There Is A God In Heaven
End of Days • Sermon • Submitted
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· 435 viewsThe God who is interested in the minute details of our lives and who seeks a familial relationship with us is the same God who establishes and overthrows kingdoms.
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1. A few years ago, Marvel released the Avengers: Infinity War movie.
a. In the movie, there is a bad guy by the name of Thanos.
i. Like a typical super-hero villain, Thanos wants to take over the universe – there’s more to it than that, but that’s good enough for now.
1. Now in the movie, there is a way to take over the universe – all you have to do is collect all of the infinity stones and you’ll have the power to control all that is and Thanos accomplishes that task..
b. With that power, Thanos destroys half of all of the people in the universe.
i. When he does that, do you remember what you saw?
1. People would be standing there and then they would start disintegrating, not in a Star Trek “Beam me up, Scotty” kind of way – they simply dissolved into dust.
a. Into a million billion little specks of dust that fell to the ground and blew away in the breeze.
i. I think I know where that “Disintegration Snap” idea came from.
2. Our scripture for today is Daniel 2:1-49 and it is way too much to read.
a. I hope maybe you read it ahead of time but if you didn’t, please read it sometime today.
i. In fact, everyone read it again.
1. This stuff is amazing – so let’s get rolling.
3. Daniel 2:1-6
In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.
And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”
Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.
But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.”
a. Nebuchadnezzar had a nightmare – in fact, it was more like a night terror.
i. It sounds pretty sanitary in English – he had a dream, his spirit was troubled – but the language Daniel uses is a bit more colorful.
1. Daniel says the king woke up in a cold sweat with his heart hammering in his chest.
a. I know it has happened to you at least once in your life.
i. You wake up with your heart pounding, breathing like you’ve run a race and you are terrified.
1. That’s what the king did and it spooked him.
a. It spooked him bad.
b. The king had a whole stable of ‘fortune tellers’ – the text calls them “Chaldeans.”
i. He had guys that represented every god and every modern way of thinking in the world as advisors, so he didn’t miss anything.
1. So he calls these guys in and says, tell me the dream and tell me what it means.
a. The one of you that can do that will get “gifts and rewards and great honor.”
i. But if you can’t, I will have every ‘Chaldean’ in the kingdom dismembered, their houses will be leveled and the spot where your house was will become your town’s dump.
1. The King James says their houses will be a ‘dung heap’ and it’s right – where their house was would become the place that everyone dumped every foul and offal thing – including all of their raw sewage.
a. Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t kidding.
i.“The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins,” the king said.
ii. He was serious about that dream.
c. The Chaldeans were a bit perplexed.
i. Dream interpretation was their gig.
1. They all believed, like we kind of do some now, that dreams mean something and in that time and place, they believed that dreams were the way that the gods communicated with people.
a. So over time they had cataloged the dreams and they had a very extensive library of dream interpretations.
i. We think of this as hocus-pocus - like reading tea leaves and chicken entrails, but they had volumes of dream interpretations.
1. So, when the king would tell them his dreams, they’d go to the books and tell him something good and all would be right with the world.
a. Only this time, the king didn’t want to play the game.
i. He wanted to know that what he was being told was the absolute unvarnished truth and he figured, if you can tell me the dream, then your interpretation will be spot on too.
b. He wouldn’t tell them the dream.
2. The Chaldeans protested and then they said something that is the key to this whole story.
a. They said, “[Daniel 2:11 ESV] 11 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh."
The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
i. King, what you are asking is impossible.
1. Since the gods gave the dream, they are the only ones who know the dream and they aren’t from around here.
a. The king said, “No problem, kill them all.”
4. The king’s executioners start rounding up all of the Chaldeans from all around the kingdom and that’s how Daniel enters the story.
a. Daniel and his 3 friend’s job title is “Chaldeans.”
i. The executioner is coming to get them too.
1. Daniel had not heard of the decree – so he asks the executioner what gives.
a. He explains and Daniel tells him to tell the king, “Give me a minute and I will give you the dream and the interpretation.”
i. Daniel gets with his three friends and they have an all-night prayer meeting and sometime during the night, the Lord reveals the dream and its meaning to Daniel.
b. Daniel is brought before the king and this is what happens: [Daniel 2:26-28 ESV] 26 The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?" 27 Daniel answered the king and said, "No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these:” and then he goes on to tell the king what he dreamed and what it meant.
