Expected Arrival - The King is Born

And so because you're hearing, then God can speak to you at any

time. And as I was driving, it dropped

in my spirit. What to minister.

Amen. And so I always get excited

about that. In fact, I just jumped on my

phone and I started, you know, taking a few notes.

When I said, what are you doing? I said, the Lord just gave me

what to preach and it's a couple weeks.

Amen. And so I'm like, wow, what a

great setup. Lord, He knows what he's doing,

you understand. So second Peter chapter 3,

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

verses one through 4, Let's talk about expected arrival.

Amen. Expected arrival.

And second Peter chapter again, 3 verses one through 4, it says

this now. This is now, beloved, the second

letter I'm writing to you, Peter says, in which I am stirring up

your sincere mind by way of reminder, aren't you?

Don't you know we need to be reminded?

That's why the Holy Ghost, his number, the number one thing

Jesus said about him, the very first thing that he announced

about the Holy Spirit in John, He said now when he comes, the

Spirit of truth, he's going to cause things to come to your

remembrance. Wow.

So one of the primary responsibilities of the Holy

Ghost is to cause you to remember something which tells

us if God is responsible to remind you, then you cannot be

like your children, do you? Which is you tell them to take

out the trash, put their laundry in the you know, dirty clothes,

make up their bed, whatever. And then you hear these words.

Oh, I forgot. No, I've reminded you.

You're choosing not to do it. Same in anyway so you understand

because we do not physically see the Holy Spirit nor does he is

he in front of us as we're having this conversation and

documented it with his phone so that he can play back the video.

Although he could play back the video, so to speak, take you

back in time and say no, this is when I've talked to you in your

heart said it very clear. You acknowledged it, but you

didn't do Hallelujah. So we're all with that excuse

because the Holy Ghost is talking to us.

Say he's talking to me and I'm listening and I'm doing it.

Hallelujah. That's the key.

And so he goes on to say, Peter talking about reminding us, He

said that you should remember the word spoken beforehand by

the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and

Savior spoken by the apostles. Know this first of all that in

the last days, say last days, mockers will come with their

mocking, following after their own lust and saying where is the

promise of his coming forever since the Father's fell asleep?

All continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.

What a powerful statement here. Here is a group of individuals

that are not ignorant of a coming, but are so focused on

what's going on in the earth that when heaven invades it,

they miss it. That when heaven invades earth,

they miss it. And they say, well, you know,

everything's like it is. You know, they've said that for

years, decades. People have said decades.

People have said, you know, how many times people have said that

Jesus coming back, Jesus coming back.

I mean, it was 88 reasons why Jesus would come back in 1988,

the year I graduated, OK. I mean, people are always

talking about the return of Jesus.

And, you know, we can say, well, you know, they've been saying

this since, you know, the New Testament started.

Paul actually wrote about the return of Jesus.

I mean, in fact, Paul was convinced that with the, you

know, what was going on in Jerusalem with Rome and all

this, that man, he's coming back now.

Well, Fast forward a couple thousand years later and we're

still here, which helps support this idea.

They've been promising about his coming for a But you know, I

mean, churches have rose up and went down.

Pastors have been in in the office, apostles, prophets,

teachers, evangelists. You know, we've had great

revivals. We can document them.

But you know what, it's just like it is, they've come, they

sleep. That means they've died.

The next one comes and then they die.

Another generation comes and then they die.

You know what it's like. Always, all, always, always,

always. And we can get so focused on

what's going on here that we choose not to keep ourselves in

remembrance that a generation will see the return of the King.

Hallelujah, we'll see this. So we must keep an expected

arrival mentality. Are you hearing me?

Because in our society today, whoo man, you have to be

intentional, right? You have to be intentional.

Now, why does this happen? Why does a verse 4, where is the

promise of His coming? Ever since the Father's fell

asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of

creation. Well, that's really not a true

statement that everything has continued since the beginning of

creation. And we're going to talk about

this a little bit because things haven't always been the same

because the earth has changed quite a bit since the beginning

of creation. In fact it's since the when the

beginning of creation came, the earth was perfect and when the

1st man and woman that was put placed on the earth was created

in the image of God, there was no sin.

There was a time on this planet that sin, death, destruction,

malice, gossip, murder, robbery, thieving all the attributes that

we see today that are going on didn't even exist.

It was non existent. Who?

But then something happened, and the Bible tells us that Adam ate

the of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

For the Lord told him, Son, you can eat from any tree of the

garment of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

You shall not eat, for the day you eat you will surely die.

And when he ate the fruit, death entered the world through his

transgression. And then the seed of man that

was originally created in the image of God without sin became

sinful. But God, come on.

