The Ten Day Test

Let's have a word of prayer. Father. As I pray here, I

lift up Yunus who has lost Kifa, and that announcement will be circulated here

shortly. We learned of it this morning, just before the prayer. So

Father, I pray again for this precious family of God. No complainers,

no whiners, in this family, worshiping you to the end of days.

This man of God died in Christ. So Father, may you give us

the same attitude in the church. May we support the family. Lord,

Thank you for Jesus who's coming to fix it at the end of the age.

Help us to focus on good health today, what it means to live

for Christ. I need to grow in this area. A lot of us

do here. So it help us not to be browbeaters, but to grow

in the knowledge of Christ in Jesus name. Amen. You know Daniel was

anachronism in some ways. He appears in scripture as a man out of time.

He's ahead of his time. He's a forward thinking person. You realize

that the prophet Daniel influenced Sir Isaac Newton his great great work on physics,

Principia Principia. However, they say it, but you'll find pieces of Daniel

two and portions of Daniel right there in the greatest work of science ever produced.

Because Daniel was a man at a time. Daniel appears in scripture as

a man who will affect the time of the end directly. Some people say,

Pastor Mike, why don't we spend so much time in Daniel, Because

Jesus said, to the only prophet the Christ said, we better get right

at the time of the end is the prophet Daniel Matthew twenty four. Jesus

is very clear Verse fifteen. Daniel is but a youth when the strongest nation

in the world, led by its ambitious king, destroyed, his homeland,

profaned his temple has served as his church, killed or led many of his

family of captivity. His life was devastated as a young teenager, traumatized.

He didn't deserve it, and and asked for it. It happened to him.

Daniel came to Babylin in the autumn of six z five BC, brought

in a train of captives tied up in the like to quickly be traumatized physically

by a ruthless king. His exportation to Babylin is recording the first few lines

of Daniel chapter one. Open your bibles with me turned there. We have

the screen. But if you stay in Daniel one, you're in a safe

place. In the third year, the reign of Jehoiakam, king of Judah

verse one, Nebuknezar, king of Bablin, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

The word translated besiege gives the idea of binding something or confining it,

or treating it as an enemy. That's the nuance of the Hebrew word.

It's an in your face kind of trouble world word. It's trouble that comes

at you, confronts you. You didn't expect it. You are oppressed,

in your face trouble. The Book of Daniel starts within your face, captivity,

trouble and loss of freedom for Daniel's three friends friends, what do we

call that? In modern vernacular? We call it a raw deal? You

ever have a raw deal? Something happens to you, you didn't ask for

it, you got sick, someone went after you. You know this,

that or the other thing? A raw deal. Daniel experiences a raw deal

right there in chapter one. In verse two, it says the Lord gave

johoacin King of Jude into his hand with some of the vessels of the House

of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the

house of his God, and he placed the vessels in the treasury of his

God. In verse two, the sacred vessels of God's temple are taken and

put in the King's temple. This is no accident. It captures the theme

of the book of Daniel and attack upon the sanctuary, attack upon the truth

of the sanctuary, an attack upon the people the sactuary, taking them into

captivity. That's the stuff of Antichrist and Daniel seven, Daniel eight, and

Daniel eleven. And so this story matters for prophecy, but it matters in

our lives as well, because in this verse three pagan that the Pagan king

treats the human vessels, not just the sanctuary vessels, but the human vessels

of God's Holy House as rubbish, and he looks to change them, counsel

them, rewrite their thinking, change their theology, wreck their health, whatever

you have to do to control them. Look at verse three. Then the

king commanded ashpenaz Is chief Unich, to bring some of the people of Israel,

both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish,

handsome and skillful and all wisdom. Gentlemen, how many if you'd like to

be handsome and skillful and all wisdom? Anybody here? My hands go high,

both hands to heaven. Yeah. Endowed with knowledge. It means naturally

smart understanding, learning picks things up quickly. You know calculus, you know

English or whatever competent to serve in the King's palace and to teach them the

letters and language of the Chaldeans. That's the problem. The last line first

three quickly record that Daniel and his friends later identified by name Shadrach, Meshek

and a Bendigo become their names that they're given them. They were assigned to

the chief of the eunuchs. The Hebrew word for unich is sarres, and

it is used first in Genesis thirty seven thirty six. I mean Ashpenaz is

the chief of the eunuchs. That means he couldn't have children. Why because

surgically he was made so he couldn't have children. In Genesis thirty seven thirty

six, Potipher is a Unich. Now that explains a lot what's going on.

