How Do You Live Godly in an Ungodly World?

Thank you, Mr. Miller. My friend often stayed with us when he was coming down to Cincinnati, which he liked the basement. He liked to go down there and hunker down, and it was always cooler down there. And he could work and do... his business seemed to run twenty-five hours a day, so he seemed to be working all the time. And I appreciate the introduction, and it's good to be with you. Our anniversary actually was July 12th, and they made me speak on the 13th, so I gave a sermon on marriage. I figured in fifty years I probably know what I'm doing now. I always tell people to avoid speaking on child-rearing and marriage until your kids are grown and gone, or until you've done about fifty years of marriage. Otherwise, you'll jinx yourself. But it's good to be here with you again, with the ABC sampler, and just to come and visit again. I've been up here two or three times, and it's a lovely group of people in a nice setting, and always cool and good to visit brethren wherever they are in the world, which makes it really nice. Seventy years in the church, my mom came in 1954, so I was just two years old at the time. That's how I get my seventy years. Michelle and I... Michelle and I actually got baptized at the same time. She was in Texas. I was in Pasadena.

I didn't tell her I was getting baptized. She didn't tell me, because we didn't want to pressure each other into thinking they needed to get baptized so we'd get married. I just came up, and I was on the phone with her, and she said, I got baptized this week. I said, so did I. It was kind of nice. We got married the following year. I'm going to my sermon now. They've given me the whole time, so I can relax and enjoy it. You've been sitting for a long time, so I'll try not to use up too much of it.

Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures and leaves me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leaves me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thy rod, thou with me and thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I first memorized that Psalm some 66 years ago. I think I memorize it every year in Imperial schools, because I grew up in the church.

Not only in the church, from the standpoint of attending every Sabbath, but I went to Imperial schools for 12 years. That was the church's grade school and high school that they had. They had one in Big Sandy and one in Big Sandy, Texas, and the other in California. It was interesting for me. I didn't have to worry about asking for letters to the feast off, or the Holy Days. All those things were just normal. We had Bible every day of school for an hour. We went through most of it and memorized a lot of it. My parents always told me to tell the truth, and everything will go well for you. You do what is right, and God's going to help you. I kind of developed a mentality that I expected instant rewards for good behavior. That's not a bad thing to do for your children. By the time I was in the seventh grade, however, I'd read the entire Bible.

We memorize Psalm 23 every year. In some form or another, all of us are going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Will we fear no evil? How do we handle it?

I look back at my life now, and I see a lot of things that God did that I didn't expect. I wouldn't have thought some things that I thought were bad for me, were good for me, and some things that I thought might be good would be bad. We don't know. God prepares you for what He's going to use you for. But He doesn't tell you. We all know in the kingdom we have assignments for the first fruits. You're going to work with Christ in the reign of the millennium. But we don't know exactly what we're going to be doing or how God is doing it.

In my career in the church, it's interesting how I love the stories of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament stories were what saved me so many times. I saw the difficult things that they went through, and I saw how God saved them. I thought, wow, this is neat. I didn't really focus on the times that God didn't save them or save them quickly or how long it took to deliver them at times. But it was just fun to read the stories. They were all heroes.

These heroes, I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have lived back then when God did things?

I never really put it in the present. One of the things that we tend not to do, the heroes that we have, I love them. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our forefathers. Abraham leaves, and God promises them to be nations. He only has one kid. Then, of course, we have Joseph, who ended up the ruler of Egypt.

And, of course, Moses, who was able to raise his rod and God split the Red Sea along with all the plagues of Egypt, the things that happened there. Joshua, God had them march around Jericho and the walls fall down. Massive things that we think, wow, that had to be incredible to see. Then we had the judges. Israel kind of went off track at times, and God gave them judges that they tried to bring them back on track. Samson was one, and so many others that you can talk. Gideon, Barak, Deborah, different ones that raised up, and the things that God did to them to bring Israel there. Again, I wish I could have seen those things. My mind's eye do, and if you watch Cecil B. DeMills, you can see some more of those things with some of the movies he produced.

But it was interesting that I didn't necessarily think about what was going to happen down the road. Unlike I said, in some form or another, we all walked through the valley of the shadow of death, often more than once. We don't really know what God's going to do when we do that. When we walked through those trials, me, I expected them from the world. In Imperial schools, we had club and speeches, they'll never make me break the Sabbath, they'll never make me eat pork, they'll never make me do this stuff. And I kind of expected it from them. I didn't necessarily expect some of those things to happen inside the church. And again, for me, it was a sad day when I learned that all the people in the church were actually human beings that made big mistakes and had to repent of them. I thought everybody, the adults, were all perfect when I was in grade school, and then I became one, and I wasn't perfect either. Today, I'd like to look at one of my heroes and him. It's on your thing, Daniel. Because Daniel, I think, is a special case that we can learn a lot from. And to look at Daniel as a person, not as a prophecy. I was a numbers person as a kid. And so, in all the 70-weeks prophecy and the kingdoms and all the things there and the dates and the numbers, I memorized all the baguette chapters and how old so-and-so was, and I had the timeline all figured out. And so the math was good, but the thing about it is, knowing all the prophecies doesn't get you in the kingdom. The story of Daniel as a person can help you get in the kingdom. And that's what I'm going to draw with today. I title this sermon, How Do You Live Godly in an Ungodly World? Because certainly Daniel lived in an ungodly world at a very difficult time. If we analyze how he works and what he did, let's look at Daniel. Daniel was taken captive by Babylon. First, a road-ruling empire as such, although there were Syrian empires and other empires before that of sorts.

In conquest, back then, the kings would often steal technology. Stealing technology is nothing new. It happened 4,000 years ago as well. And so what happened, when they would conquer a city or a country, they would take all the technology they had. And they would also take a lot of the young people, the best of the young people, bring them in and teach them the languages and things, and have them help run the country and do things just to collect knowledge. Daniel was one of those young men who was taken captive. He was not told how old he was, probably somewhere between 14 and 17. It would seem. So look at that. Then Daniel was taken to Babylon. He was transplanted from his home into another country. Being transplanted is difficult. My mom, she went to the church when I was born. People think I was named after Aaron in the Bible. My mom hadn't read the Bible when I was born. I was named after an old colored man down the road. She liked the name. So that's how I got my name. I'm sure he got named after the Bible, but my mom hadn't named me that. But it was interesting. My father was not interested in religion at all. He was a star athlete in high school. He's one of those people that everybody knew. He stole the walls in Clay Patel High School in West Virginia, where he played.

He told my mom that she could do whatever she wanted with religion. He wasn't interested. My mom was studying. He wasn't. He was asked to play for the Minneapolis Lakers basketball. That's how good an athlete he was. Coach Sherman was the Lakers. He didn't take the job because they didn't pay much in the early 50s. He decided he wanted to get married, so he took a job with Link Belt Construction.

After they were married a bit, my father had a massive stroke. He was supposed to die. The doctors told my mom that he had 60% brain damage. He said he was not functioning. He was going to die. He was basically in a coma for a month or two. During that time, my mom was praying for him and had him anointed. The dean family, my father's brothers, had four of them. They made fun of my mom for religion. The doctor said he was going to die. He was going to die. A couple months later, he was healed. I'm back to work. He built my mom's faith incredibly. The rest of the family still didn't understand. There was still that gap because of the problems they had given her. The interesting thing, though, is that about a year and a half after that, he got killed in a construction accident. They called it an accident because they couldn't prove it was murder, but they had a big trial. Almost all the pictures of my father in some government warehouse because they had him in the trial, he got smashed between a wall and a runaway crane. That's a ball and crane. They go three miles an hour under full speed. That's why they had the trial for the thing. Didn't prove anything. Didn't change anything, as far as we were concerned, obviously. I was just a little kid. And so he was gone. Why did God heal him? Just so he'd die a couple years later. It didn't make any sense. Had he lived, though, I probably never would have studied the Bible. I was a good athlete. I'm sure I'd have been playing on Friday nights and doing all the things that my father had done. But that wasn't to be. When my dad died, Mr. Blackwell did the funeral. He told my mom, he says, you need to go down to Big Sandy where the widows are. So when I was four years old, we moved down to Big Sandy, Texas. There they had Imperial schools. A couple years later, age six, I started first grade and second grade. It changed my life. Moves are difficult. They have a different set of things. In 1960, my mom, this little girl from the hills of West Virginia, in Daybrook, where she was, probably had about 100 people, and they're all relatives.