But God. But God in the 3rd chapter of

Genesis promises that he's going to set it back in its original

order. I am going to send my seed from

a woman independent of man, because man now has fallen.

He is of sin. He is not of my nature.

He has a different father. Who is the devil that anointed

cherub that I cast out of my realm when he rebelled against

me? And my son Adam could have cast

out of his realm if he had only stayed with my word.

But because he yielded, he abdicated his throne, his

dominion, his rulership, according to Genesis 126.

Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and

let them rule, let them have dominion.

He handed it over to the devil who becomes the God of this

world, the systems that function in the planet.

He did not. He did not acquire planet earth,

just the way the planet was ran because the earth is still the

Lord's and the fullness thereof. In essence, the Lord says I'll

get my planet back and how it functions on the on the earth.

So he said I'm going to send my seed in a woman, which means man

cannot participate. She'll have to be a virgin.

The Holy Spirit will have to come upon her and and impregnate

her with the Son of God. He is called the word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God in the

Word man, Hallelujah. And so since the beginning of

creation, some things have changed.

It's not the same. And then through different

dispensations of the world's knowledge of God, He has done

some things totally different. And then Jesus shows up, which

was an expected arrival. It was an expected arrival.

So why could a person say where is the promise of his coming?

Well, Luke 1224 or 54 to 56 kind of gives us this insight.

Again, I've already kind of said it one sense, but let's the

scripture communicate it. Now look what it says Jesus says

and he was also saying to the crowds when you see a cloud

rising in the West, immediately you say a shower is coming.

And so it turns out, and when you see a S wind blowing, you

say it will be a hot day. And it turns out that way, you

hypocrites. You know how to analyze the

appearance of the earth and sky. But but why do you not analyze

this present time so man has the ability to notice signs.

The question is, are we so focused on signs in the earth

that we are not focused on signs from heaven, so to speak?

The signs that are to fuel us to maintain an expected arrival?

Because if you do not keep your mind and your eyes set on things

above, then you will go through your whole birth existence

concluding that you'll die like everyone else and you are not of

the generation that will be changed in the moment, in the

twinkling of an eye. You'll be more focused on your

timeline on the earth then you will be on an eternal timeline

that you've been born into. And I'm talking about an eternal

a timeline of life because all are eternal.

Everyone in here is eternal. You're either eternally

separated from God right now because you've never made Jesus

Lord of your life. Your spirit man is not alive to

God. This is why you do not hear him,

you do not daily commune with Him.

You still have this sense of guilt, these issues that go on

in your heart. And you can, you can want God

and you can desire God, and you can even do a formula to try to

get to God, but you're always left with this emptiness.

Why? Cuz your spirit man is not born

of God. But when you confess Christ as

Lord, the Bible says you come alive.

You become a new creature in Christ.

Your spirit man becomes alive to God, and you go from eternal

death experience to an eternal life experience.

Hallelujah, where you can hear from God.

God himself comes and moves in on the inside of you and bears

witness with your spirit. You are child of God.

You have no doubt you're a child of the King.

None, No doubt. And I didn't do that.

But my yielding to His Word and His way of getting to the Father

has caused His Spirit to come live in me.

The third person of the God had the Holy Spirit Himself, and He

speaks to me on a daily basis. He'll speak to me as often as I

want to converse and I'm glad that sometimes He speaks to me

when I'm not because he loves me and cares for me and wants me to

do the things that will benefit my life.

So we can get so focused here in our day-to-day and you know as

well as I do, the things of life are are really kind of

repetitive. We can get called up in the day

in and day out and we don't have no thought of a return.

Now my emphasis is not on the king is coming.

That's next week. My emphasis today is the king is

born and there was an expected arrival, but yet not everyone

experienced it when it occurred because they did not maintain

expectation. And I'm going to show you in

Scripture that if there are those who could expect the birth

of the king in their life and when it occurred, experienced

it, well, then there is a generation, if they will hold on

to expectation, we'll be the ones that will experience the

return of the king. Hallelujah.

Because if the birth of the king can come into the planet

unnoticed, OK, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Now I am not here to split hairs.

Say I have to ask myself, can I even say this right now?

Let me just go on a little bit and I'll just come back and see

if I can say this. Hallelujah, the Lord is good.

Hallelujah. They expected His arrival.

Jesus is coming was not without notice.

In essence, it really wasn't a surprise, although there were

many who were surprised. And I would submit to you the

ones who were surprised when they heard He was here.

It was easier for them to reject Him later because they weren't

expecting Him in the first place.

Oh my goodness, I'm preaching way better in your shouting.

Amen. But that's OK.

Isaiah 9, six and seven says this.

