Daniel 10: Highly Esteemed - Darren Rowse

[SPEAKER_00]: Daniel 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the third year of Cyrus King of Pursa, a revelation was given to Daniel who was called Beltishazar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Its message was true and it concerned a great war.

[SPEAKER_00]: The understanding of the message came to him in a vision.

[SPEAKER_00]: At that time, I Daniel mourned for three weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: I ate no choice food, no meat or wine touched my lips, and I used no loathings at all until the three weeks were over.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the 24th day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the Great River, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.

[SPEAKER_00]: His body was like tope as his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and his voice like the sound of a multitude.

[SPEAKER_00]: I Daniel was the only one who saw the vision.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale, and I was helpless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep my face to the ground.

[SPEAKER_00]: A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up for I have now been sent to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he continued, do not be afraid Daniel, since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come in response to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me 21 days.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to me, came to me to help me because I was detained there with the

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future for the vision concerns a time yet to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face towards the ground and was speechless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then one who looked like a man touched my lips and I opened my mouth and began to speak.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said to the one standing before me, I am overcome with anguish because of the vision my Lord and I feel very weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: How can I your servant talk with you, my Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be afraid.

[SPEAKER_00]: You who are highly esteemed, he said, peace, be strong now, be strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, speak my Lord since you have given me strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he said, do you know why I have come to you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Soon I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia and when I go, the Prince of Greece will come, but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning everyone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to one and for those of you who haven't met before my name is Darren and I want to add my happy father's day to all of the deaths.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whether you look like John Cena like me or not, I hope you've had a good start to your day.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if you'd stay with me and we're just going to pray and open ourselves to hearing from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord God, we thank you for this passage of Scripture, which has so much in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It probably has surface questions for us, and as made us wonder things, God, I pray that you would help us to hear from you over the next half an hour or so.

[SPEAKER_01]: We used to speak to us from your word, where you reveal something new of who you are,

[SPEAKER_01]: who we are and what your heart is for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord Jesus, we open ourselves to you in Jesus name we pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Please be seated.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this passage, I got a text message from Linda during the week when she'd read the passage and she just said, good luck.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have to say I was a little jealous when I looked down the list of sermon topics that were given from Daniel and I looked down and I saw Shadrak, Me Shack, and a bed and you go, Linda.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I looked down a little further, the lion's den, Linda.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I got the apocalyptic stuff, so I was a little jealous, but I have to say, as I've been sitting with this chapter over the last couple of weeks, it has spoken to me and has come alive for me in some really new ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a gift to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but in the earlier stories in the first half of Daniel, is all kinds of inspiring stories, like those two stories that Linda preached about.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're inspiring.

[SPEAKER_01]: living their faith out despite the fact that they are being threatened.

[SPEAKER_01]: And those people, Daniel, Shadraq, Mishaq, a bandicoat, what inspiring stories resisting the empire, standing before kings?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you though.

[SPEAKER_01]: I find that were a little hard to relate to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Inspiring, but would I walk into a lion's den?

[SPEAKER_01]: would I walk into a fiery furnace?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to think I would, but I have not done anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in today's passage, we see a different side to Daniel and it's a side that I can strongly relate to.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope that as we look at this passage today, you've not only been inspired by the earlier stories of Daniel, but you'll be touched by this one.

[SPEAKER_01]: because this one shows a man in a different place and God's heart for him in that place.

[SPEAKER_01]: This morning I want to talk about grief.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk about a hand touching.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk about a name given and a war that's going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: This chapter begins with Daniel morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is grieving, and we're not told why in this chapter.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible is actually full of lots of stories of people in this sort of place, morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: They often describe this, putting on sackcloth and putting ashes on themselves grieving.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what Daniel is doing in this particular passage.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's actually quite different to the earlier stories of Daniel that we see.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first seven chapters of Daniel, we actually see Daniel being presented in a rather strong and confident way.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's 15 years of age and he gets taken into exile.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as a 15 year old, he stands up to the King's official and says, I don't want to eat like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to eat my way.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the chapters that follow this young man stands before kings and interprets dreams so confidently and speaks truth to power.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then chapter 6, as an older man, he walks into a lion's den, calmly, almost stoically.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's presented very strongly, but at chapter 7, something shifts.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you look through the book of Daniel, they actually see that something changes in Daniel and we begin to see this other side, we see him grieving.

