Prayer, Dreams, and God's Sovereignty

Tom Shrader teaches from Daniel 2, where King Nebuchadnezzar demands his wise men tell him both his forgotten dream and its interpretation, threatening death if they fail. When Daniel faces this impossible situation, he demonstrates faith by gathering his friends for prayer and trusting God's sovereignty. The teaching emphasizes that God controls the future and kingdoms of earth, while believers can trust Him with impossible circumstances.

“There is this infinite God who took void and nothingness and created the universe, and yet this vast, huge, all-knowing, all-powerful God indwells me.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Faithful

Recorded: 2012

Duration: 56 min

Themes: prayer, faith, sovereignty, trust, impossible, dreams, authority, friendship, facing impossible circumstances, feeling overwhelmed, new believer, struggling with doubt, workplace pressure, cultural opposition, young adult, needing encouragement

Scripture: Daniel 2, Daniel 1:8, Daniel 1:17, Daniel 1:19, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Colossians 2:3

Theological Themes: divine sovereignty, gods control, providence, prayer life, faith under trial, biblical interpretation, spiritual warfare, eschatology

Full Transcript

Open your Bibles to the Book of Daniel. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, and if you get a Bible from us, it's page 478. We are in week six of what will be a 10-week series titled Faithful.

The overarching theme, as always, has the main character as God, but we're also looking at the life of two men from ancient times. First, Joseph, which we studied by looking at Genesis 37 through 50, and now Daniel, as we examine the first six chapters in the Book of Daniel. In both of these studies, we see men who have triumphed and are in the midst of triumphing in the middle of moral and spiritual corruption in the culture around them. That's certainly the world we live in.

Living in Opposition to Culture

We live at a time that is more and more becoming blatantly in opposition to the very things that we believe and hold fundamental. You and I live at a time of gradual, obvious, open hostility to your faith, and then you see the lack of common sense. I sent myself three emails this week, and they were stories that were in the news.

Here's one headline: "New trend, gyms banning slim clients to foster comfort for overweight patrons." As you read about this, gyms are saying they're not particularly interested in fit people, which apparently means you're working yourself out of a job. Once you get fit, they want you out. We've reached this point of lunacy in the culture where we prefer accolades over achievement. We really have reached the point where we say "you tried real hard" rather than "you won."

My grandson, who's four, is intense and competitive. We were at breakfast one day, and breakfast came at the same time. He said, "I know I can eat my breakfast faster than you," and I said, "Hey, little man, that's not the issue." He went to see his cousin Reagan in a little ballet recital last week, and it drove him nuts that nobody won. "Who won? Did she win that thing?" No.

A Culture That's Grown Soft

You're in a culture that's lost not just its moral compass, but has grown soft. It's a culture that's much more concerned about accolades and that you tried hard than that you succeeded. The culture continues now to be driven by concern for the weakest—not just weak in terms of ability, but weak in terms of resolve.

Living with me is not particularly fun, because I believe every silver lining has a cloud, and I'm determined to find it. That's just the world you live in, but on a much bigger scale than what they do at the gym. By the way, how about my baseball Wildcats? I've been on board a long time. As you all know, I don't really care, but I love to say to the guys from ASU, it's good to have a champion back in the state again.

You live in a time, particularly when you get to issues like moral issues and spiritual issues, where you and I stand really in opposition to the culture around us. There'll be times where you get the head nod that says yes, but you're going to find yourself just like Daniel—that's the whole point of this study—just like Daniel, who's living in a secular, humanist society.

Daniel's Circumstances

Let me remind you what we saw in chapter one. Daniel and his friends are living in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar takes the king and the king's family and some of the royalty and some of the key people—it appears even people who had potential, especially among the young men—and takes them back to Babylon.

We meet these boys when they're 14, 15, 16 years old, and we see them as remarkable men. They're living in a foreign land where all of their support structure is gone. It's a secular land that's in dark contrast and opposition to their beliefs. Their identities are taken away from them, their names are changed, all in an effort of trying to take those who were the best and brightest of these boys from Judah and assimilate them into the culture.

They stand in opposition to the force of the king, and they're clearly under spiritual attack. What do you do in moments like that? Chapter one, verse eight is the key verse: Daniel made up his mind. Daniel determined. Daniel resolved.

Daniel's Character and Our Goal

Daniel Campbell wrote this about Daniel, the subject of our study: "Daniel could discern the fact that the Babylonian culture was in conflict with the word of God, and Daniel had the maturity and moral courage to say a firm no to cultural pressures. Involved in this is the clear implication that Daniel was a keen student of the scriptures, and he had the ability to apply what he knew to the problems of everyday life."

