I want to invite you to open to Daniel chapter 1.
Daniel chapter 1 you'll see on the screen we have here.
We're going to learn for some lessons from Daniel and Daniel
is a book of 12 chapters. I have up there Daniel one
through 12. We are not going to go through
each and every chapter this morning as a expository.
So we're just going to kind of skip over and hit some high
points, kind of be moving back and forth through some scripture
to hopefully learn some things from Daniel.
This is almost 10 years before Ezekiel was exiled, nearly 20
years before the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
King Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon comes into to Jerusalem and
Judah and begins to plunder the temple and the city there and
listen to Daniel starting in verse 1 of chapter 1, it says
there in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of
Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and
besieged it. And the Lord gave Joy Kim
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the
articles of the House of God, which he carried into the land
of Shinar to the House of his God.
And he brought the articles into the treasure of the House of his
God. Then the king instructed Aspen,
as the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of
Israel and some of the King's descendants and some of the
kings of the of the nobles, young men in whom there was no
blemish, but good looking, gifted and all.
And all had wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to
understand who had the ability to serve in the King's palace
and whom they might teach the language and literature of the
Chaldeans. So in addition to the
Nebuchadnezzar bringing in and, and sieging Jerusalem and
bringing in these young, young men to serve him there, it
wasn't just those youths that were brought in, but it to his
royal family. But we'll notice there in verse
2 that they also took articles from the temple.
And we see was from it was common for the Babylonians to
when they would go to war and to siege these cities, they would
take the, the items that maybe that city was using to worship
their gods. And it would bring him into the,
the, the temple of the Babylonians for, for their God.
They would assume that the Babylonian gods are superior to
the God or gods that they had overtaken.
And so they would also take and plunder from the temple of God
of the people that they were overtaking and bring it back
into their temple as a sign of superiority to other gods.
Well, the Babylonians were going to have some learning to do
during that time because of those things that they were
doing. We're going to learn how, and
the whole point of this book of Daniel is to show that there is
one God supreme over all, sovereign over all, and he is
worthy of all praise. There's one God who is sovereign
over all things, past, present and future.
And that really is the message of the book of Daniel to prove
that. And the book of this, this point
of this book is to show the Israelites and the Babylonians
and every other nation that there is no other God like the
God of Israel. And these Hebrew boys, Daniel
and his friends are going to be an instrument in the hands of
God to show his great glory. So I want us to see what that
means for our lives in this, you know, today.
What does the book of Daniel teach us today?
Daniel chapters one through 12 and the first six chapters are
basically you see a story in each chapter of those first six
chapters and then visions and revelations in the last 6 chap 6
chapters. So we're going to skim through
these and learn how to have a God centered perspective on our
lives in the back of Daniel. God humbles the proud.
If you go to chapter 4, if you
would like, in chapter 4, at the end of the chapter, verse 28,
during that chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and
it's his second dream that he had.
And Daniel once again, just like he did with the first dream of
Nebuchadnezzar, he interprets that dream.
And the whole dream Daniel interpreted was about
Nebuchadnezzar and all the power that and authority and all his
power and authority, but it was going to be taken for him, from
him because of his pride. Well, Nebuchadnezzar didn't
understand that interpretation. He didn't get it.
And so when you get to verse 28, after this dream had been
interpreted, he's still continuing in pride.
It says there in verse 28. All this came upon King
Nebuchadnezzar, and at the end of the 12 months he was walking
about the royal palace of Babylon.
The king spoke saying, is not this great Babylon that I have
built for my royal dwelling, for royal dwelling by my mighty
power and for the honor of my majesty?
Just based on this verse alone, we can understand that
Nebuchadnezzar had a couple things that he was going to
learn. He was going to learn some
things that were very significant.
And at the core of this King's words that these words
Nebuchadnezzar, it was pride and self-sufficiency.
Look what I can do, look what I have done.
And I think sometimes we have that same kind of attitude in
ourselves. Sometimes, you know, sometimes
we are prone to self-sufficiency.
