Living Righteously in an Ungodly World

Thank you for the special music, and good morning to everyone. Good to be here with you. Now, I was asked to come here. I would have volunteered, but I know I could have volunteered. So, Mr. Antion, of course, this year she goes back a long ways, mine goes back even further than his in some ways, which is fun. And the church here in Nohmarva. I don't think I've been here before. I may have driven through it. But Mr. Armstrong went all around to all the churches in major cities, mostly, so probably there. So, certainly appreciate being here for your 50th anniversary of the church. And throwing a party from my wife and I, this is actually on Friday will be our 50th wedding anniversary. So, I know we don't look that old, but hey. Einstein's right. You travel far enough, fast enough, you get younger. So, that was it. But we were married up in East Orange, New Jersey. It's north of here, 50 years ago. So, it was an interesting time. Almost didn't get married, actually. We were on a trip, my first trip, actually. And it was supposed to be three weeks long, and six weeks into the trip, we were still in Europe. I told Mr. Armstrong, I said, Mr. Armstrong, I'm supposed to get married this weekend. So, I actually flew back from Paris to get married. So, that's how close I came to not being married.

But it's been 50 years of unusual things.

The sermon I've chosen for today, you know, you've done 50 years, and hopefully I can help you do another 50 if it lasts that long, which I don't think it will. But if it does, we've always missed the dates. The apostles missed it by 2,000 years. We've only missed it by about 35 or 40 now, so far.

But people have kind of quit putting dates on it, but eventually 6,000 years will be up, and we'll start the 7,000 at the millennium. And we appreciate that. But my life in the church started when I was young. And I went to Imperial schools. A lot of people didn't know that the church had a grade school and a high school, along with the colleges. I went through 12 years of that. During that time, I memorized most of the Bible. One of the Psalms was Psalms 23.

I always said that Psalm every year in Imperial schools, memorized it the first time some 60 years ago, or more a little over. Growing up in the church, I didn't have to stand up against society. I had the feasts off every year. I didn't have to ask for a letter to get out of school. I didn't have to do any of those things. My parents always told me, if you tell the truth and do what's right, God's going to help you.

I kind of expected instant rewards for good behavior. I didn't really expect some of the things that would happen. By the time I was in seventh grade, however, I began to look at the adults around me. One of the saddest days of my life was to realize that you were all humans and made mistakes. I expected all the big people to be perfect in the church, as we all know we're not.

In some form or another, we all walked through the valley of the shadow of death at some point in our lives. In fact, looking at your announcement thing here, all the people in the back, I know all those people. Some kept believing the truth, some didn't, and different groups at different places. It's sad. They're all friends and people. God's the judge. He knows where people stand. But there's a lot of sadness that goes along with the joys that we get in that.

But as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death at times in our lives, only looking back do you see God's hand in it. That's one of the things that He does in preparing you for what He asks for you to do without telling you. God's never just, I wish you would sometimes, like Samuel. You hate Samuel. God, who's that? But He answered prayers in other ways, but He doesn't tell you.

You have to ask yourself, how do we handle things in those dark times? A lot of people give up and go away. Some people gave up the truth. They're not here 50 years later. And it's sad. But for me, I found the stories of the Old Testament were wonderful. I saw the difficult things they had to go through and how God delivered them. And I thought this was the greatest thing. Those stories back then of God only did them today. I love those stories. The heroes. Those are my heroes. You go back to Abraham, who leaves the land of Caledon. He waits and has a son. God makes a nation out of him. And, of course, in patriarchs, Joseph, who becomes the second man in Egypt, actually running the whole country. The things he went through. Moses raises his rod and parts the Red Sea. All the plagues of Egypt, all the things that happened there. Then they get to the Promised Land. Joshua parts the Jordan River and the walls of Jericho tumbling down.

And, you know, all the Samson, Gideon, all the people. Then David, who's slow Goliath, became king. Those people were incredible. And I thought, wouldn't it be great to have lived back then when God was doing stuff? And you don't think of it in present terms. And that's one of the things that we need to realize. So, again, in some form or another, all of them walk through the valley of the shadow of death, just as he makes all of us do it.

And we, for me, I always expected it from the world, but I never expected it among those in the church. And obviously, there are things that were all human. When we look back to it, we realize probably a lot of people that came to the church were not really converted. So you expect things to happen, but you don't really want that to happen. And so today I want to look at one of my heroes that I had in the past and kind of relate some stories to show that it's not the past, it's the present. God still does those things for you and for me today. And we should be hanging our faith hat on that to know God's going to do it. And so how do you live godly in an ungodly world? Well, I'm going to talk about the story of Daniel. So you can go to Daniel 1. We'll pretty much stay in Daniel so you don't have to be flipping back and forth through the pages and worried about whether you can keep up, because we'll be there. Of course, Daniel was a captive in Babylon, and he rose to the top of Babylon, kind of like Joseph did in Egypt to one extent. In conquest, back in those days, the knowledge was power. It always has been. And so when they took a country or something, they would steal a library. And I'm sure that Israel had a great library because of Solomon. Solomon collected things from all over the world, so that was their Library of Congress at the time. And when they took Jerusalem, they took the library. They also took the young men who could be educated to help run the various needs of the country they were going to because they wanted to use those young men and they wanted to train them. Many of us, most of you probably, have been transplanted to one place or another. Joe Hanley's in Ohio. I saw him a few weeks ago. And when you get transplanted and moved, it's difficult as children. My mom was baptized in 1954 or 5. I'm not sure exactly the date in that. I know she started listening right after I was born. My name's Aaron, but my mom hadn't read the Bible. I wasn't named after Aaron and Moses. She actually was an old black man down there. She really liked the name Aaron, so I got named after. And then about a year later, she started listening to the program and found out it was a biblical name. Now, most of my nords in the country, they read the Bible. They are named after characters. So people think you are and you're not. Although I found out when I was about 35, I was born on the Feast of Trumpets and didn't even know it. At the time, I went back to a Hebrew calendar and figured that out. But it was funny because my father, he was an incredible person. People really liked him. He was a star athlete, lettered in all the sports, played that. He actually played basketball with Jerry West. He was asked to play for the Lakers, the Minneapolis Lakers at the time. And he chose not to. They didn't pay enough.

He wanted to get married, so he worked for Link Belt Destruction. But it was interesting. If he had lived and not died, then I would have probably been playing basketball on Friday nights and having that because he had nothing to do with the church and I was a good athlete. My mom actually didn't tell me a whole lot about my dad. I learned more from my aunts and others than her. He was a good man, but he had a stroke when I was one year old. And a massive stroke. He was supposed to die. The doctors told my mom, he's going to die. My mom, no, God can heal him and she's praying for him.

All the Dean family, my uncles, it's like that. And then we're laughing at my mom because it's crazy religion and stuff. And the doctor says he's going to die. And he gets well and goes back to work after several months being unconscious and whatever. And God healed him and gave my mom incredible faith.

And then a couple years later, he gets killed in a... Well, they had a murder trial, because they don't know. They called it a construction accident because they couldn't prove it. But he was smashed between a wall and a runaway crane. You know, a ball and crane, they go three miles an hour under full power. And so they had a murder trial and they took all the pictures. And so most of the pictures of my father in the vault with the Indiana Jones, you know, arc somewhere.

And so... But the thing is, why did God heal him and then let him die a couple years later? My mom, when they did the funeral, they told her to move to Big Sandy with the widows. So we moved down to Big Sandy. And I started Imperial Schools down there. I moved there in 1956, which got me in touch with all the people in the church at the time.

You know, all the Hammer family, the Armstrong family, they were all aunts and uncles to me, in a sense. And so we're there. And then when I was in second grade, my mom up and decided to move to Pasadena, California, where the college was in the school there.

