SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grant Harkway Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandHarkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Lord, we uh we say of you everything you say of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that you say of yourself is you speak of yourself in the present.
SPEAKER_01: You said, uh, Moses said, Whom shall I tell him sent me?
SPEAKER_01: You said, Tell them I am sent you.
SPEAKER_01: So there never is a time when you will not be.
SPEAKER_01: There never has been a time and you haven't been.
SPEAKER_01: You've always existed and you will always exist.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've got to get used to that idea, God.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't offend us, that doesn't bother us because you're the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: You rule heaven and you rule earth and you set over it whomever you please.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we're comfortable with that.
SPEAKER_01: Living in a world where you're in charge and we're not.
SPEAKER_01: And so we submit to you and we ask, Holy Spirit, make of us the kind of people that we see in Daniel today.
SPEAKER_01: This cat is 70 years old in the Bible, his enemies, not himself, not his Facebook profile, his LinkedIn profile, his enemies, people that didn't believe like him, live like him, talk like him, or pray to the God he prayed.
SPEAKER_01: They said, This old cat is full of light and understanding and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And the overarching need of our day and age right now is men and women who are full of light, understanding, and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, make of us from your word and by your spirit those kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You could have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it open to Daniel chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say welcome to our friends that are that are joining us online this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to you coming and gathering with us in person when you feel comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: There's no pressure or no guilt.
SPEAKER_01: We just say you're welcome.
SPEAKER_01: I want to say welcome to our friends in Montana that watch this, a couple small groups in Montana that are a part of our podcast.
SPEAKER_01: My golfing buddy Drake in North Carolina, uh, hello this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, people all over the country enjoy what happens here, but none of you enjoy it as much as we do because we get to do it with each other.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna read an entire chapter of the Bible, but I'm gonna break it into sections.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I don't read the whole thing, and you just kind of your eyes glaze over like I shouldn't have had that second Kalachi.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so I'll break it into sections and I'll say, You had calachis for breakfast, didn't you?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are kind of like, How'd you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Next time, break off one for the preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, well, show some love here, people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm dying up here.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, and so I'll read a section, I'll stop, and I'll say, hey, here's what we take away from this section.
SPEAKER_01: We'll read a little bit longer section.
SPEAKER_01: There's four sections, so I have four points.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not very original, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me give you some context for what we're gonna read this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, last week I told you the book of Daniel is not chronological, it's not Daniel's diary, uh, dear diary.
SPEAKER_01: It's Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: This happened yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: It's not chronological, it's historical.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's kind of the the the big events of Daniel's life, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, from the close of chapter four that we read last week to chapter five, 23 years has elapsed.
SPEAKER_01: There's a new king on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Nabonidus.
SPEAKER_01: He's not mentioned here because he's living in another another city.
SPEAKER_01: His son Belshazzar is over the city of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is that a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Because Daniel, the main character of the book of Daniel, imagine that, he is 70 years old, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And this brother is still bringing it.
SPEAKER_01: He is consistently consistent.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the Medes and the Persians, this foreign army has invaded and they've sacked every city except Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon was an almost an impregnable fortress.
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was impregnable, and you'll see why in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: The walls of this city, there are 14 miles around it, just a city.
SPEAKER_01: The walls were 87 feet thick.
SPEAKER_01: That is wider than the width of this sanctuary, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: 87 feet thick, 350 feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: That's taller than a football field, stood on its end, and they had years worth of stores of food and wine.
SPEAKER_01: They had so much wine.
SPEAKER_01: We'll read in Daniel chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: They had a banquet and they served wine to a thousand people at one time.
SPEAKER_01: How would you men like your daughter to get wedded and get married, and you're picking up the tab, and that many people come to the wedding?
SPEAKER_01: You would be bitter for months.
SPEAKER_01: I told you we shouldn't have served alcohol.
SPEAKER_01: Get out the maker's mark.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they're in there, and you okay back there?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody likes a uh somebody likes MM.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh, and so they're there, they're surrounded.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me, stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: Context.
SPEAKER_01: They're surrounded, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The city of Babylon, 87 feet thick, and they trust in their in their defenses.
SPEAKER_01: It's so big, they got a river that runs through this thing, and they're kind of like, dude, we got a moat, we got walls, and they've got more walls.
SPEAKER_01: We're good.
SPEAKER_01: We can wait these people out.
SPEAKER_01: The Medes and the Persians are surrounded in the city, they can't figure out how to get in there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they decide to do.
SPEAKER_01: It's either fatalism or arrogance, but they're like, hey, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
SPEAKER_01: That's fatalism, or it's arrogance, which is like, dude, we're Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: We got 87 uh feet thick walls, 300 feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: Who's gonna get to us?
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to ask that question.
SPEAKER_01: Want to talk to you from Daniel chapter five about the kind of people we need right now, in on November the 8th or whatever today is of 2020.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, the world did not end yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Just relax.
