And so because you're hearing, then God can speak to you at any
time. And as I was driving, it dropped
in my spirit. What to minister.
Amen. And so I always get excited
about that. In fact, I just jumped on my
phone and I started, you know, taking a few notes.
When I said, what are you doing? I said, the Lord just gave me
what to preach and it's a couple weeks.
Amen. And so I'm like, wow, what a
great setup. Lord, He knows what he's doing,
you understand. So second Peter chapter 3,
verses one through 4, Let's talk about expected arrival.
Amen. Expected arrival.
And second Peter chapter again, 3 verses one through 4, it says
this now. This is now, beloved, the second
letter I'm writing to you, Peter says, in which I am stirring up
your sincere mind by way of reminder, aren't you?
Don't you know we need to be reminded?
That's why the Holy Ghost, his number, the number one thing
Jesus said about him, the very first thing that he announced
about the Holy Spirit in John, He said now when he comes, the
Spirit of truth, he's going to cause things to come to your
remembrance. Wow.
So one of the primary responsibilities of the Holy
Ghost is to cause you to remember something which tells
us if God is responsible to remind you, then you cannot be
like your children, do you? Which is you tell them to take
out the trash, put their laundry in the you know, dirty clothes,
make up their bed, whatever. And then you hear these words.
Oh, I forgot. No, I've reminded you.
You're choosing not to do it. Same in anyway so you understand
because we do not physically see the Holy Spirit nor does he is
he in front of us as we're having this conversation and
documented it with his phone so that he can play back the video.
Although he could play back the video, so to speak, take you
back in time and say no, this is when I've talked to you in your
heart said it very clear. You acknowledged it, but you
didn't do Hallelujah. So we're all with that excuse
because the Holy Ghost is talking to us.
Say he's talking to me and I'm listening and I'm doing it.
Hallelujah. That's the key.
And so he goes on to say, Peter talking about reminding us, He
said that you should remember the word spoken beforehand by
the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and
Savior spoken by the apostles. Know this first of all that in
the last days, say last days, mockers will come with their
mocking, following after their own lust and saying where is the
promise of his coming forever since the Father's fell asleep?
All continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
What a powerful statement here. Here is a group of individuals
that are not ignorant of a coming, but are so focused on
what's going on in the earth that when heaven invades it,
they miss it. That when heaven invades earth,
they miss it. And they say, well, you know,
everything's like it is. You know, they've said that for
years, decades. People have said decades.
People have said, you know, how many times people have said that
Jesus coming back, Jesus coming back.
I mean, it was 88 reasons why Jesus would come back in 1988,
the year I graduated, OK. I mean, people are always
talking about the return of Jesus.
And, you know, we can say, well, you know, they've been saying
this since, you know, the New Testament started.
Paul actually wrote about the return of Jesus.
I mean, in fact, Paul was convinced that with the, you
know, what was going on in Jerusalem with Rome and all
this, that man, he's coming back now.
Well, Fast forward a couple thousand years later and we're
still here, which helps support this idea.
They've been promising about his coming for a But you know, I
mean, churches have rose up and went down.
Pastors have been in in the office, apostles, prophets,
teachers, evangelists. You know, we've had great
revivals. We can document them.
But you know what, it's just like it is, they've come, they
sleep. That means they've died.
The next one comes and then they die.
Another generation comes and then they die.
You know what it's like. Always, all, always, always,
always. And we can get so focused on
what's going on here that we choose not to keep ourselves in
remembrance that a generation will see the return of the King.
Hallelujah, we'll see this. So we must keep an expected
arrival mentality. Are you hearing me?
Because in our society today, whoo man, you have to be
intentional, right? You have to be intentional.
Now, why does this happen? Why does a verse 4, where is the
promise of His coming? Ever since the Father's fell
asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of
creation. Well, that's really not a true
statement that everything has continued since the beginning of
creation. And we're going to talk about
this a little bit because things haven't always been the same
because the earth has changed quite a bit since the beginning
of creation. In fact it's since the when the
beginning of creation came, the earth was perfect and when the
1st man and woman that was put placed on the earth was created
in the image of God, there was no sin.
There was a time on this planet that sin, death, destruction,
malice, gossip, murder, robbery, thieving all the attributes that
we see today that are going on didn't even exist.
It was non existent. Who?
But then something happened, and the Bible tells us that Adam ate
the of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
For the Lord told him, Son, you can eat from any tree of the
garment of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You shall not eat, for the day you eat you will surely die.
And when he ate the fruit, death entered the world through his
transgression. And then the seed of man that
was originally created in the image of God without sin became
sinful. But God, come on.
