WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.479 All right. 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:02.319 Well, good morning, Sacred Mission. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:04.080 How are you guys doing? 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:04.879 Good? 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:05.360 Good. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:06.559 My name is Justin. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:12.000 I'm one of the pastors here, and it's going to be my joy to bring God's word to us this morning. 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:21.839 Before we dive in, I just want to say thanks to our kids and facilities and hospitality teams that helped us get into this side interest this morning. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:24.320 This storm was crazy last night, wasn't it? 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:25.359 Did you see? 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:25.920 No? 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:26.960 That's fair. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:28.239 I tried. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:36.640 Anyway, we're doing some renovations here at Sacred Mission and we're trying to make things more accessible for people who have disabilities. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:39.920 We want to be able to be more welcoming and hospitable. 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:47.039 And so we are never going to be able, just because of the layout of the building, to fully be as accessible as we would like. 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:48.719 But we can be more accessible. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:50.560 We can be more hospitable. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:52.320 And we want to do that work. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.719 And so over the next two Sundays, the front entrance will be closed down. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:03.759 You guys will be kind of funneled into this side entrance, and uh just like you were this morning with all of our check-ins and everything upstairs. 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:14.159 It's it's a big uh ask to have over 400 people between two gatherings with 130 on average kids come through this little side door, right? 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:18.400 And so we're thankful for the teams that helped facilitate that this morning. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:20.959 Uh, Daniel 8, that's where we're at. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:28.239 Uh, if you have a Bible or an app, make sure that you open it as we work through this passage together. 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:36.079 How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.959 How long will you hide your face from me? 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:45.680 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.560 How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 00:01:51.840 --> 00:02:06.079 Have you ever felt as if there was no end in sight to the sorrow, trials, sufferings, and injustices that you face in this life? 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:09.599 How long will this anguish last? 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:12.879 How long until my circumstance gets any better? 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:15.759 How long must I keep waiting? 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:31.280 Something I'm learning to value more and more in my relationship with the Lord is that my faith and trust in Him is not diminished by my honesty. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:48.159 In fact, I am seeing my faith and trust in Jesus become strengthened and more stable the further I allow my honesty to push me toward him in relationship. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:56.719 You see, Psalm 13 is the portrait of a man who is unafraid to be honest. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:13.199 Honest with God, honest about his situation, and he conveys that sincere vulnerability through a question that has been the cry of God's people over and over again throughout all time. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.120 How long? 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:33.280 You see, this question, it's been an honest cry of longing for God's intervention of deliverance or justice in the midst of unbearable suffering. 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:44.479 When it seems as though his timing is delayed, or for some of us, when it appears as if we've been forgotten altogether. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:04:04.800 You see, it expresses the challenge of enduring trials in this life, the hardships to continue to keep persevering, our struggle to remain steadfast in hope when we are unable to see beyond the immediate and present suffering. 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:08.400 Yet ask, how long? 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:13.680 It's not a question of doubt. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:19.360 It's actually a genuine act of faith because it does this. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.079 It assumes God actually hears you when you cry. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:43.600 It assumes that he cares about your circumstance, that he will actually intervene in his omnipotence to make all things right and good for his people, even if the timing seems delayed or is altogether unknown. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.319 How long? 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:55.600 You see, in Daniel's vision, there's this unimaginable suffering against God's people. 00:04:56.079 --> 00:05:04.879 And even these angels that are there in this vision with Daniel turn and ask this question, how long? 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:10.240 But Daniel's not left abandoned without any hope. 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:14.720 He's not feeling stuck in a question that bears no answer. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:26.720 No, he's actually comforted in knowing that God has established an end to all suffering, that the circumstance is not outside of his sovereign plan. 