Speaker 1: Well, good morning church family.
Speaker 1: It is very good to be back with you.
Speaker 1: I was out a couple weeks, went to youth camp and then my family went on vacation and so very glad to be back with you If you're a guest this morning.
Speaker 1: My name is Jason Smith.
Speaker 1: I have the awesome privilege of being the pastor here of First Baptist Bernie.
Speaker 1: Turn with me in your Bibles to Daniel, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: As we continue our walk through the book of Daniel and our summer sermon series, we're all the way to chapter 11, and we're going to finish Daniel, chapter 12, next week.
Speaker 1: If you do not have a Bible, there is a Bible in the pew rack in front of you.
Speaker 1: Please take that as a gift from us to you so that you can keep a copy of God's Word.
Speaker 1: You can have that.
Speaker 1: You can mark it up.
Speaker 1: That is yours to keep.
Speaker 1: We would love for you to take that as a gift from us as we jump in.
Speaker 1: Sophie Skoll was a Christian German student and a key member of the White Rose Resistance Group during World War II.
Speaker 1: She was arrested on February 18, 1943, at the University of Munich.
Speaker 1: Her and her brother, hans, had written and handed out some literature, some leaflets, urging the Germans, and particularly the university students, to resist the Nazi regime, and to do it peacefully.
Speaker 1: But a janitor caught them distributing the leaflet, reported them to the Gestapo and days later Sophie was executed by guillotine.
Speaker 1: These were her last words.
Speaker 1: How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give herself up individually to a righteous cause?
Speaker 1: Such a fine sunny day and I have to go, but what does my death matter if, through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?
Speaker 1: At just 21 years of age, sophie was an incredible example of someone who laid down her life so that the light of the kingdom of God would shine into the darkness that surrounded her.
Speaker 1: Our hero, daniel, has spent 70 plus years exiled in Babylon, and as we get to Daniel, chapter 11, I'm afraid that we're going to learn a lot more about darkness and chaos from the kingdoms of this world, somewhat like Nazi Germany.
Speaker 1: God's prediction of oppression and evil await God's people, and an angel has come to bring sobering news to Daniel about what the next 400 years are going to look like that await Israel.
Speaker 1: Now, before we read the first verses of chapter 11, I'm going to reset the stage on the other side of the text, but I want to remind you of the context.
Speaker 1: In chapter 10, the angel came and appeared and ministered to Daniel, and now that we begin chapter 11, the angel is beginning to speak about what is going to come.
Speaker 1: So listen as I read the first four verses of Daniel, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: This is the angel speaking In the first year of Darius the Mede.
Speaker 1: I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him, and now I will tell you the truth.
Speaker 1: Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia.
Speaker 1: Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them.
Speaker 1: As soon as he becomes strong, through his riches he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece and a mighty king will arise and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases.
Speaker 1: But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out.
Speaker 1: Will you pray with me?
Speaker 1: Uprooted and given to others besides them?
Speaker 1: Will you pray with me?
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, we have gathered together this morning around your word.
Speaker 1: We've continued to walk through the book of Daniel to see and to realize what it is like and the importance of living as an exile amongst the kingdoms of this earth.
Speaker 1: Father, I pray this morning that you would again lift our eyes to the overwhelming truth that you are the God who reigns above it all, that you are writing and unfolding all of history, even in man's sinfulness, according to your plan, according to your will, because you and your son, king Jesus, will be glorified.
Speaker 1: Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to your glory.
Speaker 1: Father, help us this morning to not only understand this text, but to be able to apply it to our own lives and to our own situations, such that when we go through complexity and trials and confusion in our life, we see you with clarity.
Speaker 1: We remember that you are the sovereign king who is not only in control.
Speaker 1: You have given your son for us so that we would walk with you.
Speaker 1: Help us to abide in that truth this morning.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: All right, so I need to come out and just confess it up front.
Speaker 1: The second half of the book of Daniel has been complex to preach.
Speaker 1: Okay, these aren't the typical sermons that lay out all nice and neat.
Speaker 1: In fact, the last time I preached was in Daniel, chapter 9.
Speaker 1: I ran out of time.
Speaker 1: That sermon did not go the way that I wanted to.
Speaker 1: I looked up and we were already out of time and it was just a mess in my mind.
Speaker 1: Okay, so with that, to tell you, this chapter is also unique, but I'm going to tell you up front exactly where we're going.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try and make it as simple as possible.
