Welcome to our Wednesday night livestream for week number two. We are so happy to know that hundreds of you are logging in and you're watching this experience so we can share it together as we study God's word in the book of Daniel. Before we get into our Bible study though, I wanna take a moment to go to God in prayer and ask that you join me in prayer from wherever you are, wherever you may be watching this, even if you have your family with you, everyone can bow their heads at the same time and we can all pray together because we need to pray that God will intervene in the spread of this coronavirus. I know we're all praying that way anyway, but I want us to pray together while we have this time through livestream. I also wanna mention that while all of this is going on, peoples lives are still being affected by every day occurrences that would be happening apart from the coronavirus. Here at church we're hearing from many of our members who are going through difficulties, some of which are totally unrelated to the coronavirus. Just two nights ago I had prayer with a woman, a precious, longtime member of our church in whom they discovered a brain tumor over the weekend and she had surgery to remove that tumor just yesterday. And then we're praying for someone else who lost a loved one and they're trying to make funeral arrangements in this crazy time. And the loved one didn't die from coronavirus, it's from natural causes. So we hear stories like this and we realize that while the world is in a panic, real life and real life problems apart from the virus are still happening to our members and to people we know who may not even go to our church. So we wanna pray for the virus problem, pray for God to intervene but we also wanna lift up anyone and everyone who's going through a difficult time. So, can I invite you to go to God in prayer with me? Father, how thankful we are we can come to you in prayer. And we know that we're talking to the God who listens to his children. And we thank you that by uniting our hearts in prayer there is added power in our faith as we draw strength from one another, knowing that we are touched with the same concerns for our community, our state, our nation, our world. You have certainly gotten our attention. God, we're listening for you to speak through all of the crisis. We pray that you will teach us your ways. Teach us about your character. Draw us into the pages of your word. Teach us that we can claim promises in times of tragedy. And we pray for a divine intervention that this virus would not spread any further, and oh God, that you would heal those who have it. And I also pray especially for so many of the people working in the hospitals, those who are nurses, and doctors, and other specialists who are being exposed to the risk of infection just because they're going to work. And I thank you for all of the volunteers who have retired from the medical field but have come back onto active duty, serving where they've been called, especially in places like New York City. Watch over, protect, strengthen them as they give of themselves to help care for those who are in need. Tonight I feel led just to voice a word of thanksgiving for Samaritan's Purse and for their willingness to go and set up a portable hospital right there in Central Park, and for their willingness to do the same thing for the people over in Italy. We just thank you for all the people of light who bear your name, who are part of the solution, who are trying to show the love of Jesus. And now Lord we pray for members of our own congregation. Those who are going through health problems, those who are in the hospital with sickness not related to the virus, our church members who have lost loved ones during this time. We pray for your comfort, and strength, and power to be poured out in everyone of their lives. And we thank you that we have the privilege of belonging to such a wonderful church family. We pray you'll continue to be with our pastor and all of us as we seek your protection and your favor during these difficult days. In Jesus' name, amen. And amen. I trust you had prayer with me, right there where you are. In these difficult days in which we live I've come to tell you that God has a way of getting the attention of powerful people. Throughout history there have been people of influence, people of rank, status, position who have felt they were immune to humbling experiences, who have felt that they were above kneeling down in prayer and acknowledging the presence of God and their need for God in their lives. And yet throughout history God has arranged circumstances such that he has a way of humbling the proud and bringing those who are arrogant to a place of desperation. And sometimes it takes crisis and tragedy to get their attention. There was one such king who suffered from the syndrome of pride and arrogance. Over 2500 years ago he led a wicked empire called Babylon. And yet God allowed this wicked king named Nebuchadnezzar to invade the holy land of God's people, a nation that was referred to as Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, and to deport it's inhabitants into the remote regions of his empire in Babylon and to turn them into captives and exiles in his land, which was a foreign land for them. We read in chapter one of the book of Daniel, how this king sought to recruit from among the ranks of the Jewish exiles, the finest, and the brightest, and the most handsome among the young men of the Jews. And among those