Uncertainties in the
world: US 2012 election, Europes’ Financial Crises, Iran’s nuclear weapon, Syria’s civil war after
Libya & Egypt’s. Philippines. Earthquake, Floods, Employment, Economy,
wealth, Health, Children’s future, mom’s
future etc.
We need an anchor to hold
on too when turbulent times come. We need Him our Rock, our
firm foundation so no matter what storms come our way, we’ll be able to hold
on.
Picture of Book
of Daniel:
Ch.2 Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Statue:
Panorama of World’s Future
The materials Their interpretation
Gold
Head Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian EmpireSilver Chest The Medo-Persian Empire
Bronze Belly The Greek Empire
Iron Legs The Roman Empire of the past
Iron and Clay Feet The Roman Empire immediately before Christ's 2nd Coming
Rock The Messianic kingdom of Christ
Daniel 2:44-45: “…the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that will never be destroyed or conquered. It
will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain… that crushed to pieces
the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing…
what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is
certain.”
Daniel’s God is our God
too—and he is still on the throne. This may be the most
important lesson of the book. God is in charge! He is in charge of
nations, families, and individuals. He is in charge of the
past, the present, and the future. He is in charge of good times
and bad days, of happiness and sorrow, of joy and heartache, of great victories
and shocking defeats. He is in charge when a
child is born and he is in charge when death knocks at your door.
Studying this book ought
to increase our confidence in the sovereignty of a God who makes no mistakes. We can gain much insight
from the way Daniel lived his life.
How should we then
live…in this turbulent/ tumultuous/ uncertain times.
Daniel 12:13: As for you, go your ways till
the end. You will rest, & then at the end of the
days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance
1 "As
for you, go your ways till the end" Life on earth is a
test.
God continually tests people’s character, integrity,
faith, obedience, love & loyalty. Words like trials, temptations, refining & testing
occur more than 200 times in the Bible. Character is both developed & revealed by tests,… and
all of life is a test. We are always being tested. (No matter how old/ young we are & passed the
previous tests)
A. Daniel was passing the test of God from his early
childhood till the end. Daniel 1:8: But Daniel was determined not to
defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked
the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods decided
not to defile himself. He is a Genuine Israelites.FBI
Daniel 6:7: We are all in agreement—we administrators, officials, high officers, advisers,
and governors—that the king should make a law that will be strictly enforced.
Give orders that for the next thirty days any person who prays to anyone,
divine or human—except to you, Your Majesty—will be thrown into the den of
lions. ... But when Daniel
learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in
his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three
times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.
B. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son
Isaac. Adam & Eve failed their test in the Garden of eden. David failed his tests from God on several occasions(Bathsheba,
Census). Passed later…and was later called “God after God’s own heart.” The Bible also gives us many examples of people who
passed a great test, such as Joseph (being
faithful to God inspite of the temptation of Potiphar’s wife & being above
reproach w/ his job , Ruth (Her faithfulness to mother in law, Naomi) & Esther, making a stand for the Jews who were in
danger of being executed.
C. We don’t know all the tests God will give you, but we
can predict some of them, based on the Bible. You will be tested by:
- Major changes (house move-Abraham, job change –Me & dayday), delayed promises (job) .
- How we act when we cant feel God’s presence in our life- unanswered prayers, disappointment Ex. job hunting, victory over our finances, relationships
-
Impossible problems (Fil & Shirley),
-
Response to people over undeserved criticism, conflict
-
Senseless tragedies ( car accident/ holdup).
Illness
-
Success-
Lisanity, Tim Tebow
Some tests seem overwhelming, while others you don’t
even notice. He even watches the simplest actions such as when you
open the door for others, pick up a piece of
trash, or when you’re polite toward a clerk or a waitress. But both of them have eternal implications.
D.When you understand that life is a test, you realize
that nothing is insignificant in your life. Even the smallest incident has significance for our
character development. Everyday is an important day, & every second is a
growth opportunity to deepen your character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God.
E.The good news is that God wants us to pass the tests of
life, so he never allows the tests you face to be greater than
the grace he gives us to handle them. Every time you pass a test, God notices and make plans to
reward us in eternity.
Life is a test:
The deeds of this life are the destiny of the next.
2. You will rest,
& then at the end of the days you will rise
Life is a temporary assignment. Someday we’ll rest like P.Fil, Shirley Neff,
1.We won’t be here that long, so don’t get too attached.
David prayed Ps.39;4 Lord help me to realize how brief my
time on earth will be. elp me to know that I am here but for a moment. Or Ps.39;4 Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth
will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is
fleeting away.
The Bible is full of metaphors that teach about the
brief, temporary, transient nature of life on earth. Life is described as a mist, a breath, and a wisp of
smoke.
2.To make the best
use of our life we must never forget 2 truths:
First, compared w/ eternity, life is extremely brief. We’ll concern ourselves that will last for eternity.
We’ll not waste so
much time, energy, and concern on what wasn’t going to last?” What will last? God , His word, people
Second, earth is a
temporary residence. Repeatedly the Bible compares life on earth to temporary
living in a foreign country. (East Timor) This is not your permanent home or final destination.
