Child Like Vision || Child Like Pt.4 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the Lesse Podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciplists. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. We're gonna be concluding this series that I think has gone

so well. There's been so many testimonies people have shared about how God has

spoken to them through this series Childlike. And if you're just joining us for

the first time, or you haven't been a church in a while, I

encourage you to go to our YouTube channel and you can watch all the other

Childlike series sermons that we've done. They're really great and they'll impact your life.

And we're gonna land the plane this weekend before we go into next week's

at the movies, talking about continuing the conversation on Childlike and we're gonna read

out of Daniel chapter one today, So if you have your Bible, iPad,

your phone or anything like that, or simply you'd like to follow along

on the screen, we're gonna be today in Daniel chapter one, verse eight

to fifteen, there's passage that I've been studying it. I've been studying a

lot of Daniel over the past couple of weeks and so inspired. As I

read the Bible all the time, there's times where you're studying that God just

really ministers to you. And God really has been ministering to me through the

Book of Daniel and also challenging me through the Book of Daniel. I'll probably

share a little bit about next week another passage in the Book of Daniel that

has caused me to stretch and grow additionally as well and believing God for greater

things. But look at Daniel chapter one, verse eight to fifteen. If

you have your place in the Bible, would you join me in standing for

the honor of reading God's word Today we'll begin to read and then we'll pray.

It says this, But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with

the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked

the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God

gave Daniel favor and compassion in the side of the chief of eunuchs. And

the chief of the eunuch said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king

who has assigned your food in your drink, For why should he see that

you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age,

So you would endanger my head with the king. Then Daniel said to the

steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, hannan Iya,

Mischel, and Azariah, you may know them as Mishak, Shadowrak and a

bed. And he go test your servants for ten days. Let us be

given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the

appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and

deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them

in this matter, and he tested them for ten days, And at the

end of the ten days it was seen that they were in better in appearance

and fatter and flesh than all the youths who ate at the king's table king's

food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to

drink, and gave them vegetables. Now everybody got thrown into that as well.

Let's pray this morning afternoon Gaps, we thank you so much Lord for

this word. Today, Father God, I pray that as your word goes

forth, Father, may you minister to us, and may you speak to

us today. Lord. None of us came here today to hear the opinions

of man, or the philosophies of man, or even the doctrines of man.

Today we came to hear from you God. So as you give us

a great meal today, Lord, may we leave here fooler than ever and

ready to walk out your call in Jesus Mighty name. Amen and amen,

you maybe seen to thank you so much. You know today as we end

this childlike series, today we're gonna talk about childlike vision. I want you

to look at someone to tell him childlike vision. Look at the person that

you don't like as much on the other side, tell him childlike vision.

Today we're gonna share about childlike vision, what it means to have the vision

like a child. A lot of people don't know. In the Book of

Daniel that we just read, Daniel and his three the other three Hebrew boys

were merely but young te teenagers in this passage of scripture, the youngest being

Meshak, Shardak, and Bendigo were anywhere between twelve and fourteen years old.

Daniel, who's always named before them, more than likely means he's the eldest,

so he could not because it calls them young men, he could not

be any more older than seventeen years old. And so when we look early

on in the life of Daniel Mishak, Shaderak and a Bendigo, we are

looking at teenagers, young men, young boys thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years

old who chose to have a vision for God rather than a vision for men.

And children have a great way of having a big vision believing God words

that God says over their life kind of sometimes more than we as adults believe

God's word over our life, having a trust in God more than sometimes we

have a trust in God more, you know. It reminds me of a

video I recently seen. There's a young boy in Africa named Victor who's a

preacher of the Gospel. Victor's only about twelve years old. Then Victor was

interviewed by their secular media about why he loves to talk about Jesus so much.

It's about a thirty minute interview. I only clipped about a minute of

it. But what I want you to see is Victor's vision for who God

is in his life. So look at this video This is a little bit

about the preacher Victor and him responding to the interviewer. You are you know,

I do not like people's opinion. Mimi. Like when I wake up,

mim, and opinions is I what to see spending, see spending.

When IKE up in the morning, I look myself at the mirror, I

say, I'm handsome, I am blessed, victims, highly favored. He's

cute enough, he's just blessed. So when I come out, so I

I don't care if you're gonna tell me I'm smart. I already know I'm

smart. I's mommy. I don't need anybody's opinion. I am blessed,

and it's truth. It's the facts that learned the Bible, the Word of

God says I never lie. So he says, I'm more than a conqueror.

I don't need anyone's opinion that I'm more than a conqueror. I don't

need anyone's opinions. So title does not matter. What matters is in me.

And as much as I know myself, I say, you gotta respond

to people. Sometimes the Adam is blessed. That's it, you know.

