Community Bible Church Manchester Michigan Podcast

Psalm 51

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This is Psalm 51, We have some insight into David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51. And there’s three times the word joy and rejoice is used here.  

And we’re going to camp on that in just a little bit. But let me read you part of David’s prayer. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.  

Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. And then David prays, create in me a clean, pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. It’s been a difficult week in our country for aviation.  

The MedeVac plane that went down in Philadelphia a couple days ago. The horrific accident in Washington, D.C. where 67 people went out into eternity. All of these individuals have stories behind them.  

One of the ones on the plane that crashed into the Potomac River was a student from my alma mater, Cedarville University. Grace Maxwell was a junior mechanical engineering student. She’d attended her grandfather’s funeral in Wichita, Kansas.  

Was on her way back to finish her junior year of college when that accident happened. There are 66 other stories like that. So, I thought it’d be appropriate if we could just have like a moment of silence for a minute and remember these families in prayer, and then I’ll lead us in prayer. 

You may be seated. Well, 17 years ago, the state of Michigan came up with an ad campaign. 

You’ve seen it on license plates. You’ve seen it on billboards. You’ve seen it on social media and TV ads.  

Simply two words, and it’s still a campaign that they’re using today. The two words are Pure Michigan. That ad campaign has drawn tens of thousands of people to the great state of Michigan and our 3,288 miles of coastline, more than any other state except Alaska.  

When you put those 3,288 miles of coastline together, that stretches from Maine all the way to Florida, and certainly Michigan has some great, great vacation spots, and I especially like the western side of the state in the summertime, and just the coastline is so, so beautiful. But this morning, we’re going to talk about a series and introduce it, and then we’re going to get into the book of Philippians. And rather than Pure Michigan, we’re going to call the series Pure Joy. 

Is there a lasting joy that we can experience in our lives, even in the world in which we live? And the answer to that question is yes. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. The kingdom of God is not defined by our cookies and coffee and fellowship time afterwards. 

But the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. John 10:10, the words of Jesus, Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come, Jesus has come, that you might have life, and you might have it to the full, or overflowing life, or some translations say the abundant life. 

So, Jesus has said, I’ve come, you might have a joy-filled abundant life. And I believe that when we look at this and examine this, that Christians, people that know Jesus as their Savior, should be the most joy-filled people on earth. In fact, I’m going to suggest to you this morning that Christians are the only ones who can truly experience the pure joy as we’re going to define it in just a little bit. 

So, we’re going to think about pure joy. Max Lucado, a pastor and author in his book, How Happiness Happens, and he uses happiness and joy interchangeably, although we know scripturally there’s a little bit of a distinction between the two. Here’s the subtitle of his book, Finding Lasting Joy in a World of Comparison, Disappointment, and Unmet Expectations.  

How can we find joy in that world? Lucado asks the question, how long has it been since you felt a level of contagious, infectious, unflappable joy and happiness? For many, perhaps most of us, the answer is, well, it’s been a while. I used to be happy, but then life took its toll. Now, two weeks ago we looked at a message and we talked about how we’re living in the in-between, in between life in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 1- 2, and Revelation 21-22, which is going to be like the Garden of Eden 2.0. And in between, we live in a fallen world, a sinful world, a world that’s sometimes filled with tragedy. 

How can you find joy there? We go back to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, in the Garden of Eden. And by the way, the word Eden in the Hebrew means delight, joy, or pleasure. It was the Garden of Joy.  

It was the Garden of Delight. And it certainly was. The weather was perfect.  

The location was perfect. There were four rivers that kind of came together. The relationship between Adam and Eve was perfect.  

They didn’t have any arguments. The food was perfect, and they had a perfect relationship with God. They were experiencing what God intended, pure joy, until Genesis 3, and sin came into the world.  

And along with sin came guilt and blame and anxiety and sadness and death. Well, Jesus has come to reverse all that. Jesus has come not only to rescue us and give us salvation, but to point us down the pathway of life of joy. 

Now, there are many things in life that give us joy, and we could if we wanted to, we could open it up to suggestions here and say, what brings you joy in life? And there are many things. Let me read to you, first of all, Ecclesiastes 5:18 and 19. This is what Solomon writes. 

This is what I observe to be good. It is appropriate for a person to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toilsome labor, for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives somebody wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil, this is a gift from God. 

The Bible tells us that God wants us to enjoy things. He wants us to enjoy life. And sometimes we come up with this dichotomy between the material world and the spiritual world.  

And 1st Timothy 6:17 says, put your hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our what? Enjoyment. So, God wants us to enjoy life. I don’t know, where you find joy? A good steak, maybe, brings some people joy.  

I’ve got a good friend, pastor friend, he pastored a church in Michigan Center for a number of years. He’s retired now. His name is John, but he goes to Chicago every year, and he goes to the, I think it’s Giordano’s Pizza, and he just loves that deep-dish pizza.  

And I’m a big pizza fan. Food can bring us joy. A new vehicle brings you joy. 

There’s something about the smell of a new vehicle and a new car. As some of you know, last week we were going to head to Florida for a week, and that kind of had to change our plans. And so, we said, well, what can we do just to get away for a day? So, Thursday, Diane and I drove over to Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University.  

They’re having the Lion King Broadway performance. There’s a one o’clock performance on Thursday afternoon. There was 3,300 people in that auditorium watching the Lion King, and that brought us great joy.  

A beautiful sunrise, beautiful sunset, a Super Bowl win. Anybody know what that’s like? We don’t know what that’s like in Detroit, do we? Here’s one thing, and now I’m speaking, looking out at some of you, I’m speaking to a lot of first-time grandparents that are here, especially Jean and Rich. Congratulations on being grandpa and grandma this past week.  

Yep, Andrew and Gabby. But grandkids bring you great joy. I can speak to that from experience.  

Lord willing, someday you’ll all experience that. So, we’re going to play a little clip, I think, of our…this is shameless promotion, by the way. Here’s our grandson, Weston.  

He’s three years old. And last Sunday afternoon, our middle son and daughter-in-law sent us this little clip. He learned a Bible verse at church last Sunday, and he was so excited, they wanted to share it with us.  

And so, he learned some hand motions too. So, this is just 10 seconds long, but here’s Weston. 

Ah, a friend loves you at all times, Proverbs 17. Look at that. Look, he is just so proud of himself that he said that Bible verse.  

That brings us joy. I hope that brought you a little bit of joy. Like I said, shameless promotion, but pure joy.  

There is a joy that is sustainable. And here’s our premise, the lasting pure joy is experience in a relationship with God, because that’s what God made us for. And so, Revelation 4:11 says, God’s created all things.  

And then the King James Version translation says, and for your pleasure we were created. So, we were created to have a relationship with God that brings joy to God and joy to us. See, some of these other things that we mentioned bring joy, but it’s kind of a temporary joy.  

The new car eventually breaks down and you got to pay repair bills, eventually begins to rust. And all these other things are temporary joys, but there’s a lasting joy in a relationship with God. Psalm 16:11, you have made known to me the path of life.  

You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. And so, we were created to have this intimate relationship with Jesus and with God that brings joy to Him and brings joy to us. Now, for the Christian, the best is yet to come, that’s heaven, but God still wants us to experience joy here on planet earth.  

So, I want to suggest to us in the next 20, 25 minutes, four keys to the pathway of joy. How can we find joy in this world in which we live in, this pure, lasting joy? They all begin with the letter S, and so we’ll work our way through them here in just a little bit. So, here’s the question.  

Is joy a feeling, an emotion, or is joy a choice? As I thought of that, I’m going to say it’s both. There are some times where we just have great feelings of emotion of joy. There are other times in life where we just have to choose joy. 

That’s not a feeling, it’s a trust in God and deep contentment that comes from knowing that maybe we don’t understand God’s plan, but we know that He’s in control. And so, as we go through these four S’s, I’m going to liken it to some college classes, and there’s 100-level classes, 200-level classes, 300-level, and then 400-level is a senior class. And so, I think for our walk with God, we’re going to journey through finding joy, and eventually we’re going to get to number four, which is probably a graduate-level class, because it’s very difficult to experience joy in our point number four.  

So, let’s jump into point number one. Where can we find pure, lasting joy? Pure, lasting joy is found in salvation, in the joy of forgiveness. Luke chapter 2, verses 10 and 11, we become so familiar with these verses around Christmas time, but here’s the angelic announcement to the shepherds in Luke chapter 2. The angel said to them, do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy for everyone.  

What’s the great joy? Today in the town of Bethlehem, what? A Savior has been born, a Rescuer, a Deliverer, the Savior of the Messiah, Jesus. I don’t know how long you’ve been a follower of Jesus or experienced that day when you realize that you can’t make it to heaven on your own. And in order to get into heaven, you have to be perfect.  

Because God’s holy. So, we need some help. We needed a Savior.  

That’s why Jesus came, why He died on the cross. That’s why when you put your faith in Him, the great exchange happens, 2nd Corinthians 5:21, He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become what? The righteousness of God. Christ’s perfection gets credited to our account.  

We stand before God, a holy God is justified, just as if we’ve never sinned because He sees us through the gift of Christ. We have the forgiveness of sin. Acts 16 is the story of the Philippian jailer, and we’ll probably get there when we go into the book of Philippians starting next Sunday.  

But you know the story that Paul and Silas end up in prison for preaching the gospel. They’re beaten, they’re put in stocks, and at midnight they’re singing praises to God while their backs are probably still raw from being beaten. God sends an earthquake, the Philippian jailer comes to faith in Christ, and we read in that story that the jailer brings Paul and Silas into his house and set a meal before them. 

He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household. That moment of salvation brought great joy because it’s the understanding that we are forgiven. So, 1st Peter, Peter writes in 1st Peter chapter 1 about this concept of joy and salvation. 

For you are receiving, let me back up to verse 8, though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and even though you do not see Him, you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And so, there’s joy in realizing that Christ is our Savior and our salvation.  

Sometimes the longer we’re away from an event, the less and less impact it has on us. And so, we sometimes just need to go back and revisit that wonderful moment when we received Christ as our Savior, and we received that gift of salvation and the joy that it brought in our lives.  

Well, there’s a second pathway to joy, and after we come to know faith in Christ, it’s called the joy of sanctification. This is the joy of what the Bible describes as walking with God or walking with Jesus. It’s the joy of intimate fellowship with God because Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through Jesus. We already read Psalm 16:11, you fill me with joy in your presence.  

Jesus described life eternal in John 17, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God. So, eternal life is, yes, quantitative, we’re going to live forever in the presence of God, but it’s also qualitative. So, once we come to faith in Christ, then it’s this whole process of growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.  

It’s the joy of sanctification, of becoming more and more like Christ. Quite frankly, in this Christian life, it’s not a sprint but a marathon. Sometimes we can lose the joy of our salvation. 

Seven letters to seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 to the church at Ephesus, Jesus says, you’ve forsaken the love you had at first. Kind of fallen away from that first love of that relationship with God. Peter tells us in 2nd Peter 3:18 to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

So, what hinders the joy of sanctification life with Jesus? Well, one thing is sin in our life. That’s why we read Psalm 51. We know the background of Psalm 51, it’s David and his adultery with Bathsheba and scheming behind the scenes.  

He sends Uriah to the front lines, and Uriah is killed in battle, and David has this cover-up going on. And for a year, he lived with that guilt and shame until the prophet Nathan confronted him. David in Psalm 51 confesses his sin.  

He says, God, would you bring back to me the joy of knowing you, the joy of fellowship with you. The same is true with you and me in our walk with God, that while our sins have been forgiven, we still need to restore fellowship with God when we sin. And so, 1st John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just what to forgive us, to restore that relationship.  

