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This is a reading from Daniel chapter
five.

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King Belshazzar made a great feast

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for a thousand of his lords
and drank wine in front of the thousand.

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Belshazzar,
when he tasted the wine, commanded

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that the vessels of gold
and of silver, that Nebuchadnezzar

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his father, had taken out of the temple
in Jerusalem, to be brought,

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that the king and his lords, his wives,
and his concubine to my drink from them.

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Then they brought in the golden vessels
that had been taken

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out of the temple,
the house of God in Jerusalem,

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and the king and his lords, his wives
and his concubines drank from them.

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They drank wine and praise the God of gold

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and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

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Immediately
the fingers of a human hand appeared

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and rode on the plaster
of the wall of the king's palace

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opposite the lampstand,
and the king saw the hand as it rode.

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Then the king's color changed,
and his thoughts alarmed him.

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His limbs gave way, and his knees
knocked together.

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The king called loudly
to bring in the enchanters.

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The Chaldeans, and the astrologers.

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The king
declared to the wise men of Babylon,

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whoever reads this writing and shows me
its interpretation,

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shall be clothed with purple,
and have a chain of gold

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around his neck, and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom.

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Then all the king's wise men came in,
but they could not read the writing,

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or make known to the king
the interpretation.

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Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed,

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and his color changed,
and his lords were perplexed.

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The queen,
because of the words of the king

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and his lord, came into the banqueting
hall, and the queen declared.

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O King, live forever.

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Let not your thoughts
alarm you or your color change.

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There is a man in your kingdom
in whom the spirit of the Holy God,

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in the days of your father, light
and understanding

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and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods,
were found in him.

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And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father,
your father, the king made him chief

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of the magicians, enchanters,
Chaldeans, and astrologers,

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because an excellent spirit, knowledge
and understanding

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to interpret dreams, explain
riddles, and solve problems

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were found in this Daniel,
whom the king named Belshazzar.

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Now let Daniel be called,

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and he will show the interpretation
that Daniel's brought in before the king.

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The king answered and said to Daniel,
you are that Daniel,

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one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king
my father brought from Judah.

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I have heard of you,
that the spirit of the gods is in you,

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and that light and understanding
and excellent wisdom are found in you.

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Now the wise men, the enchanters,
have been brought in before me

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to read this writing
and make known to me its interpretation.

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But they could not show
the interpretation of the matter.

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But I have heard that you can give
interpretations and solve problems.

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Now, if you can read the writing
and make known to me its interpretation,

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you shall be clothed with purple
and have a chain of gold

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around your neck, and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom.

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Then Daniel answered and said
before the king,

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let your gift be for yourself,
and give your rewards to another.

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Nevertheless,
I will read the writing to the king

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and make known to him the interpretation.

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O King,
the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar

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your father kingship and greatness
and glory and majesty,

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and because of the greatness
that he gave him, all peoples,

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nations, and languages
trembled and feared before him

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whom he would
he killed and whom he would he kept alive.

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And he would he raised up,
and whom he would he humbled.

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But when his heart was lifted up

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and his spirit was hardened,
so that he dealt proudly,

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he was brought down from his kingly
throne, and his glory was taken from him.

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He was driven
from among the children of mankind,

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and his mind
was made like that of a beast.

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And his dwelling
was with the wild donkeys.

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He was fed grass like an ox,
and his body was wet

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with the dew of heaven, until he knew that
the Most High God rules.

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The kingdom of mankind sets over it.

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He, he will in you, his son Belshazzar,
have not humbled your heart,

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though you knew all this,

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but you have lifted up yourself
against the Lord of heaven,

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and the vessels of his house
have been brought in before you,

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and you and your lords, your wives and
your concubines have drunk wine from them.

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And you have praised the gods of silver
and gold, of bronze,

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iron, wood, and stone,
which do not see or hear, or known,

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but the God in whose hand is your breath,
and who are all your ways.

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You have not honored.

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Then from his presence the hand was sent,
and this writing was inscribed.

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And this is the writing that was
inscribed, many, many tackle and parson.

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This is the interpretation of the matter.

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Many God is numbered the days of your
kingdom and brought it to an end tackle.

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You have been weighed in the balances
and found wanting.

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Paris.

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Your kingdom is divided
and given to the meat and Persians.

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Then Belshazzar gave the command,
and Daniel was clothed with purple.

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A chain of gold was put around his neck,
and a proclamation

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was made about him that he should be
the third ruler in the kingdom.

