Gessner, Bob: Spread The Word Conference [Separation]-03 ~ Be Ye Separate Saith The Lord

This tremendously interesting study. I throw this out to some of you young men, young women, who, um, might be interested in doing further study in separation. Tremendously interesting study between Samson's mother and Manoah, or his father, and Hannah and Elkanah, Samuel's parents, and Elizabeth and Zechariah, John the Baptist's parents. Tremendously interesting study there. Sometime, you know, if you just want to sit down with your Bible and take an hour and just study in the area of separation, because there's a lot of parallels between those three families that is, is quite interesting. Uh, we don't have time to develop that, um, but it's something you can develop on your own. I could have used Samuel. Uh, what, what I want to do this morning is have an example of a positive. You know, last night we looked at Samson, who was a negative example of- of the Nazarite, of the separated person. This morning I wanted to take a positive example, and Samuel would have been an excellent one, wouldn't he? Uh, John the Baptist would be an excellent one. But I- I chose for some various reasons, which will come out as we develop it this morning, I chose Daniel and his compatriots, his contemporaries, uh, because there are some parallels there that I think need, need stressing today. Hmm. Oh, yeah, okay. Um, Steve just wanted, wanted me to mention from, uh, part five of yesterday's note, Samson refuses to learn and falls into the hands of a false woman that didn't get into the tape. Uh, so we just, you know, want to quickly make mention of the fact that his failure, his negative example there ended in his becoming fully captive to the Philistines and actually dying in their hands. But yet the remarkable thing is, don't we see both the grace of God and, and also the power of evil, in that though we see Samson falling into captivity, yet God uses him just once more, doesn't he, even in his death. And I think there's something beautiful about that, to realize that no matter how long you and I have resisted being used of the Lord and how much of our life we've wasted, if there's still breath within us, there's still grace, and there's still opportunity. Now, we come to Daniel, and let's go to the first chapter of Daniel, and I think you'll see why I chose him as our positive example of separation. We want to look just the first eight verses here in Daniel one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men. There's a key to why I chose this passage. Young men in whom there was no blemish, but good looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Now, from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them, the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart. Now here's a true Nazarite. He's taking the vows of the Nazarite. Daniel purposed in his heart. Who made him? Was somebody standing over him with a whip? Was somebody reading to him, you know, the, the legal aspects of, of Judaism and saying, now, Daniel, you must do this. He was far removed from the eyes of the priests, far removed from the eyes of, of, of the people of Jerusalem. Here he was in a land of captivity, probably forgotten, basically, by all the people back in Jerusalem. And yet it says, Daniel purposed in his heart. He voluntarily took upon himself those vows, that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now, we notice in this passage, first of all, it was the time of the Babylonish captivity. It was perhaps the lowest, well, I don't think we have to even use the word perhaps. It was the lowest point in the history of Judah. What God had told them for centuries had come about. God warned them if they worshipped idols, if they turned from him, if they mingled with the peoples of the land, if they refused to, to maintain a separate distinction as God's people, they would be brought into captivity, their kingdom would be taken away, and what God predicted, what God prophesied came to pass. Despite the fact that they took his prophets like Jeremiah and threw them in dungeons and put them in prisons and stoned them and killed them and refused to listen to them, it came to pass. Because what God says will happen, and it occurred. And if ever there was a time, number one, in which one might be excused for compromising, it was at this time. That is, if there was ever a time that that Daniel could have, you know, just shrugged his shoulders and said, well, yeah, I'm a Jew, but, you know, what, what's a Jew at this point? You know, we, we don't even have a country now. It's been taken away. The temple's been, uh, taken over. Uh, it's stripped. Uh, all everything within it has been taken into captivity along with us. And, uh, you know, what is there? There's, there's no really basically no priesthood anymore. Why should I have to be a Jew? Why should I practice being separated to God? It would have been easy for him to assume this attitude at this point. Now, this, this brings to an interesting point that I just, again, gonna just stray a little bit from the notes here for, for a minute or two. One of the things we need to be most careful about today in this area of separation, in the day in which we live, we're living in days very comparable to what Daniel was experiencing, as far as church history is concerned. We're in the Laodicean period, I