Send us Fan Mail Daniel’s Decision “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s food and drink.” (Daniel 1:8) Behold the power of a decision, if God and your heart are in it, to set the course of your future. We sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus… no turning back.” How do you know God was not in your decision? You turned back. If God is in the decision and your heart is in it, you won’t turn back. I have settings on my clothes washer (Full, Medium, Delicate) that determine how that thing will run. I make it, punch it, and the cycle is set and running. When you decide to follow Jesus, set the cycle of your life on Full, not medium or delicate. For me it was full speed ahead. Full commitment meant full surrender. I never again had to decide whether I was going to church or not, read my Bible, pray, or whatever the Lord wanted me to do. Life is made up of decisions. The biggest, most important one you will ever make is to once and for all make up your mind to follow Jesus and by so doing ‘set the cycle’ of your obedience. That means you make Him Lord and Savior. That decision will determine everything else for your future and eternity. Jesus set the cycle in Gethsemane when He prayed, “Not My will but Yours be done.” The cycle was set and that decision to suffer determined the possibility of the salvation of the world. After that there are other decisions: who you will marry and your career. What will you spend the rest of your life doing? Discover your passion, get good at it, find someone who will pay you to do it, and you’ll never have to work another day in your life. These are important decisions you will make. Don’t mess them up. In every decision you make to do the will of God you will find that there are enemies who will try to throw you off course. Sometimes these enemies are friends and family! Your number one enemy will be Peer Pressure. David faced it when he decided to fight Goliath; Joseph faced it with his brothers; you will too. Daniel faced it. He was hauled off to a distant pagan Babylon where his name was changed, along with his food and his clothes. He was ordered to eat things God had commanded the Jews not to eat. A contemporary named Ezekiel ended up in a refugee camp, but Daniel was put in the king’s palace to be trained to serve the king. We pick up the story here. Please read Daniel chapter one. Lessons Learned: 1. You can’t make a difference if you are not different. You can’t make a difference in your family, school, church, community, and world if you don’t decide from your heart to be different and do different. In order to be extraordinary, you must put an extra into your ordinary. Personally I don’t want to be one of the herd; I want to be the “bell cow.” Don’t shoot for an average grade; shoot for an A. Stay Connected with Grace Church! Dive deeper into sermon notes and see how Christ is moving in our community by visiting our website: https://sites.google.com/view/gracehouseclinton/sermons If you feel led to support our ministry, you can give securely here: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=674824c2-5d42-11ee-90fc-1260ab546d11 Thank you for being part of our ministry! #GraceChurch #FaithInAction #terrysimpson #terry #simpson #clintonar #sermons #pastor #ministry #discipleship