She decided to move to Pasadena, California. She moved to Pasadena, and there I went to Imperial schools. In my classes, right around me, same age, for all the evangelist children, all the people that were high-ranking the church, their kids were in those classes. So I got to know all those people, as well as the people that are in Big Sandy. The church was fairly small. They knew everyone. Didn't seem to make much difference why I needed to do that. But when you move, it changes. All of you have moved to some time, and perhaps you've suffered trauma. If you're in the middle, I had a girl who applied for ambassador a few years ago that was in the military and moved all over the place. And if anybody's had military parents, some of you may have, know how that is. You get moved all the time. There's a lot of trauma that goes along with that. So Daniel, I'm sure, and his friends and all the Jewish captives were traumatized, having their city taken and being carried away.

But it's something that God allows to happen. Sometimes He orchestrates it in different ways. We don't know exactly how He does that. But if you consider what Daniel, his life was going to be, did Daniel know God was going to do anything with him when he was taken captive? I don't think he did. And it's hard to leave everything you know and start over, especially in his case without freedom.

So if we go to Daniel 1, and I'll stay in Daniel today so you don't have to be flipping back and forth. In verse 3 of Daniel 1, it says, Daniel most likely was royal blood. That's what we believe. He was educated by the priest, undoubtedly. He was in their Imperial schools, I would say, at the time. He had the scrolls and the writings. And Nebuchadnezzar had taken those out of Jerusalem, as they always did.

And in school, you can learn things academically. I learned them in Imperial, one of my friends did. Friends are no longer in the church. You can learn academically, but does it change you? Does it really impress itself on you? Daniel had some of that training, obviously. But would he hold fast to it when he was in captivity? Verse 5, For the end of that, they might stand before the king. And among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Four names out of how many captives? I'm sure there are a lot more than that. Verse 7, And to whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names, for Daniel the name Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, and Mishael, Meshach, Azariah, and Ben-Niggo. It's commonly done when you took people out of their country, give them a different name, give them a different culture, assimilate them into the system so they don't necessarily want to go back.

And that's what was done at that time. But verse 8, 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 to the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

He knew the scrolls, he knew about clean and unclean meats, he knew the rules, and he chose to observe them. Even though he's in captivity. Verse 9, God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.

God was watching. The question I would ask, did God know that at the time? Did Daniel... Now, when he wrote Daniel, it was much later in his life. And he looked back, and he saw things that happened, that at the time, I doubt if he knew that.

I mean, God hadn't delivered Jerusalem. God had taken him captive. They'd probably killed a bunch of his relatives and friends. And they made him a eunuch. Boy, God really likes me. What would you think if that happened to you? Yet Daniel decided he was going to hold fast with God anyway. Verse 10, The prince of the eunuch said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your meat and your drink. Why should he see your faces worse than the other children of your sort?

Then shall he make me endanger my head to the king? People worry about how they look. They endanger themselves sometimes. That's where the eunuch's position was. Had an A.C. grad from Ambassador College in the 90s. She was a good student. She moved to Colorado, and she had a job with a lawyer. But when she was interviewing for this job, after the lawyer gave it to her, he handed her the resumes of all the people he hadn't hired.

And those resumes were a 4.0 from Harvard, a 4.0 from Yale, and some other top-notch schools. And she asked him, why did you give me these? He said, I was impressed with you, and I expect you to do well. But I put myself on the line. Because if I had hired the 4.0 from Harvard, and they grew up, well, who would you have hired? If you grew up, why did you hire this girl from this small little school in Texas that nobody's heard of?

You put his job on the line for her. And that's something that happens sometimes. If you impress people, God can do that. Make it work. 1, verse 11, Daniel said to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs has set over the four of them, Prove your servants ten days.

Let them give us pulse to eat, water to drink, not the delicacies of Babylon. I'm sure they had lots of them. I've seen most of the delicacies in the world of my travel, and most of them I wouldn't want to touch, even if I didn't have clean and unclean laws. Monkey brains have never appealed to me at all. I've seen them, and meh. So he didn't take them. Then let our countenance be looked upon before you, and the countenance of the children that eat the portion of the king's meat, and as you see, deal with us.

They made a deal with him. If we're not just as good or better than they are, then we won't danger you anymore. We'll eat. And he consented with them in the matter, and proved them ten days. At the end of ten days their countenance appeared fairer and fatter and flesh than all the children in which they'd eat the portion of the king's meat. That's the ten-day diet I wish I had.

I could sell it for a lot of money. But I'm sure God was doing that for them. Thus, Melzar took away the portion of their meat, the wine, and they should drink, and gave them what they wanted. Often we have some early tests that we have in life that God sees whether or not we're going to follow him. You know, yeah, you were taken captive. All these things will happen to you, but you know what you read? You know what you were taught? Are you going to keep doing it? Daniel and his four friends did that. I suppose it's not too difficult to keep the Levitical laws of foods.

But every little test, you're faithful and little, you're faithful and much. And God often does things in a small way to test us. See where we stand. Do you give in? A lot of people have over the years. Verse 17, for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Did they know this was God doing this at the time?

He hadn't had a dream yet. He wasn't there. Again, he's writing this later in life. And he looks back and he says, Wow, God did a bunch of things for me that I didn't really understand at the time. The end of the days, verse 18, the king had said he should bring them in. The prince of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. The king communed with them.

Among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. In all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm. Do you stand out? I would hope so. When I was in high school, I took a job at Allied Van Lines. I was actually a janitor cleaning up at night my junior year. They liked me so well, they actually made me a warehouse manager my senior summer. And while I was there, a bunch of truckers came in.

I was using a language that truckers used because they were truckers. I was around the corner, and my boss heard him tell me, The kid's a Christian. Shut up! I felt good about that. Who wants to listen to that stuff? But they know. They shouldn't know where you stand on things and be that way.

But were they ten times better? Did they know that at the time? Or were they just like, Hey, where are the eight students? There's always kids that are smarter than all the other kids in class. Did they really know that God was doing this for them? Probably not. Again, writing back. What did it feel like to talk to the king? They were still low-level servants, as we'll see in the next verses.

Again, did they know at this time God would do anything else with them? Again, I doubt it. It was exciting. It's exciting to meet royalty and stuff. But I'm sure they saw themselves as the staff. They weren't high-level at this time. There was no one they could go to to help them if something went wrong. Again, their country had been destroyed. Many of you, I'm sure, have been recognized for your ethics, your good work, your honesty, the fruits of God's spirit in you. And it feels good.

And maybe you progressed on that. You may wonder whether God helped you get the job or not. Or whether it was just time and chance. God doesn't tell you. He's never pushed me aside. And, hey, I'm doing this now. I know most of what I did from Armstrong, God did, because I didn't have any idea what I was doing. And so I know all the good things that happened were His working.

Again, they had no one to intervene for them. They were on their own trying to keep God's laws the best they could in a foreign country. I know the excitement and fear that comes with something like that. When I was asked to fly, I didn't plan to fly. I went through four years of Ambassador College. And I had learned to cook my freshman year in Big Sandy, Texas, because I didn't have to study. Having gone through 12 years of Imperial, I didn't have to study for the Bible classes. I could take the test without it. And so I had a day job, one of the few freshmen that did.

And I asked the chefs who came from the culinary arts if they would teach me to cook. Because at that time, we had 15 men's clubs and 15 women's clubs. You had a men's night and a ladies' night formal every semester. So I had 30 dinners a semester. They're all formal. Then I had French Club, Spanish Club, and German Club, which I met once a month. So I cooked everything from sour-broughton to Mexican food to whatever. And everything was flame and yon, chateaubriand, flaming desserts, all the seizure salad I made from scratch with anchovies and oil and eggs and whatever.

