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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

These Things We Know

Chris Holland

These Things We Know: God is Faithful

With all my heart, I want to love you, Lord.

With all my heart, I want to serve you, Lord.

Do you want to serve him today with all your heart?

Do you want to love him with all your heart?

And why is it that we want to love him and serve him with all of our heart?

Because no matter what the circumstances, God is faithful all the time.

Heavenly Father, we have gathered here and we want to hear a word from you.

And so, Lord, while I have prepared, I pray and ask that you would take my preparations and transform them into what it is you want to say this morning.

And all of us, Lord, may you speak through the Holy Spirit, convict our hearts of righteousness, convict us of sin and convict us of the judgment to come that we might be faithful as you Lord are faithful we pray in Jesus name amen Last week we began a journey that I didn't know was going to be the beginning of a journey.

I had intended to simply preach on Daniel 3 in the context of the current events of society and then move on to a different sermon series that I had been planning.

Eastern time on social media, these words were released.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president, and while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.

When I saw that news and I was praying, I began to sense God leading me on a different journey.

And leading us as a congregation on a different journey.

I sensed, and I sense today more than ever before in my lifetime and in my ministry that we are living in unprecedented times.

And I have sensed a need that we come back to the roots.

More importantly, the roots of who God is.

Of who God is and what it is that we can anchor ourselves to in these uncertain and tumultuous times.

Over the course of 2 weeks there was an attempted assassination of a former president, the current president, stepping away from re-election campaign under intense pressure.

An event that he, along with others possibly hoped would bring unity.

However, a quick search of news stories helps us realize that we are nowhere near united and people are asking many questions.

Were there foreign entities involved in the assassination attempt?

Was the assassination attempt an inside job?

1 commentator commenting on the new presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party said this, it is more like a coronation than a convention.

People wondering, again, a quick search with Joe Biden's sickness and seeming disappearance.

Some asking if the president had actually died.

How are we as Seventh-day Adventist Christians to react?

And probably most importantly, where is God in all of this?

And so today we will continue a journey that we began last week, But in order to continue that journey, we need to go backwards, so then we can go forwards.

While we began in Daniel 3, we are going to go backwards to Daniel chapter 1, a sermon series on the book of Daniel.

And the sermon series will be entitled These Things We Know.

The book of Daniel is a testimony to God's faithfulness to his people.

It is a testimony to the reality that God is faithful despite our unfaithfulness.

It is a testimony to God's activity in the day-to-day life of human beings.

And it is a testimony to the reality that we do have an anchor that will hold.

A recent unattributed quote was sent to me this week, and this is what it said.

The 1 who reads a newspaper knows what is happening in the world.

So how is it that the book of Daniel can help us in these unprecedented times?

The book of Daniel begins with turmoil that is fascinatingly similar to the circumstances in which we now find ourselves.

If you have your Bibles I would invite you to open to Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, says this, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

1 might ask, how is that similar to the times in which we are living?

Well, we need to understand how Jehoiakim became king of Israel.

In fact, when Pharaoh Necho removed Jehoahaz, he inserted Jehoiakim on the throne.

This was an appointed king by a foreign Pharaoh.

And then after Jehoiakim was eventually removed, Jehoiakim was appointed to be the king in Israel.

And after Jehoiakim rebelled, Zedekiah was appointed.

And after things didn't work with Zedekiah, then Gedaliah was appointed and then eventually assassinated.

This was all happening in Judah during that time, leaving, I'm sure, the multitudes asking the question, who in the world is in charge?

Meanwhile, Daniel, along with other nobles of Judah, had been taken captive to Babylon.

The Bible focuses its attention on 4 Hebrew young men Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.

They were taken from their homes, they were taken from their country, they were taken from their families, they were taken from their school, All in an attempt to, in effect, change their identity.

So in the times of Daniel, people were asking the question, who is really in charge?

People were asking the question, what is my identity?

And then the prevailing thought of that time was that when a nation conquered another nation, that nation's gods were conquering the gods of the conquered nation.

And so the prevailing thought was that the gods of Babylon, Nabu, the prevalent god, Marduk, had conquered Yahweh, the God of Israel.

And I'm sure it left many people asking the question, why is God silent?

Similar circumstances to the 21st century.

People asking questions about their identity.

Did God simply create this world some millions of years ago, set it on a little spin and let all things work out?

And how is it that Daniel 1 is a testimony to God's faithfulness?

Another prophet, a contemporary of Daniel, Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 25, wrote warnings.

In Jeremiah chapter 25, verses 8 through 11, Jeremiah warned, Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words.

Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations roundabout, and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing and everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

This whole land will be a desolation and a horror and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years.

How is this a testimony to God's faithfulness?

The Bible records that in the third year of Jehoiakim's reign Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

The likelihood and probability of that ever happening was so minor that it would only take an act of God for it to actually happen.