That's our goal. Our goal is to study the word of God so we know the God of the word, and to understand how that God would have us live. The little "what would Jesus do?" is cute and clever, but that really isn't the issue. The issue is what would Jesus have you do? How do you take this and then bring it forward? In this case, these lessons and principles that are timeless—bring them forward 2,500 years and apply them to your life today?

Last week we saw that as the force and the demands came against Daniel, he had his conviction, but he tried to find a middle ground. He didn't cave in, nor did he dig in his heels and declare cultural war. Instead, he went to the king's official over him, Aspenaz, and said, "Listen, here's the problem. You're telling me I've got to eat this food, and I'm telling you I've determined I'm not going to do that."

The king's official said at the end of verse 10, "Here's the problem. If all of a sudden you don't eat this, and the king can see it, then you would make me forfeit my head to the king." Daniel said, "Well, I don't want to do that. Maybe there's a win-win here, because I understand what you're concerned about, but I want you to understand my concern."

Aspenaz replied, "I really don't care whether you defile yourself or not. I care about me." So Daniel said, "Well, let's do this then. For 10 days, just give us vegetables and water, and let's see if you can tell at the end of those 10 days." They did this test, and they couldn't tell the difference. In fact, Daniel and his friends were even fatter than the other guys.

Not only this, God blessed them. God blessed them in verse 17, and we're still in chapter one, "and he gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom." They're obedient, God blesses. They're obedient, God blesses, and He gives them intelligence and wisdom, so much so that in verse 19, when the king tested them, he found them better than everyone else—ten times better.

Daniel and His Friends Graduate to Royal Service

When we pick up the story in Daniel chapter two, it appears the boys have ended this education and training period, and they're now in the personal service of Nebuchadnezzar the king. They've graduated and are part of the group of magicians, conjurers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans—they're part of the king's cabinet. They're in an inner circle, and that's a pretty big circle, I think, but they're part of that.

To Daniel was given, as it was to the other boys—look again back at chapter one, verse 17—these four youths were given knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom, and Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. That becomes front and center in our study today.

Nebuchadnezzar's Troubling Dreams

Chapter two, verse one: "In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him." One of the paraphrases says this: he was disturbed deeply and couldn't sleep.

That's almost a universal experience, for various reasons. For me to try to sleep on Saturday night is a waste. Last night's a perfect example. I sat up, waiting for Sandy to come home so I could take care of some stuff that she needed, got that done, I went to bed—total waste of time. I lay there, I toss, I lay there, I toss, I lay there, I toss, I drift, I wake up, and then I get up at four, so maybe I got an hour and a half sleep. That's just like every Saturday night.

Sometimes it's in anticipation of today: Do I have this right? I'm always a little bit insecure when I'm teaching a narrative—I find those hard for me to teach. Don't know that I do a particularly good job with them. So you've had it too, maybe something at work, maybe a crisis in family. Maybe husband and wife—same bed, but we're not sharing the same hearts right now. Maybe a kid, maybe something at work. It may be something that you dreamt, and maybe, even like Nebuchadnezzar, you couldn't remember it.

God's Sovereignty in Dreams and the Future

That's kind of a universal human condition. What makes Nebuchadnezzar's troublesome dream unique is that this dream was given to him by God. We've said all along, this book—the book of Daniel, but this book, the Bible—is a book that demonstrates to us the sovereignty of God. This is all about God. It's about God creating and our sin, and then God coming along, and it's a story then of redemption. It's a story of God bringing things back together again, and restoration. God is the central figure. God is the one who gave these young men their health and their intelligence and their influence and all that goes with it.

Nebuchadnezzar has this dream. We are later going to learn the contents of the dream, but if you will, under the topic line or subject line, it's simply about the future. What this dream tells us is that God not only knows the future and created the future, He controls the future. We need to be right-minded of the sovereignty of God, that He is the God that reigns.

We're curious about the future, and I always find two things interesting about the future. Number one, it typically shows us how impotent we really are in things, to predict it. We're all the experts. It doesn't matter—this is not about Obamacare—we're all the experts who predicted this is how the court's going to rule, and even the ones that said it'll be five to four didn't have Roberts there, so we didn't do very well. We periodically try to predict the outcome of a game, and it doesn't work that way. We try to understand the economy and the things around, because they affect us.

I have one of the studies I do of this curmudgeon-y old guy—I love him. He's an ex-stockbroker, and he came in Thursday, and he said, "I had a great week. I bought this J.P. Morgan stock, and in a day, it went up a buck and something." But just that night, Wednesday night, a leak, accurate or inaccurate,

said that the projected losses for J.P. Morgan weren't going to be $2 billion, but $9 billion, and he said, I lost my buck and a quarter, plus another buck and a half. We're not very good at that.