The prophet said, for a child will be born to us.

He's calling to his nation. Now a son will be given.

And notice the Son's not born because the Son always existed.

The Son's always been in existence.

He is eternal. He's the Son of God who became

the Son of man. And the reason why God has to

become a man just stood at me because not everybody here has

ever heard this. And this is really important.

When God gave man dominion in Genesis chapter one verse 26,

God always does what he says, which means he gave him that

rulership. And because Adam gave his

rulership to the devil by disobeying his Father's word,

God himself could not take it back as God because he had given

it to man. In order for him to receive it

back and give it back to man, He had to come as a man, because

God does not violate His own word.

This is why God has to come in the form of a man, and that's

why he sent his son. So he said a child will be born.

That's the earth suit that will carry the sun.

That's always existed. And notice what it says and the

come on, say it with me. And I understand this is a

stirring you up by Ray reminder. But please do not get tired of

this word because most of the church world does not know this

word when it comes to the church.

OK, and the government, notice it's not the religion of

Christianity, it is the government will rest on his

shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor,

mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government or of

peace on the throne of David. Thrones are in kingdoms, not in

religions. And over his Kingdom, Jesus

Christ came to restore the Kingdom of God back to man, not

give them a religion. It was never God's intention to

give us a religion, it was always God's intention to bring

us back into his government, which is His Kingdom, which

means King's dominion of which we would serve as his children

and we would have Co labor with him.

Where Jesus is the King of Kings in his Kingdom we are not

subjects, we are reigning kings with the King.

Glory to God, Hallelujah, and so on.

The throne of David over his Kingdom, to establish it, to

uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and

forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts

will accomplish this. All of Israel knows the King's

coming, and in order for the king to come, he's going to have

to be born. And so I'm just using this one

example. I'm going to give you another

one. Another one is in Micah chapter

Micah 5:2

5 verse 2 and Micah chapter 5 verse 2.

Micah 5:2

It says this. It says As for you Bethlehem,

even though you remain least among the clans of Judah,

nevertheless the one who rules in Israel for me will emerge

from you. His existence has been from

antiquity, meaning it's always been even from eternity.

So his existence did not start the day he was born in the

earth. So a King's coming out of

Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah?

Hallelujah. So Israel knows there is an

expected arrival. There is an expected arrival.

And if you're going to have an expected arrival, you have to

have faith. Faith is a confident

expectation. Can we receive anything from the

Lord without faith? Faith is necessary in order to

be born again. You must have faith, right?

And I would submit to you, even with the gifts of the Spirit,

when we get into the working of miracles or the gifts of

healing, a person cannot be in faith nor know God, and he still

healed them. But that's because someone is

operating in faith. Jesus, when he healed the man at

the pool of Bethesda, was not because faith wasn't in

operation. It wasn't in operation for the

man at the pool, but it was an operation for Jesus, for the

Father says go to the pool. Plenty of sick people are there.

I'm not going to heal any of those.

And I can't tell you why, because it is God's will to

heal. But he said there's one person I

want you to go to. And I want you to raise him up

off his bed. Amen.

And in faith Jesus went to that person, never meeting them

before, obviously had to know who they were by the Spirit, and

in faith that God would direct him to that individual of which

he talked to him and asked him what he wanted.

The man didn't say he wanted healed.

He said he wanted somebody to put him in the pool because his

faith was in the stirring of the water of the pool that an Angel

did. And whoever went in first once a

year would be healed. So he wanted to be healed, but

he thought the only way to be healed was to be put into the

pool. But he has no one who can put

him in because as he drug himself to the pool every year

for 38 years, someone got in first.

Someone got in first. But Jesus said get up and take

up your mat and he was healed because of the faith that you.

So nothing comes from God except by faith.

Do you believe that? I said, do you believe that?

Then why do we believe that when the trumpet blows, if we have no

expectation, we go? Could we get so caught up in

what's going on down here? Because you say, well, wait a

minute, now that means we would go to heaven by works.

No, no, no, no. The tribulation period doesn't

mean that you are going to be separated from God eternally.

A born again believer could go through the tribulation, stay

loyal to God, never take the mark and go to heaven even

though they maybe could have exited earlier.

I'm just throwing out some plausibilities because I do not

see how the catching away becomes independent of faith.

Yet. Many don't even think about it,

have no thoughts about it. In fact, most don't even think

it actually would happen. So as a result of that, they

have more faith they'll die and go to heaven then he would come

in their lifetime. We're going to talk about it

next week just so you'll be OK. Hallelujah.

Say I have faith. I have faith in Luke chapter 2,

Luke 2:21–23

verse 21 to 23, expected arrival.

