Seeing Through Babylon

How do we maintain genuine hope and remain active in our faith when surrounded by a culture that seems increasingly hostile to God's truth?

In this sermon on Daniel 8:1–27, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon breaks down Daniel’s sobering vision of the ram, the male goat, and the rise of the persecuting "little horn" (historically fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes IV). Switching back to Hebrew, this chapter delivers a direct message to God's people: human history is entirely directed by a sovereign God who knows the future and sets firm limits on evil. Discover how spiritual understanding gives us the perspective needed to rise above fear, recognize God’s loving discipline, and remain faithfully devoted to the King's business.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Weight of Revelation: Understanding why knowing the future brings serious spiritual responsibility rather than casual curiosity.
• God’s Sovereign Knowledge: Why God actively directs human history and why popular cultural shifts cannot diminish His ultimate control.
• The Consequence of Sin: Seeing how persistent sin leads to divine discipline and why God holds His own people to a high standard.
• Discipline vs. Punishment: How to recognize God’s corrective hand as an invitation back into intimacy rather than condemnation.
• Being About the King's Business: Learning from Daniel’s example of getting up and serving faithfully despite living in a chaotic, pagan culture.

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Let's pray together. Father, we've come today just to uh to be reminded of the truth, to orient ourselves around the truth, to think about the truth, not just to be stimulated to feel, but to be provoked to think because you're faithful then and you're faithful now. We'll read about these incredible things that happened in the book of Daniel, and we read about them today, God, not as if they no longer are possible. They are. You're the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. It's just that we don't have as many Daniels as we used to have. We don't have as many Danielles or whatever the female equivalent of a God-fearing, God-centered, Godward woman is. God's looking for people. They're like, hey, you know what? Regardless of what the culture around you is doing, I want somebody that's going to represent me and be about the king's business. God, we just raise our lives today and nominate ourselves and say, pick me, pick me. And yet we understand, as we will from the text, that it is a sobering responsibility. There's a weight that comes with revelation. So we don't say that in a flippant manner, God. We speak that with clarity and understanding. Give us more of those two from your word and by your spirit. Give us more clarity and more understanding today. And then show us how to seward that well as we go about the king's business. This is our prayer. We pray it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Daniel chapter eight. If you're our guest, we're preaching through the book of Daniel. And we just go verse by verse. Uh that way we have to encounter things that make us think about things we normally wouldn't think about. Because left to ourselves, we'll just kind of think about, we'll talk about marriage and parenting and money, and it's just all the same things over and over again. But the Bible is textured, it's jagged, it's not smooth. There's smooth places to it, uh, but but but it is jagged and textured. And because of that, we can get traction. And I want to talk to you this morning about seeing through Babylon. Seeing through Babylon. Now, you say, what do you mean? That is the culture, the Babylonian culture. Uh Daniel, in in the context of Daniel chapter 8, he is serving under a king, a Babylonian king, uh, who is in charge. His name is Belshazzar. Uh, and so it's easy to look at the culture around you and just get angry. And no one is helped by that. You may feel better, but no one's helped by that. And so I want us to be able to acknowledge the culture around us and all that's going on, because what we'll see in Daniel chapter eight is that God basically has a this man, Daniel, has a dream, and God shows him what's going to happen 400 years into the future as it relates to God's people. Now, here's a little fun fact about Daniel chapter 8. Uh, from chapter chapter 1 was written in Hebrew, then chapters 2 to chapter 7 are written in Aramaic, which was the universal language of the day. Chapter 8 switches back to Hebrew. Why? Because the rest of the book of Daniel is really about the future of God's people. So he it's written in Hebrew for God's people. And so there's much to be learned from this, much that we can draw from it. And so when I say seeing through Babylon, this is what I mean. I want to begin with a statement. I'll come up on the screen. Uh, here's what I mean. Unless we learn to see through all that is happening around us and see God is sovereign over it, uh, over it all, we lose the hope that is ours in the gospel and because of God. Let me say that again. Unless we learn to see through all that is happening around us and see God is sovereign over it, over it all, we lose the hope that is ours in the gospel and because of God. And then one thing you'll see is that Daniel never loses hope. He gets overwhelmed, but even when he's overwhelmed, he says, I'm gonna just get up and keep being about the king's business. Uh so I'll start reading Daniel chapter 8, verse 1. Okay. Uh, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision, and when I saw when I saw, I was in Susa, the citadel, which is the providence of E the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Uli Canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward, and no beast could stand before him. And there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased, and