Visions

Go hungry every year between the covet 19 pandemic ongoing global refugee crises and rising cost of food the number of families facing food insecurity has doubled in the past three years in america alone one in six children are going to bed hungry every night so what are we going to do about it the global hunger relief fund combats world hunger and helps share the bread of life with families facing starvation last year southern baptists just like you gave to global hunger relief helping thousands of people across the globe put food on the table in times of crisis your gifts provided meals for nearly 300 000 people while opening doors to share the Gospel with over a hundred thousand more this year you can make sure that even more families and communities gain access to nutritious food by donating to the global hunger relief fund today let's see what God can do with your generosity in 2022 all right well good morning church it is good to see y'all here I think we can do a little bit better than that good morning there we go hey I know that's been a good week we got so many teachers that are going back to school students they start up class this week and all the parents said amen and all the students said man come on but hey as you guys can tell we are in the process of moving everything from this side of the building over to this side to accomplish some deep cleaning and things like that over here thank you for being patient with us if you do have little ones that's a nursery or toddlers they're going to be on this side of the building upstairs in rooms 402 and 416 if I recall correctly and you can hear them now and it's going to be a great great time of we're so blessed to have

That side of the facility where we can expand and be able to make these corrections to our facility and I also want to tell you that next week we will also have those over there as well now we've got global hunger sunday is next week two thousand dollars is our church goal that goes to equip missionaries and the send relief program to go out and give bring relief it's a it's a humanitarian ministry that gives us an opportunity to share the Gospel with people not just because people they're going to be open with full bellies okay if you try to talk to someone about the Gospel while they're starving it just won't work so we feed them we clothe the naked we give them water while they're thirsty and then we bring the life transforming message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and so two thousand dollars is our church goal it's really our first year like pushing something like this and so I'm very thankful for what the Lord will do now we've also got a wanna that's starting up this upcoming wednesday night how many of y'all are signed up to be a part of awana anybody in here you're signed up to be a part awesome hands-off all over if you are interested in being a part of awana we still need some help and nicholas he'll be happy to get you plugged in into that ministry there is a meeting this wednesday and then we have registration the following wednesday and so I can't believe that it's already happening it's august 31st and all I can think of is christmas is right around the corner so now there are some different things that we do need to be aware of especially we all feel like the pinch of inflation and things like that and one of the things that our church does it's one thing that we're most known for in our community is trunk or

Treat and you know candy it is going up just like everything else and so it might be prudent to maybe get a bag or two early even hershey's put out a thing that said we may not be able to meet demands this year so go out there find some candy we are doing the big competition between community groups if you haven't gotten to be a part of our community groups you need to get involved it was I know this morning I was in there brett's leader of our class marrieds with children just such a good discussion it's a great place to sit and talk and be challenged by other believers in our personal walks speaking of being challenged we had a family that was a great part of our church for a while and then they went back to their home down in columbia and they are back where are the del rey's at are they there you guys go hey can y'all come on up and give us an update on how y'all are doing missions wise this is santiago and steffi del rey and they said we're going to be back in camdenton can we give an update to the church on what all is going on I said absolutely that would be fantastic and so if y'all could just welcome the del rays to our church thank you cody all right well it is a pleasure to see you again it's been a while since we left here and get back to colombia and now it's been a while as well since we got once again back to the states some of you might not know who we are but we are the race my name is santiago and here is stephanie my wife and we have two children we have antonella who is the oldest one I don't know if you might have the presentation if not that it's fine don't worry and the smallest one is simone he's only two years old so when we were here at the congregation my wife was just pregnant with a little one but

It was just a great time that we spent here in camdenton the reason why we were here is because we were being part of the linguistics program so I was going through that course with jim the city as my teacher and it was an awesome time as well to spend some service here in the of the fbc so just let you know a little bit about we are currently livid at samford florida that's all the way down in central florida in north of orlando and we are livid at the retirement facility for missionaries of the organization ethno360 and we have now given the chance to be part of their grounds and maintenance team to help out with all the huge needs that they have because there is somewhere between 150 to 200 families currently living at the property and there's a lot of needs they have and very few hands to work on those needs actually there's probably most of the servers are between 60 and 65 when they are supposed to be already retired they're still working so the other rest of the families have a time to enjoy the retirement while the others have to keep working so we're glad that we can be part of this and let them just listen the load for them and also some money that they will have to spend if we have to go and hire a plumber or whatever so we will be part of that and helping them out so we're currently raising support to start working on the ministry we haven't been done this for long it's just been two months since we started but it's been a great opportunity for us as well to see how God works in among their lives and it was just a pleasure to be coming here and telling cody that we wanted to share with you this opportunity so just to give you a little back a little bit of a background who we are we come from colombia in south america and the only reason why God