[SPEAKER_01]: in body and in mind we see him described as being troubled.

[SPEAKER_01]: He becomes sick at times.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is fasting.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is wearing sackcloth and ashes.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is someone who is in this chapter mourning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he is mourning in a really heartfelt way.

[SPEAKER_01]: The word used to describe his mourning is the same word that people would use to describe the mourning that they do of a loved one when they pass away.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're not told why he's morning, but there's a hint in the passage and it comes right at the start.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of the chapters in Daniels start in the same way.

[SPEAKER_01]: They tell us when the thing happened and in this case it was in the third year of Sirius King of Persia.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the only chapter in Daniel set in this era.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what you might notice is that this is a Persian king.

[SPEAKER_01]: Up until about chapter seven or so, most of the stories happen in the era of the Babylonian Empire, under Babylonian kings, but this one is different.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a Persian king.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so this places are about 70 years after the exile.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel has been living in this city for 70 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's outlasted the empire that took him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Sirus King of Persia has a different policy towards the people of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: He decrees that God's people can go home.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't read about that in Daniel, we read about it in another book of the Bible, Ezra, in the first two chapters of Ezra, King Cyrus has his heart impacted by God and he decrees that they can go home.

[SPEAKER_01]: And not only that, he encourages them, he almost orders them to go home and rebuild the temple and he resources them to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we see in the books of Ezra, the people of God returning home about 50,000 of them in number in the first wave.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we track in Ezra what happens when they go home, they go home, and the first thing they do is build an altar to the Lord on the side of the old,

[SPEAKER_01]: temple.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they begin to build the foundations, dig foundations for the new temple.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we get this description in Ezra 3 and 4 of a ceremony that happens to mark the building, the laying of the foundations.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's described in a really interesting way.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's great celebration, but it's also noted that the older people who are there,

[SPEAKER_01]: are weeping, they are mourning, because they see that the temple isn't as large or as going to be as grand as the earlier one.

[SPEAKER_01]: We find out that in Haggai another book of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we see all these sort of links between all these books of the Bible, and Daniel 10 is actually happening at about same time as Ezra 3 and 4.

[SPEAKER_01]: And many of the commentators believe that Daniel

[SPEAKER_01]: that the building of the temple has stalled.

[SPEAKER_01]: We find in Ezra 3 and 4 that the neighbours around Jerusalem begin to agitate.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't want a temple to be built.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't want the city to be rebuilt.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got used to living without the people living there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jerusalem being rebuilt is a threat to them, and so they begin to agitate, they bully them, they try and make them afraid to continue to build.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then they begin to lobby Persia and write letters and ask that the temple rebuilding be stopped, and it is successful.

[SPEAKER_01]: For 16 years, the building site lays dormant, and many commentators believe this is what Daniel

[SPEAKER_01]: just as things began to move.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a stall.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see Daniel has been praying three times a day we learn earlier in Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is he praying about?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well he is facing Jerusalem in his prayers.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has Jerusalem on his heart for seventy years.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has been praying that God's people would return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and now things have stalled, and He's beginning to come to terms with the fact that the temple will not be rebuilt in His lifetime.

[SPEAKER_01]: and we see him recount these words.

[SPEAKER_01]: At that time, I Daniel mourned for three weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: I ate no choice food, no meat or wine, touch my lips.

[SPEAKER_01]: I used no lotions at all until three weeks were over.

[SPEAKER_01]: Three weeks, mentioned twice in one verse.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's important.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll hear about three weeks again in a little while.

[SPEAKER_01]: 21 days, he didn't put oil on his skin.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's another way of saying, he didn't bathe for three weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: He would have smelt by the end of this time.

[SPEAKER_01]: He would have looked bedraggled.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was mourning, and it was a physical mourning, not just an emotional thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a detail in verse 4 that we kind of gloss over in the English translation, but when you look at the detail of verse 4, you find out what month this happens in, and it actually happens in the month that Passover would have been celebrated.

