Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Okay, so last week we started. I've just done a two part series, really, over summer, and we've got. Have we got a slide up kingdom culture slide. Last week we looked at Kingdom culture like father, like son, and basically, let me just kind of go over it really, really quickly. Do a quick recap. We looked at the fact that the longer we hang out with Jesus, the more he will rub off on us. And when somebody rubs off on you, it is like taking on their behaviour and characteristics because you've spent so much time with them. Phil and I are now kind of finishing each other's sentences because we've spent nearly 20 years together. Next year it'll be 20 years together.
[00:00:51] 20 years.
[00:00:53] Wow. We got there.
[00:00:55] So you start to rub off on people, but, you know, that can happen in a negative way as well, can't it? You know, scripture always says that bad company corrupts good character.
[00:01:08] And I want to say, it's so important who we allow to rub off on us if we are to be like Jesus in this world, as one John two six says, as Jesus is, so are we in this world, so that if we are, we won't have any fear of judgment on the day that he comes. If we are like Jesus in the world, it can happen in the opposite way as well. So, for example, you know, if we enter into partnership, whether it's business or even marriage, we have to make sure that we are as we are light, we are partnering with light.
[00:01:49] It's important as well that especially young people, when you are choosing people to spend the rest of your life with, that they love Jesus like you love Jesus.
[00:01:59] The Bible says, do not be unequally yoked. If you are in business and you're going into business and you're making that contract with somebody, make sure that that person loves Jesus like you do. Otherwise there's going to be an imbalance, there's going to be trouble ahead.
[00:02:21] So we want to allow Jesus to rob. And we looked at radical discipleship, and we looked at Peter, the kind of character of Peter, and we noticed in Matthew eight, some of you remember Matthew eight, the boat on the storm. And they're the disciples there early on their discipleship journey, probably about eleven months into when Jesus said, hey, come and follow me. And they're on the boat, there's a fierce storm, and they are all panicking.
[00:02:49] They don't know yet how to deal with the storms of life with Christ on board, but. So they're panicking. But a few years later, we have Peter, who was panicking in the boat. He's now in another storm, but he's in prison.
[00:03:07] And in the boat, who was sleeping while the disciples are panicking.
[00:03:12] But a few years later, when Peter is in his own storm, his own prison, about to be executed, he is sleeping. And the reason he's asleep is because Jesus has rubbed off on him like father, like son, and that's part of being a radical disciple of Jesus, that there is growth in our lives. And so we were talking and we were just saying, the church here in Newton Abbott, not just a numerical growth, but there was a lovely sense of God's people growing up in him. And so thanks for that, Joan. So, yeah, so, culture two, kingdom culture two, will you turn your bibles to the book of Daniel? We're in the Old Testament today. I love the Old Testament story. I don't think Sally's here this morning, but Sally's written us a great program for September for our children in Discoveryland on the Old Testament kings that we'll be following. So that's going to be really exciting. Now, I don't know what your favorite title is for God. All right, somebody shout me out one of your favorite titles. Who. Abba means father. Daddy. Papa. Yeah. Anybody else?
[00:04:22] Rafa. Anybody else? Yahweh. Anybody else?
[00:04:28] Nissi. Anybody else?
[00:04:31] Jaira Adonai.
[00:04:36] Lamb of God, messiah. All these lovely names of God. Well, one of. I'm glad you didn't shout it out. My absolute favorite name for God is. You ready for it? Drumroll.
[00:04:49] Ancient of days.
[00:04:53] I love ancient of days for God and the reason why it's one of my favourites. It's only found in the book of Daniel. For those of you who kind of really know your scriptures, it describes a God who is from of old, from ancient times. It describes a God that is from the past, who has always been. He's a God of the now, the present, and the God of tomorrow. In other words, we have a God who is the ancient of days, who has seen all the days.
[00:05:30] Isn't that incredible?
[00:05:32] A God who has seen every single day played out on the face of the earth.
[00:05:38] And he's the one we saw a couple of months ago, looked at Colossians, the one who holds all the days in his hands. He holds all the days. He's the great orchestrator, the director of all the days. Everyone just say ancient of days.
[00:05:56] Brilliant. You sound great this morning. And if you're familiar with the book of Daniel, I'm not going to go into too much detail. I'm going to leave that to you, Graham, one day.
[00:06:07] If you're familiar with the book of Daniel, it starts with some radical followers of God.
[00:06:13] Radical followers of God because Daniel is amongst many, many others who are basically taken from Judah as part of God's tribe and God's people taken into captivity in Babylon, okay? And he's taken with a load of people. But the thing is, with Daniel, he lives a non compromising lifestyle. And this is what we're going to talk about this morning. How can we live for God in a culture that is so far removed, so distant from God's ideal and God's plans and purposes? You read from Genesis and you think, my goodness me, we are so far away from God's original plan. Thank God for Jesus this morning.
[00:07:08] Thank God for Jesus who has switched on our spiritual lives to see things as they really are. Because without our spiritual eyes seeing, we would not see the things that we should be seeing in the spirit realm.
[00:07:28] We would be so focused on the world and bury our heads and go, oh, no, we're in for trouble. But thank God for Jesus. And so, in the book of Daniel, Daniel is very prophetic and symbolic. There's a lot of symbolic dreams. I'll get to the bits I want to say in a moment, but there are so many symbolic dreams, and they're prophetic dreams concerning the end times. In fact, the book of Daniel and the book of revelation almost go together. They complement each other. There are definitely some comparisons between the books. And Daniel's life story is an incredible read. Anybody read the book of Daniel recently? Okay. It's an incredible read. So, as I said before, he's been captured and brought as a young man to Babylon, okay? He's under King Nebuchadnezzar. And this is a pagan kingdom. This is a pagan culture that they've been brought into. No longer have they got the freedom to worship God safely with other believers. Can we never take each other for granted?
