Pastor Robert Hernandez Preaches one Being Unshakable

Good morning, family. Such an honor and a blessing to speak into your life from right here in McKinney, Texas, at Life Fellowship Church, onto your tablets, wherever you are on the Pando app. It's just incredible technology, right? We can go into over 2 million tablets. It's pretty incredible. My name is Logan Williams. My TDC number is 1490218. I have 4 TDC numbers after that, which means I came back to prison 4 times. I understand being caught in that loop that you just can't seem to get this thing figured out. And I know as well as many of you that are watching how easy it is to go back to prison once you've been once. It's just so easy. And so, man, I'm here to speak to that because I know there is a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of hopelessness. There's a lot of doubt. There's a lot of people that just want to throw in the towel. In a lot of the places that you're at, I want to encourage you not to do that, to dig in now, to dig in now, because when you hit that gate, that enemy is going to come at you with whatever flavor of temptation you like, whether it's drugs, whether it's a woman, whether it's money, whether it's this, whether it's that. He's coming. He's coming. And you need to be ready. You need to be ready. We want you to know that we pray for you here. We have two very powerful prayer meetings and we pray for you. And if you send in a prayer request, it's put up here on stage and prayed over by many people. We love you. We care about you. We want you to know that you're part of our church family. And if you're anywhere near the DFW Metroplex, when you get out, we want you to come visit us. Even if you don't live near here, man, come see us. Look for me. I would love to spend the afternoon with you, have a conversation with you, get some lunch with you, all of that, man, please, please come. Man, I wanted to just read a scripture over you guys today. One that's very near and dear to my heart. It's a scripture that, um, has pulled me through some, some really dark times. Um, and I just want to read it over you. It's Psalm 139. I want to read the first 18 verses. Just kind of, I know you've got your earbuds in, just kind of close your eyes and just let God's word just wash over you. It says in verse one, Oh Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know, my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts are far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. There's not a single word on my tongue, but behold, Oh Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful

for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take wing, the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both a light to you for you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they were all written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are your thoughts to me? Oh God, how great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sands of the earth. Um, so it's an awesome scripture that we need to have in our hearts that God fearfully and wonderfully made us, that he planned our days out in advance and he has a plan and a purpose for our life. And not only that, but he thinks about us more times than the number of grains of sand on the earth. Like, do you believe that? To just be totally transparent with you guys, there are days that I have a hard time believing that. There are days that I do have doubt, I do have apprehension, that I do have anxiety. I think stems from how I was growing up, you know. I wasn't the best, I wasn't the worst, I was just kind of right in the middle. I didn't get picked first on the playground, I didn't get picked last. I played football and I was pretty good at it. I tore up my knee in high school and that was over. I was just never really noticed, you know. And when you grow up like that, it's hard to imagine yourself being set apart. It's hard to imagine that God has fearfully and wonderfully made you, but this is what the Word of God says. And so when I start believing those lies, you know, I work here at a church as a pastor, which is mind-blowing to me, and the enemy will come in with all the lies. You haven't been saved long enough, you don't know enough about the Bible, you didn't go to seminary, you've got 14 felony convictions, you did drugs for 30 years, you did nine and a half years in prison, you've been divorced, all the things trying to tell me I'm not qualified. But listen, God has placed me here and when I start to go down

