chapter 1, and we'll be dealing with verses 8 through 16. Daniel chapter 1, beginning in verse 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king who hath appointed your meat and your drink. For why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants, I beseech thee, 10 days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee. and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat. And as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter and proved them 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat of the portion of the king's meat. Thus, Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. Let's pray. Father, we are so encouraged when we see the life of your servant Daniel here. Father, you always come through for your children. But we do go through difficult trials in this life. And so, Father, we're thankful for this example, this divinely preserved example that is here for us to draw from so that we can, Lord, be nourished, to be instructed, to be strengthened in the power of your might Father, we ask now that you would bless the preaching of your word, and may it, Lord, find a resting spot in our hearts, Lord, that we might be better servants of yours, that we might show forth your glory as we, though we're cast, as it were, in a lion's den, Lord, that they would see your deliverance. In spite of all of that, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the first thing I'd like to do is kind of clear the air and clarify that I am in no way advocating, supporting in any way the heretical teachings of Rick Warren, who has written books like The Purpose-Driven Life, the purpose-driven church. It just fits, that's all. It's a purpose-driven heart that we want to deal with. And we see that within our text, and the main thing that I want to consider here this afternoon. We want to also kind of recap, because we haven't been on this series for almost a month. We had a special meeting, and we had the Lord's Supper, I was sick, and then I was going to the Pius 65th anniversary. Anyway, I want to recap just a little bit briefly on this. We see over and over that as we entitled the series, Deliverance from the Lion's Den. that over and over again, in this life, we recognize that this world is not our home. As a matter of fact, the scriptures tell us that Satan is as a lion, he seeketh whom he may devour. He's a prince in power of the air, he's the god of this world. And so we are, at least for the time being, as it were, in his territory. We are in the lion's den. But God, of course, eventually is going to reclaim what is His. We understand that by looking at the book of Revelation. But we also recognize, too, that while we are, though not of the world, we're in the world, He delivers us. from the clutches of the enemy, from the jaws of this lion. And it's none other than the lion of the tribe of Judah that intercedes and intervenes for us in this life. And the last time we had dealt with the fact that Daniel, understand he was only about 13 to 15 years old. He was a young teenager and yet he was used of God in such a magnificent manner. We see that Daniel was taken captive as a slave by this very powerful and very pagan nation of Babylon. And the pagan king had sought to, and again, it's good strategy for him to do this, but nonetheless, he was seeking to break down Daniel and those other Hebrew children there. He was seeking to break them down. He was, as we entitled the last message, he sought to deprogram and then reprogram. And he did that in various ways. Number one, we saw that he humiliated them. He sought to humiliate. They were slaves, captives of this pagan nation. They were castrated. He lost his manhood. He was a eunuch and the prince of the eunuchs was over him. So they first sought to humiliate Secondly, they not only sought to humiliate, but they sought to isolate. They had put them there in the midst of heathenism there, and not only in the midst of heathenism, but right in the very capital, if you will, of heathenism, right there in the king's palace. So Daniel and his three friends were humiliated and they were isolated. But then thirdly, they sought to indoctrinate them. sent them to their schools, if you will. Notice there in chapter one in verse four, children in whom was no blemish but well favored in school from all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and understanding science and such had the ability and the stand in the king's palace whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. He was seeking to indoctrinate them. with the Chaldean Babylonian language and their particular teachings, their ways. So there was the humiliation, there was the isolation, there was the indoctrination, and then there was the elevation. And how did that ever happen? Well, think about it. They were fed They were elevated to a special status. So Satan tries to get us coming and going. He'll get us negatively and then positively. He'll threaten and then he'll entice. So he works both ways. And so that was a very tempting position that they were in. Because though they've been humiliated and isolated and indoctrinated, here's something good. This is something to maybe relieve some of the pain that they were going through. They were jerked away from their families and quite possibly their mom and dad were killed and the Babylonians taken over there in Judah. And so they were elevated, but then lastly, they were integrated. They were integrated into that society. How did they do that? They changed their names. Those biblical names that were given to them were all changed to reflect the gods of the heathens. They were trying to wipe clean any vestige of biblical Christianity just out of their minds in every way, shape, or form possible. So this is where we find Daniel and his three friends. And now we come to a different trial. They've been through some difficult trials already. But this was a trial where there was no wiggle room whatsoever. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. But they were also dealing with something that was a little different because it was affecting other people. The decisions that Daniel was to make was going to affect whether that prince of the eunuchs lost his head or kept his head. So that threw a whole new dynamic into this whole situation as opposed to the other trials that they had encountered. But what we see in a biblically purposed heart is that a biblically purposed heart is one that just doesn't stay hidden. But it manifests itself out of the treasures of that heart, a purpose-driven heart, is one that it shows forth. You know, out of the heart, the treasures of the heart, the mouth speaks. not only does the mouth speak, but the body, you know, acts. And so we see that out of this heart of Daniel, we see certain actions. You all may recall a parable that Jesus had said, and I'm just going to kind of use something similar to that. Let's just say you have a fortress, a massive fortress, and you have a small 600 square foot home. And they're both side by side by the seaside. And the storms come and the rains come and the winds blow. And that fortress was the structure that fell. You remember the story now? It was the foundation. And Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and because the small house still stood in all of that was because of the foundation. And Jesus said the foundation, of course, we recognize that Jesus is the rock of our foundation when we are in these trials, but we also recognize there's something that comes with that package. And Jesus said that as blessed are those that do the Father's will. So when we talk about heart religion, that's a good thing. We must understand that it goes, that the heart has to manifest itself. It does in a person's life. So if we want to go to, as it were, deliverance drive, to be delivered, if you will, from the lion's den, and to render the lion harmless in the den, we must go according to the biblical sequence that we have outlined in our text. You think about the purpose-driven life. Now, A vehicle has, a lot of times, a transmission, right? You've got certain gears that you go into. And we want to look at the first gear that should drive us as we would find deliverance in a purpose-driven heart. The first thing we want to look at is a divinely prepared heart. This is the first gear to drive for the purpose-driven heart that must be engaged and produce a progress that is needed in the treacherous terrain of the lion's den. Our adversary knows all too well that if he can make inroads into the heart, and to influence the heart, he's going to devastate that person to the point to where he will fall for anything. The heart, the soul, the innermost core of a person's being. So essential that David who by the way was a man after God's own heart notice what he says in 1st Chronicles chapter 29 1st Chronicles chapter 29 here we have David This is so important David is praying before all the congregation, for everybody to hear. Wherefore, David, bless the Lord before all the congregation. And David said, blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our father, forever and ever. This is much like the model prayer, isn't it? If you read through it. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thine hand is power and might, and in Thine hand is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, because You're the God that You are, Our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious name for who am I what is my people? That we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and thine own Have we given of thine own we have we? given thee, for we are strangers before thee and sojourners." Notice in all this language here, we see David recognizing the greatness of God in the littleness, if you will, of himself. That is a sign of a divinely prepared heart. Notice, he says, and sojourners, as we're all our fathers, our days on earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding. O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee in house for thine holy name come into thine own hand and is all thine own. I know also, my God, that thou tryest, now notice this, tryest the hearts. This is what's key. And has pleasure in uprightness. And as for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have offered, willingly offered all these things. And now have I seen with joy thy people which are present here to offer willingly unto thee. Oh Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever. Now notice what he's saying. and the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people." All of that what we have in this prayer, of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee, and give unto Solomon, my son, a perfect heart to keep thy commandments, thy testimony, thy statutes, and to do all these things and to build the palace for which I have made provision. a prepared heart. A prepared heart, first of all, involves, remember Paul back in the book of Acts, remember when he spoke to Lydia, they met by the seaside there, and we see that they met and Paul ministered to them, and what happened? The Lord opened the heart of Lydia. He did heart surgery on her so that she could have a heart that wasn't out of stone, but out of flesh. That she would, if you will, have a new heart. That is what is necessary. If we're ever going to be able to be delivered, if