Daniel Part 4
Series: Daniel
February 19, 2017
Landon Henry
Episode Notes
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzfgQEpx_4vOZURvaFRmY1FaNlU
DANIEL – 4
WHEN GOD CRASHES A PARTY!
• Culture’s greatest goal is to redefine our identity.
• Culture’s greatest test is to entice us to bow down to its gods.
• Culture’s greatest tool is distraction.
(Daniel 4:37 NIV) Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
SETTING:
The Year: 539 B.C.
The Place: THE ROYAL PALACE OF BABYLON
The Ruler: New King – Belshazzar…
The Problem: MEDO-PERSIAN army led by Darius
*No invader had been able to storm city for over 1,000 years*
(Daniel 5:1-4 NLT) Many years later King Belshazzar gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor,[a] Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. 3 So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
(Daniel 5:5 NLT) Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace
(Daniel 5:7 NLT) Whoever can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor and will have a gold chain placed around his neck. He will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom!
(Daniel 5:11-12 NLT) There is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy god. During Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, this man was found to have insight, understanding and wisdom like that of the gods. Call for Daniel and he will tell you what the writing means.
(Daniel 5:20 NLT) …when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, He was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory
(Daniel 5:22, 24 NLT) You knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself... so God has sent this hand to write this message
WHAT SHOULD WRITING ON THE WALL SAY TO ME?
1. Am I moving too fast?
Activity + Achievement = Personal Worth.
For this press of busyness is like a charm. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means we don’t have to look too closely at the heart. – Søren Kierkegaard
• The danger is not that we will renounce our faith, it’s that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied we will settle for a mediocre version of it.
(Luke 5:6) And this time their nets were so full of fish, they began to tear.
• Is it worth interrupting your pace, to let God address your emptiness?
2. Am I listening to the right people?
• The choices we make in life often result from the company we keep.
(1 John 3:1) See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” St. Augustine
• Are the people around you helping you understand your true identity as a child of God, or distracting you from it?
3. Do I need to make some new decisions in my life?
• Is there a difference between the direction I want to go and where I’m actually going?
(Daniel 5:24-27)
24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin
26 “Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Average American:
Eat out 14,411 times (including 1,811 trips to McDonalds).
Spend 13 months and 4 years watching TV.
Spend 5 years waiting in lines.
Spend 1 year looking for misplaced items.
Attend 35 weddings.
Drive 627,000 miles miles (25 times around the world)
(Daniel 5:28-31)
28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Medetook over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
• We can never make sense of life until we start listening to the One who created it.
2 Corinthians 6:2 I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
DANIEL – 4
WHEN GOD CRASHES A PARTY!
• Culture’s greatest goal is to redefine our identity.
• Culture’s greatest test is to entice us to bow down to its gods.
• Culture’s greatest tool is distraction.
(Daniel 4:37 NIV) Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
SETTING:
The Year: 539 B.C.
The Place: THE ROYAL PALACE OF BABYLON
The Ruler: New King – Belshazzar…
The Problem: MEDO-PERSIAN army led by Darius
*No invader had been able to storm city for over 1,000 years*
(Daniel 5:1-4 NLT) Many years later King Belshazzar gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor,[a] Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. 3 So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
(Daniel 5:5 NLT) Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace
(Daniel 5:7 NLT) Whoever can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor and will have a gold chain placed around his neck. He will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom!
(Daniel 5:11-12 NLT) There is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy god. During Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, this man was found to have insight, understanding and wisdom like that of the gods. Call for Daniel and he will tell you what the writing means.
(Daniel 5:20 NLT) …when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, He was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory
(Daniel 5:22, 24 NLT) You knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself... so God has sent this hand to write this message
WHAT SHOULD WRITING ON THE WALL SAY TO ME?
1. Am I moving too fast?
Activity + Achievement = Personal Worth.
For this press of busyness is like a charm. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means we don’t have to look too closely at the heart. – Søren Kierkegaard
• The danger is not that we will renounce our faith, it’s that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied we will settle for a mediocre version of it.
(Luke 5:6) And this time their nets were so full of fish, they began to tear.
• Is it worth interrupting your pace, to let God address your emptiness?
2. Am I listening to the right people?
• The choices we make in life often result from the company we keep.
(1 John 3:1) See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” St. Augustine
• Are the people around you helping you understand your true identity as a child of God, or distracting you from it?
3. Do I need to make some new decisions in my life?
• Is there a difference between the direction I want to go and where I’m actually going?
(Daniel 5:24-27)
24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin
26 “Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Average American:
Eat out 14,411 times (including 1,811 trips to McDonalds).
Spend 13 months and 4 years watching TV.
Spend 5 years waiting in lines.
Spend 1 year looking for misplaced items.
Attend 35 weddings.
Drive 627,000 miles miles (25 times around the world)
(Daniel 5:28-31)
28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Medetook over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
• We can never make sense of life until we start listening to the One who created it.
2 Corinthians 6:2 I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
Content Copyright Belongs to San Angelo First Assembly
5341