And then I went to school with all the Evangelist children, so I knew all of them, which would prove very helpful later on. But you wonder, when you move like that, there's trauma and things. You think, well, God's really not helping me. Why did God do what He did? So I asked the question, did God put Daniel into one of those captivity early on? And considering what God was going to do with Daniel and his friends, I think He did. But did Daniel know that? We read the Scriptures as if these people knew what was happening. And it's hard to leave everything you know and start over.

And if you think about Daniel, I'm sure Daniel said, oh, yeah, God's blessing me. Burn down my capital city, kill a lot of my relatives, drag me off into captivity, make me a eunuch. That's particularly tough. And then, boy, God's really on my side. I mean, I wouldn't be thinking that.

And so the thing is, Daniel writes his book years later, and he's older, and in all these things he says, and we found favor on the side of the king. We found favor here and favor there. Did he really think he was finding favor at the time this was going on? Most of the things bad in my life, I'm thinking, God doesn't like me.

And yet, they were useful in things that happened later on. And as you read the Bible, you need to put those stories into your life and say, okay, how do I get through traumatic situations that I'm going through? And that's what we have. So in Daniel 1.3, first three will start. The king spoke to Aspenaz, the master of the eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, the king's seed, and the princes, and they were the educated people, children whom was no blemish, well favored, scuffle in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understanding in science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning of the tongue of the Chaldees.

Again, Daniel was of royal blood, and he was probably trained probably in their imperial schools, by the priests and things like that, whatever they had. And he was there, and he was educated with the scrolls and writings, and those scrolls and writings were probably taken in the battles back to Babylon, so he could still read and study.

And you can learn things academically. I mean, a lot of Jews were taken captive, but did all of them do what Daniel and his friends did? No. A lot of them probably felt, hey, God deserted me. I'm deserting him. He really didn't help us. So who knows? Verse 5, the king appointed them daily provisions of the king's meat and wine, which he drank, nourishing them three years. At the end of that, they might stand before the king. And among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuch gave names, to Daniel, Galtos, Shazar, to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, to Azariah, Abednego.

This was commonly done when you took captives because you didn't want them to go back to their old country, or their old language. You wanted to assimilate into your culture, and that's what they were doing. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuch that he might not defile himself. Again, he knew the scrolls, he knew about clean and unclean meats, and he chose to observe them. Now God brought Daniel into favor in tender love with the princes of the eunuchs.

God was watching. Daniel is writing this later. I don't think Daniel is in favor at this point. He was watching. God hadn't delivered him before. God really liked me. Verse 10, The prince of the eunuch said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who has appointed me your meat and your drink. Why should he see your faces worse than the children of your sort? Then you'll make me endanger my head to the king. People worry about how they look with the things they do. In Ashburn, I was in King Nebuchadnezzar's head of temper, so he didn't want to lose his head. I found it interesting.

One of the graduates that I taught in the 1990s, an ambassador, a fairly intelligent girl, but she became a secretary to a lawyer in Denver. After he interviewed her and he hired her, he handed her the resumes of all the people he didn't hire. She started reading him.

In there was a 4.0 from Harvard, a 4.0 from Yale, a 4.0 from the other day. She said, why did you hire me? He says, I was really impressed with how you came across. You came across honest with integrity and things. He said, but I gave those to you because if you fail, I can get fired.

They're going to say, why did you hire this person from this small college that nobody's heard of? Yet you had a 4.0 from Harvard and Yale. If I'd have hired the 4.0, I'd say, who would you have hired? I got an excuse. I have no excuse. She did well, which I knew she would.

It's interesting. We think sometimes that way that God puts us on a test. And he doesn't know. He has to find out how we're going to react. And so he's worried about his head. He says to Daniel, they said to him, verse 12, Prove your servants for 10 days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink, especially not a very more vegetarian and clean meat diet, probably. Let our countenance be looked upon before you and the countenance of the children that eat the king's meat. And as you see, deal with us. So he put the gauntlet down before him and said 10 days.

I'd love to have that 10-day diet that makes you look really good. I think God probably helped. Otherwise, you could sell that for a lot of money. But it worked for them. So he consented and improved them 10 days. At the end of 10 days, their countenance appeared fairer and fatter and flesh than all the children which ate the portion of the king's meat.

Thus, Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they would have and gave them the diet they wanted. Often, we have some early tests in our lives that don't prove so difficult. This is an early test. Are you going to keep my food laws? The ones you've grown up with, you know what if they are or not. And it's simple. And like I said, if you're angry with God because of what he did to you, fine, I'll eat whatever.

And that's sad. I've had friends that did that. I had a friend in high school that went off the deep end early. He decided he was going to eat all the day at Tomah. And he says, well, since I'm eating all the day, Tomah may as well have a ham sandwich. So you're going to violate one, you may as well take them all. And that's what happens when you give up.

You think God's not helping anymore. And so, verse 17, as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Again, did he know this already? He hadn't had a dreamer vision yet. So he's writing this later on and looking back. At the end of the days, verse 18, the king said that he should bring them in. The prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

And the king commuted him. He had your audience for the king. Among them was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore, they stood before the king. And in all manners of wisdom and understanding, the king inquired of them. He found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm. Again, do you stand out?

Being different. In high school, I worked for, went down, actually started cleaning as a janitor. And when I was in my sophomore year of high school, and they liked me so well, he made me warehouse manager, and I set up the warehouse. The truckers would all come in, and they would talk like truckers talk because they were truckers. My boss, you heard him say this to Hadr on the corner, he said, Ah, shh, the kid's a Christian.

Don't do that. And it was kind of nice that he did that, but often you don't want to stand out, but it's better to stand up for something you believe in and do it. But Daniel, he did that. And again, what did it feel like to be chosen to talk to the king? It's a special feeling to come in before them.

And again, they said that they had ten times wisdom, and they stood before the king, but at this point they weren't. He's writing this later because they're not there at the next episode. And they were still pretty low-level servants. And when you're called in before a king, it's kind of interesting to talk to them. Having been presented to a few kings, I remember the first time I was presented to King Pouma upon him, Mr.

Armstrong said, this is a product of what we produce. He said, twelve years of imperial and four years of ambassador. I felt like one of those pirouettes in the thing you wind up and get in here.

But it's interesting. It's kind of spooky at some times, but it's also an honor, obviously. Again, did they know that God would do anything else with them at this time, other than they'd be put in the realm somewhere along the way? Again, it was exciting, but they were the staff. They had no one to really defend them. And again, many of you here have been recognized for your work, for your honesty, for your integrity, for the fruits of God's Spirit that works in that. And it feels good when they do that for you.

But for them, I said they had no one that could help them. They were kind of on their own. They knew the scrolls. And I often wonder if those scrolls were the things that helped them get through the things they did. So the excitement that you have and the fear you have. Like I said, I was asked on graduation day on Friday, I was supposed to go to Salt Lake City as a trainee, and the phone rang, Mr.

Armstrong, they called me up to page me, which they never paid anybody unless you're in real trouble. Which I was, I just didn't know it. But the phone, I picked it up, hello? Do you know who this is? I said, well, yes, sir, Mr. Armstrong. I said, what can I do for you? He said, well, what are your plans? I said, I'm supposed to go to Salt Lake City. He said, well, I want you to fly on my plane. And I said, well, I'm supposed to leave Sunday. He says, well, they'll understand. And on Monday morning, we left.

I mean, I had no trainee. I was stuck on an airplane serving meals at, you know, 42,000 feet. And I knew how to cook from my freshman year of college and stuff. I'd learned that, but cooking on an airplane is different. But anyway, I mean, that's all the notice I had. It was exciting but scary, to say the least. I served King Leopold on my second leg of that trip. I served Crown Prince Hassan. We went to Spain and in Mon Carlos. I mean, it was an incredible trip in which I had didn't under— there's no trainee you can get for this type of stuff.

It's just not available. But it is something that you do. And that happens. You just—is God? You put me here, you help me. That's kind of where it is. And many people have had to do things like that. But when I got on the plane—my dad said I was going on the plane. My stepfather, my mom, remarried out in Pasadena.