And so, there’s joy in an intimate relationship with God. There’s joy in fellowship with God. And so, sin can be a hindrance.  

But also, this takes discipline in our life, doesn’t it? To grow in our relationship with God takes a conscious decision of discipline and of what? Spending time with God. Yes, on a Sunday morning in worship, but also throughout the week. And so, Paul writes to Timothy, who’s a pastor in Ephesus, in the last part of chapter 4 verse 7, he says, train yourself to be godly.  

The word there for train is the Greek word gymnos, which we get the word gymnasium. And so, Paul’s telling Timothy, just like you have a physical workout, you need to have some sort of plan for what? Your spiritual discipline workout. And so, if we’re going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, then we need to have a plan to what? Be in God’s Word, be praying, be fellowshipping with a body of believers, and experience the joy of intimate fellowship with God.  

So, J. I. Packer in his classic work, Knowing God, chapter 3, Knowing and Being Known, here’s what he writes, what were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves for in life? To know God. What is the best thing in life bringing more joy, delight, and contentment than anything else? It’s knowing God.  

And so, there’s joy in salvation, the joy of forgiveness, there’s joy in sanctification, the joy of intimate fellowship with God. I’ve heard Dr. Joel Stowell tell this story many times. He’s a former president of Moody Bible Institute, and written many, many books, and just been a great man of God for many, many years. 

And Dr. Stowell’s been on a lot of boards of different mission organizations, and he tells a story that he was at a big banquet, and I forget what the organization was, but the main speaker was Billy Graham. And they had a platform and a dais, and some of the, up on the platform were not only Dr. Graham, but some of the specially invited guests, and Dr. Stowell shows up, and they had assigned seats, and he noticed that he’s placed sitting right next to Billy Graham. He said, what do you say to Billy Graham? And so, he got into a conversation with Billy Graham, and he says, well, Dr. Graham, tell me, what in your long life of crusades, and speaking all over the world, and thousands and thousands of people to come to Christ, what’s been the highlight? Is there one highlight of your ministry? Would it be that crusade in Seoul, South Korea, where there’s like one million people there? And Dr. Stowell says, Billy Graham kind of like brushed his suggestion aside, and he looked at Dr. Stowell, and he says, you know what the greatest joy of my life has been? The greatest joy of my life has been my time’s intimate fellowship with God, and reading His Word, and sensing His presence, and walking with Jesus.  

That has been the greatest joy of my life. So, pure, lasting joy is found in salvation, and it’s found in sanctification, and pure joy is found in serving, in serving the joy of obedience, joy of obedience. Upper Room Discourse, John 15, Jesus says, if you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I’ve kept My Father’s commandments, and remain in His love, I have told you this, so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.  

What’s Jesus saying? There’s joy in obedience. As I’ve kept My Father’s commandments, as you obey God’s Word, and God’s plan for your life, you’ll have joy as well. Acts chapter 20, verse 35, Dr. Luke’s quoting the words of Jesus.  

Jesus says, it is more blessed to give than to receive. In other words, He’s telling us the principle that there’s more joy in what? Giving to others, serving others, than being on the receiving end. And so, there’s joy in serving.  

Did you know that if you’re a follower of Jesus, if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior, at the moment of salvation, that God gives you at least one spiritual gift? There’s three or four passages in the New Testament that list what those gifts are, 1st Peter 4, Romans chapter 12, 1st Corinthians chapter 12. And when we’re operating and understand how God has gifted us to…for the purpose of what? Building up others and encouraging others. When we operate in our giftedness, we experience joy.  

So, sometimes in my week, I have people stop by and they want to chat or want to pray with me and share something with me, and they’ll say, oh, I’m sorry to bother you. I’m sorry to interrupt you. I don’t mean it like, no, no.  

This is not an interruption. This is how God has gifted me, and I would love to pray with you and encourage you in your journey with Jesus, because that’s my giftedness. So, when we’re operating in our giftedness and discover how God has created us in a unique way to what? To build up the body of Christ.  

And this is one of the things that I truly believe, that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, not to judge our sins, that’s already been paid for. But He’s going to ask us, what have you done for me since you’ve come to faith in Christ? How have you faithfully served me with the gift that I have given you? 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire, Olympian Eric Liddell, Scottish athlete and Christian missionary, won a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics for the 400 meters. He felt God’s joy when he ran.  

He was a runner. His famous quote was, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure”. So, I don’t know what you would, how you would fill in the blank there, but God’s given you a gift, and when you operate in that giftedness, there’s a great joy that comes in doing that. 

There’s pure joy that’s found in salvation, knowing that our sins are forgiven. There’s pure joy in a relationship with God and growing in our relationship with Him. There’s joy in serving and serving others and ministering to others, but now we get to the 400-level class, the graduate-level class, and this is the last one. 

Pure and lasting joy can be found in suffering, in suffering. It’s the joy of understanding God’s purpose in pain. That’s the whole theme of the book of 1st Peter, written to exiles, written to people who had to leave their homeland because they were being persecuted, and the whole theme of 1st Peter is pain with a purpose. 

Life is painful, but God has a purpose in our pain. So, the joy is not in suffering, but we make a choice to experience joy knowing that what God will accomplish in our lives through our suffering, He has a plan and that He has a purpose. So, let’s just look in conclusion here at a couple of passages that describe this in the New Testament. 

Acts chapter 5, the early church, the apostles are preaching and teaching in Jesus’ name and they’re constantly getting thrown into prison. They’re constantly being beaten and then told not to preach anymore, and that’s what’s happened to the apostles in Acts chapter 5. Let me read to you verses 40 and 41, it says, his speech persuaded them, the Sanhedrin, not to…not sure what that phrase is referring to, let me start a little down. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. 

So now they’ve been beaten. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Here’s the verse I want, verse 41, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for His name. 

Pretty amazing response, isn’t it? Just been thrown into custody of the Sanhedrin, you’re being flogged, you’re being told not to teach in Jesus’ name anymore, and when the apostles leave, they’re rejoicing because they had the privilege of what? Suffering for Jesus. James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4 gives us part of the reason why God allows trials in our lives and this kind of counterintuitive command, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Why in the world would James say, consider it joy when you experience difficulty? Well, you have to know something in order to do that. 

So, he tells us, because you know, here’s what you need to know, the testing of your faith produces perseverance, where there’s hupomone, endurance in a trial. Our first response to a trial is, God, get me out of this. Sometimes God allows us to remain under that trial because He has a greater purpose and that is character formation, Christlikeness, and let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

And so, 1st Peter 5:10, the book that has the topic and theme of pain with a purpose, here’s how Peter closes the book, and the God of all grace who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a while, after you have suffered will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. So, God’s purpose is character building, wants us to become like Christ. Sometimes the way that happens is through suffering. 

That’s where you’ve got to make a choice, not necessarily a feeling of emotion and elation, but it’s a feeling of trust in God that He’s accomplishing His purpose. So, I think this is how Jesus felt when He faced the cross. He faced the crucifixion. 

He prayed in the Garden of Eden with sweat drops of blood coming down His forehead, Father, if it’s possible, remove this cup from me, but nevertheless not my will, but Your will be done. So, Hebrews 12:2 says, fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, for the joy set before Him endured the cross. He had His mindset and His goal on what? Salvation, paying our redemption, and so He endured the crown of thorns, and He endured being spit on, and He endured being beaten to a pulp before He went to the cross. 

Why? Because He was thinking of you and me. He was purchasing the salvation, and it brought Him. So pure joy is found in the joy of forgiveness. 

Sins are forgiven. God will remember them no more. It doesn’t mean that He forgets them, it means He’s not going to hold them against us anymore. There’s joy and satisfaction in a fellowship with Jesus and in serving and in suffering. And so let me just ask a couple of questions here as we conclude.  

Number one, am I experiencing the joy of salvation and the forgiveness of sin? 2nd Corinthians 13:5 says, examine yourself and then make sure you’re in the faith. There are thousands and thousands of people that sit in a church building every Sunday, but they never put their faith in Jesus for salvation. It’s not by works. It’s by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And that should bring us great joy, the forgiveness of sin.  

Number two, am I experiencing the joy of daily fellowship with God? Maybe we’ve got our workout plan that we’re working on for physical training, but what about our spiritual journey? Do I experience the joy of daily fellowship with God? There’s so many helps that can help us in the area of doing this. So, we’ve got lots of daily breads from our daily bread ministry in Grand Rapids that are on the back table, but there are hundreds of devotional books that can help us. 

And sometimes we’re like, well, I can’t do it seven days a week, well then do it five days a week. Something’s better than nothing. Am I experiencing the joy of daily fellowship with God?  

Thirdly, am I experiencing the joy of exercising my spiritual giftedness of serving others and building up the body of Christ?  

And lastly, am I experiencing joy in understanding that pain and suffering have a greater purpose? God allows that into our life to draw us to Himself, to conform us to the image of Jesus, and have a greater purpose in our life. 

We’re going to jump into the book of Philippians next Sunday because that’s called the joy epistle. The word joy and rejoice is used 16 times, and it’s written from a prison cell, and yet the Apostle Paul models joy even in the midst of pain and suffering. 

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Daniel 9:20-27

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Here we’re going to read just a couple verses out of Daniel chapter 9 and then we’re going to jump into this this morning, so Here’s the angel Gabriel interpreting a vision that Daniel had and we’re going to try to unpack this in a little bit, but Here’s the vision.

No one understand this from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem Until the anointed one the ruler Comes that’s Jesus. There will be seven sevens and 62 sevens It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench but in times of trouble.

After the 62 sevens the anointed one will be put to death and we’ll have nothing The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary The end will come like a flood war will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven in The middle of the seven he will put an end to sacrifice an offering and at the temple.

He will set up an abomination That causes desolation Until the end that is decreed is poured out on him Now if that sounds confusing to you it is but we’re going to ask God’s Spirit to help us Understand what all that means and that’ll be our prayer this morning.

All right we’re in the book of Daniel and the first six chapters of Daniel have been kind of easy because there are these stories that are great stories that we’re all familiar with.

I mean Daniel chapter 1 where these young men are taking captive the new world powers the Babylonian Empire at 605 BC and King Nebuchadnezzar takes the best and brightest Jewish young people and he takes them 900 miles away and his goal is to indoctrinate them in Babylonian language and Babylonian culture.

And he even takes their names and he gives them Babylonian names and one of those young men was Daniel He was probably 15 years old when that happened.

And So Daniel chapter 1 we know that Daniel took a stand because he was to eat at the king’s table and there was some food there that didn’t go along with the kosher Jewish diet and we know that that story Daniel chapter 2 King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and he needs someone to interpret it.

And it’s a dream of a statue and Daniel is able to interpret the dream for him and pictures four coming world powers really pictures the end of human history in Daniel chapter 3 we discover that King Nebuchadnezzar builds a 90-foot golden statue.

And every day when the trumpets sound the people are to bow down and to worship that statue and there’s three young Jewish men that refuse to do it Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And they’re thrown into the fiery furnace, and God delivers them, and they make this great faith statement right before they’re about to be thrown into the fiery furnace Daniel 3:17 if we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God we serve is able to deliver us from it.

And He will deliver us But even if he does not we want you to know your majesty we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you set up. Now talk about some young men with conviction.

That was Daniel chapter 3 the fiery furnace and deliverance Daniel chapter 4 There’s King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of a tree and Daniel interprets that Daniel 5 King Belshazzar sees the handwriting on the wall and there’s a transfer of world power From Babylon to now the Medo-Persian Empire.

Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall, Daniel 6 Daniel’s in the lion’s den, Daniel 7 he has a dream of seven beasts seven World powers very similar to the dream, parallel to the dream in Daniel chapter two.

And that brings us to Daniel chapter 9 Daniel chapter 9 so we looked at this two weeks ago Daniel chapter 9 what’s Daniel doing? He he’s studying the scriptures.

He’s reading the Old Testament the book of Jeremiah and he discovers that the Babylonian captivity that they were in is going to last for 70 years Daniel at this point in time is old Daniel he’s late 70s, maybe 80 begins to do the calculation his mind and he realizes that the Babylonian captivity is almost over.

What does Daniel do Daniel prays and We looked at this wonderful prayer in Daniel chapter 9 and beginning in chapter verse 4 it’s a prayer of confession of personal confession and national confession of sins.

And while he’s praying God begins to act and that’s where we’re going to pick it up here in Daniel chapter 9 beginning in verse 20. Daniel 9 the last few chapters or verses rather is one of the challenging portions of Scripture in the Bible.

What we’re going to discover and what happens here and let me just begin reading in verse 20 while I was speaking and praying. This is Daniel Confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill while I was still in prayer Gabriel the man I had seen in an earlier vision. That’s Daniel 8 came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

The time of the evening sacrifice is 3 p.m. Daniel’s at the end of his prayer and the angel Gabriel shows up now this is the same angel Gabriel who 500 years from this point in time in history would appear to Zechariah and Tell Zechariah and his wife you’re going to have a son that’s John the Baptist the same Gabriel that showed up and talked to Mary and said you’re going to be the mother of the Messiah.

And here he is showing up and talking to Daniel this says in verse 22. He instructed me and said Daniel. I have now come to give you insight and understanding As soon as you began to pray a word went out which I’ve come to tell you for you are highly esteemed.

Some versions say you’re deeply loved therefore consider the word and understand the vision. All right, so now the angel Gabriel, this is interesting. Daniel was able to interpret the dreams and visions of other people.

He’s having a little trouble with this one. And so the angel Gabriel comes this is let me explain this to you now in order to understand this we’re going to set the table here and ask an answer four key questions.

And you’re going to have to stay with me here mentally to understand this passage and so here are the four keys to understanding Daniel 9, 20 through 27 and I have to tell you this morning this is really true every week. I’m relying on people who are much smarter than I am and spent a lot of time looking at Dr. Michael Rydelnik.

He is the professor of Jewish studies at Moody Bible Institute, He’s the son of Holocaust survivors and one of the most brilliant men that I know And so I’ve relied on him his understanding of this passage quite a bit this morning.

But here we are four keys to understanding the passage, one What is the meaning of the Hebrew word used six times in verses 24 through 27 So the Hebrew word there 70 weeks some of your translations might say some of your other translations might say 77 so why is there a little confusion about that? Well, it’s the Hebrew word. It’s the plural of the Hebrew word, Shavua.

It’s translated weeks or translated sevens and that we need to understand what the meaning of that word is and we’ll look at that.

The second question we need to figure out here is how many days are in a biblical year? Our calendar has 365 and one fourth days and every four years we have leap year but the Hebrew biblical calendar is a little bit different and So that’s going to be important to understand.

How many days are in a biblical year All right. Number three, here’s the third question. We need to understand and ask and answer So we read verse 25 no one understand this from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

The Hebrew word there means like an edict from a king or a ruler and so there’s a timetable that we’re going to look at here and the starting of the timetable is an edict given by a king.

And we need to understand what, which edict is that? What is the date of that edict? And we’ll try to look at that. Here’s the here’s the fourth thing. We need to understand from verses 25 and 26 who are the rulers or the princes referred to in verse 25 and 26 of Daniel 9? Daniel 9:25 until the anointed one the ruler comes.

Verse 26 talks about the people of the ruler who will come to destroy the city and the sanctuary so who are the who are these individuals that the angel Gabriel is talking about. All right, so that’s the four things. We’re going try to answer. And hopefully it unlocks the meaning of the text for us this morning. So, here’s the first one.

What is the meaning of this Hebrew word? Translated weeks or sevens and here’s what I discovered the Hebrew word refers to a unit of seven without specifying a category and so this Hebrew word means a unit of seven.

So, we have to ask. Well, is this seven days? Is this seven weeks? Is it seven months? Is it seven years? And the way you determine that is by partially is by looking at the context and the commentators and interpreters almost unanimously say that this word, weeks or sevens refers to years.

So, when we read in verse 24 77s are declared for your people 77 Years of seven periods of years. That’s 490 years so what we’re looking at is a picture of 490 years because the word here means years.

All right number two. How many days are in a biblical year? And that’s important because we’re going do some math calculations here in a little bit but We won’t get down into the weeds here, but it’s 360 days And so how do you know that? Well, we could go to Genesis and we won’t take time to turn there.

Genesis 7:11 talks about the 17th day of the second month when the flood begins Genesis 8: 2 through 4 talks about when the ark rests on Mount Ararat and it says it’s a hundred and fifty days and the Dates they give is five months Okay, so 150 days five months that’s means there’s 30 days in a month.

If you go to the book of Revelation in Revelation 12:6 and it’s talking about That the tribulation period which is a period of seven years and it’s talking about three and a half years. It says also, its 1,260 days. So, 1,260 days of three and a half years. Its thirty days in a month. So, in the Hebrew calendar they have 360 days as opposed to our measure of time.

All right key number three what is the date of the decree that is referred to in Daniel 9:25? No one understand this from the time the word or the edict goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one the ruler comes there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens or 483 years.

So scholars say there’s four possible edicts that were given that might be close to this there was a decree by King Cyrus to allow the Jewish exiles to return a decree by King Darius and two decrees by King Artaxerxes and The one that most closely fits this decree to what go back and restore and rebuild Jerusalem is a decree given by King Artaxerxes and It’s his second decree.

It’s described in Ezra chapter 7 and those that have done the calculations say that decree was given March 5th 444 BC. March 5th 444 BC So that’s the date That we’re going start calculating time from when in here in Daniel chapter 9. All right here’s the last one and then we’ll look at this.

Who are the rulers and princes referred to in Daniel 9:25 and 26? Well already hinted at when we read the passage the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one comes and that’s capitalized in my Bible that’s Jesus. That’s the Messiah.

And So the first ruler that’s referred to is Jesus the Messiah The second Prince or ruler verse 26 the last part the people of the ruler who will come destroy the city and the sanctuary that is referring to the false Messiah or the Antichrist So the first Prince is Jesus, the second one is the Antichrist, okay.  So those are the two rulers and princes that are mentioned.

All right, so Let’s jump into this then with that as a background verse 25 no one understand this from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem an Edict given by King Artaxerxes his second edict March 5th 444 BC From That time until the anointed one this is Jesus the Messiah The ruler comes there will be seven sevens and 62 sevens There are two periods that are referred to there, but in our calculation because the word means years 483 years.

So from the time that King Artaxerxes gives us edict to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time the Messiah comes There’s going to be 483 years That’s a total according to the Hebrew calendar of 173,880 days and When you do that calculation, and I relied on Dr. Rydelnik to do it you come up with March 30th 33 AD.

You know what March 30th 33 AD was? The triumphal entry of Jesus Palm Sunday when he’s on a donkey, and he’s riding into Jerusalem, and he’s presenting himself as the Messiah to his people and so in this vision God lays out and Gabriel lays out from King Artaxerxes edict to rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one the ruler Jesus comes 483 years and On that exact day When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey this prediction and prophecy was fulfilled.

Now look at verse 26 two significant events after the 62 sevens the anointed one will be put to death the crucifixion.

That the anointed one the Messiah is going to be crucified last part of verse 26 the people of the ruler who will come destroy the city in the Sanctuary the end will come like a flood war will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed.

The people of the ruler that’s the Antichrist if you remember in the book of Daniel that the Antichrist was going to come from the 10 toes and the vision of that statue or in Daniel chapter 7 the four visions of the beast and the last one had ten horns and another horn came out a little horn that became very prominent.

And he’s coming from the revived Roman Empire and so the people of the ruler who will come to destroy the city in the sanctuary Refers to an event that happened about 35 years after Jesus was crucified. You know your history what happened the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem and they devastated Jerusalem and they devastated the temple.

In fact Jesus talks about this to his disciples in Matthew chapter 24 and here they are standing before that great temple in Jerusalem and Jesus Says to his disciples you see all these things Truly I tell you not one stone here will be left on another until everyone will be thrown down See this huge great temple that was built It’s going to be flattened.

Of course the disciples begin to say well, when’s that going happen and Jesus? Explains it in the rest of Matthew chapter 24 Now that leaves one more week of years so there’s 483 years From Artaxerxes decree until Jesus comes on a donkey in Jerusalem.

And then there’s a gap There’s a there’s a time period and if you’ll see the chart here that is hopefully a little bit helpful That’s the time of the Gentiles the Church Age.

So there’s a pause and sometimes the in some of the prophetic writings of the Old Testament prophets they didn’t they didn’t see the whole the whole picture, but there’s a pause and There’s one more week That is still future to come and this is what? Daniel 9:27 then refers to.

The end will come like a flood war will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven said he the Antichrist.

And he’s going to make a covenant a Peace treaty with the many this this was given to Jewish people this this vision Daniel chapter 9 77s are just decreed for your people Daniel.

So he’s talking to Jewish people and So he the Antichrist will confirm a covenant with the many or one seven So this Antichrist this false Messiah He’s called the man of lawlessness in Thessalonians 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 Revelation 13 refers to him as the beast they’re all referring to the same person the Antichrist Let me just give you a little Overview of the characteristic of what this person will be like because this is yet to come.

For Daniel, this vision was all future for us It’s 483 years have already happened one Seven year period that is yet to come.

So here are the characteristics of the Antichrist from Daniel 9 and 11 He’s arrogant and self-willed. He never stops talking and boasting about himself.

He’s a blasphemer he’s deceptive ruthless utterly devoid of integrity he’s outspoken in his public opposition to God, Initially will be very successful.

His reign will be limited by God. He opposes all organized religion, he will set himself up as a god to be worshipped This is the abomination of desolation that takes place at the midpoint of the tribulation When he will stop the sacrifices in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and will proclaim himself to be to be God That’s that second Thessalonians chapter 2 Verse 4 he will oppose and Will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is to be worshipped So that he sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God.

And so in this one future week there is a person by the name of the Antichrist that’s going to come He’s going to have a peace treaty with Israel. The world’s going to look at him as the Savior.

I’m kind of a news junkie and about 10 days ago. I was watching the final press conference of Antony Blinken, Antony Blinken is now the former Secretary of State that has served He was giving his final press conference and a lot of reporters were asking him questions.

Most of those questions had to do with the Middle East and what’s going on in the Middle East and Middle East has been prominent in the news for decades and decades now and at the end of that news conference one of the reporters asked the question.

And he said this I’ve been here a long time. 16 years ago, I was here for Condoleezza Rice’s last press conference and they were asking the same questions that we’re asking now and wondering about the same issue. When is there going to be a resolution to the Middle East crisis? Because we’re asking the same questions that were asked 16 years ago. Has any progress been made now that there’s been a couple of Kind of peace treaties President Carter brokered one a long time ago.

Apparently President Trump’s son did the Abraham Accord recently. There is not any peace in the Middle East But there’s going to come a charismatic person who will make a peace treaty in the Middle East and everybody’s going to look at him as the Savior and Then halfway through he’s going to break his promise and that’s when basically all hell breaks loose.

