All right. Good morning. I'm excited about what's going on with the youth. How about y'all it's gonna be good stuff. I can't wait to hear back even more good stuff that's happening. been getting baptized. Amazing, huh? That cool. right in that right in that like over there. Let's get into some serious Baptists real baptism right there in the center real water. Not in this bathtub garbage. Would you get baptized at Bethany right there? Yeah. Ben beech. I think he's in the real water. I'm just getting his he might know what, today is the start of what festival feast? Yeah, weeks. That's right. firsters. Yep, shout out. You guys know what that is. That time. You know what the other what another name is that many people will call that starts with a Pinta and ends with a cost. It's Pentecost starts today. And I think that's just really incredible. I'm not gonna talk about that. But it's just awesome to, to think about and consider this is, you know, when people would come, and the Jewish people celebrated the giving of the Torah, which was a beautiful moment. And we celebrate that we celebrate that the Jesus said that Torah would be written on our hearts, through how his Holy Spirit is such a beautiful, beautiful thing that we get to celebrate that, that God's law would actually come and be written on our hearts, and that we would obey it because we love Him because we desire him. And that would only be able, we'd only be able to do that through the Holy Spirit that He sent and empowered us with. Just so good. Now, I'm just excited. But it was so it was cool. We had a celebration here yesterday. And just really think about they would bring their first fruits, their best god, this is what you've done. Like, here's, you know, these are the goods that I have learned from the stuff from the fields. And here you go, here's the here's the best, here's the choices, fruits, here's a choice to sweet and I just think that's so awesome. Like, it was kind of cool, I was really cool. J haven't done that it was just really awesome to just kind of say, see a CA a group of people been we were talking about that come together to celebrate what God has done and to give the best in the first fruits of what they've had to him. That's so cool. Anyways, let's look at Daniel, let's look at the reason I'm not going to do Pentecostal Chavo, just because I sidetracked last week, this will go on forever. If I keep sidetracking this is going to end today, we're gonna do Daniel 1112. And I'm gonna read every single verse, I'm not kind of like last week with Esther kind of graze over some of it. Plus, this gets into so throughout the book of Daniel, Dale is getting these revelations, and basically he's getting progressive details about it's like kind of the same stuff a lot. And like, as you know, you see the statue. And then you see these crazy beasts and all this stuff. Like he's getting more information about the details of this message that's being given him this vision. And today, it kind of gets into the weeds about some a lot of really interesting details, which shows us that God's a very detailed God. But also, if we go through this, some people are going to be like head swimming and all that kind of stuff. So I'm not going to go into the super deets, as the kids would say, but we're going to get into a little bit of it.
All right, Daniel, chapter 11. I'm gonna start on verse two. And we read this last week. But let's just start there again. Daniel is going to be getting an understanding and a deeper understanding of what all these visions in this new vision that he's receiving is. So it starts off with now I'll tell you the truth. So here's the here's some understanding. Three more kings will arise in Persia and the fourth will be far greater than the other. So he receives this when he receives this King Cyrus is king. And again, we're not going to go too into the dates, but after him as kambei sees bardiya and derrius, the Great, okay. And then after these three, so it says there'll be three kings that arise a fourth King will arise you can go the next slide. This is Xerxes, who is Xerxes. We talked about this last week with Esther right. This is who Esther married. Okay, King Xerxes. And what does it say about King Xerxes. It says that he will be far richer than the others by his power he gains through his riches he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. So the kingdom of Greece is happening. His dad derrius Great actually did go against Greece and tried to do some stuff and didn't really go very well. Xerxes takes years to amass an army to go fight against the Greeks. And guess what happens. He didn't do super hot either, he doesn't do very well either, which kind of sets up the very next verse, then a warrior king will arise, I'm going to read just the rest of this little section here. He will rule a vast realm and do whatever he wants. But as soon as he is established, his kingdom will be broken up and divided to the four winds of heaven, but not to his descendants. It will not be the same kingdom that he ruled because his kingdom will be uprooted. And we'll go to others besides Him. So who is this about? We've talked about this guy, multiple times, who do we think this next line is about anybody? Alexander, how about that? Go to the next slide, which is a really cool picture. There's a there's this guy that developed this AI that takes like, pictures and statues and stuff and actually tries to get it as as realistic as possible. And this is an Alexander the Great that he did. He does Jesus and all