In fact, that the story of Joseph and the story of Daniel is

very parallel. They both understand visions and dreams. They both are under the

charge of a eunuch, a sarres eunuch. Now, Potipher had a daughter,

but it wasn't his biological daughter, because he's a series unuch, and

the rabbis picked up on that, and that is too correctly that Asanoth was

his adopted daughter. And according to rabbinical tradition, Dina's daughter exported to Egypt

to be saved as the seventieth child of Jacob. And I happen to believe,

in effect, I have biblical proof that that is a correct interpretation of

scripture. That's not the point of the study. I got a sidetracked,

Okay, soaries eunuch. This means that whatever's happened to Joseph back there in

Genesis when he's put into a situation where he asked to interact with kings and

monarchs and prophecy and this kind of thing, Daniel is the new Joseph.

Potipher was a eunuch who was the master Pharaoh's guard and Joseph's master in Egypt,

and Dani one ashpenaz is the master of the Unichs because he is the

chief Eunuch over all the other Unichs. That meant Daniel and his three friends

gender identity was assaulted by the King of Babylon day one. Something crazy is

going on there babylin kind of thinking, does the same to today in our

school systems. It tells children they're not what God has made them to be,

and it compromises who they're meant to be. Now, I don't I

don't care what rule they write in what government anywhere. Nowhere in this pulpit

are we going to advocate the children be confused. God has called on godly

parents and mentors to help our children to learn true masculinity as young men and

young girls, to learn the feminine graces, and to celebrate what God Almighty

has made our children. Now, I'm not here indicting people who have been

through trauma, who've been through circumstances where they've been compromised. I have good

friends who have been through horrible things that develop gender confusion. Does God love

those dear people? Absolutely? Do we need a virtue signal? No?

The church is a place that should be safe for anybody. And I have

and I just will say this forthrightly. I have a number of friends who

went through trauma in the early life, who became acting homosexuals, and who

gave their lives to Christ figured it out. Whatever they're tempted by. They

follow the word of God and Jesus. They're wonderful Christians when they're obedient to

God's word. So that's the call in. Here's no attempt to put anybody

out, but we need to protect our children. That's the point. We're

living in time. We just can't fall into the philosophy of a world that

would confuse children. Bablin kind of thinking is the same today in the school

systems of our land. The Book of Daniel Gabriel calls Daniel a man greatly

beloved. I am sure that Daniel appreciated that affirmation after they did surgery on

him to make him a Unich. When Daniel came to Babylin, he was

traumatized, physically altered as a child hands selected for brainwashing to serve this king

as a diminished scholar, not a masculine person that God had made him to

be. Daniel's name means God is my vindicator, God is my judge and

yet God allowed the king to inflict all this harm on Daniel. If anyone

had an excuse to shake their fist at God for a bad rap in life,

it was the prophet Daniel. His health and his body were altered by

violence, surgically altered by force. Daniel's ability to produced the male hormone testosterone

was cut out of his body to a large degree. But that procedure that

hurt him profoundly emotionally deep trauma in Daniel's life. This vital hormone affects the

man's ability to produce strong muscle mass and to have the necessary advantages of strength

that God had endowed him with. So for Daniel to be a great man,

God needs to work in Daniel's life. Daniel came to Babin with a

disadvantage imposed on him by an evil king who stole him away as a child

from his home, his church, who dedicated him to a pagan God in

his child trafficking scheme. How do you overcome that in life? If that

happens to you, friends, I've met young people who've been through stuff by

the age of fifteen that would make your skin crawl, and would you would

be horrified that that person is still alive. And you know what the grace

of God is for these dear children. Jesus died on the cross to give

them a future. It's you see, we're not defined by where we came

from what happened to us. We're defined by what we choose to do by

faith and the Great God of Love who calls us to be into his family.

Weakened by the assault on his body, the King assigned Daniel to academic

pursuits of study and the University of Babylon to learn the letters and wisdom of

Babylon. Now and Daniel one five, the King assigned Daniel has three friends

a daily portion of the King's food. Now, that word, that verse

is loaded in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew reads literally a word of the

day in its day, delicacies. That's the that's the real translation, that's

right on with the Hebrew. Pat Bag is the Hebrew word for delicacies.