The king is coming. We can see there are people who

experienced the birth of the king because they expected.

They were not thinking it would go beyond their lifetime.

During their lifetime they expected he could be born.

They didn't know exactly when. They had no concept of when

other than what they had already heard.

So it says when 8 days had passed, this is the birth.

Jesus is born now. OK, Jesus is born Now.

When Jesus was born, we know that there were angels that were

watching their flock by night. And all of a sudden an Angel

pops out in the pasture where they're at and tells them in the

city of David, which is Bethlehem, you know, that you, a

child is born, the savior of the world.

And all of a sudden a whole bunch of angels, a heavenly

host, start singing. I mean, that had to be a sight,

right? To a bunch of Israelites or

Jewish shepherds. And they were so blown away by

this presentation of an announcement that they had an

expectation or there was an expectation that he was to come.

And they and this heavenly host let these shepherds know he's

here. And how do you know which one it

is? You're going to find him in a

Manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, right?

And they had to go see and they went and saw.

Are you hearing me? So now he's born.

We've had eight days pass where he is circumcised.

They name him Jesus because the name was given by the Angel

before he was conceived in the womb.

Remember the Angel came to to Mary and says you've got the

Holy Ghost going to come on you, you're going to have the

Messiah, the king, the one prophesied about all you're the

woman. Everybody knew you were God.

God was going to use a woman. Mary, you're it.

You're the favored 1. I mean, you know how many

virgins prior to her that could have been used?

But God used Mary. So now she could say, can't be

me. No, she had an expected

expectation of an arrival that had to come through a woman.

And when the Angel announces she said, why would I deny what we

know would come past? Be it unto me as the Lord says,

Oh my Mama. So she goes on and says, on the

8th day, call him Jesus. Verse 22 And when the days of

their perfect purification according to the law of Moses

was complete, because women had to go through a purification,

and for a male that was 33 days, for a female that was 66 days,

they brought him to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord.

Verse 23 as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male,

every first born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to

the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was

said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two

young pigeons. So they came to do a sacrifice.

Now look at this verse 25. It's really powerful.

Verse 25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

And this man was what? Righteous and devout.

Look what he was doing. He was looking for the

constellation of Israel. Why?

For the Holy Spirit was upon him, and look what it says in

verse 26. So the Holy Spirit tells Simeon,

and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would

not see death before he has seen the Lord's cry.

So this guy, somewhere in his life, the Holy Ghost comes upon

it, says Simeon, you're not going to die until you see the

one that's expected to be born. Wow.

Which means this guy was expecting that I'm going to see

the king born. I'm going to see him.

I'm going to see the king born. I'm going to see the king born.

I'm going to see the king born. Now he could have picked up, you

know what? There are other devout righteous

men like me. There are plenty of people that

have been in the temple way more before me and my lifetime that

believe they would see and didn't see it.

You understand? He had more evidence of of why

he would not see, but he chose to believe the Spirit and stay

in a expectation of the arrival of the king being born.

So verse 27, it's not because he went to the temple every day.

OK, the day Jesus is born, angels did not show up at

Simeon's house and say, hey, if you'll go to Bethlehem, right?

Because his divine appointment with his expectation was not in

a Manger. Don't know what Simeon was going

to do that day when he woke up, but he came how?

In the Spirit, which means that day he woke up somewhere in the

course of that day, the Spirit of God says you need to go to

the temple. That's right.

Come on, come on. And because he was since because

he was more sensitive to what God was doing, not just his

daily routine, not just the past of everything else, but he was

always trying to stay hooked up. Because I've been given a word

that I'm going to see the king. I have an expectation.

And when the king, the the Spirit of God said go to the

temple, there's no indication that that conversation let him

know he would see the king that day.

But he was led to go and aren't you glad I know him?

He's glad he went. And when the parents brought in

the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, he

Simeon, took him into his arms and blessed him.

And then he realized by the Spirit, Oh my y'all, I mean, you

understand, this is what I, this is what is so problematic with

the United States is because, you know, again, our

constitutional Republic and we vote our people in and vote them

out. You know, we have no concept of

this kingship and we have no loyalty or devotion really.

We just, we do not fully understand the magnitude of this

moment. Think about, I mean, try to

imagine here that Jesus walks in the room right now and walks

straight up to you and shows you the holes in his hands and in

his feet and in his side and then embraces you.

I don't know what your emotional state's going to be, but mine is

going to be off the charts. I mean, I'm going to be so

overwhelmed at the magnitude of his glory, His Holiness, his

sacrifice. You know, I mean, I want to just

collapse at his feet. So you got to Simeon holds this

child and realizes I'm holding the king.

