May 21, 1997 Joni’s Mkt.

Let’s go to Daniel 5, we want to take a quick look at what makes for a successful person the world has, if you read those pornography books they will paint you a picture of successful person and the picture will be this handsome macho guy with two women, two or three women beside him that are gorgeous and his driving a nice car and in chapter 5 you see that kind of picture yung king he is in this banquet that he gives in v. 1, he gives set for a thousand people and so in v. 2, yung iniinuman nila galing pa sa temple gold and he had noticed the plural wives, concubines. He got all the money in the world, all the power in the world and yet God interrupted his life all of a sudden and began to write on the wall and in v. 6, the midst of the king the most powerful man on earth his knees began to mocked together that’s how scared he was and and dito nakita natin the queen coming into the picture, praise God for queens, she avoided the banquet nor she came and in v. 11 that’s what we took of last week, she listed some of the key characteristic of Daniel a truly successful man. Let’s read together once again in v. 11, there is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit and the holy God in him, in the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligent and wisdom like god of the gods, king Nebuchadnezzar your father, your father the king I say appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners this man Daniel among the king was found to have been a king mind and knowledge and understanding and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, solve difficult problems call for him and he will tell you what the right thing means from there we took of and said, tingnan natin yung contrast nung king he had everything that world could offer and yet was he really successful? Not very, not many people really know him today and he did not know it a single impact upon the world. Si Daniel the man of God, anong characteristics niya? The first one, he has God’s spirit and it is very visible in other words kitang-kita ng mga tao and we made a point last week that many Christians, you would never know that they were Christians in the golf course or where ever they work you’d never know, you’ll be totally surprised if they told you that they were Christians and yet si Daniel sabi niya, nakita nung queen he had God’s spirit very obvious, the way he talk, the way he move and we are really responding that if you say that I’m a believer dapat naman makita sa iyo kasi kung hinde nakikita sa iyo na believer ka may request to you huwag mo nang sabihin na believer ka mas maige pa yun eh kesa sasabihin mong believer ka and then you disgrace the name of Jesus sayang lang. So, if you have God’s Spirit what else? You have many things which, you know he was not intelligent in the sense of he knew mathematics well or things like those but he had the wisdom of God, Spiritual wisdom which is basically knowing wisdom is the practical sign of doctrine, how to put doctrine into practice, alam niya when not to do something, in chapter 1, he was commanded to eat the king’s choice food and drink what did he doing, refused and he was asked to interpret king’s dream, what did he do? he prayed, he knew what to do, he knew how to put God’s word into practice. Last week I promised you, do you want to learn how to have wisdom like that? do you think it comes automatically? Many people have God’s Spirit but the reason why they don’t behave like they have God’s Spirit is because they have never acquired this kind of wisdom. V. 17, just to quickly review for the others anong characteristic before we teach you how to become wise. Daniel 5, You know the king offered them such rewards and many of us come to appoint in our life or we are offered many great things and if your heart does not really have God’s Spirit madali ka bang matangay what the world offers you if you don’t have God’s Spirit madali kang matangay. You know si St. Paul he had a fellow workers his name is Demus, how many have heard of Demus? If you read Timothy he’s started of very well ganda ganda ng takbo he was going with Paul and yet the bible says, later on in his life Demus deserted, he turned away, Judas the same thing you can begin well, I know many people in the ten years that we are been doing this they started very well and yet where are they now? Like Judas they depart, like Demus bakit? Because they are motivated by worldly wealth rather than by obedience to God, worldly wealth can bring you down. There’s nothing wrong with money, absolutely nothing wrong with money there’s no virtue to being poor you know that? being poor does not mean you will go to heaven, there are many poor people who will go to hell so either way, neither here, nor there but it is important to understand what motivates us. Last Sunday madaming dumating sa Sucat very early kasi after they heard the Daniel class kala nila eh makatotoo yung sinasabi ko, if you really offer maski na hinde isang milyong eh, gawin natin half a million. Do you think a lot of people, you will come by 9:30, we’ll give you half a million for this, do you think people will come on time? Nakapila pa, lalo na pag sinabi mong the first ten, mabilis pa tayo, di ba yung mid-night madness diyan, how many people go there? Ang dami, they’re motivated by something other than obedience to God kaya pag nagco-conflict yun and the devil will always bring it. Last year there was temptation in my life, I was offered a job with incredible salary talaga namang name your price, so I asked Peter, should I take it? What do you think Peter said? Nakawala ka na diyan papasok ka uli diyan, so I said sorry no good, but it was tempted I have to say it was tempting pero you think about it after 5-10 minutes alam mo na hinde tama yun maski na ano pang gawin I’d rather, why would I worked from 8:00-5:00 after that it will become 7:30-7:00, siyempre ibubuhos mo lahat dun eh, nothing wrong with working pero pag nakawala ka na like me, I’m celebrating my 10^th year of not working on a secular office, this may so don’t be motivated by worldly wealth, it’s all right to be wealthy don’t feel guilty okay. So last week we said, what motivates you, what really motivates you, what moves you, what inspires you, what things that you move your wills, I was very pleased because I got a proposal the other day to help the poor people with school supplies, you know that that person is being moved not by money because they’re

