The Whole World in His Hands

Man, well, hey, glad you're here this morning. If you got a copy of scripture, I told you last week that I needed you to get a little extra rest, all right, on Saturday night. And you're going to know why in just a moment, all right? If you got a copy of scripture, turn with me to Daniel chapter seven and Daniel chapter eight today, all right? We're gonna do both those chapters. I know you think that it cannot happen, but by God's grace, all right? By God's grace, we're gonna do that today because what we're gonna do is we're gonna just keep walking in the series through the book of Daniel that we're just calling thriving in Babylon. Now, let me bring you up today. For the first six chapters of Daniel, we've been watching his whole life, all right? We've been watching from the time that he was taken out of his homeland, out of Jerusalem, taken into Babylon, he was taken into captivity.

And from that moment on, Daniel, as well as his friends, no matter what life threw their way, and all of these six chapters, they continued to stand. They stood in Babylon, and we've said every week that how they stood is ways that we can stand. No matter what life asks out of us, no matter how life throws hardship our way, we've been watching how they stand, how they shine, and how they glorify God. Now, for the last six chapters, I wanna remind you, those are actually narrative chapters. Amen, I don't know what that means. Don't tell your English teacher that, all right? What that means is those are literally telling the life story of Daniel. And last week, as we finish chapter six, I wanna remind you, the last part of chapter six, verse 28, right after Daniel comes out of the lion's den, it says this about Daniel to end the narrative chapters.

It says this, Daniel 6:28. It says, "So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus, the Persian." In other words, after decades of watching Daniel's service, after decades of watching his ministry life, that was the end of Daniel's ministry life. And here's what we know. We don't know a whole lot else about Daniel's life. We know that he's already in his mid - 80s. We really believe it couldn't have gone much longer. Most people believe that he was buried in Babylon. So Daniel six is actually the end of the timeline of Daniel's ministry life. You say, "Wait a minute, Matt. We're only in Daniel six, and there's 12 chapters of Daniel. Very astute students. Yes. All right, it is. Here's what happens though. Daniel chapter six ends his narrative life. Daniel chapter seven through Daniel chapter 12 takes up what you could call the appendix of Daniel's life, all right?

Daniel 6:28 Daniel 12 · chapter mention

Or the end or here's how it kind of works out in my mind. Daniel, for these last chapters, is actually pulling out the journal of his life and he's going back and showing us little moments in his life that God touched us his life and that God shows him what is going to happen. All right? So listen, Daniel chapter seven, the writing changes. It moves back from, from the Babylonian language. It moves back into Hebrew. It moves from narrative into, I don't get to use this word a lot, apocalyptic literature, right? It moves into foretelling or prophecy language. It's future looking. And I'm gonna tell you, it's a little bit weighty, sometimes even confusion, confusing to us. But at the end of the deal, here's chapter seven through chapter 12. As a follower of Jesus, what it's pointing to? It's pointing to this idea that I don't have to live in fear, that I don't have to live in question, that I don't have to live all stressed out.

I don't have to live in the dark because what we're gonna see is that I don't even have to worry about what the end is gonna look like because God is showing us exactly what is happening and exactly what is going to happen one day. Daniel seven through Daniel 12 is God pulling back the curtain and he's showing us that we're gonna be okay. That we're not only gonna be okay, actually we're gonna be better than okay because God has already set into motion what is gonna happen. And God is the king of kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He's not just faithful looking backwards. He's faithful looking forwards to the end. All right. So listen, this is incredible. Here's why. What we're gonna see today and what we're gonna see over a little bit of these next couple weeks is that as true as God's word is looking backwards into history.

You're gonna see that today very clearly. He is that true looking in the future. Now here's the warning though. Here's the warning. Some of this text, it is going to be weird. All right? That's okay. We can say that, okay? Some of this text, you're gonna scratch your head a little bit and go, huh, okay. Some of this text, because I know ya, is gonna go right over your head. All right? It is. It's just going to. But for all of us that are believers in Jesus, listen to me, we don't study prophecy to kind of make us get our little prepper station ready, right? We study prophecy because we can know the God, that he's got the whole world in his hands. Remember that song? That's why we study prophecy. Amen, write this principle down. Maybe it'll help you as we get rolling in the chapters.