Isaiah talked about this child, Micah prophesied about this

child, Jeremiah. Ezekiel.

Damn, I'm looking at him. He's here, He's in the earth.

This is the king. Oh my gosh.

And we go season after season in December and we look at our

little nativity scenes and we spend more time taking time to

make presents for other people and have no acknowledgement that

the king sits on the throne in a general sense because we're so

desynthesized commercially. But there was such an

expectation here. He has got him in his arms.

He blessed him, Verse 29. And the Lord, he said, Now Lord,

notice the reason I'm here is just to see you are releasing

your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word.

I don't know why the Lord allows Simeon to have that honor, but

he did. I wonder who else he wanted them

to see, but they didn't listen. For my eyes have seen your

salvation, for which you have prepared in the presence of all

the peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles.

Man, he's prophesying now he's Speaking of another prophet

another time that this say this king I'm holding right now is

not just for our nation, but it's for the world and the glory

of your people. Israel and his father and mother

were amazed at the things which were being said about him.

And sent me and blessed them, and said to Mary his mother.

Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in

Israel, and for a sign to be opposed.

And a sword will Pierce even your own soul to the end that

thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

Here is someone who had this expectation that there is going

to be an arrival of a king and his whole life once he heard

that word was I'm looking for him any day.

I'm looking for him and by faith according to the word he was in

faith. I will see the king.

I'll see the king in Matthew chapter 2 verse one through 7.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

We always look at these contexts of Scripture around this time

that says now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in

the days of Herod the King Magi, another translation calls them

wise men from the east, arrived in Jerusalem saying Where is he

who was born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east

and have come to worship him. When Herod the King heard this,

he was troubled and all Jerusalem with them, gathering

together all the chief priests and the scribes right of the

people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be

born. And they said to him in

Bethlehem of Judea, For this is what has been written by the

prophets. And you, Bethlehem, land of

Judah, we just read this Micah chapter 5, verse 2, right?

Micah 5:2

You are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah.

Out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my

people, Israel. Then Herod secretly called the

Magi or wise men and determine from them the exact time the

star appeared, the exact time the star appeared.

This word magi are wise men. If you break it down in the

original Greek, it means an astrology.

Astrology. So these were astrologist, which

means they were looking at the stars.

Now I look at the stars myself. I remember when I moved out to

the house that I'm in right now, there's no St. lights.

I came from a neighborhood that had streetlights, moved to a

neighborhood that had no streetlights.

And in my mind I'm like, why do we have no streetlights, you

know? And so I thought I'll get on the

HOA and we get some streetlights up in here because it's pretty

dark till I walked outside 1 clear night and I'm like, didn't

see that my last house. There's a lot of stars out

there. But I really know why we don't

have streetlights because I'm close enough to the ocean that

when the turtles give birth, there's no lights to draw them

away from the ocean. In fact, any St. lights that are

down where I'm at during those seasons, they cut them off so

that when the little turtles are born, because we care a lot

about turtles, they make it to the ocean and not to my house

where other animals can eat them besides the ones that are

already going to eat them as they get in the ocean anyway.

Obviously some make it, some are hors d'oeuvres for season for

some marine animals say Amen, they don't all make it.

OK, don't be delusional. All right, but the stars are

amazing and I'll be honest with you, I don't know which one

Venus is, although Venus sometimes shows up like a star

based upon the way the sun hits it.

It's not a star, it's actually a planet.

OK, I do not have a telescope by which I do see the Big Dipper

and the Little Dipper. I do not have the other ones

memorized on how they look. The big different Little Dipper

is pretty self-explanatory once you see it.

OK, outside of that, I do not see the other ones, although I'm

sure I'm staring at them, but I'm unaware I am because I'm not

putting the stars together in the pattern that it is in the

sky. But the question is, and again,

unlike the nativity you have at your house, the wise men were

not at the Manger. Amen.

OK, so we're going to be commercially correct.

We need to do the the the Manger, Joseph and Mary with

shepherds, camels, whatever here.

And then let's do a house with another Joseph and Mary and way

more than three guys. It was a caravan of people who

they listed 3 gifts. They were not three people.

All right, and let's set that. And then, you know, have Jesus

not laying in a Manger, but standing and holding Joseph or

Mary's leg because he is a toddler at this time.

Are you hearing me now? This is very important because

the wise men on the night Jesus was born saw the star.

How did it? Did they know it was his?

And why were they looking nightly?

There's an expectation, you understand.

When you have expectation, you'll do things routinely.

When you actually have expectation about you will do

things routinely because you don't want to miss.