But God. But God in the 3rd chapter of
Genesis promises that he's going to set it back in its original
order. I am going to send my seed from
a woman independent of man, because man now has fallen.
He is of sin. He is not of my nature.
He has a different father. Who is the devil that anointed
cherub that I cast out of my realm when he rebelled against
me? And my son Adam could have cast
out of his realm if he had only stayed with my word.
But because he yielded, he abdicated his throne, his
dominion, his rulership, according to Genesis 126.
Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and
let them rule, let them have dominion.
He handed it over to the devil who becomes the God of this
world, the systems that function in the planet.
He did not. He did not acquire planet earth,
just the way the planet was ran because the earth is still the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. In essence, the Lord says I'll
get my planet back and how it functions on the on the earth.
So he said I'm going to send my seed in a woman, which means man
cannot participate. She'll have to be a virgin.
The Holy Spirit will have to come upon her and and impregnate
her with the Son of God. He is called the word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God in the
Word man, Hallelujah. And so since the beginning of
creation, some things have changed.
It's not the same. And then through different
dispensations of the world's knowledge of God, He has done
some things totally different. And then Jesus shows up, which
was an expected arrival. It was an expected arrival.
So why could a person say where is the promise of his coming?
Well, Luke 1224 or 54 to 56 kind of gives us this insight.
Again, I've already kind of said it one sense, but let's the
scripture communicate it. Now look what it says Jesus says
and he was also saying to the crowds when you see a cloud
rising in the West, immediately you say a shower is coming.
And so it turns out, and when you see a S wind blowing, you
say it will be a hot day. And it turns out that way, you
hypocrites. You know how to analyze the
appearance of the earth and sky. But but why do you not analyze
this present time so man has the ability to notice signs.
The question is, are we so focused on signs in the earth
that we are not focused on signs from heaven, so to speak?
The signs that are to fuel us to maintain an expected arrival?
Because if you do not keep your mind and your eyes set on things
above, then you will go through your whole birth existence
concluding that you'll die like everyone else and you are not of
the generation that will be changed in the moment, in the
twinkling of an eye. You'll be more focused on your
timeline on the earth then you will be on an eternal timeline
that you've been born into. And I'm talking about an eternal
a timeline of life because all are eternal.
Everyone in here is eternal. You're either eternally
separated from God right now because you've never made Jesus
Lord of your life. Your spirit man is not alive to
God. This is why you do not hear him,
you do not daily commune with Him.
You still have this sense of guilt, these issues that go on
in your heart. And you can, you can want God
and you can desire God, and you can even do a formula to try to
get to God, but you're always left with this emptiness.
Why? Cuz your spirit man is not born
of God. But when you confess Christ as
Lord, the Bible says you come alive.
You become a new creature in Christ.
Your spirit man becomes alive to God, and you go from eternal
death experience to an eternal life experience.
Hallelujah, where you can hear from God.
God himself comes and moves in on the inside of you and bears
witness with your spirit. You are child of God.
You have no doubt you're a child of the King.
None, No doubt. And I didn't do that.
But my yielding to His Word and His way of getting to the Father
has caused His Spirit to come live in me.
The third person of the God had the Holy Spirit Himself, and He
speaks to me on a daily basis. He'll speak to me as often as I
want to converse and I'm glad that sometimes He speaks to me
when I'm not because he loves me and cares for me and wants me to
do the things that will benefit my life.
So we can get so focused here in our day-to-day and you know as
well as I do, the things of life are are really kind of
repetitive. We can get called up in the day
in and day out and we don't have no thought of a return.
Now my emphasis is not on the king is coming.
That's next week. My emphasis today is the king is
born and there was an expected arrival, but yet not everyone
experienced it when it occurred because they did not maintain
expectation. And I'm going to show you in
Scripture that if there are those who could expect the birth
of the king in their life and when it occurred, experienced
it, well, then there is a generation, if they will hold on
to expectation, we'll be the ones that will experience the
return of the king. Hallelujah.
Because if the birth of the king can come into the planet
unnoticed, OK, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.
Now I am not here to split hairs.
Say I have to ask myself, can I even say this right now?
Let me just go on a little bit and I'll just come back and see
if I can say this. Hallelujah, the Lord is good.
Hallelujah. They expected His arrival.
Jesus is coming was not without notice.
In essence, it really wasn't a surprise, although there were
many who were surprised. And I would submit to you the
ones who were surprised when they heard He was here.
It was easier for them to reject Him later because they weren't
expecting Him in the first place.
Oh my goodness, I'm preaching way better in your shouting.
Amen. But that's OK.
Isaiah 9, six and seven says this.
