 All right, keep your place in Daniel chapter one. We'll get there in a minute. So we're continuing. We're kind of finishing up in the next week or two, our sermon series on the book Up from Slavery, which is the autobiography of Booker T. Washington. Hopefully everyone has finished the book by now, or at least gotten most of the way through it. And the topic that we're gonna talk about this evening is kind of a continuation of the subject we talked about this morning, talking about and talking to the children. We read in Daniel chapter one that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were children when they were taken into captivity by the Babylonian Empire. And in verse number four, I mean the Bible shows us some things that we're gonna look at in a little bit more detail that we kind of purposely skipped over this evening, but we're gonna also relate that to a common theme that we see throughout the book Up from Slavery and that theme is this. The theme is the theme of education in the book. Now the Bible also backs this up, but let me read for you a couple quotes from the book Up from Slavery, just as a preface to the sermon this evening. But if you've finished the book, this was a common theme throughout Booker T. Washington's life was this quest for and this desire and this love for just continued education in his life. On page number four, at the top of the page, the book says this. The picture of several dozen boys and girls in a school room engaged in study made a deep impression upon me and I had the feeling that to get into the schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise. Imagine that that was his as a young man as he went to school, that is his appreciation and his desire for education and his life. Now let me ask the kids in the room this evening, is that how you feel about school? When you get ready to go to school in the morning, when you get ready to go and do your schoolwork at home, do you feel like you're about to enter heaven? Do you? And you're laughing and you're saying, no I don't, but I'm telling you the reason that you don't is because you're taking it for granted and you're not appreciating something that you need to learn to appreciate young and early in your life. You need to have an appreciation for education in your life. Look at page 18 if you have your books in front of you. On page 18, there was another statement and I've read this one a few sermons before but it's worth reading again. Booker T. Washington says this, he says there was never a time in my youth. You know what that means? That means when he was just a kid, when he was just a kid, he says there was never a time in my youth. No matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me, and that was a determination to secure an education at any cost. He says no matter what it cost me, I am going to secure myself in education. He set that goal and he pursued that goal until he died. He never stopped pursuing that goal. Education was his life. Education was his life and then that led to this idea and I love the times that he wrote this in the book where he says that the education of the head, the hands and the heart. The education, that's how he described his education. It was an education of the head, not just it was not just knowing things but it was an education of the hands. It was learning how to do things. And then it was an education of the heart which was having passion to pursue things. And in his case, help people. And we talked about that a couple of sermons ago. But basically what I'm trying to get at this evening and I want to talk to the children again and also specifically the parents, but there's two types of people out there that you'll meet today, is those that have the desire for knowledge and that those who do not. You can really categorize people in those two categories. Look down at Daniel chapter one. Let's look at what the Bible says and look at if the Bible matches up with what we're reading from this secular autobiography by a man. Look at Daniel chapter one and look at verse number four. This is the verse of the week. Look at your bulletin. Children in whom was no blemish but well favored. We talked about that this morning and I skipped over this phrase on purpose this morning. Look what the next in between the commas. It says, and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science. These were children. These were children. And such as had the ability in them to stand in the king's palace in whom they might teach the learning and tongue of the Caledians. It's interesting to note and I kind of skipped over this detail on purpose because I wanna really drill into it tonight but it's interesting to note that they were chosen for their ability to learn. They were chosen for their ability to learn. Well, how did they know how did they know that they could learn because they were already skillful in all wisdom because they were already cunning in knowledge. They were already understanding science. So the king of Babylon he literally decided who would do well in the future by looking at how they had done in the past. The king of, look Nebuchadnezzar was no dummy. You can say he had some wicked moments but this guy was no dummy. Let's look at a little bit more detail. Look, because of their desire for it they already had it and he knew they could gain more. And so what he wanted to do is he was looking for people that could learn, especially learn his language so he could speak to them about what they knew. Look, they weren't to be teachers yet. He spent three years educating them on the language of the Chaldeans. Look, the king of Babylon, the king of Babylon think about it this way. We talked about the parable of the talents a few weeks ago. The king of Babylon was looking for an investment. He was looking for someone to invest in and he found the ones that had the five talents. He didn't go invest in somebody who buried their talent or who burned their talent or who had no talent. He found the ones that had five talents and then that's who he poured his time and his energy into, smart man, smart man. It's an investment, especially for king Nebuchadnezzar we'll look in detail, it would pay off for him. Wisdom, knowledge, science. Look, we talk a lot about wisdom and knowledge in God's word but they also knew science. It says here, what is science? Here's the definition of science. The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. Just to break it down, it's the study of the physical and natural world through experimentation, that is science. The word appears twice in the Bible. The other time is in 1 Timothy chapter six. Go ahead and turn there. 