was recruited Daniel along with his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, whose names were changed to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now it just so happens as they've been enrolled in the king's university that the king has a restless night as he experiences a dream that God actually placed into his head and into his heart. And it caused him to be unable to sleep. And that brings me to the title of the message, which is Sleepless in Babylon. Sleepless in Babylon. I want you to open your Bible's to Daniel chapter two, Daniel chapter two as we look into this account of the king who could not sleep. Sleepless in Babylon, now I'd like to just kind of summarize what happened. The king had this dream, it troubled him greatly because he could not understand the meaning of this dream. And so when he woke, when he started the day the next day, he wanted to call all of the people on his payroll who were paid to interpret dreams and he demanded of them an answer, an explanation. And so what I'd like for you to do is I'd like for you to write down point number one before we even take a look into this passage of scripture, because I wanna tell you something about God and that is this, God is the God of the showdown. He's the God of the showdown. And what we see with him giving this Pagan ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, this dream that baffled him, this dream he was unable to understand, we see God setting the stage, we see God drawing the contrast, and we see God building the suspense in order for God himself to show up and save the day. All of this is described in the first 16 verses of Daniel chapter two. You see, God likes to stage a setup. If you were sitting out here I would ask you to repeat after me, this is a setup, because that's exactly what it was. This was a divine setup. The king had the dream and he didn't understand it. And so in verse number two, I'll display it on the screen, but if you have your Bible open you look at it, it says, "The king called in his magicians, "his enchanters, his sorcerers, his astrologers, "and he demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed." Now, let's just talk about this interesting assortment of characters for a moment. We have magicians, they were the ones who were responsible for delving into the spiritual world, practicing magic. We have the enchanters as it's translated there in the New Living Translation. This comes from an ancient word meaning snake charmers. We have the sorcerers who are mentioned, they were really like the wizards of antiquity. And then we have the astrologers and these were the stargazers of the day. They were the ones who issued the horoscopes that people would hear or read to determine what their decisions needed to be. And of course we still have these things going on today. We still have horoscopes, and we still have astrology, and people who make decisions based on what their zodiac sign is. Some translations mention here the Chaldeans which is a term that designated the elite of the elite among these spiritual specialists. And the Chaldeans rose to be viewed as priests of the Babylonian religion. Now you know there are other places in the Bible where Pagan kings had these kinds of spiritualists on the payroll of the kingdom. You might recall back in the book of Exodus when Moses and Aaron went in before Pharaoh and Aaron threw his rod down and it became a serpent. And in Exodus 7:11 it says, "Pharaoh also called the wise men and his sorcerers, "and so the magicians of Egypt, they did the same thing "with their enchantments. "Every man threw down his rod "and they too became serpents "but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." And that example from Exodus is just what I'm talking about. God loves to set the stage where there's a showdown between him and the devil, between what God's going to do for real and what Satan's going to do as a counterfeit. Where God can draw the contrast and emerge as the victorious God that he always has been and always will be. Praise be the name of the God. Now back to the story, Nebuchadnezzar did not call these magicians, enchanters, astrologers, sorcerers, he didn't call them in and say, "I'm going to tell you what I dreamed "and then I want you to tell me what it means." That's not what happened. He was really gonna put them to the test, because what he did is, he said, "I want you to tell me what I dreamed. "And not only that, after you've told me what I dreamed "without me even giving you any clues, "then you'll interpret it." And so you could imagine how their hearts were stricken with fear because he then gave the ultimatum. He said, "And if you're not able to do this, "I am going to have each one of you dismembered limb "by limb, part by part, and piece by piece." He didn't just want the interpretation, he wanted them to tell him what he had dreamed. Now here's the thing about it, it's kind of funny because I've often thought about this passage and I thought you know, if he had just told them what he dreamed, they could have concocted any kind of harebrained interpretation and if they had just made enough noises, and if they'd done enough chants, and if they'd just you know, done enough motions like they were getting their signals from the gods above, they could have probably squeaked by with an interpretation. But there was no room for those kinds of shenanigans because he said, "I'm not even going to tell you "what I dreamed so you can interpret it. "You're