How to Survive in a Gentile World?

And now for the sermon, Mr. Tuck. Happy Sabbath, everyone! Good to see everyone. Hope you've had a good week. We've been so busy, as we, it's normal for us to be busy, but I was thinking the other day, every time I talk to somebody from the home office, I get another job.

So anyway, and the good news is I was reading news that actually, where they were saying in another 10 or 15 years, that all of us will have clones that will help us to do the work that we have to do. Well, frankly, I hope, though, I'm retired in another 10 years, so maybe I wouldn't need that at all. Brother, imagine if you were in a nation that was besieged by an enemy, your capital city was captured, and all the surrounding area was plundered and destroyed. That everything you knew disappeared. This was the case when King Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies into Judah and Jerusalem in the 7th century B.C.

The best of everything in the land was taken away by the Babylonian Empire. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that King Nebuchadnezzar ordered some of the most noble of the Jews, who were the children and kinsmen of the king, King Zenekiah at the time, that they would be delivered in the hands of tutors, and they would be educated in the ways of the Babylonians. And among them, there were four from the family of Zenekiah.

It was Daniel and his three friends, you know, that were a part of the captives that were sent there, and they were all of royal blood. So it gives you an idea of the caliber of people that Daniel and his three friends were. Let's go to the book of Daniel, though. In chapter 1, we see the opening of this. I won't be reading a great deal out of the book of Daniel, but in Daniel chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, It says, And it says, And so God allowed this to happen.

He allowed, in fact, Judah to be delivered into the hand of the Babylonians. This was around 604 BC when this began to happen. It was the beginning of the expulsion of the southern part of Israel that were taken on to Babylon. Now, let's look at verse 21 because it gives us the length of this book and the years that it covers.

In verse 21, it says, And we all know, of course, from history, the study of history, that Babylon fell about 539 BC. That length of time in the book of Daniel covers a 70-year period in the adult life of Daniel, what he witnessed and what he experienced. He lived during the demise also of the great empire of the Babylonians.

So it was the tail end of the greatness of the Babylonian empire that was going to fall within his very lifetime. And he would see the rise of another great empire. We don't see that much in the world today, but you and I are going to witness the rise of an empire that's going to occur in the very near future called the Beast that's going to emerge. So these things we will also have the chance to be able to see. But he witnessed very interesting times like you and I are going to witness some of the most exciting times this world has ever seen.

We're going to be able to not only leave this world, this current evil world, we're going to be able to see the greatness of the kingdom of God in the future. And see the fulfillment of many of the prophecies of the book of Daniel that we're very familiar with. But Daniel was brilliant. He was simply a brilliant student. And he held very high offices in the Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire.

He had that dubious opportunity to do that. His name in the Hebrew, by the way, meant God is judge. And that says a lot, doesn't it, about what God was doing through the prophet Daniel. That God was always in charge. You know, when one kingdom rises and another goes down, God is in charge. And God can do anything with regard to the nations of this earth.

He can raise one up, or he can bring it down to nothing. And, you know, if he could do that with a nation, where do we stand as far as God is concerned? If God desires that we have a wonderful future beyond our imagination, he purposes that. There is nobody that can stop that from happening. Not anyone. And let me tell you, brethren, that our greatest time is yet to come. We haven't seen the great times that God has planned for the church and what the church is going to accomplish.

In fact, it would send chills up and down our backs if we knew what God is planning for his church for the future. But believe me, God has many wonderful things planned for you and me, for the future, in his kingdom, and, in fact, in this world right now, today. We're going to see things and experience things that are going to be boggling to the mind. The theme of the book of Daniel is that God rules over the kingdom of men. That's a good thing to remember about that book, that God rules over the kingdom of men. And we must always keep this in mind because God ultimately is the one in charge, and nothing can be done that he does not allow.

He has to allow it to occur. He gave Israel into the Assyrians' hands. He gave Judah into the hands of the Babylonians. He allowed it to happen. And there was no way it was not going to happen when God allowed it to happen. But he had the incredible opportunity of not only living in Judah, but he lived in Babylon, and he excelled in both cases. He excelled wherever he was. Today, brethren, let's learn the powerful lessons from the life of Daniel.