[SPEAKER_01]: The festival when you sit down with your family, and you celebrate God leading his people out of Egypt, where God moved in a powerful way, and Daniel is grieving through this period.

[SPEAKER_01]: So anyone who's ever grieved through Christmas or Easter or a day like today, Father's Day knows that special kind of grief that you feel when you look around and see everyone else celebrating and you are grieving.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so here we have a picture of a faithful old man coming to the end of his life praying, fasting, asking God to do something,

[SPEAKER_01]: but there's silence for three weeks, there's nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: No messenger coming to him, no vision, for three weeks he gets nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is unusual for Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: This comes on the back of chapter nine, and in chapter nine we haven't covered it, but in chapter nine we get this beautiful picture of Daniel praying, and as his praying, as the words are still on his lips,

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, while I was still in prayer, Gabriel and Angel, the man I'd seen earlier in a vision came to me in swift flight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel is used to getting the prayers answered.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's used to getting God's attention and something happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in this case, 21 days of grieving and heaven seems to be silent.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if any of us can see ourselves in this picture of Daniel, I know I can.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you know the grief that he is feeling and perhaps on a day like today we know it more sharply.

[SPEAKER_01]: than usual.

[SPEAKER_01]: As some of you know the red tape he is facing, a Council permit for a building that should have started months ago or a visa application sitting in a queue for years while your family is split into countries, that stalling is something you know or a relationship that's stuck and has been for decades or a diagnosis that isn't improving.

[SPEAKER_01]: and some of you know it as the silence that he is hearing, you've prayed and there's nothing which is why I think this chapter is an incredible gift.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever you make in the Bible, I love that it doesn't just hand us stories of victory and triumph, but it presents portraits like this one, because this is life, this is what we know at one point or another in our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Daniel is torn up with grief, barely eating, coming to terms with the fact that what he's been praying for is not going to get answered in his lifetime.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's at this moment after three weeks, 21 days, that heaven finally shows up and he gets a vision.

[SPEAKER_01]: and he's standing on the banks of the Tigris River, a fast flowing, wide river, and he's looking out over it, and he sees someone.

[SPEAKER_01]: He sees a man, and the man he sees is like no other man that he's ever seen before.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is dressed in linen.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has a belt of fine gold around his waist.

[SPEAKER_01]: His body was like topeas.

[SPEAKER_01]: His face was like lightning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his eyes are like flaming torches.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his arms and legs bulge like John Cena.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he has like the gleam of burnished bronze.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he has a voice that sounds like a multitude.

[SPEAKER_01]: This man is quite the sight to behold.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he doesn't have a name.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not named.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not named like in chapter 9 where Gabriel appears.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's not described like in chapter 8 as being like a son of man who might say we might think of as the pre-incarnate Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact scholars have really debated for years who this man is, and there's arguments for him being the pre-incarnate cross, there's arguments for him being an angel, but he's actually not names.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not, we're not told who he is.

[SPEAKER_01]: The text doesn't tell us.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what it does tell us is that he is a messenger from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just love what this messenger does.

[SPEAKER_01]: He brings a vision.

[SPEAKER_01]: He brings a message from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: But before he gives Daniel the vision, which comes in chapter 11 and 12, he does something with Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing he does or the first thing that I notice he does is greet him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, Daniel, you who are highly esteemed consider carefully the words I'm about to speak to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first time I read those words, I was like, oh, this is just a flowery kind of introduction.

[SPEAKER_01]: You who are highly esteemed, it's kind of thing we say to each other after church every time we see each other, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You who are highly esteemed, but it's not just a flowery introduction, highly esteemed, as Linda Red at before you may have heard those words twice.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually three times, because in chapter nine it's the same words that Gabriel greets Daniel with.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is God getting out here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel, you are highly esteemed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel, you are highly esteemed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel, you are highly esteemed.

[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like God is trying to say something to Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: When there's repetition, we've got to pay attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it struck me this week that what God is doing here is naming Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel, if you've read through Daniel, no, you know he has two names.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that goes backwards and forwards between his two names.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Daniel 1, we find that his name is Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's what the book's called.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that Hebrew name means God is my judge.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when he's taken out of exile, the Babylonians stamp another name on him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the name is Belchazar, which has the root word of bell, which is the chief God of Babylon.