Because the chefs were just, hey, taste this, taste this, taste that. And so I ate really well my freshman year. That's kind of why I did it, too. I wasn't looking for anything else. There's some things happened there. It's another story I'll tell at a different time that made me leave Texas and transfer to Pasadena. During that freshman year, though, I met my sophomore year. I went back. And that's when I met my wife. She had come as a freshman that year.

She was the opposite of me. She knew nothing about the church when she came to Ambassador College. I mean, literally nothing. She was wondering where everybody went on Friday night. Did you know anything about the feast? When the feast came along, they were shutting down for two weeks. She said, what am I supposed to eat?

They gave her $20 and said, go beg for food in the piney woods, which is where the members all camped. And that's what she did. And she ate really well because members were really nice. And so that was her. There were still things going on in Texas that forced me to leave. So I transferred to Pasadena, which I never would have done if it hadn't been certain events that happened there.

But those are things that you don't know what God is doing. So I went through Finish College on graduation day. They have a formal brunch in the morning, and the graduation ceremony is in the afternoon on a Friday. And during the formal brunch, the phone rang, and they paged me. They never page people in a formal brunch unless they're something important, unless you're in trouble. And I was. I just didn't know it. And so I go up after the phone, hello? Do you know who this is? Yes, sir. What can I do for you? He said, what are your plans? I said, I'm supposed to leave for Salt Lake City on Sunday to be a trainee. He said, I want you to fly on my jet. I said, I'm supposed to leave Sunday. He said, they'll understand. And on Monday morning at 8 o'clock, we took off for Europe. Three-week trip. Supposed to be a three-week trip. Six weeks later, I'm still in Europe. On that trip, I had served King Leopold, I had served Crown Prince of San, King Juan Carlos. Things that you don't expect to do. And cooking is a little different at altitude than an airplane than it is on the ground. But again, I was scared. I had no idea what was going to happen. What was going on. But you just expect God to help you. Six weeks later, we're still in Paris. I had so much time. I was supposed to get married this weekend. He said, oh. So I flew back from Paris to get married. That's how close I came to not getting married. When I got my 50 years in. But it's exciting to be in that position, but it's scary at the same time. You don't know what's going to happen. You do. There are pitfalls everywhere. When I got the job on the plane, my stepfather really pushed something. He told me before, but not so much. He said, when you get on the plane, you're going to see and hear things that are going to throw you. He said, separate salvation from people. Separate salvation from people. If you were there with Abraham lied about his wife, now I don't want to be with him. If you were there when David is committing adultery with Bathsheba and then killing Uriah, well, I don't want any of that. If you're there with Peter denied Christ, I don't want to be with him. People do things that you don't expect. If you get upset by it, you can lose your salvation. That's what he meant by separate salvation from people, because there would be things. A lot of people haven't done that and then believe in God. They blame the church or God for things that people do, which is wrong. There are pitfalls. Daniel 2 tells us about Debbie Kenezer's dream.

Indeed, verse 1, the second year of the random Nebuchadnezzar, he dreamed a dream, his spirit's trouble, and his sleep broke from him. And he commanded all the magicians and astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans to show the king his dreams. They came and they stood before him. And the king said to them, I've dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spoke the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac. Okay, live forever. Tell us the dream, and we will show you the interpretation.

Well, that's the out for most people that tell dreams and visions. They have you give them enough information so you can create something. And I'm sure, had they told him the dream, and again, I'm not sure if he knew the dream or not, he was troubled by it, but he didn't tell them what it was if he did know.

And so they could have made up a story. We know what the dream was. They had a gold in the arms and chest of silver and the belly and thighs of brass and the iron legs and the feet of clay and iron. They could have said, oh, king, you're the head of gold. And the people that serve you are the silver people and the princes, and the people below that are the bronze people, and all the peasants there down there.

I mean, he could have made something up that sounded pretty good. It wasn't what it was, obviously. We know from Daniel later what it was. But they didn't do that. He didn't give them that. Because it would be too easy to create a plausible explanation. And that's not what Nebuchadnezzar was looking for.

And usually it would create something that would be pleasing to the king. Nebuchadnezzar did have a temper. I've been in that situation a few times where I didn't know what I was doing. Mr. Armstrong asked me to find something that Jesus said to somebody about something. And I said, can you give me a little more information? And he said, well, just start reading Matthew. When we get to it, I'll know. I read all of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John.

And he thought maybe it was Paul. So I read all the apostles. I ended up reading the whole New Testament to him, which I think was what he wanted in the first place. He just didn't want to ask me. But sometimes you just don't know. And they didn't know. And Nebuchadnezzar had a temper. He said, no way. I'm not going to tell you the dream. You tell me the dream.

If you can tell me the dream, I'll believe your interpretation. If you can't tell me the dream, then it's not there. Now Daniel's not in the ranks yet because he doesn't know about what's happening. Because in verse 13 it says, The decree went forth that the wise men should be slain. They sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

So they went out and sought these people to kill them. And Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Ariac, the captain of the guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men. He said to Ariac, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? And Ariac told Daniel what had happened in there. Daniel wasn't a high-level servant yet at this time. When he's writing before, he's writing from a historic point of view.

Daniel went in and desired to the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. This is an act of faith. He didn't have the dream. He didn't have the interpretation. Many times on the trip, Mr. Armstrong asked, how's the trip coming? I'd give the faith answer. Fine.

Had no idea. But that's what you say sometimes. When you ask God for help, do you know He's going to help you? Daniel was going to be slain. He stepped on a limb, and he said, just give me some time. I'll tell you what your dream is and the interpretation. Amazing. Sometimes we're put in positions where we really need God. That's where Daniel was. God worked with those that were over Daniel, gave him favor.

Did the help that he had along the way give him the courage to do this? When you put in a situation where you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death and God lures you, it helps you. God is not at our beck and call. We are at His. He knows what He's going to do. He has to learn what you're going to do.

He'll give you a test to find out what you're going to do. We know that God revealed the dream, the image of gold, the chest of silver, the belly and thighs, and the feet of iron. That's the next four world-ruling empires that were coming at that time. This, I would say, is probably the first time when Daniel really knew that God was going to help him.

Because if he didn't give him the dream, he'd be dead like all the others. And now, he realizes that God was. Looking back from this point, he probably recognized some of the favors before that. What would go on beyond that? He didn't necessarily know what it would be. But he did know God was going to help him because he was seeking God, trying to follow God's way in a very, very idolatrous and evil situation in Babylon.

The next story in Daniel 3, I'm not going to talk about so much because I'm dealing with Daniel. But Daniel wasn't part of it. Again, it's a very special story. We all know about it.

He's got songs about it. We have it in Sabbath school and places. About Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast into the fiery furnace for not bowing down. It's interesting. I'll read verses 16 through 18 of Daniel 2.

Because the king liked these young men, and they were going to be cast in the fiery furnace, and the king actually gave him a second chance. He probably didn't hear the music, which I'm sure was very, very loud. So we'll play it again, and you can bow down this time. In verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. We don't need to wait. We don't need to hear anything. We'll tell you what we're going to do. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And He will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image with you set up. Live or die. God is God. We won't do it. I'll only ask one question about this. Where was Daniel? You know Daniel wouldn't be bowing down to the image. He wasn't there. Now, where was he? Possibly out in the province or somewhere. It's easy to stand up in a group when you've got a leader. Daniel was the leader. And standing behind a leader is pretty easy. I think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel was the leader. I think God tested them to find out what they would do if Daniel wasn't there. If they'd had the same faith He did to be delivered. It's the only thing I can think, because you know Daniel wouldn't bow down to them. And they stood up to the challenge. God delivered them. Often people would tell Mr. Armstrong, they'd say, Well, Mr. Armstrong, I think. And he'd say, I don't care what you think. What does God think? We have to learn to think like God does. And then people have to see that in us as we live our lives, being an example to them. Daniel and his friends caused Nebuchadnezzar to know the true God, to even praise Him and honor Him, although it didn't always last. Daniel 4.1, we go back to Daniel. He returns from wherever he was. He's back. Verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the people, nations, and languages that dwell on the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God has wrought toward me. How great are His signs? How mighty are His wonders? His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation to generation. Good praise for the true God, but it wouldn't last. We read in verse 4, Nebuchadnezzar, as it rests in his house, flourishing in his palace. Verse 5, I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore made I decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then came the musicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the sous-sayers. And Nebuchadnezzar, I told the dream before them, but they did not make known to me the interpretation. Why not? Now, they probably could have created something at first, but this dream was different. In fact, when I started saying the dream that there was a tree, and the hosts of heaven, and the birds, and the fowls were there, and everything's fed, they probably thought, Oh yeah, that's you, king. You're doing all this stuff. Of course, the tree gets hacked down, and nobody wants to tell the king, and you can get hacked down. And so they probably couldn't figure out what they could make out of this dream, so they just told them, we can't do it.