Speaker 1: Okay, the first half of the sermon, I'm just going to be explaining what's going on in the text.
Speaker 1: All right, so you're at home, you're reading the Bible yourself so that you understand the movement of what's going on.
Speaker 1: I'm going to cover the first 35 verses of Daniel, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: Now, in order to do that, I'm just going to tell you an overview and we'll briefly glance at a few passages so that you can understand what's going on.
Speaker 1: Then we're going to spend the second half and we're going to ask the question well, what does that have to do with me?
Speaker 1: Okay, right, this was written 2,500 years ago, 500 years before Christ came, and so we're going to look and make some of those basic applications.
Speaker 1: All right, so we need to reset the context.
Speaker 1: It's actually been a couple weeks since Pastor Daniel preached Daniel chapter 10,.
Speaker 1: Okay, and Daniel chapter 10 leads into the context of Daniel chapter 11.
Speaker 1: So in Daniel, chapter 10, we're told it's the third year of King Cyrus's reign, that is, 537 BC.
Speaker 1: Recall in the first year of Cyrus's reign, after he became king over Medo-Persia, he issued the decree that the Jewish people could go back to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple.
Speaker 1: Right, that was a huge deal for Daniel.
Speaker 1: Right, he's seeing and he's reading.
Speaker 1: He's like Jeremiah prophesied 70 years in exile and then we would get to go back.
Speaker 1: But by year three of Cyrus's reign, opposition has occurred, great opposition, and they've actually stopped building the temple and they're going to take a 15-year hiatus.
Speaker 1: So think about that.
Speaker 1: Because Daniel is now discouraged, he naturally carries the weight of his people on his shoulders.
Speaker 1: Recall, back in Daniel, back in chapter 9, that Gabriel came and warned Daniel that the 70 years that Jeremiah had prophesied, yes, they have been completed and the people will return to the land.
Speaker 1: But the trials and tribulations Daniel is actually 70 times seven.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a lot longer.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of trials that are to come.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be easy.
Speaker 1: Chaos is ahead, but God's kingdom is going to come in the midst of that.
Speaker 1: And now, two to three years later, as Jerusalem faces mounting opposition, daniel begins to fast and pray.
Speaker 1: Now we learned two weeks ago from Pastor Chazzy right, you guys like that nickname that Pastor Mark gave him.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to make that stick, guys, because it's so much easier for me to call him Pastor Shazzy when I'm referring to Daniel here.
Speaker 1: All right, so we've got Pastor Shazzy that the moment Daniel began to pray and fast that the Lord sent an angel, a messenger, but that he was delayed 21 days because angelic opposition rose and there was a battle just preventing the angel coming to meet with Daniel and give this message.
Speaker 1: And so when Pastor Shazzy two weeks ago took us through this text, he talked about the fact that when the angel first showed up, the angel all of chapter 10, the angel ministers to Daniel himself, who is weary and heavy laden.
Speaker 1: And there are three main points I want to highlight super quick.
Speaker 1: Right, fix your eyes upon God and not your circumstances.
Speaker 1: Right, in a sense, that whole account is just the angel lifting Daniel's head and pointing us to the King of heaven.
Speaker 1: Number two, the angel says to Daniel Daniel, you are loved, you are seen.
Speaker 1: God heard your prayers and immediately responded.
Speaker 1: And I have come as a response because you are loved.
Speaker 1: And then, third, the angel tells Daniel, because Daniel had fallen down on his knees because of the overwhelmingness of the situation, he tells him stand up, stand up in courage, because you know that God sees you and hears you and loves you.
Speaker 1: Okay, so now we get to chapter 11, and the angel begins to unfold, okay, the message that he came to deliver to Daniel.
Speaker 1: And what happens in chapter 11 is, the angel begins to plainly unfold history about the kingdoms that are coming, and he does so with unmatched detail.
Speaker 1: So recall, back in Daniel, chapter 8, daniel had a vision of a ram and a goat, and the ram was standing there in all of this pride and then this goat came and just smashed him like body, slammed him, and then we're told in that vision that the ram is the Medo-Persian empire and that the goat is Greece and there are horns associated with this right.
Speaker 1: The goat comes and it has one giant horn and that's Alexander the Great, but then that horn gets broken off and four smaller horns pop up, and so you get all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, in Daniel, chapter 11, the angel, god, revisits the same content.
