Living with Integrity

Thankful.

We can call him Abba.

Father, Daddy.

Amen.

What a blessing to know that he is faithful.

He is true.

If you put in your Bibles tonight, turn to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter one.

And like this morning, we're just going to cover two verses.

We'll spend one more message in the first chapter and then we'll get to do some, some prophecy in the next sermon after that.

So if you would, Daniel chapter one.

As you think about the Bible again and understanding the Bible, that the Bible is a complete guide for life.

And it's not complicated by that.

I mean, 99% of the Bible can be understood as you read it, as you study it.

And I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit who illuminates us, helps us to understand what we're reading.

But the practical life guide, 99% of that, that could be understood.

I mean, it's pretty simple.

When the Bible says, you know, thou shalt not kill, that's pretty simple.

You know, the guide for life is don't murder.

But there's so many things like that.

Whether it's the things we should do or the things we shouldn't do are pretty easy to glean from in the Bible.

The Bible is unlike any other book in that it gives life.

That not only does it give eternal life, but it gives life here now.

And it's a miraculous book.

It empowers us, strengthens us.

One of the greatest and effective tools in training children is our lives.

The example that we set.

We think about telling our kids not to do something, but then we do it.

That's counterproductive.

I can just tell you now, for the most part, unless God intervenes, when you tell a child to do something but you're living the opposite, it will absolutely negate anything that's coming out of your mouth.

Eventually, when they're kids, you might be able to get them to do those things, but when they're out of their own, they're just.

It will negate what you taught them.

So again, having an example before a child is the.

One of the greatest tools, if not the greatest tool in teaching a child.

And we see that examples are set for us in the Bible, as I said this morning in the book of Joshua, that the Old Testament again is written that we might have these examples that it's written for our learning.

And we have wonderful examples in the Bible of godly character and godly characteristics.

And Daniel is at the top of all those.

At the top.

And tonight I'm going to speak on something that you already, most of you already know.

And if we're not careful, we'll just kind of turn it off.

We've heard this message a hundred times because it's on Daniel.

Chapter one, verse eight and nine.

Verse eight and nine.

Ready?

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

I love verse nine, though.

Says now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince, the eunuchs.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, again we thank you for the example that Daniel set.

Lord, may we learn from that example tonight.

We love you and we thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

I'm not going to give any background tonight.

Is that all right?

We're just going to jump right into it.

We know the life of Daniel.

Most of you do.

If not you, go back and read it.

Daniel's carried into captivity, him and his friends.

Of all those young people that were brought into Babylon from Israel, it seems as though only four of them stood and did what was right.

They were now 700, 800 miles away from home.

And these four young men, probably around the age of 14 to 19, somewhere around there, stood and did what was right.

And so as we think about this, we think about Daniel's stand.

Daniel's stand.

And we see here in verse 8 that he was predetermined.

In other words, he purposed in his heart, he predetermined to do what was right.

In other words, he'd already predetermined the choice he was gonna make.

He decided for himself what he was gonna do, and that is not to defile himself.

He purposed in his heart.

And remind you that the heart in the Bible for the most part, is always speaking of the mind, will and motions, and not the pumping organ that's in our chest.

It's the mind, will and emotions.

Purposing or determining is a heart matter.

It's a matter of the heart.

It really does come down to who sits on the throne of our hearts.

Who sits on the throne of your heart?

Is it you that sits on the throne of your heart?

Or is it the Lord?

Is it the world?

Is it Satan?

Whatever it may be, whomever it may be.

But the Lord ought to sit on the throne of our hearts.

Matthew 22.

Jesus was asked by a lawyer, what is the greatest commandment in the Old Testament?

And Jesus answer was this.

He said unto them, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

The second is like unto it.

Love thy neighbor as thyself.

In the Old Testament, over and over and over again it repeats that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.

Love the Lord with all thy heart.

Daniel was determined and resolved because he loved the Lord with all of his heart.

He sought to be true to God no matter what the circumstances were.

Again we think about the circumstances he was in.

Here he is again seven or 800 miles away from home.

He just got inducted into Babylon University.

Three years of free tuition.

No comment.

And the purpose of the training was to immerse these Hebrew children in the culture of the Babylonians.

It was an attempt to eliminate their ties to God and to eliminate their ties to their home.

It was that they changed their names.

As we mentioned in the last message, they changed the names of these four young men.

And these names they had been given when they were a kid were names associated with Jehovah God.

These names that they were given by their parents reminded them of their faith.

And so the Babylonians took those names away and gave them Babylonian names that had to do with Babylonian gods.

