Success in Tragedies Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 We hear a lot about the book of Daniel. We hear about the lions’ den. We hear about the fiery furnace. We hear all kinds of scriptures being used to connect to the end time. But have you ever really thought about how Daniel got to the place where God used him? And that’s in chapter 1. Most people just zip over chapter 1 to get to the other stuff. And I want to remind you that the Bible tells us in Romans 15:4 that all things that were written up before time of were written for our learning. That we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

▶ 0:52 So, when you go to the scriptures, they’re written for you to get understanding, to get learning. 1 Corinthians 10:11, all these things happened unto them, Israel. And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. And so, when we read the Old Testament, we got to say, “God, what am I supposed to learn for today?” 2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, mature, and furnished unto all good works. And so, Genesis to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation is written for us to learn, folks. Not just to read, but it’s to learn.

▶ 1:46 And so, with that mentality, let’s take a look at Daniel. And I’m going to call this first session the characteristics for success in tragedies. Okay? If you’ve lived any time on this earth, you’ve encountered tragedies. You’ve encountered difficulties. Or my second title is how to be a successful teenager. So, in Daniel 1, we have the tragedies. We have the difficulties. Number one, in Daniel 1:1, Jerusalem is besieged. We have a story in 2 Kings chapter 6 where Jerusalem was besieged before. An army circuited about, no food could get in, nobody could get out, no one could go in, and slowly the people would starve to death.

▶ 2:43 Okay? People would eat people. It says in 2 Kings 6, they would eat their babies that were born. They would eat the placenta that came out after the baby was born. They would eat dung. That’s how hungry. That’s what a siege is. They would eat horses, dogs, whatever was there, they would eat. And then there was nothing left to eat. A siege is a serious thing. And this siege in Daniel lasted about 8 years. That was a long time. And Daniel was about 17 years old when he was taken to the land of Babylon. And we know this because number one, he wasn’t in the military. And at 20, everybody goes to the military in the Old Testament.

▶ 3:40 Nobody escapes unless you’re crippled or something. And uh number two, he lived another 70 years in the land of Babylon. And so he was a teenager, I calculated about 17 years old. And so when he was about 9 years old this siege started. The Babylonian army came, they circled the city, and things weren’t good for quite a few years. For not 8 years, things weren’t good for that city. And Daniel’s growing up under this. Now what do we learn? America is under siege. Not by an army right now. But by philosophies.

▶ 4:36 By beliefs of different groups of people and destroying our understanding of right and wrong. In America now, 2% of the population are homosexuals and they have a very powerful voice destroying the Bible, the scriptures, and undermining them in America. Socialism and communism 70 per 70 people in our government today in the House of Representatives, in our Congress openly admit they are socialists. They openly admit it now. And I have it direct from them. This is not hearsay. And as you know, socialism and communism is when government controls everything. Communism, government owns your property. Socialism, they do let you own property. Hedonists are they that, you know, if it feels good, do it.

▶ 5:29 Whatever, you know, everything’s about pleasure. Marijuana, drugs, sex, whatever, you know, just do it. No restraints. And then you got the liberals, which is 20% of America. They’ve grown a few percentage since 2000. The moderates, they’re the people in the middle, they call themselves independents. And then you got the conservatives, 42%. And none of these three are doing beans for America. They have all kinds of ideas. And they have all kinds of words. But America is still going downhill. Isn’t that true? See, it’s not what they say, it’s are they on the side of right or not? You see, we can’t just be a conservative or a liberal or independent, we got to be on the side of right.

▶ 6:21 And the only way to really know you’re on the side of right is a God who gave us the scriptures of what is right and what is wrong. Can that be an amen? Then you got the atheist who team up with the homosexuals and the socialists and the hedonists to destroy the Bible, to destroy Christ. Then you got evolution science, which has no proof, no evidence whatsoever. And it’s accepted because they want to undermine the Bible. Now, you show me any proof, any, of evolution. I’ve done a serious research on this. There is none. It’s just their theories. It could have been. It may have been. Maybe a star came out of a satellite came out and hit the earth and, you know, caused this and maybe an ice age and maybe this.

▶ 7:25 No evidence, no proof. But they all gang up to the undermine the Bible and Jesus Christ, the pro-choice people. Whatever you choose is right, whatever you believe is right is right. You see? But in the Bible, the Bible says, choose you this day whom you will what? Serve. See, we are to make a choice between right and wrong, not Democrat, Republican, Independent, Liberal, Conservative, Moderate, you know. We are to choose between right and wrong and they’re destroying. We’re under siege. They have been We’ve been under siege for several decades. And then you got religions. Everybody’s got their own religion today. Christians say they’re Christians and they’re no more Christians than a man in the moon when you go to the Bible and look up what a Christian is.