And we're curious about our own personal dreams. Will I get married? Who will I marry? Where will I live? Will I work? What will be my future? How long will I live? Well, what we learn in the scripture, what we learn over and over again in the book of Daniel, is that God is the king of all things, including the future, that He knows all things.

God's Sovereignty Over Everything

I brought this mug, and I don't know, I don't think I got a name on who left this for me, but this was just on my desk one day, and inside, you can see kind of a label tape, and it said, Tom's Oprah cup. This is a result of my 14 million times quoting Oprah, and it says on here, things happen for a reason. Right, so isn't that what Oprah says all the time? Not just Oprah, but I pick Oprah, because she's kind of iconic.

It is odd to be in a world where not just Oprah, but so many people say it, people who believe in evolution and accidents kind of believe that somehow everything happens for a reason, and I believe that's nothing more than kind of self-medication to try to make you feel a little bit better. Because if everything is an accident, and evolution, and all these things are true, then for everything to happen for a reason, there has to be someone in control. Somebody orchestrating things. And what the Bible tells us is God is sovereign.

Now for 22 years, we've done an awesome, amazing job at East Valley Bible Church, Redemption Church, of teaching the sovereignty of God as it relates to our salvation. But I want to make sure we don't stop there. It's the sovereignty of God in all matters. That God is all-knowing and all-powerful, so that His will will be done. That there's no maverick molecule that can usurp His plan, that's somehow loose in the universe, it doesn't exist. That God is all-knowing, and they would have to be both, frankly, and all-powerful. That He controls the universe.

That's what Paul writes in Romans chapter one, in verse 20, he said, since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen. So scientists tell us, I lose interest like this in the discussion, that the universe is growing, growing, growing, growing, growing. Okay, well, what's that mean to us?

The Vastness of God's Love

Well, if we believe God created it, the universe, then we're beginning to see how big He really is. Is there life on other planets? I don't know. I think it'd be cool if there isn't. I mean, I don't know. I hear we've been visited by other planets. I hear that stuff all the time, but I don't ever see it.

That there is not life anywhere else in the universe, which is God's way of saying, look at how big I am. Oh, FYI, and how small you are. But how deep my love must be for you, because in this vast universe, I love you, chose you, and I sent my son to die so that you all might have eternal life. And the whole point of that, and of the mysteries, and the prophecies, and all that we're going to look at today, the whole point of that is to provide comfort to you, to remind you of who you are, remind you of who He is.

God Reveals Mysteries Through Prophecy

Well, this future has mysteries, and periodically, God grants us a glimpse into the future through prophecy. We see it through the Old Testament. Jesus gives it. He says, I must suffer, die, rise again. The last book of His Bible is called a book of revelation, and it's about that, revelation that Jesus gave to the Apostle John. So we get that, we see that. God does this periodically, and this is one of those occasions.

We're in Daniel chapter two, and the point is made like three, four, five times here. Verse 19, the mystery is revealed to Daniel. Verse 22, it is God who reveals the profound and hidden things. Verse 28, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. Verse 47, there is this God, who's the God of gods and the Lord of kings, a revealer of mysteries.

A mystery is something that's unknown, but periodically, some of your translations, by the way, may say secrets, but it's something that, to this point, God has hidden, but now decides to reveal.

Nebuchadnezzar's Impossible Demand

So Nebuchadnezzar has the dream. He doesn't remember it. It troubles him. So he does what a king like this would do. He calls in his best and his brightest and all of his cabinets, and he tells them, listen, verse three, I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.

And so then they say, well, let's go through the normal procedure. You tell us the dream, we'll tell you what it means. And he said, well, I have a problem here this time, okay? I don't know the dream.

The king said in verse five, this is the command for me. If you don't make known to me the dream, you don't have to tell me what the dream is, and the interpretation, and this is his management style, okay, you'll be torn limb from limb in your house. We've made a rubbish heap. If you declare it, verse six, it's the opposite. You're going to get a reward. So tell me the dream and tell me what it means.

Second time they said, listen, this isn't good. You can't do this. You tell us the dream. We'll give you the interpretation. And the king said, I know you're bargaining for time. Make the dream known to me. If you don't, all of these things are going to happen. They're going to take place. You're going to be in trouble. You're lying, you're corrupt. Tell me the dream.

Now, apparently, this is just me. I don't know if Nebuchadnezzar has gone to the thing and said, you know what, that's interesting because they keep telling me what these dreams mean, but if they can't tell me what

The dream was, how do I know the interpretation was real? The other side of this is, it appears he can't remember what the dream is, so I'd make one up. Oh, there was this, and he'd go, really? I don't remember that. Oh, you were in a deep sleep. I mean, now with the thing, they go on. But apparently, these guys are not as clever or devious, apparently, as I am, and so they're hard-pressed.