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That very night Belshazzar,
the Chaldean king, was killed, and Darius

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the Mede received the kingdom,
being about 62 years old.

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Everybody,

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good morning and welcome to Christ
Community Chapel.

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I'm really, really glad that you're here.

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Thanks for coming.

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Happy Mother's Day.

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To those of you who are moms,
this is a day where we recognize

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the quiet heroes that are in our lives.

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There is no love
quite like a mother's love.

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So if you're a mother, grandmother,
a step mom, a single mom, an adoptive mom,

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or you're just a woman
who, is a mom to somebody who needs a mom.

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Thank you. We honor you today.

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We also know that today can be a hard day
for any number of reasons.

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So if this is a hard day for you,
I want you to know that we see you.

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We love you.

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We're really glad that you're here.

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You're in the right place

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because our church,
we want our church to be like a family.

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And you belong here. All right.

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So happy Mother's Day.

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All right.

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This is the third week of our
four part series on Daniel.

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We we're calling it courage in the fire.

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We're looking at stories about Daniel
and his three

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friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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They were exiles in a foreign country
called Babylon.

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And when you're in exile,
in a foreign country, at first

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you are very, very different
than the prevailing culture.

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But culture is like a river
that flows in one direction.

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And it's the easiest thing to do
is to just let

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that river take you
and just float down the river.

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It takes tremendous resolve,

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tremendous courage
to stand against the current.

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One of the reasons we chose
this series is because

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of its similarities to our culture,

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that if our culture is like a river
that flows one direction,

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is flowing away from God,
it takes great resolve, great courage,

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to live for Jesus right here, right now.

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You know, there are a lot of reasons
why I love the Bible.

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One of the reasons is so brutally honest
about the people I in the Bible is

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it shows them, warts
and all, all their flaws.

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Which makes sense because the main theme
of the Bible is that we need a Savior,

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and it's comforting,
to know that the people in the Bible

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needed a Savior
as much as I do as much as you do.

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The downside is that there aren't
a lot of people to look up to or examples

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for other than Jesus,
who's like, way up here.

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But Daniel's
one of the few people in the Bible

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with no gaping flaws.

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He he wasn't a clergyman.

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He wasn't a minister.

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He was a a businessman
and an administrator

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who was so good at what he did,

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so full of integrity that he served

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four different administrations,
four different kings.

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And, chapter one, it's King Nebuchadnezzar
here in chapter five.

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It's a king called Belshazzar.

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We had the whole of chapter
five read to us.

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It's it's where the iconic phrase
handwriting on the wall originated.

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I have three points
that I want to pull out of chapter five.

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I want to talk about the party.

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I want to talk about the writing,
and I want to talk about the moment

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the party is what Belshazzar does.

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The writing is what God does,
and the moment is what Daniel does.

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All right, first the party.

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Chapter five starts out like this.

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King Belshazzar
made a great feast for a thousand of his

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lords
and drank wine in front of the thousand.

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Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine,
commanded the vessels of gold

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and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar

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his father, had taken out of the temple
in Jerusalem, to be brought at the king

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and his lords, his wives
and his concubines might drink from them.

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Then they brought in the golden vessels

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that had been taken out of the temple,
the house of God in Jerusalem,

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and the king and his lords, his wives
and his concubines drank from them.

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They drank wine

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and praise the gods of gold
and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

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It's pretty wild party.

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So, you know,

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it starts out with a feast for a thousand.

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Like, I don't know when the last time
you had a party

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for a thousand of your closest friends.

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That's what Belshazzar is doing.

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Then he breaks out
the wine with the wine, is flowing freely,

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breaks out the women
as his wives and concubines

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come, which is very unusual
for that day and age.

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And then it's like Belshazzar
says, what the heck?

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Let's throw in a little blasphemy.

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Go get all the holy stuff
that you can find and we'll use it

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instead of our party cups
for this shindig.

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All right, it is a wild party.

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One of the things that you should know
is that historians tell us that,

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a week to ten days before that,

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a king named King Cyrus of Persia

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had come down with his army
and met the Babylonian army

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and decimated the Babylonian army
about 50 miles away from the capital.

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So Babylon was essentially defenseless
at this point.

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So Belshazzar knows that death is coming,

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is coming like a tidal wave.

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And that's the context of this party.

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A couple things.

