Say what a joy it's been to be with you these days.
Appreciate so very much the invitation to be here.
Appreciate your pastor, appreciate your faithfulness,
appreciate this church, appreciate your stand starting
to see what God is doing. Thank you for the hospitalities.
Williams. Thank you so much.
We love staying with you guys over there.
Amen. What a blessing.
Everything's always first class. Appreciate all the meals and
fellowship and the, and the history tours and everything,
Amen, Amen. Thank you, brother, Brother
Lewis for that tremendous message just now.
I sit there as I, as I listen to you preach.
And of course we talked earlier today about what we might be
preaching on. I told you at the house, God was
changing my message. I had no idea how together the
God was going to put these two thoughts and suffering.
What a tremendous part of the Christian life, Amen.
We get uncomfortable when they're suffering, but God has a
reason and it has a purpose for it.
And I wouldn't be where I'm at tonight if it had not been for
difficult times. I'm talking tragedies,
heartbreak, things that are life altering, things that make you
make you sit down and weep and crawl on the floor and beg God
for help and strength. Those are the times when God
really, really draws you closer to Him.
So hey, when, when, when you're going through those times, Amen.
Just just cherish it. It will pass, but you'll be a
better person. You'll be a better Christian as
a result of it, I can promise you that.
Daniel chapter 1. There's a thought in this
chapter that has been on my heart for a while, and I'm just
asking God if He would help me to be able to convey it.
And I really want to challenge the church.
It's not just the young people, but every person in this church,
including the preachers. Amen.
And so when you find your place, stand with me, please.
Daniel chapter #1 The Bible says in verse #5 The king appointed
them a daily provision of the King's meat, and of the wine
which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the
end thereof they might stand before the king.
The Bible says in verse 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart
that he would not defile himself with a portion of the King's
meat, nor with the wine which he drank.
Therefore he requested of the Prince of the eunuchs, that he
might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into
favor and tender love with the Princess of the eunuchs.
And the Prince of the eunuch said unto Daniel, I fear, my
Lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your
drink, For why should he see your faces worse liking than the
children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me in
danger, my head to the king. I want to preach tonight on this
thought. Refusing to conform with
compromisers, refusing to conform with compromises.
Lord, I pray that you'd take the message.
I pray that you'd work in hearts.
Lord, I sense a a more serious and more sober spirit in the
service tonight. Lord, I know that many times
when it's quiet and when folks are still, or that the Holy
Spirit of God is speaking and working and moving.
And Lord, I pray that you would continue what you've already
started in our hearts from the previous message.
I pray that you'd put it all together for your honor.
Glory is our prayer in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you for standing. You can be seated as I read this
story. This is a very familiar passage
of Scripture. If you've been in church any
length of time, you've you know the story, you've heard it,
you've read it, you've heard it preached anybody that's been a
preacher for any length of time was preached from this chapter.
There's just so many applicable truths and and and things that
we could glean from. But I want to tonight, if I can
just ask God, maybe get it, make it fresh and see something of
fresh that would help you in these days to take a stand.
Before I get into the introduction, I just want to say
that we are living in a day of great compromise.
If you if you do not see that, then you are, then you've got
your head in the sand. I mean, it's a it's appalling.
And we've been together this week, talking as preachers
amongst ourselves, talking about this, this accelerated decline
and demise. Of of of truth and seeing
churches that stood for what was right.
Many of them for years, decades, even preachers that have
preached all over the country conferences and revivals and and
God has given them a tremendous platform, great amount of
influence and many of them influenced our lives.
Many of them sowed into our lives.
Many of them were used by God years ago to inspire us and
encourage us and challenge us. And, and men that I looked up
to, I look, I look now and I'm seeing that they have changed.
They have, they have radically altered from the path that they
once preached on and stood on. And, and it's heartbreaking.
And, and I mean, I'm an older man and I'm, I'm secure in, in
my position and, and I don't need validation from other
people, but I, I know what it does to my heart.
I know what it does to my mind to see that I cannot begin to
imagine what effect it might have on a weaker Christian or a
newer convert or even young people as they look and they see
your pastor preaches one way and stands this way and stands on
these things. And you look over here at this
guy that's got this great ministry, the a bigger church,
maybe bigger, bigger platform. And, and, and he's saying
something that doesn't, that doesn't match.
And, and I'm sure there has to be at some point, there has to
be some questions. There has to be a tug of war in
your soul as to who's right and, and, and where should I stand on
all of this? And if that wouldn't, if that
doesn't happen, then you're not normal.
I mean, that is one of the results of, of the conflicting
positions. That's one of the, that's one of
the side effects of seeing this, the compromise and this, this
decay and, and even in some cases, apostasy and compromise
leads to apostasy. When you begin to back up, as
brother said a moment ago, everybody that says they're
progressives not progressing, Amen.
They're going backwards. They, they've turned their back
on truth. They're walking away from light
that they've received and the result that as it becomes a
compromise and that compromise after a while, it leads into
just a fallout of pasta sizing away from the faith.
And, and I'm just going to be honest with you, I don't want
nothing to do with that. I don't want to run with people
that are backing up. I don't want to hang out with
people that are changing on, on, on key Bible truths and and and
and and, and out my whole life. I made the statement just I
think night before last or maybe last night about being a square
veg in a round hole. I've always been a stick in the
mud from the time I was a kid. And, and it's almost as if God
was preparing me for such a time as this because I've never been
more of a stick in the mud than I am right now.