Look at also in in verse 30, actually starting verse 31,
while the word was still in the King's mouth, a voice fell from
heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it
is spoken, The Kingdom has departed from you, and they
shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the
beasts of the field. They shall make you to eat grass
like oxygen, and seven times shall Passover you until you
know that the most High rules in the Kingdom of men, and gives it
to whomever he chooses. That very hour the word was
fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar.
He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen.
His body was wet with a dew of of heaven, till his hair had
grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.
Not a good day for Nebuchadnezzar.
Not a good day. We could see that King
Nebuchadnezzar was saying, I have built this great Babylon.
I have done it for my glory, for for look what I have done with
my own hands. That's what he was saying there.
That was the mantra of King Nebuchadnezzar.
We can do, he can do anything he wanted to do.
And that's sometimes what we see in America too.
You know, we can do whatever we want to do.
Let me work hard. Let me use what I've got.
Let me, let me build around me what I can do.
Let me muster up some strength in myself and do what I want to
do. You know, God is not impressed
by any one of our resumes in this room or anyone in America
or the world. It does not matter to Him.
It doesn't matter what we've done.
The reality is that anything that we have done, we have only
done it because God is sovereign and let us do.
And he's given us the power to do it.
He has given us the strength to do it.
The the even just the air that we breathe, the breath that we
just breathe. That's because God is allowing
us to breathe during this time, and He's able to take it away at
any time He wants to as well. So we see that the goal of
Nebuchadnezzar, who was a sinful man, his goal is to make much of
himself. That was Nebuchadnezzar's goal,
and God humbles him. As we just read, God humbles the
proud and God exalts the humble. So we see next in verse 34 here
continuing on it says, and at the end of that time I,
Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding
returned to me, and I blessed the most high and praised and
honored him who lives forever. For His dominion is everlasting
dominion, and His Kingdom is from generation to generation,
and the all inhabitants of the earth are are reputed as
nothing. He does according to His will in
the army of heaven. And among the inhabitants of all
the earth, no one can restrain his Anne or say to him, What
have you done? At the same time, my reason turn
to return to me For the glory of my Kingdom.
My honor and splendor returned to me.
My counselors and nobles resorted to me.
I was restored to my Kingdom. An excellent majesty was added
to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are
truth and his ways are ways justice.
And those who walk in pride he is able to put down South.
Whether it's this Pagan king of Nebuchadnezzar, whether it's the
the young boys or the young Hebrew, Hebrew boys in this
story, God is showing that we are all dependent on his power
and we live for his praise. And that is really the God
centered life. God exalts the humble.
We, you know, we trust in his power, power.
Whether it's abstaining from the King's food that we saw in
chapter 1, whether it's wisdom to interpret dreams in chapter
2, whether it was living through a fiery furnace in chapter 3,
interpreting dreams in chapter 4, standing up against the king
in chapter 5. We're spending the night in a
den of lions in chapter 6, trusting in the power of God and
living for the praise of God. So I hope to show this to you
this morning. It was such a good study for me
and I'm I'm so glad that I was able to study this and learn
these things. At the end of chapter 2, if you
want to go there starting in verse 3046, Daniel interprets
Nebuchadnezzar's his first dream that God gives that God gives
Daniel the power to do. And in chapter 2 verse 46 we see
here it says then Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face prostate before
Daniel and commanded that they should present an offering and
incense to him. The king answered Daniel and
said truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings and a
revealer of secrets since you could reveal his secret.
This is astounding. This is really an amazing
picture that we see here. The most powerful king in the
world at the time, bowing at the feet of an exile from Jerusalem
and giving praise to God. Chapter 3, verse 26 after
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace,
we see what happens to them. To what effect?
In verse 26 it says Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the
mouth of the burning fire and furnace and spoke, saying,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God,
come out and come here. And Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego came from the midst of the fire.
And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the King's
counselors gathered together, and they saw these men who were
whose bodies the fire had no power.
The hair of their head was not singed, nor were there garments
affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his Angel and delivered his
servants who trusted him. And they have, and they have
frustrated the King's word and yielded their bodies.
And they should not serve nor worship any God except their own
God. Therefore, I make a decree that
any people, nation or language which speaks anything amiss
against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be
cut in pieces and their house should be made as ash heap,
because there is no other God who can deliver like this.