SPEAKER_01: One of my neighbors is like, hey, bro, is the world ending?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and you're going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Now finish ranking your yard.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, no, the world's not ending, not yet.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to one day.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: I said, because the Bible says it's going to get so bad that people are going to cry out for the rocks to fall on them and kill them.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, I'm not going to let them die because they're going to have to experience this kind of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Are you are you are you wanting the rocks to fall on you?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, No.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay, then we're not close to the end.
SPEAKER_01: Cheer up, it's going to get worse.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said to me, Sometimes I like living next to you and sometimes I don't.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I feel the same way.
SPEAKER_01: When you mow your yard with a shirt off and those white knee socks, I just want to shoot you.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I convinced my kids you really are a preacher.
SPEAKER_01: I said, That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen your kids, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, anyway, Daniel, you want to move into my neighborhood?
SPEAKER_01: Heavy emphasis on the hood.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel chapter five, the kind of people we need to be right now.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel chapter five, verse one.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read the first four verses.
SPEAKER_01: King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.
SPEAKER_01: Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.
SPEAKER_01: Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
SPEAKER_01: They drank wine and they praised the God, the God, gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: First little section.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first point in the sermon about the kind of people we need right now.
SPEAKER_01: We need people who understand that God takes sacred things seriously.
SPEAKER_01: God takes sacred things seriously.
SPEAKER_01: Having said that, let me define what I mean by sacred.
SPEAKER_01: Sacred means connected to God or dedicated to a religious purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It often refers to something that exists for a specific spirit, a specific spiritual purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It's connected to God or dedicated to a religious purpose.
SPEAKER_01: In this case, if you remember back in chapter one of Daniel, when they overthrew Jerusalem, they took Daniel and some of his friends, the young, the best and the brightest that had aptitude and could learn.
SPEAKER_01: They also went down to the temple where God's people worship God and they took some of the gold and silver vessels out of the temple and they brought them back and put them in their temple.
SPEAKER_01: It was their way of saying, not only do we defeat you, but our gods are more real than your God.
SPEAKER_01: Your God's not real because if your God was real, why did he let you lose?
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring it down to where you live.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you're gonna lose and your God's still real.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're mocking them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Bible says, some of you relate to this, when it says in verse 2, Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, that does not mean that when the wine first touched his lips, he was like, Oh, that wine's so good.
SPEAKER_01: That means he got a couple pours in him and he got the beer goggles on.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And he's kind of like, I tell you what, we need to do, by golly, we need to go to that temple and get them gold and silver vessels, and let's drink from them, and let's really thumb our nose at the God of these people, and our wives and our concubines and me and my men, we're gonna just drink from these things, and we're gonna take sacred things and we're going to profane them.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what sets this entire chapter into motion.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say the kind of people we need right now are people who understand that God takes sacred things seriously.
SPEAKER_01: Now that we've defined what we mean by sacred, we've seen in the Bible that there's these instruments, these vessels, cups, plates, things like that, practical things that God says these are set aside for a sacred spiritual purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Do not violate that.
SPEAKER_01: Now that we've defined it, it behooves us to ask the question what is sacred to you?
SPEAKER_01: What is sacred to you?
SPEAKER_01: I asked my wife last night at dinner because she's nosy rosy.
SPEAKER_01: She's every Saturday, what are you preaching on tomorrow?
SPEAKER_01: Every Saturday I say the same thing, the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, give me more than that.
SPEAKER_01: And I go, okay, I'll give you that.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about what is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna ask people before you go to bed tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ask you and your spouse to have a conversation and ask yourself, hey, what is sacred to us?
SPEAKER_01: And my wife just said, Oh, I can tell you, my husband.
SPEAKER_01: I said, That's a good place to start.
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I would say my family.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, no, no, husband, back to that.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, my husband, my family, blah, blah, blah, my faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so I made a little list.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some things I put on my list.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to make a list.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, my marriage is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't violate another person's marriage to meet my needs because my marriage is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: If my marriage is sacred, your marriage is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: All marriage is a sacred thing in the eyes of God, and so it's sacred to me.
SPEAKER_01: My kids are sacred, uh, life itself is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need some Marxist revolutionary group marching through the streets of some American city, burning half of it down, talking about what lives matter, because life itself matters.
SPEAKER_01: Life is sacred in the womb and at the end when people are getting ready to die.
SPEAKER_01: It matters at each the beginning and the ending in every point and place in between.
SPEAKER_01: Life to me is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: The body is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: For as a Christian, God lives inside of your body, so it matters what you do with your body.
SPEAKER_01: The truth is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: That puts me in the minority, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Truth is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that means don't lie.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is sacred, trust is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a weird one.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the tithe is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm gonna confess my sins to you.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in the tithe, it's a Hebrew word that means tenth, and that's a noun, the tithe, and tithing is a verb.