that road, man, those things will shut me down if I keep listening to them. They will, but then I can go back to Psalm 139, no, no, no, no. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. God has a plan for your life and he set the days out before you ever, you were ever even formed in your mother's womb. And to go along with that, he's thinking about me so much that if you counted his thoughts just about me, just about you, there would be more numerous than the grains of sand of the earth. And I want you to just get that in your heart, guys. God loves you. He fearfully and wonderfully made you and he cannot stop thinking about you. So when I go to those dark places, man, I come right back to Psalm 139. I just speak it over my life, man. I just speak it over my life and it's pulled me out of some really dark times. And I know that many of you in the places that you're at, it's dark. I know, I know, but you need to have a go-to scripture, a scripture that you can anchor your life to knowing that, yes, man, I may be here right now. I may have had a catastrophe in my life that has brought me to prison, but this is going to be the thing that catapults me into knowing him and the plan and purpose that he has for my life. This, the biggest catastrophe in my life has turned into be the biggest blessing because it was at that point, what I thought was the worst day of my life was the beginning, the beginning of what I now, the life I'm living today, man. But it's hard to, it's hard to have that awareness all the time. So when you go down those dark roads, you need to have a scripture that you can anchor yourself to that gives you hope, that encourages you, that encourages you in the Lord. And if you don't have one, use mine. Use Psalm 139. Use, use it. Please take it and ask God to bring you, bring you another one. Man, I love you guys. I love you. You guys are amazing. I love speaking into your life. I love, I just, my heart is that you can find the willingness to surrender to him like I somehow did because it's so worth it, man. That's my hope and my prayer for all of you. Father, I just lift up all the men and women that are listening. I just, man, I just thank you, God. I know that this, just the fact that they clicked on the Life Fellows, this, this sermon right here, that they clicked on this is just proof that you are after them. They could be watching movies. They could be watching whatever else is on that tablet, but they're watching this today. And God, I pray that just you would take that and encourage someone that's, that's, that's discouraged right now into saying, hey man, the reason you did that is because my spirit is in you. The reason you did that is because I'm drawing you to me. I have left 99 to go find you. And then I think about you more than the grains of sand on the earth. God, I pray that these truths would just be washed over them and just

lodged in their hearts where they can live from them, man, that they can, that they can, they can have that. anchor even in the midst of the places that they're at. So God, I pray that this message that they hear, man, I pray those seeds fall on fertile soil, God, that you would bring the increase. And if there's anyone listening right now that does not know you, God, I pray that you would just show them Romans 10 that says that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It is just that simple. It is just that simple. Just call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. He will change your life. He will show you your seat at the table for all who call upon his name. And so God, we love you. We thank you. We give you all the praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And you guys know I just have one more question for you. Whose house? God's house. Let's give him some praise. Scripture says that we always want to give honor where honor is due. And there's a reason that every time we have somebody not our campus pastor get up, they always talk about him. And that's what scripture says, to give honor where honor is due. And so pastors John and Jen, quick little story. I call pastor Jen work mom. Everyone's got one. I get to work and I'm like, oh, I'm hungry. Oh, my stomach hurts. And she goes, how can I help you? I don't know why that's the voice in my head sometimes, but she's got those pretzels with a little peanut butter in them. And she's like, are you hungry? Do you need some Advil? It's just, and I know that we all feel that way. Like we can just go to pastor Jen and she's going to take care of us and love on us. And it's great. And then pastor John, man, I don't call him work dad. That'd be kind of weird. But I'll be honest. He, a couple of weeks ago, I was like, Hey man, I'm kind of nervous. And he goes, Hey, come present to me and I'll give you feedback and give you insight. And I said, okay, cool. And so I go in and he goes, all right, did you print your message out? And I was like, no. And he was like, we'll go, go do that. I'm like, okay. So I printed out, I bring it to him. I sit, I sit in his office and he pulls out a red pin and I'm like, dude. Okay, cool, man. And so I start doing it. Right. I start practicing and he didn't even look at me. He just looks at the paper and writes. And the whole time I'm like freaking out. I'm like, oh man, he's, I just know in my mind, he's like writing X, writing like an F over here. Like, oh. And then he goes, all right, hang on. I was like, I wouldn't even finish. Like I was kind of scared. And he goes, great message. And I went, oh, thank goodness. Well, cause that was terrifying for me. And, and then he gave me some amazing feedback. And I, and I realized like this man has a doctorate