If we just read Daniel three, you know this really pretty
awesome story about some guys who were brought out of a fiery
furnace and stop there. You know, we miss the whole
point of Daniel. We miss the entire thing.
The whole point is the end of the chapter 4 Pagan king to
declare God worthy of praise. That was the whole purpose that
God put those boys through that fire was so God could get the
glory and God alone. We get into chapter 4 and it
starts with the praise of God, just like we read a second ago,
and it ends with the praise of God as well.
In chapter 5 we have another king, King Belchazzar
Belshazzar, who is rebuked and ultimately killed for defaming
and dishonouring God. And then we get to chapter 6,
and when we get to the end of chapter 6, verse 25, after
Daniel spends the night of den the lions and comes out alive,
another king wrote another king at this time, which was king
Darius, wrote to all the peoples and nations and languages that
dwelt on the earth. Peace be multiplied to you.
I make a decree that in every dominion of my Kingdom men must
tremble and fear before God, before the God of Daniel, for he
is the living God and steadfast forever.
His Kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and his
dominion shall endure to the end.
He delivers and rescues and he works signs and wonders in
heaven and earth. Who has delivered Daniel from
the power of lions. God is so passionate about him
receiving his praise that He will send his servants into a
furnace and or into a lion's den to bring it about.
That's how much God deserves and wants His own praise.
That's a God centered perspective that our lives
totally depend on the power of God and totally dedicated and
devoted to his praise. So we do not trust in our own
power and refuse to live to live for our own praise.
You know, God is the one doing the work in our lives as we
depend on him and we live for his glory.
That leads to God centered prayer.
If you go to the beginning of Daniel chapter 6, probably the
most famous story in the book of Daniel, Daniel in the lion's
den, the Bible talks a lot about the sovereignty of God.
And we talk about the sovereignty of God here.
We believe in the sovereignty of God, but there is a dangerous
temptation that we see when we totally rely and put that into a
different package. You know, there's a belief that
that, well, God is sovereign, OK, God is in control of
everything. Well, if God's in control of any
everything, you know, why do we need to pray?
Why do we pray if God's in control, if he knows what's
going to happen, if he's ordained the future and if he's
ordained the past, what's the purpose of prayer?
That's a very dangerous place to be.
That is not the right mindset that we need to have.
There's even a belief out there that there's no need for
evangelism or no need for missionary worker or, or to do
anything for the for God because of God's sovereignty, God's
going to save who he wants. He'll draw people to Christ,
whomever he desires. So that's it.
We just kind of sit back and let the world unfold the way it's
going to unfold. When you understand that that is
a false doctrine. This book puts the sovereignty
of God so clearly on display and emphasizes so clearly the
importance of prayer and the centrality of prayer in Daniel's
life. In verse 1 of chapter 6 it says
there it pleased Darius to set over the Kingdom 120 satraps to
be over the whole Kingdom and over there over these 3
governors of whom Daniel was one, and the satraps might give
account to them so that the king would suffer no loss.
Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and
satraps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king
gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.
So the the picture here, Daniel has now grown and is now served
under numerous kings, when you know Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar,
Darius. And it's estimated that Daniel
is now maybe in his 80s now having rule and reign in a
position second only to the king.
He is one of the three presidents, his most prompt,
he's the most prominent of those three.
And the king plans to give Daniel the Kingdom when he
passes. So his position position in the
Kingdom is very great at this point, verse four and five it
says, so the governors and Satrap sought to find some
charge against Daniel concerning the Kingdom, but they could find
no charge or fault because he was faithful, nor was there any
error or fault found in him. Then these men said, we shall
not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against
him concerning the law of God. These guys know that Daniel will
be obedient to God. They know that no matter what it
costs and they are so and they're starting to scheme based
on his integrity, integrity based on his faithfulness to
God. They and they say, you know, we
can catch him being faithful to God.
May that be said of us. May that be said of us, no
matter what the cost. Continuing verse 6 through 9.
So the governors and satraps throng before the king and said
thus to him King Darius live forever.
