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SPEAKER_00: Pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we relate to David when he said in the 23rd Psalm, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Your goodness doesn't just follow us, it chases us down to remind us and reorient us around God and the goodness that only God can bring.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we don't want to run.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those that are running today, that are trying to flee because they would owe you a debt of gratitude if they slowed down long enough.
SPEAKER_00: But you're faster than they are.
SPEAKER_00: And so catch them today, not for destruction, but for instruction.
SPEAKER_00: Surely goodness and mercy has been following me all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us, if we were honest, we'd have to say, when people ask, how's it going?
SPEAKER_00: Better than I deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Our water pipes froze, our children's building got water in it, and God's still good.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we're not we're not discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, where our hope is in you.
SPEAKER_00: We're not, God, we're not hoping that or hoping for.
SPEAKER_00: We're hoping in today.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, reorient us.
SPEAKER_00: We repent of hoping that and hoping for.
SPEAKER_00: We want to hope in today.
SPEAKER_00: We say with the psalmist, I will lift my eyes up to the hills.
SPEAKER_00: Where does my help come from?
SPEAKER_00: My help comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's just not just something we say, it's what we believe, it's what explains our life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, come to the aid of your people.
SPEAKER_00: Now we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Illuminate the scripture so we have understanding when we walk out of here that we did not have when we walked in.
SPEAKER_00: This is our prayer guide.
SPEAKER_00: We prayed in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You could have a C if you got a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you to take it and open up to Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guests, we're preaching through the book of Daniel, what's called expositorily, which just means verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that's the way you nourish a congregation over the long haul.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we're in Daniel 9.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you this morning about the perspective of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, while you're finding Daniel 9 and getting your coffee set down and our online congregation at home, I want to say welcome while you're kind of getting things squared away.
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me just say this that uh years ago, a man named Andrew Del Bonco wrote a book called The Real American Dream, a meditation on hope.
SPEAKER_00: And in the book, he makes this statement.
SPEAKER_00: He says, to best understand what a culture is about, just look at what their hope is in.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: He said, to best understand what a culture is about, just look at what their hope is in.
SPEAKER_00: And in the book, he goes on to say, in the 18th century, our hope was in God.
SPEAKER_00: It was in God.
SPEAKER_00: In the 19th century, our hope was in the nation, our nation.
SPEAKER_00: In the 20th century, our hope is in ourself.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are on this kind of, we're sliding slowly away to a smaller and smaller source of hope.
SPEAKER_00: But again, he says the best to best understand what a culture is about, just look at what their hope is in.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons you see so much violence in our culture today, because when man looks to man to meet his deepest needs, to when you put your hope in man, the byproduct is going to be violence because that person is going to let you down.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense to anybody but me?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just think it's interesting that a long time ago this guy wrote this book.
SPEAKER_00: And so I as I was reading and studying for today, I just thought there's a perspective of hope in here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not hoping that or hoping for, but it's hoping in.
SPEAKER_00: And let me say two things by way of introduction that I want to read the text.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the first thing I want to say is I want you to get the context of what we're gonna read.
SPEAKER_00: That Daniel's been reading in the book of Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Early in this chapter, he tells I was reading uh in the book uh in Jeremiah, and he realizes that the exile is going to be 70 years long, and it's getting to the end of that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Daniel starts like anybody else would.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you know, I saw in the Bible we're gonna be in exile, Babylonian captivity here for 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of beginning to go get to the end of that.
SPEAKER_00: So he's getting excited.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and all of a sudden he's like, Oh, and then God says, No, no, no, I don't want you to have a false hope.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to have escapism, I want you to practice engagement.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to think, oh man, just a few more years and this is gonna be done.
SPEAKER_00: And God sends this angel named Gabriel to him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want to give you wisdom and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And he explains to him, it's not just that you know 70 years, it's 70 times seven years, as we'll see in the text today.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel's not, oh, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: It's like you your last child's getting ready to go off to college, and the week before you take them to school, they go, you know what, I just think I want to stay home and live with you and mom and dad forever.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, no, no, you get in the car right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna duct tape you to the root to the roof.
