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Sunnyside Baptist Church "Beast Fragility" Daniel 7:1-28
To Sunnyside this morning. We're glad that you're here to worship with us today. A few announcements as we get started this morning. Hope you had a good Sunday school. Come back this evening. We've got our churchwide Thanksgiving fellowship that we will have together.
Just as a point of information, we're going to start out the evening in here in the auditorium and get some instructions as far as what we need to do. So be sure and when you get here, don't go straight to the fellowship hall after you drop your food off, of course.
Come back in here and then we'll get instructions and then we'll break and go do what we need to do. Coming up Wednesday, we'll have dinner at 545 and then tag and prayer meeting for the kids at 630. Looking ahead to next Sunday, in the evening, Christmas choir for the adults starts.
So if you are interested in joining the Christmas choir, that's going to start at 530 p .m. and then Wednesday the 24th, there will be no services, Wednesday night services. It's the week of Thanksgiving, so there may be people traveling.
Be in prayer for one another during that week, but enjoy your family and friends then as well. This week's Fyder verse comes from John chapter 14 verses two and three. In my father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.
Good news. If you hadn't heard about the successful shoebox packing party that happened last week, they got over 132, I think, shoeboxes packed. So we are very thankful for that. Today is the last day.
If you can contribute towards helping to ship those boxes, I think it's $9 a box. If you want to give a check to Jill Smoot made out to Samaritan's Purse, that will help cover the cost of shipping those boxes.
So they have plenty of those to ship out. Also, a blessing, a praise, it's in your bulletin, but we were able to raise over $15 ,000 for the Palica language, the Bible translation there for Vernon Denny Johnson.
So we are very thankful for that as well. And then lastly, starting up in January, a lot of work has been going on already behind the scenes, but we're going to be having a podcast featuring Michael and several others in the church regarding kind of Bible answers.
It's going to be called, Have You Not Read? And they are starting to gather some questions. So if you have some questions of what you would like to have covered or topics that you would like for them to talk about, you can go to the church website and there's a section on there and there's also a URL in the bulletin where you can submit those questions electronically.
So they're trying to gather those ahead of time to make sure that the content is ready to be put out there as well. All right. Any other announcements before we start this morning? Okay. We're going to have a time of prayer and preparation for worship.
And then after we're done with that, dad will come up and open us in prayer.
Lord God Almighty, you're the one who was and is and is to come. The eternal creator of all things. There is no God like you. Lord, as we come this morning, we confess that in our sinfulness, we worship so many other things.
We worship our stuff. We worship our sports. We worship ourselves. Lord, would you cleanse our hearts this morning and forgive us and give us the grace that we need to worship you and you alone. For you and you alone are worthy.
Lord, may we proclaim with those in heaven. May we say worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And may we with every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
May we say to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. May we fall down and give you worship for you are worthy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Would you stand with me for our call to worship this morning?
Our passage this morning is in Psalms chapter 72. We'll be reading verses one through four. Read with me together. Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people. Give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.
Our first song this morning, first two songs are in our Psalms for worship hymnals. We'll be singing pages 72a and page 100d. God give your judgments to the king and make a joyful noise.
This morning is from the book of Isaiah chapter 7. We'll be giving our attention to the first 17.
Verses. Isaiah 7 beginning in verse 1. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezan, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.
And it was told to the house of David, saying, serious forces are deployed in Ephraim. So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear Jeshub, your son.
At the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the fuller's field, and say to him, take heed and be quiet. Do not fear or be faint hearted for these two stubs of smoking fire brands.
For the fierce anger of Rezan and Syria and the son of Remaliah, because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, let us go up against Judah and trouble it and let us make a gap in his wall for ourselves and set a king over them, the son of Tebel.
Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezan. Within 65 years, Ephraim will be broken so that it will not be a people.
The head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. Moreover, the Lord spoke again to Ahaz saying, ask a sign for yourself from the Lord, your God, ask it either in the depth or in the height above.
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Then he said, hear now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Curds and honey he shall eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.
The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father's house. Days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah. Would you pray with me? Lord God, I pray that you would fill our hearts with thanksgiving and praise as we reflect upon your many blessings to us.
We thank you for your word to Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah. How even in the midst of the great sinfulness and apostasy of Israel and Judah, you so graciously spoke concerning your son, Emmanuel, God with us.
A rebuke to wicked king Ahaz in his unbelief, for the sign was not for his eyes, but for the eyes of those who would come centuries later, that they might see and believe and be saved. And we likewise from this side of the incarnation have seen this prophecy fulfilled through the eyes of faith, bearing witness that your word is true and your promises are sure.
Lord, please bless our time together today and magnify your son, Jesus Christ, in our hearts.
As for his sake we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Before we sing our next two songs,.
