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Newington Three Angels Church

Go and Do: New England Conference Youth Week of Prayer

Eric Walsh

01 Finding God in a Godless Society

02 Lifestyle of Faith

04 Test of Purity

03 Prophecy and Purpose

05 Overdosed

06 Playing with Darkness

07 Time Crunch

Lot to talk about tonight and tomorrow night's messages are connected.

So I wanna make sure I finish this part so we can get to tomorrow's part on time.

If you have your Bibles, turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 2, verse 19 and 20, is where we're gonna start with our scripture reading, and then we're gonna go to the book of Daniel.

So James chapter 2, 19 and 20, reads like this.

Thou believest that there is 1 God, thou doest well.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead.

Our message tonight is Lifestyle of faith.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word, your truth, and even these complex times in which we live.

Once again, Lord, I just ask you, make me a nail on the wall, A rusty, sorry nail, Lord, but upon that nail I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Let me not be seen or heard tonight, Father.

Instead, Lord, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so we're gonna go to the book of Daniel, the sixth chapter, Daniel chapter 6.

We're gonna start tonight, finish this story tomorrow night.

There is just so much in the book of Daniel that we are going to hit.

So last night we talked about finding God in a godless society.

Tomorrow night we're gonna deal with prophecy and the importance of prophecy even for young people.

And so we land in the book of Daniel and you'll see as we go through this that We are going to start going deeper and deeper into God's word and into some serious concepts and ideas.

Daniel 6 in verse 1 says, It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom.

And over these 3 presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage." This story of Daniel is a story of consistent faithfulness.

We often probably overlook how unlikely it would be for Daniel to start out as a child, just a boy, taken in captivity to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.

The influence of 1 Christian young person causes the conversion of the mightiest man in the world, Nebuchadnezzar.

2 generations later, when Nebuchadnezzar's grandson is on the throne, Daniel explains to him in a banquet hall 1 night, after an invisible hand writes on the plaster, meaning Tikalu Farsan, that in fact his kingdom would be taken.

And Daniel is there when the Medo-Persian Empire comes in and takes Babylon over.

It is highly unlikely, if you just think about it for a second, that the conqueror would keep any of the dignitaries of the previous empire.

That would really make no sense whatsoever.

Daniel was such a man of character, of goodwill, that anybody who spent just a few moments with him saw his value.

And not only does he survive it, he thrives.

Here now he is president, first president of 3 presidents who rule over the princes so that the king, Darius, receives no damage.

It is a powerful, powerful testament that when you serve God, God can put you in the right place.

Verse 3, then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him.

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

Daniel became the favored, and the king wanted to put him even in a higher position.

Daniel 6 and verse 4 says, Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.

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

They sat and began to plot, how can we get Daniel?

They were jealous, they drank the haterade, they wanted Daniel out.

But when they went to find a way to trip him up, even his enemies came to the conclusion that there was no fault in him.

When he had Jesus standing next to him on 1 side and Barabbas on the other, he turned to the Sanhedrin who were accusing Jesus and said, I find no fault in him.

Here, Daniel, they can find no fault, no reason, no error, no sin, nothing that they could bring blame against Daniel.

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 could find nothing to get, you know, it's funny, because I wonder how many of us, if they were trying to find a reason to get us out, could find a reason against us.

They realized that the only way you could trip Daniel up is to come between him and his God.

And I want to ask a question to set up not just tonight's talk, but tomorrow night's talk.

Are we living in a time, young people, where laws could be passed that would make us have to choose between serving God and serving man.

We won't answer this question completely tonight.

We're gonna deal with it tomorrow night, but before we get deeper into this story for tonight, let me read you what the Great Controversy, page 605 says.

The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted.

When the final test shall be brought to bear unto men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve him not.

While the observance of the false Sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator.

While 1 class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, received the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, received the seal of God.

That's from the great controversy, page 605.

Let me say something to you young people.

Tonight and tomorrow night, we're gonna deal with some of the things that influence our minds.

What I wanna submit to you is that you do not 1 day get stamped with the mark of the beast or the seal of God out of happenstance.

Right now, the spirit of prophecy tells us, we are preparing for 1 of 2 marks.

Today, what we watch and listen to, with how we communicate with our friends, we are preparing our minds to receive 1 of 2 marks, either a mark of the beast or the seal of the living God.

And we're gonna get deeper into this, but I wanna submit to you that our very minds, the frontal lobe of our minds, is where this will happen.

And beginning tonight and continuing through the week, we will talk about how the devil seeks to manipulate the mind so that we are unfit for God's seal.

Daniel 6 in verse 6 says, "'Then these presidents and princes "'assembled together to the king and said unto him, "'King Darius, live forever.

"'All the presidents of the kingdom, "'the governors and the princes, "'the counselors and the captains, "'have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for 30 days, save of thee, O King, he shall be cast into the den of lions." They went back and they began to strategize.

Somebody said, no, Daniel, Daniel's an honest man.

He'll actually give you extra change if he thinks there's a question.

And so maybe we'll get Daniel because he, we can get him to lie, to defend his honor.

They said, well, we gotta come up with something.

They said, well, he will always put his God first.

If we can convince the king to put together a decree that says that anyone who asks of anything but the king, anything from any god or man, except they ask it of the king, that they have to be tossed into the den of lions.

The king's, you know, this'll feed his ego.

He'll like this, it at least seems harmless.

Daniel 6 and verse 8, it says, Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.

This law, when the Medes and Persians, when they made a law and their leaders signed it, you could not go back and change it.

America, we're fortunate to have a system where the Supreme Court can go back and look at a law and decide that it isn't right, even if the precedence was set by the Supreme Court, like the Dred Scott decision.

They were able to go back and change that, which was a bad law.

But now, in this time, Daniel doesn't have that advantage.

If Darius decides to sign the law, it's fixed forever.

Series

Go and Do: New England Conference Youth Week of Prayer

02 Lifestyle of Faith

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Finding Peace in the Time of Chaos

03 Digital Rooftops

1h 7m

Bible Weekend

02 Answering False Doctrines

43m

Prophetic Faith

Prophetic Faith in Daniel- Part 2

1h 10m

Eric Walsh Weekend

Seducing the Remnant: Satan’s Not So Secret Weapon of Sexual Sin

58m

Prophetic Faith

Prophetic Faith in Revelation- Part 2

1h 13m

Unlock Revelation

5. Revelation’s Global Peace Plan

1h

Prophecies of Hope

05 The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God

1h 3m

The Wheel of Faith

6. Bare Naked

59m

The Excellency of Angels

Mediocrity, Genesis & the Talents

57m

The Day of Atonement

03 When You Don’t Understand

1h 4m

Jesus Friend of My Wounded Heart

Sexual Purity and Prophecy

1h 15m

Unsealing Daniel's Mysteries

Daniel 8

59m

Sound Doctrine