Even When We Feel Unsteady God Still Reigns | Daniel 7 | June 14th, 2024

Daniel 7 is not a gentle passage. It is a storm at sea, a parade of beasts, a boastful horn, and a vision so intense that even Daniel, the man known for calm confidence, admits he is anxious and alarmed. That honesty opens a door for anyone who has ever thought, “I’m not myself right now,” and wondered what faith looks like when your usual steadiness disappears.

We walk through the imagery with care, starting with why the “great sea” signals chaos in the biblical imagination and why the beasts feel like jump scares on purpose. We talk about how many interpreters connect the four beasts to real empires like Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece under Alexander the Great, and Rome, and why prophecy is not meant to feed panic but to form resilient hope. Then the camera cuts to the throne room: the Ancient of Days takes His seat, the court sits in judgment, and the books are opened. While the world churns, God is not rattled.

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Transcript

Scripture Reading And Bible Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Good morning. Um my name is Carol Buster, and this is my granddaughter Emma Buster, and we're gonna read scripture this morning.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter seven, which is on page seven hundred and forty-four in the Pew Bibles, and follow along as I read God's Word.

Will Hawk 1:09

Alright, guys, while y'all are flipping there, I asked Carol to let me hop up. So typically everything uh that I do is gonna be on the screens. I'm not really changing that up today, but I do want you to have a papal, a paper Bible on your lap. So if you're not accustomed, or it it doesn't have to be paper, you can pull out your phone, but I want something that you can hold so that you're not beholden to just what I put on the screen. So uh if you don't have a Bible, if you don't own one, you can take one of the ones from the pew. You're allowed to look at the table of contents here to find the book. Nobody's gonna think you're a JV Christian if you need that, but if you guys would, while we're going through the reading, I'd love for everybody to have access to the entirety of Daniel chapter seven throughout the morning. Go for it, ladies.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Daniel verse Daniel seven, verse thirteen. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. She took my paper. Sorry. And to him he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. And this is the word of the Lord.

Will Hawk 2:39

Amen. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. If you wouldn't mind, Carol, I'm I got such small retail space right now today. So typically I've got a pulpit. If you guys have ever looked at what the other side of the pulpit looks like, it's sort of an air traffic control setup, which is pretty much how my mind works. I'm uh having to plug in because I just got back from vacation and my backup iPad was at 0% this morning. So while you guys are getting ready in Daniel 7, I'm gonna make sure I don't lose my notes midway through, and then we will all be good to go. All right, take a look at Daniel 7, not looking up at me, but actually look down, if you would. Josiah, I think it's gonna work great, other than the optics. This is so youth camp right now. All right, uh, as you're looking through Daniel 7, I just want you to kind of peruse it, find a verse, look at headings if the Bible you're looking in gives a little subheadings, and what you will find is that what the ladies read for you this morning is by no means the entirety of Daniel 7. I had them read what lives right in the heart of it, and it's this wonderful, warm Christ on the throne. But would somebody maybe just shout out an interesting phrase that you see in your Bible right now? Okay, son of man, this is the first time Jesus is referred to as the Son of Man. Bonus points of the camp store, Logan. What about something that just looks weird