SPEAKER_01: Now relax.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, this is not a giving sermon, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But I I didn't always understand the biblical principle of tithing, so therefore I didn't always do it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh when I was younger, I remember I would go to church.
SPEAKER_01: You would never do this.
SPEAKER_01: I would go to church, and I went to a church when I first became a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: It was a my town, small church, but there were some rich people that went to that church.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the fourth largest poultry producer in the United States was based in my hometown.
SPEAKER_01: And the man that owned that, that was named after it, went to that church.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and his spiritual gift was giving.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, they don't need me.
SPEAKER_01: They got that guy over there, and they got that guy over there, and that guy over there owns a bunch of rent houses.
SPEAKER_01: I know all these people.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in this town.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then because when I became a Christian, I came out of a pretty not a pretty savory past.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I realized I couldn't hang with the people I used to hang with and go to the places I used to hang.
SPEAKER_01: So I would go to work, I would come home, I would take a shower, I would eat supper with my mom, watch MASH every night.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen every episode of MASH, and then I'd go to my room and read my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so one night I'm in my room, no preacher, no emphasis, no special emphasis on giving.
SPEAKER_01: And I was reading in the Old Testament Malachi.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Will a man rob God?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yet you've robbed me in tithes and offerings.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, and so for me on this night, in the course of about 45 minutes of just reading the Bible and asking God, like, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: I came to understand that the tithe is sacred.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_01: Now I wanted to talk myself out of that because I would go to this church that was not a big church, but it was very nice.
SPEAKER_01: It was on local TV, and I was like, man, this church has money.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say things like this this church seems to be doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: They don't need my money.
SPEAKER_01: Things you would never say.
SPEAKER_01: I would go, and if the sermon wasn't good or I didn't like it, I would be like, I'm not supporting this.
SPEAKER_01: This is a bad investment of my money.
SPEAKER_01: You would never say that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was just hypercritical until I understood, hey, this the tithe is sacred in that it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_01: For me not to give that to God, I am stealing.
SPEAKER_01: I am that's why the Bible calls it robbery, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I cannot make sacred things sacred to you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to come to that place in and of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, what's sacred?
SPEAKER_01: Like I have a friend, what's sacred to him is this whole salt water soul thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm kind of like, he's got a sticker on the back of his truck, saltwater soul.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hey, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of in the soul business.
SPEAKER_01: Man, my soul's got to be on the water, out fishing and breadfish and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm all for fishing and everything, but is that really the way you connect with God?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's my church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't go to church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Wow, if I got to just define church, that would be so much easier.
SPEAKER_01: But but thank God it was decided for me a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, can you feel what just happened in this room?
SPEAKER_01: All the fishermen just step back.
SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to this, honey.
SPEAKER_01: This is not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Now, am I saying don't go fishing?
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: Am I saying don't buy a boat?
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to buy, I want God to bless you so much that you buy a boat, that you go fishing, that you enjoy yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you fish all as much as you can and still be a husband and a father.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Your wives are going, come on, Pastor, preach.
SPEAKER_01: Preach.
SPEAKER_01: See, because you can't step over sacred things to get to secular things.
SPEAKER_01: Because your life won't make sense.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be a hero to strangers and a stranger to people you should be a hero to.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I can't tell you what's sacred for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you, this is what's sacred for me.
SPEAKER_01: That God takes sacred things seriously.
SPEAKER_01: And so you got to understand.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to have a conversation before you go to bed and say, hey, what's sacred for us?
SPEAKER_01: Next section begins in verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read.
SPEAKER_01: It says, immediately after this, and they get the beer buzz on, and they they defile sacred things immediately.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, the fingers of a human hand appeared or wrote on the plaster of the wall in the king's palace, opposite the lampstand.
SPEAKER_01: And the king saw the hand as it wrote, and the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him.
SPEAKER_01: His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
SPEAKER_01: The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers.
SPEAKER_01: The clean king declared to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and its color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
SPEAKER_01: The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, O king, live forever.
SPEAKER_01: Let not your heart your thoughts alarm you, or your color change.
SPEAKER_01: There's a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods in the day of your father.
SPEAKER_01: Light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.
SPEAKER_01: And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, he made him chief of the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing the Bible tells us that we, this is the kind of people that we need right now.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, these kind of people will always be in demand.
SPEAKER_01: These kind of people will always be in demand.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean, these kind of people?
SPEAKER_01: Daniel has had leaders who didn't follow God in a culture that's hostile to his faith, yet he continues to be sought out and promoted.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to notice how they describe Daniel, the queen comes in.
SPEAKER_01: She hears the ruckus in the banqueting hall.
SPEAKER_01: She comes in and she's like, Hey, what's going on in here?