But at last, Daniel came in before me, verse 8, whose name was Belteshazzar. According to the name of my God, in whom is the Spirit of the Holy Gods, and before him I told the dream, saying, Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, no secret troubles you. Tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.

Again, a very odd dream. How would you interpret it? Of course, we know what the vision was. We'll drop down to verse 17. Verse 17 says, This matter is by decree of the watchers, and this is the end of his dream, by the demand of the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the basest of men. That was the end of his dream, and he didn't know how to tie that together with the tree, and the cutting it down, and the band around it, and everything else. And then verse 18, This is the dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, for as much as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation. But you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in you. He respected Daniel. This was a strange deem, and the other wise men couldn't even weave an interpretation. Mr. Armstrong often told me I had discernment, and I told him, Mr. Armstrong, if I do, God gave it to me. But frankly, I'm not really telling anything I had to discern. Usually it was because he was asking about certain men, and what I was telling him is what I heard at the breakfast table, because I used to spend the night with a lot of the evangelist kids, and they would say all the things they didn't like about the work, whatever. So I'd tell Mr. Armstrong that he thought I had discernment, and I said, really, I'm just repeating what they said at the breakfast table. They never expected this teenager, this 12, 13-year-old kid, to work for their boss in 10 years. So awkward for them. But not for me. Again, you've got to be careful of pride, though, like Moses. If somebody starts saying good things about you, then, you know, Moses, do I have to bring water out of this rock and strikes a device? God says, you can't go in the proviseland.

Pride can kill you, and you've got to be careful when people praise you to make sure that you put it in God's court, not your own, because it's not for us to do that. God gave wisdom to Daniel, but he had to know how to use it. And that's one thing. Being smart is one thing, but using it properly is another thing. The dream wasn't good news. How do you deliver news that's going to cause some controversy? That was Daniel's dilemma with this one. This is how he handled it, verse 19. Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for an hour. His thoughts troubled him. The king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation have trouble you. Belteshazzar answered and said, my lord, the dream be to them that hate you and the interpretation to your enemies. This is not a good thing. I don't want to have to tell you. And then he tells him, the tree that you saw was you. And you were over the empire and all the birds feeding and all the good things that are coming from you. Plenty. And then it's cut down. And it's hacked. And a band is put around it. And it re-sprouts. Seven seasons pass over. He lays out the interpretation. The stump and the roots and things are there. In verse 24, he said, this is the interpretation. This is the decree of the Most High God that's going to come upon my lord, the king. They shall drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you to eat as the grass as oxen. They shall wet thee with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass over you till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he wills. Too many times people try to do things themselves. Make it happen. If you do things, even the right things, with the wrong motive, it's not good. And he says, whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree root, your kingdom shall be sure to you. And after that, you'll have known that the heavens rule, but not you that God does. And he gives us some advice, verse 27, Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by righteousness. Repent. God's a merciful God. Your iniquities, turn from them by showing mercy to the poor. And it may lengthen your tranquility, help you. He's giving him good advice. But, verse 29, at the end of twelve months, Nebuchadnezzar walks in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. He speaks and said, Is this not the great Babylon that I have built? For the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power? For the honor of my majesty?

Babylon was an impressive city. The walls were so wide that the chariot races could be held on them. Statues of gold, silver. But he claimed it for his own. Verse 31, While the word was in the king's mouth, There fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king, Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, The kingdom has departed from you. They shall drive you from men, Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, They shall make you eat grass as oxen, And heaven shall pass over you, Until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men.

And he gives it to whomsoever he will. You don't have to worry about who's going to be king, Who's going to be president, or who's going to be anything, Because God controls those things. Verse 33, The same hour it was fulfilled on Nebuchadnezzar. God removed the spirit and man from him. He basically became an animal with basic instincts and things, But not the thoughts that God gives us with our human spirit.

Have you ever given good advice to someone that wasn't taken, Or have to say something they don't want to hear? If you're honest, you've probably been in situations like this. You wonder, should you say it or shouldn't you say it? Perhaps it's not as severe as this, But there are times when it happens. When I was in the airplane for seven years, Before my wife flew the last five years, But I was in there. I did a lot of set up and a lot of meetings, a lot of things, But my job was basically to be the steward and butler and whatever.

And so I heard everything and saw everything. And I saw a lot of things that were wrong. A lot of things I thought were right, I found out were wrong, Only because they didn't give them a strong, strong, all the information. In fact, when I was made as aide, Captain Black said, You give Mr. Armstrong the right information, he'll make the right decision. I said, Captain, if I give him the right information, he'll make my decision.

If I give him all the information, he'll make the right decision. And I saw a lot of things that weren't correct given to him, For people that wanted something for themselves, basically. And I had to tell him those things that he didn't want to hear. Things that had been kept from him that he didn't know about.

And I had to learn how to say it. He didn't always get it right. He got upset with me a number of times. But he knew what I was telling him was the truth. And sometimes he didn't want to accept it. If you find yourself at that point in your life, Maybe you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

You have to fear no evil. Are you tactful? Daniel was always helpful. Again, separate salvation from people. Of course, Daniel knew Nebuchadnezzar wasn't a church. In the church, you'll see things that happen sometimes that, you know, shouldn't. It doesn't change what God is or what the truth is. Daniel wasn't always appreciated. We see that for a time, Daniel must have even been forgotten in the empire. Because we come to a new king, he really didn't know much about Daniel.

We find that in Daniel 5. Was Daniel put to pastor? Was he retired from a regular job? He doesn't tell us. I imagine he was glad to be out of the limelight for a while. God often does give reprieve to some. He gave one to Elijah, let him go away when he passed the mountain to Elijah. I felt that way after Mr. Armstrong died. I had given most of my life to him.

At that point, the last 12 years, I flew with him. The last five, I had two days off in five years. And I'm talking about 365 days. I had a Thanksgiving Day off one year, and Christmas another year. I didn't take Christmas because I had Christmas. I asked the school and the parallel that they had let me chaperone a ski party. So he did. So I got two days off. So it was nice to have reprieve after he died. Mr. Armstrong made me make promises to him. And Mr. Takachi made Mr. Takachi make all your promises, too. Those promises that he didn't keep.

The promises I've tried to keep for mine. I didn't want to be Mr. Takachi's aide. Mr. Armstrong made me. He actually came downstairs and he said, Aaron, you're the pastor general. I said, did God tell you that? He said, no. I said, why are you trying to kill me? And I figured in about an hour I'd talk to him out of it. And I knew if I couldn't talk to him out of it, then God would want me and he'd help me.

If I could talk to him out of it, God didn't want me, and I don't want anything God doesn't want. I mean, too many people try to take things that aren't theirs, and they fail when that happens.

And that's when he made me promise to be Mr. Takachi's aide, and I told him I don't want to be his aide. He has his own staff. Mr. Armstrong told him, your staff led you astray. If you bring your staff up there, they've done these things wrong. This is several things. If they come up, you'll lose salvation. He brought his staff up the day Mr.