Sometimes it's what you gotta say Victor said, I'm cute enough. Okay,

he didn't over exaggerate, right, I'm cute enough that that's all I need

enough? Or what enough? What I gotta do to get by? Victor

has a vision and hear from Victor's mouth constantly repeating scripture, letting scripture and

trust in God overflow. That that is an insight and a vision that only

God can give for your life. That is an understanding of who you are

and who God is that only God can gift in your life. And so

to walk in God's vision means that we walk in a childlike nature that has

big vision when it comes to God. You know, just earlier in first

Service, my nephew Lorenzo, he calls me Amu. That's Farsi for uncle,

because Sonaz's Persian. And so we're talking in my office before first service,

and I look at Lorenzo and I said, you know, Lorenzo,

he's in the first grade. By the way, I said, Lorenzo,

you know, AMU could beat you up. And he looks at me he

goes, oh, yeah, well, when I'm in the third grade,

I'll knock you out. Now. I don't know what he thinks. It's

supposed to happen between the first and the third grade. But whatever in his

vision is gonna be happening with him first and third grade. Is he believes

he could beat up Amu. All adults would not speak like that or think

like that. Adults would first analyze, while are they bigger than me?

Are they tougher than me? Are they are? What are they to me?

But this, Lorenzo, just right away. You maybe got me right

now, but give me two years, I'll come to you. It's this

mentality that children have, that they can have vision for something bigger. In

the same way my boys, who have always been younger, when they were

kind of infants, crawling and learning how to walk, we always had these

kind of set up all around our house, and so they crawl through and

they play through them, and there's always a ball pit attached, and you

can weave these all throughout the house. And what would happen is when my

boys would play or they would have friends over, you would hear children playing

in these. You just hear them all wrestle and they're going through them,

and then you would hear they would jump out and they would say, oh,

I'm king Arthur, and this is my castle, and you're looking at

it and you're like, I can see through your castle, Bros. That's

not a castle. And then all of a sudden they're over here on the

other side and they're like, we're in a zoo. He's a lion and

he's a monkey, And all of a sudden they're so consumed and so entertained

with what to us seems so little. But in a childlike vision they look

at something and they go, oh, I could use that. I could

trust that. That's good enough for me. I don't need anything fancy.

I don't need. That's how Daniel was like, like, I don't need

the kings meet. I don't need the King's white. Just give me some

vegetables and some water. He didn't want to defile himself in the same way

that children have the beautiful eyes. Where sometimes my boys will have spoons and

we'll be out at dinner and they'll turn them into swords and all of a

sudden start having a sword fight. Or other times they'll put a blanket over

their neck and they'll start flying around like they're Superman, or look like they're

Batman. Or what they'll do is they'll find many of us know it.

When you buy your kids something for Christmas, they're more entertained by the box

than the actual toy. They'll crawl in, the crawl on the box,

and they'll start act like it's a car, or it's a rocket ship or

a spaceship. That's the vision that children have. They look at the something

and they say, oh, to us adults, it seems boring, it

seems meek, it seems mild. To children, they got man, I

can use that. I could have an imagination for something like that. I

could have fun with that. And what happens is is what Daniel does,

because what was common was the Babylonians. What they did was they invaded Israel,

and they took the Israelites and they brought them into captivity in Babylon.

They turned them into slaves. And what they would commonly do is they would

have workers stewards that would go through the line of all the ones that are

coming into Babylon, and any of them that looked like they were a good

stature, any of them that looked like they had a good appearance, they

would grab them and make them servants in the king's palace. So that way,

whenever the king was hosting wealthy elites or ambassadors. They wanted the cream

of the crops serving in their capital, so that people see how great that

nation is and how powerful he is, and look how handsome and smart all

of his workers are, and all the queen's maidens are. And so Daniel

and mishak Shadderknabennigo get chosen within that. And usually what happens is is because

the king has to be able to trust his servants. So what the king

does in order to trust his servants is he gives his servants everything in excess.

So they get an incredible meal provided to them every single day, they

get incredible clothes provided to them, they get incredible living quarters provided to them.

So Daniel and his three Hebrew friends they show up into Captivity, Mind

you, they're with dozens of other young Hebrew boys, and what the scripture

says is all the other Hebrew boys run and start to devour the food.