Now the good news is we look at verse 27 is that he confirms this covenant for with many for one seven in the middle. He’ll put an end to the sacrifice and offering at the temple He will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

And So there’s the good news that ultimately the Antichrist end is already sealed and He is doomed And as we’re going to look at a little bit Christ is going to come back and conquer the Antichrist and His future is sealed and doomed Well, that’s just a little bit of Daniel chapter 9 verses 20 through 27 There are many others good Christian believers have a little different interpretation of Daniel 9 20 through 27 But that’s God’s timetable For the future.

So this morning just in our last 10 minutes or so 15 minutes let’s think about some life lessons from the book of Daniel and Daniel chapter 9 here. Here’s the first one the first one is Dare to be a Daniel.

That’s the song that many people are familiar with if you’ve grown up in the church dare to be a Daniel dare to stand alone and Part of the study the book of Daniel is to encourage us to what have the courage of Daniel Have the courage of young Daniel who at 15 years old and Daniel chapter 1 stood up for his convictions along with some of his other friends.

Not only the courage of young Daniel, but for those of us that are all further down the pathway of life We need to model Daniel’s life in the area of prayer When you look at the book of Daniel we see Daniel was a man of prayer See in Daniel chapter 2 and none of King Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men Could interpret the dream that he had He put out an edict that said all the wise men in the Empire are going to be killed Including Daniel.

So what does Daniel do when? His life is on the line He’s in crisis Daniel 2:17 Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed we need to pray because if God doesn’t give us the answer to this dream of King Nebuchadnezzar’s, we’re all going to die.

And there’s nothing like having your life on the line that will improve your prayer life. Daniel chapter 6 verse 10, when they pass a law that says for a period of time you can’t pray to anybody else except the king. Daniel says when Daniel learned that the decree had been published he went to his home upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem and three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed giving thanks to God just as he had done before.

He didn’t back down. I might have said, well, I’ll just pray in private. I’ll just go into my little closet and pray silently and then they won’t see me.

And that’s how Daniel got thrown into the lion’s den. He was a man of conviction and courage and he was a man of prayer. And what do we see him doing in Daniel chapter 9? He’s praying.

And so dare to be a Daniel man of conviction. He was a man of prayer. He’s a man of courage.

He was a man that read his Bible because Daniel chapter 9 starts out by saying in the first year of Darius reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scriptures according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet. What was Daniel doing? He’s reading the Old Testament.

He’s reading the book of Jeremiah. And so those are three great characteristics to model after Daniel to be a person of conviction, a biblical conviction, to be a person of prayer, to be a person of God’s book. Secondly, let’s think about life lesson number two, the accuracy and trustworthiness of the scriptures.

The accuracy and trustworthiness of the scriptures. This vision is incredible, isn’t it? From the decree of King Artaxerxes until the Messiah is presented 483 years or 173,880 days. And on March 30th, 33 AD, Jesus comes on the donkey just as it was predicted.

What does Jesus say in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, verse 18? In his Sermon on the Mount, he says these familiar words, for truly I tell you until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter nor the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Jesus is saying everything in God’s Word will come true down to the dotted I and the cross T. It’s all going to be fulfilled. And so in this day and age of like, where’s truth? And what do we believe? And we listen to one news station and they say one thing about the same incident that’s happening.

You would turn the channel to another news station and they’re saying just the opposite. And like, are they talking about the same thing? And what is true and reliable and trustworthy is the Scriptures. The Bible says there’s eight times as many verses talking about Jesus’ second coming as his first coming.

The good news is he’s coming again someday and we need to be ready for that. Here’s the last one as we think about life lessons from Daniel chapter 9. And it’s this, always remember that our ultimate victory has already been won or secured. And so one of the encouraging things that we can take from Daniel chapter 9 is that last part of the chapter talking about the Antichrist, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Or as the New Living Translation says, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him. And so when you step back and look at the big picture, yes, there’s a rule of this going to come. And yes, there’s a tribulation period.

And yes, there’s some horrific things that happen on planet earth. But only because God’s decreed it and God’s allowed it and then what’s going to happen? Then the end’s going to come. What’s the end? Jesus comes back.

Revelation chapter 19 let me read just a couple of verses from the last book of the Bible and it’s talking about the return of Christ.

He comes on a white horse. There’s a description of him. And then in Revelation 19 beginning in verse 19, then I saw the beast, it’s the Antichrist, and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army.

That’s Jesus. But the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The Antichrist is defeated. Christ comes back and wins the final battle.

And the Antichrist and the false prophet are thrown into hell. And what’s next? Then Jesus reigns forever and ever and ever. We’re in the rule and reign of Christ.

New President Trump has used a new phrase about we’re in the golden age of America. This is the real golden age when the Messiah comes back and the Messiah sits on the throne and there’s no more curse. The curse has been reversed and the lion lays down with the lamb and there’s no more sin, there’s no more sorrow, there’s no more death, there’s no more suffering.

He will reign forever and ever and ever. And I want everybody here and I want all of our friends and all of our neighbors and all of our acquaintances to make sure you’re a part of that. You can be a part of that.

If you receive Christ as your Savior, realize that He is the only one that can pay for our sin debt and when we confess our sin and turn from our sin and put our trust in Him and Him alone, we become a child of God. And the ultimate victory is secured. There’s three tenses of our salvation.

Justification if you put Christ as your Savior, you can say, I have been saved. In other words, positionally when God looks at you, He sees you in Christ and He sees you as perfect.

Why? Because 2nd Corinthians 5:21, when we put our faith in Jesus, the righteousness of Christ, His perfection gets credited to our account and we’re perfect in God’s eyes. Our sins have been forgiven. But we can also say, I am being saved.

That’s sanctification. That’s what Peter means when he writes in 2nd Peter, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it used to be these t-shirts, be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet.

And we’re all kind of this work in progress, but we need to be growing in our walk with God. And it’s a lifelong process. Will we ever reach perfection on this planet? No.

But we should be growing in grace. We should be more mature spiritually than we were a year ago. And that’s sanctification.

So I have been saved, justification, I am being saved.

Sanctification. But then we can also say, I will be saved because there’s a part of our salvation that’s yet future and that’s called glorification.

That’s when Christ returns. We sang about it in one of our songs this morning that our bodies are going to be resurrected. We have a body like His body and our salvation will be complete and we’ll be in His presence forever and ever and ever.

And that should give us confidence and courage in the midst of a chaotic world in which we live. Dare to be a Daniel. You can trust God’s Word.

Be confident if you know Jesus. The ultimate victory has already been won.

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Romans 8: 18-23

We’re going to stand and read some scripture while the kids are on their way to Junior Church, and this is from Romans chapter 8, verses 18 through 23, and you can follow along on the screen as I read. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Rome. He writes; I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

He’s saying the best for us is yet to come. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by his own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to Sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

All right, very rarely do I steer off of going through a book of the Bible and jump on a topic, but I’ve probably done this maybe three or four times in many years.

But I thought I would bring a message just relating to a biblical perspective of what’s happening in our world. And we look around and think about what’s happening in the state of California. And you know, that’s all the way over on the other side of the country.

But if you follow the news, it is horrific. And evacuations of 150,000 people, 12,000 homes and schools and churches burned to the ground. And people that wake up one morning and literally have no material possessions.

And we shouldn’t forget what happened in Western North Carolina not that long ago, Hurricane Helene came through and devastated that area and they’re still recovering. And through your gracious giving, we were able to send some funds down to Samaritan’s Purse, which was the boots on the ground to help those people in Western North Carolina. So, we want to think about a biblical perspective of natural disasters because when earthquakes happen, when floods happen, when tsunamis happen, when fires happen, the unspoken question is, well, where’s God in all this? And why is God allowing this to happen? And why doesn’t God do something? And so, we’re going to spend a half hour this morning thinking about this biblical perspective of natural disasters.

And we need to think about what a biblical worldview is. And that’s really looking at the world events through the lens of Scripture, through the framework of what the Bible teaches. And so, we want to think about a biblical worldview.

And we want to think about three biblical truths and then answer the question, well, what should we be doing? Or as the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer wrote in a book a number of years ago back in the 70s, how should we then live? And God, what are you expecting us to do during this time period in our world history? So quickly, we’re going to think about three truths. Here’s the first one. We are living in the in-between.

We are living in the in-between. What do I mean by that? Well, I’ll explain it. We’re living in between Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21 and 22.

We’re living in that time period between the creation of the world when God put Adam and Eve in a place called the Garden of Eden, which was this perfect world, perfect environment. No sin, no sickness. Life was perfect.

That’s Genesis 1-2. That’s the world that God intended. Probably, I don’t know, 30 years ago or now, Diane and I do very little traveling, although in about a week or so, we are going to head down to Florida for a few days.

But about 30, 35 years ago, I would imagine, Diane and I took a trip to Hawaii. And the background of that trip was we had some friends in our previous church, and he was a pilot with what was then Northwest Airlines. And he got transferred out to Hawaii and had a two-year assignment there.

And they said, well, why don’t you come visit us and you can just stay with us? And they had this beautiful home. It was in the middle of this mountain overlooking the ocean. And then also at that time, Diane’s brother was a pilot with American Airlines, and we could fly standby for very little.

So, we thought, let’s go to Hawaii. So, one of the families in our church, previous church, graciously volunteered to watch our three kids. And they all got chicken pox while we were gone.

You know, that was fun for them, or maybe, I don’t know. So, we spent five days in Hawaii. And the reason I’m telling you this story is that everyday Joe, who was our friend, the pilot, would get up and head over, look at the ocean, and say, another day in paradise.

And it kind of was, because every day was just beautiful and sunny. And well, that’s what the Garden of Eden was like. But what happened in Genesis chapter three? We know the story.

Genesis chapter three, sin came into the world and everything changed. Everything changed. What happened? There was a curse, curse on the serpent, Satan.

There was a curse on Eve, pain in childbirth. There was a curse on Adam. It’s going to be pain and toil to work and to earn a living.

And the creation was cursed as well. Ground was cursed. And so now we’re living between Genesis 1 and 2, and what’s going to happen in Revelation 21 and 22? It’s really going to be kind of like Garden of Eden 2.0. There’s going to be a new heaven, and there’s going to be a new earth that God will create.

And this curse that we’ve talked about that is found, and you can read about it in Genesis chapter three, the curse is reversed. Revelation chapter 22 verse three says, no longer will there be any more curse. And so, in the new heaven and the new earth, there’s not going to be any sin.

There’s not going to be any death. There’s not going to be any natural disasters and all these horrific things that happen in our world today. So, all that to say, we are living in the in-between under a cursed world.

And as Paul wrote in Romans 8, what is creation doing? Creation literally is groaning until creation itself will be redeemed, as well as our earthly bodies will be redeemed. So that’s truth number one. We’re living in the in-between.

Second truth is this, natural disasters, like what’s happened in western North Carolina and California, natural disasters remind us of the importance or the priority of the eternal. Natural disasters remind us of the importance or the priority of what is eternal, not temporary. Thousands of people discovered they’ve lost everything materially.

And so, here’s what the apostle Paul says in second Corinthians four, therefore don’t lose heart, don’t be discouraged. Though outwardly we are wasting away, that’s the progression of the body breaking down. And it will, and it does.

Though outwardly we’re wasting away, yet inwardly we can be renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles. That’s interesting that Paul talks about his light momentary troubles. Oh, you mean the times that you ended up in prison? Oh, you mean the time that you were stoned in Lystra and left for dead? Oh, you mean the time that you were whipped with 39 lashes and shipwrecked and all that kind of stuff? Yeah, light and momentary in comparison to eternity is what he’s talking about.

