Are You Learning from Those Who Came Before You? — Part 1

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I'm so glad you're here. Today we're gonna continue our series called Unshakeable. Rick is taking us through the Book of Daniel, and that's so we'll be equipped to handle whatever curveball life throws at us, even the most difficult trials. Okay, here's part one of a message called Are youe Learning from those who Came before you? Here's Rick.

We've been looking at the life of Daniel, who lived about 2,500 years ago. At 15 years of age, he was taken as a prisoner of war to the Babylonian empire with about 25% of the Jewish nation. But there, he just continued to pass every test of life. And when he was 85, 70 years later, he is the second most powerful man in the most powerful empire in the world. Now, we don't have time to review all of what's happened, but in Daniel Chapter five, where we are now, King Nebuchadnezzar, who was the most famous Babylonian king, built the great hanging walls of Babylon. He's died, and he reigned for 45 years. And now his grandson, a guy named Belshazzar, is the king. Belshazzar was a terrible leader, absolute terrible leader. He was a party boy. He was a spoiled royal brat. And all he liked to do was drink and party with his friends. And so, sensing weakness, I'm setting up where we're going. The two biggest enemies at that time, the Medes and the Persians, joined together. Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Great. And they came to besiege this great walled city of Babylon. Now, it's a pretty safe city. The Euphrates river runs through it. It's got walls 50 to 80ft in depth. It's a pretty fortified city. But at this moment that we're gonna look at this weekend, these two armies are camped around the city of Babylon waiting to attack. And Belshazzar, the king, this young kid, he's not worried about it. He's overconfident. And so what does the party boy do when he's under attack? He throws a party. And in this chapter, he invites a thousand of his friends to the royal palace. And he has. And they all get drunk. They all get drunk. They're having a really fun time. And then the king gets a very bad idea. And here's what he says. He says, and he's drunk. He said, hey, you guys, when my grandfather was the emperor of Babylon, and when we sacked Jerusalem and destroyed it and took over Israel, he said, we Stole all of the temple utensils, all of the goblets and all that stuff, and it's been in storage here in Babylon now for 45 years. He says, how about this? Let's get out the temple goblets, and we're gonna drink in them and toast our pagan gods. Bad idea. Bad idea. This is called being sacrilegious. And it's making fun of somebody else's religion. It's taking something that is created to honor God and instead misusing it to dishonor God. And you turn something sacred into something profane. And let's look at this story, and then we're gonna draw some lessons out of it. Okay, here's what it says in the Bible. Daniel, chapter five. King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles, and they all got drunk. When Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar, his predecessor, had taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem. Now, he thought it'd be fun to drink using these goblets intended to worship God. And so it says. So they did. They used the cups, laughing and making toast to all the pagan gods and idols. Now, suddenly, it says, a finger of a human hand appeared in the royal banquet hall and began writing. Supernaturally writing on the plaster walls of the royal palace. And the king, it says. And all the guests watched the. This hand as it wrote. Now, this is a hand without a body. Okay, anybody remember the thing in the Adams family? I don't know if thing was around then, but, you know, he could have. He was detached. It certainly wasn't one of those giant foam fingers have. At the angel game, you know, we're number one. But evidently, this is a kind of a Freaky Friday thing. A hand shows up and it starts writing on. By the way, have you ever heard the expression, the handwriting is on the wall? It's from this story 2,500 years ago. This idiom that we use now, the handwriting is on the wall, which means that's a warning. Bad news is coming. You're about to get fired. The handwriting is on the wall. Anytime you use the handwriting is on the wall, it's from this story in the Bible. And I could give you four or five hundred other phrases, expressions, and idioms that actually came out of Bible stories. The handwriting on the wall is referring to the fact that Belshazzar is going to be warned. He's going to die that night because he has Been sacrilegious and he's disrupted a God and he hasn't been, you know, humble. Now this is a warning, but this is the origin of it. Now, in verse six, it says this. When the king saw this, this hand writing on the wall, it scared him to death. Well, I guess so. It says his face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his hips gave way. Now, I love this last phrase. His hips gave way. That's just a polite way of saying he soiled his pants. Now, a thousand guests see this handwriting on the