Why Daniel 7 Feels Like Chaos

Will Hawk 4:06

or bizarre? Anybody see anything? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. This there's a horn that has human eyes in it. What else? Let's go one more. I heard something over here. Oh, yeah, yeah. The entirety of this vision. And so what we are gonna look at is one of the most bizarre passages in not only the book of Daniel, but some people would say in scripture. So, what happens if you are, if you're reading the book of Daniel, and I like to imagine uh sort of a nine-year-old reading the book of Daniel, you're reading chapter one, and you're like, cool story, man. Two, three, four. All right, we got some fire, we got some weird hands five with Daniel in the lion's den. When you go from chapter six to chapter seven, there's sort of like a what just happened? Kind of a moment, because all of a sudden we go from narrative to prophecy. And here's kind of what I want you to imagine. We have been watching the movie of Daniel's life. This morning, you're gonna sit with him and have a one-on-one interview with him about the making of the film. That's what begins to happen here in Daniel chapter 7. If you guys want to grab the notes, you can get your phones out and go ahead and do that. And while you do, I'm gonna try to fix something on mine. All right. Good stuff. So when we begin looking at this, Daniel chapter 7 is gonna feel a little bit messy. Uh, you're going to have a what is happening kind of reality. Just as you were perusing it, that probably happened. It may start to feel kind of heavy. And let me explain who's in the room right now. There are people in the room who are coming to church for the first time in a long time. There are people in the room who are coming to church for the first time. I am so pumped you're here. You picked like a really interesting. God chose a very interesting Sunday for you to show up. And then you have some folks who have been studying, they've been in all these kinds of Bible studies. They have all these words like eschatology that are tucked into their being, and they're just like, oh, let's go, like Daniel 7. Here is what I'm gonna request of you. Can we for a moment suspend your thoughts, fears, anxieties, big excitements about Daniel 7? Can we just receive the chapter together as it comes? So for a moment, just sort of put those in those sort of emotions to the side, and let's just take this chapter as it presents itself because it's going to feel a little bit messy. Um, every time we go over to my mom's house for dinner, the nieces and the nephews go and they play in the playroom. Depending on how long we are at my mom's house, the state of that playroom moves from what it typically looks like to one hour later, you're kind of like, two hours, huh, three hours, you're not even like worried about putting things where they go. You're just trying to scoop things up and toss it to a side because it's an absolute mess. Daniel 7 is going to, and I think should feel like you walking in a room with eight toddlers who have dumped out the Legos, and then to the chagrin of every type A, they typed out the duplo right on top of them, and then they put Lincoln logs on it, and then magnetiles, and they just started starfishing in the middle. And then you walk in to clean it up, and you have this moment, you have, do I every one of you have done this? Do I just grab it all and toss it in a box, or do I take the time to put it where it actually goes? Can we all relate to that moment? Welcome to Daniel 7. And here's what I'm advocating. Can we not just try to throw everything in one box? Can we take a moment and look at this child's room with toys scattered about? And let's take just a little bit of time. So here's where we begin. We read this: I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. I saw in the night visions and behold, hang on, I just realized I got something messed up. All right, question for you. When we see visions in Daniel, should we feel confident or not confident? Like if you're thinking Daniel in visions, what are you thinking? Confident. Like, if there's any guy in Scripture that's going to have a vision and just take it like a slow-pitched softball and put it over the left field fence, it's Daniel. This is who he is. This is what he does. In fact, what do we know thus far about all of Daniel's visions? If you've been following us for any amount of time, we know that when it comes to Daniel and all his visions, they all happen just as God says they will. And as scary as they may seem, not only do they happen as God says they will, it's always advancing the story or the narrative of God's love and justice for his people. So when Daniel has this vision, we need to be reminded that from the drop in Daniel, here is what God has told us about him. Daniel had understanding in all ALL all, excluding zero, all visions and dreams. This is why he is the guy. When King one or King Two or King Three or King Four has some funky nightmare and doesn't know what to do about it. Daniel, I need you, bro. I've needed you for the past 80 years. I need you, and out comes Daniel. That's what we know. But in the first year, this is the beginning of the chapter. In the first year of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream of his head as he lay in his bed, and he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Who's dreaming now? Who's dreaming now? Daniel's dreaming. Now remember what I told you. We've been watching this movie, and now we're sitting with Daniel behind the scenes. Notice when this happens. The first year of Belshazzar. In other words, this is before chapter 5. This is before the writing on the wall. This is before his color drops and his knees knock and he passes out and doesn't know what to do. This is before Daniel in the lion's den. Daniel's saying, dude, when God was writing this story, I didn't have time to give you a director's cut. I just need you to know that when all this was going down with king number two and king number three, here's what you need to know God was doing with me. Here's my devotional life. Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up a great sea. So Daniel is now having a dream, and this is how it begins. The four winds of heaven are stirring up the great sea. Now, let me explain for those of us who don't come from a Jewish context. The idea here is imagine for a moment you close your eyes and you

