Well, I tell you, I've enjoyed myself yesterday
evening, and then last night, later, the opportunity
to give my testimony, and then this morning,
you've been very responsive, you've listened well, and
you've set up straight, and you've paid attention
to the Bible, and I appreciate that so,
so very much.
You don't know what it's like, if you're
not a preacher, to preach to people that
are obviously not interested in what you had
to say.
You're back here taking pictures trying to make
me laugh, amen?
But you don't know what it's like to
preach to people, and they kind of look
at you, and it looks like you're kind
of preaching to a bunch of not-for
-logs, but you've listened well, and you smile
when you're supposed to smile, frown when you're
supposed to frown, and this, that, and the
other.
So I appreciate your good spirit's been kind
to me, and I do hope that you'd
pray, and I know some of you have
a long trip, a few hours ahead of
you, going to different places, Minnesota, all over
Wisconsin.
I'll go to Rockford, as I said, and
then early in the morning, I'll catch a
flight out of Midway, and then I'll be
starting a revival meeting tomorrow morning.
I'll just be getting in in time, just
to get to the church on time, and
I'll meet up with the Robertson family, who
many of you know from here at the
camp, to have our music for the week,
and so you pray that everything works well,
pray I don't get delayed, and all that
kind of stuff, because if I do, I
guess my wife has to preach the revival
meeting.
Amen?
She knows most of my sermons anyhow.
Daniel 1, verse 8.
Let's all stand, please, out of respect for
God's Word.
Just one verse of Scripture, by way of
a text, although we will use other Scriptures
in the duration of our message.
I'll read it two times, because I want
to make sure it sinks not into your
head this afternoon, but into your heart, alright?
Daniel 1, verse 8.
The Bible says, But Daniel purposed in his
heart that he would not defile himself with
the 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.
Look at it one more time.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself with the 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.
I want to preach to you this afternoon
a message entitled, Dynamic Daniel.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts once again,
and let's ask the Lord to bless our
time together in this last session here at
our Truth Conference.
Father, truly, you've been so good to us.
We've seen people saved and get right with
God.
We've seen some wonderful victories this weekend.
What a blessing it's been to be able
to share my heart and my burden with
these young people.
They've listened well.
I pray you bless them for that.
But now, Lord, we also realize that the
other service victories are not going to fight
the battles that we're going to face in
this service.
And so, Lord, we need you to work
afresh and anew in this service.
I pray that you'd open the hearts and
minds of those that are before me.
Dear God, just very humbly help them and
help me now, I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Young people, if you know anything about the
book of Daniel, we meet up with a
young man that most Bible scholars and historians
tell us was anywhere from the age of
15 to 17.
And so, for time's sake and argument's sake,
he's going to be 16 in my message.
So, here's this 16-year-old teenager.
He is not at a fundamental camp in
a Truth Conference, so he is impacted with
the truths of the Word of God.
He does not have a youth pastor breathing
down his neck, making him do right.
He does not have a mom and dad
at this time that are telling him, OK,
little Daniel boy, I want you to read
your Bible, I want you to have your
devotions and do good in your Christian school.
He has no Christian school.
He has no good sermon tapes to listen
to of good fundamental Bible preaching around America,
around the world.
He has none of that.
He has none of the modern day opportunities
that many of you have, but yet he
still shines like a great rock of Gibraltar
and shines like a great light right here
in the midst of a wicked, perverse nation.
Now, I want you to know that the
city of Babylon, or the nation of Babylon,
was not a nice place to live.
Here, the children of Israel had been separated
from family and friends and from their priests,
and they had been taken away from the
worship of their God.
They had not their temples, they had not
their Bibles, and they had been taken miles
and hundreds of miles away into a wicked
land of people that were immoral, people that
served these other gods of Baal.
Matter of fact, Nebuchadnezzar at this time, when
he first went there, was the king of
Babylon.
The Bible says that he had a wild,
crazy, spooky dream, and the dream scared him
so much, and he liked himself so much
that he erected a 90-foot golden statue
that looked just like himself.
Now, I've met some young ladies that were
vain enough to spend two or three hours
in front of the mirror, but I've never
met anybody that liked themselves so much that
they erected a 90-foot golden statue of
themselves.
And every person that was ever a king
of Babylon, you study history, they all fell
because of pride.
Nebuchadnezzar fell because of pride.
Darius fell because of pride.
Why?
Because this was such a great nation, if
you will.
I mean, although it was wicked, man, they
had the greatest military powers.
They had the greatest buildings, the greatest temples,
the greatest chariots.
They had everything.
They were an indestructible fortress, and that's where
Daniel is.
Now, later in the book, we're not going
to preach on him, but later in the
book, we also have three more friends of
Daniel that stood for God.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Meshach, Yershach, and Abednego.
Whatever you call them, they live for God.
And the Bible says that here was a
young man in the midst of apostasy, in
the midst of sin and wickedness and depravity
and degradation, in the midst of all of
this, he still stands and he is still
dynamic and has an explosive testimony for Jesus
Christ.
Now, as I travel in evangelism, I meet
two groups of young people.
There are two and only two.
Number one, there are those that I meet
who, like Daniel, are dynamic.
And then there's those that I meet all
too often, just about 95% of the
young people I meet, who I call not
dynamic but duds.
And we've got too many duds in America.
We've got too many duds in our Christian
colleges.
We've got too many duds in our Christian
schools and public schools.
We've got too many duds in our youth
groups.
And you can either be dynamic for God
or you can be a dud for God.
Now, the average young person is the average
Joe Blow, run of the mill, fly by
the seat of the britches, just go with
the grain, never swim upstream like the trout
do, never go against the grain, never go
against their friend, just follow everybody and just
go with the flow through life.
And that's the basic average lifestyle of the
average young man and the average young lady.
That is not how Daniel was.
Daniel went against the grain.
He didn't do it so people could look
at him and think that he was some
grand, great Christian.
He did it because he wanted to please
God.
Now, if in fact Daniel was dynamic, how
did he attain such a status?
How did he please God in his life?
Well, the same way you and I can.
Why don't you look at verse number 8?
I want to show you three things here,
and then one thing in Daniel chapter 6
in just a moment and we'll be through,
alright?