kinds of stuff. It's in that cool. Not a bad looking guy, huh? Alexander the Great. If that's accurate, it's but this is about. So we've read multiple times, whenever there was the leopard, the leopard in this vision had foreheads and four wings, right. And then there was four horns on the goat. And now we see that his kingdom we've divided up into what to the four winds of heaven. And so that happened, go to the next slide. But I've said this before, I wish that I could tell you that, you know, with the Greeks, when Alexander got killed at young age, 32 years old, that it was divided into four kingdoms. And that's it. It wasn't like there's these wars of the do Chi that's like, there's 10 kingdoms. And there's this and that, and these people are fighting in all these different people. But I'll say there's two things that it could mean because I'm, I'm convinced that this is not Alexander, though some people would argue is not what is there's kind of four like predominant. Folks, empires, as the dust begins to settle. And that is if you look, I should have brought my Hey, call. You want to just look over here at that media party? Yeah, yeah. Right around that area. So this right, yep. Perfect. That this is the saluted Empire. Okay, that rises up, down where Egypt is. This is the Ptolemaic Empire. Alright, so Ptolemy ruled that they need to go to the pink kind of, so we got the pink and then we have that green and all those areas, right, there are Cassandra and listen, Marcus. And then you see that there's some other ones, I can pull up a ton of maps about this. So it either means that that's basically what's happening. Or some people will say the four is just represented as kingdom will spread to the four winds north, south, east and west, there's a ton of division or whatever. But as it says, Here, his kingdom was never the same. It was never the same like Alexander they were united, they were powerful boom. And then basically what happens when when power gets up for grabs? What does what does mankind do? We just we go for it, right? So hey, Alexander's kingdom, this huge kingdom, this this whole area was basically you see, all this divided up was was Greece, and this Greek Empire. And then now it gets divided up by these generals and different things, and they're just fighting for power, right.
And that's exactly what happens. Go to the next slide. For me, if you don't mind, Kyle, I'm not going to read a ton of this, right here. But it does say the king of the south who will grow powerful, but one of his commanders will grow more powerful and he will rule a kingdom greater than him. So for the next 15 verses or so, this is going to talk about this. The the Empire is basically get mostly focused on and this whole section is focused on the SaLuSa Empire, which is that greenish area there, which again, is what I was talking about, and the Ptolemaic which is Egypt. So whenever it talks about the king of the north and the south, that's what it's talking about. So if you ever haven't read, Daniel, you've been confused about what is this kingdom of north and south and all this is this talking about this battle that these people had back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I'm not going to read all this, but there were alliances, there's intrigue, there's fighting, there's wars, it's really interesting stuff. But basically, God goes into great detail. It gives Daniel this amazing, this is a huge thing that I get from this, from this stuff, right here is that God is a God of detail. He cares about the details. And he gives Daniel the details. I can tell you my life personally, some really cool moments whenever I got specific with my prayers, and God just like oh, I just been waiting for you to get more specific. had this really crazy thing happen out this. I'll be quick. And then I'm gonna dive back in I was we were doing a prayer group here a few weeks ago. And there's this guy that looked at me, he's pretty prophetic. And he said, john, you want to go you want to travel don't you? And I'm like, well, heck yeah, I love traveling like I do and like I want to I'm thinking like make disciples and all this, you know, crazy stuff, like in Taiwan and in Myanmar stuff on Israel and all this So I'm excited about that kind of stuff. But he just said that he said, I think God just said, pick a date john, and he wants you to be he don't let you go travel, because he just loves you. And I was like, that sounds awesome. And I The next day, I remember just thinking, alright, Lord, I'm just gonna pick October the third totally forgot about this completely. And then Justin and I, and this was this isn't a great disciplemaking trip, Lord, we'll do some great things. But Justin and I and our families wanted to go on a trip together. We started talking about the Hookah Bar, we were hanging out and like, hey, let's go, let's go do this. And I kid you not, I booked this thing. We're all good. And a few days later, I said, Holy schnikeys I'm gonna say something a little bit different. I said, I swear that trip leaves October the third. And I totally forgot about it. Like, what are the odds of that? You know, they but it just reminded me that God's little kiss that he cares about the details. He's the God of the details. He knows about these things. He cares about us. And he cares enough about the Israelites and the Jewish people to give them details about what's going to happen in the future. Because he knows it's not going to be easy. This is not easy for them, right? He doesn't say, hey, Israel, celebrate, you're