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One is that the reward
and judgment of God,

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sometimes is slow in coming,

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but it comes

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what I mean by that
is that sometimes it seems like God's

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not paying attention
to obedience or disobedience.

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I mean, you can do all the right things
and be obey

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obeying God, and nothing seems like
it's working out in your life.

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You know, Daniel, here

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is somebody who has lived a life
by all indication

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of consistent, faithful obedience.

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Well, one author called a long obedience
in the same direction.

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And here in

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chapter five, he's been discarded.

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He's been just cast away.

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He's been marginalized
even though he has been obedient.

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Belshazzar is a king
who's living more like a frat boy,

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and he has wealth and power and prestige.

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But judgment is coming.

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It's slow,

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but it comes.

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And that means if if you are obeying God,
you're doing all the right things.

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And things don't seem like
you're not being rewarded for it.

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Be patient. God sees.

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It also means
if you're doing the wrong thing

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and you know it and you think you're
getting away with it, you're not.

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God sees.

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That's the first thing.

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The second thing is there's a
this party is almost frenetic.

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I mean, it is
it is a panicky kind of party.

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And in that way, it's a microcosm ism
of our world and our culture right now.

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My dad was an English major, in college,
and he loved Shakespeare.

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And he would tell me about the plays
when I was growing up.

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And he
he would quote Shakespeare sometimes.

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And one of the quotes I still remember
is a passage from Macbeth,

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and it

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says that life's but a walking shadow,

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a poor player who stress and frets

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his hour upon the stage and has heard
no more.

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It's the tale told by an idiot,

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full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.

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One of the reasons that Shakespeare
was such a genius was his ability

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to kind of lay open the human heart
and show us what is inside of us.

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And that passage kind of shows

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00:13:15,444 --> 00:13:19,081
us the deep fear every human being

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00:13:19,081 --> 00:13:22,501
has of being insignificant of our lives,

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00:13:22,501 --> 00:13:25,588
just not mattering at all.

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00:13:27,089 --> 00:13:30,025
Here in the book of Daniel,
with Belshazzar

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00:13:30,025 --> 00:13:34,129
knowing that death is coming,
it's like he's casting around just to try,

240
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,433
try to find something that shows himself

241
00:13:38,417 --> 00:13:41,153
that he has significance.

242
00:13:41,153 --> 00:13:43,339
He starts with this big feast

243
00:13:43,339 --> 00:13:46,675
to show his power and his wealth
and the women and pleasure,

244
00:13:46,675 --> 00:13:51,480
and then finally raising
his fist in defiance of God.

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00:13:52,681 --> 00:13:53,399
I told you, there are a

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00:13:53,399 --> 00:13:56,402
lot of reasons why I love the Bible.

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00:13:57,152 --> 00:14:00,956
One of the other reasons
is that the Bible, like Shakespeare,

248
00:14:01,740 --> 00:14:05,427
is able to open the human heart
and show us what we feel.

249
00:14:05,427 --> 00:14:09,331
But more than Shakespeare,
what the Bible does, it shows us why

250
00:14:09,331 --> 00:14:13,102
we feel, what we feel
and what to do about it.

251
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:19,308
When God creates human beings,
when he creates Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve

252
00:14:19,308 --> 00:14:22,311
are in perfect relationship with him

253
00:14:22,378 --> 00:14:25,464
and they know exactly who they are.

254
00:14:25,998 --> 00:14:29,602
They have identity,
they have purpose, they have significance.

255
00:14:30,452 --> 00:14:32,972
And then when sin enters the world,

256
00:14:32,972 --> 00:14:35,875
that breaks the relationship with God

257
00:14:35,875 --> 00:14:39,962
and every human being, everyone you know

258
00:14:40,796 --> 00:14:44,133
is on this desperate search for identity

259
00:14:44,783 --> 00:14:47,369
and significance.

260
00:14:47,369 --> 00:14:49,405
And all you have to do is look around
and see.

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00:14:49,405 --> 00:14:51,991
It's it's almost it's a frenetic search.

262
00:14:51,991 --> 00:14:54,476
People are panic. Yeah. I googled,

263
00:14:55,978 --> 00:14:58,981
the question how many genders are there?

264
00:14:59,298 --> 00:15:02,668
And a site called Team Talk, gave me this.

265
00:15:02,668 --> 00:15:06,956
There are many different genders,
including male, female, transgender,

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00:15:06,956 --> 00:15:12,294
gender neutral, non-binary, gender pin,
gender, gender queer, two spirit,

267
00:15:12,528 --> 00:15:17,866
third gender, and all or none
or a combination of these.

