Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Divine Rest Pt.3

It's good to be in His presence this morning, amen? Just overwhelmed with the goodness of our God. What a blessed people we are. Amen? While we were sinners He sought us, we didn't seek Him. The Scripture tells us that in all of His majesty and awesomeness, He would condescend and love us with an unspeakable love. "Behold [the Scripture says], what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (I John 3:1). It's overwhelming! The sonship, that He's called us His own. He's bought us; He's renamed us. Think about that! He's given you a name--a pet name--that nobody knows but Him, written on a stone that you'll be handed some day. The intimacy! "To him that overcometh [the Scripture says] will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame..." (Revelation 3:21). It's beyond imagination! "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Corinthians 2:9). But there's been an understanding of that that's been put into the hearts of the believer. He gives us a glimpse, and yet it's exceeding abundant, the Scripture tells us, a people that are privileged with the revelation of the Word of God, the divine presence of the Holy Spirit. And in all of that we live in a tainted world, a world that's bound in sin; in a Kingdom of darkness that opposes His marvelous light, and we're vexed on a daily basis. What a war it is to keep our eyes open and upon Him. Amen? For He is worthy, praise God, of all of our praise! He's worthy of all of the worship! He's worthy of all of the adoration that we can bring Him constantly. Let's never lose sight of the goodness of our God.

As we get into our study, we want to continue along in our study of the "Divine Rest." Until we understand that attribute of Father, we'll never be able to rest, we'll always be in constant fear and anxiety, trying to somehow preserve ourselves, somehow preserve our plan--whatever it might be--our understanding of what we feel success is and what must be accomplished. Until we can embrace the attribute of the goodness of God and rest in that, there will be no rest. Aren't you glad that the Scripture says, "no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalms 84:11). Amen? It's our Father's good pleasure to give us His Kingdom.

So we left off Wednesday, if you remember, we were just about to get the three Hebrew Children out of the fiery furnace. In fact, I think we did get them out, but we're going to put them back in this morning for a little bit and take another look at them. As we were talking about the divine rest and the fact that, in Hebrews, the Scripture says we're to labor to enter into the rest of God. The Scripture says in Hebrews four, there is a rest to the children of God (verse nine). So we ask ourselves this morning, "Am I partaking of that rest, am I living in that divine presence?" "For My Spirit shall go before you, and I will give you rest." In the presence of God there is rest, and if we're not at rest, we saw that we're absenting ourselves from the awareness of God's presence. We saw that Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly" If you'll take My yoke and you'll learn of Me," He said, "I'll bring you into that rest, I'll teach you how to rest." Philippians tells us about that rest. He who was given a name that's above every name; He received that position by humility and by obedience.

Turn over there for just a second to Philippians. Let's look at that real quickly as we get into this morning's session and see the admonition in Chapter two of Philippians, verse five, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus...But made himself [verse seven] of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant..." You see, the thing that causes us to lose this divine rest is, we don't have the servant's heart, we have the conqueror's heart. We have the heart of the fallen Adam, the one who would usurp, the one who would become as a god. Remember we're contrasting the divine rest with the consequences of that partaking of the fruit in the midst of the garden, when Adam became fearful and hid himself from the presence of God. When Adam's eyes were open and he realized that he was now independent, the rest was gone.

Anytime that you and I are experiencing the absence of the peace of God and we're outside of that divine rest, the one thing that you can count on is this: You're moving in independence, you're now trusting in your own strength again, you're now relying upon the arm of the flesh, you're now living in the kingdom of darkness, you're living by the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and all of that brings anxiety. It brings fear: "I hid myself," Adam said, "because I was [say it] afraid!" "What were you afraid of, Adam?" "I was afraid of the presence of God." "Well, you used to walk with me in the cool of the day, that was the highlight of your day!" "But, You see, You and I are enemies now. I'm a god now. And I know that You'll have no other gods before You, so we have to operate in the dark, and there's an anxiety, because I know that there is only one way. I know that there is only one name under Heaven whereby men can be saved, and yet I won't bow my knee to Your will, to Your lordship. Oh, I'll sing about it in a church service, but when it comes to making the big decisions of life, my will be done. Not Your will, but my will be done." Everything that we experience on a daily basis is God breaking our will, God bringing us to that momentary Gethsemane to where we partake of that cup and can constantly live the life that says: "Not my will, Your will be done." And even when it comes to partaking of the cup, we can drink it in peace. It's painful, but we can drink it in peace. It's a cup of death and it's not an easy thing, but the rest of God allows us to pray, "Not my will, but your will be done."