The prophet said, for a child will be born to us.
He's calling to his nation. Now a son will be given.
And notice the Son's not born because the Son always existed.
The Son's always been in existence.
He is eternal. He's the Son of God who became
the Son of man. And the reason why God has to
become a man just stood at me because not everybody here has
ever heard this. And this is really important.
When God gave man dominion in Genesis chapter one verse 26,
God always does what he says, which means he gave him that
rulership. And because Adam gave his
rulership to the devil by disobeying his Father's word,
God himself could not take it back as God because he had given
it to man. In order for him to receive it
back and give it back to man, He had to come as a man, because
God does not violate His own word.
This is why God has to come in the form of a man, and that's
why he sent his son. So he said a child will be born.
That's the earth suit that will carry the sun.
That's always existed. And notice what it says and the
come on, say it with me. And I understand this is a
stirring you up by Ray reminder. But please do not get tired of
this word because most of the church world does not know this
word when it comes to the church.
OK, and the government, notice it's not the religion of
Christianity, it is the government will rest on his
shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor,
mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of his government or of
peace on the throne of David. Thrones are in kingdoms, not in
religions. And over his Kingdom, Jesus
Christ came to restore the Kingdom of God back to man, not
give them a religion. It was never God's intention to
give us a religion, it was always God's intention to bring
us back into his government, which is His Kingdom, which
means King's dominion of which we would serve as his children
and we would have Co labor with him.
Where Jesus is the King of Kings in his Kingdom we are not
subjects, we are reigning kings with the King.
Glory to God, Hallelujah, and so on.
The throne of David over his Kingdom, to establish it, to
uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and
forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will accomplish this. All of Israel knows the King's
coming, and in order for the king to come, he's going to have
to be born. And so I'm just using this one
example. I'm going to give you another
one. Another one is in Micah chapter
5 verse 2 and Micah chapter 5 verse 2.
It says this. It says As for you Bethlehem,
even though you remain least among the clans of Judah,
nevertheless the one who rules in Israel for me will emerge
from you. His existence has been from
antiquity, meaning it's always been even from eternity.
So his existence did not start the day he was born in the
earth. So a King's coming out of
Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah?
Hallelujah. So Israel knows there is an
expected arrival. There is an expected arrival.
And if you're going to have an expected arrival, you have to
have faith. Faith is a confident
expectation. Can we receive anything from the
Lord without faith? Faith is necessary in order to
be born again. You must have faith, right?
And I would submit to you, even with the gifts of the Spirit,
when we get into the working of miracles or the gifts of
healing, a person cannot be in faith nor know God, and he still
healed them. But that's because someone is
operating in faith. Jesus, when he healed the man at
the pool of Bethesda, was not because faith wasn't in
operation. It wasn't in operation for the
man at the pool, but it was an operation for Jesus, for the
Father says go to the pool. Plenty of sick people are there.
I'm not going to heal any of those.
And I can't tell you why, because it is God's will to
heal. But he said there's one person I
want you to go to. And I want you to raise him up
off his bed. Amen.
And in faith Jesus went to that person, never meeting them
before, obviously had to know who they were by the Spirit, and
in faith that God would direct him to that individual of which
he talked to him and asked him what he wanted.
The man didn't say he wanted healed.
He said he wanted somebody to put him in the pool because his
faith was in the stirring of the water of the pool that an Angel
did. And whoever went in first once a
year would be healed. So he wanted to be healed, but
he thought the only way to be healed was to be put into the
pool. But he has no one who can put
him in because as he drug himself to the pool every year
for 38 years, someone got in first.
Someone got in first. But Jesus said get up and take
up your mat and he was healed because of the faith that you.
So nothing comes from God except by faith.
Do you believe that? I said, do you believe that?
Then why do we believe that when the trumpet blows, if we have no
expectation, we go? Could we get so caught up in
what's going on down here? Because you say, well, wait a
minute, now that means we would go to heaven by works.
No, no, no, no. The tribulation period doesn't
mean that you are going to be separated from God eternally.
A born again believer could go through the tribulation, stay
loyal to God, never take the mark and go to heaven even
though they maybe could have exited earlier.
I'm just throwing out some plausibilities because I do not
see how the catching away becomes independent of faith.
Yet. Many don't even think about it,
have no thoughts about it. In fact, most don't even think
it actually would happen. So as a result of that, they
have more faith they'll die and go to heaven then he would come
in their lifetime. We're going to talk about it
next week just so you'll be OK. Hallelujah.
Say I have faith. I have faith in Luke chapter 2,
verse 21 to 23, expected arrival.
The king is coming. We can see there are people who
experienced the birth of the king because they expected.