SPEAKER_00: We're driving to Alabama, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's the same thing here.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing I want.
SPEAKER_00: So, this is the context.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second thing I want to just say by way of introduction.
SPEAKER_00: There's a principle of biblical interpretation, it's real simple.
SPEAKER_00: And it says this you should understand and interpret what is unclear in light of what is clear.
SPEAKER_00: You should interpret when you read things in the Bible, because we're gonna read, we get down to verse 24, 5, 6, and 7.
SPEAKER_00: And someone once said, this biblical scholar I read in preparation for today, he says, This is the swamp of Old Testament exegesis.
SPEAKER_00: This is thick, you get bogged down in this, it's overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just say up front, we're gonna read some things, and you're gonna be like, What the woody?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible, God's God doesn't want to be mysterious, He wants to be known.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, He wants to be known.
SPEAKER_00: So just relax.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't understand some things, that doesn't mean you're dumb.
SPEAKER_00: It just means no one's ever explained it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And my goal is to get to the end of this till you have this perspective of hope, and you don't hope for or hope that you hope in, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 9, starting in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel says, While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God.
SPEAKER_00: While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision.
SPEAKER_00: Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, to anoint a most holy place.
SPEAKER_00: Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat.
SPEAKER_00: But in a troubled time, and now and after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war.
SPEAKER_00: Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to the sacrifice and offering.
SPEAKER_00: And on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.
SPEAKER_00: Any questions?
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand for the benediction.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Again, the perspective of hope.
SPEAKER_00: There's five things in the text I want to point at.
SPEAKER_00: Four of them we're gonna kind of move quickly to.
SPEAKER_00: And then the fifth one, which is the last verses 24 to 27, we're gonna kind of just slow down.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go from snorkeling to scuba diving.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever gone scuba diving, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit of a pressured environment, but the view is much better.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Tourist snorkel, local scuba.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna snorkel a little bit, and then we'll drop down a little bit, and we'll just kind of descend to the depths and kind of look at it.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just point out five things from the text that kind of enhances our perspective of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, prayer moves God to action.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer moves God to action.
SPEAKER_00: It's verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: He says that when immediately when Daniel began to pray, he says, I was praying, confessing my sin, the setting of my people, and I was I was praying for the temple.
SPEAKER_00: That's the holy hill of my God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in a vision at the first, came to me in swift flight.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you love to pray an angel show up?
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens here.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this has never happened to me.
SPEAKER_00: I still pray, uh, and and I think I'd be okay with it.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, Are you sitting from the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's square this up here.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to say that sometimes if you're not careful, you'll pray and you'll wonder if anything is happening.
SPEAKER_00: You'll convince yourself that nothing has happened, and then eventually you'll just quit praying.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, I'm just saying things to make myself feel better.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to know that prayer moves God to action.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first thing we see in the text.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Daniel lives in Babylon on Jerusalem time.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel lives in Babylon, very pagan culture on Jerusalem time.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the last phrase of verse 21 after he says, He came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes the Bible is really loud and sometimes it's very subtle.
SPEAKER_00: It's like psst, psst.
SPEAKER_00: You see what I did here?
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those times where it just goes, it just keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean at the time of the evening sacrifice?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there is no evening sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel's been captive in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Best we can tell in chapter 9, he's 82 years old.
SPEAKER_00: He was taken into captivity when he was a young boy, was a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's been 70 years or so since he was back.
SPEAKER_00: There is no temple, there is no sacrifice, but it was 70, it's been 70 years since he was a little kid and he went to temple or his parents took him to temple or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And so, some 70 years later, he's now 82 years old.
SPEAKER_00: He's gone through all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: He's not mad at God, he's not bitter, he can throw out the Bible and then just embrace philosophy and nihilism and start listening to Trent Restor music.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He is 82 and he is still, he is in Babylon, but he's thinking Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So, what this is what I mean when I say Daniel lives in Babylon on Jerusalem time.