And all the governors of the Kingdom and the administrators
and satraps, the councillors and advisers, having consulted
together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm
decree, that whoever petitions any God or man for 30 days,
except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so
that it cannot be charged according to the law of the
Medes and the Persians, which do which does not alter.
Therefore, King Darius signed the written decree.
So the setup is complete. Anyone who wants to pray or
petition any, any man or God apart from King Darius will be
cast into the den of lions. So I want us to put into, you
know, if we can kind of put ourselves into Daniel's shoes
here at this time when this decree comes out, you know,
there's, if we're Daniel, you know, we could think there's all
kinds of room for justification to do things differently than
I've been doing before. You know, I don't want to be
caught praying publicly because if I get caught praying
publicly, I'm going to be thrown into a lion's den and I'm going
to be potentially killed at that point, you know, I can pray when
no one else is looking. I'm still praying, right?
And prayer is something between you and God anyway.
After all, God has raised me up to this position for his glory
and influence in the Kingdom. Aren't I better off to be alive
than dead for God? So there's justification maybe
that Daniel was. You know, going through his
head, We don't know. So what does Daniel do?
When Daniel knew the document had been signed, he went to his
house where he had the windows in his upper chamber open toward
Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three
times a day and prayed and gave thanks to God.
Just that he had done before. He didn't change or alter the
way he was praising God. He kept doing it just the way he
had done before. He prayed three times a day.
God's going to do, you know, of course, what he had planned.
Daniel knows that and Daniel sees it later based on the words
that we see in Jeremiah, which shows the 70 year exiled and God
will bring his people back. So we know what's going to
happen. So if Daniel knows all this,
why? Why pray?
Why continue to pray like that? Why not just coast it out and
keep on living? God had an end and a purpose to
glorify His name. God is going to do and get the
praise by people who seek Him and petition Him and pray to Him
to make His glory known. So the sovereignty of God is
driving Daniel's prayers. That goes for us too.
You know, we're not just bystanders in God's will.
We're doing the work of God. We're praying to God, we're
working for him. We're serving others, we're
doing all that we can to serve him.
So we don't sit back as spectators of a sovereign God.
We, we are participants with a sovereign God to make his glory
known. So Daniel is praying
consistently. And this is certainly an area in
my life that I know I can improve from praying
consistently. And we also pray with courage.
Then Daniel knows what's going to happen and he prays anyway.
So he goes to his house and he opens the window.
This is not a contradiction to what we see in Matthew with the
words of Jesus where he warns against praying to receive the
praise of men. It's not a contradiction at all.
He says going in that in Matthew, he says go into your
room, close the door and pray to your Father unseen.
That's only because that we're not to be praying for man's
praise. Daniel is actually praying to
receive men's condemnation, if that makes sense.
He's praying because he know what's is what's going to be
coming by him praying to anybody but King Darius man is about to
kill him. So Daniel is saying you know,
you can take my physical life whatever the cost may be.
You can take my physical life and you cannot take my prayer
life. Prayer is non negotiable, more
non negotiable than breath itself to God centered man.
Prayer is more precious than life.
So he is thrown into a den of lines where he inevitably were.
Inevitably he prays a lot more and he spends the night before
God who shuts those lines mouth. You know, if I was thrown into a
lion's den, I don't know if I'd be closing my eyes and praying.
I'd be kind of on watch, on guard, looking behind me,
wondering what these lines next moves are going to be.
But Daniel continues to pray courageous prayer.
God receives the praise. Go to Chapter 9 in Daniel if you
have your Bibles open. We pray consistently.
We pray with courage and also we pray contritely.
Pray contritely. Daniel Chapter 9.
Here's Daniel, he knows the 70 week exile will be over, but
he's not sitting back. And he says there in verse 3.
Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by
prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, O
Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and mercy
with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments.
We have sinned and have committed iniquity.
We have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from
your precepts and your judgments.
He's saying the same thing over and over again, just kind of in
different words, turning aside from God's commandments and
God's rules. We read the rest of this prayer
and literally just about every verse involves confession of sin
and wickedness and rebellion, crying out for mercy,
contrition. When your life is centered on
God, we realize that we need mercy at that moment and that's
what Daniel was realizing. He needs God's mercy.