about to be liberated and all this stuff. No, he says there's going to be the Grecian kingdom, there's going to be this. There's gonna get divided up and there'll be the the Ptolemy family and the solutions and all this stuff, and they're gonna fight and they're gonna do all these things. And you're gonna be there in the midst of all of it. And then it'll get to verse 20, here and go to the next slide. And we're going to talk about this evil, evil may antiochos epiphanies or anti akis epiphanies I've heard it pronounced multiple ways been would probably help me out there. Let's read verse 20. In the place, I'm sorry, 21. In his place, and I'm not going to get details about who that exactly was go ahead, and you can read it all. We could go on forever. If I did this, in his place, will a person will arise royal, excuse me, in his place, a despised person will arise, Royal honors, will not be given him but he will come during a time of peace. So out of the SaLuSa Empire, there's this guy named anticorrosive tiffanys, Antioch 70s. We talked about him a little bit before, this is really big for big because this guy was super evil, and we're gonna see that he was basically become pretty anti the Jewish people. And so Daniel is going to get warning that there's going to be a guy that's coming after you guys. And we know that there's this the spirit of the enemy behind this guy antiochos. And I believe because I'm one of those guys that looks at this and believes its historical past, but also believe anti August is a type of Antichrist and an in time Skype. So Rachel, Rachel asked me before she was talking about studying some more in times things I believe he's a type of something pretty evil, that will happen. And we'll come we'll talk about that a little more. You may disagree with me, but
I think he is and if he is it gives us insight into the type in the character that some of one of the Antichrist at the end of time will have. So first of all, it says that he is despised person will arise, Royal honors will not be given him, but he will come during a time of peace. And then it says after that, and he will seize the kingdom by intrigue. I mentioned this weeks ago, that epiphanies means God manifest. So he thought pretty highly of himself. The people, a lot of people that followed him, there's a play on the Greek word epiphany, and I can't know what is what it is, but they would call him antiochos madman and it's very similar to the word of Tiffany's and so it's it's really interesting guy where people saw them as is kind of crazy guy. But then in another sense, he was very deceptive. And people would follow him. Like this reminds me of Hitler. Like of like you looking at we look back in history, we go How can people follow this guy, but then you see the deception the way he would do things? And it has me like checking my heart and recognizing, wow, I gotta be careful that I'm not deceived. Because it says that he sees his and he did. He sees the kingdom, he by entry by flattery. And that's what he does in verse 22. It says, After an alliance is made with him, he will act deceitfully and he will rise to power with a small nation. So his rise into power was with flatteries is with intrigue, it's with deception, that Antiochus actually rose to power. So again, if this has if this is any type of a type, then we something that we can watch out for this deceptive spirit. It shows even more how deceptive this guy was at the end of verse 24. It says he will lavish plunder, loot and wealth on his followers. So like and he did and he always did that there are times where it's recorded in history that he would give to people that supported him money and loot and stuff like that from when he would go out. And so he knew he knew how to butter people up. I just the reality he knew how to work the crowd. He knew which people to to to do things To so that he can remain in his position. And yet, you know, he was this kind of madman, some people would say you're just a really interesting character. In verse 25, it says the king and I'm not going I won't read at the very beginning, sometimes I'm going in the middle of it, but I'm just trying to skip through this relatively quick a verse 25 is the king of the south who prepare for battle with an extremely large and powerful army. And so of course, this happened and again, the Ptolemaic Empire comes against him. The wars weren't over between those two empires, when antiochos was there, it says he will not succeed because the plots that were made against him so we see again, the wars that are going back and forth, I'm gonna skip down to 27 real quick because it says the two kings whose hearts are bent on evil will speak lies at the same table but to no avail. For the end will come at for Still, the end will come at the appointed time. I can't remember which, which King this was. This happened with antiochos. But literally, they literally sat down at the table. Can you imagine like the deception sitting down at a table eating dinner, and you're just lying to each other? You know, how's it going? What's up, Jay? Man? Oh, man, I love you, dude, I can't wait. I'm gonna come help you do this, or what I'm thinking I can't wait to backstab this sucker and take him down. You know, that's it. That's the kind of guy like you're speaking things out of your mouth, once out of your mouth or doing something, you know, with your actions. And this is the kind of guy that Antioch is was right. Which is crazy, but also love at the end of that verse, it says, For Still, the end will comment for at the appointed time, which means he's telling these people listen, there's going to be this very evil man that does a lot of evil stuff, but recognize that God's hand, God still with you, the appointed time, right, there's an appointed time of his end, there's important time for the end of all this to take place. So be encouraged, that even in trial and tribulation, God's there and God's in control,