going to tell me what I dreamed to start with." Well there was a sense of desperation. And looking in verse 10: "The astrologers replied to the king, "'Sir, with all due respect, no one on earth "'can tell the king his dream and no king, however great "'and powerful has ever asked such a thing "'of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer. "'The king's demand is,'" I've got it underlined there, "'impossible." And their conclusion was, "No one except the gods "can tell you your dream, and the gods do not live here "among people." Well the king was impatient, verse 12 says, "He was furious when he heard this "and he ordered that all the wise men "of Babylon be executed. "And because of the king's decree men were sent "to find and kill Daniel and his friends, "Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah." Why would they be among those targeted for execution? Because they were graduates of the king's university and they had been trained and invested in to be experts among these astrologers, and magicians, and sorcerers. And so in the king's fury, because the spiritualists couldn't give him the dream and recount it for him, he said, "Well then I'm gonna kill everyone who claims "to be wise and educated because they're all worth nothing." So we have a definitely problem going in in the kingdom of Babylon. But here's what I want you to write down, not only is God the God of the showdown, I want you to write down this secondly, write this down, we have a formula in a time of crisis. We have a formula in a time of crisis. Now, we look in verse 13, look in verse 18 and you can just read it there, you see that Daniel acknowledged we have problem. I mean, you know, if you find out that there's a death sentence over you and your three best friends through no fault of your own, you're just guilty by association because the king is mad at everybody who's supposed to be one of his paid wise men, on the kingdom payroll. You're going down. You're gonna die. And it's not gonna be an easy death, it's gonna be a slow, tortuous, dismembering kind of death. And Daniel says, "We have a crisis." What I wanna say to you is this formula that God gives us. It's a formula for how we respond in crisis. And what an appropriate time for us to be talking about that right now tonight in the midst of what's happening in our world and in our own time. The first thing is to acknowledge the crisis. Not to make light of it, not to go into denial, not to act as though it's not happening, but to say this is a crisis and we need the help of God. So what I want to do is I want to outline this formula God has given us, are you read for it? Here's the first step, prayer. Prayer is the first step. God wants our first resort to be prayer. You know what prayer means? Prayer means we look to God first. We don't look to the people around us, we don't look to the government that is over us, we look to the God who is above us. Prayer is step number one. And so here, Daniel hears the word that there is an execution sentence that's been issued for all of the people who are wise men, which includes him and his three buddies. And in verse 17 it says, "Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, "Mishael and Azariah what had happened." He urged them to do what? "To ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy "by telling them the secret so they would not "be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon." Do you see what he did? He went back to the dormitory where they were housed and he got his three Jewish friends together, these God-fearing, pure, prayerful, spirit led young men and he says, "We're gonna have a prayer meeting." And you know when I think about prayer, there are times when we need to pray alone. There are times when we need to spend time talking to God, as Jesus said you go into your closet and you talk to God between you and him alone. But then there are other times when we need to have a time of prayer with other people. We call it a prayer meeting. That's exactly what Daniel called, he called a prayer meeting. And so he, this is our formula, prayer, but here's the second step in this formula, not only should we spend time in prayer during a crisis, but praise. Write down praise. Praise means that you just begin to praise God when you're asking him to speak, when you're asking him to intervene, you ask with a spirit of expectation and you praise him as the God who answers the prayers of his children. In verse 19 it says after their prayer time, look at this, "That night the secret was revealed "to Daniel in a vision. "And so Daniel," there it is, "he praised the God of heaven." When God answered the prayer, Daniel lifted up the praise. Isn't that a great passage of scripture. In other words, God revealed to Daniel the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. And therefore Daniel was going to be able to go back and talk to the king and say, "Oh king, "God has told me what you dreamed." Now, this just goes to show you, that whereas all of those spiritualists had no idea what to do or what to say when the king said, "Tell me what I dreamed." And yet Daniel went home and got together with his friends, and he had prayer and the God of heaven revealed it to him. That just proves there's a difference between a prophet and a psychic. Oh listen, we don't need psychics, we need prophets. We need people who proclaim the word of the living God and we need people who discern the will of God and the direction of God. You see, when