Speaker 1: Okay, but Daniel is no longer having night visions Because of his stress and burden and overwhelming nature of everything he's carrying.
Speaker 1: Suddenly, the angel begins to plainly unfold future history for him.
Speaker 1: What once was visions of beasts and rams and goats is now somewhat straightforward predictive history.
Speaker 1: So, without using names, the angel now tells Daniel incredible details of what is going to come.
Speaker 1: Three more kings, and then a fourth will arise in Persia, and then Greece is going to come, and after that, first mighty king Alexander the Great Greece is going to be divided into fourths.
Speaker 1: So, going all the way to chapter 35, this is the large movement that happens the Medo-Persian Empire is going to come, and then Greece is going to come in, greece is going to be divided into fourths and then, as you walk through the text, the text will zero in on it's going to talk about because the text focuses on Israel.
Speaker 1: It's going to talk about the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, that is, the Seleucid empire of the Greeks, and the Ptolemies of the south, which are kind of in Egypt.
Speaker 1: So you can see it right there on the map, and what you need to notice about the map is the border between the two is right there where Israel is Okay.
Speaker 1: And so, as the chapter unfolds, you get all of these details about the warring that happens back and forth.
Speaker 1: Now this is the only portion of the entire Bible that is this detailed in its prediction of the future.
Speaker 1: I showed you, guys, several weeks ago we spent an entire Sunday where we looked at.
Speaker 1: I showed you that overwhelmingly, the Bible predicts in types and patterns, repeated kind of typology or things pointing forward.
Speaker 1: I showed you how Daniel in the lion's den predicted and pointed to Jesus's own death and resurrection.
Speaker 1: But here we have an angel just unfolding 400 years of prediction of how history is going to unfold.
Speaker 1: And as you read it, your only option is to believe.
Speaker 1: You mean, god just wrote down predictive history of what was going to happen over the next 400 years.
Speaker 1: You either believe that or you're going to undermine the Bible and say can't be, that had to be written after the fact.
Speaker 1: The book of Daniel is a fraud and that's what a lot of critical scholars try and do.
Speaker 1: You know what the problem with that is?
Speaker 1: The Dead Sea Scrolls Okay, the Dead Sea Scrolls are dated too close to when these events actually took place.
Speaker 1: Okay, actually took place.
Speaker 1: Okay, for because the Dead Sea Scrolls, the book of Daniels, are already canonized and it's already circulated with other scripture, okay, so the truth of the matter is the evidence just doesn't add up.
Speaker 1: At the end you're left with wait a second.
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me?
Speaker 1: God, through an angel, came and just told Daniel 400 years of predictive history that just unfolded with amazing detail.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what you have in your Bible.
Speaker 1: Now let me give you one example of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So I want to start with the historical account.
Speaker 1: What we can learn from history through Greek historians goes like this the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic empires they had long been allies been pretty friendly with each other, except for the fact that both of them really wanted claim over that really fertile territory along the coast where Israel is.
Speaker 1: So about 250 BC, a marriage was arranged between the two royal houses.
Speaker 1: To try and smooth over matters, ptolemy II gave his daughter Bernice in marriage to the future king of the Seleucid Empire.
Speaker 1: All right, now his name is Antiochus II.
Speaker 1: Antiochus II divorced his wife, wife Laodice, in order to marry Bernice.
Speaker 1: Well, bernice marries, has a son with Antiochus II, but a short time later Bernice's father, ptolemy II, died and Laodice wins Antiochus' heart back and they reconcile, now kicking Bernice to the side, and now that she gets power, the first chance she gets, she poisons her husband, antiochus, and then has Bernice and her son murdered so that there's no one to stop her son from being the rightful heir to the throne.
Speaker 1: Well, obviously, this doesn't smooth things over between the empires, because Bernice's brother.
Speaker 1: Now all of these events spark Bernice's brother attacking the north in what's known as the Third Syrian War.
Speaker 1: Okay, the Ptolemies advance in this war, they gain land and in the process, they begin to raid numerous Greek temples, and so her brother stole a large number of Greek gods statues and brought them back with him to Egypt.
Speaker 1: Okay, polybus and Appian of Alexandria are the two Greek historians that give that account.