The Sea As Fear And Disorder

Will Hawk 11:41

imagine a compass, north, south, east, and west. For them, that would have been the four winds of heaven. He's imagining the entirety of human existence. And as he's imagining a globe, the way he would have imagined a globe, all of a sudden the sea begins to stir up. And out of the sea comes something terrifying. Now, for us, the sea is usually a very fun place. By show of hands, who has ever had a sideways experience with water? Okay, all right, good. By show of hands, how many of you enjoy water more than you fear it? By show of hands, okay? Slip and slides are great, right? Pools are awesome, creeks. We like baptism as Christians. So, like, water is a good thing. Please understand, when they see that when Daniel sees a great sea, it is a terrifying thought to him. It would be like me coming to you and saying, hey, I've got great news. Elon Musk just gave me a ring. We hadn't talked in weeks, but he gave me a call and he said, They're trying this new rocket. They're gonna send it higher than it's than any rocket's ever gone faster than it's ever been, and I've got two tickets. One of them is for you. It's an experimental ship. They've never actually done this before, but you get to be the first. That is the way they felt about the sea. They didn't have navigation, they didn't have cruise ships that seemed to divide physics. They they weren't able to know if I start here and go there, this is the path to take. The sea to them ate lives. It was chaos. In the Jewish mindset, when you read, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters in the beginning. We all think that like there's this still sea, and the Holy Spirit's just like, this is gonna be great. In a Jewish mindset, it was chaos, it was terror. And into that chaos, into that unknown, the Spirit of God steps and says, Here comes order, here comes solidity, here comes land. I'm gonna build something beautiful. Let me prove this to you in a really cool way. When Jesus starts teaching in Mark chapter 4, where does he go? He goes and he stands next to the sea. He began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside him on the sea. Why did Jesus do that? Well, we'll uh I think the reason Jesus did that was because it was very difficult to hear, and people would crowd around him, and he was in that uncomfortable thing where he was surrounded by people and trying to talk to everyone. But if he puts the sea at his back, it turns into a natural amphitheater and he can face them. Yeah, that's good public speaking. I don't think that's why. Well, we'll, if he's in the sea, that's low land. The land coming down would have been high land, so now he's at an amphitheater with everyone in front of him. They can see him and they can hear him. I think that's a part of it. But I think the big thing is this. He begins teaching on the order God has for the world. I love this, by the way, did not plan this. And do you know what he does to do that? He puts his feet in the water. He stands in the midst of what they would have called chaos, and he says, This is the world my Father has built. Do you want to know how you are intended to walk through it? Do you want to know what it is to have confidence when the seas and the storms of life are raging? His toes hit the water, and standing in the chaos is the one who brings order. Moments later, a great windstorm arose. The waves are breaking into the boat, so that the boat's already filling, but he, Jesus, he's in the stern. He's sleeping on a cushion, and they woke him and they said, Teacher, Rabbi, don't you care that we're dying up here? The ship's being tossed from side to side. He awoke, pay close attention. He rebuked the wind, and he said to the sea, peace, be still. Chaos, stop it. I'm here now. Disciples, why would you be nervous about chaos in your life when you're standing next to me? This is who the Son of Man is. He said to them, Why are you afraid? Why are we afraid? Because, like, my uncle died in this sea and his brother died in this sea. We had to have a funeral without a casket, because we just know he's somewhere underneath our feet? Because I've been taught since I was a young child this is dangerous and this is scary. What do you mean, why am I afraid? Jesus, why would you ask me if I still have faith? They're filled with great fear, and they say to one another, Who is this guy that even the most chaotic, scary things of the world listen to him? So when Daniel, when all of a sudden he has this dream of the scariest thing in all existence being stirred up even scarier, it does something in Daniel. Daniel declared, I saw, behold, the four winds of heaven. Everywhere I looked, there was chaos upon chaos, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. So the most chaotic, scary thing that Daniel could dream of, now, I mean, you can just imagine, this is jump scare after jump scare in the NC17 movie you snuck into. And you get in there, and two minutes in, you're like, I should have listened to my mom, I should have listened to my dad. This was a mistake. This is a big mistake. And Daniel's hanging there, and then all of a sudden, boop, here comes