he became great. As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground, and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and then he was enraged against him, and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. And then the goat became exceedingly great. But when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns towards the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land, which is the reference to Israel. Verse 10 It grew great even to the host of heaven, and some of the hosts and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host, and the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown, and a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering, because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. And then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and hosts to be trampled underfoot? And he said to me, For twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state. When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it, and behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Uli, and it called, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood. When he came, I was frightened, and I fell on my face. But he said to me, Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end. When he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me, and he made me stand up, and he said, Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter uh uh end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, those are the kings of Media and Persia, and the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from this nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great, but not his own power, and he shall cause fearful destruction, and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make the deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many, and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes, and he shall be broken, but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true. But seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now. And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and I went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and I did not understand it. Now let me ask you a question. That last part. Some of you are like, I didn't understand anything to that last verse. To that guy said, I was appalled by the vision and I did not understand it. If you relate to that, say amen. Well, I'm here to help you today. Aren't you glad? Now, if you're at home, you're part of our online congregation, don't look at your wife right now, dude, and kind of go, I'm gonna go start, put the ribs on the barbecue grill and get ready for the Super Bowl. Set your sorry self back down on the couch, and let me just explain to you, okay? Let me give you the 40,000-foot historical view. Here's what happens in Daniel chapter eight. Basically, God, because everyone talks about, you know, I'd like to know the future. Like we have a little cube of little cards, conversation starter cards, on our breakfast table at our house. And if you come to our house, my wife will pull three of those cards after dinner and go, let's answer these questions. And I'm like, and I'm like, okay. Uh and the other night it was just me and her and I and our remaining daughter. And one of the questions was, if you could know anything about the future, what would you choose to know? And my wife said, Oh, I want to know something awesome, like the names of my daughter's husbands, so I could be praying for their spiritual well-being. My kids said something spiritual. It got to me, and I said, I'd like to know the price of Amazon stock five years from now. Because I'm a sinner, that's why. Uh I was just like, or GameStop, all that was going on. And she's like, No, really. I said, That that was my answer. Uh, but here's the thing everybody acts like they want to know the future. I'd like to know this, I'd like to know that. Look at me. There is a weight that comes with revelation. And Daniel is overwhelmed. Daniel is kind of like, oh my gosh, I'm so sick. I just threw up in my mouth, dude. I didn't understand this. It just made me heavy. So be careful what you ask for. Because what happens here is that he has a dream. And in the dream, God shows him what's going to happen for over 400 years in the future. And the thing about the ram and the goat, and the goat's feet didn't touch the ground. You're like, dude, stop smoking weed, okay? Take in hallucinogenics. Uh, here's what he's talking about. He's talking about, uh, because all through the book of Daniel, there's these four kingdoms that are gonna rise, and that's exactly what happens in history. You can Google it and you'll see. The Bible doesn't have some uh parallel take on history that's not grounded in reality. Right now, Babylon is in is in control. Now, when he's in the dream, he's taken to Susa the citadel. Susa becomes in years to come, way down the road, the capital of the Persian Empire. Now, why is that a big deal? Well, by the way, this is modern-day Iran where we're talking about, we're just to give you a geopolitical frame of reference. And so he it's going to become the capital of the Persian Empire. Why is that a big deal? Because Babylon, Babylon, and Babylonian Empire is going on right now. The one that succeeds it, the ram with the two horns and one's higher than the other, it's the Medes, and the higher horn is the Persians. The Persians overtook the Medes and they set up their capital in Susa. And so God not only knows the future, He reveals it to this guy named Daniel. And then he says, by the way, this goat that like whoa whoa comes flying in is the Greek empire. It's Greece under the rule, under the leadership of Alexander the Great. That's the big horn between the eyes, but all of a sudden it gets broken off. He says, when it was strong, it got broken off. Alexander