Now, let me say, because this is profoundly true. Verse 10: "There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician or conjurer of Chaldean." This is uncharted waters, unprecedented. No king, no king in battle, no king ever has asked this. There's nobody who could possibly do it. Moreover, beyond all of that, "the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there's no one else who could declare it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling place is not within mortal flesh."

Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 11 this way: "You're asking, what you're asking is impossible unless some god or goddess should reveal it to us," this is perfect, "and they don't hang around with people like us." It's the same thing that we saw. There's so much of an overlap, there's some nuanced difference, but so much of an overlap between this and our study with Joseph. Joseph declares to Pharaoh, Joseph declares over and over, I, God's the one who gives dreams. God's the one who interprets. What these guys say is exactly right.

The Distant God vs. The Intimate God

It is fascinating to see that approach, not just played out in old times, but we see it today. It's kind of this idea of God that He wound this whole thing up and then walked away. There was a very popular song years ago called "From a Distance," and it was all about what things look like from a distance. From a distance, the world looks blue and green, and the snow-capped white mountains from a distance, and the oceans meet the stream, and the eagles fly. From a distance, this is what it looked like, but then the verse is, God is watching us. God is watching us. God is watching us from a distance. It was this idea that there's this God, but He's kind of an unknown God. He's a removed God, He's a distant God.

Let me give you something that is radically different. I'll go back to step one, to the mug. Everything happens for a reason, I believe that, and everything that happens is caused by or allowed by a sovereign God who not only knows all things, but can do all things. He's all-knowing, He's all-powerful, that's why He's sovereign, that's why He's in control, that's why He does as He pleases, but He's not a distant God. He's a God who's intimately, personally involved with us.

Go back to what we talked about a couple minutes ago. There is this infinite God who took void and nothingness and created the universe. He rules it today. And yet, this gets into kind of like mind-blowing area, that vast, huge, all-knowing, all-powerful God indwells me. It's amazing, and you. He's not a distant God. He sees the sparrow fall, has the hairs on your head counted. He knows everything you've ever said, everything you're going to say, you know the drill, He knows all of those things.

When Theology Gets Twisted by Suffering

There was a book that was very popular in the culture probably about 25 or 30 years ago, and what became alarming is it became popular among Christian circles. In fact, there were even a few prominent Christian leaders who endorsed the book. It was called "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" And I don't remember, and I know I'm really close, but I think it was chapter seven. Well, one of the chapter titles was "God can't do everything, but he can do some very important things."

What happened, the premise of this book, and I get it, it's born out of tragedy, it's born out of one man's, one rabbi's experience where his son is killed, and he's trying to bring reason to it, and I get it. But what so often suffering does is take our theology and twist it so somehow it seems like in this quest to spare God's reputation, we all really couldn't do anything about it. We believe that God either causes or allows suffering, causes or allows everything. If that's not true, He's not God. He's all-knowing, He's all-powerful. He doesn't owe me an explanation.

He is the God who creates, and yet in the vastness of that is the intimacy we can have with Him. He is knowable, not completely, because He's infinite, we're finite. He's knowable and has a desire to be known to His people. So in fact, one of the things that the Spirit of God does when the Spirit of God indwells us is take this word and open it up to us. So formerly, 1 Corinthians 2:14, formerly as natural people, we couldn't understand spiritual things, but now we can.

The King's Deadly Decree

So these guys got it right when they said in Abba Kenesha, it's the gods. What they got wrong is there is a God. Because of this, the king became indignant and furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. He said, okay, that's it, you're done.

So the decree went forth, verse 13, and the wise men, it's Daniel's death morning. Verse 13: "Daniel replied with discretion and discernment, and he went to Ariok, the captain of the king's bodyguard who had gone forth to slay the wise men, and he said to the king's commander, for what reason is this decree from the king so urgent?" Ariok told Daniel, here's what's going on.

And Daniel went in, verse 16, and to me, maybe, I don't think impetuous youth, Daniel at this point, by the way, remember what we said, is that when they came over, the boys were probably 14, 15, so now Daniel's 18, 19. Now, we need to point out, we need to point out that a 14-year-old in that culture was different...

than our 14-year-olds. A young man was a man at 14 or 15. You have this alarming thing. I talk to different members of our pastoral team and the teams at the other campuses, and they will just tell you it is alarming, the immaturity and lack of progression of young men. There's some of me, and I don't even want to get in there, because then you'll just be all over me.

