Spirit of Excellence 2: Life of Daniel – Part 3 Lawson Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. I’m glad that you’re with us today. We’re gonna be talking about Daniel. Daniel lived with the spirit of excellence. He was a bold witness because the Holy Spirit was working in and through him. I believe just like the Holy Spirit worked in Daniel, the Holy Spirit can work in us and we can be a bold witness in these last days for the Lord Jesus. Blessings.

Paul said this in Ephesians 6:10. We’re gonna read a few verses here, through verse 14. He says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the authority of His ability. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the white lies, the flaming arrows of the devil.” You know what? The devil is a master of deception. That’s his only real power, is deception. And if you can break the devil’s deception, you can break his power. He goes on and says this in verse 11, “Put on the whole armor of God that you can stand against the wiles, the lies, the deception of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our battle is not with people.” He said, “But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Now, did you know what? I have read that verse in about 20 translations and every translation says there’s a battle. So some people wanna say there’s not a battle, I’m telling you, there’s a battle. Now, the good news is that Satan is a defeated foe. And the good news is that we win. But if we’re gonna win, we’ve gotta take our God-given authority. So he says, “You put on the whole armor of God that you can stand against the wiles of the devil because there’s a challenge that’s going on.” Your problem is not your pastor. Your problem is not your husband. Your problem is not your wife. Your problem is not your parent. Your problem is not your school. Your problem is not your boss. Amen. You know who the problem is? The devil is the problem. Amen. He’s a master of deception. Playing the blame game. People still playing this victim blame game. If you wanna go forward in life, quit acting like a victim. Quit moaning about your problem. Quit blaming somebody else for your problem. Start taking personal responsibility. Life gets better when you begin to take personal responsibility. Hallelujah. He says in verse 13, “Because of this, because there’s a battle, take the whole armor of God.” Here’s where we win. “That you may be able to withstand in the evil day.” He says, “Having done all to stand, do everything. Keep standing. Stand, therefore, having your loins gird about with truth.” Now he says, “Put on the belt of truth.” You know why? Because it holds everything else together. When you operate in truth, you operate in strength. I had a young man working with a ministry a number of years ago here that just outright lied to everybody. But you know, I went and talked to him. I said, now you need to always tell the truth because it’s always better to tell the truth. And when you tell the truth, you don’t have to rethink what you said. Hallelujah. So he says, “Tell the truth,” right? Stand in truth, put on a belt of truth. Now, what is truth? We live in a world that, you know what? They wanna say one plus one equals 10, right? But in my math, one plus one equals two and two plus two equals four. The Bible is the truth. Jesus said this in John 17, he was talking about how we deal with the world. He said, “Don’t pray that they would take you out of the world.” But he said, “You need to tell the truth in the world.” Praise God. Some people are just so afraid of the world. Why are you so afraid of the world? The reason you’re so afraid of the world is you don’t know who you are and you don’t know what you have. When you read 1 John 2:15-17, it talks about the world, the flesh, and the devil. A lot of people focused, in the church, on the world, the flesh, and the devil. But if you read verse 12-14, it talks about you have a relationship with God, you’re forgiven, the Word of God abides in you, you have overcome the wicked one. Amen. There’s five things that it says. And because you have a relationship with God, because the word of God abides in you, because, hallelujah, you have overcome the wicked one, because of what you have, guess what? The world, the flesh, and the devil are really no problem. So first of all, put on a belt of truth. It holds everything else together. Then he says, “Put on a breastplate, righteousness.” Righteousness produces but protects your vital organs. Amen. Truth protects your reproductive area. Amen. And it holds everything else together. Now, as we read on down here, let’s just look at this really quickly. He says, “Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Always be prepared to tell people, “Hey, God loves you.” Amen. Jesus already paid the price. Amen. You can be at peace with God today because of what Jesus has done. He says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall quench,” what? All of the fiery darts, all the flaming lies of the enemy. The enemy’s always trying to throw lies, but just take the Word of God and keep speaking the truth and keep believing the truth and keep standing on the truth. He says this, “And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” You know, when you read about Jesus coming back in Revelation 19, he’s gonna be riding a great white horse. On his breastplate, the name written, the Word of God. He’s gonna have, out of his mouth, a sharp two-edged sword that goes as a flaming fire. And the Lord showed me that two-edged sword. A lot of times in the church, you know what? We’re always trying to play defense with the Word of God. We wait till we get in a negative position. We wait till we’re sick to start believing for healing. We wait till we’re facing a major financial battle before we start believing for finance. You can believe for finances before you get in a train wreck. Amen. So start believing God. Amen. And I believe God all the time. And the Lord showed me one side of that’s for defense, but the other side is for offense. Hallelujah. Amen. I heard this from John Osteen years ago, and I decided I’m gonna live this way. He said, “You know a lot of people living on the bottom of the barrel.” And he said, “We decided we’re going to live on the top of the barrel. So we started believing God and we filled the barrel up and we live off of the top of the barrel.” Do you know, I believe in that same thing. And he talked about how he conducted his life and his ministry and he said, “When I could walk, I crawled and when I could run, I walked. And when I could, you know, ride a bike, I ran. And when I could drive a car, I rode a bike. And when I could fly, I drove a car.” In other words, he said, “We let the curve get ahead of us. And we live off of the top of the barrel.” Do you know how many people get mad at you when you live off the top of the barrel? Do you know what? That’s the blessing of Deuteronomy 28. If you read it, you’re gonna live off the top of the barrel. You’re gonna be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed coming in, blessed going out, blessed in everything that you do and blessed everywhere that you go. Hallelujah. The blessing of the Lord’s gonna come on you and overtake you. Hallelujah. You’re gonna be a giver and not a taker. You’re gonna lend to the nations of the world. And I’m telling you, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Hallelujah. I believe these things and I live by ’em. And people criticize for me for them. Hallelujah. I don’t care. I’m gonna keep doing what the Lord told me to do. Keep operating how the Lord told me to operate. Hallelujah. So get the Word of God and believe. Do you know what? Believe for healing before you need it. And believe for finances before you need them. And believe for peace before you need it. Just believe the Bible. Just believe what it says. Believe that you’re gonna have a good, strong family before you ever get there. You know, I started believing when I was 14 years old. “When I get married, I’m gonna have a good marriage. I’m gonna be able to take care of my wife and my children well.” Praise God. I started believing when I got baptized in the Holy Ghost and started believing the Word of God, I started believing these things are real. I didn’t wait till I got in a situation to believe. I started believing. What’s wrong with people? Just believe the Bible. Hallelujah. He says, “Take the shield of faith. You can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. There’s an offensive side and a defensive side, which is the word of God. Praying with all prayer,” look at this, “in supplication in the Spirit, watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Keep praying, keep praying all kinds of prayers. Amen. We’ll talk about that more in just a little bit. Now let’s go back here. We’re right here. And so you know what? Here was Belshazzar. And Daniel was telling him the truth. And so when he came there, he said, “Belshazzar,” in verse 22, “you have not humbled your heart though you knew all of this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of Heaven and they have brought vessels to your house before you that your lords and wives and concubines of drunk wine in them and you have praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and wood and stone, which see, not nor hear, nor know that it and the God in whose hand your breath is.” Listen, Daniel did not operate in fear. Sin leads to intimidation, but righteousness leads to boldness. And you don’t need to be intimidated by the world. You don’t need to be intimidated by the flesh. You don’t need to be intimidated by the devil. You don’t need to be intimidated by people that are on the opposite side. Keep standing for the truth. Keep telling the truth. Amen. “God, in whose hand your breath is, whose are all your ways you have not glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from him and the writing was written. This is the writing that was written: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing mene. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Parsin, your kingdom is divided between the Medes and the Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he would be the third ruler in the kingdom. And that night was be Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.”