God answers prayers, we need to praise him. That's exactly what Daniel did. And so in verse number 20, Daniel just breaks out with words of praise and worship to God. He said, "Praise the name of God forever and ever, "for he has all wisdom and power." Verse 21, "God controls the course of world events, "he removes kings and sets up other kings, "He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. "He reveals deep and mysterious things "and knows what lies hidden in darkness, "though he is surrounded by light himself. "I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, "for you have given me wisdom and strength. "You have told me what we asked of you "and you revealed to us what the king demanded." And you might add there, and we had no idea how to understand. This is one of the most powerful proclamations of faith you'll find in scripture. And if you just go back and you look at what Daniel is acknowledging, that God in verse 20 has all wisdom and power, that God controls the course of world events, that God sets up kings and removes kings, that God is the one who gives people the wisdom that they need, that God is the one who gives knowledge to scholars, even the scholars who deny him, their knowledge comes from God himself. And that God reveals deep, mysterious things and that only God can uncover the things that are hidden in darkness. And he says, "Oh holy God, I thank you, "I praise you, I give you honor and glory "because you have shown me the secret "that I asked you to reveal." Let me ask you a question. If God only answered the prayers that you pray in the future based on your praise for the prayers he answered in the past, how many of your prayers would be answered? Oh, I'm convinced that sometimes we're guilty, at least I am, of seeing God answer prayers and then you just kinda check that off your list and you just keep on going to the next crisis or problem when you'll need to pray hard again. But God is a God who takes delight in our praise. He wants to hear us look to him and say, "Oh God, I praise you. "Oh God, you've been so good. "Oh God, you're the great and awesome God "and no matter what's going on in my life, "what's going on in this crazy world, "no matter what is going on where everyone "is in a state of fear and panic, "you are the God who sits enthroned above it all. "And I give you praise for the sovereign holy God "that you are." Well I hope you're following, we're talking about a formula that God has given us in crisis. And so there's prayer, there's praise, and then the third word I want you to write down is proclamation. Proclamation. See proclamation is what you say when God has moved. It's what you declare when there is an answer to your prayer. It's what you confess even when the prayer is not answered yet and all you have is a promise. God wants you to speak of his greatness. Now, here's the thing about it. Praise is something you can do privately just between you and the heavenly Father. It's something that I do a lot of. You know, living alone like I do, sometimes I just sing praise songs and worship songs to the top of my lungs. And I just have a worship service right there in my home. I do it a lot in my car. I crank up the gospel music and I just have a holy worship meeting, a worship service driving down the streets of Atlanta. But proclamation has to do with our speaking a word for God to other people. In Psalm 145:21 the writer says, "My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, "and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever." Now, I wanna mention something, I was watching the press conference of the president, I believe it was yesterday. And the guy who sells pillows, I think his name is Mike Rindell, he's the My Pillow guy and you've probably seen him on television, but he has harnessed the resources of the My Pillow corporation to begin manufacturing masks. And I think that as they build their capacity, by the end of this week they're hoping to be able to generate 50,000 masks a day. So they were out in the rose garden for this press conference and the different pharmaceuticals companies CEOs were coming up there and they had the My Pillow guy. And the president says, "Come on over here, Mike. "You sell a bunch of pillows, tell them "what you're gonna do." So he recounted all of that and then he said, "And now if I may, I'd like to share "a few additional remarks." And he pulled out a piece of paper and he unfolded it and he said, "I believe this is a time when God "is calling us back to his word. "When God wants families to pray together, "when God wants families to honor him "and put him first in their lives." And I don't know if all of the White House aides were about to have a nervous breakdown, the media certainly had a heyday with it after it was over. But I thought, you go pillow man, you go. You had an opportunity and you opened your mouth and you gave praise to God because God is the one we need to turn to during this time. And he used the platform God gave him to speak a word for God. Well, Daniel decides after realizing that he's got the answer, God had given him the answer, he'd answered his prayer and shown him the dream, he goes and he speaks with someone named Ariach in verse 24. And he asked to be taken to the king. So imagine this, here's Ariach taking this Jewish man, Daniel, into the king's presence. And he says, "Oh great King, "one of these Jewish men that I found "is going to tell you what you dreamed." So the king said, "Is that true, what my