died, Alexander the Great died in his 30s. And in his place it says, you know, these four other horns. Now keep in mind, this is back in like 605, maybe 580 BC. All this is being recorded because God reveals it to somebody. And there's a reason, and I'm telling you this in just a minute. This is not just a history lesson. And so he records all this. Alexander the Great dies in his place. Memory said the horn's gonna be broken off in its place, four other horns are gonna spring up. When Alexander the Great died at an early age, four of his generals took his place. Out of one of those four generals came this guy, the Seleucid Empire, under a guy named Antiochus Epiphanes IV. His name was just really Antiochus IV. He gave himself the nickname Epiphanes because it means God manifest. And because he was a political ruler that came to power and said to the people, You don't need God, you've got me. The modern-day equivalent is your government. You don't need to depend on God. We're gonna keep printing these stimulus checks. They're coming. Now, folks, this is free. I'm not an economist, but the more money you print, the less value your dollar has. Just keep that in mind. I know it feels good right now, but payday is coming someday. Everybody over 50 is going. Everybody 25 is like, when my check gets here, bro. I don't care about all that. It's okay. Someone asked me, said, Hey, should should should I return my stimulus check? Should I not take that? Because I don't know that I need it. Just sign it over. I'll take it. I am proud. If the government, now I'm not, I'm just saying it's coming. They say, Well, are you gonna take care of it if I get one, you dang right. I'm gonna run to the bank and cash it before the government runs out of money. But anyway, now see here's what happens. Back to the history lesson. Antichus Epiphanes, the guy that's like, I'm God manifest. You don't need anybody, you need me. Did horrible things to God's people. And I'll show you all that in just a minute. I mean atrocities. Have you ever read in the Bible the phrase the abomination of desolation? And you're like, what in the world is that? Jesus in Matthew 24, the New Testament, says to people, When you see the abomination of desolation, head for the hills, people, because it's getting bad. I'll explain to you here in just a little bit what that is. And Tiochus Epiphanes IV, he did something that was so such an abomination, it made the temple desolate. It's like no one wanted to go to church. It was just overwhelmingly bad, okay? And in the midst of all of this, God says, Hey, this is not happening because this guy's a bad dude. This is happening because my people won't stop sinning. Uh-oh. Yeah. So that'll be your favorite part. We'll get to that in just a minute. And then it all ends with Daniel saying, Hey, despite the fact of however I felt, he says, I got to brush myself off. I got to get up every day, and I got to go be about the king's business, okay? So that's where we're going to end. There's six takeaways I want to point from the text as we see through Babylon, as we look around the culture around us, we look around the culture around Daniel, uh, because it could never mean today what it didn't mean back then, okay? This is why you have to understand the historicity of the biblical text when you read it, okay? And so what what do we mean when we say see through Babylon? What do we see? First thing I want you to see is that God directs the course of human history because he already knows it. That's the first eight verses. God directs the course of human history because he already knows it. What we see here is that God predicting the rise and fall of historical nations centuries before they actually happen. He takes Daniel and He says, He says, in this vision, you know, I I was taking out the Susa, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, hundreds of years later, after the king that he serves is overthrown by the Medes and then the Persians, Persia makes that their capital city. God already knows this and he reveals it to Daniel. Now, notice that God knew the future back then, and he has never stopped knowing the future. Now, it's my responsibility as your pastor to tell you what the truth is, but also, this is what truth is, but also it's my responsibility to tell you what the truth isn't. Now, here's what I mean. Uh there's uh a thing going around. It started in philosophy, and now it's crept into theology, and it's called open theism. Open theism. Open theism basically, I'll give you a uh a simple definition, then I'll show you one I got from one of their websites, actually. Open theism is the belief that God is good, but God doesn't know the future. Because if God knew the future, nothing bad would ever happen. That's open theism. And it's very popular. It starts in Christian music and it kind of creeps its way into Christian thinking, okay? Here's a quote from the Encyclopedia of Philosophy. This is what how they do it, just listen to this. Open theism is the thesis that because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate his love, he has made his knowledge of and plans for the future conditional upon our actions. Though omniscient, which this is a self-contradictory statement, omniscient means he knows everything. Though God is omniscient, God does not know what we will freely do in the future. That makes no sense, people. Okay, I'm just saying, okay? Uh though omnipotent, he he does not know, excuse me, though omniscient, God does not know what we we will freely do in the future, though omnipotent, which means he has unlimited power, he has chosen to invite us to freely collaborate with him in governing and developing his creation, thereby also allowing us the freedom to thwart his hopes for us. While open theists affirm that God knows all the truths that can be known, they claim that there simply are not yet truths