They were not thinking it would go beyond their lifetime.
During their lifetime they expected he could be born.
They didn't know exactly when. They had no concept of when
other than what they had already heard.
So it says when 8 days had passed, this is the birth.
Jesus is born now. OK, Jesus is born Now.
When Jesus was born, we know that there were angels that were
watching their flock by night. And all of a sudden an Angel
pops out in the pasture where they're at and tells them in the
city of David, which is Bethlehem, you know, that you, a
child is born, the savior of the world.
And all of a sudden a whole bunch of angels, a heavenly
host, start singing. I mean, that had to be a sight,
right? To a bunch of Israelites or
Jewish shepherds. And they were so blown away by
this presentation of an announcement that they had an
expectation or there was an expectation that he was to come.
And they and this heavenly host let these shepherds know he's
here. And how do you know which one it
is? You're going to find him in a
Manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, right?
And they had to go see and they went and saw.
Are you hearing me? So now he's born.
We've had eight days pass where he is circumcised.
They name him Jesus because the name was given by the Angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
Remember the Angel came to to Mary and says you've got the
Holy Ghost going to come on you, you're going to have the
Messiah, the king, the one prophesied about all you're the
woman. Everybody knew you were God.
God was going to use a woman. Mary, you're it.
You're the favored 1. I mean, you know how many
virgins prior to her that could have been used?
But God used Mary. So now she could say, can't be
me. No, she had an expected
expectation of an arrival that had to come through a woman.
And when the Angel announces she said, why would I deny what we
know would come past? Be it unto me as the Lord says,
Oh my Mama. So she goes on and says, on the
8th day, call him Jesus. Verse 22 And when the days of
their perfect purification according to the law of Moses
was complete, because women had to go through a purification,
and for a male that was 33 days, for a female that was 66 days,
they brought him to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord.
Verse 23 as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male,
every first born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to
the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was
said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two
young pigeons. So they came to do a sacrifice.
Now look at this verse 25. It's really powerful.
Verse 25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
And this man was what? Righteous and devout.
Look what he was doing. He was looking for the
constellation of Israel. Why?
For the Holy Spirit was upon him, and look what it says in
verse 26. So the Holy Spirit tells Simeon,
and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would
not see death before he has seen the Lord's cry.
So this guy, somewhere in his life, the Holy Ghost comes upon
it, says Simeon, you're not going to die until you see the
one that's expected to be born. Wow.
Which means this guy was expecting that I'm going to see
the king born. I'm going to see him.
I'm going to see the king born. I'm going to see the king born.
Now he could have picked up, you
know what? There are other devout righteous
men like me. There are plenty of people that
have been in the temple way more before me and my lifetime that
believe they would see and didn't see it.
You understand? He had more evidence of of why
he would not see, but he chose to believe the Spirit and stay
in a expectation of the arrival of the king being born.
So verse 27, it's not because he went to the temple every day.
OK, the day Jesus is born, angels did not show up at
Simeon's house and say, hey, if you'll go to Bethlehem, right?
Because his divine appointment with his expectation was not in
a Manger. Don't know what Simeon was going
to do that day when he woke up, but he came how?
In the Spirit, which means that day he woke up somewhere in the
course of that day, the Spirit of God says you need to go to
the temple. That's right.
Come on, come on. And because he was since because
he was more sensitive to what God was doing, not just his
daily routine, not just the past of everything else, but he was
always trying to stay hooked up. Because I've been given a word
that I'm going to see the king. I have an expectation.
And when the king, the the Spirit of God said go to the
temple, there's no indication that that conversation let him
know he would see the king that day.
But he was led to go and aren't you glad I know him?
He's glad he went. And when the parents brought in
the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, he
Simeon, took him into his arms and blessed him.
And then he realized by the Spirit, Oh my y'all, I mean, you
understand, this is what I, this is what is so problematic with
the United States is because, you know, again, our
constitutional Republic and we vote our people in and vote them
out. You know, we have no concept of
this kingship and we have no loyalty or devotion really.
We just, we do not fully understand the magnitude of this
moment. Think about, I mean, try to
imagine here that Jesus walks in the room right now and walks
straight up to you and shows you the holes in his hands and in
his feet and in his side and then embraces you.
I don't know what your emotional state's going to be, but mine is
going to be off the charts. I mean, I'm going to be so
overwhelmed at the magnitude of his glory, His Holiness, his
sacrifice. You know, I mean, I want to just
collapse at his feet. So you got to Simeon holds this
child and realizes I'm holding the king.
Isaiah talked about this child, Micah prophesied about this
child, Jeremiah. Ezekiel.