Listen, God reveals the future not to satisfy our curiosity. In other words, not to get our prepper supplies ready, not to have all the charts and graphs, not to have all that. God shows us prophecy to anchor our security in him. That's why he does it. All right? God pulls by the curtain, shows us tomorrow so that we can be confident in today. All right? So let's see why we can be confident, all right? Daniel chapter seven, Daniel chapter eight, all right? We're gonna do both of them, but you're gonna have to read these chapters this week. There's no way I can cover all of it. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put them both together, show you how both of them ultimately point in one direction and that direction is, is that our king wins. So listen, if you fall asleep right now, at least wake up on the backside to see that God wins.

All right? Here we go. You ready for it? Give me an amen. Are you ready? Hey, I might need a little feedback today. Or it's gonna get a little heavy. So if you feel it, go amen. You just give it to us, all right? It might even make me go a little bit quicker. So there you go. All right Daniel chapter seven, verse one, here it is. Says this. It says in the first year of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and the visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. All right? This is how chapter seven and chapter eight start, both are in the same time period. The timestamp is going back to the king named Belshazzar. We looked at him a couple weeks ago. In other words, this is going back before the Medes and the Persians took over Babylon, going back to Belshazzar, he wasn't on the throne long.

Remember the writing on the wall, right? Keep going. In verse two, it says this. Daniel said," In my vision at night, "now stay with me," I looked and there before me were four, were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea, four great beasts. "He's seeing this in his vision. "Four great beasts, each different from the others. They came up out of the sea." Now listen, this is a vision and the sea always represents, all right, in visions in the Old Testament, always represents this didn't just happen in secret. This is something that God was gonna do in front of all people. Also, listen to this. Anytime you see a beast in the Old Testament, it either represents an empire or the king of that empire, all right? Get that in your minds a little bit. So let's see what these world governments, what these rulers look like.

Here they go. We're gonna see the beasts in very big description. Verse four, it says the first was like a lion and it had wings of an eagle. And I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being and the mind of a human was given to it. Now it sounds a little bit confusing, but you gotta realize that during this time period, just like in our time period, nations had animals attached to them as metaphors to describe them. If I was to say the United States of America, what animal would you say? The eagle. Man, look at that. We did it. Group participation. There it is, right? In this time period, Babylon was known as the lion, the lion with wings. Actually, you can go to the British History Museum and you can see one of the original gates of Babylon and it has a lion embossed on it with wings.

You can see that. It's all over history. So right here, the Bible is describing the Babylonian empire in Daniel's time period and the beast that had wings on it is actually describing Nebuchadnezzar that was taken out. We saw this in chapter four, chapter five, right? Nebuchadnezzar that was taken out into the wilderness, onto his face. He was brought back up to be able to glorify God. He's showing Daniel before it happens what is happening, all right? That was the first beast was lion. Here's the second beast, chapter five, or verse five. It says this, "And there before him me, the second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides." In other words, it's lopsided, right? And it had three ribs in its mouth that represents some of the countries that would take over between his teeth. It was told, "Get up and eat your fill of flesh." All right?

So here, what is it showing Daniel? It's showing Daniel the future. It's showing Daniel that the lion is actually gonna fall to the lopsided bear. Sounds like a Narnian experience, right? The lion, Babylon, is gonna fall. It's showing Daniel one day to the Medes and Persians. And we know that in history, this happens, right? So now what is this whole lopsided deal? The whole lopsided deal is this, that the lion fell to the Medes and Persians. It has two shoulders, but the Persian side of the Medes and Persians rose up and the mead side goes away. You really can't remember any part of histories of the Meds. Why? 'Cause we only see the Persian history when we think about history. It's showing that. The, the, the ribs in its mouth is showing some of the kingdoms that it overtook to get to this point, right?

So Persia overtakes Babylon. It's what we're seeing, right? The lion falls to the bear, all right? And then after that, look at verse six, we'll see the third beast. It says this after that. I looked and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back, it had four wings and those, uh, wings like that of a bird, this beast had four heads and it was given the authority to rule. In other words, this beast right here, it's actually describing to Daniel what was gonna happen 200 years in the future to the meads and the Persians. The meads and the Persians are gonna fall to a new beast, a leopard-like beast with wings. We know that is exactly the description of none other than Greece. The Greece empire, the empire of who? Alexander the Great, right? History writes about him over and over and over again that his, his swiftness, his power was so great that he swept across all the nation as it was almost like he flew and no one put a block in front of him.