Called us to his ministry was because we were completely lost we don't come from a Christian family we don't have missionary generations in our family we're the first two to know Christ and our family and we decided to follow Christ from different backgrounds and really rough backgrounds God called us to be a part and he immediately challenged us into going into missions we spent four years at the training center in colombia with the same organization and after that we got the chance to come to the states going to the linguistics course of course willing to go into a church planting ministry but then God had different plans and one of those plants was leaving us within colombia with kovid just like somewhere around eight months of martial law without being able to go out of our houses during that time very tough time but we're glad because God was building something up for a family and then after that time he allowed us to the opportunity to come back to the states and now we've been there with the community and it's been awesome because we're also next to our local church in which we're part of well I'm actually being like kind of the associate pastor so the pastor used to be a missionary in paraguay and now he's being hand lifted with a huge responsibility to being the pastor of the congregation it's a really small congregation somewhere around 30 to 35 people but it's been amazing as well to develop those skills with the local church continue serving and now having the opportunity to work there at the homes of ethnic 360. So we're just glad to be here with you and if you have more questions you would like to know more about us we encourage you to come by say hi we're we're we're nice people I trust I can say that

Yeah don't worry and we also have a stand but it's just a pleasure thank you for giving us a chance and yeah just feel welcome oh there's something else I'm sorry I got lost if I didn't have the pictures but I also wanted to tell you that once we are done in this time here in the states one of the purposes why we also decided to stay at the homes is because my family is currently at an immigration process I'm a usa u.s citizen but my wife and my children are not so while that gets sorted out it might take around three to four years or more so we don't know yet with covet well everything's blamed on comedy nowadays so it might take longer than that you know so meanwhile that gets settled we need to stay within the country and once we have once again the opportunity to be able to go out of the country we're still thinking of doing church planting out and mainly we're still thinking of going into north africa so we also appreciate your prayers for this time while we continue to serve and continue seeing God doing his job in our lives but we're so thrilled to make you part of this it doesn't need to necessarily be to be financially but we also appreciate a lot of your prayers because we know they're most important than anything else but thank you so much for allowing us this opportunity and we bless you thank you so much and as you guys know as we've got so many students from ethnos 360 and we love I see a lot of new faces I'm assuming that some of y'all are from ethnos and we love you guys we want you to know that we can't support every single missionary family we just we can't but the relationships that you build with the individuals here by all means develop those relationships

Get to know them those folks are the people that are going to be supporting you and so if you know the delrays and you love the delrays you know by all means pray about how the Lord might be calling you to give to their mission and they do have a table read out here in the old fellowship hall and they would love to just connect with you they are sweet and wonderful family I would ask you guys to join me in praying for the delrays and also for our service as we prepare our hearts and our minds for the worship of our king would y'all pray with me and Lord I do thank you so much just for this great day Lord I pray for santiago pray for stephanie I pray for antonella and simon the Lord is they're just dealing with all sorts of not just the minis missionary partnership development the ministry partnership development but also the additional hurdle of all the immigration stuff Lord we pray that you would you would provide abundantly for them Lord I pray that you would move people to partner with them financially and Lord you're the God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills and I pray that you would sell some of those cattle and just bless this family in really incredible ways Lord thank you for the clear calling that you've put on their lives to go to north africa and I pray that process would go well and true if it's according to your will Lord I pray that today that we would be ready and receptive to worship you God our hearts are ready help us to do so joyfully with lifted hands and hand claps and just passionately worshiping you with our

Whole hearts God we want you to meet us here today and God I also pray that you'll prepare our hearts for your word that we will be receptive and open you would speak and that we would walk out of here not going that was a great sermon but man that was a great passage help us to live it out today in Jesus precious name amen I'd invite you now to please stand with me as you're able as we join together in worshiping our Lord and Savior singing praise to the Lord the Almighty the king of creation [Music] salvation [Music] ration [Music] so gently sustain it has thou not seen granted in what he [Music] [Applause] surely his goodness and mercy here daily [Music] [Applause] [Music] ponder I knew what the Almighty can do if with his love he [Music] is befriended me adore him all that had life and wrath come now with praises before him [Applause] here [Music] [Applause] again gladly for all we are here [Music] amen well we're doing something a little different today we are y'all

Can go ahead and have a seat because last week we had a really early service at about 8 am because it was salt and light sunday and we are we pondered anew what the Almighty can do and we saw God do some really wonderful and incredible things through salt and light sunday and we wanted to give the time for just open testimonies which is kind of dangerous because you never know how long someone's going to go or if they ramble or what so I would ask that you keep it at like a max of like four or five minutes please at the absolute max absolute max okay because we got people that are working with children so is there anyone here that would like to give a testimony brett's got a microphone and I've got one that'll run out as well does anybody want to share a testimony of what God did last week through salt and light sunday [Music] we'll give you a six here you go [Music] thanks pigs I don't need this thing no you do you do need can you hear me all right so about six weeks ago I saw this bulletin salt light was in the bullet and then I called cody and said God's telling me to do something so I called him it and what'd you say yeah man [Laughter] no so God was leading me to take over because I've been a good member I feel I've been a fair member to this church but I have not been a good member to the leadership I've been ignoring things not getting involved shame on me right especially as God calls me to be a leader a man to be the spiritual leader of his family