SPEAKER_01: And she sees that the king, the king Belshazzar is freaking out, and she's like, Hey, relax, dude.
SPEAKER_01: Calm down, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Just calls Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: And now this is a woman who doesn't believe like Daniel believes.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't pray to his God.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't think the way he thinks.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the way she describes him in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: She says, There's a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.
SPEAKER_01: In the days of your father, long time ago, remember, 23 years has passed between chapter four and chapter five.
SPEAKER_01: In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.
SPEAKER_01: These kind of people, beloved, will always be in demand, regardless of what the culture is like.
SPEAKER_01: We need people that are full of light and understanding and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: I said to my neighbor, I said, Hey, I'm talking about, he said, Well, what do you preach?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm gonna tell my people tomorrow, hey, relax, take a deep breath.
SPEAKER_01: We get to be people of light and understanding and wisdom, and those people will always be in need.
SPEAKER_01: That's what people need.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, That's why I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No pressure there, huh?
SPEAKER_01: I said, dude, just relax and take a deep breath.
SPEAKER_01: You're still gonna have to get up and go to work on Monday.
SPEAKER_01: No president in the history of the world has ever put a sandwich on my table.
SPEAKER_01: That's my job.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's paying for my kids to go to college.
SPEAKER_01: That's my job.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, So you're not worried?
SPEAKER_01: I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, then I'm not worried.
SPEAKER_01: I said, well, you can't assume we believe the same things.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's go get into that.
SPEAKER_01: See, I'm like a pet rock to him.
SPEAKER_01: He likes to just rub me so he can go home and say to his wife, I'll talk to the preacher and we're gonna be good.
SPEAKER_01: He's assured me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like the Chaldeans or the astrologer to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'll talk to the preacher and we're all good.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how hard is it gonna be?
SPEAKER_01: After all, the Republicans still got some voice in the Senate.
SPEAKER_01: Uh who knows?
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want to say: these kind of people will always be these people that are full of light, understanding, and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Mark those words.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but let you and I aspire to be these kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he he says that light, understanding, and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is what this would look like when we talk about these kind of people.
SPEAKER_01: This is in the New Testament, James chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Who is wise and understanding among you?
SPEAKER_01: By his good conduct, let him show his works and the meekness of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have, listen carefully, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
SPEAKER_01: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
SPEAKER_01: But the wisdom from above is first, think about our culture right now.
SPEAKER_01: The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
SPEAKER_01: And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
SPEAKER_01: When I say that those kind of people will always be in demand, this is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: These kind of people that they sow this harvest of righteousness that when you talk to them, you walk away and you're like, man, I just feel better.
SPEAKER_01: I just feel at peace.
SPEAKER_01: These people are gentle, they're open to reason, they're full of mercy and good fruits, they're impartial and they're sincere.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I also want to just point to this, I don't have time to go into this today, but there's with great cause that the Bible warns us about two things, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to put this out there.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about selfish, uh bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times people come to me for counseling and they'll say something like this a husband and wife will come in and sit down and go, Man, I don't know what to say, but just all hell's breaking loose in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Our kids are going crazy, we're about to kill each other, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's nothing we can point to, but we just need someone to pray for us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is not spiritual duct tape.
SPEAKER_01: I don't put this on everything, but every once in a while, when people are talking, I'm I'm reminded of this.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, Can I ask you a weird question?
SPEAKER_01: And they'll be like, Yeah, uh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And I just ask, hey, do you have any bitter jealousy in you or selfish ambition that's like different disproportionate?
SPEAKER_01: Do you are you jealous of anybody or anything in a way that's made you bitter that they have this and you don't, or they're getting to do this and you and you're not?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you have a driving sense of ambition around anything?
SPEAKER_01: And typically their response is that is weird.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, there's a reason I'm asking.
SPEAKER_01: They go, Well, well, can I ask you why?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, sure.
SPEAKER_01: And I read from James chapter three, and I say it says right here in the Bible, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
SPEAKER_01: And so you have to you have to monitor yourself and make sure you just check yourself in these areas.
SPEAKER_01: But people like Daniel, that's free.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to point to that because it's in the text.
SPEAKER_01: People like Daniel that are full of light, understanding, and wisdom will always be in demand.
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm calling us to today is for us to be those kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: The third section begins in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Then Daniel was brought in before the king.
SPEAKER_01: The king answered and said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom that whom the king my father brought from Judah.
SPEAKER_01: I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.
SPEAKER_01: Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read the writings and make known to me its interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: But they could not show the interpretation of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and you shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, dude, I'm 70.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna rock a purple valour jogging suit and a big Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Tea Starter set, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Just get the picture in your mind of your grandpa at Christmas this year, sitting over there on the couch with purple velour and a big braided gold chain around his neck.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hate to play, I hate the game.
SPEAKER_01: Like Biggie says, more money, more problems.