He took me aside and he says, He says, separate salvation from people. Separate salvation from people. He said, if you were there when Abraham's lying about his wife, I don't want you to hear that. You're there when David's sleeping with Bathsheba and killing Uriah. I don't want to be with him. You're there when Peter's denying Christ, so I don't want to be with him. You're going to find out that people will do things, intentionally or unintentionally, that will scare you.

That won't be what you've been taught for the last 12, 14, 16 years, in college and school. Separate salvation from people, which is true. And that's the thing. Daniel had to separate his beliefs from what Babylon was trying to make him into. And he did that very well. As we learn, because the next chapter, chapter 2, gives his first test. When he finally... Second year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, he dreamed a dream, and the spirit was troubled.

His sleep broke from him. He commanded the magicians and the astrologers and sorcerers of Chaldeans to show the king his dream. And they came and stood before him. The king said, I've dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spoke the Chaldeans to the king. In Syriac, the language zero, king, live forever, tell your servants the dream, we will show the interpretation. Now, that's the out for most soothsayers and famous people that try to give you your fortune. You give them enough information, they can create some story.

And of course, this is the story of the head of gold and that. And they could probably come up with the story if you'd have told them, yeah, the head of gold, that's you, king. And the silver people, the people that serve you. And the bronze people, the people that serve them. And the legs and the feet, they're just a peasants.

They come up with a logical story and that's what they would try to do. And say something pleasing to the king. Create something. But he didn't do that for them. Mr. Armstrong, sometimes he'd ask me to do things I didn't know. One time he asked me to find something Christ said to somebody about something. And I said, can you give me a little more information? And I don't know. He said, just start reading Matthew. I'll know it when I hear it. So he read the whole new told Gospels. Well, maybe it was Paul. So he read all the Gospels.

He read the whole new Testament. He just wanted me to read to him, I think, without asking me. But I had some fun times with him. Nebuchadnezzar had a temper, of course. And so he says, tell me the dream or I'll destroy you.

Again, Daniel wasn't in the top ranks at this time. Because he's not there with them when he first tells them this thing, when he calls them in to tell the dream. Because he has to ask about it. We read that in verse 13, The decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

And Daniel answered the king with wisdom, and Ariac the captain of the king's guard, which had gone forth to slay the wise men. He said, why is the decree so hastily from the king? And Ariac told him what had happened in there. So he really, when he says that they were there for the king, the wisest people, they didn't know that yet. And 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 know God was going to show him the dream.

I mean, can you imagine going to somebody and saying, give me a little time and I'll tell you what you dreamed the other night? Yeah, beyond my skill level, that's for sure. You know, and again, Mr. Armstrong asked me a lot of times, how's the trip coming? And I often had no idea. I just say, it's going fine, Mr. Armstrong. I say, God, if you want to meet these people, we'll do it. If you don't, then whatever. When you ask God for something, do you know that he's going to do it?

You know you're an answer, but the answer might be no. Not necessarily yes. But Daniel was going to be slain, and he steps on a limb, and he says, give me some time and I'll tell you the dream. A major act of faith. And sometimes we're put in positions where we really, really, really need God.

And he doesn't tell you what he's going to do. But he learns a lot. You see, God is not at our beck and call, we are at his beck and call. He knows what he will do. He has to learn what we will do.

And he does. We know that God revealed the dream of the image of gold in the chests and the flies and the nations. We know what that is, so I won't read all that story. But this probably is finally when Daniel realized God was really going to help him along. Because the answer is prayer. He gave him the dream and the interpretation.

I'm sure that gives... because every time you step out on faith and God answers, it builds more faith.

And those little tiny things, the stair steps in his life from starting with, I'm not going to eat unclean food, to I'm asking for time, God, you've got to help me, builds his faith.

Daniel 3, we know about this story, it's legendary. Daniel's not part of Daniel 3, though, which is interesting to me. It's about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast in the fiery furnace. I'll give my heroes the time to stand up. And the statement that King made was clear that whoever hears the sound of the music and the instruments bows down before the image and worships her, or else she'll be killed, thrown to the furnace. And when he calls, they tell him that Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego won't do it. And the King calls him in. Actually, he likes these guys. So he gives him another chance. You probably didn't hear the music. Well, I'm sure the music would blast loud enough you couldn't hear it outside the city.

So they give another chance, but you hear it going by now, and they answer him. The most famous statement they give. I'll read verses 16 through 18. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answer the King. Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace. And He will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, King, we will not serve your guys, 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. Where was Daniel? You know Daniel wouldn't bow down to the image. Where was Daniel? It's easy to stand behind a leader. I stood behind my straps all the time. I didn't worry about the plane. There's angels out there holding oaks up. It didn't bother me. He's on the plane. And I think this thing, the only thing I can say is God was testing to them to see if they would do it without Daniel. Daniel was probably out in some province somewhere or whatever. But that's it. We have to learn to think like God. You know, Mr. Armstrong, people would say, well, I think this. And he'd say, wait a minute. I don't care what you think. What does God think? That's really where all of us have to be. What does God think?

And the three men, they knew what God expected of them. They knew what the right thing was. But would they stand up without Daniel? I think that's probably the lesson there. For each of us, will you stand up by yourself alone? When God tests you alone, that's when faith is really built in that. And so I think that's where Daniel was. Daniel's friends caused Nebuchadnezzar to know the true God.

They were throwing the furnace, the people that threw them in got burned up, and they were walking around and come out and don't even smell smoky. And that's...can't even do that over a barbecue. But they did it. Nebuchadnezzar, Chapter 4, he's praising the God of these men because he says, to all people and all nations, in verse 1, that dwell on the earth, peace be multiplied. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders the high God has brought toward me. How great are his sayings, signs? How mighty is wonders?

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, his dominion from generation to generation. That's what he thought after this happened. Of course, he had a short memory because it wouldn't last. What does he have? He has another dream. In this dream, Daniel 4, 4, as I was at rest of my house, flourishing my palace, I saw a dream which made me afraid, and thoughts on my bed troubled me.

And I made a decree to bring all the wise men in. In verse 7, then came the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and Caesars. I told them the dream, but they could not make it known nor the interpretation. This time he tells them the dream. He remembers it, and he tells them what it is. And they can't make something out of this that's going to be pleasing to the king. I mean, it would start out that way because in the dream, of course, there's this giant tree, and it's beautiful and lush, and all the birds and the fowls are feeding under it.

Everything's wonderful and great. Of course, then it gets cut down and a band is struck around. I mean, I can see him making up something about the king. You're feeding everybody, you're taking care of it. But then you're cut down.

That's not a good thing to tell the king. So they probably just said, we don't get a king. We can't interpret this one. And so it was. But in verse 8, But at last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, whom is the Spirit of the holy gods?

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 vision of my dream that I have seen and the interpretation thereof. Again, a very odd dream. How would you interpret it? And he gives him the dream. We'll skip down to verse 17. Verse 17 says, Verse 18, But you are able, again, because the Spirit of the holy gods is in you. Again, a strange dream. The other wise men couldn't make anything up.

You know, Mr. Armstrong always told me I had discernment. And I said, well, maybe, Mr. Armstrong, if I do, God gave it to me. But I said, frankly, it's not so much discernment. I said, you know, I said, all these men that work for you, the evangelists and people, I said, I grew up with their kids. I spent the night in their houses. They would complain about stuff at the breakfast table. All I'm telling you is what they said at the breakfast table.

You know, it's not really a lot of discernment. They never expected this 12-year-old kid to be working there for you ten years later. I mean, that doesn't happen. And so they, I said, it's not really discernment, but if it was, God gave it to me. But I always worried, because I saw people in the Bible, the seeds of pride.

People are saying good things about you. Then you can get in trouble real easy. So you've got to be careful of pride. Even like Moses, when he said, do I have to bring water out of this rock, out of frustration? God said, oh, you don't get to go in the Promised Land. You didn't do it. I did it. So you don't take credit for things that aren't yours. And, you know, God gave wisdom to Daniel. He had to know how to use that wisdom.