But anyway so I took over teaching because gary stood down because her grandkid grands daughter was coming on cue God's timing they're there in kansas city but I took over that it could be an intimidating I was telling my school my sunday school day it can be intimidating because I got missionaries in there but God's been with me for 25 years in the marine corps they don't know him any better than me right and you start thinking about what it is why can I stand up here and confidently say the united states marine corps is the finest fighting organization in the world you army navy air force coast guard you can't deny that because our standard our standard is higher than yours [Music] [Laughter] hey proven fact just in fact our grooming standards are higher that's all I got to say are haircuts required testimony all right get back to the testimony but what I'm saying is even as high as that standard was for me for 30 years and I'm institutionalized all right God when I became a follower of God's standard was higher and when I led my life with God and he moved me throughout the marine corps because he wanted me to be somewhere I didn't know but I've been to every place and the one thing I'm proud of is that God what he achieved in my life nothing that I could do because before God I was about to lose my marriage and my thing so back to salt light this is pushing me

I'm saying God what's going on I become a member cody calls me I be I roger up yes right now I'm just like volunteering for everything but the thing is God sparked it because I wasn't supposed to just said on the back 40 in 971 garmin hollow and watch the grass grow not after he carried me for 25 years in service in the marine corps so I got to do something for you but I need you to hold me accountable and thank my brothers and sisters on sunday that I got to serve with tom green let me see if I can remember them all scott he was there God brought him to us we needed him amazing carol and jim darcy tom green what a what a great support praise sister nancy for putting her mom on the list because Mary lou she'll tell you write up I didn't do it I didn't put my name on the list she don't think she deserves it she didn't deserve the love we gave her she thought somebody else was more welcome of that and so we get there we got 17 of us God gave us 17. And I looked at this project and it's big four minutes I'm only at two it was big and we took it and one big bite we had two guys pressure washing suzanne and clayton we had two guys repairing the back deck screen pj and jeremy we had five or six doing yard work maybe we had some treatment trees my son even came right my son who was raised in the faith that hasn't went to but you know what he goes oh I'll go

Help you I was like you're gonna yeah you know what he says many hands let make light work so he still remembers his teaching but he isn't he's getting drawn back to God but he was there and my son he's that attitude if it's got to be done somebody's got to do it well I'm somebody and he'll go do it but so it was great to have him there and thank you because that aura that essence of God was all around that house and now I know that when you smile you go but when it's a joyful smile it's like yeah and you can see it in their eyes right and they're all going crazy and they're working but so the standard that I get back to only reason I go there because accountability accountability accountability and I have not been accountable for this church and God really laid that on my heart this time but when I walked in to Mary lou's house and I saw heidi christy wagamont and there's a little tight and there's so much joy and so much laughter going on I'm like whoa you could feel it you could feel it and the best way and I was like wow I've had that and sometimes it was in combat with adrenaline or whatever so you don't get it but this essence was pure just from love and I started thinking I was like how can I best describe this because cody called me and asked me if I'd witness so if you're a believer of Christ if you're a believer the Christ and you've accepted in his heart that moment the Holy Spirit came into your heart and you felt that redemption that redemption that moment when you were

Released that's kind of the feeling I had that it but it took me a long I know I had that feeling I know I had to but it went back from the day of redemption that's how much joy how much love that was in that room heidi wasn't it they were if it would have been my mom she had to run to the bathroom because she had Peter pants I mean that's how much when she started I mean my mom was like I gotta go because she'd get laughing right but that joy was just uncontainable but tom green was there being the resident you know he'd worked with it so you know when in doubt cut right tom when in doubt just cut it off you know it'll grow back but what a beautiful beautiful project because we're talking years of built up and when we got done you could actually see a stone patio you could see trees trimmed up nothing hitting the eaves I mean it was like a blank canvas to a beautiful I don't know much about paintings but portrait all right Thomas kincaid you can't get better than terry ridlen right I mean maybe I don't know so I guess I do know see I didn't even know I knew that but God has excited me again right so we've got to be excited and santani santiago and stephanie good seeing you guys again but so since I'm retired I've been lazy I've enjoyed it but I don't need that much time so I'm gonna do better to you I promise and thank you cody for challenging us right but I'm going to just put a little pressure on the men here we need to do better man you need I'm putting every one of you need to hold me accountable so I'm

Going to force you because I'm going to volunteer for stuff so I'm going to drag you with me right we're gonna do this as a team because how I was a leader for a lot of years but it doesn't mean nothing for the leadership if we're not there to support them they put all this effort and then they get what's left after the week for us our effort I don't have no time I'm too busy thursday night football's on thursday night I mean we can make all kinds of excuses but what I'm trying to say is my Lord and Savior took me and moved I mean think about it God loved us so much he made us in his image I mean we all focus on sending his son but you got to remember he first made us in his image that's how much we messed that up he sends his son to us right he sends his son to us he loves us that much just so his spirit can dwell in us isn't that pretty cool and that's what I felt that day my time's up God bless [Applause] so we're just gonna pass the plates now and we're gonna it's good anyone else want to give a testimony of what the Lord did miss bo mom and I had the privilege of going to visit one of our shut-ins and just like I've been taught all my life whenever you give something to God he gives you back over and over and over again and this wonderful wonderful Christian woman with a lifelong testimony ended up giving mom and I a song I'd