Daniel 1.8, the Bible says, But Daniel
purposed in his heart.
If you're taking notes or at least middle
notes right now, number one, Daniel was purposed.
Now, you know as a young person, it
does not say he was purposed in his
head.
This was not mere determination to serve God.
It said he was purposed in his heart.
This was more than determination.
This was devotion and dedication.
He was 100% sold out, lock, stock
and barrel.
Jesus Christ, Almighty God had his life, and
he was purposed.
He knew what he wanted in life.
He didn't go with the flow.
He didn't go with all the friends.
He didn't go with the crowd.
He didn't have to have the latest fads.
He wanted to please God.
More than anything else, he wanted to be
a 1 Corinthians 10, 31 Christian.
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever
ye do, do all to the glory of
God.
He had his head screwed on straight, for
lack of better terminology.
He wasn't interested in just fitting in and
going with everybody else.
He wanted, more than anything else, to be
so purposed, to be so dedicated and so
determined to serve God, that he denied himself
certain pleasures and certain things in life.
He took his responsibilities within the will of
God seriously, and he was a purposed young
man.
I suppose it's been about seven years ago,
I attended a graduation service for a Christian
high school at the University of Texas A
&M, outside of Houston, Texas, a little town
called Springfield, something like that.
I was attending there, and there were hundreds
of graduating seniors.
Now, if you know anything about a graduation,
one of two things is true.
Either, number one, if it is not yours,
or number two, somebody that you know very
well, or are closely related to, those things
can be boring as the day is long.
And so I am sitting here, and there's
a couple of hundred, I mean several hundred
graduates, they're going to be walking this platform,
and they have this guy, he gives his
little sermonance, you know, and then they have
these people get up and they pray, and
they have this little choir sing, and this
guy came up, you know, they called him
the Magna Cum Laude, and then they had
the Sum Cum Laude, I just graduated, thank
you the Lord, Amen.
And so they got up and they had
all this feeling, they had this, that, and
the other, took you a minute to catch
that, but I figured you'd catch up with
me, alright?
And so they had these people get up,
and they gave out their awards, and they
had these little ceremony times, and finally it
was time to give out their certificates, their
diplomas of graduation.
Well, they took these young people, they stood
them up in lines and in rows of
twelve.
They would have twelve come to the platform,
they would call them name by name, as
the twelfth one was going across, twelve more
would stand up, and so on and so
forth, twelve and twelve and twelve.
This thing was going to last several hours,
with everything they had on the program.
I'm reading through the program, I see this
name, and I'm thinking, man, they've got a
long ways to go, you know?
I was watching my cousin, Amy Davenport, graduate,
so she gets to graduate, and I think
to myself, okay, she's D's, now we got
all these other letters to go, and I
mean, with all these kids, certainly somebody's going
to have a name, all the way to
Z.
So I'm sitting there, I'm ready to get
a hamburger, I'm ready to leave, you know,
I'm ready to take a nap, but out
of respect, we had to stay and watch
everybody else.
Twelve went, twelve went, twelve went.
Same old rut and routine, I was born,
I was ready to go to sleep, I
was ready to get out of there, and
all of a sudden, something caught my attention.
There was a young man who was the
eleventh in line, in one of those little
lines that they were putting up in twelve,
and the reason I knew he was the
eleventh is because he was in a wheelchair,
and the twelfth young man was the one
who was designated to push him across the
platform.
And so they get up there, and they
call this young man's name in a wheelchair,
and they call the young man's name behind
him, who was pushing the wheelchair, called them
both at the same time, so this guy
in the wheelchair wouldn't be, you know, he
wouldn't be upset, wouldn't be put on the
spot, and so they pushed him across, they
were both going to receive their diploma at
the same time.
Now, it's very obvious, it is very obvious
that the young man that was pushing him
had no idea that he was fixing to
do this.
This guy calls both their names, he starts
wildly gagging, just real happy-go-lucky, you
know, we're graduating, whoopee-dee, you know, we're
walking across the platform, and this guy reaches
down, he had cerebral palsy, and they talked
about it, he reaches down with his hands,
and he puts the brakes on his wheelchair
in front of all these people, I mean
thousands of people in the stands here at
this basketball stadium, I mean thousands everywhere, and
this guy reaches down, all of a sudden,
man, I perk up real good, I think,
man, this might be pretty good, I'm going
to see a fight right here on the
platform, you know, this guy reaches down, he
puts the brakes on his wheelchair, and you
see these two guys dialoguing, talking back and
forth.
Now, obviously, you know, I was in the
cheap seats, no bleed section, way up there,
you know, real high, so way up in
the rafters, and so I couldn't hear what
was going on, but you could hear the
whispers carrying around through the great dome, you
could see this guy, he's doing this, and
all over, and his hands were moving this
way, this way, this guy's sitting in a
chair, he's not even looking at him, he's
just shaking his head like this, and finally,
the guy behind him throws up his hands,
leaves that guy sitting there in his wheelchair,
and walks across the platform, gets his diploma,
and goes down to the other side, and
I'm thinking to myself, this is going to
be good.
He leaves the guy sitting over in his
wheelchair.
I'm thinking, what's this guy going to do?
And all of a sudden, he put his
hands on the side of that wheelchair, and
he lifted his twisted, contorted, and most emaciated
body up out of that seat.
That guy's going to fall over.
He reached around this big old blue curtain,
and they had these great big huge blue
velvet curtains all over the ceiling, a great
old thing, 25, 30 feet high.
He reached around, and he pulled out a
set of crutches.
Now, it wasn't these little wooden crutches, you
know, that you want sympathy of when you
break your leg or something like that, and
you went about the scene, and you hop
around like an idiot.
I'm not talking about crutches like that.
I'm talking about the little steel ones, the
little metal ones, you hook them to your
arms, and they stabilize you as you walk,
and he put those things on, and he
started to walk, and he'd go this way,
and he'd trip a little bit, and he'd
go this way, and I guarantee you, I
know the platform was probably, it was a
little wider than this room, this auditorium that
we're in here at Rokey Lodge.
It was a rather large auditorium, or rather
large platform, rather.
And, you know, if I was to stand
at that wall and go to this wall,
it'd only take me a few seconds.