wall. Nobody can read it, nobody understands it, nobody can interpret it. So they call for this guy Daniel, who's been serving now first as a prisoner of war, then as intern, and now he's an administrator. And he's moved up. And by this point, Daniel in his life has developed a reputation for being the smartest guy in the empire. He's the best educated, he's the wisest man in the empire, and Daniel is the go to guy. When you don't know what. What to do, when you don't understand it, when there's a mystery that needs to be unraveled, you couldn't explain something, you call on Daniel. So they call on Daniel and he comes to the banquet hall and Daniel reads the message and he translates it and he interprets it. Now here's what the message was. Daniel 5, 25. Now this is the message of the handwriting on the wall. Menne, mene, tekel, parsen. Well, nobody understood that because that happens to be Aramaic. It's the only Aramaic phrase in the entire Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, everything else written in Hebrew. This is the only phrase in the entire Bible in the Old Testament written in Aramaic, which, by the way, was the language that Jesus spoke. Now he not only reads it, he translates it and then he, Daniel interprets it and he says, okay, King. He said mene means numbered, and it means your days are numbered. God has numbered the days of your reign and they're gonna end. Your time's up, your number has been pulled. He said tykel means weighed. Weighed. Weighed in the balance, like at a scale. He says, you've been weighed on the scales of God and you have not measured up. And then he says, parson means divided. And he says, your kingdom is gonna be divided tonight between the kings and the Persians, and you're gonna die. And the word parsin, to a Hebrew mind or Chaldean mind, it's a play on words. Parsin and Persian sound real similar. Now this is not exactly good news. You're losing your kingdom and you're gonna die tonight. But Daniel, because he always does the right thing, he gets promoted again. Look at this next verse on the screen. It says, then the king commanded, King Belshazzar commanded that a royal robe be put on Daniel and a gold chain was put around his neck. Cause he had interpreted this. And the king named Daniel to be the third highest ruler in the kingdom. It's, it's another promotion. Those of you who have been studying this, with this for seven weeks now, okay, he's the third highest ruler in the kingdom. But that very night Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Mede took over his kingdom at the age of 62. Archeology now tells us how they actually invaded. They didn't try to tear the walls down. What they did is the Euphrates river ran through the city under the walls. They actually diverted the, the river and the water went down low enough that they could crawl under the wall and they came in. And this is a historical fact that the Medes and the Persians then took over from Belshazzar. That night he only had a two year reign. Now there are a lot of lessons in this chapter we could look at. I debated which way to go, like how to not lose a kingdom. The principles are in here. But what I want to focus on is, is why they called Daniel for the crisis. When they didn't know what to do, they didn't know where to turn. There are a lot of crisis in the world. We need Daniel's today. We need women and men who can go. This is what this means. This is what this means. We see this out here, this is what this means. And as I said, Daniel had developed this reputation as being the go to guy because he was the wisest man in the empire. In fact, let's go back and let me show you what the queen and the king said about this guy here on the screen. The queen said this, this man Daniel has a sharp mind and he's filled with knowledge and understanding. And he can interpret dreams, he can explain the meaning of mysteries, he can solve difficult problems. So call for Daniel and he'll tell you what it means. And so they put out the call. SOS bring Daniel in and when he gets into the banquet hall, this is what the king said, the next verse. I have heard, Daniel, that the spirit of God is in you, that you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom. Isn't that an incredible reputation? I mean, think about that. Note those three things he says you got God's spirit in you. You're brilliant in your knowledge, and you're extraordinary in your wisdom. You. Wouldn't you like to have people say that about you? Yeah, well, if you would, you picked a good weekend to come to church, because that's what we're gonna look at. How do you become wise like Daniel? God used this guy Daniel because he was wise. But wisdom is a choice. And you can choose to become wise through learning and through study and dedication and prayer. And the Bible's got a lot to say about wisdom and learning. We could spend an entire six months on this one. But let me just show you one verse. Here's a verse up here on the screen. Proverbs chapter four, which is, by the way, the book of wisdom in the Bible says this, verse 13. Always remember what you have learned. Your education is your life, so guard it well. Let's