Speaker 1: All right, now I want you to listen to your Bible in verses 6, 7, and 8 of Daniel, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: Now that you have that history, it's talking about the kingdoms of the north and the south.
Speaker 1: After some years, they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to carry out a peaceful arrangement, but she will not retain her king of the north to carry out a peaceful arrangement, but she will not retain her position of power, nor will he remain with his power, but she will be given up along with those who brought her in and the one who sired her, as well as he who supported her in those times.
Speaker 1: But one of the descendants of her line will arise in his place and he will come against their army and enter the fortress of the king of the north and he will deal with them and display great strength, also their gods, with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold.
Speaker 1: He will take them into captivity to Egypt and he, on his part, will refrain from attacking the king of the north for some years, almost 300 years prior, an angel of the Lord recorded for Daniel exact history.
Speaker 1: Recorded for Daniel, exact history.
Speaker 1: And the chapter goes on like this okay, up till 35.
Speaker 1: And if you'd like, I have books or you can Google videos or heck, you should use AI and just ask AI to tell you all about it.
Speaker 1: It'll name all the kings.
Speaker 1: You can hear all the back and forth.
Speaker 1: You can get all of those details, okay.
Speaker 1: Kings, you can hear all the back and forth.
Speaker 1: You can get all of those details.
Speaker 1: Okay, and you can see how history validates the Bible's precise account.
Speaker 1: Okay, and chapter goes through, like I said, the kings and the warring, and the chapter builds towards again the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes and the abomination of desolation.
Speaker 1: That's in verse 31.
Speaker 1: And if you weren't here a couple weeks ago when we covered chapter 8, this was a huge, very important, monumental event in Israel's history in 168 BC.
Speaker 1: And it goes like this Super quick version is Antiochus Epiphanes was from the Seleucid Empire and at the time they had control over Israel.
Speaker 1: But he wanted more.
Speaker 1: He wanted to keep going into Egypt and what he didn't know is that the Ptolemies had made an alliance with Rome.
Speaker 1: So Antiochus Epiphanes is down there trying to war with the Ptolemies and a Roman messenger comes out and meets him on the battlefield and says if you were at war with the Ptolemies, you are now at war with Rome.
Speaker 1: And he's kind of taken back.
Speaker 1: And he stops for a second and says well, I'll have to consult with my generals on what I want to do.
Speaker 1: And the Roman messenger takes his sword and draws a circle around him and says I need your answer by the time you get out of that circle.
Speaker 1: This is where the phrase drawing a line in the sand comes from.
Speaker 1: And well, he had to back down and he was greatly embarrassed with his entire army right behind him.
Speaker 1: They did all this and they didn't even fight because of Rome.
Speaker 1: He was scared of Rome.
Speaker 1: And so what does he do?
Speaker 1: Well, he takes all that embarrassment and he takes it out on Israel Israel's right there, right along the border and so he sieges Israel.
Speaker 1: They kill 80,000 people, either killed or put into slavery.
Speaker 1: They destroy a lot of stuff, they resurrect fortresses for this Lucid Empire.
Speaker 1: They outlaw Sabbath day and circumcision okay, and all of the festivals.
Speaker 1: And then, on top of that, they attack the temple, they go in and plunder the temple and Antiochus, epiphanes, tears down Yahweh's altar, resurrects an altar to Zeus and then sacrifices a pig on it.
Speaker 1: An altar to Zeus and then sacrifices a pig on it okay, and that is known as the abomination of desolation, okay.
Speaker 1: So when you're reading here, chapter 11, all of that and we covered that in detail a couple weeks ago you can go and listen to it.
Speaker 1: I gave slightly more detail when I did it before, okay.
Speaker 1: So, but for our purposes, as we're reading our Bibles, daniel, chapter 11, those first 35 verses, like I want you to remember, daniel is discouraged.
Speaker 1: Remember Daniel in his situation, in his plight, everything that he's going through.
Speaker 1: And so now, as we're reading our Bible.
Speaker 1: We're like wait a second.
Speaker 1: An angel came and unfolded 400 years worth of history to Daniel, no longer in apocalyptic imagery, but just in precise detail.
Speaker 1: And so the question is just in precise detail.
Speaker 1: And so the question is why?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Well, for one, I think it shows the kindness of God to encourage not only Daniel but his people, who are going to have to walk through those trials and chaos over the next 400 years.