and expository teaching. Yeah. And I was like, how cool did I get to like sit here and get advice. And it was beautiful feedback. And I left that meeting so encouraged and excited. It was really cool. And I was like, you ever worked with somebody for so long, you kind of forget how amazing they are at times. That's kind of where I was at. And I was like, man, I just had such a deeper appreciation and love for pastor John. So thanks pastor. All right. A little bit about me. Um, my wife and I got married four months ago and a fun little tidbit is, Oh, thanks. You guys feel free to clap anytime. It just gives me a little bit of peace. Fun little fact about our marriage. I proposed on February 11th and four days later we got married. So when couples are like, man, we're getting married a year and a half from now, I'm like, no, I was ready to go. I've been waiting a while. We don't have any children. We have one dog. His name is Shamrock. He's a little Chihuahua mix. I like to call him because it makes me feel very biblical. And I usually say it with that accent. And I love, I love y'all. Please stop coming up to me and asking me, when are you guys going to have kids? We, we love you. We've been married for four months. Give us a couple of years. We also live in an RV and although we have phenomenal cosmic power, we have eating living space. And I just, sometimes I like to think about it like, Oh man, when we have kids and we're expecting, but then there's this little narrow part on her side of the bed. I just imagine her like squeezing through. So we love you. I've got one guy every Sunday. He goes, pastor is today the day I lay hands and pray for you. No, stop it. I love you. We will let you know. Okay. I did. I was not always a Christian. I grew up at Jehovah's witness and then became an agnostic and then an atheist and eventually a Christian. And that goes along with, Hey, I love that. I'm not used to that. That's cool. And that goes along with the message. The series title is unshakable. And I thought as we were praying about it, as we were talking about it, how do we have that unshakable faith? When we're going through things, when we're going through stress and fear, politics, war, climate, whatever, what's that unshakable faith look like in your heart? What the, the, the title for today's message is the writing. the wall. I want to take a little bit further, the writing of the wall of your hearts. When I was an atheist, I was my own God. I cared only about me. I cared nothing about anybody else. It was all about me. And as we go through the message today, I really want you to pray,

Holy Spirit, what's the writing on the walls of my heart? How do I build that unfakeable shape? Unfakeable, unshakeable faith. There it goes. It's like something tasted weird. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this wonderful day. We thank you for the opportunity to be with you and fellowship together and pray. Lord, I pray that every person here would hear the message you have for them. Let any words of Robert fall to the floor and let only the words of you stand, Lord. Father, we pray that as we go through this, that you would show us the writing on the walls of our heart. Maybe it's in a good place. Maybe it's not. Lord, we pray that you would be able to open us and help us hear you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Pastor John always starts with Acts 17.11, which is the Jews of Berea. And it says that the Jews of Berea would examine the scriptures daily to see if what Paul taught was true. And I love that because it points back to you going and examining. So I'm going to have a bunch of scriptures. I want you to write them down. I want you to study them throughout this week. Just because we're up here and we're talking doesn't mean we're right. Doesn't mean we're perfect. But this is how you grow in your knowledge of the Bible. This is how you grow in your understanding of Christ. This is how you develop that relationship. I meet with a lot of people and they go, I don't really understand what I'm reading, Pastor. And I go, it's okay. That's why we want you to do this. Luke 6.45 is going to be my main focus scripture. A good man brings good things out of the good stored in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Matthew 12.34 says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And as I prayed about scripture today, as I prayed about the message, I thought, man, I got to experience that. I told you I was an atheist. Now I've been through 24 surgeries. And one of the, and two of those were pacemaker surgeries. Now I love you. Please, if you see me like sweating and stuff, don't come up to me like, is your heart okay? I'm okay. Sweating is fine. My heart cardiologist calls me once a year and he's like, Hey, everything looks fine. You're good. So don't just kind of assume the worst for it. But I had a pacemaker put in when I was 19. It's more of an arrhythmia than anything else. And it was really, really crazy. I had this three-day heart monitor on 21 days. They only had it for three. And then they call me and they go get to the hospital and I'm freaked out and I'm scared. I'm 19. They get me to the hospital. They put me in ICU. They hook up the little pads to me. And for the first time, and hopefully the last time I heard my heart flatline. I was 19 and I remember being completely defeated going, what's the, what's the point?

