Purpose of Heart

Think about choices, and this is choices under crisis times. A man who were faced with crisis and yet made the right choices. Very, very, very important.

And it's very important to make the right choices at the beginning. Daniel, I always thought that when I heard the story of Daniel first, that he was a young man that got put into the Den of Lions, but really not. He was an old man, very old man, and he was willing to go into the Den of Lions because he made the right choices at the very beginning.

And that's vital all the way through life, in every stages, because we go to different stages of our life. You know, you're starting out getting saved just fresh, and you start the journey, and all the way through. Some people are different ages.

You get saved when you're young, get saved when you're old, but the starting out in life is very important to make the right choices, and to make them in the fear of God. And Daniel did that. We'll read a little bit as we think about the story of Daniel.

Daniel chapter 1, verse number 4. Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. And such has had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank.

So nourishing them there them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Verse number 8. 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.

Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuch. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord a king who had appointed your meat and your drink. For why should he see your face? Worse likened them than the children which are of your sort.

Then shall ye make me in danger, my head to the king. Now down to verse number 17. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Very, very important. Verse 20. In all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found him ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

Now chapter 3 and verse number 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king.

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Now chapter 6 and verse number 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into the house, into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt up on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did for a time.

Down to verse number 20. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou service continually able to deliver thee from the lions? Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. Now I sat my face towards the ground, and I became dumb, and behold, one like a similitude of the sons of men touched my lips.

Then I opened my mouth and spake and said unto him that stood before me, O my Lord, by a division my sorrow are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my Lord take with this my Lord has for me? Straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there any breath left in me. Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me.

Now God can add the blessing to the reading of his precious word. Just a few simple thoughts to encourage the young and to encourage the older here to have a purpose of heart and to continue to have a purpose of heart and not to fail even in the midst of crisis. We live in a changing world, and we find here Daniel was brought into the very same circumstances we heard yesterday about Samuel and how Samuel stood even in the midst of conflict and in the midst of change right in the place where there should never have been any change.

Samuel heard the voice of God, responded to the voice of God, and obeyed God's voice and did exactly what God wanted him to do. We live in an age in which we are under conflict to change, and yet God is able to help us in the midst of conflict. We sometimes sing with the children, dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known.

Anybody can go along with the tide. Any fish at all can go along with the tide, but it takes a live fish, it takes a power to go against the tide, and this is where Daniel is found. Daniel could have complained about the nation.

Daniel could have complained about all the leaders. Daniel could have had all kinds of issues, but he stood before his God alone and realized that I can all be an overcomer. I can have victory in my Christian life no matter what others might do.

I was thinking that there are three different fears when it comes to Daniel's life. First of all, it's his purpose, his private life, and that's very important. A young man or a man that was ministering just recently at one of the conference that I was at said to his audience, how many here or is there anybody here that is living a double life? Our private life is very important, and that we will look at a little bit when it comes to Daniel, our private life.

When it comes to our public life, that's very important, and our private public life would only be as powerful and only be as strong and only be as victorious when it comes to looking at our private life. Our public life depends upon it and is very, very important. But then when it comes to our prayer life, very important is our prayer life, and Daniel knew, even I believe before, the crisis really came.

Crisis only shows the real character of an individual. Crisis brings out what's really on the inside when crisis comes, and I believe as a young man, Daniel knew what it was to pray in his own nation and in his own country, and when the crisis came and he was one of the ones that was taken away in captivity, then he knew his God. He was one who knew what it was to lay hold upon God and to pray.

Our prayer life is very important. Preaching is important. Ministering the Word of God is important, but I believe that when it comes to prayer, it's the powerhouse of God.

Oftentimes we fail to spend time alone with God, but it's very, very important. There are two people or two powers that was with Daniel or against Daniel when it comes to his purpose. It was a divine purpose.

Behind Daniel was the eternal God, and just recently I had a series a week of children's meetings, and the main theme that I used was, you are very special to God. Daniel learned that he was special to God. He learned that he could enter into the purposes of God for the whole nation, and eventually, really, he's taken in into the confidence in God in what God is going to do with the whole world.