about what will occur in the open, undetermined future. Alternatively, there are such contingent truths, but these truths cannot be known by anyone, including God. This is heresy, okay? But this is how, when the this is how you exalt the individual and you explain all the hard things in life. Well, why did that happen? Well, God just didn't see it coming, or God would have done something about it, because we don't want a God who is sovereign and allows bad things to happen. And I'm going to show you in the Bible this morning that God is sovereign and bad things still happen, and none of it's God's fault. And if you're not careful, your kids like mine go to public school, they get taught open theism. And this is how they mock Christianity. Oh, you believe in a God that doesn't protect you from everything? While open theism sounds like freedom, it's really bondage to an anxious future in which nobody is in charge because nobody knows the future. And I'm just saying to you, I say it in the big, oh, God directs the course of human history because he already knows it. I'm saying God is in charge of the future and he knows the future. Matter of fact, I will go as far as to tell you there's nothing God doesn't know. There's nothing God doesn't know. I mean, read the Old Testament when He when He says to Job, hey, brace yourself like a man and I'll question you. And he just lays out these series of questions for Job because he's sick of Job and really Job's friends casting aspersions upon the certainty of God's character. And God said basically says, Who do you think you're talking to? I'm not your little scholars and scoundrels, buddies that get a beer buzz and think they're a philosopher. No, you don't come at me. You're bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party, my man. Second thing we see in the text. Pardon me, got a little excited there. Second thing we see in the text. Because here's the thing is because we wonder, we basically raise our kids to say, hey, the future is unknown even to God, and you expect them not to be anxious? My God, our kids are addicted to anxiety medication because there's not a God in the world. No one's in control. I mean, they get they're like five and they get my mommy and daddy in control. They get to be about 12, and they've been on that smartphone, they're like, my mom and dad don't know nothing. But then here's what happens their little, their little their little psyche and their soul is very dysregulated because they're they realize I'm getting pushed out into this world, and it's just a free-for-all. Nothing's certain. Be careful. Be careful what you allow your kids to believe. Here's the second thing that this tells us that sin has consequences for everybody, including God's people. Look at verse 9. It says, Out of uh, out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly. This is Antiochus Epiphanes IV, uh, exceedingly great towards the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. That's Israel. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. It says all this stuff, and look at verse 12. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering. And then notice these three words, because of transgression. I'll get into some of the things that he did, but the vibe, the Bible says that, hey, all this happened because of transgression, which is a big religious sounding word for sin. When I say sin has consequences for everybody, including God's people, I was talking, I've had this conversation multiple times with different people that aren't people of faith. They do not believe the gospel, they do not believe in God. And I say, hey, what's what's one of the things that shaped the way you think about God? And many times, and this, when I first heard it, it surprised me, but a lot of people are bothered by how God in the Old Testament killed different people. And one guy's like, I just, I mean, that's just like a murderous tyrant. I mean, he just kills everybody who disagrees with him. And I said, I don't I don't think you could go that far. I mean, God does kill a lot of people in the Old Testament, but then have you ever looked how he he treats his own people? You think God's hard on his enemies, he killed his own son. And the thing they have in common is the same reason. People in the Old Testament died because of sin. People in the New Testament died because of sin. He's like, I don't get where you're going at. What where I'm going at is that what you should see is the issue isn't people and how they deserve to be treated. The issue is sin and how does sin deserve to be treated? Because if, as the Bible says, the wages of sin is death, which is not necessarily termination, though sometimes that's the case, but when the wages of sin is death, it's not termination as often as it's separation. And the more you sin, the more separated you feel from God. And pretty soon you feel like he's a million miles away. It's like, what's the use? I'm just gonna go it on my own. If that is true, and it is, and and and and God sees sin, and he's never gonna have his mind changed about sin, regardless of how many executive orders the president signs. Sin is gonna be sin. So we live in a culture where everybody thinks, well, we're gonna increase the number of people that agree with you about something does not change the nature of it. So just stop. Stop thinking people are scoffing at you, politicians. It all you're doing is paying. Back lobbying groups who got you into office. Please. But God, it's I'm trying to explain this guy. I said it's not about people. Your big hang up is about people and how they deserve to be treated. But but but God's big hang up is sin and how sin deserves to be treated. Well, I mean, those people died for no reason. No, they all died because of sin. It's not like God got up one day and said, I'm gonna kill a thousand people today. I'm just I'm