The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these:
i. Now listen, Daniel was kind of bold.
1. The king asked, “Are you able to tell me my dream?” and Daniel answers “Nope.”
a. But then he says, “There is a God in heaven” who does these things and He has “made known to [the king] what will be in the latter days.”
i. Daniel tells the king the dream and the interpretation, he and his three friends are rewarded, and no Chaldeans are harmed in the making of this story.
1. This is an excellent story chock full of hours of things to look at – so in the time we have left – let’s look at a few of them that have a direct application on our lives today.
5. Look at Daniel 2:36-38. (READ)
“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory,
and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.
a. Point number one – God establishes rulers.
i. Verse 37, “You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory…” and he goes on to say that God has given Nebuchadnezzar rule over animals and fields and everything in his territory.
1. And we know this, we heard in it chapter one last week but it’s point number two that drives this a little deeper.
b. God establishes the rulers he wants to establish – and this is stated over and over again in the Bible so that we will keep hearing it and remember.
i. Jeremiah 27:4-5 says, “[Jeremiah 27:4b-5 ESV] 4b 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: 5 "It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me.”
1. God establishes the rulers that seems right to him.
c. Now, here is why this matters.
i. President Obama was elected in 2008 and served two terms.
1. I was not a fan.
a. President Trump was elected in 2016 and I know some of you are not a fan.
i. But whether you and I are fans of any president is inconsequential.
1. God is in control and he gave the presidency of the United States to “whomever it seems right to me,” God says.
ii. That ought to mean something to us.
1. If God appoints a person to be president, there has to be a reason – and you might be chomping at the bit to tell me the reason right now but let me say this about that – I’m not sure you or I will know in our lifetimes why God did what He did.
a. History is going to reveal why things are as they are – we can’t know right now because we are in the thick of it.
i. But because we are in the thick of it and we don’t understand it, that doesn’t mean we get to wig out and become crazy people.
2. Remember this, when you lose your mind over President Trump or President Obama or any other elected leader, remember Daniel’s words, “You, O king… to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom…”
a. You are wigging out on God.
i.Chill out team.
1. Slow down on the keyboard.
a. Listen, watch, pay attention.
i. God’s doing something – look for it..
6. In fact, in this environment we live in right now, Daniel is a pretty good role model.
a. How old do you think Daniel is when all of this is happening?
i. You would expect a wizened old gray headed slightly balding guy, right?
1. Had to be to as cool under pressure as Daniel was.
a. Yeah, Daniel was probably 18 – maybe early 20’s but no later.
i. Rewind to chapter 1 verse 4, the king commanded Ashpenaz to bring to Babylon “Youths without blemish, of good appearance…”
1. Youths – Daniel was a teenager and he had it together didn’t he?
a. He was in a foreign land.
i. He was probably ripped away from mom and dad.
ii. He was taken to a place where he didn’t speak the language and didn’t eat their food.
7. And yet, look at the boy – although we would say he had good reason, he didn’t have Nebuchadnezzar Derangement Syndrome and go off on everyone about everything? How did Daniel handle living in a year that certainly rivals 2020 in crazyy?
a. First, when he got pushback, he reasoned the problem out calmly.
i. Remember chapter 1 was about food and Daniel and his 3 friends didn’t want to defile or spoil themselves with the king’s food.
1. But when they requested home cooking, the guy in charge said no, “if I do what you say I’ll get myself killed.”
a. So, instead of organizing a boycott or blowing Ashpenaz or the king away on Twitter, Daniel reasoned calmly with Ashpenaz.
i. And the Lord used Daniel’s attitude to soften Ashpenaz and things worked out.
b. Second, when he was physically threatened – the king is going to have all of the Chaldeans torn limb from limb – He didn’t wig out.
i. [Daniel 2:14 ESV] 14 Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.
1. Daniel didn’t get all riled up and “righteously indignant.”
a. Daniel replied to the very man who would be his executioner with prudence and discretion.
i. Prudence means cautious; discretion means he watched his words.