And I told our our young people the other day, I made a
statement, I said my greatest opposition does not come from
the from the drugs drug addicts. It doesn't come from the dope
dealers. It's not coming from the liquor
store owners or as we would say, the bootleggers back in the day.
My greatest opposition, believe it or not, is, is fundamental
independent Baptist pastors. That's my greatest thorn in the
flesh. And of course I'm a thorn in the
flesh to them as well, because many of them are changing.
They're compromising. They they've reached one way for
decades all over the country. And now you look at them and you
think, what in the world are you doing?
I'll tell you what they're doing.
They won't admit to it. They won't cop to it, but
they're compromising. That's what's happening and it
bothers them when somebody calls them on it.
That's. Right.
Yeah, really. Bothers them when somebody says,
but you've always said this and this and this and this is wrong,
and now you're doing this and this and this and this.
How do you rectify that? How do you justify that?
They look at you, they say, but I haven't changed.
I've asked them myself, I've called them, I've texted them.
I say you're changing. Why are you changing?
And they say to me, I have not changed.
I'm like, you have changed. You're unrecognizable from what
you used to be. And it's a problem and it's
becoming more and more of a problem.
And what's happening is, is, is what Brother Lewis was just
preaching about. People are in fear of rejection,
in fear of having to have friends walk away or family
members walk away or losing meetings or, or whatever the
case might be. They're going along.
They're conforming with compromise.
They're hanging out with compromisers, They're preaching
with compromisers, they're running with compromisers.
And I just want to tell you tonight on the, on the, on the
authority of the Word of God, that God can give you and I the
strength and the ability and the courage to refuse to conform
with compromisers. I want to die.
On the battlefield. Amen.
I don't want to die having turned my back on everything.
My wife and I both grew up in, in, in, in, in the Christian
homes. We grew up with strict parents.
I've said it before, my parents were strict.
We were like one light bulb away from being Amish.
I mean my parents would they everything?
Was a sin. We grew up, everything was
wrong. They'd have preached against
breathing and eating if they can figure out how to do it.
I mean, everything was wrong. That was the home I grew up in.
We grew up under sound solid preaching and we grew up.
We grew up with a with a love for the word of God.
I was taught to memorize the scripture and meditate on
scripture. I was taught to stand for what
was right from the time I was a child.
And now here I'm in my 50s with grandkids and I'm amazed that
the pressure that is, it's coming to compromise.
It's not coming from the world. It's coming from from, from
independent Baptist preachers. By the way, when you used to
call yourself an independent Baptist, it used to mean
something. For those of you that are newer
Christians, you're, you're new to this thing.
I'm a fifth generation independent.
Baptist preacher. So if I can't call it out and I
can't say something about it, nobody can.
I've been in it my whole life and I'm just telling you, you
used to, when you say you was an independent fundamental Baptist,
people automatically knew what you believed and where you
stood. Now you have no, it means
nothing. Even they don't know what it
means. And so we have to be very, we
have to be very clear tonight that we, we must refuse to
conform with compromises. Amen.
Now you can relax. I'm not going to call names.
I just want to preach the text out of Daniel chapter #1 not
that I think that here it would matter, but I'm not doing that.
Let your pastor do that. Amen.
I'm going to kick the can down the road and let him, if he
wants to, get more personal. But I want to deal with this
principle in Daniel chapter #1 and first thing, I was looking
at a couple of things about wave introduction.
All right, my introduction is longer than my message, but you
got the comparison. I want you to notice the
comparison by way of introduction.
I've got three things I want to say about the comparison.
You've got a group of young men here, the Bible tells us in
verse #1 and following, there's a group of men here, and there's
some things that they all have in common, OK.
They the one thing they have in common was a prestigious
pedigree. Write that down in verse #3
they've got a prestigious pedigree.
The Bible tells us that the King's bacon, the Aspenas the
master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the sea,
certain of the children of Israel and of the King's seed
and of the Princess. And so we see that there was a,
a very prestigious pedigree among these young men that had
been carried away by the king here all right, taken away and,
and, and stolen into captivity from Jerusalem.
And the Bible tells us that they were certain of the children of
Israel and of the King's seed. All right, the King's seed,
meaning they were, they were of the House of the king.
These were these were the sons of the king, that that would one
day possibly even be the king. They were, they were, they had
been brought up in a very prestigious environment that is
brought up in a very different from everybody else.
They had access to an education, they had access to inside
information. They had access to a lot of
things that a lot of the other men in the land did not have.
And so we see there was a prestigious pedigree.
They were the king scene and of the Princess.
All right, let me just make a connection here, make a court.
By the way, whenever I preach, I always try to make a connection
to where we're at, All right? Can I say it?
One of the things that we have in common, if we're saved, is
that we're a child of the king, Amen.
And then, and we ought to live like it.
We ought to act like it when when the world sees us, we ought
to see somebody different. There ought to be something
about us, and not because of who we are and not because of where
we come from. Amen.
When you look across this room, I'm guarantee we've all come
from every possible background you can imagine.
Brother Louis and I group about as opposite of a background as
you can get, Amen. A best kid growing up in the
inner city of Chicago and me saved at the age of four in
South Georgia growing up in a Christian home, Amen.
