And it's disobedience to God if we do that kind of stuff. So, and it's, we can hear God and we can understand what he is saying about something and we can interpret it when God shows us it. And the amazing thing is, Nebuchadnezzar gets this dream. And all those other enchanters and magicians, none of them could tell Nebuchadnezzar what that dream meant. And so Daniel hears about this because Nebuchadnezzar gets angry, gets really angry, and he's gonna get rid of all of them. And they said, this made the king so angry and furious, and he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death. And the men who were to look for Daniel and his friends and put them to death. Daniel was facing death. And so Daniel, he doesn't take that as who he was called to be. He wasn't called to die in that moment. And so what does he do? So sometimes when we hear something that is negative, and it's not about dying, it can be in other aspects of our life. But so if you say, for instance, um, you're going to be cut from a basketball team. The coach gets angry and he doesn't care who is on the team and he's just going to keep these first five and the rest of you can just leave. And he's never had an opportunity to see what you have because you're still training. You know, you might be on a JV team and he just cuts you off. That's not fair, right? And I know this is not comparable to this because you're not gonna die, you know, but I just want to help you understand where you can bring this into your life. So you're on this basketball team and you worked your butt off and and you've served the coach well and and you've done an amazing job and you've learned the skills. And yet you're going to get cut from the team because somebody made the king or the coach mad. Life happens. So Daniel goes to the king and he explains, actually not king, but he goes to a servant to the king. And he says to the, he said, Daniel spoke to him, wisdom intact. And he asked the king's officer, he said, why did the king issue such a harsh decree? So you could say, hey, you know, maybe it's an assistant to the coach and say, hey, can I ask you why did the coach just cut us off? Simple. You know, what could be the worst thing? You tell you get out. So what? At least you asked. You know, and you asked with the right heart. You know, been there, mad, just go in with the right heart and watch, watch what happens. And so then at this, Daniel went in and the king, and went into the king and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream for him. So he asked for time. You know, you maybe could ask the, the, the coach, you know, hey, can, can you at least watch me play? Can you give me an opportunity to show you what I can, get you know, how I can do a really good job and how I could serve this team really well? Can, can you give me time? You know, my friends here, we all work really hard. You know, whatever I felt like God's gonna talk to you and he's gonna give you the understanding and the words to say. It's not, you don't have to practice what you're going to say. Just go in there with the right heart and clear mind. And don't go in there with anger. And Daniel didn't have any anger. He wouldn't know where to clear your mind. And he understood what God wanted him to say. And so he goes in there and he, he's honored by the king. And he said, then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends and he urged him to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might be, might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. And during the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. And then Daniel prays the God of heaven and he said, and if you gear out to read Daniel 2:17 through 24, like it's an amazing story. And so Daniel praised God. He didn't praise himself. It wasn't, hey God, man, I got it. Oh, God gave it to me. And God gave him the interpretation of the dream. And it wasn't that he even knew what the dream was. Can you imagine? Like God showed him the exact thing in the dream, showed him Nebuchadnezzar's dream. God can do that for you. If he did it for Daniel, he can do it for you. In that situation, God can show you a play that the coach had been working on. And you can say, hey, you know what? This, this here, this play, like I feel like God gave me this play and I wanted to show it to you. And I feel like me and my friends can really do this play really well. What would that do to the coach? It would make him sit up and listen. And it would allow him to take notice. That how, how do you know about this? Say, well, you know, I spend time with my Father in heaven and he showed me. He showed me this is your plan that you want to do. And you're having trouble getting people to operate in this plan and know how to do it. And I believe that me and my friends can do this really well. You know what? What if that worked? You know, it's not about you getting a plan from God to go and do what you always wanted to do. It's about God wanting to show that coach that God sees him and that God knows him as much as he knows you. And he knows the plan that you put in his heart. And that it would win a basketball game. I'm just, God can be that simple. He can give you a plan and he can show you how to do that play so that you can win and show you the skills, know how to maneuver around his other opponents and give you favor with man and with God. And what if you're not cut from the team? And what if everyone else is not cut either? It's not about you and your friends being saved, but it's about everyone on the team given an opportunity to shine also for God. And you, I believe, could even find your way into being a captain of the team and having the ability to stand as a godly son or daughter and to shine for God and allow people to see the integrity and honor and to watch you walk out love. Because most people have never seen love. You know what? I don't believe my dad ever saw love in his life. Love to him was work, work hard, work hard, and work harder. He didn't know how to love. His best way in loving was to provide for his family. And you know what? Hey, it put food in my stomach. It provided a roof over my head. And even if he didn't know how to wrap his arms around me, he supplied the best way he knew how in my life. And it was a hard moment when that was gone. I had to learn something totally new. I was taken out of my own surrounding, my own protection, my own security. And I had to learn how to walk out my next season of my life as a teenager without my dad, without my sister. It was tough. Me and my mom. I had five other siblings. I had four brothers and a sister, but most of them weren't around. It was just me and my mom. And so I couldn't use this to help me understand how to walk that out. But I didn't know the God that you have an opportunity to know at your age. And so the amazing thing happened is Daniel was given favor because he was able to interpret the dream. And he was even given an ability to do something that no other magician or enchanter could do. And Nebuchadnezzar knew that the only way he could do it is by God telling him. And Daniel replied, no wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the days to come. And he explained to him. He found favor. He was given an opportunity. So I believe that you could be given an opportunity if you deal with the right