Daniel Ch.2: God is in control

In our staff prayer before the service, I noticed all the newlyweds that were

in that staff hermany. There was four people that had gotten married recently.

Did you know that on Friday, our young adult pastor Claire gets married.

Last Sunday night we had one of our revival nights. How many of you

were there? Good job for those of you that were there. Who thinks

those that weren't there missed out? It was really amazing. At seven point

thirty Pastor Berteau gave his altar call. People started coming forward, not saying

these are connected in any way whatsoever, but I'm also not saying they're not.

At seven point thirty two in the Seattle area there was an earthquake.

Not saying these things are interrelated, but they could be. Because only God

with just to remind you that he cares and remind you that he's here,

send a four point two level earthquake, an earthquake large enough so you noticed

it, but not large enough so did any damage. It happened right during

our altar call. I think it really leads into what I want to talk

to you about today, and what I want to talk to you about today

is the fact that God's got you no matter what you're facing, no matter

what you're dealing with, He's got you. That God is in control.

Nothing that happens in our world surprises God. People have asked me, Brandon,

are you gonna say anything about what's happening in Israel and the war in

Israel? Because you guys know that Dian I care deeply about Israel. We

lead Israel trips, we have many friends that live there. We care deeply

about what's happening there. And I just want to let you know that God

is not surprised by this, that God is in control. And if God

is not surprised by what is happening in your life and God is in control,

that God's God his fingers in all of history. My question for you

is how should you and I respond to the fact God's in control? Or

John fourteen twenty seven. This is the verse that I'm challenging in a memorize

this week. This is Jesus talking, and he's talking about when you have

the Holy Spirit in you, that this should be a natural result. And

he says, peace I leave with you my peace I give you. I

do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts

be troubled, and do not be afraid. The Hebrew word for peace,

I've taught on it before. It's a beautiful word. It's shalom. Jesus

is talking about shalom that when there's all of this unsettling happening around you,

he can give you shalom. The amazing thing about you and I having a

relationship with Jesus. Where everyone around us can be worried about tomorrow, worried

about the economy, the interest rates, wars in other country elections that are

coming, you and I are given a supernatural peace that resides inside of us

that we in the middle of all of this can live in shalom. So

I want to open by praying for Israel, praying for you and we as

followers of Jesus, we pay pray for peace in that nation. That's what

we're told over and over again in scripture, pray for peace in Israel.

So would you buy your heads close your eyes as I pray, Lord Jesus,

we do lift up everything that is happening in the nation of Israel that

we love and ask that your will would be done. Lord. We know

that nothing has happened without your knowledge, that you knew and that you are

in control. And Lord, we right now feel a bit helpless here in

Seattle, miles and miles away from what is taking place there. But God,

we asked that peace would come to that nation, that you would resolve

this conflict very quickly. And now, Lord, specifically, for each person

that's here, they're dealing with different wars in their own life, different struggles

around them, whether it be emotionally, physically, spiritually, they have different

battles they're facing. And Lord, I pray that shalom would overwhelm their life,

that as they acknowledge that Jesus loves me, he's got me's in control,

that the natural response would be peace. In your name, I pray,

Amen. I want you to turn to Daniel chapter two. That's what

we're going to look at this morning. We started a series through the Book

of Daniel last week. Here's what's gonna blow your mind. I hope this

hits you as much as it hits me. So I come up with our

sermon calendar, oftentimes as far as a year a year and a half in

advance. So we knew a year ago that I would be teaching on Daniel

Chapter two this weekend. Why do I share that with you? People?

Whenever they hear I have this long of a sermon calendar, they always try

to be hyper spiritual and drop this one on me. Well, pastor Brandon,

What about the Holy Spirit? What if the Holy Spirit leads you?

And I tell them that I am so in tune with the Holy Spirit that

the Holy Spirit tells me a year ahead of time what I'm supposed to speak

on, because it's gonna align with what's going on in your life and in

our world. And I don't think there is a better chapter in scripture to

teach on than Daniel two with everything that's going on in our world right now,

because you are gonna see clearly that God is in control, that he's

always been in control, and that God is in control of history. And

you're going to see that very clearly here Daniel Chapter two, Verse one.