Man, some of you guys could run that
real fast.
Some of you young ladies could walk that
real fast.
It doesn't take us long at all, and
sometimes we take our health for granted.
I bet you it took this young man
eight minutes to get across point A to
point B.
I mean, he'd walk this way, and he'd
stumble back, and he'd catch himself and walk
this way, and stumble back and catch himself.
He'd walk, and you'd see him stop, and
he'd catch his balance.
He'd do his arms like this.
You know, you could tell he was in
a lot of pain, and his body was
all contorted.
I mean, he couldn't walk a bit.
Here he was on these crutches, and he
was walking this way.
He got across there, and they gave him
his diploma.
They shook his hand.
They hugged his neck.
He walked on the other side, walked all
the way down the exit ramp, that little
ramp for handicapped people, all by himself.
And by this time, the young man that
left him sitting there earlier, who I thought
just went back to his seat, he went
around the back of the platform, grabbed his
wheelchair, and had met him at the other
side.
And so here this young man gets out
of his seat, puts on the crutches, walks
all the way to his place to get
his diploma.
He gets it.
Has his hand shook.
Hugs his neck.
Everybody claps for just a few moments.
And he walks to the other end of
the platform, walks all the way down the
ramp by himself.
He hands his crutches to the other guy,
stumbling the whole way.
He sits down in the wheelchair, and the
other guy starts to push him back to
his seat.
The moment, the moment that young man hit
that wheelchair, I mean, when he sat down,
that place erupted like an active volcano.
I mean, them people stood up and started
shouting and hollering, and yelling.
I mean, their hands were just a-clapping.
I mean, I was a-crying, and people
around me was crying, and the tears were
flowing, and snot was flying all over the
place, and everybody was clapping this way.
And we stood up.
I bet you we clapped for five minutes.
I guarantee you the gospel truth.
We clapped and clapped and clapped until I
thought my fingers would fall off.
And we kept on clapping.
And I mean, people was blowing kazoos, and
hollering and yelling.
Them singers were going hog wild down there.
I mean, they were throwing their hats up
in the air.
I mean, this place erupted and went nuts.
And I thought to myself, there is a
young man that has purpose.
You know what?
I'm not preaching to a room full of
boys and girls or teenagers that have cerebral
palsy.
But it's going to take that same kind
of determination, that same kind of devotion, and
that same kind of purpose if you are
going to live for God in the day
and age in which we live.
You know what?
If you don't make a conscious effort to
live for God, you will not live for
God.
If you don't make a conscious effort to
read your Bible, you won't read your Bible.
If you don't make a conscious effort to
pray, you won't pray.
If you don't make a conscious effort to
witness to your friends, you won't witness to
your friends.
Because that stuff just doesn't come natural.
That's why the Bible says in Titus 2,
that when we have the grace of God
applied to our life, it says it teaches
us to deny ungodliness.
You have to be taught things that you
don't previously know.
And if you don't make a conscious effort,
I'm going to make up my mind.
I'm going to live for God.
I'm going to do what's right.
No wonder you don't do what's right.
No wonder you don't live for God.
No wonder you're cast along by the wayside
and you live a life that is icky
as a burnt out volcano.
You wake up every day, no peace, no
joy, no assurance, because you're not purposed.
You know what our problem is?
Well, we have a problem, and I know
it's just kind of wordology, if you will.
It's just kind of semantics.
I've been guilty to the next person.
I know a lot of youth pastors are
guilty of it, and I've heard a lot
of evangelists use it.
We've got a terminology that is plaguing modern
-day Christians.
You know what it is?
We get in the pulpit and we say,
we need rededication.
We need young people to rededicate, and rededicate,
and rededicate.
We freaks don't rededicate, and we don't even
know what rededicate means.
We do not need rededication.
We need total dedication.
We need some young people that would just
totally dedicate themselves to Almighty God, and quit
running off to the world, and quit running
off to what they want, and they're just
going to get purposed.
Get their heads screwed on straight, and say,
I don't care what my friends are going
to say, and if you've got the right
kind of friends, by the way, they'll rejoice
in your decision for Christ, and they don't
have to keep coming to the altar and
getting right with God.
Keep coming to the altar and getting right
with God.
No, they get right with God.
They stay on fire, and although they fall
back a little bit, and although sometimes they
get to the place where they're still cold
and lethargic, they remember that great divine commitment,
decision that they made for God, and they
go through life with purpose.
God uses people that are purposed.
People that have their heads screwed on straight.
People that want to please God.
People that want to glorify God.
And that's the way Daniel was.
He said, I don't care what my surroundings
are like.
It makes no difference what my family life
is like.
I have no pastor.
I have no youth pastor.
I have no good church to go to.
I have no good tapes to listen to.
I have no Bible to read.
But yet, he still stood strong.
Why?
Because he knew he wanted to please God.
He had some purpose, some determination, but more
than that, he had some devotion.
Now, go back in your Bible to verse
number 8, would you?
Not only was Daniel purposed, but there's something
else very interesting here that sometimes we overlook
if we're not careful.
It says, "...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," who, by the way, in a moment
we'll learn his name's Melzar, "...requested of the
prince of the eunuchs that he might not
defile himself."
Now, get it and get it good.
Number one, Daniel was purposed.
Number two, Daniel was polite.
Say, brother, how do you get that?
I'll remind you what the Bible says.
It says when he came to the prince
of the eunuchs, a man by the name
of Melzar, it says, "...therefore Daniel requested of
the prince of the eunuchs that he might
not defile himself."
Now, had he been the average Joe Blow
teenager of today, man, he'd have come walking
in them palace doors.
He'd have kicked them jokers open with his
Nike tennis shoes and come walking in there
and said, I'm going to tell you something
right now, bless God.
You don't know who my daddy is.
You don't know what my mama's done.
And I don't give a good door slip
what you say.
I'm not going to drink your wine.
I'm not going to eat your steak and
meat.
And if you don't like it, I could
give a good door slip.
And you know what?
That would chop his head off.
He didn't come in there rolling his eyes
and crossing his arms and begging and pleading,
hollering and yelling and saying, it's going to
be my way or the highway, my way
or no way.