268
00:15:19,368 --> 00:15:22,371
Those are ten different variables.

269
00:15:22,438 --> 00:15:26,642
And it ends by saying it could be
a combination of any of the 1010

270
00:15:26,642 --> 00:15:29,812
different variables in a combination,
or it's that over a thousand

271
00:15:29,812 --> 00:15:31,397
different possibilities. What?

272
00:15:31,397 --> 00:15:36,919
Why would any culture in the world
say that there are a thousand different?

273
00:15:36,919 --> 00:15:39,021
You know why?

274
00:15:39,021 --> 00:15:42,024
It's this desperate, frantic search

275
00:15:43,042 --> 00:15:46,312
for significance,
for meaning, for identity?

276
00:15:47,613 --> 00:15:52,101
The fourth century theologian Augustine
had it right when he said,

277
00:15:52,101 --> 00:15:55,220
Oh God, you have made us for yourself.

278
00:15:55,971 --> 00:16:00,242
And our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in thee.

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00:16:01,310 --> 00:16:03,479
That's the first point.

280
00:16:03,479 --> 00:16:06,482
The second point is the writing.

281
00:16:06,782 --> 00:16:10,019
So Belshazzar
throws this huge party and then,

282
00:16:11,036 --> 00:16:14,390
ask for all the holy vessels
to be brought out.

283
00:16:14,940 --> 00:16:19,194
He blasphemes and then a hand comes
and writes on the wall.

284
00:16:19,194 --> 00:16:19,912
This is what it says.

285
00:16:19,912 --> 00:16:24,416
Immediately the fingers of a human hand
appeared and wrote on the plaster

286
00:16:24,416 --> 00:16:27,987
of the wall of the king's palace
opposite the lampstand.

287
00:16:27,987 --> 00:16:30,622
And the king saw the hand as it wrote.

288
00:16:30,622 --> 00:16:33,842
The king's color changed,
and his thoughts alarmed, and his limbs

289
00:16:33,842 --> 00:16:37,079
gave way in his knees knocked together.

290
00:16:38,063 --> 00:16:42,301
That's where we get that iconic phrase,
the handwriting on the wall.

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00:16:43,352 --> 00:16:46,338
My first question is.

292
00:16:46,672 --> 00:16:49,441
Why would God do that?

293
00:16:49,441 --> 00:16:52,428
Oh, why would he write

294
00:16:52,494 --> 00:16:54,530
on the wall at all?

295
00:16:54,530 --> 00:16:56,298
I mean, judgment was coming.

296
00:16:56,298 --> 00:16:59,301
Belshazzar obviously deserved judgment.

297
00:16:59,868 --> 00:17:03,272
Not only had he ignored God,
he had blasphemed to God.

298
00:17:03,322 --> 00:17:07,893
If I if I was God, I would have just let
the judgment come without warning.

299
00:17:08,477 --> 00:17:11,663
The Persian army, fierce and merciless.

300
00:17:12,948 --> 00:17:15,951
But instead God writes on the wall.

301
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:19,288
And Belshazzar,

302
00:17:19,288 --> 00:17:23,042
who didn't want anything
to do with God, a moment before

303
00:17:23,992 --> 00:17:26,995
now, is desperate to find out

304
00:17:27,062 --> 00:17:30,049
what God is saying to him.

305
00:17:30,532 --> 00:17:33,535
Do you see how gracious that is?

306
00:17:33,836 --> 00:17:36,588
I used to think that God wrote
on the wall, really?

307
00:17:36,588 --> 00:17:40,709
To just let Belshazzar know the jig was up
and it was time to pay the piper.

308
00:17:40,709 --> 00:17:42,961
But that's not it at all.

309
00:17:42,961 --> 00:17:46,048
C.S. Lewis has a really famous quote
about pain.

310
00:17:46,982 --> 00:17:50,185
He says, God
whispers to us in our pleasures.

311
00:17:51,019 --> 00:17:54,022
God speaks to us in our conscience,

312
00:17:54,123 --> 00:17:57,509
but God shouts to us in our pain.

313
00:17:58,260 --> 00:18:00,629
Pain is God's megaphone

314
00:18:00,629 --> 00:18:03,632
to rouse a deaf world.

315
00:18:04,883 --> 00:18:06,452
What God was doing to

316
00:18:06,452 --> 00:18:09,438
Belshazzar was getting his attention.

