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In Daniel chapter 1, we have the story about Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And, of course, knowing the rest of the book of Daniel, we know that these four men are going to do a lot of great things for God. They're going to have some serious exploits and show themselves to be very godly men, even in an ungodly nation. But here, we just see them as children just starting out, and in essence, they've been abducted from their homes in Judah because the nation of Judah had once been a godly nation and they had served the Lord, but they had gotten very wicked and gotten away from the Lord, and I mean, not just a little bit, but they had all kinds of horrible things going on, infanticide, idolatry, you name it, shedding innocent blood. They were just very wicked, and so God sent his judgment upon them, and Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came and ended up destroying Jerusalem, destroying the temple, and they also took a lot of captives, a lot of prisoners. And these four children, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were among those children of the captivity that are abducted and taken to a foreign country where they don't know the language, it's a totally different culture, they're very far from home, they're separated from their families, and they get put into a group of young people that are going to be trained up in the ways of the Chaldeans because they were good-looking kids and they seem to have some smarts and some aptitude, so they get chosen to be taken aside and trained by the Chaldeans, and let's go ahead and pick up the story here in chapter one. It says in verse number one, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, because of course they were very wicked and God was punishing them, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried in the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes, children whom was no blemish but well favored, that's talking about their physical appearance, that they're just good-looking kids, and skillful in wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such as that ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. So a couple things I want to point out first of all is that these young children were already godly children, even in the land of Judah, even though Judah was a very wicked place, there's always a righteous remnant that still serves God, even in the worst country, the worst generation, the worst time. So we should never use it as an excuse that, oh, America has changed so much and it's so wicked, that's why I'm living the way that I am because, you know, it's just not like the old days anymore or whatever. No, you know, even in a crooked and perverse nation, the Bible says we can shine as lights in the world. And in fact, the darker things are out there in the world, the brighter our light shines, the more a little godliness is going to go a long way because it's so dark out there. And so don't ever use that as an excuse because here we have children that not only are they coming from a wicked nation because Judah is very wicked, very few people are serving God over there, but of course there's always that remnant. There's always the 7,000 men that haven't bowed the knee to Baal, but then now they're being abducted and they're being brought to another ungodly nation because Babylon is pagan, it's polytheistic, it's a wicked place. So they're in a simple place over here, they're in a simple place over here, but yet they love the Lord and serve God. And that shows us that, you know, we can serve God anywhere and at any age. So if you're 8, 10, 12 years old or a teenager listening to me right now, hey, you can be godly regardless of what your siblings are doing, regardless of what your family's doing, regardless of what your friends around you are doing. You can be like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego where you decide to do what's right even if everybody else around you is doing wrong. Now I know that it wasn't just four children that were put into this program. You know, when Nebuchadnezzar says we're going to find the ones that are, you know, physically fit and smart and wise, he didn't pick four, okay? He picked a large pool. We don't know the number, but it was much more than four. And then it just says among these were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So that tells me that their peers around them are not part of this group of four guys. Their peers around them are not godly. They're not serving God. Yet these four guys, they serve God, okay? And probably you could speculate that Daniel is a big influence on that, but I guarantee that they're influencing each other. And so it's good to have a few godly friends and then even if everybody else around you in your generation is going a certain way, you can serve the Lord and do what's right. And so they're going from one ungodly nation to another, but not only that, their circumstances are bad because they've been abducted from their home. This is a catastrophe in their lives because they're going about their lives, they're living their lives, and they get abducted and taken to a foreign country. And that's a pretty extreme upheaval in their lives, but does that stop them from serving God? No, it doesn't. And you say, well, that doesn't sound so bad. Sounds exciting. Sounds like an adventure. Well, the guy who is in charge of them is called the master of the eunuchs, okay? You know what a eunuch is? A eunuch is a male that has been castrated. So it still sound fun? Still sound like summer camp adventure? No, because these guys are going through some stuff. They're being abducted, they're put in a foreign country, and they're basically being mutilated in their bodies in a way that none of us dudes want to be mutilated, okay? But yet, they didn't lose faith in God. They