Now that may not seem like nothing to you, but this food was stuff

that was unclean that Jews weren't allowed to eat. So there would have been

some bacon on that table, there would have been some ham on that table,

would have been some lobster on that table. Some of y'all are saying,

Amen, praise God. But to Daniel, who only eats koshert that's

not an amen, Praise God. A much of that meat would have been

sacrificed to their gods and their idols earlier. Their wine wouldn't have been processed

or blessed by any of their religious leaders. And so Daniel looks at that

and he says, that may look like a delicious meal, but if I

eat that meal, I'll actually be defiling God. And so I'd rather defile

man than defile God. So Daniel begins to have a bigger vision. He

looks at that food and he says, that may good, be good for

you, but it's not good for me. You may and all of his

other friends that he came in back captivity with, besides Meshack Shadukabenago, they're

eating like that movie Pan when they're all sitting at the table and then they're

all just eating and consuming. Now Daniel and his friends, they would have

just been sitting at that table and said, I'm sorry, but that's not

for us. We don't devile ourselves with food that isn't blessed to God,

we don't devile ourselves with food that isn't given and blessed by God. And

so what they did is they called the chief steward and they said, would

you mind that we only eat vegetables and water. And he says, you're

gonna get me killed. If the king finds out that you guys are male

nourished and I'm the one that's doing that, he'll have my head. Daniel

said, trust me, trust give me ten days. I got a vision

for what God's doing in my life. Give me ten days. These are

teenagers who believe that. There's a reason why I believe Daniel and them were

teenagers, because if they were grown like me and you, we would have

had a slab of bacon halfway down our throat before we realized we shouldn't have

been doing this. But young boys who love God, they're sitting there and

they're saying, I'm not gonna touch it. I'm not gonna touch it.

I'm gonna believe God that he has a bigger vision for my life. So

if it leads to our death, sorry, we can't eat it. I'd

rather live in right passage with God than live with right passage with man,

so Daniel rejects it. You see what oftentimes we have to realize. Many

of us are always believing God for vision and direction. Here's the part that

we always leave out is when God gives you vision for your life, it

means you have to make decisions. That's the part we miss. So we're

like, Oh, Lord, give me away, open up my eyes?

Which way should I go? Give me a word? Give me direction,

God, what should I do about this? What should I? And then

when God begins to give you vision, now you gotta make some choices.

And then we go back to pray, and then we're like, God,

tell me what choice to make and He's like, no, I gave you

vision. The choice is yours. Now you gotta make the choice. We're

not robotic. We have the right to chose. And so now when God

begins to give us insight, God begins to speak to you, to have

vision means all I gotta start making some decisions for my life. In the

same way, how many of you guys remember one of these from back in

the day, California map. See, I don't even know how to use

it because it's not even the right direction. I don't think, haven't you

guys ever have to drive with one of these back in the day, anybody,

Okay, we got we got some people who noticed. I saw some

millennials hands who are raised? You lying, you're lying. You weren't seven

years old driving with one of these around. You know. Here's here's what

I know. When we used to have these and you'd have to drive with

these, what would happen is if you were in the car and you were

driving, you actually had to If someone was with you, you either had

two decisions. If you were alone, you'd have to pull over and analyze

the map. But if you had someone with you, you actually were able

to give them the map. But guess what that now met you weren't in

control. So you're driving. You give this to your wife. Now you

gotta trust Okay, we're here in Arnold, California, on highway to forty

two. We gotta make a left on forty nine. You're like, you

just gotta sit there and trust that they know the decision that they're gonna make.

Oh, we go left right here. Now. I've been with my

wife now for about ten years. So when we first started dating, we

first got married. That what happened was is Android Maps and Google Maps didn't

plug into the into the car, so you'd have to look at your phone

at many times. And so what what happened is is when I was driving,

my wife would pull up directions on her phone, but all too often,

the moment she would type in the directions and we get on the road,

she'd switch to all her group checks with all her friends. So I'd

be driving on the road and I'd be like, hey, babe, when

do I make a right And she's like, I don't know, let me

check, and she'll open up maps. She'll go, oh, we are

supposed to do that mile ago. I'd go, give me that pull over

turn around. So then at that time I'd get the little do hiki that

goes into the air vent, and then I'd put my phone in there because

I'm like, all of your direction privileges are gone. You don't get them

anymore. Then now that Apple Maps and Google Maps are plugged in, sometimes

she'll type it in. I'll say, plug your phone in the car.

I gotta see everything that's happening on there. And I don't trust her no

more to make these directions. Many marriages were tested. I believe they invented

apple maps because part of the divorce rate existed because couples had to navigate one

of these. That's why I know God didn't bore me in this era,

because I wouldn't have made it. But you see what happens is whoever has

the map has to make call the directions, and then whoever's driving's got to

make that decision. So I wonder in our own life, who holds the

map in your life? Does God hold the map in your life? So

when he makes the call, do you make the decision? Have you stripped

the map from God? Say? You know what, when I pray,

I don't like how long it takes for your answers when I seek you.

I don't even like the directions all the time that you're calling out for me.

So I'd rather God have this in my hands. And only if I

get into road construction, I'll come back to you and I'll say, well,

God, you paid the roads, can you get me out of this

mass or anything like that. I know I've been holding them map, or

maybe you've given someone else this map. You let someone else call the shots

for your life. And so what happens is is we have to get to

a place like Daniel, where Daniel said, you know what, I have

God's word. I have the Bible. God's directions are written in God's word.