SPEAKER_01: You would be your kids' friends would be coming over going, hey man, can I talk to your grandpa?
SPEAKER_01: And Daniel's like, I don't need your goofy, your your your purple clothes, your purple outfit, and a gold chain.
SPEAKER_01: Bro, I'm 70, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You think I care about those things?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, by the way, if you're 70 and you're still worried about gold, you didn't plan well.
SPEAKER_01: That's just free.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the beauty about being old.
SPEAKER_01: It clarifies what you should care about.
SPEAKER_01: If you're 70 and you're still worried, you're chasing that almighty dollar.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man, really?
SPEAKER_01: You're sending a bad message to everybody around you.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: O King, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty.
SPEAKER_01: And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him.
SPEAKER_01: Whom he would, he killed.
SPEAKER_01: Whom he would, he kept alive.
SPEAKER_01: Whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled.
SPEAKER_01: But, here verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: But when his heart, but when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened, so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him.
SPEAKER_01: He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys.
SPEAKER_01: He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.
SPEAKER_01: And you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drank wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold and bronze and iron and wood and stone, which you do not see or hear or know.
SPEAKER_01: But the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways you have not honored.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what this section tells us.
SPEAKER_01: It's very simply God values humility.
SPEAKER_01: God values humility.
SPEAKER_01: Don't check out on me, men.
SPEAKER_01: Humility is not this mousiness, kind of like, oh, I'm just henpecked, I'm just walking around carrying my wife's purse, tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the biblical vision of humility.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a definition in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to draw your attention to verse 22, where he says to Belshazzar, hey, by the way, let's go back to verse 20 first.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, he says of Nebuchadnezzar, he says, But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened, so that he dealt proudly.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel when your heart is getting lifted up?
SPEAKER_01: This is the way we say it nowadays.
SPEAKER_01: He's kind of fool of himself.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart gets lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'll go first.
SPEAKER_01: Here's when my heart gets lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: I can feel it.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm in a restaurant and the waiter's not giving us good service, my heart gets lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was a waiter in college and I was good.
SPEAKER_01: I made a killing.
SPEAKER_01: I loved that job, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so people do not pay attention to detail.
SPEAKER_01: My kids are like, Dad, just put the chalk up, please.
SPEAKER_01: Just no.
SPEAKER_01: Just and I'm like, hey man, have you considered another job?
SPEAKER_01: And they always say the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're not good at this one.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't hating on you, I'm just loving you.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't get offended.
SPEAKER_01: They laugh, they're like, oh man, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, you're not sorry.
SPEAKER_01: You're over there on your phone texting your girlfriend, man.
SPEAKER_01: Tips means to ensure proper service.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: If I don't get proper service, guess what you ain't getting?
SPEAKER_01: So don't bad mouth me back in the waiter station, like that guy stiffed me.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: You're terrible.
SPEAKER_01: And I do not want to perpetuate you on anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: So you're getting bumpus from this table.
SPEAKER_01: And my kids are just melting under the table like, oh dad.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I'm helping this man get better.
SPEAKER_01: And they're just like, Dad, just put some money.
SPEAKER_01: When we first got married, my wife would carry money in her pocket.
SPEAKER_01: So she would, we'd be walking out and she'd go, Oh, I pulled the hamstring.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: And she'd go back and throw money on the table.
SPEAKER_01: Well, while she was in the women's bathroom, I would go in the men's bathroom and I'd wait for her to come out.
SPEAKER_01: And I would walk by and just pick it up off the table, put it in my pocket.
SPEAKER_01: And I would look at him and go, Look, my wife felt pity for you, but I don't.
SPEAKER_01: I'm taking this home.
SPEAKER_01: Peace.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's what began to happen.
SPEAKER_01: We'd go back to that restaurant and the waiter would be there.
SPEAKER_01: He'd go, I remember you.
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, hey, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna sit in your section.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you a do-over, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I believe in a God of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Second chances, I'm gonna give you a second chance.
SPEAKER_01: But if you screw this up, I'm gonna stiff you again.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, You are honest.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you, I'll give you that much.
SPEAKER_01: You said they that same girl.
SPEAKER_01: No, man, she cheated on me.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's what happens when you text at work, God breaks you up.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all right now are like, no, that's not true because I do that all the time.
SPEAKER_01: No, here's what I'm saying: humility, you you gotta be able to know when your heart, he says at Nebuchadnezzar, his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened.
SPEAKER_01: See, when your spirit gets hardened, you treat people like they're less than you.
SPEAKER_01: His heart got lifted up and his spirit was hardened, so he dealt proudly.
SPEAKER_01: You deal proudly with people.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: That was his forefather, what his biological father.
SPEAKER_01: He calls him his father because he went before him.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: He says, And you and you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Dude, you you watch this play out, and you've not you you you you've done the same thing, and even worse.