[SPEAKER_01]: It means bell, marduque, protect him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And throughout the book of Daniel, we see him call both of these names.

[SPEAKER_01]: It goes back and forth, back and forth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even Daniel uses both names of himself, the very first verses of this chapter he says, a revelation was given to Daniel, who was called Belcherza.

[SPEAKER_01]: So even Daniel, in writing his own story in the third person, feels he needs to remind us he is Daniel and Belcherza.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Babylonians took his name away from him and attempted to stamp a new identity on him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Empires do.

[SPEAKER_01]: He only lived 14 or 15 years in Jerusalem under the name Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And ever since then, he's lived between two names, living in a foreign land, in a foreign culture answering to a foreign name.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he must of, in those 70 years, struggled with who am I?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I Daniel or am I Balchaza?

[SPEAKER_01]: And now at the end of his life, after 70 years of living between two names, it seems God wants to say to him that his true identity is not the name the Empire gave him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not even the name his parents gave him.

[SPEAKER_01]: it is something else.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what is that name?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is highly esteemed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or the ear speed puts it this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, O Daniel, man who is greatly loved.

[SPEAKER_01]: The new living translation says, Daniel, you are very precious to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Hebrew word there is Shamilot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shamilot, and it actually is a word that's never described used to describe human beings apart from Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's always used in the Old Testament to describe precious treasures.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, earlier in Daniel, we see the word used to describe the vessels from the temple, the precious treasures from the temple that the Babylonian stole and misused.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is calling Daniel like a treasure, like those precious vessels.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the root of that word is also used in the 10 Commandments, in the 10th Commandments.

[SPEAKER_01]: thou shalt not covet, that word covet has the same root word.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's language that is used to desire something.

[SPEAKER_01]: You desire to have something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so God is saying to Daniel something really profound here.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are not the name that the Empire has stamped on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: you are precious, you are like a treasure, you are priceless, and you are something I desire to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the word that heaven picks for this old, grieving man, laying face down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And before we just sort of say, this is just Daniel being renamed in this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Old Testament and the New Testament's full of people being renamed.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have Abraham becoming Abraham.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have Sarah becoming Sarah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see Simon becoming Peter.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God renames his people in numerous places, as well in Isaiah 62.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see God say this to his people.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will be called a new name.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord will give of all himself,

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll give you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will be called no longer abandoned.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your land will no longer be called desolate.

[SPEAKER_01]: Indeed, you will be called my delight is in her and your land married.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the Lord will take delight in you and your land will be married to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let me ask you this morning what name do you answer to?

[SPEAKER_01]: what name are you carrying?

[SPEAKER_01]: What name has been stamped on you by our empire?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not talking about the name on your license or your birth certificate.

[SPEAKER_01]: What name has been stamped on you because most of us answer to all kinds of names.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes names given to us by others, truly.

[SPEAKER_01]: by a teacher or a parent or a partner or someone in a school yard, years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: These names live inside of us, and we live out of those names.

[SPEAKER_01]: We answer to the call of those names.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we live with names that are culture stamps on us, what our work calls us, or what our bank balance calls us, or what our great successes or failures call us, or what our bodies call us when we look in the mirror.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes we carry names because of circumstance and experience, what happened to us that we had no control of, what names are you carrying?

[SPEAKER_01]: In my early young adult years, I came out of my first ever romantic relationship really badly.

[SPEAKER_01]: It ended so badly with rejection and betrayal.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then a few months later, I had another romantic relationship as you do at that age, and either ended badly with rejection.

[SPEAKER_01]: and betrayal, and then a friendship ended in exactly the same way all within a year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at the time, I just thought these are just hard things I was going through, but it wasn't until years later.

[SPEAKER_01]: When a trusted pastor was praying for me, that he had a word from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, I don't really know what this means, Darren.

[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of feel like perhaps you're living with names that aren't yours.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, the names that I kind of sense got putting on my heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you've got to test this.

[SPEAKER_01]: The names I feel like you're living out of are rejected and betrayal.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what I realized is that I've been carrying these names, not just experiences, but they were now shaping how I showed up in future relationships.