317
00:18:09,655 --> 00:18:10,622
He was giving him

318
00:18:11,573 --> 00:18:12,257
one last

319
00:18:12,257 --> 00:18:15,444
chance, which is incredibly gracious.

320
00:18:16,411 --> 00:18:19,164
I met with a man a couple of weeks ago

321
00:18:19,164 --> 00:18:22,167
who has just been diagnosed with stage
four cancer.

322
00:18:22,885 --> 00:18:25,220
He's going to fight it with all he has,

323
00:18:25,220 --> 00:18:28,223
which is exactly the right thing to do.

324
00:18:29,158 --> 00:18:32,161
But in the middle of our conversation,
he said,

325
00:18:32,177 --> 00:18:35,664
you know, I I've never been closer to God
than I am right now.

326
00:18:35,664 --> 00:18:38,267
I've never been closer to my family.

327
00:18:38,267 --> 00:18:41,270
I've never treated every day as a gift.

328
00:18:43,038 --> 00:18:45,174
A diagnosis like that

329
00:18:45,174 --> 00:18:49,461
can be like handwriting on the wall
can make your knees buckle.

330
00:18:50,245 --> 00:18:52,915
It can also be an invitation

331
00:18:52,915 --> 00:18:54,650
from God

332
00:18:54,650 --> 00:18:57,386
to draw close to him.

333
00:18:57,386 --> 00:18:59,371
And this is what is true.

334
00:18:59,371 --> 00:19:02,357
If you live long enough,
you will experience

335
00:19:02,357 --> 00:19:05,694
something that
will make your knees buckle.

336
00:19:07,112 --> 00:19:09,631
Handwriting on the wall

337
00:19:09,631 --> 00:19:12,451
is coming for all of us.

338
00:19:12,451 --> 00:19:13,952
That's one thing.

339
00:19:13,952 --> 00:19:17,089
The second thing that strikes me
about the handwriting on the wall

340
00:19:17,089 --> 00:19:20,209
is that God writes in a code
that's so weird.

341
00:19:20,993 --> 00:19:23,996
Like he writes
four words, many, many tickled Berson.

342
00:19:24,596 --> 00:19:29,751
And it's not like I have to believe
that God knew the Babylonian language.

343
00:19:30,302 --> 00:19:32,120
My guess is God is pretty fluent.

344
00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:34,339
You know, in all languages.

345
00:19:34,339 --> 00:19:37,342
Why does he write in code?

346
00:19:37,676 --> 00:19:40,679
Like Belshazzar is desperate to know

347
00:19:40,979 --> 00:19:43,549
what God has said,

348
00:19:43,549 --> 00:19:44,483
and he writes in a code.

349
00:19:44,483 --> 00:19:47,486
That brings me to my third point,
which is the moment.

350
00:19:47,786 --> 00:19:49,972
So Belshazzar throws this wild

351
00:19:49,972 --> 00:19:53,842
party of God right on the wall.

352
00:19:54,593 --> 00:19:58,614
Belshazzar is desperate
to know what God is saying,

353
00:19:58,881 --> 00:20:01,383
so he offers this huge reward,
but no one can tell him.

354
00:20:02,417 --> 00:20:04,937
And then the Queen speaks up.

355
00:20:04,937 --> 00:20:07,339
And this is what the Queen says.

356
00:20:07,339 --> 00:20:10,342
The Queen,
because of the words of the king

357
00:20:10,609 --> 00:20:13,262
and his lords,
came into the banqueting hall,

358
00:20:13,262 --> 00:20:15,898
and the queen declared,
oh King, live forever.

359
00:20:15,898 --> 00:20:19,368
Let not your thoughts
alarm you or your color change.

360
00:20:20,068 --> 00:20:23,639
There's a man in your kingdom
in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.

361
00:20:23,839 --> 00:20:25,107
In the days of your father.

362
00:20:25,107 --> 00:20:29,394
Light and understanding and wisdom, like
the wisdom of the gods were found in him.

363
00:20:29,928 --> 00:20:32,931
And King Nebuchadnezzar,
your father, your father, the king

364
00:20:32,998 --> 00:20:37,069
made him chief of the magicians,
enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers,

365
00:20:37,653 --> 00:20:41,607
because an excellent spirit, knowledge
and understanding to interpret dreams,

366
00:20:41,873 --> 00:20:45,177
explain riddles, and solve problems
were found in this Daniel,

367
00:20:45,627 --> 00:20:47,879
whom the king named Belteshazzar

368
00:20:48,931 --> 00:20:50,332
now let Daniel be called,

369
00:20:50,332 --> 00:20:53,335
and he will show the interpretation.