We want you to understand today that you and I are very special to God. No matter how young you are today, you are very special. God has a purpose and a plan for your life.

Don't miss it. No matter how old you get, and if God has left you here, he still has a purpose and a plan for your life. Don't miss it, day after day, because every day.

We read this morning in the Bible reading that the Lord did exactly what normally he did every day. Daniel did things normally as he did things every day. He didn't open up his window when he came to pray.

His window was always open. He was an access to the very God of heaven, and he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meat. There's lots of meat in the world today.

There is lots of things that you and I can be defiled with, and that will defile us, and it's very important, and it's very vital that you and I be careful as we go into the battle, because it's a warfare. It's not, you know, it's not something that you can lay off on a Wednesday, or you can put your suit off for a week and put it on on Sunday, and you're in the conflict on Sunday when you come to the meetings. No, it's a 24-hour thing, and it's seven days a week.

It's continual, and we're in a warfare, and that's very, very, very important. Daniel was under pressure as he was taken into captivity. He was brought into a new home.

He was brought into with new friends. He was brought with a new name. He was given a new name, and he was given new teaching, and he was given a new diet.

Some pressure to be put onto a young man overnight, but you know, the purposes of God, divine purpose was dear when it comes to for Daniel, but then there was the devil's purpose for Daniel. The devil had a purpose for Daniel too, and it was totally different than what the divine hand had for Daniel, but then there was Daniel's purpose himself. So it was the divine purpose, it was the devil's purpose for Daniel, and then Daniel's purpose in his own heart.

Nice when the purposes of an individual corresponds with the purpose that God has for that individual. If you're not in the will of God today, if you're not in the will of God today where you are, then you are out of the will of God. If you're missing the place, if you're not in the place that God wants you today, then the place that God really wants you is empty.

It's nice to know the purpose of God for my life, and that is just don't just finish when you're saved for 30 years, or you're in the assembly for 30 years, or you've been, you know, preaching for 20 years, or you've been, you know, helping in the work for so many years, and now it's retirement. There's no retirement in the work of God. No retirement, and Daniel is showing that, and it's very, very important.

Daniel come to understand that he could either be a conformer or he could be a transformer, and that's important, isn't it? He could conform to the image and the power of the enemy, or he could understand the purpose of God and be transformed by the power of an eternal God. That's very, very important, and especially goes back to our private life. Would you tell everybody, would you be willing to tell everybody everything about your private life? Because God knows everything about your private life.

There is nothing that is hid from God. God knew exactly Daniel's private life. God knew the very thoughts of Daniel, and he knew the purposes of Daniel.

He knew that purpose when he was a boy in Jerusalem, and when he was taken into captivity, and as Daniel is taken away into captivity, and he sees his hometown and his home country disappear behind him, I think Daniel sat there with tears flowing down his face and saying, Lord, it's going to be hard, but I want you to go with me. That was one of the things that I enjoy about Joseph, was that God was with him. Whether it was in the pit, whether it was in Potiphar's house, or whether it was in the prison, or in the palace, God was with him, and that's very important.

You know, conditions might change, and crisis might come to your family circle, it might come to this family circle, it might come to the whole country, but understand that you can stand alone with God, and it's important to understand that, and to have that private life, that these little times alone with God, and I believe that some are sacrificing it. I know that there are young people in our country, and sometimes there's older people. It's not just the young people, because sometimes the older people retire from their work, and you know, they become careless, they become slothful, and you think that it might be different.

They would say, you know, when I retires, I'm going to have time to preach, I'm going to have time to visit, I'm going to have time to do that, and all of a sudden you realize that you're occupied with something else, and they forgot the purpose. So it's not just the young people, it's the older ones, and all the way through, remember that there's an enemy. There's an enemy watching you, no matter what age bracket you're found into, no matter what age group you're in, or what class of people you might be under, remember that the enemy is still watching you, and he's waiting for a loophole.

He's waiting for a little place just to make that first landing, just like the landing on the moon, and the first landing where he can get a foothold, and his purposes can go to work. But oh, it's very important to understand that in your private life, you must be clean before God, and honest before God, and have a relationship with God. You know that when it comes to the Old Testament, a lot of these men, like Moses and some of the others, all the way down to the Old Testament, they learned God alone.

