Having An Excellent Spirit

Thank you, Brother Mike.

Let's take our Bible this morning and turn to Daniel, Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

It's so good to see each of you here.

I'm always excited about preaching.

I get real nervous about it, to be very frank, but uh that's just sort of normal for me.

You know, I believe the Bible says in 2 Timothy that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

And I want us to take Daniel chapter 6 and be instructed in righteousness.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

I think the word of God is such a powerful uh tool in the life of believers.

And we want to look at this passage.

We're familiar with it.

It's commonly called Daniel in the Lion's Den, but we're not even going to get into the Lion's Den with Daniel.

We're going to stay and learn principles.

I've entitled my message, Having an Excellent Spirit in Difficult Circumstances.

We all face difficult circumstances from time to time, don't we?

A few months ago, my son came into and knocked on our apartment.

We live below, and uh our my son and daughter-in-law have been so gracious to my wife and I.

They give us an apartment in the house where we can stay.

And uh he knocked on that door.

And he came and he says, The worst thing in the world has happened, Dad.

I said, Well boy, what happened?

Car wreck, maybe.

He says, I put out a chipmunk trap to chap uh trap some of the chipmunks, and I've caught a skunk.

Yeah, he says, I don't know what to do.

I says, Well, uh, we we have this pole we use to pick up snakes that stretches out about you know eight or ten feet, so we can pick them up and move them off the property and have them go someplace else to do their snaking stuff.

And uh we uh I says, well, maybe we can use that to unlatch it.

He says, That's a good idea, Dad.

So he walked out and grabbed that, and I I it was in the early in the morning, so I quickly put on something and ran out there and was standing next to him, and he had that long pole out there.

He had a blanket up in front of him, and he was getting ready to unlatch that thing.

And the chipmunk traps are only about eight or two, if well, about eight inches high.

So the skunk couldn't lift his tail in there.

Skunks don't spray if they can't lift their tail.

Well, let me tell you a story.

Um he got that thing and he he managed to open the top of it, and that that the cage popped open.

That skunk jumped out, turned his little tail right towards us.

My soul, have you ever seen a 70-year-old fat man run like a gazelle?

You missed it because if you can imagine that, I was running like crazy, and Tim was running, and I mean, it's something.

Whoa, we didn't get sprayed, praise God.

I'd say that was a difficult circumstance, but we managed to make through it.

You know, God allows certain things to come into our life, and some of them are very difficult, and I understand that.

And I don't mean to make light of any of that.

But the truth is that we will face circumstances and difficult situations in our life all the time.

And we need to realize that if we will just simply trust God in the midst of those difficult circumstances, we can come out bringing glory to God.

And I want to share that with you.

Having an excellent spirit in a difficult circumstance.

Now we find Daniel in Daniel chapter 6, he's about 80 years old, 80 to 85 years old.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

Now, I get my title from verse number three.

Let's just look at verse 3, and then I want to read the text for you down through verse 10.

It says, Verse 3 says, Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and the princes, because of an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

You know, that that little statement, excellent spirit, caught my attention many, many years ago.

And I thought, wow, this Daniel had had such an excellent spirit, something about him that set him apart, that made him uh distinguished from the others.

In fact, when it says he was preferred, it literally means distinguished.

He was different from everybody else because of this excellent spirit.

And I want to share with you three thoughts from our text that'll help us see how he had that excellent spirit and how you and I, if we'll apply these things to our own personal life, we can have that same kind of excellent spirit in our life.

Because we want to come to the end of our days, hearing God say, Well done.

We want to come to the end of our days, knowing that people's lives have been affected in a positive way.

I really, really want to press in on that for a little bit.

Let's begin reading, if you will, in verse 1.

It says, And it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom.

And over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, the princes uh uh that the princes might give account unto them, and the king should have no damage.

Then this Daniel was preferred above the print the presidents and the princes, because of an excellent spirit was in him.

And the king thought to set over uh set him over the whole realm.

Then the presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.

See, they were a little jealous, to be very frank, folks.

They were really jealous.

But they could find none occasion nor fault, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

Verse 4 is an amazing verse when you think about human beings.

And Daniel lived under the rule of three different kings.

They could find no fault in him.

Look at verse number five now.

It says, Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

And these presidents and princes assembled together to the uh to the king and said unto him, King Darius, live forever.

All the presidents and the kingdoms and the governors and the princes and the counselors and the captains have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask of a uh ask a petition of any uh any god or man for thirty days save thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians that altereth not.