Four Beasts And Rising Empires

Will Hawk 17:31

Beast number one. By the way, pay close attention to this. They get scarier each time, okay? Beast number one, it was like a lion and had eagle's wings. This is the stuff I read when I was in Sunday school, and I got bored. It's like this is so cool. Somebody give me a collection sheet of this action. Then as I looked, its wings were plucked off. Now look, you can do the kids' church version, boop, boop, or you can do like the adult version. Doesn't matter to me. I'm just telling you, God's not worried about Daniel seeing realities here. He was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. Pay close attention, somebody in this room is gonna get this right. And the mind of a man was given to it. Who does that sound like to you? Who's it sound like? Nebuchadnezzar. The first was like a lion had eagle's wings, right? All right, I mean that's sort of scary. Lions, whatever, eagles. Sounds cool to me. I'd want to write it if I lived in a fantasy novel. And behold, verse 5, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and it was told, Arise, devour much flesh. Can we agree that's a little bit scarier? You've got this like souped-up bear that's walking with a limp, it's got a couple of ribs hanging out its mouth, and then you hear this voice, go and eat some people. That's a little bit scarier. When you keep going, here's what you find. After this, I looked and behold, another, like a leopard. And you're like, ah, the bear is scarier. Give it a minute, let it cook. With four wings of a bird. That's still not scary, Will, on its back. And the beast had four heads. All right, you got me. All right. So you've got this leopard, except four heads, like Cerebus, and he is given dominion over all things. Bonus points to the camp stores. You can answer the question I'm about to ask on the fourth beast. After this, I saw in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast. Terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. Non-retorical. What's different about beast four compared to one, two, and three? Huh? It's not compared to anything. All right. What's in that? Daniel looks at number one. He's like, it's kind of like a lion. It's got some wings. Number two, bear, terror bear, but cylla bear, leopard, heads. This fourth thing comes out, he doesn't know what to make of it. All he knows is it's terrifying. This fourth beast comes out, terrifying, dreadful, exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured whatever was in front of it and broke it in pieces. It stamped out whatever was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. This is what I'm saying. As he's dreaming, more sweat is pouring off his brow. This is not getting better. This is getting worse and worse and worse. And then this thing that he can't even fully describe has ten horns on its head. I don't know if it's like antlers ten. I don't know if it's like Darth Maul ten, but there are ten horns on its head, and all of a sudden, stuff starts going down. I considered the horns. That means he he like zoomed in on them. 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. Imagine a horn getting ripped off an animal's head three times. And behold, in this horn, the one that took their place, were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great, not good, but boastful things. All right, now just pause eyes on me for a minute. Can we all agree this is not a dream we would want our seven-year-old to have? Can we all agree with that? Can we all agree if we had a seven-year-old that had that dream, it would affect our morning. It would affect our afternoon, and probably the next seven nights. Like, you'd be putting on Rainbow Bright and My Little Pony right before, probably not pony, too much of an animal reference, Toy Story, right before they go to bed. And you're just like palate cleanse, palate cleanse, palate cleanse. Daniel's a grown man. At this point, it's before the writing on the wall. Let's put him at least in his 50s, maybe 60s, 70s, beyond. This is the dream that he has. Now, the first question I ask you when we began is what do we know thus far about all of Daniel's visions? Number one, they all happen exactly as God said. So whatever is going on here, if you're a believer, you need to pay attention. If you're not a believer, you need to pay attention because this is true, whether you realize it yet or not. Number two, somehow, somehow, this is going to advance the story of God's love, deep, abiding love for his people, and the justice that he wants to bring in a broken world covered in Legos and Duplo that he had a plan for, that all these kings like toddlers just come in and start making a mess of. But here's the question I want you to wrestle with. And if you don't do this, you're gonna miss out on this morning. If you don't do this, you're gonna To miss out on this morning. We could talk about this verse for four weeks and we would have more than enough content. Can I tell you what I think the Holy Spirit wants you wrestling with today? It is this. What do we know about Daniel's demeanor thus far? In all of Daniel, what has his attitude, his demeanor, how has he carried himself? Will somebody be brave enough to give me an adjective? Confident. Calm. Those are literally the ones I wrote down. Calm, confident, and assured. That is who Daniel has been. I will explain these four beasts and what they mean to the best of my ability. But you are going to miss out if you don't first understand this. Even Daniel is unsettled by this vision. I'm gonna prove it to you. Here's your calm, collected, assured, confident person. As for me, remember this is the director's cut. As for me, can I tell you what's going on in my mind before anybody calls me out to talk about riding on a wall before there are lions in a pit? My spirit was anxious. Daniel, you don't get anxious. You're a man of prayer three times a day. Brother, I was anxious. And I wasn't just anxious, the visions of my head alarmed me. Daniel chapter 1, 17. You understand all visions. Why would you be anxious? Why would you be alarmed? As for me, verse 28, you have to go to the back of the chapter to get this piece. My thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed. Do you know what Daniel is inviting you into?