It's a Persian loan word only used in the Book of Daniel in chapter one

and once more in chapter eleven. Daniel had learned in Deuteronomy eight three that

man shall not live by what by bread alone, but by every word that

proceeds from the mouth of God. He gets to babylin the Word of the

day, in its day delicacies. You see, the king wasn't just giving

him food. The king was giving him information. The king tried to stuff

the Babylonian theology down Daniel's throat instead of the Tarrah with all that bad food

that was full of spices, forbidden blood, swine's flesh, rat meat,

rabbits, hawk meat, alcohol, and other contaminants. That's good cooking in

Babylon. Now Daniel had learned of vigous eleven. How many of you've read

a Leviticus eleven you're Bible. Maybody read Leviticus eleven your Bible, you know

hot to just read it? Here God has given us a whole chapter on

how to not get sick. I mean, the baseline of clean unclean meats

is given right there in Leviticus eleven. And if you are in that place

where you're not vegetarian, you need to look at that. Dan learning in

Leviticus eleven that clean foods prohibit the use of swine for food. I grew

up eating bacon. I did. In fact, we raised hogs. I'll

say it with my west Virginia vernacular hogs. And all I gotta do is

raise hogs long enough, and you don't want even eat any hog meat.

They'll eat anything you throw in that bin. And in fact, in hog

factories, I'm using my southern you know, I'm reverting workers who work in

process import meat gets sick just by touching it because of the toxicity comes from

the flesh into their hands. You gotta have gloves. Why do you want

to eat that stuff? Daniel learned levitics eleven and clean foods Prohibithy uses swine

for food, fish without scales, like catfish. They eat anything off the

bottom of the shark, meat, you know, eating in a shark.

Oysters or they just they're the filters of the sea. They'll eat any Just

bring all that muck and guck into the oyster, and then people eat the

muck and guck in the oyster. Birds of prey. Who wants to eat

a hawk that eats you know whatever, rats, rabbits and other unclean animals

like this. God outlines that levitics is eleven. It doesn't take a gene

to figure out he wants us to be healthy as a baseline. Now in

Babylin they were mixed into the food freely. And that is what the king

tried to offer Daniel, and plus they would they would eat the food with

the blood in it. Daniel was to eat that diet for three years and

study the Babylian language, and then appear before the king. It was a

certain recipe for indigestion, a bad disposition, and a bad report card,

and then they would stand before the king to be inspected and grated. Now

look at verses six and seven. Among these were Daniel, hannan Ia,

Michiel, and Azeraiah the tribe of Judah Judah and Hebrew means praise and Hannania

means Yahweh be praised, Michiel, who is his god, Azerai Yahweh,

or the Lord is my helper, that came from the tribe of praise.

And the chief of the units gave them names. He changed them. Daniel

he called Belta, Shazar Hanna, and I he called Shadrak, Michiel he

called Mishak, and Azraaeil he called it been to go named after pagan gods.

The chief unit changed their names to change their character and their identity.

So dannistry friends were humiliated, robbed of their freedom, with every effort to

corrupt their faith in God and their moral values. It sounds a lot like

secular school systems of our day to seek to exactly the same thing to our

children. I watched this news and I'm sorry, it just makes me want

to cry. When I went to school in a public school years ago,

we didn't have that going on. Kids seem to be fine. Now.

Who got this agenda to reck a generation of children? See, we're living

at the time of the end. The Lord wants to harm our children at

the Lord, excuse me, The devil wants to harm our children. Lords

wants to save them. Our children don't need Harvard if that's what it teaches

them. So what do you do when all the cards are stacked against you

and you are trapped in a place you cannot escape, a place where you

cannot cont your own life. That's where Daniel lives. The University of Babylin

Daniels in a rotten kind of place. It was the worst academic environment you

can imagine. The Antichrist and Daniel seven twenty five write that verse down takes

God's people into captivity. You see Satan wants to control your life so they

can wreck your life in the end, bring you to ruin. That's the

bottom line. Christ wants to exalt your life, give you freedom, teach

you the ways of God so you live forever and you're happy and joyful.