didn't say, oh, I just don't believe in God anymore because he allowed this to happen. Yeah, of course he allowed this to happen because your nation is super wicked and so they're being punished, but you as the individual can still be blessed by God. Daniel's one of those men in the Bible where there's very little negative you could even find about him in the entire book of Daniel. You know, most biblical characters are pretty real, so there's a lot of good, a lot of bad. Daniel's one of these guys that's just a really godly man that has, there's very little negative even insinuated about him, okay? And so the other thing I want to point out is that these guys, not only did they come from this ungodly nation and suffer a lot of adversity, but they're apparently very smart in comparison with their peers because there's a whole group of children that are being taken captive and they're being chosen specifically because they're smart. And this goes to show also that smart kids can be godly kids, okay? A lot of people have this attitude of keeping young people ignorant or in darkness or just, you know, we don't want them to get too smart for their own good type of thing. And I don't know if you've been exposed to this mentality, but there is a mentality out there that kind of shuns learning and says, hey, let's not learn too much there, buddy. Let's not get too educated, let's not get too smart because they have this fear that they can be too smart for their own good or something. And the world out there kind of acts like, well, if you're a fundamentalist Christian, you must not be that smart. You know, the smart people are the ones who think that the world just came from nothing and that the universe created itself and that every single plant and animal on this planet all came from one common ancestor. That's what the smart people believe. The fundamentalist Christians who believe that there's a creator, well, it's just because they're ignorant, it's because they're dumb. You know, that's not true because there have been a lot of really smart people over the years that have been godly Christians who trusted the Lord. Now obviously, unfortunately, the majority of very smart and skillful, good-looking, physically fit people don't end up serving the Lord just because of pride. You know, when somebody has everything going for them, they can tend to get full of themselves and puffed up and prideful. And that's why I, you know, I thank God that when I was growing up, you know, I didn't have all of these boxes checked and then that kept me more humble so that I could grow up and serve God. So it's kind of a rare exception when you have people like this that do end up serving God, but that's only simply because of pride, education and getting smarter is not going to turn people away from the Lord. Okay. We should strive to raise our children and, you know, to be as smart as possible. You know, we believe in homeschooling and so we've homeschooled our children. I know the majority of the people at our church homeschool their children, but you know what? When we homeschool our children, we're not doing unschooling and we're not just kind of phoning it in. We really want to do a good job of making sure that our children actually get educated. And that goes to the boys and the girls. You know, it's important to me that my daughters are educated, not just my sons. And you say, well, what, you know, what's the point in them being educated if they're just going to be homemakers or whatever. First of all, that's demeaning to say just a homemaker because being a homemaker is a super important job and it takes a lot of brains to be a good homemaker. And there are a lot of jobs out there that people have a lot of respect for that probably take less brains than being a homemaker. Okay. And being a homemaker, you end up, you know, learning a lot and using your brain a lot if you're doing it right. And of course, homeschooling the children, you're basically a teacher in that sense. You're a chef, you're a teacher, you're, you know, you're an administrator. You do a lot of things as a homemaker. But not only that, I always tell my daughters, well, you know, you need to get educated, you need to get smarter so that basically dudes that have a brain are interested in you. Because if you're dumb, you're going to end up with some dumb dude. And so, you know, you don't want that, right? So basically these people, you know, these young guys, they're smart, they love the Lord, even though everything has gone against them in life, even though they're surrounded by people who aren't trusting the Lord, these guys are holding fast to the faith. So these are really incredible young individuals, great role models for children and teenagers everywhere. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. It says in verse number five, and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof, they might stand before the king. So they're going through a three year program of mental training, learning the language of the Chaldeans, learning all the science and everything that the Chaldeans know. And then also physical training and eating a certain diet so that they can be physically fit as well as mentally fit. And of course, among these are Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah that talks about the names being changed and so forth. But in verse eight it says, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. And again, this is where it seems like Daniel's probably the driver of this godly Christian influence and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are probably being influenced by him. Although still we got to give credit to all four of them. Sometimes it just takes one person to kind of be that leader and get the other three guys really mobilized and serious about serving God. And so we see Daniel fulfilling that role, but it says