The Stone that Became a Mountain

Well, good evening, everyone.

A special welcome to those of you who are here for the first time.

My name's Tommy, one of the pastors here.

If we haven't met already, hopefully we might get a chance to do so after the service.

Also, to the women, we had a women's retreat this weekend.

So to the women who did that retreat, drove three hours back from Rehoboth,

and are here, a very special welcome to you.

That's very impressive.

And you can almost tell by the kind of bleary eyes who falls into that category.

But glad that you're all here.

We are in our second week looking at a fascinating book in the Bible.

It's in the Old Testament, which is the first half of the Bible.

And it's a book called the Book of Daniel.

And it's a fascinating book.

There's a lot that has been made out of this book.

Some people have turned parts of this book into a diet and weight loss plan.

Some have taken this book and they have tried to use it to calculate the end of the world.

So a lot of directions that we could go.

One of the things that we've been doing, though, is trying to figure out what is the central question of this book.

What's the central question that's being asked?

And if you look at the book, what it's really about is it's about a group of friends.

A group of young professionals who are living together in what is at this time the biggest city in history.

The biggest city on earth.

Babylon.

And these are young professionals who are asking through the book the same question.

And the question is this.

Is it possible to live faithfully?

To faithfully follow God?

And to thrive in a culture that is largely hostile to your beliefs?

Is it possible to follow God faithfully and to thrive in a culture that is largely hostile to your beliefs?

And I think that for those of us here who are Christians, this is a question if you live in Washington, D.C.

We ask this every day of our lives.

Those of you who are here who are not Christians, as you think about the claims of Christianity, that may seem to be an impossibility.

It seems irreconcilable with our current culture.

And so that's what we've been looking at.

And chapter 2 is utterly fascinating.

Fascinating.

And if you try to distill it down, there's dreams going on, there's big statues, there's interpretations happening, there's threats of death.

What's going on?

I think the general sense of what's happening in chapter 2 is this.

It's all about perspective.

It's all about the kind of perspective that we need if we're to live in the kind of culture that is largely hostile or opposed to the beliefs at the core of the Christian faith.

And more specifically, I think this chapter shows us something about the nature of kingdoms.

And there's a contrast here that we're going to draw out.

On the one hand, you have the kingdom that human beings build.

Human kingdoms.

And then on the other hand, you have the kingdom of God.

And so we're going to look at the contrast between these two kinds of kingdom.

And Evan read most of the chapter, but we cut out some of it.

It's a really long chapter.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give a little background.

I'm going to bring you up to speed with what happens in chapter 2, tell you the story.

And then at that point, we're going to draw out these two ideas.

What does this tell us about human kingdoms?

And then what does it tell us about God's kingdom?

And what does that mean for us?

So let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we are here not because we need to hear human wisdom or rhetoric.

Not because we're here to get principles to live by.

Not because we're here to get some tips on how to be more successful or happier or more fulfilled in life.

That, Lord, we're here to meet you face to face.

Lord, I pray that by your grace we would, as Isaiah did, see you face to face.

And that it would drive us to our knees.

That we would be in awe of who you are and what you're doing in the world.

We pray that this would happen through your word, Lord.

For our good and for your glory.

In your son's name.

Amen.

So as I said, I want to give you a little background on what's going on.

Especially if you weren't here last week.

Nebuchadnezzar is, at this time in history, the greatest king there ever was.

His kingdom, his city of Babylon, is universally agreed by scholars to be, at this point in history, around the 6th century BC,

to be by far the biggest city in existence.

So at this point in the story, he's conquered Judah.

And that's God's people.

That's kind of the last holdout of God's people, their kingdom, Judah.

He's conquered them, but he doesn't want to kill them.

Because that's a lot of bloodshed and wasted lives and wasted money.

He wants to assimilate them.

So it's not a military conquest that he's after, but an ideological conquest.

And we'll come back in a little while to what that actually means.

But this is Nebuchadnezzar's plan, and so he's taken all of the best and the brightest of Israel.

And he's taken them into Babylon.

People like Daniel, the nobility, the highly educated, the cultural movers and shakers.