They would have killed him and they would
not have honored him and God would not
have uplifted him had he been that way.
The Bible says, "...he requested of the prince
of the eunuchs."
He came in there, spoke the truth in
love.
I believe you can stand strong but still
be compassionate, still be kind and still be
nice.
And Daniel came in, realizing these people weren't
in authority over him, although they were wrong.
He came in, and the Bible says, instead
of kicking and screaming and being a hot
-headed, rebellious, teenage young man, he came in
simply requested and God honored him because he
had a good attitude and God honored him
because he was polite.
I'm going to tell you something that grieves
my spirit.
And if it grieves my spirit, I know
it grieves the Spirit of Almighty God.
I know it must grieve the Holy Spirit
of God.
It must break His heart as we preached
on this morning.
I'm going to tell you, it bothers me
that in modern day Christianity, among so-called
Christian young people, they do not know how
to treat authority.
They do not know how to talk to
their moms and dads.
And there used to be a day when
they'd say, yes ma'am, and no ma
'am.
Yes sir, and no sir.
But now when your parents talk to you,
it's yeah, and he, and ho, and nah.
It's like a bunch of retards that fell
off Mars two or three years ago.
And we don't know how to talk to
mom anymore.
And we don't know how to respect daddy
anymore.
And we don't respect the preachers.
And we don't respect our teachers.
And we don't respect people that are in
authority.
And you hear me, and hear me well.
If you're not a young person that is
polite, and that has some manners, and is
respectful, don't you ever expect Almighty God to
use you, because He's never used anybody with
a bad attitude.
You remember Jonah?
Jonah got a bad attitude.
He got all upset.
The Bible says he was exceeding mad.
The next day, the Bible says that God
sent him a gourd.
He went from being exceeding mad to exceeding
glad.
Then God used him again.
You see, God could not use Jonah in
that position when he was mad and upset
and had a bad attitude.
Just a little later in the Bible, we'll
see that Daniel had an excellent spirit.
The word spirit is basically the word attitude.
In your King James Bible, there is no
word attitude.
It's always translated the word spirit.
And here was a young man that was
polite.
Here was a young man that had his
head screwed on straight.
He respected authority.
He was a godly young man.
And we have the idea that you've got
to be a sissy if you're going to
respect mom and dad.
We have the idea that you've got to
be a rip, and you've got to be
some kind of little cantankerous sissy if you
do what mom and dad says.
Well, you can have any terminology.
You can have any idealistic view of anybody
you want to in your mind.
But the truth of the matter is, you
are commanded to obey your mom and dad.
You are commanded to obey those that are
in authority over you.
I quoted last night Ephesians 6, 1 and
2.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for
this is right.
Honor your father and mother, which is the
first commandment with promise, that it may be
well with thee, and thou mayest live long
upon the earth.
And everybody says, and all these evangelists say,
well, you know, the reason you obey mom
and dad is so you'll live long upon
the earth.
No, that's just a byproduct.
The Bible doesn't say you're going to obey
mom and dad so the result is you'll
live long upon the earth.
It says the reason you obey your parents
is because it's in the Lord and because
it is right.
And young person, it's real simple.
If you obey mom and dad, you are
right.
If you don't, you are wrong, and there's
no other way about it.
And when you get mad, and pop up
at the mouth, and muddle under your breath,
and roll your eyes, and close your arms,
and say, I'll live anyway I want to.
I can't wait till I'm 18.
I can't wait till I get out of
here.
What you are doing is digging your own
grave.
And I want to remind you, Almighty God
uses some very explicit language when He talks
about teenagers and their parents.
You read sometimes the book of Proverbs, and
the Bible says, a young man or a
young lady that is continually defiant to Almighty
God, the Bible says that the young ravens
will pick their eyes out.
Did you know in the Old Testament if
a young man or a young lady popped
off to mom and dad, they didn't get
a smack in the mouth.
They were stoned to death.
That's how respected in that day moms and
dads were.
And I'm going to tell you what, a
lot of you would be dead at 4
o'clock in the morning if we still
had that law.
A lot of you wouldn't even be at
this truth conference.
A lot of you wouldn't even be here.
I mean, probably just yesterday before you even
left, you popped off and got all mad.
Mom and dad said, do this, and you
decided to do that.
And I'm going to tell you, one day
it will be too late.
There'll be no more I love you's.
There'll be no more I'm sorry's.
And as I said last night, I learned
how much I loved and needed my mother
when she dropped me off at a children's
home and I didn't have her anymore.
And God used this young man because he
was purpose.
And God used this young man because he
was polite.
He simply requested.
He knew what he wanted, but he didn't
go about it as the average teenager would.
He wasn't rebellious and hot-headed and mean
and cantankerous and stamping and spitting like a
wild horse.
He didn't do that.
He had some basic old-fashioned manners about
him.
And you can call it old-fashioned if
you want to, but I think I'll stay
with the old-time way.
Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 6, verse 16, Ask
for the old paths, wherein is the good
way.
Now, this makes sense to me logically.
If God says ask for the old paths,
then there must be some new paths somewhere.
And too many teenagers are taking the new
path when God Almighty says you better take
the old path.
And he says, listen, the reason he was
dynamic is because he was purpose.
He knew what he wanted in life.
He was determined and devoted to serve God.
And he was polite.
But I want to show you something else
in your Bible, can I?
Look back at verse number 8 again.
It says, But Daniel purposed in his heart
that he would not defile himself with the
portion of the king's meat, nor with the
wine which he drank.
Number one, he was purposed.
Number two, he was polite.
Number three, Daniel was pure.
Daniel was a young man that had one
major objective in his life, and that was
to keep himself pure.
Somebody says, okay, Brother Greg, the reason Daniel
made such a stink over this issue, the
reason he wouldn't drink the wine, the reason
he wouldn't eat the meat, is so everybody
could look at him and say, hey, glory
to Bob, look how wonderful Daniel is.
Good giggly wiggly.
Isn't he the most wonderful Christian you've ever
seen?
Man, he reads his Bible.
All he does is pray.
And Daniel walked around with his hand on
his lapel all the time, had a Bible
tucked to his arm, great big old family
sized King James Bible.
And he walked around, look at me, Billy
Bible.
