Rick Warren - Learn From the Past to Walk Forward With God

Take out your message notes. We're in a series on

the ten Great Tests of life, and we've been looking

at the life of Daniel, who lived about twenty five

hundred years ago. At fifteen years of age, he was

taken as a prisoner of war to the Babylonian Empire

with about twenty five percent of the Jewish nation. But

there he just continued to pass every test of life,

and when he was eighty five, seventy years later, he

is the second most powerful man in the most powerful

empire in the world. Now we don't have time to

review all of what's happened. But in Daniel chapter five,

where we are now King Nebekonezar, who was the most

famous king Babylonian king, built the great hanging Walls of Babylon.

He's died and he reigned for forty five years. And

now his grandson, a guy named bel Shazar, is the king.

Bel Shazar was a terrible leader, an absolute terrible leader.

He was a party boy. He was a spoiled royal brat,

and all he liked to do is drink party with

his friends. And so, sensing weakness, I'm setting up where

we're going. The two biggest enemies at that time, the

Meads and the Persians joined together, Darius the Mead and

Cyrus the Great, and they came to besiege this great

walled city of Babylon. Now it's pretty safe city. You

were fraid. These river runs through it. It's got walls

fifty to eighty feet in depth. It's a pretty fortified city.

But at this moment that we're going to look at

this weekend, these two armies are camped around the city

of Babylon waiting to attack. And Belshazzar the King, this

young kid, he's not worried about it. He's over confident.

And so what does the party boy do when he's

under attack. He throws a party. And in this chapter

he invites a thousand of his friends to the royal palace,

and he has and they all get drunk. They all

get drunk. They're having a really fun time. And then

the king gets a very bad idea. And here's what

he says. He says, and he's drunk. He said, hey,

you guys, when my grandfather was the Emperor of Babylon,

and when we sacked Jerusalem and destroyed it and took

over Israel, he said, we stole all of the temple utensils,

all of the goblets and all that stuff, and it's

been in storage here in Babylon now for forty five years.

He says, how about this, Let's get out the temple

goblets and we're gonna drink in them and toast our

pagan gods. Bad idea, bad idea. This is called being sacrilegious,

and it's making fun of somebody else's religion. It's taking

something that is created to honor God and instead misusing

it to dishonor God. And you turn something sacred into

something profane. And let's look at this story and then

we're gonna draw some lessons out of it. Okay, here's

what it says. In the Bible Daniel, chapter five. King

Belshazer gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles,

and they all got drunk. When bel Shazer was drinking

his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold

and silver goblets that Nevakandezer, his predecessor, had taken from

the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Now, he thought it'd

be fun to drink using these goblets intended to worship God.

And so it says, so they did. They used the cups,

laughing and making toast all the pagan gods and idols. Now, suddenly,

it says, a finger of a human hand appeared in

the Royal Banquet Hall and began writing supernaturally, writing on

the plaster walls of the Royal Palace and the king,

it says, and all the guests watched this hand as

it wrote. Now, now this is a hand without a body. Okay,

anybody remember the thing in the Adams family. I don't

know if thing was around then, but you know he

could have. You know, he was detached. It certainly was

one of those giant foam fingers that have the angel game.

You know, we're number one, But evidently this is a

kind of a freaky Friday thing. A hand shows up

and it starts writing on the wall. By the way,

have you ever heard the expression the handwriting is on

the wall. It's from this story twenty five hundred years ago,

this idiom that we use now the handwriting is on

the wall, which means that's a warning bad news is coming.

You're about to get fired. The handwriting is on the wall.

Anytime you use the handwriting is on the wall. It's

from this story in the Bible, and I could give

you four or five hundred other phrases, expressions, and idioms

that actually came out of Bible stories. The handwriting on

the wall is referring to the fact that Belle Shazer

is going to be warn he's going to die that

night because he has been sacrilegious and he's disrupted a

god and he hasn't been humble. Now, this is a warning,

but this is the origin of it. Now, in verse six,

it says this, when the king saw this, this hand

writing on the wall, it scared him to death. Well,

I guess so, said. His face turned pale, and he

was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his

hips gave way. Now I love this last phrase, his

hips gave way. That's just a polite ways saying he

soiled his pants. He was moved, if you get my drift. Okay, Okay,

the guy got diarrhea. Now I don't know about this one,

but it might that may be the source of expression.