SPEAKER_00: You got to ask yourself, parents, what are you exposing your kids to that will still affect them at 82?
SPEAKER_00: That's why I never apologize to my kids or feel bad for saying to my kids, get your narrow behinds out of bed, we're going to church today.
SPEAKER_00: And now, by the grace of God, my kids love church.
SPEAKER_00: My oldest is in ministry uh right now.
SPEAKER_00: She's working at a church in Richardson, loves it.
SPEAKER_00: People say, Hey, your preacher's kids seem to kind of enjoy the church because we we taught our children that worship is a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: You get to be a part of the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever take that lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's some things gonna come up every once in a while that you can't be here, but but for the most part, you need to gather and start your week in worship with other believers.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Okay, dad, we got it, we got it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, there's coffee in the kitchen, but you can't have none of it, but smell it, it'll motivate you.
SPEAKER_00: That's all mine.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Okay, we understand.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh it's been 70 years, it's been 50 years, uh almost 50 years, since the temple was destroyed in 586 BC.
SPEAKER_00: So there are no sacrifices for 50 years, and yet Daniel still thinks in terms of the evening sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he lives in Babylon on Jerusalem time.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't look around the culture and think, man, this is getting out of hand.
SPEAKER_00: They're writing executive orders every week and changing the culture in which I live.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you've got to have a culture that agrees with you before you to be a Christian, you'll never live like a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, is the culture hostile?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, probably gonna get worse, and that's a great thing for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's not so great for religious people, but for Christians, they're like, bring it on, Skippy.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: This is to quote that great theologian Maverick, this is a target-rich environment right here.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing you see in the text is that God wants Daniel to know what he thinks about him.
SPEAKER_00: God wants Daniel to know what he thinks about him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: He says, at the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out.
SPEAKER_00: And I've come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning of your pleas, a word went out.
SPEAKER_00: God issued a divine decree, a word, a logos.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke something into existence and said, I want you to go give this to Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Because you are greatly loved.
SPEAKER_00: Because you are greatly loved.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times before God reveals something to you, uh He that He wants you to know, He wants you to know how He feels about you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you say, I I I don't want to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times before God reveals something to you, some information or some piece of knowledge, He's like, Oh, by the way, I want you to know you're greatly loved.
SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, if this has ever happened to you, you'll never forget it.
SPEAKER_00: Before I was a pastor here, I traveled priests all over the country.
SPEAKER_00: In the summers, I would do like 10 weeks of youth camp, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And it was great.
SPEAKER_00: I loved it, I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't miss it at all now.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so, but back then I loved it.
SPEAKER_00: But it would be back to back to back to back, then a break, and then you know, back to back to back, and you'd finish the summer.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm about week six of camp, and I get home, I'm home for a day and a half, gotta catch another plane, have a lay over in Atlanta.
SPEAKER_00: I'm at the Atlanta airport, I know exactly where the Starbucks is.
SPEAKER_00: I go down, get my Starbucks, and I am toasted.
SPEAKER_00: I am fried, dried, and laid aside.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to be around teenagers, and the and the guy that's that's leading the camp goes, we got 2,600 students and they're pumped that you're coming.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I want to throw this phone out the window.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting in the airport.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so tired.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even want to look up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see anybody there.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, are you and so I'm just holding a cup of coffee against my head, just like, oh Jesus, I don't want to do this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Can you come back right now?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear myself talk anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want teenagers talking to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want youth pastors in the lobby of my uh my hotel when I get back at night at 11:45 at night.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, can we go to the Waffle House and talk?
SPEAKER_00: No, your marriage is screwed up beyond repair.
SPEAKER_00: Stop talking.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not in a good way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Jesus, I don't need to go talk to teenagers.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there and my eyes are closed, and every once in a while I open them and I'm just looking down, and all of a sudden I see two feet like right there, pointed at me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm not even gonna look up.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's gonna be some person going, hey, hey, are you Neil McClendon?