Armstrong died, even though he promised he wouldn't. I became his aide as well for a short time. And when Mr. Josh asked me to lie from the pulpit the first week after Mr. Armstrong died, I refused to do it. So we didn't start out on too good a foot that way, but he basically wanted to make a legend out of himself, and he wanted me to help him do that.

Again, you've got to separate salvation from people. God gives you reprieve. At that time, Mr. Josh didn't know what to do with me. He tried to make himself an apostle, even though the documents Mr. Armstrong signed. He refused to sign them because he said, Pastor General, Chairman, all my titles. I said, no. God hasn't given him the title of apostle. I can't give it to him. If a number of years God does things, he can give it to him. But I can't, so I hand-wrote it. Accept that of apostle. And we initial it, and then he signed it.

I always tell them, show the documents when you keep saying that Mr. Tkach was an apostle, because he never was. He didn't keep the promises. He didn't do any of the things that he said he would do. He didn't know what to do with me, and Mr.

Tkach didn't want me poisoning members of the church, so I never got a church assignment. Steady, he put me in the college so I could teach. I did my master's and started teaching, and that way I could poison all the students that came in every year. Which was fascinating, because with a business degree, they couldn't fire me for my religion.

That was my opinion. So I was protected by accreditation from that, and I had all the students that wanted to know the truth come into my office. I actually did more Bible counseling than I did financial counseling, for sure. Something I think God set up so I could help students, because the theology faculty, if you disagree with them, you're gone. So the students were kind of left in lurch. So, what do you do? What do you do?

There's no one there for them. But I got sent to Texas. I got exactly what I wanted. I got to have my wife and my family. God gave us a beautiful home on the lake there. Had needed some work, but I was able to do that. I loved working with my hands. And I got exactly what I wanted, and it was difficult to watch the church go through apostasy. That was hard. But it was respite for me being transferred to Texas, at college, and it didn't stop what my choices were. Until the day Mr.

Dukatsch died, I called him every time he said something wrong. I promised Mr. Armstrong I'd do that. I wanted to do it right after he, early on. And I was really upset with a couple things he did within a couple months of his death. I was going to go in and scream and shout or whatever.

I opened my Bible randomly, and I opened up to Jeroboam and Reoboam. I looked down and said, Reoboam's going to attack Jeroboam, and God says, this is of me. Don't do it. I said, okay, God, You're separating the wheat and the chaff.

Who am I to try to keep it together? You're testing the people. Mr. Armstrong was adamant. The next thing that happened was the preparation of the bride. And quite frankly, ever since his death, years ago, that's been the test for all of us. Everybody in the church had to say, Is Christ my king? Or can a man tell me I don't have to keep the Sabbath? Can a man tell me I don't have to keep the Holy Days? Can a man tell me what to do? And it's okay. Everybody in the church had to ask individually, What do I believe? Do I want to be with this church?

Do I want to follow this later? Where do I start my own church? Do I want to stay home? Do I want to join the local Baptist church or whatever? According to them, you can get in the kingdom any way you want, except this way. It was sad to watch, but I told Mr. Nkachtsil the day he died.

My wife hated it because Mr. Nkachtsil the night, Alan. Texas was two hours later, and the phone would ring, and it'd be Mr. Nkachtsil two o'clock in the morning. I understand her and didn't like what I said. Yeah, Mr. Nkachtsil. He lied again. He said something wasn't true. And I tell him, I said, you know, you can't do that. You can appreciate that. But at the same time, I was keeping my promise. He wouldn't fire me because he was afraid of me. I knew everything. I knew all the documents. I knew all the lies. I knew all the things that he'd made up.

Like one of the faculty meetings, Mr. Nkachtsil, was there and somebody challenged him and said, how come you're letting your staff make all these changes in the church? And he said, it wasn't me. I believed this stuff in the 70s. I raised my hand.

I said, Mr. Nkachtsil, you told Mr. Armstrong you believed everything the church taught. Now you're saying you didn't believe it from the 70s. Were you lying to Mr. Armstrong or are you lying to us? And he's over. I attended that meeting. But it was sad. We were friends. But it doesn't stop what you have to do. We don't really know where Daniel was in the intervening years, but he was called back to duty in Chapter 5.

He was on call. God never left him. He knew that. And all of us are always on call if God wants us to do something. Daniel 5.1, Belshazzar the king made a great feast till a thousand of his lords drank wine before the thousand. While he tasted the wine, he commanded them to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem.

If the king and his princess, his wives, his concumines might drink therein. Sacrilege. This was interesting. They brought the vessels out. They drank with them. Verse 4, they drank the wine, praised the gods of gold and silver of brass and iron, the wooden of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote, and his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, his knees smoked one against another.

He lost it. I mean, I would too. If a hand showed up on the wall of the hand and started writing, I would be kind of shook too. He didn't know what to do. It was scary to him. Verse 7, the king cried aloud, Bring the astrologers, the caldilians, the soothsayers. And he said, Whoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation, shall be clothed with scarlet, have a chain of gold, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing, nor make known the interpretation. And the king's trouble, these countenance changed, and the lords there were astonished. Verse 10 says, Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king, and his lords, came to the banquet house. And the queen spoke and said, and again, this is probably one of the queens, may the queen mother, or one of the wives of Nebuchadnezzar, someone who is older, obviously, said, O king, live forever, let not your thoughts trouble you, or your countenance be changed. There is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the holy gods, was found in him, whom the king Nebuchadnezzar, your father, said, I say, my father made him master the magicians of the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the sous-sayers. For as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpretation of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts were found in this same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, let Daniel be called, and he will show you the interpretation. This queen had remembered what had happened, and she called him in. Sometimes we're forgotten for a time. Are we concerned or content?

Paul talked about being content in whatever shape you're in. By this time, Daniel wanted nothing from Belteshazzar. He was content where God wanted him. With God, you have to come to a point in your life where you're content with whatever God gives you. You may have fought the war, you may have suffered, you may have been delivered, you may not. You have to learn to be content. And you finally understand the ends of Psalms 23, that goodness and mercy will follow you. All the days of your life. But it's in the future. Babylon fell that night. Daniel may have felt as if he was done. His reputation had to be known because he didn't want anything from Belteshazzar. And that night, the Medes and the Persians took Babylon, and the empire ended, and a new one began.

In Daniel 6, Daniel's got to be 80 years old by now, maybe even older, because looking at the dates of the empire and his captivity, he had to be up there. Verse 1, though, it says, Please, Darius, to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, which should be over his whole kingdom. Just like today's governments, you set up districts to rule, to manage the affairs of state, give account. Verse 2, over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was the first, that the princes might give accounts to them, and the king would have no damage.

Just like governments today, there's corruption and graft. They were taxes, and people could steal them. The king trusted Daniel. Somehow his reputation, what had happened, I'm not sure how or why, but he trusted Daniel. Verse 3, this Daniel was preferred above all the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. He liked Daniel. An excellent spirit. Preferred because of that. Honest. Integrity. Ethics. The king wasn't stupid.

He knew there could be a bezelman. He knew there could be trouble, and he had to have someone he could trust. Why are you that person? Our Ambassador College students, when we had projects overseas, I was fortunate enough to be able to set up all the projects, except for the dig. Mr. Armstrong had that before I was there. In fact, I'd suggest projects, and he'd say, well, do we have a budget for it? And he said, if you can find the money, you can set the project up.

So I found the money in his budget when we had the projects, and I just learned to negotiate. And then we did. But those projects, it was fascinating to me, because we had picked students to go over to Jordan or to Sri Lanka or to Thailand or wherever, and they got known for their honesty and their integrity. So much so that in Nepal, the queen, the last time I was there, she asked me, can your students run our $92 million of foreign aid?

There are still Daniels today. Whether you're 12, 15, 20, or 80, you can still be a Daniel today. The queen saw that. After our students have been there a couple of years on the projects, she said, wow, they're honest. They don't do anything. If they manage this, the graft and the corruption will go away.