But some of you are doing your kids no favor. Listen, when the boys—first of all, when he's 22 or 23, he's 24, 25, 26, and he still wants to bring his laundry home to you, mommy, and have you do his laundry and cook his meals—the best thing you can do is throw these kids out and tell them to get a job. Get four or five other derelicts like them and get a $200 a month apartment and let them live together. I mean, at some point you have to grow up.

Anyway, I digress. But they're different. To me, it's really alarming. One of the things we see in the church—we see a ton of beautiful, spiritually mature girls, and we say, where are the guys in the house? They just aren't around. They're playing video games with their friends.

Daniel's Confidence in God

Anyway, I digress. But Daniel—and I don't think he's being impetuous—I think he's saying, I have a lot of confidence in God, because he knows what the boys up here said is true: that there is a God who can give interpretation, and Daniel's going to wait for Him.

Verse 17: "Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, that would be Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon."

Daniel's Support Structure

I'm going to make a couple of observations. One of what Daniel appears to have in place, and then two, his approach to it. It appears that though these circumstances are extraordinary, Daniel was able to go back and to just plug into an existing support structure around him. It wasn't crisis management. He didn't have to say, "Gosh, I wonder if I can get a team together." He went back to his house and he seemed to have these guys in place.

What you and I need to understand—I think we do—is that we weren't designed to live this life in a vacuum. Life in general is spiritual life.

Now, I mentioned this book to you last week and I said I'm getting together different things to take with me and read for summer. I mentioned this book, "Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything" by Tullian Tchividjian, who is—and I'm sure this kid is sick of hearing this—Billy Graham's grandson. He took over at Coral Ridge Presbyterian after D. James Kennedy. So he inherited a mess and somehow was still breathing. He's a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Seminary. I said to you, I really like this book. I also said that I asked Aaron to get a couple cases and throw them in the bookstore. So if you're looking for a book to pick up and read, it'll be a good one. I think there's probably a dozen or so of them left over there, maybe a few more.

The Problem with Accountability Groups

Part of the reason I like it is because he agrees with me. But one of the things he talks about in here is accountability groups. We need community, but my fear is that we have these accountability groups. Rather than have me rant about them, let me just read you what Tullian says.

"At different times in my life, I've been part of what's called an accountability group. You know the ones I'm talking about, where you and a small group of friends arrange a time each week to get together and to pick each other apart, uncovering layer after layer after layer of sin. All parties involved believe that the guiltier we feel, the holier we are. You confess your sin to your friends, but it's never enough. No matter what you unveil, they're always looking for you to uncover something deeper, darker, even more embarrassing than what you fessed up to. It's usually done with such persistent invasion that you get the feeling that they're desperately looking for something in you that will make them feel better about themselves.

"Well, I hate those groups," he writes. "The reason I hate these kind of groups described above is that they're focused primarily, if not exclusively, on our sin, not on our savior. Because of this, these groups breed self-righteousness, guilt, and almost irresistible temptation to pretend to be less than honest. I can't tell you how many times I've been in accountability groups where there's been little or no attention given to the gospel. There's never the reminder of what Christ has done for our sin, cleansing us from guilt, and the power that we have, and the resources that are ours by virtue of our union with Him. These groups produce a 'do more, try harder' moralism that robs us of the joy and freedom Jesus paid dearly for us."

The Right Kind of Community

Now, once you say these things, you have to go back and clean it up. And we did, I've learned that. To be sure, we're called to mortify—that'd be put to death the flesh—and the misdeeds of our body, to cut off our hand, gouge out our eyes. But we need the help of others to do this.

The sin that gives rise to our sinful behavior is a preoccupation with ourselves. That's the root of sin that needs to be mortified. That's the under-the-surface sin that gives birth to our misdeeds. The first sin that needs to be rooted out and attacked is not immoral behavior, it's immoral belief—the belief that my Christian life is all about my morals and my spiritual progress.

See, that's what happens. I'm totally agreeing that you need people around you. I just think some of them—and maybe it's a weakness in me, so I was really glad to read that, because apparently it's a weakness in him as well—is to go, some of these groups have just, "How are you doing?" "I'm fine."

How are you really doing? Well, until about five seconds ago, I was fine. Now, I want to hit you in the face. I want to be careful here, and some of that is pride, but here's what Tozer said long ago. Self is bad. Whether I'm talking in a way that's self-degrading or it's self-aggrandizement, it doesn't matter. In either case, I'm talking about myself.

Now, we want to acknowledge sin, we want to talk about sin, but all of a sudden, it is so easy for us to fall into a self-righteous, pharisaical way of saying, "I have to do this, stop doing this," and it becomes all of me rather than saying, "No, here's the forgiveness I have in Christ." What we just talked about right there for three minutes is grace, and every time we talk about grace, it gets very sloppy.