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:36.319 And as a means of grace to his people, he has revealed what seems concealed in mystery. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:47.360 You see, the vision in Daniel 8, it takes place about two years after the vision in Daniel 7 that we worked through last week. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:54.879 And last week we transitioned from the stories about Daniel and his friends to the visions of Daniel. 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:59.680 And this week we make another transition in the book. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:16.480 You see, after the central event of the Son of Man receiving the kingdom once he had slain the beast, chapter 8 switches from the Aramaic language back to the Hebrew of which it was originally started in. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:24.399 You see, it's a literary way for the author to communicate redemption and restoration. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:35.839 It's as though the author is working to communicate that things are going to come back, that God's people will know his redemption and be restored to their rightful place. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.720 They'll be back to their homeland language, even back to their homeland. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:50.240 But as chapter 8 is going to show us, that road to restoration is not absent of suffering. 00:06:51.600 --> 00:07:00.800 Now, there's a lot of new imagery that we see in this vision in Daniel 8, but but it isn't altogether in new revelation. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.120 We have to understand that, right? 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:07.519 There's new imagery, but this isn't an altogether new revelation. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:19.439 And one of the things that's challenging for us this morning is that Daniel 8 is future prophetic for him, but it is past historic for us. 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:27.439 And so we would not be wise to try and read Daniel 8 as an anticipation for us today. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:37.040 But we're going to try to understand and see how the Lord uses even this for his people in today's day and time. 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:40.000 You see, this isn't a new revelation. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:49.040 What we've seen throughout Daniel 2, 7, and now here in 8, it is what we would call progressive revelation. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:57.600 2, 7, and 8 are all revealing the same thing, but it is expounding upon it in each vision. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:10.720 Progressive revelation is the theological principle that God often reveals himself and his will for humanity gradually through different times and different stages. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:19.839 Rather than just dumping it all out on once, he starts to gradually reveal himself and his will for his people. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:24.000 It's as if you were focusing a lens on a camera. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:34.240 I don't know if we have any photographers or video people here, but what we know that is the object of the image is always in frame for the photographer. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:40.720 But as they grab that focus ring and they pull it, that image becomes more clear and vibrant. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:42.399 It's easier to see. 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:52.240 And the vision here in Daniel 8, it sharpens and clarifies details of earlier visions that were introduced in the book. 00:08:52.559 --> 00:09:05.440 So I'm gonna do my best to stay out of the kind of grit of the details and stay above the story that is unfolding here within the vision. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:06.000 Okay? 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:21.440 So verse 2, Daniel says, and I saw in the vision, and when I saw, I was in Susa, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in the vision, and I was at the Uli Canal. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:28.080 Now, in his vision, Daniel sees himself at the Eli Canal in Susa. 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:31.600 Now, at the time of the vision, here's what we have to understand, right? 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:39.039 When Daniel seeing this, Babylon was still the dominant empire ruled by King Belshazzar. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:51.120 But in about 10 years, the Medo-Persian forces would come and they would kill Belshazzar, besiege Babylon, and they would actually establish the reign of the Persian Empire. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:59.519 And so at the beginning of the vision, Daniel's actually seeing himself about ten years into the future. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:06.399 And what he sees there is this a ram, verse 3, standing on the bank of the canal. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:12.960 It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.320 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:21.679 No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.039 He did as he pleased and became great. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:39.360 Now the reason that Daniel sees himself at Susa is because that would be the fortified, dominant capital of the Persian Empire once they had conquered Babylon. 00:10:39.759 --> 00:11:02.960 And what the vision reveals to us later in the text, like if we're going to jump down to the explanation that the angel gives Daniel at the bottom of chapter 8, what it reveals to us is that this ram is actually the Medo-Persian Empire, and it parallels the lopsided bear of Daniel 7 that we talked about last week. 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:15.519 Like the bear who was raised up on one side, the ram reflects the unbalanced reality of the Medo-Persian forces, one horn being higher than the other. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:31.039 But the Medo-Persian Empire would historically be known as the Persian Empire, led by the Persian king Cyrus, because the Medes were substantially lesser in this relationship. 