And he's acculturating them with a belief that if he can get the elites to become more and more Babylonians,

so the rest of the culture will follow.

It's a brilliant plan.

And so Daniel is here, and Daniel recognizes this tension.

But as we saw last week, Daniel is committed to God's purposes for the city of Babylon.

He's read the scriptures, in particular the words of the prophet Jeremiah.

And he's read Jeremiah, where Jeremiah says that God neither calls us to be assimilated into this culture of Babylon,

nor does God call us to separate ourselves entirely out of the city of Babylon,

as many of Daniel's friends had done.

They were encamped outside the city.

Don't go in there.

That's a den of iniquity.

Secular, the font of everything that's wrong with the world.

It's a cesspool.

Don't go into Babylon.

But God didn't call them to separate or to assimilate.

He called them to love the city, to pray for the city, to intercede for the city, to seek the welfare of the city.

And so that's what Daniel is doing.

So he went to Babylon University.

He got a three-year degree, graduated top of his class.

And now he's got a very high-level job as an appointee in Nebuchadnezzar's administration.

So that's where we find him in the beginning of chapter 2.

And the fact that he has this position.

Some of you have similar kinds of positions.

The fact that God has put him here means that he is perfectly positioned at a defining moment in Nebuchadnezzar's life.

Because Nebuchadnezzar has a dream.

He has a dream.

But it's not like Martin Luther King's dream.

It's a very different kind of dream.

It's a terrifying dream.

He doesn't know exactly what it means, but he knows it means something important.

And so he puts the word out to his council of wise men and advisors.

And he says, all of you, I've had this dream.

I need somebody to interpret it.

But in order to prove that they're not just pulling his leg and making something up, he says this.

I want you to come and I want you to tell me my dream.

I'm not going to tell you.

You have to tell me my dream.

And then I want you to give me the interpretation.

And then I'll know that it's the correct interpretation.

And he says, if nobody can do it, I'm executing all of you.

You think your boss is bad.

Everybody's going to get wiped out.

And not just you, but your homes.

There'll be no memory of you left.

And so the wise men are understandably terrified.

Verse 10, they say, there's not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand.

What do we do?

So the king then orders.

He says, okay, have it your way.

And he orders the mass annihilation of everybody, all the wise men.

Well, Daniel and his friends are wise men.

So the guards come to Daniel's door.

They knock on the door.

They open and they say, Daniel, we're here.

We've got orders.

We've got to kill you now.

And Daniel says, wait a second.

Why the urgency?

Get me an appointment with the king.

Get me some time with him.

And I will tell him his dream and the interpretation.

The guard says, okay, shuts the door.

And you can imagine Daniel turning around and his friends say, what are you doing?

How are you going to pull that one off?

Daniel says, I don't know.

So what do they do?

They pray.

They go to their knees and they pray.

And God answers their prayer.

And he tells Daniel over the course of the night the dream and its interpretation.

So Daniel goes the next day, meets with Nebuchadnezzar and says, oh, king, I can tell you your dream

and I can interpret it for you.

So Daniel intervenes not only for his sake but for the sake of all of the advisors.

And he says, here's your dream, oh, king of kings.

He says, here's the dream.

You dreamed of a gigantic statue.

So imagine just a massive sort of monolithic structure going up as far as you can see.

Just a giant structure.

And it's a vaguely humanoid in form.

It's got a head and shoulders and legs and feet.

And he says, you dreamed of this massive statue.

And there was something odd about the statue because the head of the statue was made of pure gold.

It was beautiful.

And as you go down the statue, the gold gave way to silver.

And then there were silver shoulders and torso, chest.

But then as you went down further, the silver went away and you saw bronze.

Bronze for the sort of trunk and thighs.

And then as you went down further below the knees, it became iron.

And then the feet were curious.

The feet were a mixture of iron and clay.

I don't think many of us are master metallurgists or anything.

But iron and clay don't mix very well.

It's kind of an odd thing to say.

We'll come back to that.

And he says, and you saw the statue and then behold, a rock not made by human hands comes and the rock strikes the feet of the statue.