SPEAKER_01: You've not humbled your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a second weird question for you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: What is your plan for humbling your heart?
SPEAKER_01: It's important that you have a plan for humbling our heart, that we all have a plan for humbling our heart because our heart by nature wants to exalt us.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart and my heart by nature wants to exalt us.
SPEAKER_01: And it wants to kind of say, Hey, check me out.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed my LinkedIn profile?
SPEAKER_01: Look what all I'm about.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart is always asking questions like, You're gonna take that?
SPEAKER_01: Are you really gonna do that for them?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they don't deserve that.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna let them get away with that?
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you tell them this about you?
SPEAKER_01: Just work this into the conversation, let them know who they're talking to here.
SPEAKER_01: Now, see if you listen to your heart over it, it's just a matter of time before the only thing sacred is you and your ideas.
SPEAKER_01: And just in case you don't have a plan to humble your heart, now again, humbling your heart is not it's not meekness and it's not weakness.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll get to a definition in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you men to stay with me, and some of you ladies stay with me as well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you don't have a plan, I want to suggest one simply this obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Just simply do what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to demonstrate from Philippians chapter 2, starting verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
SPEAKER_01: He humbled himself by becoming obedient.
SPEAKER_01: He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_01: So that at the name of Jesus every new knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
SPEAKER_01: You should ask yourself this morning, where are you going to go to escape that reality of bowing at the name of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: He says, everybody in heaven and on earth and under the earth, whether that's the place of death, she o or hell, there's nowhere you can go to escape.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's going to bow.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean everyone's going to become a Christian, but everyone's going to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the only way.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus is not Lord and He's not the only way, then why does anybody go to hell?
SPEAKER_01: See, the Bible says that on heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to say that if you don't have a plan for humbling your heart, and again, humbling your heart is not making yourself some kind of a morose, sad deby down or sorry guys, I'm humble.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's not what the Bible's about.
SPEAKER_01: The natural trajectory of the gospel is, however, towards humility.
SPEAKER_01: So it helps us to have a definition of it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way I would define humility it's not weakness, but it's confident power that it's willing to be itself without always having to prove itself.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to illustrate.
SPEAKER_01: I was not a believer in high school.
SPEAKER_01: And so one night me and my buddies were down the parking lot doing what 16, 17-year-old boys do in a small town.
SPEAKER_01: And we were, our heart was lifted up to paraphrase Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: We were full of other things that give you some liquid courage.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a deputy sheriff in my hometown, and he was a very quiet man.
SPEAKER_01: All I knew about him was that he went to the church of Christ because we played them in Church League softball where people would lose their ever-loving minds on the softball field.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember he was kind of stocky and very quiet.
SPEAKER_01: And I heard somebody say one time, I've never heard that man say a cuss word.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Shazam.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're on the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: He rolls up in his cream-colored Ford LTD and he gets out.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a uniform on, gun and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And we're 16, 17 year old.
SPEAKER_01: And one of our friends, my friends, pops off and says, What's up, 5-0?
SPEAKER_01: You're feeling all big with that gun on your hip.
SPEAKER_01: And all it takes is one inebriated fool to set all the other ones on fire.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked around, I was counting, there's nine of us.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, nine of us and one of you, what you say there?
SPEAKER_01: And he just down, you boys, y'all probably had enough.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all need to get on home now.
SPEAKER_01: Are y'all gonna be okay to drive?
SPEAKER_01: You one of y'all want to ride with me?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I think if I get in the car with you, we're not going to my house.
SPEAKER_01: We're going down there where they had them green mattresses.
SPEAKER_01: I've been there before.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, no, boys, I don't want in trouble, y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is humility, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is humility.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the definition is, it's confident power that's willing to be itself without always having to prove itself.
SPEAKER_01: He said, No boys, I'm gonna give you one minute.
SPEAKER_01: I want them trucks cranked up.
SPEAKER_01: I want you headed to your houses, or else I'm gonna take all of you in.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, there's nine of us and one of you.
SPEAKER_01: He took that gun, but my friend popped off again.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking big of that gun, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Took that gun belt off, set it on the hood of his car, took his badge off, set it on the hood of his car, took his glasses off, set them on the hood of the car.
SPEAKER_01: My confidence is draining now.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, and then he struck the Batman pose.
SPEAKER_01: He spit on his hands and he went, which one of y'all wants to be first?
SPEAKER_01: You know why I hear my mom calling?
SPEAKER_01: She's a single parent.
SPEAKER_01: I need to be there, kind of look out for her.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna hit it, y'all guys.
SPEAKER_01: And one by one, we all got in there.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't cuss, he didn't raise his voice.
SPEAKER_01: He demonstrated confident power that's willing to be itself while always having to prove itself.
SPEAKER_01: Less than a minute, all them trucks cleared that parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: I saw, well, I looked back, I was mumbling, my boy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he ought to be glad this thing didn't go south.