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:40.080 And so in this vision, the ram is fierce and mighty, and it's advancing its dominion into three directions, right? 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:43.519 He's going west, north, and south. 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:52.879 Now, if we can remember back to last week in Daniel 7, the bear, the lopsided bear, had three ribs hanging out of his mouth. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:12:01.360 Those ribs are a reflection of these three directions that Daniel sees the ram advancing his territory. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:11.039 There's this insatiable hunger for power as they advance toward North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:16.080 And then in Daniel's vision, something grabs his attention. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:17.360 Verse 5. 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:25.120 As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:29.840 And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.320 So the ram, right? 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:36.639 It reflects and parallels the bear and seven, the lopsided bear. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:42.639 This is Medo-Persian Empire, three ribs, this power driving them in these three directions. 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:44.960 Then comes this goat with this horn. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:56.639 Like the ram, the passage actually tells us later in the interpretation that this goat is the Greek empire that will come from the west of Persia and conquer it. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:04.799 The goat in chapter eight is the reflection of the four-headed leopard with the four wings in Daniel chapter seven. 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:15.600 And in this vision, here in eight, the goat moves so swiftly in his campaign that he appears to not even touch the ground as he is advancing. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:28.399 We mentioned how the Greeks had actually established the largest kingdom in human history, conquering the known world in just a little more than 10 years' time. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:34.399 We're talking about swiftness, like we cannot even be able to imagine. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:43.679 And that campaign was led by this conspicuous single horn, Alexander the Great. 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.320 The horn between the goat's eyes. 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:53.840 You see, verses six and seven describe the ferocious nature of the king's power and wrath. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.480 And then in verse eight, it says this. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.120 But it was also very short-lived. 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:32.720 After subduing all of the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great and his armies marched east and got as far as India before they actually turned back home to Macedon. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:35.840 But he actually never made it home. 00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:47.200 At just 32 years old, Alexander sat down in Persia in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, and he died. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:53.919 He died of this mysterious illness. 00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:58.879 In his time as king, he actually never appointed a successor, right? 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:03.759 When you're 32, you're not going to imagine that you got to think about those types of things. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:24.480 And so the empire actually faced a lot of inner turmoil for almost 50 years until it was divided into these four regions, and the these four powerful generals from within the Greek army actually were established as the rulers of these four different regions. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:31.840 So the four horns that come out of the goat after the conspicuous great horn was broken, we we see this, right? 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:34.000 The vision shows us this. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:45.840 And in verses nine through twelve, what we see is that there was this little horn that came up from one of those four regions. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.639 Now it says this in verse nine. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:16:02.000 Out of one of them, one of the four horns, came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:17.919 But here's what we have. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:34.720 This little horn historically has been understood as Antiochus Epiphanes. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:44.559 He was a self-made ruler who rose to power out of the southeastern region of the Greek empire that occupied Antioch and beyond. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:56.080 And in verses 9 through 12, the vision depicts the little horn as powerful, arrogant, and even striving to exalt himself above God. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:02.799 Now they've actually found silver coins from the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:17.839 On all these coins, on one side, the inscription has his face, but on the other, it says this victorious God manifest, King Antiochus. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:21.920 Talk about arrogant. 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:28.559 Talking about a ruler who thinks he can exalt himself above the God of heaven. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:35.200 The vision also describes him as one who would work to actually eradicate the Jewish identity. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:42.640 He wanted to Hellenize the Jewish people and he wanted to eradicate their identity completely. 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:49.519 And so he was going to do that by inflicting severe suffering upon God's people. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:57.599 And as he advanced toward the glorious land, Antiochus intensified his campaign against the Jews. 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:10.000 He actually outlawed their religious practices, he outlawed their worship, including circumcision, Sabbath observance, and even the study of the Torah. 