not gonna make any money other than but there’s thinking that they energy is being placed on what can I do, what can I do for them, have you ever privately, what have you done, that says, Hey! Yung pera hinde masyadong importante sa akin, are you doing move or are moving simply because meron kang reward, na pera what have you done? You know the Christians have change the world, you know who started the red cross? Kristiyano yan, Webster dictionary, Webster was a believer, if you put the dictionary together and so forth and so on. Ikaw what’s God moving you to do, what’s God telling you to do in this world? It will not earn you lots of money, it may but be motivated by things other than your own pleasure or your own wealth. See, si Daniel… he refused no, I’ll do it but keep it anyway, lastly we said, noticed he was not afraid to speak for God before important people. In the past I’d say three weeks I’ve been talking to a lot of very wealthy individual Christians and they work with a lot’s of money, they worked with a lot of people ang sabi ko sa kanila very frankly without… I was very disappointed because they were afraid to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ in the areas of inference, daming tao, daming opportunity, nagbibigay ka nga ng testimony sayang if you don’t glorify Jesus and I asked this person, I told her that bakit hinde ganon? Kasi pinagsabihan kami na relax lang eh, huwag masyado baka it might turn off the people so sabi ko is that fear of men that is now driving you forward or you just want to make lots of money from them that if you say Jesus Christ and the eternal way you’ll lose money? what motivates us? You need to ask that question every single one of us including myself, Howard Henricks recommends that we do a weekly search of our hearts, what motivates us because if you do not do it weekly or monthly or regularly what does the devil do he comes slowly ever so slowly you will find yourself moving further and further away from God. How many of you have ever experienced that? it’s real and it does not happened very quickly, it happens very slowly the devil will not tempt you like that, nung si Jesus tinempt ni devil in Matthew 4, the devil offered them what? The whole world, I’ll give you this whole world sabi niya kay Jesus, if you only bow down and Jesus said, Ayoko yan go away! We should say the same thing. What we would like to teach you tonight is how can we do that, how can I make sure that I’m not motivated by only work but by obedience to God, how can I have this boldness, remember we said, PLDT last week, what’s P, Power to witness, so when you have the Holy Spirit you must have power to witness with you life, L- Love, to love God and to Love others then Discipline and the T, no T, no Timidity, That will dictate the Holy Spirit series if you know those then you know the Holy Spirit. Many of us we know the power, Acts 1:8, when you receive the Holy Spirit you will receive power, you shall be my witnesses, we all know love without love patay ka Agape love, love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous… anyway how about discipline? Did you ever discussed that in any bible study? Discipline, you know that’s the root word of Disciple, sabi ni Jesus, go make disciples, disciples are made of people who have discipline, who are disciplined by the Holy Spirit and that’s why they can come out with wisdom like Daniel and we want to teach you that this evening so that for the rest of your life you can be a discipline person a disciple of Jesus. We will teach you that tonight and next week and maybe the following week three weeks we spend on discipline because it is extremely important and many times in many classes it’s never taught that’s why what do you have? Undisciplined people, how many would like to define discipline? Anybody, obey, self-control, to behave in such a way that you fit into the community, did you understand that definition? To have the community fulfilled their needs, being part of a team, if you are in a team you must have discipline, anybody else, what’s discipline? Okay, making a commitment to give all you got, that’s certainly a part of it, where do you, if I say give me a picture of discipline, what would it be? In the army okay, discipline is necessary in the army, do you know when you became a Christian you joined an army? Many people don’t even know that they are in an army, we are in an army and therfore many believers are very undisciplined, it is characteristic I would say even a Filipinos kita mo na lang sa traffic eh, walang disiplina, sa America everybody fall in line that’s call discipline. Christians, think of it are you like that or are you discipline, the bible is saying if you have the Holy Spirit you must be disciplined and you know why you are not disciplined it’s our fault, it’s my fault we never trained you, we never trained you well and sa army magandang analogy ito in army, you get the civilian you go to the army, you seen in the movies pack them in the bus they get of, who’s the first person they meet? The sergeant and the sergeants job if I’m the sergeant my job is to make sure that each and everyone here after so many years with me they will be so discipline that his body can put his life in his hand because you feel it’s not discipline people were bad do you understand that? in the military the reason why they emphasize discipline is because if one soldier is undisciplined many will die ganon di yung Kristiyano we need to be discipline people because we are in an army, helping each other and tonight we like to show you that wisdom practical wisdom, spiritual wisdom does not come automatic we need a … a spiritual booth camp kundi lulugu-lugu yung muscle mo, if you don’t have the discipline, they trained the cadets you know whether you are an officer or just a simple soldier they trained you, they train you wake up early, sleep at a certain time, go running the mad, laging diretso kayo, laging malinis ang suot, and do you know a disciplined person will also make an excellent husband or wife may discipline eh, eh kung burara diba? We want to teach you this, turn your bible how can I gain Spiritual wisdom so I can be successful whatever I do, if I already have the Holy Spirit what can I do, let’s turn our bibles to Proverbs 1:1, The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: who’s Solomon, what is his major contribution, he’s known for what? Wisdom, God made Solomon the wisest man ever on this earth there will be no one like him so my prayer one time, "Lord make me the second wisest man next to Solomon" when I discovered when I was studying Daniel si Daniel din wise din pala so now make me the third wisest man" so since Solomon is dead and Daniel is dead and I still alive the third one will now be… somebody complemented me and said, "Ricky you must be a prophet and I said why?" because what you say seems to come true did you know that? Meron daw akong sinabihan non, tinanong ako several years back dapat ba akong pumasok sa negosyong ito? Sinabi ko sa taong yon huag kang pumasok diyan babagsak yan ngayon several years later bumagsak na nga yung negosyo, he has moved to another business and he told this guy you know kausap ko yan si Ricky Samson ganon ang sinabi eh and sometimes people don’t listen to me, o kaya yung isang babaing kausap ko sabi ko huag mong babayaan yung asawa mong magpunta sa America mag-isa for extended period of time,… your heart will be broken, two and a half years later believe it or not she called me you know your words stuck to my heart and it happened exactly as I had predicted it. Am I a prophet? No! I just got a lot of wisdom, where did I get it from? From this guys Solomon, my old teacher and Jesus teaches us one thing, one of the very basics of being wise if you want to be wise what should you do? rub elbows with a wise man and since Solomon is the wisest of them all what should you do? Read Proverbs, so ito Proverbs of Solomon, why should you read Proverbs, v. 2, To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, v. 3, what’s another objective of Proverbs, To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; You see that word discipline, the equivalent in the NASB to receive instruction in wise behavior, wise behavior, acquire a discipline and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair. The first thing you need to do to gain wisdom is to begin reading the wisdom books of the bible, what are those? The Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon but most important you must do Proverbs because these are the saying of the wise men, this is where I get, if you’re away from your wife for very long problema yan, you can predict it, it will come true, does the bible tells you so. Look at v. 7, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. So, if you don’t want to be disciplined what does the bible call you? poor, so the NASB translate it us instructions, the NIV, discipline they mean the same thing, if you don’t know how to obey instructions or to listen to instruction then you are undisciplined person. To started discipline is to be able to listen to instruction that’s why may chain of command sa army, you must always obey that the officer above you says. So, with that as background, let us dig. Chapter 2, how can I get all of this wisdom? Does it come naturally? Proverbs 2:1-5