he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. Now does this sound like he's open to maybe doing it? I mean he's decided, he's like, I'm not going to do it. He purposed this in his heart that he's not going to defile himself with the king's meat. But then look at the next words and it says, nor with the wine which he drank, therefore, look at this language, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now do you see the difference there between he purposed in his heart that he would not and he requested that he might not. It's not that he wasn't serious about following God's commandments. It's that he's not being obnoxious to the people of this world. He's being respectful to those in authority over him and he realizes that you catch a lot more flies with honey. And so you don't need to just obnoxiously, let's say your job or your school or whatever, wants you to do something that's sinful. You don't always need to go in there and just guns ablaze in, start just refusing to go along with policies and things. It's a lot smarter to go in there hat in hand and as much as is possible, we should try to live peaceably with all men and try to find a solution that can make both sides happy. And a lot of people use excuses for, you know, oh, you know, I got fired from my job for being a Christian. But then you look at how that went down and a lot of it was them being obnoxious, them refusing to compromise, you know, them not willing to work with the boss and find a solution that could make both sides happy. So yeah, we do want a purpose in our heart not to break God's commandments, but we also want to be gentle and wise about how we actually execute that in this world, especially when we're in a position where we're not an authority. When you're not the boss at work, you don't have the right to just march in there and start throwing your weight around and saying how wicked everything is. It's not your place. Okay. Now, you know, when you're on your turf, yeah, lay down the law. But when you're at work, when you're at school, when you're in these situations where you're not the boss, you need to, A, take a stand and do what's right for God. But B, you need to be meek and humble about the way that you do that. And so that's why there's this disparity between the resolve at the beginning of verse 8 and then the kind of just gentle request at the end of verse 8. And here's what happens. He gets what he wants. He gets what he wants and everybody ends up being happy and the thing gets resolved. If he would have just gone in there to the prince of the eunuchs and said, you know, let me tell you where you can shove the king's meat and let me tell you where you can shove the wine which he drinks, you know, then he might have just gotten killed or something or thrown in prison or thrown out of the program and put as a slave somewhere. And so it's a good thing that he handled this wisely. And the Bible says in verse 9, now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And so, you know, if we're obviously a godly Christian and doing what we're supposed to do, then when it comes to the workplace or school or whatever, you know, guess what? Bosses like a good worker no matter what their religion is. If they're doing right, and by the way, if you're a kind person and a thoughtful person and an effective worker, you know, you're probably going to get less discriminated against than the guy who's a sloppy, bad worker, hard to get along with and then, you know, somebody might get a little more mad about your religion, okay, in that situation. And so Daniel has a good rapport with the prince of the eunuchs and it says in verse 10, the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king who hath appointed your meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king? Now before I go any further, let me just stop and say what the issue seems to be here because why would it be wrong for Daniel to eat the king's meat or to drink the wine which he drank? Probably what's going on, you know, based on just reading the whole rest of the Bible, what kind of meat would really be off limits or what drink would be off limits? Now we could say that maybe they're giving him a pork sandwich and it's the Old Testament and he's not supposed to be eating pork, you know, that's possible, right? Or you could say that he's being served an alcoholic beverage and he doesn't want to. But I think probably what's going on, I think what's more likely than those two scenarios is that most likely it is meat and drink that has been sacrificed unto idols because we see that as a big thing throughout the Bible, even in the New Testament where God does not want us to eat things that have been sacrificed unto idols and throughout history, pagan cultures, they not only do animal sacrifices unto their false pagan gods, but they also do drink offerings. Virtually every pagan culture does this and so they pour out libations or drink offerings. That's probably what's going on is that this stuff has been associated with their pagan worship. Like I said, you know, the Bible isn't really explicit so you could think of other scenarios of what's wrong with this, but for whatever reason he's not supposed to. But I love what the prince of the eunuch says in verse 10, I fear my Lord the king. Here's basically what he's saying, you know, I would love to help you out. I'm on your side, I like you, but it's just I'm kind of worried about the higher ups. You know, I'm worried about the company policy. I'm worried about what the king is going to say or whatever. And you know, that goes to show you that in this world, even as things become very de-Christianized in America and you have a lot of wicked things that are now just being accepted as normal, it doesn't mean that even most worldly people accept the weirdness and filth that's being pushed in our society right now. And you know, let's say you walk