SPEAKER_00: You spoke at my disciple now.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and finally they weren't moving, and so I was just like, and I just took the coffee away and looked up, like, really?
SPEAKER_00: And it was some older lady like your grandma, like in her 70s or 80s, and she had these two bonfires for eyes, and they were wet with tears.
SPEAKER_00: And she looked at me and she said, with her hands folded, just like this, you have no idea how much he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Except I just started bawling.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, just hold me.
SPEAKER_00: And she just said, He loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And she just folded her arms and turned and walked off.
SPEAKER_00: And there I was, just sitting there in those uncomfortable chairs in the Atlanta airport, just but I tell you what, I wasn't tired anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I was filled up, I was ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa! Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That was better than a nap right there.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes before God tells you anything he wants you to know, information, revelation, knowledge, he's like, by the way, have I reminded you lately that you're greatly loved?
SPEAKER_00: He wants Daniel to know what he thinks about him.
SPEAKER_00: He said differently, if you knew and believed, hear that.
SPEAKER_00: If you knew and believed the way God felt about you, would it change the way you listen to him, read the Bible, or pray?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the fourth thing I want to point to in the text is that revelation comes with responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation comes with responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: It's verse 22 and 23.
SPEAKER_00: You you always have to exert yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The angel Gabriel says, I have come out to give you insight and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says a few more things and he gets to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Next verse, and he says, Consider the word and understand the vision.
SPEAKER_00: The gift of uh uh uh uh uh of insight and understanding doesn't absolve Daniel from saying, from from considering and understanding the vision.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, put forth a little effort.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: We in the American church have made everything so seeker friendly, we don't produce deep Christians anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of satiate the consumer that's kind of looking to scratch where I'm itching, sing the songs that make my liver quiver, or I went really down for that.
SPEAKER_00: So there's not really deep and durable people being cranked out by the American church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the last thing that last point of the sermon, and this is where I want to kind of just descend down just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy is for perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy, things that where God speaks things that are not.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, this is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: It hadn't yet happened.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you this, so you'll be a know it all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you this so that when it happens, it'll increase your faith in, trust in, and enjoyment of me.
SPEAKER_00: You'll have a perspective of hope that other people don't have.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy is for perspective.
SPEAKER_00: It's verses 24 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is in this section is intended to give us a long faithfulness towards our final hope.
SPEAKER_00: A long faithfulness towards uh because some of it is already and some of it is not yet.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just dive in.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24, he says, 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: 70 weeks is not like 77-week periods.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to go into this, but just put in your notes if you're ever a note taker, Leviticus 25.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to Leviticus chapter 25 and read, talks about the year of Jubilee, and what you'll see is that 70 weeks is really a reference to 77-year periods.
SPEAKER_00: A week is a seven-year period.
SPEAKER_00: And so, really, what you have is 490 years that he's referencing here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you say, Well, how do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Remember the biblical principle is that the things that we do not know, uh, we understand and interpret what is unclear in light of what is clear?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's how we know what one of the things that validates this is what he says after that.
SPEAKER_00: 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city.
SPEAKER_00: Why that long?
SPEAKER_00: He lists six reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint a most holy place.
SPEAKER_00: Now, stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that list up there.
SPEAKER_00: Now you say, What in the world is all that?
SPEAKER_00: I'll explain it to you.
SPEAKER_00: To finish the transgression.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible in the New Testament, it says things like, Haven't you spent enough time?
SPEAKER_00: Haven't you wasted enough time doing what the pagans do who do not know God?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever here ever sinned in your past, and you got to a point you just woke up one day and you said, You know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm tired of giving in to this same specific sin.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever had that feeling, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure you have.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means when it says to finish the transgression.
SPEAKER_00: God says, You people are gonna get tired of transgressing, of breaking my law.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you see my wife who's running around here somewhere, uh, ask my wife, when's the last time you had sugar smacks?
SPEAKER_00: Now you should be thinking, What?
SPEAKER_00: You're a strange little man.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't say things like that.
