Loved by God amid Chaos: Daniel 8–9 and Prayer

let's go you got your Bible out I want you to hold it up in the air loud and proud somebody I want all of us absolutely everyone on the count of three we're going to shout word on the count of three everyone shout word one two three word we're getting into God's word so that God's word will get into US hey I want to give you the only point to today's sermon so make sure you write this down it is the only Point get out your pen your paper if you don't have that go ahead and put this in your phone it's the one and only point to today's sermon so this is the thing that I want you to get out of this sermon today so Focus here we go ready the one point you are greatly loved come on somebody you are greatly loved that's the one and only point to today's sermon if you don't get anything else that's what I want you to get from today's sermon now you'll see we're going to have to work through this text we're in the Book of Daniel somebody and this is some

confusing stuff but there's something God wants you to know and that is you are greatly loved so just turn to your neighbor and tell them right now you're greatly loved all right turn to your other neighbor and say you're greatly loved let's go now realize that may sound simple that may even seem Elementary you are greatly loved but if we actually operated under the principle of who we are we are loved by God we are children of God we would change the world so what stops us from being greatly loved I will tell you two things that will typically stop you from being greatly loved chaos and confusion chaos is when your

circumstances are out of your control confusion is not knowing why chaos and confusion are two human experiences that every one of us will face at some point in your life you will look around and say what is going on whether it's in the government or your family or maybe even in your own where you release and say I don't even know what to do next and and confusion is the uncertainty of what to do or even how to do it and throughout the Book of Daniel we've seen a common theme that God is always Sovereign meaning he's always in control no matter what the confusion looks like no matter what the chaos looks like he's always in control

in every generation under every leadership he never stops being God and what I love about our Lord is he doesn't want us to he doesn't want us to stay in confusion or chaos but rather he brings a calm a comfort it's what my wife did to me just moments earlier I asked her I said hey could you pray for me today and she started praying and I just had a calm then she got down I'm like oh man the Lord put us together kind of like a ying and a Yang I live in chaos and she lives in calm she just she just brings a peace into the room I I I bring the ADHD D D D D so you want some D I'm going to bring that but then she brings some peace into the room you know once Jesus was on a boat with his students his disciples and he decided to

take a nap in the middle of a n his nap there was a a storm that arose and they were freaking out in the middle of this storm because Jesus was still sleeping and when they woke Jesus up they asked him this question do you not care that we're perishing it's it's the ultimate question that all of us face when we're when we we're facing confusion and and Chaos God do you not care what I'm going through do you not see this this is out of my control do you not understand what I'm going through when Jesus got up from that nap he he actually the Bible tells us he rebuked The Wind and The Waves by simply saying three words peace be still the very commandment we see in the Psalms when we're told to be still and know that I am God I will will be

exalted among the Nations where in the Book of Daniel we pick up today in chapter 8 last week we looked at Daniel chapter 7 and we saw a turn in the literature chapters 1- six speak like a story in chronological order we see the history of what happened to Daniel taken from Judah to Babylon as a slave we see the Exile of God's people and we see the leadership of of Daniel during really dark days I believe we're still living in Daniel Days by by chapter 7 we see a turn that the writing is no longer historical or even chronological rather we see prophetic words not just any prophetic word it's it's a apocalyptic prophetic word the word apocalypse means to reveal it's what the last book of the

Bible is named after Revelation it means to reveal and it's here in chapters 7 through2 we have this revealing of prophecies this revelation of things to come so we go back into Daniel's life to these visions that were given by God to Daniel to better understand the future things that have yet to happen last week in Daniel chapter 7 it felt like it was zoology instead of theology we looked at these four creatures that came out of the sea a lion a bear a leopard then finally a terrifying Beast we're going to keep with that common theme of animals as we dive into chapter 8 today and we're going to see that God wants us to have calm in the chaos and even in the

confusion Daniel chter 8 if you'd go with me starting with verse one now if you work with me today I believe we're going to get through two chapters come on let's work together we should be out by three or four here we go Daniel chter 8 verse1 in the third year of the reign of King Bazar remember he's the young punk that likes to party this is the third year a vision appeared to me Daniel after that which appeared to me at the first that Vision he received that we studied last week in chapter 7 and I verse two says and I saw in the vision and when I saw I was in Susa The Citadel which is in the province of Elum and I saw in the vision and I was at the Uli Canal so he gets this vision and

here we go we're going to see more animals I raised up my eyes and saw and behold a ram standing on the bank of the canal it had two horns and both horns were high but one was higher than the other and the higher one came up last and I saw the ram charging Westward and northward and Southward no Beast could stand before him and there was no one who could rescue from his power he did as he pleased and he became great I remind you that in apocalyptic literature there's a common Ed of imagery and metaphors that are used not for us to take literal but for us to understand what the revelation God wants to give this Book of Daniel is much like the