In fact, he took Persia, the bear, right? He took it so strongly on Persia's home turf that actually Alexander the Great only used a third of the soldiers that Persia had to do it. We're seeing God. He's showing us history. We're looking back on it today in 2026, but Daniel is seeing what's going to happen. You say, Matt, I get that, but what's this whole four-headed thing about this beast? Pretty interesting. When Alexander died, he had no male heir to his throne and he divided his kingdom in his last will and testament between his four generals. Four different rulers would overstay his kingdom. Are you seeing how specific this is? Are you seeing how 200 years earlier God is showing kingdoms are gonna rise, kingdoms are gonna fall, I know the future. Now more on that vision later, but keep going to verse seven because grease eventually falls.

We know that in history. And after that, in verse seven, it says this about the next world empire. After that, verse seven," In my vision at night, I looked and there was before me a fourth beast, terrifying and frightening and very powerful and it had large iron teeth. It crushed into ours as victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts. It had 10 horns. "Now, this next beast starts off describing in detail what we know, what we look back and we know is the Roman empire, the historic Roman empire that overtook Greece in 150 BC. We know that in history. There's no mistake in that in history. And it was the empire of iron. It was the empire that didn't just take over people. You know this because you studied it. They didn't just take over people. They crushed people.

They wiped people off the earth. They left nothing to be wanted. And what happened here is that Rome, these nations, they would take out the nations and horns in the Bible. It started describing horns here. It always represents power. Now look, you're getting it, right? You're the gifted class. You're getting the weathers is going, aren't you? But here's what it really means. Daniel is shown the future to show him that kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall. Shiny little rulers rise, shiny little rulers fall. They're all gonna come and go. It's all part of God's plans. And he's saying, listen, don't put your faith in them. Don't put your faith in kingdoms. Don't put your faith in stuff. Don't put your faith in rulers no matter what ruler it is. Put your faith in God, the ruler of all rulers. So Daniel is seeing all of this happen.

And guess what? Here's the cool part about it. Exactly what Daniel wrote down is exactly what happens. You see, this was written down. It was sealed. It was there. And now we're looking back through history and we're seeing that God did everything just as he had promised. In fact, write this next principle down. Prophecy shows us that God's word that was 100% true in the past is going to be 100% true in the future. That's what prophecy shows us. That's what it's doing in us. It's showing us the rise and fall and rise and fall and all of it happened. And guess what church? Nobody could have made all of this happen except for God. So what Daniel is showing us that we should trust what God has done and we should trust what he will do one day. Now notice that one day comment because here's what happens.

After the initial descriptions of these, these future looking beasts in Daniel's life, the vision actually begins to fast forward past these people, past us, and God begins to show Daniel and show us what the end times are going to look like. That's what God does in the vision. Why? Because once again, if God is faithful in the past, he's showing us that he's going to be faithful in the future. The rest of chapter seven is showing us not only does God rise kingdoms and take down kingdoms, he's showing us what the kingdom is going to look like during the days of tribulation. During the time the church is going to be raptured out after three and a half years, God is going to show us these glimpses into the end times, these glimpses into what he does and he reshapes the omen - Roman Empire. He rises up a new ruler out of that group and listen to what God says about what's coming.

Verse eight, it says," While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one which came up among them and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. "Now pause there because this is what you future prophecy junkies have been waiting on the whole time. This is a picture of the end times and the antichrist that will come during the tribulation and rule. Now I get it. We don't talk about this stuff a whole lot. We're not one of those churches that has all the graphs and has all the charts and has the prophecy conferences and then you kind of walk out of there just scared to death and not knowing what's going on. But what God is showing us is that he's faithful in the past.

He will be faithful in the future, but in the future after the church is taken, for those that have been known, those that do give their lives to Jesus during the tribulation, he's showing that this antichrist, this powerful figure is going to rise and going to take over. He says he's going to have eyes like a human, but as you look into him, you're going to notice there's something different. He's going to speak boastfully. He's only going to be about his business. It's going to look like he's about somebody else's business, but he's only about Satan's business and he's going to oppress God's people to the point of breaking almost. In fact, skip down to verse 23. Don't worry, we're going to come back. But in verse 23, Daniel is as confused about this as you are. So an angel has to come in and interpret the dream for him and watch what it says.