Cause I had no God. It was only me. And so they wheel me in for emergency surgery the next morning and they take care of me and they bring me out. And the first thing I do when I wake up from anesthesia, I start hitting on the nurses. Okay. I was 19. Okay. First off I was an atheist and I was like, Hey girl, what's your MySpace? Okay. MySpace before Facebook. Okay. Some of you still, still have a little bit of wounding from the eight friends on your wall. It's okay. If you don't know that, come talk to an older person. But that was where my heart was. It was only me. It was only focused on what I wanted to do. A few years later, I I'm at the end of my rope. I don't know what to do. And so I decided to give this retreat a try. I go, you know what? Fine. I'm just going to go on this retreat because I'm so depressed in what I'm doing. I go on this retreat. It's November 6th of 2015. And I'm, I'm sitting there, I'm listening to the message and I'm like, this is a cool thing. And I reach into the cup holder and there's a penny and I go, Oh, what's the mint here on that? And it actually wound up being my birth year. And for the first time ever, I heard Holy Spirit. He goes, son, do you know how hard it is to get all the minerals from the earth to get that penny minted for it to change hand these last 26 years to end up right here, right now, just for you? Do you know how hard that is? I said, no Lord. And he goes, and it was all completely worth it because I love you. And I realized in that moment, not only is Jesus real, but he wants a real relationship with me. Just like he wants a real relationship with every single one of you. Few years later, the batteries go out on these things about every 10 to 15 years. And I, this was an easy one, right? Like I prayed with my people, they covered me in prayer. I walk into the hospital. They wheel me down. Mr. Hernandez, you doing okay? Yeah, I'm good. And I wake up from surgery and I'm a little groggy and I got that anesthesia moment going on. I do not hit on the nurses. I, um, I look at the doctor and I go, you need prayer. And I grab him by the scrub and pull him over and just grip his face. Just alien face hugger style. And I just start praying for this guy. I'm doing it in tongues. It's not even English. You don't know what tongues is. That's a different sermon.

I am just praying for him in tongues. I shove him away. I grabbed her, boom. I grabbed their face, shoved them away. I hear dope and I'm like, dope him. I'm with Jesus. Boom. And I, and then I like wake up, I pass out. I wake up and I see the lights flipping over me and I am singing at the top of my lungs just to know you had to make you, I can't even sing on key. I'm singing in Robert key. It was terrible, but man, I was so full of God in that moment. And they wheeled me into the room and my, they're just like, okay, good luck nurse. And I go, do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? And that nurse goes, um, okay. Anesthesia, Robert, he's a little hard edged. He just goes, see, that's the problem. Sorry. So often we put the face of our earthly father on the face of our heavenly father. And that's not who God is. God loves you unconditionally. He wants a real relationship with you and he wants a real relationship with you. You know what she does? She cries and runs out of the room. Um, I passed back out, wake up and they're like, Hey, Mr. Handers, you're good. Please leave. Okay, cool. Um, I'm driving, I'm being driven home. I wasn't driving.

That'd have been crazy. And I call my, my mentor, Papa bear, Polly, and I am just anesthesia. Robert, I texted him this week. I'm like, do you remember this moment? He goes, yeah, I remember. And I go Papa bear. And I just tell him this entire story and I sound ridiculous. And he says something I'm never going to forget. He goes, son, we're kind of like tubes of toothpaste. I go minty. And he goes, I go, yes, sir. We're kind of like tubes of toothpaste. When you're squeezed, what's been put into you is what's pushed out. And right now what's being pushed out of you is Jesus. And then I heard the Holy spirit say something really soft and really gentle to me. He goes, because of you, lives were changed today. And this isn't a story about like, Hey Robert, great job. This is more a story of God had changed the writing on the walls of my heart. Whereas the first time I had no God, I thought only of myself. And the second time after I'd been changed and radically transformed where I served for the next 10 years on ministry events all over the world, different churches, being able to see God do amazing things. That's what God wants to do in your hearts. He wants to radically transform you. Do me a favor, everybody. Put, bring your hands up, make a little cross. You guys actually did it. That's cool. All right, now bring it to your heart.

This is, I met my wife in sign language who is incredible and amazing and legit. One of the smartest people I've ever met. And so this is one of the ways of saying saved. Somebody has saved all that person. They're saved. And I thought how appropriate when we put that cross over our heart, God really does change the writing of the walls. And that's what he wants to do with you today. Proverbs 4 23, above all things, guard your heart for everything you do from it. Everything you do flows from it. And when pastor John told me about the topic today, which would the writing on the walls, I started thinking about it. And I thought of Daniel that Daniel is in the old Testament. So you get past Proverbs and Psalms, Ezekiel, lamentations, you get to Daniel. And what was really neat was it's in Daniel chapter five, and I'm not going to focus on it, but I do want to kind of give you a little bit of background. This hand appears out of nowhere and it just starts writing on the wall. It does this during a party in Babylonia and it's writing. It's freaking everybody out. It's not even writing in a language anybody understands. The queen runs in and she's like, may the king live forever. There's a man in your kingdom who interpreted dreams for your father and he can interpret this. And so when I heard writing on the wall, I started with that story and prayed about it. We're not going to stay there, but I do encourage you this week. Go and read Daniel. Daniel, all of it was fantastic and I loved it. And so we're actually going to be focused on Daniel one and two today. So in Daniel chapter one, it says that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah.

