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You may take your seat in the presence of the Almighty God. My name is Lon El Dawson Williams. I'm the executive pastor here at 2819 Church and just so grateful to be one of the communicators here. We've got and shout out to Elder Eric, Elder Milton, for their continual laboring in the Word. I just want to celebrate them. And while we're at it, let us just honor the under shepherd of this house, Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell. We're just so grateful, Ms. Lena, and just the love and commitment and value that they have towards this house. Listen, I'm just excited to be able to speak upon this morning. I believe God has a word for us and I'm just anticipation, anticipation. But before I begin, I just want to shout out to all of our digital disciples online. I'm rocking here for y'. All. I love it. We are all disciples of Christ. But for those of you who are online, I sneak into the chat every once in a while and I talk to y'. All. Y' all are doing. And you guys are celebrating and connecting with us and being a part of this community. You may not be in the room, but you're in the room. And so for that, we are grateful for you, for all of the individuals who are incarcerated. We are here with you and for you through our Pando app. Thank you for the thousands who have been saved through the app and your continual giving which allows us to support this endeavor in getting these iPads and these apps into prisons all over the United States. We're going into prisons every single Sunday and people are looking at and watching the proclamation and being saved. And so for that, we honor you on this morning, whom the Son has set free is free indeed. Amen. Amen. Well, let's begin. I believe we've got a word. We are going to continue in this sermon series for the summer. The fruit that remains. The fruit that remains. And you know, we've spoken throughout a series of topics around honor. We've talked about excellence. We talked about. We're talking about excellence today. We've spoken about serving. We've spoken about evangelism, carrying culture, protecting culture, faithfulness. And I'm excited to speak about practical excellence upon this morning, we're going to take for our text, Daniel, the chapter is the sixth chapter. We're going to actually walk through the entire pericope of the sixth chapter. But for the purposes of this morning, I am going to read for you verses three through five. Verses three through five. But keep your Bible handy because we will go into it quite a bit. Verses three, it says. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and sat traps because an excellent spirit was in him. The king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials in the sat trap sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regards to the kingdom. But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Verse number five. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Let's go back up to verse number three, the A clause for the purposes of bar text. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all of the other high officials, set traps because an excellent spirit was in him. If I could use for a title on this text, I would call it Keep that Same Energy. Keep that Same Energy. I don't know about you. For those online and those in the room, I have come to learn that the weather in Atlanta is schizophrenic. I'm just being real. One day it can be raining, and the next moment it can be sunny. The next moment it can be hailing. And then all of a sudden, it's all three at the same time. It is a very confusing place. And I'm from California, where it's 75 all year round. But this is the only place where it does not make any sense, okay? And in fact, yesterday I was going to the store, I went to Publix. I was like, oh, this is cool. And then it started raining, confusing as ever. But I remember one time I was headed. I was at work, I was at the office, and I had to go to Publix to pick up a few things. One in particular, the chocolate cake that I love to get. It's the only chocolate cake I eat outside of my wife's chocolate cake. And I went in to go get that and a few other things. I got the cart. Y' all call it a buggy here, but where I'm from, we call it a cart. A shopping cart. And I got my shopping cart and I was washing. And when I walked into the building, I promise you, behind me, it was. It was. It was really sunny. It was really sunny. But by the time I probably got to the cake aisle, all I ever heard was some thunder and some lightning. And I'm in my mind, I'm just like, how in the world it was just sunny outside and now it's raining. So I got all my things, I went to the cash register. I paid for all of the items. I get out into the lobby area of the publix, and it seems as if the minute I walked out there, it started to rain even harder. Now I was frustrated. Cause I had all my favorite shoes, I had on my favorite outfit, my jeans. And I was like, man, I do not want to get wet. But I knew that I had to get back to work. And so what did I do? I grabbed my cart, and I decided in that moment that I was going to go ahead and go through that rain and get to my car. So as I pushed the cart out, it just started to rain even harder. I said, okay, lord, I don't know what you're trying to do, but you gotta come quickly because this is horrible. I'm dry. I'm sitting here. I'm pushing my cart to my car. I get to my car, I start pushing the button to get into the trunk. The car wouldn't open up. I said, lord, you've got to be kidding me. I'm sitting here, I'm like, come on, open up. And eventually, it opens up. By that time, I am completely drenched. I know people are sitting in their car Watching me look like a fool. I know they are. And I'm sitting there, I'm putting stuff in the car, and then I get into the front seat, I'm fully drenched. The shoes was messed up. And I'm like, all right. I look out of my window, and what do I see? I wish the shopping cart and I had to make a decision in that moment. Lord, am I about to leave this shopping cart right here and let that little boy with the green apron on get it? Bless your soul, son. Or am I going to go ahead and get this shopping cart and put it back? And I had to make a decision in that moment. And I decided I'm going to do the right thing, because that's the right thing to do. And I get the shopping cart. And I feel like the minute I got out the car, the heavens opened and started pouring even more. I said, okay. My goodness. So it's raining even harder by this time. I'm literally fully, fully