believe. We're in the last days that Paul talks about in two Timothy three. To me, there's no question about it. Uh, and we're not gonna experience any great recovery. Uh, we're, we're heading toward the second coming of Christ, which could be tonight. Uh, and we're living in days in which the church all about us is compromising, and it's getting worse, and it's getting worse, and it will wax worse and worse because the Bible says so, and if the Bible says so, that's what will happen, and it's going to. Now, it becomes easy for us then to sort of develop some rather peculiar attitudes towards sin because of the world in which we live. And one of them I like to think of is, is this business of relat- of, of relative sin. And let's just think about that for a minute. For example, yeah, I'll just use this as an example. When I was a boy, in the local theater, they were showing a film about, um, uh, Henry Aldrich. Now, Henry Aldrich was, um, a boy in a family, a teenage boy in a family. Uh, and it, it kind of, the film, uh, I, I think would have, I never got to see it, but the film, as I understand it, was a film that pretty much portrayed American life in those days, what would have been typical experiences of a, of a teenage boy with humor connected with it, and so on and so forth. My parents absolutely forbid me to go to that film. I could not go to see it. My friends went to see it. I wanted to go to see it. They said, no way. I said, why? You know, because of course you always do when you're a teenager. And I said, why? They said, well, they're teaching you the wrong values. I said, I don't understand. What, what do you mean teaching the wrong values? Well, they're, they're not teaching you the values of the scriptures. They're, they're teaching you that, that, um, in this film, that the great American life, uh, that the American family is the ideal, that that's what you want to live for, that's what life is all about, and there's no, there's no greater thing in life than to, than to have a house and to have a wife and to have a family and to have a car and to, you know, to just enjoy the American way of life, and we want you to have different standards in that. Well, I guess so, you know, I didn't quite follow that, but okay, I accepted that. Now today, if Henry Aldrich was, um, again returned to the films, or, or was on, um, uh, if we could buy the video and put it on our television screen, we'd say that is a wholesome, excellent family film. We'd say that's tremendous. You know, we would encourage every young man, every young woman to watch that film because compared to what's being produced today, that film is great, right? Because what's coming out today, there is no family life. Uh, there is sex, and there is, you know, all the things that go with it. So the point is, this is what we mean by we've got to beware of relative sin. In other words, we are apt today to say, oh, this is okay, because compared to what was happening, to what is happening now, this looks pretty good. You know, really. It's not, not really all so bad. But the point is, anything that's not promoting my values in the scripture, that's not developing my character in a godly way, that's not creating within me an appreciation of the spiritual and godly aspects of life, is sin. It doesn't matter how wholesome it might be. It doesn't matter how good it is. You know, if, if the world produced it, it's intended to attract me to the world and to the world's values. And even though compared to something that's far dirtier and uglier, it nevertheless can almost, in a more deceitful way, attract me to the world than that which is more blatantly and openly sinful. So be careful of this in dealing with, with, with your problems in regard to separation. There's also very, very closely related to this in the days in which we're living, and that's why I'm, I'm just going off our notes a little bit here, is what I call the sin of comparison. And th- this is another big problem today. That is, you're, you're having a lot of relationship today because of the kind of culture, the world we live in, with very loose living. So, it's very easy for you to look at Joe over here and then look at yourself. I mean, remember, we did this in the days before we were saved. This is kind of where we got our security that maybe we would make it to heaven after all, because we're not quite as bad as, as Joe over here, and maybe God in his kindness will take us in since we've lived a little better life than Joe. Well, we tend to do the same thing in our Christian life. You know, we look at Joe over here, well, well, he, Joe says he's a Christian, you know, but you know, Joe does, you know, look at what Joe does, you know. I don't, I don't do some of the things Joe does. And, and so we kind of pat ourselves on the back. We think things are going pretty well because compared to so and so, I- I- I'm, I'm not nearly as bad. But God doesn't deal with comparisons. God deals with me as an individual. You remember we said in our notes last night, what one person may do, my conscience won't let me do, if I'm living in relation to God and not living horizontally in relation to everybody else. In other words, it it doesn't matter what so and so is doing or isn't doing. It's what does God want me to do, and what doesn't God want me to do? Because if if I base my life in comparison to