Now Judah was Israel after it split up and it says that they took people and we're going to get to that in a little bit, but there were three major deportations of Israel through this regime. And this was the first one. And it says that they took people and they took articles. And what that means is they went into the temple. They didn't completely ransack it, but they, they did that and destroyed it later, but they did go and steal articles, which would be like plates, goblets, chopsticks. I don't know, articles. And in Daniel chapter one, verse six, it says among those who were chosen from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And what was really interesting was you may not know Hananiah. Ananiah, Mishael, and Ezariah. You might know them by a different name, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And what was interesting is when people were taken captive, they were then changed by the nation that they were now in. And so Daniel's name means God is my judge, and it was changed to Belteshazzar, which means Bell protect his life. Bell was a Babylonian god. Hananiah, Yahweh has been gracious, changed to Shadrach, which means command of Aku, Sumerian moon god. Mishael means who is God, changed to Meshach, who is Aku. Ezariah means God is mighty, changed to Abednego, servant of Nabu. And what was so interesting to me about this moment was this was an attack on their identity.

You see, all of their names pointed back to God. And when they were taken from their land, taken to Babylonia, they were changed to help them assimilate. But really, it was just an attack on their character. In Matthew chapter four, you see where Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. And Jesus fasts for 40 days, and the enemy comes to him and he says, if you're really the son of God, then change these stones into bread. And Jesus says, no, it is written, right? He points back to scripture. But the attack came on Jesus's identity. If that's the first attack the enemy is gonna do on Jesus, then what do you think the enemy is gonna try and do with you? He's going to attack your identity in Christ. I hear sometimes, man, I'm just, I gave my life to Christ and everything got harder. Yeah, because now you're doing the right thing. I'm trying, I'm struggling, I'm really moving, correct? Because the enemy doesn't want you to follow after Christ. When we gave our life to Christ, it wasn't because I went, Lord, make my life easy. It was because I realized it wasn't about me anymore. And so the enemy is gonna come and attack your identity. Daniel chapter one, verse three through four. Then the king ordered Ashvanaz, chief of his court officials,

to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility. Pause. These guys were royalty. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. These guys were of the noble lineage. And what's so amazing to me is these guys were young. Most theologians agree that Daniel was about 15 years old. I don't know what you were doing at 15, but I was mostly interested in Pokemon cards. Okay, some of you laugh, some of you understand, thank you. Some of you weren't allowed to play with them. And what was amazing though is that Daniel did this at 15 and we're gonna get to what's so amazing. Okay, verse four. Young men without physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand. Man, I thought Jesus was talking to me for a second. I just was like, yeah, young men, okay. All right, that didn't get me. Okay, I think I heard my wife laugh more. All right, these were smart dudes. These were good looking dudes. These were guys who could have easily been like, we're the best. It's all about us, but they weren't. Daniel chapter one, verse five. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine

from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years. And after that, they were to enter the king's service. And so what was interesting is this food was prepared for the Babylonian way. It was prepared according to the pagan gods. And what's so interesting is if you read the Old Testament, you read, they had to prepare a food a certain way. And in verse eight, it says, but Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. He asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Point number one today, what areas of your life has God called you to guard? But Daniel resolved not to defile himself. He's 15. He's taken captive from his people. He probably watched friends, families, and loved ones die. They ransacked the temple. They took stuff of the temple for our God. I can't imagine how Daniel feels. I know how I'd feel. I'd be afraid. I'd be nervous. I'd be scared. I would probably be like, you know what? Whatever I gotta do to survive. But that's not what Daniel did. Daniel at 15 years old resolved not to defile himself.