It wasn't in the public, you know, you really learn to know your God. It's in your private life, your own private life. In his private life, he was faithful.

Faithfulness marked Daniel in his private life. Fearlessness marked him. As he had arrived that day away on chariots that he probably had never seen before, or witnessed, and sitting next to men that probably had him under chains, and he's going away, he was faithful to his God.

He cried to God, whatever you do with me, Lord, wherever I land, wherever I go, I want to be faithful to the truth that I learned, and know that it is the truth. Do you know the truth today? Have you learned the truth of the gathering center of the assembly of God? And you know it in your own soul. This is the place.

This is where God is. This is where God wants me to be. This is the truth that God has given to me.

I believe it in my heart, and you're faithful, and you're fearless too, fearless with the truth. And Daniel was that, but he was also faultless. Important.

You know, you can only be faultless if you have a time, a private time, alone with God. Whatever you do, whatever you sacrifice in life, whether it's your breakfast, or your dinner, or your supper, whatever you sacrifice time, you know, when it comes to having a special time, you know, with your wife is important. Special time with your children.

That's right, when your children is growing up, and you have them for a few years. We had ours just, you know, reaches the age of 16, and away they goes to university, just like Daniel here. The way they goes to new homes, and new cities, and new friends, and new food, and new everything.

And you have them for a little while to instill into their mind that the eternal God is above all the other purposes of humanity. The purpose of God is above it all. And have them to understand that there is no God like the living God of heaven.

No God like the God of Israel. And Daniel, as he moved out from the city, understand that he's now in the hands of an eternal God, and he's going to go into a new pathway, and you need God. You need God in your own private life, spending time alone with God, allowing your soul to be taken up in his glory.

Not just seeing the galaxies, and the gold, and the grass of earth. No, my friend, a little of the glory of God. And Daniel is going to need it.

A private life alone with God. You know, they might put them in the public. And you know, you always haven't got to be on your knees to pray.

And you learn to pray instantly. Learn to pray continually. Learn to have that private relationship with God that nobody can take away.

I remember as a boy getting saved at the age of 16. I'm the oldest of ten in the family. None of my parents wasn't saved.

My siblings wasn't saved. And you know, to find that little time alone with God wasn't just the easiest. And sometimes when the storms were on in the Atlantic Ocean, my father couldn't get onto the sea.

I would steal along the seashore and find a little quiet place beneath a rock, and put my knees down upon the rock and cry to God, God have mercy upon me. Remember the story about Daniel. It affected my life very much.

And I would cry to God, Oh Lord, have me to be faithful like Daniel. Have me to be fearless like Daniel. Have me to be faultless like Daniel.

Oh, the pressure was on. I've known times when my mother would send a girl up to my room. Oh, to be faithful to God.

Under pressure. Under tremendous pressure. And Daniel knew what it was here.

Crisis. Terrible crisis. But he knew that if he made the right choices, it would bring him to the crisis.

Come on, young men and women, and older ones too. You've got to make choices in different stages of your life. And your private life will issue and give to you what you're going to be in your private and your public life.

When it comes to the public life, you know Daniel had to watch everything, isn't it? He had to watch his food that he ate. He had to watch his company. And you know, he was going to influence others.

That's why I read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These boys wasn't going to go down to the lions. They were going to go into the fight.

But Daniel and them would get together. Can you see them? Times when they would meet together and say, boys, we really have to pray. Make sure you're praying.

Whatever you do, whatever the king has you to do in his palace and the times he has you to learn his language. And do your best. Do it with all your might.

Memorize the language. Get it into your soul. And do whatever he tells you.

But listen, still be faithful. Cry to God. God is over all.

And one day, I just want to look forward to the time when we'll be brought back to where we should be in the kingdom and in our own country. And Daniel, he knew that his public life would have an influence on others. What the choices that you make.

Choices that you make in public will influence others too. And whether it's the influence of your children or what is the influence of other brethren in the assembly, the decisions that you make in the assembly is going to affect others. And the decisions that you make along life, it's going to influence others.