Hi, friends. We’ve been sharing on the goodness of God and we’ve got these teachings and many others like them absolutely free of charge on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. They’re downloadable audio, downloadable video, and we also have a great kids curriculum free of charge. Thanks so much. We’re back to the Word. Blessings.

2 Corinthians 5:19 said, “God was in Christ not imputing the trespasses of the world to them, but He has forgiven them for all trespasses.” So as far as forgiveness is concerned with God and a born-again person, you have already been forgiven. See, he thought that he was invincible. He lived in a city whose walls, they thought nobody could penetrate them. But that night, the armies of the Persians came under the wall where the river came in. It was in September 539 BC when the river was low and they came in and killed him and they took over the kingdom. So don’t think you’re invincible because you’re not invincible. Amen. Keep your hope, keep your trust in God. Stay righteous because the righteous are as bold as a lion. Keep standing up for Jesus. Guess what happens when you stand up for Jesus? He stands up for you. Now, in Daniel 6, it says this in verse 1, “It pleased Darius, the Mede, to sit over the kingdom. 127 princes.” The Media Persian empire was the largest empire to ever rule the world. “And over these three presidents of whom Daniel was the first, that the princes might give a account to them and the king would have no damage. Then Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellence spirit was in him. He kept a great attitude. The king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes thought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom. But they could find no occasion nor fault, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, ‘We’ll not find any occasion against Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.’ ” Did you know what? Daniel lived for God and everybody knew it. Daniel lived for God and made no apology for it. Daniel lived for God and God promoted him and God blessed him. It was intimidating to his enemies. Did you know they decided, “Hey, if we can’t…” They were jealous. Did you know sometimes people in the world are jealous of you? Sometimes people in the world are mad because of the blessing of God that’s on your life. Sometimes other people in the church are trying to play political games and they’re jealous of you. When you live for God and stand for God and do it for a long time, guess what? It leads to good things happening in your life. And sometimes, people are intimidated by it, but you don’t need to be intimidated. You know why? Because God is no respecter of persons. He’s only a respecter of faith. And Daniel was a man of faith. We will see that faith protects, but fear destroys. So they said, “There’s no way we can find anything Daniel against him except concerning the law of his God.” And so they say, “Let’s go to the king and let’s have him make a law that nobody can pray to anybody except him for 30 days.” So they went to the king and the king thought, “Hey, that’s a good idea.” So verse 8 says, “Now the king established the decree, signed the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians which alters not. Wherefore, King Darius signed the writing and the decree. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went to his house and the windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before God as he did before time.” Now, I wanna tell you something about prayer. Did you know all prayer is not of faith. But all men of faith pray. “Say, Pastor, what are you saying?” You know, the Islamic people pray seven times a day. I’ve been to Nepal where they worship over 300 million different gods. They’re always praying, they’re always spinning wheels, they’re always doing different things, trying to appease the wrath of an angry God. I’m here to tell you that Jesus has already appeased the wrath of God. Amen? And when we pray, we pray in faith. In fact, Jesus told the parable about it and he said, “Will men always pray on the Earth?” We need to keep praying because it’s a sign that we have faith, but we are not heard because we pray a lot. We’re heard because we pray in faith. Amen. The Muslims pray circles around most Christians. The Hindus and the Buddhists pray circles around most Christians. But when Jesus taught us to pray, he said, “Pray like this. Our Father, which are in Heaven.” We’re praying to the most high God, the Creator in Heaven, of Heaven and Earth. Hallowed be your name. We pray in the name of Jesus. Jesus said, “Whatsoever, you ask in my name, I will give it to you.” Do you know what they said in the book of Acts about the disciples? Could you just quit using that name? Because when they prayed in the name of Jesus, things happened. When we pray in the name of Jesus, it’s like we are coming there as Jesus himself is coming before the Father. And we have authority to use the name of Jesus. We have authority over the works of the devil. Hannah was up here singing today, “God bless America.” Hannah’s been going to UCCS. One Wednesday night, she came here, and when she came to church, she had been so discouraged because