SPEAKER_01: He was just putting his gun belt back on and smiling.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of the time I lived in that town, every time I saw him, I just thought to myself, that's a bad man right there.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, humility is not this, oh, ooh, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's just confident power.
SPEAKER_01: It's willing to be his self, but doesn't always have to prove itself.
SPEAKER_01: The last section is in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This, then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed to Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parson.
SPEAKER_01: This is the interpretation of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
SPEAKER_01: Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.
SPEAKER_01: Petis, the kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.
SPEAKER_01: That's the people that have surrounded this city.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 29, Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: He's about to be the second ruler in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the Mead received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do we take away from that section?
SPEAKER_01: Simply this right here.
SPEAKER_01: Think with me.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Don't check out on me.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand this because I know people that think this way, and you know people that think this way.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what this last section tells us that salvation belongs to God.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation belongs to God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: In these last two chapters, chapter four and chapter five, we've seen two rulers who both did terrible things.
SPEAKER_01: They were full of pride and puffed up, and they got they got out over their skis, or they say, Where I come from, don't get above your raisin.
SPEAKER_01: They got above their raisin, they thought too much of themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Nebuchadnezzar kind of like, is this not the great Babylon that I have made?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on, man, who can lay a hand on me?
SPEAKER_01: And yet God had mercy on Nebuchadnezzar and let him see the error of his ways.
SPEAKER_01: And then you have Belshazzar in chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: God has no compassion on him and he dies in his sins.
SPEAKER_01: The text even tells us that then from his presence, God's presence, this hand was sent to write on the wall to say, it's over, dude.
SPEAKER_01: It's too late.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I say that salvation belongs to God?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a person whose plan is to have some kind of deathbed conversion, you need to listen closely to what I'm about to say because inherent in your plan is the belief that you somehow control the salvation process, that you've got this little voucher, this little God voucher in your pocket, and you're gonna live like hell to the very last minute.
SPEAKER_01: Then you're gonna whip it out and say, I'd like to redeem this.
SPEAKER_01: I got a question for you.
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't Belshazzar do that?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, his knees are knocking, the connective tissue of his body is let go.
SPEAKER_01: I'll let you spill out the implications of that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God writes on the wall, would he not be like, hang on a second?
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Because God owns salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation belongs to God, not people.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I've heard young people in this church go, oh, I'm gonna party, do whatever I want, then when I get older, I'm gonna settle down and marry a good person.
SPEAKER_01: And I always say the same thing in love.
SPEAKER_01: You can't talk people out of foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: I tell my own children this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you want to be foolish, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: That's up to you.
SPEAKER_01: You weren't raised that way, but you you can't always bank on the fact that there's gonna be a moment where you can just say, you know what, God, I want to make it all right because salvation doesn't belong to you.
SPEAKER_01: And then my kids are like, Dad, I'm already a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: All right, then keep acting like it.
SPEAKER_01: Because the older you get, there'll be moments it gets harder.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, they think that's 18 or 19.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, my, my, my.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches again that God owns salvation, and the only way that people come to faith is that God reveals himself to them.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: When God reveals himself to them, what they see, first of all, is themselves in the reflection of God.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the first time you were cut to the quick over how sinful you were?
SPEAKER_01: That's God's mercy at work in your life.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and you're puffed up and arrogant and full of yourself, you're like, I do what I want.
SPEAKER_01: It's my body.
SPEAKER_01: God just hadn't revealed himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying you ought to stop and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I am saying people who know you and love you should pray that God has mercy on you.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean, God, salvation belongs to God?
SPEAKER_01: There's a there's there's a book in the New Testament called Romans, and in Romans chapter 9, this guy Paul's trying to explain to people what this is like.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, Hey, this woman's gonna have, she's gonna have two sons, twins.
SPEAKER_01: And before they're born or do anything right and wrong, because it doesn't depend on you doing right or doing wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It depends on God who has mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Let me close this morning by reading from Romans chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: But this is what the promise said about this time next year, I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.
SPEAKER_01: And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not done anything either good or bad, but in order that God's the purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls.
SPEAKER_01: She was told, the older will serve the younger.
SPEAKER_01: As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau hated.
SPEAKER_01: What shall we say then?
SPEAKER_01: Is there injustice on God's part?
SPEAKER_01: By no means.
SPEAKER_01: For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I have compassion on whom I have compassion.
SPEAKER_01: So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
SPEAKER_01: For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So then he has mercy on whoever he wills, Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: And he hardens whomever he wills, Belshazzar.
SPEAKER_01: Two kings, one chapter apart in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You would think if you're one of those deathbed people, it's like, oh, at the last minute, I'm just gonna whip it out.
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because God just hardened his heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say God hardened his heart, it's not like God went to Home Depot and got a sack of quick creating and poured on his heart.