Again, trying to brainwash them, immerse them in order that they might pull them away from what they learned as kids and cut the ties between their faith and the faith of the Babylonians.

To cut that.

Daniel and his three friends did not hesitate to stand for God in the faith.

What a great example they are and were understand that here they are all this many miles away and they're the best of the best of the young men.

They're the princes, they're the upper echelon of the Jews and been brought in for a reason.

And it would be political suicide for them not to participate and not to indulge in the luxuries that the king was providing.

It would be offensive to the king.

It would be an affront to the king.

Here I am giving you the best of the best of food and the best of the best of drink and you're not taking it.

You see what I'm saying?

It would be offensive to the king.

So it's political suicide.

It definitely, I have no doubt it would be unpopular with others.

So again we think about these four young men.

Where are the rest of them?

And when these four young men stand up for right and do what's right, there's no doubt in My mind, because we know how it works, that the others are going, hey, what are y'all doing?

Don't rock the boat, right?

I'm looking at teenagers, but adults, we all are.

You know, we all get affected by this kind of stuff, trying to do what's right and trying to live right.

It becomes unpopular with others.

I could see his friends, the other Hebrew children, saying, hey, just accept the good fortune we've been given, man.

We could be in jail, we could be in prison.

We could all these things.

Listen, we're eating here.

I mean, we're having filet mignon, you know, we're eating porterhouse steaks.

I like sirloin.

That's what I was raised on.

I just like a good sirloin.

We're getting the best of the meat, the best of the everything.

You ought to be happy with your good fortune.

Don't rock the boat.

You know, we're not in Israel anymore.

Could you see that in your mind's eye?

I don't know how many times I've had someone come to my office for counsel and they would say things like, preacher, my boss asked me to do this.

Do I do it?

And it's something that's wrong, something that this person knows wrong.

And my answer is always, it's always right to do right.

It's never wrong to do right.

And yeah, it's not popular.

And, yes, it'll rock the boat and all those things.

And I really believe, if you'll stand for right and do what's right, as we find here in the recorded Daniel's life, that you'll be rewarded for, may be that you lose a job, but we ought to stand for right.

We are predetermined to do what's right, young people, predetermined to do what's right, as we said a couple of weeks ago or last Sunday night, again being confronted at school or being confronted as you go off to college, it's going to happen.

You're going to have to make a decision.

Some of the seniors are here tonight.

You're going to have to make a decision.

You ought to do it beforehand.

I am not going to do this because I know it wouldn't.

Please God.

Daniel purposed in his heart and his three friends purposed in their heart.

They would not defile themselves.

Think about the character of these four Hebrew young men again.

A character is what you are when nobody's looking.

A character is what you are when nobody's looking.

Or that they'll never know again.

Dad and Mom's 800 miles away.

I could just see those other Hebrew kids going, hey, mom and dad aren't here.

Mom and dad aren't here.

Nobody know.

Go ahead and eat.

Eat that pork, it's good.

Pig tastes really good.

It does taste good.

You know, I hear them say, you know, I know those.

The meat was offered to false gods, but nobody's going to know that.

And it tastes really good.

Someone has said this, that the hardest word in the English language is the word no is no.

And that is true, I think, about Dr.

Barbara.

Dr.

Barber said, this one.

I like this one.

Daniel could handle the den of lions at the age of 90, which he was close to that age, around that age, because he learned how to handle temptation at the age of 19 or 18 or 17.

Young people, that's true, handle temptation when you're young and you stand when you're old.

He would not defile himself again.

Leviticus, chapter 11.

Leviticus, chapter 17.

And we could go back in the Old Testament.

We won't take the time to do about all the laws, the dietary laws the Jews were under.

I just had this conversation with somebody here just the other day about why do the Jews have all these dietary laws?

Well, it was for their good.

It was because of the day and age which they lived in.

There wasn't technology like we have today.

Y'all know that pork has worms in it.

Most pork has worms.

Nobody.

Amen.

Tastes good.

I just eat it.

But that's one of the reasons why we make sure, especially with pork, that you make sure it's cooked good, right.

You don't want that, you know, like you do with a steak that real, you know, you don't want your pork raw, you know what I'm saying?

Nobody wants to give a witness.

No.

You know, you want to be careful with that turkey or that chick.

Anyway, other things, but anyway.

But they couldn't, you know, they didn't have the technology.

We have to make sure that things were cooked well and so forth.

And, you know, God was protecting them.

Most catfish are bottom feeders.

You know, they're slimy bottom feeders.