Speaker 1: Israel will go back to the land, but they will not rule themselves.
Speaker 1: They are going to be that piece of rope that is being pulled between two dogs in a tug-of-war.
Speaker 1: That is where Israel sits, and they must know that God reigns above everything, even this.
Speaker 1: And so, to repeat what Pastor Shazzy said two weeks ago, fix your eyes on the awesomeness of God and not your circumstances, because here, in this passage, god reveals his sovereignty in unprecedented ways.
Speaker 1: Because, as God's people are going to live through the tumultuous waves of warring kingdoms, they are going to have God's word through Daniel, as it happens, and the believer is able to say the God, who knows me, who calls me his own, he knows everything, he knows everything that's going to happen, he stands outside of time, he sees the end from the beginning.
Speaker 1: Outside of time, he sees the end from the beginning.
Speaker 1: Church, when we speak about the sovereignty of God, we're not just saying that he has power, we are saying that he has all power, that he rules over kings and kingdoms, over storms and seasons, over history and hearts.
Speaker 1: Nothing slips through his fingers, nothing takes him by surprise.
Speaker 1: He reigns, not by reaction but by foreordination.
Speaker 1: Or to put it another way, he is one bad mamma jamma.
Speaker 1: We may be surprised, but God isn't.
Speaker 1: God doesn't chase ambulances wondering what his next move is.
Speaker 1: He sees all, knows all, rules over all.
Speaker 1: Now you may not be aware of the fact that philosophy really struggles with the question how can God know the future if man has free choice?
Speaker 1: And so they propose that God doesn't actually know the future.
Speaker 1: But he's probably like a wise old man who sits atop a mountain.
Speaker 1: But he's probably like a wise old man who sits atop a mountain and he can see from his vantage point that those two cars, if they continue on that trajectory, that they're going to collide.
Speaker 1: So they say God, from his vantage point, is just really good at projecting outcomes.
Speaker 1: Now there's a Greek theological word for this baloney that doesn't match Scripture and truthfully, that makes God way too small.
Speaker 1: Did you know that in 1 Samuel, chapter 23, david is running from King Saul and he's looking for places to hide?
Speaker 1: And he asks God that if he goes to the small village of Kila and Saul comes, if the people from the village will give him up, will tell Saul where he is?
Speaker 1: And so he prays to God and God tells him yes, if you go to that village they will give you up.
Speaker 1: So David doesn't go there.
Speaker 1: But then, when you stop and you read the account from our perspective, you pause and you think wait a second.
Speaker 1: God knows events and outcomes that never actually happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how incredible is this, god?
Speaker 1: Listen to me, do not neuter God and make him impotent of his sovereignty just to defend him from the evil that occurs in this world.
Speaker 1: I'm going to come back to this in two weeks, in light of the recent floodings.
Speaker 1: I'm going to address the question where is God when tragedy strikes?
Speaker 1: We're going to look at that from a whole biblical perspective.
Speaker 1: But listen to me, do not make God impotent because of evil.
Speaker 1: Look at this text.
Speaker 1: Is evil coming?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 1: Oppressive, abusive, authoritarian state?
Speaker 1: Is it evil?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 1: Is God doing the evil?
Speaker 1: No, but is God surprised by the evil?
Speaker 1: No, is God ruling and reigning above the oppression and chaos?
Speaker 1: Yes, his kingdom, his son, are going to come in the midst of this mess and God wants his people to be able to see and know that, beloved.
Speaker 1: When you cannot see past your circumstances, see him, trust his character.
Speaker 1: His son died in torture and shame for your sin.
Speaker 1: Believer, see the cross with clarity.
Speaker 1: There are so many times in our life we can't see past the end of our nose.
Speaker 1: But, believer, you have to be able to see the cross with clarity and discern the wisdom of God that in the midst of evil and chaos comes his kingdom and his son.
Speaker 1: Secondly, our second point of application.
Speaker 1: It's closely tied to the first, but it needs to be stated plainly that we should expect opposition.
Speaker 1: God wants his people to know ahead of time guys, opposition is coming.
Speaker 1: This world is not our home.
Speaker 1: We are not home.
Speaker 1: We are exiles in the kingdom of this world.
Speaker 1: Do not be surprised by trials as if something strange were happening to you.
Speaker 1: That's how Peter puts it in 1 Peter 4.
Speaker 1: Don't act like something strange were happening to you.