1. Daniel used caution, he watched his words and he reasoned with his executioner.
a. And he could do that because he realized he was not in control but God was..
ii. Daniel’s reaction had to allow God room to work. He allowed God room to work.
1. This is hugely convicting to me and it should be to all of you type A’s.
a. How many times do we see a problem and we jump on it with both feet?
i. How many times have we done that to find out later that we really over-reacted, or we fixed the wrong problem or, we used a shotgun instead of a rifle and ended up making a big ole mess?
1. God is in control – we have to slow down and give God room to work.
iii. Or to put it a better way, Since God is in control, our job is to follow Him to the solution.
1. And God shows us how right here.
8. Daniel 2:17-19
Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions,
and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
a. How do we follow God in the hard places? 1.) Gather 2.) Explain 3.) Pray 4.) Expect God to answer.
Daniel gathered his trusted small group together.
i. He explained the problem.
1. They dedicated themselves to pray for as long as necessary.
a. And they expected God to answer.
i.They prayed for mercy for themselves and for all of those ungodly Chaldeans.
1. Mercy – Lord you know that if you do not reveal the king’s dream and it’s meaning, not only will we die, but all of the other Chaldeans will die as well.
a. We know that you know.
i.We know that you can reveal this.
ii. Please have mercy on us and show us the dream and when they did that, ‘’Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vison of the night…”
b. In fact, God was waiting on this.
i. God orchestrated it all to work out this way.
1. All of this crazy – God’s doing - all of this crazy for one reason.
a. Daniel 2:47 The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.
The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.”
i. The Lord was working to save King Nebuchadnezzar.
b. There is a lot of crazy going on around us – more crazy than I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s pushing us all to the limits of our sanity.
i. Hang on brothers and sisters.
1. Don’t lose sight of the prize – God knows what He is doing.
a. Everything that is happening is happening for a reason and we can take it to the bank, God is working his plan and all who endure to the end will see the reason why.
9. Now we are out of time and we didn’t get to the vision and it’s loaded fit to bear – so give me five more minutes to summarize this so you can see where the Thanos Disintegration Snap came from.
a. The king dreamed there was a gigantic image made of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay.
i. Have you ever heard the phrase, “They had feet of clay?” yeah, this is where that comes from.
1. In a nutshell, each portion of that giant statue represents a future king.
a. Nebuchadnezzar was the golden head.
i. The Medo-Persian empire was the silver chest and arms.
1. The Greek empire came next – it was the bronze abdomen and thighs.
a. Then came Rome – the iron legs and feet of iron and clay.
2. Each of the various materials didn’t relate to each kingdom’s strength – in other words, because Babylon was gold and Rome was iron didn’t make Babylon stronger.
a. What it did represent was morality.
i. As immoral as Babylon was, each future kingdom would get increasing more immoral.
1. All of this happened – you can look it up in secular textbooks – this is history.
b. But now here’s where Thanos comes in.
i. The terrifying part of the dream was not only the fact there was this gigantic statue towering over Nebuchadnezzar that came out of nowhere.
1. The most terrifying part was how the statue was destroyed.
a. Daniel 2:34-35 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
i. Did you hear the Disintegration Snap?
1. “all together were broken in pieces, and became like chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried the away…”
a. That is exactly the image in the Avengers movie.
i. And that’s the image that scared Nebuchadnezzar so badly that he woke up in a cold sweat, with his heart pounding, willing to kill hundreds of men to find out what it means.
2. A stone was carved from the ground by some unseen force.
a. That force threw the stone at the statue and it landed on its feet, and starting with its feet, it shattered it into a million, billion pieces that were then blown away into infinity never to be seen again.
i. But the stone kept growing.
ii. Until it was larger than the statue.
iii. Until it was larger than anything – it became a great mountain and “filled the whole earth.”
10. What’s with the stone? Remember, I’ve taught you that the Bible is one big story.
a. [Isaiah 2:2-3a ESV] 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,
and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
i. [Matthew 21:42-44 ESV] 42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
1. Jesus was the rock that Nebuchadnezzar saw – and the king was terrified.
a. At the name of Jesus – every knee shall bow.
i. Even great kings.
1. Let us pray.