When I became Mr. Armstrong's aide, I studied all the aids in the Bible. Like Abraham's servant, Elisha's servant, the good and the bad. I mean, some of the jobs he had to do.

I can't imagine having to get a wife for my boss's son. I think that's a losing proposition altogether. But things like that. But I studied it because I wanted to know, what am I going to do when these situations come up? Because that's where you look, to God. And so, how do you deliver bad news? And that's because this dream was bad news, in a sense, to him. It was a dilemma. Daniel, whose name, verse 19, the name was Belteshazzar, astonished for an hour.

His thoughts troubled him. King spoke and said, Belteshazzar, don't let the dream or the interpretation trouble you. And he answered, my lord, the dream be to those that hate you and to your enemies. That's a soft way of saying it.

This is a bad dream. I don't really want to tell you. But he goes and tells him what the dream means. In verse 24, he says, this is the interpretation. This is the decree of the Most High God, which is come upon the Lord the King.

He tells him, he's going to be cut off. Verse 25, they shall drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you to eat grass like the oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven. And seven times, seven years, will pass over you, till you know the Most High rules in heaven of them, and gives it to whomsoever he will.

Too many times people take pride and think, we did this. I've heard men in the works say, we built the work. We did this. No, God does all these things, not us. And then he tells him, because of the stump, he says, the kingdom shall be sure to you. You shall have known that the heavens be real. You will return to your throne, but seven years later. Work for king. Let my counsel be acceptable to you. I'm going to give you some advice here, Your Majesty. Break off the sins that you have by righteousness. Put your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, that it may lengthen your tranquility.

You don't have to go through this. If you repent and you change your ways, you don't have to do this. Trying to help him out. But all this came on Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 29, at the end of 12 months, the king walks in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. And it's amazing. The city of Babylon, the city of Babylon, the city of Babylon, the city of Babylon, the city of Babylon, the city of Babylon. It was an incredible city. And the king speaks in verse 30 and says, is this not the great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom of my might and my power, and for the honor of my majesty?

Oh my! While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from you. He didn't listen to Daniel's advice. Twelve months later, he's taken away. And they drove him from men, and he dwelt with the beast. It was fulfilled in verse 33, that same hour. What has apparently happened is God removed the human spirit from him.

He no longer could think in the same way as more like an animal. Have you ever given good advice and it wasn't taken? Or have something to say to someone that people don't really want to hear? If you're honest, you've probably been in situations like this. If you tell people what they want to hear, you're going to tell them the truth.

Probably not as severe as this in the time of Daniel, but it happens. I had to tell Mr. Armstrong things he didn't want to hear. In the 1970s, after his wife Loma died, he was his confidant, kind of his rudder. He believed a lot of things people told him that weren't true. I never saw him make a bad decision with all the information. I saw him make a bunch of bad decisions with partial information over lies.

I never blamed him for any of those things, because if you're giving bad information, you'll make bad decisions. That's just the way it works. And those things he didn't want to hear that other people kept from him that he didn't know about. And I had to learn how to say it. I wasn't always good at it, because I got fired several times. He didn't want to hear things that didn't fit the narrative he had been fed before, but I had to tell him the truth.

And that's when you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And you do have to fear no evil, no matter what anybody thinks. Will you be tactful? Daniel was always helpful. Again, he was able to separate salvation from people, because what God teaches is the truth. What people do sometimes isn't always correct. Again, Daniel wasn't always appreciated. He was helpful. We see for a time that Daniel seemed to even be forgotten about, because these things in the Bible take years to happen, even though they're a few verses apart. But it happens. And so a king comes up that didn't even know Daniel, basically.

Didn't even know about Daniel. And was he put to pasture? Was he retired? I don't know. He's older. He came into Babylon probably age 15 to 16, somewhere in there. Now we're toward the end of the empire. And so he's probably in his 70s or 80s, whatever, and doing a regular job. And probably he was glad to be out of the limelight for a while, not to be in those stressful situations. God does often give a reprieve. After Mr. Armstrong died, I had to make promises to Mr. Armstrong. I wanted to have a life. My wife and I had married 12 years at that time.

We deliberately didn't have kids because I didn't want to be an absentee father. People would come up to us and say, we're praying for you. We know you're barren, not having kids.

And I'm saying, God, please don't listen to these people. But it was one of those things where, you know, we wanted kids, we wanted to be parents, too, at the same time, and not away from them. And so it was interesting. Mr. Armstrong made me promise to be his aide. I told him, I don't want to be his aide.

He has his own staff. Mr. Armstrong looks at Mr. Cott. Your staff led you astray. And they'll lead you astray again if you don't listen. And the council of elders are going to set up things. There's a lot of promises made at that time. And Mr. Cott, the first week after Mr. Armstrong died, he asked me to lie from the pulpit, and I refused. I'm not lying for you. He wanted to create a legend for himself at that time.

There were a lot of things that happened, and I'm not going to tell him all. We'd be here all day. But it was one of those things that I never quit serving God. And I ended up teaching at the college, which I loved. Mr. Cott knew I didn't agree with a lot of things, and they didn't want to send me out to the field to poison a bunch of you people with the truth.

And so he put me in the college, and that way I got to poison every class for ten years. So it actually worked out good. A lot of parents would call me, please don't leave the college, because my kids, I was one of the only ones that could tell them about religion, because I had a business degree. And so the accreditation protected me because they couldn't fire me for my religion, because religion was my opinion.

Business was my degree. And all the theology faculty that believed the truth, they were all fired already. So all the kids would come into my office talking religion, and that was my opinion, so they couldn't fire me. And they were always afraid to fire me anyway, because I knew where all the skeletons were buried. So that was kind of helpful as well. But it was interesting. You have to say things in a way that is.

You get in those positions, and it's very difficult to do that. And again, you get that reprieve. And it was sad for me. I loved being in Texas. We had a beautiful house. God gave us a beautiful house in the lake, and that had our kids. And I had two kids, a son and a daughter. Everything was just what I wanted. But to watch the church go through apostasy was painful, no question. But it didn't change my choices, because the truth is still the truth. You separate salvation from people. We don't really know where Daniel was in those intervening years, but he was called back at this time. And we read in chapter 5 how he's called back.

God never left him. Daniel knew that. God didn't have to talk to you every day. You need to talk to him every day. But he doesn't have to talk to you every day. And we read about the feast of Belshazzar in chapter 5. Belshazzar the king made a feast for thousands of his Lord drank, and of course he brings out the temple of Jerusalem vases, which were sacred and starts drinking. And they bring them out in verse 3, all those vessels. They praise the God of gold and silver, verse 4, of iron and brass, etc.

Verse 5, the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and rode against the wall, against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw part of the hand that rode it. Of course, that's the meaning of the meaning of the Tikhli Farshan. If a hand showed up and started riding on the wall there, we'd all be spooked, I'm sure.

And so the king didn't know what to do. His countenance was changed in verse 6. His thoughts troubled him. The joints of his lerns were loose, and his knees smote one against another. He lost it. That was it. And he cried, Bring the strologers, Chaldeans, and the sous-sayers, and they all came in, and whoever reads this writing and shows the interpretation, shall be clothed as scarlet, have a chain of gold, shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And they all came in, but they could not read the writing or make it known. Okay? Daniel, verse 9. King Belshazzar was troubled. His countenance was charged. The Lord, he's astonished. But now, verse 10, the queen. And this is probably an older queen, probably one of the Nebuchadnezzar's wives, even, a queen mother, perhaps.

By reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house. And the queen spoke to the king, Live forever, let not your thoughts be troubled, or let your countenance change. Verse 11. 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 gods was found in him. Whom the king Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the king, I say, made master of the magicians and astrologers. For as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpretation of dreams, showing of hard sentences, dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel, in whom the king named Belteshazzar, let Daniel be called, and he will show you the interpretation. This queen remembered Daniel, so Daniel's called back. By this time Daniel was old, probably mothballed of sorts, and sometime we're forgotten. Are we content or not? Daniel by this time wanted nothing from Belteshazzar. He didn't need anything else. He's old. He was content where God wanted him. Like Paul writes, find yourself content where you are in life. And you have to come to your point in life where you are content. You fought some wars, maybe suffered, wrongfully at times, but you were delivered. Or not. Makes no difference. You finally understand the end of Psalm 23. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That's where it ends. Well, Babylon fell that night. Daniel may have felt it was over. His reputation, though, had to be known, because all of a sudden he's put in touch with Darius and Cyrus, the Chaldeans and the Medes. And now we change to another empire, Daniel 6.1. Again, Daniel's old at this time. And it says, please, Darius, set over the kingdom 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom. Just like today's governments, they know there's corruption out there, and he sets him up to direct and rule and to give account, to try to keep people from stealing from him. And first, too, and over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give account to them that the king should have no damage. Again, to give account, nowhere are the taxes, no damage, no graft, no corruption. The same today. The king trusted Daniel. He had built that image. That was who he was. Verse 3, it says, Daniel was preferred about all the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him. The king thought to set him over the whole realm. Preferred because of an excellent spirit. Honesty. Integrity. The king wasn't stupid. He knew there could be an embezzlement. He knew people would take bribes. Daniel wouldn't. He knew that.

It's interesting. I ran the AC projects for Mr. Armstrong. I started most of them because Mr. Armstrong said, well, if you can find the money, then you can have the project. And I always found it in his budget. So I would negotiate harder and get money and start the project. But every project with the students was fascinating to me because they would always think we hand-pick students to go on these projects. Virtually every time they'd say, can we have them for another year? You hand-pick these. They're really good. We want them for another year. I said, no, no. We'll give you another set next year. No, no.

We won't have to say that. I said, no. You'll get another set if you're happy. In the second year, it's the same thing. You hand-pick these. By the third year, they're always saying, hey, send us anybody. Because our students are for integrity. The Queen of Nepal, the last time I was there, seeing her, she's sitting there. They had $92 million in foreign aid that came to them from foreign governments. And she said, can your students handle the $92 million of foreign aid because we know they're honest. 21, 22-year-old kids asked by the Queen, can you run our foreign budget?

Amazing thing. That's what happens when you stand up. There are still Daniels today. I tell our young people that I teach at ABC and in church, there are still Daniels. You can be a Daniel. You can be a Daniel at age 7, at age 10, 12, 16. You can be a Daniel at age 70 or 80. Still, the same God does the same thing. Different people, different names, different places, different ranks, the same thing. And until you put the Bible in your heart and in your head, you're not going to know that. And it's got to be there. But he's put over them.

And Daniels preferred among all of them because of his integrity. He didn't know necessarily, like us, what God's going to do, but God's finding out what we're going to do. Always. And again, sometimes, when I was honest with Mr. Armstrong, I told him things he didn't want to hear.

There were some things that people did to him that... It's kind of like I told him once. I said, Mr. Armstrong, the church was growing so rapidly, and you asked your managers, how's it going? And, oh, it's going great. I said, you don't know if they're Hitler or Jesus Christ, because they both got things done. And you didn't look below the surface sometimes, and maybe you should have. But I said, you can't be blamed.

It's something that's growing 30% a year. You'd think, wow, everything's wonderful. And you don't necessarily look below the surface to see how it's being done. And he would feel bad. Sometimes he'd almost cry, some of the things I had to tell him. He felt like he was guilty, and he should have seen it.

I said, how do you run it? At that time, the time he died, it was a $200 million organization, which would be over a billion dollars today. How do you run everything? You can't run everything. But he felt like he should, and he was upset sometimes with that. But he understood those things and how they work. And Daniel, when you're honest to it, you tell the truth, and other people get jealous of what you know. They envy your position, and sometimes you get in trouble.

And they envy Daniel. They wanted to do things wrong, and Daniel wouldn't let them. So in verse 4, Daniel 6, The presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no occasion or fault, for as much as he was faithful, and neither was there any error or fault found in him. Again, could this be said about you? I think it can. I'm preaching to the choir here. It has to be. In 1980, Mr. Armstrong was still in Tucson. He hadn't moved back to Pasadena yet after his heart attack.

It was a difficult time. The treasurer at the time, I think, wanted to take over the church, and they were doing a number of things wrong, and it was affecting other people. My wife had worked over in financial affairs and had come up through the reflector ranks and actually was transferred.

She did a good enough job. They brought her over to the executive office for Mr. Armstrong's office and the treasurer's office. She worked up there on the fourth floor, which was the top floor hall administration. And she was working for the staff that was there, in there.

But she had to quit work. The reason she had to quit is the ladies up there were doing things that were wrong, and Michelle didn't like it. And so she told them they were going out to bars and things and saying things that they shouldn't say. It was causing the young girls there to have trouble, and they went to Michelle, and Michelle went to them and said, Hey, we can't do this. This is wrong. And they said, Well, Michelle, the problem with you is we'd get along better if you weren't in the church.

And you're working for the pastor's office, and you get along better if you weren't in the church. My wife comes to me, and she says, I got a problem. I either quit the church or I quit my job. And I said, Well, quit your job. She said, Well, is that going to affect you? And I said, Probably, but I'll handle it. Don't worry about it. Spiritual is more important than physical. And so she did. God helped her and gave her a good job, but it was a difficult time to do that. Strong strong knew nothing about what was happening up there at that time. They were still recovering from his health conditions at the time. But they were doing things. And she was walking through the valley of the shadow of death at that time. And asking yourself, Why? What is this? Was it God doing something? Was she being prepared for something in the future? Because I have found that every trial or test you go through is preparation for your next one. It was always my prayer to God, Please let this be my test and not my preparation for one. Because they get worse. They always do.

And she needed what happened to her actually because of things that were going to happen after that.

A few months after Michelle quit, things were still going wrong. Again, I'd seen people try to say things and stop things that were going wrong. They actually were things that were wrong. But often, things that were wrong were not corrected. And often those people would be removed. But I found most of them did it because they wanted to be David Slanglath.

They wanted to be important. Their motive was, I want to be important.

And if you're trying to be important, it doesn't work.

And I knew that. I'd seen that. It wasn't my job to remove anybody. And I wasn't trying to be a hero. And so I finally got out of my knees and I prayed and I simply asked God, God, if you want Mr. Armstrong to know what's happening, have him ask these questions.

And I gave several specific questions to God.

I didn't know what was going to happen. There were questions He would not normally ask me. He'd never asked me any questions before. There was no reason to think He would ask anything then. Ten days later, I was called into the office, the same one where my wife had left, and that was talked to for two hours.

They said, we know you're upset. We know what you're going to say. You're going to tell the truth. There were six of us in that trip. We're all going to lie. We're going to say what Mr. Armstrong wants to hear. 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. I wasn't planning on saying anything unless He asked. I went through two hours of that.

It was a very tough time. And the other day, I realized, what's God doing? What's happening? Still afraid of me, they made plans to remove me. The treasurer came and told me that he'd been with Mr. Armstrong, and I wanted me to go to school full-time. I was already doing some accounting and stuff. I wanted me to go full-time and finish a accounting degree and a law degree. And it made sense because the church in 1979 went through a receivership in the state of California.

It actually took over the church. And I was there with the deputy receiver and told me, now you'll be keeping Christmas. We're going to make you more mainline. I'm in the separation of the church to say it made no sense. My wife worked up on the fourth floor that the receivership happened when she was still up there.

She was the one that stood at the door and kept the state of California out. It's written up in the book, Against the Gates of Hell, little Mickey Dean, little five-foot Mickey Dean holding out the government of California. It's kind of cute. But that was what happened. So it made sense that they needed a lot of... because in court, I was in court, and in court, and I'm in the distraction of the preaching of Christ.