Damn, I'm looking at him. He's here, He's in the earth.
This is the king. Oh my gosh.
And we go season after season in December and we look at our
little nativity scenes and we spend more time taking time to
make presents for other people and have no acknowledgement that
the king sits on the throne in a general sense because we're so
desynthesized commercially. But there was such an
expectation here. He has got him in his arms.
He blessed him, Verse 29. And the Lord, he said, Now Lord,
notice the reason I'm here is just to see you are releasing
your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word.
I don't know why the Lord allows Simeon to have that honor, but
he did. I wonder who else he wanted them
to see, but they didn't listen. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, for which you have prepared in the presence of all
the peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles.
Man, he's prophesying now he's Speaking of another prophet
another time that this say this king I'm holding right now is
not just for our nation, but it's for the world and the glory
of your people. Israel and his father and mother
were amazed at the things which were being said about him.
And sent me and blessed them, and said to Mary his mother.
Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in
Israel, and for a sign to be opposed.
And a sword will Pierce even your own soul to the end that
thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
Here is someone who had this expectation that there is going
to be an arrival of a king and his whole life once he heard
that word was I'm looking for him any day.
I'm looking for him and by faith according to the word he was in
faith. I will see the king.
I'll see the king in Matthew chapter 2 verse one through 7.
We always look at these contexts of Scripture around this time
that says now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in
the days of Herod the King Magi, another translation calls them
wise men from the east, arrived in Jerusalem saying Where is he
who was born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east
and have come to worship him. When Herod the King heard this,
he was troubled and all Jerusalem with them, gathering
together all the chief priests and the scribes right of the
people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be
born. And they said to him in
Bethlehem of Judea, For this is what has been written by the
prophets. And you, Bethlehem, land of
Judah, we just read this Micah chapter 5, verse 2, right?
You are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah.
Out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my
people, Israel. Then Herod secretly called the
Magi or wise men and determine from them the exact time the
star appeared, the exact time the star appeared.
This word magi are wise men. If you break it down in the
original Greek, it means an astrology.
Astrology. So these were astrologist, which
means they were looking at the stars.
Now I look at the stars myself. I remember when I moved out to
the house that I'm in right now, there's no St. lights.
I came from a neighborhood that had streetlights, moved to a
neighborhood that had no streetlights.
And in my mind I'm like, why do we have no streetlights, you
know? And so I thought I'll get on the
HOA and we get some streetlights up in here because it's pretty
dark till I walked outside 1 clear night and I'm like, didn't
see that my last house. There's a lot of stars out
there. But I really know why we don't
have streetlights because I'm close enough to the ocean that
when the turtles give birth, there's no lights to draw them
away from the ocean. In fact, any St. lights that are
down where I'm at during those seasons, they cut them off so
that when the little turtles are born, because we care a lot
about turtles, they make it to the ocean and not to my house
where other animals can eat them besides the ones that are
already going to eat them as they get in the ocean anyway.
Obviously some make it, some are hors d'oeuvres for season for
some marine animals say Amen, they don't all make it.
OK, don't be delusional. All right, but the stars are
amazing and I'll be honest with you, I don't know which one
Venus is, although Venus sometimes shows up like a star
based upon the way the sun hits it.
It's not a star, it's actually a planet.
OK, I do not have a telescope by which I do see the Big Dipper
and the Little Dipper. I do not have the other ones
memorized on how they look. The big different Little Dipper
is pretty self-explanatory once you see it.
OK, outside of that, I do not see the other ones, although I'm
sure I'm staring at them, but I'm unaware I am because I'm not
putting the stars together in the pattern that it is in the
sky. But the question is, and again,
unlike the nativity you have at your house, the wise men were
not at the Manger. Amen.
OK, so we're going to be commercially correct.
We need to do the the the Manger, Joseph and Mary with
shepherds, camels, whatever here.
And then let's do a house with another Joseph and Mary and way
more than three guys. It was a caravan of people who
they listed 3 gifts. They were not three people.
All right, and let's set that. And then, you know, have Jesus
not laying in a Manger, but standing and holding Joseph or
Mary's leg because he is a toddler at this time.
Are you hearing me now? This is very important because
the wise men on the night Jesus was born saw the star.
How did it? Did they know it was his?
And why were they looking nightly?
There's an expectation, you understand.
When you have expectation, you'll do things routinely.
When you actually have expectation about you will do
things routinely because you don't want to miss.
Now any of us could see something by happens chance
right I get that had some of my grandkids over one night we were
outside with a little fire and was going to do some smores and
all of a sudden my wife saw this like flash of light in the sky
and we're like what is that Mars like what is that and I'm
looking she goes is that a rocket?
