Favorite Takeaways:
• Read Daniel 8: 15-19. Notice how God leans into Daniel and provides a messenger to in-terpret the vision before he even asks for it. How awesome that we have a God that de-lights in revealing himself to his people.
• “The sight & the sounds of the ram’s horns breaking typifies the brittle, ultimately fragile nature of political might." Joyce Baldwin. What seems so indestructible and powerful and mighty and lasting in this world, can be (and often is) so fragile and fleeting.
• “Antiochus is a satanically empowered puppet, AND an instrument in the hands of an all-powerful and providential God.” David Platt
• What was God doing? Why would He allow this? God is doing two things: 1) Casting right-ful judgment on all that opposes him, removing a horrific, antichrist-type ruler that is trying to interrupt His perfect plan and 2) disciplining his people for their own sin. The second part is harder for us to swallow. We don't like to think that our suffering ever has anything to do with our sin, but we can be assured, that this is what would become of us were it not for the restraints God places on our lives. (Simon Ferguson)
• This message needed to be "sealed up" for future generations of God's people, not only to warn them about what was coming, but to help persevere through their suffering, when all hope seemed lost. They had this vision to turn to and remind them, Antiochus' reign will end. God is still in charge.
• When the future looks dim or marked with suffering, what do we do? How do we live? We persevere in faith. We live in obedience. We continue to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, as ambassadors of the gospel, as He has called us. We don’t get permission to stop trusting Him just because we don’t understand. (1 Peter 5: 8-10)
• Neither the worst failures/sins of God’s people nor the best efforts of His enemies will stop him from bringing all things to their proper end at the time that has determined.
• We serve not a ram or a goat, but a LAMB . . . whose death and resurrection put an end to the need for sacrifices altogether, whose blood had the power to atone for all sins when re-ceived by faith. (David Helm)
• Question for reflection: Do you tend to lose your confidence when you don’t understand why things are happening? How does this passage help you have con-fidence even when you don’t understand? How do you persevere through hard times as we await heaven?

It is the ethos of modern Christianity to not meet together regularly. Modern Christianity is something to which you attach your name, but not something to which you give yourself. Be committed to the habit, the culture, the ethos of a church that gathers together and is in it together. Meeting together for mutual encouragement, as simple as it sounds, is a radical, counter-cultural practice in our day, that will spur you toward Jesus.

God knew that we could never keep our hold on him, so he has unbreakable, he fastened his hand to ours. God knew that we would be prone to wander and leave the God we love, so he has sealed our hearts and hemmed us in by his love, a love that will not let us go. God knew that we would doubt and wonder, that we would question and struggle, that we would fall back into sin time and time again, so he did this, he walked down the aisle alone.

#doubt #promises #Genesis #created #godcreatedtheworld #imageofgod #sermon #worship #firstpresbyterianbr #creator

God’s promise that David's lineage would be on the throne forever had an immediate impact on David’s parenting.

When we train our children well, we should expect our kids to want to flee temptation. We should expect our loved ones who profess the name of Christ to live holy and righteous lives. We should expect that our Christian family members to be a light in the darkness. We should expect these things not in a “you’d better perform” kind of way, but expecting these things because God is at work, and he is faithful to his promises.