others, then I'll end up being like others. And God doesn't want me to be like others. God wants me for himself. So if ever there was a time, it's wi- in which one might be excused for compromising, it certainly was in Daniel's time, and it certainly is in our time. But it's no excuse. And notice in two, these young men decided that there was nothing to hindering, nothing to hinder their standing as Nazarites in Babylon, just as they might have been in Jerusalem. In other words, these young men, even though they were no longer in Jerusalem, they were no longer, as it were, under the, the eyes of the priests or of the people of Jerusalem. They concluded in their own hearts that they could live as Nazarites in a foreign land, just as they could have lived as Nazarites in Jerusalem. In fact, if we go on to three, we'll see that it says the Nazarite ship of Babylon possesses charms and attractions. Notice we're saying charms and attraction. Fully as powerful as the Nazarite ship of Canaan. It proves that amid the darkest night, a devoted heart can enjoy a path of cloudless sunshine. Now, we mentioned this last evening. The darker the night, the greater the light. We actually have, though times are getting worse and will keep getting worse, we have opport- opportunities to shine as perhaps no one has ever had opportunities in ages past, because there is so much darkness. In other words, we're, we're, we are really living in days of tremendous challenge and opportunity. And we need to come before God and say, God, I know what's happening in this world. I- I see what's happening. I see how easy it is, you know, to just let go, to just let down the standards, to just go along with the tide, to do what everybody else is doing, you know, to just, you just kind of, you know, play the role. You know, that's kind of what we're doing. We kind of play the role as Christians. We've developed kind of our own Christian society. I mean, it's almost sort of like parallel to the world. Uh, the world does this, so we do this, but we, we put the title Christian on it. And the world does this, and so we do this too, but we kind of do it in our own little Christian. But we just, we just kind of go along with things and, and drift along. But we've got tremendous opportunity, like Daniel and his compatriots, to say, Lord, I want to go against the tide. I want to go against the tide. And, and I, I, I want to give my life to you today. And I, I know I'm going to fail from time to time. I know there's going to be problems. I know there's going to be slips. I know there's going to be backward steps just as there's forward steps. But I want to give my life to you and ask you to make me different, to help me to be like Daniel and his compatriots, and to stand up against this tide that's happening all over and all around me. God, can you do this? Can you really do this? Can God really do this? Can we ask him to do it? Can we even think that he can't do it? Can we possibly limit God? I- I mean, is there such a thing as things getting so bad, situations becoming so corrupt that God can't work? Is that possible? Well, Daniel didn't think so, and ni- neither did his compatriots. Now, let's look at some examples. We first of all have the example of the king's dream, going into chapter two. And you know the story there of how the king had a dream, and none of the magicians were able to interpret his dream. And so he called upon Daniel. We notice over in chapter two of Daniel, verse seventeen, Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. That they might seek mercies. This is beautiful language. You know, you know, think of these men living in a foreign country where everything was against them. You know, where, where their life was just ridiculed, and and no one, no one practiced life as they practiced it back in Jerusalem. And yet it says that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not pa- perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. And by the way, there was no selfishness in that request. That is, these young men were not asking God to save their lives so that they might live them for themselves and do what they wanted to do with their lives. You know, so often we do this. We ask God to spare our life. And, and perhaps many of us have been in situations where we've been or could have been near death, and we ask God, we plead with God to spare our life, and God might very easily have asked, why? Why should I? What are you going to do with it after I spare it? And if we're honest with God, we say, well, I want my life spared because I like my life. I- I'm enjoying what I'm doing, you know, and I want to go on living. I figure I've got a few more years left that I deserve, a few more vacations, a few more trips here and there, and a few more things to do, and, you know, a few more good times to be enjoyed, and so I'd like you to add a couple more years to my life. But we know these young men were not asking for that reason, because when it came right down to it, these men were willing to give their lives, and we're going to see the example of that. They wanted God to spare their lives so that they could live their lives for God. They were willing to live their lives for God, even if it meant it would cost them their life. And so they were asking God to spare them so that they might be able to live their lives for God. And so