Now any of us could see something by happens chance

right I get that had some of my grandkids over one night we were

outside with a little fire and was going to do some smores and

all of a sudden my wife saw this like flash of light in the sky

and we're like what is that Mars like what is that and I'm

looking she goes is that a rocket?

I said it is a rocket. You are right.

And so our grandkids got to watch this rocket from Cape

Canaveral that SpaceX had, you know, put up that night.

It was gorgeous. Now, if we we didn't know, we

just happened to be outside and if we would have known the

schedule, then we could have gone out to expect seeing it and

never would have missed it. But because we did not know it

was just by chance we saw. And many of my neighborhood did

not see it because they did not. They missed the event.

Now, if I keep the SpaceX schedule, then I can make sure I

never miss a launch. So why are they looking?

Daniel? Chapter 2, verse 26 to 31 says

this, and I'm in Daniel. Now we're going way back in

history. The king said to Daniel, who had

given him another name. He said, Are you able to make

known to me the dream which I have seen and its

interpretation? Daniel answered before the king,

and said, As for the mystery about which the king has

inquired, this is King Nebuchadnezzar of the great

Kingdom Babylon. He said the king has inquired.

Neither wise men, conjurers, magicians or diviners are able

to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in

heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to the

king Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days.

This was your dream and the vision in your mind while on

your bed. As for you, O King, while on

your bed, your thoughts turn to what would take place in the

future, and he who reveals mysteries has made known to you

what will take place. But As for me, this mystery has

not been revealed to me for any wisdom, residing in me more than

any other living man, but for the purpose of making the

interpretation known to the King and that you may understand the

thoughts of your mind. You, O king, were looking and

behold, there was a single great statue.

That statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was

standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.

Now you have to get context here.

King Nebuchadnezzar has already called in a group of his wise

men. He's troubled by a dream that he

has, and he declares to them as his advisors in his court,

Listen, I had a dream. I need you to interpret it for

me. They said tell us the dream and

we'll interpret. He says it's not going to happen

because I know your characters like mine, you bunch of mass

manipulators. This thing's bothering me so

much. I can't get you coming together

as a group and have a lying interpretation That's not

reality. So for me to know the thing that

troubles me so much that is accurate, you're going to have

to tell me my dream and interpret it now.

These guys were like, no way, Only God could do that.

They openly admitted this. Only God could do that.

No king has ever asked his advisors to do this.

It's impossible. Nebuchadnezzar got so angry at

that statement that he did, he issued a decree and when a king

issues a decree, it becomes law, means it's irrevocable unless

the law was met. So the king says, fine, I know

you're delaying. So this is how it's going to be

if all of these wise men and and the list that Daniel put down of

all these people within this category of his administration,

he says all of you are to be executed.

Why do I have you anyway? If you can't do it, you are to

be executed. Unless someone is able to come

before me and tell me the dream and its interpretation, everyone

is to be executed. But if one does come, then I'm

going to bless them with all these things.

Because he wanted them motivated by finance.

However it required God, they couldn't do it.

So the king, whose law is irrevocable, started rounding up

the wise men, of which Daniel and his friends were some of

them. And when they came to the house

to arrest them, Daniel's like, what's the rush?

Because Daniel wasn't in the first meeting, he said this is

the law I'm reading to you understand, they read the law of

why they have a right to arrest them from the king.

And Daniel says, go back and tell the king that we will have

it. I got it.

Now that was a faith statement. So then he goes to his three

buddies and he's like, let's pray because we know there's

only one who can do this deal, right?

And obviously God, we're in covenant with him.

He's protecting us cannot see him eradicating us.

We know that's in his word. And so we're going to yield,

we're going to beseech him, we're going to we're going to

make our request known to the father.

Well, the father answered which within 24 hours he was able to

go back and says I have the answer, Tell the king not to

execute anybody. So you got to imagine when

Daniel comes into the throne room that day, there is every

wise man there. So when Daniel says now what?

You saw only God. So he's like, now, no, what I'm

about to say is not because I am more wise than all of these.

So when he say he's like pointing at all these people,

which they're like, oh, you know, they praying to any God.

I hope this man has it. You understand the intensity of

this moment. I mean, we just, we just fly

through scripture all the time and don't understand these

people's lives are at stake. They're like Daniel.

They I don't know which God they were God I I to God, he God, I

hope he has this answer right. But now Daniel served the God,

the only God, the only God, the creator of heaven and earth.

All right, so This is why it's very important.

What when Daniel says only the God of heaven, the creator of

heaven, the one whom I serve. Now he has everyone's attention

in the room so much so that you understand a person can get

converted in this moment called Nebuchadnezzar had a moment

concerning Daniels God when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

said not going into not going to bow down to your little idol.