Don't defile God, don't eat that food, sacrifice to those idols,

don't engage with these type of lifestyles. So God has given me the directions.

I don't need to pray what is right and wrong. Daniel wasn't like,

oh okay, And we're not talking about in this moment, the New

Covenant with Jesus. We're talking about the Old Testament where they had to follow

the law. He's sitting there and he's not saying to himself, well,

God loves me and he's so forgiving. So I will, out of a

broken heart, make this ham sandwich and drink this wine. Unto you,

Lord, I will sacrifice and eat this Philly cheese steak. No, he

didn't. He didn't say that. He said, I'll go on a diet.

Because when God begins to direct my life, and God begins to give

me vision for my life, you got to start making some decisions in your

life. And that's what God has called us to do. Is when He

begins to guide us, you and I have to decide whose voice and whose

life will we follow. We endeavor our life to be approved by man,

or we endeavor our life to be approved by God, because when it's approved

by God, God is with us, and he never leaves us and forsake

us. If it's approved by man, then we are living for man's applause.

We're living for man's approval. We're living for man's ways, and we

get the corrupted nature that man has. And So today, what I love

for us to see with the few notes we're gonna take is decision leads to

decisions. So Daniel teaches us what some decisions are made that honor God through

his life and through his work in this moment. So if you're taking notes,

I want you to write this down. Daniel teaches us the decision to

do what is right. He tells us what the decision leads. Decisions lead

to do what is right? Says this, and Daniel won eight. It

says, but Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food

or with the wine that he drank. You can only imagine how upset the

king would get if he heard that Daniel wouldn't eat his food. I want

you to imagine that you're hosting someone in your house, in your palace,

and you get word and you do. You have your workers, you've paid

for it, you've slaved over it, and you have a plate of food

that you did and you invite someone over to your house and they say,

oh, I don't eat that food. I don't eat that. You've invited

them over to your house, they drove, you worked hours for this.

They say, sorry, I don't eat that. How are you going to

react? Number One, you ain't never being invited in my house ever again,

never gonna be. Number Two, You're gonna leave my house starving.

So I'll see you, and then you're gonna be offended, and then you're

probably gonna break off the relationship. Daniel tells the king's servant, who's gonna

go tell the king? So, here's these four guys and they don't want

to eat your food. Why don't they want to eat my food? I've

killed the best beef for them, I've killed the best pigs for them.

I've given them my choice wine. They don't want to eat my food.

They're too good for my food. Yeah, well, apparently they just want

to eat vegetables. And water because their God doesn't let them eat your foods.

What's gonna happen? So Daniel and the three Hebrew boys, they need

God to move. But Daniel above the fear, He's gonna do what is

right. Martin Luther King Junior said it like this. The old law was

about an eye for an eye, but that leaves everybody blind. The time

is always right to do the right thing. The time is always right to

do the right thing. Are we living by the old ways? Or do

we live by the new ways? It's always time to do what is right.

Matthew chapter six, verse thirty three says this, but seek first the

Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things will be added to you.

Are we seeking for what is right in our life? We live in

an age today where it's very clear between what is right and wrong, and

a lot of people are choosing what is wrong. And God has called his

people to be full of the spirit to do what is right at all times,

regardless of the cost, regardless of how you are perceived, regardless of

how you are looked at. Hey, I gotta do what's right. I

gotta do what's right. I gotta follow God. I'm sorry, but to

do what's right and honor the Lord above. Man, yeah, you may

not like me no more, we may not have relationship no more. Think

about Daniel. Everybody wants to kill him after this because the passage we read

says after they were proven that they looked better than the others, they switched

their diet to vegetables and water. So think of all the other guys that

were gorging off all the other foods. And now all of a sudden the

day comes they're like, man, what are you doing? What do you

eat yesterday? Oh? Man, I had eggs, benedict, I mean,

I had this omelet. It was crazy. And then all of a

sudden the food servants come and drop off fruits and fruits and vegetables on their

table. What's this? Oh well, the king decided Daniel and Meshac Sharon

a Bendigo looks so good that y'all need to look like them. That's what

leading to right does. Either people begin to show their true colors when you

do what's right. Either people will show their true colors, or people will

begin to eat your diet that you eat. Man, you look so good

off that diet that time that you spend with God, that time you spend

with the Lord, all everything you're doing to your faith. Man I like

that, or they got man I don't like that, and they start showing

their true colors. It's always time and a good time to do what is

right. When I was about fourteen years old, I got into road cycling,

and I did the whole thing. I you know, I had the

helmet, and then I wore all the Spandex everywhere, so I had the

Spandex short Spandex shirt. And one day when I was fourteen, I'm riding

my bike. I'm over in the back roads and over by the fifteen freeway,

kind of by Litol Creek, and I'm going over a freeway overpass.

It just so happened they were doing construction at the end of the freeway overpass.