drenched. I push the shopping cart all the way to the cart container. I slide it in. I get back to my car, I'm fully drenched. I get my hand on the car door, and I got an electric car, and it wouldn't open up. So I'm sitting there like this. I'm like, man, if you don't open up this car, lord. And by this point in Time. I am so wet. I took my shirt off because I am drenched. It's just sticking to me. And I'm like, all right. And I know people in their car like this because here I am looking a plum fool with no shirt on. I finally get in the car and I say, my goodness, then the sun come out. Well, yes, I know that that is funny and it is true, but I hope that you see something that God saw is very serious. Because in that moment, it was not just about me returning a cart. It was my character being revealed. I had to decide what kind of man I would be when doing the right thing was inconvenient or uncomfortable or rainy or completely unnoticed. You see, my character showed up in that parking lot. And the question is, when your moment comes, will yours? Nobody would ever know there was no cameras. Well, there was something for me, but there was no cameras watching you. No employees are checking over your back, no boss that's inside of your emails. But nobody's going to confront you. But, yes, you can leave the buggy right there if you want to. You can get in your car and drive away like some of us do. And nobody would ever know. But you would know. God would know. And the private decision would still be shaping the person that you are becoming. And that, my brothers and sisters, is exactly the problem. Because this whole sermon is about who you are when doing right brings no reward and doing wrong brings you no immediate consequences. Yeah, yeah. See, See, See? See? We have shrunken excellence. We think excellence is the job. We think excellence is the house or the 401k, or it's the outfit or the resume or the results. And this is not necessarily incorrect, but it is incomplete. Those are the parts of our lives that people can measure. But biblical excellence is not one impressive part of your life, covering up or neglecting everything else. The Bible says in Luke 2:52 that Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, and favor. Watch this with God and with man. Wisdom, how he developed mentally. Stature, how he developed physically, favor with God, how he developed spiritually and favor with people, how he developed relationally. In other words, Scripture gives us a picture of growth that touches the whole person. Excellence is not just about looking successful in the areas that everybody can see. It is allowing God to develop every area of your life. But excellence is not only what you do when somebody is grading you. Excellence is what you do when there is no grade, no reward, no applause, no likes on Facebook, no camera pulled out, and the consequences are not there for. For cutting the corners. Excellence. It's A rainy parking lot with no witnesses. I tell my kids all the time, how you do anything is how you do everything. Because the real test is not whether you can do the right thing when everybody is watching. The real test is whether you would do the right thing when wrong would be easier or faster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anybody can perform when there's a platform. But who you are, who are you when there's no audience? And when I say keep the same energy, I'm not talking about keeping the same emotion or vibrato. I'm not talking about staying loud or being hyped. I am talking about keeping the same character when the room changes, when the reward changes, when the promotion and the consequences are the same. See, Daniel was a man of excellence. New administration, same Daniel, no audience. Same Daniel, new laws. Same Daniel. Promotion, Same Daniel. Den, same Daniel. It was the same Daniel. See, it's easier to keep the same energy when faithfulness is getting you promoted. But can you keep the same energy when faithfulness starts costing you something? Because. Because some of us get a new title and we start acting brand new. All right? We get a little bit of authority and it goes to our head. You know, we say stuff like, well, you know, I am the supervisor. I'm the manager now. Top flight. I got it all together right now. And you must have forgotten who you talking to. I'm a leader. But see, we get a little money and we start acting funny. We enter rooms we pray to get into, and then lose the character that made us ready for the room in the first. But Daniel Jesus, circumstances kept changing, but his center stayed settled. That is practical excellence. When the room can change without the room changing you. Not the same emotions, right, because emotions are fleeting, but the same character. So let me give you a definition for the note takers. Excellence. Practical excellence is grace, formed consistency. Grace, formed consistency. The same trustworthy character in the parking lot is the same in the office, in your emails and text messages, on vacation, in your home, in your prayer closet, and on your computer. All right? Now, before anybody in here hears this sermon and thinks about, you have to earn God's approval. I'm gonna put. Put a little grace inside of this mix of Kool Aid here. Because I refuse to preach to you into performance or perfectionism or prosperity. The gospel is not. Work hard enough and maybe God will love you. The gospel is God loves you in Christ and now he is teaching you how to live from that love. But somewhere along the way, the world disciplined our minds into what I would call a manipulated gospel. Be first, be bigger. Be richer. Be noticed. More followers. Build a brand new. Grow the platform, collect the title, win the applause. Be the leader, be the entrepreneur. And if it's not enough, do more work. Later, sleep less, Grind harder, push harder. Become somebody. Church. That is not excellence. That is exhaustion pretending to be purpose. I feel him up in here. Because you will spend your whole life chasing a finish line that moves every time you get close enough to touch it. Watch this. The world calls that success, but God never did. And here is the root. Because in this church we always know we teach the root and not just the fruit. That's why we call it fruit that remains. Almost every exhausted and overworked and over performing believer that might be in this room is chasing the same thing. Approval. It is the wrong route to the right need. You were made to be loved. You were made to be affirmed. But you have been trying to earn from people what God already