And so this, his prayer of contrition leads to praying with
confidence. Listen now, this prayer ends in
verse 18 and 19 using the English standard version here.
This is amazing when you think about what is what he has just
prayed for here. It says, Oh my God, incline your
ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city
that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas
before you because of your righteousness, but because of
your great mercy. Oh Lord, here, oh Lord, forgive.
Oh Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not for your own sake, Oh
my God, because your city and your people are called by your
name. You hear the confidence in
Daniel's prayer, broken heartedness before God, crying
out for mercy, mercy, and then saying Lord, pay attention to
what's going on here and act. But he's not appealing for God
to answer his prayers based on who Daniel is, not based on his
righteousness, on Daniel's righteousness, righteousness,
but because God, your great mercy and your great name.
That's why we want you to act. Daniel is praying and he's
appealing to God with wanting God's name to be glorified.
It's not a coincidence. When we get to the New
Testament, Jesus disciples say teach us how to pray a response
which Jesus says, you know, Father, hallowed be your name.
Hallowed be your name. That's not a declaration as much
as a position petition. It's literally a prayer.
Godfather in heaven, make your name known.
I'm sure we have all prayed a prayer like that before, maybe
praying about something in our lives right now where we are
begging God to pay attention to what's going on in our lives and
act, do something, please. But we need to realize why are
we praying that? Are we praying that so our lives
can be comforted a little bit? I'm sure.
But we need to be praying so God's name is glorified in
whatever we are going through. Whatever He answers, His name is
glorified. So that's what drives our
praying from beginning, middle to end.
And we get to Janiel chapter 10. He's praying for about 3 weeks
and a messenger comes to him and says your prayers have been
heard. And these last three weeks there
has been a spiritual battle raging in the heavens as you
have been praying. You know, I'm sure I have, I'm
not doing this book justice, but there's just so much in this
book of Daniel. We see in the last 6-6 chapters,
7 through 12 our visions Daniel has has and I want to draw our
attention to very briefly to three of those visions that
Daniel had had one vision which God Daniel realizes that God
will redeem his people. It's actually right where we
left off there in Daniel 920. Gabriel brings a response to
Daniel's praying. It says in verse 24 of Daniel 9
there try to follow along with me here on this.
This was this was a big chunk of scriptures for me to wrap around
my wrap my head around says they're beginning in verse 24 of
Daniel 970 weeks are determined for your people and for your
holy city to finish the transgression to make an end of
sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting
righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the
most holy know therefore and understand that from the going
forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until
Messiah the Prince there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks.
The street shall be built again in the wall.
Even the troublesome times. And after the 62 weeks Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for himself.
And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary, and the end of it shall be with a flood.
Until the end of the war desolations are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.
But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice
and offering. And on the wing of abominations
shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation
which I did, which is determined is poured out on the desolate.
OK, I'm going to try to sum this up as best as I know how to.
You can read all kinds of commentaries and history books
and all kinds of things that these guys try to figure out.
Scholars that know way more than any of this in this building.
No, I don't know it all. I'm not claiming that I figured
it all out, but summing up what most biblical scholars would
read that these passages say that 70 weeks there in verse 24
is a reference to 70 sevens, literally 490 years.
And this is a prophecy of what is to come.
And the picture is in different scholars as they debate
different points, but they all get to the same .490 years from
wherever they start. Just soon after, when the people
of God are restored to the city of Jerusalem where the temple is
built, takes us to the first part of the 1st century where an
anointed one comes finish the transgression and puts an end to
sin and reconciles for iniquity. And the picture is God in the
midst of his people in exile for for a number of years before
coming to Christ, saying, hold on, I've got somebody, I've got
a plan, I've got somebody who's coming.
I'm sending an anointed one who will be cut off and who will
take away your sin and my redemption will come.
God will redeem his people and God will also resurrect his
people. If you want to turn to chapter
12, this book is filled with rescue in the book of Daniel,
rescue from fiery furnaces, rescue from the lion's den.
But the ultimate rescue happens in chapter 12, beginning in
verse one. It says there at that time
Michael shall stand up the great Prince who shall, who stands
watch over the sons of your people.