The Mystery of the Christian Life

This is not about me being strong. This is about Him being strong. One of the songs that you sang, if you're in the conference center, we'll sing it when you're in the chapel, it has a verse that says, "All I need is You. Every hour, all I need is You." There's a great line in one of the verses: "When I can't stand, I'll fall on You. You're all I need, and that's the truth."

It's the mystery of the Christian life. He's the vine, we're the branches. We hang in, He produces this. Daniel has these guys around, but they're there to build each other up. Not this chronic self-examination that says, "No, got to get worse and worse and worse."

Daniel's Response: Prayer and Rest

Look at what Daniel does. They get together in verse 17, and they, verse 18, pray. Verse 19, the mystery is revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Wait a minute, what's Daniel doing in verse 19? He's sleeping.

It's this wonderful principle that it makes no sense for us to do what only God can do, and it makes no sense for us to wait for God to do something we can do. Here's what God's doing. Daniel's going, "Okay, they got it right. The revelation of this comes from God. Me staying up all night walking in the woods, thinking, it isn't going to make any difference. I can't figure it out. God does this, and if God's going to reveal it, let Him reveal it, maybe in a dream."

This can go both ways, and I get it, but there's just certain things that only God can do, so you busting your pick for this is a waste of time. But there's other things that God says, "No, you can do this, you do them."

Time as an Ally

In the midst of this, what Daniel realized when he went to the king with the request is that time can be an ally. We often speak of time as though it's this precious commodity that's dripping away, and it is. Time is running out. My biological clock is ticking. You don't have forever, that's true. But time also provides us, periodically, the opportunity to heal. Time heals all wounds. The opportunity to step back, and clear our head, and reflect, and regroup, and all the things that we talk about, and all that goes with it.

I was watching a cooking show, which is amazing to me, because I don't cook. I watch home improvement shows, I don't improve homes. I watch cooking shows, I don't cook. I watch all these things. I'm watching this cooking show, and this guy is taking this steak, he's baking this steak, and he says, "Right here is where almost everyone stops cooking, because the steak is sort of done. I'm going to leave it on two minutes, and seal in the juices." Time.

Daniel goes, "Okay, we got time. Let's see what happens." And here's what happens. Daniel goes to sleep, and God reveals the dream to him.

What Would Be Your First Reaction?

Now, we'll get at what the dream is, but let me ask you, what would be your first reaction in a moment like that? I'm going to tell you what mine would be. I would wake up, I'd have the dream, I'd go, "Aha." I would sprint to the palace, and I would say, "I believe Nebuchadnezzar wants to see me. They are busy. Tell him I need to see him." And I would get in, and I would go, "Neb, can I call you Neb? Neb, neb, neb, neb, neb. You are one lucky king. Why? Well, Neb, you have me in your kingdom. And I know what the dream means."

You'd do that too, wouldn't you? Yes, you would, you little lion. After you confess that you're a lying puke, you would do it. Daniel doesn't do that. It's amazing to me what Daniel does.

Daniel's Response: Praise First

Daniel seems to be, and I have written, I don't know where this came from, because it was written in this Bible, and I don't remember teaching Daniel before out of this Bible, but it said, "I am frequently in awe of God, but never surprised by Him." And it's like, Daniel's in awe of God, but he isn't surprised, so you know what he does? He breaks out, really, into praise. He begins to pray. He takes the time, literally, to thank God.

Daniel said, "Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever. Why? For wisdom and power belong to Him. It's Him who changes times. It's Him who removes kings. It's Him who establishes kings. It's Him who's sovereign."

John Calvin wrote this: "Whenever God confers any remarkable blessing on His servants, they are more stirred up to praise Him." Now, if that's true, and I believe it is, then I need to count my many blessings, count them one by one. I tend to be an ungrateful person. I tend to rarely thank God with vigor for my health, but I pray when I'm sick to be healed. I see it over and over again.

The Heart Stirred for Praise

Here's what Calvin's saying, and I think it's exactly true. When I understand, when God, let me read it again. When God confers remarkable blessings on His servant, and if I come back and go, "Really, any blessing from God is a remarkable blessing," then my heart is going to be stirred for praise. I'm going to sing songs that say, "I need You, oh, I need You, every hour I need You." I'm going to really mean it.

I'm going to understand these amazing truths, and my life's not going to be filled with some sort of self-righteous pride, but it's going to be exactly John the Baptist: "He must increase, I must decrease. He's everything, I'm nothing." And this isn't

Some have low self-esteem issues. But Daniel recognizes this is a reality of the truth. Daniel doesn't go to God with false humility. He goes to God and says, "God, thank you. You're the God of power, and I praise You in the midst of it. I praise You for Your wisdom and Your power."