servant tells me, "that you're going to reveal my dream?" And in verse 27 it says, "Daniel replied, 'There are no wise men, "'enchanters, magicians, or fortune tellers "'who can reveal the king's secret. "'But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, "'and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar "'what will happen in the future. "'Now I will tell you your dream "'and the visions you saw as you lay on your bed.'" Now did you catch that when we were reading that together? Daniel said, "What you've asked for king is impossible "for any human being to generate. "I don't care how many magical powers they claim to have, "I don't care how many dreams and visions they may "have interpreted, what you asked for "which was for someone to tell you what you dreamed, "not just what it meant, that is impossible." And what Daniel was trying to say, the Bible says here in one translation that Daniel spoke with diplomacy and tact to the king. But let me tell you what he was trying to say and what he really meant. What he meant was all of those stooges on your payroll had to wring their hands in sheer terror because they were helpless to give you what you asked from them. But Daniel said where as this was impossible for the stooges, and really it's impossible for anybody who is a mere human, he said there is a God in heaven. There is a God in heaven. Okay, I know this may be weird but I don't care who you are, where you are, and how many people are in your room right now, say this, there is a God in heaven. Will you say it again? There is a God in heaven. In other words what looks impossible to mankind, and not only just what looks impossible but what is impossible for mankind is no problem to the God who is in heaven. Now what I'd like to do is I'd like to think about our own impossible situation. We need a cure for the coronavirus, we need a vaccine, we need some way to stop the spread. It's the invisible enemy. And the leaders of our world are wringing their hands. Even those who dismissed it as some kind of thing the media was hyping up. Well, if it's okay with you I would dare not tamper with scripture but I wanna paraphrase verse 28 in light of what we're going through. Daniel said no magician, no astrologer, no enchanter can do what you've asked. Let's reword it, no scientist, physician, pharmaceutical laboratory or government agency can find the cure for COVID-19 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. I think that verse is so apropos, it is so timely for what we're dealing with right now in our own day and time. That while the task force is looking for answers, scientists, labs, everybody is coming together, the answer lies in the mind of God who is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful. God has the answer. You see God has set the stage for the showdown. And he's waiting for people to acknowledge him. Right now his people are crying out in prayer. Right now we need to be like Daniel and praise God even though we don't have our answer yet, let's praise him as though we do. And we need to be busy proclaiming his power and his greatness to those around us because there's a formula God has given us. I want you to write this down. God is guiding the course of history. Oh yes, he's guiding the course of history. Daniel told the king what the king dreamed. Daniel then interpreted the dream that the king had dreamed. And what I want you to do is I want you to notice Daniel's humility. In verse 29 Daniel says to King Nebuchadnezzar, "While Your Majesty was sleeping you dreamed "about future or coming events. "He who reveals secrets has shown you "what is going to happen. "And it is not because I am wiser than anyone else "that I know the secret of your dream, "but because God wants you to understand "what was in your heart." Do you see the humility in his statement? He's saying, "King, God's shown me this answer "that you need. "He's showed me your dream, "he's told me what your dream meant, "but he didn't do it because I'm anything special. "He did it because he's a great and good God. "And God has shown you mercy. "God spoke to me so you would have the understanding "that God wants you to have." This is not only a statement of humility on the part of Daniel but it's a reminder to us that God loves people who don't love him. And that God is speaking to leaders, even in their pride and arrogance who might reject him and be totally uninterested in acknowledging him. But Daniel said, "God spoke to me so I could tell you "what he wants you to know." I think what Daniel was saying is, "King Nebuchadnezzar, God wants a relationship with you." So he begins to tell him about the dream. Verse number 31, "In your vision, Your Majesty, "you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue "of a man. "It was a frightening sight. "The head of the statue was made of fine gold. "It's chest and arms were silver, "its belly and thighs were bronze, "its legs were iron and its feet were a combination "of iron and baked clay intermingled." And so Daniel paints the picture of this statue that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream. And I am sure as Daniel was just spitting out these details, Nebuchadnezzar's jaw probably dropped. And he was probably saying, "Yeah, yeah that's, "yeah, that's exactly right. "His head, his chest, his waist, his thighs, "his legs, his feet, his toes. "Yes, yes, that's exactly right. "You have seen what I saw." And Nebuchadnezzar was blown away. Now this image, this statue