though he allows different things to happen. Now, this is where it starts to get real. I'm in verse 28, and especially real for Daniel, to think through this what what this means for his people, the people of Israel, the king of the north, which is him, will return to his land with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant. So there's going to be a point in there was where antiochos comes in. And his heart is not now just set against the Ptolemaic Empire. Now his heart gets turned at a point in history towards Jerusalem. And he's going against he actually goes in and he plunders the temple, take stuff out of the temple, he kills many Jewish people, 1000s of Jewish people. And then it says he will take action and return to his own land. Okay, verse 29, I'm going to read this at the appointed time, he will come again to the south. So he goes again against the Ptolemaic Empire, but this time will not be like the first ships of Kingdom will come against them and be intimidated, and he will withdraw. So basically, he goes against Ptolemy, the Ptolemaic Kingdom again, and it goes poorly for him. And what does he do like Nebuchadnezzar and a bunch of these guys that throw big old baby fit whenever things don't go his way? It says that he was enraged. So he went against them, he tried to do his thing, he goes into a full rage, but what what is the object that his wrath is pointed towards the Jewish people. And so Daniels hearing that my people are going to have this madman, full of deception and all these things he's going to come against it already said he came against a holy covenant. But listen, this, this is where it gets really horrific, honestly. Then he will rage against the holy covenant and take action. On his return, he will favor those who abandon the holy covenant. So he was smart. So there was a high priest named middle as, during that time in Middle Ages, what had happened is, um, the Greeks hellenized the culture that came in hellenized the culture mean that they had brought their culture and and people had just bought into it right, like, well, we do you know, and we buy into our culture, we talk about the tension between our culture and living in our culture let being people that kingdom whatever, there were a lot of Jewish people that became very hellenized even the high priest, Millennials a minute Mina, Mina, Leah smilla, sorry, Min ullaeus. All these names and like I'm probably pronouncing them totally wrong and stuff anyways, but I could just say anything. Some of y'all wouldn't even care. Some of y'all know the actual name, but anyways, okay, so even the high priest had become so hellenized and he actually helps. Antioch is plunder the temple, okay. And right now, he is smart, because he recognizes that it says, again, I'm going to read it one more time, he'll favor those who abandon the holy covenant. He took the Jewish people who had become hellenized to abandon the holy covenant, and he turned them against the Jewish people that were following the Lord in His covenant. So he's very, very smart. And it's interesting to think if this happened in and this is a type this could happen in the future, and we have to watch ourselves and watch the deception of what the enemy is doing at the end of time, and make sure we're not found going against the people of God. Because Jesus even says in Matthew 24, right before he says talks about the Son of Man coming on the clouds, he says, could even deceive What if possible, the elect, like the deception is going to be real. There'll be people who were like, Are you kidding me? This guy's the high priest, like, how can he be deceived? You know, we think that this pastor get deceived, or how did this person get deceived? Like, that's why it's called deception. Right? We're not. So we have to be in the word and understanding and pass this down to our children and their children's children. If the Lord Terri's as some would say, so they can know. So we favor those. And then it says in verse 31, his forces will raise and desecrate the temple fortress, he did, they will abolish the regular sacrifice, he abolished the regular sacrifice for so for a long time, the sacrifices had been given, even though there were other rulers, but antiochos was so against the Jewish people, he ended sacrifice, which is like a cornerstone of what God called Israel to do have the temple what sacrifices do they atone for sin, they did all these their offerings to God freewill offerings, love offerings, all these crazy things, it had to end. This is probably a bad, you know, analogy or whatever. But it would almost be like, you know, them saying, You guys can't go to church anymore. You know, like, oh,
gosh, and