1 Timothy chapter six. The word science actually appears in the Bible. So when people say follow the science and you know, forget the Bible, follow science. Look, the Bible talks about science. And science, science is the study of the natural world through observation and experimentation. What that means is I observe something. I think I have an idea of what I'm seeing so I go and I make an experiment to see if my observation is correct. So the experiment proves my observation. And it's a study of the natural world. Well, it makes sense that the word science would be in the Bible because guess who invented the natural world? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself created the natural world. You'd think he would know something about science since he invented it basically. Look at 1 Timothy chapter six and verse number 20. This is what we see today. 1 Timothy chapter six and verse number 20. Oh, Timothy, here's a young preacher. Here's somebody that's gonna be sent out into the ministry. Here's somebody that's going out to preach and teach the word of God. Oh, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust. Avoiding, he's warning him. He's telling them what to avoid. Avoiding profane and vain babblings. He's like, you gotta avoid, you know, just perversions and people that will just say a bunch of garbage just to lift themselves up. That's what he's saying. Vain babblings. People that just try to just speak. Just, you ever met this person? They just talk because they just want you to pay attention to them. And they're not, they're just like, you're like, what are you even saying? You don't even make any sense. It's just vain babblings. And look at this. Oppositions of science falsely so-called. So it's oppositions pause for a second of science falsely so-called. He's saying it's oppositions to you, to the Bible, to what you're teaching and preaching of science falsely so-called. So it's not that science isn't real. It's not that there's not real science because that's what Daniel knew. Daniel knew real science. The point is, look, Daniel and the boys, they understood science, the Bible says. It says they knew science. They understood science. They knew what it was. They understood it. This is science falsely so-called. And Paul is actually warning Timothy about people that will use this to oppose you. What, does that sound familiar? Does that sound familiar? I mean, that's basically saying that some people will falsify science. You think? I mean, people will, you don't trust the science. Isn't that all we see? Look, the oppositions of science falsely so-called that we see today, it's just, it's a trick to get lemmings to do stupid things. That's what it is. It's the same warning. Look, we need to heed the same warning that Paul gave Timothy today. I mean, define irony. Using science to get people to do totally stupid things and take terrible risks of unknown consequences. It's ridiculous, in the name of science. But it's science falsely so-called. That's the problem. So Daniel, Daniel, not to go off on that tangent, but Daniel understood real science. Science is a real thing. The study of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation. Look, not just abstract thoughts, okay? Not just guy, look, do you understand? The study of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation. Not some idiot sitting in a university somewhere trying to talk about dark matter and wormholes and bending space time and all this. Look, where's the apparatus that you've built to test this theory? It's non-existent. These guys couldn't build a mousetrap. And they're talking about all these things. I mean, the stupidity of it is ridiculous. So, anyway, but I digress. Daniel was an educated man, back to the sermon. Daniel was an educated man, and so were Shadrach, Nishak, and Abednego. And that was the major points of value to the Babylonian king, to invest in them, his language so he could extract that knowledge from them. He was looking for people that had a desire for education. The exact same thing we see up from slavery from Booker T. Washington. Everyone in this story, in Daniel chapter one, it's really kind of interesting because everyone in the story, not just Daniel and his friends, but the Babylonian king, look, he had a desire for knowledge too. Look at verse number 20. Look at verse number 20. See, in verse number 20, we see that the investment that Nebuchadnezzar made pays off. It pays off for him. He was smart. He invested in the right people. Look at verse number 20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king, so now, here, they were dining with the king now. He's taught them his language. He's now communing with these men. He's now, he's invested in them. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, it says in verse number 20, that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm. He just communed, he, you know what, he dined. You know what he did? You know what King Nebuchadnezzar did? Here's another big piece of wisdom from King Nebuchadnezzar. Probably not gonna hear a lot of sermons praising King Nebuchadnezzar, but here's some praise for him. Okay, you know what he did? He listened and he learned from these men. So look, let me ask you a question this evening. Kids and adults, let me ask you a question. Do you have a desire for knowledge? Do you have a desire for knowledge? Look, I mean, I like talking with smart people. I really, it's something I really enjoy doing. How many of you enjoy talking with smart people? I mean, that it, look, listening, learning. You know, there's actually, I don't know if you all know it, but there's actually a wealth of knowledge in this very church. I mean, we're a small church, but there's a wealth of knowledge. I told my wife many times. I mean, there's a wealth of knowledge about many different things in this church, but guess what? Turn to Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter one, and look at verse number seven. We should have a sermon series, like the other half of the Proverb and just like we've read a lot of these Proverbs, dozens and dozens of times, but the second half of the Proverb many times, we kind of just skip over, but the second half of the Proverb is so many times, it's just as wise as the first one. Look at Proverbs chapter one and verse number seven. Look, did you know that someone who is not smart could come here and become smart? Did you know that? I mean, that's what the Bible says. Look at Proverbs chapter one and verse number seven. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So yes, you must have a fear of the Lord, but guess what? That's the beginning. That's the beginning. Okay, so if you have an education, if you have an education that takes you 40 years to get it, the fear of the Lord is just the beginning five minutes. It's just the beginning, but then look at the last part of the Proverb here. It says, but here's, so he explains how to begin your education. In Proverbs chapter one, God tells us how to begin it. He says, here's how you begin it, fear the Lord. But then he says, here's how you'll never start it. The second part of the Proverb. I mean, it's brilliant. Look at what he says, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fool will not listen. I was just, I just had a great conversation out soul winning with brother Ryan and I asked, I have his permission to tell the story, but we were in a pretty, pretty desolate neighborhood to put it lightly. And yeah, I can understand. I told him, I said, I can understand how women end up in this bottom rung. You know, they go, they make some poor choices. They have children and they're just, they're stuck there. You know, I mean, look, it's not that it's not their fault, but I can understand how that happens. Now we ran into a couple, you know, at least one like 60 year old man, 60 year old man that was in that low point, just, and I'm just like, you know, and I thought about this verse. I thought about this verse and I said, you know, it's almost, it's almost worse. I like to end up when you're 60 years old and to end up right there. And you could tell he was not doing well and you could just tell that, you know, and look, you know, like, there's a whole, it's almost like it's a mental disability. Is what I said to brother Ryan. And brother Ryan said, actually, I know a guy. Look, I adjust my statement after what brother Ryan said. He said, actually, I know a guy. He said, I know a person. He said, who is, and I'll put it in the most politically correct terms. He said, is severely mentally disabled. Like he can barely have a conversation. Just he's a severely mentally disabled person. He said, he's retired now. He's worked in society. He has lived a life. He has been productive and he's now retired. So let me retract my statement. The person who just will not take wisdom and instruction is worse than someone who is mentally disabled. Do you understand that? It is a worse condition than being severely mentally disabled. It's a worse disadvantage. I mean, look, to not be able to take wisdom and instruction is a terrible disease. And it's one that can end you before you even start. So look, I love listening to people. I love sitting around and listening to the experiences in this church and I know that you all do too. I love listening to the business ideas. I love listening to the politics. I love listening to the opinions, the science, the whole thing. This was King Nebuchadnezzar. He sat around and he listened and he gained wisdom. He was the King. And yeah, he had some prideful moments. We'll look at those in a minute. But I believe that one reason right there is why he got saved. It was a big point in his life. Turn to Daniel chapter three. Yes, I believe Nebuchadnezzar got saved. Look at Daniel chapter three. Look at verse number 25. Daniel chapter three and verse number 25. Daniel chapter three is the story where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three friends of Daniel were, they were, you know, they made a decree that they had to worship the golden image. And of course, they're just like, we're not doing that. They're like, no, they're like Romans 13. They're like Acts chapter five. I don't think they said that, but look, that's what they did. They obeyed God rather than men and they ended up getting thrown into the furnace. The furnace that was so hot that it actually killed the very men that threw them in. Look at verse 25. He answered and said, this is King Nebuchadnezzar. After he sees them, they're thrown into the furnace. The men that put them in the furnace, they made the furnace seven times hotter than normal. And the men that threw them in perished, it was so hot. He answered and said, whoa, the king. He says, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the son of God. Here we have Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, saving Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Look at verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language would speak anything amiss against the God, capital G, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dung hill because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. I