And as I went to turn that there was some of the construction workers

didn't clean up from the construction that week. So my bike slid and all

of this gravel and all of these rocks and all of these shards, and

my feet are clipped into the bike. So my bike, I'm going about

forty miles an hour down the hill. I go to turn It's something I've

done a million times, and I go to turn my bike slips in the

gravel. My bike flips because my feet are clipped in, and then it

pulls me about twenty twenty five yards in the ground. So so my my

spandeic pants are all ripped out, like I'm all cut, I'm bleeding.

My bike has bent bow tires, the chain is ripped off my bike,

and about two hundred yards the opposite direction are two men riding up the hill,

and so they slightly hear something and they turn around and I'm on the

ground and then they they they one of the guys turns around right away and

he starts heading towards me. They were going the opposite direction, so he

comes down my direction. He beats his friends. So when he shows up,

he says, are you okay. I'm on the ground kind of trying

to pick myself up, and I said, yeah, I'm okay. And

his other friend comes and he says, is everything okay? And then the

guy looks at his friend and he says, she's all right. She just

took a tumble. I'm wearing a helmet glasses. I'm still fourteen. So

I had a little you know, butt in the back, and I just

everything was tight. So I look, you know, it just didn't have

a man's body yet, you know. So so he said, she's all

right, and so and so his friend comes and he's like he kind of

kneels out like this. He's like, are you all right, sweetie?

And I mean, I said, uh huh, I just but what do

you do? That's that point. And so I'm laying there and then and

then and then they they begin they begin to, you know, fix my

bike for me. So they're bending the wheel, setting up the chain,

you know, and I'm I'm just being I'm just being, you know,

I'm letting the men do what the men do. I'm sitting up to the

side. I'm letting them fix your girls bike and doing everything they now,

I'm just kidding. So they're fixing my bike and then they talks about twenty

minutes and I'm just sitting there and then uh, they're done, and they're

like, ma'am, do you want us to ride with you back to your

house? And I'm like, no, I got it, you know,

like, I just what do you do at that point? I'm a boy.

You pull off the helmet and like reveal yourself like, I don't think

that's much better. So I just didn't say nothing. I just nod yes,

uh huh. So sure enough, after they spent about twenty twenty five

minutes, say, put air in my tires, fixed all the tires,

fixed the chain, did everything, and then they set me on my way.

It took me some time because I was in a lot of pain,

but I got home, and as I got home, I was thankful because

I was I was young, I was only fourteen. I didn't know how

to fix a bike like that. I didn't know how to fix a chain.

And if those guys turned around and just went we see stuff like that

all the time. Oh look that person fell on their bike. We're just

gonna keep going. How many times do we go on a free wings we

see someone in a slight accent, we think, oh, someone else will

pull over someone, someone will look after them. How many times are we

going in a grocery store and we see a mother with one kid on the

hip in another hand trying to put the groceries away, and we'll think,

I'm sure someone who's more convenient will walk by and help them. And it's

so often to do what is right. We often callously try to think of

a reason why it's not essential to do what is right. I don't know

about you, but at that time, I was thankful that those men were

willing to turn around. Because I didn't have a cell phone back then.

I would have had to walk home and piece everything together. But two people

that just said, let's just do what's right. Let's be, let's be

inconvenience. It may take time out of our day, may take time.

That's what it means practically in our own life, not only to follow God's

ways, but to be as believers. It says we're to live by fruit,

with fruit of the spirit that also comes with loving our neighbor, that

comes to do what's right with those around us, to take care of those

that's near us. That's what Daniel's doing. He's doing what's right, and

he's telling the other Hebrew boys, you guys should have lived by this diet

as well. And so you guys didn't choose to live by this diet,

but God made you live by this diet. And so what we see is

the next point is is Daniel shows us that he made a decision to be

regulated to live a regulated lifestyle. He chose to go without certain things so

that he could please his God, so he could please the Lord and live

by the Lord's standard. He had a decision to be regulated. In verse

seventeen, as it continues, it said this, as for these four youths,

God gave them learning and skill because of their obedience and because of their

vision to make the decision to follow God. What did God do for them?

He gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel

had understanding in visions and dreams. Now God begins to give Daniel understanding in

visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had

commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them

before nebut Khannezzar and the king spoke with them, and among them there was

none found like Daniel, Hananiah, Michel, and Azaraiam. Therefore they stood

before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the

king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all of the

magicians and all of the enchanters that were in his kingdom. And Daniel was

there until the first year of King Cyrus. That's what it looks like to

have a vision for God. Daniel lived a regulated life. Daniel had what

we learned later on. And remember, these are teenagers choosing to follow God.

So it's important to teach our young children God's word. Because Daniel,

who we admire in this passage, he ain't thirty, he's not forty,

he's not fifty, He's sixteen, seventeen years old choosing to follow God.

