Thank you, sir. All right. Feels like I've been here a week already, right? That's how tired I am. Hopefully you're somewhere with me on that. But it's been good. I've enjoyed it. Enjoyed the time. Enjoyed the facility. Enjoyed meeting and talking with some of you. And we're not done yet. We still have today. So let's move forward. Let's go to Daniel chapter six this morning. Daniel chapter six. This is later in Daniel's life. You know, in chapter 1, where we were studying, of course, his three friends last evening. But time has progressed. It's later in his life. In fact, there's two more kings that Daniel has been ministering under when we get to chapter 6 of the book of Daniel. There was Nebuchadnezzar initially. There was Belshazzar. And now we are looking at a time under Darius the king in Daniel chapter 6. I think we can conclude has been committed to Christ. I mean, obviously, like his three friends, he had made a decision to be on the Lord's side as a young man, maybe even back in, I'm certain back in his teenage years, maybe even prior to that. And we know he had purposed in his heart there in chapter one, and how things have really developed in his life, and he was committed to the Lord, and that has been tested, and here is all this time later, and guess what? There's another test coming, right? You know what happens in chapter six. Something about a lion? And so it's an ongoing thing, and you say, well, why would I want to give myself to a life of testing all the way through? Ask somebody that's maybe 25, 30, 40 years old who's been saved for a while if they consider God's trials and tests to be a blessing or a curse. And I'll guarantee you, with someone who's been walking with the Lord and God brings them through a trial, as opposed to the consequences of poor decisions, sometimes people think they're going through trials when they're just reaping the consequences of their own sin. That's not a trial. That's just bearing the fruit of your own decision making. But when you're walking with God, and God brings a trial or a test in, it is designed to grow your faith. And I'll guarantee you, you will get closer to God as a result. So at the end, you'll say, that was a blessing. Even though it's something you wouldn't choose to go through. Would you choose to go into the burning fiery furnace? No, I'm not interested in that. I mean, this fire behind me is hot enough. I have no desire to go into a fire. I have no desire to go into a lion's den. Yet I guarantee you this, that these men would say, oh, it's such a blessing. You know, we were there in the fire, the flames didn't even get to us, and the Lord was there with us. It was so cool, it was amazing. When Daniel could see God stop the mouths of lions and his presence was with him, Daniel would say, wow, what a great experience. And I can say in the trials of my life and the things that God has allowed me to go through or caused me to go through, they've all been good. It's been a blessing, even though I would never choose it on my own. And so God has a good thing to accomplish when he allows us to be tried and tested. And we can say all these years later that Daniel was a faithful man. He was committed. And as a result of going through all of these trials and tests and serving God in this foreign land and being purposed and being committed, going through that, at the end of it all, and even through the midst of it, Daniel's heart was secured. And security is something that the average person in the world today is lacking. And I'm not talking about this kind of security with guns. I'm talking about real security, security of the heart and soul, whereby a person is just at peace no matter what. because they know God is in control of their life. They know God is in control of this world. We can face the future with a smile because we know that God is in control. And if you've been tried and tested, you've experienced that. If you are insecure, Allow God to produce that in your heart. You're younger, I understand that. But even at your age, God wants to produce faith in your heart. He wants you to be secured by who He is. And as a result of this, look in chapter 6, it said, it pleased Darius, he's the Median king. You know, there's the Babylon empire, then we have the Medo-Persian empire. It pleased Darius, it said, over the kingdom, and 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom. And over these three, presidents, of whom Daniel was first." Why was Daniel picked to be, you know, there's 120 presidents throughout the world that would rule over the world, 123 princes I should say, and of those princes there would be three that are presidents, and of the three presidents, Daniel was first. Obviously he either heard about or found out about Daniel even from Nebuchadnezzar's day. His reputation was before him as being a faithful man. And it says that the princes might give account unto them and the king should have no damage. Look at verse 3. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes. Here's why. because he had an excellent spirit in him. And the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Look at verse 4. What a tremendous statement that is made about Daniel there in verse 4. It says that he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. I don't know if I could meet that qualification. How about you? I'm certain there's something someone could say about me and say, oh, there's an error, there's a fault in him. They couldn't do that with Daniel. He was a faithful man, and God would have us to be faithful. And we're going to discuss this morning about, with a secured heart, how it produces an excellent spirit in us. When we are secure in our identity in Christ, when we are secure in our purpose for life, when we are secure in who God is, we can then have an excellent spirit, a heart that is secured by Christ Himself, and there's nothing like trials and tests to really formulate this in someone's heart. Daniel had this, and by the way, it was an excellent