I'm thankful they're there because they help keep, you know, the waters clean and they help the God's got them there for a reason.

It's a.

To understand that what God put down and those laws he put down was for their good.

It was to protect them.

It also was again to make them distinct from the nations around them.

When the Bible says in the New Testament, come out and be separate, saith the Lord, you know, love not the world, neither things in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

That we as Christians ought to be distinct people, that there ought to be a difference about us.

And so that Old Testament example is Israel.

They were different.

They were to be different than the nations around them.

But the difference was not, you know, superficial.

The difference was that it truly was for their good.

I was just watching another YouTube videos about tattoos, and they are continuing to find out more and more about this ink that you allow yourself to put in your skin and that that stays there forever.

And that it is.

It makes me more prone to cancer and many other things.

Tattoos are bad for you physically.

I mean, wouldn't that make common sense if you're going to put ink in your skin?

Nobody.

I'm looking around the room.

Okay, you say preachers, Should Christians get tattoos?

My answer is no.

Your body's the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You're not your own.

You've been bought with a price.

Also, tattoos are still, you know, connected to the world.

How do I know that?

There's an easy way to determine that.

Easy way to determine it.

Just go try to work at certain jobs.

They're going to make you cover up your tattoos.

Why?

If they're okay, why?

Why are they doing that?

Even in the secular world, they do that.

It makes common sense to me.

Everybody good and nobody's praying.

Tattoos have become popular among Christians.

By the way, there's a good booklet back there in the bookstore about why Christians shouldn't have tattoos.

And it'll give you the why and really spell it out for you.

And Paul Chapel does a good job with it.

I'm just saying the Old Testament, God had laws and dietary laws and things for the children of Israel for their good, to help them stay healthy, and then also to make them a distinct people.

And they were absolutely distinct from the nations around them.

So when these four young men stood up and stood for.

Right, they predetermined these things.

It was because the meat that they were being offered to eat had been offered to false gods.

It also more than likely still had the blood in it.

If a Jew was to eat a steak, all the blood had to be cooked out of it, which I would say that means all the goodness is cooked out of it.

But my wife would feel otherwise.

She likes hers, like, well done, well done.

It's like people who like brisket, the burnt ends.

See how the difference in here, it's like a plethora of no it's all right.

You can like what you like.

I want that good, fatty center portion of the brisket.

When they ask you, do you want the fatty portion or the lean portion?

I don't want the lean portion.

I want the fatty portion.

I'll tell one story because I was telling this to my dad the other day.

My great grandparents on the farm in Oklahoma.

When I was a little kid, we, you know, we'd stay over there in the farmhouse and get up in the morning, have breakfast.

My grandma, my great grandmother was good cook.

But if we had steak, which we had it pretty often, my great grandpa, as we were eating the steak, would, you ate all the steak and the fat.

He would say, my great grandpa would say, you're going to eat the fat because it's good for you.

You eat the fat.

And I got used to eating the fat growing up anyway.

That's why I like to.

But that's Daniel.

Daniel's saying, this is compromising.

We're not going to.

Not going to defile myself and go against the Mosaic law and go against the dietary laws that I've been raised with and taught about and, and that I know that are for my good.

I'm not going to go against these things.

I'm going to stand for right.

I'm going to stand and do what's right.

I'm predetermined.

I'm purposing in my heart not to defile myself.

And we as Christians, all be the same, just predetermined beforehand.

Proverbs 23, verse 31 says, look not upon the wine when it is red.

First Corinthians 6:19.

I just quoted it a while ago.

What?

Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?

Ye are not your own.

You're bought with a price.

Remember that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Young people, be careful.

Predetermined.

Now you're just not going to participate in some things.

The best way to not become an alcoholic is to never take a drink.

You don't know who's going to be predisposed to being a drunk.

People are born predisposed to certain things.

That is biblical.

That's right.

And now scientifically we know that same sex attraction.

Ssa.

That's a real thing.

Doesn't mean you have to give into it.

But it's a real thing.

You're predisposed to that.

And so you don't know that.

And I would caution you, be careful.

Don't take the first drink.

By the way, we shouldn't be a stomach block to others.

And when you buy alcohol, you're contributing to an industry that literally destroys millions of people's lives.

This goes with many other things I've told you about the lottery ticket thing.

I use another family illustration.

I've used it a hundred times.

But my pawpaw again, talking about my dad's dad.

You know, God had blessed him.

I mean, God really had blessed him.

And I'm talking about financially, he was fine.

He could do what he wants.