Big difference. So Daniel didn't need to wait for the Antichrist to come nebut

can Ezard exactly what the Antichrist did would do in the future to him and

his three friends. I know that Daniel read Isaiah the Prophet. In fact

is their quotes from Isaiah the Prophet in the Book of Daniel, and he

was aware of Isaiah sixty six fifteen and sixteen. He was aware of Isaiah's

prediction that spiritualism, immorality, and false worship would be mingled with unclean foods

at the time of the y. D directly prophesied predicting the second coming of

Christ Isaiah sixty six, verse fifteen. For behold, the Lord will come

in fire. That's Jesus and his chariot's like the storm. When to render

his anger and fury his rebuke with flames of fire. That's the second coming

of Christ. Contextually, in Isaiah sixty six, it speaks of a remnant

that appears at the time of the end that would be given God's covenant sighing

in the context of twenty two and twenty three the Sabbath, and this remnant

would take the knowledge of God, the glory of God, to the world,

every the farthest missionary outpost of planet Earth. But this is what precedes

it as an introduction the second coming of Christ verse sixteen. For by fire

with the Lord execute judgment, and by his sword upon all flesh, and

those slain of the Lord will be many. This Earth at the second coming

of Christ is going to be depopulated. Friends, those who make it go

with God. Those who don't, they stay here, and the planet is

dead for millennium. Now look at verse seven. Those who sanctify and purify

themselves to go into the gardens following in the midst eating swines flesh. Now

what did it say they're eating? What what does it say in your Bible?

Eating swines flesh? And the abomination? And mice? Have you ever

had a mice burger? A mouse burger? I've been in places where they

throw them, you know, in these deep fried kennels, you know.

And then they have corn and mice and other things. She'll come to an

end altogether, says the Lord. Now he's not directly attacking the unclean foods,

but notice they're used in association here with unclean spiritualistic practices, anything that's

a social unclean birds in the Book of Revelation represent demons. Why do you

want to eat an animal that represents a demon? You know, the animals

that you can eat were put on an altar, So the clean foods are

potentially foods that you can eat on an altar. Big difference. So the

Bible informs us not to go by the ways of the world or tradition,

but to let God inform us what is the bottom baseline. Now in babyl

And, Daniel makes a decision to draw a line in the sand between good

and evil and to honor God no matter what. And by doing this,

Daniel becomes the first prophet. It becomes the prophet for the Last Days.

He becomes the pattern for Last day believers, healthy, committed, focused people.

They may defile and destroy the temple in Jerusalem. They may indeed take

those sacred vessels of the sanctuary into the King's treasury and defile them Daniel saw

that, but there was one treasure he knew they could not defile. And

that treasure was his heart, his life, his mind, his choices.

He could choose. He could dare to be a Daniel, dare to be

a man of God, take the risk, do the right thing. So

Daniel purposed in his heart that he would be God's treasure in Babylon. And

he purposed in his heart that he would be God's clean vessel that would honor

God no matter what. Now. Daniel one eight is the key verse in

Daniel chapter one. Take your bibles in turn. There Daniel one eight,

and Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's rich food,

with the whine would he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the

Unix to allow him not to defile himself. You know this nonsense. The

kids should just eat and do whatever they want to. We should teach our

children temperance in the church. They should rise to be a wholly, highly

educated, endowed, spiritually articulate, committed generation and no low standards for them.

That's not legalism, dear heart, that's all. These kids are made

for a glorious future. I'm proud of how may be proud of the children

for a church. You know, I want to commit my life to daniel

mentality. Here, young people, are you with me? How mean you

want to raise your hands? I'm with Pastor Mike. Okay, so are

you listening? We'll talk to the rest of you. It's kidding. The

Hebrew reads literally that Daniels said, or putting upon his heart, that he

would not defile himself. That means Daniel made a choice to live for God

or die for God, but not to defile himself. Daniel determined that Daniel's

heart is God's heart, and no man or woman can rule the heart that

belongs to God, that is given in purpose and a choice fixed resolution within.

Daniel may have been a slave in Babylin, but he knew that he

was a free man before God Almighty and Babylin. When you make the right

choices in your life, like Daniel did, you're demonstrating before the God of

the universe and the angels of the whole world also that are here that you

are a free man or woman. You are a person of dignity and character.