settled in Christ. See, a son does not have to earn their father's love. A son automatically gets it. They are accepted by their father. And I got Bibles to back me up. Because In Matthew chapter 3, verse 16, Jesus who has not performed a single miracle, Jesus, who has not laid hands on a single person, Jesus who has not preached one sermon, is being baptized in the water by John the Baptist. And when he comes up, the Bible says that God sends a dove and says, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. What's the order? Approval came before performance. Jesus did every work of his life from a place of nothing to prove. And see, some of us have never done one day of work from that place. Everything we build, we build to prove something. Everything we accomplish, we accomplish to prove somebody wrong. But grace says you have nothing to prove. And excellence says you still have everything to practice. Nothing to prove. It does not mean nothing to do. It means you stop working for love and start working from love. Nothing to prove and everything to practice. Now one more thing before we walk into the text. I know you're wondering how when we go get to the to the Bible, I promise you I'm already preaching it. It means listen, listen. Nothing to prove. Watch this, watch this, watch this. There is a word that is quietly remediating through the text. It is quietly being found in every single sentence and at every sing heart. And I hope that that word is going to permeate your heart today. And that word is the word found. Found. They sought to find a complaint. They found Daniel praying he was found blameless before God. The chapter keeps asking us One question, and before we are finished, it is going to ask us the very same question. Will you be found when pressure searches your life? Not what will be posted. Not what will be performed. Not will be on your obituary when you die. Not what your friends talk about when you were in the room. I'm talking about what will they find when they search your life. Let's look at the text. Let's look at verse one. It says it pleased Darius, who was the king, to set over the kingdom 120 set traps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account so that the king might not suffer any loss. Look at that in the text. The king may not suffer many loss or no loss. So we can't rush past that, because this was not decorative leadership. This was stewardship with consequences. Because people brought money, they brought alms to the king. And it was Daniel's job to not only count it from the set traps, but to present it to the king. So Daniel was responsible for money, and he had authority. He had leadership and systems and public trust. So Daniel's spirituality was not vague or nebulous. It was visible. It was verifiable. And let me go ahead and come down your road real quick, because some of us know how to sound spiritual but can't be trusted with a deadline. Okay. Amen. Lights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Some of us can pray in tongues and sha ba ba, ba, ba, ba ba, but will not answer an email. Some of us want an anointing, but has never been able to become dependable. Yes, some of us want a platform, but the people who were closest to us are exhausted from chasing us to do what you said you was gonna do. Oh, my God. They overreacted. Oh, my God. They hated. This is not persecution. That is your character issues wearing church clothes. Because look at what the verse is really about. Darius is asking one question every of every official in the kingdom. Can I entrust you at all? And God is asking the same question about you. Because God has never confused being impressive with being trustworthy. It's weird. Church is the only place we have mistaken charisma for character. Just because you can preach don't mean you can lead. Just because you can pray don't mean you holy. If we honest, some people practice more in the mirror than they ever do in the pulpit. All right, okay. God is not asking whether you can impress a room. God is asking. He's trying to form you. Can he trust you? See, If God gave you influence, would that influence change you? If he gave you authority, would that authority corrupt your heart? If he entrusted you with fruitfulness? Without the fruit becoming your identity, can the fruit remain? Because there are two kinds of excellence. One is built to attract attention, and the other can carry responsibility. One gets people talking about you, and the other makes your life trustworthy. And Daniel chapter six is not merely the story of a gifted man. It is the story of a trusted man. See, talent may get you into the room, but trust is what keeps you there. See, it takes a lot of energy and time to gain trust, but it makes one decision to actually lose it. Here's the grace in that, though God is not withholding opportunity just to frustrate you, he may be preparing you to carry it well. Because the blessing, it's not just getting more in your hands. That's prosperity gospel. That's not what we're preaching here. The blessing is becoming the kind of person who can hold without dropping what matters. See, your gift can open doors, but your dependability determines what happens when you walk through it. Yeah, some of us have been praying for more. And then you get it, and then you drop it, and then you blame God and say, why would you give this to me? And then take it away. And God's like, I gave it to you in hopes that you could carry it, but your character let it slipped through your hands. I can't tell you how many opportunities in my youth I messed up because I thought that it was just my character that was not the issue. I thought my talent was the thing that was going to keep me. But then when I recognize the talent can only get you so far and character is what sustains you. I recognize that God can do more with my character than he ever can with my talent. But thank you, Lord, for your mercy. I'm going to talk to the group that understands what I'm talking about. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy. I should have been strung up, hung up, needle in the arm, weed on the floor of the car. But by grace go I. Look at this. Daniel's devotion and duty are not enemies. His prayer life did not make him less useful in the empire. It made it harder for him to corrupt from the inside out. New administration. Same Daniel. Look at the text. Look at verse number three. Then this Daniel became distinguished, important word above all other high officials and set traps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. That's our word. Notice where the text begins. It does not Begin with what Daniel produced. It is what it begins with what had been formed already within him. The text does not say that he networked better. No, it didn't say that he had more Instagram friends and followers. It didn't say that he made better videos on TikTok. It didn't say that he was trying to break into the record industry and put a bunch of demos out. Yeah. No, no, it didn't say that. It didn't say that. It does not say that he wanted more. It says an excellent spirit was in him, an inward quality that keeps becoming visible through outward faithfulness. The excellence was not a performance he manufactured. It was character that had been already formed. What was in him kept showing up around him. See, you can fake a moment, but you can't fake a pattern. And here is where the stairwell story turns. See, we hear the word distinguish, as the text says, and we think winner. See, watch what being distinguished actually brought him. By verse three, Daniel is almost over the kingdom, but by verse four, they're trying to put him under the ground. See, the king looked at Daniel and saw a man to promote. And the officials looked at the same Daniel and saw a man they wanted to remove. His promotion became the trigger for their plot. See, Daniel was not in danger because he failed. Daniel was in danger because he was faithful. He was being investigated because he had done his job so well that the king planned to place him over everybody else. See, sometimes favor does not remove conflict. Sometimes favor reveals it. His excellence made him visible. His visibility made him vulnerable. See, your character will inspire one person and imitate another. It will irritate the mess out of people. When you got your stuff together, your discipline will encourage one person and can expose the next. Your excellence will open doors and make somebody start looking for a way to close it in your face. Can I help somebody? Sometimes people are not coming to you because you did something wrong. Sometimes. Sometimes they are bothered because you're doing something right and they can't reach it. I want to be like, my sorry, y' all don't know that one. Ushers, I need you to guard the door on this one because I don't want to disrupt somebody. And they leave because church folks sometimes get it twisted. You know, they always hating, always coming after me. They hate us because they ain't us. You know what they say? Hold on. See, Daniel gets to name enemies because they. The search came back clean in the matter after they investigated. If they confronted our negligence, that is not spiritual warfare. That is just called accountability. You can't not respond to the email and then say they hating on me. You didn't respond. You didn't meet the deadline. You didn't do the assignment. You can't get mad at the professor because you didn't do your job and you got failed. All right, never mind. All right. If they confronted, the consequences came from our own choices. We do not get to put a lion costume on the person and then say that we're being persecuted. So the king planned to promote him. The officials planned to remove him, and since they could not beat him at the work, they decided to search his life. Look at verse number four and five. Then the high officials and the satrap sought to find ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom. But they could find no ground for complaint or any fall because why he was faithful and no error was found in him. Look at this. This is the word sought to find. Could find nothing. He was found faithful. I told you already that that was a word that was going to be running through the text. And understand that these people are not strangers. They're co workers. They work in the cubicle next to them. Yeah, they be at the water cooler having conversations. They're in the text message. They're in the group chat. They're on the slack conversation. See, they did not start their investigation with the rumor. They started it examining his life. Hear me. The first lions in the chapter are not in the den. They're in the boardroom. They got titles. They got robes. They got badges. They have responsibility. We call them managers. We call them friends. They have access, and in this case, they have access to the king. And they do not roar. They whisper. See, they don't attack your body. They attack your credibility. See, they don't leave claw marks in your skin. They leave questions. They say stuff like, can you trust him? See, I ain't gonna say it, but, see, I heard something about them. You know, you didn't hear it from me, but some of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about. Be careful not everything trying to devour you is growling something. Smile, shake your hand, and question your name after you leave the room. Before Daniel ever faced lions with teeth, he faced lions with titles. Now understand what we're looking for. They could not beat him at his work, so they went hunting for a weakness in his character. They were not looking for truth. They were looking for a crack, an inconsistency, a thread that they could pull that would dismantle his life. They were looking for a gap between the private man and the public man. This was not admiration. This was surveillance. They watched how he led and how he worked and how he showed up and how he treated people and how he handled the money and how he responded to decisions that had to be made. And they were sitting there, they were searching to find something. And notice what the text never says. It never says that they searched for five minutes. It never says that they looked casually over time. It says that they kept seeking a charge. This was not one conversation. This was not a bad week. This was not an awkward moment or a moment to regret. They watched him long enough to become frustrated. Imagine being observed by people who wanted you to fail and then disappointing them every single day. Hate on Behater. See, this is called practical holiness. Not perfection, but consistency. See, some of us have made peace with inconsistency. We say stuff like, everybody got something, and if people look long enough, they're gonna find it in them. So why do I have to try? Daniel dismisses that excuse because sometimes the people who hate you the most and are seeking to bring you down really leave empty handed. Not because Daniel was pretending, because Daniel had become the same man everywhere. Keep that same energy. See, this is maturity. Not that somebody is looking, nobody's looking, but that everybody looking keeps finding faithfulness. Now, to