physique, that put Daniel in this position of being over the whole realm. It wasn't his muscles. It wasn't his strength. It wasn't his looks that put him there. It wasn't even his brains, although he was a man of wisdom. But I've met people who are smart and are plain old foolish. There's a distinction, right? There's a difference. Someone can be book smart, but be absolutely foolish. Or someone could be lower on the IQ but have God's wisdom ruling their life. And so it's not about brains either. It's not about the body. It's not about looks. It was about his heart. And we all have one. The question is, what controls or rules your heart? And is your heart secure? Is it secure in Christ? And if it's not, I'll challenge you to go before the Lord and maybe even take this to your parents, to your youth director and say, What's going on in my life that my heart is not secure? And ask that question. Bring it before the Lord first, and then take it elsewhere if necessary. What's going on? Here's one thing. There's actually two things. It'll be a two-part message today. Two things about Daniel's heart that we see in his secured heart. And the first thing we'll look at this morning is excellent faithfulness. and a preview for later is going to be excellent faith. There's a difference. They're connected, but they're different. Faith, faith is confidence in God's character. Faithfulness is when we take our confidence in God and we do something with it where we simply do what we're supposed to do because it's right in the sight of the Lord. Daniel was a man who had excellent faithfulness. He did what was right. He did what he knew he was supposed to do. He did that as a young man, perhaps a teenager while he was in Judah. He did that when he was under Nebuchadnezzar. He did that under Belshazzar. He's doing this under Darius. He is a man who simply was faithful. He did what he's supposed to do. You say, well, I wanna do that, good. I'm glad if that's your desire to be faithful, to be counted faithful. When we talk about someone's faithful, it means they're diligent and they're dependable to do what they're supposed to do, whereby others can then even put some confidence in them. Hey, when you give them this task to do, they're gonna do it. I don't even have to question. Why? That person's faithful. They'll do what they're supposed to do. I don't even have to check up on them. They're just gonna do that. And may that be your desire in your heart, that when you're given something to do, you do it, you obey, you do what's right, just because it's the right thing to do. And I think we could say that. It says in verse four, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. He was simply a faithful man. Well, how do I get there, right? That's great, that's a great, you know, appreciate the goal, but how do I get there? Let God do it. Look at this with me as we go to Romans chapter 8. God wants to do a work in your life to make you into the image of Jesus Christ. And the more we allow God to conform us, the sooner we're at the place where we will be considered faithful. And faithfulness is not so much a level as much as it is a direction of your heart. And so in theory, in theory, your heart could leave camp saying, I am committed to being faithful to God in obedience. I'm committed. But if you have a pattern of not being that committed, you'll need some time whereby people will see it and be like, yeah, he or she is faithful. Wow. They're consistent in doing the right thing over time, but it can begin today. You can be considered a faithful person when you are committed to doing the right thing and going forward no matter what, doing the right thing. Romans 8 verse 29 says, For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. God has a plan based upon His foreknowledge. He can see into the future, and He knows who will be saved, and He has predestined those who are saved to be conformed to the image of Christ. Save people, God has a plan for you to be like Christ. And we're gonna examine in just a little while that Christ was obedient as well, setting the example. Look at Philippians chapter one. Again, as we continue with this thought, how God wants to do a work in our lives to make us faithful. to make us consistently doing the right thing. Philippians 1, verse 6 says, And I take those two verses, Romans 8, 29, Philippians 1, 6, and I say, wait a minute. As a saved man, God has a plan that's predetermined. I mean, the goal of it, He has predetermined that He wants to conform me into the image of His Son. That's exciting to me on two levels. One, to think that someone would consider me to be Christ-like. You know what we call that? Being a Christian. That's what Christian means, to be Christ-like. And so that's exciting to me that someone would even think that my life somehow reflects Jesus Christ, but I know who I am. So how is that possible? Only as I allow Him to conform me into the image of Christ. It's His work. Now, the Bible teaches us we should not quench the spirit. And I think one of the easiest ways of quenching the spirit is as God's trying to mold you and conform you to the image of Christ, and you're like, no, I don't want to. Okay, well, you may make that process a little harder, but guess what? God loves you so much, he's gonna continue to work on you. And depending on how pliable and soft your heart is will determine the kind of pressure he needs to apply in your life to accomplish that work. And I've seen even in saved people's lives that when we're not willing to be conformed, he can pull out the big vice. You ever use a vice, guys? It's fun, right? I mean, you can put a lot of pressure on something with a few cranks of the handle. And it didn't have to be that way. If our hearts are moldable, if our hearts are tender, it doesn't take much, but not every heart is that way, right? Some of us in the room are a little more hard-hearted by nature. It doesn't have to be that way, but if that's our nature, then God knows what He needs to do