This is where Father's bringing us in this hour as He continues to prepare a bride for Himself. If Jesus is coming back momentarily--and we believe He is, we believe in the imminent return of the Lord--if He is coming back, He's coming back for a bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Amen? He's coming back for a church that's cleaner tomorrow than it is today. He's coming back for a church that's being refined by the power of His presence, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, by the purging and the pressures of the trials of life and the tribulations. He's coming back for a church that's producing more fruit than it produced yesterday, which requires a people who are willing to stand up under the pruning process of self being cut out, that God might be glorified. This church of the last days is going to be a church that has less of self and more of Him, on a constant basis.

"Let this mind be in you. [who] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him [verse seven] the form of a servant." "Who is the greatest among us?" the Master said, "The servant of all." Is that spirit prominent in you? Is that the spirit that permeates your home, everyone wanting to be servant? The kids not wanting their way? The wife not wanting her way? The husband not wanting to be lord? Let this mind be in you. We come among ourselves here in the fellowship and what dominates your thought processes is that spirit of, "How can I serve more, how can I become more lowly, how can I become least?" And yet everything in our natural tendency in the natural man is in opposition to that. Jesus became a real man and his flesh had the same appetite as Adam's flesh, He was as capable as Adam of leaving His innocence and His perfection; the temptation of Satan was very real when he said, "If you'll just bow your knee and worship me, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. They are mine to give." And Jesus responded to every temptation, "I sense the flesh desiring that, nevertheless, it is written: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' It is written: 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' It is written: 'Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.'" The temptations were real to Jesus. Offered the kingdom, and chose to be servant.

Listen to what it says, "And being found in fashion as a man [verse eight], he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." "I'll give you a way around the cross, I'll give you the kingdoms without the cross." That's what Satan offers us every day of our lives. "I'll give you a kingdom without a cross," but beloved, there is only one Kingdom of which there shall be no end. Amen? All of the other kingdoms and all of the other kings will bow. He'll give you a kingdom, he'll give you a life of independence, he'll give you a life of success, and after that you'll bow your knee, because every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. Amen? The rest.

You see, what we're talking about this morning--What Satan's trying to do in our lives to take us from that rest, he's trying to create in us a discontentment: "Others have that, you should have it." Where's the rest of God that the steps of the good man are ordered by Him? Do you really believe that you're exactly where God wants you this morning? "I can't be where God wants me. Things are not as I thought they would be. I don't have the position that I want, I don't have the relationships in order that I think should be there, I don't have the job, I don't have the income, I don't have" You don't have control is what you're saying. You don't have--what? --Rest. What you do have is independence, and Father's trying to draw you back into the peace of absolute humility, and dependence, and innocence to where we have childlike faith that what He's promised He will perform. The childlike faith that says: "I don't understand it, but I know this: No good thing will He withhold to those that walk uprightly. I don't understand everything, but I understand this: The Judge of all the earth does right. I don't understand why I'm here, but I understand this: The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Can you say that this morning? That's the rest of God, that's where He wants us, and there's nothing like it. It's an innocence and it's a peace that belongs to the children of God. There is a rest to the people of God.

"And being found in fashion as a man, [verse eight] he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore [because of that] God also hath highly exalted him..." The Bible tells us to humble ourselves and in due time what will happen? Do you believe that this morning, or would you like to become exalted without humbling yourself? How many of us want to be highly exalted without the cross? He became obedient to the death of the cross, THEREFORE God highly exalted Him.