into Costco or whatever and there's some transvestite or whatever and you complain to the manager, typically when you do that, the manager's like, hey, I agree with you, but there's nothing I can do about it. We had a home school field trip one time, and hopefully I get the story right here, but we had a home school field trip one time at one of these sort of like visitor centers at like a state park or national park or whatever. One of these little interpretive little educational museum visitor centers and somebody from the Forest Service or whatever it was, okay, I don't remember the details, was going to teach the home schoolers and the thing that showed up to teach the home schoolers was some kind of a transvestite or whatever. And obviously my wife freaked out because she's bringing a church group to go in and be taught about nature and then this thing is against nature, okay? And so basically, you know, she freaked out and said, you know, there's no way in hell that we're going to subject our kids to this tranny nature instructor, okay? And the guy that was there, he said, man, I totally get what you're saying and I agree with you, but he's like, you need to tell this to my boss, like you need to send an email because he's like, it bothers me, but there's nothing I can do about it. It makes me uncomfortable, like send the boss an email, call them and complain because maybe if people complain, maybe I won't have to work with this person. You know, he didn't say it exactly like that, but that's pretty much the gist. Am I right, Juja? Am I in the ballpark? Yeah, she's giving me this symbol. So let's just pretend that that's exactly how it went down, okay? It was something along those lines where the guy was like, hey, I'm with you, but you need to complain to the higher ups because, you know, here I am, I'm in a weird situation here. Well, guess what? That's what a lot of people are in that situation in this world. Not every unsaved person is a complete weirdo or just completely anti-Christian or just wants to persecute Christians, but there are some people who do want to persecute Christians and they do want to corrupt everyone around them and then those policies end up trickling down. And you know, think about when the month of June comes along, all these businesses are promoting the sodomite agenda with all their rainbow logos and all this. But here's the thing, do you really think everybody who works at those companies feels that way? Everybody who works at that airline, everybody who works at that whatever, the media company? No. So we don't want to necessarily just rip everyone's head off because of the fact that a lot of people, you know, they're kind of just going along with the status quo. And so this guy says, you know, I want to help you out, but I'm just, I just fear my Lord the King who at the point of your meat and drink, verse 10, for why should he see your face as worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then should you make me endanger my head to the King? He said, look, there's a certain food that you guys are supposed to be eating. You're supposed to be eating this meat, you're supposed to be drinking this wine, and you know, like I don't want to feed you some substandard diet and then I'm going to get in trouble because you guys are getting all, you guys are starting to look like kind of these vegan types, you know? And I know that there are some vegans out there that are in shape and healthy and stuff, but you know, a lot of times it doesn't go that way. You know, I've known people that were, you know, pretty healthy and then they went vegan and you kind of watched their appearance change and they were worse liking than the children of their sort, okay, after embracing that vegan diet because it's not a normal diet that any human has ever done throughout history. It's not a normal diet. It just isn't. You know, you can look at all the indigenous cultures of the entire world, you will never find a vegan indigenous culture. It doesn't exist. For thousands of years, nobody has eaten that way. Now again, I do believe that you can live a healthy life eating a vegan diet if you fly food in from all over the world, right? Because now we fly food from all over the world. If you want to make eating a full time job and figure out like how to get all the nutrition from vegan sources, if you want to just become obsessed with what you eat, yeah, it's possible to eat a healthy vegan diet. So you'll see athletes and other people that, you know, that make it work. But the vast majority of trendies who are just like, oh, I'm gonna go vegan, you know, they're not able to put that kind of thought and planning into it and it's typically not gonna be healthy because it's not really the way humans are intended to eat. But it is kind of amazing how our human bodies are so adaptable that some people eat just like all animal products and they're healthy. And then you do have examples of people that eat all vegan and they're healthy. You know, it's like you can put all kinds of stuff into this body and it's just, we're truly omnivores. But in general, in general, you know, vegan is, first of all, it's not biblical. It's not the way Jesus ate. So if you're just like, oh, it's the best diet, well then why didn't Jesus do it? How come Jesus is eating fish and meat and, you know, it's not what Jesus did. It's not what the priests in the Old Testament did. They were all meat eaters. And by the way, vegetarian is like a hundred times more normal and easier to do than vegan. Vegan is way out there, okay, as a diet. And again, yeah, people can make it work because of airplanes, okay. That's how they can make it work. Because they can go to Whole Foods and it's just all over the world and they can get the quinoa from South America and, you know, put it all together and make it work. But the point is that, you know, he doesn't want them