SPEAKER_00: How many do you know what sugar smacks are?
SPEAKER_00: The sh the cereal little brown things look like a football.
SPEAKER_00: When my wife was about third, fourth, fifth grade somewhere in there, she loves sugar smacks.
SPEAKER_00: But one day she ate so many of them she got sick.
SPEAKER_00: And so she hadn't had sugar sugar smacks since then.
SPEAKER_00: She can't even smell them to make her nauseous.
SPEAKER_00: She she just finished with sugar smacks.
SPEAKER_00: She can't do how many more?
SPEAKER_00: God says, Hey, by the way, I'm gonna finish the transgression.
SPEAKER_00: You people are gonna get tired of sinning against me.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he says, to put an end to sin.
SPEAKER_00: To put an end to sin.
SPEAKER_00: The first three deal with sin.
SPEAKER_00: Finish the transgression, put an end to sin.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is how we know it's already and not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Has in has sin ended?
SPEAKER_00: Have you watched the news lately?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people think away.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the day on the news, this girl uh killed her older sister while her parents were sleeping in the next door, in the next bedroom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, what is again?
SPEAKER_00: When man looks to man to meet his deepest need, the byproduct is violence.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: He says, so to atone for iniquity, that's the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth one, to bring in everlasting righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: To bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's two schools of thought on this.
SPEAKER_00: I happen to come down on one side.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's one school that says uh to seal both vision and profit means that there's gonna be no more visions and no more prophetic.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it it's just going to end seal like cutting a pipe that bursts in your attic and capping it off, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Last week.
SPEAKER_00: We're sealing it up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: I think it has more to do with putting his stamp of approval, his validation.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm going to seal both vision and prophet.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm going to speak and I'm going to give vision to the prophets, and these things are going to come true, and you're going to go, I wish we would listen to that person.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then he says this he says, to anoint a most holy place.
SPEAKER_00: That's a reference to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, that that's verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: These six things have to happen over this next 490 years.
SPEAKER_00: It's a one week is seven years, and there's 62 weeks, and and then there's this last week, the 70th week.
SPEAKER_00: So 62 and 7 is 69.
SPEAKER_00: The 70th week.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, there's already and not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Already and not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these things already happen.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these things not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 25, 26, and 27 focus on three major events.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks, seven, seven year periods, forty nine years.
SPEAKER_00: So notice when he says Says, from the going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a lot of different takes on this.
SPEAKER_00: Who's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Who's that?
SPEAKER_00: I believe it's when King Artaxerxes said to Ezra, uh the the scribe and the prophet, uh, he said, Hey, go back and rebuild your city.
SPEAKER_00: And then Nehemiah, remember the book of Nehemiah?
SPEAKER_00: Because he says later on that this is gonna happen in a trouble, this will be in a troubled time.
SPEAKER_00: Because he he says in the next verse, he says, uh, there shall be seven weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's talking about Jerusalem and the temple is gonna be restored, but it's gonna be a troubled time.
SPEAKER_00: If you read the book of Nehemiah, you'll see that Nehemiah is trying to build this wall around Jerusalem and restore the city.
SPEAKER_00: And he has adversaries all around him.
SPEAKER_00: He has two guys, Sanbalat and Tobiah, that every day get up and just pester him and try to distract him from the work.
SPEAKER_00: It is a troubled time.
SPEAKER_00: It is, people will not listen, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so what he's talking about in verse 25 is the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the the second major event that these verse talk about is the coming and the death of Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: After he says to restore and rebuild and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in a troubled time.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26, this is the coming and the death of Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me say something random.
SPEAKER_00: The next time, have you ever gotten frustrated?
SPEAKER_00: Say yes.
SPEAKER_00: The next time you're frustrated, just pray this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God this question.
SPEAKER_00: What is there something better I could be doing with my energy right now?
SPEAKER_00: Now you may be thinking, what?
SPEAKER_00: What are you saying that for?