When Even Daniel Feels Anxious

Will Hawk 24:11

What he's saying is, the guy I always was, I wasn't today. The guy who God called me to be, the guy who God empowered me to be. I wasn't that day. I wasn't calm. I wasn't confident. I wasn't assured. I was scared. I was scared like the king who was gonna watch writing on the wall. My color changed. I my anxiety shot through the roof. Even Daniel was unsettled by this vision. So if you want to get the most out of this morning, here's what you must wrestle with. How will you respond when the things that are usually true of you are not true of you? How are you going to respond? This is director's cut stuff. And I want to finish that. This is our last time in Daniel before we jump into a summer series in John. I want to leave Jesus on the throne. I want to get there before we go anywhere else for a period of time over the summer. If you want to get there not just theologically, not just in Bible flippantly, if you want to get there right here, you need to be able to answer this question. How will you respond when the things that are usually true of you are not true of you? Usually, Will is a healthy guy. I think about what I eat. I work out three times a week. I've got a workout buddy to hold me accountable. I drink a good bit of water. I am usually a very healthy person. Four weeks ago, I had this fluky thing in my back goes out. Every morning I feel, no offense, like I'm 80. Maybe it's 70. Maybe it's 96. I really don't know because I haven't gotten there yet. I'm not supposed to be there yet. But I literally can't get out of bed. The alarm goes off, and I don't have a oh no. The alarm's going off. I have an oh no, like I literally can't get to it. And I know my wife's about to be like, William, the alarm. I have guys carrying bags for me. Do you know how emasculating that is for me? For somebody to be like, hey, can I get that for you? No, you can't get it. I would rather die than you carry something for me. And I gotta go get on a plane in a few weeks? Are you kidding me right now? What happens when what is usually true of you is not true in that day? By the way, it isn't just to the negative. Uh I'll just throw health up here. What happens when health goes, is that the right way or the left? Goes the wrong way? But what happens when health goes the right way? What happens when all of a sudden, and let's just talk about what's going on at GLP1, like that's not a new thing in our culture. What happens when all of a sudden you've been wanting to shed weight for 20 years and you begin doing it? What happens when all of a sudden health, which has been very difficult for you, starts to become easier? Who do you become? You see, this isn't just uh who do you become when things are hard? The question is, who do you become when things change? You're generally a confident person, but now you're in a new role at work and you know the least. How are you gonna respond when the things that are usually true of you confidence isn't? I don't know who I am, I don't know the answers to the questions. I don't want people to come and talk to me because it's gonna put on display, I don't really know what I'm talking about. Flip it. What happens when all of a sudden you find yourself and it just starts clicking and making sense? And you used to be a C student, but now all of a sudden you found that specific area of study and you're just rocking it out. You were never a gifted student. You never got to take your all-A report card to Flint Stations and get tokens for it because you have B's and C's. Well, you got two. Your mom's not driving you down there for two tokens. Half y'all don't know what I'm talking about. It doesn't even matter. That's my world. What happens when all of a sudden you end up in a place where you are rocking it? You're in nursing school and anatomy, it just makes sense. And you're the brightest in your class. Who are you going to be then? What happens when the things that are usually true of you are not true of you? And let me just promise you this it happens so many times in our lives. It's not like a one-off, like, man, that weird thing happened when I was 23. This is a seasonal reality, not just for God's people, but for all people. This is a human reality. Maturity in Jesus means we know how to lose and we know how to win. Maturity in Jesus means you can lose and lose and lose and not lose your joy in Christ. But it also means you can win and win and win and not want to win this world. But win people, souls, fishers of men, win peace and comfort in your life. Maturity in Jesus means we know how to lose. It also means we know how to win. Let's get back to Daniel. In verse 17, he gives us uh the beginning interpretation. These four great beasts are four kings who will arise out of the earth. Now, you're gonna have to go back in your own Bibles because it, well, I can probably pull it off. Let's see. Boom. There we go. Most interpreters believe that these four kings or four kingdoms are the same ones from the vision in Daniel 2 where we have that statue. Gold head, iron and clay, if you remember that. If you don't, just read it in your personal time with the Lord, it's Daniel chapter 2. Many interpreters believe Daniel is seeing that in a new, deeper way. The lion probably representing Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar makes all the sense in the world, raises to the heights, is plucked down, loses his mind

Linking The Beasts To History

Will Hawk 29:56

literally, and then is given his mind back. After him comes in the Meadow Persian Empire. That's probably the bear that's leaning because the Persian side of that kingdom was very strong. It went through and conquered and it became great. The leopard is probably representing Alexander the Great. For those of you who need a, you're like Meadow Persian. Will I wasn't a history major, but Alexander the Great, like all of us, had eighth-grade stuff, right? And so why Alexander the Great? Well, one, he conquered the known kingdom faster than anyone else had leopard. And when he died, that kingdom was given to guess how many rulers? Four representing the four heads. And then this beast that couldn't even be described. Anyone want to guess? Starts with an R, ends with an ohm. It's probably Rome. And if you get real fun with it, what you'll realize is though there will there were 12 primary rulers in Rome, two of them came and went so quickly that there are ten representing the ten horns. Now, Daniel is unsettled by this vision. But as I looked, this is what happens next. As I looked, I wish I could give you a whole sermon on this letter. Oh, pen work, please. The S on thrones. Sorry, my pen isn't working. Why are you gonna tell me 100% and then 0% at the same time? Hang on. Yay! I would love to give you a whole sermon on that. Thrones are placed, and the ancient of days, that means God, took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow. Purity. The hair of his head like pure wool. Wisdom. If you want, if usually, if you want good wisdom, find the guy with the whitest hair in the room. Usually, okay? There are some exceptions. Some of them don't have any hair, and they're still wise. Some of them have white hair and they're not. That's okay. Like we're all in process. But this is this thick head of woollen white hair. In their context, this is the smartest guy on the block. His throne was fiery flames. His throne has wheels on it. So maybe it's a throne, maybe it's a chariot, but it's pointing to a warrior who goes in power. And a stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousand served him, a whole bunch. And ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. That's the Bible saying, a countless throng of people stand before this pure, wise, powerful