There are some powerful lessons for us that we need to get, we need to understand, of how we are to live in a Gentile world. Now, why do I put it that way? A Gentile world. By Gentile, I'm not talking about race. I'm talking about the way that we live.

I'm talking about the lawlessness of our society. No, the Gentile world did not have God's laws. You know, they were ignorant of those laws. They had other principles. They had other things, but it was not God's law. And this country, even though we claim, in the United States of America, to be a Christian nation, unfortunately, by default, as we get farther and farther away from God, we are a nation, not of Christians, but a Gentile-thinking kind of a nation. And people, a lawless society, not built upon the principles of the Bible.

I think when some of the founding fathers began the United States of America, I think many of them had the principles of God's Word in mind when laws were made. And we're losing that, very quickly losing that. And of course, I was talking to someone about the shutdown of the government. I didn't know they had shut down. And you probably wouldn't know it either for about a month or two. Maybe there would be somebody who would if they're being paid by the government. And of course, I'm sure it would ripple through society in different ways. But it would be an interesting experiment, wouldn't it?

To see what would happen if there was no government for six months, in terms of what was done in Washington. But anyway, let's get back to again talking about Daniel. But we can learn from Daniel, brethren, to help us function in this society, which grows again further away from God every year that passes. Daniel was greatly beloved by God.

The Bible says that. He was referred to as the greatly beloved by the angel that came and talked to him. In Ezekiel 14 and verse 14, I'm not going to turn there, but it mentions that Daniel is among the three most righteous individuals that ever lived. You know, of course you have Job and you have Daniel and then you have Noah. These were the three most righteous. And the Bible says that they can only save their own skin. So you can't be dragged into the kingdom on somebody else's coattails. And we should mimic Daniel. We should mimic what he did, what he accomplished in living in a godless society.

And on top of that, he was a slave in that society. He didn't have the freedoms that we have. He was a slave in that society, told to do whatever he had to do, when to get up, when to go to bed, when to do the things that we take for granted in our own personal lives.

Let's talk about again some of the lessons that we learned from Daniel. The first thing I would say, a major lesson we learned from Daniel, is that Daniel rose to meet the trials that he faced. He was the type of individual that did not back down from the trials, but he rose to meet them. He was challenged by them, and he lived God's way of life in spite of them.

Think about again the fact that he was taken from his home and his family when he was a teenager. Now some of you were teenagers here. Imagine if you were taken off to some foreign country, and you were kept from your parents, they would not see you again, and you would be in fact treated as a slave. How would you react? What would you do? Well, what Daniel did is he made the best of it. He was put into an educational boot camp, if you will, in Babylon. That's basically what he was given, that responsibility. I say boot camp because he was a slave.

Sometimes men go to the military, and when you sign on the dotted line, you're like a slave, aren't you? Well, that's how Daniel was. He had to take orders from people and follow them. Well, let's go to verse 3 of chapter 1 here. And it says, Then the king instructed Asphonaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel, and some of the king's descendants, and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish. So these were strikingly good-looking young men, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge, and quick to understand. They were very sharp, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach, the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

And again, Daniel was brilliant, unparalleled. But it says, But the king apported for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies, and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. I've often compared this to ambassador training. But in Ambassador College, we got summers off. They probably had three years of continuous education here. No vacation time to get away from the rigors of learning. But they again were very sharp individuals, and the idea of the king was to feed them the very best, and that they would eventually be educated and be brought on in to the government, and helping with palace duties and different things.

But among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Michel, and Azariah. Now, all of us, I would imagine, if I asked you who Daniel's three friends were, you would say Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's amazing we've got that down. We don't have their Hebrews' names down. And yet we've got Daniel's name down, don't we? And we may have a hard time remembering that Daniel's name that he was given was built of Shazar.

And so these, you know, were again the cream of the crop, as it were, that were brought in. And Asphonaz was the chief of the eunuchs who had responsibility over these young men. It does make me wonder whether it would have been possible that Daniel himself was made a eunuch. You know, there's no indication that Daniel or his three friends had any children, or that they were married.