But it still happens. Almost all the projects are that way. The first year, we'd send people, and they'd always say, can we keep them for another year? We know you hand-picked these people. And I'd say, no, you can't, or send another group. The second year, oh, yeah, you hand-picked these people, too.

And we want them. I said, no, they'll go away. The third year, they said, just send us anybody. They realized that these people had ethics and integrity. You could teach that, and they would do it. Again, an accident of spirit was found in them as well. Again, Daniel had to work with people that didn't believe in God, that wanted to be dishonest. Sometimes being honest can evoke anger in other people, especially people who want something, and you stand in their way. They couldn't take advantage under Daniel, and it did. It made them jealous, made them envy his position. He held them to account, and they didn't like that. Verse 4, the president and the princess sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no occasion or fault for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

Could this be said of you? I would hope so. It should be for all of us. In 1980, Mr. Armstrong was still living in Tucson. He'd had a heart attack, and the receivership had happened. The treasurer was in Pasadena. My wife had actually worked in financial affairs for a time on the executive floor, and the fourth floor of the whole administration was the top floor. They asked her to come down and work in Mr. Armstrong's office with the treasurer and the people there, because she was good at what she did.

During that time, there were some people that worked in there that were doing things wrong. It bothered Michelle. It bothered the other girls that worked with Michelle, the young ladies there, because some of the people were doing things that were just wrong. So Michelle had to go ahead and tell them. She said, hey, the girls don't like this.

We don't want to do this. They took her aside and talked to her. They told her, Michelle, your problem is you're a church member. If you weren't in the church, we'd get along a lot better. This is working for the church with some people who had been baptized, obviously not converted, doing things wrong.

People often get in positions sometimes that do things wrong. What do you do about it? In her case, she came to me and said, what do I do? I either quit the church or quit my job. I said, quit your job. That's obvious. She said, this is going to hurt you. It's going to cause you trouble.

I said, probably, but that's all right. I'll go through it. That's not a problem for me. God gave her a beautiful job. Was she walking through the valley of the shadow of death? In some way she was. Was God preparing her for something else that was going to happen? You never really know what is going on and why God does what he does.

I think she was being prepared, frankly. It was one of those things a few months after she had quit, the same people that had talked to her called me in, because I tried to stop some things that were going on, too, and they knew what I knew, and they knew the things that were going on. I had seen people who tried to stop things before, some things that were wrong, some things that weren't, and usually they got in trouble.

I found most of them were doing it because they wanted to be David Slaying Goliath. They wanted to be important people. They wanted to have position. So I thought about it, but I went and told them that they shouldn't be doing what they're doing. They said, we know what you know. There were six of us on that trip. I should preface this because 10 days before I was called in by these people, I had prayed to God, and I said, God, if you want Mr.

Roberts to know what's going on, you have him ask me these questions. And I laid out three or four direct, specific questions, things that I had never been asked before, not likely to be asked, but I didn't want to go through what others had done. So here I am 10 days later being called in, and they said, we know what you know. There are six of us on the trip. The Bible says two witnesses. There are six of us and one of you.

We know what you're going to say. You're going to tell the truth. We're all going to lie. We'll destroy you, your marriage, your family, everything you stand for. And I said, I'm not planning on saying anything, because I wasn't. They were still afraid of me. And so a couple months later, the treasurer came and told me that Mr. Armstrong wanted me to go back to school full-time for a law and accounting degree. I'd already done most of an accounting degree. And it made sense because the receivership had happened. The lawyers there didn't really understand what we did.

Mr. Armstrong wasn't over there preaching Christ and doing what they were trying to say he was doing. And if that's what Mr. Armstrong wanted, not a problem for me. I always did what I was told in that. But it wasn't my job to remove anybody. And so I waited. What do you do with those things? Do you take them in your own hands? If you do, that's how splits start.

That's how problems happen. I simply prayed and asked God, if you want to know, have them know. Then I'll sit. They were still afraid of me. And when they took me off the plane, they hired a young man who wasn't in the church. And I went out and taught him. He was a nice young man. I taught him all the things he needed to do because there was a trip coming up. In my classes and things, they weren't difficult.

Again, without someone in the church on the plane, they could do what they wanted. No one would get in their way. So during those months, I taught him how to do the job. Well, they were looking for ways to trap Daniel. Jealousy, money, power, the usual.

People are jealous of people who do well, who stop them, make them look bad, or simply know what they're doing. And rather than improve their ethics and their ability, they get angry. They want you to leave. They look for things to accuse. Satan's way is to push everybody down, and you look taller. Christ's way is to step up on the ladder and bring people with you. Two ways of looking good. One's being good, one's trying to harm, one's trying to help. The Persian leaders were watching Daniel. They wanted to find something they could do to him and let it hard for anything they could accuse him of.

They couldn't find anything. That's the way it should be with you, with me, with all of us. Too honest, too ethical. Notice the only way they could get Daniel. Verse 5, Daniel 6. Then said these men, We will not find any occasion against Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. They hadn't found anything, so they had to trap him with his religious practices.

Daniel would never desert God. To give you eternal life and to give me eternal life, God has to know this about you and about me, about each of us.

You also need these stories to help you. Stories... I always found a story in the Bible that matches what I was going through. If you look at that, you know what to do or what not to do. And that happens. You're going to need them more as we approach the end. We're so close to the end that things are heating up that God has to be close to you and me and all of us to make it through that end time.

Verse 6, the presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and they said to him, King Darius, live forever. Flattery. People are often taken in by flattery. And they brought a group of men with them to set this in motion. They want to make it sound good, and with all these people who are agreeing, it must be the right thing to do. Verse 7, all the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, the princes, the counselors, the captains, they bolted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of you, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

Verse 8, now, O king, establish this decree and sign the writing that it can't be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which alters not. Makes it permanent. Wherefore, King Darius signed the writing and the decree. They knew the king like Daniel, and they had to make this permanent so he couldn't back away from it. Do you think it doesn't happen today with people?

Mr. Armstrong liked me. I was always honest with him. When I became his aide, I promised him I'd always tell him the truth. No matter what. Often there's a sad outcome of statements that you get talked into. And Darius, you get talked into one. Your boss may not see the intent behind something that's done to you. You have to let God take care of the outcome, not take matters in your own hands. Like the words of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, live or die, God is God. He delivers you as God, if he doesn't, he's God.

Those are the things you have to be willing to do to obey. Now, Daniel was in this situation again. Verse 10, Daniel knew that the writing was signed. He knew it. He knew the decree. He knew the whole thing. He went to his house. His windows were being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, kneeled on his knees three times a day, prayed, and gave thanks before his God as he did before.

It doesn't change what he's going to do. God doesn't know what we're going to do. God knows what he's going to do. And these men assembled, verse 11, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before God. They knew what he was going to do. They already knew what he was going to do. No, he could have closed the windows. He could have gone to a prayer closet. He could have decided not to pray for 30 days.

Is that what we do? It's easy to find excuses sometimes. They knew what I would do, Mr. Armstrong. A few months after my confrontation with them, Mr. Armstrong had a trip planned to go over to the Philippines. He had campaigns there, and then over in Hong Kong, a campaign there in Japan and Thailand. And I knew about that.

I went out to help load the plane. I wrote Mr. Armstrong a letter. Because they had told me, the treasurer said that he wanted me to go to school. So I wrote a letter and said, Mr. Armstrong, I understand you want me to finish a law and accounting degree. The classes have always been easy for me. If that's what you want, I'll do it. But I said, you've got your campaigns. I'll be praying for you.

And I wish you well in that. I hope everything goes well. And if you need me, give me a call. I'll come out. That was all I wrote. I wrote in the big typewriter so he could read it with his magnifying glass. It was interesting. Darryl told me what happened. I helped him load the luggage on a plane. I didn't get in the plane. When he went up to serve Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Armstrong said, Who are you? He said, I'm Darryl.