They didn't have no idea what we really did, as far as the gospel and things. So it made sense, and that's what he wanted me to do. I didn't know he was going to travel again or not, whatever. So I set out, doing my classes. And, you know, it's interesting. They told me in that conversation, again, the Bible says two witnesses, there's one of you and six of us, we'll destroy you. And that was true. I knew they could. And so they took me off the plane, and in 1979, late, there's a trip coming up. They'd hired another kid to be on the plane, not in the church.

His name was Darrell. I trained him for a few months, how the plane worked, everything. A lot more training than I ever had. And told him the things he had to expect, etc., and not being in the church. They wanted somebody not in the church, so there wouldn't be a problem for them.

And so I was taking my classes. I went out and loaded the plane up and helped him take off that trip, because they had to get on their way. So I taught him the job. Again, why were they looking for ways to trap Daniel? Well, jealousy, money, power, the usual. People are jealous of people who do well. They're jealous of people who have information, or have resources or money. And often, they want to stop you because you make them look bad. They don't have things wrong. And rather than improve their ethics and their ability and their things, they tend to get angry and try to stop you.

And they look for excuses. Satan wants to put you down. Satan says, push everybody else down, and you look taller. Christ says, take a step up the ladder and bring people with you, and just keep doing it. Those are the two ways. The Persian leaders were watching Daniel. They were looking for anything to accuse him. There's nothing. It should be that way with us. Nothing to accuse us of.

Too honest. Too ethical. Notice how the only way that they could stop Daniel is found in Daniel 6, verse 5. Then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against the Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the laws of his God. And that's where it should be for us. They hadn't found anything at all. They had to trap him with his religious practices because Daniel would never desert God. And they knew that. They'd give us eternal life. God has to know this about us to give us that eternal life that he promises.

And you need these stories to help you. I wonder, still, if Daniel hadn't read the scrolls, hadn't read Moses, Joshua, the heroes I read about. Same thing. And thought, hey, God help them. He's going to help me. Those things that would help him do it. Verse 6. The presidents and princes assembled together to the king and said to the king, Darius, live forever. Flattery. Often people give flattery. Often people told Mr.

Armstrong things that he wanted to hear. Made them look good. And I heard it in my seven years in the plane where I was more like a butler. You hear everything you see with them, you say nothing. That saved me from future problems. But oftentimes they do things that sound good. And they brought people in with them against Daniel and said things that made it sound good.

All the presidents in your kingdom, the governors, the princes, verse 7, the counselors, the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statue 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, shall be cast into the den of lions.

All of us agree, you're great and we're going to do this. And king, establish a decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the laws of the Medes and the Persians, which alters not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing. He bought it. He bought the flattery. They knew the king liked Daniel. They had to make it permanent to get rid of him. Do you think it doesn't happen today?

Mr. Armstrong liked me. I was always honest with him. He knew that. Often it's a sad outcome of statements that you're talked into. Your boss may not see the intent behind what is being done by other people against you.

And you have to let God take care of the outcome. Nothing you can do. Like the words of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Live or die. God's God. We're not changing. Now it was Daniel's turn. Verse 10. Daniel 6. When Daniel knew that the writing was signed. He knew he signed it. He knew what happened. He went to his house. His windows opened.

In his chamber toward Jerusalem. Kneeled down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before God as he always did. They knew what Daniel was going to do and they were ready for it. And Daniel didn't try to go into a prayer closet and didn't try to close the curtains and didn't try to go somewhere else.

He did what he'd always done. Then these men assembled. Verse 11. Found Daniel praying and making supplication before God. Again, people should know what you will do. They knew what I would do. A few months after my confrontation with them, Mr. Armstrong had that trip planned to the Philippines and to Thailand, to Japan, Singapore. I wrote Mr. Armstrong a letter stating I understood he wanted me to finish my degrees and get those.

And I told him that classes have always been easy for me. And if that's what the church needed, that's what I'd do. But I told him I'd be praying for him and wishing him the success. And if he needed me for anything, call. I'd be there. I'd already been flying while I was taking classes before anyway. And so again, I lowered the luggage and he took off. Didn't know I wasn't on the plane. Darryl told me this a couple days later. He said, he went out to serve Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong looks at him and, who are you? Well, I'm Darryl. Well, where's Aaron? He's not flying. Well, why not? Well, I don't know.

But Aaron wrote a letter. So he goes back, gets the letter, gives it to Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong reads the letter. He folds it and puts it in his pocket and he is mad. He is just angry. And so his second wife, who was a mistake, but anyway, she's back there, sees he's angry and she asks, Darryl, what did you give Mr.

Armstrong? I gave him a letter from Aaron. She gets on the flight phone and calls the treasurer who's in Japan at the time and tells him Aaron gave Mr. Armstrong a letter and Mr. Armstrong is mad. He lands in Hawaii and he's got about six or eight feet of telexes with all the things that they were going to say because they knew what I would say. And they had their thing set up. I hadn't said anything. He was only mad because they took me off the plane. And I didn't tell him.

He didn't tell me to go to school. He hadn't told me that stuff. So he's like, did people play with someone that I hired? He was ticked off. But that's not what they thought. And it was interesting because he called me immediately from Hawaii and says, get over here right now.

I want you here. So Sabbath morning, actually, I flew to Hawaii. And I go there and I had to read the telexes they wrote. I had to read garbage about myself. And I told him it's not true. But he questioned me. And he asked me the very questions I had prayed. And I thought, God, Gideon got two shots of this. Do I really want to go through hell? And I thought, well, I prayed it, so I answered him.

And I told him the truth. And I knew what it was. Yes, they had more witnesses. I was alone. I had to do that. I had to read those lies. Satan hasn't changed. He wants to get you alone. He wants you put in a situation where you can't win. Daniel 6, verse 12, They came near and spoke before the king, concerning the king's decree.

Have you not signed this decree that every man that asked a petition shall be cast on the dental irons? And the king said, it's true, according to the law of the Medes of the Persians. And then they answered and said to the king, That Daniel, who, one of the children of the captivity of Judah, he regards you not. He doesn't regard the decree that you've made. And he makes his positions three times a day.

What are you going to do about it, king? What are you going to do? Often there's a sad outcome to what you're buy into and what you do. Verse 14, the king, when he heard these words, was sore to splice to himself.

He realized what he had done. And he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored from 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. And they knew that, too. I told Mr. Armstrong that telexis were lies. And he wanted to believe me. Because he liked me. He stated the old adage, though, where there's smoke, there's fire. I said, well, lawyers say, throw enough mud so I'm able to stick.

And I said, none of this is true. He said, well, you know, there's nothing I could do. I had to trust God. I couldn't prove anything. I was alone in that. And again, your biggest test from God is when you're alone. And that's how he finds out what you're going to do when there's no human help. Verse 15, these men assembled to the king and said to the king, Now, O king, that the law of the Medes and the Persians, that no decree or statue which the king establishes may be changed.

During that trip, I was kept in a separate hotel for Mr. Armstrong. I knew too much, and they had to keep me away. Mr. Armstrong would call me over. Often I had to read a barrage of telexes.

He was getting them every day about things that they knew that I couldn't prove. Again, I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And surely it didn't seem like goodness and mercy were following me at that point. And they kept sending those telexes. I got fired seven times at some of the church three times in 31 days. I'm sure it's a record. If you want a hard job, read lies about yourself that you can't prove. And Mr. Armstrong said, I know your attitude's right, but why aren't people writing good things about you?

I said, Mr. Armstrong, I've flown with you seven years. Have you ever gotten a letter about me, good or bad? No. I said, people don't even know where you are. There was no internet at that time. You had a telex machine and a phone call, which sometimes would take hours to make. And I said, Mr. Armstrong, they're not going to wake up today and say, today would be a good day to write, Mr. Armstrong, and tell him how wonderful Aaron Dean is. Now, where is he?

I think he's in the Philippine Manila Hotel. What's that telex? I mean, nobody even knew where he was until he wrote his letters after the trips and things and sent them out. And I told him, these things are being solicited by people. And they even bugged my... they actually paid the operators if I called anybody. I mean, they did everything in the world they could. Toward the end of the trip, Mr.

