Participants: John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001711A
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00:01 The Carter Report presents "Living Victoriously,"
00:06 Secrets of Success 00:07 from Prime Minister Daniel of Babylon City 00:10 with your host John Carter. 00:25 Welcome to Living Victoriously, part six. 00:30 Sometime ago, I was in Africa on safari. 00:35 We had been running a series of meetings 00:36 in Zimbabwe 00:38 and when the program was over, 00:40 we decided to take a little break 00:42 and go on safari. 00:44 There aren't many lions left in Africa, 00:47 and so we were looking desperately, 00:49 we didn't want to go on safari and not see some lions, 00:51 and so we were searching for lions. 00:54 And as we were driving down this dirt road, 00:58 the guide stopped the vehicle and said, "Look down there, 01:01 there is a big paw mark. 01:05 There're some lions very close here. 01:08 These lions came past here only a few hours ago." 01:11 And so we drove on for another mile and so 01:14 and then as we came around a corner, 01:16 we came upon these magnificent creatures. 01:20 They're not like the ones you see in the zoo. 01:23 They're big and then they're not vegetarians. 01:27 We stopped the vehicle and something happened 01:29 which was quite dramatic. 01:31 Our little daughter jumped out. 01:33 We couldn't do anything about it. 01:34 Judy jumped out and she ran towards these lions. 01:40 We started to cry out to her, "Judy, stop. 01:42 Come back." 01:43 And so we got out and we grabbed her 01:44 and put her back in the vehicle. 01:47 We told her there is something you've got to learn. 01:51 "You don't mess with lions 01:54 because lions are very, very dangerous creatures. 01:56 Lions... 01:59 wild lions eat people." 02:03 Then something else happened on the same trip. 02:05 We were staying in a secure camp, 02:08 had a tremendous wall around the camp 02:10 to keep the wild animals out. 02:13 And when I went to bed that night, 02:14 I just couldn't get to sleep 02:17 and so I thought I'd go for a little walk by myself. 02:23 It would be perfectly safe, so I went for a walk by myself. 02:28 The sky was beautiful, stars were shining bright. 02:31 I walked down to the river. 02:33 I heard the baboons, saw the baboons in the trees, 02:38 and then after walking around for about an hour, I went back, 02:42 got into bed 02:44 and the next morning at breakfast 02:46 the guide said to us. 02:48 You know, he said, "I'm really glad 02:50 all you folks were safe in your beds last night." 02:55 I said, "Why?" 02:56 He said, "Because there was a lion 02:59 walking around our tents 03:02 and around the buildings last night." 03:05 I said, "A real lion?" 03:08 He said, "A real lion was walking 03:10 around here last night." 03:16 There are some truths that I learned. 03:18 Let me share them with you. 03:20 Number one... 03:21 two lessons. 03:23 You don't play with wild lions 03:27 because wild lions have a tendency to eat people 03:30 because they are not vegetarians, 03:33 and number two, God is merciful and takes care of us 03:40 even when we do some amazingly dumb things. 03:47 It just as we'll, isn't it? 03:48 I guess that's the story of amazing grace. 03:52 Now the topic today is: 03:55 Surviving and Thriving with Wild Lions. 03:59 Living Victoriously with Wild Lions. 04:01 This is part 6. 04:02 I want you to take your Bibles please. 04:04 Come with me to the Book of Daniel. 04:06 Daniel 6:1-3 04:10 in this very, very old book. 04:13 Daniel 6:1-3, "It pleased Darius, 04:17 he was the king, 04:19 to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, 04:23 to be over the whole kingdom, and over these, 04:27 three governors, 04:28 of whom Daniel was one 04:31 that the satraps might give account to them, 04:33 so the king would suffer no loss in taxes. 04:38 Then this Daniel distinguished himself 04:40 above the governors and satraps, 04:43 because an excellent spirit was in him 04:46 and the king gave thought to setting him 04:49 over the whole realm." 04:52 Now, chronologically, of course, 04:54 this is after the overthrow of the kingdom of Babylon. 