I'm the most spiritual person in all the
kingdom.
Well, that's not why he did that.
He didn't do it so people could see
him.
The Bible tells us the reason he rejected
the wine.
The Bible specifically and very plainly, very bluntly
tells us the reason he rejected the meat.
It says he did not want to defile
himself.
You see, he knew in Exodus 20, God
said, thou shalt have no other gods before
me.
And thou shalt not make it to be
any graven images, says Almighty God.
And he knew that meat had been offered
unto idols.
He knew that meat had been served and
offered up to other gods.
He knew that wine, Proverbs 20, verse 1,
wine is an offer.
Strong drink is raising.
That went against his Christian convictions.
It went against his convictions to do those
things.
And he said, listen, I can't do that.
He said, I don't want to defile myself.
Daniel was a young man that wanted to
keep every avenue, every alleyway, and every part
and parcel of his life pure.
And that ought to be one of your
main objectives as a young lady and as
a young man.
You ought to want to keep yourself pure.
You ought to want to keep your thought
life pure.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10, verse
5, casting down.
The word casting down literally means to throw
away or to lock in a box.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
And bring into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ.
You young men better be careful.
You can look just as spiritual as you
want to on the outside, but if you
lay in bed at night and you think
about wicked, foul, fornicating thoughts and you think
about things that are undoddly, or young lady,
you think about the opposite sex in a
way that you should not, you better be
real careful because the more you think, the
more you think, the flesh will begin to
justify it and the flesh will begin to
give you opportunities and ways.
You know, it's not wrong to be tempted.
But I'm going to tell you something.
When you get tempted, the devil's going to
make sure Mr. Opportunity comes around the door.
And if temptation and opportunity ever meet, friend,
you're in big, bad trouble.
You better be careful what you think about
because one day your thoughts will become actions.
But you should want to keep your eyes
peeled.
David said in Psalm 101, verse number 3,
I will set no, not a, not one,
I will set no wicked thing before mine
eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn
aside, it shall not cleave unto me.
You ought to be careful what you're looking
at.
You ought to be careful the videos that
you watch and the videos that you rent
and the things that you watch up on
the television.
And if you feel your heart and mind
with MTV and all that Hollywood and all
that smut and mess and David Lettermouth and
Orpah Windbag and all them soap operas and
the rest of that junk, no wonder we're
not pure.
No wonder we're living in a day and
age when people have no regard for God
and no regard for the Bible and sexual
promiscuity is running everywhere because of what people
are watching.
Be careful.
Hey, don't you tell me what you watch
and what you listen to doesn't affect you.
If you believe that, why don't you talk
to the parents of Cassie Burnell?
That young lady that had her head blown
off.
O'Sullivan said, watch that wicked Val Keanu Reeves
movie by the name of The Matrix.
Some of you probably saw it.
And then probably they listened to that Marilyn
Manson, that wicked guy right straight out of
the pits of hell who said he doesn't
believe in the Bible, urinates from the Bible
in his concert.
And if you listen to that stuff, you've
never been saved by the grace of God.
I promise you that right now.
And they said that they listened to that
and they watched that and they took that
gun and stuck it in that girl's head
and they said, do you believe in God?
And unreservedly she said, yes!
And they blew her head off.
Don't you tell me what you watch and
what you listen to doesn't affect you.
Ephesians 5, 18 and 19.
And be not drunk with wine.
Wherein is excess, but be filled with the
Spirit.
Speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and
spiritual songs.
Singing and making melody in your hearts and
to the Lord.
And things that young people look at.
And things that young people listen to.
And things that young people wear and think
about.
Always affect their actions.
Always, always, always.
Now it could be for the good, but
most of the time it is for the
bad.
You know, I'm not going to step on
a whole lot of toes, but if I
do it doesn't make a whole lot of
difference to me.
It don't make any difference to me if
you shout or pout when I preach.
I'm going to tell you something.
There are some things that are going across
America, even in many of our youth groups,
that are ruining the morals of young men
and young ladies.
You know who young ladies are all messed
up on nowadays?
Britney Spears!
You say, but Brother Locke, didn't you grow
up to know Britney Spears?
She used to be a Mouseketeer.
She's not a Mouseketeer anymore, friend.
She's a whore.
And I'm going to tell you something.
You watch her get up on TV.
She gets in her little mini skirt.
Don't she hops around.
She can hardly move.
And she gets up there and moves her
body in such a way.
I'm going to tell you why she dresses
that way.
Because she knows you watch her, young lady.
And you listen to her.
And you dress like she does.
So the young men will look at you
and their tongues will drop out of their
mouths.
And they'll think, what's the wicked mouth that
talks about you?
No wonder America's so wicked.
Guys, listen to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilar
and the rest of that mess.
And we even got this Christian contemporary music
business.
And they're trying to look just like them
and act just like them and dress just
like them.
And I'll tell you what.
I get up and preach in Christian schools.
And I say stuff about that.
And it's almost like you go to a
doctor when he gives you a shot, you
know.
And sometimes he hits the wrong place.
Sometimes he hits the bone.
And he gets a nerve.
I was preaching this in a Christian school
not too long ago.
Up in Kensington, North Carolina, somewhere like that,
Belford Christian School.
And I preached this.
And I said something about Britney Spears.
And I'm going to tell you, that place
erupted.
And they started talking while I was preaching
for about the next 15 or 20 seconds.
And I stopped right there.
And I said, you know what?
I said, I feel like I've been to
a doctor.
I said, I think I just hit a
nerve.
I said, have you ever been to a
doctor and they hit the wrong place?
And I don't mean to tell you what
the truth.
It just kind of gives you this shake
like this.
But when I was up there preaching for
him, I'm going to tell you what.
I felt like I hit a nerve.
And I had the shake for sure.
And I was up there just to preach
it.
And I mean, I'm telling you what the
truth.
I mean, these people was looking at me,
staring daggers through me.
And I'm going to tell you what.
We can laugh.
We can amen.
We can pout, shout.
We can get mad.
But it's ruining the morals of young people
in America.
And I'm telling you, somebody ought to stand
up and say something about it.
I'm thinking you ought to be pure.
You ought to want to keep your body
pure.