I'd like to read a couple of verses from 1 and 2 Samuel. This is 1 Samuel 2 .2. There is no one wholly like the Lord. Indeed, there was no one besides thee, nor is there any rock like our God. And then also 2 Samuel 7 .22.
For this reason, thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee, and there is no God besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. Our next song is Behold Our God.
Thank you so much for this opportunity to gather together in the name of Christ.
And to praise his name, to gather together and to worship and to give thanksgiving to you, Heavenly Father, who knows all of our needs, to worship together in presence by the power and the unity of the Holy Spirit.
God, we give you the praise today. Confess that we are in great need of your life and your blessings, your grace, your truth. We are made in your image. We are saved for your glory. We ask that you would help us to live in the fear of you and for your praise.
Thank you so much for those who have gathered here today. Put upon our hearts those who are not able to be here, and we ask that you would comfort them and encourage them. Help us to minister to their needs.
Help us to love one another. And above all, Lord, we ask that you would give us a clear view of your Son, Jesus Christ, from this text, that we might be, by looking at him, transformed from glory to glory for the sake of your name.
We pray these things. Amen. Daniel chapter 7. I advise you to turn there with me. Daniel chapter 7. We'll be reading verses 1 through 12 in a moment. Chapter 7 of Daniel, and we're going to be reading verses 1 through 12.
Daniel is a book of riddles, real-life riddles in the matters of statecraft where death and life were on the line. We've seen that in the last six chapters of Daniel. We saw how Daniel responded in the fear of the Lord to the problems of paganism, to the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, to the threats of statism.
Daniel's friends faced off with Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace. In chapter 4, we looked at God's resistance to the proud. In chapter 5, we are reminded that we are in desperate need of God to reveal his truth to us.
And in chapter 6, we beheld a discerning son, a lawmaker at the right hand, faithful and wise, submitting to the law giver. And so we have traced the critical moments of Daniel and his friends as they sought to solve the riddles of the state, the riddles of political history, the difficulties of living as believers in a pagan context.
And these are indeed riddles which can only be solved by wisdom, the wisdom of God, which of course begins with the fear of the Lord. And so now in the second section of Daniel, beginning in chapter 7, we begin to hear God's special revelations, visions that he gives to Daniel that manifest the glories of Christ.
These too are riddles, but they also are resolved by fearing the Lord. They are best put to use in the fear of the Lord, and they are solved by the manifestation of the glories of Christ. So if you'll stand with me, if you're able to, I want to read verses 1 through 12 of Daniel 7.
These are the words of our Lord. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts. Daniel spoke saying, I saw in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it.
And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear, was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth and between its teeth. And they said thus to it, arise, devour much flesh. After this, I looked and there was another like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird.
The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it. After this, I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.
It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns. I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.
And there in this horn, there were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous things. I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him, 10 ,000 times, 10 ,000 to before him. The court was seated and the books were opened.
I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words, which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given over, given to the burning flame. And as for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away.
Yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. In the brief history of our world, kings and kingdoms, world leaders and empires have been splashed across time like so many fireworks against a deep black impenetrable sky.
They make their pop and fizzle. Their colors burn and fade. Yet what remains after each display of power and shine? The sky. The fireworks do not destroy the sky. Although to the eyes of a little child, it may seem that that is indeed in danger.
The kingdom of God may be hard to see from time to time behind the flash of men's power, but it remains utterly unscarred, deep and rich and abiding. And all of the authority of God's kingdom has been given to Christ.
And that comfort, that hope makes all the difference for the saints. Often we fear beasts like little ones get scared of firecrackers, but there's no need. There's no need to fear beasts because beasts are fragile.
You maybe have never heard of beast fragility, but we're going to talk about beast fragility in Daniel chapter seven, because that's on display throughout the entirety of the chapter. We do not need to fear fragile beasts.
There's only one unstoppable king of kingdoms on display in Daniel chapter seven and verses one through 12. In this first recorded vision of Daniel, we see the succession of kings and kingdoms, much like the genealogies that we read in Genesis five and Genesis 10.
You know how it goes. So-and-so lived and he had this many kids, and then he died. And then this one lived and had this many kids, and then he died. And then this one lived and had this many kids, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died.
Men come and men go, so also do their kingdoms. They're fragile. Solomon observed this in Ecclesiastes two, verses 18 through 20, as he considered the glories of his own kingdom that he had labored hard to make better and better.
He said this to me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool. Spoiler alert, Solomon's son Rehoboam was a fool. Back to the text. Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun.
This also is vanity. Hebrew word hevel. It's empty. It's a breath. Therefore, I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. Why? Because if you find your significance and your meaning in the kingdom or the empire or even just the household or the business that you make, you will be sorely disappointed.
Because men come and men go and kingdoms come and kingdoms go. It's because we're prideful and we're.