Speaker 1: That's how Peter puts it in 1 Peter 4.
Speaker 1: Don't act like something strange is happening to you when trials come your way.
Speaker 1: This weekend we laid to rest my 29-year-old niece in Allen, texas, who, at six months of age, began having seizures that grew in severity and stunted her mental development and had all sorts of wicked consequences throughout the rest of her life.
Speaker 1: That sweet girl suffered in ways that I cannot even detail to you without breaking down.
Speaker 1: I was a senior in high school when she had her first seizure and, just being honest with you, I was mad.
Speaker 1: Here's a six-month-old baby.
Speaker 1: God, how, why would you allow this to happen?
Speaker 1: I was angry, I wanted to know why, and I was completely surprised by the devastation.
Speaker 1: 29 years later.
Speaker 1: I do not profess to know the wisdom of God.
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you precisely why.
Speaker 1: I can certainly look back and show you that God moved, that God's hand was in that situation, that God was causing good to work out of, even that, but in the end I don't presume to know why.
Speaker 1: The one thing that's changed after 29 years is I'm no longer surprised by the trials of life.
Speaker 1: Christians lose jobs, they get cancer, they have miscarriages, just like everyone else.
Speaker 1: The difference is our God has entered into our suffering and he walks with us.
Speaker 1: He's there with us every step of the way.
Speaker 1: But let me take it a step further.
Speaker 1: Beyond trials, do not be surprised by evil and persecution in this life.
Speaker 1: You see, what God forewarns here isn't simply trials, it's evil and persecution.
Speaker 1: Satan is going to be behind Antiochus Epiphanes.
Speaker 1: He's going to be behind the attacks that come against God's people, and they are attacked simply because they are God's people.
Speaker 1: Paul says it like this in the New Testament all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, beloved.
Speaker 1: The reason I tell us not to be surprised is because when we are caught off guard, we lose our balance.
Speaker 1: It causes us to be dazed and confused and the enemy swoops in and lies all the more about God's goodness.
Speaker 1: He lies and says that God has forsaken you or that you have done something wrong.
Speaker 1: Look with me at verses 32 and 33 of our text.
Speaker 1: He's talking about Antiochus Epiphanes.
Speaker 1: But listen to what he says.
Speaker 1: By smooth words, he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly towards the covenant.
Speaker 1: But the people who know their God will display strength and take action.
Speaker 1: Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many, yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days, by smooth words.
Speaker 1: I want you to notice the deceitfulness of the enemy, that his lies are dipped in honey.
Speaker 1: Last week I got a phone call from a parent of a former youth needing help.
Speaker 1: So his daughter, one of my former youth, is living in blatant sexual sin and he confronted her with God's word.
Speaker 1: But the conversation went something like this but, dad, I'm happy and I think Jesus wants me to be happy and you need to be happy for me too.
Speaker 1: You see, the smooth words of this age are that truth and happiness are found in you.
Speaker 1: Follow your heart, follow your authentic self, follow your feelings and oh, it tastes so good dipped in honey, but it's a bitter poison.
Speaker 1: I've shared with church, with us before, about studies have shown that one of the key factors for young people retaining their faith after they leave home, when they go off to college, into adulthood, that one of the key factors for retaining your faith is when they were young, when they were in the home, when they were in the church, were they able to have deep conversations where they got to ask questions about the culture in a safe environment, where they got to say but what about this and what about this and what about this, and their questions were heard and were responded to respectfully and there was healthy dialogue.
Speaker 1: Not just believe it and stop asking questions and go away.
Speaker 1: Or yeah, we don't even think about that.
Speaker 1: Questions and go away, or yeah, we don't even think about that, right.
Speaker 1: No, have the ability to have their questions answered.
Speaker 1: Parents, grandparents, church we must be that safe environment for the next generation.
Speaker 1: Now, in passage, look at verse 33.
Speaker 1: God says some of his people will be those who have insight and wisdom and can teach others to have understanding from God's word against the smooth words of culture.
Speaker 1: That, friend, truth is not in you.
Speaker 1: Happiness is not in you.
Speaker 1: I mean, for goodness sakes, you get hangry.
Speaker 1: If dinner's like 30 minutes late, okay, how can happiness be based on you?
Speaker 1: Half of us in this room can't form a sentence before we have our first cup of coffee in the morning.