It says this about this first dream. It says he, Daniel speaking of the angel, he gave me this explanation. The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth. It will be different than all the other kingdoms and it will divire the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The 10 horns are the 10 kings that come from this kingdom. And after that, another king will arise different from the earlier ones. He will subdue the three kings. He will speak against the most high and oppress the holy people and try to change the set times and the laws and the holy people, here it is, here's the hope. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times, and a half a time. Now for you non-math people, a time is a year. Times is two years and a half a time is a half a year.

Good, three of you. There it is. All right. So listen, what it's showing us is that in the backside of the tribulation, there's gonna be this beastly king that rises up and the antichrist is gonna rule like a king with pure evil. You see, King Jesus is the real king. Satan rises up this antichrist figure that is going to take over the world. Are you with me? If you want me, say amen. If you're not, say, oh my. I get it. I get it, right? There it is. Now, I want you to pause there. That's a Peter Abungo joke, by the way. Need to give that credit if he's watching. All right? I want you to go over to chapter eight with me because I want to complete the beasts. All rig? I want to get them all in one week because ultimately, the second set of beasts point ultimately in the same direction as the first set of beasts.

And then if you're still awake, we're going to pull some application at the end. Allright, here we go. Daniel chapter eight, there's, there's another set of beasts, but there's only two of them this time. There's a two horn ram and a goat, all right? Not to spoil it, but the goat is Greece. The two horn ram is the Meades and the Persians. Get it? There's two mead, Persian. Greece is the goat, not Michael Jordan. Grease is the jo - is the goat, right? And it's gonna overtake. All right, speaking of the goat, here's what it says. It'll make sense. Verse seven. Daniel eight seven says, "I saw it." That's the goat, right? "I saw it attack the ram, furiously striking the ram, shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it. The goat knocked to the ground and was trampled on it. And none could rescue the ram from its power.

"In other words, no - the ram, the, the meads and the Persians could not be rescued because the goat, Greece, was coming in to take it over. Verse eight says this," The goat became very great, but at the height of its power, a large horn, "who's that? Alexander the Great. "It was broken off and in the place, four prominent horns grew up towards the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came another horn which started to grow small, but grew in power to the south and to the east and towards the beautiful land." That's talking about Jerusalem. Again, you gotta read this chapter because in chapter seven and eight, it describes the vision and then there's an interpretation. In chapter eight, none other than Gabriel the angel is gonna give us the description. He's gonna give us the interpretation. So you don't know that I'm making this up.

Listen to what Gabriel says in verse 20. He say, "The two horn ram that you saw represents the kings of media in Persia. The shaggy goat is the king of Greece looking forward and a large horn between its eyes is the first king. The four horns that report, replace this one were broken off to represent the four kingdoms that will emerge from this nation, but will not have the same power." Again, it's showing Mead's and Persians overtaken by the Greece Empire. The large horn, Alexander, dies after a while. His four generals take over, but after they take over, we know this from history, one of those generals actually comes in and rises up as the purest form of evil that that whole historical society has seen. And it says this in verse 23 about it. It says in the latter part of the reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce looking king, a master of intrigue will arise.

He will become very strong, but not by his own power. In other words, Satan's gonna be able to give him the power to do this. He will cause an outstanding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper. He will consider himself superior when they feel secure. He will destroy many and take his stand against the prince of princess. In oth words, he's gonna try to take his stand against Jesus. He's gonna try to take Jesus's throne, yet he, here's what happens. Here's what always happens. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power. Now stay with me because this, yes, ultimately is gonna point to the antichrist. The same thing as chapter seven, but first, it is actually pointing towards another figure of Greece. In this Greece four ruler empire, one of them rises up and this guy that came onto the scene named Antiephus Epiphanus.

Now, many of us don't know a whole lot about this guy, but what you know from history is that he was an exact mirror image of what the Antichrist will be one day. And it's what the Bible's describing here. You see in 170 BC, this guy named Entiaphus Epiphanus rose to power. He was so evil, he marched into Jerusalem, swept through the whole city. He was so evil, he slaughtered 80,000 Jews at one time. He stepped onto the Temple Mount. He marched into the Holy of Holies, set his throne up in the Holy of Holies, put a statue of himself in the Holy of Holies. You can read this in history. It's in the book of Maccabees, all right? Not scripture, but great for history. He walks into the Holy of Holies. He slaughters a pig. He consumes an unclean pig to say, watch this Jews.