370
00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:57,422
One of the reasons we chose
this series is we were.

371
00:20:57,806 --> 00:21:00,926
We wanted all of us to look at the courage

372
00:21:01,610 --> 00:21:06,098
that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego had so

373
00:21:06,148 --> 00:21:09,201
we could be inspired
to have the same courage.

374
00:21:10,802 --> 00:21:13,639
What happens here is that

375
00:21:13,639 --> 00:21:17,843
Belshazzar experiences
something that makes his knees buckle.

376
00:21:17,843 --> 00:21:20,662
He needs to know what God has said.

377
00:21:20,662 --> 00:21:25,067
He doesn't know who to turn to,
and the Queen remembers Daniel.

378
00:21:25,951 --> 00:21:28,937
And what she remembers about Daniel
is his reputation

379
00:21:29,271 --> 00:21:32,257
that he had an excellent spirit.

380
00:21:34,076 --> 00:21:35,961
This is what is true.

381
00:21:35,961 --> 00:21:38,964
You may be the only Christian
in your family.

382
00:21:39,898 --> 00:21:42,651
You may be the only Christian at work,

383
00:21:42,651 --> 00:21:45,654
the only Christian at your gym.

384
00:21:46,621 --> 00:21:49,141
And everyone in your life at some

385
00:21:49,141 --> 00:21:54,112
point is going to experience
something that will make their knees

386
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:57,149
buckle.

387
00:21:57,149 --> 00:21:59,184
And when that happens

388
00:21:59,184 --> 00:22:02,187
and they need someone to talk to them,

389
00:22:02,838 --> 00:22:05,490
live your life in such a way

390
00:22:05,490 --> 00:22:08,477
that you're the one they think of

391
00:22:08,577 --> 00:22:10,262
that when they think, man, I don't know

392
00:22:10,262 --> 00:22:13,398
what to do at this moment in my life.

393
00:22:13,398 --> 00:22:15,650
I don't know what's going to happen.

394
00:22:15,650 --> 00:22:18,653
I need to talk to someone who can tell me

395
00:22:19,488 --> 00:22:21,173
that to be.

396
00:22:21,173 --> 00:22:24,259
I remember years ago I joined a bike club,

397
00:22:25,410 --> 00:22:30,032
in part because I wanted to ride,
but, in part because I wanted to be around

398
00:22:30,449 --> 00:22:33,902
people who were not Christians,
not church people.

399
00:22:33,902 --> 00:22:36,888
Not not that I was so tired of you guys,

400
00:22:36,988 --> 00:22:39,775
but it was going to give me an opportunity

401
00:22:39,775 --> 00:22:42,778
maybe to talk to them about Jesus. But,

402
00:22:43,578 --> 00:22:45,864
that was a pretty serious bike club
and we were out of breath

403
00:22:45,864 --> 00:22:48,717
most of the time,
so there was no time to talk.

404
00:22:48,717 --> 00:22:50,719
So I wondered if I was
ever going to get a chance.

405
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:52,704
And then one of our riders

406
00:22:52,704 --> 00:22:55,757
got hit by a car,
and I was the first call they made.

407
00:22:56,608 --> 00:22:58,827
And I remember getting the call,

408
00:22:58,827 --> 00:23:02,364
and then Saint John's been hit by a car.

409
00:23:02,364 --> 00:23:04,282
Can you come to the emergency room?

410
00:23:04,282 --> 00:23:06,752
We need you now.

411
00:23:06,752 --> 00:23:09,738
And that was my moment.

412
00:23:10,338 --> 00:23:12,958
There's going to come a moment

413
00:23:12,958 --> 00:23:14,760
in the lives of the people around you

414
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:17,763
who they need to talk to
somebody live your life in such a way

415
00:23:18,230 --> 00:23:21,233
that when that happens, they think of you.

416
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,753
Then the second thing that happens is

417
00:23:24,753 --> 00:23:28,557
Daniel's offered a reward
and he turns down the reward.

418
00:23:29,908 --> 00:23:32,060
And it's not just that he's

419
00:23:32,060 --> 00:23:35,063
being snarky about the reward,

420
00:23:35,363 --> 00:23:36,598
it's because he doesn't.