Book of Revelation it does just that it's the revealing of things to come it tells us what will happen that hasn't happened yet in Daniel's life so when we see a ram we don't just see a literal Ram we want to understand the greater meaning which will be revealed to Daniel later in this chapter what we see here is God is given us something greater now if you just were to read through the Bible regularly and you get to a place like Daniel chapter 8 and you were to read the entire chapter you might just be confused you might sayl why would you give this to me it's not exactly one of those studies that you come to this place and you read about a Ram with two horns and one's just a little larger and say wow that was a really good word Lord I will use that today I will apply that to my work I will apply that to my

enemies come on I'm this was a good word no it can be confusing because if you just see what's in front of you you're you're stuck in the weeds it's time for us to go to that 30,000 foot level to look down to see what does God see we have an eternal God meaning he always has been he is and will forever be God that mean that means God knows absolutely everything and he gives us an understanding of things that were things that are and things that will be in this Vision Daniel starts off he says I see a vision of a ram not just any Ram it had two horns and one horn was larger than the other and this Ram was so powerful it seemed like it was in impenetrable it seemed like it was invincible this Ram is none other than the second beast that

we learned about last week which was the bear if you remember last week the bear represented the MEO Persian Empire at this point Daniel is still living in the Babylonian Empire but because of Bazar they're about to be taken over by the MEO Persians if you recall that bear stood up on one side we see symbolically there will be two kings that will be unlike the other kings of the MEO pers Persian Empire one will be greater than the other then we're told that this this particular Ram will actually go Westward northward and Southward meaning that the MEO Persian Empire will take over the Babylonians it will take over the Asia Miner the lydian Empire and it will take over Egypt the Egyptian Empire the MEO Persians will be absolutely powerful no one saw this coming because the Babylonians were so big the Babylonians

were so great now we have in this Vision as as Daniel is getting this Vision he's also told in verse 5 as I was considering he's just thinking about this Ram with two horns Behold a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground now today we use the acronym for goat greatest of all time this goat didn't even touch the ground this sounds like Michael Jordan he's just flying through the air this this Ram just comes out of no where from the West he comes without touching the ground and the Goat had a conspicuous horn a single horn between his eyes if we go back to the previous chapter if you remember there were four beasts that Daniel was given a vision of the first was a lion which represented Babylon the second was a

bear which represented the MEO Persian Empire if you recall the Bear by the way had three ribs in his mouth that represented those three kingdoms that Daniel SE here in chapter 8 that is the Babylonian Empire the lydian or the Asia Miner and also Egypt now we have this Ram that comes in with forth do you remember which animal came after the bear it was the leopard now Lepard we did a little pop quiz last week and we shouted out the answer let's see if you still remember our our our leopards slow or fast shout it out fast they're fast this Kingdom will come in quickly this Kingdom will come in and no one really saw it coming that r which seems so powerful will be powerful no more because there is a goat coming the

greatest of all time and we see here with this this this vision of this goat that there's only one horn there'll be one leader we look back in history and it's abundantly clear that this leader is none other than Alexander the Great he was a leader like none other from age 23 to age 33 he conquered more kingdoms than any other emperor in history he never lost a battle he was absolutely incredible in fact the Greek Empire was so spectacular they did what no other Empire had done before they they caused one common language in all of the land now they had more land than any other Empire previously they brought one language they brought one culture this leader was incredible and of course he

came from the West he came from Greece and he took over the world he took over the MEO Persians he took over uh all of Asia he was dominating now Daniel gets this Vision that this goat's going to come in almost seemingly out of nowhere much like that leopard but then we're told as we continue read in verse 8 then the goat became exceedingly great that's the Greek Empire but when he was strong the Great Horn was broken we can look at history Alexander the Great he died at the age of 33 he lost his leadership all of us are going to die at some point but he died at the peak when he was taking over the world all of a sudden that one

horn was lost that goat that came in the greatest of all time they lost their leader this is so important to see that you have to live for something that lasts at this point losing their leader there was no successor so it was split up to the four generals of Alexander the Great and Daniel was given the vision and instead of the one horn there came up four conspicuous horns towards the Four Winds of heaven so the kingdom of Greece was divided into four kingdoms given to the four generals now why in the world would this matter to you I'll tell you it matters because it's history and if we don't learn from history what happens is not only do we repeat it we don't get to learn about a sovereign God that works through every generation of