What areas has God called you to guard? What does that look like in your life? Maybe you gave your life over to Christ and you have these areas where Holy Spirit's going, I need you to come back this way a little bit. Hey, I know you really enjoy this, but I need you to kind of come back over here. What's amazing in verse nine, now God, now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel. The blessing always follows the stance, not before. You see, the blessing came, but only after Daniel went, no, I'm not going back. that way. I'm not coming this way. This is where I stand. I choose not to walk there. And then the blessing followed. And the the chief came back to him and he goes, Look, you have to eat this food because if you look sickly, the king will kill me. And Daniel said, I'll make you a deal. Give me 10 days. That number is important. 10. Give me 10 days to prove that what we're eating and what we're doing is good. We're only gonna eat vegetables and water. That's how you know Robert didn't do it. There would have been some steak in there. He goes, test us in 10 days and we'll see. And the chief goes, okay, because God had already had compassion in favor. So 10 days later, they come back to the chief and he goes, Okay, let's test you. And they pass. Verse 17. To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And so for the next three years, they learned, they trained, they grew, and they did their stance. And what's interesting was the end of that verse says, and

Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. Why Daniel? That was the first thing that kind of popped into my mind. Why Daniel? Why not Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah? Because Daniel was the one who stood forward. I know his buddies were there going, we got you, Daniel. But you should do it. You should. That's you, man. We got you. I'm gonna be over here. And God showed favor to that. In verse 19, the king talked to them and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the king's service in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them. He found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the whole kingdom. How many times? 10. Why? Because they said, look, give us 10 days. No coincidences with God. He knew what he was doing. And when Daniel stood forward, I believe he did it with the spirit. He was like, we're not doing that. Just give us 10 days. And God showed up and did amazing things. Some time goes by. Scripture isn't very clear about it. But in Daniel chapter two, the king has this terrifying dream. And scripture doesn't even tell you what the dream is until Daniel later. But the king just is scared. And he goes, man, I'm going to bring together all the astrologers, the diviners, the enchanters, the magicians, and I want them to interpret it. And they all stand up and they go, we got this. We can interpret anything. We can do it. And the king goes, okay, here's the deal. You do it. I will give you riches and honor and I will give you authority, but you don't do it. I'll kill you and your whole family. Your house will be turned to rubble. And they go, yeah, we can do that. Easy. No problem. Go ahead and tell us your dream. So the king tells them the dream and, and scripture goes, they go,

okay. Uh, you know, okay. Tell us again, king. And the king starts to wise up. He goes, did you just ask that because you need more time? Cause you really can't do this. Cause I promise you interpret it and I will give you riches and honor. Don't and I'll kill you and your whole family. And they go, yeah, no, we can do it. So he tells them again and they go, Hey king, we can't do this. No man can do this. Only God's can and God's don't walk among men. And the king is angry. He is like, all right, here's the deal. You couldn't do it. So not only am I going to kill you all, every wise man, enchanter and diviner in the nation of Babylonia will be killed. And so he sends out the king's guard. And what's so amazing to me is in verse two, in chapter two, verse 14, when Ariok, the commander of the king's guard had gone out to put to death, the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact point number two today, where is God calling you to act in boldness to your fear? Maybe there's an area of your life where you're like, God's been really pushing on my heart to talk to this person about Christ. But that really makes me anxious. God's calling you to step forward with him, to partner with him in this and share your faith. Maybe it's other areas where you work in an industry where it's mostly like a bunch of other dudes. And there are jokes that like, you don't always feel comfortable with, but you don't say anything either. Maybe Holy Spirit's asking you to, it's time to step forward and be bold. Maybe it's to reach out to somebody and go, Hey, can we grab a coffee? I'd love to hear your story about Christ. I need to be encouraged. Verse 15. He asked the king's officer. Why did the king issue such a harsh decree? Ariok, and this is the commander of the king's guard. Then explain the matter to

Daniel. At this, Daniel went to the king and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream. Time. Daniel was so bold again. He went to the king and he goes, look, just give us time. I'm the king. And I'm going, no, no, I already played this game once. You don't get to do it again. But here's the thing. He'd already seen Daniel and his three guys be smarter than everybody else. He had already seen them do incredible and amazing things. And he said, okay, give you some time. So Daniel in verse 17, then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Don't miss this, guys. Daniel immediately grabbed his friends and they sought prayer together. You'll hear us talk about the fighting diamond. Grab your fighting diamond, your 3 a.m. buddies, and call them whenever you're going through something. And what that means is get some like-minded individuals that don't mind waking up in the middle of a sleep going, hey, how can I pray for you?