Like to share just a little bit of it with you Jesus loves me this I know though my hair is white as snow though my sight is growing dim still he bits me trust in him yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so and amen anyone else want to share about what the Lord did there we go [Music] all right I guess you can all probably agree that you have someone at your work or just in life that may be a little harder to love than others you know by being the salt and the light and you continue to love them anyways you know I had the opportunity to have one of those one of those guys come up to me and ask for you know and nick I really need your prayer and so to me to see that you know and he's not necessary he's not a believer he's I don't know if he's an atheist or what he you know he but he definitely is starting to see the light that God's placed in me and that and I've been able to just show him because you know the if you know the firehouse is a lot like military it can be a rough place to work in you know and there's a lot of opportunities to not be the salt and the light and to be able to just have these guys come to you or gals and be able to for them to say hey can you tell me a little bit about what you know like they see a difference and so I just thank God that I have that opportunity to

Make difference in people's lives and so that's all I got [Applause] I'm going to confess on salt and light sunday that I didn't get the testimony that I wanted you know you want people to come up to you and say wow you're doing a great job we can see that you love Jesus and we want to love him too you know go Jesus so instead we got really really dirty and really really sweaty and my hair was stringy and I was thirsty and I did what I came to do and I left without affirmation from the people that we worked for and I trust that God will use that some of you might remember regina herzog who served at the church many years ago and we were talking in a women's study one time about what we were in our epitaph and she said like Jesus said to the woman who anointed his head she did what she could and that's the testimony that I have give it to God [Applause] [Music] very thankful for each person that was able to be here to be salt and light that's what we're called to do not just on salt and light sunday Jesus he said in Matthew chapter 5 you are the salt of the earth you are the light to the world that's what we're called to be that's who we are in Christ and so as we continue worshiping let's stand together with grateful hearts that he's called us not just to be saved but to but to bring that message of the Gospel to people that need it so let's stand together and continue in worship [Music] he is

[Music] of Christ I stand [Music] fullness this gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to say till that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid here in the death of Christ [Music] is he rose again and as he standing [Music] it's great on me for I am [Music] no guilt in life [Music] this is the power of Christ in me from life [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] man [Music] till he returns or calls me here no power of hell [Applause] [Music] or calls me home [Music] Christ I'll stand [Music] so I lied a little bit I lied I made a mistake I didn't give myself my testimony here so I just decided you know I have a microphone so I'll do it now so it wasn't actually something that

Happened during salt and light sunday but actually something that happened this morning in community groups as we were all sharing together our experiences from last sunday and one of the things that was said this morning on the topic of what it means to be the salt of the earth was that we don't offer salt to people and expect nothing to change when you put salt in food the dish changes right it's no longer the same thing it was it's something new and usually better and so that's that's what happens to us as Christians whenever Christ comes into our lives when we become the salt of the earth we are something different we are a new creation and it's a joyous thing it's something that we shouldn't look like we did before and so this morning with that in mind I want us to sing this last song together as changed people people who are changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that's exactly what we're about to sing together man of sorrows what a name for the son of God what a ridiculous crazy glorious name to call the son of God himself incarnate a man of sorrows but it's how he chose to came how he chose to come he came to die and bear the wrath for our sins so let's sing together [Music] sorrows [Music] to reclaim hallelujah what a Savior [Music]

Bearing shame and scoffing road in my place condemned he stood [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] freedom by his God [Music] who takes the blame for sin hallelujah [Applause] [Music] bless me [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] God purchase freedom by his blood lamb who takes the name [Music] lifted up was he to die it is finished was his cry now in heaven [Music] church [Applause] [Music] son of God purchase freedom by his blood them who takes the blame for sin hallelujah [Music] he's coming again [Music] when he comes [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] son of God [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] said [Music] Lord we come before you now to praise your name for the salvation of our souls God let it be a thing that has not only changed us but is continually changing to make us holy in your sight God help us to become more like Christ and Lord let your name never cease to spill out of our mouths as we talk to those around us let your good works never see never cease to act in us God help us to be the salt and light of the earth help us to praise you and to worship you in everything that we say and do it's in Jesus name that we pray amen well if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to the book of Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7 and last week we were in Matthew chapter five and we talked about being salt and light back in back in Daniel the whole book of Daniel changes at the end of Daniel 6 and it goes from kind of a historical narrative filled with you know of course visions and prophecies and things like that to a book of prophecy and apocalyptic literature and so the way that it is preached has to be dealt with differently because it's a different narrative it's a different style of literature most churches they go to Daniel and they'll hit the first six chapters go through it in detail and then chapter