Tozer, in his book *Knowledge of the Holy*, writes this: "The idea of God as an infinitely wise God is at the root of all truth. Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by perfect means. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision." That's God. That's God's plan.

Daniel's Thanksgiving Prayer

Keep reading in verse 23: "It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things. He knows what's in the darkness. We don't—we can't see this. To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise."

Daniel starts with this macro view. He says, "This is who You are." But look at what He's done: "You have given me wisdom and power, and even now You've made known to me what we requested of You. God, You've answered my prayer. You've made known to me the king's matters."

"You are an awesome God." And it's not just something for Daniel. Paul tells us in Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, that in Christ are hidden all treasures of knowledge and wisdom. We go back to 1 Corinthians 2:14—the natural man doesn't get spiritual things. But all of a sudden now, you and I have Christ in us. We have the ability to see things.

I like to define wisdom as the ability to connect the dots, the ability to see the forest and the trees. We begin to look at life around us and maybe not understand each specific circumstance, but always understand everything is under the jurisdiction of God—His grace, His mercy. He is an awesome, holy, mighty God who rules the kingdoms of the earth, who holds everything in place, and who desires to have an intimate, personal relationship with His people. You can know Him.

As I said before, not completely, because He's infinite and you're finite. But you can know Him and know about Him and know the complexities and begin to see life as it really is.

Before King Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel goes to Arioch and asks to see the king, and he's hurried into the king's presence. Arioch goes to the king and says in verse 25, "I found a man from among the exiles of Judah who can interpret the dream."

The king said to Daniel, named Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?" Make sure you understand what he's saying. The king is saying, "Can you do this?"

Here's what Daniel says: "No." Verse 27: "As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners can declare it to the king." Here's the king with all the resources. He's talking about rewards and accolades and all the things that go with it—all the praise and everything that goes with it. "This is all yours. This can all be yours. Can you interpret the dream?" "No."

There Is a God in Heaven

Verse 28: "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed."

Daniel said, "No, I can't explain these dreams, but there's a God in heaven who gives these dreams and He gives these interpretations. It's not about the gods or goddesses that are out there in the future or the gods and goddesses that are there in the present. He's a great God. He's a holy God. He's a perfect God. And He said, 'I'm going to make this known to you. I'm going to reveal this to you.'" "I've seen this, I've heard this, but don't for a second mistake and think it's me. There's a God who's made this known to me."

Verse 30: "This God has revealed this mystery to me, not because of any wisdom residing in me." This goes back and reinforces the earlier point. Here's what he's saying: "Yes, there's a God who's revealed it. Yes, He's revealed it to me, but let me say it again. Let me underline it. Let me put exclamation points: Not because of me."

"It's not that God revealed this—" Daniel is saying, "I want to make sure you don't give me any praise for this. He didn't give it to me because I'm something special."

The Danger of Taking Credit

I was watching one day when Herschel Walker was being inducted into the University of Georgia Bulldog Hall of Fame. He said, "I want to thank God because everything I accomplished is from Him." And then he didn't do what a lot of people do—talk about what they did.

One day, I'm down at La Paloma teaching, and I'm at a red light coming out onto Ina. Herschel was staying at La Paloma, and Herschel was running early in the morning. Herschel had on shorts, no shirt, shorts and shoes. His thighs are like my waist. He is this massive creature. But you know what? He maintained that—he was a steward of it. I can go the other way and think of Marcus Dupree, who had the same body but just ate his way into oblivion.

But I can say, "Listen, he stewarded that." That's a gift, but Herschel's smart enough to know, "I didn't deserve that body." I look at LeBron and think, "He's good and all that, but do you think—honestly, let's be honest—do you think he and I are born with the same ability or opportunity?"

One of the things that has messed this country up is that God granted us the pursuit of happiness. He didn't guarantee happiness. While we're all equal—and we are—we aren't all the same. Yesterday I was watching the boys play basketball. They're six, seven, and eight years old. Some of these boys are awesome. Some of these boys—it's never going to happen. They were just born that way.

easy to somehow confuse and take that gift and say, "I got the gift, but look at me—why wouldn't you give it to me? I'm pretty special." I love that he just strips all of this away.

So he tells them about the dream, and you can read about it, but I'll give you the highlights. He talks about kingdoms. Verse 36, he talks about the kingdom of gold, the head—it's Babylon. In a biblical sense, these kingdoms are prototypes of earthly kingdoms. Then there's the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Then there's the kingdom of the Greeks, under primarily the direction, at least initially, of Alexander the Great, and then the Romans.

He talks about these earthly kingdoms. There seems to be a progression in this, and different authors get carried away, and you can go and read them, and what I just gave you is kind of the general breakdown. But there's a progression of weaknesses of these empires.