We're seeking, based upon our own agendas, what we believe God would have for us. And many of us are doing it thinking we're doing it in faith. Many of us go to the Bible and we find certain promises that we pick out. You know, we like to find those good ones, the good promises of God. We start off all of our theology by stating the biblical principle that "All the promises of God are Yea and Amen," that, "His promises are sure to a thousand generations." And then we go find a promise. And the promises that we like to get hold of have to do with prosperity and health and victory. And those are all promises of God to us, but they are not unconditional, beloved. We have to allow the Scriptures to speak toward their own fulfillment. We want to be able to believe that everything that our hand touches will prosper and every place we put our feet, God will give it to us. We want to believe that God will open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings that we can't contain. But we don't want to tithe. We don't want to be liberal in our offerings. We somehow think that God will open the windows of Heaven, and we have dung on our faces. It won't work that way if you read the Scriptures.

How about this: "By humility and the fear of the Lord are [say it with me] riches, and honour..." (Proverbs 22:4). In all of these Scriptures you're going to find the humility of obedience as a requisite; there must be obedience. The Scripture says, Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith--Jesus, the Captain of our salvation learned obedience by the things that He [say it] suffered/endured, the trials that He went through, the humbling process that took place. Beloved, there is a rest to the people of God, but we must labor, endure, go through the trials, establish lives of obedience that we can enter that rest. Until that happens, we're still living in the other life, the independent life, the "other than dependence." You see, everything that's beyond absolute dependence upon God is "other than." It doesn't matter to what degree you are independent; if you are independent you are out of His rest, because, "Without Me you can do [say it] nothing!" Are there any areas that you're holding back, that you want to control? You know, just the small ones? These don't mean that much in the eternal scope.

As we prepare to enter into that rest--and we're going to look at the three Hebrew children, we're going to look at Daniel. These are great biblical types of men that embraced absolute rest and dependence upon the promises and the presence of God. Now stop and think who these guys were: First of all, those who were taken captive into Babylon--if you read the story you remember--those that were taken captive, (what Nebuchadnezzar did), they would always take the elite, these were those that were the elite, the educated, the wealthy, those of position. Those were the ones that were taken and made servants in the captive empires. These were people that were already proven successful in their environment and they were now put into positions of servitude. We all know that it's easy to adjust up. Amen? These are young men that had to adjust down. They had everything and now it was all gone. Some seem to think that Daniel was a descendent of Hezekiah.

The one thing we do know is that Daniel and these other young men were probably teenagers. As we look into this, (those of you that are teenagers), it's interesting where God's going to bring you sometime without Mom and Dad, and find out what kind of character you have as you face life's adversities. Many of the greatest vessels of God were teenagers. Today we look at teenagers and we hear all the stories, especially the early teens and adolescence, and them being brain-dead. And we do know that they're not totally wired at certain points. It's physiological; it's scientifically proven. All the connections haven't been made yet--when you sit there and you look at your seventh grader and you go, "What...? Why...?" It was very logical to them, but they're not wired completely yet. That's why it's important for you young people to realize you're not wired, so do what you're told; you don't understand it all yet.

But to get back to the point, we find these young people--and they were the elite, these were young people that were successful, and these were young people that were going to rule in their nation and now they're brought into a position of servitude. The pressure's going to be put upon them as they are brought the king's food that had been offered to idols, the kings dainties as they were brought to Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were offered the finest of the world. They were used to the finest, and now God was asking them to take a step down. Why? Just because God wanted to make life rough on them? What was the real issue here? The preserving of the holiness of God. "We will not eat meat offered to your idols!" "Yeah, but this is the finest filet mignon going."