There is nothing at all with regard to that. You know, that we see within the pages of the Bible, at least. But again, maybe he wasn't. I don't know. But, you know, Asphonaz was, again, responsible for the eunuchs of the king. So he had that distinction. He had that responsibility. But despite what Daniel may have faced, no matter what he was going through, what he experienced in his life, he was deeply devoted to God and obeying God. Now think about your life, brethren, whatever you may face in your life. And through the years, I've talked to many people, you know, as a minister who had terrible marriage problems, and yet, you know, they were able, through their example and through their patience, work problems out.

In some cases, there were divorces, certainly, that occurred. You know, sometimes there have been circumstances in family, sometimes job situations, where people endured, you know, quite a bit. And yet, you know, continue to be very obedient to God in all that they did. Many were tested. I know I went through tests as myself when I first started keeping the Sabbath and began to obey God. And I could say every time God intervened, every time. And I kind of kicked myself. I didn't have more faith. You know, I think I've told you about, you know, the Sabbath issue that came up for me, and the experiences I had at Northeastern State University when I first started keeping the Holy Days.

You know, it doesn't go well when you tell your professor you couldn't take his test because it was the day of atonement. You know, it usually doesn't. My professor said, well, you'll flunk. We'll just have to give you an F. And, you know, I probably shouldn't number these because I know I've told you about it. But anyway, I missed the test. I flunked. That was chemistry, by the way. You don't become a doctor if you make an F in chemistry, by the way.

And that was my goal, to be a doctor. And so anyway, I was very, very disappointed by it. And I prayed about it. And when I went in, the next day, I was in the lab class, and my professor, Professor Iolan, came over to me. He said, don't worry about that exam. I said, oh, thank you. And he said, just do well, you know, on the next one that we have. And anyway, I found out that everybody flunked the test.

Everyone. And so anyway, I was his pet after that. I made an A on the next chemistry test. And we had many conversations. Dr. Iolan was his name. But, you know, Daniel faced trials certainly much greater than that and more costly than that, or could have been for him. But he was a very intelligent, a sharp man, even above others. And he learned quickly the language and the literature of the Chaldeans.

And he grew in wisdom and understanding. Kind of reminds you of what Jesus, what it was like for Jesus. That, you know, where it talks about when he was 12 years of age, that he grew, you know, in wisdom and understanding like Jesus Christ did. He found himself immediately in a predicament which no one would choose but made the best of it. Let's notice here in verse 8. You know, they were going to require them to eat all of the king's delicacies. But it says, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with a wine that he drank. Therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

So, you know, here he's right away. He's challenged by this. And remember, he was a slave. You don't say no to your master. Or what happens to you if you don't follow his rules? He has the right, certainly Nebuchadnezzar had the right to, you know, take his life immediately. No judging, no court or anything like that. That is the law. He could have lost his life. Now, God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. And so here we have an example of what we should be praying for.

Praying for the favor, our favor with our bosses, for our professors, for wherever we are. If there's a need that arises, God gives us the favor so that there is nothing that is impacted negatively as far as our work.

In fact, you know, oftentimes when people see that you have standards, they respect you much more. No, they don't see that much in the world today, that people have standards, that there are things that they will not do, that they will hold fast to their beliefs, religious beliefs particularly. But he purposed in his heart he was not going to eat it. And notice here, and it says in verse 10, And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my Lord the king, who has appointed you your food and drink. But why should he see your faces look worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king.

I guess it was always keep the king happy. And if you do anything, the king is not happy, it's not going to be a good day for you. You know, heads begin to roll, except here it would be literally. People's heads would be rolling. But anyway, Daniel again, the way he answered, you know, this individual who was the chief of the eunuchs, he said, look, he says, just test your service for 10 days.

Give us 10 days. And let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Now, here was a young man that had the wisdom to say, you know, say it in such a way, a respectful way. Just give us 10 days.

A test. And of course, he was relying on what he knew in terms of the laws of God with regard to the food. He couldn't eat the food. The meats oftentimes were offered to idols or the animals were killed improperly. Very often, in many of the non-Israelites parts of the world, people killed their animals and did not bleed them properly.