Seven comes and they just kind of gloss over get the big picture and then they're done with it because if you're like me you can get intimidated by books of prophecy anybody else just kind of intimidated my books of prophecy like oh revelation you know like that's kind of a little all right there's two people that are intimate you all are brave people all right three I see you over there all right yeah and but apparently we're in pretty good company if you're intimidated if it makes you nervous because even Daniel several times just in chapter seven he talks about how he was anxious and alarmed because of the visions it bothered him makes him uneasy and I know that the book of revelation in the book of Daniel gets some people really really pumped up they want to talk about all sorts of different topics within you know who is the antichrist the Mark of the beast is 666 it's yours it's your credit card that's that was a popular theory back in the 70s it's your credit card in the 80s it was your social security number he had all these kids being born you know with numbers that equaled up to eight it's one of them but we're not we're not going to deal with the book of Daniel in that way we're going to deal with the book of Daniel focusing on Christ and focusing on the Gospel of Jesus Christ we're going to talk about the kingdom and today we are talking about kingdoms because that's what the passage deals with and we're going to talk about five differences between earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of God and so if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Daniel chapter 7 verses 1

Through 12. God's word says this in the first year of belshazzar king of babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter Daniel declared I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up out of the sea different from one another the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings then as I looked its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of a man was given to it and behold another beast a second one like a bear it was raised up on one side it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and it was told to rise devour much flesh after this I looked and behold another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it after this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong it had great iron teeth it devoured and broken pieces and stamped what was left with its feet it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns I considered the horns and behold there came up among them another horn a little one before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots and behold in his in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man in a mouth speaking great things as I looked thrones were placed and the

Ancient of days took his seat his clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames its wheels were burning fire a stream of fire issued and came out from before him a thousand thousand served him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the court sat in judgment and the books were opened I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking and as I looked the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire as for the rest of the beasts their dominion was taken away but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time and so God we do thank you and we lean upon your word today we lean upon your power and as we study your word God compel us just to really search out the truth of what it is that you have for us God or we know that you are truth and so help us to know you more through this passage of Scripture Lord our minds were prone to wander to all sorts of different areas from the fantastic to the divine and everything in between God let us be grounded in our biblically informed convictions knowing that you have clearly spoken God you were good you are God so help us this day in Jesus precious name amen mike five thanks this one's gonna be I don't know what's going on with it so going old school today all right so this vision it takes place in the reign of the first year of a guy

Named belshazzar we talked about king and one of the things about belshazzar when you look at babylonian history he was co-regent in ancient babylon with his with his father nabonitis now benitez was in the southern part of what is modern-day iraq building a city called tema which that was conquered by the medo-persians and that's why Daniel refers to belshazzar as king but he was co-regent in babylon and Daniel receives a private revelation from the Lord now God he no longer speaks to us in this way where we receive new private revelation as the puritans would have said if it goes along with God's word it is unnecessary and if it contradicts God's word it is a lie and so as we look at this we have to understand that God he had not completed what's called the canon of Scripture there was still revelation being given and as the book of Hebrews points out the prophets they were ministering and speaking not only for the sake of those who are listening back then but for our sakes today that's the whole purpose behind prophecy now this part of the book it takes place sometime before belshazzar sees that handwriting on the wall which we talked about and he describes these dreams in visions which come to him at night while he is resting we might call them nightmares we daydreams either way if you're like me God does some of his best work while we rest you know maybe you know I don't know maybe it's a guilty conscience or something but you know if you've spoken like a sharp word to a spouse or to a friend and you're laying there in the quietness of your of the night and God just starts dealing with your heart that happens to me and it's one of the reasons why taking a sabbath why rest is so important for the people of God there's a reason why God included it in his top 10 rules and he is even now today he is our rest he Jesus Christ he is the Lord of the sabbath and when we find our rest in him it doesn't mean that we avoid worship or neglecting Christian work or fellowship if anything it elevates their importance because he tells us not to forsake the assembling of one another on the Lord's day but Daniel he writes this he says I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven we're stirring up the great sea and when we see that word behold in Scripture it means like to appear suddenly or to happen immediately it means aha there it is it's happening in quick succession one right after another and so there's these four wins and so basically what that means is like all of the four points of a compass the entire known world at this point so that's kind of the way that we understand and everyone it doesn't matter what you're if you're a pre-millennial ah millennial post-millennial if you're pre-trib mid-trip post-tr rapture everyone agrees that this is the entire known world and for some of you're like what are those words well you know we categorize things in Christianity by need to know and need to grow right so those are things need to grow further on down the line for you but what does this see in verse 17 it talks about the beast rising up out of the earth so is it the is that what he's talking about

There's there's good commentators that think that some people they think that's the sea of humanity I like to take kind of more of a literal approach and go well what is the great sea near babylon oh it's the mediterranean so that's just where I land on the issue and as Daniel watches there are these four creatures that come up out of the sea and they're all different and they all happen in very quick succession most Christians throughout history have understood these beasts to be four nations because it says so it says they're kings and kingdoms and so they interpret these to be the babylonian empire the medo-persian empire the greece the greece greece empire and the roman empire some jewish rabbis they believe that was the babylonian the medes the persians in greece there's there's all sorts of different views I was talking to one guy who he was it's this book was it jim you were talking about how the beast might be islam you know and there's a great book called the war on terror which is a fantastic read you can read it's got some good stuff in there either way there's all sorts of different views on what these things could be but Daniel he was a prophet he was a prophet who was talking about the covenant that God had made to his special people Jeremiah he was a contemporary of daniels except that they never we don't know if they ever met Jeremiah he was a prophet to the nation of judah even after it had been sacked in Jeremiah he writes this in Jeremiah 32 verses 36 through 41. It says now therefore