we know that whenever that happens, we freak out. Don't we hope our faith is a lot stronger than going to church on Sunday, even though this is very important that we stay together. But that's what happened. He shut that down. And then it said, he set up the abomination of desolation, which we have heard that phrase over and over and over again, Jesus in Matthew 24, references, what the abomination of desolation when he's talking about the temple being destroyed, and his return and this whole big, interesting passage that we could talk about, in the midst of that there's a point in which he says, look for the desolating, sacrilege, let the reader understand, go back and look at Daniel, you know, when we read Revelation, when we read these things, these different things in the New Testament, if we don't understand the Old Testament, then we'll never really will be so confused. But this is what this guy does. So antiochene says a couple things to the temple, not only does he stop the regular sacrifice, he sets up an altar to Zeus. So this is like the temple of the Holy God, the God I mean, our God, the God of Israel. And then even more in your face, he sacrifices a pig in the middle of this temple. So he is absolutely like, there's a lot of deception going on. And then at some point, it's just like, I'm full on, I'm against the Jewish people, and I'm against their god, I'm in your face against the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, like this is that Satan experience I'm saying that very that spirit of and again, if this has is a type, I'll look for someone if I'm still alive, or if that's in my time. Who knows? That's deceptive. But at a point they turn and they become very in your face about I'm against the people of God here. And that's exactly what he did. But then on the next verse, it says, with flattery, he will corrupt those who act wickedly towards the covenant. So while he's doing this thing, he's still flattering Antioch estate, he would flatter other people. Again, that just reminds me back at, you know, Hitler, like, when we think about more recent time I can Ben can probably talk to you guys all day about this kind of stuff is like how how, but this types of stuff and deception comes y'all. And that's one of the cool things is that God is giving Daniel this so that the people of Israel will have understanding. Because it says in verse 33, this is really important. Those who have seen want to know practical, what we can do or what the instruction was to them. Those who have insight among the people will give understanding too many. So he's talking about these people having insight, having insight, hopefully, based on this, the word of what Daniel is receiving here. But here's the thing is, is that it says they will have understanding and they will give understanding to many excuse me yet, they will fall by the sword and flame and be captured and plundered for a time. So he says even though they're walking in truth, they have understanding Daniel, what's going to happen is some of these people are going to die and they're going to get killed. They're going to have horrible things happen to them. And that awesome in that what Daniel wanted to hear, like, cheese. But I think that it's important because and I think that it's and this is one thing that the Lord has been given to me as I've read through this is what are we teaching our children's generation? What are we teaching their children's generation? Right? are we teaching that following the Lord means nothing bad will ever happen to you and it's all good. I'm not sitting here trying to be like, you know, all following Jesus is the worst and the horrible things. I'm not trying to say that but in preparation, bad things happen, but God is with you. Right? Stephens getting stoned. That's a horrible thing that happened. But he sees into the heavens and gets to see the Lord. Like that's just incredible. But giving them a proper understanding of persecution and challenges and stuff that can't face is hugely important and God was given it to them. And he said again, said Even those with understanding many of them will be killed. Right? Revelation talks about people who will love their life not even to death, right? And so beautiful. So beautiful. Verse 35, actually is really interesting too, because it says some of those who have insight will fall, so was talking about these that had an insight. So that they may be refined, purified and cleansed until the time of the end for it will still come out and important, important, appointed time, sorry. And all the things that Antioch is did like God, God was saying, Listen, this challenges these tribulations that come up, actually bring refinement actually purify. You guys ever have that happen when you like, look in your life and think so think of times when God really grew, you oftentimes it is, during times of stress, it is during times of deep challenge, it is. Wow, like, so it's not, you know, sometimes it's during times of just everything's going great. But I look at my life. And I think man, that was hard to go through that was a challenge. But my relationship with God got so much closer, I'm so much stronger. Now that I went through that. And I wouldn't trade it, even though it was stinky. I'll say that to go through, can use a lot of other words, but