Ancient Of Days Takes His Seat

Will Hawk 32:36

ruler. As you've watched these four scarier than the last kings come up. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. So while Daniel is unsettled by the vision, God is undisturbed on his throne. God is the grandfather walking down the hallway next to the playroom that the kids have destroyed for the umpteenth time. And he peeks his head in there and he says, What a mess. And when mom and dad, who are very busy, are like, we just gotta toss all this stuff and we gotta get the kids, it's nap time, right? Like we gotta the father with all the wisdom in the world, all the kindness and all the power, he says, son, daughter, grandkids, we put things back where they go. That's that's kind of the context here. Calm. All the chaos, but the door opens and wisdom steps in and says, All of these things have a place and they need to go in their place. I'll come back and check on you in just a few minutes. In the chaos, God, the ancient of days, sits, judges, and brings order. Now invite this reality into your life. I'm gonna, you're gonna need to make application here. I don't have time to make application on this one. God alone has wisdom to sort out right from wrong. God alone has purity to persistently choose the right. When I was in the when I was in the eighth grade, uh, it was the first year Blackman Road was built. I get out of the eighth grade and they say, Hey, great news, you're going to Hardaway High School. And I go, Nope. Every friend I've had before has gone to Shaw High School. It's right there. Hardaway's all the way over there. I'm not going to a place where I don't know anybody. Everybody older than me has gone to Shaw. Sorry, Will, we're redistricting. You're going to have to go to the other place. I would have said no. In fact, I did. I just didn't have, I didn't try to get my mom to get me a hardship to go to whatever. I knew I'm supposed to be at Shaw, but I wasn't. God said, No, I know what's right from wrong. I'm going to consistently choose what is right for you. You go there, you're not going to meet your wife. You're not going to have your kids. You're not going to have the friends that I intend for you to have. I know right, I know wrong, and I have the power to make these things be. It doesn't have to be the biggest stuff in the world. Who am I going to marry? What job am I going to get? Where am I going to go to school? And the seven illustrations that every pastor makes about the biggest things in your life. What I'm telling you is God is wise enough to know the thing you're trying to figure out for Tuesday. He's the one that you want to go to. In the chaos of your life, when you look at your feet, and Lego and Duplo and Magnetiles are all stacked up, and you don't know if you're supposed to parent right now, and you're supposed to wife or husband right now, or you're supposed to check your email right now, opens the door and in comes the Father. He says, Listen, take a breath, son. Do you think I'm writing a story of anxiety for you? Do you think I'm writing a story of fear for you? Look, I know exactly how to sort out right from wrong, and I will always choose what is right for you. And I will make sure that what is good comes to pass. If I wanted a New Testament this, I would tell you in John 15, God's word tells us that every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. He loves you too much. He knows what's right, he knows what's wrong. You don't need that junk in your life. Cut it off. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. Hey man, you're growing. You're growing in this area. I don't want you to go this way, though. So we're gonna prune this off. I need you to grow this way. Notice the pruning of God comes not to the dead, but to the living in him, that it may bear much fruit. How do you respond when the things that are usually true of you are not true of you? I will tell you, and this is what Daniel does in the very next verse. You remember who's on the throne. You remember who walks down the hallways of your life, you remember who writes the story of your being, and you remember he is always wise, he is always right, he is always true, he is always pure, he is always powerful. I remember when health diminishes or when it goes well, when confidence drops, or it goes great. Let's throw relationships in. Usually you stink at them. Your first pickup line is, Ugh, you pretty want food? And like, that's usually how it goes for you. And then all of a sudden you come up with a suave thing, and the girl's like, Yeah, let's go out sometime. You're like, Who is this guy? It's not me. All right, do you just become this cocky punk of a guy? Or do you say, Okay, God, this there must be something going on here. That is not who I am. I'm thinking there's some Holy Spirit stuff going on because I'm not usually that smooth. In every part of your world, when you find that you are not who you usually are, can you remember who is on the throne? And even unsettling seasons can become deeply fruitful season. That's what I think Daniel would have for us. The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and they will possess the kingdom forever. Forever. The samlot. And ever. Look, this is not a typo. This is not will hit control X, control V one too many times. This is God saying in an endless way, my people are going to receive this kingdom that I'm building. You're gonna possess it, you are going to own it. But Daniel, being human as he is, is still trying to work through this fever dream. So I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, the one that was different from all the rest. God, it's a terrifying thing. What's actually going on there? If you want to pull out the magnifying glass and dig in, I'll give you two minutes of it, and here you go. God, what about the ten horns that are on its head? And the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell? The horn that had eyes and a mouth, and it spoke these great, not good, but arrogant things, seems greater than its companions. And as I looked, this horn made war. This ruler, this king, in the playground of kingdoms. This toddler walks into the room with every other toddler, and he grabs somebody's capri