It says in the second year of the reign of Nebuconezer. Now we know

nebucon Azer, we talked about him last week. This was this ruthless general

that took on the Egyptians and the Assyrians at the Battle of Carchamish in six

oh six BC and he destroys them. Babylonians become the ruling empire of the

world. And simultaneously, while he's winning this battle, his father Nebopolazar dies,

So not only is he a conquering general, he's now the king of

the most powerful kingdom in the world. And as he's heading back with his

troops to Babylon, he makes a pitstop in Jerusalem and he sieges Jerusalem,

and in the middle of the siege, he kidnaps, takes hostage hundreds of

teenage boys, and he has this plan to indoctrinate them into the Babylonian culture,

to seduce them with the best that all of Babylon has to offer,

and someday have them serve in the king's palace. This indoctrination takes place over

a three year period of time. They're given new names, they're taught a

new language, they dress differently, they're given different food, they're putting a

different environment. Everything is different for them. That is Nebukonezer. We are

now told that it is the second year of his reign. This happens Nebukanezer

had a dream. His mind was so troubled he could not sleep. Now

for you and I. Oftentimes a bad dream means we ate too many tacos

the night before, like oftentimes mellow out on the pepperoni pizza, and your

dreams won't be as weird. But there are some cultures that dreams mean a

lot. In fact, I believe that oftentimes God will use dreams to reveal

himself, as many people that I have talked to. You have many Nigerian

families in our church, and I've met with several of them, and two

of them told me the same story that they met Jesus through a dream,

that they had a dream where they encountered Jesus. I've talked to many people

that have come out of Mormonism and how they met Jesus is they met the

real Jesus in a dream. I've talked to many Muslims the encounter they had

with Jesus was in a dream. In fact, one of my all time

favorite books is a book called Seeking Allah Finding Jesus. Extraordinary book, in

fact, I encourage you to read it. But the author tells of going

in to refute all of Christianity and has a dream that eventually I dream about

Jesus that eventually leads to his salvation. So you're dealing with a Babylonian culture

that is full of witchcraft and mysticism and occultism. Even though they're incredibly technologically

advanced, they're spiritual. This way, Nebukanezer has a dream and it scares

him. Most scholars believe that he had this same dream multiple nights and he

didn't know what to do. In fact, he was afraid to go to

sleep at night because of it. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters,

sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him what he'd dreamed. Magicians, chanters,

astrologers, who are all these people? Each one of them had a

different role in Babylon. I'll sum it up. They're all demon possessed sorcerers

involved in witchcraft like they are involved in the occult These are bad dudes.

These are also the guys that he inherited from his father. So I want

you to think of it this way. Back in this culture, if you

were a magician, enchanter, sorcerer, or astrologer, you were known as

a wise man, and you were one of the king's advisers. Ironically,

this was his chief of staff. He inherited it from his father, and

he was already skeptical of them. He was wondering if they're manipulative. Now,

nebucan Azar, I wouldn't say was a deeply spiritual guy. He was

just a tyrant. But his father was deeply spiritual and involved in the occult.

And so nebucan Azer calls them in and says, I had a dream.

And he said, I had a dream that troubles me, and I

want to know what it means. Then the astrologers answered the king, may

the King live forever, tell your servants the dream and we will interpret it.

The king replied, this is what I've decided, if you do not

tell me what my dream was. So nebu Caanzar is figuring out that if

these guys hear from a god and have the ability to interpret the dream,

why wouldn't they have the ability to hear from a god and tell me what

my dream was. Nebukan As is thinking, if I tell them my dream,

they're just gonna make something up and trick me. They'll say something obscure,

some weird interpretation that could apply to a bunch of different things. So

nebukin Ezer says, I want you to tell me my dream and interpret it.

And if you don't, this is a nice guy. How'd you like

to work for him? He says, I'll have you cut into pieces and

your house is turned into piles of rubble. Uh. The actual word for

rubble is poop. So you can interpret that one now you want. He's

basically saying, if you can't tell me my dream, if you guys can't

interpret it, I will cut you personally into pieces, and I'll turn your

entire homes into piles of poop. They respond, and he goes on.

He says, but if you tell me my dream, I'll make you rich.

So if you can tell me my dream and interpret, I'll make you

rich. Once more, they replied, let the king tell his servants the

dream, and then we'll interpret it. The king answered, I am sure

that you are trying to gain more time, and Verse ten, the astrologers

appeal to the king. There's no one on earth who can do what the

king asks. I want you to catch this. No king, however great

or mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter

or astrologer. What the King asks is too difficult. I love this next

line they don't know how prophetic and true it was. They said, no

one can reveal it to the king except the gods. The king responds,

This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of every

wise man in Babylon. He's like, you guys are all liars, you're

all Charlatan's, you're all fake, and now as king, I'm declaring you're

all dead. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death,

and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them

to death. So last week we talked about four of the boys that were

kidnapped from Israel and brought to Babylon were Daniel, Hanna and Aiah, Michael

and Azariah. After three years of this cultural indoctrination, when they were presented

to the king, the king found none better. In fact, Bible tells

us that they were ten times wiser, ten times better at issues than anyone

that served previously under the king. But we now find out, first off,

Daniel and those boys were not the wise men brought to Nebuconezer to interpret

it, but they were viewed in the region of Babylon as wise men.