[SPEAKER_01]: They led me to approach future friendships and relationships really anxiously and cautiously and insecurely and jealously.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are things I'd not ever experienced before, but I was suddenly showing up in relationships this way and what I realized through this word of knowledge was that I'd been living

[SPEAKER_01]: And the pastor told me what that name was, and it was beloved child.

[SPEAKER_01]: And through parammonistry and some counseling, I was able to let go of the names that my empire had stamped on me and leave into that new name.

[SPEAKER_01]: My strong sense today is that perhaps God wants us to become aware of the names that we're living with and to let go of them and to put on the names that he has for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are precious.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are like a treasure.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are beloved.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I give you something really practical to do this week?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to give you seven names to put on this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll put them on the screen and each of these are things that God calls us as His people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's so many more in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to encourage you every day this week to put on one of these names.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow morning, I want you to get up and say, I am dearly loved.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Tuesday, I want you to get up and say, I am a child of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wednesday, I want you to get up and put on the word known.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am known by God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thursday, I'm a friend, Friday, I'm free.

[SPEAKER_01]: Saturday, I'm not forgotten.

[SPEAKER_01]: And on Sunday, what you to put on the word chosen?

[SPEAKER_01]: put on these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Paul tells us to do in Colossians.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, close yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be intentional about putting these things on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that when we begin to live into the names that God gives us that our lives are going to be different.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to live out of these names.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the messenger starts by giving Daniel a new name, but he does something else.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's another repetition in the passage.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the repetition isn't in what he says, but in what he does, he touches Daniel three times.

[SPEAKER_01]: We start the passage with Daniel in a pretty bad way.

[SPEAKER_01]: He hasn't been eating or drinking well.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not looking after himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he sees the figure by the river and he goes down flat on his face in verse 8.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had no strength left.

[SPEAKER_01]: My face turns deathly pale and I was helpless.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 9, I fell into a deep sleep.

[SPEAKER_01]: My face to the ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now he's on the ground laying down.

[SPEAKER_01]: No strength, looking sick, helpless.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like he's asleep.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then verse 10, a hand touched me.

[SPEAKER_01]: and it set me trembling on my hands and knees.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's touched by this hand, and the hand lifts him up to his hands and his knees, begins to take him in an upward motion.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's at this point, he's given the name Chamiya Dot, greatly loved precious one for the first time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the messenger says, consider carefully the words I'm about to speak to you and stand up.

[SPEAKER_01]: for I have been sent to you, notice at first he's raised up and then he's told to participate in the upward motion.

[SPEAKER_01]: He needs to actually make the journey from his hands and knees to his feet.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we are asked to participate in the work that God is doing in our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's been raised up

[SPEAKER_01]: But while he is saying this to me Daniel says, I was still bowled with my face towards the ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was speechless.

[SPEAKER_01]: The word there in Hebrew is breathless.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's speechless.

[SPEAKER_01]: He can't speak.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's still looking down.

[SPEAKER_01]: In verse 16, the one who looked like a man touched my lips.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I open my mouth and began to speak.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we get the second touch.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this time it's upward motion in his voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gets his breath back.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gets his voice back.

[SPEAKER_01]: And listen to what he says.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's not the most inspired speech in the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I am overcome with anguish because of the vision of my Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am feel very weak.

[SPEAKER_01]: How can I your servant talk with you, my Lord?

[SPEAKER_01]: My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's just saying it like it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how I'm feeling, God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's not rebuked for telling it like it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not rebuked for being weak.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not treated as a failure for being exhausted.

[SPEAKER_01]: The response again is a touch, verse 18, and again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength, and it's accompanied with words, do not be afraid, you who are

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to Daniel's answer, he says, speak my Lord, since you have given me strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: The strength is restored, and now he is ready to hear the message from the messenger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Three times we see Daniel down or lacking something.

[SPEAKER_01]: His lacking energy, his touch, his raised up, his lacking breath, his touch, his given his voice, and breath back, his lacking strength, his touch, his strength and this whole chapter is really about God doing a work in this prophet, this man.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even before he gets the message, the vision.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, Daniel has been seeking answers from God for three weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's wanting understanding.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what he first gets is a name and a touch.