Very important is our public life. And as you make these decisions in view, make sure that you understand that you are going to influence others. And you can.

You can influence others to the good, to the blessing. And you know, the peer pressure. Young people are out there.

And even amongst Christians, some of the things that happen amongst young people, and you know, the things that they do, the movies that they watch, and TV screens that they have, and all these things, the videos, and you know, the internet. It's all a temptation. And what others do, are you going to do it too? There were other young men taken besides Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

There were other young men taken too, and women. But you know, what are you going to do? You're going to make the same choices as others? Oh, listen, it's important. If you're going to be in the purpose of God, and you're going to be in the plan of God, and you're going to have the power of God behind you.

That's right. Daniel is not going to have the power of God in visions, and in interpreting dreams, if he's just going along with the rest. Conform with the world.

Whether it's their dress, their language, or whether it's what they watch, or where they go, the idle time that they have, or their spare time that they use. What do you do in your spare time? What do you really do? What do you do in your spare time? What do you really want to do in your spare time? Oh, I want to tell you, if you're going to have power with God, and you're going to be able to overcome these enemies, and you're going to fulfill the purpose of the God, then you know you're going to have to learn your God. High principles.

Daniel knew the principles. He learned them in Israel. He learned them at his mother's knee, probably.

He learned them when he was young. Oh, it's important to learn the things of God when you're young. It's like a, you know, a filing cabinet.

I did an office course, a business course one time, and you know, you learn how to file away things in the filing cabinet. And you know, the first sheets you put in, and the first folders you put in, were the ones who got the best slots, and you know, they were put into the right place. After a while, as you begin to put more and more into the filing cabinet, it was harder to get the sheets in the right place, and the folders in the right place.

And so it is when it comes to our brain. Our brain is just a filing cabinet. And you know, you put it in, and you put it in, and make sure you learn the principles, and you learn the purposes of God, and the plan of God when you're young.

Make sure you fall in love with the person of the Lord Jesus, and you love him when you're young, and learn the place where his honor dwells. When you're young, these things need to be done when you're young. When you get older, it'll be harder to put some of these things in places.

But Daniel learned that very early in his life, and very important, divine purpose. The revealed will of God. God's will for your life.

Where do you get it? You get it from the Word of God. You find out that as you do the normal things of life. When you're doing the normal things of life, you find out the will of God.

That's right. That's the best way to find it out. As a girl, you iron the clothes, and you wash the dishes, and you scrub the floors, and you make the beds, and you do the things.

The boys, you know, you take care of the chores. You learn the will of God, and the divine will of God. Doing the normal things of life.

Just doing that. And then when you, you know, you're called father to join a young man in holy matrimony. You're able to cook.

You're able to make meals. You're able to attend to the children. You're able to read the Word of God to them.

It's important. Everyday experience. And that's what Daniel did.

Revealed will of God. The rules. Yeah, the very rules that he learned was important to him every single day.

And you know, his everyday work, he learned that God is in it, and God wants me to know his will. You find his will from his Word. The Spirit of God will never lead contrary to the Word of God, and you learn the Word, the will of God from his Word.

Reading his Word. A consecutive reading of the Word of God. A young lady, in fact, she was very young, nine years of age, a little girl, came to me one time.

I was at a conference, and she pulled up my coat, and I looked at her, and she says, Uncle Eric, I know I'm saved. And she says, I read the Word of God every day. I try to read it, but can you give me some way of reading that I might be able to grow spiritually faster and better? Oh my! I want to tell you, it's important for girls as well as men to have a reading pattern, to know the Scriptures.

You know that when it comes to learning the Word of God, I learn more from my wife than I learn from anybody else. My wife was brought up in a Christian home. Her father was saved, her grandfather was saved, and her great-grandfather.

It goes back a number of generations. She knew her Bible. She memorized her Bible when she was young.

She learned the Scriptures. She had things in order. And I've learned more from that lady than I've learned from anybody else.