▶ 8:22 They stay home, they they drink, they smoke, they curse, they divorce, they live in sexual promiscuousness and everything else and they say they’re Christians because they got faith in God and and his grace. And it isn’t helping anybody. And so we’re under siege and we’ve been under siege for quite a while. And this siege is going to end up with a military siege. If somehow the church in America doesn’t wake up and realize that they are the key to a nation. If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face like we did this morning. God’s people don’t want to seek him. They don’t want to get on their knees and take time to call out into a God. They want to be entertained. Am I talking to the right folks?

▶ 9:15 You know, give me a good band. Give me an electric guitar, an electric piano, you know, a good you know, a drums and all that and give me some good music and all that. That’ll do me. No, we need to seek him and find him. And until the church does that you see, so goes the church, so goes the nation. I’ve told you that for decades. Daniel chapter 1 verse 2, Jehoiakim, the king of Judah was captured. The military was failed. It was a military defeat. The government was overthrown. The government failed. Today, worldwide, there are 39 wars and conflicts going on.

▶ 10:08 The League of Nations isn’t helping a bit. Or that other one. What’s the other one? United Nations, yeah. You know, 39 out of 196 nations, there are 39 wars and conflicts going on. 49% of America gets government aid. The Huffington Post, 2012, said. 52 governments of 196 nations have been overthrown in the last 60 years. 52 of them. That doesn’t even count the ones that have changed. Like the change that’s going on in America.

▶ 11:00 See? It’s not an overthrow of our government. It is a change of the thinking of our government. That’s what’s going on. And one day we’re going to wind up with a different government. Not from a war and a coup overthrowing it, but because of a new accepted philosophy. And so, you know, just like Daniel, this is where we’re at, folks. They took the vessels of God’s house and carried it away and to Shinar over in Babylon, the house of another God. The house of God was desecrated. Okay? Jehoiachin, the king that was taken captive, that was the government at that time, executed the prophets of God.

▶ 11:58 Uriah for one. He burned uh Jeremiah’s script prophecies, the scriptures. He burned the scriptures. Today in California, just a few years back, only 52% of Californians voted for Proposition 8 that a marriage between is between a man and a woman. Barely 52% agreed that a marriage is only between a And and so 90% of the people in America believe in a God. They believe there’s a God. 80 some percent or 70 some percent, now it’s dropped. Between Catholics and Protestants say they’re Christians in America, and yet 52% voted a Bible truth that a marriage is between a man and a woman.

▶ 12:55 There’s something wrong in the church, isn’t there? See? The church in America is defiling itself by not following the things of God. You can’t preach on TV or radio that homosexuality is wrong. Or they will take you off the air, and they have taken ministers off the air. And this has been going on for 20 years. You can’t pray publicly in the name of Jesus. You notice that our presidents and our senators always say, “God bless America. God bless you.” They’re scared to death of the name of Jesus, who the Bible plainly says is God.

▶ 13:47 You can’t separate the two. You see, the church is being attacked. The church is being destroyed. You know that the Bible says that the apostles went out and preached to repent. They didn’t go out and preach believe. They preached repent. Say the word. Repent. Jesus himself said, his first message in Matthew, “Repent and what? Believe the gospel.” What comes first? Repent. Be sorry for your sins, for your wrongs, turn from them, trust the gospel, trust my blood, trust my death, burial, and resurrection.

▶ 14:44 See, and what are we getting in America today? Positive thinking, possibility thinking, you know, uh psychology, and all the rest. And I’m I’m the American church isn’t repenting. Is that true? Oh, it’s true. And yet the apostles preached repentance, and Jesus preached repentance, but today we preach faith and grace. Or you belong to a certain group, you’re going to go to heaven. Only 27% of American Christians go to church. 60% went up to 1960. Now, it’s 27%. The Bible says he that does good knows God and he that does evil has not seen God.

▶ 15:44 Jesus come to turn us from wrong to right, from bad to good. You know, we get caught up in the miracle part and the tongues and the prophecy part and the, you know, soul winning and part and all the rest, but Jesus came to turn us from wrong to right. Is that true? Does is American church defiling itself? Yeah, the same as it was in the days of Daniel. Daniel 1:3, Nebuchadnezzar told Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs. We all know what a eunuch is, right? It’s a person that has been castrated. His reproductive glands has been cut off. You see? Can’t reproduce anymore.

▶ 16:37 Loses his sexual drive. Loses his sexual appetite. Now, not only was Daniel led away captive, made a slave, he was made a eunuch. He was forced to change his sexual orientation. Are you there? Is that happening in America? Has the homosexuals gotten into the public schools and pressuring our young people to accept homosexuality, transvestitism, uh transvestites, and all this other garbage as an acceptable lifestyle.

▶ 17:29 Yes. You see, we’re under attack. This is tragedies, folks. This is horrible things that are happening in America. Now, I know the last time you read the book of Daniel, you got all this. And I’m just reminding you. But Daniel is growing up in the midst of this. Daniel is growing up and because of his forefathers sinning, he is going to be taken into captivity, not for his sins, but for his forefathers sins, the nation’s sins. He’s going into captivity. He’s being castrated. He’s becoming a He’s been made a slave. He lost his job. He lost his possessions. He lost his home. He lost his parents. There are no mention of his parents. Or he was separated from them one.