Armstrong actually broke his typewriter and asked me to come over to fix it. He said, did anybody see you come in? I said, I don't think so. He said, sneak out. I said, why? He said, well, they're trying to kill me. I said, what do you mean? He said, they want you gone. And they want to be the ones at my bedside if I have a heart attack and die that say who should be in charge of the church if I die. And they don't like you. And that was what it was. But I know your attitude's right, but they want you gone.

With all these things we've proven to you, how come you haven't just fellowshiped him and thrown him out? And all this stuff. And they wanted Daniel gone. Verse 16, the king commanded, they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. The king spoke and said to Daniel, your God whom you serve continually, He'll deliver you. He was hopeful. Did he really believe it? I don't think so. Because verse 17, the stone was brought, laid upon the mouth of the den, the king sealed it with his own signet, with the signet of his lords, for the purpose that it might not be changed concerning Daniel.

Again, this is a permanent get rid of him. I'm meeting with a lion that's over. We can go steal from the king now. Verse 18, the king went to his palace, passed the night fasting. Neither were instruments of music bought before him, and his sleep went from him.

Then the king arose early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice to Daniel. Did he believe Daniel was still alive? He's lamenting what happened. The king spoke and said, Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God whom you serve continually able to deliver you from the lions?

Had he believed his own statement, the God who delivered him? No. Daniel then said, King, live forever. My God has sent his angel and has shut off the lion's mouth. If they have not hurt me for as much as before him, inno-see-inno-see was found in me, and before you, O king, I have done no hurt. I remember telling Mr. Armstrong, if it will help you for me to be God, if they'll leave you alone, send me away. I didn't ask to fly. You asked me to fly. I didn't ask for anything. I said, the only thing, condition I want to give you is, I want you to know I'm not running away. I'm telling you the truth. And that's the one condition.

On the flight home, Mr. Armstrong wanted me to stay. So he was flying home, and he said, don't worry, Aaron, I'll get to the bottom of this. We landed. He left. He took his limousine and went back to his home. I was there putting the plane away, got in my car, drove home. Michelle had gotten a job outside the church, and she was working that day. I got home about three o'clock. About fifteen minutes after I got home, the phone rang. It's Mr. Armstrong. He said, Aaron, leave town immediately. Your life's been threatened.

I did. Left them in the refrigerator. I got home, and I called you later. Didn't want to tell her my life was threatened and think she'd appreciate that very much. And I left. I jumped motels for over a month. Look over my shoulder.

My wife had worked up there. I'd worked up there. They had X CIA agents and FBI agents and drill decks. There's always people that come in that you don't know what they are. You can act like a Christian without being one. Look at the church. How many people left? How many people had got a spirit? We don't know. You treat everybody fairly and evenly, but you don't know where they stand.

So I jumped from motel to motel every night. Took all the cash I could, paid for everything in cash. They couldn't trace me. I did all the things I could. He asked me to call him every night, which I did. He wanted me to call him and tell him where I was, which I did, but I never told him where I was.

I'd always give him a phone number. In fact, he got upset. How come you're telling people where you are? I said, I'm not. He said, yes, you are. They have the phone numbers. I said, Mr. Armstrong, I'm going to give you a phone number tonight, like you asked me to do. You're going to write it down on a sheet of paper, tear it down full, and put it in your pocket. I said, yeah. I said, they know that, too. He started laughing. He knew that. I said, I've never given you the phone number where I was. I always gave the phone number to the motel I stayed in the night before.

If you did call, they would say I checked out. I said, I'm not going to tell everybody where I am. Strange things. If you think the Old Testament and the things that happen in the New Testament, Acts going down the wall, the things that happen don't happen today. People get in positions. Thou God's Spirit, things happen. Separate salvation from people. It's different. The king was exceeding layout for him and commanded they should take Daniel out of the den. Daniel was taken out. No hurt was on him.

The king commanded and brought those men who had accused Daniel and put them in the den of lions, they were eaten before they hit the ground. Often God lets people fall into the very trap they set. It's one of the ways God does it. Daniel had done nothing to them. Like King David, he never did anything against people that tried to harm him. That's a key. God knows when, he knows if, and he knows how to help. We don't always know what that is. He knows when something needs to be done. You have to have faith and keep that good attitude. And know that your chances of God are going to be creased if you have the faith in him and the trust in him.

You don't try to take matters into your own hands. I've seen a lot of people do that. God doesn't give glory to others. God gets the glory for these things. Mr. Armstrong saw what was going on. Because of this, he realized that if he died, it could be a problem. So he actually took rides in his car.

He was still living in Tucson. And his driver, Mel Olinger, would drive him around. He would just take his normal ride, quote-unquote. And he went to a phone booth. And he called Mr. Hulge, the legal office, Mr. Neff, and he set up the Council of Elders. And he legally set up that if he died, the Council of Elders would determine who would be in charge of the church.

And after it was all legally done and filed and notarized, he told the treasurer about it. And at that time, he called me and asked me to come back. He said, the food's terrible. I need you on the plane. I can't do anything. And so I'm back in the frying pan again. But that was it. That was how it came back. And none of this stuff happened. The things that my wife went through, they wrote things. They wrote letters to her and Mr. Armstrong. They brought letters to me, dear Aaron.

And they say things and accuse me of things and whatever. And Mr. Armstrong called me and said, would you get your letter? I said, they're not writing me. And so, yeah, it says, dear Aaron. I said, no, it's C.C., Herbert Armstrong and Michelle Dean. They got their letters before mine was postmarked. They wanted me to walk into things, not knowing anything. It continued even after. But that's how it happens. And then Michelle, not gone through what she did and knew what these people had done to other people, she probably would have had a problem.

It's difficult enough with knowing that. So God does things to you that prepare you for something else that's going to happen. He brought me back from exile. Verse 25, then King Darius wrote to all people, nations, and languages that dwell on the earth, peace be multiplied to you. Verse 20 says, I make a decree, In every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and 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 forever to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and earth. Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions? As always, it has to be about God, His glory, praising Him, what He did. We're just pieces of the puzzle. God has this huge puzzle, and we're pieces. And He knows where you fit. And, oh, I don't want to fit here. I want to be up here. A lot of people think they fit somewhere that they don't fit.

We don't know where we fit. Only God knows where we fit. And it's up to Him to know that. He sets up things. Again, I served Mr. Armstrong until he died in 1986 and 38 years ago. It's about God and His glory.

And Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius. I'm not sure how long he lived after that. As a young man, I knew the world would attack me. I was prepared for that. Imperial schoolmen, the Roman Empire, they're persecuting Christians. They're doing these things. I was prepared to fight against the Babylonians, the Persians, the Medes, the Romans, the Greeks. Whoever came after me, I'm not going to eat pork. I'm not going to break the sabbal. I'm not going to do this stuff.

Those pagans will never make me sin. What I didn't expect would be in the church. But again, sometimes people in the church really aren't in the church. And you don't expect it. Those people are led by the God of this world, Satan. And they do things. Certainly this wouldn't be God's church with what happened there. And I think the apostles stopped this.

The apostles had no history of the problems in the church, really. I mean, they had an anodized in Sapphira who died because they lied about that. They had people seeking power like Simon the Magician, who wanted to give me the Spirit so I can do this thing. He wanted to get in front of this parade. You know, they're baptizing 3,000, 5,000 people. This is a big thing.

We've got to get in front of this. And he baptized 3,000 people in one day. There's not a lot of counseling. If a miracle stopped, well, maybe this really wasn't something I needed to join. A lot of people have walked through the doors of the church for 2,000 years and walked back out. A lot of them, I think we had a lot of baptized coworkers. Better off for it. You're better off for what parts of the Bible you do keep. Better to keep some of God's laws than none of them. But that's what happens. The church had just started for them. These people were talented.

