Passing the Test of Daniel | Pastor Joel Wolfe

Welcome to church. I'm just thoroughly enjoying standing here watching all of you,

looking at you, taking in just who's here. And I'm loving you from

the stage here. I don't know if you knew that you're all paying attention

up there, but I'm so blessed that you came to church. It would

be really rough. It would be a bummer to get up here to preach

a sermon and you not come. I have nobody here that's not good,

never good, never good for a preacher. Welcome though, to church,

Father and Jesus name God. I think you right now that you're going to

give me your word for today. Father God, I thank you right now

that I am found in you. I am in Christ. And Father God,

I praise you that Christ is in me. Father, I thank you

right now that everything of my flesh is done away. But there's clarity in

your Bibles to the Book of Daniel, and I must confess. As I

was studying the Book of Daniel, I was noticing that the pages were a

little too clean, they were a little too crisp. Apparently I haven't spent

enough time in Daniel. So we're going to change that up. And we're

going to get Daniel. Very familiar with us. Amen, Well, I

wanted to let you know that my very earliest years. If you don't know

me, my name is Joel, and I grew up in a wonderful home

with a wonderful mom. I grew up in Phillis's house. Now, I

don't think that many of you have ever visited Phyllis's house. She's gone now,

so no more phyllis House. But Phyllis's House was an incredible place to

grow up. It was filled with love, it was filled with security,

it was filled with goodness. There was another place that I grew up.

Probably spent half of my time at Phyllis's house. She's my mom. And

church. So I was a fifty to fifty girl. I was home.

I took half of my naps at home at church under the pew. Anybody

know that. You know what I'm talking about. Just I was a little

church mouse and that's how I lived. So I grew up. So my

first years were very, very formative of me, very comfortable, very secure.

Everybody says secure. So then that day rolled around and mother announced that

I was going to kindergarten. So I didn't know what kindergarten is. I

pulled on my little red boots and my little outfit, and I marched off

to kindergartens. As the elementary years began to progress, I started noticing this

strange feeling in my soul. It was a feeling of awkwardness that I'd never

felt awkwardness before. I didn't know what to do with it. What had

happened was as I started looking around, and I grew up without a dad.

My dad passed away before I was born, and I thought everybody didn't

have dads. But as I went to school, I looked around and at

school functions, kids came and they had dads. I'm like, what in

the world, I don't have a dad, you all have dad. And

my mom, at that point, she was in well into her fifties,

she had me late, surprise, she had me late, and I looked

around and all the moms that came to school functions were all this was,

you know, early seventies, boufont hair, makeup, all of that crazy

stuff. And my mom came walking and she's gray, no makeup, and

she's old, and I'm like, so I started having this awkward feeling about

me, and I had to wear hand me down clothes. Anybody relate,

I don't know the generations of today, not so much hand me down clothes

and homemade clothes. Homemade clothes. So I felt even more awkward. So

things were, you know, shifting in my soul, and I was living

in these two worlds. I felt like I felt like when I was home,

I was comfortable, but when I went out into school, I felt

awkward. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what to do

with my little self, you know, And here I am, what eight

and ten years old, having these eggs stenil crisis identity moments, you know.

So at one point, like fifth grade, my mom gave me.

She came home. I don't know how in the world she did it,

but she bought me a new jacket, a new winter jacket. And it

was the cool jacket that everybody was wearing. It was navy blue, it

had pockets, I had little snaps. I finally was cool, I was

finally fashionable. I put that jacket on and I did not take it off

for two years. Two years. I finally had outgrown the thing. I

couldn't wear it anymore, but I had that jacket on everywhere I went all

the time. I don't think I slept in it. I don't remember that,

but yes, I did wear it a lot. And so also during

that time, I don't know where I ended up with this, but I

somehow came into the possession of a cross. It was a wooden cross.