It scared the who out of him. Okay, but that's

exactly what happened to this game. He just messes himself. Now,

a thousand guests see this handwriting on the wall. Nobody

can read it, nobody understands it, nobody can interpret it.

So they call for this guy, Daniel, who's been serving now,

first as a prisoner war, then his interne he gets

and now he's an administrator and he's moved up. And

by this point Daniel, in his life, has developed a

reputation for being the smartest guy in the empire. He's

the best educated, he's the wisest man in the empire.

And he Daniel is the go to guy when you

don't know what to do, when you don't understand it,

when there's a mystery that needs to be unraveled, you

couldn't explain something, you call on Daniel. So they call

on Daniel and he comes to the banquet hall, and

Daniel reads the message and he translates it and he

interprets it. Now here's what the message was, Daniel five

twenty five. Now this is the message of the handwriting

on the wall, men named Minnate Tekel Parson. Well, nobody

understood that because that happens to be ara Make. It's

the only ara make phrase in the entire Hebrew Scriptures,

the Old Testament. Everything else is written in Hebrew. This

is the only phrase in the entire Bible, in the

Old Testament written in Aramic, which by the way, was

the language that Jesus spoke. Now he not only reads it,

he translates it, and then he Daniel interprets it and

he says, okay, King, He said, man eight means numbered,

and it means your days are numbered. God has numbered

the days of your reign, and they're going to end.

Your time's up. Your number has been pulled. He said,

Tikel means weighed, wade, weighed in the balance like an

a scale. He says, you've been weighed on the scales

of God and you have not measured up. And then

he says, parson means divided, and he says, your kingdom

is going to be divided tonight between the kings and

the Persians, and you're going to die. And the word

parson to a Hebrew mind or Chaldean mind, it's a

play on words. It's parson and Persian sound real similar.

Now this is not exactly good news in your kingdom,

and you're gonna die tonight. But Daniel, because he always

does the right thing, he gets promoted again. Look at

this next verse. On the screen. It says, then the

king commanded. King Belshazzar commanded that a royal road be

put on Daniel and a gold chain was put around

his neck because he had interpreted this, and the king

named Daniel to be the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

It's another promotion. Those of you been studying this with us

for seven weeks. Now, okay, he's the third ash ruling kingdom.

But that very night bel Shazar was slain and Darius

the Mead took over his kingdom at the age of

sixty two. Archaeology now tells us how they actually invaded.

They didn't try to tear the walls down. What they

did is the Euphrates river ran through the city under

the walls. They actually diverted the river and the water

went down low enough that they could crawl under the

wall and they came in. And this is a historical fact.

That the Means and the Persians then took over from

Belshazar that night. He only had a two year reign. Now,

there are a lot of lessons in this chapter we

could look at. I debated which way to go, like

how to not lose a kingdom. The principles are in here.

But what I want to focus on is why they

called Daniel for the crisis when they didn't know what

to do, they didn't know where to turn. There are

a lot of crisis in the world. We need Daniels today.

We need women and men who can go This is

what this means. This is what this means. We see

this out here, this is what this means. And as

I said, Daniel had developed this reputation as being the

go to guy because he was the wisest man in

the empire. In fact, let's go back and let me

show you what the Queen and the King said about

this guy here on the screen. The queen said this,

this man Daniel has a sharp mind, and he's filled

with knowledge and understanding, and he can interpret dreams. He

can explain the meaning of mysteries being solved difficult problems.

So call for Daniel and he'll tell you what it means.