I think we all understand that this particular time in history, the law of the Medes and the Persians was when the king signed a decree, it could not be rescinded.

He couldn't rescind it.

Nobody could rescind it.

It was a permanent decree.

Look at verse 9 now.

Look what Darius does.

Wherefore King Darius signs the writing and the decree.

I mean, this decree was signed that nobody could ask anything of any other God or any other person other than Darius himself.

Now I love verse 10, and this is where my primarily my message comes from.

Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, his window being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before the God, before his God, as he did aforetime.

Father, we love you, and I thank you for the word of God, and I pray now that you'll bless.

I pray that you'll take these truths and help us to realize if we'll apply them to our life, we too can have that kind of spirit that Daniel had.

Now bless our time before we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let me just share with you three simple principles.

The first one I want to share with you, the first truth I want to share with you is Daniel had his priorities right.

You know, priorities are important, and they're very important when you look at life in general.

And we need to have certain things in certain order.

And those priorities are important to keep correct.

It's not always easy to do, especially in the world we live in, when you can go on uh Amazon and look for, oh my soul, we love Amazon.

Uh Amazon loves us, I think.

And uh uh the bottom line is this there's so many things pulling at you.

You know, I love the verse that it basically says and teaches us that having food and raiment be there with content.

And I'm working on that.

Just it just has to wait until I get a new printer.

But uh uh we're like that, aren't we?

Uh we always want something.

We're connected to things.

Charles Swindah used to uh tell about that, uh, this issue and teach about this issue.

He'd tell about a young entrepreneur who purchased a beautiful BMW, and it was a gorgeous car.

Gorgeous.

Wow.

It was it was uh it was a convertible and it was beautiful red, and he this young entrepreneur was so excited about it.

And one day he was driving down this road, and it was a little country road, and he was enjoying the sunshine.

He was enjoying his beautiful car, how smooth it drove, and he was enjoying all these things, and all of a sudden, this old rusty pickup truck pulled right out in front of him, and wham, he hit it.

Smashed his car all up.

And he and the air and the airbags deployed, and finally he managed to get himself out of the car and staggering a little bit.

And he looked at his car and said, Oh my soul, my beautiful, beautiful car.

Well, they they uh uh called for the police to come and they needed to do a report on this car.

The policeman came and the man looked at, saw the policeman and says, Look at this car.

What am I gonna do?

It's such a beautiful car.

I've only had it for a few days, doesn't have but over 500 miles on it.

And the policeman says, You got a bigger problem than that.

We got to call the ambulance.

Your arm is totally broken, and it was just sitting there swinging.

And the man says, Oh no.

He picked it up and he looked at, oh, my Rolex watch, it's broken, it's terrible shape.

What am I gonna do?

My new Rolex watch is gone.

Sometimes, folks, we don't have our priorities right, do we?

He didn't.

You know, priorities are so important in our life, so very important in our life.

And Daniel had his priorities correct, and he kept the main thing the main thing, and that's really important.

Now, how do I know that's true?

Well, let's look at verse 4 and 5 a little closer.

Look how he had his priorities, he had them well organized here.

He says, it says, Then the presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion or fault.

For as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

Here's this guy that just did things right.

He kept his priorities right, but it really gets focused in on what was important to him in verse number five.

Says, Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion uh against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

You know, Daniel was so faithful to do what God wanted and to obey God's law that he he understood that that was the most important thing.

See, the most important thing in life is not survival, it's not having a big house, it's not having a fancy car, it's not even having kids that make straight A's.

The most important thing in life is that we bring glory and honor to God, and we do that by one simple way, and that is by obeying his word.

And we need that.

Now I want you to take your Bible, and I know some of you have your uh uh your your phone or whatever, and let's let's let's turn or go to John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

I want you to look at this.

Sometimes it's good just to turn in your Bible and find it, or if you're on a device, find it on your device.

But let's find John chapter 14, and I want you to notice verses 21 down through verse 25.

John 14 · chapter mention

This is an amazing passage.

Jesus is speaking here, and he's talking about priorities to say the least, though he doesn't use that word.

And he says in verse 21, Daniel chapter 4, I mean, not Daniel, John chapter 14.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention John 14 · chapter mention

There's not a uh yeah, John chapter 14, verse 21.

John 14:21

He says, And he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

Let's just stop there for a moment.

In the obedience of keeping God's word, we express to the God we love that we love him.