Want to keep yourself pure.
I'm going to tell you something.
I'm only 24 years old.
So I do not remember this day that
I'm fixing to tell you about.
I do not remember when there was a
day in my lifetime, although they tell me
there was.
And I have wonderful reasons to believe them.
But there was a day in America.
There was a day in Wisconsin, in Minnesota,
in Tennessee.
There was a day all over this nation
and really all over this world, but especially
in America.
When if you were pure, as a young
lady and as a young man, if you
kept yourself clean and you kept yourself right,
and you didn't mess around and fool around
with the opposite sex, and you saved yourself
to that one that God has for you
in His sovereign plan, there was a day
that you were looked upon and respected and
you were honored.
But it's not that way anymore.
Now they call you a cooch.
Oh, they say, I'll tell you what, if
you get married and you're a virgin, you
just hadn't lived.
I'm going to tell you something right now,
young person.
You hear me and you hear me well.
Almighty God has always commanded that we abstain
from fornication.
He has always commanded that we live lives
of purity and chastity and righteousness and virginity.
He's always commanded it.
I don't care what Bill Clinton says.
I don't care what Liberal Al Gore says.
I don't care what the rest of the
world says.
I don't care what Jerry Falwell says about
sodomites.
I'm telling you, there are certain principles in
the Word of God that if we break
them, we bring upon ourselves the judgment of
God.
And I'm telling you, even in our Baptist
youth groups, we have young people that mess
around and that turn around and they think
it won't happen to me, but you take
fire to your bosom and you will get
burned, Solomon said.
Young person, you better keep yourself pure.
Every avenue of your life, you better keep
yourself pure.
I had a young man send me a
letter not long ago.
I'll not give you his name.
I'll call him Kevin.
That wasn't it, but...
Let's say Kevin sent me a letter.
I guess it's probably been now.
I don't know.
It's probably been about five or six months
ago.
Kevin's 19 years old.
He's heard me preach many, many different times.
He got in some trouble and he ended
up marrying this girl and I thought it
was honorable of him to at least marry
the girl.
Come to find out after they got married,
he found out that she had been married
about six or seven other times.
She's basically a harlot.
And so he marries this girl, 19 years
old.
He writes me a letter.
He's already been through a divorce.
She had a couple of kids, so he
lost them.
He'd gone through some mental wars, you know,
the padded party room, the hotel.
I mean, just put him on all kind
of Prozac, uppers and downers, and just about
everything you can imagine.
He writes me a letter and sends me
a check for $500.
Teenager.
Sends me a love offering check for 500
bucks.
Thanked me for my preaching.
Thanked me for my prayers.
And for every now and then, I was
able to support his family and do some
things like that.
So he writes me and here's what he
says.
He says, Brother Locke, would you tell young
people all over this country, I thought...
I thought I was the exception to the
rule.
You'll be wrong too.
I grew up in a fundamental, Bible-believing,
Baptist children's home for four years of my
life.
There are people that lived in that children's
home years before I got there.
They had the same devotion, the same preachers,
the same Christian schools.
They had everything, the same opportunities that this
preacher this afternoon had.
And some of their lives are wasted because
they thought they could mess around, because they
thought they could get away with it.
And they thought, well, nobody knows.
Maybe they don't, but God knows.
And that's what matters.
And Numbers 23, 33 says, You better be
sure your sin will find you out.
You won't be the exception to the rule.
And what you think right now is a
secret one day will be common knowledge to
everybody.
Daniel wanted to keep himself pure.
He wanted to hang around people that helped
him be pure.
You know, the Bible says in Amos 3,
3, Can two walk together except they be
agreed?
I've preached five times in Mexico.
They taught me a little phrase, No way,
Jose.
You know what?
You can't run with the wrong crowd and
turn out right.
Hey, that prodigal son, man, when he had
money, when he had drugs, when he had
booze, he had friends.
But when all the money and the drugs
and the booze were gone, guess what?
His friends were gone.
He found himself a little Jewish boy.
When he was supposed to be feeding pigs,
or when he was supposed to be around
pigs, and he's feeding pigs, eating what the
pigs eat, sleeping where the pigs sleep, and
finally he realized what a blooming fool he
had been.
All those friends that he was with, I
call it the great desertion.
Everybody deserted him.
You know what?
Because he had the wrong kind of friends.
Oh, every relationship you have, everything in your
life, young person, you ought to want to
guard yourself.
You ought to want to guard your testimony.
You ought to want to guard your heart.
The devil's doing everything he can to destroy
you and to suck you in with all
of his lies and all of his problems.
He just wants to destroy you.
The Bible says the thief cometh not but
to kill and to steal and to destroy.
He wants to kill your testimony.
He wants to steal your purity.
And he wants to destroy everything that God
has done for you.
And he's doing a real good job.
But you know what the problem is?
We're opening up the doors and letting him
do it.
Young person, keep yourself pure.
Keep your mind pure.
That's why God used Daniel in such a
way.
Now, think about something.
Okay, brother Lott, let's recap.
Daniel was perfect.
Well, that's one.
Daniel was polite.
Oh, that's wonderful.
I want to be that way, too.
Daniel was pure.
That's great.
But how did he do that?
How did Daniel, as a 16-year-old
teenager, how did he attain such a spiritual
status?
How was he used so mightily of Almighty
God?
Well, I'm glad you asked that question.
You turn to chapter 6, and I'll show
you the answer to that, and we'll be
through.
How was Daniel so dynamic?
What made him purpose?
What made him polite?
What made him pure?
Well, I believe the answer is found in
Daniel chapter 6.
And when you go there, I want you
to look with your eyes at verse number
10, would you?
Daniel chapter 6 and verse number 10.
The Bible says, Now when Daniel knew that
the writing was signed, he went into his
house, and his windows being opened in his
chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees
three times a day, and prayed and gave
thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.
He was purpose.
He was polite.
He was pure.
Why?
Because fourthly and lastly, Daniel was prayerful.
Daniel knew what it meant to spend time
with God and fellowship with God on a
daily basis.
Now, I want you to follow me just
for a moment, all right, a little Sunday
School lesson.
The book of Daniel is the inspired Word
of God.
Why God saw fit to write it this
way, I'm not sure.