And so they put out the call, SOS, bring Daniel in,

And when he gets into the banquet hall, this is

what the king said the next verse. I have heard

Daniel that the spirit of God is in you, that

you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom, that incredible reputation.

I mean, think about that. Note those three things. He says,

You've got God's spirit in you. You are You're brilliant

in your knowledge, and you're extraordinary in your wisdom. Wouldn't

you like to have people say that about you? Yeah, well,

if you would, you picked a good weekend to come

to church, because that's what we're going to look at.

How do you become wise? Like Daniel? God used this guy,

Daniel because he was wise. But wisdom is a choice,

and you can choose to become wise through learning and

through study and dedication and prayer. And the Bible's got

a lot to say about wisdom and learning. We could

spend an entire six months on this one, but let

me just show you one verse. Here's the verse up

here on the screen. Proverbs chapter four, which is, by

the way, the Book of Wisdom in the Bible, says

this verse thirteen, Always remember what you have learned. Your

education is your life, so guard it well. Your education

is your life, so guard it well.

If you want to live a life full of purpose

and joy, then you need to transform the way you think.

And to help you do this, mister Rick created a

brand new set of scripture cards with fifty two hand

selected verses from his series Rethinking Your Life. These verses

will guide you into a deeper understanding of your purpose

and faith, and you'll find yourself gaining the strength to

overcome temptation and conquer discouragement. When you allow God's word

to transform your mind, you'll see your life through his eyes,

apply his wisdom, and step into a life of purpose

and joy. This set of beautifully designed cards will help

you memorize scripture so you can recall God's word when

you need it the most. And today, when you give

a gift to help daily hope, take the hope of

Jesus to a world in need. Will send you the

Rethinking your Life scripture card set to say thanks.

Let's look at what God says with the five ways

to become wise in life, everybody, there's benefits to love,

there's benefits to wisdom, and when you do the things

God says to do, you're going to just become a

wiser person. All right, let's look at them. The first

thing the Bible says is this, make a commitment to

never stop learning. Make a commitment to never stop learning.

Now it all starts with a choice, and nobody can

decide for you. You've got to make this choice yourself.

You have to realize how important learning is for the

rest of your life. Proverbs twenty three, verse twelve, and

the Bible says this, commit yourself. That's making a commitment.

Commit yourself to instruction and tune in your ears to

hear the words of knowledge. Now your education. You know

this does not stop when you graduate. I've actually heard

people say, well, I'm glad I finished my education, so

now I can start my career. I want to go, buddy,

You're never gonna finish your education. Tell that one to

God and he'll laugh at you. The rest of your

life you're gonna be in education mode. There are a

lot of things God wants to teach you that you

have not learned yet. Learning is not a stage of life.

Learning is your life. Learning is your lifestyle. And God

wants you to learn something every day, and so he says,

commit yourself to instruction. Commit yourself, make a commitment you

never stop learning. What new skill are you working on

right now that you didn't have last year? What new

skill next year you're gonna work on that you don't have? Today,

are you going to be any different? You're gonna be better,

You're gonna be any stronger, You're gonna know more, You're

gonna be wiser. You make the commitment because you're never

finished with your education and lifelong learning is actually the

key to being a leader. All leaders are. The moment

you stop learning, you stop leading. You can never take

a person any farther than you are yourself. And so,

for instance, a church, a growing church requires a growing pastor.

In business, a growing business requires a growing businessman. In

the classroom, it requires a growing teacher. In any area

of life, all leaders are learners. If you're not learning,

you're not a leader because you've got to keep moving

further and further ahead. As I said, it's not a stage. Now,

why should you never stop learning? Because it's in your

best interest. I could give you forty fifty things that

the Bible says learning does in your life. Let me

just mention a couple. It brings success, and it brings profit.

Success and profit. You want those in your life, then

you need to be a continuous learning person. The more

you learn, the more you earn, the more you grow,

the more you become effective in life. Let me show

you a couple verses. One of them is he's asked,

he's nineteen ten ten. This is one of my life versus.