that Daniel was given the secret to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar to corroborate what Nebuchadnezzar had already dreamed, this statue symbolized world powers. World powers in history. The dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar as a revelation of Gentile domination and power, but it took a Jew to interpret it for the Gentile king. So what I'd like to do is display just a graphic of this statue an artist has depicted for us. And you see it on your screen. It's a statue in which each one of the parts of the body of that warrior is symbolic of a world power. Starting with Babylon which was the head of gold that the king had seen in his dream and what Daniel was able to say to the king was, "That golden head of the warrior you saw "in your dream Nebuchadnezzar, "that golden head is you. "I mean you're ruling, you're at the top "of your game right now." But then he went on to prophesy as he related this dream that the chest and arms of silver, "They depict a kingdom that is gonna take over your kingdom one day." The kingdom known as Medo-Persia. It is a union of the Medes and the Persians who combined to form a unified kingdom. And then as history unfolds in the years to come, Alexander the Great is going to establish the empire of Greece, the kingdom of Greece. And that is symbolized with the stomach and thighs of bronze on this statue. And ultimately there will be a fourth kingdom which we now know because history tells us would be called the kingdom or the empire of Rome, depicted as the legs of iron. And then there are the feet that you have to deal with and we're going to talk about that in another one of our messages, but we believe those feet and iron, the feet of iron and clay intermingled represents a revival of the Roman empire in the last days before Christ returns. So I wanted you to see just a graphic of what the king had dreamed in his sleepless night and then what Daniel was allowed by God to tell him he dreamed and to interpret. I mean, this is exciting to me because this demonstrates the power of God to reveal the future to people. These kingdoms after Babylon are kingdoms that were not in existence. They were little tribes and people groups at the time. They were empires that had not yet formed. And yet God depicted them prophetically in this statue, this image in the dream he revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, and then he revealed it to Daniel who went back and told Nebuchadnezzar about the statue and what it meant. You see, these parts of this statue represent human governments, not divine. They're Gentile powers, not Jewish. These kingdoms are seen as succeeding each other in time. And interestingly, if you were to go back and trace the description of metals, the metals go from precious in value, the head of gold to common in value, legs of iron. The metals go from weak in their consistency to strong in their consistency. The metals go from heavy in gravity to light in gravity. And they cover the span of world history, get this, from Daniel's day until the end of time, even the day in which we live. Interestingly these feet made of intermingled pieces of clay and pottery, these feet are impure and these substances don't adhere, they don't coalesce which tells you that they'll be one day easily shattered and easily broken. And if you think about it, that the part of this statue which is the easiest to shatter, the feet made of two different substances that don't adhere one to another, that's the weakest part of the statue. And think about the symbolism here, if this statue represents human government and Gentile domination, the weakest part is the part on which it stands. And this is a reminder to all of us, that no matter how strong, no matter how seemingly invincible or impenetrable any government power is, all governments of man rest on feet of clay that will one day crumble. And we're seeing the reality of that possibility in the days in which we live. Here's the fourth thing I want you to write down though, God's kingdom will replace all kingdoms. God's kingdom will replace all kingdoms. The dream reveals that human government will one day come to an end. I want you to think about this, God is speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, someone who didn't even acknowledge God, he acknowledged the gods of the Babylonians and yet the God of heaven targeted him with this dream because God was speaking to Nebuchadnezzar. And then because God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar needed someone to help him understand what God had said to him, God spoke to Daniel. So then Daniel could go back and tell Nebuchadnezzar what God was trying to say to him. God's speaking to the Pagan, God's speaking to the prophet. And then because Daniel was writing down all these things that we're happening, God was going to speak to his people. These exiled Jewish people who wondered where the God of heaven, where was the God who had given the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the Jewish people would inhabit their homeland, that the Jewish people would call Jerusalem their capital, where was that God when Nebuchadnezzar started invading Jerusalem and raiding the city and torched down the temple, burned it to ash and destroyed all of the walls and stripped these precious Jewish people from their homeland and transported them to live as captives in a foreign land? They were asking, still grappling with God's judgment on their sin and perhaps not