looking like the average vegan soy boy or whatever. He wants them to look as good as everybody else because then it's like, what's with these guys? It's like, well, they went vegan. And then it's like, dude. And then he gets, and he said, you can make me endanger my head to the king. It's like off with his head for this vegan, uh, shenanigans. So here's what Daniel says, you know, here's Daniel's solution to this. The guy wants to help him out. Daniel meekly, wisely says to him, prove thy servants I beseech thee 10 days, verse 12. He says, look, why don't you just test this out and just give us something else to eat. Just give us pulse to eat, right? Prove thy servants I beseech thee 10 days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. We're going to drink water. We're going to eat pulse and, you know, look at us after that 10 days and evaluate us and see if we are healthy or if we're doing poorly, you know, and then let's, let's go from there. Why don't we just try it? And if we start getting weird, then we'll talk. And so this guy, you know, goes along with that. He said, it says in verse 13, you know, then let our accountances be looked upon before thee and the countenances of the children of the eat of the portion of the Kings meet and as thou seest deal with thy servants. And notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, Hey, if we're not looking good after 10 days, then we'll violate God's commandments. No, he says after 10 days, then you can deal with us as you see fit and you can punish us or deal with us and do whatever because he purposes are, he's not going to do it. And so he consented verse 14 to them in this matter and prove them 10 days. And at the end of the 10 days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter and flesh than all the children, which did eat the portion of the King's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. And some people will misinterpret this and say, Oh, you know, eating and what is pulse pulse? We're talking about like beans, lentils, legumes. That's what we're talking about. Okay. Some people look at this and say, see, you know, meat's unhealthy. It's pulse that we need to be eating. But I believe it's a miracle. I believe this is God blessing them and letting these guys who are just eating pulse and drinking water be fair and fatter and flesh because of the fact that he's blessing them. Because I believe it's a miracle. I don't believe that God just wants us all to just live off beans and lentils. Because you know what, again, throughout the word of God, this isn't what we see. God had a special diet for all the Levites and the priests and it was all involved meat, you know, uh, Abel kept the flock. You know, God's people in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel were a pastoral people as well as being agricultural. They also kept cattle. They were always into keeping cattle throughout the whole Old Testament. You see the New Testament saints eating meat and so forth. So I'm not going to buy into these, uh, these trendy new diets. And by the way, uh, you know, I've heard some people say like, well, we should be eating a vegetarian diet because that was God's original intent before sin entered into the world, which is true that before sin entered into the world, humans did eat a vegetarian diet. You know, we're talking about like Adam and Eve. Okay. That's true. But so then they, I heard of this thing, it was called like the Hallelujah diet, the Genesis chapter one diet or whatever. And a lot of people will say this, but here's the problem with that logic, okay, is that if you remember, the animals were also vegetarian at that time. And in fact, in the future, what does the Bible say is going to happen during the millennial reign of Christ that basically the wolf is going to lay down with the lamb and that the lion will eat straw like an ox and that basically these carnivorous beasts will actually become gentle and be pets and the world will be at peace. And basically even these carnivorous cats, the lion will actually eat a vegetarian diet. But here's the thing, it is impossible in 2022 for any cat to eat a vegetarian diet. Cats, all types of felines are unable to digest plant based food. So you could theoretically, if you're just some super woke libtard, you could actually feed your dog a vegetarian diet. If you're just like, I don't want my dog to even eat meat. You could go to the store and buy a vegan dog food and feed that to your dog and your dog can digest it and your dog could survive and maybe even thrive because it's so chemically formulated for a dog. But you know, I wouldn't feed it to my dog, but whatever, I don't have a dog. But here's the thing, okay, such a cat food does not exist because cats just biologically cannot digest a plant based diet, they can only digest animal products, okay. So think about this, obviously something changed in the cats from when they were originally created to the fall and then obviously in the future if the lion is going to eat plants and the wolf's going to lay down with the lamb, something is going to have to change in their DNA, something's going to have to change in those animals to be suited to that new diet. So here's the point, is that if we were to just say, well cats are, you know, when there's peace on earth and Jesus is reigning, the cats are going to be vegetarian, let's make them vegetarian right now, then your cat's going to die. But that's the same logic of saying like, well, you know, before the fall of mankind, you know, Adam and Eve are just eating a vegetarian diet and so let's do the same thing right now. Well, you know, they're also going to live forever, it's different. Their bodies were different, just like the cat's bodies were different. And so our bodies as it stands right now, you know, are designed to actually eat a balanced diet. You know, I don't believe we should only eat