There's other magicians that are in the King's palace that are thirty, forty,

fifty years old, and they don't got wisdom like Daniel. They don't have

intellect like Daniel. They don't have knowledge like Daniel. They don't have gifting

like Daniel. Because to live a life with God's vision means we are following

God's decisions for life. It's the best plan we could ever have in our

life, which is to have God be the one that leads us. And

so we see with Daniel what it means to have that type of vision.

God begins to elevate him neck above everybody else. All because Daniel chose to

live a regulated life. What did Daniel's regulated life look like? Well,

we know in future passages. Some people who hate him, who work for

the king. What they try to do is they say, hey, King,

how about we do an edict where what we'll do is everybody should worship

you at a certain time of day. And they knew it's at the same

time when Daniel worships God, because every good Jewish young man worships God three

times a day, that's when their prayer time is. And so they say,

hey, King, we should have a time where everybody bows and everybody

worships you. And they knew the King loved Daniel, but they knew if

they forced him to make it a law that they could get him killed.

They hated him. But what Daniel did is he lived a regulated life.

He prayed every single day, He worshiped God every single day. He didn't

eat the food that they ate, he didn't live the life that everyone else

say, so he separated himself. That that's why we as Christians were called

the called out ones called out. God has called us out of something,

and he's called us to be separated from the world standards. So we're called

out to live God's vision for our life so that other people see that and

say, man, I need what you have, I need what God can

do in your life. So what Daniel does is Daniel's life is so regulated.

Other people want to throw Daniel under the bus. They want to get

rid of him. So this time when Daniel gets thrown in the lions den

because he won't worship the king, Daniel at this time is about seventy years

old. So he went from being a young boy at seventeen to now he's

seventeen and he's seen God faithful. And now what does Daniel do he gets

thrown in the lions den? What does Daniel do when he's in the lions

den? He prays? He's regulated. He didn't. I mean, he

didn't jump on Facebook, he didn't get on Instagram, he didn't turn on

the news. He didn't. He prayed Mishak, Shatterack and a Bendigo when

they wouldn't worship the king and they got thrown into the fiery furnace. What

did they do? And that's it? Man? They pray. They say,

Hey, either God's gonna rescue us from this furnace and he's gonna show

off his power, or we're gonna see him face to face. Win.

Win. They didn't win, win, pray. They lived a regulated life,

they trusted God in all situations, and so what happens is they show

us. And being a person that's a visionary person for what God has over

our life, whatever the enemy throws at you, it's like, man,

either God's gonna show off his power or I'm gonna see him face to face.

So win win. That's the perspective Paul even had it. Man,

he said, to live means I get another day with you, But to

die is gain. I gotta be face to face with Jesus. It's the

perspective of vision that doesn't get scared easily by life circumstance and life surrounding.

And so what happens Daniel shows us. You know, oftentimes in our own

eyesight. I'm always jealous of people who have twenty twenty vision because there's usually

near sighted, far sided, and then twenty twenty. Well, I'm neither

near started or far sighted. I'm just I'm just no sided. I don't

I don't have I can't see any of it. Take out my contacts.

I can't see what's in front of me. I can't see far away.

But normally, in the most common causes people are near sighted, which means

they can only see what's in front of them, right in front of them.

That's how a lot of people are nowadays, is they're always scared and

fearful by what's in front of them. They just every day is they're near

sighted. Everything that's in front of them scares them, jumps them's worries them.

Everything everything, it's just everything that's in front of me. Or people

are far sighted. Everything's in the future. Everything's far away. Every goal

is far away, every vision is far away, everything happening is far away.

There's no active activity day by day, just everything's a dream. Everything's

a vision, everything's a hope. But then what we see with Daniel is

Daniel is tapped into something special. He's tapped into God, who can give

twenty twenty vision see. God gives sight where others can't see. God gives

words where others can't know. God speaks to us where others can't say,

and so and so. If we know that if God is for us,

then who can be against us? Then that means that God's word over my

life and who God is over my life gives me all the clarity that I

need. A regulated life means I spend time. We've got it. We

live regulated lives and everywhere else. Just think about it. You talk to

people, you say, hey, do you want a Coca Cola? They

said, no, no, my doctor has me. I can only drink

diet coke. My doctor has me can't have as much sugar right now,

and so I'm on a regulated diet right now. Oh okay, cool,

Hey man, we're going out to dinner on Friday night. You want to

come with me? No, no, no. My my wife has me

on a budget right now. And we live in a little regulated right now,

and so you know, I can't really go out and I can't do

that saying oh, okay, no, no, I understand. I understand.

So I said, hey, hey, hey, you want to come

do this with me? No, no, I got high cholesterol and that's

gonna get my heart jumpy and stuff like that, and so I'm regulated.