it was not good to go through. But he says that there'll be refined and there'll be cleansed. Now, in verse 36. This is kind of interesting, because this is where there's a lot of different views, actually, about what happens here. And I don't want to get into the weeds. But people who believe like predators to believe this is fully in the past, some will say that this is about anti arcus. And some will say this is about the destruction of Jerusalem and, and one of the Caesars or something like this. Because the reason is, is because there are some blatant things unless we just don't know it from gaps in history, that we don't that Antioch is doesn't fulfill this part. There's others who believe that this is solely about the future. And then others I guess, like myself, that would say yes, it was a type of Antioch, and even during the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, but there's a deeper fulfillment because these folks didn't fulfill this entirely. Okay, verse 36, then the king will do whatever he wants, he will exalt and magnify himself above every God. And he will say outrageous things against the God of gods This is that Satan ik spirit, their king that will arise and will come absolutely against the God of gods will raise himself against all other gods, even though antiochos was called God manifest. Through History, there's not this thing where he was like raising himself above the gods, he was just calling himself a god, you understand what I'm saying? So he was one of these Greek gods why he built an altar to Zeus. He wasn't saying, I'm above Zeus, he was part, you know, he thought he was part of this group of gods, he'll say outrageous things against the God of gods again, this really satanic Spirit, He will be successful until a time of wrath is completed. So there will be times whenever this king is absolutely successful in this in the horrible things that he does, okay? First, it says he will not show regard for the gods of his father's the God designed by women or any other God because He will magnify himself above all, and this is one of the reasons I don't think that it's totally fulfilled in Antioch is because he, he did actually care for the gods of his father's like Zeus and stuff like that. Don't I'm not saying that he didn't somewhat fulfill this. But I think there's at least at least, something deeper. But again, this is a blatant in your face against the God of gods magnifying himself above all, this spirit of again, the satanic spirit, whether it's history, past history, future, whatever that says that comes against, that's what Satan does he come to he comes against the God of gods, he wants to be higher than God, right? He wants to be equal. He wants to, that's the challenge. And then in verse 40, I won't go into great details, but it still talks about wars that are taking place at the time of the end, that king of the south will engage in battle with the king of the north. So still kind of things here. But what I'll say about this king of the north and the south thing, I'd super could see this play out towards the end of time, and why? Because I can read an eyebrow. There's so much I can read, but I can bring up versus like Don Pinto was here speaking yesterday. I should have told y'all more. He was awesome. Yesterday, Isaiah 19, Isaiah 19 talks about Egypt in a Syria which is Iraq, there being a highway, the Isaiah 19 Highway, and they're gonna go back and forth, and they're gonna praise God, and they're gonna be the people of God. Like Isaiah said that that wasn't fulfilled in history. Like where that's going to happen? Couldn't you see? I mean, this is what it's talking about is talking about Iraq, and it's talking about Egypt still battling here. Can you see that something taking place and that actually being literally fulfilled? I think it will be. I think it's beautiful. Um, let me skip down to verse 45. here and then we're going to look at a little bit in chapter 12, and we'll be done. It does say that he will pitch his royal tents. I gotta be careful about the way I say that. Have you seen some of those YouTube videos? I swear. Okay. I'm done. I'm not getting I almost want to say it again. But I'm gonna stop while I'm ahead between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain, but he will meet his end with no one to help him. So he placed his tense
between the CEO in Israel like believe in the Holy Mountain Zion. And but and, and then it says he will meet his end when no one will help him. antiochos didn't die in Israel, he died in Persia, I believe. But unless that's just saying something else. Anyways, now we get into chapter 12. And this is why I'll say this is why I believe that there's future ramifications for this, as some will say that this, again, was totally fulfilled. And I do want to make sure I give credence to that because I understand what they're saying. And I understand their points. And I actually believe that for a while, too, but I'll say continuing through Daniel, I just keep seeing these hints like, Man, that's not totally fulfilled. Man, there's this seems to be more future man, there seems to be something more here. And for me, it starts here in chapter 12, which is again, why I think Antioch This is a type of something to come. At that time, Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people will rise up. Do you know that the people of Israel had a Prince Michael, who watched over them in that cool, there will be a time of distress, such as never has occurred, since the nations came into being until that time, that's a very scary line, there will be a time of distress that has never, ever occurred. And if that was totally fulfilled, antiochos did some horrible things. But there were, there were much worse things that happened before that I went through history and looked at millions of people dying and stuff like that. But at that time, all your people who are found written in the book will escape. So I think that's a reference to the Lamb's book of life. These things that are written if the names are written, they will escape at that time. And then in verse two, this is where I believe this is a reference to I can tell you what some