these four divisions there were two that grew more powerful than the others you may have learned about this in high school history there was the solids and then there was the toames the solids would be up in in where Syria is today the solids were powerful under the general sald which was under Alexander the Great the toames came from the general toomy which came from Greece and they took over the Egyptian Empire so you have the North and you have the South who are raising up over time there was a leader of of the seusd that was unlike any other leader and we're going to learn about him in just a moment Daniel chapter 8 verse 9 out of those four horns are you guys still sticking

with me I realize it seems like zoology but there is going to be some theology here we got the goat now not with one horn four horns out of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the South toward the East and toward the glorious land do you recall what horns represent last week shout it out if you do Power Authority it can represent a king so out of these four kingdoms that were divided one would be unlike any of the others in fact this is just a little horn this sounds a lot like that little horn we read about last week in Daniel chapter 7 the fourth and final Beast was this terrifying Beast representing the Roman Empire and the kingdoms that would come after then there was 10 horns represented 10 Kings and then and out of those 10 horns came one little horn remember with the two

eyes and the little mouth that little horn represented the Antichrist Daniel's giving us a glimpse not only of things to come in the generations following his life but also things to come in our life as well we're told there will be an antichrist which is exactly what it sounds like anti-christ it's important to know what the word Christ means and the Hebrew it's hamashiach hamashiach just means the anointed one of God also known as Messiah M we call this the Christ because that's the Greek term of hamashiach you can see the influence of the Greek Empire even the name Jesus is the Greek term for Yeshua which is the name of Jesus so we have Jesus the Christ the Antichrist will be Antichrist in two ways number

one he'll oppress God's people instead of bless them God said I will bless my people uh I I will bless those who bless you I will curse those who curse you the Antichrist will curse God's people oppress God's people the second thing the Antichrist will do is instead of worship God we'll want to be worshiped so we have here out of these four horns this little horn that that arises there's a king that's coming and this King will rise up and be great we can look back in history and better understand as we see the saluci and the toies growing we have uh I'm blanking real quick sorry help me out Kara Antiochus everyone everyone say Antiochus anus I've got a little brain farts going on this morning so we got to

just clear the head Antiochus raises up out of the seusd Antiochus would be the fourth of the names of Antiochus in fact he would be unlike any others he gave himself the name Antiochus epiphanies epiphanies in the Greek means to manifest it literally means to to manifest Glory he saw himself as a God we would start to see a theme through the Greek Emperors that would carry on to the Roman Empires that they themselves would refer to themselves as Lord or God he saw himself as the manifestation of Zeus Antiochus would raise up and be a representation of this little horn which we now also is a representation of the Antichrist now this little horn we told in Daniel 8:2 and a host that means an army we see

that phrase often used for God he's the Lord of hosts in this case it's Antiochus and his Greek army and a host who be given over to it and with the regular burnt offering because of the transgression and it will throw truth to the ground and it will act and prosper now we take a pause in the scripture and we remind ourselves that Daniel gets this Vision while the Babylonians are still in charge he gets a vision of things to come he's told there's another kingdom coming after that will be greater than Babylon that's the ram then he's told another kingdom will come after that that's the goat and then he's told of not only one leader but he's told of four leaders and now he's told of one leader that will be unlike any of the rest this leader will have an army not only we have an army he will take away the burnt offerings which are sacred to God he will actually destroy

the truth and make it illegal and we see something significant here he's going to continue to act and prosper how many of you have noticed in life that sometimes things have to go from bad to worse before things get better you have to go through the worse and Daniel's getting this Vision that things are going to not only go from bad things are going to go to worse when Daniel gets this Vision verse 15 tells us when I Daniel had seen the vision I sought to understand it and behold there stood before me one having the appearance of a man get in your imagination here who this man is and I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Uli and he called Gabriel make this man understand

the vision so he came near Where I Stood and when he came I was frightened and I fell on my face but he said to me understand oh son of man that the vision is for the time of the end so we have a man here who can control Angels come on somebody we have a man here who's unlike any other man he can call An Angel by name and he'll come and he'll actually help which is what a an angel does an angel the word means a messenger a messenger of God this is the first time we actually see an angel called by name Gabriel you may have heard his name before he's often in the Christmas plays this is the one that visits Mary a very significant angel I believe this is Jesus Jesus comes and he meets with Daniel and as he meets with Daniel