in a bad mood. No, they died for sin. And if you think that's an issue, look at how he treats his own people. He said, What do you mean? I said, start with his son. He killed his son because of sin. He disciplines his own people because of sin. He's like, What do you mean? He said, That includes you? Oh, absolutely. So, so what do you mean? And and had a great conversation. But I just I don't want to just list all the things just yet that this wicked political leader did. I just want to point to verse 12 and say, don't miss, it's because of transgression. Now the question becomes, whose transgression? It's God's people. God never punishes his people for the sin of a wicked nation. He punishes his people for their own sin. That's why I say you got to see that sin has consequences for everybody, including God's people, because we have this mentality of the church, it's kind of like, hey, I'm a Christian, I'm perpetually forgiven, right? Yes, yes, but there's always the consequence for sin. Third thing we see is that understanding brings perspective. Are you still with me? I feel like I lost you there. I feel like I got all serious, and y'all like, dude, drink decaf. Uh uh understanding brings perspective. It's verse 15. Uh Daniel basically, I want you to see this. He said, I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought to understand it, and behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Uli, and it called, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened, and I fell on my face. But he said to me, Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end. And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. He said, Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time. Now, the latter end of the indignation, indignation is a word that just means angry. Somebody has gotten angry for a reason, and things are happening because this person, this deity has been offended. Now, when I say understanding brings perspective, here's what I mean. What we just read was that this voice, he's there, and this voice, the voice of a man, tells Gabriel, that's the archangel, angel Gabriel, what to do. Who is that voice? It's God. It's God saying, I don't want my people to live in ignorance. God is a God that speaks, He speaks the loudest and most clearly in his word, okay? And so, but God speaks and tells Gabriel, hey, explain this to Daniel. And he starts, and Daniel just falls to the ground. It's just like, oh, dude, I can't take it. And then he says, I'll get back up. And he tells him some more, and he just collapses again. He's like those fainting goats. Dude, stop fainting, okay? Pay attention. This is good. And Daniel's like, oh my gosh, this is overwhelming. Thing I want you to understand is that Daniel is so overwhelmed because there's a weight that comes with spiritual understanding. And you have to ask yourself, now, how much do you want to know? Now, how much do you want to know? Now that sounds like I'm I'm making that a bad thing. No, it's it's it's a great thing. It's a great thing because people want to be around somebody that has hope in something bigger and better and beyond them and their circumstance. Daniel was one of those people. For 70 years, Daniel served a bunch of different kings and a bunch of different kingdoms, and he was consistently about the king's business. And I just want to say this is, you know when he says, hey, this is for the end, this instructions uh that I'm telling you, what I'm telling you, this is for the end, not for the end of the world, but for for when the end of this period uh of persecution ceases against the church. And so Daniel has this perspective. He can say to people, hey, it is hard, but it's not gonna be this way forever. It's not gonna be this hard forever. Last night my wife and I had in our living room conversations with a living room full of 20 somethings. And I just realized I am out of touch, okay? Uh uh these people dress funny, they talk funny, they cannot put their phones down. We're having conversations and they're all three just looking at their phone. I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? I'm giving you pearls of illuminated wisdom that are coming out of my mouth and landing in your lap. Yeah, I'm just checking my Instagram. I wanted to whip all three of them right there. And I was just like, geez and peach, what in the world? Ah, here's the fourth thing I want you to see. The consistent sin pushes grace to discipline. Consistent sin, verse 20, pushes grace to discipline. Uh what do you mean? Uh uh, I thought we were forgiven. You are forgiven for sin, but there's always a consequence for sin. And the consequence typically goes on long after you sin. Verse 20, as for the ram that you saw, the two horns that were the kings of Media and Persia, and the goat that's the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king, Alexander the Great. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from this nation, but not with his power. And as the latter end of the kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. And so this king, who's Antiochus Epiphanes IV, he comes because of this statement, verse 23. When the transgressors have reached their limit. Now, to get the picture in your mind, and I'm gonna get emails from Peter about this, but I do not care. Uh, when the transgressors have reached their limit, in other words, there is a limit to what God. Now, the transgressors, that's not talking about sin, that's talking about people. So go so God's talking about his people who will not stop sinning. And he says, when these people that won't stop sinning, these transgressors have reached their limit, let me ask you so you can just get a picture of this. I'm not trying to be over the top. Have you ever been to a rodeo? Say amen. Have you ever seen calf rope and say amen? Once that calf is roped, it's just a short amount of