And and my daddy was called to preach the same year I got saved
and grew up in a pastor's home. My wife grew up in a pastor's
home. I mean, that's about as opposite
the background as you can get. And yet here we are preaching
together in in the same service. And so I'm just saying that,
that, that, that, that when you when you get saved, you become a
child of the king, not because of who we we are, but God has
looked down on us. There's been favor poured out
upon us and we're responsible for what we've received and what
we've been taught. Great accountability to whom
much is given, much shall be required.
If you're here tonight and you're saved, you're a child the
king, Amen. You're the King's seed.
You're Princess or even kings of Bible says priest and king.
So we see their prestigious pedigree.
They had that in common. And then we see in verse 4 their
promising potential, promising potential.
The Bible says children in whom was no blemish, but well favored
and skillful in all wisdom and cunning, in knowledge and
understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand
in the King's palace. And when that, that, that and
whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the
Chaldeans. When you read verse #4 you
understand these children were above average.
There was no blemish. I mean, they was when you to
look at them, there was no, there was no, no kind of defect.
I mean, they didn't have, if I understand that correctly, they
didn't have like big birthmarks or moles or or acne or Zeus.
I mean, these kids, you look at this perfect.
They were on the outside. Their parents say they was
perfect. The Bible says they're very
intelligent, very smart and, and, and well favored and
skillful and all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and
understanding science. I remember when I was in school,
I struggled with science. I loved history, loved English.
I know you can't tell that listen to me preach, but I
actually did pretty good. And but science, man, I
struggled with science. I just, I never could quite
figure out all those things. I didn't know that H2O was a
glass of water and H1 O was a half a glass of water.
I didn't know that such as had a built in them to stand in the
King's palace. They had composure.
They handled themselves well. They presented themselves well.
I mean, just looking at them, you think, boy, this young man
right here is going to be able one day to stand in front of the
king. He's going to be able to advise
the king. He'll be a counsellor to the
king. He'll be able to contribute to
the decision making process. And they were so smart and they
were so capable that they planned to teach them the
learnings and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
And so, man, when you read verse #4 you see, man, there's a whole
lot of promising potential with these young men.
And then thirdly, you see they all had the same prohibited
provision in verse #5 the king appointed them a daily
provision. Watch this of the King's me and
of the wine which he drank. So they were all given the same
food. They were given the same daily
provision of of King's meat and of the wine.
Now, I don't have time to go back over to the Old Testament
and show you all the dietary laws that these children of
Israel were commanded to live under back in those days.
By the way, I'm thankful we're not under those dietary laws
today. Hallelujah.
I love good old barbecue and pork chops.
Hallelujah, and bacon and sausage and catfish.
Can I get a witness? But there was things they were
strictly forbidden to eat and to drink in the Old Testament.
As children of Israel. God wanted them to have a
completely separate diet, and yet here they were because
they've been taken into captivity.
They were appointed King's meat and the King's wine, and it's
obvious from verse #8 that it was what they were not supposed
to eat. It was forbidden for them to eat
and drink of these things. And you say they all had the
same prohibited provision that was, can I say it, can I say it?
That was being forced upon them, that was being given to them in
verse #5 humanly speaking, we can say they didn't have a
choice. Sounds like a lot of Baptist
Church members that I that I deal with as a preacher.
I didn't have no choice. I couldn't go to the meeting.
I had to go to work. I didn't have a choice.
But it's funny, whenever something else comes along that
they want to do, they can have no problem asking all taking off
work. I don't have a choice.
I can't tell. I got, I got bills.
I don't have a choice. I can't get involved in
missions. That's another message for
another time. But they, I mean, humanly
speaking, we could say in verse #5 they've been kidnapped.
They're taken to a foreign country.
They're now being enslaved by this king.
He's putting food in front of them.
Can we say it? It was being forced upon them.
Humanly speaking, they didn't have a choice.
They all had the same prohibited provision.
They were looking for an opportunity to eat it.
They had it, but they were looking for an excuse to eat and
drink what they were not supposed to eat and drink.
Now is the opportunity to say, hey, I don't know, I didn't ask
for this. I don't have a choice as being
forced upon me. So we see the comparison, but
then we see the contrast. Something about Daniel made him
different Bible. Tells us in verse #8 It starts
with but but Daniel, but Daniel. Three things I want you to
notice about the contrast between Daniel and the rest of
these young men that were taken into captivity.
They did not all have the same principled purpose.
It says in verse 8, but Daniel purposed in his.
Heart. He purposed in his heart.
They did not all have the same principled purpose.
There was something inside of him that was different from all
the rest of them. Now let me, let me just, let me
just explain where this message came from.
It came from verse #10 it came in verse #10 when the Prince of
the eunuch said to Daniel, I fear my Lord, the king who has
appointed your meat and your drink, for why should he see
your faces worse liking. Now watch this.
I got this underline in my Bible.
He didn't say, why do you insist on being different from the
Chaldeans? We would understand immediately
why he insisted on being different from the Chaldeans.
That is not what this Prince said.
The Prince said We don't understand.
You got to explain to me why you insist on being different from
the children of your own sort. You're the only one in this
whole crowd got a problem with this.
Something inside of his heart would not allow him to go along
with it. Something inside of him urged
him and motivated him to push back against what everybody else
was doing. We see the they were not the
same when it came to principal purpose.