It was about four inches high about three inches wide, and it said said

Jesus all over it, and I knew I was a Christian. So I

took that cross and I put it on a little neck. Listen, I

put it on around my neck and I did not take that thing off for

two years either. I was that was me. But I did find that

that jacket did come in handy, because there were times where I knew it

wasn't cool to wear a cross. There were times when I was at school

and I was like, I just want to blend in here. I don't

want to be something, and so I take my jacket and I would zip

it up. That jacket came in very handy, and so then I would

spend the day walking around in my cool jacket, being accepted by everyone with

my cross underneath there. Nobody saw it or knew it. All right,

So now let's turn to Daniel Daniel Chapter one, verse one. We're going

to start the beginning. People, everybody say, beginning, got a long

way to go in about twenty minutes, okay. Chapter one, verse one.

In the third year of the reign of jehoia Kim, King of Judah,

Nebu Canezar, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besee and the

Lord delivered Jehoiakim, King of Judah, into his hand, along with some

of the articles of the Temple of God. These he carried off to the

temple of his God in Babylonia and put the treasure in the treasure house of

his God. Then the king ordered Ashpnez, chief of his court officials,

to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility,

young men without any physical defects, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of

learning, well informed, quick to understanding, and qualified to serve in the

king's palace. This is our first introduction to Daniel. Daniel was one of

those that is who Daniel is. So Daniel lived during the reign of Jehoiakim.

Daniel was a very very he You know, history is long, and

we only get to experience a little tiny sliver of it, and we think

that's all there is, right, It's what it's always been, it's what

it will always be. That's not true. We all are assigned a sliver

of history to live it the way God has intended for us to live it

when we're inserted into history at that moment. Amen. So Daniel was inserted

into this history. Let me give you a little background to his sliver.

Okay. So there was David, everybody knows David, King David of Israel,

and then he had a son named Solomon. His son split the kingdom

into two kingdoms. Israel went into two kingdoms. There's Judah and Israel.

Okay, Judah is the one that Daniel was in. This is about.

So then they had a succession of kings for about three hundred years. It's

called the Era of the Kings, all right. So during that era of

the Kings, if you read through First and Second Kings versus and Second Chronicles,

it's that time frame in the Bible. Okay. So every king that

came along, the very first sentence says and king, whatever his name is,

did right in the eyes of the Lord. Then we knew that for

the next However, many years life went well in Judah. But sometimes some

of those kings, it would say, and this guy did what was evil

in the eyes of the Lord. And so now Israel has set up for

twenty thirty years of evil and horrible idolatry and awful things. So the life

of Judah, the spiritual atmosphere was up and down, up and down,

up and down. Well during those three hundred years. That's when fellas like

Jeremiah came along, and Isaiah and Habakuk and Zephaniah and HAGGII and all those

prophets, and they would come to Judah and to Israel. But we're talking

about Judah today. They would come and they would run around and they would

preach and they would teach, and the words that they would say would be

things like repent, turn, Judgment is coming, watch out, God is

God, There's please. Sometimes they would say God is just yearning for you

to come back. So there's all these books. So these are the things

that Daniel is being saturated. And Daniel is in at the end of this

era of the king. So there's been good bad, good, bad,

good bad, and he is he is inserted during the king the reign of

Jehoiakim. Everybody say Jehoiakim. So Jehoikim is the second of the last king

before Judah is taken away into exile. So the early so they think that

about this time Daniel is about twenty. He spent so this is in the

third year of Jehoiakim. So he spent quite a few of his early years

under the king Josiah. Josiah was a good king. Josiah did what's right

in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoiakim did what was evil in the side

of the world of the Lord. How many of you know what it's like

to be under good presidents and then bad presidents and good there's breaching right there.

Pray for our presidents, hallelujah. And this is an election year.

God is good. Back to the notes. I'm running low on time.

So during this time Daniel's young, he has been schooled in the things of

God. He has read the Psalms, He's read the Torah. He knows

the goodness of God, he knows the loving kindness of God, he knows

the faithfulness of God. He's read David. He's read all sorts of incredible

things, and he knows how wonderful God is and how much he loves us.