They’re achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, here’s Paul’s truth application. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.

Since what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. Ah, there’s our reminder. The stuff that we accumulate, our homes, our cars, and anything physical material, it’s just what? It’s just, it’s temporary.

And it comes and it goes. And that new shiny car that we’re all excited about when we first get it, eventually is going to wear out, it’s going to rust, it’s going to break down, and it’s going to end up in a scrapyard. And so natural disasters remind us the importance of the eternal.

Jesus asked the question, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, has all these material possessions, and loses his own soul? First Timothy 6 don’t put your hope in money, which easily vanishes, but put your hope in God and His promises and His Word. So, what lasts forever? There’s three things on my list, and maybe I’m open to a fourth one, because somebody can think about it. But God is eternal, and God’s Word is eternal.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God lasts forever, and the souls of men and women are eternal. We’re all going to live somewhere forever. The question is location, where are we going to be? And so natural disasters remind us, remind us of the importance of the eternal.

Third truth, and then we’ll just think about four quick applications that we can think about how we should then live. It says, natural disasters remind us of the uncertainty of tomorrow or the uncertainty of the future. And those folks in California had no idea that the very next day or the very next week, all that they owned would be gone.

Natural disasters remind us of the uncertainty of tomorrow, and that’s true for us as well. Proverbs 27 verse 1, do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. We’ve all experienced that, haven’t we? And in one moment, in one phone call, life has changed.

That was true for Ron and Larissa Tindall on Friday afternoon. When they got the phone call, that moms collapsed, mom passes into eternity, and life is turned upside down in one moment. So, James picks up on this theme in James chapter 4 verses 13 through 15, and he’s not forbidding planning.

We all need to plan, but the thrust of this verse is we need to hold our plans very loosely because God’s in control. And so, here’s what James writes, now listen you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money. So, they’ve got their business plan together for the next year, but then James says, why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

You think we know? We all have plans of what the next day and the next week will look like. We really don’t know. You are, what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away? Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.

And so, James doesn’t say that every time we just make a statement we need to say, Lord willing, although there’s nothing wrong with that. James is talking about a mindset that we need to hold our plans loosely because what God is in control. And so natural disasters remind us of the uncertainty of tomorrow.

Now for the believers, here’s our encouragement with the uncertainty of tomorrow is that we believe that God is sovereign over all of life. History is His story, and God’s working out His plan and His story, and that’s true in our individual lives, that nothing happens in our lives that is a surprise to God. Even the horrific things that Job went through, if you hold back the curtain and read Job chapter 1 and chapter 2, that Satan had to have permission from God to touch Job.

And what was Satan’s premise? Of course, Job loves you. You’ve blessed him with ten children. You’ve blessed him with health.

You’ve blessed him with wealth. Of course he’s a follower of you. Just take away some of that and see what happens.

And so, God gave Satan permission to touch Job. He put some parameters on it. And so, God, for the believers, is in control.

And even though tomorrow is uncertain, we can trust Him with our lives. And so, Corrie Ten Boom said, never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, do not worry, do not worry, do not worry.

He says it four or five times. What’s He tell us to do? Seek first God’s kingdom and all these things will be added unto you. So those are just three quick biblical truths about natural disasters.

What we want to think about this morning is the question that Francis Schaeffer asked, like, well, how should we then live? Romans 13 and 11 says, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. He’s talking about the second coming of Christ, the ultimate glorification, the redemption of our bodies. It’s closer than we first believed.

And so, Christ is coming again, but how should we live in the between? And let me give you just four encouragements. They all start with the letter P or have the letter P in them, and then we’ll wrap this up. But here’s the first one.

How should we then live? Prepare for eternity. Prepare for eternity. Luke chapter 12 is a familiar story that is in the Bible.

And here Jesus got interrupted by someone in the crowd that was following him and said, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Can you imagine that, that there are some family members that were fighting over inheritance? And so, Jesus gives a warning, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, what we’ve just talked about.

And then he tells this familiar story about a man that had a plan, and he was a rich man, he had a great harvest, and he says, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. I have to tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And I’ll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. I’ve got it all planned out. I’m going to be on easy street.

And Jesus says, one problem, one problem is you’re a fool, because this night your life will be demanded from you. And who will get what you prepared for yourself? This is how we’ll be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God. What does it mean to be rich toward God? He’s talking about receiving salvation.

And so, we spend a lot of time in the finance world and thinking about retirement and retirement planning, but many people do very little thought about what’s beyond that. We have eternity that’s going to last forever. So how do we prepare for eternity? Well, one way is by receiving the gift of salvation and what Christ has done for us on the cross, 1st  John 5, 11 through 13, that we can know for sure that we have eternal life, recognizing that we’re a sinner, recognizing we can’t make it to heaven on our own, and putting our trust in Jesus and Jesus alone.

And when he died on the cross, he took our place. It was called the substitutionary atonement. As I like to say, sin has to be paid for.

Either we’re going to pay for it, or we can put our trust in Jesus because he already paid for it. I would suggest that’s a much better option. We need to prepare for eternity.

Between last Sunday afternoon and Friday afternoon, in our circle of friends, some connected here at church, some from previous churches that we’ve ministered in, just our circle of friends, we got six contacts, people that died, of friends of ours who contacted us and said, my loved one has passed away. My father has passed away. My brother has passed away.

Would you pray for us? Our first church was in Strongsville, Ohio. A great family there, the Smallman family. Dr. Smallman was an executive with one of the missions there in Cleveland, Ohio.

And we had his daughter Margie in our youth group that we were working with and had an older brother, David. I was sitting in a restaurant last Saturday afternoon. Diane and I were at Buffalo Wild Wings after going to a wrestling tournament to watch our grandkids wrestle.

And I looked at my phone and I get a message from Margie. My brother went to bed Saturday night, did not wake up Sunday morning. 59 years.

Then he turned. And so, the message this morning is, and there are many other stories this week like that, is that we need to prepare for. Secondly, how should we then live? Understand God’s plan.

Understand God’s plan that as these events happen, as natural disasters happen, and as the world seems to be hurtling out of control, and we read 2nd Timothy 3 that says, in the last days, perilous times will come, difficult times will come. We can have assurance that this isn’t just accidental, that isn’t just randomness, but what God’s got a plan. He’s working out his plan in human history.

And as we study the book of Daniel, as you study the end of the book of Revelation, you can discover what God’s already written in the last chapter. And God has a plan. And God wins.

And we can trust that plan. And even in the difficult new cycles of life, we can have confidence that God has a plan. Thirdly, how should we then live? Not only prepare for eternity and understand God’s plan, but here’s a third thing we can do is we need to pray.

We need to pray. We certainly need to pray for those that are out in California and those that are still struggling in North Carolina and many other places. We need to pray for them.

And if possible, we need to help them in financial ways if we’re able to. But we need to pray. The Bible talks about prayer a lot.

One of the things he says is to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into the mission field. And so, the mission field isn’t just here where we live, but it’s what? Make disciples of all nations. So, Jesus says, would you pray that God would thrust people like Kyle and Tamara Maycroft out in the mission field to share the good news of the gospel with others? Would you pray that God would do that and partner with them? We’re to pray for our leaders.

And tomorrow we’re going to undergo a transfer of leadership in our own country. And we need to pray for President Trump and Vice President Vance. And we need to pray for departing President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Ephesians 6:18 at the armor of God passage, it says, praying always. First Thessalonians 5, pray without ceasing. So, one of the key things that we can do is to pray and to ask God to intervene and work in people’s hearts.

Well, here’s the last one. How should we then live? Not only prepare for eternity and understand God’s plan and pray. Here’s the last one, proselytize.

That’s a P word that just means evangelism. It means to share the good news of the gospel with other people. Imagine that you have a friend that’s in the hospital and dying of cancer.

Imagine that you go and visit them in the hospital, and you have the cure for cancer. You know the cure for cancer. Imagine that you would go to that hospital room, and you would visit them and talk to them about the news, the weather, sports, and then leave.

Never share that you have a cure for his disease. That would be horrible. On one sense, God’s given us what? The good news of the gospel.

And our job is to be faithful people who share the good news of the gospel with other people. And when we think about natural disasters, one of the things that God uses in times of difficulty, tragedy, and loss, guess what happens when that occurs in people’s lives? Their hearts are open and receptive many times to God’s truth and the good news of the gospel. You see, when everything’s going right, when you have your health and your wealth, and the kids are doing well, and your 401k looks good, and all things are set, you kind of feel like, I’m okay.

But when difficulty hits, when loss hits, when tragedy hits, people are searching for something. And we have the answer is Jesus, and our only hope is found in him. So, I’m so thankful that in these times of natural disasters, there’s organizations like Samaritan’s Purse in Boone, North Carolina, Franklin Graham’s head of that ministry, son of Billy Graham.

And they have something called rapid response teams. So, many times there’s a disaster anywhere in the world, but also in the United States, they have this U.S. disaster relief. They put boots on the ground, and they become the hands and the feet and the mouth of Jesus to people who desperately need help.

And they help rebuild, and they provide food, and they provide help to these people in their time of great need. So, I went to their website, and here’s what Samaritan’s Purse says about what’s happening in California. Samaritan’s Purse is poised to quickly mount a response after the California wildfires are contained.

Staff members will be on the ground assessing the hardest hit areas once it is safe to do so. Samaritan’s Purse staff are working with local emergency management personnel to mount a strategic response and will coordinate with local churches throughout the deployment. Volunteer teams will assist homeowners and share the love of Christ as we serve in Jesus’ name.

By the way, there’s a place on their website where you can volunteer to do that. You don’t have to be a pastor. You don’t have to have all this training.

I’m sure they’ll do some training with you. But the disasters that happen, the tragedies that happen are an open door to share the love of Jesus. And I am absolutely positive that out of those California fires, many, many people are going to come to know Jesus who otherwise would not have been open to what we’re talking about.

And so yes, we live in a fallen world. We’re living in the in-between, Genesis 1 and 2, Revelation 21 and 22. Someday there’s a day coming when this curse is going to be reversed and we’re going to enjoy a perfect, perfect world forever and ever in the presence of Christ.

But in the meantime, we need to prepare for eternity. We need to understand God’s plan. We need to be people of prayer.

We need to share the good news of the gospel.

The post Sermon on Romans 8:18-23 A Biblical Perspective of Natural Disaster appeared first on Community Bible Church.

Daniel 9: 1-19

Outline with Blanks

Completed Outline

We are going to read some verses from Daniel chapter 9, verses 17 through 19. This is the end of Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9. And we are going to look at the whole thing in a little bit but let me just read the close. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant.

For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear and open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.

Lord, listen. Lord, forgive. Lord, hear and act.

For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name. Well, if you have been with us, you’ll remember we’re working our way through Daniel. And last week we went through a challenging passage, Daniel chapter 7, I believe it was.

And we’re going to look at Daniel chapter 9 this morning. And it’s entitled, Learning to Pray Like Daniel. And so, Daniel chapter 9 is one of the most interesting chapters in all the Bible.

The first 19 verses are a prayer that Daniel prayed over 2,500 years ago. And the last part of the chapter is a vision that God revealed to Daniel about 70 weeks. And it really unpacks history and unpacks the future.

We’ll take a look at that next week. The first 69 of those 70 weeks are really 70 years. It’s a period of 490 years.

69 of those 70 time periods have been fulfilled. There’s one yet to come. And that was revealed to Daniel in the second part of Daniel chapter 9. But this morning we’re going to look at learning to pray like Daniel.

So, I ask the question, how do we learn to pray? Well, we can learn to pray from Scripture. Jesus gave the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, the disciples’ prayer.