I memorized it early in life, and it says this,

If an axe is dull and its edges unsharpened, more

strength is needed. But skill will bring success. Now it says,

if you've got to axe and you're chopping wood, if

the if the blade is dull, obviously it takes a

lot more energy to chop the wood. If it's if

your axe is sharp, which represents skill, then then it

doesn't take as much effort. He's simply saying, here, work smarter,

not harder. Work smarter, not harder. You're never wasting your time.

When you're sharpening your axe. Right now, when you come

to church, you're sharpening your axs. You're spiritually sharpening your

axe to be more effective in the world. When you

take a seminar, when you read a book, you're sharpening

your axe. And the Bible says that skill will bring success.

Notice it didn't say desire, it didn't say it didn't

say okay. It says skill will bring success. And you

can pray all you want, and you can have all

the desire all you want, and you can write down

all your dreams all you want, but if you don't

have the skill, you're not going to be as successful

as you could be. I know a lot of people

have who desire to be a success. They desire to grow,

they desire to be effective, they desire, but they're not

willing to learn the skills. Go back to school and

get a new skill or whatever skill the Bible says

will bring success. And not only that, the Bible says

it brings profit. Look at this verse on your screen.

The Bible says in Proverbs nineteen, verse eight, do yourself

a favor. Let me see it's self serving really to

grow in wisdom. Do yourself a favor and learn all

you can. Then remember what you learn, and you will

what prosper. Okay, you'll have a better life if you

the more you learn, you'll just have a better life.

Now here's what I've done discovered. I've talked to tens

of thousands of people in one hundred and sixty four countries,

and what I've learned is this, you can learn from

anybody if you know the right question. I could if

you give me five minutes with you, I can get

you to teach me something because you know things I

don't know. I know some things you don't know, and

the person sitting next to you knows some things that

neither you nor I know. That's why we need each other.

That's why it takes humility to be wise. Humility asks questions.

Pride says, oh, I don't want ask question because it

look like I'm dumb. There are no dumb questions in life.

The dumb thing is not to ask a question. And

so in humility, you'll actually learn more because you ask questions.

His verse in the Bible, it says, counsel in the

heart of man is like a deep well, but a

man of understanding will draw it out. Daniel was a

man of understanding. How do you draw it out of

people by asking questions? You might want to sit down

and make a little list and keep it in your

way your purse. Every time you sit around with somebody

who you think maybe they could teach me something, take

advantage of it. Whenever I meet a stranger and I've

got a period of time I'm sitting on a plane

with them or whatever happen to be waiting, and we

start talking, I have two questions on back of my mind.

One of the first is how can I help them?

How can I serve them? Is there anything I could do?

Maybe they need an encouragement. Is there anything I could

assist them in? Because we're here to serve. And then

the second question is what do they know that I

don't know? And I'll start asking a few questions, probe, probing,

and I go, well, I don't know anything about that,

and I'll ask about it. And that way anybody can

teach you something. But the secret is you have to

pay attention. Look at this verse on the screen, Proverbs

twenty three to twelve. Pay attention to your teacher and learn.

All you can point is pay attention. And if the

more you pay attention, that's part of the commitment to

never stop learning. All right, here's the second key that

the Bible tells us to be wise. Learn the lessons

of the prior generation. Learn the lessons of the prior generation.

And the whole reason I wanted to talk about this

is because this was the mistake that this king Belshazer made.

He could have learned the lessons that would have prevented

his kingdom from being overthrown because his grandfather had made

all these mistakes, but he didn't listen, he didn't learn,

and as a result, he lost it all. You learned

the lessons of the prior generation. Actually, this concept is

something that God commands us to do. Let me give

you an example of it in the Bible, in the

Book of Job, chapter eight, verse eight, verse nine, it

says this, ask the former generations and find out what

their fathers learned. For we were born only yesterday and

we know so little. He says, I want you to

go out and ask the former generations. You need to

learn the lessons of people who came before you, he said.

If you don't, you're being prideful. If you're humble, you

will learn. Now what does that mean in your life?