[SPEAKER_01]: God wants to work on him before he gives him anything else.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think sometimes that's what God likes to do with us as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's so often to come to God asking for answers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why now?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's going on?

[SPEAKER_01]: But God actually wants to minister to us, and He wants to start by giving us a new name and giving us a touch to strengthen us so that then we are able to hear.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's God avoiding the question.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's God wanting to do a work in us and bringing life, the abundant life that He wants us to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Daniel gets a new name, he gets a touch that lifts him up, and then he gets a glimpse of something he couldn't see before.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what does he get to see?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or we get a hint of it right at the start of this chapter where it's flagged for us that the vision that he's about to get concerns a great war.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll see more about that war in the next two weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's Tim's problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to talk to you about the war and the vision that he gets in chapter 11 and 12.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what we get in chapter 10 is the curtain raising slightly.

[SPEAKER_01]: We begin to see just slightly.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is going on behind the scenes that he was not able to see before?

[SPEAKER_01]: The messenger says to him in verse 12,

[SPEAKER_01]: And to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have come in response to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I actually see on the very first day of those three weeks that his words were heard and the messenger was on his way.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we find out in verse 3 in why there was three weeks of silence.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the Prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me for 21 days, three weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The delay wasn't God ignoring Daniel for three weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was something else going on there was this resistance going on in the spiritual realm.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then later in verse 20 we hear this sort of language again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Soon I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I go, the Prince of Greece will come.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's something going on here beyond what Daniel can see.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it seems there are spiritual powers or conflicts, these princes, and they're resisting the messenger.

[SPEAKER_01]: And unseen war seems to be raging here, and we learn more about the war in the future.

[SPEAKER_01]: A dimension that Daniel had no idea about while he was fasting in mourning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not really explained.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not really explained here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And frustratingly for me, Daniel doesn't ask for clarification.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't ask who are the princes and what does that mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or what does the resistance look like?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's just told it's there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've just spent three weeks reading of all the commentators arguing about what the unseen war is and who the princes are.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it strikes me that Daniel put no energy into trying to understand it.

[SPEAKER_01]: and he's told to go on, and what is he told to do?

[SPEAKER_01]: Twice, he's told, do not be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: God wants Daniel to know, and he wants us to know that there are things going on beyond what we can see.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then he reassures Daniel, any reassures us to not be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've sung about it this morning, the battle belongs to God, not us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says something similar in Ephesians 612.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, for our struggle, he's not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against authorities, against powers of this dark world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, there's stuff going on beyond what we can see.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he gives a little advice, which I'm glad he does, because it doesn't come in Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: He continues on and he says, therefore, put on the armor of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he teaches us what that armor is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, stand your ground and pray in the Spirit and stay alert.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's more going on than what we can see.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I can't explain it to you this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: but we are used told to pray to use prayer in the face of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we need to look for demons behind everything that's stalled in our lives, or every moment of pain in our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: We actually get two accounts of what's going on here.

[SPEAKER_01]: One in Ezra, where there's human things going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's resistance in a human kind of level.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's people lobbying Persia, but in Daniel, we get the other side of the coin.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's something spiritual going on as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Both of these things are true.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us grew up in churches which got quite preoccupied with looking for the spiritual things.

[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in a time where there was a series of Christian fiction novels.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may remember them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which told stories of spiritual things going on, unseen, battles being fought over ordinary suburban towns.

[SPEAKER_01]: And whilst I don't think those novels had the intent of scaring people, they certainly frighten me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they made me look for spiritual explanations behind every single thing in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's what's going on in this chapter.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're told to be aware that these things are going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're told to pray, but we're also told not to be frightened because we worship a God who has defeated death, who has defeated all of the evil powers that may be going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love sitting with this chapter this week and there's so much more we could have pulled out of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love seeing this portrait of this man who is so strong in other parts of the book and yet has moments like this where he is broken and weak and grieving.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love the reminder that God meets us in those places, and that He wants to rename us, take away the names that have been stamped on us, that our true identity is in Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love that He desires to touch people and to lift them up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love the reminder that whilst there may be spiritual battles going on that we can't see that we have nothing to fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what you came in this morning carrying, but I hope this passage speaks to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to fish with one more thing, and it's another vision, and it's a vision that's remarkably similar to the one we've just been looking at.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, in Daniel's vision, we never really quite find out who it is, who is the messenger, but there's another vision that's so similar where we do find the identity of him.