And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was, since
there was a nation even to that time.
And and at the time your people shall be delivered.
Everyone who is found written in the book, and many of those who
sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting
life, some to shame and everlasting content.
Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the
firmament and those who turn away many to righteousness like
the stars forever and ever. There's so many illusions here
to what we see also in the Book of Revelation, Daniel in this
last half of the book of of, of Daniel has a lot of some people
say it's kind of like the Old Testament version of Revelation.
If you want to say it's talking about the end of history, when
God's people will be raised up with whose names will be written
in the book, the book of life, raised to everlasting life,
others to shame and content. And of course Daniel's going to
die before this happens. We get down to the very last
verse in the book and look what it says there in verse 13 of
chapter 12. But you go your way till the
end, for you shall rest and will rise to your inheritance at the
end of days. That reminds us of the Jesus's
words in John 11. He who believes in me, even
though he dies, he shall live. God assures us He will resurrect
his people and ultimately God will reign over it, over his
people. This is where I want to take us
to. Probably the two most important
verses in the book of Daniel, Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14.
What happens here in in Chapter 7, Daniel sees a vision of
earthly kingdoms and then above these earthly kingdoms he sees
God's Kingdom reigning over all kingdoms that belong to the
Ancient of days, which is a reference to God the Father.
In verse 13 Daniel says I was watching in the night visions
and behold one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of
heaven, He came to the Ancient of days and they brought him but
near before him. Then to him was given dominion
and glory, and a Kingdom that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom, the one
which shall not be destroyed. God will reign over all people.
And in this particular picture, Daniel sees a vision of a coming
king, a king greater than king Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar,
Darius or Cyrus. It's a king who's human, like
the Son of Man, reference to Genesis chapter 1, Psalm chapter
8. He is human.
He is also divine. He's coming in the clouds of
heaven. That is a clear reference to His
deity, which we see in Mark 14 verse 61.
And we see that Jesus was brought before the high priest.
The high priest asked him, are you the Christ?
And Jesus responds, he says I am.
And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of
power, coming with the clouds of heaven.
And as soon as he said this, they shouted that it was
blasphemy what he was saying, claiming to be evil with God.
And they spit on him to begin to feed him and lead him to a cross
where he claimed to be the Son of Man.
And of course, that's when he gave his life for us.
This is why Jesus said the beginning of the Great
Commission before saying, go and make disciples of all nations.
He said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Who gave him that authority?
The ancient of days and upon his death on the cross for our sins,
his resurrection from the grave over sin, he was given all
authority in heaven and earth. And this is how a God center
perspective leads to God center praying based on God center
purposes. You know what, what is our what
should our life look like? If we have a God centered
perspective based on all what we've seen in our God centered
picture in Daniel, we are to praise God, praise him.
We've sung about that multiple times this morning, praising
God, praise God, give glory to God.
He is sovereign over all things in the past, the present and the
future. He holds our lives, He holds
time in his hands. He deserves, He desires and He
demands total praise, Revere and worship God and pray to God.
He is the source of all strength.
We have nothing apart from Him. So we pray with we, we, we pray
with courage, we pray with confidence, we pray with
contrition. We we're pray with consistency
as as well to make His name not name known.
There may be one here who needs to obey the gospel call to be
baptized for the remission of your sins.
We are to hear the word of God, believe that Jesus is who he
says he is. And that word, belief is a
loaded word. There's more than just
believing. You know, even the the demons
believe who Jesus is. You know, belief is an action.
You know where to believe in him.
We're supposed we're to change our lives because of our
beliefs. We're supposed to learn and obey
His commandments that we read in the New Testament.
Believe, then we'll repent. Repent of our former way of
life. We're not doing what we used to
do anymore in a sinful life. We're turning towards God.
We're turning our face towards Him, and we're living that life
that He expects us to live and that we want to live.
Confess in the name of Jesus that He is the Son of God and be
baptized for the remission of our sins.
Then, and only then, will Jesus add us to His church.
Maybe there are those here who have been baptized but just need
the prayers of the church or need to make a public confession
in any way. We want to offer that invitation
at this time, while we stand in, while we.