But you know who my children learn from most? My children learn from my wife the most. So it's important, not just for a man to know his Bible where he can come to Bible reading, and you know, a step above all the rest, and to be able to make the rest look small, and preach the Gospel, and to be able to make the others just sink behind them. Oh, my friend, it's nice for a woman to know the Word of God as well as a man to know the Word of God, and to understand the purposes of God for my life, whether it's having the children.

We had as many children as God wanted us to have. That's important. Leaving everything to the eternal purposes of God.

Everything. So many things are taken away from the hand of God today, and God can't move with us in His purposes, and in His divine purposes in each one of our lives. We want to do things ourself.

We want to handle our issues. We want to handle our purpose, and to do what we want to do. Make sure that your purpose in heart is exactly identical to the purpose of God for you, because it's important not just to be married to a Christian man, or to a Christian woman that gathers to the name of the Lord Jesus.

No, to be married to the person that the Spirit of God and God wants you to be married to. Very important. Ultimately important.

And all these purposes we find that the divine hand, the will of God. But the devil, you know, the devil used the mind to try to get at Daniel. He was educating him, putting it in his mind.

He knew he was a smart boy, and they knew they took the best from Israel, and they knew he was smart too. That's why they were trying. And it starts in the mind.

Satan will try to get things into your mind. Be very careful how you feed your mind. What you feed your mind with.

And then when it comes to the mouth too. That's right. They fed him the food.

So it's not just what goes into your mind is into your mouth. Your mouth is important too. And it's not just, you know, the things that we do.

It's the things we say. Your heart, your mouth sometimes say what's in your heart. Does it really? You know, it's important.

And they were feeding them with their mouth. Then it's their manner, isn't it? They wanted to change everything about them. Every single thing.

But ah, listen. Listen to the little song that we sing to the children. Dare to be a Daniel.

Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. And dare to make it known.

Is there young people? Is there older people? Oh yeah. Older people sometimes are called to stand alone too. And it might be harder.

It might be harder to stand alone when you're older than when you're young. You know, you ever think about that? You ever think of what it is in the journey you thought was almost over. Abraham's greatest test came at the, when he was an older man.

Older man when he took Isaac to the mountain. He figured it was all over when Isaac was given to them. I've made my last choice.

I don't have to have know the real purposes of God now. I've finally got my promised son and everything is finished. And when he thought everything was finished, God said to him one more.

We want you to take that son and go to the mountain. Some of the greatest, you know, when you get older, God calls upon you more than when you were younger. And what you did when you were young affects, that's right, what you ate will affect how you'll be when you're older.

Whether you got diabetes or some of these other things you overate, you didn't take care of yourself physically and they'll show up. Well, spiritually is the same thing when you get older. You ever see a foolish old man? I was in this whole, I was in a home of a foolish old man once.

Yeah, he lost his wife and you know, he didn't think he could be alone and he married a foolish old woman. Imagine. Well, that's worse than a foolish young man marrying a foolish young woman.

There's a foolish old man marrying a foolish old woman. Oh, I want to tell you that it's important to understand that the purposes of God don't stop at age brackets. And you might be called upon as an old man, weary, and you thought your work was finished and was all over.

And you thought that, you know, others would carry on and you wouldn't have to do anything else. And God calls upon you to stand firm and to have that purpose in your heart and to have a private life. We heard about that, didn't we? Reading out of a man, private life.

Important. Oh, I want to tell you it's important to know the word of God and to know the purpose of God. And in the midst of crisis, right choices can be made where we can be victorious.

Failure is not final. If you failed in your life, a long life journey, remember, failure is not final and is not fruitless either. You can be recuperated.

You can be restored. You can be regenerated. You can be repaired.

And you can be brought back in fellowship with God and be a monument as a token of the power of an eternal God. So may you never forget that there's real purposes, a divine hand. And then I didn't mention about Satan.

Satan has a purposes too. Oh, listen, just realize that God is over all. He will help you no matter what age bracket you're in, what crisis you're in, call to go to.

God can help you and he will help you. He will preserve you. He will keep you and will be victorious.

You'll be able to go in amongst the lions and come out alive. You'll be able to go into the fiery furnace and come out alive. That's the power of an eternal God.

But it means knowing God every day, every experience, every step. God bless you.