he says Gabriel go ahead and tell this guy what what this means and Gabriel comes and he's going to give him an understanding of the chaos and the confusion see Daniel at this point does not know that it's Antiochus he does not know that this leader will follow four other leaders he does not know that Alexander the Great will be who he is and so here's what Gabriel tells Daniel as for the ram that you saw with the two horns these are the kings of midia and Persia it's what we already learned about the RAM and the goat is the king of Greece and the Great Horn between his eye is the the first king that is as we know now Alexander the Great as for the four horns that was broken in which in

place of which four others arose four kingdoms shall arise from his Nation but not with his power and at the latter end of their Kingdom when the transgressors have reached the limit a king of bold face one who understands riddles shall arise that's Antiochus his power shall be great but not by his own power and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does and Destroy Mighty Men and the people who are the Saints history tells us that he killed upwards of 40,000 or more Jews just in Jerusalem by his cunning he shall make deceit Prosper under his hand and in his own mind he shall become great without warning he shall destroy many and he

shall even Rise Against the prin of princes and he shall be broken but not by human hand the vision of the evenings and the morning that has been told is true but seal up the vision Gabriel tells Daniel for it refers to many days from now let's better understand what's happening here Gabriel is giving understanding and insight to Daniel about the days to come under the leadership of Antiochus he would not only oppress God's people he would take over the world Antiochus history tells us was uh comes from the cusd and he wanted to continue to dominate the Greek Empire he wanted to continue to rule in even greater fashion and as he did so that means he had to

take over those other three divisions that were divided after Alexander the Great as history tells us he went down to the toames which is in Egypt that is the Egyptian Empire you probably know about the toames you might not know it by name but the toames the last great leader of the toames was Cleopatra do you remember Cleopatra she was the last of the Pharaohs she was the Queen of Egypt but she wasn't Egyptian she was Greek she came from the her her Heritage came from uh Toy one of the generals of Alexander the Great now here uh Antiochus goes down to the toames to negotiate with them to take over their land and while he's there there was much

disruption happening in Jerusalem you see if you can go back to history if you read several of the other books of the Bible you see a lot of fascinating things happening during this time during the MEO Persians one of the Emperors Cyrus gave permission for the Israelites to go back home and rebuild their Homeland specifically the holy city of Jerusalem you read about this in the book of Nehemiah when he so broken that Jerusalem is still destroyed and so under the leadership of Nehemiah during the MEO Persians he would go back to help rebuild a wall around Jerusalem you ever heard that story it's in the Bible in the book of Nehemiah also under the leadership of zerubabel he would bring back the word of God into the temple to the God's people in Jerusalem and Ezra would help rebuild this temple in Jerusalem so God's people are starting to see restoration during the MEO

Persian Empire but then the Greeks come in and they're taking over the world they're bringing one common language in every single place then Antiochus comes from the top and what we're told is he goes he goes he goes east he goes south and he goes north he continues to take over including that Holy Land of Judah and Jerusalem what we see is a lot of corruption I know it's hard to believe but whenever there's politics there's corruption and there was a Godly high priest who had a brother named Joshua Joshua was not godly in fact he wanted control over the Temple and so he changed his name from Joshua to Jason so he would sound Greek and he sent some money to Antiochus and he said hey let me be the high priest of the temple and I'll henize the temple I'll bring your

Greek culture into our Jewish place of worship which Antiochus couldn't couldn't hold back from taking the deal he took the money he made Jason in charge of the temple and while he was down doing a deal with the toames there was another man who decided to do the same thing Jason did he said let me be the high priest of the temple I'll send you money well Jason wasn't going to give up the temple that easy he decided to destroy the whole city of Jerusalem and now Antiochus has a problem so he headed from Egypt up to Jerusalem to make sure that he had control of this city of Jerusalem and here's what he did there you could read this in historical accounts Antiochus goes to the temple he

takes a pig and he brings it to the place where the burnt offerings would be sacrificed he brings a pig and he sacrifices a pig in the Sacred Space of the temple now pigs are the most unclean animal to the Jews for a myriad of reasons God set it apart that they wouldn't eat pork because of the timing of of the way things worked they were considered the most unclean animal he not only sacrificed this Pig on the altar where they' give their burnt offerings as a sacrifice to God he took the guts of that pig and threw them all over the walls of the temple this Sacred Space and then he invited in all of his soldiers to bring in harlots and they desecrated the temple by having sex inside that Temple and they dedicated it to Zeus this is what Daniel calls in chapter nine the abomination of

desolation Jesus in Matthew CH 24 he quotes The Book of Daniel and he says when you look for the end times look for the abomination of desolation now Jesus Is God Who Came In the Flesh holy God and holy man Jesus died on the cross for our sins as the last great sacrifice he's often called the Lamb of God we are sinners in need of atonement before a holy righteous God Jesus died for our sins and when he died on the cross he was buried on the third day by the power of the the Holy Spirit he rose from the grave he conquered death he defeated the devil and he gives us the same access to God that he has through the Holy Spirit now because of that the veil that separated the holy of holies access to