SPEAKER_00: Because I got a call from Wade Burgess, who walked by somebody in Taco Bell, and oh, I got a quarantine for 10 days, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: He was out of vacation and needed a break.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, he calls me on Friday, which all of us is closed on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: And because they all know I live relatively close to the church, so they all call, hey man, are you home?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm in China.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever you want me to go to church and do, find somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: No, seriously, man, I need you to go down there, the movers, because our we got a water, we had a water pipe brush in our children's building, and it got water everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And so a great company comes in and they're packing everything up, wrapping it up, taking it and put it in storage, and then they're gonna come and fix the building, and then they'll bring it all back.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I need to go down there and make sure the movers be there to let them in.
SPEAKER_00: So about 10:30, I came down, I wait for them to show up.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they showed up about one.
SPEAKER_00: So just lid on the pot was kind of simmering.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I had to meet another guy about the cabinet guy, and he said, Yeah, yeah, we're gonna do this, d-da-da-da-da-da, great, and show this, and then and then I'm talking to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Long story short, I got home at 7:30 that night.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to choke Wade Burgess out.
SPEAKER_00: Can you go down there?
SPEAKER_00: All you gotta do is just open the door and let him in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, whoo! I'm gonna stomp a mud hole in you and walk it dry when I see you next time.
SPEAKER_00: So everything was good until about, I don't know, sometime in the afternoon, the guy was staking out the sidewalk to pour cement and put this little, and he took a sledgehammer, hit a stake, and punctured a two-inch irrigation line.
SPEAKER_00: Water came gushing up, and I was like, I've had enough water.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy that came around there goes, Hey man, you know how shut the water off?
SPEAKER_00: We couldn't find where the water shut off was.
SPEAKER_00: And so for 40 minutes it just gushed out.
SPEAKER_00: The guy kept apologizing.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, hey man, stop saying I'm sorry and fix this because you broke it.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Oh man, accidents happened.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you ain't paying for this accident.
SPEAKER_00: My people are paying for this water that's just draining right down in the drain down here.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a little more motivated than y'all are.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, bro, aren't you the pastor?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, bro, I'm the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And I ain't your bro.
SPEAKER_00: Get this fixed.
SPEAKER_00: So we tried it one thing, didn't work, got a slip sleeve over it, didn't glue up properly, something, it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, so finally at 7:30, they'll have to come back at the first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: So guess where I am first thing in the morning?
SPEAKER_00: I am right out here waiting for them.
SPEAKER_00: About 12:15, they come rolling up.
SPEAKER_00: Whoo! But back to Friday, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm a little bit frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: It's circumstantial, it's not personal.
SPEAKER_00: Men follow, put that in your hip pocket.
SPEAKER_00: That'll help you when your wife starts.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, baby, are you okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, I'm not mad at you, I'm not frustrated at you.
SPEAKER_00: My frustration is circumstantial.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a little crispy on Friday, okay?
SPEAKER_00: My wife calls her and my daughter and I are supposed to go to a local table for dinner out in Fulshire.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and somebody gave us a gift card.
SPEAKER_00: And I just said, Hey, just come get this gift card.
SPEAKER_00: You guys go.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're waiting, we're not that hungry.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need you to generate solutions or ask me questions when I'm frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: Just take the thing and go.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody gets hurt.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Well, I'll call and check in.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh-uh, yeah, uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to talk to anybody.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say any of this.
SPEAKER_00: I just said, Yeah, y'all just go ahead and go.
SPEAKER_00: And so she calls me 30 minutes later.
SPEAKER_00: Are you about done?
SPEAKER_00: I'm about done talking to human beings.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm about done doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said, babe, this is not going to work, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so, and then 30 minutes later, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: We drove by the church, we didn't see you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sermon in now.
SPEAKER_00: Whoosa! I said, I'm not here at Greg Wilson's shop.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only guy who seems to know how to fix these things, and so I'm taking advantage of his kindness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm just giving you one last chance.
SPEAKER_00: And then she said, Can we bring anything?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure all you men are just very laid back when you're frustrated, but I don't like to be given a pop quiz.