But now They're going to be put to death because Nebuconezer's dream could not be

told, it could not be interpreted. God is in control. God has

got you. Stop looking at the situation you're in and asking does God even

know I'm here? Does God care? Does God have a plan in all

of this? If you were one of those Hebrew boys that at fourteen fifteen

years old got ripped away from everything that you knew, I know how you'd

respond exactly how I would, which is, Where's God in this? This

isn't fair man, I've been faithful. You're not supposed to do this to

me. But what we don't know is that God is at work no matter

what is happening. God is working behind the scenes. He is always moving,

He is always working. He always has a plan. What God was

doing is he was shifting some things to take these boys and placed them in

a position of influence in a kingdom, and now their time had come Verse

fourteen. Arioc was the head of the executioners, so he went to go

find Daniel and the three boys to put them to death. But when he

encountered Daniel, Daniel said, why did the king issue such a harsh decree?

Arioch can explain the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went into

the king and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream for him.

Well, Daniel is like, your problem is you went to a man

to interpret your dream. But only the God can reveal mysteries. Only the

God can tell anyone what this dream meant. So immediately I love what Daniel

does. Next, he goes back to read buddies that were there with him,

and he urged them to plead for mercy from God of Heaven concerning this

mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest

of the wise men in Babylon. This word mystery is a Hebrew word raz

are a z. It's used eight times in this chapter alone, eight times,

and the word means a hidden truth that can only be revealed by God.

So Daniel goes back to his buddies and says, all right, let's

pray that God speaks to us. We believe God speaks to us. God's

not surprised by any of this. So they pray, and then the Lord

reveals the dream to Daniel, and he goes to meet nebekan Azer and share

the dream. We read about it. In Verse thirty one says, your

Majesty looked and there before you stood a large statue, an enormous, dazzling

statue, awesome in appearance. Some of you might have a translation that uses

the word terrible in there. The actual translation should be awesome, awesome in

appearance. So when it's translated terrible, it doesn't mean terrible. If you

have that translation, it doesn't mean terrible like you and I think terrible.

It means awesome, magnificent, like never seen this before, incredible, That's

what it means. Thanks to the power of AI. It's first time I've

ever used AI in a sermon. We asked AI to create the image of

the statue that Nebekan has are dreamed, and this is it. This is

the AI image of the statue. I would like to point out that I

think this looks a lot like Morgan Butcher. God is in control. I

want to first off see that to remind you that God is in control of

your here and now, what you're facing right now this week, what you're

dealing with, whether it's financial issues, physical issues, issues in your marriage,

whatever it is, maybe issues emotionally spiritually. God is in control.

He's got you. He's with you. I mean Daniel, Hannah and I

are Michel and Azaraia. I mean they got reminded that God is in control

of history. Now they're presented with this massive opportunity in the here and now

to show God's truth. We always talk adventure about living missionally, like leveraging

your relationships for the cause of Christ. Literally, this is Daniel's moment,

like he sees God is in control and then he shares what this means.

Why I think this chapter is so amazing for what we're dealing with right now

in Israel is this is this great reminder that none of this happens, and

God is surprised that nothing takes place without his knowledge, nothing takes place without

his oversight. God sees you, he knows what you're going through, and

God's got you. So specifically in that moment, God's hand was on Daniel

as he faced this murderous king. And then Daniel steps back and he shares

what this means. The Book of Daniel was written between five forty and five

point thirty BC. This is a prophetic word about the next four empires that

are going to rule the world. So he looks at Nebukanezer, and he

says, do you see that head of gold, and he goes, that

is you. That is the Babylonian Kingdom. He said, but there's going

to come a time. And then he points out the silver arms in the

silver chest. He says that a less influential, less strong empire is going

to conquer you. And then he prophesied the Persian Empire. And then he

said, after a couple hundred years, the Persian Empire will be conquered by

the Bronze Empire, which was the Greek Empire. And he said, after

the Greeks, they'll be conquered by an empire that is of iron, like

the legs, but unfortunately the feet are a mixture of iron and clay.