If you're going to be wise, you're going to need

four kinds of people. I want you to write these down.

There are four relationships you need to become wise. You

need mentors, models, partners, and friends. This is not on

your outline. Just write it down in the corner. Mentors, models, partners,

and friends. If you're going to be all that God

wants you to be in life, if you're going to

succeed the way God intends for you to succeed, you're

going to need mentors, models, partners, and friends, and these

will help you from lessons from the past. First you

need mentors. Now. Mentors are your coaches. They're the people

who help you along in life. In my life, I've

had nine different mentors. Why because nobody can teach you everything,

So you don't need one mentor for your life. You

need somebody who teaches you this. You need somebody else

over here who teaches you this, and somebody else who

teach over this and this. Nine mentors in my life.

Only one of them still living. His name's Billy Graham.

Then he's ninety six. Some of my mentors were famous,

but some of them were just normal. You would never

even know who they were. Probably the most famous mentor

I had was Peter Drucker. Peter Druckcker was the father

of modern management, pretty much invented the modern corporation, and

for the last twenty years of his life, I would

go to his home and he mentored me from age

seventy five to ninety five and died at ninety six,

and taught me stuff that I didn't know about. How

do you organize a very large you know, complex system.

So you need mentors in your life. Second thing you

need is you need models. Now models are they're already

doing what you want to do with your life. We

learn fastest by model everything. You learned, all these skills

in your life by other people modeling it for you,

like how to talk. So you need models in your life.

I want to recommend, if you're going to have a

model for your life, that they be dead, and say why,

because the jury is still out on people who are alive.

The jury's still out on me, on you and everybody else.

And some people start off well, but they don't end well.

And so you might want to choose a model from

history because then you can see their life from beginning

to end. You can see the arcs in the ups

and the downs, highs and those the problems and the pitfalls.

But you don't want to choose as a model somebody

who you think, Wow, that's my model, and a few

years from now they really crack up and burn out.

And you've bring climbing this ladder of success and you

get to the top and you realize it's leaning against

the wrong wall. So you need mentors, you need models.

I would have live mentors dead models. Then you need partners.

Partners are the people in your life who row the

boat with you. They're your coworkers in your profession. And

partners can help you and challenge you, can support you.

Everybody needs partners. And then of course you need friends.

Now friends aren't helping you with your goal. They're just friends.

And friends love you no matter what you do. You

can really mess up, and they love you. They say, hey,

you're a good egg, even if you are a little cracked.

And friends, what is a friend? A friend walks into

your life when everybody else walks out, Then you know

who your friends are. You know they're there when you

need them the most, when you don't deserve a friend.

But you need to have in your life always somebody

you're building into and somebody who's building into you. You

need a mentor. You need a pall, and you need

a mentee, you need a timothy everybody. You need to

have somebody who's pouring into your life, and you need

somebody you're pouring into their life. And usually they are

older and younger. But you need to learn the lessons

of the prior generation. Now, it says, ask the former generation,

how do you ask them if they're dead. Well, biographies

read biographies. I tell my staff here at Saddlebachschurtch, I

have five hundred and thirteen staff, paid staff, and I'm

telling them all the time. I'm telling them all the time.

All the lessons are in the past and all of

the opportunities are in the future.

If you want to live a life full of purpose

and joy, then you need to transform the way you think.

And to help you do this, Pastor Rick created a

brand new set of scripture cards with fifty two hand

selected verses from his series Rethinking your Life. These verses

will guide you into a deeper understanding of your purpose

and faith, and you'll find yourself gaining the strength to

overcome temptation and conquer discouragement. When you allow God's word

to transform your mind, You'll see your life through his eyes,

apply his wisdom, and step into a life of purpose

and joy. This set of beautifully designed cards will help

you memorize scripture so you can recall God's word when

you need it the most. And today, when you give

a gift to help daily hope, take the hope of

Jesus to a world in need, will send you the

rethinking your life. Scripture card set to say thanks,