And the feet shatter and the whole statue becomes like dust, like chaff that is then blown away by the wind.

Nebuchadnezzar's blown away by this.

And then he goes on to say, and here's what the dream means.

And you can imagine Daniel kind of playing, you know, there's good news and there's bad news.

You know, here's the good news.

You know the golden, the beautiful golden head?

That's you.

Nebuchadnezzar, oh great.

Then he goes on, bad news.

The gold will give way at some point to silver.

That's another kingdom that's going to replace your kingdom.

But then that kingdom is going to give way and there's going to be another kingdom.

And then that kingdom is going to give away and there's going to be another kingdom.

And then all of these kingdoms are going to be obliterated because this little rock is going to come and it's going to strike those clay feet.

So Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar the dream, the interpretation.

Tells him about the rock.

Tells him that the rock is then going to grow and it's going to become like a great mountain and the rock represents the kingdom of God.

And then Nebuchadnezzar very obviously misses the point.

Because he then is mystified and he falls down at his feet and he actually worships Daniel.

And then he promotes him.

And then Daniel says, well if you're going to promote me, can you promote my friends?

And he says, yeah sure.

So they all get promotions.

It's amazing.

So Nebuchadnezzar totally misses the point.

My hope is that we'll get the point.

And so that's where we want to turn our attention.

Because what this is really doing is telling us something very important about the nature of kingdoms.

And first the nature of human kingdoms.

Now a lot of Christians get carried away with this passage trying to figure it out.

What do the metals represent and what are the kingdoms?

And a lot of Christians look at this and they kind of look into the future.

And how are we going to know when that last kingdom and when the end of the world is coming and all that?

Frankly in all the study I've done of this I actually don't think that that's what's going on here.

I really don't think that's the point.

In a certain sense actually if you look at history there are in fact four kingdoms that occur between this time in the 6th century BC.

And the coming of Jesus.

The coming of the kingdom of God.

So you have the Babylonian empire.

The Babylonian kingdom.

And then that's replaced by the Medo-Persians.

And then that's replaced by the Greeks.

And then that's replaced by the Romans.

And then that's the point at which Jesus enters history.

So in a sense that is true.

That's right.

That's what's happening here.

I think that's what this is pointing to.

But I actually don't think this is the point.

So we're not going to spend a whole lot of time on kind of which kingdoms and who are the kings and all that.

I think this is the point.

All human kingdoms have clay feet.

All human kingdoms have clay feet.

And other birds they don't last.

So the statue in the dream as opulent and magnificent as it is up top.

It has these brittle and it actually makes a point of telling us that they're brittle.

It has these brittle feet.

And they're so delicate.

These weird brittle iron clay mixed feet.

That all it takes is a tiny little rock to just kind of tap it.

And you can imagine the whole thing just cracking apart.

And the whole structure comes crashing down.

That's the focus of this dream.

And I think that we can apply this idea of clay footed kingdoms in a number of different ways.

First I think the most obvious is to think about the political implications of this truth.

You know I have this great as we think about kind of political kingdoms across history.

I have this great chart in my office.

Somebody in our church gave it to me years back.

And it's this chart.

It's kind of a timeline chart.

And it has all these kind of blobs of color.

And all the blobs of color represent all the empires that have ever existed since recorded history.

And so you can look at the timeline and the width kind of shows you how long the empire was around.

Or the length does.

And then the width shows you kind of how much territory that empire covered when it existed.

And it's really cool.

It gives you a lot of perspective.

And so you look and it tells you some really cool things.

Like for instance the Persian Empire.

At one point half the world's population was Persian.

Can you imagine that today?

Half the world's population was part of the Persian Empire.

And now though if you look at it.

It's just a blob of color on a chart.

Right.

So the Romans.

The Mongols.

The Arab Caliphate.

The Arab Empire at its height.

Right.

The British Empire at its zenith.

All of these empires.

You know we feel I think a lot of anxiety.

I've talked to a lot of you about this.

Laura and I talk about it a lot.

A tremendous amount of anxiety with the coming election.

We don't know what's going to happen.