Thus says the Lord the God of israel concerning this city talking about jerusalem of which you say it is given into the hand of the king of babylon by sword by famine by pestilence behold I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath remember that was not babylon that conquered israel okay conquered judah God sent them there because God never breaks his promises he used babylon absolutely he caused its rise and its fall I will bring them to this place I will make them dwell in safety back in jerusalem and they shall be my people and I will be their God I will give them one heart in one way that they may fear me forever for their own good and the good of their children after them I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me I will rejoice in doing them good and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul a good word but remember that when they're when they're receiving that word from the Lord things are burning around them that things do not look good things look bleak and so it's hard for the people of God to understand how on earth could God deliver from this how on earth can God keep his promises but God always does amen he always keeps his promises to those who trust in him and so for Daniel there is this sense of God's promises to his people will he forsake them no and so Daniel when he continues to prophesy when he receives these visions what's happening is its way that the Lord even reestablishes some hope for

The people of God that God still is at work and in babylon listen in babylon there was still a remnant of God's people even though we don't have any record of them in the book of Daniel we do see them in Ezra under the medo-persian empire we see them in Esther we see them in Nehemiah and so there was a remnant of God's people faithfully clinging to the promise of his covenant and this also would have helped people to remember that there was a promised one the Messiah who would come he was promised from the garden now there is an obvious correlation between chapters 2 and chapter 7. In chapter two we had that image of gold and you had the silver and the bronze and the iron and the iron mixed with clay you had all these different parts of the statues and so the first beast as we look at this the first beast that rises up is babylon now babylon its national symbol was the lion this is on the ishtar gates it's called the processional way the king's way you can go you can see this and there's literally thousands of those lions everywhere the national symbol was this it's almost like the national symbol for america is the bald eagle right you see the bald eagle you know which country that represents benjamin franklin y'all know what he wanted the national symbol for america to be the turkey very glad that didn't happen yeah but the lion was able to soar he was able to grow until it was cut off just like nebuchadnezzar when he lost his mind when the Lord took his humanity his essence and gave him a mind of a beast you know he was cut off and then

This lion became civilized its mind was changed and Daniel he could probably connect those dots pretty well the second beast though was a little bit more challenging because it was a bear that was raised up on one side this could represent how the medes were weaker and submitted to the persians the bear when it arrives on the scene is commanded to devour much flesh and it had three ribs in its mouth mouth now the medo-persian empire conquered exactly three kingdoms that was the kingdom of lydia there's a kingdom of babylon and the kingdom of egypt those are the three ribs the third beast is a leopard known for its speed and power this is a I don't know if you've ever seen a jaguar it's so fast and powerful it can catch a gazelle and then carry it up into a tree so that way it's not bothered by any other critters it's pretty amazing isn't it and in that same way this kingdom in is alexander the great he is that leopard in 12 years alexander the great was able to conquer the entire known world 12 years that's quick even by modern standards even much more astonishing in ancient times he famously wept when he discovered that there were no more civilized territories for him to conquer now this beast he was fast like a leopard has four wings to show its speed it also had four heads which are the four kingdoms that came from greece after alexander died and those kingdoms are in egypt there's the ptolemies the in the east it was the solutions the first and in

Macedonia it was antipoder and in asia my minor it was lysimicus and these are known in history as the hellenistic kingdom stay with me all right I promise there's there's a big point here and I'm gonna get to it okay but we gotta get through this the fourth and the final beast is I believe rome okay who conquered greece in 146 and expanded quickly over that course of the next several hundred years to conquer everything from the british isles all the way down to north africa all the way over into the middle east it ruled over the entire civilized world from 146 a.d until 476. Or 146 bc until once 476 a.d and I want you to digest that for a little bit because this is all just historical information right I mean that's a lot of stuff it's like drinking from a fire hydrant right it can be overwhelming especially when you don't have charts and maps and all that kind of stuff but I want I want you to understand this that Daniel he is in bed in 544 bc prophesying to the world exactly what's going to happen from that moment on until you know the 500s and just take a moment and appreciate the fact that God knows exactly what's going to happen that God he is the author of history it's his story we're just players in it and that he is working towards a greater redemption and so we asked that question why were there only four beasts why not six eight twelve well if we can recall we remember that during that fourth kingdom Daniel said in dan in Daniel 2 verse 44 it says and in the days of those kings talking about rome

The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor shall the kingdom be left to another people it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever now during the rule of rome God sent his son to establish his kingdom here on earth and he did so by being the mediator of a new and a better covenant a new and a better promise when Jesus Christ came he was the promised one from Genesis 3 15. He was the one that would crush the serpent's head when Christ came he fulfilled the noahic covenant where God's judgment would no longer be upon the earth and destroy the earth but that bow of heaven would point to him indicating that he would take the punishment upon himself when Christ came he fulfilled the promise to Abraham that he would have offspring as numerous as the stars who would be children of faith and not just of the flesh when Christ came he fulfilled the mosaic covenant and he fulfilled the requirements of God's holy law so that we as gentiles can be adopted into the family of God and we enter through by faith alone in the blood of his son Jesus Christ when Christ came he fulfilled the davidic covenant of God and established his throne forever when Christ died he ratified that new covenant and he bought us with his very own blood now we can have communion with God not because we have all these sacrifices that we do or we work so hard or we do all of this or we do all of that it's only by entering by faith alone in Jesus Christ that we can have a relationship with God the father rome it was known