You see at that time the 2 empires, The 2 great powers of the Middle East were Assyria and Egypt.

The empire Assyria had reached the pinnacle of its power in 627 BC.

And while Assyria was on the decline, it was still a very powerful nation.

However, in 612 BC, a little group, The group of peoples and tribes came together to form this group Babylon.

And under the leadership of a man by the name of Nabal-Palasar, He led a conquest of Nineveh in Assyria, and with that conquest, conquered the Assyrians in the most unlikeliest of circumstances.

While At the same time, down in Egypt, Pharaoh Necho was emboldening his empire, he was growing his empire.

And while Egypt began to conquer the southern regions of Assyria.

The Babylonians began to conquer the northern regions of Assyria.

These Things We Know: God is Sovereign

Do you believe that biblical principle that through it all, God will be with us, no matter what the circumstances?

The Almighty God will be right there with us.

His promise is not to take away the trial.

His promise is that he will walk through the trial with us.

Father in heaven, we have gathered here and we are about to open your word and we understand that without your Holy Spirit, we cannot understand your word, and so we pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, you would lead us into all truth, that we would be sanctified by that truth, And through the sanctifying power of your word, you would prepare us, prepare us for our heavenly home, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Chapman University conducted a survey, and they have conducted this survey for the last 9 years and their survey is what are the fears of Americans?

In a random sampling of over a thousand adults from all across America, they asked 97 different fears to discover the top fears of Americans.

The top 10 fears reveal a telling situation of what Americans are facing today.

Number 10 on the list is the fear of not having enough money for the future with about 48% answering and saying that was a fear or something they were very afraid of.

Number 9 on the list is cyber terrorism with 49% of the people answering.

Number 7 is the pollution of drinking water.

Number 5 and 6 are very closely related to 1 another, and that is the fear of a loved 1 getting sick and dying, or the fear of themselves getting sick and dying.

Number 4 on the list is the US becoming involved in another world war.

Number 3 is Russia using nuclear weapons.

Number 2 is the economic and financial collapse of the United States.

And the number 1 fear of Americans, according to the Chapman University survey, with over 60% of Americans saying they fear this, is corruption in the government.

And it has been the number 1 fear of Americans for every single year of the survey.

Another survey focusing also on the fears of American reveals that 4 in 10 Americans report that their anxiety over the course of the last year has worsened.

And over 50% of those under the age of 45 said that they were more anxious last year than the previous.

2 weeks ago, we began a journey in the book of Daniel seeking those answers.

The series is entitled These Things We Know.

And today we continue our study in Daniel chapter 2.

If you have your Bibles with you, I would invite you to open them to Daniel chapter 2.

If you don't have a Bible, there are some Bibles in the pews, but I want to encourage you from week to week to bring your Bible.

And while the verses are on the screen, I want to encourage us to have a Bible so we can look at the words and have the paper in our hands and read those words.

Daniel chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, the Bible says this.

Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.

Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams.

So they came in and stood before the king.

The king said to them, I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.

Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic.

Oh king live forever, tell the dream to your servants and we will declare the interpretation.

The king replied to the Chaldeans, the command from me is firm.

If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap.

But, if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor.

Therefore, declare to me the dream and its interpretation.

They answered a second time and said, let the king tell the dream to his servants and we will declare the interpretation.

The king replied, I know for certain that you are bargaining for time in as much as you have seen that the command from me is firm, that if you do not make known the dream to me, there is only 1 decree for you, for you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed.

Therefore tell me the dream that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation." The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king in as much as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer, or Chaldean.

Moreover, the thing the king demands is difficult, and there is no 1 else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.

Because of this, the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

A fascinating turn of events in chapter 2 of the book of Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that disturbed him.

Have you ever had a dream that disturbed you?

Have you ever had a dream that had you wake up in a cold sweat?

Have you ever had a dream that didn't have an ending and you went back to sleep hoping that it its ending might come about?

Nebuchadnezzar is disturbed because he's had a dream and he has forgotten the dream, but somehow knows that the dream was important.

He invited the wise men, magicians, conjurers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans.

The King James in New King James says, magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans.

You see, Nebuchadnezzar was following the custom of Babylonian religion.

The Babylonian religions looked for dreams and fantastic occurrences in visions, and they meant something for the future.

And so Nebuchadnezzar sought out the help of the magicians.

Quite literally, these were horoscopists.

They pretended to know and understand the future.

And then there were the astrologers or the conjurers.

All of these practices were condemned by the Hebrew religion.

In fact, in the law of Moses, if you were a practicing sorcerer, you were condemned to death.

But beyond those 3 in that group, there were the Chaldeans.

And the Chaldeans are an interesting group.

