A young teenage girl is suddenly awakened by a messenger from God who tells her she will be of central importance in Gods plan to redeem the world. Her response: A fearless and revolutionary song. For Advent season we are going to look at Mary's Song long revered in Christian history for the way it magnifies the God who it refers to. Specifically, Pastor Julie digs into how it helps us to find true joy at Christmas instead of fake holiday spirit when we magnify God like Mary.

Daniel wraps up with a long vision of what will happen in the unfolding centuries and what God will do to vindicate his people. The big idea of the passage is that God rules history and it is all faithful to accomplish his purposes. Pastor Joel preaches on two bad ways and two good ways taken from the passage to respond to Gods rule of history. His rule works towards his purpose of entering into his own story as a child and as Daniels story culminates, we introduce the Advent season as we approach Christmas.

Before Daniel can receive the final vision of the book, he learns that the angel delivering the vision has been detained by another spiritual being. This is a perplexing passage that deserves a full look at the realm of God and the sons of God. We learn about a parallel spiritual conflict to the one Daniel is revealing to us. As we study the topic of spiritual warfare we find out that the response from us is to go about our normal Christian rhythms. But we must not forget that those normal patterns are infused with greater meaning because they find resonance in the world we will explore in todays passage.

In Daniel 9 we find a disappointed and frustrated Daniel one who had an expectation of God that is currently unmet. Daniel reflects on his people's relationship with God and there are so many takeaways for us in this jewel of a passage. As Pastor Joel digs into it, we find great encouragement for our own relationship with God as we examine it in depth, learning how we can rest firm in it because God is part of it: He is all we need.

Daniel 8 details major conflict in the world that will unfold and affect Gods people. Despite parts of the vision that terrify Daniel into making him want to take a nap, we've all been there, Daniel. The big picture is that God is in control and we can rest firm in that. This is great news but it shouldn't be enough for us to just know that and then do nothing with it. Its important that we pause and think about how we live practically knowing God is in control of all that unfolds. Pastor Julie breaks down what that looks like in this sermon while also giving you a quick and entertaining description of the history described in the passage.

In Daniel 7, a strange figure is central to Gods purposes in judging the beasts. That figure is revealed as Jesus where he confesses to being him on a trial before the Jewish religious authorities. In both cases God reveals or unmasks the situation as it is from heaven. In order for us to get the glory of the passage we have to reveal or unmask our own situations over and over in our own hearts. If we don't, we will find ourselves getting bored with the gospel. Pastor Joel talks about how to keep the gospel from being stale in our hearts even when we've heard it so many times.

In Daniel 7, Daniel has a vision of four beasts who cause havoc on the earth. In it, we find a picture that resonates with our own crazy times. Daniel 7 is a lot of things and the imagery in the passage is tough to understand but when we get a grasp of it we see that it is a goldmine for leading us to understand what God is doing in the world about evil and chaos. Pastor Joel illustrates how to understand the type of literature that Daniel 7 is written in as well as what it means for us in our own conflict ravaged world.

Daniel is thrown into a pit of hungry lions looking for something to devour. We may not ever get thrown into a lions den but we have all felt like we were in a pit surrounded by lions who are licking their lips. In this sermon on Daniel 6, Pastor Joel explains that it's important that we view the lions den well like Daniel does. Only when we reframe the experience and quit assuming we know what is happening in the den can we have hope in God to deliver us. *Note This sermon was rerecorded due to technical difficulties

In Daniel 5 King Belshazzar is confronted with the word of God and it terrifies him It is a picture of us when we read Scripture We can find ourselves confused by it like when the history of the text doesnt align perfectly with other history as happens in this passage offended by it or frustrated that it doesnt give us what we want We need to be ready to let Scripture achieve its purpose and we need to know the master key to unlock it Jesus Otherwise it will rightly confound us and keep us from understanding its message Pastor Joel walks through how we can related well to Scripture in this sermon

One of the main differences between the people of God and the world around them is the humility with which they are called to live with. Our worship of God is what sets us apart and one of the primary ways to live that worship out is in redefining success giving credit where it is due and repenting and looking to God. Pastor Julie walks through the back half of Daniel 4 to break down how Nebuchadnezzars pride and his repentance of it is a model for us.