Since it is 11:00 o'clock, I'll tell you a story. We were just down in Florida, as you know, and we had a day off between the races down there, and so we chose to indulge ourselves. For recreation, we went to Universal Studios. There's one of the fastest roller coasters around down there, so went down there and jumped on that thing. We had to find something fast to do. So we had a lot of fun as we were riding the Dueling Dragons and the Hulk roller coaster. Riding those things, you know those little seats that you sit on, they shoot you up in the air and all those kind of things, just pulling as many Gs as we could on everything that was around. We went to Race Rock and had a little bit of dessert after we ate at Charlie's. Charlie's is a great steak house. They're moving up, number three in the world. They had filet--that filet mignon just melts in your mouth. It's 11:00 o'clock, your juices should be starting to run by now, most of you are awake. Now some of you've probably never had steak like that; it's really good. Most of us are used to Sizzler. Sizzler asks you to leave at least one shoe at the door, you're going to eat that later, they rip the sole off, they fix that, they bring it to your table. There's that much difference between a good cut of meat. Now you may think you've had good, but I'm telling you, if you've never been there, there is a difference, and that's what was being offered these boys.

I'll get back on course here because that's enough. And that's what was being offered these young men, the finest--this is the richest man in the world! This is the most powerful man in the world! This is the best in the world! And they're being groomed, now, to be injected into their system, and they turn down what the world is offering them because of the integrity of their hearts for the glory of God, to honor their God. Like Joseph, it wasn't a thing of public opinion, it's not what people think, "How can I do this?" You see Joseph could have sinned, and it could have been swept under the carpet. "How can I do this and sin against my God? Beloved, when we're talking about rest, we're talking about coming to that place that has no concern with public image at all, it has to do with your relationship with God and that's it.

Jesus came and was the prototype to us. He condescended to be made a man. He came as the divine Creator. He who made man became a man; humbled Himself! The humility wasn't the death of the cross; the humility was taking flesh on Himself, of coming to seek us as one of us, because it was the only way to reconcile us after Adam, His creature, defected. And He says, "I want to show you how to be successful in this walk in the Spirit." If you ever want to know the exalting of God, there must be the humbling of self and the obedience to death. Bringing us back to that place to where we're free from all personal agenda, we're free from all discontentment, we can say, "for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. There is nothing in this world that has meaning to me, that holds me back."

There was therefore, ".given him a name which is above every name...[and then he goes on to say in verse 12] Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ["Work on this humility, work on this daily cross that I've talked to you about, that Jesus so freely exhibited before us." Then verse 13 will take on a little different meaning to you this morning when you put it in the context of verse eight] For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." What's God's good pleasure for you? Death. Death to self. What is God's good pleasure, what does God want for you? He wants you to die to yourself and He'll do everything that needs to be done on a daily basis to empty you out. Are you ready for that?

When we were talking about rest, so many of us thought, "Rest, praise God! The hammock! Somehow I can just pour all of my flesh into this hammock and enjoy life, the rest of God! All of my desires! All of my aspirations! Everything that I could ever want given to me with no opposition, no obstructions; my will being done." Now it may not have been to that degree, but how many of your minds have a tendency to bend that way when we're talking about being at peace, and being content, and being at rest? "Having it my way: That will make me happy, I'll be at rest there, and until it's my way, I'm going after it. I will not believe that this is all there is. I will not believe that God is ordering my steps. If God was ordering my steps, then I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in right now. And if God is ordering my steps, then I want to reconsider whether God's good or not, because I think He's made a mistake. This isn't good; I don't like this situation." Can I remind you a passage of Scripture in Romans eight, verse 28, say it with me, "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." "And I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you." How many of you believe Romans 8:28 this morning? Do you? Amen. Are you at rest? Uhhh... I didn't say how many of you could quote Romans 8:28, I said how many of you believe it? This is good! Isn't it hard to deal with the flesh and when things are adverse and things are going contrary to what the natural would seem to be best? When we are looking from a time/space perspective, and the Word of God is revealing the wisdom of God from an eternal perspective? And these two aren't lining up--isn't it something to stand and say, "This is good!" Can I quote another Scripture for you this morning? "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thessalonians 5:18). We paraphrase it: "In everything, but this, give thanks." Can you praise Him this morning for everything? For no good thing will He withhold from those that walk uprightly.