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.759 He outlawed all of these things, but that wasn't enough. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:28.400 He actually desecrated God's temple by erecting an altar to Zeus where the burnt offering was supposed to take place for the worship of Yahweh. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:37.279 And then not only did he erect an altar for Zeus, but he sacrificed and burnt a pig on that altar. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:42.640 And then he forcefed the Jewish people to eat that roasted flesh. 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:57.680 Not only did he do that, but tens of thousands of Jews, some even speculate, up to 80,000 in one single day were slaughtered by Antiochus Epiphanes. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:12.559 You see, this abomination that causes desolation, Daniel 8, 13, provoked widespread oppression, with the Jews having their identity almost stripped from them completely. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:27.599 And in the interpretation of the vision given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel, near the end of the chapter, he says that the little horn, verse 25, shall be broken but by no human hand. 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:38.000 Now we find some extra biblical writings as historically profitable, though we don't hold them as authoritative truth. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:54.480 And I say that because, according to 2 Maccabees, which was an extra-biblical writing that's found in the Apocrypha, it actually records in chapter 9, verse 5, that Antiochus died from divinely inflicted disease. 00:19:55.039 --> 00:20:05.119 Verse 5 says this but the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with an incurable and invisible blow. 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:12.000 Many people believe that Antiochus Epiphanes died from a stomach virus. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:20.720 Imagine a man who thought he was greater than God dying of a microscopic invisible little bug. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:32.799 Now, the vision in Daniel 8 is bringing into focus events that will not happen for approximately 387 years. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:37.759 So he's seeing this historical timeline unfold before him. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:48.319 But but the the the climax of this vision, the death of this little horn, it isn't for 387 years into the future. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:21:02.880 They describe the rise of fierce and terrifying empires and the severe suffering of God's people by a little horn that will pridefully work to exalt itself at the misery and sorrow of all who stand in his way. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:16.400 This vision was so intense and so graphic that at the very end of Daniel 8, it says that he had to lie in bed sick for several days because he could not bear what he saw. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:17.759 Imagine that. 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:23.359 Like I have bad dreams, and I wake up kind of, you know, sweaty and skittish, like, oh, I'm going to fight somebody. 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:32.319 I never had such an intense vision that I was just laid in bed sick for several days on it. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:37.200 We can't imagine what Daniel saw as God unveiled, right? 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:38.079 That's what we talk about. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:47.119 Apocalyptic means unveiling as he pulled back this material world to allow Daniel to see what was taking place in the heavenly realm. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:58.799 And this vision is so intense that even the angels in the vision commiserate with the pain of God's people. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.079 Wondering when their suffering will end. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:12.880 Verse thirteen says, Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, For how long? 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:23.279 For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot? 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:26.480 And in response to this cry, how long? 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:37.599 The angel standing next to him replies, For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state. 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:52.640 Now I'm going to do my best from refraining to break out some type of chart and map that's derangedly woven together by red string to just trying to prove some timeline point to you this morning. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:53.920 That's not my goal. 00:22:54.319 --> 00:23:05.839 What I do want us walking away from this passage this morning is trusting that God has appointed a time for everything's end. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.880 God has appointed a time for everything's end. 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:19.759 Here's what we have to wrestle with as God's people, seen throughout the book of Daniel, and I would say highlighted here in Daniel 8. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:24.240 God is sovereign over all things. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:33.759 God is sovereign over your suffering, and God is sovereign over your suffering's end. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:39.519 And that should bring comfort and hope to his people. 00:23:41.039 --> 00:24:01.359 You see, something we didn't get to highlight in Daniel 7 is that the language that's used with this unrecognizable beast, the fourth one that rises from the chaos of the sea, is that God, the ancient of days, actually delivers over his people to that beast. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:09.839 That they suffer because of the sovereignty of God. 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:16.960 But they're also delivered and saved from that beast by that same sovereign hand. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:21.359 It reminds me of Revelation chapter 6. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:27.519 John having this apocalyptic vision, the veil being pulled back, he sees something. 