So it's going to be an empire that will crumble amongst itself. It won't

get conquered by another empire. It will crumble and divide. And it was

about the Roman Empire. So in five hundred and forty b th Daniel,

here's from God what is going to take place over the next thousand years of

history. God is in control. God knows what's going on. He sees

you, he sees the future and he's got a planet work in the midst

of it. My favorite story in this whole studying Alexander the Great is conquering

the world. You've probably heard this famous story about him. He was twenty

nine years old. He fell into his bed sobbing, proclaiming there are no

more worlds to conquer. Imagine at twenty nine, you already conquered the whole

world. But you know the reason he didn't conquer Israel in Jerusalem. He

planned to. He went into the city of Jerusalem to destroy it, and

the priests begin to pray. And the High Priest went through all of his

scrolls, and he pulled out the scroll of Daniel that had been written five

hundred years prior, and he turns to the section about Alexander and the Greeks,

and he runs to meet him at the walls of Jerusalem, and he

reads Daniel chapter two to him. Alexander hears it, cannot deny that those

words were written about him. He called back his troops and they left Jerusalem

church. God is in control, he sees what is happening. None of

this is a surprise to him. Can I tell the wildest thing about this?

If God is in control of a thousand years of history, if he

cares about all of this, Do you think he knows what you're facing?

Do you think he knows what you're going through? You think he's in control

of your circumstances and situation. So what should as a follower of Jesus my

response be to the reality that God is in control of history, that God

sees what's going on, that he's got a plan. It should be shalom,

it should be peace. We should just say this doesn't make any sense.

And I know that everybody around me. They're afraid of World War III,

They're afraid of the economy collapsing, They're worried about this next election.

Everyone around me is worried and stressed out. But when Jesus left, he

says, my peace I give to you, And he says, and I

like the peace you get from the world. He says, you don't have

to be I'm afraid you get my peace in the middle of all of this

uncertainty shalloon. So Daniel shares this vision, shares the interpretation of this dream

to a murderous king. I mean, you're literally telling the guy, well,

you're gonna get overthrown and you're gonna get overthrown by a less powerful empire.

Even this is the same guy that a week before was ordering every wise

person in Babylon chopped into pieces. How do you think the king is going

to respond to this? Trust God's at work always, He is always working

behind the scenes. King Nebuknezar hears these words, falls prostrate before Daniel and

paid him all in order that an offering an incense be presented to him.

Then the king said, surely your God is the God of gods, the

Lord of kings, and the revealer of mysteries. For you were able to

reveal this mystery. I just thought about it, like during worship. I

tried taking a bunch of selfies of it, and the girls behind me thought

I was posing with them, but I was actually trying to get that sign

and them too. We have a sign on our wall that we just put

up and says, make Jesus famous. You know how you make Jesus famous?

When there's all this uncertainty and challenges in the world, you have peace.

It won't make sense to your neighbors. Your neighbors will say you were

either completely aloof and naive, or you've got something that I need. So

in the middle of all of this wise man being killed everywhere, Daniel's able

to make Jesus famous. And now the King is saying, all these other

gods, they don't mean nothing compared to your God. Then the King placed

Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him, made him ruler

over the entire province of Babylon, and placed him in charge of all the

wise men three years before this kid was stripped from his home. For three

years, he's taught a language, He's taught to eat food and live according

to customs that are totally different, not knowing that God was working pieces together

to get a man of God in a position of leadership over the entire empire.

Moreover, at Daniel's request, the King appointed Shadrack, Mishak and a

Bendigo administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained in the High

Court. We're going to talk about them next week, Church. God is

always at work. He's got you, he's got you what you're dealing with.

He's got He's in control of history. He sees you, and he's

got a plan. He's the greatest chess player ever He's work in this.

I want you to buy your heads, close your eyes. If you're here

today and you're an example of God's got you. God is in control.

Because you don't even know why you're here, but you're here. I want

to give you an opportunity to begin a relationship with Jesus. So, if

you were here today and you do not know Jesus but you want to,

I'm going to count to three, and when I say three, if that's

you, I want you to raise your hand. But I also know that

there are some of you. You've prayed prayers, you've gone to church.

But if you were honest in answering this question, are you in a right

relationship with Jesus, you'd have to say no, I'm not if you want

to leave this place being right with Jesus. When I say three, I

want you to raise your hand. So, if you are here you do

not know Jesus and you want to, or you just know you're far from

him and you want to leave this place in a right relationship with him.

When I say three, raise your hand. Here I go one, two,

raise your hand, now three, put your hands down. Could everyone

stand up on your feet. I'm gonna ask everyone in this place to repeat

this prayer after me. And this prayer in itself means nothing, but the

Bible says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that

Jesus is Lord and that he's risen from the grave, then you're saved.

So this is your opportunity. Is you confess this prayer. This is real

for you. You leave this place knowing you are right with Jesus. So

I want to ask everyone to close your eyes repeat this prayer after me.

Everyone say, Dear Jesus, I stand before you today. I admit I've

messed up. But today I ask you to forgive me, and I invite

you to come into my life and to change me. I choose from this

day forward to serve you with my life. Thank you for forgiving me and

for saving me. In Jesus' name. Amen,