When I left gailas Virginia, I was an avid drinker. At the

age of fourteen fifteen, I drink every weekend. My friend Jeff and I

would go out and we would steal pop bottles and committed crimes. I don't

I've never talked much about that in the church, but I'm letting you know

that I was introduced to intemperance, to all awful things at a young person.

But there was a little magazine that made an impact on me before I

was baptized into the seventh Admast Church. And it was the magazine called Winner

Magazine. Have you ever heard of it? Go way back generationally. It

was the temperance magazine produced by the seventh Admast Church that they disseminated everywhere.

It was like a comic book about being a winner and having a temperate mindset.

I read that thing and I realized I was in the wrong track,

and I begin to make life changes in part because of that temperance calling.

So in Babel and Daniel makes a decision to draw a line of sin,

I'm living for God when you make the right choice in your life. Actually,

look at verse eight. But Dan resolved that he would not defile himself

with the King's rich food, with the wine which he drank. Therefore,

he asked the chief of the Unix to allow him not to defile himself.

When you make a choice like that, to say no to alcohol, no

to narcotics, to unhealthy eating practices and party eating laid and you know,

acting like you don't have any standards in your life. When you say no

to that, God listens to that decision, he begins to work in your

life. Daniel purposed in his heart to be free from alcohol, free from

the defilements of Babylin Proverbs twenty verse one, wine is a what what does

it say? Mocker? Strong? Drink is a is raging or brawler.

Whoever is deceived the eye is not wise. We don't need to be deceived.

Wine is an agent of deception. Daniel knew that wine and drugs defile

as a person's mind, body, and character, and so he purposed to

live for God. That's why Daniel determined to never drink a drop of wine

and never put an ounce of alcohol into his body. That was a Christian

kind of pledge for temperance that Daniel took, and he stood upont in Babylin.

Every young person today should purpose to exactly the same thing. I want

to ask the adults of the church first, hem many, if you like

the purpose that alcohol is out of your life. Raise your hand side.

Great decision, young people. How maybe you want to make the same decision.

Alcohol is out of our life. Both hands high, Let God see

them. That's right out of your life. Daniel also decided that he would

not eat the defiling food of the king at all. So no pork chops,

bacon strips, pepperoni, pork pepperoni, no shrimp and oysters either,

no blood in the meat. Forget, forbid, forbidden by God. Daniel

was in a pickle. And all that rich food in Babylin that was messed

up, food that would defile his body, his mind, his character and

hinder his walk with God was imposed on him. So Daniel made a good

choice that he would not become a drinker or a binge eater and partake of

the bad stuff of Babylon. Daniel was proactive in this matter. He was

not arrogant his request to Ashpenaz, he was humble. He didn't go said,

well, you know, I'm not gonna do it. You know now,

he said, sir, I respect you, but I serve the God

of Heaven. I want to honor God and not defile myself. Would you

work with me? And I'm gonna do my best to be a good servant.

He humbly asked the Chief you and cashman is to honor his request.

I took a lot of courage. Our young people today need to be encouraged

to make good and solid temperance decisions like Daniel did. And we don't need

to be compromising as faith leaders in the church to serve them things at parties

which would compromise that that standard. I don't think super rich sodas really helped

children. You know, it's to pack with sugar. They have caffeine off

the charts in them. How do I know because I used to get high

and jump aty, jump aty on caffeine. It took and I went through

six months of withdrawal from doctor Peppers. Are like doctor Peppers, don't raise

your hand and keep your loot. I mean, I'm not critical. I'm

just telling you that stuff hooked into me applies here. In verse eight,

Daniel makes the right decisions decisively. In verse nine, God honors that right

decision decisively, and it's just as show as you make a right decision decisively

for God in your life, to live right for God. Whether you have

known this or not in the past, but you set the bar high,

like Daniel, did you know what happens? God right then in there starts

working supernaturally in your life to honor that good decision, to save your family,

to transform your life, to put your bad history behind you. That's

what He did for Daniel. Look at Daniel one nine, and God gave

Daniel favor and compassion in the side of the chief of the Unix. You

see God intervenes verse nine. The word favor is hested in Hebrew and it

means covenant kindness in the Bible. Daniel honors God, and God honors Daniel

with covenant kindness. God also gave him compassion ruchem and the Greek septuigient translates

it askaris. It's the Greek word for grace, and Paul uses this very

word claris for grace, and Ephesians too eight in his description of our salvation

and Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not

your own doing, It is the gift of God. Do we need grace

in our lives that make the right decisions in your life. God gave Daniel

grace as a gift to save him in Babylin, God can give you grace

as a gift to save you as you're struggling with difficult choices. In verse

ten, the chief of the eunuchs told Daniel that he was afraid that the

king would take his head off. If Daniel's friends looked more sickly, you

change the diet, you change the plan, you look bad, I'm done.