He throws moms with babies off the walls of Jerusalem to prove that he's in control. He convinces the priests to follow him. The Bible describes him as the, as, as, as a desolation moment. He overtakes Egypt. He overtakes Israel and the priests begin to fall and follow him. Super specific, prophetic moment. But the Bible tells us in verse 14, though, that his kingdom, his rule is only gonna last for 2,300 days. Daniel says he's only gonna last for a little while because here's what happened in history. I know you know this. Let me remind you though. This man named Macab- Macabeus, Julius Macabeus steps up onto the scene. Now for those of you that grew up in, in, in other faith traditions, you'll remember this name because he rises up in the Jewish land. He takes back over the kingdom. He takes back over the, the Temple Mount.

He takes back over the temple of God. And today, the Jews celebrate Hanukkah because of what this guy, Maccabeas, did. Now you say, Matt, is that what the prophecy's talking about? I'm gonna give you a yes and a give you a, a almost on that because here's what I know about prophecy. A lot of times in prophecy, there is an initial fulfillment and then there's the grand fulfillment of it. But what both seven and eight, what both chapter seven and eight are doing is they're both pointing to this idea that God is faithful and God is true and God is just, and just when it looks like the evil is going to win, that God will step onto the scene. Now when we look back at chapter seven, we get to see what actually happens. And now look, for those of you that have been asleep, way back up because this is the application, because what God has done over and over and over again is he has shown himself true.

He has shown himself true. He has shown himself true. Now he is looking into the future going, "Listen, this is coming. Listen, this is coming. Listen, this is gonna happen." But look back at chapter seven. I want you s - I want you to see with your eyes what happens when God steps in and when God takes this antichrist that thinks that he is going to be controlled and when God puts him in his place forever and when God ushers in the new kingdom of God forever and ever and ever. Now remember in the text, the little horn is rising, right? The antichrist is rising. And look at verse nine through verse 14. Oh, this is why I wanted to preach this section. Watch Daniel, he's having this dream. You know, in the moment of this dream, he's thinking that everything is about to fail. He's watching the rise of kingdom, the fall of kingdoms, the rise of beast, the fall of beast.

He's looking into the future going, "God, are you going to win?" And look at verse nine, it says this. Daniel said, "As I looked, thrones were set in place and the ancient of days took his seat." That's a good place for an amen church, right? Watch this. His clothing was as white as snow. His hair on his head was like wool. His throne was like the flaming fire, fire and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing. It was coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him is describing the angels. They're going to be in front of the ancient of days. The court was seated. The books were open. This is the moment. This is the crux of all history. This is the moment everybody's been looking forward. And then verse 11, "I continued to watch because of the boastful words of the horn was speaking." In other words, the antichrist can't even keep his mouth shut when the ancient of days comes up.

And he says, "And I kept looking until the beast was slain and this body was destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire." Can I get it right there, right? He, here, here's what that means. Here's what it means. It means that just when it looks like everything's going down, just when it looks like Satan's gonna win, just when it looks like evil is going to prevail, the ancient of days steps onto the scene and says, "Sit down, little horn. God won Antichrist zero." That's what it's saying. And that's why it's so cool to be able to watch the rise and fall of these beasts, the rise and fall of all these gnarly figures. And then the ancient of days with all power, with all glory, with all wisdom, with all eternity steps onto the scene and says, "I win every time, every single time." And, and I'm enjoying your little golf clap.

But here's the deal, okay? Here's the deal. This is, this is what's always been predicted. And if we can trust looking back, church. There's no reason for us to put our hope in the one that wins. But watch, it gets even better. It gets even better. Look at verse 13. I know you think, how does it get better? Oh, it gets better. Watch. He says," In my vision. "Remember he's seeing the ancient of days in front of him. Oh man, watch. In my vision I looked and there before me, oh, here it is, was one like the Son of Man coming on the clouds. You sang the song. This is why, right? The Son of Man. That was Jesus' favorite representation of himself in the New Testament. Like 80 times he called himself the Son of Man. Oh, watch it. Jesus, he approached the ancient of days.

Are you seeing it in your head? He was led into his presence. He was given authority and glory, sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion, his dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. L- listen, listen, listen, listen. This is so different than all these other little beasts that rise up and fall, that rise up and fall, that look a little bit gnarly, that are lopsided, that have funny looking teeth, that have wings when they shouldn't, all of that craziness. This is the ancient of days hand in the son of God, the deed to this earth and his new kingdom to establish it forever and ever and ever and ever. But we still put our trust in all the stuff that's going to burn and go away.