to get us to be like Christ. Look at Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. In verse number 11, one of the reasons why God has given us pastors and teachers is for this process as well. Verse 11 says, And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man." Watch this, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. God wants us and gives us pastors and teachers that we would grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we would be Christ-like. Why? It's a Christ-like spirit. that will be considered an excellent spirit. By the way, that word excellent means to surpass, to excel, to go beyond, to be extraordinary. And Daniel had an extraordinary spirit about him. It wasn't that he could beat all the guys in the games last night of the push-ups and whatnot. He may not be able to, but His Spirit is what excelled in Him. And I challenge all of us here that we would desire for God to produce in us a faithful, an excellently faithful heart as it is secured in who Jesus Christ is. God is working to make us into the image of Christ. Now look at this in John chapter 8. Christ exemplifies to us faithfulness when it comes to obedience. We saw how Daniel was considered a faithful man. He had an excellent spirit. And one of the things that is really remarkable about his excellent spirit is that he was a man that had no error or fault in him because he consistently did what was right. In John 8, in verse 28, it says, Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, Then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. You couple that, look at Philippians 2, you couple that with how Jesus Christ learned obedience when he went to the cross. Philippians chapter 2 talks about this. Verse 8, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And even Jesus Christ exemplifies obedience. He always did those things that pleased God. And if you want to have an excellent spirit, you've got to be committed and you've got to want God to create Christ-likeness in you. And one of the great ways that you'll be like Christ is to be obedient in all things and do whatever God would have you do as it pleases Him. Remember back in Revelation 411, the very purpose of our existence is to please God. And when we want to be people like Daniel, then we've got to have an excellent spirit. We've got to have excellent faithfulness, always doing what God would have us to do. Look at Galatians chapter 5. When we are committed to doing the right thing, when we are allowing God's Spirit to work in our lives and to make us into the image of Christ, His Spirit that dwells within is going to be working to produce these things. Galatians 5 verse 22 says, But the fruit of the Spirit Is and you know, you know the verse right love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance So what was Daniel like if you were to sit down and have a conversation with Daniel? I think you'd find those fruits being manifested in his spirit He would be a man of love. He'd be a man of peace. He'd be long-suffering, gentle, and good, and faithful, and meek, and temperate. Because there's no law against those things. How did you get there? Verse 24, And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Remember way back in the beginning? When we have decided to be on the Lord's side, we want to put away the body with its affections and lusts, and we want to crucify the flesh, and we want to go forward and be purposed in our heart to do what God would have us to do. We want to be purposed that we are determined, I want my body and my life to be for Christ. And when we are committed, we'll be tempted and tested in that area, but through it all, God will secure us when we obey Him and trust Him, and it produces an excellent spirit in us, as our heart is secured by Him, and excellent faithfulness, where we are consistently doing what pleases God, and God's Spirit is manifesting these fruits in our lives, and even to the point of being Christ-like, where our words and our conversation is under His control. I like what the Bible says in Luke chapter 4, in verse 22, it says here, You know, one of the great things about a faithful person, someone who's filled with the Spirit of God, is even their mouth is under control. Uh-oh. He's going there, isn't he? Look at Ephesians 4. Our mouths need to be under control. You know why our mouths are not under control? Because our spirits are not under control. It's a spirit thing, it's a heart thing. And God wants complete control of your heart, of your spirit, to the point that even your mouth is controlled. Ephesians 4, 29 says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. I'm only supposed to be communicating so as to edify and to encourage and to help and not to tear down and destroy someone else. Christ-likeness even in our speech and Christ-likeness in our obedience. Daniel was a man of faithfulness. He consistently obeyed God. And I find that it's a lot easier in life to obey God when I trust him. Like I said yesterday, obedience and trust or faith, they go hand in hand. And we'll be looking at the other side of that later today. But this morning, we want to focus the rest of our time on just simply considering obedience. You know, oftentimes people think obedience is a bad thing. Look with me to Deuteronomy chapter four. This was, I don't know how many years ago, maybe six, seven years ago. I was studying the commandments, studying the book of Deuteronomy and Exodus. And this just really floored me because it helps me to see God's heart In Deuteronomy 4, verse 30, we're looking at chapter 5 and 6 as well, but watch the consistent theme of this thought. Deuteronomy 4, in verse 30, the Bible says here... That's not the verse I want. Okay, Deuteronomy 4, verse 40, there we go. It says, Thou shalt keep, therefore, his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Okay, remember that, that it may go well with thee. Look at chapter 5, verse 33. Look in chapter 6, verse 3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. One more, verse 18. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers. Four verses there in just a couple of chapters, three chapters. And what was the consistent theme? That God gives us commandments for who's good. our own, that it may be well with thee. God gives commandments for your own good, for my good. And a faithful person, someone who is secured by God in their heart, they trust Him in obedience, they say, it's not a problem because I know that God gives me every one of these commands for my good, that it may go well with me, with my family, in society. God only has good intentions with His commandments, and a faithful heart recognizes that and says, I'm going to obey God because He said so. I trust His character, and I'm going to do it. Look at the example of Abraham. Look in Hebrews chapter 11. Abraham had this figured out. And Abraham had to go through in his life. You can study the life of Abraham and see how God developed this in his life over the course of time, where he learned to trust God so much. He believed God's promises so much that no matter what God said, he would do it. even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own son. Look at Hebrews 11, verse 8. It says, By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing whether he went. So by faith, he obeyed. Why? He trusted God so much he would leave home, obey God, and go forward. You jump down, you know, in verse 9, by faith he sojourned. He never got a permanent dwelling place. He kept traveling in his life. He looked for a city in verse 10. And verse 11 we see about his wife Sarah at the end where she judged him faithful who had promised. You jump all the way down to verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, and having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. By faith, they were persuaded. They just knew it. They trusted God's character so much. They trusted his promises. They're going to trust God and simply obey. Verse 17, by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Wait a minute. Why would God Why would God have Isaac offer up the son, but he's the promise. God, you gave me a promise that you'd give me a son and you've given me the son and he's going to become the father of many nations. And this makes no sense, but it didn't matter to him. He trusted God so much, look at verse 19. He says, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him as a figure. You wanna talk about faith. You wanna talk about confidence in God. You wanna talk about a man who was faithful. He would obey God no matter what, because he judged God to be faithful, just like Sarah did. He had confidence, he accounted that God would say, okay, God, you want me to offer up him? I know he's the promise that you've given me in life. You want me to offer him up? I will, because you'll just raise him up. That's the kind of God Abraham believed in. A God that had power, resurrection power. I think we would all agree that Abraham had an excellent spirit. and His excellent Spirit stems from and flows from a secure heart, a heart that is secured in who God is. So I ask you this question, do you trust God's character? And anytime you are debating whether or not to obey God, I'm gonna ask you to do this. Ask if you trust God. Ask yourself that. I'm having a hard time obeying God. Do you trust God? Do you believe in His character? And if you're not trusting Him, what is it about His character that you don't trust? Let's try to isolate the problem. I mean, is God holy? Is He righteous? Is He just? Is He truthful? He cannot lie. Is He loving? Is He gracious? Is He long-suffering? Is He merciful? There's nothing about God's character I cannot trust. If I don't trust His character, that's because I'm choosing that, but there's no reason. You know, humans sometimes, we can understand why I have a hard time trusting this person or that person, but God's faithful. There's no excuse for not trusting Him. Even in salvation, there's no reason not to trust Him, except maybe you're trusting yourself. Can you judge yourself to be faithful? Now, when it comes to salvation, it's impossible. If I trust His character, I can obey His commands. Even starting, here's something to think about. How about the Ten Commandments? You know, there's other commands, right? But the ten is a good summary. Of course, that can be boiled down to two, as you know. You know, the first commandment of having no other gods, God gives you that commandment because that's what's best for you. He doesn't want you to waste your heart and your passions on anything but Him, lest you have an empty and unsatisfactory life. Worst of all, if you never get saved. But even as saved people, don't let there be anything else. The word God, the little g, God, no other gods, right? It means nothing should rule your life besides your creator, your savior. Not even self. The second commandment about not having idols is about worshiping, and what will you give your heart to? Let God rule your life and give Him the worship of your life. The third commandment about not taking His name in vain is about, to me, about having even a life for God. I shouldn't take His name and say I'm a Christian if I'm not going to live for Him. I shouldn't use His name in a vain way. Remember, the Sabbath day speaks about having rest from God and taking time with God. The other commandments are person to person and how we ought to have respect for parents and respect for life and respect of marriage, respect of property, respect of truth, respect of people's possessions. And if I trust God, and I have a faithful spirit, if I have excellent faithfulness, I want to keep those things. It's what's best. It's what's best in the eyes of God. It's what's best for man, and it's what's best for me. Don't let this world deceive you that in breaking those, somehow you'll have a good life. You won't. Don't let this world rob you of a good life by making you think that disobedience is somehow going to be satisfactory. Don't