God was torn we now have access to God through Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit the New Testament says you then by the blood of Jesus Christ by believing in him you are called a child of God you're not only called a child of God your body now becomes the temple of God that we no longer have to travel to Jerusalem to Worship in a temple we no longer need a high priest to be the mediator between man and God you are the temple so what the devil seeks to do is destroy your life much like Antiochus came in and had to rule and reign with with evil and power and Polly policy to

legislate and say literally this is what he did he removed the Torah from the people he said you cannot read this book which was the word of God that we have in our Old Testament he burned it in fact if you were found with Torah you and your family would be killed he brought it to the ground he said you absolutely can't do this he desolated the Sacred Space which was dedicated to God now this this seems like ancient history but just consider this when you turn on any of your streaming services today what do you allow into the temple of God what do you allow into your life some might say it's just entertainment is it's no big deal we can look back at Antiochus and say this guy was so wicked

and evil and I'll tell you the devil schemes are still the same today as long as the devil can bring something unclean into the holy space they can't operate together God does not tolerate wickedness and Holiness to operate together you you cannot experience the anointing and the power of God while still allowing wickedness and rampant evil to happen in your life so if we just stop in the story right here this is just a tragic story but if we go down to verse 25 we're told that this leader which we now know as Antiochus which by the way is not just Antiochus it's an image of the Antichrist John warns us in first John is before we get to the Book of Revelation which is this he also wrote the Book of Revelation John says in first John there

is coming an antichrist there's one that will lead like no other but before this Antichrist there'll be many Antichrist so every generation the devil's getting ready we can constantly see an evil and we we've seen this we looked at this last week every generation looking was it Stalin was it Hitler who who was it but look at verse 25 it says and he shall be broken but not but by no human hand come on somebody my God he can overcome evil at any time he Wills he can overcome the chaos and the confusion not by human hand you got this image here of a hammer that comes and just wipes out Antiochus who seemed so great now some of you know this story but let me just tell you what happened

to Antiochus because it's absolutely awesome and you'll have a whole new appreciation for December there was a Jewish man named Judas uh macabus Judas macabus after three years of the temple being desecrated had enough of this there comes a point where you have a holy discontent where you say enough is enough I can't keep looking at this I can't keep tolerating this I can't keep allowing this to happen in my life in my family in my city in my state in my nation and that was Judas macabus after three years of the temple being used as a place of worship for Zeus instead of yah way the one true God this man rises up and says I'm going against Antiochus

and his armies one man along with the other ones and they continue to overcome each Army one by one when you have God on your side you can do absolutely anything you don't need to have the biggest and baddest Army you got God on your side Exodus 14:14 the Lord would tell his people he he he said you don't need to worry about this you only need to be silent I will fight for you the Lord will fight for you so Judas macabus along with the small army would go against the the Greek armies and one by one they would defeat them all the way moving North when Antiochus was trying to overwhelm Asia to take over Judas macabus destroyed the last of the Greek armies of anus when word made

it all the way to Antiochus history tells us he fell down had a seizure and died the macbes would head back to the temple they would clean out the temple they would restore it to the sacredness of bringing back the presence of God and they would take the lamp fill it with oil which represents the Holy Spirit and they would light it we now know this lamp as a manora and this came to be a celebration of what today the Jews call Hanukkah the Festival of Lights it's the restoration of the Sacred Space of the temple Hanukkah this year happens to fall on Christmas day which is no accident that we get to celebrate the anointing of the Holy Spirit the light of the world Jesus Christ on December 25th this year as we transition from chapter 8 to

chapter nine I want to go quickly to better understand what do we do in our day with chaos and confusion in the first year Daniel 9 verse1 in the first year of Darius the son of azuis that is Xerxes by Descent of me who was made King over the realm of the calans so now we see a transition things are happening exactly as God said they would happen the bear has taken over the ram has moved in Daniel is still in leadership and now he's in his 80s and in the first year of his Reign I Daniel perceived in the books of the number of years that according to the word of the Lord everyone say word of the Lord word of the Lord that's what we just held up right here according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet

and must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem namely 70 years okay I want you to get this image there's new leadership Daniel's in his 80s and he he goes to God's word the book of Jeremiah what we have in our Bible as the book of Jeremiah he comes to a section which today we have in Daniel excuse me in Jeremiah chapter 29 and as he's reading this he recognizes that God said it would be 70 years while his people would be in Exile Daniels in his 80s he was taken into Exile as a teenager and he starts adding up the numbers 10 20 60 70 years he recognized that the time has come for God to fulfill his promise what promise well we go to the Book of Jeremiah we could read exactly what

Daniel was reading reading Jeremiah 29:10 for thus says the Lord when 70 years are completed for Babylon I will visit you I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you you will seek me and find me when you seek me with with all your heart I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you in to Exile Daniel's reading this and he's thinking to himself all I got to do is pray and

seek the Lord and God's going to restore this now if you take a pause in this story go back to Daniel chapter 6 when the MEO Persians come in Darius is in charge and and Daniel's putting a high level of leadership everyone around him is jealous so they want to destroy Daniel they create a law by tricking the king to say no one can pray for 30 days but to the king and if you do pray then you get thrown into a denal do you guys remember that story Daniel the den allance if you missed it just go back a few weeks and watch that message Daniel doesn't care that it's a la he still prays to his God he goes to his window and he faces Jerusalem and he prays why did he pray pray we're now told because he read the book of Jeremiah he got into the word of God and he was so motivated to pray so what did Daniel pray I'm glad you asked we're

told in verse three then I turned my face to the Lord God I imagine he was in his room with the window open towards Jerusalem seeking him by prayers and pleas for Mercy with fasting and sackcloth and Ashes I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession saying oh Lord the great and awesome God who keeps Covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his Commandments let's just stop there in the prayer this is powerful you want to see some change in your life get in the word of God and then pray it's a perspective when you get into the word of God you get to see who God is he's a covenant keeping God he never breaks his promise we see that with every Revelation that's given to Daniel God did exactly what he said he would do some people don't believe this they think this was an appendix that that was added later after these events

happened and because there's no way Daniel would know these things Daniel didn't know these things God did God gave them to Daniel so we know that God is a covenant keeping God more than that he's steadfast in his love that that phrase steadfast love is one Hebrew worded hassed is the most commonly used word to describe God it's it's it's interpreted in English a steadfast love or loving kindness do you know God never changes he's always loving no matter what chaos happens in our world no matter what confusion you have he's a great and awesome God who keeps his Covenant who's steadfast in love and and and with those who love him and keep his Commandments this has been a common theme through the Book of Daniel you either obey God's word or you ignore

God's word you either obey God or you rebel against God now when you obey God you get to see the blessings of God how do you get the blessings of God you repent look what Daniel does in verse 5-7 still praying we have sinned everyone say we we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled turning aside from your Commandments and rules we've not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our Kings our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land to you oh Lord belongs righteousness but to us shame as at this day to the men of Judah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel those who are near and those who are far away and all the lands to which you have driven them because of the

treachery that they have committed against you Daniel gets into God's word he prays and he repents this is how you receed the blessing of God repenting means to turn completely to God some would describe it as a 180 you were going your way but now you turn God's way but it's more than that it's trusting God it's believing God it's taking God at his word even if you're in a place you don't want want to be even if you're surrounded by people that are not like you you still believe and trust in God that's repentance and Daniel did it not just for himself I need you to see this here he did it for his parents and his grandparents and his great-grandparents he said they may have disobeyed you they may not have listened to your word they deserve shame but you're a God of mercies oh the Prophet Jeremiah says in the book of

Lamentations chapter 3 he says God's mercies are new every morning you have an opportunity today to say I'm no longer going to live in the ways of my ancestors or my parents or the people before me they may not have listened to you but I'm going to listen to you I'm going to give you my life I'm going to trust in you that's what happens when you repent no more excuses if anyone had excuses Daniel did I appreciate at least three people believe in that today cuz all God needs is at least one he just needs a Daniel to raise up and say I'm no longer going to your word says this I'm going to believe this that's what I'm going to do that's what I'm going to pray that's what I'm going to believe Daniel shows us a model of

what we can do today if you want healing in your life you got to start praying not just for the repentance of your sins but the prior Generations before you because some of the issues in your life may not have even been your problems they were just passed on to you they were like the baggage you didn't even want and some of us we've got so so much baggage we need to give it back to God and say God I don't want to carry this anymore I want to receive the promise of your word what's the promise of God's word he has a plan for you he has a purpose for you he has hope for you now this is hope for people that disobeyed God what do I mean they disobeyed God they disobeyed God God said don't marry the Canaanites don't worship their gods and they went ahead and did their own things they were a covenant breaking people that's why the Babylonians came in and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and took the Israelites into

Exile it's not because Nebuchadnezzar was the baddest King that had ever lived it's because God allowed it because they were disobedient some of you are wondering why do I have chaos in my life why do I have confusion in my life God has allowed it because you're disobedient but the moment you get into God's word and you pray and you repent you will receive the blessing of God you will be released from all curses and you will receive the inheritance that God has for you you're grafted into the promises of God there's a New Covenant for you by the blood of Jesus Christ you're forgiven of all your sins you now have the hope of Heaven the same thing that Daniel wants you to know today Jesus preached this message the first thing Jesus preached when he came onto the scene in Matthew chapter 4 is repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

it's like he summarized the whole Bible in one simple sermon repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand it's not someday it's not another day if you turn to God you trust in him the kingdom is yours what a great God he doesn't say go get your life right first then you can follow me he said no trust in me repent and the Kingdom of Heaven is yours the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand you can have it Jesus says and is found in him when Paul wrote to the Romans he says in Chapter 2 verse4 don't you know I'm reading the second half of this verse God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance my friends God has been so kind to you I realized some of us in our chaos we've actually blamed God because of confusion and you know God is so big that he's not going to hold that against you if you just repent you may have done some dumb

things but I want you to know today it's God's kindness that leads to repentance no matter where you've been no matter where your parents have been today and this day forward you can trust in God it's God's kindness that leads to repentance he's given you an opportunity today I finish with these words from Daniel chapter 9: 20 through 23 while 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 this is why I believe this was the prayer Daniel was praying when he got arrested and taken to the Den of Lions while I was speaking in my prayer the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at first came to me in Swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice he made me understand speaking with me saying can

we pause for a second what is this evening sacrifice do you know how good good God is in history have you ever heard of a synagogue anybody ever heard of a synagogue synagogues were created because the Jewish people went to Exile synagogue is like a Jewish church it's where You' receive the word of God it's where you would worship because they were taken away from Jerusalem and so they they were reimplementing God's word while they were in Exile so here Daniel's praying and while he's praying Gabriel shows up now this just didn't happen because he prayed the the right words or pray the right prayer Daniel had lived a life of godliness you got to start somewhere before you start to see the spectacular like Gabriel Gabriel shows up and here's what he says in verse 22 he made me understand

verse 22 he made me understand speaking with me saying oh Daniel I have now come out to give you insight and understanding my friends God does not want you to live in chaos and confusion he wants to give you insight and understanding that happens when you get into God's word and you pray there's no fast track where you go to a psychic or tarot cards or any other demonic spirituality that takes you away from God the devil's just trying to lead you away but there's a common theme Here God's word and prayer will give you insight and understanding at the beginning of your please Daniel at the beginning when you prayed for Mercy a word went out so when you prayed

God heard it you couldn't see it you didn't know it but when you pray your word went out and I've come to tell it to you for you are greatly loved therefore consider the word and understand the vision of all the things that Daniel got to see I realize your life is pretty messed up can I get an amen amen you've been through something the people around you have been through something so many of you have been sexually abused some of you are addicted to sexual perversion right now and you want to break off of it so many of you have been addicted to to substance some of you have been uh abused emotionally physically some of

you have had people betray you at your work when you thought they were a friend some of you have had family abandon you when they should have never done that oh you've been through some things my friend so has Daniel he was in a dark place but he didn't give up on God in the dark place God gave him a vision that things are going to go from bad to worse but there's one message that God would come and give to Daniel of all the things I want you to know Daniel about Antiochus of all the things about Alexander the Great of all the things about Cyrus the emperor of the MEO Persians of all those things Daniel here's the one thing I want you to know you are greatly

loved if we can just eradicate all of the chaos from our lives if we could take away the confusion I know there's a message God has for you today and it's just one point you don't have to remember Antiochus I didn't you don't have to remember all the names of the high priests that were wicked and evil and were corrupt and brought an abomination of desolation to the temple here's all you got to know is you are greatly loved and that you do not need to desecrate your temple any longer it's time for some restoration got to bring the lamp back has to be filled with oil you got let that light shine and when you do God does the rest

it's not up to us some of you today need to do it for the first time you need to receive and trust in Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins some of you need to come back you've been living in chaos and confusion but you just need to hear the calm of God's voice today you are greatly loved Jesus said it in John 3:16 for God so loves you that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life that's Jesus believe in him today trust in him today I said there's one point but here's how you understand you're greatly loved you get in this book and you pray and you repent and just repeat that cycle it's

like your clothes you can wash them you can dry them and put them on then you got to wash them and dry them and put them on again please just repeat that cycle in God's word you've got to keep coming back to this if your Bible gets dusty and you don't know where your Bible is I tell you that's when you know there's a problem you'll even start to blame God because you're confused but this book brings us Clarity and we don't just see in the weeds we step back and we see that wow God's actually working in history he worked through Daniel to speak to us today that the Antichrist is coming but we know the true Christ and he's coming again on the clouds and our hope is near and as Jesus would say just look up your Redemption

is near I want to pray with you and I want to ask you if you've never received Jesus today is your day please don't wait another day please get clarity in your mind get clear in your heart that you are loved from this day forward you'll know where to keep coming back to if that's you I'm just going to ask you boldly if if you know you need to receive Jesus God brought you here at this moment so that you would trust in him would you just raise your hand up high and just say that's me I just need Jesus today I'm done doing this I love that sweet little heart right over there is there anybody else praise be to God just raise your hand nice and high we want to celebrate with you we want to see that when you say yes to Jesus you go from Death To Life there there's no

in between anymore you can have the hope of heaven right now in the midst of chaos and confus is there anyone else just raise your hand you say yes I just want Jesus I need Jesus I want to believe in him today I want to trust in him today I can't assume because you've come to church that you you've done that some of you go to church over and over and over but you're not believing you're desecrating the temple this is your day is there anybody that's saying yes I I need Jesus praise God I want to also pray not only for those who want to believe in Jesus for the first time but some of you have known the Lord for a very long time and it's been confusing I'm sure like the Jewish people wondering God why would you let Antiochus come into your City to your temple and do this and some of you are confused why' you let that person do that to

me why'd you let me make that bad decision I want to tell you Jesus in is in the business of restoration Peter who denied Jesus three times that did not stop Jesus from using Peter Jesus while on the cross said father forgive them they know not what they do he loves you and he'll forgive you but you have to trust in him you have to come back to him if you're done doing things on your own if you're done allowing the enemy to overcome your temple this is your moment for repentance I'm just going to ask would you stand to your feet right now I want to pray over you Lord I Thank you for this day that you've made you brought us to a section of scripture that can be confusing but when we invite you Holy Spirit to our

hearts you bring Clarity so God it's on this day that I thank you for even the little hand that said I want to say yes to Jesus say thank you for the heart of a child that just says I Believe In You Jesus may we be more like children of God just saying Lord would you be the father of our Lives May we just trust you for who you are I lift up your church right now and I say Lord I know that we've allowed the abomination of desolation in our lives for the many men and women who are addicted to pornography for so many who are addicted to some substance maybe popping a pill or maybe they think that marijuana is their way to relax I'm asking the mighty name of Jesus it's not that those things are the things that stop them from you it's just that we've allowed something else to be the Lord of our hearts the king of our lives and so I just come before you in the name of Jesus Christ and say Lord would you be the king of

kings in our hearts would you remove any place that we've desolated or desecrated or we've allowed something that's unclean into our hearts thank you for the promise of your word that says if we would just confess our sins to you Jesus you are faithful and just to not only forgive our sins but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness do that today through your church receive that my friend as we're praying tell the Lord confess your sins repent and receive his Mercy and Grace today finally Lord I pray for a Great Awakening in our lifetime I especially pray for Central Oregon God I pray for a Revival that Central Oregon shall be saved I pray for our nation I thank you

for your word that says if my people would just humble themselves if they would just repent and turn from their wicked ways you promis Lord that you would heal their lands I believe you're beginning a great thing and so I just pray for a spirit of repentance that the church would raise up right now for such a time as this that we would light the lamp of our hearts and let you Holy Spirit burn within us burn Lord may we be a light for the world to see you burning in us let us be bold like Daniel even to the point if we're misunderstood we repent not only of our sins but the generations before us Lord bring healing to our minds that which has been wronged that which has brought trauma we say God you're the great healer you're the great restore we release all sin and strongholds from the past and we say we are no longer bound by the Antichrist or

any other devil or demon but we say we allow you Jesus to be the head of our hearts of our homes and of your church have your will and your way today I pray in Jesus mighty name amen and amen amen