The Chaldeans found their origins in an Aramean tribe of lower Mesopotamia.

They were the ones that were now in charge of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

But at the same time, they were scholars.

But then at the same time, they were a kind of secret society with religious overtones.

What I don't want you to miss is while These Chaldeans were the ones who seemingly were behind the scenes, pulling strings and running Babylon.

These were the religious leaders of Babylon.

And while at a deep level, this dream is about revealing the future and things to come.

At a much deeper level, this dream is about a showdown.

This dream is about a showdown between the gods of Babylon and the almighty God, Yahweh, the 1 and only sovereign almighty God.

You see, if these wise men could reveal the contents of the dream to the king, it would be a confirmation in the Babylonian system of governance.

The wise men complained because of how difficult the request was of the king.

The Chaldeans spoke up, saying, what you've asked is impossible, and by doing so, by the way, They are confessing before the king that they worshiped a powerless and impotent God.

If you don't tell me, you will be cut in pieces and your homes turned into an ash heap.

But If you do tell me, there is reward and honor.

And so they requested a second time to have the king give them the dream, and Nebuchadnezzar was not deceived.

He called them on it and said, you're just asking for time so you can prepare your corrupt and lying words.

And then the Chaldeans went on to say, this is impossible for man.

No 1 can show the king except the gods, whose dwelling isn't with flesh.

And as we just read, the king was infuriated and sent the order to have the wise men of the land destroyed.

It is almost as if Nebuchadnezzar knew deep down inside that the god Nabu, the god Belmarduk, and the rest of the pantheon of gods in Babylon, he almost, it seems, knew deep inside that it was all just a bunch of foolishness.

Daniel and his 3 friends were considered to be a part of the group of wise men.

These Things We Know: God is Good

Do you look forward that day when Jesus will take us by the hand and lead us home?

You look forward to that day where Jesus will burst forth through the clouds in glory and take us by the hand and lead us home.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful that you are good, that you deliver, and you will be coming soon to take us by the hand and lead us home.

Help us as we study today to show ourselves approved to be ready for that day when you come again.

On July the 13th, 2024, there was a buzz in the air in Sarver, Pennsylvania.

Just 20 minutes away in Butler, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump was to hold a campaign rally.

Excitement was building in the area, and Cory Comperatore and his family were going to attend and show their support for President Trump.

Corey Comperatore was a project and tooling engineer and he was the former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department.

Little did any of his family know That their lives would be forever changed that day.

According to his family, Corey was a simple man.

He was quick to help those in need and he was a man of faith.

And 33 seconds, shots rang out at the Butler Farm showgrounds and as we all know, there was an attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump.

The last thing that Cory Comparatore told his family as they were about to celebrate their 29th anniversary, by the way, He told his wife and his 2 daughters, get down.

Those were the last words he ever spoke as he himself was hit and died from his own gun wounds, from the gun wounds of the assailant.

But as we contemplate this moment in time, People die every day.

And there is a question in the minds of people all around the world.

It's a very simple question with 3 letters.

In fact, it is the number 1 impediment to faith for millennials and Generation Z or Generation Z.

If God is so good, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?

We turn on the news or we read the news, we see war, people dying by the dozens, the hundreds and thousands, why?

Why are there starving people in the world?

If God is so good, why do bad things happen to seemingly good people?

Why are there those phone calls that occur in the middle of the night to tell a parent that their son or daughter has died in a tragic accident?

Why are there super storms that form and devastate areas?

Why was there a super storm in Gillette, Wyoming that has caused the Pathfinder Camperee to be canceled a day early?

And it is in the midst of those questions, we must answer the question, what is our calling as we wrestle with the answer?

Today we continue our series, These Things We Know.

And today we continue our study of the book of Daniel and we open Daniel the third chapter.

Some of you will say, didn't we study Daniel 3 3 weeks ago?

But at that point in time, I didn't know we were going to do a series on the book of Daniel.

So we return to Daniel chapter 3, and I'm not preaching the same sermon that I preached 3 weeks ago.

But in Daniel chapter 3, just to remind us of the context, Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he and the nation of Babylon were represented as a head of gold in a metal image that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream and that metal image as you will remember foretold the history of nations surrounding Jerusalem with absolute precision and accuracy.

However in Daniel chapter 3 and an act of defiance against God and an attempt to resolve a rebellion that had begun rising in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar built a metal statue, a metal idol that was completely made of gold.

It was a demonstration of his belief that his kingdom would last forever.

And you'll remember that Nebuchadnezzar invited political and religious leaders all to come to the capital city of Babylon and demonstrate their support and loyalty to him.

All they needed to do was to bow down and worship the golden idol.

Daniel was not at this gathering because apparently he had been sent on some errand by Nebuchadnezzar, and so he would not be there at that time.

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