[SPEAKER_01]: 600 years later, another man named John is in a pretty low place himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's living in a prison island called Patmos.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he sees a figure when he's praying that it's so similar.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's wearing a robe.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has a golden sash.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has eyes like blazing fire and fruit feet like bronze glowing in a furnace and a voice like rushing water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what does John do when he sees the vision?

[SPEAKER_01]: He falls flat on his face, same as Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then what happens?

[SPEAKER_01]: The man with his right hand touches John, and he says the words do not be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's touched, he's told not to be afraid, and then he's very next breath, he reveals who he is.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I and the first and the last, I am the living one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys to Hades.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the invitation this morning, put your hands in, put your life in the hands of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps you've never done this before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps you've been journeying with us exploring this for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to invite you this morning to put your life into his hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to have everything sorted before you do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need to be in a good place, even.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel and John weren't.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need to understand more than you currently understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need to have behaved in a certain way.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just need to open yourself to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's as simple as saying a prayer like this, and you may want to just pray it quietly, repeating after me, Jesus, I don't have it all worked out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I can't lift myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you that you came all the way down to find me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you that you died and now you are alive.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm putting my life in your hands today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take me as I am, forgive me, and name me as your child, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for those of you who've already prayed that type of prayer before, but still see yourself in the person of Daniel tired, grieving, weak, with silence going on around you, I want to encourage you to come to him, whatever you are carrying.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't encourage you to come to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to encourage you to come in your mind to the Jesus that we read about in Revelation.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so often when I imagine myself coming to Jesus, it's the Jesus who walked the earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a Middle Eastern man, 2000 years ago, wearing a robe.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a great image to come to, but I want you to come to the vision of Jesus in John this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is very different, he's so different.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to read it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to pitch your him in your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pitch yourself walking towards this Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what John wrote.

[SPEAKER_01]: I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I turned, I saw golden lamp stands.

[SPEAKER_01]: And among the lamp stands was someone like a son of man dressed

[SPEAKER_01]: reaching down to his fate and with a golden Sasha Randy's chest.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the hair on his head was like white wool.

[SPEAKER_01]: As white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in his right hand, he held seven stars.

[SPEAKER_01]: And coming out of his mouth was a sharp double-edged sword.

[SPEAKER_01]: His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a picture of the ascended, powerful, resurrected, raining, king of heaven, Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the one who names you.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the one who's hand reaches down to touch you.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the one who lifts you up.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the one who gives you breath and voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the one who gives you strength who offers you peace.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the one who tells you not to be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is powerful.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a king and he is raining.

[SPEAKER_01]: Open yourself to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, we thank you for this powerful picture of you from your word.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you that this is who we pray to this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us this morning come here, carrying a lot like Daniel did in this chapter.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are small, we are weak, we are waiting, we are grieving.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are carrying names that we didn't ask for.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, that we have access to the King of Heaven, that you desire to touch our lives, that you have names for us to put on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to live into those names this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to be aware of the touch of your hand on our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you that that Todd's brings peace and strength and purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: We open ourselves to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to sing a song now called I Speak Jesus and it's a song about the power of the name of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to sing these words.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to sing that his name has peace.

[SPEAKER_01]: It has freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: It has power.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it has healing in his name.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as you sing these words, I want to encourage you to picture the Jesus who is ascended and alive in heaven now.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the powerful one who brings these things into our life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you would like someone to pray for you in this time, maybe about the names that you've been carrying, or maybe it's about something that you are carrying that is heavy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to encourage you to come forward during this song our prayer ministry team on Ask You to come forward, our ministry team, our elders, if you're in the building, come forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just invite you to come forward and pray with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: as we sing.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can sing this song on your behalf, as you're being prayed for.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's stand, let's worship the King of Heaven, and if you need prayer, please come forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'd love to pray for you.