Are you at rest this morning? "How can I be at rest? My body is wracked with pain." Isn't God good? "I don't know, because the Bible says, 'By His stripes we are healed,' and I'm in pain--those two things don't reconcile themselves." I asked you a question: Isn't God good? I've got a question for you: Isn't it God that works all things in you both to will and to do His good pleasure? Is this working the glory of God in you? In somebody else that's observing you? For some reason we don't know, days, weeks, months, years in the future? "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me" Maybe we need to humble ourselves and stop trying to make God answer to us today. "Give me full understanding today. Give me a time/space understanding today," and maybe we ought to just worship Him for His goodness. Maybe we ought to come to the rest that He has given us all of the trees to eat of, and He's only just holding back one thing. You don't need to know! Adam said, "I need to know," and God said, "You'll be at rest if you don't know." "I want to know. I want to know! Inquiring minds want to know." You're going to have to die. And it never stops.

Seven months ago, as I battled through this one area--in my mind as I called God on the carpet, I called God on the carpet and I said, "I want to know." And He opened my eyes and I realized He had called me on the carpet. See, when I started getting the right perspective on this thing--I thought I called God on the carpet and, "I want an answer," and actually He had called me on the carpet and said, "I want an answer." And that's what happens in life. When you're looking at it from your perspective, from time/space, you think you're in charge, you think you're the man, you think that life is about you. And when your eyes are opened, you're able to see again that it was God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure. He calls you into His presence, "I want to ask you what's in your heart. Are you going to trust Me or not? Are you going to believe in my goodness or not? Do you need to understand or are you going to rest?" And it brings a peace, it brings a contentment. And when your treasures are removed from you, and God's still good, there's rest.

We've had some young ladies that have just had miscarriages. God's good, He does all things well! I just want to encourage you, in all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Your steps are ordered of the Lord, and no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly, praise God! You don't need to understand. God will work all things according to His good pleasure. All things work together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purposes. Is it hard? Yes, it's hard, and many times, like the milch kine, we just go our way lowing, but we are in the will of God. And I'd like to encourage you in that. Others are experiencing other trials. I was sharing with Richard just the other day; he was sharing with me as he's battling some of these things in his life, the physical ailments, and some of these things, and he's moving in these areas. I just encouraged him in this one area; he had talked about how the last teaching was such a help to him, I just encouraged him. He said, "What do I do now in this part of the warfare"? I said to him, "There's only one thing you can do now, it's not try to get more faith, don't read more Scriptures on healing, don't study faith, just stand up and say, 'Thank You, Father.'" "In every thing [say it] give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." I don't know why, what I do know is this: By His stripes we're healed. Amen? I believe the prayer of faith saves the sick and the Lord raises them up. I believe all things are possible to him that believeth, praise God! I believe that every promise of God in Christ Jesus is yea and amen. Why it's not working according to my understanding and my timing, I don't know, but what I do know is God is good, praise God!

There is a rest to the people of God; do you want to know what it is? It tells us in Hebrews four, ".cease from your own labors." Cease from independence. Cease from having to understand. Cease from having to be in control. Humble yourself and in due time God will exalt you, praise God! Do you believe that this morning? It is God which works in you to die, to will and to do His good pleasure. His good pleasure is that you become servant. His good pleasure is that the mind of Christ be taken upon you. His good pleasure is that it's no longer you that live, but Christ that lives in you. His good pleasure is a life of absolute obedience. "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:14-15). The world won't be able to understand the peace that you walk in, the absenting of personal agenda, and then you can give glory to God.

