Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow | part 5 (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.

It wasn't the type of people they were going to be. I'll give you a little history.

What we're reading about in Daniel chapter 8, this was written about 540

BC. 540 BC. And at the time, the

Babylonians, modern day Iraq, ruled the Middle East. Ruled the

Middle East. And for some of you doubters in here, please pull out Wikipedia while I read scripture and see if I'm lying.

Babylon ruled the Middle East. Little baby Israel, they were weak at this point.

They had been taken over by Babylon. Jews had been shipped off. And Daniel was one of those dudes in captivity.

Now, in captivity, it wasn't like he was at 201. Okay, you hear what I'm saying? He didn't get the

Kool -Aid and cheese sandwich. He got good food, man, because Daniel was really important.

So he's writing this stuff down as God told him to tell him. Well, he writes this prophecy that we're about to read.

And in 539, just a year later, just a year later, the Iranians who were allied,

Persians who were allied with the Medes, decided that they had had enough of Babylon. And they came in and kicked butt and took names.

Once again, historical truths. About 200 years later, 200 years after Daniel wrote this, let me say that again.

200 years after Daniel wrote this right here, and I know

I always have someone say, well, how do you know that? Because we have Greek, we have all these different languages of the

Old Testament that all say the same thing, that were predated of Alexander the

Great. They were predated from the time that this happened. We know Daniel. We have historians like Josephus and Boserus who all recount the ideas of Daniel after Daniel wrote it.

So we know, we know that Daniel pre -wrote this. And as this happened about 200 years later,

Greece at this time, Greece is a bunch of different city -states. It'd be kind of like Shelby County being its own country.

And Millington had its own mayor and its own government and everybody, but nobody was under one central idea.

Are you all with me? It's not that hard. Follow with me. And all of a sudden, they become this powerhouse and this dude named

Alexander the Great rides up out of the northern part of Greece and he takes over everybody.

In just a few short years, he takes over all of the known world in 13 years.

He ends up dying to death in 323 BC. He croaks and dies.

And he doesn't have no sons because Alexander was a little light in the loafers. You know what

I'm saying? Are you all with me? Okay. He would be celebrating this month. All right.

You all with me? All right. His four generals decide, hey, we're going to split up the whole kingdom in four.

That's all the history I'm going to give you. All right. So let's go. That was in 323. Let's go back to 540

BC. Read with me Daniel chapter 8. Daniel chapter 8 verses 3 through...

Oh, I'm sorry. I put 4. 3 through 8. Let's read together. I raised my eyes,

Daniel writes, and saw and behold a ram sitting on the bank of the canal.

It had two horns. Both horns were high, but one was higher than the other.

And the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward, and no beast could stand before him.

And there was no one who could rescue him from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.

As I was considering this, behold, a male goat came up from the west, across the face of the old earth, without even touching the ground.

And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram, and with the two horns which

I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, he ran at him in powerful wrath.

Verse 7. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him, and struck the ram and broke the two horns.

And the ram had no power to stand before him. And he cast him to the ground and trampled on him.

And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great.

But when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it, there came up four conspicuous horns towards the four winds of heaven.

Boom! Right there, baby! Right there! So, now, we're going to have a hymn of imitation.

Right there. That proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is real, right?

What you've got to understand, I've read preachers that say all this, well, you see, if you have to understand, the main animal of Greece was the goat.

I ain't never read that for real. I think that's just someone made up. But you ain't got to do all that.

You don't have to go crazy. Why? Make that thing go forward. This thing ain't working. Go up 13 verses.

A whole 13. Mississippi folks, that's 1, 2, 3. 13 verses.

Ready? Here we go. An angel comes to Daniel because Daniel's tripping out, going, you know, he thought he had dropped some bad peyote or something.

And all of a sudden, an angel of God shows up and says, hey, chill out. I'm going to explain this to you.

It says in verse 20, as for the ram you saw with its two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.

One greater than the other. Persia was bigger than Media. And the goat is the king of Greece.

And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. 200 years before anyone even knew anything about Alexander the

Great, man, Greece was like nut bush, okay? It wasn't nutting to it.

It was like Frasier on a good day, right? There wasn't no power there.

And it says the first king, the first guy to unify Greece as a whole country was, take a guess,

Alexander the Great. For you keyboard warriors in here, wikipedia .com.

Go look it up right now. We know without a shadow of a doubt who

Daniel was referring to or the vision from God was referring to in verses 3 and 4 because it says it right there.

Now here's what you need to wrap your little head around. There is a God, you're not Him, and He knows a lot more than you.

And He controls the governments of the world like puppets on a string. Please don't sing the song.

Like puppets on a string, okay? He is in total, absolute control.

Let's go forward one. Verse 22. As for the horn that was broken and place of which the four others rose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation but not with his power.

Go look up on your phone right now. The four kingdoms after Alexander the

Great. Go look it up right now. Well, someone prove it to me.

Get out your phone. Stop trying to show off to your mom and your girlfriend about how smart you are.

Okay? I'm sorry you didn't make the football team. But here's some reality for you.

Okay? History is subject to the Word of God, not the other way around. Because it was written hundreds and yes, thousands of years before history happened.

The kingdoms of man and the plans of man are but fiber and clay in the hands of Almighty God.

Now, you sit there and go, well, that could be coincidence. Well, Skippy, that's a pretty strong coincidence.

Four kingdoms. One, two, three, four. 217 years after Daniel said it was going to happen.

Hmm. Let me just kind of close up here. I know some of y 'all are going, that was quick.

I could do this with you all day. Literally. We could go back to my office. Well, how do you know the

Bible was written? Because I've got 32 ,000 copies of the Bible in 200 different languages written way before there was a

Catholic church. All day. I've got Scripture that says a lamb is coming and he will be slain, but he will rise again and shazam, it's coming.