My son, if you will receive my sayings,

And treasure my commandments within you,

[2] Make your ear attentive to wisdom,

Incline your heart to understanding;

[3] For if you cry for discernment,

Lift your voice for understanding;

[4] If you seek her as silver,

And search for her as for hidden treasures;

[5] Then you will discern the fear of the LORD,

And discover the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

You know if you do all of this for ano ang ginaguarantee niya? You will understand or discern the fear of the LORD, ano daw yung fear of the LORD? It is the beginning of wisdom or knowledge and notice in v. 5, what will you find if you do all of this 1,2,3,4, You will not find knowledge about God, what will you find? Knowledge of God, is there a difference? Knowledge about God you’ll find that in the religion class, it’s up here, God is good, God is almighty all of you will past all those test eh, sigurado, you all know about God kaya many people you invite them to the bible study anong unang-unang sasabihin niya? Alam ko na yan eh, ganon ba, you know my response to that, Boy! You must really be a wise man, because only the wisest man know it. I want you to underlined that you will discover the knowledge of God, you will understand what does it mean to fear the LORD. Would you like to end up of no. 5, would you like to have knowledge of God, would you like to discern the fear of the LORD? 1) What do you need to do, if you accept my words this means the basic heart attitude that you have in coming to the bible, it must be one of open acceptance, receive my saying, accept my word, in other words you do not come to the bible to argue with it, to rationalize it, many people say, what is the bible say? Then what did they do, they begin to argue, but the bible is saying for you to find them, for you to know God kailangan pag dating mo sa bible your first step your heart must be right that you accept my words and it will be right only when the Holy Spirit is in you because of their Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthian 2:14, You cannot, they cannot understand God’s word, it will be foolishness to them, what does that mean? they will not accept, many will not accept but if you have the Holy Spirit and it’s a spirit of discipline then the first discipline that you must have is that God says, I accept that must be your attitude, hinde puedeng what God says I doubt, do you understand that? Let me give you a quickly example Abraham had been waiting for Isaac for so long, God has promised a son and then in Genesis 22, God said, "Abraham, I know that you love Isaac very much but you know what I want you to do, I want you to sacrifice him to me, go to the mountain, kill him!" if you were in Abraham’s shoes what would you do, you would argue with God, don’t you? When we read the bible many times we are argue with it, you’re already lost, you cannot gain wisdom anymore, you must come to God’s word and say, "I accept your word, Lord whatever you say goes in my life, do you have that attitude, if you have the Holy Spirit you will have that attitude, that’s the first attitude of discipline, I will not argue, I will accept, I will see that’s what it means; if you accept my words all of my words sabi ni God and then what will you do? and treasure my commandments within you, what’s that? most modern people called that memorizing, putting God’s word in side view. Many people have memorize lots of verses but you know wala eh it’s up in their heads, the real meaning with this is you treasure the commandments within you, the commandments of God become part of your value system, become part of you, you know it by heart. If you look at some parents they develop their kids, you know you can tell much about parents. I was very impressed we have outreach in Angeles typical of my stand I go the peoples homes, pagdating ko sa bahay talagang makikita mo yung mga bata nagmamano, very, very courteous, very polite, why? Because the parents have taught them well, these kids have treasured the sayings of their fathers or their mothers or the ways of their parents are built in to them, they treasured God’s commands in them. Treasure means you appreciate, you put in a high pedestal, you value God’s commands and they are where? Not in your notebook but within you. How many know John 3:16, How come you know that verse? Dahil paulit-ulit, how many know Daniel 2:22? It is he who reveals what? Profound and hidden things, how come some people know it, some people don’t? because of constant treasure, constant story, if you are basa ng basa ng basa it will become part of you, so you treasure up the commandments within you. It’s an attitude of acceptance not argument acceptance I’ll accept God’s word, I treasure God’s commandments so much that are store them within me therefore one of the discipline that you should have, if you see my bible or my computer there are sections there called commandments anytime you see a command underline, copy somewhere so you have a collection, treasure the commandments within you so you put there of, if you see commandments thou shall not… whatever still that’s a commandment you put that somewhere and you do that you just read them and read it to part of you. v. 2, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understand them. What’s the idea here? Making your ear attentive to wisdom, what is the quality of our ears? This is spiritual hearing but… when is it hard to hear? When it’s noisy, do we