Daniel didn't run to the corner and be afraid and go, God, you already took me from my land. I was kidnapped from my family. I watched friends, families, and loved ones die. Your temple was ransacked and now I gotta go through this? No. Daniel just grabbed his friends and goes, guys, let's pray so that we won't be executed. And that's what they did. The next morning it says that Daniel had the interpretation. I wonder what Daniel felt like the next day. Did they stay, probably, they stayed up all night, right? Praying, going, all right, Lord, give us something. And then it says that Daniel had the interpretation. And he writes this beautiful prayer found in Daniel chapter two. I want you to all go and read it. And he thanks God ahead of time. Just, that's so amazing to me. And then Daniel goes to the commander of the king's guard and he says, do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Do not execute the wise men. That blew me away when I read it this time. I had never thought of it this way. These were the same people who had taken him, who had ransacked and attacked. I don't know if I could do that. I think if it were me, I'd be with my guys going, you know what, hey, kill the rest of them because we were the ones

that brought you this interpretation, not them. But that's not what Daniel did. He went and he got his guys and he said, don't kill the rest of them. That reminded me of Jesus. I was talking to a friend of mine this, a couple of weeks ago about the message. I told him this and he goes, you know what that's called? It's called Christological typology. Did I say that right this time? Yes, we practiced. I was, I was very, I said it wrong the first time. All right, that means a version of Christ. It means that Daniel didn't have to go and say, please don't kill them. But he did. And Jesus wasn't the cause of my sin, but Jesus went to the cross and died for my sin. Jesus is our only solution to sin in getting to know God on a one-to-one relationship. And seeing Daniel do that just blew me away. And I thought there's a Hebrew word that means love. It's chesed, so say it with me, chesed, chesed. Okay, I love a few bold of you. All right, now look at the person next to you and go, Jesus chesed you. Now, I apologize to that person for spitting on him a little bit. Welcome to speaking Hebrew. Yeah, so that word chesed means covenantal love.

And that covenantal love, the only way my brain can kind of understand this. I mentioned earlier, I've been married for four months and when I've got kind of those moments where I'm like, oh man, I'm kind of stressed, I like to think about our vows. When we stood across from each other and we made these vows to each other in sickness and in health, to cherish and honor, to draw, in sickness and in health, richer or poorer, I'll be there for you. I choose to love you. And in that same way, God looked at us and said, I love you. I'm willing to pay the price for it all for you. That just blows me away, that Daniel would do the same thing. What kind of force drives people to do this? What kind of force drives that love that Daniel had, the love that God has for us? That chesed love, that covenantal relationship. In Matthew chapter five, verse 43 through 45, you have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That you may be children of your father in heaven. Man, I'm really good at being frustrated when somebody cuts me off on the road.

I struggle with going, okay, Lord loves you and so do I. Uh-huh, a few of you others in here too, I see that. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 34, for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. And that's the writing on the walls of our heart. That's what I wanna get back to. That's where I want your heart to be today. As you're thinking about this, as you're hearing it, what's Holy Spirit revealing to you? In ministry, we have a saying that says, hurt people, hurt people. But it also means that healed people, heal people. I've met with some people and they tell me tragic stories. They tell me really stories that like, man, I hear and I go, ooh, that sounds rough. But I'm so happy to meet with them because they tell me all the things that God is doing in their life. They tell me about how God has brought them through these things. And they tell me this terribly tragic story, but then they tell me how God is amazing and incredible and how they feel Him and they walk with Him. And I think to myself, that's a person who's been radically and amazingly transformed. As we think about Daniel, how he loved those people that took him captive, as we move forward with where God calls us, what's God telling you about where your heart's today?

In Daniel chapter two, verse 27 through 28, Daniel went to the king and he said, I'm gonna interpret the stream for you. No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about. So he set it all up. No person can do this, verse 28. But there is a God in heaven who reveals these mysteries. Daniel didn't use this moment to go, look at how wonderful I am, look at how amazing I am, look at how smart. He goes, no, no, no, no man can do this, including me. Only our God can. Only God can reveal these mysteries. And what's so amazing, and point number three, the final point for today is, God reveals these things for His glory, not yours. I'll be honest, when I was writing this, that one kind of burned a little bit. Did Daniel get to see great things? Yeah. Did Daniel get to be a part of that and see people healed and walk with them and even share God in this strange land? Yeah. But it was never about Daniel. It was about God. I met with a friend of mine this week and I said, hey man, how you doing?