If Daniel looked worse, no doubt all of them would have been done.

It's significant that when Daniel made that right decision his heart, his three

noble friends joined him. He stood up for God. They said, we're

standing with you, four of us. So they formed a temperance club to

call their peers into accountability and faithfulness to God. Daniel made hit the challenge

to Ashbannah's That was the ten day test in Daniel one verse twelve. Look

at verse twelve. He said, test your servants for ten days. Let

us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Now, why a

ten day debt test and not a nine day test or an eleven day test

or even a seven day test. Why do you think it was a ten

day test? Come on, interact with me. That ten commandments. It's

shouting out, isn't it. The number ten naturally draws a tentin to the

ten Commandments, which is defined as God's covenant moral law in Deuteronomy thirteen.

Daniel was a ten commandment kind of man. Is there anything wrong with being

a ten commandment youth? A ten commandment Christian? You know, we know

how the early Christians worship is recorded by Pliny the Younger who wrote Trajan about

the problem of these Christians. They would meet, they would sing a hymn

in the early churches, and then they would make pledges to not lie,

still kill, and this kind of things. Because kind of odd they were

going through the Ten Commandments at one hundred a d as part of their worship.

Serves. Don't tell me Jesus did away with the law of God.

We have proof from ancient manuscripts those Christians integrated obedience into their worship. So

we are ten commandment kind of people. For Daniel kind of people. We

don't need to teach our children how to disobey God's law in the church.

We need to teach God's children and ourselves to honor God's law, to keep

it in their lives, not to be a browbeating legalist, and not saying

that, but to have the grace and kindness and love of God. As

we speak of these things, and that means the health laws are also to

be honored. If God put together moral laws, and he put together physical

laws, whose laws are they? They're God's laws forgiven. Kind of people

are obedient kind of people through God's grace, and it shows in their lives

and temperance and fidelity. God's loving kindness changes out of control lives. When

I was baptized by Donald Valmer at the age of fifteen into the Seventh Day

Avenues Church into Christ, and my blessed pastors still alive pastoring me in California,

he calls me quite regularly, I love that man of God. I

had no idea, but you know it was the temperance principles I learned at

Fletcher Academy. They were taught to me by mister Peel, my godly Bible

teacher, as he opened up the spirit of prophecy and the Bible and helped

me to understand how to change my life. I would be dead today if

it were not for that change that occurred in my life. I have friends

that didn't make it out of adolescence, and God Almighty, you know we

should praise the Lord for what he has given us as a people. Daniel

is also aware of the ten days of awe from the feast of trumpets on

the first day of the seventh month that led to the Day of Atonement.

Ten days, ten commandment, days of preparation prayer for the Great Day of

Atonement. The Great Day of Atonement is prefiguring the Great Final, an atypical

day of Atonem in heaven, when Christ comes before the ancient days to confess

his name the names of his people, before the Father and the Holy angels,

to receive his kingdom one name at a time. In Daniel in revelation,

a time when lives matter, when books are open, and where God

is looking for Christ and surrender in our lives as evidence of faith, and

Daniel understood that God is his judge and that we will need to make good

decisions in life to live for God for that future day because God is the

one who will one day inspect our lives. Christ is there, Angels all

around. At the time of the end, we will stand before the king

one day, just like Daniel stood before Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel chose a simple vegetarian

diet for those ten days. He couldn't risk anything else in Balbane. The

Bible allows clean and unclean, clean foods. It's wrong to say it doesn't.

It does. It's a baseline. But Daniel shot for the highest ideal.

He couldn't risk anything else in Bablon at that time, and so he

went for the best. I liked the King James version here in Daniel one

thirteen. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee the countenance of the

children that eat of the portion of the King's meat, as thou seest deal

with thy servants. So Ashbanas accepted the ten day test, and he knew

that the eyes would tell the story. Fatter and leaner are skinnier and meaner?