▶ 18:33 He lost everything. He lost his freedom. Now, you want to be a Daniel? Not us. We don’t want to go through that. We just want to poof. We just want to be people that can go through the fire and people that go into the lion’s den without any of this other stuff. Are you there, church? Hallelujah. Yeah, we want to be like Apostle Paul. Look what Apostle Paul went through. Look what Peter went through. Then tell me you want to be like him. Tragedies are going to come. Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I’ve overcome the world. And your reaction to tragedies your response to tragedies is God’s what’s going to make the difference tomorrow.

▶ 19:34 You fall apart in tragedies you’re worthless tomorrow. So let’s see how Daniel responds in the midst of these tragedies. Are you with me so far? Is this good and clear? There is no record of him being bitter blaming God or blaming others. My forefathers, man, they sinned and now this came upon us. No record of it. Do we blame everything in America? Yeah. In the politics, Republicans blame the Democrats, Democrats the Republicans. You know, in the church world, the Catholics blame the Protestants, Protestants blame the Catholics. All of them blame the cults. We’re We’re just in a blame blame blame blame blame.

▶ 20:30 But he didn’t blame anything. I’ve heard people blame God. Well, if God was God, these bad things wouldn’t happen. God told you bad things were going to happen. What do you mean? You know, if there was a God then these bad stuff wouldn’t go on. There wouldn’t be wars or not. God said there would be. Have you read your book? But our response in the time of difficulties in the time of tragedies is the key. And he had no bitterness. He didn’t get depressed. He didn’t get cast down. He didn’t have to get on Redland and and all this medicine to cope with life. Didn’t have to take a 12-step recovery program.

▶ 21:26 You getting the hint? See, when you take God and the scriptures out of the equation, yes, you need 12-step recovery programs. You need psychologists and you need all the rest. You get the scriptures and the power of Jesus back in and listen, he’s all you need. Think about that. He didn’t quit. Christians are quitting. They’re giving up. Christians are depressed. And Christians are going through every recovery program there is and going right back to sin later. They have a few years of being able to brag and then they go right back in.

▶ 22:19 There’s no hate for his enemies. The people that brought the starvation and and his freedom and took it away and everything else, no hatred in Daniel. No hatred for the failed civil leaders. No hatred for the sinners that caused God to take them into captivity. No revenge. Man. He didn’t expect restitution for the losses of his possession and all the rest. And no addiction to alcohol and drugs to escape the pressure of it all. And the pain of it all. Daniel has got something, folks, that all of us can have.

▶ 23:15 Has Daniel got your attention yet? Hallelujah. You see, we never look at this part of Daniel. All we do is go there and say that, you know, he purposed not to defile himself and he went boy, he prayed no matter what. We We don’t see the character of Daniel that brought the great results in his life. But we’re seeing it today. Amen. He didn’t drop out of school. They’re besieged and Daniel didn’t drop out of education and he never dropped out of following God.

▶ 24:13 Wow. He’s about 9 or 10 years old when the siege started and he stuck in there, got the education, both religious and natural. When there was He had every excuse. Well, there’s no use going to school. I don’t know. We’re going to get defeated. Just Might as well just quit. There’s no future. No use following God. You know, he’s letting us be besieged and we’re dying all around us of starvation. Daniel didn’t do that. How many you know that’s character? Hallelujah. You young ones get that education part? Good. Daniel didn’t have any babies out of wedlock.

▶ 25:10 He didn’t have any sexually transmitted diseases. He didn’t have to join a gang. He just stayed himself, an individual that served God. And here the righteous lost their nation, their possession, their rights, their freedom along with the unrighteous. Made slaves to another nation, and Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were castrated. And yet, they never complained. No wonder they were used to God, wouldn’t you say? When Daniel would get up on Saturday and go to the temple while other people were moaning and groaning and blaming God.

▶ 26:07 Daniel, Monday through Friday, went to school, got under the teachers when he was starving, losing everything. Now folks, that’s character. And Daniel’s parents weren’t good. That’s another thing. If you read about Daniel’s Zedekiah seems to be the father or relative of Daniel, and he was no good. We know Daniel was at the king’s seat. And all both of these kings were no good. In spite of a no good daddy, Daniel did good. But not in America, we blame our parents. Use them for an excuse. Hallelujah.

▶ 27:03 Old me. Of the 3,023 that went into captivity the first time, that was with Daniel. Then there is 745 and 832 again. 4,600 total went into captivity. Number one, there were several million Jews. But only 4,600 went into captivity. See, God doesn’t go and wipe out a whole nation. He deals with a few to teach the others the way to go. So, don’t expect the great annihilation of things. But only three of these had the right attitude and the right spirit to change the nation of Babylon. Only three out of all of these Jews.