But he also knows in the back of his mind he's got Isaiah,

he's got Jeremiah, and he knows that sometimes sometimes things don't go right because

the people of God have sin and they've gotten themselves out from underneath the protection

of God, and there's enemies out here. Amen. So he knows all

of this. This is something the church needs to know about right now,

because at the bottom, at the end of the day, God is not

only the God of the good times. God is also the God of the

hard times, because what he's doing during the hard times is bringing our he

arts back to him. So I know this. Why are you going on

about this? I know this because in this these first couple verses, it

says, and the Lord delivered Jehoia Kim into the hands of Nebukanzer. How

many of you when things get hard, you start going, huh? Is

there really a God? Where is he? I thought he loved me.

I thought he loved me. God, where are you? How can there

be something hard? How could it be? Now? I could take the

rest of this sermon and go towards Why is there suffering in this world.

I'm not going to because I have to do Daniel, but I will tell

you. Please keep in mind what Daniel knew was that God is with us,

not only in the good, but he's with us in the heart and

in the chaos. He's right in the middle of it, and he is

never out of control. Even go it might not be going like we wanted

it to go. We know that very first little sentence there that he says

is that the Lord put Jehoya Kim, gave him into the hands of destruction.

That is telling me that Daniel had a mindset of trust in God.

That is telling me that Daniel was not sitting there worrying and wondering and looking

around. No, he was firmly entrenched in the God that he knew and

heard of from his mother and is from his father and from his past and

from his place. Daniel has has and his friends at this point, they

have gone from being royalty now to chains, from living a life in a

holy nation to now in the most occultic city that's ever been known. And

he is willing to say, yes, God is still in control, no

wavering God is in control. I'm not gonna hate you because I just lost

my house and my home and my land. I'm not gonna I'm going to

gently submit myself to you. And because you are sovereign and I give you

me, I will not fight that. How many of you have ever thought

I wish I would have lived in another time they had it easy. Well,

God has you right here for a reason. And same with Daniel.

I'm totally off my notes. Pray for me right now. Daniel was firmly

entranched. Daniel was. He was in the category of handsome. He was

in the category of smart, of perfect, of well learned. All of

that. He was. He was in a royal family, he was of

noble birth. He was in a position to become very great. And now

he and chains. How many of you've ever found yourself knowing what's inside of

you is there's so much more inside of you, but outward circumstances it pushed

you down. I am here to tell you that God is in the middle

of your circumstances, and that is not the end of it. He has

placed you right in the middle of your circumstances, with all your giftings,

with all your talents, with all of your noble birth, to say it

is time to rise up in those circumstances. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Now say go back to the word. So Daniel one, let's go back

to I'm going to start at verse three. Put my little eyeballs on.

Then the Lord of the King ordered Ashpenez, chief of his court officials,

to bring in some of the Israelites of the royal family of nobility, young

men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning,

well informed, quick to understand, and qualified for service in the King's

palace. He was to teach them the language and the literature of the Babylonians.

The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the King's

table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they

would enter into the king's service. Among these were some from Judah, Daniel,

Hannanaiah, Michel, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names,

to Daniel the name Belta Shazar, to Hananaiah Shadrack, and to Michael

Mishak, and to Azariah a Bendigo. So what Nebrakenezer would do is when

he would overtake a city or a people, he would bring the best of

the best, because the best of the best had the most to lose.

Lose. They were fast tracking to leadership in there in their country. They

had the most to lose, and they're the most traumatized because now they stand

in chains. So then he would spend the next three years. He would

bring in the best and he would begin to brainwash them. He would begin

to bring to them a new identity. He would be begin to uh uh

indoctrinate, indoctrinate them. So he would teach them the language. He would

teach them the literature. He would teach give them the king's food and the

king's wine. He would say, Okay, now listen, you do really

good. You're gonna be in my service from here on out. You can

you can serve in my court. You can serve in my court. And

then they would change their names. So here's what their name changes really meant.

Can I tell you what their original names meant compared to what their new

names were. Okay, you ready, here you go. Daniel means God

is my judge. Belta Shazar means I will protect the king. Nebukanezar Hannah,

and Ayah means Yahweh shows grace Shadraq means Aku, the moon god of

Babylon, shows grace. Michiel says, means who is like God. Me

Shaq means who is like Akh? Who as Aryah means Yahweh has helped me.