When the disciples asked him this question, Lord, would you teach us to pray? Teach us how to pray. And Jesus gave them this prayer. You know it.

Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And you know the rest of that prayer.

We can learn to pray through studying that prayer. We can learn to pray by listening to the prayers of others. I grew up in a pastor’s family and so I’ve been in church my whole life.

I’ve been in thousands of prayer meetings and small prayer groups. And one of the ways that I learned to pray was in praying in small groups with others and listening to how other people prayed. But we can also learn to pray simply by praying, by doing it ourselves.

Prayer is simply talking to God. He wants to hear what’s on our heart. And there’s nothing too small to bring to his attention.

He already knows it. He wants to hear the concerns on our heart. But this morning we also can learn to pray by studying some of the prayers of the Bible.

There are some great prayers in the Bible and Daniel 9 is one of them. Now think about this opportunity we have to come into God’s presence. And the book of Hebrews says we can come boldly into God’s presence. We have this awesome privilege of coming into what? The very presence of God Himself. And He invites us to come into His presence.

So, this morning we’re going to look at this prayer from Daniel chapter 9. And let me remind you that the life of Daniel was characterized by prayer. From a teenager, he was one who learned how to pray. Remember, Daniel and his friends were taken exile by the Babylonians as a teenager and taken 900 miles away from home.

And he was being indoctrinated into the Babylonian culture. And Daniel was a young person who learned to pray. In Daniel chapter 2, you remember that Daniel became one of the wise men that was an advisor to King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king.

And remember, King Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, and nobody could interpret it. So, he said, all my advisors and wise men are going to be killed, including Daniel and his friends. And how did Daniel respond? It says, Daniel, in Daniel 2.17, returned to his house, explained the matter to his friends.

He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed. You want to ramp up your prayer life? Daniel’s life was on the line. He was going to die unless God revealed that dream to him.

And Daniel said, let’s pray. And God revealed the dream to him. Daniel chapter 6, when now the Medo-Persian Empire is the world power and now they’re trying to find something wrong with Daniel because they don’t like Daniel.

And so, they passed this law, you can’t pray to anybody else other than the king for 30 days or you’re going to be thrown in the lions’ den. And what does Daniel do? Daniel 6.10. Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went to home to his upstairs room where the windows open toward Jerusalem. And three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God, just as he’s done before.

Nothing changed. Daniel just continued to pray. And here in Daniel chapter 9, we’re going to discover that Daniel again is praying.

And so, let’s look at the outline of this passage here from Daniel 9. First of all, the setting. Here it is, Daniel 9, verse 1. In the year of Darius, son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from Scripture, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last for 70 years. So, here’s the setting.

We have the exact date of when this took place. This is the first year of the reign of King Darius. King Darius was the first king of the Medo-Persian Empire.

The Babylonian Empire had come to a conclusion, and the year is 539 B.C. The transfer of power is taking place. And so, Daniel, that’s the setting. It’s 539 B.C. And what’s Daniel doing in verse 2? We already read it.

He’s been reading his Bible. No, he doesn’t have the complete Bible like we have, obviously. But he’s reading some of the Old Testament.

And the Scripture says he’s reading from the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote the book of Jeremiah about 50 years previous to Daniel’s time. And let’s see what he discovers as he reads Scripture from the book of Jeremiah. Remember, they’re still in Babylonian, they’re still in captivity here.

And we read in verse 2, Daniel understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to the prophet Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem, the captivity of God’s people by the Babylonians, would last for 70 years. Oh, Daniel’s reading Scripture, and all of a sudden, he’s understanding the times in which he lives, and what’s he understanding? He’s understanding that God says that, yes, the Babylonians will take Israel captive, they’ll be in exile, but it’s only going to last for a certain period of time. How does he know that? Because that’s mentioned at least twice in the book of Jeremiah.

Let me just go to Jeremiah chapter 29 and read verses 10 and 11. So this is what Daniel is reading from Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 10 and 11. This is what the Lord says, When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

So, they’re not going to be in Babylonian captivity forever, it’s only going to last for 70 years. And verse 11 is that familiar verse that many people have as their life verse, For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. So, all of a sudden Daniel’s reading this and he’s realizing, and maybe he’s doing a little math in his mind, because Daniel was probably 15 when the first exiles were taken from Jerusalem.

Daniel is now probably 81 years old or 82 and he’s doing the math. And what he’s thinking is, Babylonian captivity is almost over. It’s only going to last for 70 years.

And what does Daniel do with that information? It’s interesting here. Daniel prays. And that’s the next part of our outline, it’s the supplication.

So, the setting, the scriptures, he reads in Jeremiah 25, Jeremiah 29, that the captivity is only going to last for 70 years. And so, he prays. Let’s look at it in verse 3, beginning in verse 3. And notice the character intensity of his prayer.

So, I turn to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, in sackcloth and ashes. Daniel’s serious about this prayer. And it says he’s turning to God, he’s pleading to God, he’s fasting, it means he’s not eating, to focus on prayer.

Sackcloth, wearing coarse, uncomfortable garments. Ashes, a symbol of mourning and humility. And Daniel is going to pray this prayer and he’s interceding on behalf of God’s people.

This entire nation that is in captivity, been in captivity for a long time. Now we might ask the question, if Daniel understands from Scripture the promise that God’s going to end the captivity in 70 years, then why even bother praying about it? If God said it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. So why does Daniel pray? And let me just read for you a couple paragraphs from David Jeremiah’s commentary on Daniel.

It’s entitled, The Handwriting on the Wall. When Daniel read in the book of Jeremiah that God was going to keep his people in captivity for 70 years and then release them, he believed it. Then a very strange thing happened.

He began to pray that God would do what he was going to do. Wait a minute, if God’s going to do it, why should we pray? At this point we discover one of the most tremendous principles about prayer. God knows his plan and even when he reveals his plan to us, he expects us to pray over that plan.

Sometimes I get the impression I have misunderstood the meaning of prayer. Prayer is not to get God to change his will. If we really believe the will of God is perfect, then why would we want him to change it? Our prayers really ought to be prompted out of a deep understanding of what the will of God is.

And that was part of the Lord’s prayer. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What we’re praying for is we want God’s will to be accomplished in our lives and in our church and in our nation.

And so, here’s this long prayer that Daniel prays. And I want to look at it through the lens of an acrostic. And this is just a way to help us think about a pattern for prayer.

You won’t find this in Scripture, but it’s from studying Scripture and looking at how different people prayed. This is how Nehemiah prayed in Nehemiah chapter 1 when he was concerned about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. And this is the outline of Daniel’s prayer.

And the acrostic is Acts, A-C-T-S. Maybe some of you have heard this. It’s a very simple pattern for prayer.

A stand for adoration or worship. You start out your prayer by worshiping who God is and the greatness of God. The C stands for confession.

Confession of sin. The T stands for thanksgiving. And the S stands for supplication.

In other words, here’s my request now, Lord. Here’s what I’m asking you to do. So, let’s look at Daniel’s prayer through that lens this morning as kind of a template for prayer.

And let’s look at it in Daniel chapter 9. Here’s verse 4. I prayed to the Lord my God. Notice this is personal. And confessed.

Here’s now adoration. And we’ll just hit the highlights here. Lord, the great and awesome God.

I’m praying to the great and awesome God of the universe. We sing about that, don’t we? Our God’s an awesome God. Great and mighty is the Lord our God.

Great and mighty is He. That’s how Daniel starts. Lord, you are a great God.

You are an awesome God. He goes on to say, you keep your covenant of love with those who love Him and keep His commandments. You’re a covenant-keeping God.

You keep your promises. You keep your word. You’re a God who, Titus 1-2 says, cannot lie.

So, God, you’re great. And you’re awesome. And you’re a promise keeper.

Verse 7, Lord, you are righteous. You are holy in righteousness. Verse 14, Daniel prays.

Verse 9, the Lord our God is merciful. Oh, you’re not only a God of grace, giving us what we don’t deserve, but you’re a God of mercy. You withhold what we do deserve.

And God, verse 9, you’re a forgiving God. Praise God for that. God is a God who forgives our sins.

God, you are merciful, and you are forgiven, even though we have rebelled against you. He goes on to say in verse 11-14 that God is just. Let me read that portion there.

All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. So, we’re in captivity. Why are we in captivity? Because you are a just God.

You are a God of your word. And we could go back to Deuteronomy 28, where God says to Israel, if you follow me and obey me, you’re going to experience all these blessings. But if you rebel against me, you’re going to experience all these curses.

And one of that curses, part of that passage, is you’re going to be in captivity because you’ve not followed me. And so, what’s Daniel saying here? We’re getting what we deserve here. Therefore, the curses and sworn judgments written in the law of Moses, Deuteronomy 28, have poured out on us.

Why? Because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on this great disaster. Under the whole heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

Just as it’s written in the law of Moses, all of this disaster has come on us. Yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us.

The Lord our God is righteous in everything He does. Yet we have not obeyed. And so, Daniel, throughout his prayer, he starts by talking about who God is and worshiping God.

God, you’re great. God, you’re awesome. You’re holy.

You’re righteous. You’re just. You’re merciful.

You’re forgiving. And then he goes into confession. And here’s Daniel, who was a just, upright person, not perfect, a sinner like all of us.

But notice when Daniel is confessing the sins of God’s people, he doesn’t say, look at what God’s people have done. He says, look what we have done. And if you trace the word, we through his prayer in these verses, you’ll find it’s there 16 times.

That’s something that the prophets always did. They always identified with the sins of God’s people as they were interceding on behalf of God’s people. And so let me just point this out.

Verse five, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and rebelled. We have turned away from your commands and laws.

We have not listened to your servants, the prophets. And he goes on and on 16 times. This is this is what we have done.

And so, he’s confessing the sins of God’s people who had rebelled against God and not followed his teaching and his law. And really, that’s a key for where we are as a country. If genuine change is going to come to the United States of America, it’s going to come from the pews and the pulpit.

Realizing where we are as a nation and asking God to forgive us. Asking God to turn our nation around. In fact, that’s the formula that’s given in Second Chronicles.

I’m sure you’re familiar with it. Second Chronicles 714 often quoted passage of Scripture. It’s part of Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple.

If my people, Christians, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. God’s people will acknowledge their sin and turn from it. Then God will begin to bless and intervene.

Adoration, confession, thanksgiving. Where’s thanksgiving in this prayer? It doesn’t jump out at you, but as I look at it, notice what Daniel prays in verse 15. Now Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day.

What’s Daniel doing? He’s looking back in Israel’s history and he’s thanking God for what? Deliverance from Egypt. And the ten plagues, remember? And the crossing of the Red Sea. And it was really Israel’s kind of declaration of Independence Day.

They had been in Egyptian bondage for 400 years. Now we’ll celebrate as a nation birthday number 249 as the United States of America. Israel was in Egyptian bondage for 400 years.

And then God raised up Moses and delivered them from the Egyptian bondage. And so, Moses, or Daniel, is looking back to what God did with Moses and the Israelites and thanking God for that. Basically saying, if you delivered us from 400 years of Egyptian bondage, you can do it again, God, because you’ve done it in the past.

And so, as we move through this prayer, now after Daniel worships God and confesses sin and gives him thanks, now he begins to make some requests. Okay, God, this is what’s on my heart. And it’s the supplication part.

And it’s found in verses 16 through 19. As the prayer closes, Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, here’s what he’s asking. Turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill.

Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. Now, Lord, here he’s asking again, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.

Give ear, our God, and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because what? Your great mercy.

Here it is. Lord, listen. Lord, forgive.