04:59 Babylon has been overthrown by the Medes and the Persians, 05:04 and now that the Persians are ruling with the Medes, 05:08 there is a new king on the throne 05:10 and his name is Darius, 05:14 and he has got all of these satraps or lesser officials, 05:18 and then over these officials there are three governors, 05:22 and Daniel is one of the governors. 05:25 Daniel was a survivor. 05:30 Seventy years of intrigue and politics, 05:33 worse than Washington DC. 05:36 He is now an old man in his 80s, 05:40 a Jew serving God 05:42 in the greatest empire of his day, 05:44 empire of Medo-Persia. 05:47 When others had fallen, he had risen. 05:50 He had been promoted by Nebuchadnezzar, 05:53 promoted by Belshazzar, promoted by Darius. 05:58 He is one of three governors and because he is so good, 06:03 because he is actually 06:05 ten times better than anybody else, 06:09 the king is thinking, I'm going to make this man 06:12 the prime minister of the whole of the country 06:15 because Daniel has got the spirit of God in him. 06:18 It says, he distinguished himself. 06:23 I want you to hear this, I want you to think about it. 06:26 It's not who you are that counts. 06:32 It's not who you are, but whose you are. 06:37 Servant of the Most High God, 06:39 Daniel did not get any lucky breaks, 06:43 he was highly favored by God. 06:46 The Bible says there was an excellent spirit in him, 06:50 he was a child of the king. 06:54 You can't keep God's man or God's woman down. 06:59 And when everybody else had gone down, 07:02 Daniel just kept going higher and higher, 07:05 a Jew in Medo-Persia. 07:12 I want you to know this 07:13 'cause we are taking about Living Victoriously. 07:17 God's man or God's woman will always rise to the top. 07:22 When tempted to give up gets sour, 07:24 complaint become depressed, 07:26 we are to say, I am God's child. 07:31 I will not allow the excellent spirit 07:34 to be taken from me. 07:37 There are people who will get under your skin 07:40 and people who will aggravate you, 07:44 but you and I should never allow people 07:47 to take the excellent of spirit of God 07:50 from within our hearts. 07:52 You will be promoted at the right time. 07:58 There is a great old song I was told as a boy. 08:02 Everybody here would know it. 08:04 Doesn't matter what happens, the song says, 08:07 God will take care of you. 08:10 This is the marvelous truth. 08:12 We are not alone. 08:14 We are not lost in the universe, 08:17 but we believe in a God 08:19 who has promised to take care of us. 08:21 I want you to notice some texts. 08:23 I want you to come with me to Jeremiah 17:7, 8. 08:28 Jeremiah 17:7, 08:35 8: 08:40 "Blessed or happy is the man who trusts in the Lord, 08:45 and whose hope is the Lord, 08:47 for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters 08:52 which spreads out its roots by the river, 08:55 and will not fear when he comes, 08:58 but his leaf will be green, 09:01 and will not be anxious in the year of drought, 09:05 nor will cease from yielding fruit." 09:08 People say, I can't believe that, it's true. 09:12 If a person is God's child 09:15 and if he is highly favored by God, 09:19 the Bible says he is going to be 09:20 like a great tree 09:23 that's planted by the river of life, 09:26 always green, 09:28 always prosperous, always growing. 09:32 You can be a victorious person. 09:34 You can be like the tree of life. 09:36 Come over now to one of my favorite passages, 09:39 Psalm 91. 09:42 This is one of the great passages in the Bible. 09:45 Psalm 91:14-16 says, 09:48 "Because he has set his love upon Me, 09:52 therefore I will deliver him, I will set him on high, 09:58 because he has known My name. 10:00 He shall call upon Me, I will answer him, 10:04 I will be with him in trouble, 10:07 I will deliver him and honor him, 10:10 with long life I will satisfy him, 10:14 show him My salvation." 10:17 This is true. 10:19 Most people got no idea 10:21 what God is waiting to do for them. 10:25 The Bible says, if we honor God, 10:28 God is going to honor us. 10:32 So he got Daniel, he is a Jew, he is the wrong religion, 10:36 he is a wrong nationality, he is in the wrong place, 10:40 but nothing can keep him down. 10:43 It's like a tree, like the tree of life. 10:47 Now look at Psalm 92:12-15: 10:51 "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, 10:54 He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 10:58 Those who are planted 10:59 in the house of the Lord shall flourish 11:01 in the courts of our God. 11:03 They shall still bear fruit in old age. 11:07 They shall be fresh and flourishing." 