It's not going to happen. I just want you to know we had

to want a true God period so we don't have to wait around and

and discuss this answer with you.

If you're going to throw us in the fiery furnace, go ahead

because I just want you to know our God is well able to save us

even from that bro right now again, Nebuchadnezzar gets

really hot at some of these responses.

It said he got so mad that he said turn up the furnace 7 times

hotter than hot. The people who threw them in

died. It was so hot, but what

happened? God showed up.

The Lord showed up in the fiery furnace, protected them, burned

off their coverings, but kept them alive with no smoke.

He'd come out and he goes, you. And he said if anybody comes

against these boys, God, we will kill them, impale them, destroy

their house. I mean, that's called

conversion. Change his whole administration

because God showed out who is the God?

You little idols, is not it, right?

So Daniel has the attention of the court, verse 44 of chapter

2, he says in the days of those kings, he's gone down and given

Kingdom administrations and he lets him know, listen, your

Kingdom is the gold part, great king, but another one's coming

after you that's inferior, they're silver.

There's another one even more inferior, they're bronze.

There's another one coming that's iron OK there.

And that's a devastating force, these people here, this Kingdom

here. But then there's another one

when we get to the feet that's got clay and iron mixed

together, although it's can't mix their side by side.

And he says it's in verse 44 in the days of those kings.

We're talking about the 10 toes. He said the God of heaven will

set up a Kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that

Kingdom will not be left to another people, but it will

crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it itself

endure forever. In so much as you saw that a

stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and that it

crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the

gold, the great God who has made known to the king what will take

place in the future. So the dream is true and it's

interpretation is trustworthy. It's trustworthy.

Babylon is in the east, modern day Iran, that's east of Israel.

Wise men from the east. These people came from what was

formerly known as Babylon. It took them 18 months to two

years to get there. Yet from this moment there were

wise men that said the God of Daniel is the God of heaven and

earth. Which means they probably

attached themselves to Daniel in such a way that they said, how

will we know when he comes? What you looking at?

How do you know these things Daniel?

How do you know about these things?

How do we know your God's coming?

How do we know when his Kingdom and I'm sure because Daniel had

access to the law, he had access cause in Numbers there was a

prophet who was trying to that was hired to prophecy against

Israel, but God wouldn't let him prophecy against Israel.

And this prophet Balaam says this in Numbers 2417.

And I'm sure Daniel said, now it's been said that I see him,

but not now, and behold him, but not near.

A star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of

Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons

of Toma. So you understand, and I'm just

giving you a couple scriptures here concerning these things

that they could have referred to.

Isaiah said in 60 and verse 3, And the Gentiles shall come to

your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising.

Now you understand Scripture has literal context, but it also has

figurative context and there are things that you can pull from it

that allow you to recognize certain signs.

There was obviously something with the stars, because if there

was not a truth revealed from God through his prophets about

the stars, then there'd have been no reason for the

astrologers to be watching them. And they started watching from

Daniel hundreds of years later. I wonder if there's any that

came across say it's been promised.

It's been promised about a king coming.

It's been promised about a Kingdom coming.

It's been promised about this Kingdom that would crush all

other kingdoms. But yet there was a line of wise

people that never let go of this expected arrival, and they pass

it down from generation to generation to generation.

You need to expect him to come. He's coming.

The King's gonna be born. The King's gonna be born.

There's a king coming. There is a star rising up out of

Israel. You need to be looking for a

scepter. That's coming.

He's coming, son. He's coming, daughter.

He's coming now. You expected.

You expected that? Is he coming in our lifetime?

I don't know. But I expect him to come in my

lifetime. I expect him to come.

And one generation passed and another generation passed.

And another generation pass, but these men were the generation

that the king came to the earth and they were 18 months to two

years travel away. That not only did they see a

star and believe he was born, they packed up and came to see

the King, trusting that that light that night was testimony

that the night before that light wasn't there, a week before that

light wasn't there or whatever, that light showed up.

And they were firmly persuaded because they had an expected

arrival. The King's born.

They didn't go a year and say, wow, man, it's taken us a long

time to get there. You know, I wonder where he's

going to be at. I wonder if we'll be at a

finding. See, when you get an expected

arrival, you'll keep the course. You won't turn to the left or to

the right. You'll keep your eyes fixed on

the prize because you're going to finish the course.

You know what's pretty powerful about this?

The shepherds represent the Jews, and the sign they saw was

an Angel and a heaven and anginic host singing.

That's a pretty obvious sign. But the wise men, they represent

the Gentiles, and they got a star.

No singing, no verbal announcement, just a light.

So go back to Matthew chapter 2. We'll go on verse 9.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

It says after hearing the king, they went their way, and the

star which that had seen in the east went on before them until

it came and stood over the place where the child was.