Lord, hear and act for your sake, my God. Do not delay because your city and your people bear your name. There’s some urgency to that prayer.

That’s how God wants us to pray. He says, you need to come boldly into God’s throne. Who can do for us more than we can even ask or imagine? That’s how the prayer ends, with supplication.

And what happens? Well, we’ll look at it probably next week. God now begins to reveal to Daniel how he’s going to act. And God begins to intervene in Daniel’s life and the nation of the Israelites and their captivity.

This is in our last 10 minutes or so here. Let’s just think about some life lessons, what we can learn from this prayer here in Daniel chapter 9. Here’s the first one. It’s the importance of reading and understanding the scriptures.

This all came about because Daniel’s reading God’s word. He’s reading the book of Jeremiah, and he discovers this wonderful prophecy. Seventy years, and then God’s going to free the exiles.

And that motivates Daniel to pray. But as we read in Daniel 9 too, it says, during this time period, I, Daniel, understood from the scriptures. And so, it’s the great importance of not only reading God’s word, but it’s understanding God’s word.

2nd Timothy 2:15, the verse says, approved workmen are not ashamed, one who rightly divides the word of truth. It means correctly handles. The word is really orthodontics.

You’re cutting it straight. And so, when you read scripture, you have to understand there’s one meaning to the text. There’s one original meaning to the text.

Now, there could be many applications, but there’s one meaning. And we need to understand through study what that meaning is. And Daniel was reading.

He not only read, but he understood. It had significance in his life. I believe God’s given us some help to understand the Bible.

God’s given us the Holy Spirit. And he lives within us. And when we read scripture, one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit, and we can ask him for his help, is to help guide us unto truth.

Help me understand this passage. That’s part of the job description of the Holy Spirit who lives within us. We also have pastors and teachers that can help us understand.

We have mature Christians who have been walking with Jesus for a long time who can help us to understand. And so, it’s important to understand the scriptures. There’s lots of illustrations of that.

One’s in Nehemiah 8. We won’t take time to read that passage but let me just go to Acts 8 in the New Testament. You remember this story. There’s an Ethiopian government official, and he’s traveling in his chariot, and he’s reading the Old Testament scrolls, and he’s reading from Isaiah.

He’s reading Isaiah 53. And God comes to Philip, and he says, Philip, run up to that chariot because I’ve got a job for you to do. And he joins the Ethiopian who’s reading the Bible, the prophetic text in Isaiah 53 that prophesies the Messiah.

And Philip asks, do you know what you’re reading? Do you understand? He goes, I have no clue what this is talking about. Let me help you understand this. Philip jumps in the chariot, and he opens up the meaning of Isaiah 53.

And the Messiah, the Ethiopian, comes to faith in Jesus. And so, it’s the importance of understanding the scriptures, and that really was the basis of Daniel 9, who was reading from Jeremiah. But our second and last application here this morning is that we need to learn to pray like Daniel.

I need to learn to pray like Daniel. So let me give you three words that describe Daniel’s prayer life. One, it was frequent.

Daniel was frequently praying, and we looked at it in Daniel 6, verse 10, that they passed this law, and he’s three times a day, he’s praying, Daniel prayed frequently.

That’s how God wants us to pray. Pray without ceasing. You can have this mental conversation with God all day long. And He’s there and He listens, and he hears. Ephesians chapter 6 talks about the armor of God and as that passage concludes in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18, the Apostle Paul concludes with these words, and pray in the Spirit on occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all of the Lord’s people.

And so here we are at the beginning of a new year and if you’re like me, sometimes our prayer life gets a little in the doldrums. And God says, I want you to pray frequently. That verse in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock toward the Christians if any man, hear my voice and open the door I’ll come in and have fellowship with him.

What’s that a picture of? God wanting to have our time and attention. And so, God wants us to pray frequently. God also wants us to pray fervently, fervently.

Look at Daniel here, it says he’s pleading with God. He’s fasting. He has sackcloth and ashes, and he is fervently praying to God on behalf of God’s people.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person is what? Powerful and effective. And so, we need to learn to pray like Daniel. We need to learn to pray frequently.

We need to learn to pray fervently. Last one, we need to learn to pray factually, factually. Daniel identified with the sins of his people because Daniel was a sinner himself.

1 John 1, 9 says, if we confess our sins, the word confess means in the Greek homologeo, it means to say with God the same thing that God says about sin. He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins. See, in our culture today, we’ve softened sin, and we’ve come up with all sorts of excuses and all kinds of words.

We need to understand what God’s standard is and understand what God says about sin.

I believe if Daniel were going to pray today, and this was written 30 years ago, this might be how Daniel would pray, here’s the prayer. Oh God, we know that your word says, woe to those who call evil good, but that’s exactly what we’ve done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism and new age spirituality.

We have committed adultery and called it an affair. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We’ve exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it frugality. We have rewarded laziness and call it welfare. We have killed our unborn children and called it choice.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have failed to execute justice speedily as your word commands and called it due process. We have failed to love our neighbor who has a different color of skin and called it maintaining racial purity.

We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have made the Lord’s Day the biggest shopping and entertainment day of the week and call it free enterprise. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our parents and called it enlightenment. Search us, oh God, and know our hearts today.

Try us and see if there’s some wicked way in us. Cleanse us of every sin and set us free. Though our sins be as scarlet, may they become white as snow.

Though they be as crimson, may they be as wool. But that’s what I mean when we need to pray factually and admit what sin is and call sin, sin and confess it.

I think it’s appropriate as we come to the Lord’s table, and that’s how we’re going to conclude this morning. If you know Christ as your Savior, it’s his invitation to you to come and observe the bread and the cup as a way of remembering what he did for us on the cross. But in that passage in 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul’s writing about communion, he says, let a man examine himself.

And so, he encourages us to take some inventory before we rush into the Lord’s table and examine our spiritual walk and where we are with God. Six questions that I’m just going to share that maybe we can examine our hearts with this morning.

Question number one, where am I spiritually compared to a year ago? Where is my spiritual life today, January 12, 2025, as opposed to January 12, 2024? Number two, am I more or less sensitive to sin in my life? Do I have a sensitivity to what the Bible calls sin and the prodding of the Holy Spirit in my life? Number three, when was the last time I was genuinely excited to read God’s Word? When was the last time I was excited to get into God’s Word and to see what He has to say to me today? Number four, do I have anyone in my life who will challenge me spiritually? Have anybody that’s going to kind of hold my feet to the fire and hold me accountable? I’d never designed the Christian life to be lived as a lone ranger. It’s always within community.

Is there anybody in my life who will challenge me spiritually? Number five, when was the last time I confessed sin or was honest about a spiritual struggle? Number six, do I feel more distant from God but less concerned about it? I thought those are great questions. Great questions to think about and to take some inventory. This morning, we need to learn to pray like Daniel.

I need to learn to pray like Daniel, who prayed often, frequently, who prayed fervently. And who prayed actually.

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Daniel 7

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Chapters 7 through 12 are a little more challenging to understand and look at because they’re prophecy, they’re dreams and visions. And we’re going to look at that, Daniel chapter 7 this morning. Did you know that about 27 to 30 percent of the Bible is prophetic? In other words, it’s written about the future.

And for Daniel chapter 7, most of Daniel chapter 7 was all prophetic and future for Daniel. He was living in the times of the Babylonians. We have the privilege of looking back on Daniel chapter 7. A lot of it has already been fulfilled, but not all of it.

And so Daniel chapter 7 contains these prophetic dreams and visions. And I think you have a handout in your bulletin, and we’ll give you a little overview of what we’re going to look at this morning. This one right here, Daniel chapter 7, the times of the Gentiles, that’s what Jesus referred to the time period between the Babylonian captivity and when Jesus returns.

It’s the time of Gentile domination that is going to come to an end someday. And so this is what we’re going to look at this morning. This was Daniel’s dream in Daniel chapter 7. And it’s interesting when we begin to think about what theologians call eschatology, it’s the study of last things, that there’s great disagreement on genuine people who love the Lord and study the Bible about eschatology and the future.

For instance, the rapture. First Thessalonians chapter 4 talks about the rapture of the church. And some people say, well, that’s going to happen before the tribulation period, this seven-year period when God’s going to pour his wrath out on the world.

Some people think it’s going to happen midway through, three and a half year period. There’s a new position about 30 or 40, maybe 30 years ago by Marvin Rosenthal, and he called it a pre-wrath rapture position. There’s the millennial kingdom, a thousand-year rule reign of Jesus, and there’s different opinions on that.

There’s premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism. These are all positions that genuine people who love the Lord study and come up with a system of understanding of the future. And so we need to understand that.

Where does our church stand? Well, I looked up in our Constitution where it lays out our doctrinal beliefs, just a brief paragraph. We believe in the blessed hope, that’s the second coming of Christ, the personal, imminent, that means it could happen any time, pre-tribulational, premillennial coming of the Lord Jesus for His redeemed ones. So we look at the second coming of Christ as twofold.

The rapture, He doesn’t come all the way down to earth. There’s a meeting in the air, and He captures believers up. He comes for His saints.

Second coming, He comes with His saints. Jesus’ feet actually touches the Mount of Olives, and I think that’s Zechariah chapter 11, and He comes a second time, and that’s a personal coming. So here’s the thing, on all these matters, we can agree to disagree.

It’s not bullet theology. It’s not something we’re going to die for, but they’re just differing opinions of the doctrine of last things. I’m sure I’ve shared this little story before, but a man was on his way to church, and as he was driving on his way to church, he encountered a man on a bridge who was about to jump.

So he stopped his car, and he got out, and he says, don’t do it. But the man that was about to jump said, but nobody loves me. I said, God loves you.

Do you believe in God? He said, yes. I said, are you a Christian or a Jew? He said, a Christian. I said, me too.

Are you Protestant or Catholic? He said, Protestant. I said, me too. What denomination? He said, Baptist.

I said, me too. Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist? He said, Northern Baptist. I said, me too.

Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist? He said, Northern Conservative Baptist. He said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region? He said, Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.

I said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879 or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912? He said, Northern Conservative Baptist General Great Lakes Region Council of 1912. And I said, die heretic.

That’s a funny story, isn’t it? So there are places where we can agree to disagree, but we’re gonna we’re gonna jump into Daniel chapter 7, and I thought rather than reading the whole chapter, I came across a little YouTube video that pictures worth a thousand words. So this is about five or six minutes long, but here’s the date of when all this is happening. This is 553 BC, Daniel’s 67 years old, and he has a dream.

And here’s the whole chapter visualized for you, and then we’ll jump into it. And so we’re going to try to unpack what all that means in the next 20 minutes or so. And so let’s look at this whole matter of Daniel’s dream that he had.

And as I mentioned, we know the year that this happened, because Daniel chapter 7 verse 1, it says, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. So what we need to understand is the book of Daniel, it’s not in chronological order, because chapter 7 happened before chapter 5. At the end of chapter 5, King Belshazzar is killed, and the Medo-Persian Empire takes control. And so this is not in chronological order.

This chapter 7 happened before chapter 5. So the year is 553 BC, when Daniel had this dream. As I mentioned, most of what he saw was all yet future, was all prophetic. And so what does he see? He sees this vision while he’s laying in his bed at night, and he gets up and he writes down this dream, this vision.

It says, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me were four winds of heaven churning up the great sea, and four beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. Now some commentators say that sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea, where all these kingdoms all arose around the Mediterranean Sea. But chapter 7 verse 17, the interpretation that Daniel got in verse 17, the four great beasts are four kings that will arise from the earth.