We don't know what sense to make of it.

You know that day is coming very soon.

Right.

A lot of anxiety about that.

On the one hand it does matter.

It matters a whole lot.

Right.

Here and now it matters a great deal.

On the other hand.

Regardless of who gets elected.

Regardless if we could get the absolute best most ideal candidate possible.

And there would probably be a lot of disagreement in this room over who that candidate would be.

But say you could get the best candidate.

The best party.

The best platform into office.

And get both sides of you know the senate and the house.

And get everybody on board.

Even if we could do that.

Even if we could do everything exactly like we want.

One day the United States is simply going to be a blob of color on a chart in somebody's office.

Because kingdoms have clay feet.

They give way to other kingdoms.

They tend to fall down.

You can also apply this to the concept of ideological kingdoms.

That may sound like a weird kind of concept.

An ideological kingdom.

But Nietzsche talked a lot about this.

He talked about the concept of a regime of truth.

And he was very fascinated with the relationship between political power.

And those who got to determine the prevailing world views and understandings of truth.

In a given society.

Said they were linked.

Right.

So in many ways the more modern experience of kingdom that we have.

Is not so much kind of a monarch on a throne.

As it is a certain world view or ideology that holds sway in the culture.

And it's entirely possible to bring about ideological shifts in culture with the right combination of factors.

This is exactly what Nebuchadnezzar is hoping to do with the Israelites.

He's hoping to bring about a shift in their ideology.

From monotheism to secular pluralism.

Right?

From a whole concept of the world based in their understanding of God.

To a Babylonian concept of the world.

By the way.

Just as an aside.

Pro tip.

If you want to bring about an ideological shift.

If you want to change culture.

Many people have done it before you.

And we have a pretty good idea of how that happens.

Okay?

So Nebuchadnezzar is on to something.

Step one.

You have to get the elites on board.

What does that mean?

Well, you have to get top thinkers.

Top thinkers to validate and verify your ideas.

Then you need to get academics and scholars to publish peer-reviewed papers that expound upon and develop your ideas.

Then you need to get popular level writers to write popular level books to disseminate your ideas.

And then you need to get major news media outlets.

You need to get pundits.

You need to get, of course, celebrities.

You need to get all of them on board sort of supporting and parroting your ideas.

And once you've done that, once you have the elites, that's step one.

See, the elites by themselves are not going to do it for you.

What that does is it establishes a kind of background of intellectual plausibility.

There are other people out there who think this way.

Then you go in for the kill.

You take your ideas and you inject them into all of the stories that are being told in the culture.

So all of the artistic outlets.

So you go to the TV shows and movies and books and video games and advertising.

And everywhere that we're telling stories, you infuse your ideas into those outlets.

And the time will come, eventually, if everything plays out as it should,

the moment will come when people collectively stop thinking of your ideology as an ideology.

And they begin to think of it as simply the way all reasonable people think.

And they'll begin to be embarrassed that their parents ever thought anything different.

And when they meet people who don't think that way,

they'll think they must either be ignorant or close-minded.

And eventually that time will come

when you realize that your ideology has simply become what most people consider to be common sense.

And that's when you know that you've arrived.

But if we look at Nebuchadnezzar's dream,

here's the reality behind that.

If history tells us anything,

it's this, that one day,

one day those ideas will give way to other ideas.

One day that worldview will give way to another worldview.

And here's the thing that's hard for us to hear.

Is that one day your most radical progressive ideas,

one day your most radically progressive concepts that you love and fight for,

those are going to make some teenagers' eyes roll.

That what is progressive today,

tomorrow becomes passé.

I didn't mean for that to rhyme.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Because ideological kingdoms,

regimes of truth,

will always give way to other regimes

and other ideologies.

And then the last way I want to apply this concept of clay-footed kingdoms

is personally.

I think this dream can also be applied to us personally.

Because I think whether we admit it or not,

every one of us,

every one of us in our hearts,

every one of us on some level

is hoping to build our own kingdom.

I mean,

why did you come to D.C.?

Why did you,

people,

if you didn't grow up here and you moved here,

what brought you here,

right?