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:37.440 He sees the martyrs around the throne of God whose blood has been spilled because of their faith and witness in Jesus. 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:41.039 And there's a cry that comes from underneath that throne. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:42.720 How long? 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:46.799 How long until you avenge our blood? 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:50.400 And God has one response. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:56.240 Not until the fullness of whom has been numbered is added to you. 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:04.640 You see, God is sovereign in who will lose their life for the sake of the gospel. 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:13.359 Just as he is sovereign to have limited and restrained the amount of suffering that they will face. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:24.400 The sovereignty of God is meant to cause a hope-filled endurance in his people. 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:32.640 You see, he appoints a time for the rise of empires, and he appoints their fall. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:40.079 He permits wickedness to prevail, and he restrains wickedness for the peace of his people. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:49.680 God is sovereign in his will, and all his plans shall prosper for the glory of his name and the ultimate good of his people. 00:25:49.839 --> 00:26:03.920 And in this, God is also compassionate and hears the cry of his people when in the midst of their suffering and trials they ask with honest vulnerability, how long? 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:15.680 You see, in our desire to fully place our trust in God and in his timing, there is a place for lament. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:23.039 Lament, it's a prayer of pain that actually leads to trust. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:32.880 Because asking how long reclaims the promises of God's word that seems distant and absent from the moment we find ourselves in. 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:37.039 And it calls upon Him to intervene on our behalf. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.799 In our genuine pursuit of that answer, how long it ends in trust. 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:47.920 Because this is where biblical lament is designed to lead us. 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:54.000 It's designed to lead us to a faith-filled renewal of what we know to be true. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:56.480 How long. 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:00.480 Child, I've appointed a time. 00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:03.920 Okay, I'll trust in you. 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:14.640 You see, the comforting truth God provides his children is that there is actually an end. 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:22.160 And he has appointed it for the glory of his name. 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:28.720 This truth assures us that our suffering is actually temporary. 00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:40.640 That God will intervene in our trials and we can actually hold on to hope with confidence that there's a more glorious future ahead of us. 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:53.519 It's a grace given to us that we're not abandoned to uncertainty about the future, leaving us in some fearful speculation and anxious hopelessness. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:28:03.440 No, we know that God has established a limit upon our suffering and a grand purpose in our perseverance through it. 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:07.039 To everything. 00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:11.920 Our sorrow, our sickness, our sobbing, our suffering. 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:14.960 God has appointed a time for its end. 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:22.559 Yet so often in our lives, we fail to trust in God's timing. 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:26.400 We fail to trust in God's timing. 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:37.119 You see, too often in the midst of our trials and suffering, we're actually driven to despair rather than dependence upon Him. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:42.880 We don't lament with the honest question, how long? 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:53.599 We don't lament in a way that is rooted in a pain-filled desire to simply trust God and His plan and His timing. 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:57.920 That pain of what you're going through is suffering. 00:28:58.160 --> 00:28:59.359 It is hurtful. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:00.799 It is sorrowful. 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:04.160 But you want to trust Him with everything that you've gotten. 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:09.680 So you're trying to work through the pain to be able to say, God, I know that you've seen me. 00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:11.920 I know that you're sovereign in my suffering. 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:14.000 I know you've appointed an end to it. 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:16.960 And I'm just asking you as your child, how long? 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:31.519 We fail to be reminded of his promises and to reflect on the ways that he's already given us a foretaste of his promises fulfilled. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:41.279 And in that reality, we often respond to our suffering by either abandoning hope or trying to take control. 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:43.279 Right? 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:53.279 Many of us in the midst of our suffering, because we don't lament biblically, we often abandon hope. 00:29:54.720 --> 00:30:17.119 You see, by not honestly asking the how long question, we can lead ourselves to abandoning hope by suppressing genuine lament, by fostering despair and bitterness and disconnecting ourselves from God's promises for us. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:25.519 I want to submit to you that when we suppress lament, we stifle faith. 