11:11 The Bible says, "They are going to be flourishing to declare 11:15 that the Lord is upright. 11:18 He is my rock. 11:20 There is no unrighteousness in Him." 11:23 Now, I'm not an arm chair theologian. 11:26 I'm not just making this stuff up. 11:29 I know from my own personal experience 11:34 that burns in my soul, 11:37 that God is taking care of me. 11:40 God took care of Daniel. 11:42 It doesn't matter who you are, it depends on whose you are. 11:48 Now, when I was just a boy going to college in Australia, 11:54 I had no money. 11:56 I was studying a degree 11:58 and you know after I paid my fees, 12:02 there was nothing left at all. 12:06 I got an old Harley-Davidson motorbike 12:10 and I rode that old Harley-Davidson motorbike 12:15 through western New South Wales. 12:17 I want to tell everybody here today, 12:20 there is nothing quite like riding a Harley-Davidson, 12:23 6 o'clock in the morning. 12:26 And you don't have a helmet on 12:27 because they didn't have them in those days. 12:30 And it's six in the morning and the sun is just coming up, 12:34 and the air is so crisp, and you are riding the Harley, 12:38 and it's thumping along, 12:41 thump, thump, thump, thump. 12:46 I sold books. 12:48 I went from farm to farm selling books. 12:52 The farms were so far apart, sometimes 20, 30 miles apart, 12:57 sometimes I'd be going along the main road 13:00 and there'd be a letter box in the side of the road 13:04 with a person's name on it 13:05 and I would ride the Harley into the farm or the station 13:09 or the ranch 20 or 30 miles. 13:13 And when I got in... 13:15 people out there, 13:17 they were not getting too many visits, 13:20 so I always got a tremendous welcome. 13:23 I started out as a skinny kid, I really did, 13:27 I was skinny after being at college for so log, 13:31 I was skinny, 13:34 didn't have enough food, 13:36 but after riding my Harley from farm to farm for months, 13:41 I was getting fat. 13:44 Now at 8 o'clock at night 13:46 just as the sun was about to go down, 13:50 there were no motels, no hotels. 13:55 You could see so far this great rolling countryside, 14:00 wheat and sheep country. 14:01 And I, about 8 o'clock at night I would say, God, 14:05 I got nowhere to stay. 14:09 When I would make my last call for the night, 14:11 invariably the people at the station 14:14 or at the farm or at the ranch would say, 14:17 "Where are you staying?" 14:20 Well, I got no... 14:22 There is no motel here, is there? 14:24 No, no, no. 14:25 Well, you're staying here. 14:27 So I was treated like a king. 14:30 I stayed in the servant's quarters 14:33 but the servant's quarters 14:35 were better than what I was used to, 14:37 and as soon as I was settled in, 14:39 a young man or a young woman would come across 14:42 with a big silver tray loaded with food. 14:47 I'd get up in the morning, knock on the door, 14:50 a great breakfast, 14:52 and I'd go out to get on the motorbike, 14:54 it would be full of gas or petrol 14:58 and the oil will be topped up. 15:01 God took care of me. 15:02 People say, "Those things don't happen today." 15:05 What do you know about it? 15:07 What do you know about it? 15:09 I know about it 15:11 because I've seen the hand of God. 15:15 It doesn't matter who you are 15:19 but whose you are. 15:20 Now, this story, the skeptics can't believe. 15:26 One day I was riding out on the Harley, 15:29 I was 100 miles of nowhere 15:33 and I stopped for lunch, 15:35 went around to the saddlebags, got to have some food. 15:38 The ladies at every farm used to send me on my way 15:40 with heaps and heaps of food. 15:43 So I stopped about 12:30, 15:49 then I looked at the back tire of the Harley. 15:54 It had a nail this long, right through it. 16:00 What sort of tools did I have? 16:03 I had no tools. 16:05 How much experience did I have to change the back wheel 16:10 on the Harley-Davidson? 