I won't dictate what God did.
I'll just read what God dictated for me,
all right?
But the book of Daniel is not written
in chronological order.
What I mean by that is it does
not go from A to B.
You might find somebody in chapter 3, then
not see him again till chapter 8.
You might see somebody in chapter 1, then
not read about him again till chapter 4
or 5.
The reason I say that, because I don't
want you to be confused about what I'm
about to tell you.
In Daniel chapter 1, Daniel was 16.
Five short chapters later in Daniel chapter 6,
Daniel is 85.
So many, many, many years have passed.
All of this time frame has passed, but
yet Daniel is still polite.
He is still pure.
He is still perfect.
How did he attain that?
Because Daniel knew from a teenager, even from
a kid, he knew from a teenager to
an adult, to a middle-aged person, to
an older person, he knew the ability and
the great quality of spending time with God
on a regular basis.
Here's the context of Daniel chapter 6.
The Bible says, and for time's sake, we
don't have time to deal with all of
it, that Daniel was preferred above three other
groups of presidents or captains, some governors and
some princes.
And those fellows got a little bit hot
and trot about that, and they said, hey,
wait a minute.
We're not going to let Daniel get all
the prestige.
We're not going to let him be the
one that's in charge.
And so let's find something wrong with his
life.
Let's find something impeachable, if you will.
Let's find something that would cause the king
to want to kick him out of the
kingdom and fire him from his little presidential
providential job.
And so they scrutinized the life of Daniel.
And young person, the Bible does not tell
us how long they did this.
But they followed Daniel.
They looked at his viewing habits.
They looked at where he went, who he
talked to.
They looked at the things that he did.
They looked at the clothes that he wore.
They were looking for something.
I mean, the most insignificant thing.
They just wanted to find something small.
They wanted to get Daniel so bad, they
wanted his position.
And so they searched and they scrutinized.
They brought up the FBI and the DEA
and all the sheriff's patrol there in Babylon.
And I mean, they scrutinized his life, and
they couldn't come up with anything.
So they said to themselves, all right, the
only thing we're going to get him with
is against his God.
You know what they came up with?
He just loves God too much, and he
prays too much.
So they went to the proud, haughty King
Darius, and they said, Mr. King, we want
you to make an decree that for 30
days, no man, woman, boy, or girl can
pray in the name of any other god
or any other deity except for your name.
He was a proud, haughty guy.
He thought that was a good idea.
He took his kingly ring.
He dipped it in the kingly wax.
He signed the kingly paper.
It was a kingly law.
The law's amazing, virgins with the altar of
not.
30 days, nobody can pray in any name
except for the name of the great King
God, Darius.
You can't pray in the name of Jehovah,
any other god.
No matter what you worship, you have to
pray in the name of Darius.
And the Bible says in verse number 10,
Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was
signed.
Now, you believe what you want to, but
the reason I think he knew it was
signed is because he was the president.
He was probably standing there when they signed
it.
The Bible says that he went back.
He opened up his windows towards Jerusalem, not
out of belligerence, not out of just being
rebellious.
We'll see that in just a moment.
He opened his windows towards Jerusalem, as they
did the Old Testament custom, praying to the
great city of God.
He got on his knees, morning, noon, and
night, and prayed and gave thanks before his
God as he did aforetime.
He prayed before they made the law.
He prayed while they were making the law.
And he prayed long after the law was
given.
He was prayerful.
He knew what it meant to spend time
with God on a daily basis.
You know, we've swallowed the lie of the
devil that teenagers cannot fellowship with God.
You study your Bible.
If you were just to have the 39
books of the Old Testament, thank God for
the 27 of the Bible.
But if you just had Genesis to Malachi
or Genesis to Malachi if you're Italian this
afternoon, if you just had the 39 books
of your Old Testament Bible, did you know,
hey, I found 25.
You may find more.
But I have found 25 young men and
young ladies in 39 books under the age
of 20 that God used in a miraculous
way to turn nations back to Himself.
One of them was named Josiah.
You know how old he was?
Eight.
And the Bible says from the beginning of
his reign to the end of his reign,
he was in his thirties when he stepped
off the throne, the Bible says he did
that which was right in the sight of
God according to all his father David had
done.
From eight years old to thirty-something years
old, he lived right.
That means all through his teenage years, he
pleased God and done what was right.
Isaiah lived for God.
Jeremiah lived for God.
Hezekiah lived for God.
Joseph lived for God.
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.
All of these people continually living for God,
doing what God wanted them to do under
the age of 20.
You can fellowship with God.
You can have the power of God.
We think that the power of God belongs
to the preacher.
We think the power of God belongs to
the evangelist or the camp director.
It has nothing further from the truth.
The power of God and the filling of
the Spirit can be to somebody in a
nursery worker.
It can be to a Sunday school teacher.
It can be to a light bulb changer,
somebody that cleans porcelain toilets.
It is available for teenagers.
But you've got to avail yourself and say,
Dear God, can you use me?
Dear God, can I be a Daniel?
Can I be somebody that is dynamic?
Did you know that Daniel and Joseph are
the only two people in your Bible that
no moral flaw is given against their character?
Now that does not mean they were sinless.
It meant that they were mature.
Oh, God, I'm sure, could have recorded some
things, but Joseph and Daniel are the only
two in your Bible that have no moral
flaw against their character.
Here is Joseph.
He's living in the land of Potiphar over
in Egypt.
And Potiphar's wife comes by one day.
And by the way, fellas, I'm sure she
wasn't a dog, okay?
She was Potiphar's wife.
She was probably a pretty hot-looking babe,
okay?
So she comes walking in there.
She gets to batten her eyelashes.
And she said, Joseph, lie with me.
Basically, she said, I want you to go
to bed with me.
Commit adultery and fornication.
He said, I can't do that.
Genesis 39.9 How can I do this
great wickedness and sin against God?
He didn't say, I'll get a venereal disease.
He didn't say, I'll bust up your marriage.
He didn't say, I'll lose my job or
lose my head.
He said, I'm not going to do this
because it will offend my God.
She must have said something like, well, that
sure is a handsome coat you got on.
He said, good, you can have it because
the Bible says he left his coat in
her hand and he hot-footed it out
of there.