Serious passage.

He that hath my commandments and keepeth him, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.

He's talking about a fellowship that is marvelous, amazing.

Judas said unto him, not a scriot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, not unto the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me and will keep my words, my father will love him and will, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not is not of mine, but of the Father who send me.

Now, folks, this is a serious passage because notice Jesus is saying, our love is expressed through our willingness to have the right kind of priorities, and our number one priority is to bring glory and honor to God.

That's the most important thing in our life.

God, in fact, Jesus is a perfect example of that.

In John chapter 8, verse 29, it says, That he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone.

John 8:29

I do always those things that please him.

But you realize that you were literally created by God for God's glory?

There's a verse I want to bring up on the screen behind me, Isaiah 43, Isaiah 43, verse 7.

Isaiah 43:7

The verse says simply this.

Let's see if we, yeah, very good.

Every, even every one that is called by my name, for him have I created for my glory.

You were created for the glory of God.

I have formed him, yea, I've made him.

The verse is very clear that you and I have been created for the glory of God.

There's another verse I want you to see.

It's in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, I believe it is, verse 11.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Look what it says there.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 11.

Ephesians 1:11

It says that let me just read the first part of it.

It says, in whom we have uh obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

What he said in that verse is that you and I have been literally chosen after the counsel of God's will.

But look at how and why we were chosen.

It says, notice it, it's very clear there, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.

Let me ask you a question.

You were saved to bring praise and glory to God.

Are you doing that?

And we do that by keeping our priorities correct, by saying, we're gonna keep the main thing, the main thing.

We're gonna choose to honor God.

We're gonna choose to whatever we do, whether it's on the job, whether it's in the home, whether it's uh whether you're retired or you're working, whatever the case is, you're gonna say, whatever happens in my life, no matter what the difficulty comes my way, I'm gonna figure out how I can bring glory and honor to God.

That's our big job.

Not always easy.

But when things don't go the way we would like them to go, you need to sit down and say, How can I bring glory to God in this difficult circumstance?

Our priorities need to be correct.

But there's a second truth I see in Daniel.

Let's go back to Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

And this is something I harp on quite a bit, and you know that.

But Daniel was positive about life.

He was positive about life.

I think Daniel had a positiveness about him.

I see that in verse number 10 again.

Now it says, now when Daniel knew, notice this, he knew.

He fully understood that the writing was signed.

And he went into his house, his window being opened and his it uh his window being opened in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt upon his knees three times a day, and he prayed and gave what did it say, folks?

He gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

He gave thanks before his God.

Daniel's positiveness comes out in his willingness to praise and give thanks to God.

I think that's true in our life.

We need to be a thankful people, we need to be often expressing our gratitude towards God, even in those difficult circumstances, even when the skunks come into your life, you need to learn to give thanks to God.

Give praise to God.

I mean some months ago, some months ago, uh the dog that Tim and Holly had had for years and the kids loved so much, his name was Dexter.

He uh passed away.

That's a sad time for the dorkers.

But like all reasonable, wise Americans who understand and uh realize that uh the best thing in life when a dog dies is to go out and what?

Yes, buy a dog.

Well, maybe not the best thing in life, but anyway, to buy a dog.

Well, they bought purchased a little dog.

It's a it's it's a uh uh a golden doodle.

Is that what it is?

A golden doodle.

His name is Alexander.

Alexander.

Well, we just shortened it to Xander.

Now, when we got him, he was beautiful.

And I say we because they had him.

I just he'd come down and visit us.

He was just a cute little puppy.

But cute puppies have a way of growing.

And he's still a puppy, but he's big and he has more energy than anybody in the whole household knows what to do with.

He loves to terrorize the cat.

That's a he that's it's that's one of his main goals in life.

Uh, he loves chasing the deer in the backyard.

I mean, he he loves just uh just running.

And one morning Tim lets him out, lets him out, and sure enough, as he lets uh Xander out, Xander bounds down to do his business down in the morning, and he pops his head up, and there was a beautiful little kitty.

Oh, I'll go make friends with that little kitty.

That black little kitty with the white stripe down his back.

I'm gonna go make friends with him.

And so he bounds over to that little kitty with the white stripe.

And do you know what happened?

I don't think the kitty wanted to be friends.

Sprayed Xander.

Oh my soul.

Again, my son seems to get the hard work in his life.

Oh boy, Xander stunk.

And Tim scrubbed him and washed him and bathed him and used all that stuff you can buy to wash and bathe him with.