heart. And even if you get rejected, that's okay. You've got to walk away knowing that you did everything that you knew God was showing you to do. Even if you don't see the favor given to you by man, you've got to walk away with the right heart and take it back to God and say, God, my heart hurts right now. I need you. I did everything that you showed me and I still, what do you want to do? I still feel broken. Those skills will be used if you allow God to allow you to use them. God may open a door for you to go play for another team. God might have you go play for a recreational league. God may have you go play on a traveling team. You know, when God someday may have you playing against that coach. And you and your friends may even play the, the play that that coach has. Or at least you have the knowledge to know how to block that play. And you may end up winning a game that you wouldn't have been able to win if you didn't have the knowledge from God to be able to play that game with the skill and the integrity and honor. There's amazing ways that we can bring our life into the Bible and allow God to show us how to live our life today using the moments in the Bible. And this is what happened. This is what Nebuchadnezzar, he says, the great God has shown the king that will take what will take place in the future. And the dream is true, and interpretation is trustworthy. The Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel, fell at his feet, fell face first. And he paid him honor and ordered that the offering and incense be presented to him. Thinking then King said to Daniel, surely your God is the God of all gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal his mystery. And then came the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished him with many gifts. And he made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Wherever at Daniel's request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the Royal Court. So when Daniel got elevated, he didn't just go himself. He made sure that his friends went with him. And because it was such profound moments, the king saw Daniel's God. That coach can see the God you serve. That coach can see the love of Christ in you. I was on a porch one day in a really bad section of of another state. And I was just just speaking life into this young man. He was probably in his early 20s. And I was just sharing what, what God's, how God saw him. And he looked at me and he said, I want to know this God. You know, and you know what I said to him? This is what I heard God say to me. I said, you accepted him a few years ago, but the people with it prayed for you to accept Jesus. And when you said those words, they forgot to actually pray for the baptism of Holy Spirit. And they didn't give you the power to walk out your salvation. You didn't, you weren't fully equipped. You only got part of what you were called to have. They didn't show you how to get them more. And I believe that no one walked beside you. No one helped you walk it out. And so I'm here today to encourage you that he still loves you and he still wants to have a relationship with you. And there's nothing that you've ever done that would change how much he loves you. And it changed that young man's life. I get to pray for him. And he felt the presence of God. He encountered a love that day that transformed his life. We get to do that. People see something in us that they want. And it's not to use it against somebody. It's not used to elevate myself. It's not to use it to help someone else get something. You know, it's not for me to find all this favor and then realize that and I can have everything I want. Ah, yeah, there's a car that I'm like, yeah, I'm getting to be 16. I want, I want the best of the best sports cars. Yeah, come on. You know, God can do that. Yeah, God can do that. But is your heart in the right place? Is that a car that God wants you to have? Do you spend time with God and ask him, hey God, what do you want me to have? What's your best for me? Show me how to walk this life out. Show me how to share the gospel with other people. You say in John 17:20, that I have a message that will help others come to know you. So what is that message? God, can you show me? Can you give me an understanding of how to talk to my friends without pushing them away? Can you show me how to show my friends that this is living, this is exciting, that they can go on adventures with me in this word? God, can you help me to help others come to know you the way that I've come to know you? To be excited and on fire for you? To be so in love with you that I'm like a little kid grabbing a hold of your leg, Daddy, that I don't want to go anywhere without you. Then I want to go everywhere that you go. That I get to experience the life that you have created for me. Thank you, Father God. But right now, I ask that you would just touch each and every person in here. Each and every person is listening. Father God, I thank you that you would help us become better adults so that we can help the children come to know who they are. Finally, guys, thank you for the children that they come to you with so much faith, that they see you with open eyes, that they understand who you are and where you are. Father God, I thank you for loving your sons and daughters right now, allowing them to experience your greatness that you have for them, allowing them today to walk away with a better understanding of how to read this, allow these words to come alive in their life, and that they won't want to put this on a shelf and forget about it anymore, because it's living and breathing and it can come inside of them and it can breathe and they can have a heartbeat and it can be used to help bring people out of the pit of hell. It would help them to pull people that are being dangled over the pit of hell. It will help them to see their friends and their family come to know the loving God that they know. God, I ask that you allow us to feel your love and to penetrate our heart in such a way that you would fill us from the tip of our head to the tip of our toes, all the way through our body right now. It would be full of you to be able to love the person you put in front of us and to hear what you have for the person in front of us so that we can share with them how amazing you see them and what might need changed in their life in a way that it will be from you and not from what I see. Father God, I thank you that you're talking to people that you're going to put in front of me and you're going to give me words to share with these people so that they come to know the God that I know and to love you. God bless you. And I'm super excited because each one of you deserves to know the God that is living and breathing. And you get to live from a heavenly perspective today and allow God to live through you in such a way that it changes the lives of every person that you speak to, every person that you're around. That's possible. It happened in Daniel's story. And I challenge you to go read about Daniel. It's amazing. There's so many stories about Daniel, the Lion's Den, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, how they escaped the fire, how Daniel expected escape the lions. You know, there were so many different moments that Daniel didn't get treated fairly. And I believe a lot of us can understand that.