And let me just expand on this for just a second.
We got a group of people today that is more loyal to
personalities than they are the principals.
Come on. Preacher.
Preach. This is what I'm telling you.
I mean, if so and so does it, it don't matter what he does.
They're loyal to him. He can change.
He can rewrite his entire ministry.
He could take the last 30 years, throw it in the trash and hit a
reset button, start over and go another direction.
And because of what he did for the last 30 years, there will be
people that will follow him over a Cliff into compromise, even
though he has changed everything he said he believed.
They're not standing on principle.
They're standing with personalities.
You see, not only were they not the same in their principal
purpose, but secondly, they were not the same in their personal
purity. The Bible says in verse 8 Daniel
purpose in his heart and he would not defile himself.
He wasn't really worried about what everybody else was doing,
but he knew that he was not about to eat and drink what had
been forbidden, because doing so he would defile himself.
There's going to come a day when you're going to have to look in
the mirror and you're going to ask yourself the question, am I
going to do what everybody else is doing?
Knowing that by doing it you're lowering your own personal
standards in your life. That by opening up this door and
bringing this into your life, you are now subjecting yourself
to sin. And to shame and to unbiblical
lifestyles and and patterns of behavior that you know down
deep. In your heart is wrong.
He said I will not defile myself and the, the, the powerful
statement to me is in if he, if we were being honest and if we
were being devil's advocate and if we were there advising Daniel
there's youth bachelors across this country would say, Daniel,
you don't have a choice. We know if you had your choice,
if you had your preferences, you'd be back home eating the
right kind of food and drinking the right kind of drink.
But you're here. You was right here against your
will. You don't have any say.
Nobody's asking to take your order.
They're putting the food in front of you.
You're a slave. You're a, you're a, you're a,
you're a slave and a, and a prisoner.
This king. You don't have a choice.
But Daniel said I do have a choice.
The moment I eat that, I am defiling myself.
He didn't say he refused to be defiled.
It said he refused to defile himself.
He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.
And can I tell you something, young people, Mamas and daddies,
nobody can defile you but you. Yeah, Come on.
Nobody can cause you to lower your standards but you.
Nobody can make you back up on God but you.
You can stand for what's right. Nobody can make you do it.
They were not the same when it came to their principal purpose.
They were not the same when it came to personal purity.
And thirdly, they were not the same when it came to peer
pressure. Obviously, all the rest of these
young men in verse #3 and four had a lot going for them.
They had the prestigious pedigree.
They had promising potential. But you know one thing that they
did not have the ability to resist peer pressure.
They all looked at the one another.
So like, guess that's what we're having for supper.
They all look to one another. So like, guess this is what
we're going to eat from now on. And Daniel said, you know what,
I don't care. If I'm the only.
One here, I'm not doing it. That's what made them different.
He refused to comply. He refused to cave.
He refused to give in and go along with peer pressure to do
wrong. Yeah.
Amen. Amazed at people today that do
not have the spiritual walk with God or the intestinal fortitude.
That's a fancy word for guts. They do not have the intestinal
fortitude to stand for what's right.
And I feel sorry for people that are so weak, so carnal, so
ungrounded that they cannot resist pressure to go along with
people that they know is wrong. Good.
Can I make a? Can I make an application an
illustration? We.
We toured a History Museum today
over there on the river. What's the name of that museum?
It was a Civil War Museum. Is that the name of it?
I thought it was something faster than that, but it was a
Civil War Museum and man, there was just exhibits.
I mean, there was a maze of exhibits and Civil War
memorabilia and posters and little quotes and, and man, it
was amazing. It was amazing.
It was heartbreaking. It was, it was fascinating, all
these words. And I'm standing here, I'm
standing, I'm walking through this Civil War Museum and a lot
of it was about slaves and slavery and the whole
abolitionist crowd and, and, and the Harriet Beecher stove book,
book on the, on the Uncle Tom's Cabin and, and the Underground
Railroad and, and, and all this stuff.
And I'm privileged to go through there and and and get.
A perspective from this brother right here.
And as we're going through there, we're just talking.
And we're looking at all this stuff.
And I'm just. I'm just.
I'm amazed at how many people went along with something that
they didn't even agree with. Yeah, that's right.
Because of where they were from. Come on, ma'am, don't get
nervous. We're not going to have a race
ride in here. We're just talking.
All right? We're just talking.
I thought was going to race right when he backed into that
Ku Klux Klan, the guy over there, I said, you are not turn
around. He turned around and go, oh, my
goodness, what in the world? I said, you don't want to look
at that. He's like, I wonder what would
happen if I showed up at church in this outfit.
I said I'd love a video of that right there.
Now we just had a good time. But I mean, as we're looking at
the history of our nation, we just kept saying, I don't
understand how so many people that could say I'm against this.
Could go along with it. And the only way that that whole
thing got turned around is there was some people that was willing
to be a stick in the mud and say, this isn't right, This
isn't just, this isn't fair. We can't continue to do this.
Somebody had to say. And so I wonder if I can't just
jump right into my message because I got three points I
want to give you tonight. Is everybody OK?
He said. I do not understand why you will
not comply while you will not conform to the people from your
own sort. And it's like, Daniel, look at
this unit and said I can't conform with a bunch of
compromisers. These guys are all dropping
their standards. These guys are all lowering
their their, their, their lifestyle in order to go along
with whatever you say they got to do.