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:40.240 When we're not able to be vulnerable and honest with God and painfully strive to trust in Him, we stifle our faith. 00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:42.799 You see the how long cry? 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:52.160 It's an honest expression of pain and trust in God's ability to intervene in the midst of our circumstance. 00:30:52.799 --> 00:30:58.720 And when we suppress it, we stifle the faith that resides on the other side of it. 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:03.920 It's a lament that is supposed to push us deeper toward Him. 00:31:04.880 --> 00:31:06.799 The lament of our suffering. 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:19.200 It pushes us to a renewed faith in his promises, and it gives us the strength to be able to persevere through our circumstance, knowing that the end is in his hands. 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:39.519 Child of God, whatever you are suffering through this morning, I want you to know He is sovereign in you through it, and He is sovereign in your deliverance out of it. 00:31:42.640 --> 00:31:45.920 And that should give us strength to persevere. 00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:59.920 You see, ultimately we abandon hope when we refuse to allow our pain to drive us toward the certainty of his promised future. 00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:17.519 And instead we turn inward in resentment, bitterness, in despair, as we can consider the future just as uncertain as the circumstances we are currently facing. 00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:21.440 That's when we abandon hope. 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:27.039 Some of us we try to take control. 00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:29.920 We try to take control. 00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:33.200 This is me, right? 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:39.920 Hey God, I appreciate you, but I'm gonna do this myself if you don't care, right? 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:41.519 That that that's me. 00:32:42.160 --> 00:33:02.000 When we fail to honestly ask how long to lament biblically, we often strive to take control in ways that undermine trust in God's sovereignty and in his timing, fostering self-reliance over arrested faith. 00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:04.720 And it's exhausting. 00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:06.880 It's exhausting. 00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:14.240 You see, when we avoid lament, we foster a belief that we must solve our problems ourselves. 00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:22.319 And so we reject vulnerability and God's role as our true Savior in the midst of our circumstance. 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:23.920 We want to escape pain. 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:25.119 I get it. 00:33:25.839 --> 00:33:27.680 We want to escape pain. 00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:33.519 What we do not want to do as a people is endure through it. 00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:40.319 We hate suffering, we hate pain, and we will do anything it takes to escape it. 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:55.200 But what we see in the scriptures is that God's word causes us not to escape suffering, but to endure through it, because on the other side of it is a good that we can't fathom or understand here in this moment. 00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:58.640 But no, we don't want to endure. 00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:00.480 We want to escape. 00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:13.440 And because we want to escape, we look for quick fixes, compromising shortcuts, and manipulated outcomes instead of a deeper faith and trust in God. 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:26.639 We so quickly want to get out from under the weight of our suffering because we cannot fathom that God has a purposeful outcome as we are formed through its applied pressure. 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:39.360 You see, a heart that is filled with a desire for self-control is a heart that is depleted of the promises of God. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:49.360 A heart that is filled with a desire for self-control is a heart that is depleted of the promises of God. 00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:58.079 We need faith. 00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:10.159 We need faith that he's able to sovereignly fulfill every single promise that has ever come forth from his mouth. 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:21.360 You see, we don't often get this, but if there is one promise that God does not fulfill, he is no longer God. 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:29.199 Because he made every single promise by his own name. 00:35:29.519 --> 00:35:31.119 It shows us this in scripture. 00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:43.199 And so he made every single promise on his own name. 00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:47.760 Therefore, if one promise is broken, God's name means nothing. 00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:49.440 God is no longer God. 00:35:49.599 --> 00:36:03.360 It is his own reputation on the line that every single promise is yes and amen, does not return to him void, but is fulfilled for his people that we might flourish toward the ultimate good of which he's called us to in Christ his son. 00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:08.400 And that means you're suffering too. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:13.760 How long? 00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:16.719 How long? 00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:21.840 It's an honest and healthy question for us to ask. 00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:25.599 It's a cry that renews hope. 00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:30.719 And it actually stifles a desire for control. 00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:38.800 It communicates a painful desire to trust and a longing to see his promises fulfilled. 