That's what is showing us in these two chapters. Saying, listen, things are gonna rise into power. Things are gonna go out of power. Things are gonna come. Things are gonna go. But the only thing that gives life is the ancient of days looking to the Son of Man and saying," Go do your thing. "Now, for those of you that are asleep, wake up. Wake up, wake up. Three walkaways. I wanna give you from this text because it's so easy to get bogged down in all the winged details, right? Let me give you three little walkaways. Number one, number one, listen to me church. Listen, for those of us in Jesus, there's always hope, always hope. No matter what's trying to take a bite out of you, listen to me, the ancient of days is still on his throne and the Son of Man is coming on the clouds.

It's going to happen. Church, that's where your hope belongs. Jesus that created this world, Jesus that gives this world life. Jesus is the only one that can offer the promise of hope. There's no way that any kingdom, any beast, any ruler, any talent, anything other than the ancient of days that can give you this hope. So quit chasing it. Quit chasing it. I love this description, ancient of days. You know why? I mean, look at the details just for a minute. We spent details on all the other beasts. Let's look at the beauty of the ancient of day details. What did it say about this ancient of details? What'd it say? Number one, he's ancient. What does that mean? That means he's never created. He's never risen to power. He has always been there. What else? His clothing is as white as snow. You know what that means?

That's pure, he's just, he's holy, he's blameless. His hairy described him as what? As, as being white as wool, meaning he has wisdom above everything else. He never learns anything. He's never surprised by anything. Nobody ever backdoors God. No, he's God. Watch this. His throne is a blazing fire. Boy, that changes our decisions, doesn't it? It means it consumes everything. He judges everything in his path and it seems to be mobile. It's got wheels for somehow. I don't know how it works. In my mind, that means that God can be everywhere all the time and never even get off his throne. He can ride around on this thing. I don't know.

That's our God. And if that's our God, no matter what else comes our way or what beast is in our path, nothing will prevail. Number two, and this week I've been resting this idea that when God says he has a plan for you, no matter how rough it gets, here's the deal, you can bet everything on it. You see how both these texts point to this? Both chapters point to this idea that you may not know the plan. You may not even understand the plan. You might look at the plan and shake your head or scratch your head in disbelief, but when God has a plan for your life, which he does believer, nothing should be doubted. If God in these two passages can orchestrate all of these world empires, you saw what just happened, right? With pristine and absolute perfection. If God can orchestrate them, I got news for you.

He can handle your Monday morning. He can handle your marriage. He can handle your kids. He can handle your m - your family and your job and your future. Man, I love how God always has this eternal plan. Say Matt, where do you even get that from this? Listen to this. If Babylon would have never lost to Persia, Persia would have never sent God's people after 70 years back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. You realize that was Persia, the evil Persian empire that paid for God's temple to be rebuilt after Nebuchadnezzar tore it down. If Persia wouldn't have lost to Greece, the lion losing to the bear, we would have never had the common language of Kamakonania Greek, which the gospel could be proclaimed throughout the whole region, throughout the whole world with one language. If Greek wasn't overtaken by the Roman Empire, the gnarly beast, we would have never had the Pax Roman.

We would have never had the road systems. We would have never had the peace on earth to usher in a century later the Lord Jesus Christ to be proclaimed to the world. You see these beasts are all pointing one after another after another to God's plan and all the way to who, the son of man riding on the clouds. God has a plan for your life, for your life. You can bet everything on it. Here's the last takeaway that I just got from these two chapters is this. It's the Satan and the antichrist goal. It's always to destroy.

Are you seeing all the destruction in these chapters? That's why I wanted them together. That, and I mean, you can only preach about beasts for so long. Amen? I wanted them together because all of chapter seven and all of chapter eight are all about the destruction of all of this stuff. Why? Because Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus says, "I have come to give you life and to what? And to give it to you abundantly, abundantly. So much destruction in all the evil of the world and all the mundane things of the world. But oh church, there's so much life in the one that is gonna come riding on the clouds. Don't miss it. Don't get caught with the beasts. Don't get caught up with the visions. Don't get caught up with all of that because it's only setting up one thing and one thing only and that is our God rules.