The Little Horn Wears Down Saints

Will Hawk 39:06

son and he kicks over somebody's Lego building. This guy walks onto the stage and he makes war with the saints. Read carefully. He prevails over them. Every one of us is toddlers in a playground of a world we did not create. And every one of us tries to build a life. And we grab a couple of Legos and we grab a couple of Duplo. We're like, this isn't exactly right, but it's better than that, kids. So win. Alright? You got some other kid with Lincoln logs and magnetiles, and he's like, I don't know, I'm just trying to do the best I can, trying to make a rocket ship over here. And this guy comes in, this toddler comes in, he kicks down everybody's stuff, he grabs all of their goldfish, eyes on the screen. Sorry. Until the grandfather opens the door. You live in a world where God is a hundred percent in control, he still allows your decisions to matter. He's never not paying attention. But he looks into that mess, and the ancient of days comes, and judgment is given for the saints of the Most High. And the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. You out of the room. All you're doing is throwing blocks at people. You out of the room. All you're doing is taking their goldfish. You out of the room. And he looks at his kids and he says, You ready to build something great? That is what's happening in Daniel chapter 7. Yes, they're obese, and yes, it's confusing. Yes, it's intended to be scary. And even Daniel, who never got scared about this stuff, is like, it's terrifying when you're in the playroom. When you're getting knocked upside the skull with a Lincoln log. This is not a fun place to be. But God steps in. Believers are worn down until God shows up. That is true at the end of time, and it's true tomorrow morning. You are going to be worn down in this world until God shows up. So I will just tell you this: you can do your life in the storm, and you can be like, Man, I hope God shows up. Or you can intentionally go to him before you go into the storms that are waiting for you. It doesn't have to be impressive. God, I'm about to walk into this, I'm about to walk into this office. It's a sea of turmoil. I need to know that Jesus is next to me. God, I don't have one more motherly moment in my body right now. Is Jesus with me in this boat? God shows up. Believers are worn down until judgment is given for the saints. You're my kid. You think I'm not gonna help you clean up this mess? You think I'm not gonna help you build something amazing? Believers are worn down until the saints possess the kingdom. And I want you to just ponder that for a moment. For me, what that would have been is hey, Will, I'm gonna give you the keys to the bridge that goes to Jekyll Island. That's where my family grew up vacationing. Anybody ever been to Jekyll Island? Anybody? Okay. You know, I have to go over that big bridge. This concept to me, if I was a kid reading it, would have been Jesus saying, William, here are the keys. You own the whole island. You got the whole beach, you got the alligators that you can throw lunch meat to, you've got the putt-putt course, it's yours. I'm handing you the keys. The concept here is that there is a kingdom coming, and if you don't get this, you do not know how much your Heavenly Father loves you, believer. He doesn't just want you floating on a cloud singing, You are my all in all for all eternity. He's given you jobs, he's giving you something to do, he has given you a body and ability and a kingdom to build. The difference is there's nobody coming in to make a mess anymore. There's nobody arguing about who gets what block and who gets what thing and who gets what snack. It's this beautiful family. You see, Daniel, more than any other person in human history, had a front row seat to watch kingdoms rise and fall. He'd seen it. Up, down, up, down, up, down. That's why we're calling the series in Daniel, Building Faithfully in Broken Kingdoms. Because that's what God wants you to do if you're a believer. Now you may look at this and say, Well, like, so what is the horn exactly? Some people would say it's Antiochus IV, some people would say it's the Antichrist. Some people say Daniel's there, and he's looking at this ruler in Rome, and it's gonna be a hot mess. Other people say, no, it's actually the Antichrist, and it's talking about the end times. I would probably say, what's wrong with Daniel seeing what's going to happen and then what's gonna happen after that? But what we will find in Scripture is that there is someone, someone's coming who is gonna speak against the Most High. He is going to wear out the saints to the best of his ability. He's gonna try to change everything that makes sense to you, sound familiar, and people are gonna be given it into his hand for a time, times and half a time. That's supposed to remind you of forever, forever and ever. And when you see it, it's supposed to say time, time, and half a time doesn't sound all that bad. So long as God opens the door and steps in, because the court is gonna sit in judgment. His dominion, that proud one, is gonna be taken away. It's gonna be consumed, it's gonna be destroyed, and the kingdom and the dominion and the great. Greatness of the kingdoms under the whole of heaven shall be given to remember thrones with an S on it? To Jesus? Yeah. But it's given to Jesus through the people of the saints of the Most High. You are going to rule over a kingdom if you are trusting in Christ. Why squabble about crumbs today? His kingdom shall be everlasting. All dominions shall serve him and obey him, which is why all of a sudden the playroom stops being chaotic. Because they're all serving the same Father. Daniel gets to the end of this incredible dream, this chapter, and says, Here's the end of the matter. For me, Daniel, my thoughts alarmed me, my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart. This is very similar to Mary. When the shepherds show up and they say, Mary, like this baby you just had, some angels showed up and they said, He's the son of David, the savior of the world, who has come to rescue God's people. And Mary's like, I don't know exactly what to do with that. I will hold this in my heart. This is what Daniel does when he looks back on this dream. And I want you to do the same thing. How do you respond when things that are usually true of you aren't? Here's what Daniel chose to do. Scott, you can come up. I don't know where you're at. I didn't tell you. Hey man, sorry. Remember who was on the throne, knowing even unsettling seasons can be deeply fruitful. I want you to come up with something in your head, and I'm not going to make you say it out loud. In your life right now, what is unsettled? In your life right now, what is uncomfortable. In your life right now, what is unusual.