And you can tell me your favorite formula later on.

I don't know, it doesn't work.

And um finally I got most of the smell out, but Xander had that.

He'd come down to visit us, and I'd say, you need to go back upstairs, buddy.

He still smelt like a skunk.

Everywhere he went, he smelt like a skunk.

And uh the fact is, is that uh uh he nobody else thought he stunk, but he he he I mean everybody thought he stunk, and he didn't think he stunk, and so he'd come running and jump into your no, go home.

You belong upstairs, go visit Lila or go visit Melody.

Uh do some good in this world, all right?

Well, uh I wasn't too positive about that.

But uh the the truth is is that uh I sort of lost the train of my thought here, guys.

Is that Xander stunk and nobody, you know, Zig Ziggler used to say that we have stinking thinking.

And uh some so many times we don't realize we have stinking thinking.

Xander didn't realize he stunk, but everybody else did.

When you have stinking thinking, everybody knows you got that negative kind of spirit attitude.

You say, but preacher, I'm just a realist.

I hear this all the time.

I'm a realist.

No, you're a pessimist, is what you are.

You know, the fact is, is that God is good and always good.

I'm so thankful for our praise group, praise band.

And and uh, Phil, you couldn't have done better.

You you picked the song Goodness of God.

Amen.

I love you, Lord.

Oh, your mercies never fail me.

All my days I've been held in your hand from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head.

Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.

You know, God's always good, he's never not good, he's never bad.

He's always good.

And sometimes, even though you're sprayed by a skunk, you can truly say God still is good because God is always good.

We don't always understand everything that happens.

And that's not to say that there isn't some sad things in our life.

There are many sad things in our life.

But notice, Daniel understood the sign, the signing of the decree.

And I think in my mind, I can't prove this, but I believe Daniel fully understood what it was to be thrown to a lion's den.

He may have heard the screams and the cries of those that have had preceded him in that.

He understood what he was facing.

And yet, look what he does.

He gives thanks to God.

He just pauses and says, Thank you, God.

You're a God that is in control.

He was rejoicing in that.

You know, he looked for the good that God gives to us.

And that's part of the thing.

And it's not easy to do.

We had a great Sunday school class.

I always push my Sunday school.

Brother Gordon's done a great job.

If you haven't got a good Sunday school class, you need to come to our Sunday school class.

Even if you have a good Sunday school class, you need to come to our Sunday school class.

But uh the truth is, that's not right.

Uh the truth, the truth is, is that that uh we've learned today about the fact is that God does help us through the difficult times, but you need to learn to praise God through those difficult times.

And everything give thanks to God.

In fact, turn for a moment to a passage.

I think I have it up on the screen.

It's uh Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians chapter number five.

The poor people in the back there notice that I'm not following my notes very well here.

But turn to Ephesians chapter number, uh, Ephesians chapter number five, and notice what it says.

And it says, be not drunk with wine whereas in excess.

Does it all come up there?

Yeah, that's great.

Be not drunk with wine whereas in excess, but be filled with the Spirit of God.

You know what he's saying?

Don't be like a drunkard who's controlled by wine, but rather be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Now watch what he goes on to say here, though.

I love this passage.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord.

I believe that's exactly what Daniel was doing after hearing the signing of that decree.

He just began to rejoice in the God that he loved.

But then it goes on to say, giving thanks always for all things.

Let's not water that down.

That little word for, we looked at it this past week in our Wednesday evening Bible study.

It's the word ice.

It means because of.

Can mean unto, but it means because of.

And here it says, giving thanks always for, or because of all things unto God, the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can, though it may take some time, you can literally give thanks for everything.

Because the God that is absolutely sovereign and eternal is in control of everything in your life.

You, I'm not saying you're gonna like it.

I'm not saying I like it all the time.

But the truth is, Daniel understood that God was in control.

And if he was gonna die at the mouth of a lion, be so be it.

He was gonna honor God.

He was gonna keep his priorities just as they needed to be.

You know, we often we need to learn to look for God's goodness.

I think that's an important principle.

We look for God's goodness.

This doesn't mean there won't be sad times in your life.

There will be.

It doesn't mean there won't be times of confusion.

There will be.

Doesn't mean that there won't be times that are so frustrating you don't know what to do.

But we need to look for God's goodness in those times and through those times.

And yes, that does take a discipline, and yes, that does take pausing and thinking.

But we need to look for it because you will find what you look for.