SPEAKER_01: Listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done in 30 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: The natural state of the human heart is hard towards God.
SPEAKER_01: So God didn't do anything to him, he was born that way.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when your sweet, innocent little children were about 18 months old and you told them no, and they just looked at you and just kept reaching, and you said no, and they kept looking.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I'm gonna count the three.
SPEAKER_01: One, two, and they were three.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart is hard towards authority.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not like God picked on this guy, Belshazzar, and he was good.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing I want you to understand.
SPEAKER_01: If you look in the New Testament, the book of Ephesians, it talks about the natural state of man.
SPEAKER_01: It says we are dead in our trespasses and sin, and it says this, but God who's rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: But God who's rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: See, it is mercy that God makes salvation about that which he's rich in.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have enough wisdom to figure out a plan to get to the end and go, I've sinned enough, or sow your wild oats as I get told a lot, hey preacher, I like you and everything, but I'm gonna kind of get my party on.
SPEAKER_01: Then when I get to be 30, I'm gonna settle down and I say, I hope that goes well for you.
SPEAKER_01: But just understand, you cannot control that process.
SPEAKER_01: God owns salvation, not humanity.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see in the life of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.
SPEAKER_01: But God is rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy is not something we can give ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And herein lies the problem for most of us today.
SPEAKER_01: We think so much of ourselves that we've come to believe that we're in the position of having mercy on God by allowing God to forgive us.
SPEAKER_01: And to that I would just say, what did God ever do wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What standard of justice has God violated that we're now in a position to show Him mercy?
SPEAKER_01: We're not.
SPEAKER_01: God, who's rich in mercy, has mercy for any of you in this room who realize, man, I have so violated God's standard of justice and right.
SPEAKER_01: He has mercy for you.
SPEAKER_01: More mercy than you have sin.
SPEAKER_01: He's better at forgiving than you are at sinning.
SPEAKER_01: And he's that way to turn your heart towards Him.
SPEAKER_01: You should ask yourself today, why would you not want to be in a relationship with this God?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, we like to just uh tell you what's fixing to happen.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible and give you some spaces to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so just relax.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: You can think about them.
SPEAKER_01: You can pull out your phone and discreetly take a picture.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but just ask yourself, hey, what what what kind of stuck out in my head during this today?
SPEAKER_01: What did I walk away with?
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: God just kind of brood over us, press in on in on us everything necessary, let everything else fall to the wayside.
SPEAKER_01: We want to think and reflect about what had our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: So we do that now.
SPEAKER_01: God, thanks that uh the Bible is so provocative, so thought provoking.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of calls us.
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, think about this and notice this and watch out for that.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, today we walk away and we got to think about what's sacred.
SPEAKER_01: We got to think about what does it look like to be full of light, understanding, and wisdom in a culture that's dark and caustic and divisive.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to be the people in the room with the loudest voice.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be the people in the room with the deepest faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to be enjoying that process through feasting as well as fasting.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, brood over us today.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the word.
SPEAKER_01: And thank you for what it's going to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_01: If you're sitting there right now and you're thinking, I fundamentally disagree with 99% of what you said today.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention to the 1%, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Seriously, seriously.
SPEAKER_01: You're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you've had a chance to pull those guest cards in the seatback pocket in your row.
SPEAKER_01: And if you would, just drop it in this wooden box by the door on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: That's also where we take care of things that we consider sacred.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We have a lot going on in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_01: Let me point your attention to the screens for a video announcement this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: November 15th is our next blood drive.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a look at how you can help.
SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Blake.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Blanca, and we're Owen's parents.
SPEAKER_03: So Owen has had four heart calves.
SPEAKER_03: Um he's had uh a left upper lobectomy, so he's had part of one lung removed, uh, and he's had two open heart surgeries.
SPEAKER_03: Um, through all of that, without donors giving blood, uh his surgeries would not have been an option.
SPEAKER_02: As his parents, you never think something's gonna happen to your child.
SPEAKER_02: And when something does happen that's unexpected, um, like a medical condition or a surgery or an accident, you are grateful for people that have donated way in advance because they are saving your child.
SPEAKER_02: And they may not think that when they are donating, but ultimately you saved our son multiple, multiple times.
SPEAKER_03: If if we could say something to the people up there who've donated, uh it from the bottom of our hearts it would be thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Um, you don't know us, you've never met us, you probably never will.
SPEAKER_03: But without you, there there would be no oath today.
SPEAKER_00: To give blood, register online at grandparkway.org/slash events.
SPEAKER_00: Donations will take place at the warehouse next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Get your spot today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new or would like prayer, or you have any questions, come find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing, so if you would stand to your feet and hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: You are the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: And as such, that means you are full of light, understanding, and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: It is preservation.
SPEAKER_01: Preserve the culture in which you live with a smile on your face.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.