And so here are these young men that were headed to positions of glory and prominence, and now according to the Prophet Jeremiah, whom everyone mocked and scorned, just like everyone in this nation's doing: "We're so great, and we're so powerful." And by the world's standards, we are. But you know what the Bible says; it says the nations, to the face of God, are just a drop in the bucket. He brings them up and He brings them down for His own purposes and His own glory. "Yeah but this is America! In God we trust!" Hmm, which god? Study the founding fathers, and you'll see that many of them said, "In God we trust," were not speaking of Jehovah God, the God of the Bible, the God you and I serve. Some were, but many were not. "God" is a generic term. The Muslims don't mean your God. The Hindus don't mean--well they have a bunch of them, but anyway--your God. The Mormons don't mean your God. The Jehovah's Witnesses don't mean your God. Who is our trust in? The Captain of our Salvation, this One whom the world sees as a failure, crucified on a cross. You see, if all you know about Jesus is, He hung on a cross, He did lose. But He's risen. Amen? And He's ascended, and He ever lives to make intercession. And so as He prays for you right now, do you feel like you're under pressure, do you feel like you're lost, you don't know exactly what you're supposed to do next? Are you mourning the loss through different trials? As I said, some among us, losing a child, others have lost material things. Do you feel alone; do you feel secluded? There's nothing that's taken you but such as is common to man. We've all been there, and He makes a way of escape. The good news is: As Jesus spoke to Peter, "Satan desires to sift you, but I have [what?] prayed for you." Do you know Jesus is praying for you this morning? That ought to brighten your day, praise God!

Even in the snow, aren't you glad it's not going to accumulate? I see about an inch and a half out there right now; I have so much confidence in those weathermen. Wouldn't be great to have a job where you could be wrong so much and get paid? That's pretty amazing. They spend billions of dollars on all of this Doppler radar, and the Farmer's Almanac rolls a little wooly worm over and checks him out, and they're just as accurate. That's the foolishness of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He ever lives to make intercession for us; Jesus is praying for you right now, He ever lives.

You teenagers this morning, you feel isolated, nobody quite understands where you are? Your parents don't quite have a handle on it, you know they care but... He ever lives to make intercession for you. You're a young person, you've wondered, you're worried about whether you're going to make it, you've seen so many others defect and fall? He ever lives to make intercession for you; it's He that's working in you to will and to do His good pleasure, praise God! You know this thing that you think is going to kill you? It's going to make you a man, if you'll endure. It will prune you and purge you that you can bring forth more fruit. You see, that's what the study is all about. It's about patience, it's about resting, it's about letting God have His way in your life, so that He can bring forth more fruit to His own honor and His own glory. The study is not about us learning how to succeed in the natural and acquire things and be at peace in our minds and in our bodies, and with all of our acquisitions in the divine hammock, that's not what the study's all about. It's about being content in God's working in your life that it has eternal purpose to it, and being able to look beyond the scene.

So Jeremiah prophesies and says, "You're going to be taken into captivity," and of course nobody believed it, and now the day is upon them. One of these days they're going to believe it, and they're going to open that book back up and say, "How many years did he say it was going to be?" Can you imagine--now I don't want to bum any of you teenagers out, but we're living in prosperity in this nation, unparalleled in the human race, in the history of man. We're talking about contentment. This will help some of you young people with contentment. We seem to think that unless we've got the $150.00 tennis shoes or the latest and greatest, that somehow we're poor. I saw something just the other day, I think it was--this may be correct it will be close anyway. This will be good for the kids in the mall: 70 percent of the population of the earth has never spoken on a telephone. "What? Did you hear that?" We're bummed out it we have one of the old style cell phones. "This one doesn't take pictures, send memos, and shave" The affluence, the prosperity, the abundance!

What if God had for your life what He had for Daniel's? Daniel's in the prime of life, a teenager, and he enters into Babylonian captivity and doesn't leave for 70 years. And as an 80 plus year old man, he signs off on his book how good God is. And in his prophecies, writes for you and I the greatest understanding of eschatology. Daniel is clearer than any other book on eschatology, goes beyond Revelation in what it causes us to understand. It is the premiere book on the Kingdom of God that shows us that of His Kingdom there will be no end. Nebuchadnezzars will rise, and they'll fall, they'll destroy our earthly nations, they'll rule and reign over our bodies, but there's a Kingdom coming, praise God, to which there will be no end. What if none of those things you hope for in the natural ever come to pass? Most likely these young men, as they were in the courts, were all turned into eunuchs. There would be no natural seed that would follow, there would be none in the lineage that would continue, cut off by natural standards, and yet how many children has Daniel had because of the book that he wrote from the presence of God?