A Bendigo means I am the helper of Nebo, another one of their

gods. There was a complete reversal, and this is what the enemy likes

to do. There is a fight right now for your identity. We might

not have been carted off to Babylon right now, but we have been sitting

in our own personal culture and it has changed around us, and it wants

to indoctrinate us. It wants to change our identity. It wants to get

us speaking its language. It wants us to read its literature and wash our

brains. It wants to feed us its food, its nourishment. And it

wants to change your name. It wants to change your name. So and

with the lure of serving in the king's courts. So I'm thinking, we

don't know how many young men there were, these noble birth, wonderful,

handsome, smart ones, cream of the crop there were. But I do

know afore it was almost as if Nebeknezzar was saying, I see you,

I see the holy upbringing that you have had. I see you, I

see how you have, what the things that you know. Now put this

jacket on, zip it up, and become what I want you to be.

Don't be that anymore. Don't be that anymore, don't talk that way,

don't think that way, and the lure of it. For Heaven's sake,

why not? What do we have to lose? And I can almost

see that whole group. I don't know how many they're kind of like,

well, you know, I mean, I'm gonna do it. I just

I'm gonna do it. Man. I've been through so much. I have

so much to lose. I have so much that I have already lost.

I have a wife and a family. Maybe I don't know what they're saying,

but they're saying, I've got too much to lose to sacrifice here.

And they begin to put the jacket on. But let me tell you what

Daniel does. Let's keep reading verse eight. But Daniel resolved not to defile

himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief officials for

permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to

show favor and sympathy to Daniel. But the official told Daniel, I am

afraid of my lord, the king, who has assigned your food and drink.

Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age.

The King would have then had my head because of you. Daniel then

said to the guard, whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hannanayah,

Michel and Azariah, please test your servants for ten days. Give us

nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with

those of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants

in accordance with what you see. So we agreed to this and tested them

for ten days. At the end of the ten days, they looked healthier

and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

So the guard took away their choice food and wine and they were to drink,

and gave them vegetables instead. So Daniel decided to not defile himself.

Now it doesn't talk about language or names or any of the other stuff,

but Daniel drew a line in the sand on the food you would think that

would be the easiest thing to get around, right, Come on, Daniel,

just eat the food. Just eat the food. Stop making waves.

It ain't worth it. Just eat the food. Problem is that food was

meat sacrificed to idols, and that was an abomination. The problem with the

wine is that in those days in the courts, they would lift the wine

before anybody drank and gave of libations to the gods of that nation of Babylon,

and they would go through a huge worship service. Daniel was drawing a

line and saying, I push back right here. I push back right here.

I will not take into my inner man the nutrition of meat sacrifice to

idols. I draw the line. He pushed back. He would not defile

himself. Let's keep moving verse seventeen. To these four young men, God

gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. Take note of

that. He put himself through the learning and the literature and the understanding of

the new culture that he was in. He did not go throw his head

in the sand. He spent time preparing himself to become one of the most

influential members of the court. Hear me, now, people, because some

people in the church want to separate out and run away from culture. Daniel

was smart. He knew what to draw the line on, but he knew

where he needed to prepare within. Just think about that for a minute.

So God gave him. This was God's plan. God gave him knowledge and

understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could and everybody say,

and see, here's the difference between Daniel and every other student in that

classroom. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. In other

words, since Daniel put God first and within his spirit inside of here,

he refused to be defiled. Within. God gave him not only wisdom and

knowledge within the worldly realm of this new kingdom. He gave him the ability

to know spirituals, to know mysteries. People of God, I am here

to tell you that you are dual citizens. God made you out of the

dust of the earth. He gathered that clay together. You are of this

natural realm. But when He breathed his r breath inside of you, and

you took your first breath, you are now a dual citizen. You are

a citonizen of this world. Yet you have a spirit. You are a

spirit. And when you accept Christ into your life, if you give your

life to God like Daniel did, Jesus hadn't come yet, so Jesus wasn't

a part of that. He wasn't wearing no crosses at this point, but

he was wearing God. And Daniel was fluent. He became very fluent in

the world as far as wisdom and knowledge. He was smart. He did

not put brain Binkie's in People of God, we cannot succumb to the pressure

to just sit and scroll mind numbing things, watching movies over and over and

over and watch, just filling our minds with nothing. When the world needs

leaders. He prepared himself and I would say, people of God, I

don't care where you are at. Become smart, don't waste your time.

