The last time we left off, king Belshazzar was having a pretty wild party in the palace until he saw a vision of a hand scribing a statement on the wall. This terrifies him for two reasons: first, because it happened for all to see, and second because no one can interpret the writing. But his wife calms him down and presents a potential solution. And here it is.

The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, "O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation." — Daniel 5:10-12

So remember, two decades have passed since Nebuchadnezzar was leading the empire. A few new monarchs made a go of it, but each left the empire in increasing chaos. Then the fourth monarch, Nabonidus, did his best to restore the empire's former glory, but the issue was he didn't reside in Babylonia. So he leaves his son, Belshazzar, in charge, who acts like a spoiled and entitled son. This should be a familiar story. This happens all the time. But during these two decades, Daniel gets lost in the shuffle of the monarchs. A man who was once center stage in Babylon is now nowhere to be found. He's not even invited to the party of the thousand. But the queen hasn't forgotten. She knows Daniel, maybe because she's sober.

So a couple of highlights here.

First, younger generations will forget. They'll get lost in seeking pleasure and pursuing entitlement and become detached from the past. This is the nature of young men. They want to try their hand at leadership but fail to seek mentors or blatantly reject them and get lost in doing things their way.

But second, this is also an opportunity for wise men. It's an opportunity for older men to interject themselves into the process. But to do this, we must go public with our faith. Fellas, our faith is a very personal matter, but it is not a private matter. It's a public matter. And we need to live it out and talk about it publically. The world wants us to keep our beliefs about our faith a personal matter and never talk about them in the public arena. But Daniel never did this. He never did this when he was 15 when he was 30, or right here when he's 70. And this is why the queen remembers who he was and calls on him in her husband's time of need. She knows that Daniel has an answer because he's had one before. But only because he was never private about his faith.

So if you're an older man listening today, you need to get out there and interject yourself and your faith into the present generation and do it publically.

ASK THIS: If you are younger, do you have an older mentor? If you are older, are you interjecting yourself and your faith into the public arena?

DO THIS: Mentor and be mentored.

PRAY THIS: God, show me how to go public with the private matters of faith.

PLAY THIS: I Speak Jesus.

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