Where's Aaron? He's not flying. Why? I don't know. But he wrote a letter. He goes back and gets the letter and gives it to Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong reads it, and he folds it up and puts it in his pocket, and he's mad. And his wife, the second wife he had, the one he had, the divorce, asked Darryl, What did you give Mr. Armstrong? He sold us a letter from Aaron.

She got on the flight phone on the plane. She had a radio telephone call to Japan where the treasurer was and told him that Mr. Armstrong got a letter from Aaron, and he is mad. The assumption was that I had written all the things that they knew I knew. I hadn't. But they thought I had. He was mad simply because he didn't tell me to go back to school, and he didn't tell me to go back to doing his stuff, and they hadn't told him that they'd take him off the plane.

That's what he's mad about. Nobody removes his people. But they assumed that when he landed in Hawaii, the hotel, he started getting telex after telex after telex, several feet of him, with all sorts of stuff in it. And he gets on the phone, he calls me, and says, Get over here right now. So I flew that morning to Hawaii to be on the trip. He calls me in, and he wants to know what's going on, and he asks me the very questions I'd prayed.

I thought, Boy, do I want to go through this? I thought, Gideon got two shots. I thought, No, I ask God, He's asking, I'll tell him. I told him the answer to his questions. I had to read the telexes. It's very difficult to read telexes about yourself, that all sorts of lies and garbage in them about you. But I was greeted with those telexes, and I had to read them, the lies of their witnesses, quote-unquote.

I was set up. I had no proof. I was alone. How do you prove something when you're alone? No one else is there to prove it. Satan hasn't changed. Neither have men with wrong desires. Daniel 6, verse 12. They came near and spoke before the king, concerning the king's decree. Have you not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, except for you, king, shall be cast to the den of lions? The king answered and said, yeah, that's true. I signed it according to the law of the Medecins of the Persians, which doesn't alter.

Yeah, that's right. I made it. Verse 13. Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, he regards you not, O king, nor the decree that you have signed, but he makes his petition three times a day. King, what are you going to do about it? Often there's a sad outcome to decisions you make, and Darius liked Daniel.

Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself. He set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. He liked Daniel. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to change it, but he couldn't.

I told Mr. Armstrong the telexes were lies. He wanted to believe me. He stated the old adage, Where there's smoke, there's fire. I said, Lawyer say, Throw enough mud, some of it will stick. I couldn't prove anything. I had to trust God. Your biggest test by God is when you're alone, with no help, no proof. That's when you really trust God. It's nice if you have ten witnesses you can line up.

That's great. They can verify. You're by yourself is not that way. Verse 15, These men assembled to the king, said to the king, You know, O king, the law of the maids and the perversions, No decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed. They wanted it to happen. During that trip, I was kept in a separate hotel, In all the places we landed. I knew too much, and they had to keep me away, Mr.

Armstrong. They didn't want me talking to him. Mr. Armstrong had called me over at times. He found out where I was. And I had to read the telexes to him that happened over this time. And I told him the truth, and I felt like I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And it didn't seem like goodness and mercy were following me. But, you have to be honest, they kept sending the telexes.

I was fired seven times and thrown out of the church three times in thirty-one days. It's got to be a record. Hopefully no one else will beat that record.

I feel sorry for them if they do. But that can happen. If you want a hard job, read telexes about yourself to your boss. Things that aren't true with people willing to say, Yep, that's it. I saw it. It wasn't there. I explained the truth, and he'd say, Well, your attitude's right. Their attitude's wrong. They're angry. But why aren't people saying good things about you? I said, Mr. Armstrong, I've flown with you for seven years already. Have you ever gotten the telex about me, good, or bad? Well, no. I said, they're soliciting this. No one even knows where you are.

It's not like the day where you can look up on the internet and whatever. Back then, you had telexes. Nobody even knew where Mr. Armstrong was. What hotel he was in or anything. I said, they're not going to wake up this morning and say, Oh, I think I'll write Mr. Armstrong about Aaron Dean. Let me see. Where is he? Oh, I think he's in the Manila Hotel in the Philippines.

Now, what's that telex number? Nobody would know anything. He was getting telexes from people all the time. He said, they don't know how to reach you unless someone tells them, These are being solicited. It was difficult. Toward the end of the trip, Mr. Armstrong actually broke his typewriter himself so he could have me fix it. I was like, I can fix this stuff. He called me over and said, Did anybody see you come in? I said, I don't think so.

He still sneaked out. I said, well, why? He says, they're trying to kill me. I said, what do you mean they're trying to kill you? He said, they kept me up until two o'clock in the morning last night telling me with all this proof we've given you, how come you haven't just fellowshiped Aaron and fired him and thought him out?

He says, they want to be at my deathbed if they give me a heart attack to say, who would be in charge of the church if I die? He was afraid. He said, they want me to just fellowship you.

They want you gone. They wanted Daniel gone. Mr. Armstrong didn't know the truth about all of it, but he always said, your attitude's right, theirs is wrong and angry. Daniel 6, 16, they wanted Daniel gone. The king commanded, they brought Daniel and cast him in the dental irons.

The king spoke and said to Daniel, your God whom you serve continually, He will deliver you. Is this hopeful? I think so, because he liked Daniel. 17, the stone was brought, laid upon the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet ring, and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. Again, they wanted him gone permanently. The king went to his palace, passed the night fasting.

Neither were instruments of music brought before him. His sleep went from him. He didn't like what he had to do. Then the king arose early in the morning and went and haste to the den of lions. When he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice. I think he probably didn't think Daniel was alive. He really believed what he said. Oh, Daniel, come on out. We know it doesn't happen to you.

No, he's worried. He cried to Daniel. He said, the king spoke and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God whom you serve continually able to deliver you from the lions? Had he really believed his own statement that God would deliver him? Daniel said to the king, King, live forever. My God has sent an angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me. For as much as before him, inincency was found in me. And also before you, O king, I have done no hurt.

I remember Mr. Armstrong. I told him, I said, Mr. Armstrong, if Mr. Armstrong is going to help you, keep you in good health, send me away. I didn't ask to fly. You asked me. I don't need this. The only condition I gave him was, I said, I'm telling you the truth. I'm not going to run away. But if it helps you, send me away. He said, no, stay. I went through another few episodes the next few days, and we're finally on our way home. On the flight home, Mr. Armstrong said, don't worry, I'll get to the bottom of this. Again, I know your attitude's right, and theirs is wrong, but, you know, whether there's smoke, there's fire, I'll figure this out.

We landed. Mr. Armstrong went home. I put the jet away. I got home about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Michelle was at work at her other job, which was a wonderful job that she was enjoying life. When I got home, 50 minutes after I was home, the phone rang. It was Mr. Armstrong. It says, Aaron, leave town immediately. Your life's been threatened. I jumped motels for over a month. Literally. They never stayed more than one night in one place. Did these things happen? Yeah, when you get people involved that don't really believe God. Verse 23, Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel out of the den.

He was taken out of the den, and no matter of hurt, was found on him, because he believed in his God. And the king commanded, and they brought those men, which had accused Daniel, and cast them into the den alliance. They were eaten before they hit the ground. Often God lets people fall into the very trap they set. That's something we see. We see it in different stories in the Bible. With Daniel, we also saw it with Esther, with Haman, who set a trap for the Jews, hung on his own nooses.

Daniel had done nothing to them. King David, he never acted against those that tried to harm him. He attempted to at times, but he stopped. That's the key. God knows when, how, and if he should be delivered. If something needs to be done, you have to have faith, keep a good attitude. And your chances of God helping miraculously are much better. He does help. He never takes matters into your own hands, unless it's your job to do so.

Armstrong saw through what was going on. It was during this time, while he was in Tucson, he took a drive in the afternoons, called the church's legal department, and set up the Council of Elders. It took him a little over a month or so to do that. And the document that he had signed and notarized and written out appointed a Council of Elders, and their job was to, if he died, to appoint a successor. All the things that happened would not have happened. Had not Michelle had to leave, had not I been called in, taken off the plane, had not all these events happened, they would never have been challenging him, and he would have never set up a Council of Elders.