believe that there's a good point of saying that Nebuchadnezzar is saved right there. But you could also say that he got saved after what happened to him in chapter four. I believe he got saved here, and I believe that Daniel chapter four is evidence of God's chastisement on his adopted son. Look at Daniel chapter four in verse 30. Nebuchadnezzar gets prideful in Daniel chapter four in verse number 30. I mean, I can't imagine why the king of the most powerful empire on the planet would get prideful, but he got prideful here. Look at Daniel chapter four in verse number 30. Look what the Bible says. The king's bacon said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for my house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty. While the word was in the king's mouth, it's like while he was saying this, there fell a voice from heaven saying, oh king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee, and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall they pass over thee, and tell thou know that the most high ruleeth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whosoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as an oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like bird's claws. And at the end of the days, so this happened, I mean, he was in this state for a while. And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven. So he's in this state, he's literally put into the ground as a beast, God causes him to lose his mind. He's driven out of his palace, he's out, he's living like an animal. I know you can picture it, cause we live in California. He's living like an animal, his fingernails are long, his hair, I mean, just imagine it, it's here. I drive by King Nebuchadnezzar's every single day of my life here. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven. I'm sorry, I have a weird obsession with it. It's not normal, okay? All right. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. Look, this is a guy that's getting right right here. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? At the same time, my reason returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and my Lord sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and that excellent majesty was added unto me. Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol, and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. I mean, that's great. In Jeremiah chapter 25, I won't read it for you, but you know, the Lord calls Nebuchadnezzar his servant. Nebuchadnezzar is clearly saved, and God was chastising him here, and guess what? It worked. It worked. Don't get in the way of God's judgment, that's, because God's judgment works. Okay, so the point being is the king got saved. Let's bring it back to the sermon. He recognized the one true God because of the wisdom of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Look, nobody wants to listen and learn from a fool, and a fool won't listen and learn to anybody. So the king sat and he listened to all the knowledge that these kids had, and ultimately, this led him to the Lord. I mean, it's a great story. It's a great testimony for Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So we should be the, back to the sermon. We should be the type of people that desire knowledge. That desire education. So kids, you need to learn to desire education. Pay attention in school. Desire that. Look, you should be loving to learn, and you should be teaching yourself. You're like, I don't like to learn. Well, guess what, kids? I didn't figure this out till I was maybe in my mid-20s. I hated school. I hated it, but you know what? I shouldn't have. Because education is the key to your life. My second point is this. You need to have a life where you love education, just like Booker T. Washington did, just like Daniel and his friends did. And here's the second point. Education never ends. And this is why you need to learn to love it as a child. You need to learn to love it as a child because it never ends. I know we're taught today, oh, you go through K, you go through kindergarten, through 12th grade, and then you go off to college, and then that's it. You know, that's what the secular world will teach you today. But look at page 20 of the book. Let me read an excerpt of page 20. One day, so he's working in a coal mine. He's working in a coal mine as a child at this point. And he says, one day, while working in the coal mine, I happened to overhear two miners talking about a great school for colored people somewhere in Virginia. This was the first time that I ever heard anything about any kind of school or college that was more pretentious than the little colored school in our town. In the darkness of the mine, I noiselessly crept as close as I could to the two men who were talking. I heard one tell the other that not only was the school established for the members of my race, but that opportunities were provided by which poor but worthy students could work out all or part of the cost of board at the same time being taught some trade or industry. So here we see that not only did he have this continual desire for education, but you see that that desire for education, it led him to his life work and it led him into his trade or his industry. So trade and industry equals education. It's the same thing. So look, a skill, a trade is something that you can contribute to society, okay? And if you have this, look, if you have a skill, if you have a trade, you really won't ever have to worry about losing your job. If you have something valuable that you can do, okay? There will always, look, and Daniel is again a perfect example of what I'm talking about here. Daniel actually lost his job. Daniel lost his job a couple of times. Daniel lost his job because he was going to be executed. You know, that's a pretty bad one. You come into work one day and they're like, you're going to be executed today. You know, that's