then, in verse nineteen, the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Tremendous words. Here he, here he was living in the darkness of Babylon, blessing the God of heaven, living above it all, and God giving him special abilities. Now, you notice we put down in part two, God's Nazarites can see farther into human affairs than the most profound philosophers of this world, and they were let into the secret of the king's dream, and that's absolutely true. The man or woman who learns to separate his life onto God and to live for God knows more about what's going on in this world than all your psychologists and all your professors and all your moralists and all your philosophers, put them all together, and the man or woman who's learned to live a life apart from God knows more about what's going on than all of them put together. We have the example of it right here. All the wise men of Babylon. This was the greatest empire that ever existed up to this time. Maybe the greatest that ever existed, period, as far as power and strength is concerned. And yet there wasn't one of them could tell the king the real meaning of his dream and what it meant as far as the future was concerned. But Daniel could. Because, one, the man and woman who is separated for God is above the world's darkness brought about by moral defilement. Because the world allows itself to live in the filth and defilement of sin, their minds are darkened. They don't really understand, they don't want to understand, and they're not capable of understanding what's going to take place. They won't accept some of the very simplest and basic truths of the Bible, and if they won't accept those, then they're blinded to many other things that, that fit in with this. If you want really good advice in your Christian life, learn to consult first with the scriptures. Remember, Daniel went first to the God of heaven, and then learn to consult with those Christians who you know, who you respect and know are living a life that is set apart from this world. They'll give you far better advice, far greater wisdom than you're going to get from psychologists and philosophers and educators around this world. As a matter of fact, most of them today are living in a state of confusion. In the city of Allentown, I saw in our newspaper that they were having a meeting, the educators of the city, to try to find out why they're having, what they can do about all the violence that's in their schools. Now, now here's, here's educators, men who've supposedly studied for years and have earned degrees and are supposed to be experts in this field, and they're baffled. They don't know why kids are, are misbehaving the way they are and why all these things are happening in their schools. And the Bible gives us very simple answers to it, doesn't it? The simplest answers you could possibly find. We know why people are misbehaving. We know why these things are taking place, but they won't be. They won't accept it. They won't even allow the Bible in the school. Now, you notice, second of all, the man who's separated unto God, man, the men and women have only to look up to heaven in order to be endowed with a clear understanding. You see, here's the reason why God can reveal his secrets to those who are separated. When we're separated to God, our mind and our hearts are in harmony with his. But when we're not separated and seeking to live our own pathway, then there's a disharmony there. We've got two pathways to deal with here. We're, we're developing one pathway, God has another pathway, and these come into disharmony, and that's why God can't reveal himself and his secrets to those that are not walking and separated to himself. You'll find hundreds of examples in the scriptures, which we couldn't possibly develop this morning, even if we were capable of doing it, we could- wouldn't have the time to do it. Hundreds of examples of those whom God revealed his secrets to. And it's interesting to note their moral states at the time. Moses, Joseph, John the Baptist, John on the Isle of Patmos, Paul the Apostle, Peter, men whom God first of all set apart, then he revealed to them the secrets of his heart. Now we go on to the king's image. After the king's dream, the king made an image. And we pretty well know the story of this. Upon the suggestion of, of his servants, of those who worked for him, he made this image, and it was, it was, uh, made the law that everyone had to bow down to this image. And we notice in chapter three, verse twelve, let's just look at that one verse. Some of his, the king's servants came and said, this is a quotation, three twelve. there are certain Jews. Kind of an interesting statement, isn't it? Certain Jews. In the book of Acts, you know, they talked about certain Christians. These troublemakers, these individuals, you know, that don't go along with the mores of society, these wave makers, refusing to conform. Certain Jews whom you set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. By the way, did you notice when Daniel addressed his friends, and when we read it in chapter two, he used their Hebrew names. When, uh, these men reported to the king, he used their Babylonian names. And he said, these men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these men, oh king, have not paid due regard to you. Beautiful language. And I just, you know, you can't get over