He still went to jail, but he kept
himself pure.
He kept himself right.
And these people knew that if they were
going to be used by God, they had
to fellowship with God.
I was preaching last year in the state
of North Carolina.
Probably North Carolina and Tennessee are the two
states that I preach more than any other
state in the United States.
And I preached in a lot of Christian
schools.
And I was in a larger Christian school.
And they had this platform.
And this joker was raised way up.
The platform was probably just about as high
as this little fire area here, okay?
So, I'm standing way up.
I could see all the people that were
listening, about 400 teenagers.
I could see all those that weren't.
I could see those that were writing notes
and those that were passing notes.
I could see those that were talking and
those that were not talking.
And so, I'm preaching.
And I'm preaching the message that day, last
year, that I'm preaching to you right now.
But obviously, it didn't have this illustration in
it because I gained it and added it
to my message that day.
I was preaching.
I read my text, had them sit down.
From the moment they sat down, when I
said amen and started in on the message,
when I got in and just jumped in
there both feet, both guns ablaze, and I
started to preach it, there was a young
man sitting on the front row whose eyeballs
were bigger round than spare tires or Jimmy
Dean sausage tapes.
And I mean, he was looking at me.
And his eyeballs were glued in right on
me.
He was kind of one of these chubby
guys.
He was about four by four or five
by five, something like that.
He was about as tall as he was
wide type of deal.
And so, here's this guy sitting here.
He's got these rosy little cheeks on the
front row.
Now, I'm kind of one of these guys.
And don't ask me to do this.
Sometimes, I'll give this illustration.
Somebody say, hey, can you guess my name?
But I'm kind of one of these guys.
Sometimes, I can look at you for a
moment.
I can look at your actions and I
can kind of get kind of close to
your name.
So, I was thinking in my mind, this
guy looks like an Elroy, huh?
This guy looks like a Leroy.
He looks like somebody that's dealing in front
of a dog food bag, you know, something
like that, you know, some kind of cute
dude.
And so, I'm thinking this guy's an Elroy,
this guy's a Leroy, something like that, you
know.
And so, I'm up there preaching.
And this guy's watching me.
I go this way, he goes that way.
I mean, he just glued in on me.
I started getting a conflict, you know.
I'm thinking something's hanging out of my nose,
you know.
I'm turning around making sure everything's all right.
I'm wondering what in the world this guy's
going to do.
I'm thinking Columbine all over again.
You know, he's got a great big 357
inside his coat.
He's going to blow me away when I
get through.
I mean, this guy's just watching me like
a hawk.
I mean, I'm over here preaching.
I'm trying to get away from the guy.
His eyeball's just beating right on me.
He's just looking at me like this, you
know.
I'm preaching.
I mean, he just thought.
He never looked down.
He never took a stitch and oath.
He never looked at his Bible.
I don't think the boy ever bleeds.
I mean, he's just looking at me like
this.
I had to stop.
So, I'm getting a conflict.
I'm getting kind of nervous.
I give the invitation.
I was glad the service was over.
I was ready to leave by this time.
I give the invitation.
Man, he's the first one to hit the
altar.
Man, he jumps on the altar.
Oh, he came over just to cry and
just to weep.
I didn't say anything about it.
I said, if you need any help this
morning at the altar, I said, raise your
hand.
Somebody will be glad to pray with you.
I'll pray with you.
One of the preachers prayed with you.
He didn't raise his hand.
He just cried and prayed a little while.
Got back up in his seat.
They came.
They led in a song.
Did a little offering, something like that.
And we started to leave.
I was walking out.
I was talking to the administrator about coming
back the next year.
And I was talking to the pastor who
I was with across town.
And so, we were talking this, that, and
the other.
And he ever walked in a room or
maybe walked out of a room and somebody
turned on a television and you weren't in
the room that the television came on in
but you could feel the television come on.
That's a weird feeling, okay?
Have you ever had somebody come up behind
you and tap you and you immediately knew
who it was?
Now, my mom used to tell me when
I was a kid, Dr. Hickey, I got
eyes in the back of my head.
Now, people don't have eyes in the back
of their head.
But it was one of those times when
I thought I did.
Immediately, I felt somebody tug on me like
this and I thought to myself, Leroy.
Leroy!
I thought I'm going to turn around and
I'm going to be facing a big old
long 357 Magnum.
It's going to blow my head off right
here.
And I'm just talking to myself and I'm
kind of nervous, you know.
I feel this little tug.
I say, okay.
This is it.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Come right now, would you please.
And so I turn around.
No gun.
Just a little fat chubby guy standing there
with his Bible in his hand.
Great big tears dripping down his face.
His name wasn't Leroy.
His name was John.
I was relieved of that.
Amen.
His eyes had not swollen so much now
where they were kind of down a little
bit.
And I'll never forget what he said.
I'll never forget it in a million years.
He put his hand in mine.
He said, brother Leroy.
He said, do you mean to tell me.
Now, his friends were standing around.
He didn't care.
Fine.
Fifteen years old.
He said, do you mean to tell me
that as a fifteen year old teenager.
I can have the power of God and
I can fellowship with God on a daily
basis.
Man, a great big smile came across my
face and I wasn't so nervous anymore.
And I said, John.
You better believe you can fellowship with God
and God is interested in you.
And here was a fifteen year old teenager
who was so excited that for the first
time in his young Christian walk, he realized
the God of heaven is interested in me.
Not just in saving me, cleansing me of
sin and taking me to heaven.
He wants to speak to me through the
Bible.
He wants me to get on my face
and knees and give him all of my
needs and wants and wishes and desires.
And here was a fifteen year old teenager
that was excited that the power of God
and the abilities of the Spirit of God
were available to him as a teenager.
And man, he walked away with the joy
bells of God ringing in his soul and
I walked away with the joy bells of
God ringing in my heart because I finally
found a teenager that got the message.
You can fellowship with God.
And if you don't, you will not be
perfect.
You will not be polite.
And by no means, mister or ma'am,
will you ever be pure.
You need the power of God.
So you got one choice and one choice
only.
You can be as Daniel was, dynamic.
Or you can be as most people are,
a dud.
But there is no in between.