And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great

joy after coming into the house not the Manger.

They saw the child, not baby, with Mary his mother.

And they fell to the ground and worshipped him.

Then, opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of

gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Most scholars believe that it

was more than that. That's just the ones mentioned

because there are tributes that you give to the king.

That is, in one sense, just commonly known as a custom.

We don't know this because we vote our president in and out.

We don't think about sending gifts to our president or our

senators or our congressmen. There's nothing wrong with doing

that. OK, You could do that and honor

the position. However, that is not most people

do it through, you know, bribery.

Today, unfortunately, however, they came to bring gifts to the

King and it says and having been warned by God in a dream not to

return to Herod, the Magi left to their own country by another

way. In essence, they came and bowed

their their allegiance and communicated him as being their

Lord. And in essence, these Gentiles

are saying we submit to you and your Kingdom.

You're our king, your Lord of our lives.

This is before the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Now this is very powerful. What I'm saying is, is that how

many people in Jerusalem missed it?

Well, Jesus said it in Luke chapter 19, starting in verse

Luke 19 · chapter mention

41. He said this.

And when he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and

wept over it, saying, if you had known, if you had known in this

day, even you, the things which make for peace.

But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up

a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on

every side. And they will level you to the

ground, and your children with you within you.

And they will not leave you one stone upon another, because you

did not recognize the time of your visitation.

Visitation means this, the ACT by which God looks into and

searches out the ways, deeds, character of men in order to

adjure a judge. How do you pronounce this word?

ADJUDGEA juror, adjure them their lot accordingly, whether

joyous or sad. So all the manuscripts, and

again, just to let you know, there are over 5000 manuscripts

concerning the Bible. Concerning Homer's Iliad, there

are close to 2000 manuscripts. There's less of the Odyssey and

both of those writings are just two of an 8 piece set of a story

that the others are lost forever.

There's another historian by which there's only about 8

copies that he has history of back of back all the way up to

400 BC and the world does not question the authenticity of

these documents. However, the Bible has five

times more of the same type of documentation to validate its

authenticity, and yet the world rejects the Bible as a

historical source of truth of authenticity.

Yet to the world's own standard of determining whether something

is not a copy it originated that far back, the Bible has more.

So these individuals have a documentation that the King will

be born, there are signs associated with it, and when he

arrived, although he demonstrated the signs he was

the Messiah, they rejected him. But the wise men and Simeon did

not. They were expecting, and I don't

know, there were tons of generations before that were

waiting for the birth of the king ever since he announced it

in Genesis chapter 3. And the devil has been through

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

all of those same centuries, have been trying to destroy that

seed, tried to destroy that seed, but he came.

And those that expected Saul, the question is, are we in a

time that we could repeat because Jesus came to show his

nation, I'm your savior, I am the king, I am the Son of God.

And when he made that statement, I am.

They said he was a he was blast blasphemed and all they wanted

to do was crucify. They missed their day of

visitation. They missed it.

Could the Gentiles miss their day if we do not have an

expected arrival? It's something to think on.

It's something to stir ourselves up with during this season that

when we celebrate his birth, to celebrate his birth is to

acknowledge we needed him to come in order for us to have

dominion back, to have sonship back.

He did not come to take us to heaven.

We'll go to heaven, Great. We'll spend some time there,

sure, but that's not the purpose.

The goal. The goal was to make us children

of God now where we could walk back in the dominion God had

given us. And many today on the earth

right now, both Jew and Gentile, are missing this visitation of

God by a spirit because they're not looking for him yet.

He will return and tells us He will.

But the question is, well, do we have an and to have an

expectation means you have to order your life a little

different. So if we're talking about his

birth and we're excited He came so we could have life, how much

more should we be excited close to 2000 years after the event

that if any generation would change because I'll conclude

today with this Luke 18 eight. The latter part of this

scripture says, however, when the Son of Man comes, will he

find, and I this translation is correct, the faith on the earth,

will he find? The faith will Saints, The

Gentiles get so caught up in the everyday that when a trumpet

sounds, you don't hear it. It is sound like what everybody

else thinks Thunder. Are we expecting the arrival of

our King just as we celebrate his arrival at his birth?

How much more should we be in constant expectation of his

arrival? And then when he comes, there's

a way. We need to be in the

righteousness of God in Christ. There's a way, there's an

expectation. We need to be believing.

We need to be confessing. We need to be acknowledging.

We need to realize our life's not our own.

And I'm not going to be the one that misses that day.

I'm going to be like Simeon by the Holy Ghost, hearing day in

and day out, knowing the signs and expecting a sound.