But I am not conforming to these compromisers.
When you refuse to fit in, when you refuse to conform with
compromisers #1 it'll be obvious, because you'll be more
vocal. Write that down.
You will be more vocal. The Bible tells us in verse #8
that he purpose in his heart He would not defile himself with
abortion of the King's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.
Therefore I got that word circle.
Therefore, therefore, he requested.
Of the Princess, of the eunuchs, that he might not defile
himself. You know what he had to do.
He was confronted with compromise.
He was being backed up in the corner.
He was being forced to re evaluate everything that he had
been taught, everything he knew about God, everything he knew
about the word of God. And I don't know who taught him.
I don't know his parents. I don't know much about his,
where he came from. But there's one thing that's
crystal clear to me. He knew clearly what was right
and what was wrong when it came to die.
That that that's that's crystal clear to me.
And so when he's in this position where everybody else
said we don't have a choice. We just got to go with the flow.
It's a it's a new world, it's a new day.
It's a new age. We got to be relevant.
I'm so sick of hearing that word.
Hey, when you're when you're in wrong, do as the Romans do they
take the words of the apostle Paul become all things to all
men that I might win some. You going to become a drunkard
to win a drunkard? You're going to get high to win
a dope head, huh? You're going to get pregnant out
of wedlock so you can witness to all the women in the abortion
clinic? Come on y'all.
Where are you going? To draw the line on this, Daniel
said I refuse to go along with this.
And he got to the point to where it got so personal to him and
there was so much pressure to do wrong that he had to say
something. He had to open his mouth and say
something knowing that the minute he opened his mouth he
was going to be rubbing the cat the wrong way.
He requested of the unit, I don't want to eat this.
I don't know how long he sat there and thought about it.
I don't know if he watched him cook it.
I don't know if he smelt it in the kitchen.
I don't know if he thought about it while he was standing in line
outside the cafeteria. I don't know when and how this
happened, but at some point before.
He put the food in his mouth. He finally looked at this man
and he says, I can't do this. Please.
I'm asking you don't make me do this.
I don't want to do this. He wasn't a jerk.
He didn't threaten to kill everybody.
He didn't threaten to burn the place down.
He requested. So the Bible says he requested.
There was some humility in his stand.
But make no mistake, he was taking a stand.
Not only not only was he endangering his own life, but
apparently he was endangering the life of the Prince of the
eunuchs by asking him to let him do it.
In fact, the Prince of the eunuchs said, do you realize in
verse #10 do you realize you're in danger in my head to the
king? And I can hear Daniel said, I
don't want to endanger your head.
But one thing I know I don't want to endanger is my
testimony. And if we have to choose between
my testimony or your head, I'd rather be your head.
Come on. This is where we're living in
2026. How important is it to you to
live right and do right, even if you're in the vast minority?
There's a lot of great leadership quotes out there, and
you can get on the Internet and you can look up definitions of
leadership, and there's hundreds of them down through the years
of great leaders and generals and presidents.
Here's my definition of leadership.
There's been this definition been 25.
Years or 30 years, It's because I've been preaching and teaching
young people. My definition of leadership is a
person that is willing to do the right thing, even if you have to
do it all by yourself. You see that consistent
throughout the Scriptures. Nearly every great man in the
Bible was willing to be all by themselves if they had to, to do
the right thing. By the way, and I love this
because he was vocal. He wasn't by himself.
Somewhere along the way, these other three young men said we
feel the same way. We feel the same way.
We were sitting here trying to figure out how we was going to
deal with this. We were sitting here trying to
figure out what we was going to do.
We realized we got our back against the wall.
We realized that people all around us are caving and
capitulating and compromising to the demands of the world, eating
what they tell us to eat and drinking what they tell us to
drink. Tell us we don't have a choice.
We were sitting here trying to figure out what to say.
And all of a sudden, David Daniel requested that he did not
eat the meat. And the next thing you know,
he's got three more young men beside him saying, hey, we're
the same way. We feel the same way.
As a pastor, I can tell you I have been encouraged.
I have been, I have been edified.
I've been strengthened by the people that call me, e-mail me,
text me. I get messages every day of my
life. Things like Pastor Shifflin, we
appreciate you taking a stand. What you were praying for, you
praying for your church. And I remember Lewis, you had
the same thing, especially during COVID.
I know those people reached out to you telling you thank you.
In fact, we started texting and calling one another during COVID
because we were both in the news about resisting this, this,
this, this government tyranny and this overreach and, and
people was like, hey, I feel the same way.
Maybe they're just waiting on somebody to say something.
I'm talking from the young people and whatever conversation
you're having in the parking lot after church and somebody says
something's not right, Somebody's got to say, hey, hey,
that ain't right. We're not talking about that.
You heard about this movie, you heard about this singing group,
you've heard about this song. And somebody, somebody,
somebody's got to say hey. We talking about that.
I won't be a part of this. Start telling dirty jokes, off
color jokes. You say, hey, I'm not laughing
at that. You're not be doing that.
Somebody has got to say something.
We're talking about refusing to conform with compromisers.
Good. You got to be more vocal.
At some point. At some point you got to say
something. That's right, Sir.
I'm amazed at how many people won't say anything.