animal-based products. I think we should eat fruits and vegetables. We are omnivores. But, you know, we have these teeth right here that are just designed for tearing into meat. You know, eyes in the front born to hunt, eyes on the side born to hide, right? That's why, you know, if you look at animals that are typically prey animals, they have their eyes on the side, which is defensive, and then the eyes in the front born to hunt. That's what children learn in their biology classes. And so the point is that it's not that the pulse is a better diet. And hey, I'm for eating beans and lentils, I eat a lot of beans and lentils myself, but I also eat meat, I also eat dairy. You know, I don't know who to trust when it comes to nutrition. So I try to just hedge my bets and just eat a little bit of everything. And something's gonna work. And I always trust the Bible as my final authority. So this is why I'm not one of these people who's like, oh, bread's bad, because the Bible says give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. But then it's like, oh, bread's bad. It's not bad. Because if it was bad, God wouldn't say give us this day our daily bread. Meat's not bad either, because we see men of God eating meat, we see God prescribing meat, we see Jesus eating meat, because he celebrated the Passover every year. That's a meat dinner. And we see him, even after he resurrects from the dead, he's in his glorified body, he eats a broiled fish. So why can't I eat a broiled fish? If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me. And so I'm not into fad diets. But I'm also not into people ignoring their diet and just being morbidly obese, it's not healthy either. So if a fad diet helps you lose weight, I'm not against you. I'm not criticizing you. If you do the keto, paleo, carnivore, whatever, I don't think vegan's gonna make you lose weight because those vegan donuts at Whole Foods are just too good. But I'm saying I'm not against your fad diet if that's what it takes for you to be healthy and lose weight. But I don't think, ideally, that that's the best way to eat. I think we should eat everything. I think we should eat the bread, the meat, the fruit, the vegetable, whatever. Sorry to offend everyone, I just offended everyone in like 90 seconds. People don't like it when you get on their food, you know? Or weight or anything like that. But anyway. Alright, beloved, let's move on. So they appeared fairer and fatter in flesh, okay, than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. I believe that's miraculous, not an advertisement for beans, okay? Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had an understanding in all visions and dreams. Here's what I love about this. These guys have put their walk with God first. Even risking things with their program that they're in as far as their education and their work and their livelihood, they've already been castrated and if they get thrown out of this program, you know, now what? Right? That'd be a real bummer. But they put their walk with God first, they sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and therefore, because they did that, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. And so if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, God is going to bless our endeavors. God's going to bless us at our job, he's going to bless us in our studies, whatever it is that we're setting our hand to do in this life. If we seek first the Lord and his righteousness, God's going to bless that. So we don't want to say, well, I got to put God on the back burner so that I can focus on work, focus on school, you know. We always need to make sure that we're waking up in the morning and reading our Bible, that we're going to church, that we're basically keeping our walk with God at the forefront even as we work hard at our job or whatever other pursuits, we need to keep the walk with God right there in a prominent place. First day of the week is Sunday, here we are down here worshiping God on the first day of the week and then before we get into the work week tomorrow, right? And so I want to make sure that we do that because God can give you knowledge and skill, God can make you good at your job, God can help you thrive in whatever the situation, but you've got to put him first. And even if you eat some of the wrong things or whatever, hey, if you're putting God first, God can bless you physically, mentally, give you skill, he's going to help you out. And so we see God blessing them for doing what's right. So if you're a child and you want to grow up and be successful, which I'm sure every child does, hey, seek first the kingdom of God and that's the best way to ensure success. That's better advice than anything else anybody could tell you is serving the Lord is going to give you the most success. And we've been seeing that a lot on Wednesday nights in the book of Proverbs, but it says in verse 18, now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king communed with them and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even under the first year of King Cyrus, you know, we should strive to excel at whatever we do in this world. And yes, we seek first the kingdom of God. Yes, spiritual things are most important, but you know, even though spiritual things are the most important thing, they're not the only thing. Your job matters. Say, well, only my walk with God matters. Yeah, but part of your walk with God is doing a good job at the workplace because that's what God wants you to do. That's what he told you to do. That's what he commanded you to do. So don't get this attitude that only spiritual things matter. No spiritual things are paramount. Serving God is paramount. It's number one, but there is a number two, there is a number three, there is a number four. And you know what? God wants you to go to your job or whatever pursuit you do. Maybe you're a kid and