Why do people come to a place like D.C.?

You come because you want to make a difference.

You want to be in a place

where it feels like culture is happening

and important things are happening.

And you want to be a part of that.

You come because you want to know people

who are kind of in the know.

You come because you want to get a first-rate education

or a top-notch internship

and you're hoping that that's going to launch your career.

You're hoping to have an impact and leave a mark.

That's why people come to D.C.

And some of that is good,

but if we're totally honest,

and I'm being the guy standing up front,

I can freely admit that there's a part of us all

that is wanting to build a personal kingdom,

wanting to build a monolith to our own greatness.

Many Christians do that in the name of God.

And this is what this dream is telling us,

that on some level,

we're all doing that,

and yet, be warned,

human kingdoms have clay feet.

What does that mean?

It means that as we build our personal kingdoms,

we know deep down that there is a fragility down here.

We know deep down that there is no foundation,

that it's weak,

and that all it takes is a tap,

and the whole thing is going to come trashing down.

And we know that on some level,

and we're terrified that other people are going to find that out.

Right?

So David Foster Wallace writes and speaks very well about this,

so I'm going to kind of paraphrase him.

But if you build your personal kingdom on power,

if you build your personal kingdom on power,

then what's going to happen?

You're always going to feel weak and threatened.

Clay feet.

You're always going to feel threatened.

It's never going to be enough.

Like Nebuchadnezzar,

you're going to have nightmares and toss and turn,

wondering when your kingdom is going to come trashing down.

Right?

If you build your kingdom on your beauty,

and if you build your kingdom on your sex appeal,

and if you build your kingdom and your sense of worth,

and your sense of identity on other people's desire for you,

then you're always going to feel ugly.

Right?

You're going to go on Facebook,

and you're going to look at your friends,

and that they were at the beach,

and you're going to zone in,

and you're going to be like,

how does that,

they have a flat stomach,

and then you're going to look at your stomach,

and then you're going to look at their stomach,

and you're like,

no human being has a stomach like that.

How is that even physically possible?

Where do the organs go?

And it's going to drive you crazy.

And all you're going to do is walk around for the next week

thinking about your stomach.

And you know exactly where all of that goes, right?

You're going to feel ugly.

Clay feet.

Right?

If you build your kingdom on your intellect and being smart,

then you're always going to feel stupid.

And you're always going to worry that somebody will,

at some point,

find you out,

that you'll say something stupid in a conversation.

Or you'll ask a stupid question,

and that somebody's going to be like,

that person isn't smart.

They're a fraud.

And I see through them.

Right?

If you build your life kingdom on success and accomplishments,

then you're always going to feel like you're falling short.

And guess what?

You're going to be deeply threatened by other people's success.

Right?

There was a really great interview in NPR sometime back

with Paul McCartney,

who, regardless of whether you like his music,

he's, I mean, one of the great musicians of our era.

And he admits in the interview

to feeling threatened when other musicians come out with great albums.

And the interviewer's kind of fascinated.

And the interviewer says,

but Sir Paul McCartney,

you've had success in so many dimensions of music.

You really feel a competitive insecurity with somebody else

that's coming out with a record?

And there's a kind of a pause.

And then McCartney says,

unfortunately, yeah.

He says, I should be able to look at my accolades and go,

come on, Paul, that's enough.

But there's still this little voice in the back of my brain that goes,

no, no, no.

You could do better.

This person over here, they're excelling.

Try harder.

Clay feet.

That's what it is to build your kingdom on clay feet.

A constant, nagging insecurity.

Human kingdoms have clay feet.

Political, ideological, personal.

It doesn't matter.

So all that is built with human hands will one day fade.

And that's where the contrast lies

because there's a contrast between that

and the rock in the dream that is utterly different.

How?

Because it is specifically not made with human hands.

In other words, it's supernatural in origin.

And Daniel says that this rock is actually the kingdom of God.

So what does this tell us about God's kingdom

in contrast with human kingdoms?

Two things it tells us.

The first thing it tells us is this,

that unlike human kingdoms,

God's kingdom has a very humble beginning

and looks very, very, very humble.