They think it. And in their heart, they know
what they should say, they know what they should do, but they
are afraid to be that stick in the mud.
They're afraid to say it. Hey, I don't know what everybody
else thinks. And I don't really care what
anybody else thinks, but this is what I think.
This right here ain't right. It's amazing how many people see
things that are wrong and say nothing.
And you gave the quote yesterday.
Last night, brother, you gave the quote Evan Burke.
I think it was a said the best way for evil to prevail is when
good men do nothing and good men say nothing.
Well, I'm just going to keep my head down.
Heard a very well known preacher say last week on a podcast.
I'm just going to keep my head down.
I'm going to do me and you do you.
I'm going to stay out of the fray.
I told my church. I said I don't want to live
above the fray. I don't want to be right in the
middle of the fray. In fact, I don't want to be
leading the charge into the fray.
How can you be a soldier of Jesus Christ?
Why have armor? Why, why, why?
How can you say you fought the good fight when you spent your
whole life dodging the fray? That's right, brother.
That doesn't even make sense to me.
And while I'm at, let me just say this.
I'm so sick of these news commentators saying I don't, I
don't agree with this war over there in Iran.
We're putting our soldiers in harm's way.
They signed up to get into harm's way.
That's what they trained for. That's what they live and
breathe is to get over there and fight.
We're putting them in harm's way.
This is not a kindergarten field trip.
This is warriors. These are soldiers, Amen.
Trained to kill and maim and destroy stuff and blow stuff up.
That's right. Amen.
And we got Christians are like, I just don't want to get in
harm's way. You're a soldier, Amen.
You're a hey Father, good fight
of faith. Amen.
Be vocal #2 Not only will you be more vocal, but when you refuse
to conform with compromises, you'll be more visible.
Bible says in verse 11. Then said Daniel the Melzar,
whom the Ritz of the Munich has said over Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishiel, and Azariah, verse 12 Prove thy servants, I beseech
thee 10 days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to
drink. Look at verse 13.
Then let our account that says be looked upon.
We're willing to subject ourselves to a more intense
scrutiny because we know that that's part of taking a stand.
We know the minute we buck the system, the minute we point out
the compromise, the minute we alienate ourselves from the
children of our own sort, we know all of a sudden it's going
to put us out of the microscope. And all we can say is bring it
on, bring it on. Pull up my messages and listen
to them. See if you can find something in
there to get me with. Go through my social media with
a fine tooth comb, see if you can find some inconsistencies,
or see if you can find something in there to use against me.
Go ahead. I'm perfectly OK with being more
visible. Most people want to fly under
the radar. Most people don't want to be
noticed. Most people don't even want
nobody. Nobody even know they exist.
But if you're going to take a stand, you can mark this down.
They're going to pull the magnifying glass out.
And he said, hey, 10 days from now, let our countenances be
looked upon. And we know that you're going to
look at us harder than you can look at everybody else.
We know that you're going to inspect us.
You're going to look for one reason, just one reason to deny
our request. We know you're going to look for
something in our life that's going to completely invalidate
our desire to not compromise. We know that and we're OK with
it, that our countless has be looked upon.
We're not going, we're not going to hide, Amen.
We're not hiding, we're not backing down.
Let's keep reading. And he says and, and and and
that our countless would be looked upon before thee.
Verse 13 The countless of the children that eat of the portion
of the King's meat, look at them, look at us.
And as thou. Seest deal with our servants.
Whatever you see, deal with it. What it said.
Look at them, look at us. Look at us.
They scrutinize us, check us out and inspect us because they're
going to be eating the wrong stuff.
We're over here. Trying to eat the right thing.
And so we'll just tell you what we'll do.
We'll make it easy on you. We won't even be picky about
what we eat. We'll just take beans and water
because we know nobody else is eating that.
We'll take pots and water for 10 days.
By the way, 10 in the Bible is the number.
If you're interested in biblical mathematics, 10 is the number
for testimony. You got the 10 commandments.
It's a testimony of God where you got OL EE S or took those 10
camels to go find Isaac a bride. The testimony of the riches and
the wealth of his master. I love biblical mathematics.
You can get on a tangent if you're not careful with that
number 10. That number 10 is testimony.
Give us 10 days to establish a testimony and then I want you to
just check us out. Look us over real good and you
tell me, you tell me why we can't do this.
What are you saying? We're going to prove to you.
That we're different. I don't think y'all are getting
this. It takes a while to establish a
testimony. It takes a while for people to
realize there's something different about you.
It's going to take more than doing the right thing one time.
You got to do the right thing consistently.
We're going to eat, pulse and drink water every meal, every
day for 10 days. Check us out, see what you
think. Look us over real good.
I'm finding out that adults are
almost as bad as teenagers about wanting to fly under the radar.
Most teenagers that even the ones that love the Lord, they
don't like attention. They don't like attention about
spiritual things. They love attention that they're
playing basketball. They want everybody to see them
try to dunk even though they can't.
They want to see everybody, to see them try to shoot even
though they miss. If it's something.
Carnal. They want people to watch them,
but when it's spiritual, they want to be invisible.
They're going through that stage where they're not a child
anymore, they're not yet an adult.
They're in that middle stage and it's awkward for them trying to
figure out who they are, and they're not comfortable being
inspected. But these young men right here
were comfortable being inspected for doing the right thing.
Well, they're different, no question about it.