I said it is a rocket. You are right.
And so our grandkids got to watch this rocket from Cape
Canaveral that SpaceX had, you know, put up that night.
It was gorgeous. Now, if we we didn't know, we
just happened to be outside and if we would have known the
schedule, then we could have gone out to expect seeing it and
never would have missed it. But because we did not know it
was just by chance we saw. And many of my neighborhood did
not see it because they did not. They missed the event.
Now, if I keep the SpaceX schedule, then I can make sure I
never miss a launch. So why are they looking?
Daniel? Chapter 2, verse 26 to 31 says
this, and I'm in Daniel. Now we're going way back in
history. The king said to Daniel, who had
given him another name. He said, Are you able to make
known to me the dream which I have seen and its
interpretation? Daniel answered before the king,
and said, As for the mystery about which the king has
inquired, this is King Nebuchadnezzar of the great
Kingdom Babylon. He said the king has inquired.
Neither wise men, conjurers, magicians or diviners are able
to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in
heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to the
king Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days.
This was your dream and the vision in your mind while on
your bed. As for you, O King, while on
your bed, your thoughts turn to what would take place in the
future, and he who reveals mysteries has made known to you
what will take place. But As for me, this mystery has
not been revealed to me for any wisdom, residing in me more than
any other living man, but for the purpose of making the
interpretation known to the King and that you may understand the
thoughts of your mind. You, O king, were looking and
behold, there was a single great statue.
That statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was
standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.
Now you have to get context here.
King Nebuchadnezzar has already called in a group of his wise
men. He's troubled by a dream that he
has, and he declares to them as his advisors in his court,
Listen, I had a dream. I need you to interpret it for
me. They said tell us the dream and
we'll interpret. He says it's not going to happen
because I know your characters like mine, you bunch of mass
manipulators. This thing's bothering me so
much. I can't get you coming together
as a group and have a lying interpretation That's not
reality. So for me to know the thing that
troubles me so much that is accurate, you're going to have
to tell me my dream and interpret it now.
These guys were like, no way, Only God could do that.
They openly admitted this. Only God could do that.
No king has ever asked his advisors to do this.
It's impossible. Nebuchadnezzar got so angry at
that statement that he did, he issued a decree and when a king
issues a decree, it becomes law, means it's irrevocable unless
the law was met. So the king says, fine, I know
you're delaying. So this is how it's going to be
if all of these wise men and and the list that Daniel put down of
all these people within this category of his administration,
he says all of you are to be executed.
Why do I have you anyway? If you can't do it, you are to
be executed. Unless someone is able to come
before me and tell me the dream and its interpretation, everyone
is to be executed. But if one does come, then I'm
going to bless them with all these things.
Because he wanted them motivated by finance.
However it required God, they couldn't do it.
So the king, whose law is irrevocable, started rounding up
the wise men, of which Daniel and his friends were some of
them. And when they came to the house
to arrest them, Daniel's like, what's the rush?
Because Daniel wasn't in the first meeting, he said this is
the law I'm reading to you understand, they read the law of
why they have a right to arrest them from the king.
And Daniel says, go back and tell the king that we will have
it. I got it.
Now that was a faith statement. So then he goes to his three
buddies and he's like, let's pray because we know there's
only one who can do this deal, right?
And obviously God, we're in covenant with him.
He's protecting us cannot see him eradicating us.
We know that's in his word. And so we're going to yield,
we're going to beseech him, we're going to we're going to
make our request known to the father.
Well, the father answered which within 24 hours he was able to
go back and says I have the answer, Tell the king not to
execute anybody. So you got to imagine when
Daniel comes into the throne room that day, there is every
wise man there. So when Daniel says now what?
You saw only God. So he's like, now, no, what I'm
about to say is not because I am more wise than all of these.
So when he say he's like pointing at all these people,
which they're like, oh, you know, they praying to any God.
I hope this man has it. You understand the intensity of
this moment. I mean, we just, we just fly
through scripture all the time and don't understand these
people's lives are at stake. They're like Daniel.
They I don't know which God they were God I I to God, he God, I
hope he has this answer right. But now Daniel served the God,
the only God, the only God, the creator of heaven and earth.
All right, so This is why it's very important.
What when Daniel says only the God of heaven, the creator of
heaven, the one whom I serve. Now he has everyone's attention
in the room so much so that you understand a person can get
converted in this moment called Nebuchadnezzar had a moment
concerning Daniels God when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
said not going into not going to bow down to your little idol.
It's not going to happen. I just want you to know we had
to want a true God period so we don't have to wait around and
and discuss this answer with you.