Right?

It's not the big golden statue.

It's not the opulent, amazing, mind-boggling,

you know, eighth wonder of the world.

Right?

It's down here.

It's just a little pebble.

It's something that you would just overlook

and walk right by.

You wouldn't even see it there.

And you know what?

Kingdom work is often like that.

Right?

Kingdom work.

It's the small work.

It's the often thankless work.

It's the work that nobody knows

is even happening most of the time.

It's happening in the background,

in the shadows

and in the darker,

kind of less traveled corners of the world.

Oftentimes, kingdom work is not up front

in the spotlight,

making a huge difference,

you know, selling billions of copies.

Often, most of the time,

it happens there,

but most of the time it doesn't.

It's the small acts of faithfulness

that nobody sees.

Right?

The king of the kingdom of God

is utterly different.

He's not an opulent,

kind of Nebuchadnezzar,

king of kings,

sitting on the throne,

and greatest king in the world.

He's a peasant.

Jesus comes as a servant.

He doesn't even have a place to live.

He has to rely on the kindness of his friends.

Utterly different.

And yet, it says,

one day that humble rock

will grow into a mountain.

That this humble rock

will one day become

the defining reality

for all of creation.

So the first thing it tells us

is that God's kingdom

has very humble beginnings

and a humble nature,

unlike the opulence

of human kingdoms.

The second thing it tells us is this,

that God's kingdom

cannot coexist

with human kingdoms.

It cannot coexist

with human kingdoms.

In the dream,

the deciding,

the kind of climax of the dream

is the fact that the rock comes

and smashes the foundation

of the statue,

smashes it to bits.

And there's a warning here.

But it's not really a warning.

It's a merciful promise,

but it feels a lot like a warning.

And that is that

if we build our human kingdoms,

if our lives become about

building kingdoms

that testify to our greatness,

at some point,

God, in his great mercy,

is going to smash that thing to bits.

It's not something

that might happen.

It's something that will happen.

One day,

it'll all come down.

I've sat with many,

many people,

many people,

in the moments

where their life,

the foundation,

has been utterly destroyed,

where the bottom

has dropped out.

Those moments

where you're too shocked

even to cry.

I've been that person

a time or two in my life.

And it's so easy

in those moments

to say,

where was God?

Why doesn't he answer prayer?

What is he doing?

Is there even a God

that he dropped the ball?

What this is telling us

is something

that is totally counterintuitive,

and that is this.

It could be,

it could be,

would you consider

or be open

to the fact

that those are the moments

where God is most clearly saying,

I love you.

I'm destroying

this weak foundation.

Why?

Why would God

do something like that?

In Matthew 21,

people are demanding

that Jesus explain himself.

Do you know what Jesus says

in Matthew 21?

He says,

have you not read

the scriptures?

The stone

that the builders rejected

has become

the cornerstone.

Why would God

in his,

in an act of mercy

and love,

shatter your foundation?

It's because he wants

to become the foundation.

And the only way

he could do that

is to shatter the one

that you put there.

So Daniel 2

leaves us

with this question

that we need

to ponder together.

And it's a simple question.

Whose kingdom

are we building?

Whose kingdom

are we building?

Are we building

human kingdoms

or are we

spending our lives

building

and being a part

of God's kingdom,

standing on God's foundation?

foundation?

Are we building

clay-footed kingdoms

or something

that will last?

Now,

I don't think

that by asking that

I'm saying,

well,

you need to leave

the secular world

and go work

in a church

or something like that.

That's actually

the opposite of the point.

The point is the opposite.

The point is,

how do we build

God's kingdom

in the midst of

working and living

and eating

and sleeping

and breathing

human kingdoms?

How do we do that?

And there are two litmus tests

here in Daniel chapter 2

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

that kind of help us know

which kingdom we're building.

And so I'll give them

to you real quick.

The first litmus test

is this.

Do you want to know

which kingdom you're building?

How do you treat people

who oppose or criticize you?

It's amazing

in the beginning

of this chapter

that Daniel

is put in a position

where he could very easily

save his own life

and have all of the other

advisors killed

and wiped out.