And of course, being offered to an idol would be another matter. And, you know, some of the things he could not do, he simply could not do. And of course, besides the unclean issue, you know, the eating of unclean meat. So he couldn't do those things. Well, sometimes, rather than when we face trials in our lives, what God wants us to do is simply deal with the circumstances at hand, with wisdom and understanding and faith. That's what he wants us to learn how to do. How to face up to a situation and deal with it in a calm manner.

To give an answer, somebody who has God's Spirit in them, the kind of answer that should come from a Christian. You know, I guess Daniel could have jumped up over the wall. He could have bolted and run, but he lived the best he could as a slave. No, it's like with us. We'll have challenges in our lives, but we've got to face the challenges. Don't run from the challenges. I don't know anybody that ever grew from running from a challenge. I mean, look at Jonah. What happened to Jonah when he ran from his responsibility? He didn't get very far, did he?

And we won't either, if God really wants us to do something. You know, we'll be like Jonah, and we'll face up to something much worse than we ever imagined for ourselves. You know, even early in the church, the apostle Paul, you know, had to talk to people who were in slavery. Had to instruct them as to what they were to do. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 7 over here. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 20. It says, In other words, You just deal with the circumstance you're in. And you obey God to the best of your ability.

And God will make possible for you to do things that you can't, you have no control over. God will take care of that. And woe be to somebody that mistreats one of God's people. You know, we've got a great protector, brethren. He's very merciful on us. And he's not going to let anybody lay a finger on us unless it's something that really would benefit us. You know, if somebody was just trying to be, you know, mean to us or whatever, you know, God would take care of that situation rather quickly.

And so Daniel rose to meet the trials, brethren, that he faced. And so we can, too, brethren, whatever those trials are, don't run from them, face up to them with wisdom and understanding and faith. Another thing about Daniel, Daniel was a real person.

He was a real person. That was probably one of the reasons why Daniel is one of the most righteous people that live besides Christ. Of course, and others like Noah and Job, he was a real person. He was a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of person. This is what you're going to get is what you see. What you see on the outside is what is on the inside.

You know, Daniel didn't put on a fake facade. He expressed what he really thought when he had to, and he had courage. He didn't put on heirs. Let's notice in Daniel chapter 2 over here. Daniel chapter 2. And, brethren, we, all of us need to be people that are able to say to the best of our ability that we're the same on the outside or the inside as to what we are on the outside. But here in Daniel chapter 2, let's notice this. He says, "... down the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him." I guess it was the corned beef hash that may have caused this dream that he had. You know, sometimes you can eat a certain thing, and you have these dreams or nightmares. Really, this sounded like a nightmare would have been for him, at least. But it says, "... then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king, and the king said to them, I've had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream." I want to know what the dream is. You know, he couldn't remember the dream. And he demanded these wise men tell him the dream and then interpret the dream. And it was quite a dilemma because, you know, those who were the so-called astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the wise men did not have any way of knowing what the dream was, let alone the interpretation for the dream. This is when the fake people, you know, really show up here, who the fakes are. And these people were indeed fakes. It's like a lot of the astrology that you read, you know, in the newspapers. I don't know if they still have that or not. You know, the horoscopes that people sometimes look at. You know, in what they describe very often in them, you know, are things that happen to everybody, you know, on a given day. There's no astrology to it or no interpretation to it at all. But here, Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, and they were supposed to come up with a dream and interpret the dream. Or he said he was going to kill all the wise men of Babylon.

Now, Daniel didn't know the answer. He didn't know the dream either.

You know, he didn't really know what it was, and he didn't pretend to know. But here in verse 12, let's notice down here in verse 12 of chapter 2, it says, And again, here is Daniel, the kind of man that he is. And it says, And he answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, Why is the decree from the king so urgent? And then Ariok made the decision known to Daniel. And so Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. And so what he does is he goes back and he shares it with his three friends. And they make a decision to pray about it, to ask God to reveal this to them. And to seek God's mercy, as it mentions in verse 18 there, that God would reveal the dreams to them. And you know the story and the account of how God gave him the vision and the interpretation of the vision. Let's go on down here to verse 24.