If you're going to throw us in the fiery furnace, go ahead
because I just want you to know our God is well able to save us
even from that bro right now again, Nebuchadnezzar gets
really hot at some of these responses.
It said he got so mad that he said turn up the furnace 7 times
hotter than hot. The people who threw them in
died. It was so hot, but what
happened? God showed up.
The Lord showed up in the fiery furnace, protected them, burned
off their coverings, but kept them alive with no smoke.
He'd come out and he goes, you. And he said if anybody comes
against these boys, God, we will kill them, impale them, destroy
their house. I mean, that's called
conversion. Change his whole administration
because God showed out who is the God?
You little idols, is not it, right?
So Daniel has the attention of the court, verse 44 of chapter
2, he says in the days of those kings, he's gone down and given
Kingdom administrations and he lets him know, listen, your
Kingdom is the gold part, great king, but another one's coming
after you that's inferior, they're silver.
There's another one even more inferior, they're bronze.
There's another one coming that's iron OK there.
And that's a devastating force, these people here, this Kingdom
here. But then there's another one
when we get to the feet that's got clay and iron mixed
together, although it's can't mix their side by side.
And he says it's in verse 44 in the days of those kings.
We're talking about the 10 toes. He said the God of heaven will
set up a Kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that
Kingdom will not be left to another people, but it will
crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it itself
endure forever. In so much as you saw that a
stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and that it
crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the
gold, the great God who has made known to the king what will take
place in the future. So the dream is true and it's
interpretation is trustworthy. It's trustworthy.
Babylon is in the east, modern day Iran, that's east of Israel.
Wise men from the east. These people came from what was
formerly known as Babylon. It took them 18 months to two
years to get there. Yet from this moment there were
wise men that said the God of Daniel is the God of heaven and
earth. Which means they probably
attached themselves to Daniel in such a way that they said, how
will we know when he comes? What you looking at?
How do you know these things Daniel?
How do you know about these things?
How do we know your God's coming?
How do we know when his Kingdom and I'm sure because Daniel had
access to the law, he had access cause in Numbers there was a
prophet who was trying to that was hired to prophecy against
Israel, but God wouldn't let him prophecy against Israel.
And this prophet Balaam says this in Numbers 2417.
And I'm sure Daniel said, now it's been said that I see him,
but not now, and behold him, but not near.
A star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of
Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons
of Toma. So you understand, and I'm just
giving you a couple scriptures here concerning these things
that they could have referred to.
Isaiah said in 60 and verse 3, And the Gentiles shall come to
your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising.
Now you understand Scripture has literal context, but it also has
figurative context and there are things that you can pull from it
that allow you to recognize certain signs.
There was obviously something with the stars, because if there
was not a truth revealed from God through his prophets about
the stars, then there'd have been no reason for the
astrologers to be watching them. And they started watching from
Daniel hundreds of years later. I wonder if there's any that
came across say it's been promised.
It's been promised about a king coming.
It's been promised about a Kingdom coming.
It's been promised about this Kingdom that would crush all
other kingdoms. But yet there was a line of wise
people that never let go of this expected arrival, and they pass
it down from generation to generation to generation.
You need to expect him to come. He's coming.
The King's gonna be born. The King's gonna be born.
There's a king coming. There is a star rising up out of
Israel. You need to be looking for a
scepter. That's coming.
He's coming, son. He's coming, daughter.
He's coming now. You expected.
You expected that? Is he coming in our lifetime?
I don't know. But I expect him to come in my
lifetime. I expect him to come.
And one generation passed and another generation passed.
And another generation pass, but these men were the generation
that the king came to the earth and they were 18 months to two
years travel away. That not only did they see a
star and believe he was born, they packed up and came to see
the King, trusting that that light that night was testimony
that the night before that light wasn't there, a week before that
light wasn't there or whatever, that light showed up.
And they were firmly persuaded because they had an expected
arrival. The King's born.
They didn't go a year and say, wow, man, it's taken us a long
time to get there. You know, I wonder where he's
going to be at. I wonder if we'll be at a
finding. See, when you get an expected
arrival, you'll keep the course. You won't turn to the left or to
the right. You'll keep your eyes fixed on
the prize because you're going to finish the course.
You know what's pretty powerful about this?
The shepherds represent the Jews, and the sign they saw was
an Angel and a heaven and anginic host singing.
That's a pretty obvious sign. But the wise men, they represent
the Gentiles, and they got a star.
No singing, no verbal announcement, just a light.
So go back to Matthew chapter 2. We'll go on verse 9.
It says after hearing the king, they went their way, and the
star which that had seen in the east went on before them until
it came and stood over the place where the child was.