the marvel of the beauty of language. How, how could they pay due regard to him when they were men separated to God? You say, well, a- a- aren't we told to, to obey kings and those in authority? Yes, we certainly are, until they start to make religious laws that cause us to turn our back from God. But that's where the line's drawn, isn't it? We ought to obey God rather than men, said Peter. And so they said, these men, they've not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you set up. Interesting. Our God wants men and women. He wants us to belong to him. But you know, the gods that men make, they belong to men. Notice I said they're our gods that we set up. Now, notice we said here in this one that God's Nazarites could not bow down to an image made by man. They withstood the seduction of the king's image. It did not matter to them, number one, that all the world was against them. And it basically was, the whole Babylonian world in which they lived there, but everybody was bowing their knees, except these three. We're not quite sure where Daniel was at this point. There's a feeling that he was not in the area, that somehow he, he was moved, because I'm sure Daniel would have joined them. We know enough about, about him to know he would have been right there with him. So except these three, the whole Babylonian world was bowing down to this image. I think it's, it would be worth our time to just take a minute and look at John fifteen nineteen because it's a verse of great importance, right at this point. If you were of the world... Now, this is an if contrary to fact. You're not of the world if you're a Christian. So we say this if is contrary to fact. But if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates, hates, hates you. That's what the Bible says. I- I- I mean, you know, it doesn't say the world admires you. It doesn't say the world looks up to you. We get so much of this today, you know, that Christians are, are supposed to be people that the world looks up to, that the world admires, that, you know. But it says here, the world hates you. That's what it says. Because of our relationship to Christ. Because we belong to him and we're separated to him, and we refuse to do what the world asks us to do, the world hates us. The world only likes those that, that go along with what the world wants, their own. In other words, those that will conform, shape to the way the world wants them. And of course, the world, I think perhaps if you've not learned it by experience, you will learn it by experience because you're young yet, perhaps you haven't. But the world is an extremely cruel world, and and we've heard the expression a cruel world because what the world does is it it asks everything out of you. It it it wants to shape you, conform you into its very image. It wants you to do everything the way it wants it done, and then in the end, it throws you in a corner and lets you die alone. That's what the world does. I don't care how accepted a person becomes in this world, how famous they become in it, how, how many friends they have in it, when they come to die, they've got none. They're alone. Well, these fellas, as you know the story, it didn't matter to them. Notice in number two, this is the most important point, Roman numeral three point two. They did not condone error in order to avoid the appearance of judging others. In other words, they they could have very easily, uh, taken the position here, well, uh, we'll we'll go along with this, uh, bowing down to the idols, uh, since this is what everybody's doing, because we don't, we don't want them to think that we're trying to act like we're holier than they are. Uh, we don't, we don't want them to think, you know, that we're looking down on them, that, um, uh, you know, that, that we just don't want to make them feel this way. They didn't care how it affected the rest of them. As a matter of fact, I'm sure they were, they were in their hearts thankful that if the whole world felt guilty, because they ought to be, they were bowing down to an image that was made with a man's hands. They were not bowing down to the God of heaven, and they ought to feel guilty. But I think this is the most important principle, in that you and I so often try to avoid offense. We, we just do this. We, you know, we say, oh, we don't, we don't want to offend anybody, you know, be careful. We, we don't, we don't want to cause offense. You have to offend if you're going to stand for God's principles and God's word. You just have to. One time the disciples came to the Lord, and they were all upset because of something the Lord said, and they said to the Lord, don't, don't you realize that you offended? You, you offended these Pharisees? If you read that portion, the Lord was obviously more aware he had offended them than they were. But the Lord had to go on and explain that this world is going to be offended. They're going to stumble because of him. If they were offended at the Lord Jesus Christ when he walked here, they're going to be offended with you and I if we're going to be his followers and we're going to live for him. We cannot avoid offense. We can't do it. And as soon as we seek to try to do it, we are then compromising. That's basically what we're doing. I mean, you can use any other term. What you're doing is you're compromising the truth. You are watering it down. You're