other people think. But I think as a reference to the resurrection of the dead, or at least a piece of the pie of the resurrection of the dead. Many who sleep in the dust, which we know that's talking about. People who are dead, right of the earth will awake. Okay. Some people say this was a spiritual awakening that took place during at 70, or when Jesus died and resurrected. And we do know that people did literally wake up whenever Jesus resurrected, but the next phrase that said, will awake some to eternal life. Like this is very strong language. That saying that during this time, all this take place like this is that's why I believe it's the resurrection of the dead, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt. So eternal life and eternal contempt, there's going to be this, this resurrection that takes place. That's big. And again, that's really big. Because if this is kind of being a type, we can kind of at least here begin to see some things and at least have an idea of some things that could take place before this powerful day, we can also go read Matthew 24, there's so much more that we can read. And we should understand and have an understanding of this, because we're told to know the seasons we are. But verse three says, and this is some very practical advice for us. Those who have insight will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens. So Daniel has been given this vision so that he can have insight so why he can pass it down to others so that others can have insight. God wants us to understand sometimes I read this and go, Lord, do you really want me to understand because this is still kind of confusing. But God wants us to have answers that awesome that God is a God who wants us to gain understanding, there things that he does veil from us. There are mysteries like the mystery of Christ that was failed for a while, but that God ultimately desires us to have understanding. And then in the middle of the second half of that, versus in those who lead many to righteousness shall shine, like the stars forever and ever. So like, the calling here is that we lead people to righteousness, that we gain understanding in that we don't sit in our pews because we've gained understanding that we gain understanding. And that understanding causes us to lead people to the path of righteousness. Because there is and and again, whether you if you believe that this happened, and this is all finished, I don't think anyone would argue that some very horrible things probably will happen in the future, because it's happened all throughout history, right.
And so what do we what do we do? What do we pass on to our children, we pass on that during times of tribulation and horrific things, that we can stand firm on the promises of God that God will see his people through that's so beautiful that we get to know you Our job is to have understanding of the time that we're in and lead people to righteousness. Right, lead people to the righteous one into walking and living in righteousness. That's what we get. That's what making disciples is, is leading people how to do that. That's our calling. And then in verse four, you tell us, Daniel, keep these words secret, seal the book until the time of the end, many will roam about or go to and fro, and knowledge will increase. And so basically, Daniel this right now, this is really interesting, though, he says, this isn't going to happen anytime soon. So seal it up. However, some of the stuff that he learned actually did happen pretty soon after it, right, like we learned about the Medes and the Persians. And we see that actually happening with Daniel, right. But he's told to do that. And the Daniel's asking, you can read the rest of this. But he starts asking, like, how long are these things going to happen? Then we get the time, the time and the half a time. And he has all these days? When will this abomination of desolation take place? from the date of sacrifice, and he gives these these numbers and you can go and I probably should have done that? Maybe, but maybe we'll do it later. And we'll look at Revelation, we'll look at some of these different times of this 1200 90 days and 1300 35 days. I think I got that right. Yeah, in all these different things that he's talking about, I would encourage you to go into really studying to think through what God is telling Daniel through this. So that's the book of Daniel. I just kind of want to end by like I've just been praying about, very practically what to do, you know, with with a lot of this information. And today. I just really felt like with it with this talk about the tribulation, the challenges that are going to come to God's people and stuff. Yesterday, when we were at the shabu oat festival celebration, there was a lady that was speaking. And she called some of the kids up. Remember that Justin, it was really a beautiful moment. Because she said, y'all we need to empower this next generation to lay down their lives for Jesus. That what we've done in an effort to keep everything safe, she gave an example. She said there was a kid that she knew that a young man, not a kid that wanted to go I can't remember was Iran or Iraq? I can't remember I don't want to lie. So one of those places. And the church basically said, No, it's not. It's not he wanted to go for Jesus, I want to go share the kingdom of God. And they were like, No, it's too, too dangerous. And she said, it broke my heart. Because she you know, of course, we use wisdom of all these things. But she's like, this is a young man that is