He goes, man, I'm scared. I said, I'm sorry, what's going on, dude? And he starts to share with me all the stress that he's feeling at home and all the stress he's feeling at work and all the stress he's, he's just like, man, I don't know what to do. I said, well, let me ask you. Do you feel like you're right where God calls you to be? Yeah? Good. Do you feel like you were obedient when God said to do something? Yeah. Then let's remember that it's God's kingdom, not ours. And what I mean by that is, it's not up to me to fix anything. It's up to me to be obedient and bring it to God and let God have the glory and then point back to God when he did it. And in this moment where Daniel could have been like, hey, look at me, he didn't. He pointed back to God's glory. And here's the whole point of it. Verse 45, the great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor in order that an offering, an incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel,

surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries. For you were able to reveal this mystery. Daniel was able to bring God to the king of Babylonia. The story doesn't stop there, but I will be for the day. And I encourage you all to keep reading Daniel because Daniel kept the focus on God. God was able to move in this king of a pagan nation. And so as we looked at the writing on the walls of your heart and building that unshakable faith, when I was talking to Pastor John about this, we were talking about service and what do we do? And I thought, wouldn't it be cool if we had the worship band come up and sing a song. And in that song, and we'll join them, you take a moment to pray and go, Lord, can you reveal to me what's in my heart? Maybe what's on your heart is unforgiveness, bitterness, anger. Maybe you've been through some things and you're just frustrated about it. I've heard it said that unforgiveness is like drinking poison, hoping the other person dies for it. Maybe Holy Spirit's telling you today, it's time to let that go. James 5.16 says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. And so maybe you've got an area of your heart where you really just need the healing.

You need prayer. The prayer team will be up here during. In the worship song, prayer team will make their way up and they're gonna face you, not because they want you to feel uncomfortable, but because they want you to come to them and go, I just need prayer. Maybe your heart's not there. Maybe your heart's in a good place. Maybe as you're worshiping and praying, Holy Spirit says, you're doing good. You're okay. Just breathe. I love you. Maybe you don't really know. Maybe you're in a, maybe you're like, okay, I don't really know. Every time I meet with Pastor John, he goes, oh, can I pray for you? That always sounds like Batman in my head. I don't know why. And I just say, however Holy Spirit leads you, Pastor. And then he doesn't even bat an eye. He's like, got it. And he goes into prayer. And man, every time he prays for me, I know he's here in Holy Spirit because man, I needed that prayer. And our prayer team would love to do that for you. Normally like the host gets up and they talk about,

text Jesus to 51010. We're not gonna do that today. We're gonna do a song, worship leader will gently dismiss you when you feel like you've got your moment after the song and it's time. Feel free to be dismissed. But maybe you're giving your life to Jesus today. Maybe you heard today's message and you go, Robert, I ain't here. I'm still focused on me. It's okay. Today can be your moment where you go, all right, Lord, I'm gonna surrender and I'm gonna chase you wherever you pull me, wherever you go, because I want you to change the writing of the walls of my heart, Lord. I'm ready. Maybe you're recommitting. Maybe you've been following Christ for a while, but you've kind of had one foot in and one foot out. Maybe today's your day. Before we worship, I wanna pray for you all. If you'll bow your head and close your eyes. Lord, we thank you for today. We thank you for the things you're doing in our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. We thank you, Lord, that you brought us together to hear your word. So, Father, I pray that your presence would be felt by every person here.

Lord, I pray that you would help to reveal the writing on the walls of our heart. Help us to hear your voice today. Maybe we need healing. Maybe we need fixing. Maybe we just need to hear you say we love you. You love us and we're okay. If you're giving your life to Christ, just repeat after me. You don't have to do it loud, but you do need to say it. Scripture says to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. Just repeat after me. Lord Jesus, we thank you. Thank you for dying on the cross for me, for paying your blood for my sin. Thank you, Lord, for giving it all for me. Fill me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Amen. Amen. Let's worship our God together.