The Saints Receive An Everlasting Kingdom

Will Hawk 46:31

Invite God into that. You think he didn't write that into your story for a reason? He wants you to remember how much you need him to pop his head in the door because he wants so much more than that. He wants to walk in and sit on the floor with you and build with you and dwell with you and laugh with you. In the places that you feel unsettled or uncomfortable or unusual, invite God in. Daniel warns those he loves of an enemy that wants to wear them out. Some of you need to warn those you love who are believers. Parents, you need to warn your kids there's an enemy. You need to warn your spouse. You need to warn your adult kid that you haven't talked to in a while. You need to warn your neighbor. Hey, there's an enemy that wants to wear out every Christian that is walking around on the face of the earth. Jesus looks at these kings in a mess of toys. Every king, every ruler, every president, every prime minister, every senator, you name it, it's just a bunch of humans sitting on a playmat, covered in Lego and Duplo and every other kind of thing. And Jesus wants to walk in and say, Do you realize I designed this place? I know how to build these things. And when you build something incredible, I gotta say, that's pretty impressive. When you build something that would take a lifetime to pull off, that's Rivendale. Ladies, that's the closest I could get for you. When you build something incredible, let me ask you this. What does a toddler want to do with that? There are two responses. They either, just tell me this is not perfect application for the world we live in. When Jesus walks in and he sits with you and you start building something incredible, it's what he has for you. And a toddler walks over and sees it, they want to do one of two things. Most of them want to kick it over into the chaos of life. But a few wanna sit down and say, How on earth did you do that? And you say, Dude, I was in this mess too. The starship I built was never gonna fly. But when he came in and sat with me, all of a sudden we started building something beautiful. There are gonna be people in your life that whenever you do something beautiful, they want to tear it down. They want to tear down because theirs doesn't look as good. And if you make it seem like you have built something beautiful, you deserve for it to get kicked down. But when you immediately transfer, no, I can't see my cross anymore. When you immediately transfer the goodness to Christ, he's the one who sat with me in this whole mess. He's the one who started making sense of it. I'm actually building stuff that matters and it's beautiful. Do you want to build with me? Some of them are gonna say, Yeah, I absolutely do. Daniel chose to live for and build toward the new kingdom, which is gonna be given to us forever. You are not Christian, you are not allowed to wait for heaven on this. You're not allowed to wait for heaven on this because Christ doesn't want you to. Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them. The kingdom of God's not coming in ways that can be observed. No one's gonna say, Look, here it is. Nobody sits in the mess, and then all of a sudden, there, boom. Nobody is going to say, Behold, the kingdom of uh there. For Jesus says, Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Would you hand me that green block? The kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Would you put this one on top? Christian, you are being invited to build a kingdom that is already actively

Build The Kingdom In The Mess

Will Hawk 50:26

being built. And there may be some punks that want to kick it down and tear it down, but there are also people who want to join you. I'll leave these up so that you can wrestle with what it is that God wants you to do and be, especially when you find yourself not being who you usually are.