you're being homeschooled, hey, apply yourself to your studies. That's your job as a kid is schoolwork. Maybe you go to an actual school somewhere, hey, that's you getting up and going to work every day. If you're a slacker at school, are you going to be good at your job someday? You know, you should really apply yourself to whatever you do, whether it's school, work, homeschool, whatever, apply yourself, give it your best. Because these guys that love the Lord, that are great role models for all of us to this day, they applied themselves at this three year program that they were in and they ended up being 10 times better. And that's a great testimony for the Lord. And God's going to use that later in their lives. And so we want to make sure that we do our very best, not just when it comes to spiritual things, but whatever our hand find it to do, we need to do it with our might. And we need to put effort into every area of life. You know, if you are an electrician, you need to be the best electrician that you can possibly be. If you're a computer programmer, you need to be the best computer programmer you can be. Even if you work a more menial job, you need to be the best cashier or landscaper or janitor or whatever, you know, trash collector, be the very best that you can possibly be at that job. And that's a good testimony for the Lord. And that's what God wants us to do as Christians. He wants us to be in this world, but not of this world. And God does not desire us to withdraw from society and go out and live on some compound in South America somewhere. He wants us to be engaged in this society. And we see Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego participating, they're engaged, they're cooperating, they're doing their best, but they're not going to violate their Christian principles. But they still are engaging with society and doing their very best because what kind of a testimony for the Lord is it when you show up to your work and you're a slacker and everybody knows you're a born again Christian, you think that that makes Christianity look good. But if you show up and you're a thoughtful, compassionate, hard worker and you're doing your best, you know, that's a good testimony of the Lord. And so we can learn a lot from this passage and especially as children and teenagers think long and hard about Daniel chapter one and decide, you know, this is the type of person you're going to be, where you're giving it your best. You're seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And you know, we can all come up with an excuse why we, you know, can't serve God or, you know, oh, you know, they chopped off my whatever, you know, or, oh, you know, I got abducted from my family or I'm adopted or, you know, oh, you don't understand the sinful influences in my home or you don't understand the, you know, the circumstances I've gone through, the adversity. Look, I don't think anybody in this room has gone through what these guys have gone through. I mean, these guys went through something terrible, an upheaval in their lives, probably unlike any of us will ever experience in our whole lives. But instead of using that as an excuse, not only did they make it, not only did they survive, not only did they keep their Christian testimony and their faith in God, obviously I realize that, you know, we're talking about the Old Testament, but we're bringing this into today's application. But you know what? They're even the best. He's even saying these guys are 10 times better. It's not even that they made it through the program that they actually survived, but they thrived. Okay. And so that shows that no matter what your excuse, you can do great things for God. And the Apostle Paul said, I press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and we should strive for excellence, not just mediocrity. And don't say all the reasons why it's okay for you to be mediocre as a Christian. No, no, no. Quit making excuses and just say, you know what, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And be a Daniel, be a Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, be 10 times better. You know, give it your best and always put God first and you too can have this type of blessing from God on your life. And I hope especially young people will lay the star, but all of us need to hear this at all ages. We all need to be doing our best, even in our forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, because you know, Daniel, it says in verse 21, here's the final thought I want to leave you with, Daniel continued even under the first year of King Cyrus. You know, we're talking approximately 70 years later. So Daniel, he continued with this mentality. He continued in excellence his whole life. He started this way as a child and that's why it's important to lay down these habits now as a child because you're kind of deciding what you're going to be like for the rest of your life. And he continued all the way until King Cyrus. So when we see Daniel in stories like the lion's den with King Darius, you know, we're talking many, many decades have gone by and Daniel is still at the top of his game because in that Daniel chapter six passage with the Daniel in the lion's den, you know, people are envious of him because he's at the top. And so Daniel continued this way. So even those of us that are in our 40s or even people that are older than me in their 50s, 60s, 70s, you know, you can still have this attitude of excellence and putting God first, doing what's right and succeeding and prospering even in this world while not being of the world. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this passage, Lord, and I pray that all of us would lay it to heart and I pray that we would all be inspired by the godly example of Daniel and that we would learn from the wisdom of this passage in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.