I can't do that right now. We regulate ourselves all the time on everything

else. Hey let's do this tomorrow. No, No, I gotta go

to the gym. I'm going right now seven to eight. Doctor has me

doing two miles a day at minimum. I'm regulated. But then it's like,

hey, man, I got these concert tickets for tomorrow Sunday. You

should come. Well, I mean I normally go to church on that day,

but for Beyonce, I could probably my church they do online. It's

so good. It's just you know, I don't gotta go tomorrow. I

don't have to go tomorrow. It's not a big deal. I could get

that, I could get I could get that another time. I can get

that another time. Hey, don't you and your wife have counseling because you're

really trying to get God in the middle of your marriage. Yeah, but

man, I got this great opportunity, and we could get counseling any season.

We could do that any season. I don't. I think we got

at least three years before our marriage is really in trouble. So if the

next year I just do some prioritize some other it's not a big deal.

We live regulated and everything else. But when it comes to the things of

God, all of a sudden, we gonna Man, Well, you know,

he's gracious, He's loving. God. Don't understand if I miss praying

today or I miss reading my word today, it be okay. God will

He'll understand. God knows, My heart knows my heart. He knows I'd

give more if he gave me more. You know he knows it. He

just I put it in his hands. We do it all the time.

We choose to be regulated in every other area except for the area of God.

What would happen if we were like Daniel and we said, regardless of

circumstance, regardless of surrounding, this is what my vision for my life will

look like. This is what my habits will look like. Because the last

thing he teaches us as we begin to close is Daniel shows us what it

means to make the decision to live reliance reliance? Who is God in your

life? Do you rely on God as much as you rely on the natural

things of life? Do you wait upon God in the same way that we

wait upon the other things in life? Do we have a rush to spend

time with God? Do we have a rush to worship God? Do we

have a rush to honor God with our life? To do what is right?

And to have a vision for God? Is a person who prioritizes God's

word in their life, that truly believes that God's vision for our life and

the vision that God can bring for our life is greater than what we could

build on our own. It's just like Daniel, who knew to rely on

God. Psalm's thirty three says this. It says this, the Lord brings

counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes plans of the peoples of no

effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, and the plans of his

heart is to generations. It's God's plan to go into your children's children's children

his relationship with them. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

That's why it's important for us to encourage our neighbors to honor God, because

it's God's plan to bless nations. Blessed is the nation who God is the

Lord, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance. The Lord looks

from heaven and he sees all the sons of men from the place of his

dwelling. He looks on all inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts

individually. He considers all of their works. What that means Verse fifteen is

we all have to make individual decisions to follow God. That's why the beginning

of Daniel says that mishak shadow I can a Bendigo are making the decision with

Daniel, because every individual has to make that decision to follow Daniel, to

follow the Lord, not just to follow Daniel, not to say, oh

you know what, you know, you know what, Chief Stuart. Since

Daniel was doing it, I mean, look at look at me, I

could do it with him. It's like, no, did you make the

decision to honor God? God looks at us individually, to rely on Him

and for us. We can't be like other people. This is what Daniel

did. When Daniel was thrown into the lions Den, he relied on God

to save him in the lions Then when Mishak Shadrick Benego were thrown into the

Fiery furnace, they relied on God in the fiery furnace. When Peter was

in the storm and he was drowning in the water, he looked to Jesus

and he relied on Jesus in the storm. What happens is are we relying

on God in our storms regardless of what surrounds us. God is faithful.

What those men did is they did not say God, would you would I

escape the lions den? God? Could we escape the fire? God?

Could I escape the storm, God said, no, when I'm gonna choose,

I'm gonna show you something better. I'm gonna prove to you that in

your storm, I'll be faithful. I'll prove to you in the fire,

I'll be with you. I'll prove to you in the lions den, i

will shut the mouth of the lions. That's God's power on display in our

life. All too easy. We look at the damages around us, and

we let it push back on us, escape fear on us. Just as

past week it happened to me as we close right now. This past Sunday,

many of you guys may have been in service, and Pastor Diego encouraged

us and said, both online and other service, he said, let's not

worry about Hurricane Hillary rights some of our services. He said that, oh,

I'm not worried about Hurricane Hillary and stuff like that. Well, guess

what your boy is worried about Hurricane Hillary. Because after service last week,

I had to fly to Kentucky for something on I land and my wife face

times me and she proceeds to show me one of our walls that all over

has gallons of water pushing our paint out, and so we have these big

bubbles coming out of our front of our house into our living room, and

water is just seeping into our house. And so as of this week,

just a couple of days ago, this is what our living room looks like.

It's just completely They had to come, they had to come tear the

whole thing out. They got fans drawing at everything like that. In the

midst of over a year ago, our bathroom flooded, so they're remodeling that

right now. And so when Ashley's showed me that, I'm like, okay,

whoa, there's another thing. Can't go use our bathroom right now.