have a quiet or noisy world? Noisy, did you notice the devil is training us to be noisy, if there’s silence in the world it’s frightening, it’s like a library the worst thing in the school is the library, why? It’s so quiet, that’s really the best place, it’s the place where you can think. If you have a quiet husband treasure him, communication is important therefor… If you have a quiet husband treasure him because that’s important, that’s one of signs of a wise man his quiet but sometimes they are too quiet so what should you do? behind every man is a great woman, it is the wise woman who will know it how to inspire the husband to speak nice words. Attentive, the world the devil is teaching us to be noisy, God wants us to be quiet sabi ni God be still, be quiet, there were very few quiet places in your home sometimes the home becomes… you have to find your own quiet spots. Before you go to the office open your bible or if you have a room in your office you go to your room lock the door, open the aircon, pour on a cup of nice water and open the window and then your read, smell quiet you put the sign Doctor is out it’s true you are not lying, it’s out for you, I’m not yet in, I’m in for God only special appointment alisin natin yung noise that’s why there are Christians they call it quiet time, God whispers that’s why you have to be still, you have to listen. Sabi ni Jesus sa John 10, my sheep hear my voice, have you ever heard God’s voice, God is speaking to you sometimes the words in the bible reject our, sometimes they’re just thoughts in your head, so make your ear attentive to wisdom applying your heart to understand them. In other words what is the first two line saying; the entire you, your whole being is concentrated, your attitude is correct, everything about you is listening everything is concentrated, v. 3, if you cry for discernment lift your voice for understanding. That’s basically prayer, you call out, I want discernment, insight this is what separates the good guys from the bad guys, if you just read for two minutes I will guarantee you, you will get zero insights, why do many people enjoy the daily bread? They get somebody answers insights. Ang analogy ko dun ganito, why should we be content with that kung sabi ni Jesus, man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds on the mouth of God, but Solomon says, if you pray to God. God give me insight into your word allow me to do discern what you are trying to tell me, it’s your insight not somebody else, this bible study should perk you up but it should never be a replacement for your own reading meditating and getting insights into God’s word, nobody has a laugh on insights and if every breath of you is alert and concentrated, you pray to God, "God give me insight," and then you wait. Where will you get the insight? Does it come boom! Ganon ba, LORD give wisdom! No it doesn’t come like that. Where does the insight come v. 4, insights can only come if you seek or search as silver and search for her as hidden treasure. Where do you find this treasure, this insight? Under the ground you will never find then on the surface, you’ve got do your own digging. God’s job is to give you the insight, your job is to search for it. Your job is to search and dig for it, God’s job is to illuminate your mind so you’ll see it. But you know, without exaggeration if you spend time on this book you will become an extremely wise person when decisions come your way, alam mo bakit? Alam mo yung mga insights ni God you will be walking around with the mind of Christ according to 1Corinthian all you need to do is to dig. Ang problema natin wala tayong discipline we don’t know how to dig, that’s call bible study without this five fingers what are the things that you can do with the bible? 1) You can listen, every Sunday you come, every Wednesday you come and listen to God’s word, what else can you do to God’s word? you can read it, You can read God’s word, You can study it, you cannot only read it you can study God’s word, another one you can memorize God’s word but in all of this fingers hear it, read it, study it, memorize it, all of them to be able to get a grasp at it kailangan mo yung thumb what is necessary if you hear it, if you study it, if you memorize it, this thumb is essential without it no good, what is it, apply very close Joshua 1:8, Meditate. Joshua 1:8, Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night in order that you may be careful to do all that is written in it for then you will be successful and prosperous, do you see that verse; it’s promising you that you will become successful, what is the key? Meditation, it means you run it through your head over and over with one objective, so that you maybe careful to do all that is written in it, ang concern ng bible James says in James 1, do not simply be hearers of the word but doers of the word that’s where we get wisdom, see when you get insights to God’s word you will not translate that into wisdom when you apply it in your life. Let’s read it again Joshua 1:8, Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Si Daniel kabisado niya ito that’s why when the king said, "Eat this!" ayaw niyang kainin bakit? Sabi ng bible huag so he stood he obey, once should begin to obey the bible you are now a wise man and you will become wiser and wiser and wiser. Many people do not understand meditation so we will study it. Turn to Psalm 1, every time the bible talks about success it refers to meditation. Psalm 1:1-3