go there. Obey God. Have a heart that is secured by His character. Have a heart that then is excellent in faithfulness. And it manifests itself in obedience. Like in Daniel, they found no fault or flaw in his life. There was no error in his life. He was simply a faithful man doing what was right. He obeyed. And it begins by obeying the gospel. In the Bible in Romans, go to Romans 10 with me, the Bible talks about obeying the gospel. You say, I thought the salvation was about faith. It is, but faith and obedience go hand in hand. It says in verse 13 of Romans 10, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Verse 16, but they have not all obeyed So in faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God there is an obedience to salvation whereby we repent We repent of who we are and of all of our sin to put our faith in Jesus Christ. There's an obedience in forsaking anything that we were trusting beforehand, any idol, and putting our faith in God and God alone, in Christ Jesus. There's an obedience to the gospel, and faithfulness begins when we obey the gospel. How about it, secondly, in baptism? When we get saved, God would have us to follow Him in baptism. Christ displays that. He says, And baptism is a picture of righteousness. It's obedience to God. How about in sanctification? in allowing God to make me into the image of Christ and weeding sin out of my life. And when God puts his finger on a sin in your life, say, wait a minute, I don't want that sin. I trust God. He knows it's not good for me. My flesh is lying to me. This world is lying to me. I want that out of my life. Oh, God, help me. I want to go forward in obedience and I want to be sanctified and set apart and meet for the master's use so I can obey him in service. Allow God to weave those things out of your life. And like I said earlier, depending on how hard-hearted you are determines on how tight the vice needs to get before you'll give that thing up. But He loves you so much, He's not gonna give up on you. He will keep after you. He will be chastening you because He loves you and He wants you to obey Him. An excellent spirit is one that wants to obey God in everything. And when we arrive at the place where we want to obey God in everything, we will find ourselves to be a faithful person, having an excellent spirit, an excellent faithfulness. The world may not like you. Look back in Daniel. Just a little preview for what's gonna come later today. Verse 5, 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. They knew that they would never find Daniel in sin. He was a faithful man. He was consistently obedient to do the right thing. And so, because people were jealous of him, they determined and they conspired, let's find something we can hold against him about what he does before his God, and we'll snare him there. And that's what they would go on to do. But Daniel was secure. in his heart before the Lord because of who Christ is, and he had an excellent spirit of faithfulness. Here's my last thought, and we'll close. There's a limit to our faithfulness. You say, what do you mean by that? Aren't we supposed to be faithful to the end and all that? Yeah, but there's a limit because we're human. It's not an infinite faithfulness. Even Daniel had a limit. But later today, we're gonna see how there's no limit to faith. Because not only was Daniel a man of excellent faithfulness, he was a man of excellent faith. And there's no limit to faith, because faith is based upon his character. There's no limit. God is infinite in his character, and therefore there's no limit to faith. because faith is confidence in his character. And we're gonna see, we're gonna see later how that Daniel was a man of an excellent spirit, not only because he was faithful, but because he was a man of faith. So what's the difference? Faithfulness is the obedient side. Because by faith, I do what God wants me to do consistently, day in, day out. I do what God wants me to do because that's what he wants, that's what pleases him. And then by faith, we really get to go forward in life and see God do things that are amazing. All week long we're building, right, a decided heart. I want to be on the Lord's side. I want to be with God. I don't want to be with this world of sin. I don't want to be on the devil's side and the side of pride. I don't want that. And so I've purposed in my heart, I want a purposed heart. that my body is not going to be used for the things of this world. It's for the Lord. My life is for the Lord. And I want to commit myself to him no matter what. And I understand that means some trials and tests may come. But in the end, my heart will be secured as manifested by an excellent spirit of faithfulness and then ultimately by faith. When you look at these men in the scriptures and, you know, the heroes, the Hebrews 11 type people, men and women, say, I want to be found faithful. I want to be a person of faith. Well, it starts here. And it keeps building. God working in your life to bring you there. And we need, this world needs faithful people who will do right no matter what, day in, day out. It's your move, though. We can't make you. It's your move. It's your life. You're going to make these decisions with your heart. And it begins now. The decisions you make now will influence whether this unfolds in your life or not. Oh, I can make that decision when I'm old, you know, like when I'm 30. Right? 30's old, right? And that's like, I mean, you know, when I was your age, I thought 30, I mean 40, 40 you're practically, you know, picking out your grave stone, your tombstone, right? But there's so much life ahead of you and the decisions that you make now are going to influence that going forward. And so choose wisely. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the example of Daniel, who had an excellent spirit of faithfulness. And I pray that these young people would make decisions and have that desire as well to be faithful. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.