Now, we can't use our living room. But then I just stopped and

I just looked at it. I go, well, we'll just we'll call

the insurance and are you okay? Are the boys okay? You know what?

Yeah, we're fine, We're great. Okay, we got if we

got to sleep on the floor, sleep on the bed. We just we're

here. God's still good, He's still on the throne. We got there's

some damages, Yeah, there's a flood. There's a storm that came.

Yeah, there's some rain that came. But God's faithful, He's good.

Whether this takes a year to fix, three years to fix. God's good.

We're here, We're breathing God's inn a minute like your marriage and make

your marriage may look like that, he said, Man, we're here right

now. God's good. He could be faithful. He can heal Your children

may look like that. May Man, God's good, He's faithful. Let's

trust in him. Let's believe that God's vision is greater than our vision for

our life. Let's believe that God can be in the midst of this,

regardless of what the sircumstances. A young man first service said he had recently

got his first car and he got in a car accident. Someone rear ended

him, crushed his entire back in. He said, I've been complaining for

weeks. He said. I was in service today and I said, I

listened to this message and I said, well, I'm alive. I'm not

I'm not hooked up to anything. I'm not. God God's saying, He's

like, I need to stop complaining about what my car looks like. It'll

get taken care of, It'll get fixed. A lot of us we gotta

be like Daniel. We gotta be like the three hebrewros to say, I'm

gonna trust the Lord. I'm gonna rely on him, regardless of the damages.

I'm gonna lean on God. That's what it means to have a childlike

vision. Today. Let's pray this afternoon. God, we thank you so

much for this word. Lord. I pray that you would encourage us today

to open up our eyes and fully trust in you. Lord. I pray

that we'd be inspired by these young teenagers today. Lord, so many of

us have lived long lives and long lives in our faith. I don't know

all of us would even make that decision those young men did to trust fully

in You, to have a vision for you to choose their disciplines in you,

over man's God. I pray you give us the strength every day,

God, to live a life that honors you, that worships you, to

do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. We give you all

of our trust today and all of our hope in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen

and Amen. Well, we're so glad. Do you guys join us today?

If you give me two more minutes, we're gonna leave here together.

This is the most important part of our service, is the part we're heaven

and hell stand at the balance of this. We're just gonna make an invitation

of faith. If you're here today and you've never confessed Jesus Christ as your

personal Lord and savior, I encourage you today be the day that you do

that. We all know this because we've all most of us been to a

funeral at some point in our life. We know that tomorrow is not promised

for anyone. It's our goal and our prayer that everyone live a long life

ninety years, but we know that's not the reality for many. One day,

all of us will stand before God and God will have a judgment seat.

And when God has his judgment seat, there's only two things that happen.

God will either judge us for all the things that we have done in

our life, because we are to be held accountable for our decisions, or

he will judge us according to the goodness and mercy of Jesus Christ. And

so the Bible says, even good works are like filthy racks to God,

because God is such a good God. To say you've done a good thing

is not enough. It's not enough. It's not enough. It's like going

to Disneyland and choosing to take whatever you want and walk off with every whatever

you want. And they say, hey, why, why why you think

you can walk away? Walk away with that soda? Why do you think

you can walk away with that backpack? You said, Well, because I

bought a ticket one time in nineteen ninety. I think I just walk back

whenever I want. It doesn't compare to owning it. So to just go

to God and say, God, I mean I did a few nice things,

did a few good things. He'd say, did you do everything that

I've done? We don't live up to God's standard, but Jesus did.

And it's by Jesus stripes that you and I are healed today. It's by

Jesus Is loved, grace and forgiveness that we are healed today. So I

encourage you if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, it's his death

on the cross and his resurrection today that we can put our full hope in

to know that Jesus has covered our sins. The Bible says that Jesus says

he knocks on the door, and whoever answers, I will save. Today.

Jesus knocks on the heart of men and women today in this room and

in the courtyard, what would we say to Jesus as he's knocking on our

heart. It's by God's spirit right now that he's speaking to and he's saying,

today is the day to say yes to my salvation. So, as

you're in here right now, we're all going to say this prayer together.

By no means, is the prayer the thing that saves us. We're affirming

what God is already doing in your life right now. So, family,

whether in the courtyard or in this place, would you join me in saying

this prayer together? As many will say this for the first time, could

you join me and say, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I

confess you as Lord and Savior. I believe in my heart that you died

on the cross and you rose three days later. From this day forward,

I commit to follow you for the rest of my days in Jesus name.

Amen. We really hope you enjoyed the message, and if you said yes

to Jesus, we just want to say congratulations and give you a free devotional

to help you walk out your faith. Click the link in the description or

head over to grow dot Faith to download your devotional. Oh and be sure

to subscribe, to share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening to

ALSC podcasts and you hope you tune in again.