And he told me the story about how he went to the.

He went to the convenience store where him and his buddies would drink coffee together and stuff.

And one day he bought a lottery ticket.

He didn't think nothing of it until he turned around and there was a young couple from his church behind him.

And it smote his heart.

He never bought another one.

He said, I can afford to buy the lottery ticket.

It won't do anything to me, you know, but what if the person behind me, this young couple, bought one and they couldn't afford it or.

Gambling is addictive.

It also can destroy your life.

And it has many, many people's lives.

No, you not your body is the temple.

God has set down some things we should do and things we shouldn't do not.

So we can't have any fun teenagers.

That's not the purpose.

He didn't set those dietary laws down for the Jews, for the Israelites, so they couldn't have any good stuff to eat.

No, they set those things down because literally eating pork then could have killed them.

He was doing it for their good.

And may we be reminded over and over again that God always has our best interests in mind and be predetermined beforehand to do what's Bible and what's right.

Do what's right.

I love verse nine.

It says now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.

Can I tell you, you stand and you do right.

You, purpose in your heart to do right.

God sits on the throne of your heart and you make a biblical right decision.

God will bless you for it.

And I always like to back up a little bit and remind you that God's favor, in other words, God's love is unconditional.

It's not earned.

It's not earned.

His blessings, however, are his blessings are.

And the illustration for us is again dealing with our own kids.

When your kids are doing what's right, bless them.

Kids aren't doing what's right unbless them right.

I mean, why would You Why would.

And I've seen parents do the opposite, like their kids doing things they shouldn't be doing.

And yet mom and dad are just letting it happen and contributing to it.

But that's not the way it should be.

We bless our kids, not our love for them.

That's different.

But we do.

The blessings come when they're doing what's right.

Haven't said this in a while.

With our children growing up, our boys, I told them, I said, hey, we'll pay for half.

We'll pay for half your truck, we'll pay for half your car payment.

We'll pay for half your insurance, we'll pay for half your phone.

We just said, hey, throughout junior high, high school.

And even we did it even past that a little bit.

We'll pay half.

We'll pay half your college if you're doing what's right.

Pretty simple, isn't it?

You don't give us no problems, we'll pony up.

And I believe God blessed that.

I think my boys would agree to it.

I'm thankful for a heavenly Father who loves me.

And we see here in this example that as Daniel and his three friends did what was right, that God blessed them, God rewarded them, give them favor.

That word favor there means.

Is really talking about God Giving favor is wisdom.

God gave wisdom not only to these four young men, but gave wisdom to this eunuch for simply doing right.

Think about Daniel's diet that he asked for.

He asked for this vegetables and grains.

Now, I didn't.

I grew up in a home.

We ate meat, potatoes.

Bread wasn't a big part of our diet.

My wife grew up in a home where bread was number one.

I don't get that.

If I'm going to eat bread like that, it better be cake and preferably chocolate cake, right?

I can take or leave a roll.

I don't even call them rolls.

I call every, every roll biscuit.

All of them are biscuits.

That's what my wife.

I've been doing that for years.

She said, that's a roll, that's a biscuit.

I'd do it just to get on her nerves.

He asked for vegetables, he asked for grains.

Again, it wasn't that.

Some of the other stuff he couldn't have.

But again, there was always that question in mind about was it offered to idols?

Is it cooked all the way?

It didn't know whether it would meet the dietary laws.

And so he just decided, I am not going to defy myself.

Just give me some vegetables and some wheat, barley green to eat.

Ms.

Reed.

Barley.

That green barley.

Green powder.

How did we ever get into that?

Years ago.

And because of this determination and because of this request, God blessed amply blessed and amply rewarded Daniel.

Why?

Because Daniel determined beforehand to do what's right.

To do what's right.

May we determine to do what's right beforehand.

Whether it's a job decision, whether it's a family decision, whether it's a school decision.

Do what's right.

Daniel stood at an early age.

But can I remind you, no matter the age, we ought to stand and do right.

Always right.

To do right in spite of the circumstances.

Think about this now.

Daniel carried into captivity, drug away from his home, away from his parents.

And yet, if you read the story of Daniel, you don't see Daniel depressed.

In fact, I can't find anywhere where he was even discouraged.

He was undeterred.

You can see that he did not doubt.

And he was not destroyed by his circumstances, but rather stood.

Stood in those circumstances and did what was right.

What an example he set for us.

What an example he lived for us.

And may we follow that example.

May we be a light in a dark world.

Let's all stand Time of invitation Invite you to come pray if the Lord's touched your heart.