time before he reached his limit. My wife cannot watch rodeo on TV. She just can't. Because I used to watch the National Finals Rodeo every year, all 10 rounds. I don't know why. I just got into it one year and I was like, dude, this is awesome. Uh, because I like when the bulls win. But anyway, uh, she walked through and they showed calf rope and she saw one calf get into that rope and wow! And she's like, Oh my lord, what are you doing? I'm like, they get up, they're okay. I think they kind of know what's coming, they jump backwards. It didn't help. My wife was like, You are a sadistic pig for watching this. But the Bible says right here, when the transgressors have reached their limit, this is what I mean when I say consistent sin pushes grace to the discipline phase. One of the questions that you have to ask yourself, you ever you ever you don't answer this, but ever had a period where you got off the reservation and you were living in sin, and then something bad happened in your life, or to someone you love, and your first thought was, is this because of me? See, you need to understand when you're being disciplined. So let me give you three things to think about. How do I know when I'm being disciplined by God? Okay, number one, I immediately think of my sin. Uh I have a friend, he's more of an acquaintance, was having an affair, and people had said, Hey, dude, what you're doing is sin. It's wrong, there's gonna be a consequence. And he said, Stupid little junior high things like, hey, bro, we're soulmates. You know, she meets all my deepest needs. And one day he's driving down the road, unrepentant in the affair, come around a curve. He said, It wasn't a sharp turn, like a 50-mile-an hour turn. He said, Whatever reason, I wasn't paying attention, I overcorrected, rolled his car seven times. He said, I survived, but my first thought when I climbed out of the car was, I gotta stop this affair. Yeah. When you immediately think of your sin, you're probably being disciplined by God. Here's another one. I am encouraged that this is happening. You ever had something really bad happen to you, and you're kind of like, I'm kind of glad this happened because it got my attention. I have a friend, he's a one-arm preacher. Uh and and and and I asked him, I said, Hey, uh, I I'm sure you've told the story. He goes, People stop asking a long time ago. You want to know about happening my hand? I said, I am so curious. Uh, because I have no manners, that's why. Uh and and and I just said, I think for whatever reason, I think there's a story there. And he goes, 'Yeah, there is. He said, I was called to ministry and I was running. I didn't want to do it.' I was driving down the road one day, had my arm outside the thing, and I was coming up on a construction site, and they had these road barriers set there, and one of those things just got inside my hand right there and scraped down the side of my car and cut my arm off at the elbow. He goes, I tied that thing off, got a tourniquet on it, pulled over, got a tourniquet on it, and my first thought was, I need to surrender to ministry. And I was like, I don't want any part of that. Lord, I got both hands up, I surrender. Jazz hands. And then he looked at me and said, This, it was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. And I was like, What are you talking about, Willis? And I said, Do you have do you ever get frustrated? He goes, only when I fish. I was like, now I'm curious. And he said, he went on to say, I can't fish in a boat. I have to fish on the bank because when I set the hook, I just turn around and take off running. And I'm thinking he's kidding. And I'm like, his name is Bill Tisdale. Look it up. I think he's dead now because I met him. He was old. I was like, shut up. There's no way. He goes, Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And his friend said, Oh, yeah, we know when Bill's got one because he takes off running up the hill. And he said, I'm telling you, son, it's the greatest thing now. When I met him, I was in college. Remember when you were in you were in college? Kind of full of yourself? I was just kind of like. But what he didn't know is I was struggling with the call myself. And this little voice in my head said, What am I gonna have to do to get your attention? Not that. Not that. Hey, let me just say this. Not everybody you meet is on accident. I like fishing out of a boat. I let you fill in the blanks. Here's the third way you know you're being disciplined by God. Your heart is turned back towards God. Your heart is soon, bad something bad happens, and you're like, oh man, and there's some of you that just like it comes out different ways. Like, oh man, I I hadn't spent time in the word forever. Sometimes it's like, you know what? I need to get my little behind back in church. Hey, look at me. God's not mad at you. When he disciplines you, he calls you back to what he created you for. So there's a difference in punishment and discipline. Punishment is about separation, discipline is about invitation. He's calling you back to himself. And so when I say consistent sin pushes grace to discipline, this is what I mean. Everyone of you moms in here that has kids, you know this because you taught, you take it, you take it, you take it, and then you say, Mama's gonna count to three. And when mama gets to three, we done push grace to the discipline phase. Here's the fifth thing the Bible tells us this morning. God is always at war and at work in the world. He's always at war and at work in the world. What do you mean? Look at verse 24. Verse 24 says this it says, talking about this person that's gonna raise up Antiochus IV, his power shall be great, but not by his own power. What? And he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand and in his own mind. He shall become great without warning, he shall destroy many, and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes. That's talking about God, and he shall be broken. Look at this, but by no human hand. So it starts off with, but not by his own power, and it ends here with by, but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now. God says to Daniel, I want you to live in light of this understanding. Seal it up in you, my man, and go into this culture, this Babylonian pagan culture, with this knowledge, with this revelation, with this understanding that I've given you. And what God says to him is, hey, I'm always at war. This guy comes to his power shall be great, but not by his own power. And when his time, and he says, you know, the number of days, that's refers back to that 2,300 evenings and mornings. 