they had all these Hamas protestors at UCCS. Her grandfather was a missionary to Israel for about 20 years. Her uncle lives in Israel and married a Jewish woman. Her cousins are Israeli citizens. Her cousin who was in the military was in the place that Hamas first attacked and would’ve been killed except for she was on leave by the grace of God. But she was intimidated. But when she came here that night, she saw the Jewish flag, the flag of Israel on our stage and it brought comfort to her. Then she came to Barbara and Pastor Barbara said, “Let’s take authority over that mess.” And Barbara took authority over that mess going on in our town, on our campus. And guess what happened the next day? When Hannah went there, the protestors were there, sure enough, but they got rained on and they weren’t able to protest. And when she showed up, they couldn’t even speak. You see, we have authority over the works of the devil. The problem is, a lot of people just aren’t taking their authority in the name of Jesus. Pastor Barbara said, “We’re gonna take authority over that mess right now.” If we’d start taking authority, we’d start winning more often. Glory to God. So take authority over all the works of the devil. Praise God. So Daniel was there and and they made this law. Guess what Daniel did? “When he knew the writing was signed, he went to his house, his windows being open in his bedroom toward Jerusalem. He kneeled down upon his knees three times a day and he prayed and gave thanks before his God like he did before.” I hope that you are praying for America. Listen, I have been praying for America. I have been praying for our nation. The Bible actually says, in 1 Timothy 2:1, we’re supposed to pray for kings and all who are in authority that pray all kinds of prayer. I pray prayers of supplication. I pray prayers of intercession. I pray prayers of thanksgiving. I pray prayers of faith. I pray all kinds of prayers. Hallelujah. And it says, “Pray that we could lead a peaceable life in all godliness and in all honesty.” Hallelujah. I’ve been praying. Hallelujah. And I’m gonna keep praying. And sometimes, it looks like our prayers aren’t answered. But what do you do when it looks like your prayers aren’t answered? You keep praying. Amen. You keep believing the scripture. You keep believing God. It says, “Pray lifting up holy hands,” in verse 8 of 1 Timothy 2, “without wrath and death.” You know what that’s saying when you’re lifting up your hands? You’re saying, “Lord, I need you.” You’re saying, “Jesus, I need you.” You’re saying, “I can’t do it on my own.” How many of you know America still needs Jesus? Hallelujah. So he kept praying. “These men assembled and they found Daniel praying ’cause they were jealous making supplication. And they went before the king and said, ‘Hey, you made a law and it can’t be changed.’ They answered and said that Daniel, which is of the children, of the captivity of Judah. That Jewish boy, he doesn’t regard you not, nor the decree. Then the king, when he heard these words, was displeased with himself and said his heart on Daniel and how to deliver him. And he labored till the going down of the son to deliver him. These men assembled and said, ‘King, you know your law can’t be changed.’ Then the king commanded,” verse 16, “and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. Now, the king spoke and said unto Daniel, ‘Your God who you serve continually, He will deliver you.’ ” How many of you know people know when you’re serving God continually? They know when you’re loving Jesus continually. You may say one thing and do another, but when you say the same thing that you’re doing, people know it. Hallelujah. He said, “He’s gonna deliver you. Stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet and purpose that it might not be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting. There weren’t any instruments of music brought to him. His sleep went from him. The king got up early in the morning and hurried down to the den of lions. When he came into the den, he cried. ‘Daniel! Serving and living God is your God who you serve continually, able to deliver you from the the lions. And Daniel said to the king, ‘Oh king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion’s mouth.’ ” Hallelujah. Daniel wasn’t worried. Daniel wasn’t in fear. Daniel wasn’t wondering. Praise God. You see, because fear, fear destroys, but faith protects. God sent his angel. And it wasn’t the lions weren’t hungry because they got all Daniel’s enemies and they threw ’em in the pit and the lions broke their bones before they hit the bottom. Hallelujah. “And the king commanded and brought those men and they had mastery over them. Praise God. And the king wrote to all the nations and languages and people, ‘Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that every dominion of my kingdom will tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he’s the living God steadfast forever in his Kingdom, which shall not be destroyed. And his dominion is without end. He delivers and rescues, praise God, he does signs in wonders in Heaven and in Earth who is delivered Daniel from the lions.’ So Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus, the Persian.”