be clear about what they found, because the text is extremely careful here, and I'm a be too. The text is not claiming that Daniel never sinned. It is saying that in his conduct of Kingdom business, he was trustworthy. Recently, I was having a conversation with one of our staff members, and in my mind I was thinking, we're thinking about KPIs and we're thinking about metrics and making sure we're on top of it. But. But sometimes we don't need to just monitor the. The key points of interest and the things that matter we might need to manage our kingdom principle mindset, Kingdom principle ideologies, Kingdom principle ways. We do not have to just judge based on metrics. How are you showing up in a kingdom? They didn't find him perfect. They found him dependable. It does not say that he was flashy. It says that he was faithful. Nothing that they found would stick. So the Daniel in the palace is the same Daniel in private, Same man. That is practical excellence. And we walk right past it every time. See, it's not being impressive. It's putting the cart back when it's raining. Now, now, now. The same person when the boss is present should be the same person when your boss is gone. See if you can treat The CEO one way and the janitor another way. We already got. All right. Excellence tells the truth when a lie would be easier. Excellence shows up. It follows through. It responds. It keeps a deadline. It keeps its word. If it says one thing, it's going to say another thing. Excellence does not make people chase it. Excellence makes other people's lives lighter, not heavier. Is it? Your greatest witness at work is not the Bible that you put on your desk. Your greatest witness at work is being a consistent person, the person behind the Bible on your desk. Long before Darius ever respected Daniel's God, he respected Daniel's patterns. This is why I opened up my store, my. My. My sermon in the parking lot. Because the card is small, but it testifies. Nobody is ever going to promote you for putting it back. Nobody is ever going to fire you for leaving it. It is a decision with no audience, no consequences, but it is the purest example of somebody's character. So let me stop preaching, Daniel, and I want to preach to y' all just for a moment. If a hostile committee pulled your actual work week, if your boss really pulled your work week, I know what you submit. I know the work that you say you do. But if they really checked your computer, oh, it's quiet, it's tight, but it's right. I know it's all right. I'm not talking about your edited one. I'm not talking about what you talk about in your one on ones. I'm not talking about what they got on camera. I'm talking about what you really do. Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday searches, spending the messages, the social media hours at your desk. The private contempt, the promises we keep moving, the apologies you keep refusing. If they went back and looked for a crack, what would they find? See, the minute I said the word search, some of you felt. Excuse me. Some of you did not feel conviction. You felt fear. Because you have spent your life being examined by people looking for a reason to reject you. Every mistake becomes your identity. Every failure became another piece of evidence against you. And so now, whenever God puts his finger on an area of your life, you assume that he's trying to throw you away. But that is not the God revealed in Christ. Because people search for Daniel, hoping to condemn him. But God vindicated Daniel, the very matter they used against him. So stop confusing conviction with rejection. Stop confusing exposure with abandonment. If the Holy Spirit is putting his finger on something today, do not run from it. Run to him. Because everything God exposes, he exposes with redemption in mind. Y' all want to Go. Okay, y'. All. Y' all ready? Y' all ready to go home? It's all good. No, no, no. Watch. Watch this. Watch this. Verse number five. How we all. I got a lot to go. All right, then. These men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of God. Okay? They have searched his work. They have examined his conduct. They have looked for corruption and negligence and inconsistency. And they have come back empty handed. So they conclude the only way that we're going to get Daniel is through his devotion to God. His work was so clean, the only thing left to attack was his walk. They could not find a violation in Daniel, so they manufactured a violation around Daniel. They could not make Daniel compromise, so they created a system designed to punish him for remaining faithful. And now the question changes. It is no longer, will Daniel be faithful when nobody is watching? Now the question is, will Daniel remain faithful when everybody is watching? And faithfulness has become illegal. New law. Same Daniel, different consequences. Same Daniel. Keep the same energy. Look at verse number six. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, o King Darius, live forever. Watch this. The story keeps showing them coming up as a group. See, Daniel can stand alone. They need a crowd. I'm not gonna bother that, because some of y' all so, so eager to get into the group, to get into the crowd, to get. Get with the friend group. Birds of a feather flock together. As my granddaddy used to say, you so worried about them, you need to be by yourself. Look at verse number seven. It even stacks the titles. Look at this. He says, all of the high officials of the kingdom, prefects and the satraps and the counselors and the governors and the. And they all agreed. All of these titles, a long list of titles cannot make a lie true. See, don't ever confuse authority with integrity. A title tells me where you sit. Character tells me whether I can trust you once you sit down. See, never be so impressed by somebody's title that you stop paying attention to their fruit. Now watch the contrast. Daniel never needed a crowd to do what was right. Only the men trying to do wrong did. Daniel went home by himself. They kept showing up together. Be careful. When you need a whole group of people to help you feel okay about something. God never cleared. Sometimes the crowd is not giving you courage. It is helping you make your conviction a little bit more quieter. See, compromise needs company. And conviction can walk home alone. So watch what they do they dip it in flattery. Oh, King Darius, live forever. We don't have. We don't need that phrase in a minute. It sounds respectful, but it's really just bait. See? See? They touch the king's ego, and his ego signs a trap. The decree. This is what