pretty big demotion right there. Okay, so Daniel lost his job that way and then look, look, these guys were a think tank. That was their skill set. They were a think tank. They lost their jobs when the Babylonian Empire got overthrown by the Persian Empire. Go to Daniel chapter six. These guys all lost their jobs. They're like, man, I just got to the top and then the company just got bought by somebody else. That's what happened to these guys. Look at Daniel chapter six. Look at verse number one. Darius is the king of the new empire that has just overthrown the Babylonians. It pleased Darius, the Persian king, to set over the kingdom and 120 princes which should be over the whole kingdom. This kingdom, I mean, again, most powerful kingdom in the world right here. Now it's the Persian Empire. And over these, three presidents. So here we have, we have Darius. We have three presidents and then we have 120 princes underneath them. And then this Daniel, over these three presidents, verse two, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts to them and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred among the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. So he basically, he got promoted right to the top of the Persian Empire as well because he was a very wise person because the Lord was with him. So look, he ended up on top no matter what. He lost his job, he ended up on top. So the lesson is here that you need to learn to educate yourself throughout your life and look, you need to seek knowledge like it's food and water. Look kids, you need to love education and then people will seek after you. So think about, I mean, you think about your job. You know, a good career is one that has value everywhere like Daniel. You know, like I said, these guys were just full of wisdom. Everybody wanted what they had. You know, the importance of education and skills simply cannot be overestimated, especially today, especially today. As a matter of fact, this is actually the answer and let me just give you a little mini sermon inside the sermon here. This is actually the answer on how to not become a slave. You want to learn how to stay free ladies and men, I'm gonna explain it to you right now. Okay, this is how in kids you're wondering what should I be when I grow up? Listen up, listen close. This is how you avoid being controlled right here. Ladies, we have to homeschool. We've already known this. I think more people are figuring this out every single day. I think more people are figuring this out every single day. Look, in your family, ladies, this is how important you are. We must control the narrative. We must teach our children. Look, the public school, I don't care much about the public school, I never really have. When all this stuff comes out about critical race theory and all these different left wing political things they're teaching in the public school or all the perversion or whatever, I don't really care much about it because I've known for years and many of you, most of you have known for years that we can't be part of this, we gotta get out of it. But look, the public school is being used as blackmail or maybe bribery is a better word to control people. Basically, you say you look at these vaccine orders at work and you say, oh man, they're threatening my livelihood. The public school's been used to threaten people's livelihood for years. They're sitting here and they're saying, you must allow us to teach your kids this or we will take away half your income. That's why people put their kids there. Look, I have worked with good people for decades that hate what the public school was teaching, but they are not going to sacrifice half of their income. They are not going to have their wife that brings home half the income or maybe more in some cases to come home and teach their children. They're not gonna do it. So the blackmail works. So the first way to not be a slave is we must home school. You have to. It could, I mean, for normal, just like freedom loving Americans, even if you're not saved, you have to at this point. I mean, what are you thinking? Do you have any morals? Do you have any morals? Do you have any idea what they're teaching your kids there? You gotta get them out of there. For Christians, it's a no-brainer. It's been a no-brainer for 20 years. For Christians, they are using it to control your children. If they have control of your children, they have control of the next generation, they have control of the future of the country. Look, you take them into, it's not a machine you can change. It's designed to not be changed. You know, people get in, they go to these school board meetings and they yell and it's a joke. It's a centralized, it's a federal machine. You can't change it. You can't change it from Turtle Lake, North Dakota. Give me a break, it's designed to not be changed that way. They're smarter than that. So, the whole California, when Newsom comes out and he gives the California vaccine order, that you have to take the vaccine to get into his public school system? First of all, that's criminally negligent. Like, he should be charged for that. Because he's gonna kill innocent children. I mean, just the math tells you that. There's no risk for these kids. Let's go give them something that's gonna kill some of them. It's criminally negligent, but when he goes and he threatens it, he's like, in order to get this public school access, you have to do this to your kids. Look, keep it! That's what people need to say. You know what, maybe that's the blessing that comes out of this. Maybe that's the good thing that comes out of this, is more people wake up and they're like, whoa! Maybe that's the ton of bricks that finally breaks that camel's back. You must teach your own children today. I'm sorry, it's absolutely necessary. Ladies, that's how important you are. Young ladies, that's how important you are. Girls, that's how important you are. You must be