Friends, we’ve been sharing about Daniel. Daniel had a tremendous witness for the Lord Jesus Christ and for our Father God and I believe it was because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And if you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit as a believer, I believe that we need the Holy Spirit to live boldly in these days. So I invite you today to give us a call here at the church where we have prayer ministers that can pray for you for any need that you may have or to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God bless you today.

Faith isn’t complicated. It’s simply trusting God by knowing who He truly is. God is absolutely good. Like Daniel did, who stood strong against the odds, you can live in victory, no matter the challenge. God’s goodness is running after you. Discover these life-changing truths in Pastor Lawson’s teachings, “Spirit of Excellence: Lessons from Daniel” and “The Goodness of God,” both $20 values, yours free today. Download them now at CharesChristianCenter.com.

Did you know God has good plans for you? I wanna encourage you to save the date for our Rejoice! Women’s Conference. We’ll be meeting February 6th through the 8th. We’re gonna have Cathy Duplantis as one of our special speakers. My daughter-in-law, Pastor Heather, will be here. Pastor Lawson Perdue. Bring your daughters, bring your granddaughters, bring your friends, come hang out with us for a special time of worship and teaching how God has good plans for you. Everyone is welcome. See you there.

Friends, it’s great to have you with us today and I want to invite you to attend services with us at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. The atmosphere is amazing. Recently, in one service, I had people from 10 nations in several states. They watch us on a regular basis online and they said, “This is amazing.” So if you can’t come physically, come and attend online at Charis Christian Center or YouTube. Blessings.

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