Where's our rest, what is it that we're wanting out of life? Is there a rest in adversity? Is there a rest outside of our own nation and our own comfort zone? Is there a dependence upon God, that when Charlie's rolls his meat in there and says, "Here it is," you say, "Listen, we can't eat that stuff man, we've got a proposal to make to you [and I'll end with this, this morning], can we just eat this pulse, this mash, this mush, this ugali?" And the king's representative said, "No way man, because if you guys aren't able to function, and the brightness is out of your eyes, and your ability to apprehend and comprehend all the training that's going on, it's going to be my head." So since he said "No," Daniel goes to the guy that was actually serving it up to them and said, "Let me make you a deal," he said, "I'll tell you what, if you'll serve us this, and just give us ten days, and if we are not in a condition that is equal to or superior, then we'll go on to the food that the king's bringing. But we want to honor our God; we want you to see that our God is able to sustain us. You're looking to the king, we're looking to our King."

As we pick it up tonight, we're going to see in the story that as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as they partook of God's presence, in the natural just the barest necessities; but the Scripture talks about God sustaining them, and their eyes were bright, and as they were ten times wiser than anybody else who bowed their knee. There is a rest to the people of God--"Not my will, but Thy will be done." Not according to the tree of understanding, but the tree of absolute dependence, the tree of humility, the tree of, "I don't understand, but I know this: God's good, and He's not going to withhold anything from me that's good, and that fruit you're trying to offer me up is not good for me or God would have offered it. He's a good God, He's not holding out on us. What I'm experiencing right now is for my good, it's the best thing that could happen to me." Do you believe that this morning in the midst of your trial? Can you in everything give thanks? Can you count it all joy when you fall into different temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith works contentment, stability, consistency, endurance that you might be made perfect, complete, entire, whole...(I sound like the Amplified Bible), wanting nothing? Can you count it joy this morning? Have you entered into the rest of dying to self, independence? Most of us want faith to change things our way, and we need faith to accept things God's way, and that's what we're going to talk about some tonight.

Father, we thank You for Your presence, we thank You for the peace of God that passes understanding, that does keep our hearts and our minds. Father, we might even wonder, "Why this message this morning?" In all of our affluence--Some of us are experiencing different small trials, some are larger than others, but nothing of great consequence. This message is to prepare us for life, beloved, what's coming tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. This message isn't about the moment--it may be for you, momentarily in your trial, but it's about life, because if you're not there today, you will be. And we need to listen, because the enemy will come and say, "God doesn't care. Has God said...? If God loved you, you wouldn't be in this situation. Where is your God? He's not answering you according to your desires." He's working in me to will and to do [say it] His good pleasure. That's what we want, Father; that's our heart's desire this morning, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand together. We've already sung it once, Gary played it, we're going to sing it again, Forever He will be the Lamb upon the throne, I'll gladly bow my knee. Virtually all of us here this morning have the right theology. How's it working this morning? Can you bow to His will in your life this morning? Can you humble yourself? As I was sharing with you, I was so overcome with the goodness of God this morning, as He's revealed in me how ugly I am this last week--given me a glimpse of my heart. The Lord spoke, He said, "Look, only seven months absence from when I poured you out, and you're going back; you're headed back the wrong direction, you're trying to manipulate things, you're trying to make things happen again." He's gotten my attention through a few swats, and all I can say about it is: "Father, You're just so good! Protect me from myself. Whatever is harmful for me take it away. Let me learn the meekness and the lowliness and to humble myself, that if ever You choose in Your time, You would exalt to Your glory a vessel not doing his will, but Yours. That's all I want to be, Father. Thank You, You're so good. You're so good to protect us and love us from the eternal perspective, and thank You for the glimpses as to why." Let's sing it together.

The glory of the risen Lord. The Lamb upon the throne. I gladly bow my knee and worship Him alone. Forever He will be! Hallelujah! So good to us, Father. Whatever needs to be pruned that we might bring forth more fruit, for You've called us and You've ordained us that we should go forth and bring fruit that should remain. Help us to fulfill Your call and Your will, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "There is a rest, praise God." Hallelujah!

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