And it says, So here we see a difference between the kind of man that Daniel was and the kind of man that Ariok was. You know, some people can be fake, and it's quite obvious that they're fake. But Daniel is really the one who went, in fact, to Ariok and told him he could answer or interpret the king on what the dream was and the interpretation of it. Daniel tells Ariok he has the answer, but when Ariok goes to the king, he says, This was not true because Daniel, in fact, came to Ariok.

And the reason here is because probably Ariok was trying to curry favor with the king.

That was his purpose in what he was doing.

Daniel had gained a reputation. He built a reputation on honesty, being an honest person.

The Bible says even a child is known by his deeds.

Kids from a very young age can have tremendous good qualities of character that are built in them.

But the proverb says that you can know the deeds of a child, and it sort of stays with them all their life.

Whether what he does is pure and good. And Daniel was that kind of a person.

Even a child is known by what he does, and people will always find out the kind of person that we are. And putting on a facade, brethren, for a moment by pretending something that is not true is contrary to God's way. So we want to be on the inside what we are on the outside, and vice versa. Remember the story of when God was selecting King David? He was going to choose King David over Saul.

And Samuel went to Jesse's family, and he was going to look over the sons. And the first one he saw was tall, he was handsome, and Samuel basically was saying, you know, as God is my witness, this is the king standing right here before me. This is the one going to be the king. And God says, no, that's not going to be the one. And he went through every son, and he was not to be found. And of course, David, what was he attending, you know, the flock? I don't know, he may have been the run of the family. He was one that, if you looked at the bunch of kids there, the sons, you would say, he's not the one.

And God told Samuel, look, I'm not like other men. He said, I don't look to the outward appearance. I looked to the heart of an individual. What is the heart of the person?

Well, brethren, what was important about Daniel was what was in his heart. He wanted to obey God. And God wants us, brethren, to again have a good heart, a real desire to be honest, and to be obedient to God. And the beginning place for that, as we're told in the Proverbs, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Well, brethren, we must, again, strive to be real people. Daniel was that kind of a person. It also says in the Proverbs, it says, He who covers his sins will not prosper.

But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. That God will have mercy on us if we confess before Him. And by that, I'm not saying we have to tell other people our sins, but we confess it to God. And we try to overcome the problems that we have, whatever they are.

Because God, remember, looks on the heart. He's looking at your heart.

Everyone in this room, He's looking for what's inside of you. And He wants to find what is pure and righteous. And then we exhibit that on the outside.

Another thing about Daniel that we learn about Daniel is Daniel had maintained, you know, even though he was a slave, he maintained his good name. He kept his good name.

So, like I said about a child in the Proverbs, tell us about a child. A child is known by their works. We are known by our works.

And, brother, it's important to sincerely perform good works in our lives. We should be known for being consistent in our thinking, consistent and faithful in our obedience and service to God, and the church and our fellow man, where we have opportunity. If we say something, we'll do it. If it is at all possible. That was the kind of person that Daniel was.

Again, do we consistently have that kind of faith and works in our lives that, you know, people say that, you know, I know this person will carry through and do this. They're given a job, given responsibility. You know they're going to do it. That there will be no doubt about it, that they're going to accomplish it. It will be a good job. Like, I don't know if you've ever had anything done on your house by a worker who didn't do a very good job. I think it happens to everybody, doesn't it? And, you know, and that person, of course, would not be invited back to do a job at your house, right? So the reputation begins to spread in the wrong way. My father, when he was, you know, around 45 or 50, injured his back, he had to retrain and became a refrigeration man.

And it was, my head is off to my father because he learned how to repair refrigerators, air conditioners. He just studied it out of a book. He studied it on his own. And he learned how to do all of that. And he started his own business when he was about 45 or 50. I can't remember, really, how old he was at the time. He had to stop as a truck driver because he injured his back severely. But there was no advertising he did as a refrigeration man. It was all by word of mouth. There was no internet. There was barely, you know, telephone back in those days, you know.