The Coming Divine Kingdom

Then along comes, in verse 44, a divine kingdom. "In those days, those kings, God of heaven, will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put to end all these other kingdoms." There's this kingdom that's coming. It's the kingdom of God, and it will destroy all the kingdoms—the Babylonian kingdom, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the kingdom of Germany, China, Brazil, United States. All those kings pass away. There's a perfect kingdom.

Jesus said, "Here I am, the kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus comes, and He says, "Now, here's the beginning of this new kingdom." You are—you and me—you're kingdom people. Jesus, and we get into eschatology here, but generally speaking, we understand Jesus came once, Jesus seems to be going to come again. He's either set up this kingdom, has set it up, will set it up. There'll be this earthly kingdom, and there'll be this kingdom of God will reign.

That kingdom—and this is the point of that whole prophecy—is to understand that that kingdom is coming and God will reign and He's superior. He, the one true God, raises kings up, puts kings down. He's the one that establishes, and ultimately His kingdom, whenever it comes, will be the final kingdom. The kingdom will reign, and you can be in that kingdom of God, participate in that kingdom of God right now. That's the whole point.

Nebuchadnezzar's Recognition

Verse 46: "Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell in his face and did homage to Daniel and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. And the king answered Daniel and said, 'Surely your God is a God of gods, a Lord of kings, a revealer of mystery.'" "How do I know that? Since you were able to reveal this mystery yourself." Now he acknowledges the one true God.

What's very interesting: Nebuchadnezzar still not ready to come to that one true God. He says, "Man, this is the God of gods. This is the Lord of all the kings. This is the one God, the God. Man, I want all the blessings He can shed on me, so Daniel come close, but I don't need that God."

We could make a sub-point here that I think is worth making: that when the king saw Daniel doing his thing, the king knew there was a God, just like when people see you living a life empowered by the Holy Spirit, they'll go, "Wow." Isn't that what Jesus said? "Let them see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven."

Daniel's Advantage in the Workplace

Daniel has a huge advantage over all the magicians and the conjurers and the Chaldeans—all the guys in his office, all the guys in a workplace. He's got a huge advantage, and we pointed out it's the same advantage that you have at work. That is, he has a personal relationship with God.

"And the king promoted Daniel and gave him many gifts and made him ruler over the province of Babylon and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel said, 'I have a request,' and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration in the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king's court." Daniel's faith in the one true God was not a hindrance but an asset in his work, just like yours is.

We need to make sure that—gosh, we talked about this a lot, and maybe it catches on after a while—that we understand our faith is a deeply personal matter, but it's not a private matter. You have a personal relationship with the Creator God of the universe, and this is indeed personal—it's one-on-one—but it's not private. It's not designed to be something between you and God that you restrict to either Sunday morning or teaching a Sunday school class or accountability group or whatever it is. It's a deeply personal matter, but it's not a private matter, because that relationship is to infect every area of your life.

I understand the thought process. I'm just telling you, the strongest asset you have when you go into the office tomorrow is a relationship with Christ, just like Daniel. But by all indications, humanly, the other guys were better trained, sharper, all this. But God was indwelling Daniel. It was his greatest asset in the marketplace.

Daniel's Pattern of Discernment

Daniel understood—and there's probably four or five big points we can get out of this—one of the things I really do love is that Daniel seemed to have a pattern of saying, "When these guys are involved in my life and when things come, I'm going to have enough discernment to go, 'That's something only God can do, so I'll let Him do it.' Up here's something I can do. I'll do it." He understood that this whole understanding of God and who He is was not something that was a liability, nor was it something that God owed him, but it was a gift that God gave him. So it wasn't—it was, "Hey, not me." Not only not me, but God gave it to me. "Don't even think for a second I deserved it, because everything I have is from God."

Well, we pick up the story there next week. Next week I'll be here. We'll be taking a look at Daniel chapter 3, because in the midst of all of this—and the other guys, the magicians, conjurers—they're all their lives are spared. They had a death sentence, but their lives are spared.

Facing New Tests

You would think Daniel would be safe now, but that's not how it works. They would be praising Daniel, thanking him for his incredible wisdom and service. But instead, all of a sudden that prejudice and jealousy arises, and Daniel faces yet another test in his walk with God.

We're going to pause here. If you're over in the conference center, the guys are going to come - Matthew or Brian are going to come and close your time together. Here in the chapel, Paul's going to come and lead us in our time of communion, and the band will come back and lead us in our time of worship.

Father, thank You for this amazing and awesome truth. God, thank You that You love us and You care for us, and You have provided for us wisdom and insight through Your Spirit. You, the Creator God, dwell in us. Father, now we just pray that we could count our blessings and become men and women and students of praise. We pray this to You in Christ's name.