It's always true.

You'll find what you look for.

Some years ago, probably close to 40 years ago, my family and I, uh at that time I was pastoring a church in Pendleton, Oregon.

And my family and I were gonna go from Pendleton to uh New Mexico, where my brother lived.

We were gonna have a family reunion.

When I mean a family reunion, it's just be my brothers, their wives, and their children.

That's what dad and mom wanted.

They didn't want an extended family reunion.

And so we all gathered at my brother's house.

He lived in a place called Cuesta, New Mexico.

And and uh brother, my brother Steve, his house was in the in the what you might call the flight zone of the ruby, or actually it's called the ruby-throated uh hummingbird.

The little hummingbird, the ruby-throated hummingbird, no bigger than my thumb, many of them fly from as far as Canada, clear down to central New Mexico every year.

They migrate.

Well, he was sort of in that flight zone, and he had all these hummingbird feeders, and in the evening you'd look out his his window, and there would be literally scores of little hummingbirds stopping and feeding there.

They would feed there and then they'd fly on down.

Well, there's another bird that does the exact same thing.

It's called the turkey buzzard.

When you see the turkey buzzard flying up, you see them often around here.

Uh and uh they make this similar trek.

They don't go as far as as the little hummingbird goes down south, but they go down to the south.

They go from the north to the south every year, and then they turn around and come back.

Now, that little hummingbird makes his way, that journey in his life.

He makes it and he looks for beautiful little flowers to suck the beautiful sweet nectar out of, and he moves from spot to spot, and he keeps looking for that which is beautiful and good and tasty.

You know that that uh that turkey buzzard?

Not the case.

Not the case.

I mean, I've seen a deer out, a dead deer out, and there will be 15 turkey buzzers dining on him.

Old dead rotten meat.

They'd look for dead things.

But you know, both of those birds, they made their way from the north, clear to the south, and every time they they found what they were looking for.

And friends, you and I can find what we're looking for.

If you're looking for a problem at CBC and a negative thing about CBC, you'll find it.

But if you want to look for the good that's at CBC, you'll find that too if you'll look for it.

There's a lot of that.

You can if you want to look for something negative or or or or or something about our pastor, and you want to find, you'll find it if you're looking for it.

Or you can find the good.

Man, the preaching lately has been amazing.

I mean, you you find what you're looking for.

You if you want to find a problem with Carrie Borkett, good luck.

We all know better, don't we?

Listen to me.

You find what you're looking for.

Daniel chose, knowing that he was gonna might be thrown to the line, he would be thrown to the lion's den.

He says, I'm gonna give thanks to God.

He had just that positiveness about him.

He kept his priorities right, he was positive about life.

But there's a last thing that we all need to see, and we're all familiar with this.

Daniel prayed about everything.

Look at this again, verse 10.

And I know I'm getting my thoughts primary, but it says he kneeled upon his knees three times a day.

Now I uh that puts me to shame.

He got down on his knees.

I mean, how many of us even do that?

Not only did it once, but he did it three times a day.

He did it in such a way even those outside his window could hear him praising and giving thanks to the God of heaven, making requests of that God.

He prayed about everything.

I mean, that is such a blessing.

You know, we go through life, we need to realize that, and by the way, Daniel couldn't do this within his own strength.

That's why he prayed about everything.

He couldn't stay positive all the time about the fact that he was gonna be thrown to the lions.

He couldn't, he prayed because he knew that he found his strength in the Lord.

And so he goes to the Lord for that strength.

You and I need to do the same thing.

In John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

I'm gonna turn there, John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Part of that passage will come up on the on the screen behind us, but let me just read the first part for you.

John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Notice it says this.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

He's about to go to the to the cross.

And he says, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.

And every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word which I've spoken unto you.

Now, this is the verses I want you to see, verse four and five.

Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me.

Verse 5 I am the vine, and ye are the branches, and he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.

Daniel couldn't, in no way could he have been the kind of man he was.

No way could he handle the difficulties that he was faced with, and he was faced with them over and over again throughout his life.

But he could do that through the power of the Lord in his life, and you and I can do it through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the power of the person of Jesus Christ in your life.

You can be the person God wants you to be.

A verse we're all familiar with.

In fact, it was mentioned in our Sunday school class, Philippians 4 and verse 6 be careful for nothing.

Be careful for nothing.

In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.

When it says be careful for nothing, it says it means don't be anxious about anything.

I mean, that that's so important when you're dealing with anxiety.