How much did God know ahead of time when he does? We never know. After that, he brought me back into work for him. I became his aide, and I served him till he died, in 1906, some 38 years ago. Verse 25, King Darius wrote to all the peoples and nations, languages that dwell on the earth, Peace be multiplied to you.

I make a decree, in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God. Steadfast forever, his kingdom, that which will not be destroyed, his dominion shall be even to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. As always, it has to be about God. It's not about us. It's about God's glory, praising him for what he does. Verse 28, So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

As a young man, I knew the world would attack me. I expect all of us in God's church to be attacked over the next few years in different ways, with different decrees, with different mandates. It was sad to see part of the opening ceremonies and all the virtually Sodom and Gomorrah that they started with.

The world has fallen apart. Again, I was prepared to fight against the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans and the other people that were outside there going to make me. They didn't know God. I figured they'd try to make me do things. There were people that didn't know the truth. They were under the power and sway of the God of this world, of Satan.

But as a little young boy, I didn't think that would happen in God's church. Although I should have. The apostles, I think, thought this as well. When I sensed the frustration in Paul and Peter and others of people and John, people that turned on them, they didn't have an experience or history of that happening. They baptized people. They started keeping the Sabbath or doing whatever they needed to do.

And then they slowly dissolved and kept other doctrines and changed things. They had no internet. They had no booklets. They didn't have Bibles. It was real easy when the miracles stopped to change and to make God seem better, to become agnostic. Or, hey, if Christ forgives sins, if we sin more, Christ forgives more, and that makes Him better. I mean, they can come up with all sorts of things, and they did. I think that's why we were so frustrated. Frustrated. When Ananias and Sophia were killed, it put fear in them all.

But later on, things happened, and people didn't die, necessarily. We had Simon the Sorcerer, who wanted to buy the power. He wanted to have people following Him. And Demas and Dottrophes. Dottrophes is fascinating in that John, who was with Christ, then someone, and he will let them speak. These people had to be well-spoken, nice people, kind of like Koro. When God took them, the next day, people said, Moses, you've killed our friends. Moses didn't cause the earthquake. But that's what happens. People that are talented, who want to look good instead of being good. You can put on a front, but it's got to be in your heart and in your mind.

It's got to be there forever. Power and position have no place unless God gives it to you. The church had just started again. The apostles had no history. They should have known from the parable the terrors, the wheat, the terrors of things, but too often, they and we assume people are closer to God's kingdom than they are. And sometimes things are done wrong, not deliberately, unintentionally.

Can you stand up to society if it wrongs you? I think you can. We're ready for that. Can you stand up to someone who professes to be in the church if they wrong you? People that you work with or whatever. More importantly, can you forgive or do you carry a grudge? I've seen people carry grudges for years to try to get back at the people that they felt did them wrong.

I've always used the stories in the Bible to get me through difficult situations, because it's always the story. When I became Mr. Archibald's aide, I read every aide in the Bible, Abraham's servant, Elisha's servant, they got leprosy. Don't do that. I always thought it was a no-win situation with Abraham. Because with Isaac, you're going to find a wife or your boss. I don't want to find a wife or anybody. That's a no-win situation there. Nobody knows what somebody else likes. But God helped him, too.

But I figured if God is going to put me in something, I'm going to have to draw water from the well with somebody, make it work. I always use the stories to get me through those things. I imagine young Timothy, Polycar, Polycretes told stories about the apostles that died, lived, about John, things that Christ did. They had troubles.

All of them did. They're dealing with carnal people. At age 21, when I was asked to work and fly, work with the people of God, I didn't really believe there'd be problems at those levels. But there were. Most of those people that caused those problems, back in virtual Harlem, were gone.

They were dead. Most of them left the church, sadly. I don't even know if they had God's Spirit. God knows. I pray that they didn't. They had the second resurrection. If they did, I prayed they repent. Repentances to God. I don't have to know whether they repented or not. But what was considered the top man in the church, some of the things I had to witness, were not good. When I witnessed these things, that's when I really started using the complete stories in the Bible.

I realized that, yeah, not everything happened good. Some things were bad. I have a picture of the Council of Elders. David Armstrong died. We had a dinner the year before, and all the Council members were there. Most of them were early students at college. Some might have been ministered for 30-40 years. Look at that 12 men standing there. I'm the only one still alive. Half of them left the church. Some of them started their own churches.

Different things happen. God knows. These are judged, not me. I want them all to make it in the kingdom. They're all friends, people I worked with. We've had these same things happen in the United Church of God.

We've had splits. You know how not to have a split? Have humility. Humility is the key to it. Splits are over pride, over hurt feelings, over wanting power and control. We lose friends, even family. Probably everybody in here has a story to tell with some friend or relative who's left. It hurts, but we should recognize it's not a new thing. In Jude 1, verse 4, I'll just read it to you in one verse, Certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ours has not been so much a problem with doctrine as with position, power, and money. People think and justify in their mind that they're being right when they're not. How often asked do they read the same book I read? How can people tell lies to take people with them? Which has happened. Do they really believe that God can't make it right if they're right?

You have to believe in God. It's got to be in your head. It's got to be in your heart. You have to know that. We have a past, present, and probably a future value. A history of things and problems. Unintentional, deliberate. Again, my stepfather's advice is to separate salvation from people. We've got some hard things coming out of us.

Don't let anyone take your crown. I've seen a lot of people. No one can take your crown, but you can give it up. Boy, if that's what a Christian is, I don't want to be one of those. Oh, you saw that was wrong. I'm not going to do that. I don't want to do this. I've seen people leave over other people's problems. God, the Bible, the truth doesn't change. People make mistakes. Pray about it. Ask God to help them. Help them to show you if you're wrong. Help them to show them if they're wrong. That's what true Christians do. Again, I pray that anyone who did leave repentance, I always tell repentance doesn't mean coming back to join us.

Repentance is to God, and He's the only one that knows that. I pray for them all. Christ made it clear it's not easy to follow God in Satan's world, and we are surrounded by that. He told them there'd be trials. He told them stories. He told them parables.

He told them things that they should have understood, that they didn't understand until after He died, and they had the Holy Spirit. Then they understood some of it. The apostles and the Book of Acts, we see the ups and downs in the church there. Paul, they wanted to kill him. He had led down through a basket. So many things we read in the Bible that we think, well, that was back then. No, it happens in your life.

It happens in mine. It happens in other people's lives. And God expects us to do what they did. Trust Him. Believe Him. Have faith in Him. Stromerstern told me a lot of stories of the early days in the college. Some of the young men there. A lot of them were similar to the disciples before they had the Spirit. Seeking power, wanting to be on the right hand to the left. It's interesting to hear Him talk about that. I tell these stories to you because the same God who helped them helped me, and to help you.

If you get in a situation sticky, God will take care of it. If you really, truly trust Him. It's not a health well of the Gospel that's about faith in God because it's irrelevant. If He helps you or doesn't help you, as long as your attitude's right, you're fine. You can indeed live godly in an ungodly world. Continually ask God to help. You can be someone who's a light to someone else. Look at what Nebuchadnezzar said. Look what Darius said about God. The only true God. One who rules everything. That's the same God you and I are worshipping today on His Holy Sabbath day.

He will do things for you, and you can set a pattern for other people. Inside the church and outside the church. That should be what we do. We all need good examples of character and endurance because, again, like them, we're here to glorify God. When you do that, you do glorify God. It's about them. If it's about you, you'll end up leaving. You'll lose out.

Jesus, the head of the church, said through Peter in 1 Peter 2, 12, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, whereas they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation.

Hey, you made it. They can make it. That's what it is. Daniel did this for the kings of Babylon and Persia. God knew Daniel.

God knew what he would do because he saw him do it. He knows you better than you know yourself. Do you really trust him? Again, as this world goes toward the Great Tribulation, we're going to need to have the faith that Daniel had, the prophets, all the men of old.

You may not do it for kings, but you can do it for others. And yes, though you walk the valley of the shadow of death, you don't have to fear any evil, for God is with you. Certainly, goodness and mercy will be with you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.