teachers. And you must teach these kids, you must give these kids a biblical education. Men, how to stay free. Men, here's how you're not controlled. You must have a valuable trade. You must have a valuable trade. I'm gonna give you five reasons that some trades are more valuable than other trades. Okay, men, if you do not wanna be controlled in your life, you must have a valuable trade. I'm gonna give you five reasons on why some trades or some skills have more value than others. I'm gonna give you five reasons. You say, you say, I should make more. No, you shouldn't. You are paid what you are worth. Listen to these five reasons. I'm gonna give you five categories. Three of these categories, the first three require education throughout your life. The second two do not. Okay, so you can, I mean, there is a path by not pursuing other education, but usually it's gonna take more education. Here's the first one. Here's the first one, difficulty. Difficult, skill level. Look, the longer, it's very simple. The longer it takes you to learn something, the more valuable that thing is going to be. It's very simple. It's very simple. I remember my first job out of college. I mean, I just got out of college. I mean, I'm an electrical engineer now. I mean, woohoo. I went to work for two years and my wife can testify this. I came home for two years saying, I'm an idiot. I don't think I can get this stuff. It was so complicated. It was so complicated and every time I thought that I learned something and I got it, there was so much more on top of it. I'm just like, I felt like an idiot for two years, but that's a good thing. That's a good thing because that means it's a complicated skill. Look, if you go and you get a job that someone can teach you how to do in four days, that's no good. It's no good because it will be a very low value. It will be a very low value. A trade you can learn in a week is not going to be a valuable trade. Okay, so difficulty is number one. Difficulty is number one. Here's number two, inconsistency. The more inconsistent a job is, and this one kind of builds on number one, the more inconsistent a job is, like if it's a seasonal job, an example of this is I used to do consulting and that was very, it was more of an inconsistent. There was a lot of risk there because when a company gets in trouble, they fire their consultants first. So it was a very risky job where you could end up out of work, but it paid more than a stable job with a normal company. So if the job is very inconsistent, if it's seasonal, if it's dependent on weather, it'll usually pay more. Okay, so inconsistency is part of it, but you still need the building block of number one, which is a skill, a learned skill, to even put number two into play. Number three is this, trust and responsibility. Trust and responsibility. This is your doctors, your pilots, your nuclear engineers, your people that are trusted with things that most people can't be trusted with. You know, you're not gonna go on the street and find the guy that has his feet hanging out of our dumpster on Tuesdays to run a nuclear reactor. You're like, hey man, you know, you could probably get him pretty cheap. You know, you could probably get him for like, you know, a donut, and then have him run your nuclear reactor, but there's a reason that these people make a lot of money. They're highly valued because there's a high level of trust that is needed in that trade, okay? So that also, but that also usually takes a lot of number one. Those people are not only in a trade that is very, they have to be very trustworthy, but they also have a lot of skill that they've learned over a long period of time. Doctors, pilots, like I said, you know, people that are running nuclear submarines and nuclear reactors, and I'm sure there's a ton more that I'm not thinking of, but look, here's the thing. Here's the fourth one. Here's the fourth one. So that's number three, trust and responsibility. Number four is the improbability of success. You say, what does that mean? This is your professional athletes, okay? This is, you say, Tom Brady makes too much. No, he doesn't. Tom Brady does not make too much. Tom Brady makes what he's worth. Can you go do what Tom Brady does? No, you can't. Everybody here can. Look, this one doesn't require any education. This one doesn't really require any training. It's just the guy could just throw a football like crazy. You know, and he's just good at it, but it's something that very few people are gonna fit into because it's, you know, the improbability of success. That's why I really don't like seeing kids. I remember there was this young kid in this small town that I grew up in and like his dream was to be a professional baseball player. And it's like, you know, that's not a good, that's not a good goal. Because the probability of success there is very, very low, okay? And it doesn't require education. It doesn't require furthering knowledge. So you end up on this limb and then you fail and you've got nothing. So that's not a good path. And number five is this, the disagreeableness of the job. The disagreeableness, it's just a job that other people don't wanna do. You know, this is like, you know, your garbage men. These guys like make a lot of money because nobody wants to pick up trash. You know, this is your plumbers. These guys generally, it's a high paid trade because not a lot of people wanna do it. So the jobs that people don't wanna do, you know, employers will have to pay more for, okay? But the main building block that fits most people is just the simple skill level, the simple knowledge, the simple, you know, the trades, the trade. So you have to further your education and get this education that Washington talked about in his book, the education of not only the head, but of the hands and of the heart. And that's how you stay free. The main building block is number one. So in conclusion, to be successful and to define your own