Which one would you like to be? Fatter and leaner? You know,

not too fabbit, fatter and leaner or skinnier and meaner. Okay,

you're not answering. I go with fatter in the right way and leaner.

Okay, it won't be hard to tell, it wouldn't be hard to tell.

In ten days, Ashbanas took the challenge, and God worked the miracle

on Daniel's life in ten days. Look at verse fifteen real quick with me.

At the end of the ten days, it was seen that they were

better in appearance and fatter and flesh and the good way than all the youths

to ate the king's rich food. Now I've seen bad vegetarian cooking that makes

people look skinnier and meaner? Is that wrong to say that? Help?

Come on, I mean, shouldn't it look good and taste good? Sister

White tells us that it should look good and taste good. So don't give

me any health reform that makes food taste awful. So let's pray to the

Lord to give us wisdom from on high to make it look good and taste

good. Dennis friends passed the ten day dust, so Ashbanas took the junk

food away with fine nonsense of babbling and gave them the good stuff. Now

I want to look at the good stuff. I made them strong and lean,

healthy kind of fatter, good dispositions, good attitude, good complexion.

Forget the cosmetics when you have good health. You don't have to make yourself

look like you're healthy. You're healthy. And look the chief unit gave them

vegetables like broccoli. All right. How many broccoli fans here? Raise your

hand, he lly lu yah halla wu yah, okay, surely to see

the day. All right, cabbage, How many cabbage fans? He Lla

lu jah, holla, lu y'ah. Carrots ha la lu yah holla,

Hey lu yah, Praise the Lord. Are the chokes that don't choke?

Okay? All right, holley lu jah? Food? Okay, now the

cheap the King Jay. Any King James versions run around here, all right?

If you notice the King James version says pulse, it's not the kind

of pulse you take, you know when they do your blood pressure or whatever.

Out there. The Greeks of tuagent translation uses that equivalent word for pulse.

Pulse includes leguons, beans, lentils, and peas. How many of

you like full affles? Yes? How many of you like beans without too

many spices in it? Now I'll tell you about beans. You got to

soak them. They have rice and in them. People know you soak the

beans, you pressure cook them. It'll take care of some of those that

little toxicity. They knew that back then. So learn how to cook beans

right. Just ask my wife. She knows everything, right, honey,

No, most of everything. Legoons, beans, lentils, and peas.

Do you ever have your mothers? They eat your peas, Holly lu yah,

Hello, eat those peas right now. God's energy foods with just the

right protein to not overdo it, or optimal foods nutrient rich animal proteins.

While not forbidden in scripture, let's not overstate the Bible here. Okay.

I hate it when people do health lectures and they say it's a sin to

eat clean meat, when the Bible does not teach that. It's a sin

to not let God lead in your life to grow Jesus ate fish and his

resurrected body. So it's not a sin. But you see Daniels striving for

the ideal, isn't he? So without browbeating people, they grow. Animal

proteins can feed cancer, especially in excess, and contribute to disease. That's

a scientific fact. God's proteins are clean, nutrient rich, so they can

heal the body and prevent disease. Now, I think it's also important to

bring out that everybody's different Sister White once had to interact with an individual who

was fiercely sick in Europe, and she recommended that he go out and they

take care, take care of what was their equivalent of a deer. See

circumstances. A cases alter circumstances, and cases can vary based on a person's

specific need. She recommended eggs at times for the healing properties and eggs,

and in some of our sanitariums she recommended eggs and certain things. So we

have to be careful not to overstate our positions. But you know what,

if we're striving for the ideal without having a bad attitude, you realize a

bad attitude and give you a heart attack. So why bring bad attitudes into

health reform. Let's strive for the ideal without being judgmental. So what was

the outcome for Danie's friends? Look at her seventeen asked for these four yous.

God gave them what you helped me with the words what does it say?