So the sea is symbolic of the earth. Sometimes we talk about a sea of humanity. So there’s going to be four beasts that represent four kingdoms that arise, and what we need to understand in looking at this dream is, if you study Daniel chapter 2, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, and Daniel chapter 7, they’re parallel.

I remember the head of gold and the statue and the dream in Daniel chapter 2 represented Babylon, and then the body represented Medo-Persia, and the legs represented Greece, and the feet represented Rome, and then there was a rock that came and smashed the feet of that statue. When we look at Daniel chapter 7, Daniel’s dream, it’s really parallel. Daniel 2 perhaps looks at these coming kingdoms from the Gentile perspective.

Commentators say Daniel 7 looks at the same context from a Jewish perspective. From the Jewish perspective, these kingdoms are oppressive, and they’re represented by these beasts. And so Daniel has this dream, and as you see in your handout, the first one’s a lion with wings, the second one’s a ferocious bear raised on one side, the third one is a leopard with four wings and four heads, beast number four is an unidentified beast, but it’s more ferocious and terrible than the first three with iron claws and ten horns.

And so what are these beasts representing? Well, the first one, the lion with the wings, represents Babylon as the statue of head of gold did in Daniel chapter 2. The first was a lion and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it. What’s that referring to? Well, commentators think that’s referring to King Nebuchadnezzar.

Remember that God judged King Nebuchadnezzar because of his pride and his arrogance, and for seven years it was called Boanthropy. He went around on all fours, he was like an animal. Then God restored his mind and he came back to his senses as a human being, and some commentators think that’s what’s pictured here when it says that he finally stood on two feet like a human being and the mind was given to it.

The bear represents the Medo-Persian Empire. It’s raised on one side because in that combination empire, the Medes and the Persians, the Persians were the more dominant controlling empire between the Medes and the Persians. And so it says that this bear is raised on one side and it has three ribs in its mouth.

That’s a reference to the Medo-Persians three major conquests. They conquered three major areas to gain world dominance and world power. It was Egypt, Babylon, and Lydia, and that’s what the three ribs in its mouth represents.

Beast number three, this one that looked like a leopard, four wings like those of a bird, four heads given authority to reel. The next dominant Empire was Greece. So Greece conquered the Medo-Persians and commentators think that this picture of the leopard and the four wings represent the swiftness of the Greek Empire.

Remember it was Alexander the Great that in a very short time conquered the world. And so beast number three represents the Greek Empire. That says this beast had four heads and was given authority to rule.

After Alexander the Great died, the kingdom was divided between four of his generals. So now there’s another, there’s another beast here and this is not given a name, it just says it was a terrifying, frightening beast. It had large iron teeth and it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot wherever it was left and it had these ten horns and that’s Rome.

Rome became the next world power after the Greeks and the Romans ruled with an iron fist. And so here are these, this picture of this frightening beast and it has ten horns. I remember Daniel chapter 2, the statue had ten toes.

So there’s this parallel here and let’s look at verse 8. I know we’ve already had it read to us but verse 8 says, while I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them and three of its first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. So here is this little horn that comes up among the ten horns.

The little horn is what the Bible refers to as the Antichrist. And so the last world power that ruled was the Roman Empire when the Gothics defeated the Roman Empire, came down from the north. There’s, since then, there’s not been a dominant world power.

But most commentators think a lot of this is yet future. In the end times there’s going to be a ten-nation Confederacy. Some people call it the revived Roman Empire that’s going to come to power.

I remember back in the maybe 70s or 80s as following Scripture and following world events and what was developing over in Europe, there was something called the Common Market. And it was a group of nations that came together to form an economic power. And I remember when the Common Market number of nations was ten, people started to say, oh there it is, there’s the Bible prophecy of that ten nation.

Well the Common Market now has about 23 nations. So we don’t quite know what this looks like, but in the end times there’s going to be a ten nation kings, heads of state, that will rule over what’s looked at as a revived, realigned Roman Empire. And then as one commentator writes at some point during that ten king Confederacy, another Gentile or head of state will emerge.

He’ll defeat three of the others. And this is, some people call it the Antichrist. There’s other names in Scripture.

Second Thessalonians 2 calls him the man of lawlessness. Revelation chapter 13 calls this person the beast. Dr. Michael Rodelnik, who’s the professor of Jewish studies at Moody Bible Institute, likes to call this person the false Messiah.

And I think that name kind of characterizes him better than some of these other names. This is this false Messiah. It says he has a mouth that speaks boastfully in verse 8. And this false Messiah will arise in the end times called the Antichrist.

And here’s how Revelation 13 verses 5 through 8 describes it in the context of being called the beast. Verse 5, the beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and exercises authority for 42 months, three and a half years. It opens its mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.

It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast.

All whose names have not been written in the Lamb Book of Life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. And so here’s this false Messiah who’s going to come in the end times and he’s going to be captivating, he’s going to be charismatic, and he’s going to oppress God’s chosen, God’s people. And he’s going to speak blasphemy against God.

In fact, he’s going to demand that people worship him. Now in Daniel chapter 7, Daniel now switches to this future judgment scene. And we saw it portrayed on the video and it’s a beautiful scene of the Ancient of Days.

This is God the Father sitting on a throne and here’s multitudes and multitudes of people and it’s a judgment scene. The books are open and we realize, and here’s the encouraging part of Daniel, is that the fifth world kingdom, the fifth kingdom that’s going to come, is God’s kingdom. That ultimately God’s going to come and he’s going to set up his kingdom and he will rule and reign forever and ever and ever.

And that’s what Daniel is picturing here. He talks about the Son of Man coming, verse 13, with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days, was led into his presence, given authority, glory, and sovereign power.

All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. And so there’s the encouraging part of Daniel’s visions.

As we see these four world powers, ultimately there’s a fifth one. It’s God’s kingdom and it will last forever. And so just to briefly summarize the rest of Daniel chapter 7, we’ve already heard it read.

Daniel’s very troubled, so he has to ask for the interpretation of the dream, which I find interesting because all throughout Daniel, Daniel’s the go-to guy to, what, interpret dreams for Nebuchadnezzar and the handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar. But Daniel here has to go and ask the question, what does this dream mean? So the person, perhaps an angel, describes the meaning of the dream. And I’m just going to read a brief summary here.

In summary, the little horn that Daniel sees is the Antichrist, a world leader who rises to power from within a league of ten future kings. This little horn will blaspheme God and persecute God’s people during the tribulation right up until the second coming of the Lord. Let me just read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4, speaking of the Antichrist or the man of lawlessness, he will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped so that he sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God.

So here’s this charismatic end-time leader that’s going to come and he’s going to demand that people worship him. Well, Daniel’s dream showed us that when Christ comes back the Antichrist power will be taken away, completely destroyed forever, and Jesus will establish his kingdom. The reign of the Antichrist is limited, 42 months and no more, Revelation 13 5. The little horn will lose his war against God, his boastful and blasphemous and wanton violence is temporary.

The reign of Christ is eternal. And so Daniel chapter 7 closes with these last three verses, let me just read them for you, but the court will sit, that’s God’s court of judgment, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever, that’s the power of the Antichrist. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High.

His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will worship and obey him. This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.

Well, here’s this weird dream, but really it’s a dream that God gave to Daniel and it pictures the end of the story, it pictures all of human history until Christ returns. I had a professor in Cedarville University, he’s actually a retired missionary, his name was Dick Durham, he’d spent his life serving the Lord in the Philippines as a missionary. Cedarville needed a professor to teach one of their courses and so for a couple years he was on staff and he had a saying after his lectures, he would say, clear as mud, right? Sometimes when we look at this it’s like, clear as mud, right? But God has given us this scripture to understand what the future history is.

So let’s just think about three life lessons here quickly. Here’s the first one, and we’ve already mentioned it, the last chapters of human history have already been written. The book of Daniel, the book of Revelation tells us how the world will end.

God’s got a plan. God’s already written the last chapters of history and history is what? It’s his story. What do we need to know? The sovereign God is in control.

No matter how bad this world gets, no matter how discouraging the news seems to be, no matter how it seems in our culture, things just seem to be going spiraling downward from bad to worse. I wake up on New Year’s Day and I check my phone and check the news and read about a horrific act of pure evil in New Orleans. Someone is just out to kill.

And you think about all the evil in our world and sometimes it can be a little discouraging and perhaps this is why Daniel was a little troubled because in this vision he’s like, oh man there’s there’s a lot of stuff yet to come that’s maybe not so good. But the fact of the matter is the last chapters of human history have been written. I and I last night were with some couples that we’ve known for years from the area.

We get together once a year to celebrate Christmas and couldn’t fit it in before Christmas so we’re together last night. There’s about three or four couples around the table. We’re just talking about the condition of the world and the future and what that means for our kids and our grandkids.

And one of the spouses said, I just keep reminding myself and saying over and over, God is sovereign. God is in control. And that should bring some peace and comfort to our hearts.

Here’s the second thought. We need to realize that rulers and world powers and kingdoms are temporary. Are temporary.

Here’s how the prophet Isaiah describes it in Isaiah chapter 40 beginning in verse 22. He, God, sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. Its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes or rulers to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground that he blows on them and they wither and a whirlwind sweeps them like chaff.

And it says, to whom will you compare me or who is my equal, the Holy One? What’s that verse saying? All rulers, all kings, all presidents are what? Are temporary. And there’s one kingdom that will last forever. That’s God’s kingdom.

That’s how Handel finished his great musical piece, The Messiah. You know, and he shall reign what? Forever and ever and ever. Rulers and world powers are temporary.

God’s kingdom lasts forever. And that’s reinforced in Daniel in several places. We’ve already read these, but verse 14, his dominion is what? Everlasting.

It will not pass away. His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. That’s verse 14.

Verse 27, his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. And so, God’s kingdom, when God ushers in his kingdom, is the final kingdom and it will last forever and ever. Here’s the third one, and I think it’s an encouraging one, is this.

There is a day coming when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There’s a day coming when everybody’s gonna have to acknowledge who Jesus is. And Daniel writes about that in in verse 14.

He says, all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. Last part of verse 27, his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will worship and obey God. What kind of world is that where every person acknowledges Jesus Christ is the King of Kings, Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords? All rulers, all kings, all authorities will worship God and will obey him.

That’s God’s kingdom. And perhaps that’s what the Apostle Paul had in mind in Philippians chapter 2, a very familiar passage talking about Jesus. It says, therefore God exalted him to the highest place, gave him a name that is above every name, that what? At the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Someday that’s gonna happen when Jesus is on the throne and he rules and he reigns forever and ever. Remember in the Roman Empire that when the Roman Empire was ruling, people had to say what? Caesar is Lord. They worshiped Caesar.

That was part of the Roman way of living. And Paul writes to those believers and says, no, we need to acknowledge what? That Jesus is Lord. I’m so thankful for Romans chapter 10 verse 13 when Paul’s writing the way of salvation.

He simply says this, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord realizes who God is, that he’s the Messiah, that he’s our Redeemer. They shall be saved. So there’s a day coming when everyone will worship him when Christ is on the throne.

And so I hope this brief picture of how the world ends is encouraging to you. As we live in this world that seems to be getting worse and worse, there’s hope. And the only hope, true hope for our future, it’s not Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s not in our bank account, but it’s in who God is.

He’s got a plan. Someday we will be ruling and reigning with him forever and ever. All people will worship him and declare that he is Lord.

I trust that you’ll acknowledge that today. I look forward to that in the future. Let’s pray.

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Joshua 1:6-9

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Micah 5:2

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Isaiah 9:6,7

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Romans 1:14-16

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Ephesians 5:17-20

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