00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:46.239 And God graciously reveals to us today that he has appointed an end. 00:36:46.960 --> 00:36:54.880 He is actively working to see it fulfilled that we as his people might persevere in hope. 00:36:56.480 --> 00:36:59.280 And he does this through Christ His Son. 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:06.800 Because Jesus is our guarantee in fulfillment of God's glorious end. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:33.199 You see, Jesus is finished work, his perfect, obedient life, his substitutionary death, and his glorious resurrection secures and embodies the culmination of God's redemptive plan, ensuring the realization of his promises for a glorious future for his people to behold. 00:37:34.559 --> 00:37:43.280 You see, Jesus' cry from the cross, it is finished, is God's response to our human cry of how long? 00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:47.519 It is finished. 00:37:48.159 --> 00:38:00.719 And we strive in the midst of this already not yet, but he is a foretaste of the glorious future that is yet to come of the promises of God made true to his people. 00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:09.519 It's the ushering in of a kingdom and the promise of an eternal kingdom that is yet to still be fully realized. 00:38:09.599 --> 00:38:11.519 And so do we what do we do? 00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:13.840 We long in the waiting. 00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:15.199 How long? 00:38:15.519 --> 00:38:16.880 Come, Lord Jesus. 00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:17.760 How long? 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:19.199 Make all things new. 00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:20.000 How long? 00:38:20.159 --> 00:38:21.840 Bring an end to wickedness. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:22.480 How long? 00:38:22.639 --> 00:38:25.039 Let your justice reign throughout the earth. 00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:25.840 How long? 00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:27.039 I'm coming. 00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:31.920 You see, he has promised his return to us. 00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:43.519 His promise to redeem and restore all things, but the waiting for his promise to be fulfilled is often one of sorrow and suffering for his people. 00:38:45.519 --> 00:38:47.360 This is where we reside. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:39:01.519 Like Daniel, having a vision of the future, an unveiling of God's sovereignty in the end of all things and the establishment of all things new. 00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:04.320 We reside in waiting. 00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:06.559 How long? 00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:11.840 And we can continue to cry that out to God. 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:29.199 We should not cry out from a place of hopelessness and despair, but from a place of eager anticipation, deep trust, and a hope-filled longing to behold his promises in full. 00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:39.440 You see, last week we read part of Revelation with the rider on the white horse slaying the beast. 00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:50.719 Yet the end of Revelation continues to give us this beautiful picture of the end, how long until God has established an appointed time for the end of all things. 00:39:50.800 --> 00:39:54.000 In Revelation 21, 1 through 4, we read this. 00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:08.800 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:14.079 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. 00:40:14.239 --> 00:40:19.679 He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 00:40:19.920 --> 00:40:24.559 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. 00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:31.920 Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. 00:40:33.360 --> 00:40:45.599 Revelation 21 is God's appointed time for the end of his people's suffering. 00:40:47.840 --> 00:40:54.239 It is his sovereignty on full display for the glory of his name. 00:40:55.920 --> 00:41:04.079 My hope for us church is that we would be a people who would trust God and persevere in hope. 00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:08.960 We're not going to be a church that is depleted of God's promises. 00:41:09.920 --> 00:41:23.440 But we're going to continue to proclaim them over and over again that our trust in Him might be strengthened, our ability to persevere through suffering in hope might be witnessed by the world around us. 00:41:23.599 --> 00:41:26.320 That's what this church is going to be known for. 00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:32.000 You see, we yearn for the day when our faith will be sight. 00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:39.760 We look to the future with anticipation and this godly impatience and longing within us. 00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:48.800 The glorious vision of the new heavens and the new earth create, they create the lament for Jesus to come. 00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:54.480 So let our lament drive us to what we know to be true. 00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:57.360 His promises are yes and amen. 00:41:59.119 --> 00:42:08.559 As David closes out his Psalm of Lament in Psalm 13, his cry of how long, he writes this in five through six. 00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:12.559 But I have trusted in your steadfast love. 00:42:13.760 --> 00:42:16.320 My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:20.960 I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. 00:42:22.639 --> 00:42:26.000 You see, David started with honest lament. 00:42:26.159 --> 00:42:26.880 How long? 00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:31.760 But it ended with this deep trust in God. 00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:37.840 Church, I know your sorrow and suffering feels as if there will be no end. 00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:46.320 I know that we can look out toward tomorrow and convince ourselves that it's filled with nothing but uncertainty. 00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:52.000 But hear the trustworthy and true words of your Savior Jesus. 00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:57.119 And behold, I am coming soon. 00:42:58.239 --> 00:43:02.320 Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.