Well, wow, I don't see it on the screen. God give

them learning and skill and what all letters and wisdom? So they were these

were straight a students, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

We call that prophecy. Daniel passed the test of integrity in his life,

and God honored Daniel with the knowledge of prophecy. I don't even want to

figure out gang revelation. Health reform needed. Daniels a prototype of the final

generation at the time of the end, who lived clean and godly lives like

Daniel did. That are temperate, that honor God. Friend. The highest

form of wisdom and the Bible is the wisdom to understand the prophecies that lead

to Jesus. The Daniel generation at the time of the end will understand all

visions and dreams in the Bible. They will come to master the word of

God, like Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest scientific mind, attempted to do,

and they will be temperate. Newton was temperate, determined to live for

God no matter what. Daniel twelve four pop to the end of the Book

of Daniel. But you, Daniel, shut up the words, seal the

book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and

what will happen. Knowledge shall increase, just like Daniel had increased knowledge.

Go down to verse nine. He said, go your way, Daniel,

for the words or shut up and sealed until the time of the end.

Many shall purify themselves that's what Daniels do in Daniel One, and make themselves

white, that's the righteousness of Christ, and be refined character development like Daniel

had. But the wicked shall do wickedly. And how many of the wicked

will understand? What does it say? None of the wicked shall understand.

But now let's hang onto the butt. But those who are wise shall understand.

We need temperance in our lives. We need the health message without fanaticism

in our lives. God will not entrust the deep secrets of his words to

deliberately intemperate Christians who are wine bibbards, drunkards and partiers. I'm sorry,

doesn't go together. If you want to be a partier with alcohol, you're

not part of God's party that gathers around the Word of God, that enjoys

sweet Christian fellowship and seeks to save souls. Daniel made a clear choice to

purify himself, to make himself clean before God by grace, and we need

to do the same thing, he says. None of the wicked will understand.

Obeying God's law means obeying the laws of health and temperance. Also,

it has been said that the great drinkers and great eaters are seldom great at

anything else. A purpose in your heart to be a clean vessel for God

and live for Jesus the temperate and joyful life full of faith and service.

I want to, by the way, ladies, as you strive for this

ideal, how many of you like the pledge that you're going to try to

cook healthy food that's good tasting. Yeah, good tasting. Okay, yeah,

all right, we'll hold you that because we don't cook. I don't

cook. At the end of three years, Dan's three friends stood before the

king, like we will stand before the great King of the universe at the

end of days. The law of God will be the standard and the judgment

day on that day, and Christ is that law is character defined, and

the grace of God will be the way into the future. We'll all be

forgiven kind of people who started out traumatized like Daniel, but who believe and

got there by grace, not by proving something. And finally, the King

inspected these four us and look at verses twenty twenty one, and every matter

of wisdom and understanding concerning which the king inquired them. He found them ten

times better that all the magicians and chanters that were in all his kingdom.

And Daniel kntinued to the first year of King Cyrus. Ten times better reminds

you of what ten commandments the Hebrew is ten hands over ten hands, you

measure ten hands over morally giants, spiritual giants, smarter, wiser, healthier,

vibrant, obvious. These are stellar young people. God will have a

generation at the time of the end that does not compromise. I wish I

could say it was my generation, my generation. Did we let a lot

of kids down? Oh, let's turn it around. A generation of spiritual

and intellectual giants who know their Bibles, who know their God, who love

others, who live for others like Daniel did, and who will not compromise

with evil in their lives. Daniel lived into the first year of Cyrus,

when the captives were released to go home. That's what it says in the

Bible. The coming of Cyrus is a type of the coming of Christ,

when the kings of the East will come to take us home. How many

of you want to go home? Dare to be a Daniel? Dare to

have a purpose, true stand for Jesus and don't shoot for a low standard.

Shoot for a high standard that's not legalism. Based on grace and love

and forgiveness in your life. God will help you, and God will help

you make a difference in the world. God, bless you Jesus Name.

Bless you, dear Father. As we bow our heads, I want to

raise my hand and say, Lord, help me this year to be a

better man, a better pastor, to be more health conscious, to apply

the words that I have shared from Scripture in my own life. Now,

if anyone wants to help me and wants to encourage me, but also wants

to join at that, please raise your hand to God, said Lord,

I do too. Now, Father, You're going to help us all work

on this because none of us are fully knowledgeable. We're grateful, so grateful

for the team Lord and how everyone has pulled together for this health ministry kick

off today. Give us good health. Help us to win our community and

part through health ministry so they will learn to love you, to focus in

the Word of God and live forever in Jesus Name. Amen.