16:13 For me like going to the moon. 16:17 So I was stuck out in bush with a nail this long, 16:22 right pierced into the tire 16:25 and those tires in those days used to have tubes. 16:33 I'll tell you what I did. 16:36 In the dust, I still remember it, 16:38 I can still see the place. 16:41 I got down on my knees and I said, 16:45 God I'll never change this tire in a million years. 16:50 The only tool I've got, I've got some pliers, 16:54 like dentists use to pull out teeth. 16:58 So I got on my knees, 17:00 I said God, when I pull the nail out, 17:04 keep the tire up. 17:07 You'd say, "What a dumb prayer?" 17:09 Well, God takes care of dumb people. 17:13 Yeah. 17:14 So I got the pair of pliers and I pulled the... 17:18 aargh... 17:19 out expecting to hear... 17:21 sssss. 17:26 So I kicked the bike, you know, started it, 17:30 got on the bike, 17:32 rode it thousands of miles, 17:35 stopping, selling books, 17:37 making money, earning my fees, getting fat. 17:44 The tire never went down and there is a reason. 17:49 The Bible tells us that God will take care of us. 17:54 I want you to know this. 17:56 This is why we can be successful. 18:00 Now, look at Daniel 6:4 please. 18:04 Going to get back to Daniel into the story of Daniel. 18:08 Daniel 6:4 says, 18:15 "So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge 18:18 against Daniel concerning the kingdom, 18:20 but they could find no change or fault, 18:23 because he was faithful, 18:28 nor was there any error or fault found in him." 18:34 Because he was so successful, 18:39 he got lots of enemies who tried to bring him down. 18:44 His success made them insecure 18:51 and unless you know the God of the universe, 18:54 you gonna be insecure all the time 18:59 and jealous all the time. 19:04 So they said, we're gonna get rid of this guy, remember, 19:07 however your enemies are not in charge, God is. 19:11 They couldn't find one fault in his work. 19:14 He had a good, 19:17 a marvelous relationship with God. 19:20 It showed. 19:22 Somebody said, you don't have to be good to be saved, 19:25 but you do need to be saved to be good, 19:29 and he was saved by God. 19:32 He had experienced salvation, and he was a good man, 19:36 and goodness is important. 19:39 What the world needs are a few good men and women. 19:45 Look at verse 5, 19:47 Daniel 6:5, 19:53 "Then these men said, 19:56 'We shall not find any charge against this Daniel 20:01 unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.' 20:08 " Now listen carefully. 20:11 Here you've got a little case or religious persecution. 20:16 Daniel is of different race. 20:18 So you got a bunch of racism here. 20:22 Racism is a big sin, whether it's white racism, 20:29 brown racism, or black racism. 20:32 And there is racism right across the board. 20:35 You know why? 20:37 We're all the same inside 20:38 and we need our hearts renewed by the grace of God. 20:42 God can take out the racism 20:44 but here you've got a case of racism 20:48 and all of these nasty things. 20:51 Different God, different religion. 20:55 Now you have religious persecution. 20:57 Now, United States has religious liberty. 21:03 There are some other countries too like Great Britain, 21:05 Australia, Canada, New Zealand, 21:08 and a few others 21:10 who understand and respect freedom. 21:15 We believe in this part of the world 21:18 unlike the people back there in Medo-Persia, 21:21 we believe in freedom of speech. 21:25 I've the right to say what I believe. 21:28 Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 21:32 these are the great freedoms. 21:37 Of course, the people back then didn't understand this. 21:41 I've the right to be a Christian, 21:43 a Protestant, 21:44 a Catholic, a Jew, a Muslim, 21:47 a Hindu, a Buddhist, an atheist, 21:51 an agnostic. 21:53 I have the right to be right, but I ask you this question, 21:57 "Do I have the right to be wrong?" 22:05 I have the right to be right. 22:10 And if I do not have the right to be wrong, 22:14 I'm in the wrong country, 22:16 because religious freedom is the right to be right 22:21 and the right to be wrong, 22:24 because your right I may think is wrong and vice versa. 22:30 So we believe that people have the right to choose. 22:35 This is a relatively new concept. 