Paul writes about Demas, who did him wrong. And John writes about diatrophies. He sees preeminence among you. Have we had those things happen in the church over the centuries? Yes. Same thing. People that were talented but wanted to look good and use their own talent instead of waiting for God. Power and position. Again, they didn't have church history back then. To look on, we do. But too often, they, like we, assume everyone's closer to the kingdom than they are. Can you stand up against society when it wrongs you?

Can you stand up against people that are sitting in church if they do something wrong? More so, can you forgive? Or do you carry a grudge? If you have God's spirit, you don't carry a grudge. We're all growing. We all make mistakes. I use the stories in the Bible to get through difficult situations. And I heard them from the time I was born, basically, from the time I can remember.

I can imagine young Timothy, who was with Paul, telling stories about the Apostle Paul, or Polycrates and Polycarp, who were with John, mentored by the Apostles, telling their stories, to encourage members. Yes, they had troubles. They all had troubles. They were dealing with carnal people. Again, at age 21, being asked to fly on the plane, I had no idea what I was going to go through. I didn't believe there'd be the problems that I saw. But like my father said, I had to separate salvation from people. And it was then that I began to use the complete story. It wasn't just a fun story. Wow, David Slogalaya, this is a great, nice little fairy tale.

No, these are true stories, things of how to live your life. They're not just there for your enjoyment. They're there to help you get through your trials. I have a picture of the Council of Elders, 1986. Mr. Armstrong put me on it in 1981. Never advertised it. And I didn't want him to. I could do a lot more without people knowing who I was. That's how somebody challenged me. I put a picture on the Council of Elders when I was on it. Somebody said, well, you weren't the Council of Elders.

And they read the thing in 1980 when he first set it up. And I wasn't on the original list. I came on nine months later. And then the later list, Mr. Koch had, and they said, you weren't on the Council of Elders. And that's when I posted the picture out there of them.

I have all the books and all the records and all the documents and everything. I have more history in the basement of my house than any of the churches do. But they were kind of shocked. But the thing is, I could do my job better without being known. When people know who you are, they play up to you. They do things. They want things.

When they don't know who you are, you can nearly understand where they're coming from. They say things that you realize, ah, you've got a problem there. And that was it. But I have a picture of them. Half of them left the truth. They were old-time ministers. They've been in the church for 30, 40, 50 years. Ministers that left gave up the truth.

I prayed they were never converted. Not the second resurrection. Or I prayed they were repentant and figured it out. Most of them have died. In fact, all of them have died except me. I'm the only council member because I was 20, 30 years younger than all of them.

Mr. Armstrong was 60 years older than I was. I always told him I was catching up. So what do you mean? When I was 20, you were 80. That's a quarter your age. You're 90. I'm 30. That's a third your age. I'm gaining. So he'd laugh. But again, these people scattered to various groups. People started their own churches. Armstrong knew someone would start churches. That's why he ended up naming somebody. He said certain people would try to start a church and they would get so-and-so.

The people went with those people and they started their own churches. God gave, when Mr. Cops was appointed, I would never put somebody who was going to apostasize over the church. You know, Armstrong grabbed my hand and said, help prepare the bride. Promise me. Okay, how do I do? Go back to three or four hours sermon. When I was a kid, they could preach longer and not get to sleep.

And, you know, what do we do? Back to double services of the feast and things. And he said, no, they're going to quit keeping the Sabbath. A few years, they'll quit keeping the Sabbath. I said, how is that possible? The Bible's still there. But they did. He said, it's going to happen. Promise you'll help prepare the bride. So that's why I'm here today. I've been trying to do that for 38 years, help people understand what happened. These stories are about God's deliverance. The stories of the Bible help you be delivered from what you're going to go through.

Those who left the church, some started their own churches. Every split in every church since then has been over power, money, or position, whatever. Still happens, unfortunately. I pray for all these people. We've seen the same things in UCG. We've seen the same things in some of the other churches as well. They decide they should be in charge. And when they're no longer in charge, they decide they should start their own church. I always ask them, I said, do you believe, read the same Bible I'm reading? Do you believe God's big enough to put you back in if you're right?

It's not my God. My God knows. He can do it. I know a problem if he takes me out. That's it. I mean, one of my favorite stories is Joshua and Caleb. Caleb does a good thing, too. Joshua gets the headaches. Caleb, you do your job and you stop. I said, if I'm giving a job, I'll do it. I'll do it well. When I'm done, it's over. They ask me to do something else, I'll do it. I'll do whatever God asked me to do, and whatever that is. But it's sad to witness the things that happens in the church, to lose friends, even family. It hurts. Stories, I'm sure most of you can tell. We all have those things that happen to us. But we have to recognize, like Jude 1, verse 4, There are certain men, kept unawares, Who were before of old, ordained for this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord God into lasciviousness, Denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Ours has not been so much a problem of doctrine as it has been a problem of power and position and money.

Do they really believe that God can't make it right? Especially in United, where you can vote people in and out. Danny Luecker asked me, The Treasurer, we came up and rented a house, and I figured they'd vote us out. They were block-voting. They accused us of block-voting, but they were block-voting. One of the men sent the men ballots to South America, and it already filled out. I'd consider that block-voting. But, you know, all these things that you go through, people, they justify it somehow.

The end justifies the means. No, I'm not with God. God doesn't work that way. We have that past and present history of failures. Unintentional, some of them. Some of them are intentional.

Again, separate salvation from people. Don't let other people take your crown. The Bible says, let no man take your crown, but no one can take your crown. But, boy, you did that, and you're in this church. Well, I'm out of here. I just gave my crown away. Because someone else did something wrong. Because I didn't separate salvation from people. Maybe it wasn't delivered. Maybe it was. I don't know. Does it make a difference?

No. It's between you and God. That's what it is. I always pray they repent. If they have God's Spirit, if they don't, they have the second resurrection. God knows what He's doing. This is His court. Christ made it clear that it's not easy to follow Him. The disciples should have recognized that from the parables. They should have recognized it because of what happened to Christ Himself. But yet we tend to think in terms of the Gospel being a self-help thing or something.

Because everything is going to go wonderful for you. And it doesn't happen that way. Again, Christ told them the parables, told them there would be trials and tribulations and things to prepare them for it. Mr. Armstrong told me stories to help me understand things of the early church. I know all the history of all the men. The early students were just like the disciples. They wanted to be in charge here and in charge there. I want to be over the ministry. I want this position back when there were positions.

As such, I tell my stories nothing about me. I'm still the widow's kid from West Virginia that ended up doing a lot of crazy things. But it would read like a novel if I wrote it in a book. Because it's hard, but it's not a health-wealth gospel. It's about God, about what He does, about faith in God. You can live godly in an ungodly world. People will recognize it. At times you'll be promoted for it, and at times you'll be lied about for it. That's just the way Satan works.

We all need examples. And you can be an example of character and ethics and honesty in a world. People need those examples of endurance, just as they did. We're here to glorify God by what we do. And each of us individually has to live up to that. Jesus, the head of the church, said through Peter, 1 Peter 2, 12. I'm going to read one verse. You need to turn there. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

When you do the right thing, it glorifies God. True people in the world, leadership, they recognize those things. But other people get jealous. Things happen. They know. Daniel did this for the kings of Babylon and Persia. God knew Daniel. He knows you. He knows you better know yourself. But He has to let you make the decision. He knows what He will do. He has to know what you will do. And He'll put you in situations to find that out.

And you may not do it for kings and princes and whatever, but it doesn't make a difference. If you're faithful and little, you're faithful and much. It doesn't have to be that. Yes, yea, though I walk from the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That is true. God, indeed, is with you. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. And you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

If you keep those in mind and you live those stories and you do it, if there are fifty years, you'll die in the faith, and you'll be ready to meet Christ and God. If you don't, you'll be like those who leave, who give up the precious promises that God and Christ have given to us.

May you all be here for the next celebration. The best reunion of all when Christ returns and we're all resurrected, and then we can get some answers, some questions we've always had.