(USA) You are just passing through, just visiting earth. The Bible uses terms like alien, pilgrim, foreigner,
stranger, visitor, and traveler to describe our brief stay on earth.
3.Christians should carry spiritual green cards to remind
us that our citizenship is in heaven. God says his children are to think differently about life
from the way unbelievers do. “All they think about is this life here on earth. But we
are citizen of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” Your identity is in eternity, and your homeland is
heaven. When you grasp this truth, you will stop worrying about
“having it all” on earth. God is very blunt about the danger of living for the here
& now and adopting the values, priorities, and lifestyles of the world around
us.
God warns us to not get too attached to what’s around us
because it is temporary. Those in frequent contact w/ the things of the world
should make good use of them w/o becoming attached to them. At death you won’t leave home- you’ll go home.
Daniel 5:16b-17: If you can read these words
and tell me their meaning, you will be clothed in purple robes of royal honor,
and you will have a gold chain placed around your neck. You will become the
third highest ruler in the kingdom.” Daniel answered the king, “Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I
will tell you what the writing means.
Daniel 5:26-27: This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has
numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end. Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have
been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Parsin means ‘divided’—your
kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
We will evaluate our lives here by asking… “Why did I place
so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking?
3 To receive your
allotted inheritance
Life is a trust
1.Trust - Our time
on earth and our energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, &
resources are all gifts from God that he has entrusted to our care & management. We are stewards of
whatever God gives us. This concept of stewardship begins w/ the recognition
that God is the owner of everything & everyone on earth
Psalm 24:1: The world
& all that is in it belong to the Lord; the earth & all who live on it
are his.
Daniel 2:4-5: Daniel soon proved himself more
capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of
Daniel’s great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire
empire. Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault
in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find
anything to criticize or condemn.
3.We never really own anything during our brief stay on
earth. God just loans the earth to us while we are here. It was God’s property before you arrived, and God will
loan it to someone else after you die. You just get to enjoy it for a while.
4.When God created Adam & Eve, he entrusted the care
of his creation to them and appointed trustees of his property. Gen.1:28 The first job God gave humans was to manage and take care
of God’s stuff on earth. This role has never been rescinded. It is a part of our
purpose today. Everything we enjoy is to be treated as a trust that God
has placed in our hands.
5.Our culture says, if you don’t own it, you wont take
care of it. But Christians live by a higher standard. Because God
owns it, I must take the best care of it that I can. The Bible says Those who are trusted w/ something valuable must show they are worthy of that trust. At the end of your life on earth you will be evaluated
& rewarded according to how well you handled what god entrusted to you.
6.When we fully comprehend that there is more to life
than just here & now, and you realize that life is just preparation for
eternity, we will begin to live differently. We will start living in light of eternity, and that will
color how we handle every relationship, task, & circumstances.
Relationship: Spouse, children
Task: Engineer,
Campus Worker, Staff working w/ Professionals, Director of our Ministry, SEA
Administrator, Now I am a Pastor…like
Daniel am I faithful, responsible, completely trustworthy…responsible w/
people, facilities, equipments, money… same w/ you….Circumstances: Best use of my time, money & energy
Our values change: 1 Get rich, 2 get rich, 3 get rich. Instead of self- God , others….We place a higher premium
on relationships & character instead of fame or wealth or achievements or
even fun. Our priorities are reordered. Keeping up w/ the trends, fashions, & popular values
just doesn’t matter as much anymore.
What matters is what God wants me to do.
- The father & mother who patiently teaches their children about life.
-
The office worker who diligently
does his job.
-
The son who honors &
obeys his parents.
-
The coach who shares
Christ with his players.
-
The friend who counsels
his buddies about the right thing to do.
-
The Sunday School teacher
who prays for her children to be saved.
-
The young couple who goes
to Mozambique as missionaries.
This week I ran across a wonderful statement that seems to fit our text and the strange, difficult days in which we live. “Christians should be the calmest people on earth.” What a thought that is. We have no right to run around wringing our hands. Not when our God is on the throne working out his purpose on the earth.
The book of Daniel opens
with what appears to be a clear triumph of evil over good. Yet God allowed it to happen
for his own higher purposes. I’m sure Nebuchadnezzar didn’t know that and
I’m sure the Jews had trouble believing it but it was true nonetheless.
In Daniel’s book we see what has happened: Kingdom of the earth
destroyed, Antichrist defeated, Israel delivered, Saints raised, God’s kingdom established. What starts with defeat
ends in a blaze of glorious victory. In that light the final words to Daniel mean
so much more:
“Now, Daniel, go and rest for a better day is
coming.”
Questions for
application:
TEST:
What has happened to
you recently that I now realize was a test from God?
TEMPORARY:
How should the fact
that life on earth is just temporary assignment change the way I am living
right now?
TRUST:
What are the greatest
matters God has entrusted to me?
*some parts adapted from
Rick Warren’s book, Purpose Driven Life.
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