look at what God says are the five ways to become wise in life. Everybody. There's benefits to love. There's benefits to wisdom. And when you do the things God says to do, you're gonna just become a wiser person. All right, let's look at them. The first thing the Bible says is this. Make a commitment to never stop learning. Make a commitment to never stop learning. Now, it all starts with a choice, and nobody can decide for you. You gotta make this choice yourself. You have to realize how important learning is for the rest of your life. Proverbs 23, verse 12. And the Bible says this. Commit yourself. That's making a commitment. Commit yourself to instruction and tune in your ears to hear the words of knowledge. Now, I made this commitment when I was 15 years old. And I just began saying, I'm going to learn as much as I can. And for many, many years, I read at least a book a day. You say, well, how'd you do that? Little tiny books, lots of big pictures. I have over 35,000 volumes in my library. Now, I actually started collecting my library when I was 14. And I. Because they open the door to every area of science and literature and history and all of those kind of things. Now, your education, you know, this does not stop when you graduate. I've actually heard people say, well, I'm glad I finished my education so now I can start my career. I wanna go, buddy, you're never gonna finish your education. Tell that one to God, and he'll laugh at you. The rest of your life, you're gonna be in education mode. There are a lot of things God wants to teach you that you have not learned yet. Learning is not a stage of life. Learning is your life. Learning is your lifestyle. And God wants you to learn something every day. And so he says, commit yourself to instruction. Commit yourself. Make a commitment to never stop learning. What new skill are you working on right now that you didn't have last year? What new skill next year are you gonna work on that you don't have today? Are you gonna be any different? You gonna be better? You gonna be any stronger? You're gonna know more, you're gonna be wiser? You make the commitment because you're never finished with your education. And lifelong learning is actually the key to being a leader. All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. You can never take a person any farther than you are yourself. And so, for instance, in a church, a growing church requires a growing pastor. In business, a growing business requires a growing businessman. In a classroom, it requires a growing teacher. In any area of life, all leaders are learners. If you're not learning, you're not a leader, because you gotta keep moving further and further ahead. As I said, it's not a stage. Now, why should you never stop learning? Cause it's in your best interest. I could give you 4, 40, 50 things that the Bible says learning does in your life. Let me just mention a couple. It brings success and it brings profit. Success and profit. You want those in your life, then you need to be a continuous learning person. The more you learn, the more you earn, the more you grow, the more you become effective in life. Let me show you a couple verses. One of them is Ecclesiastes 10:10. This is one of my life verses. I memorized it early in life. And it says this. If an axe is dull and its edge is unsharpened, but more strength is needed, but skill will bring success. Now it says if you got an axe and you're chopping wood, if the blade is dull, obviously it takes a lot more energy to chop the wood. If your ax is sharp, which represents skill, then it doesn't take as much effort. He's simply saying, here, work smarter, not harder. Work smarter, not harder. You're never wasting your time when you're sharpening your axe. Right now, when you come to church, you're sharpening your axe. You're spiritually sharpening your axe to be more effective in the world. When you take a seminar, when you read a book, you're sharpening your axe. And the Bible says that skill will bring success. Notice it didn't say desire, it didn't say prayer. Okay. It says, skill will bring success. And you can pray all you want and you can have all the desire all you want. And you can write down all your dreams all you want. But if you don't have the skill, you're not gonna be as successful as you could be. I know a lot of people who desire to be a success. They desire to grow, they desire to be effective. They desire. But they're not willing to learn the skills, go back to school and get a new skill or whatever skill the Bible says will bring success. And not only that, the Bible says it brings profit. Look at this verse on your screen. The Bible says in Proverbs 19, verse 8, do yourself a favor. It's self serving really to grow in wisdom. Do yourself a favor and learn all you can. Then remember what you learn and you will what? Prosper. You'll have a better life if you. The more you learn, you'll just have a better life. Now here's what I've discovered. I've talked to tens of thousands of people in 164 countries and what I've learned is this. You can learn from anybody if you know the right question. If you give me five minutes with you, I can get you to teach