future and avoid being controlled, you need to have a lifelong desire of knowledge, just like Booker T. Washington did. You know, I remember after, you know, I didn't like school. I didn't like school. You kids say, you know, I don't like school. I look, I hated school. I wanted to get out of school. I wanted to get out of college as fast as possible. I didn't actually gain this desire for knowledge until a little bit later in my life. But I remember after taking the professional engineering exam, I took that test and I got past that in my life and I was like, yes, I'm done taking tests. I'm never taking another test as long as I live, I told myself. And then after that, it's like, there's more certifications and there's more tests and it's just all this stuff that happens. And look, a friend told me one time when I was complaining about some of those certification that I had to take, a friend told me one time, he said, look, you should never be done taking tests in your life. And that was great advice. That was great advice, because look, you should never be done learning. You should never be done learning. So kids, you need to love to learn. Kids, you need to not watch things, you need to read things. You need to learn to read. I tell my kids all the time, people that read are smart. Kids, listen, people that read are smart, people that don't are dumb. That's pretty simple, but that's the way it is. People that don't read are dumb. People that read are smart. I tell my kids that all the time, they've heard it a million times. Repeat things to your kids, it works. Turn to Proverbs chapter 22. And even with Daniel and his friends, look, even with Daniel and his friends, folks, it wasn't about worldly success. That just happened. That just happened to Daniel. It wasn't about worldly success. It was just about following the Lord and having a good relationship with the Lord. Look at Proverbs chapter 22. The one thing that I'm noticing today, the one thing that I'm noticing today is that, well, many people have some principles in their lives, unless those principles are based on biblical knowledge and biblical principles, they're only surface deep. Are you all seeing this today too? I mean, look, it's not just, look, a lot of people just have a feeling what's going on with these vaccines and these mandates are wrong. They just have a feeling. They just don't like being told what to do. They're just like, I don't want somebody to tell me what to put in my body, but they don't have any biblical principles behind it. That look, it's a surface level principle for them. But for us, it's wrong because of our deep-seated biblical beliefs. It's much different. Our deep moral roots are based on the word of God. So this science, look, this science and this godly wisdom, they come together to just to form this deep root system for us. And it all comes together to form this solid belief system that just simply can't be shaken. That's the beauty of it. Because when we're knowledgeable, when we're diligent, when we're hardworking, when we're always seeking more knowledge in God's word and in science and understanding the world around us and honing our skills and trades, Proverbs 22, 29 will happen to us. Look what verse 29 of Proverbs 22 says, seeest thou a man diligent in his business? Look at the last part of the verse. Again, he shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before me and men. You know what that means? He will not be controlled. He will not be controlled because kings want him. Because other people desire him. And if somebody says, hey, I'm threatening you with this or you're gonna have to do this, there's like four kings over there that want to talk to you. That's what'll happen to the man diligent in his business, the man that pursues knowledge. No one will be able to force you to do anything. This is the importance of education throughout your whole life. This is what happened to Mr. Washington. This is why he was sought after. He was sought out. That's why he traveled around so much if you read the book. He traveled across the whole world. He went and he gave talks and speeches and people like heads of state wanted to hear what this guy had to say. Because he will not stand before me and men because he pursued education throughout his whole life. And Daniel was the exact same way. It didn't matter who the king was. It didn't matter who the king was. They just, they wanted Daniel in Proverbs, they wanted Proverbs 22, 29. The king, it didn't matter who he was, wanted Daniel to stand in front of him. And just gain that knowledge that Daniel had, gain that wisdom because Daniel pursued wisdom and knowledge and a relationship with the Lord his whole life. And look at the difference that this man made. It's not about worldly success. It's not about worldly success. Look, that'll just happen to you. That stuff, you know, if God blesses you with that, great. But it's about pursuing this knowledge and education and love for God's word and having this relationship with the Lord, starting his children and pursuing that your whole life. And that's what Daniel did. And look at the difference he made. He made a difference in world empires. It's an amazing testimony. Education and the love for it, super important. Don't forget that. Kids, study hard, learn to love to read and learn to love the school. And look, kids, you have such a blessing being homeschooled. Do you know how bad the public school system is, kids? Kids, you go home and you hug your mother and you'll be good to your mother when she's teaching you and you thank God when you say your prayers tonight that you have a mother that's gonna stay home and teach you. It is not gonna pursue money. She's gonna stay home. She's gonna teach you a worldly, a godly education. So you can withstand this world. And guess what, kids? You can make a difference like Daniel did in this world. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.