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

[2] But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

[3] And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season,

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

God is giving us a very simple formula for success Daniel applied it and he became very successful, if you apply it you will become successful. The bible says you read this book and meditate on it day and night and then rock your heads so that you can apply. Today I will give you meditation sheet that you can copy, how do you meditate the suggested simple format and if you follow this diligently like a diet, then you know what discipline it. Meditation means you cannot possibly meditate on one whole chapter at the same time, what should you do, the first part,

1. Pick a verse - read a passage a couple of times maybe three times and then pick a verse for the

day or for the week.

2. Ponder each word - What does that mean? I’ll give you an example Psalm 23:1, The LORD is

my shepherd I shall not want so how do I meditate in that I begin with the what does the mean?

it is the is not a, the LORD what does LORD mean? LORD means Yahweh.. then you understand

that Yahweh is God the God of all. The LORD is what does is means? Not was not will be but is,

what’s my? I always thought the LORD was their shepherd everybody else except me he didn’t

said to guide me. Shepherd what’s shepherd. Use an English dictionary (or a Hebrews/Greek

is to think of the opposite meaning of each main word.

3. Paraphrase - after you look at each word then you read it to understand the verse. That means

you put it in your own words.

4. Pray the verse - Praise God using the verse. Petition God that the verse will become true for

others as well as for yourself