And that, that, that, that eunuch, he said, I don't
understand you. I don't understand you.
Why you, why you want to be different from the children of
your own sort? Why can't you just do what they
do? Why can't you eat what they eat?
They're not saying anything. They're not complaining about
it. And I don't even want to
speculate. There might have been a couple
of those old boys that was glad to be able to eat some bacon and
pork chops. Just saying.
There might have been a couple of more boys.
I'm serious. There might have been a couple
of more boys than man, we got some BBQ.
Hallelujah. Heard about this Jewish rabbi
that was craving BBQ, want a BBQ, but he wasn't supposed to
eat it. So he drove like an hour out of
town and found his barbecue joint and he went in there, sit
in the back corner and the waiter said, what can I get?
You said I want the biggest piece of BBQ, biggest piece of
pork you got. And they said, well, we got this
little baby pig that we serve. He said I'll take it.
So about 30 minutes later they come in there and they had that
baby pig sitting on the table and it had, it had all kinds of
greenery around it. They had an apple in its mouth.
And boy's mouth starts with water, and he grabs his fork in
his knife and looked up, and there come a family from his
synagogue that walked in there, and they wanted to.
Said rabbi, What are you doing? He said.
Man, these bunch of uncircumcised gentiles that I
ordered an apple and look how they brought it to me.
There might have been a few of those old boys that was looking
forward to getting some wine. They might have been looking
forward to getting something they weren't supposed to eat.
But there was probably some of them that down deep in their
side. Inside they knew it wasn't right
and it was making them miserable, but they didn't have
the courage to push back and so it was easier for them to just
go. Along to get along, like the
preacher just preached about. They knew that by saying
something, they was opening up a door for a whole lot of
suffering, and they didn't want to suffer.
But when you take a stand, trust me, you're going to put yourself
under a microscope. People's going to be watching
you, waiting for you to fall, waiting for you to mess up,
waiting for you to say something wrong, wait for you to do
something contrary to what you said you believed.
Now they can run with people that's going back on everything
they've ever said they believe, and they'll defend them all the
way to the end. But if you do one thing
different from what you say you believe, they're going to stick
it in your face. Adds a lot of pressure, more
vocal, more visible. But thirdly, write this down.
When you refuse to fit in, you'll be more valuable.
The Bible says in verse 14, so we can send it to them in this
manner and prove them 10 days. At the end of the 10 days their
countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh.
I feel like that after three days of hanging out with your
preacher and all this eating out, Amen.
My, my countenances has appeared fatter in flesh.
By the way, I figured out the other day the first person in
the Bible to have Mel's palsy was Cain.
After he killed his brother. God let him and said, Why hast
thou countenance fallen? That might not have been what
he's talking about. Let's keep reading verse 15 at
the end of 10 days their countenances appeared fair and
fatter in fleshed and all the children which did eat the
portion of the kings meat. What about that?
Thus males are took away the portion of their meat and the
wine that they should drink and gave them pulse.
Look at verse #17 As for these four children, God gave the own
knowledge and skill and all learning.
Now this is what's amazing. I got this online in my Bible
because in verse #4 they already had knowledge and wisdom and
cunning and understanding, but God gave them more.
In verse 17, God gave them knowledge and skill and all
learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding and all
visions and dreams. God gave Daniel something that
nobody else had. Now at the end of the days that
the king had said he should bring them in, then the Prince
of the eunuch brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
Don't know how many times I read this story and heard this
message preached before I caught that at the end of the days that
the king had said he should bring them in, these boys didn't
eat pulse and drink water for 10 days.
They ate pulse and drunk water for three years.
That's what it says in verse #5 S nourishing them three years
that, that at the end thereof they might stand before the
king. They was willing to do it.
For 10 days for a trial period. But after they found out it
worked and the and the eunuch said you can do it.
They ate pulse and drunk water for three years, every day for
three years. Now that's commitment.
Man in my church told me, he said.
He said, man, I'm taking this, I'm doing this carnivore diet.
He said I lost 25 lbs. I said well tell me about it.
He said just eat meat, Just eat meat, all the meat you want.
I said I am down. I am sign me up buddy.
My wife, we start the freezer with, I mean steak and chicken.
I mean every morning breakfast it was just eggs and bacon and
and sausages. This steak and eggs.
I mean, it was unreal for about a week, and then I got so sick
of meat. That's hard to imagine, ain't
it? No bread, no vegetables, no
fruit, just just just carnivore, man.
I was craving, I was craving vegetables.
I was craving a bowl of green beans.
Anything. Anything besides me.
I ate meat. Every kind of.
Way you can cook it. I'm.
Talking chicken fried, bald grilled, steak grilled.
I mean, I I ate it all and after about a week and a half, two
weeks that I told Grace, I said I can't.
I can't believe how sick I am of meat and.
I did it for five weeks and only lost 8 lbs.
I'm still mad at that man in my church.
Tell me about it, but could you imagine eating beans ports 3
times a day and drinking water three times a day 365 days a
year for three years? I wonder if they ever looked
over there at what their mother guys was eating and said boy I
will ought to have some of that. You know they did come on y'all
you know they did. But they was committed to doing
what was right, and at the end of the days the Bible says that
they should be brought in. The Prince of the.
Eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, verse 19.
The king communed with them, and among them all was found none.