Even a few moments ago, and I'll just be just a little transparent with you.

I was standing down there next to my wife, and I I just get I get really nervous about speaking in front of people.

I always have.

But instead of worrying about it or allowing it to become an anxiety, I just paused and said, Thank you, God.

Help me to do what I need to do.

And guess what happens?

Verse 7 and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

You see, folks, simple truths.

Listen, we need to keep our priorities straight.

We need to choose to stay positive as we can.

I know sometimes that's difficult to do.

That doesn't mean that you don't realize there's problems in the world.

But God's bigger than the problems.

Find the God that's bigger than the problem.

Then we need to learn to pray about everything.

Pray about everything.

Then when it's all said and done, we'll stand before the Lord.

And we'll cast our crown before Him.

And He'll be glorified because you chose to follow those simple little principles.

Keep your priorities right.

Revelation chapter 4 and verse 10.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

I think it will come up on the screen.

I'm sort of the last thing I put in the notes.

Revelation chapter 4 and verse 10.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

It says, The four and twenty elders fell down before him and sat on the throne, worshipped him that liveth forever and ever, and cast his crown before his throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things for thy pleasure, they are and were created.

I love that passage.

Someday you and I will take the crowns, those things that we have accomplished for God's glory, and we will lay them at the feet of Jesus.

And the reason that's true is because Jesus enabled you to do that.

Jesus enabled you to do that.

There's an old story I used to tell years ago when I was a younger preacher.

It's a fictitious story.

About a young man who really had many opportunities but chose to live for himself, to live for the things of this world rather than the God of this world.

And finally he passes away and he stands in the presence of God.

And he's in this long line, and I guess he's having this dream, I think would be the better way to put it.

And he dreamed that he was in this massive line of people, and they were taking their crowns and laying them at the feet of Jesus.

And the way that worked is that there was this huge machine, and an angel was there, and an individual would walk up.

It's a fictitious story, by the way.

You're not going to find this in Scripture.

And they would walk up, put their hands under this spell, and that angel would pull this levered out, and out would come the crowns that represented how they chose to live for God in this life.

And he watched some having these beautiful crowns.

And then they would take them and they would lay them at the feet of Jesus.

And he would watch over and over again as the line moved forward.

Each step, a person would break a crown, lay it at the feet of Jesus.

Well, he was anticipating this great opportunity.

He comes up, he puts his hands underneath that spout.

The angel pulls that lever down, and all that comes out is ashes.

Nothing but ashes.

He looked up, and the angel said, Go lay that at the feet of Jesus.

The question is, how are you choosing to live your life?

This next week you're going to go on a job, some of you.

I don't go on a job.

I get up and drink coffee.

But you some of you are going to go on a job.

Some of you are going to work with your children or your grandchildren.

Some of you are going to be radiating things.

You're going to be at the church.

Some of you are going to be doing all uh whatever you do.

And the answer question is, do you do it in such a way that Jesus and God is glorified so that you can have a crown to lay at the feet of Jesus?

Or are you only going to have ashes?

What's the case with you?

Father, we thank you for the word of God.

We ask that you'll take it and apply it to our life.

Father, help us to keep our priorities straight.

That's that's that's just the primary thing.

Help us to make sure that you're number one in our life.

That seeking your kingdom is first.

Bringing glory to you is our passion.

Then, Father, I pray.

Help us to be positive about the things of life.

There's a lot of, oh, we could just expound for months on the bad things that happen, but wait a minute.

You're better, you're bigger, you're more glorious than every negative thing in this world.

You're a glorious God.

I pray, Father, that you'd help us to learn to find the good, look for the right, because we'll find what we look for.

I pray, Father, that we would learn to be men and women of prayer.

I can't imagine what it would be like to get on my knees three times a day, pause and spend time in your presence, seeking your direction and your guidance, asking for your your uh leading as we go through the journey that you've given us.

Asking to help us to keep our priorities right, asking to help us to be positive.

Father, oh that we would become men and women of prayer.

Now, Father, I pray that you'll just bless as we go into the invitation time.

I pray that you'd search hearts.

Maybe there's someone here that uh realizes they need to adjust some things in their life.

They need to start looking for that which is good and positive.

They need to start looking for uh those things that uh honor you and endeavor to honor you.

I pray we'll we'll be people that choose to please you.

Father, we again thank you for your grace.

We thank you for your son.

I pray that you'll be with our on the next few moments before we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.