fulfilling that looks at Revelation 12. It says, and they love their life, not even unto death. And the church were so worried about what's going to happen. And that of course, if my kids come to me and say that that's, I mean, I get it, like it's easier said than done. It's easier to preach these things and to live them out. But she said, why didn't we dare they Why don't we challenge them? Why didn't we she said, actually show them how to lay their lives down so that they see it. And they recognize it. And then we encourage them? Yes. If this is if this is God's call in your life, you got to go, you've got to go. And the cool thing was is what kind of tie this together she actually referenced Esther, last what we talked about last week, she said, Listen, I don't know why I hadn't thought about this. She said listen, Mordecai encourages Esther to risk her life. But he doesn't do that before he risked his own life. He risked his life when he didn't bow down to Haman. Right? You guys remember that, in fact, their gallows made for him to die. And she was saying what we have to do is we need to lay down our lives. So that we can tell show the next generation how to lay down their lives. Now, does that mean that we'll physically die lay down as I mean as possible? but also just think through? Like, what does it look like to be a radical follower of Jesus and to lay down our life before Him? Do we challenge our kids? Do we? Do we do our kids go Holy smokes dad, man, Mom, you have given that is a lot of money to give away to those people. Yes, be rescued. Go follow the Lord. You know, do things do it? Do they say man, why are you mom? Why are you going to that lady's house all the time? And? Well, it's because Jesus told us to make disciples and we're going to make disciples were called to lay down our lives to pick up our cross to do these things. You know what I mean? Like, challenge our kids to go out, go all out to go all I think this generation is ripe, is so ripe to do amazing things for the Lord. And who knows. Maybe the Lord Terri's for a long time, maybe not, maybe we're getting real. I think we're getting close. But and I'm not gonna go into details about all that right now. But I want to challenge them to to, to lay it down to lay it down for the king. And I want my actions to show them that go all out. Go. 100%. I was thinking through I'll end by saying you know oftentimes, so several people. We say man we want to be like the x church and stuff and like the Lord said, well
then do it. Now the x church had problems they allow problems, but you want to sell property and possessions to give to everyone I need to do it. I'm not stopping you, you know or whatever it may be. You know like there's you want to go and spend time in prayer like they were pour themselves out in prayer before lower than this go do it like Sometimes I think when we say we want to be like that, it's a reason for us to just kind of hesitate. But if we want to show our kids, you know, because they have to know that there will be hard times that are gonna come up in their life. And that's one of my big frustrations. I've seen so many people who have given their life to Lord who come upon trialing times, and they just lose their faith entirely. Because we haven't taught them. It's going to be tough. Sometimes it's going to stink sometimes. But God has promised that he will be with his people, and he will carry them to the end. And even if we lose our life, what's going to happen? What do we just read? What are we going to read? The dead are going to be resurrected. Even if we lose our life, one day, we'll go to sleep, and then we'll, we'll get to see the Lord, we'll get to be with the Lord. I guess we can, I guess, anyways, and then we'll be resurrected from the dead in that it's just awesome. It's awesome,
Lord.
Lord, I pray that we would have that that that heart, Lord of those people in Revelation where it says that they love their life, not even to death, Lord, they love not their life even unto death, but Lord, and that's so freeing, because God if we just say, you know what our money is yours, Lord, and will give to whatever you want us to give. We'll lay down whatever you want us to lay down. God, our kids are yours. We give them to you, Father, our workplaces, yours, our job is yours. Our homes are yours. Our everything is yours. Lord, I pray that we would teach this next generation, what it means father to live radical, life's completely sold out to you God that, that it wouldn't be radical anymore. Just be normal Christian living father, that we would show, Lord, that we will be strong during times of challenges and tribulations and Lord, even in our lives, Father, that we would look to your promises and recognize it, man. It's tough right now. But God says that we're going to he's going to see this through. And even if we die, we're going to be resurrected. So hey, it's pretty much a win win situation for his Father, I pray that we would have that heart Lord. We thank you for the book of Daniel, we thank You Father, that that he was faithful and obedient and that He fasted and prayed and read and sought understanding and I pray also, that this that Stosur we will be blessed with that spirit, that we will be blessed with a spirit of seeking understanding. And not just seeking it but living it out. Having insight but also calling people to righteousness and showing people the path of life God that we would do that as a body together. Father, we thank you for this In Jesus name, amen. Let's uh, once again, just