understanding it all. How could the God of the covenant of the Jewish people allow a Gentile superpower to have this kind of dominion over us? God was using this vision given to the Pagan king to encourage his people that one day there would come an end to all Gentile powers and ultimately all kingdoms of this earth will give way to the kingdom of Almighty God. In verse 34, Daniel says, "King, as you watched, "as you saw that statue, a rock was cut from a mountain, "but not by human hands." Uh-oh, there's a rock that's been hewn out of a mountain that was not cut by human hands, that means it is supernatural in origin. "This rock struck the feet of iron and clay." The most fragile part of the statue were the feet. "The rock," not cut with human hands, "smashed the feet "of iron and clay to bits "and then the whole stinking statue," excuse me, I inserted that adjective. "The whole stinking statue was crushed "into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, "silver, and gold." All of those component metals that comprised the statue. "And then the wind blew them away "without a trace like chaff on a threshing floor. "But the rock that knocked the statue down "became a great mountain that covered the whole earth." Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Are you hearing what I'm hearing? Daniel said, "I didn't just see the statue sir, "I saw what a rock, not cut with human hands, "a rock that came from God, "I saw that rock shatter the feet into pieces. "And after the feet were shattered, "that same rock shattered all the other component parts "of the statue to bits and pieces "and (blows) blew them away like the wind blows the chaff "from the kernel of wheat on the threshing floor "in the summertime." What in the world does that mean? Well Daniel says, "I'm gonna tell you what it means." In verse 44 he says, "You see there's coming a day "when the God of heaven will set up a kingdom "that will never be destroyed or conquered. "That kingdom will crush all these kingdoms "into nothingness. "And that kingdom will stand forever. "Oh King, that is the meaning of the rock cut "from the mountain, though not by human hands, "that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, "bronze, clay, silver, and gold. "The great God was showing the king what is going "to happen in the future, the dream is true, "it's meaning is certain." And may I ask all of you watching and listening me right now, do you know who that rock, not cut by human hands, who will one day come and destroy all earthly kingdoms and empires, do you know his name? Then say it with me, his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. He is that rock, oh rock of ages cleft for me. And as Daniel wrapped up the revelation of this dream and the interpretation of this dream, Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be the God of Daniel." And this Pagan king had his own time of praise. And so, listen to this, God was praised and Daniel was promoted. Verse 48 says, "The king appointed Daniel "to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts. "He made Daniel the ruler over the whole province "of Babylon, as well as chief over all of his wise men." A.K.A stooges. "But at Daniel's request the king appointed Shadrach, "Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs "of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained "in the inner sanctum of the king's court." You know what I love about this? Daniel said, "Thank you sir for this promotion." Knowing that he owed it to God. He'd be dead if God had not given him this dream because the king had sent out the sentence. Everyone who is a wise man will be executed, but God spared Daniel's life. And because those three young men who were his friends were godly and who joined him in the prayer meeting, when Daniel got promoted he put in a word for his three buddies and he says, "Thank you for the promotion, "but can I also pass along some of the promotion "to my three buddies because I'd really like "to have them at my service in my new position?" And what a reminder that we should never ever forget people who have helped us along the way. We should never forget those who've been a part of our life's journey. Well I hope this study has been encouraging to you. I know the concepts are a little bit hard to grasp when you think about the flow of those world empires in history. We're going to come back and break it down into a little bit more detail, but if you missed all of the history and you missed all of the prophecy here's all you need to know, Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth to replace all human kingdoms with his heavenly kingdom. And he wants you to be part of that kingdom. Let's pray together. Jesus, we love you, we thank you, we praise you. And how we bless your name that the Holy Spirit revealed the secrets of Nebuchadnezzar's dream to Daniel because Daniel prayed and his friends prayed with him. We thank you that you have the power to unlock the mysteries that are hidden from other people's understanding. But that when we seek you with our whole heart, you can show us the truths that make a difference in our lives. Sometimes truths that actually save our lives and I pray that this study has been a source of encouragement to everyone watching and listening as we see what's happening in our own day and time. And we're reminded that when human power gets to the end of it's resources that's when we need to look up and trust God for the miracle. In Jesus' name, amen.