it said. For 30 days, nobody prays to any other God or man except the king. And if they do, they get thrown into the lion's den. Signed, sealed, delivered. Irrevocable means. It can't be changed. Now catch what they did. They studied Daniel. They knew he wouldn't lie, right? So they knew he wouldn't steal. They knew he wouldn't be corrupt. They also knew that he was gonna pray to God. So they built the law around the one thing they knew he would never stop doing. They didn't ask him to become evil. They made his faithfulness illegal. They attacked. The attack was not random. It was informed. See? They watched Daniel long enough to discover the one thing he would not compromise. And they built the trap around his faithfulness. Can I encourage somebody today? This is what I want to tell you. Do not get tired of being faithful in places that do not celebrate faithfulness. God does not overlook what people fail to celebrate. Keep showing up. Keep telling the truth. Keep serving, keep praying, keep loving. Keep doing your job. What looks like ordinary to them is still seen by God. And you never know which ordinary act of faithfulness God's going to prepare to use in your testimony tomorrow. So the decree is signed, the trap is set, the crowd stays in their place, and the text turns from all of these titles to this truth. Look at verse number 10. When David knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in the upper chamber open towards Jerusalem. All right, let me just parenthetically throw this in here real quick. I was talking to my wife in the back, and she revealed this to me. So I said, I'm gonna say it because it's good anyway, so. So when you look at the text, he goes to the upper room, he opens up his window and starts to pray. He didn't go to the basement. Yeah. He didn't go inside the closet and close the door. He went out in public and he opened the window. He was not ashamed of his faithfulness. He wasn't ashamed of his God. So we go to lunch with our co workers, and we'd be like, oh, the blessed food we about to see. Just pray. Amen. We mess around and hide who we are, not to embarrass or ashamed non believers. You don't want to tell them you. That you love God and that you pray that you're faithful because you don't want to. You don't want to rub nobody the wrong way. But I'm looking at some people. Then I said, I'll pray heaven down at the dinner table, at lunch. I pray you get saved. All right. Sorry. All right, look at the text. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. He knew he was not uninformed. He was not careless. He did not accidentally break the law. He knew exactly what obedience was going to cost him, and he did it anyway. Church. This is where excellence stops being impressive and starts becoming expensive. Anybody can do right things when the right thing is paying dividends. Anybody can be honest when honesty promotes you. You can pray while prayer is convenient. But excellence begins the moment obedience starts to send you a bill. The question is, no longer, can I do the right thing? The question becomes, will I still do the right thing when it costs me something? That's Daniel. He does not negotiate. He does not delay. He simply walks home and prays. Now, what's interesting about this, and this is why I love biblical history. That's why I love it. It's all in the text. The Bible says here that he opens up his window and he begins to pray. Now, if you are moving too quickly, you'll move right past that. But see if you understand what's going on. Jerusalem has already been conquered. The temple has already been destroyed in the text. So the window is facing a destroyed city. It's a wound. But see if you understand this. You look at 1 Kings, chapter 8 and you read the whole thing and you'll see what Solomon prayed. Solomon says this. He says, may you hear the humble and earnest request from me and your people, Israel, when we pray. Watch this. Towards this place, Jerusalem. The temple. Yes. Hear us from heaven where you live. And when you hear. Forgive us, Solomon prayed that if God's people were carried into exile and turned towards the city of Jerusalem and pray, God would answer their prayers. So Daniel is not staring out at the scenery. He is standing in a promise. His window is a compass. He points his body towards a city in ruins because he believes that the promise was not in ruins. Yeah. Somebody in here needs to hear this. What you may see as rubble, God sees beyond is not rubble. The marriage may look like rubble, but God don't see rubble. The relationship may look like rubble, but God don't see rubble. Yeah, yeah. Your home dynamics may seem like rubble, but God does not see rubble. Faith can face what is broken while still praying to God, whose word is whole. And I don't want you to miss what's in verse 10, but verse 11 says he asked God for help. Gratitude and groaning can occupy the same prayer. See, he doesn't pretend that the decree is harmless. He does not thank God because the lines are pleasant. Mature prayer can say both God, you have been faithful, and God, I am afraid. And I don't want you to miss these final words in the text as he had done previously. That's the secret. Daniel did not become a man of prayer because of the decree. The decree simply introduced everybody else to the to the man Daniel had already become. See, biblical excellence is not what you suddenly perform in extraordinary moments. It is what you have practiced so faithfully in ordinary moments that pressure cannot make you become somebody else. The law changed, but Daniel didn't. The pressure changed, Daniel didn't. New law same Daniel kept the same energy. Daniel did not have a prayer emergency. He had a prayer rhythm. Yet he did not rise to the crisis. He revealed his routine. The storm is too late to grow roots. The emergency is too late to pour the foundation. The den is too late to invent a prayer life. And here is our problem. We want Daniel's confidence in the den without Daniel's consistency in the window. We want public courage. Watch this. Jesus, help me. We want public courage, the private formation. See, God will meet you in an emergency. But you cannot rush the kind of character that is built through daily surrender. Because there is something called conditional excellence and biblical excellence. Conditional excellence is I will do what is right. When they appreciate me, I will forgive them. When they apologize, I will keep praying. When life starts getting better, I will, I will, I will. If conditional excellence lets circumstances set the standard. But biblical excellence asks one