me something. Because you know things I don't know. I know some things you don't know. And the person sitting next to you know some things that neither you nor I know. That's why we need each other. That's why it takes humility to be wise. Humility asks questions. Pride says, oh, I don't want to ask a question because it looks like I'm dumb. There are no dumb questions in life. The dumb thing is not to ask a question. And so in humility you'll actually learn more because you ask questions. There's a verse in the Bible where it says, counsel in the heart of man is like a deep well, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Daniel was a man of understanding. How do you draw it out of people? By asking questions. You might wanna sit down and make a little list and keep it in your wallet or your purse. Every time you sit around with somebody who you think maybe they could teach me something, take advantage of it. Whenever I meet a stranger and I've got a period of time I'm sitting on a plane with them or whatever happened to be waiting and we start talking, I have two questions back of my mind. One of first is how can I help them? How can I serve them? Is there anything I could do? Maybe they need an Encouragement or is there anything I could assist them in? Cause we're here to serve. And then the second question is, what do they know that I don't know? And I'll start asking a few questions for probing. And I go, well, I don't know anything about that. And I'll ask about it. And that way anybody can teach you something. But the secret is you have to pay attention. Look at, look at this verse on the screen. Proverbs 23:12. Pay attention to your teacher and learn all you can. Teachers, you can pay me for this one later, but that would be a good verse to put on your whiteboard. Pay attention to your teacher and learn all you can. That's the Bible. So I guess if you don't do that, the kids are sinning. I'm just kidding. All right, here. Point is, pay attention. And if the more you pay attention, that's part of the commitment to never stop learning. All right, here's the second key that the Bible tells us to be wise. Learn the lessons of the prior generation. Learn the lessons of the prior generation. And the whole reason I wanted to talk about this is because this was the mistake that this King Belshazzar made. He could have learned the lessons that would have prevented his kingdom from being overthrown because his grandfather had made all these mistakes. But he didn't listen, he didn't learn. And. And as a result, he lost it all. You learn the lessons of the prior generation. Actually, this concept is something that God commands us to do. Let me give you an example of it. In the Bible, in the Book of Job, chapter 8, verse 8, verse 9, it says this. Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned. For we were born only yesterday and. And we know so little. He says, I want you to go out and ask the former generations. You need to learn the lessons of people who came before you. He said, if you don't, you're being prideful. If you're humble, you will learn. Now, what does that mean in your life, if you're gonna be wise, you're gonna need four kinds of people. I want you to write these down. There are four relationships you need to become wise. You need mentors, models, partners and friends. This is not on your outline. Just write it down in the corner. Mentors, models, partners, and friends. If you're going to be all that God wants you to be in life, if you're going to succeed the way God intends for you to succeed, you're going to need mentors, models, partners, and friends.

Wow. Such an encouraging message from Rick. And you know what? I've got some great news for you today. Pastor Rick has pulled together 365 of his most popular devotionals and put them all together in a brand new book called Daily Hope. 365 Days of Purpose, Peace and Promise. I know Pastor Rick has always said it's so important to start your day focused on God. In this book, it's going to help you do just that. Every devotional has a Bible verse that leads you into God's Word. It has a teaching that explains God's message and shows you how to apply God's Word in your life so you can live the life that God created you to live. Now these devotionals provide a framework to start your day with God's Word. They will help you deepen your faith and grow closer to the Lord. And by beginning each day focused on God's promises, you'll be equipped to face any challenge with strength and peace. This devotional book is also a wonderful way to share God's love with others. So be sure and request your copy when you partner with Daily Hope to take the Word of God to a hurting world. To get this great resource, it's really easy. You just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy. That's pastorrick.com or just text the word hope to 70309 again the word hope to 70309 and thanks so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope means so much to us because it helps us share the hope of Jesus Christ to people all around the world. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's Word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.