So even if you remember how, if you were in the country, you were on a party line. You'd have to tell businessmith, hang up, you know, we were talking to somebody privately. And she'd probably pick it up and listen to what was going on. But anyway, my father built a business on his reputation.

People would call him. He always came through and helped him. And he was doing fairly well for, you know, a man that picked up studying it from a manual, a book that he read. I'm not sure I could probably, I could do the thing that he did, but he rose to meet the occasion. But he had a good name in terms of, you know, his business. But let's notice here about Daniel in chapter 5, about Daniel's good name.

Okay, another king comes on the scene. And here's when the famous right hand right on the wall happens in chapter 5 here. And the king does not have an understanding of what the, what was written, what it meant, what the interpretation was. And so what happens is the reputation of Daniel is what causes him to interface with this young king. But in chapter 5 and beginning verse 9, it says, Then king Belshazzar was greatly troubled, and his countess was changed. He had seen again this vision. And his lords were astonished of the queen because of the words of the king. And his lords came to the banquet hall. The queen spoke, saying, Oh king, live forever. Do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countess change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. And king Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, and interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining the enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation. So again, it was his reputation.

And it says a lot about Daniel here, about his wisdom, his understanding.

And imagine the kind of wisdom that he would have gained in the halls of government of Babylon, the greatest empire on earth.

And so Daniel had a great reputation. Verse 13, Daniel was brought before the king, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, Are you that Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? And of course, he gave him the interpretation. But they had heard of Daniel by the ear.

You know, a person with a good name, brethren, has a reputation which precedes them.

I remember when I was at Ambassador College, and back in those days, we had War Minnesota. And when we were at college, oftentimes we'd hear about some young man or young lady that had been to War, and that had been a splendid example. The rumor of them came all the way from War Minnesota down to Big Sandy, Texas, to Ambassador College. And I heard about them before they got to Ambassador College. So in that way, sometimes the good name, you know, follows people. You know them, at least by name, I didn't know what they looked like. I'd never met them before, but I'd heard their names. It's like the same is true at Pasadena or at Bricket Wood. Some people I'd never met, but I heard their name. People would talk about, you know, that person, and, you know, different things about them. And so you had a sort of an understanding of them, an knowledge of them before they came. So, again, reputation procedures. In Proverbs 22, verse 1, it says, A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.

Loving favor rather than silver and gold.

You know, if you were Harvey Weinstein right now, your name is not worth a nickel.

And there are a lot of other people that, again, whose names have basically gone to the sewer. Because of things that they've been found guilty of.

So the Bible really shows, again, us that a good name is important. Reputation is very important. So, you know, the only way to develop a reputation, again, is to have high standards of character. And to be consistent with it. And you earn it over a long period of time. Let's go to chapter 6 here. We show another characteristic of this Daniel that we need to mimic in this day when we're living, you know, in a world that is basically a Gentile from the standpoint of being a godless kind of a society. But Daniel was a man who was faithful, and he was a diligent worker. He was a hard worker. Daniel 6, verse 1. And it says, And it pleased Arias, this is after the beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire, It pleased Arias, to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps to be over the whole kingdom, and over these three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them, so that the king would suffer no loss. And it says, And it says, And it says, And this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and the satraps, Because an excellent spirit was in him, And the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. Imagine this. The potential here is that he is by default, he is the emperor, as it were.

So he was very highly regarded because of his work, of his diligence as a worker. You know, we can gain the same kind of reputation, wherever we are, whether we're talking about school, we talk about on the work, at work, or at church, services being the kind of person again who is very concerned about, you know, how things are done to make sure they're done properly and in order, and to follow the instructions of whoever has given the instructions. That it would be accomplished even to have an attitude of going above and beyond what others would do. Let's notice over here in Proverbs 3, Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3, in verse 13.

It says, In her ways a ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. You know, all of us want peace in our lives, don't we? Well, this is how we do it. This is how it's accomplished. We want pleasantness in our lives. If we are the kind of people that are diligent and apply ourselves, we will have peace in our lives. For obedient to God, we do what God has instructed us to do, and the laws that he's given to us, we have his favor. God will bless us, not only give the favor of blessings from him, but he'll give us favor in the eyes of our employers and those who are above us in responsibilities that we have.

It says, We have to retain, again, wisdom and understanding in our lives and continue, again, to be the kind of people that are diligent and hard and faithful workers. Wisdom brings its own reward, brethren. Pray for wisdom in making choices in your life. Poverty can come with wrong decisions that we make. A lot of times people do face poverty in their life because they make the wrong decisions consistently.

Over in Proverbs, let's notice this proverb. It's one of my favorite proverbs that are here that really are encouraging. Young men and women think about this as you work toward careers in your life. As you go to school, think about what it says here. But here in verse 29 of chapter 22, it says, Do you see a man who excels in his work?

He will stand before kings. He will not stand before unknown men. In other words, he's going to be standing before the movers and shakers. The people are going to make a difference. They're going to accomplish things. And I really feel honored to stand before all of you kings for the future. And have that opportunity to do that. But a man who does exceptional work becomes known for that. And Daniel had the right attitude about himself. He was humble. But he applied himself to every duty that he was given, even as a slave he did.

Here's another quintessential quality that Daniel had, brethren. Daniel maintained contact with God through prayer. That was his strength. That was his strength. That's what he was able to accomplish so much because of his relationship with God. It defined his character, what it would be, and what he would do.

That he was someone, the kind of person that, again, went above and beyond. And for a sharp individual like he was, he didn't rely upon that sharpness.

He pushed himself and he applied himself. But let's notice this in Daniel 6. You know, when Daniel began to excel, of course the other governors and the state trappers did not like that. Didn't like the fact that here this Jew was put over them. But here in Daniel 6 and verse 5, notice that, Then these men said, What shall we find? Any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. Daniel had impeccable character.

He wasn't involved in scandal. They couldn't get him that way, and bribery wasn't involved that way. They couldn't do that, but they had to nail him on his religion, the things he believed.

And so these governors and state rats throng before the king and said to him, and of course they pander to him, and tried to impress him that way. And it says, King Garias lived forever, and all the governors of the kingdom, the administrators, the state traps, the counselors, and the advisers have consulted together to establish a royal statue and to make a firm decree that Whoever petitions any God or man from thirty days except you, O king, shall be cast to the dead of lions. What a setup here! And now king established the decree and signed the writing so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and Persans, which does not alter. Therefore, king Garias signed the written decree.

And notice this. Again, this is the character of Daniel. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and he drew his curtains. Now it doesn't say that, does it? It says, In his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. He made a habit of this. It wasn't a change in what he did before. And then, of course, the problems began, and it wasn't long before Daniel, we know the story, was thrown into the pit of lions.

And these men tried to, in fact, trap Daniel, ended up being the ones trapped as a result of it. But we see again, in Daniel, he prayed on a continual basis. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, it says, And the Bible tells us that we need to be consistent at prayer. Romans 12, verse 12 talks about that. That we are to continue in prayer, that we don't give up. Christ gave the example in the parable, remember? He says, so that people would not faint in prayer, He gave the parable of the importuding widow before the judge.

That she keeps bugging the judge until she gets an answer, basically, of what she's praying for. And we're not bugging God when we go and ask over and over again for something. He wants us to do that. He wants us to be sincere in seeking something. And you know, if we're not really sincere about it, we're not going to pray for it over and over again, are we? We'll give up. We didn't really want it anyway.

We didn't desire it.

Is there something you've been praying about for 10, 15, 20 years? In your life? That's what I'm talking about. Persistent. You don't give up. You go and you pray about it if it's, again, worthy enough until it happens. And, brother, this is something we can do, all of us.

So we look at these qualities of Daniel, the way that Daniel was, brother. This is what we've seen in the life of Daniel. We live in a world where we must associate with people on the job, or at college, or high school, wherever we are, in the communities that we live in. And they are of the world. They don't have the laws of God.

Maybe they're trying to live the best they know how. We don't judge them. But we use Daniel's example, brethren, to establish a right strategy of how we should be living as God's people. Jesus Christ said, we are the light of the world. So, brethren, let us be the kind of light that the prophet Daniel was in his own life. We have his example. Let's mimic it.