But yet he was fluent in the spirituals. It was incredible what he was

setting ou himself up to. Daniel. Two, We're not going to read

the whole thing. Praise God. I'm one minute late, but I'm a

God. I'm gonna land this plane. You're ready, Daniel too. Here

he is, He's just living his life, pushing back where he knows to

push back, learning, growing, becoming getting ready. All the whole time,

he didn't even know he was getting ready. He was just doing his

days in and out, in and out. How many of you know that

you're doing your days in and out, in and out. And as you

leave your days and you lead your days under his auspices, how many of

you know you're getting prepared, You are being prepared for your moment. So

Daniel one night has or not, Daniel Nebekin has or has a dream.

Everybody's sleeping nicely, pleasantly. He has a dream, wakes up in the

middle of the night, so shaken by the streams, he starts screaming and

yelling, calls the astrologers and all of his magicians, and they come and

they come running in. What King, Oh what you know this? Because

this king go have your head if you don't do things just right right.

So they come run in and he goes, I had a dream, and

they go, oh you did. Okay, this is our We can tell

you about what this is for what it's all about. Yeah, I had

a dream, but I'm not even gonna tell you what the dream is.

You have to tell me what my dream was, and you have to tell

me what it means, and you better do it now. And they're like,

ah, so let's read chapter two, verse ten. The astrologers answered

with the king, there is not a man on earth who can do what

the king asks. No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked

such a thing of any magician, or enchanter or astrologer. What the king

asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the

gods. They do not, and they do not live among men. See,

this is how the world is. They know all sorts of things,

but when it comes to spiritual things, they don't get it. They don't

get it. So Nebi Keneher says, hey, excuse me, Well,

if you can't figure this out, then you guys are fakes. You guys

aren't really real. I'm paying your good money and you can't do this.

What are you telling me? You are not for real? Okay, I'm

gonna have your heads. So the next day they start gathering them all up

to chop their heads off. Dan He's like, hey, what's going on.

Daniel's like, hey, nebekanizzer, people give me one night. Give

me one night. He went to his friends said, pray, pray,

we need God. How many of you are in a situation where you can't

fix it, You don't know what to do. I would say, pray

because you are dual citizens. You are not limited just with the natural mind

and the natural self. You have the spirit of God, the rook inside

of you, and you are born of that spirit. They prayed, and

Daniel doesn't say if he went to sleep or not. How many vote he

went to sleep. I don't know. Maybe no, yes, no,

I don't know. But it said in the night God gave him the dream

and the vision. So he woke up in the morning. And you know

how sometimes God gives you things and you're like, uh, was that you

or was that not you? It could go either way. But he trusted

in God. And he came out and he said to his official that was

over him. Take me to the king. And he went into the king's

chamber and the king says, what do you got? And Daniel started talking.

He started prophesying it with stuff he didn't know. He started speaking words

that he did not learn. It was a dream he had never had,

and he began to tell well the king his dream and that he began to

tell the king what it meant. And I will tell you even now,

this book, this dream is so right on to history. It is so

prophetic that many, even liberal theologians, say, no, Daniel could not

have written this in five hundred BC. This was written well after Daniel.

This is such a farce because it was so perfect. Let's read one last

passage, verse forty six of chapter two. Then King Nebukanizer fell prostate before

Daniel paid him honor and ordered that an offering an incense be presented to him.

The king said to Daniel, surely, surely, surely now I know

for a fact now that you have heard from your God and brought the spiritual

into my physical. I have seen this. Surely your God is the God

of gods and the Lord of kings, and as a revealer of mysteries,

for you were able to reveal this mystery people of God. I don't know

what twenty twenty four is going to bring, but I will tell you he

needs heroes, He needs his people of God in position. He needs his

people of God. So imbedded, imbedded both feet on the traumises of God

and who he is, and will not waver whatever happens. Listen, COVID

happened, and so many Christians. Did you know where God was in it?