Like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishiel and Azariah, wherefore therefore
stood day before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and
understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them
10 times better. There's that number 10 again,
the 10 days of testimony. The 10 days to establish a
testimony 3 years later found them 10 times better than all
the compromisers in the country put together. 10 times better
than all the magicians and astrologers that ran all of his
round. And Daniel continued even to the
first year. The King Cyrus, he served under
4 kings. Daniel served under 4.
Kings Nebuchadnezzar and Beltis, Hazzard and Darius inside Tyrus.
He served under 4 kings. Why?
Because way back, as a young man, he was willing to say.
Excuse me just a second. This ain't right.
I'm sorry, but I can't go along with this.
I don't care if everybody else does.
I don't care if all my my kinfolk, my brothers, all my
they were all king seed. Can we, can we go out on a limb
and assume that they might have been family?
You just preached about that being ostracized by your family,
being being laughed and made fun of by your friends and your
family. And those are the closest to
you, Daniel said. I'm not responsible for them.
I'm not. I don't worry about them.
I know I cannot define myself. I got to say something.
I got to go against this. I cannot go along with this.
And he served under 4 kings, 10 times more valuable than
everybody else. Can I tell you something that
this is not going to end well? These compromisers, they might
look good on social media, they might have really nice
presentations, and they might have pretty suits and nice
hairdos and pretty teeth. But can I tell you something?
This ain't going to end well when you take an entire
generation of young people and you turn them toward the world
and you tell them it's OK for them to listen to that kind of
music and dress that way and look that way and act that way.
There's an independent Baptist pastor.
I'm not going to call his name. I'm not going to tell you what
state he's from. He put on Twitter, stick a
selfie with his wife and his baby sitting at the theater.
He said, I just watched, just watched The Top Gun, too.
And he said it's the greatest movie I've seen in a long time.
The thing is full of cussing and filth.
And you tell me how in the world you got any credibility with
your young people when the pastor is promoting that kind of
garbage. You can preach on Sandy, you're
blue in the face. You can preach on holiness of
living right? And it's going to go in one or
not the other. You've established no boundaries
whatsoever. It ain't going to end well.
It's already not ending well. Walking away from the King James
Bible. They laughed at us because we're
King James. It got my daddy in my
granddaddy, in my great granddaddy, and my great, great
granddaddy used to preach that thing all over Georgia and
Alabama. Why in the world would I change
now? He couldn't even read.
But he didn't have no problem
with the V's and the valves. He.
Understood it perfectly. Come on y'all.
His wife was a full blooded Cherokee Indian.
He had a beard down to here and she would read the verses and he
would preach it and people would get saved and revival would
break out. And he traveled all around the
country had bricks in the in the floorboard that she had worn by
the fire to keep his feet warm. So he traveled around from
church to Church of Reach and people got saved and there's
newspaper articles about him and he reached out that King James
Bible and now all of a sudden we got guys with more degrees in a
thermometer. They can understand the King
James Bible. So, you know, their response is
let's go back to the Greek in the Hebrew.
Or if you can't understand the King James, you sure ain't going
to understand the Greek in the Hebrew.
A bunch of idiots professing themselves to be wise.
They became fools. And we're learning, but never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Changing the Bibles and changing the music and dropping all the
standards. And it ain't going to work out.
And I'm telling you right now, you need to learn to resist the
urge and the call to run with compromisers.
Yes, Sir. Amen.
Look, I don't say I might be the only one.
I don't care if we are of the same sort.
I don't care if we all did go to the same college.
I don't care if we did also in the same preachers.
I don't care if we all do call ourself by the same thing.
That ain't right. And I ain't doing it from the
young people all the way up to the oldest preacher in here.
I ain't doing. I'm not going that way.
Hey, man, I say like my daddy, I was born in the fire and smoke
bothers me. I ain't changing strings in the
middle of the horse. I mean, I ain't changing horses
in the middle of the strain. I think it didn't sound right.
Too close to the other side to swap horses.
Amen. Amen.
As I used to say back in the day, I'm going to dance with the
one that brung me. Amen.
I'm I'm I'm going to hang with the one that saved my soul and
deliver me from hell. I'm going to walk with him.
I don't care if it's out of stick with everybody else.
I'm going to stick with God. Amen.
I don't want to compromise. I want to challenge you.
This church right here is rare. This church is rare and you can.
Compromise if you want to, but then you'll just be like all the
rest of them. I say stay old fashioned so that
when those people get sick of that may as they'll have
somewhere to go. That's what I said about our
church. I said we want to be different
so when all them people that are starving to death and get ready
for some food, they know where to go when their marriages fall
apart and what they got ain't working for and then go
somewhere. And get some help.
Amen. Lord, we love you tonight.
Thank you for liberty to preach. Thank you for this pastor.
Thank you for this church. Thank you for the testimony that
they've got in this community. May they never, ever wobble.
May they never waver. May they stay true.
May they do what you'd have them to do, Father, even if they're
the only church in the county doing it.
And I don't know who they are. They might not be, I don't know.
But Lord, I know this, that churches that are taking a stand
and not compromising are far and few between.
Pray God you help us not to cave and give in and go along to get
along with things that are not biblical, not right.
I pray that we'll always do what's right because it honors
and glorifies you. They will not defile ourselves,
defile our churches, defile our youth group with things that we
know is wrong in Jesus name preacher.