22:38 In the Dark Ages, 22:39 and America escaped the Dark Ages, 22:41 this is why the pilgrims came here. 22:45 We had the bloody Spanish inquisition 22:49 when the so-called question church, 22:51 not the Christian Church, 22:54 the so-called Christian Church, 22:55 persecuted and murdered millions of other Christians, 22:59 and Jews, and Muslims. 23:04 So religious liberty is a relatively new concept. 23:08 Most Muslim countries today have no freedom of speech 23:13 or freedom of religion. 23:16 If you go to Saudi Arabia, 23:19 who is one of our great allies of America, 23:24 there are no Jewish synagogues 23:27 and no Christian churches, and no Bible is allowed, 23:34 because they have a theocracy. 23:37 The union of church and state, we would call it. 23:41 In India, where we've worked, 23:43 there is limited religious liberty. 23:47 Christians are persecuted for their faith. 23:53 And if you read this Book of Daniel, 23:56 you'll understand why. 24:00 Because the concept of people 24:02 having the liberty to worship God 24:04 or no God is relatively new 24:08 and America has it. 24:12 So in India, limited religious liberty, 24:14 Christians are persecuted. 24:17 It's different in America. 24:19 We defend freedom. 24:21 I was born in Australia, I was brought up in Australia, 24:26 with the fundamental rights of freedom. 24:29 After all, we fought the Nazis 24:33 and we beat 'em. 24:35 And the Nazis had no idea about freedom of speech 24:40 or freedom of the press. 24:47 On January 20, 1961, 24:51 a great American who was a Roman Catholic, 24:54 said these words: "Let every nation know, 24:59 whether it wishes us well or ill, 25:04 that we will pay any price, bear any burden, 25:10 meet any hardship, support any friend, 25:15 oppose any foe, 25:19 in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." 25:28 So the truth of the matter is this: 25:32 The government has got no right 25:36 to tell me about my religion, 25:42 but back there these evil men said, 25:48 "We won't find any fault with this man 25:51 unless we find it concerning 25:55 his religion and his God." 26:00 Now in a few moments, 26:03 we are going to talk about what happened, 26:06 and how it's going to happen again in the last days. 26:09 We'll be back, just a few moments. 26:23 Hello, friend. I'm John Carter. 26:25 By the grace of God, I'm going back to Russia. 26:28 I've been to the lands of the old Soviet Union 47 times, 26:34 that's in the last 25-26 years. 26:37 We are planning to go to the city of Nizhny Novgorod 26:41 or the old Russian city of Gorky 26:44 made famous by the poet, Gorky. 26:48 We are going there because 25 years ago 26:51 we ran a great campaign in Nizhny Novgorod 26:55 and we saw 2,530 souls, 26:59 2,530 Russians, communists, atheists, 27:04 all sorts of unbelief baptized into Christ 27:07 in the Volga River. 27:10 We're going back because the need is enormous 27:13 and because the Russians are saying, 27:15 "Please come and help us." 27:18 Freedom is disappearing in Putin's Russia. 27:22 It's almost impossible now to hire an auditorium, 27:25 almost impossible to preach the gospel. 27:28 And so, by the grace of God, 27:30 we are applying for special missionary visas. 27:34 Are we going to get them? 27:35 We think so, by the grace of God. 27:38 And we're going to advertise 27:39 by the grace of God on television 27:41 and on radio. 27:43 Please write to me. 27:44 I've got to raise $250,000 now. 27:50 Please write to me, John Carter, PO Box 1900, 27:54 Thousand Oaks, California 91358. 27:57 In Australia, 27:58 write to the address now appearing on the screen. 28:01 This could be Russia's last opportunity. 28:05 Please write to me. 28:06 I ask you in the name of God write to me today 28:11 and pray for Russia. 28:12 Thank you and God bless you. 28:24 For a copy of today's program, 28:26 please contact us at PO Box 1900, 28:29 Thousand Oaks, California 91358, 28:34 or in Australia, 28:35 contact us at PO Box 861, 28:39 Terrigal, New South Wales 2260. 28:43 This program is made possible 28:45 through the generous support of viewers like you. 28:48 We thank you for your continued support. 28:51 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2017-05-22