But here's the reason I'm so interested in telling you this today. It's because it also says that lamb's not coming back as a lamb anymore, he's coming back as a lion.

And when he comes back, he ain't going to have no bubble gum, he's just going to be kicking butt. And there ain't going to be no little church service where your nostalgic

VBS confession of faith, or when the piano's playing saying, just as I am, you can keep living your life the way you want to live it, because if you claim to be a

Christian, it's going to cost you something more than an hour on Sunday morning. It's going to cost you your life.

But here's the cool thing. If you're really a Christian, it should cost you your life right now. There are some of you who are sitting in this room that said,

I believe in God. Demons believe in God. What's your proof?

Oh, I prayed and asked Jesus Christ into my heart. That does not exist in Scripture.

Oh, well, I really believe. Okay, do your works prove your belief or your belief trying to prove out your fear factor of being left behind?

You see, guys, we have been, some of y 'all have been absolutely brainwashed by religion.

And I'm sorry for that. I really am. And I mean that as a pastor with all of my heart.

Some of you convinced that if you are a moral person and you show up at a building and listen to some good looking ball headed preacher preach to you and you say amen for a second, and you have a little feeling that you're searching for that somehow you're going to heaven.

It's not true. And I know there are churches out there that want to grow and get bigger.

And so they just say, hey, it's okay. Live your life the way you do you. Now, man, if you're a

Christian, you're going to be with Jesus and do what he wants you to do. You see, the Bible says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

You can't sit there and say you love Christ. If you can't love your brother in Christ. If you sit there and you got problems with someone because they got tattoos or they're black or Mexican eases or white or liberal

Democrats. Even them. Sorry, it took me a second.

You got to love them. You got to love them. Well, Pastor, I love everybody.

Horse crap. No, you don't. No, you don't. But the love of Christ inside of me empowers me to submit to it.

And I can. Where you at today? Seriously, forget sermon, forget church, forget all this other garbage.

Where are you at today? Because as sure as I'm standing here right now in time, space and matter, you will stand before a holy and righteous

God one day. Not in some ethereal dream, but in a reality that is more real than what you think you're experiencing now with your five senses.

And you will stand before a holy and righteous God. And if the only thing you got to offer him was why

I gave money to a church. Or I was a member at First Baptist.

Or I didn't cuss, smoke or drink. Or I voted for Donald Trump. Or I didn't like child molesters.

Or whatever you think makes you morally superior to somebody else, you're screwed.

OK? Let that sink in. And here's why I'm so strong about saying this. Because I'm going to stand before God one day.

Now I'm not going to be judged according to my sins because Jesus Christ picked up that tab for me.

You know what I'm going to be judged by? What did I do with the grace God gave me? And I'm also going to be judged as a pastor.

You know pastors get double before God. Double before God. I'm not going to stand before him and go,

I was looking for friends and to be cool more than I'm worried about the holiness of God. Sorry, I don't love you people that much.

I am not going to stand before God and he goes, where were you on that one Shipley? I'm not going to do it.

Some of you folks have been sitting in church your whole life. I just saw someone and it just sparked this in.

You think your ministry is giving a tithe offering and sitting here and singing songs.

You're going to have to answer before God. Ministry is sacrifice. Sacrificing.

The most valuable thing we got, time. Who are you investing your life in?

Every Sunday we have an invitation. And I see Christians sitting there doing this.

Just as I am. You're supposed to be fishing.

And they're in the barrel. Right in front of you. Right here. You ain't even got to go to the lake.

You ain't have to go out there and talk to someone about Jesus at your work. You don't have to go to the family reunion and feel all awkward.

They're right here. Why are you standing there singing about Jesus instead of walking around preaching

Jesus? You're so busy thinking about going to church you forgot to be the church.

Right here. Right now. Well pastor I'm shy. No, you're arrogant. You're more concerned about your embarrassment than the call of God on your life.

Well pastor I'm not that smart. Right. Not all of us were born in Arkansas though. But even those that were,

God can still use. If he used white trash from Nashville, I promise you he can use anybody up in this room.

Where you at? Where you at? Can you say after hearing Daniel 8, hallelujah, praise

God. Can you say I still don't understand. Or are you sitting there going horse hockey.

This is all a bunch of garbage. The choice is yours. Now if your first answer is praise

God, hallelujah, go share that excitement with someone else. If your second thing is I really don't know, that's why

God invented fat bald pastors. Okay. Pastor Josiah would be more than happy to sit there and talk.

He's got, he's standing right there. Look right there. He got the dad bod rocking man. Hey. We got pastors and MIT graduates that can sit right here and answer every single question you've got.

We don't ever say I don't know. Ever. We'll answer you. Right here. Right now.

Well I'm going to prove to you, bring your lunch and come on. Okay. If your third answer is horse hockey,

I don't believe any of this. I'm going to still ask you to come on. I'm going to still ask you to come on.

Don't be the guy in the bar who's standing up going I'm going to kick your butt walking out the back door. If you tough enough to say all of this is bull, why don't you come talk to someone other than your grandma?

You know what I'm saying? Let's go. Let's go. Let's find out. And you might think

I'm trying to punk you. I'm not. I'm actually trying to help you understand that someone's trying to save your soul and his name is

Jesus. I'm going to ask the music people to come up and do their thing. If you're a Christian here, go to work.

If you're a skeptic in here, I want to talk to you. I desperately want to talk to you.

If you're someone in here that's just confused and you don't understand, I want to help you. But whatever it is, if God has spoken to you today,

I'm going to ask you to stand with me. And if God has asked you to do something, if you have felt the conviction of the