2,300 days is about six years and four months, give or take a day or two. A period of divine punishment in the Bible was typically seven years. And basically what God's saying to them is like, hey, this guy thinks he's in charge. I can I can allow him to persecute my people and I can stop it whenever I want. And this is why God just says, Oh, 2,300 days. So he comes to power, it lasts about six years, a little over six years. And then God says, That's enough. And he wipes him off the face of the earth. Now, what do I mean when I say God is always at war and at work? Verse 24 and verse 25, not by his power, by no human hand. Here's just a list of the things that this guy did. This is not inclusive, because some of them I wouldn't mention in church, but here's some of the things he did. He overthrew the temple and did away with daily sacrifices. He burned scripture and forbid any Jew to possess a copy of Scripture. He sacrificed a pig on the altar. And when you talk about the abomination that causes desolation, this is it. This is why when you go into New York, you never go into a Jewish daily and order a ham sandwich. And I'm not being flippant, it's just this is where it comes from. Because not only did he do that, but then on that altar, instead of that altar, he erected an altar to Zeus, the Greek God, and let pagans come into God's temple and sacrifice to their pagan God. And an Orthodox Jew said, Hey, this is an abomination. We are not going to go near the temple. So the temple was desolate. Therefore, the phrase, the abomination of desolation. And so this is, it goes on. He kills thousands of Jews, thousands. And one time he ordered 40,000 men, women, and children to be killed. Uh, he issued uh this is the last one. Put a little note by this, uh, because this should sound familiar in the modern day. He issued a decree that all people were to become a single people, each renouncing their particular customs that made them distinct. You ever heard this phrase? One world government? Historians will tell you this is where it got started. Unless they're really liberal, then they go, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He told the Jewish people it's illegal for you to be circumcised anymore because that makes you stand out from everybody else. We're all just one big global village. We all just get along. This started, by the way, in 164 BC, they're counting down to the birth of Christ, BC's before Christ, before they get to zero and start counting. See, there's really nothing new under the sun. But even in the midst of this, and by the way, if you're wondering, well, what happened was in 164 BC, a guy named Judas Maccabeus had enough of it. Just a redneck with a truck and a and a temper. And he just snapped one day and said, I'm not taking it anymore. You guys have desecrated the temple, so him and his sons led a rebellion. They took back Jerusalem. He cleansed and scoured the temple, had the altar uh purify it, and they dedicated it. Now, the word for dedication was the word Hanukkah. Think about it. And they relit the torches in the temple. And to this day, on December 14th, the Jews recognize Hanukkah and they light the menorah. Because what happened back then? See, God's always at work. And when he needs to be at war, he'll come as a God of war. But he's always at work. Here's the last thing. So, what do we do in light of that? It's real simple. Look at verse 27. You still with me? Uh and I, Daniel, was overcome, and I lay sick for some days. I loved this. Then I rose and went about the king's business. But I was appalled by the vision. I did not understand it. The king that he served as Belshadra was not an honorable man, wasn't a God fear. You maybe think, what's it got to do with me? That may sound like your boss. You got to ask yourself, can I be about the king's business? Now, he served a king that was not a good man. You serve a king that's a God, the only God who ever was and is and is to come. And in the midst of everything that you know, knowing what you know and seeing what you see in the culture around you, can you still be about the king's business? Someone asked me this week, they said, Man, you're the most hopeful, optimistic people I know. Where's this come from? Because I'm gonna be about the king's business. They go, What do you mean? I said, if my wife would let me, I'd get that tattooed on my chest, the king's business. So every day I'd come off of work, just rip my shirt open. I'm about the king's bit. What'd you do today, Dad? The king's business. And my wife's over there starting to pot, and she said, Oh, please don't. Yeah. Daniel did Daniel, I mean, the Bible is not like ignorant of what it feels like to just look around and go, is this world just going to hell in a handbasket or is it just me? But Daniel said, I just got up and I went about the king's business. So what do you do? What do I do in response to that? Can you just be about the king's business? Can you look around and not be fearful? Or can you look around and not get angry? Can you look around and just be like, you know what? We're trusting in everything but God, and there's a consequence for that. And