I don't know either, but I'm not gonna doubt him. No,

I shouldn't say I don't know. That's a whole other sermon. Okay,

I could say something. I don't want to say the wrong words here,

but I'm in a hurry. Can you tell my mouth? He's going on

thousand miles an hour right now? We need to be so firmly God,

You are my God. I know who you are. You are the God

of the good, and you are in and you never leave me. And

when it's not so good, you're right there in the middle of it.

Did you know? Did you know that there is no other major religion where

the central event is, in fact, the very deepest humiliation of its God.

He knows suffering, He lived through it. He doesn't leave you.

He doesn't leave you. He needs you and I to be fluent in the

things of the world and in the spirit, because we're gonna be asked things.

We might not go in and talk to Biden, though I wish I

could have a few words, But you're gonna be talking with your bosses.

You're gonna be talking with the people that you're you're gonna be there. You're

gonna be right there, and they're gonna be stumped on something and you're gonna

say, hey, let me pray about this, and you're gonna come back

with the answer. Because that's what God does. He solves the mysteries of

this world. When the world is confounded and dumbfounded and does not know what

to do with its problems, that's when God has you show up. I

was talking to Angela before first service. Angela Morales. Come on, people,

sweet dear, sweet Angela Morales. She works for the DSHS and she

goes into all these cases. They have learned to call her the exorcist in

the Washington State DSHS Department. They love her and whenever there's a hard thing,

they go to her. Come on, people, you will have the

answers because you have the God of mysteries inside of your soul and he's breathing

in and out and he wants to come out of you. Be his hero

and Jesus name, stand up. Let's do this. Let's do this.

Nebukanezar changed in a moment when the man of God sought God and it all

started by drawing the line, the simple line, why why, what's the

big deal. They were all being handed jackets, blue jackets that were really

in fashion and cool, and they were zipping them up, and Daniel's like,

mm m, I'm zipping this baby down. I'm gonna show the God

I serve. I'm gonna show the God I served. This is our time,

this is our sliver, this is our moment. Rise up. God

is in the goodness and in the chaos. Draw the line, and don't

defy yourself. Push back where you know you should push back. Become fluent

in the natural and in the spiritual realm. Take out your brain binkies.

Grow in knowledge, become skilled, Become amazing in what God's called you to

do. Engage, Engage in society. Don't run and hide. You know,

mister Rogers used to come home into his little house there and he would

take off his shoes and he'd put on loafers. I'm telling you what,

children of God Mighty Armor are army here. You don't have no time to

take off your battle shoes. No loafers for you. When you come home.

You keep your battle shoes on, You keep your combat boots on,

and you war for your family, and you war for your people, and

you war for your life, and you are for your nation. People of

God. Refuse the jacket. It might be cool, it might look good.

Refuse the jacket. Know who you are, Know what he has called

you to be, Know what he has named you. Do not let the

world can now listen. In the middle part of the Book of Daniel,

they are called builta Shazar and all their other new names. But at the

end of the book, when there's another dream and another king in desperation,

he says, called Daniel, call Daniel, because he never left his true

identity. Oh Jesus, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. How many

of you want this, How many of you want this? Oh Jesus,

Jesus, Jesus. Right now, hallelujah, hallelujah. Give yourself to the

Lord. Right now, give yourself to the Lord. Give yourself to the

Lord. Be moved by his word. Hallelujah. Give yourself to the Lord.

Give yourself to the Lord. Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, Take my flesh

and fill it with you. Lord. Everywhere I walk, I will shine

for you. I will not compromise. Holy Spirit, And use me,

use me, use me. Use me. Hallelujah. God. I pray

over this nation right now. I pray over my neighbors. I pray over

our family. I pray over me and Jesus' name. God. I thank

you right now that you are gonna change us. That kingdom was changed in

a night, and he God needed a man of God ready to step in.

I'm here, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready.

I'm ready. Fear, get off of my people, distraction, get

off of these people. Set us up for a year. Ready, ready

to overcome the darkness that seems so prevalent. God, I say, right

now, this is not going to be in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Let's

sing, Ondie