That would be good

for his career.

No competition.

And it would be really good

as a sense of vindication

because these are the people

that are trying to

bring about the end

of his nation.

And yet he has mercy on them

and he spares all of them.

You've got to understand

in Babylon

the concept of love

for one's enemy

did not exist.

No such thing.

That was weakness.

But here we see

that Daniel

is embodying

a kind of otherworldly love

for people

who should be his enemies.

John Calvin

if you read his commentaries

really struggles with this.

How could Daniel

spare them?

Right?

It's because Daniel's life

is built on an

otherworldly foundation.

And by doing this

Daniel is actually

prefiguring

embodying

what we'll ultimately

see in Jesus Christ

several hundred years later.

Someone who intervenes

not just to save

wise men

but who intervenes

to save the whole world

by giving his life

to save enemies of God.

Right?

So that's the first

litmus test.

How do you treat people

who oppose you?

If you're building

your own kingdom

then you'll stop

at nothing

and whatever it takes.

Right?

Survival of the fittest.

But if you're building

God's kingdom

you show mercy

because you know

that you've received mercy

as you look at

your foundation

which is Jesus Christ.

Right?

So that's the first thing.

The second litmus test

is this.

Who do our successes

glorify?

We're incredibly

successful room here.

Who does that success

glorify?

Right?

Daniel makes it clear

to Nebuchadnezzar

that his ability

to know and interpret

the dream

is not from him

but from God.

Verse 28

he says

but there's a God

in heaven

who reveals mysteries

and he has made it known.

And then verse 30

but as for me

the mystery

has been revealed

to me

not because of

any wisdom

that I have

but because of God.

You've got to understand

revealing mysteries

was a big deal

in Babylon.

If you could reveal

mysteries

that meant you were

somebody

very important.

But Daniel says

it's not me

it's God.

And this is a truly

miraculous revelation

that God gives Daniel

and maybe you're thinking

well I mean

if something like that

happened to me

then of course

I would glorify God.

You know

if God like

sort of spoke to me

audibly

and told me

this amazing mystery

then yeah.

It is miraculous

that God does this

but let me ask you

a question

is it any more

miraculous

than the fact

that you were born

into the family

you were born into

as opposed

to another family?

Is it any more

miraculous

than the fact

that you had

the education

that you got?

Is it any more

miraculous

that you had

the privilege

that you inherited

without even asking for

without even really

probably deserving it?

Is it any more

miraculous

that you were positioned

with the kinds of

friends and network

and connections

that enabled you

to get where you are?

Is it any more

miraculous

that you have

the genetics

that you have

the intelligence

that you have

the capabilities

and capacity

that you have

is any of that

any less

miraculous?

No

I would say

it's every bit

if not more

miraculous

If you're building

your own personal

kingdom

then every

success you have

whether you earned

it or not

whether it was

the sweat

of your brow

or not

that becomes

a brick

in the statue

right?

A brick

one after another

building it

building it

building it

higher and higher

and higher

one day

one day

that's going

to come

down

building

God's kingdom

means recognizing

that those

are opportunities

to point

to God's

glory

and here

as we close

is the great

invitation

in here

the people

who have

had their

foundation

replaced

with Jesus

Christ

it liberates

you from

the rat race

you don't have

to continue

trying to build

your life

into something

golden

and impressive

and beautiful

for one simple

reason

that once

Jesus Christ

becomes your

foundation

when God

looks at you

you are already

beautiful

you're already

radiant

there's nothing

that you can add

let's pray

heavenly father

we do recognize

that this is a

reality that we

all

are aware

of on some

level

we pray that

even now

as we're

gathered here

immersed in

the story

of your

son

that you

would use

our prayer

and our

singing

you would

use your

word

to show us

where we

have built

on

crumbling

foundations

we pray that

even now

as we're here

as we prepare

to come to

your table

together

that as we

receive

Christ

in that

meal

we would

have our

foundations

replaced

even more

so

that when we

look down

we would see

the solid

truth of the

gospel

holding us up

we pray this in

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