you will, out of the lion's den and out of the jaws of the lion, our adversary, we must, first of all, have a divinely prepared heart. And that divinely prepared heart is by the great physician, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one qualified the only one that has the ability, because he's not only a physician, but he's created our hearts. So, and again, we understand this is the soul, but notice again there in Deuteronomy, we have another case in point. It says in 4.9, and no doubt Daniel had these things in mind, Only take heed to thyself and keep. Now what is that word keep? Keep thy soul diligently. What does that mean? To keep means to guard. Guard your soul, guard your heart diligently. That's how we're prepared to deal with these very difficult trials. lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. But teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons." And many of us probably know the passage there in Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence from out of it are the issues of life. So we have over and over God telling us and reminding us over and over how critical it is that we have a divinely prepared heart. But what does it look like? It's always helpful to have a picture. When I was teaching school, it was always helpful for the students to be able to have some kind of example. That's one thing I liked about word problems in math, because it kind of made it come alive and create these things that are real life. And so what does it look like? Well, we find it in Psalms 119 verse two, it says, blessed are they that keep his testimonies, notice what else, and that seek him with the whole heart. So what do we have here? We have a connect, if you will, not a disconnect, but a connect with the keeping of the heart, a divinely prepared heart, and the keeping of the testimonies. And we have, in essence, we have an example right here of Daniel. Daniel is an example of this, and we could say it's a living example because God's word is a living word given to us. So there has to be, first of all, for us to have a purpose-driven heart. We must have a divinely prepared heart. But then secondly, we must have a biblically purposed heart. That's one of the things that I disagree with these writings of Rick Warren is that it's not biblical. If you read these things, it's dangerous. It must not just be a purpose-driven heart, but it must be a biblically purpose-driven heart. A divinely prepared heart and a purpose-driven heart go hand in hand. And this is what I call the second gear that has to engage. And again, we understand that this has got to be, you know, first comes first. We're going to first gear first. We don't throw out first gear when we get to second gear. We don't take it out of the transmission because life is full of what? Valleys and mountaintops. And sometimes we got to go back to the basics. And so we, when we're going up to that mountaintop, we're in the valley and we're going up the mountaintop. And so, we go into that first gear. We revisit those things. But now we have second gear. The Old Testament had very strict dietary laws. This was the rub. That was that there were strict dietary laws and these, this feast, this keenly but pagan feast, was not according to those dietary restrictions in the Old Testament. Not only that, but it was very common that those meals were offered up to pagan gods. So that was the problem. That was the problem. There was no negotiating here. We need, and that's where we can, where do we draw the line? We draw the line where God draws the line. If it violates His word, we have no liberty. Matter of fact, it will be to our own hurt if we don't draw the line where God draws the line. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the principles and precepts of of, you know, messing our life up or making it better. He knows that. He created us. He created all these particular precepts that we see outlined in His Word. True faithfulness. Now, we might think, well, Daniel, you know, this is just a little thing. That's where we get it wrong so many times. if we're not faithful in the little things. And I put little in quotation marks because there's nothing really little in God's Word. It's all essential. Where we mess up sometimes is this is just a little thing. It's okay if I cheat a little bit here, or if I lie a little bit here, I don't quite tell the whole truth here, or I be quiet when I need to speak up. Daniel didn't do that. If we don't first exercise things in private and in the small things, What we do outwardly and publicly is nothing but hypocrisy. If we don't do it in private, and we don't do it in small things, that's what it is. It's just a performance for everybody to see. It's pure hypocrisy. And God's not going to be pleased with that. We might fool other people, but we're not fooling God, and it'll come back to bite us. Daniel understood that. Standing alone, no doubt, was difficult. I'm sure they ridiculed him, they made fun of him, but Daniel and his three friends didn't cave in. Let's look at verse 8 and look at one thing here. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself. He was not just purposing in his heart, but we find later he took action on it. He would not compromise. He did not go along to get along. And he could have very easily done that, according to the world's perspective. But this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision that he made. You understand what I'm saying? It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision that he made. He had no doubt long ago made a commitment to God beforehand with a prepared heart that he would not defile himself or engage in sinful behavior. You know, sometimes people come to church and they don't prepare themselves and then they wonder, well, I didn't get that much out of it. Well, you need to come prepared. If you haven't prayed and you haven't done those things that are necessary, if you live like the devil all week long, well, what do you expect? And it just applies. Having the preparation and purpose goes all together. He had a prepared heart. He understood the importance of sticking to his guns no matter what. We were talking about how Daniel and his three friends, they were in very difficult situations. Now, some of us can go back when we're younger. And what was it like when we were younger? And we were teenagers in our 20s. And we were new to the adult world. It was new to us. We were inexperienced. We didn't know a lot. And what else? We also wanted to be successful. We wanted to fit in, didn't we? We didn't want to be counted as a failure. Somebody who maybe looked like an adult, but didn't act like an adult. Didn't live like an adult. So we wanted to fit in. So you see all these factors playing into Daniel's life, and it's not only when we're young. It can happen when we're older. These kinds of things can destroy a person's life. They can, you know, you think about, in the case of someone young, if this is how they approach the adult life, then they're totally unprepared for some crucial, crucial things that are coming down the pike, like who they marry. What career are they going to have? What church should they join? All these things. If they haven't made, if they haven't had the preparation, if they haven't purpose in their hearts, they're going to fall bad on their face. At best, they're going to suffer great disappointment. And at worst, they're going to suffer great damnation. If Daniel had not been faithful in this very little thing of not wanting to be defiled by the king's meat, he would not have been in the bargaining position that he found himself later on. If we're not faithful when the opportunity first presents itself, we may not have another opportunity. Or the next time it's going to be a lot harder. So the first opportunity to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to do that. You come to a new job or a new place that you moved into. Let's make it clear where we stand and who we are. And we're gonna understand what that means. You know, I remember and working in the school system and other places I've worked, I trust these people are true believers. But they were trying to climb the ladder of success. And their thinking was, well, when I get promoted, then I'll start speaking up for the Lord. You know what happens? They end up losing so much moral strength, they don't have enough strength to stand up. And I can't even remember any time where that really happened. They weaken themselves, they try to cover it up, they try to find other ways to deal with the void in their lives like pleasure and prestige and position and all these things while their life is falling down all around them and they become spiritual pygmies. We need to be openly, publicly, and vocally Christian. There's going to be challenges, but we need to meet them in the power of God's might. Understand that this was no easy thing. Nebuchadnezzar was no nice guy. Daniel couldn't just go up to him and say, well, you know, this is what I'm used to in Israel, and I appreciate the offer, but I just don't want to have your meat and your drink. He wouldn't say, oh, that's no problem. He was the kind of guy, like the eunuch said, he'd take your head off. That's some serious business. And this is what is so admirable about God's power working through Daniel's life, as this was a life-or-death situation. Certainly, many would be tempted to cave in on this seemingly small situation. Daniel didn't hem or haul. He didn't make up some other excuse like, well, you know, my stomach's hurting and I can't, I don't feel like eating right now. Or, I'm used to the food of my homeland and I just can't have it. What did he say? Look at there, over there in Daniel, in chapter one. What does it say there? It says, very specifically, And the last part of that verse, therefore he requested that the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Wow! He didn't beat around the bush. He told it exactly like it was. That took some boldness. That took some conviction. If we You know, I understand some people might be saying, well, why did he go to the schooling that he went through? I think Brother Peter was talking about the grid. You know, if you're in a schooling, if you filter it through the grid, then of God's Word, you can still remain strong. When you think about the names, They can change your name all you want to, but they can't change your heart. They can call you something else, but you know who you are. But when it came down to this, this was something that would have denied the Word of God and would have made them victim to the educational process in time. If they were to compromise the Word of God in their eating, they would have easily compromised the word of God in other areas. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 8, 19, Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. You know, there's an old military term called give no quarter. And that's the way we need to deal with heathen, pagan doctrines, teachings, and practices. Give no quarter. Don't give an inch. Don't budge on the least, if you will, of God's commandments. Because every part of it is important. But there should not only be this divinely prepared heart and this biblically purposed heart, But there should be a boldly prudent heart. This is where the purpose-driven heart really goes into high gear. And we see that Daniel is very judicious in how he went about doing this. He could have rushed in like a bull in a china shop and done so much more harm than good. But that's not what he did. Notice what we see here again in verse 8. It says, But Daniel purported in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested. He didn't demand it. He didn't command it. He requested. He asked. He's using some wisdom, some prudence there. And then we find the same thing again. Verse 12. Verse 12, notice. Prove thy servants, I beseech thee. What does that mean? Prove thy servants, please. So he requests and he says, in effect, please do this. You see? He approached the prince of the eunuch with a spirit of humility and respect, not harshness and not pride. Daniel exhibited a true Christ-like spirit about him. Being obnoxious, overbearing, and rude is not biblical. And this was one of the things, also, that made him a very inviting candidate for leadership later on. I think sometimes we don't operate that way because we're more concerned that, well, these are my beliefs. These are mine. And we're less concerned for the glory of God. We take it in the wrong way. So Daniel therefore didn't want to offend this impressively holy God that he had come to love and to serve. God increased, not Daniel. God did. And we see that in Nebuchadnezzar's life. Was Nebuchadnezzar drawn to Daniel later on? No, he was drawn to the Lord God. Because Daniel did it that way. It wasn't about him. It was about God Himself. Notice verse 9. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. Daniel was already making a great impact before this issue ever come up. He was loving. He was respectful. He was humble. That's the way he operated. Yes, he was bold, but he was these other things, too. And the prince of Uzinx said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, and so on. And we see that he was afraid. And Daniel didn't say, well, you wimp, you ought to be trusting God. What's your problem? He didn't do that. He had respect, but it was a respect that was biblical. He was following after his Messiah. There in 1 Peter 2.23, who when he was reviled, speaking of Christ, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. That is what we must do. But lastly, there needs to be the fourth and last gear, a fearless, believing heart. There's a prepared heart, a purposed heart, there is that prudent heart, and now we have a believing heart. Satan's always on the prowl, and he's seeking to devour us, Notice there in Matthew 21, 22, in all things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. This was the kind of faith Daniel had. He believed God. And it was counted in the hymn for righteousness. So we find that in verse 12, it says, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Basically, it was like drinking a V8. You know, it was just all these vegetables and it was just like a vegetable stew. That was it. Give us that. Test us. Daniel had faith in God to make such a proposition. Daniel, according to the world's perspective, was going out on a limb. But he had a fearless proposition which involved him looking with an earnest expectation of who God is what God does and what God has promised. It was not just praying and believing, but living and believing. It was a principle that was found there in the life of the prophet Samuel. to live prior to Daniel. 1 Samuel 2.30, Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed, that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, be it far from me, speaking to Saul, for them that honor me I will honor. That's a promise. Daniel knew that if he honored God, God was going to honor him. God's going to keep his word. That's how Daniel could look with earnest expectation. Now, we know that sometimes God doesn't do it immediately the way that we always want it. We find that in the three Hebrew children, right? The three Hebrew children that, you know, God will deliver. And if He doesn't, we're still not going to bow down. They recognize that sometimes we can misinterpret. But we know that eventually in time, God will honor those who honor Him. John 12, 26, if any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor. It was the principle of faith. This was not some magic formula, but it's simply believing God. Without faith it's impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. He knew that God had the power to perform, and he knew his promises are true. Daniel had a fearless faith. He was unashamed. He was resolute. There in Psalms 119 verse 6, then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. Daniel did that. The very, you know, the dietary restrictions. He was faithful in those seemingly small things. Peter was that way in the book of Acts. He was unashamed. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, he said. And he wrote to 2 Timothy there in the first chapter, verse 12, for which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And then we find him writing to the Philippian church. and Philippians 128, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries. We're not to be terrified of our adversaries. Why? Look what it says, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. So if we're going to have a purpose-driven heart, We find ourselves before kings and before those in high places. Maybe in a courtroom because of our stand for Christ. We need to have a divinely prepared heart. We need to have a biblically purposed heart. We need to have a boldly prudent heart. And we need to have a believing That God will come through for us. That's what made Daniel do what he did and to be faithful in the lion's den. So may the Lord help us to do likewise.