SPEAKER_00: Can I bring anything?
SPEAKER_00: You need so we finished, left the water shut off, and the guy goes, last thing he said was, I hope this building doesn't catch on fire because there's no water in there to put it out.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear Hank Williams Jr.
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think it's Hank Williams, one of those guys you're walking on the fighting side of me, Merle Haggard.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa! And I was just like, I'm gonna go home and pretend you didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: So I just go home.
SPEAKER_00: I settle, but we have a cover back patio.
SPEAKER_00: I sit on my backpack, just staring at the moon.
SPEAKER_00: My wife opens the door.
SPEAKER_00: You need anything?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, please don't come out here.
SPEAKER_00: Please don't.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm just frustrated with people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just just okay, I understand, babe.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I'm really like crispy.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I can tell you're crispy.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Stop talking.
SPEAKER_00: Uh about 10 minutes into that, clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit says, I want to do something better with this energy.
SPEAKER_00: So I picked up my phone and I started just thinking about Good Friday.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: Now you should be wondering at this point, what's this got to do with anything with Daniel 9?
SPEAKER_00: He says right here in Daniel 9, verse 26, and after 62 weeks, an anointed one, Jesus, shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting on my back porch.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: I know, now, by the way, I'm not a yeller.
SPEAKER_00: You can ask my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I've never raised my voice to her.
SPEAKER_00: I've been married to her 28 years, dated her a year and a half before that, almost 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's not because I'm a pastor or because I'm really spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: I just grew up with a dad that yelled all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember just thinking, that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: He and my stepmom would scream at each other.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of thoughts, I don't say them all.
SPEAKER_00: I know when I'm frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: You got to go a long way to frustrate me.
SPEAKER_00: I was frustrated about 4:30 on Friday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: By 7:30, I was fasting from humanity.
SPEAKER_00: At about 8 45, the Holy Spirit's like, let's just read something to get our mind on.
SPEAKER_00: So I started reading Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: I got to verse 8 and I read these words by oppression and judgment he was taken away.
SPEAKER_00: And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.
SPEAKER_00: When I read that part that said that he was cut off, I was like, Why does that sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: Welling to Daniel chapter 9, verse 26, after 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That little voice said, See, I got everything under control.
SPEAKER_00: So you can keep being frustrated that you don't get to run the world.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes I know this is just me.
SPEAKER_00: Bear with me, you wicked sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think if I controlled everything, everything would run better.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not a statement about how I feel about God, that's a statement about how I feel about all of y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And people that break my stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, the guy that broke the pipe at 5:30 got in his truck and went home.
SPEAKER_00: It's quitting time, bro.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's killing time, bro.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that just for the record, because some of you are like, oh, Pastor, you get violent sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I just think, can anybody be responsible?
SPEAKER_00: That's all.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing it points out there is that the persecution by the Antichrist in his defeat, verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he says in the latter part of verse 26, after he says, and shall have nothing, he says, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember the rhythm we've seen all through here is that, hey, some of this is already, it's already happened, some of it is not yet.
SPEAKER_00: It's still to happen.
SPEAKER_00: This part, the latter part of verse 26, where he says, and the people and the prince who is to come, that's talking about the people of the prince who is to come.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, people that don't know God, that they're people of the Antichrist, they shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: That's a reference to the Roman general Titus, who sacked and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.
SPEAKER_00: That's already happened.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, its end shall come with a flood.
SPEAKER_00: And to the end there shall be war.
SPEAKER_00: Desolations are decreed.
SPEAKER_00: And he, the Antichrist, shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: He says, now, remember, he said there's 70 weeks, which is 77, 77-year periods.
SPEAKER_00: So in a week is seven years, he says, verse 27, he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, which is a seven-year period, and for half of the weeks he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, which means seven years, half of seven years is three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: Yes or no?
SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you don't turn there, but if you looked in Revelation chapter 13, last book in the Bible, that everyone wants to understand, it talks about this beast, this Antichrist that is coming.