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great
joy after coming into the house not the Manger.
They saw the child, not baby, with Mary his mother.
And they fell to the ground and worshipped him.
Then, opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Most scholars believe that it
was more than that. That's just the ones mentioned
because there are tributes that you give to the king.
That is, in one sense, just commonly known as a custom.
We don't know this because we vote our president in and out.
We don't think about sending gifts to our president or our
senators or our congressmen. There's nothing wrong with doing
that. OK, You could do that and honor
the position. However, that is not most people
do it through, you know, bribery.
Today, unfortunately, however, they came to bring gifts to the
King and it says and having been warned by God in a dream not to
return to Herod, the Magi left to their own country by another
way. In essence, they came and bowed
their their allegiance and communicated him as being their
Lord. And in essence, these Gentiles
are saying we submit to you and your Kingdom.
You're our king, your Lord of our lives.
This is before the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
Now this is very powerful. What I'm saying is, is that how
many people in Jerusalem missed it?
Well, Jesus said it in Luke chapter 19, starting in verse
41. He said this.
And when he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and
wept over it, saying, if you had known, if you had known in this
day, even you, the things which make for peace.
But now they have been hidden from your eyes.
For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up
a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on
every side. And they will level you to the
ground, and your children with you within you.
And they will not leave you one stone upon another, because you
did not recognize the time of your visitation.
Visitation means this, the ACT by which God looks into and
searches out the ways, deeds, character of men in order to
adjure a judge. How do you pronounce this word?
ADJUDGEA juror, adjure them their lot accordingly, whether
joyous or sad. So all the manuscripts, and
again, just to let you know, there are over 5000 manuscripts
concerning the Bible. Concerning Homer's Iliad, there
are close to 2000 manuscripts. There's less of the Odyssey and
both of those writings are just two of an 8 piece set of a story
that the others are lost forever.
There's another historian by which there's only about 8
copies that he has history of back of back all the way up to
400 BC and the world does not question the authenticity of
these documents. However, the Bible has five
times more of the same type of documentation to validate its
authenticity, and yet the world rejects the Bible as a
historical source of truth of authenticity.
Yet to the world's own standard of determining whether something
is not a copy it originated that far back, the Bible has more.
So these individuals have a documentation that the King will
be born, there are signs associated with it, and when he
arrived, although he demonstrated the signs he was
the Messiah, they rejected him. But the wise men and Simeon did
not. They were expecting, and I don't
know, there were tons of generations before that were
waiting for the birth of the king ever since he announced it
in Genesis chapter 3. And the devil has been through
all of those same centuries, have been trying to destroy that
seed, tried to destroy that seed, but he came.
And those that expected Saul, the question is, are we in a
time that we could repeat because Jesus came to show his
nation, I'm your savior, I am the king, I am the Son of God.
And when he made that statement, I am.
They said he was a he was blast blasphemed and all they wanted
to do was crucify. They missed their day of
visitation. They missed it.
Could the Gentiles miss their day if we do not have an
expected arrival? It's something to think on.
It's something to stir ourselves up with during this season that
when we celebrate his birth, to celebrate his birth is to
acknowledge we needed him to come in order for us to have
dominion back, to have sonship back.
He did not come to take us to heaven.
We'll go to heaven, Great. We'll spend some time there,
sure, but that's not the purpose.
The goal. The goal was to make us children
of God now where we could walk back in the dominion God had
given us. And many today on the earth
right now, both Jew and Gentile, are missing this visitation of
God by a spirit because they're not looking for him yet.
He will return and tells us He will.
But the question is, well, do we have an and to have an
expectation means you have to order your life a little
different. So if we're talking about his
birth and we're excited He came so we could have life, how much
more should we be excited close to 2000 years after the event
that if any generation would change because I'll conclude
today with this Luke 18 eight. The latter part of this
scripture says, however, when the Son of Man comes, will he
find, and I this translation is correct, the faith on the earth,
will he find? The faith will Saints, The
Gentiles get so caught up in the everyday that when a trumpet
sounds, you don't hear it. It is sound like what everybody
else thinks Thunder. Are we expecting the arrival of
our King just as we celebrate his arrival at his birth?
How much more should we be in constant expectation of his
arrival? And then when he comes, there's
a way. We need to be in the
righteousness of God in Christ. There's a way, there's an
expectation. We need to be believing.
We need to be confessing. We need to be acknowledging.
We need to realize our life's not our own.
And I'm not going to be the one that misses that day.
I'm going to be like Simeon by the Holy Ghost, hearing day in
and day out, knowing the signs and expecting a sound.