question. What has God already asked from me? See, Daniel's obedience was not negotiated every morning. It was already settled. Because the greatest threat to our obedience is not always temptation. Sometimes it is negotiation. See, most of us, most of us do not wake up planning to abandon God. We simply renegotiate yesterday's conviction. Now, see, some of us don't have convictions. We have preferences. And preferences disappear the moment you become expensive. See, a conviction can cost you something and survive anyway. But I want to talk to some people in the room. Some men, some men in Christ, some brother disciples that'll say, I will be just like Daniel. I' ma pray no matter what comes my way. I'm a Pray in the good days and I' ma pray in the bad days. I'm a pray when the marriage is going good and I'm a pray when the marriage is not going well. I'm a pray when my money is up and I'm a pray when my money is down. I'm a pray when my children are talking to me and I'm a pray when my children. I need some men that'll say, I will pray until heaven until comes down. I will bind on earth and bind it in heaven. I'll loose on earth and loose in heaven I am. My knees will be hurting, but God's gonna hear my prayer. I might be tired, but God's gonna hear my prayer. I might be sad, but God's gonna. Is there any men who will say, I will pray? And because this is an equal opportunity church, I can't leave the sisters out. Is there any sisters in the building that'll say, I'll pray heaven down? I grabbed me some oil. Somebody give me some oil. Who got some oil on them? Oh, yeah, I need some oil. I spray this whole thing up in here. Oh, you acting a fool. Gotcha. Oh, you want to act a mess? Gotcha. Oh, you think you got it. The devil is a liar. I anoint this whole place. Children in the bed. I'm just going all over. You walk into a hotel room, oh, no. I don't know what's up. Spirits was up in here. The devil is a liar. I'mma pray heaven down. Is there any sisters in the room? How many sisters say, I need a praying man? Yeah, you better. I need a man that can pray. I don't want you just to lay hands. You need to lay some hands, too. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Stay married and lay hands. Excuse me. Yeah, you can speak in tongues. Oh, bye. Oh, God. You get it when you get home. Hallelujah. All right. I need to go home. Yeah, yeah, man. Let your wife catch you praying. See how it changes the situation. Let your children hear you praying. Change the situation. On Father's Day, my son decided to write a sermon that he read to me. And it was beautiful. And one of the things that moved me so emotionally, he says, daddy, I said, I know how to pray. Cause I see you pray. Bob messed me up. Bob mess me up. My eyes water just thinking about it. Because there was a season he didn't hear me pray. But when I got into the right place and I recognized that prayer can change things. When I moved the gym equipment out of the gym And I put a prayer cloth and I put a speaker, and I got on my knees and I said, lord, I'll do whatever you say. For God I live, and for God I'm willing to die. This house will be a house of prayer. We will serve the Lord. This house is yours. Is that. I'm about to have a fit up in here. Oh. Bye. I'm all over my time. I know this ain't a touch your neighbor kind of church, but just touch your neighbor and say, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Because my grandmama used to say, prayer changes things. He may not come when you want him, but he's always on time. You got less money in your pocket and more month to count, but he's always on time. Trouble on way. Trouble on one side and trouble on the other, but he's always on time. Now I got. I got to finish all. My time is gone. Help me, Holy Ghost. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Oh, Jesus. All right, let's listen real quick. Verse 11. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making a petition and plea before God. And then they came near and they said before the king concerning the injunction, O King, did you not sign an injunction that anyone, that you who makes the petition to any God or man without 30 days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Look at verse 13. Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, oh king, or the injunction you have signed, but make his petition three times a day. Stop right there. Daniel is one of the highest officials in the kingdom. He is their boss. The king is about to give him an entire kingdom. But what do they call him? An exile. They call him out of his name. See, envy demotes you in language before it can ever demote you in your office. Some people cannot attack your work, so they attack your identity and your character. See, they won't say that qualified person, they say, that girl over there. Yeah. See, they won't call you a manager. They call you an outsider. See? See, they reduce a lifetime of service to the label that makes you seem less. Then they told the king, say, Daniel pays no attention to him. That's a lie. Daniel served the king faithfully for decades. His higher loyalty to God was never contempt for the king. But they rebranded conviction as disrespect because their ego hears disrespect faster than it hears truth. Look at verse number 14. Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. The decree his ego signed has now become the weight of his consciousness. Daniel's integrity would not let the king feel comfortable with what he had done. See, it may not stop people from doing you wrong, but it can make wrong heavy in their hands. So Darius, Darius cannot blame Daniel's attitude. He couldn't blame Daniel's work or his lack thereof. He could not blame his character. He had to face truth. I did this to a good man. That's why the Bible says, do not repay evil with evil. Do not let somebody else's lack of character cost you yours. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord. Clean hands, pure heart. The Bible says that he labored until sundown trying to save him. See, there wasn't a loophole. Then it says, then these men came by agreement to the king and said, o king. O king. What? That is a law of the Medes and the Persians, that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Verse number 16. And then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, make your God whom you serve continually deliver you the most trusted man in the empire. No legitimate charge, no corruption, no negligence, no foolishness. The man who kept the window open when it could cost him everything, and his reward was a den. He did everything right. He followed every single law, and it walked him right into a death sentence. He was faithful, and his faithfulness put him inside of a den. And here is what nobody talks about when it comes to excellence. It can elevate you and expose you in the same chapter. See, excellence is not always armor. Sometimes it will paint a target. It disturbs people who are literally counting on your compromise. And Daniel gave Babylon decades of faithfulness, and Babylon paid him back with a stone and a seal. You can play, Frank. See, it's easy to say yes when the music is playing, the room is clapping, and people are liking you on Facebook and following you on Instagram. But the real question is whether your yes will stay yes when obedience sends you a bill. See, his yes survived the decree. The Bible says that the stone was rolled before the den. And it says that the king had his ring, his signet ring stamped the rock, say, no man shall touch this. And it says, all night he wrestled. He rustled like, what have I done? What have I done? And he woke up and he ran down There to the. To the den. And he yells in, he says, daniel, Daniel, has thou God delivered you? And they roll the rock away stone. And Daniel comes out, he says, oh, king, live forever. Live forever. Says, for I live. And the Bible says that at that moment, the king does two things. Number one, he throws all of the other satraps that were in a group who were conspiring against Daniel. He threw them into the lion's den. And the Bible says that they were devoured. In fact, it even says that their children and their wives are also thrown in there as well. See, be careful, because yo hating could actually impact an entire generation. See, hating can actually impact your household. And then the Bible says that Darius then signs a decree, a new decree, and says that everyone on the land, everyone in the land will worship the God of Daniel. See, your faithfulness can change and impact the community that's around you. See, your consistency actually changes the environment. It's beautiful to see. So biblical excellence, practical excellence. It's not just. I used to think that it's what you wear and how you. How you dress and how you show up. I mean, and that stuff is true. That is true. Right? You can't go to a job interview with a pink suit on all the way down here and some Stacey Adams. Right? That's. That's not good. Can't do that. But it's more than that. It's how you show up, what you say, what you do, where you go. But the inside man and the outside man are the same watchman. He calls it the normal Christian life. The Christian life. It is the person that you are when no one is watching, when there is no camera, when there is no applause, when there is no platform, can you be found? Faithful are you Excellent. Do you follow? Keep your word, Tell the truth. They used to say, shame the devil. Do you send an email when you say you're going to send it? Do you over commit, not follow through? See, it's bigger than just the myopic. Yes, man looks at the outward appearance and God looks at the heart. Yes, man does look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. See, I can tell. And it's going to sound bad, but that's okay. I can tell the way you view excellence by the way your closet looks right now and the inside of your car. All right, that's fine. It's tight, but it's right. So there are all. There are different ways that we can reform and refine our lives to be more excellent. Watch this. Not to be perfect. To be consistent, consistently being reformed. Sanctification, it is a continual process. You have never. You will never make it right. It's a. It's a line that you have to continuously become every single day. It's the little things. So when you walk down the street and you see the trash, don't walk past it, pick it up, throw it away. When you're driving in the car and you don't want to have the food in your car, you don't throw it out your window. You wait. See, that's excellence. It's not just having a clean car. It's having a clean heart. It's having characters show up in the moments that matter the most who you are. But no one's watching. I'll say this, and I'll wrap up. I had the privilege of going to go see the Sistine Chapel this year when I was there. I promise you, it is as big as this. Like, the ceiling of this building, probably actually one and a half times this. It is massive. And one man, one man painted this entire thing. It took him years, and we're talking 300 years ago, but it took him years to paint this beautiful edifice. It is the nicest thing in the world. And technically, you are not supposed to take pictures of it. You just need to experience it for yourself. They believe that the flash will impact the paint. And so I'm a tell the truth, shame the devil. I'm gonna just be real. I was not consistent. Because I'm looking up there, I'm like, oh, God, look at that right there, man. That's beautiful. Now, every picture, blurry, everyone. I ain't got not one nice picture, but it was beautiful. Now, mind you, when it was painted, there were no lights, there were no flashlights, so this man could only paint during the day. And he sat on his back for years high up in the sky to paint this beautiful edifice. And in the corner, they say he was there for a few months, the dark, dark, dark corner, just painting away. And the story goes that a man came in and said, why in the world are you painting that corner? Nobody's gonna see that. You're focused on an area that nobody will ever see. The painting said, the painter said, you're right. No one will see it, but God will see it. So when the rubber meets the road, when nobody's around, when the decision is yours to make and not mine, not this church's, not the person next to you, when you make the decision in your mind, remember, nobody else may see it but God. Does. And your character matters. That is the fruit that remains. Let's pray. For Father in heaven, we thank you for this, your word, and these, your people. I pray, Father, that this word would land on good ground. That the seed would plant something inside of them that will flourish and blossom into something beautiful. God, that we are not chasing perfection, but we are chasing purpose. That we are not chasing to be seen, but chasing consistency. I pray, Father God, for these, your people. They may find favor in your sight. Not for prosperity, not for things, not for items, not for money or fame or fortune, but for faithfulness. We honor you with all that we are because of who you are. For it is in Jesus, mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen.