Daniel Part #4-The Problem with Mixture 3-15-09
Daniel Part #4 The Problem with Mixture—
Clash of the Kingdoms
Recap last message
· Historical issue
· Daniel needed to find the DREAM of the KING
· Paralleled to us—we need to find the D of the K
Talked
· King’s dream—troubled—vision—prophetic
· Magicians called—tell me dream—couldn’t—all died
· Daniel and friends life in danger
· When there is a shaking—There is a Hunger for Something Real
o “If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you.
· The Shaking Calls our Bluff
o No posers life threatened—
o No dream = No life
· When we are in Crisis, we need to Access Our King
· Daniel activated his team
· Mercy is a key in the midst of crisis
o Daniel needed to know Dream of King or DIE
o In night—vision came
· In the midst of our Night of Need New Vision is often birthed
· America in Night of Need
· What we Really Need, is to Know the Dream of the King!
When you know the Dream of the King
· Brings Vision
· It Releases Hope/faith/peace
· It brings promotion
· You move into new realms of authority and blessing
· It cancels our death sentence
· And opens up doors to a new life we never imagined
· It brings new levels of access
Today we’re going to look at dream need
- Not for Daniel—but for Neb
- What was God saying—what does this have to do with us??
3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.b” [1]
Recap
Daniel HAD to find the 'DREAM of the King' to live
· Nebuchadnezzar had to find out the meaning of the DREAM of the King of kings
· There was a desperation in his heart
o The dream threatened his life
o His KINGDOM
o Shook to very CORE!!!!!
· A Hunger
There is something in heart of EVERY man
· That needs to find the dream
· Of the King of kings
Recap Night vision—Blocked executions—take me to King
26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” 27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:
· No One can do this
· But there is a God in heaven
· The ONE you are looking for isn’t found in WISMEN
· Gotta meet God
· Develop
29 “As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.
HUMILITY
· See Verse
· If the one you are following doesn’t have a limp—watch out!!
· So that you may know
· Develop
· Daniel operated in prophetic vision
· Word of Knowledge—prophesy—explain
· He understood something only GOD could tell him
· Explain—Examples—19 year Old—Hug—Susan Kubanda Testimony—It’s a Good RIVER!
· KEY: It could only Be GOD!!!!!!!!!
Get What’s Happening:
· No one in throne room but king really knows dream
· Can you imagine what king thinking?
· Got attention quickly!!!
31 “You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.
FORESHADOW: God spoke to the King in the language of kingdoms
· It was what he understood
- God speaks YOUR language
- He understands your context—Jesus parables
· But God was speaking to him about a greater kingdom than ANY
- Remember: Babylon BIG DEAL · He took his understanding to a whole NEW perspective
· From out of eternity
· Beyond the simple things he saw in the natural into the eternal
· Almost as if God himself was 'trumping' the pride of the earthly king
· 'You see kingdoms from your limiited vantage point
· I see from eternity-- outside of time itself
· My purposes are working something you don't even understand
37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38
Note: the POMP in the Kings
- Addresses Multiple kingdoms here—all have an arrogance * We’re the kings of the EARTH—greatest conquest to date in the ancient world
- Counterfeit of what God Almighty was getting ready to unleash on the planet as He sent Jesus
in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.
Behind what you're seeing with the natural kingdoms
· Is the greater KING OF ALL
· Who is building HIS Kingdom
45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
So what was the DREAM??
- Prophetic mountains
- Layers—natural
- Immediate
- Prophetic into the future
- But the prophetic nature can ALSO bring application Into our very lives
The Bible is prophetic in nature
- It can both be historical—apply to immediate history/context
- Pointing to future events
- Speak in parable/parallel into our lives
- Word is SPIRIT and life!
Statue
Head of gold
· Chaldean monarchy—Babylon
Breast and arms of silver—
· Medes and Persians
· Founded by Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Pesian
Belly and thighs brass
· Grecians
· Founded by Alexander
Legs and feet of Iron
· Roman monarchy
Rock hewn not by hands
· Jesus
17 Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean?
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’*
18 Everyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
· Fall on the rock—embrace brokenness—OR the rock falls on you!
·
Each of these kingdoms represented—what was known to the world
· As ‘ultimate kingdoms’
· Daniel referred to Neb as ‘king of kings’ v 37
· Each one saw self as dominate—pride
· Representative of man??
Natural—that’s one of the prophesies
· Lined up behind—speaks to us (disclaimer)
· Clay feet mixed with iron
Lord, how do you want to speak to us today?
· Lord drew attention to feet of clay/iron
· Begin to speak to me about MIXTURE
· Lots in word about DANGERS of Mixture
Problems with MIXTURE
· Scripture full of places God addresses Mixture
Where there’s mixture—
· Opens Doors to darkness
o Dangerous thing—kind of like sugar in gas tank—not so good
· Dangerous thing—reap what you sow
How Mixture Rips us off
· Picture of clay/iron—picture of mixture
o Creates catastrophic vulnerability
o Scripture has lots of examples of how mixture can be our undoing
Scriptural examples of Downside of mixture
· How Mixture RIPS US OFF
Brings Instability
· James 1:8
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. [2]
· Double-mindedness—Instability
Opens Doors To Darkness
· Luke 11:26
24 “When an evilb spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” [3]
· Where Does it come from—Mixture
· Set me free—but not Filling house with presence of Jesus
· I want to be FREE—just don’t ask me to live SURRENDERED
o Eric quote—Jesus not a part of life—needs to be ALL of our livess
Makes us a Slave to Money
· God has set up certain ways to handle finances/debt
· World system—credit card system—strongly warned against
· God’s design—finances to be your SERVANT
· When we don’t do it God’s way—it becomes our MASTER
· Right now—judgment/bad harvest in money SYSTEM
· Why? Haven’t followed Kingdom ways with finances
o Debt/Master
Good news
· Grace to meet us in bad harvest
· While we sow for NEW harvest
Robs Worship/Prayer/Intimacy with God
· Money Changers
· Matt 21:12
12 Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”[4]
o Pollute worship/prayer
o Prophesy—drive out whip
o Extortion??
o I really thingk part of what’s happening—God wants to cleanse us from wrong money stystems
o For church time to repent—deal with our stuff
o Who knows—advance . . .
o Embrace process—Isaac
God want to drive the ‘money changers’ out of our lives
· That crowd out true prayer
· Diluted Worship (‘phone in’)—no sacrifice—lazy
· Debt Masters
Destroys Relationships
· James 3:7
7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.*[5]
Mixture—blessing/cursing
Deceive us in our relationship with God
· False Sense of Closeness with God, when in reality—far from Him!!
· Frightening Consequence
· Warm Lips—Cold Heart
· Matt 7:6-7
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’*
Where there is NO Mixture—Strength/beauty
· How Purity Helps us
· Picture in Purity that is so good
· Water—Gold—Silver—VALUE
o When Water pure—want to drink it—refreshes—life-giving
o When Gold pure—weight/value to it
o When hearts full of pure love—releases/activates something in the heart of God—‘eyes of the Lord to and fro . . . .’
o When Iron pure—strength—POWER–Not WEAK!!
· Beauty in HEART—fully devoted
· Shine Like Stars of Universe
· Freedom
Church like Clay feet trying to mix with ‘iron’
· Want to fit with world system
· Have to come OUT OF world System
· That idea of living being nestled by church
· That world System being judged
· The only thing that can get us OUT
o The Rock Christ Jesus
o He came to set us FREE from deadly MIXTURE
So what do you do when you find out—I’ve been living in place of mixture?
We Can’t Purify Ourselves—but we can take a STEP
· We can step away
· As we step—HE steps towards us
· I Cor 6
17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”c18 “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”d
14–18 Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
“I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
·
· Work of Cross—Is 53
o Iniquity
o Sin
Something that happens when we step out
· Say we don’t’ want mixture in marriage, job, mind, finances, job
·
Jesus the ROCK
· Building block rejected—cornerstone verse
· Fall on Rock or rock falls on you
· This is THAT hour
Today—call to step away from mixture
· Step away from
· Receive grace
Where in your life has mixture creeped in
· Friendship with world . . .
· Develop
Nature of mixture deceptive
· Truth mixed with error
· Relativism
· If you can dismiss truth—reject Bible—God
· In fact, huge anti-Christian sentiment growing
· Targets this
Scripture
17 Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean?
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’*
18 Everyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
· We can’t do it
· But HE can
· Power of Cross
· As we come out—He will receive us and do for us what we cant’ do for ourselves
Communion?
Where is the ROCK hitting today?
· Shaking in nations
· Jesus returning—not a time to be wrongly aligned
· Judgment—bad harvest—in earth today
· Choice
o Will I come out of MIXTURE
o Come into Alignment?
· Come out from among and be separate (II Cor 6:14)
· No Compromise
o
From the head downward, the image was made of materials that were of decreasing value but of increasing strength, until the feet (2:31–35), where weakness and deterioration set in. [6]
Matt 21 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. [7]
II Cor 6:14
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”b
14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil*? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:
“I will live in them
and walk among them.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.*
17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers,
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch their filthy things,
and I will welcome you.*
18 And I will be your Father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.*”
[8]
The Word of the Master, God.
**
Where in your life is there mixture
· How do we get it OUT?
· God addressing areas of life where there’s mixture—develop
Power of repentance
· Come out from amongst them
Iniquity
· Define
Power of Cross
But shouldn’t all the mixture already be out of us
· Layers—salvation of soul
----
b Or was
[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Da 2:3). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
* Ps 118:22.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jas 1:7-8). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
b Greek unclean
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Lk 11:24-26). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[4]Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. "Text edition"--Spine. (2nd ed.) (Mt 21:12-13). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
* Greek from salt.
[5]Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. "Text edition"--Spine. (2nd ed.) (Jas 3:7-12). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
* Isa 29:13 (Greek version).
c Isaiah 52:11; Ezek. 20:34, 41
d 2 Samuel 7:14; 7:8
* Ps 118:22.
[6]Hughes, R. B., Laney, J. C., & Hughes, R. B. (2001). Tyndale concise Bible commentary. Rev. ed. of: New Bible companion. 1990.; Includes index. The Tyndale reference library (316). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
[7]The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.) (Mt 21:43-44). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
b Lev. 26:12; Jer. 32:38; Ezek. 37:27
* Greek Beliar; various other manuscripts render this proper name of the devil as Belian, Beliab, or Belial.
* Lev 26:12; Ezek 37:27.
* Isa 52:11; Ezek 20:34 (Greek version).
* 2 Sam 7:14.
[8]Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. "Text edition"--Spine. (2nd ed.) (2 Co 6:14-18). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.