SPEAKER_00: It says this about him in Revelation 13, 5, and the beast was given a mouth, uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months.
SPEAKER_00: How long is 42 months?
SPEAKER_00: Three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see the Bible is cohesive and authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a bunch of one-off random stories, moral fables where you get your kids to behave until they get a driver's license and leave you alone.
SPEAKER_00: It's one story that tells the same story about the same God who controls everything.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, okay, I kind of lost me in that last part there.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean for us today?
SPEAKER_00: It means three things, and we're done.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we know a God who likes to reveal himself and his plans.
SPEAKER_00: He's not playing hide and go seek, he's not like hiding up there, kind of going, hey, you're getting closer, closer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sorry, your ice cold.
SPEAKER_00: No, he loves to reveal himself.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel prays and he sends an angel and says, Hey, go go reveal this to this guy.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we have a cohesive and authoritative Bible that we can trust.
SPEAKER_00: We have a cohesive and authoritative Bible that we can trust.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, and finally, we have a God who has been, is, and will always be in control.
SPEAKER_00: We have a God who has been, is, and always will be in control.
SPEAKER_00: Back to my back porch on Friday night after I read Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just kind of chuckling.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the Lord just kind of said, Hey, I'm not asking your permission, but I'm gonna run the world.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live in a world that I run?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: It's just sometimes people get on my nerves.
SPEAKER_00: It's like God's like, you telling me?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: Take on billions of them every day doing dumb stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, okay, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I come back and get my wife's like, you're in such a good mood.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I just yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_00: You have a God who has been, is, and will always be in control.
SPEAKER_00: Two questions.
SPEAKER_00: Are you comfortable living in that world?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the world we live in.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, here's the other question: why would you not want to have a personal relationship with this God like Daniel did?
SPEAKER_00: You should ask yourself that question today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, thanks for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks that it's authoritative, it's cohesive, it's illuminating, and it's inviting.
SPEAKER_00: And in the parts that we don't understand, God, we don't spit the bit on that.
SPEAKER_00: We want to just sit with it.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: Some of it's already and some of it's not yet.
SPEAKER_00: That just means we we can have faith based on experience and we can have faith based on hope.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, just brood over us while we think about some of these things.
SPEAKER_00: We think and we linger in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you that you we love you because you first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: So there's nothing we can do to make you love us more, and there's nothing we can do to make you love us less.
SPEAKER_00: That's the message of the gospel, and I pray that we would just be comfortable with that.
SPEAKER_00: Stop trying to prove how unworthy we are of your love.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not gonna stop coming after us, you're not gonna stop loving us, you're not gonna stop saying you are deeply loved, you're dearly loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, thank you for the truth today.
SPEAKER_00: That there's a perspective that comes with the hope that we have.
SPEAKER_00: It's not short-sighted, it plays the long game.
SPEAKER_00: And so, while we find ourselves in Babylon, we want to live on Jerusalem time like Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, show us what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: How do we raise our children not to be afraid, but to flourish in whatever circumstance or culture they find themselves in?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want to understand, God.
SPEAKER_00: So help thank you for the word that you've gave us today.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful.
SPEAKER_00: So we say thanks in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, let me say uh thank you for being here today.
SPEAKER_00: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_00: You're always welcome, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard today, we'll be available down front.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'd love to pray with you, answer any questions you may have.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh if you're our guest, hopefully you've had a chance to pull in those guest cards in your sink back pocket.
SPEAKER_00: Fill that out before you leave if you haven't already, and just drop it on the wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's all we ask of you.
SPEAKER_00: For the rest of us that consider this your your church home.
SPEAKER_00: If today's the day you worship God uh through giving, that's why you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would stand to your feet and hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: You are fully known by God, which makes the fact that he loves you unconditionally mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_00: He knows everything, and he is unchanging in his desire to know you, enjoy you, and bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Stop fighting, stop kicking, stop running, and yield to the holy affection you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.