For its brutality it was said that they would take salt and just scatter it all over the ground to force people into submission by starving them to death they would create a desert and call it peace it was said by the historians and those who tried to rebel were crucified all the way to the major cities they were a different sort of beast for sure but now there are many who want to look at these ten horns and they want to focus on them and Daniel did the exact same thing who are these ten horns especially that one with the eyes of a man and mouth saying great things we should do the same because these horns are not unimportant they're actually very in revelation 13 we read in verses 1 and 2 and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads and the beast that I saw was like a leopard his feet were like a bears and his mouth was like a lion's mouth and to it the dragon gave his power in his thrown in great authority and there's some really obvious correlations there you can see that the beast is rising out of the sea it's got the same amount of horns different parts of the different animals that he had already identified why does this beast in revelation have seven heads well it could be because it's a composition of all four beasts you got the four heads from the leopard and the other three from the other beasts that could be it and so what are the horns get to the point cody what are the horns well some people they've tried to identify these

With people some people say well that's the antichrist the others say that's the beast if you believe that's greece that's the fourth kingdom some people would say that was antiochus epiphanes antiochus epiphanes he was a guy during the inter-testamental period that desecrated the temple of the Lord he made he forbid the worship of the Lord in the temple he would actually sacrifice to zeus in the temple anyone that stood in the way would be killed a very bad dude and what happened was is that the jewish people they revolted they were led by the maccabees and in december of 164 they were able to overthrow antiochus epiphanes kick them out of jerusalem and the jewish people established a feast at that time called the feast of dedication which is nowadays called hanukkah which Jesus also observed in John chapter 10. So there you go there's a little history lesson for you guys but others they believe that the ten horns are the ten caesars that ruled from julius caesar to demetion some people they see that ten as just merely symbolic meaning complete whatever you believe on this issue have grace with each other don't like I'm sitting up here everybody's yeah I get it I understand but all of those opinions must be deeply informed by God's word by God's word not our opinions not our personal preferences not what we're familiar with but by God's word the little horn it has two distinct features it's got the eyes of a human and a mouth which speaks great things that word great is understood as boastful arrogant

And here's what I believe I believe that the horn is a symbol for a human not a supernatural being I believe it speaks great things because he is against God he is against the Lord I believe that's rooted in the roman empire because he's on the beast of the roman empire but what I love here and this is where it starts getting good for us and applicable to us today is that the vision changes and we get this image of the throne room of heaven it says there that the thrones are placed that word place is the word rama in the aramaic and it's the same word that was used of Daniel when he was placed into the lion's den it could be interpreted as dropped they were they were placed there and this makes sense in light of the passage but it's very rare in Scripture to get descriptions of God and yet here we have an amazing description of who God or what God looks like remember that he is in authority his clothing and his hair are brilliantly white the throne is fiery and it moves about freely it's it's an image of awe in splendor it should move us to consider the sheer purity and the sheer vastness of who God is and there are thousands that are serving the ancient of days that means that he has existed eternally and he will exist eternally and he has ten thousand times ten thousand serving him and ministering before him and I have to wonder how it felt to be Daniel in that moment Daniel he was constantly by himself in babylon he was alone there were many times when he was the only believer and he had to wonder maybe later on in

His life was it worth it was it really worth it and then suddenly you know what happened God gives him a view of heaven where he sees I'm not really alone there are literally millions that follow the creator and the sustainer of all things and so yes it was worth it and while he's in the middle of all this seeing the innumerable worshipers and the glory of God seated on his throne he gets distracted by the little horn which I think is really comforting for me because I if I'm honest like God's at work and it's just awesome and it's wonderful and then like you get distracted and you kind of wonder what's going on it's a very human thing and it makes me feel better that Daniel did the same thing the little horn won't shut up even in the midst of the splendor of God it's making a ruckus and the vision ends with the beast along with the horns being destroyed so what are these five differences if you're taking notes write these things down firstly the kingdoms of the world okay kingdoms of humanity in the kingdom of God that's the biggest difference right there the kingdom of the world they come and go right we many of you've probably seen the collapse of the british empire you've seen the soviet union rise and fall america begin its decline china on the rise it's the course that the Lord has for the whole of humanity and the more that Christians in america turn from God and they prioritize