Speaker 1: I mean, if happiness is based, you sleep a third of your life.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand how finite you are.
Speaker 1: The sun is 94 million miles away and we can't even look at it directly without going blind.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand how finite you and I are.
Speaker 1: We are created dependent beings who long to know your creator.
Speaker 1: He can fill you, he can sustain you, he is the only one who's satisfied, he is where happiness is found and he is worth living as an ambassador in a foreign kingdom for.
Speaker 1: In closing, I want to tell you this week I had an unusual week, so excuse me if I'm a little reflective, but I attended three memorial services, two of church members and one of my niece.
Speaker 1: Now one lived into his 90s and we consider that a long, full life.
Speaker 1: Another church member was taken by cancer in her 50s and my niece who suffered greatly and died at the young age of 29.
Speaker 1: In all three of these memorial services, of course, there was deep pain and grief at the loss.
Speaker 1: I'm reminded of John, chapter 11, how Jesus wept with Mary just moments before he raised Lazarus from the dead.
Speaker 1: But also in all three of these services there was great hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard.
Speaker 1: Kind of hope.
Speaker 1: It has not entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that are his kind of hope, hope of the resurrection and heaven.
Speaker 1: Truthfully, these services were actually celebrations.
Speaker 1: I left completely overflowing because I had been uplifted in such a powerful way.
Speaker 1: So why am I telling you this?
Speaker 1: Well, you may find it strange, but I want to end this sermon with the hope of heaven.
Speaker 1: This sermon, in this context, is dark.
Speaker 1: Right, it's about as dark of a passage as you could get God telling his people.
Speaker 1: You're going to go through 400 years of absolute turmoil is going to come against you, but I know where it's going.
Speaker 1: I know where it's going we're going to get there next week in Daniel, chapter 12, because it ends with the joy and hope of heaven.
Speaker 1: But I also know that this is the context that God sends his son.
Speaker 1: This is the context that God sends his kingdom.
Speaker 1: This is the context that God enters in.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, pearl Harbor got bombed and everyone's in chaos, but I know how the story ends, how the story ends.
Speaker 1: Therefore, we can have great hope because his light is always shining.
Speaker 1: Corrie Ten Boom, who was a brave Dutch Christian who hid Jews during World War II, spent time in concentration camps.
Speaker 1: Later she told that she had this small special box that inside, anytime, she would have scraps of piece of paper.
Speaker 1: She would write scriptures on them, and she didn't have a Bible.
Speaker 1: But this box held her scriptures and it was the most scripture that she had.
Speaker 1: Now, halfway through, they found a Bible and it was a huge hooray, but up till then all she had was this box, and later, after the fact, someone asked her why don't you throw that box away?
Speaker 1: Isn't that like a painful reminder?
Speaker 1: She said oh no, this box is a reminder to me that even in the darkest situations, god's light is always shining.
Speaker 1: Will you pray with me, heavenly Father?
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, god, we thank you that even in the darkest darkness, your light still shines.
Speaker 1: The hope of your son, the clarity of the cross, reorients everything for us.
Speaker 1: Father, I pray for us this morning.
Speaker 1: I know all across this room that our members and guests are going through trials and obstacles, challenges in life.
Speaker 1: Many of them may have had a week like me, and, father, I pray, in the midst of that chaos and confusion, that you would lift their heads, that you would allow them to hear your voice with clarity, that you are a God who rules and reigns over all of creation and our lives too, and that, because you have sent your son, we can trust you and you have promised you are working all things for our good, for the glory of your name.
Speaker 1: And so, father, help us to believe that and to trust that, even when we can't see it because we're overwhelmed by chaos, we do believe, we do trust because Jesus Christ has risen from the grave.
Speaker 1: It's in his name we pray, amen.
Speaker 1: Church family, we have a time at the end of every service for the praise team to come and lead us in a time of response, and the reason for that is so that you, you've been actively listening, right, taking notes, paying attention.
Speaker 1: Now, here is a chance for you to respond in faith to whatever the Spirit of God has pressed upon your heart.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll have ministers down here at the front who would love to pray with you.
Speaker 1: If you came in and you're carrying a burden, do not carry that on your own.
Speaker 1: Allow us to carry that with you.
Speaker 1: We don't walk this road alone, but respond in faith to God's word.
Speaker 1: However the Spirit has prompted, will you stand?