God is gonna give us the leaders that we deserve because we don't trust God. We look to man to get our needs met, so hook us up to that stimulus machine and print that money. And then 18 months when inflation is crippling, be the same people going, What happened? You don't want to be a nation that forgets God. And you don't want to be a person that forgets God. Let's pray together. If you're a guest, we'd like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it. And so I'll voice a prayer, and then Lindsay will come and just kind of sing over us. Some questions come up on the screen for you to think about. You don't have to try to write them down. You can just take your phone and take a picture. That's great. These are the things we'll discuss in our community groups tonight. Let me pray. Holy Spirit, thanks for the Bible. It's so thought-provoking, it's jagged and yet it's comforting. We don't get that. It's like you take a saw that's jagged and sharp, and yet when it cuts really well, the ending is smooth. The Bible's that way. And so just saw off of us any unnecessary thinking patterns, behaviors, or sin. One of the things we'll have to do today is think about what do we think about sin? And are we pushing God's grace to the point where he has to discipline us? So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us now, as the good Father you are. Yes, Lord, that's our prayer. We say, build your kingdom here and use us to do it. We don't want to just waste our life holding our breath until we've served our time wherever we don't want to be, and then we can get to where we want to be. That's not the king's business. But we want to engage the culture around us with gusto and gravity and gladness, with a God-informed, biblically saturated worldview that's winsome and inviting. We're not angry people trying to win arguments, we're people that got rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. We want everybody we know to get in that kingdom as well. Life is so much better there. So, Lord, I pray for anybody that is stuck in sin today, that you won't have to discipline them, that they just go, you know what? I just need to change the way I think about that. Let your mercy find them and unwind them today and bring them back. Anyone that's never begun a relationship with you, Holy Spirit, reveal the Father to them. Speak to both head and heart. It's where the most natural thing they could do is say, Man, I want to know this God. This is not just comforting, this is truthful. Thank you, God, that the gospel is both. We never take that for granted. Thanks that we get to think about it today because your word is preached and it never goes out and comes back void. Let it accomplish its purpose in us this week. We pray in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being here. You're always welcome here. If you heard anything this morning, you have questions about some of our pastors will be available down front. We would love to answer any questions you have. Pray with you. If you're visiting for the first time, just come introduce yourself. We just want to put a name with a face so when we see you, we can recognize you and call you by your name, okay? Uh, we have some things coming up. No, let me say this also. Uh, if you're a guest, one thing we'd like you to do is if you haven't yet, take a chance to pull one of those guest cards and just sit back, pocket in your row, fill it out, and then drop it in one of these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out this morning, okay? Uh that's also where we receive our offering. So if today's the day you worship God and through giving, that's where you take care of that as well. All right. We have a few things coming up we want you to be aware of. So here are our announcements for the week.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Good morning. My name is Travis Dunham and I'm the Connections pastor here at the church. And I want to update you on some opportunities you have. The first one is Starting Point. If you're new to our church and would like to join, or you're curious about what church membership is or what we value, I'd like to invite you to our starting point class on February 21st, starting at 10 a.m. And you can register for starting point at grandparkway.org slash events. The second opportunity you have is Mid's Breakfast, which means a Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. at the warehouse. We have free breakfast tacos, great camaraderie with some friends, and a challenging message from God's work. This week we're going to be looking at what it means to be a man by rejecting activity. Again, it's Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. Today is a community group Sunday. Our community groups are designed to help you grow in your faith, to make some friendships, and to process the sermon notes together. If you'd like more information about our community groups, join us in the kiosk by the big community group side. Finally, if you have any questions about what you heard today or would like somebody to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the end of the service.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

As you know, we like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing. So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out. Knowing what you know, may you engage in the king's business. Sometimes the king's business is queso in the couch on Super Bowl Sunday. Sometimes the king's business is a nap. Sometimes it's a hard conversation with someone you love. Sometimes it's giving your money away to somebody that needs it more than you do. And sometimes it's just looking at your wife and kids and realize that you have it better than you ever, ever could deserve. Whatever it is. Be about the king's business today. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.