Everything else other than God the quicker it will happen and don't think that Christians can like skip out on church and not give and not serve and not go on mission and not share the Gospel and not live in obedience and continue to fight and bicker about issues that God has already clearly spoken on and not see a decline in God's favor but God's kingdom is eternal Jesus and teaching about the kingdom he said in Luke 17 verses 20 through 21 the pharisees they sat down they asked him about the kingdom of God and Jesus said the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed nor will they say here look here it is or there for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you and so in one true and very real sense the kingdom of God is right here right now in the midst of us because we have the Holy Spirit of God here in each of our hearts and his presence is here because we're his people in a very real other sense it's not fully here that's the blessed hope that Christ will come really physically and establish his visible kingdom here on the earth in ways that we can see and one of the things that we do as Christians is we are ambassadors of that kingdom and we become ambassadors by sharing the Gospel by getting involved in political things by going out and making disciples by being on the forefront of the arts those are ways that we as Christians we get involved and we help people to taste and to see that the Lord is good those were areas education education and the arts were all realms of Christianity and then we just stopped pushing secondly the chaos of men versus the control of God if you notice that the four kingdoms they come out of this churning roiling ocean driven by winds and I just I

Picture it being like a time of darkness and monsters coming up out of the waters and you contrast that with the kingdom of God which is pure and just and full of peace and light and many people they are going to look for like let's just say justice people are looking for justice in this world they are looking for it and yet there's so many times when we do not see justice served in this world I was looking online the other day and there was a teacher who is found guilty of eight felony counts of taking liberties with a minor that will serve five minutes in the county five hours no five years excuse me five years in the county jail five years for eight felony counts of taking an advantage with minor I don't I don't think that's justice I don't think that's justice but as Christians we have an answer for that because those who are guilty will not escape justice in revelation chapter 20 verses 12 through 15 it says I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened then another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done and the sea gave up the dead who were in it death and hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire this is the second death the lake of fire and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire

Thirdly the subjection of humanity versus the sovereignty of God in this passage we see that the lion had its wings plucked it was forced to stand the bear is commanded to arise and devour the leopard is given dominion the fourth beast is destroyed and these kingdoms of men they are subject to so many things outside of their control it was said that the aztec empire was decimated by disease that the mayans were destroyed by famine that the nations of the world we are totally insubject to things that are way outside of our control but God is the sovereign one he's not dependent upon anything he's the freeze to free and the highest of highs he gives rain and he takes away rain who's the one that humbled nebuchadnezzar who's God who commands the nations it's God who gives dominion to any nation it's God who destroys the fourth beast it's God Almighty the ancient of days the fourth difference is the appearance of greatness versus authentic glory see the little horn it boasted and it said great things and it was a distraction even for people that were in the throne room of heaven and if this is the antichrist which I know Christians that are just terrified of that it's been a source of dread for many believers for many years but yet in the light of God's glory he just seems small God has authentic glory his throne is fire his purity is unmatched his servants are innumerable and he doesn't just appear to be great he is the greatest he is the most wonderful because he is God and we can trust him fifth and finally the evisceration of

The beast versus the eternality of God see the beast dies the end for him but it's not the end of the story for the people of God you see we have a hope in the Lord and the Lord never changes he never changes with the times or the seasons he is unvarying and unwavering and one day he is going to establish his visible kingdom here on earth and in the meantime we are called to be faithful and to be salt and light to a world that desperately needs to see God at work in us head hand heart head I want you to know that God he rules right now from heaven he rules right now he has established his kingdom through his son it grows through the proclamation of the Gospel and one day it will be established here on the earth in the meantime we're just called to be faithful every single day faithful faithful and I want you to identify some of those great things that the little horn was boasting about great things I want you to find some of those great things that are distracting you from the goodness and the glory of God and distance yourself from them those things they're eventually going to be burned up everything it's divided into two kingdoms I know I don't like to deal too much with dichotomies but God does everything's divided up into two kingdoms kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God where are your efforts and your investments going heart I want you to believe that kingdoms will rise and they will fall by God's command it's within his rights within his capabilities to do whatever he wishes because he's God but he's never

Arbitrary about it because God has a purpose in it and I pray that we would learn to live for his kingdom today and so God we do thank you for your word we thank you that you have called us as your children to be ambassadors to be salt and light and I pray that if there's anyone here that maybe they need to rededicate their lives or maybe they want to join a church or maybe they're just really struggling and they need some prayer God I pray that they would reach out to a friend that they would say hey can you pray for me I'm just I'm having a hard time right now maybe we're we're filled with fears maybe we're just struggling with those great things God help us Lord to look to you to live for you today as we all stand together may you be glorified in Jesus name amen let's pray all right let's stand and worship together [Music] what heights of love what depths of peace when fears are stilled when striving sees [Music] no guilt in life this is [Music] a man [Music] here is I'll stand no power of hell no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ good morning my name is John green I'm one of the deacons here and

You know you may not understood a lot of what you was told this morning I don't think I did and I've been a member around here for about 50 years but I can tell you one thing about 50 years ago I came in here and I was lost and if I'd died I'd went to hell it's real simple and if you're in that position and you don't know if you take your last breath where you're going you need to settle that and if you talk to our pastor about that he can help you take care of it so hopefully that simplified things just a little bit let's pray heavenly father I thank you today for this opportunity to be here and I thank you for the opportunity every day to be a witness for you and to tell people just what I've said this morning and I fail in that lots of times but we've got a new this is a new day we start over so when we go out here let's let's be about your business and you