421
00:23:36,598 --> 00:23:40,402
He wants to make sure that Belshazzar
knows he doesn't have mixed motives,

422
00:23:41,036 --> 00:23:43,772
that what he's going to tell him
this message from God isn't

423
00:23:43,772 --> 00:23:44,840
for some other reason.

424
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,977
You know, sometimes I think I hear about,
you know, Christians getting

425
00:23:48,977 --> 00:23:52,764
into conversations with non-Christians,
and it becomes an argument.

426
00:23:52,764 --> 00:23:56,151
And it's it's almost like the Christian
wants to be right

427
00:23:56,635 --> 00:24:00,238
more than we want
to bring someone to Jesus.

428
00:24:01,623 --> 00:24:04,609
And that's a mixed motive

429
00:24:05,010 --> 00:24:05,310
here.

430
00:24:05,310 --> 00:24:06,027
Daniel doesn't

431
00:24:06,027 --> 00:24:10,382
make an appointment with Belshazzar
so he can tell him why he's wrong.

432
00:24:10,382 --> 00:24:15,687
He just waits for Belshazzar
to have that moment when his knees buckle

433
00:24:17,155 --> 00:24:20,158
and he calls for Daniel.

434
00:24:20,342 --> 00:24:21,593
And then Daniel talks.

435
00:24:21,593 --> 00:24:26,364
And what Daniel says, he launches
into the story about Nebuchadnezzar.

436
00:24:26,815 --> 00:24:29,484
He says, O King,
the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar

437
00:24:29,484 --> 00:24:32,687
your father kingship and greatness
and glory and majesty,

438
00:24:33,321 --> 00:24:35,790
and because of the greatness
that he gave him, all peoples,

439
00:24:35,790 --> 00:24:39,811
nations, and languages trembled and feared
before him whom he would.

440
00:24:39,811 --> 00:24:40,862
He killed, whom he would

441
00:24:40,862 --> 00:24:43,999
he kept alive, whom he would,
he raise up, whom he would he humble.

442
00:24:44,699 --> 00:24:47,702
But when his heart was lifted up
and his spirit was hardened,

443
00:24:47,752 --> 00:24:49,037
so he dealt proudly.

444
00:24:49,037 --> 00:24:53,358
He was brought down from his kingly
throne, and his glory was taken from him.

445
00:24:54,092 --> 00:24:56,661
He was driven
from among the children of mankind,

446
00:24:56,661 --> 00:24:59,931
and his mind was made
like that of a beast, and swelling

447
00:24:59,931 --> 00:25:01,283
was with the wild donkeys.

448
00:25:01,283 --> 00:25:03,318
He was fed grass like an ox.

449
00:25:03,318 --> 00:25:09,357
His body was wet, and the dew of heaven,
until he knew that the Most High God rules

450
00:25:09,591 --> 00:25:12,594
the kingdom of mankind,
and sets over at whom he will.

451
00:25:13,128 --> 00:25:16,948
And you, his son Belshazzar
had not humbled your heart, though

452
00:25:16,948 --> 00:25:21,469
you knew all this, but you've lifted up
yourself against the Lord of heaven,

453
00:25:22,103 --> 00:25:25,373
and the vessels of his house
have been brought in before you,

454
00:25:25,590 --> 00:25:26,508
and you and your Lord.

455
00:25:26,508 --> 00:25:29,511
Your wives and concubines
have drunk wine from them,

456
00:25:29,728 --> 00:25:33,331
and you praise the gods of silver
and gold, of bronze, iron,

457
00:25:33,331 --> 00:25:37,435
wood, and stone,
which you do not see or hear, or know,

458
00:25:37,435 --> 00:25:42,240
but the God in whose hand is your breath,
and whose are all your ways.

459
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:43,375
You have not honor.

460
00:25:44,876 --> 00:25:46,878
What's he doing?

461
00:25:46,878 --> 00:25:49,881
What he's doing with Belshazzar
is he's giving them hope.

462
00:25:50,365 --> 00:25:54,269
What he's saying is, you know
your father, Nebuchadnezzar, he was great.

463
00:25:55,337 --> 00:25:57,589
Probably greater than you.

464
00:25:57,589 --> 00:26:00,392
He made the same mistake.

465
00:26:00,392 --> 00:26:02,277
He was weighed on the scale

466
00:26:02,277 --> 00:26:05,430
by God and found wanting.