not presenting it in its full impact because you don't want to offend people. This is a principle we use so much today in churches and chapels. You know, people come in, we say, we don't want to offend them. We want to make them feel at home. We want them to come back again. And so when we preach, uh, you know, we don't, we don't want to be too harsh in what we say. We don't, really, we don't want to be too clear. We don't want to come really right out and tell them they're sinners on the way to hell. We don't want to do this. I mean, you tell somebody they're a sinner on the way to hell, they're not going to come back. Right? Nobody wants to hear that kind of thing. They'll come back if they really believe they are sinners on the way to hell, because they want to come back and find out how they can be saved. But if they don't really believe they are sinners on the way to hell, you don't want to tell them they're not. You want to make them feel comfortable and make them, uh, you know, put them on a, on a bed of flowers and let them go to hell in a bed of flowers, do you? What kind of a friend is that? To make a person feel good when you know they're lost and perishing, and they could walk out of your chapel and that same night fall over dead. And you made them laugh, and you amused them, and you had a nice time with them, and you made them feel as if everything was great and, and life was rosy. Is that what I'm called upon to do? No, I must offend. This, this comes with the truth. It stings, it hurts, it goes into the innermost being because it's God's truth, and we're sinners, we're sinful, and we need to be reminded we're sinful. And one of the purposes of the church is to hold up the truth. It's the pillar of the truth so that men might be able to come and learn and see what they are and be challenged by the truth, not to be entertained and be made to take life easy. The church is not a social club. It's not a place of entertainment. It's a place of challenge and edification. We, the, the church should be drawing us to the truth and giving us a desire to want to live a life apart from this world and to live for God. Now there was a third thing in Roman numeral four, and it was the king's furnace. God's Nazarites were ready to suffer the loss of all things, even life itself, in defense of the true worship of God. Let's look at verses seventeen eighteen. Seventeen and eighteen. These young men said, let's take six, sixteen for connection. This is one of the most beautiful quotations in the word of God in regard to the subject of separation. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Think of these three young men before the mightiest monarch that ever sat on a throne on this earth. Do you know that, that it's believed that no monarch ever had, or ever will have, even in the future, as far as earthly monarchs next to Jesus Christ himself, no monarch ever had the power that Nebuchadnezzar had. I mean, that man, he, he, he just, he had such authority that anything he commanded was done all over his kingdom. And there's these three young men, these three Jews from Jerusalem standing there and saying, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Where are they coming from? I mean, who do they consider their authority? You know who their authority was. One higher than Nebuchadnezzar. If that is the case, verse seventeen, uh our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, they considered the alternative. They didn't just say, oh, well, we'll, we'll come through this alive. No, they said, if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your guard, your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Notice we said in one, they loved the Lord, and therefore, for his sake, they abstained from the king's luxuries, withstood the king's rage, and endured the king's furnace. And two, it was worth passing through a fiery furnace to enjoy more of his presence. This is not the day of Christ's power, but it's the day of his sympathy. And in going through this experience, there was a fourth man in that furnace. It was the Lord himself. And these young men experienced the Lord as they never, never could have experienced him in passing through this earth if they had not taken this stand. Now, if you and I are willing to separate ourselves for God, we'll experience him in ways that other Christians will never experience him. There is out there for you experiences that you've never experienced until you do separate yourself for God. Oh, young men, young women, go in for this. We need you to do this in, in the months, years, whatever might be till Jesus Christ. We need separated men of God and separated women of God as we've never needed them before. Are you going to be one of them? That's the challenge that faces you right now, and you've got to make that decision. And I, am I going to be one of those that will go against the tide and live for God? Shall we pray. Our Father, we thank you for the challenging story of Daniel and his compatriots. Oh God, we thank you that you've given us the wonderful, matchless privilege of going against the tide. How dull is the routine of conforming to this world and going along with everything around us. Oh God, raise up in this company men and women who are willing to stand alone if necessary, but go against the tide. God, we ask you will do this in Jesus' name.