467
00:26:07,315 --> 00:26:09,618
But he repented,

468
00:26:09,618 --> 00:26:10,852
and God was gracious.

469
00:26:10,852 --> 00:26:11,570
You know what he's doing?

470
00:26:11,570 --> 00:26:14,456
He's giving him the gospel.

471
00:26:14,456 --> 00:26:16,524
You see that,

472
00:26:16,524 --> 00:26:16,825
right?

473
00:26:16,825 --> 00:26:20,929
When when somebody comes to you
and they're something's happened

474
00:26:20,929 --> 00:26:23,932
in their knees, a buckle, they're saying,
I don't know what to do,

475
00:26:23,932 --> 00:26:26,935
what how do I face this?

476
00:26:27,919 --> 00:26:30,722
You can tell them, listen,

477
00:26:30,722 --> 00:26:31,773
let me start with this.

478
00:26:31,773 --> 00:26:33,241
And what you need to know is

479
00:26:33,241 --> 00:26:35,910
Daniel had no idea
how Belshazzar was going to respond.

480
00:26:35,910 --> 00:26:39,414
He left that up to God,
but he gave him the gospel.

481
00:26:39,414 --> 00:26:43,401
You can say
to the people in your family, at work,

482
00:26:44,603 --> 00:26:46,638
at the gym,

483
00:26:46,638 --> 00:26:48,323
listen,

484
00:26:48,323 --> 00:26:50,458
you've been weighed on the scale
and found wanting.

485
00:26:50,458 --> 00:26:52,861
This is what the Bible says we all have.

486
00:26:52,861 --> 00:26:55,847
But Jesus has come

487
00:26:56,097 --> 00:26:59,067
so that you could be saved.

488
00:26:59,067 --> 00:26:59,601
Don't you see?

489
00:26:59,601 --> 00:27:02,721
This is God being gracious,
God getting your attention

490
00:27:03,271 --> 00:27:06,257
because he wants relationship with you.

491
00:27:07,042 --> 00:27:07,826
You may be the only.

492
00:27:07,826 --> 00:27:10,829
You're the only Christian in some circle,

493
00:27:11,129 --> 00:27:13,465
and in that circle it's going to happen.

494
00:27:13,465 --> 00:27:16,468
There's going to be
handwriting on the wall when it happens.

495
00:27:16,501 --> 00:27:18,303
Live your life
in such a way that it's you.

496
00:27:18,303 --> 00:27:20,572
They think of,

497
00:27:20,572 --> 00:27:23,575
and then tell them the gospel.

498
00:27:24,843 --> 00:27:27,779
Have the courage to speak

499
00:27:27,779 --> 00:27:30,782
and then leave the results to God.

500
00:27:30,865 --> 00:27:33,051
Let's pray.

501
00:27:33,051 --> 00:27:35,337
Father in heaven, we come to you and I am.

502
00:27:35,337 --> 00:27:36,388
I'm grateful for it.

503
00:27:36,388 --> 00:27:39,324
I love the book of Daniel.

504
00:27:40,342 --> 00:27:42,327
I love what he does here.

505
00:27:42,327 --> 00:27:45,447
But more than that, I love what you do.

506
00:27:46,648 --> 00:27:50,635
That Belshazzar, as far away from you
as he could possibly be.

507
00:27:50,669 --> 00:27:53,688
You still give him an opportunity

508
00:27:55,073 --> 00:27:58,009
like you gave me,
like you've given all of us.

509
00:27:58,009 --> 00:28:01,012
Like you're giving somebody
right here, right now.

510
00:28:01,996 --> 00:28:04,999
Lord, I pray that we will turn to you.

511
00:28:05,784 --> 00:28:08,453
And after that,
I pray that we will live our lives

512
00:28:08,453 --> 00:28:11,456
in such a way
that when the people around us

513
00:28:12,390 --> 00:28:14,125
have something

514
00:28:14,125 --> 00:28:16,378
that makes their knees buckle,
that they'll think of us

515
00:28:16,378 --> 00:28:19,381
and we'll be able to share your love
with them.

516
00:28:20,031 --> 00:28:22,250
The news of Jesus.

517
00:28:22,250 --> 00:28:23,118
Thanks for your grace.

518
00:28:23,118 --> 00:28:25,704
Thanks for giving us
such a wonderful Savior.

519
00:28:25,704 --> 00:28:28,473
We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.