[00:08:37] Let's not take Sunday gatherings for granted and think, oh, it's just another Sunday. Do you remember the COVID days when we couldn't meet?
[00:08:44] Feel what you said this morning about there may be a time when the church has to get underground in the west. Can you imagine?
[00:08:53] Let's never take each other and the church for granted a meeting. But so Daniel and many, many other young men particularly, were captured by the great empire, Babylon. And they were kind of taken into the schooling and the language. They were learnt the language of Babylon, and they were trained in sciences. But here's the thing. Daniel never, ever turned away from Goddesse.
[00:09:20] And I love this because as a young person growing up, I'm like, lord, if Daniel can live pure and right in his generation, and yet he's got all his freedoms restricted, what could the church do today? What could we do today for God? And this young man used his life to put the living God on display.
[00:09:43] I love it. He used his life to put the living God on display in a very wicked and dark kingdom. In other words, he brought the kingdom of heaven, the culture of heaven, into Babylon.
[00:09:58] How can one person do that?
[00:10:00] Can I say something about the Deo team? You are bringing the culture of the kingdom of heaven onto the high street of Newton Abbott. That's how important.
[00:10:11] I mean, you might do great coffee, great, and you do, but you are bringing the spirit of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, to earth on the high street of Newton Abbott. As you are praying, Andrew, you are bringing the kingdom of heaven to this area, this zone.
[00:10:34] And as a result, like Joseph, Daniel was promoted. I've cut a very long story short, but as a result, Daniel, like the story of Joseph, if you've read the story of Joseph, he was promoted to a prominent position in a pagan world. Tomorrow night, church. We're going to pray that God will raise up the Josephs, the esthers, the Deborahs, the Gideons, for such a time as this in our parliament, because that's what needs to happen.
[00:11:06] They need to rise up, and they are there in our nation, and they need to have a seat where it counts in our parliament to have a voice.
[00:11:17] And Daniel had a voice, and he had a voice because of his integrity, his loyalty, and his absolute trust and faith. And I'm like, lord, as a church, may we have that integrity, that faith, that trust in God. You know, some of us, including myself, are scared at times to speak up for the truth.
[00:11:42] We're scared. I'll tell you why we're scared. Because we're scared of the consequences. We're scared of what somebody's going to say about us on facebook.
[00:11:50] We're scared about the comments that are going to come our way. Will there be a brick at the window? Will somebody punch us in the face? Will my family member not talk to me? We are scared. If we're honest, I am. At times, I so want a voice, but I'm like, oh, even this going live today, is some newspaper going to pick up on it? And suddenly Esther Daniels all over the news and Newton Abbott, if that happens, just don't tell me what I don't know. Won't hurt me, right?
[00:12:17] But we're scared. But I want to say to us, as a church, don't be. Because whenever we proclaim the name of Jesus, whenever our hearts are so sincere to glorify God, he will never fail us. He will come with whatever he needs to do to back us up. If he needs to send a load of eight angelic hosts, he'll come and back us up. If he needs to send a stranger our way to back us up, he'll do it. He will use whatever means possible to back us up if we are glorifying the name of Jesus. And like Esther said in the Old Testament, well, if I perish, I perish. But one thing is true.
[00:13:04] I'm here to make my life count for the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was Daniel. And Daniel was a prayer. If you know anything about Daniel, it says three times a day, Daniel prayed. And so you imagine being in captivity, you're a young man with all the other desires that young men have to get married, to have a family.
[00:13:30] That wasn't an option for Daniel.
[00:13:33] But it says, the minute he landed in Babylon, he said he started to pray three times a day. And this is how he prayed. He would open the windows of his, I guess, his little dwellings and he would point towards Jerusalem, the city of God, and he would pray. And I believe he prayed three times a day because he needed in his spirit to keep reminding himself that God was alive, that God was with him. I would encourage us at set times of the day, if you're feeling far from goddesse, say, well, I'm going to set my phone morning, noon, evening to say, God, I'm going to remember you. It doesn't have to be an hour. It can just be as simple as, Lord, I'm going to remember you as I go to sleep tonight. Lord, I remember you in a wicked and challenging culture and season that we are in. Lord, I'm going to remember you. I'm not going to forget your works that you've done long ago. That's why it's good going back to the Old Testament. I'm going to be on a sun lounger in ten days time and I'm going to read some Old Testament stories and encourage myself again that God turns up in challenging and difficult situations. And so he was a prayer and he prayed towards Jerusalem. And I imagine it doesn't tell us necessarily what he prayed for, but I imagine his prayer was this, Lord, set your people free, take them out of bondage.
[00:14:58] And here's the amazing thing. About the story of Daniel is that he died an old man in Babylon. He never got out of Babylon for 70, 80 years. Daniel, he was a young man when he entered captivity. He was an old man still in captivity, but his spirit wasn't in captivity.
[00:15:19] His body, physical body, may have been in captivity, but his spirit wasn't. And I believe he prayed for the freedom of God's people. And here's the thing. When the year Daniel died, quite sad, really. You could make a great movie of it.
[00:15:33] The year Daniel died, a new king, I think it was Darius. I'm not quite sure. There's a few Cyrus and Darius. I'm not sure. So don't cry me. But a new king comes, and this king set God's people free.
[00:15:48] And Daniel didn't even see that. But I believe in his spirit, he saw it because I believe he was a man of such faith and prayer that he believed that these prayers are not just going and bouncing off walls.
[00:16:01] These prayers are getting through to God. So here is a prayer. Are you still with me? Yes. Good, good, good. I believe, although he didn't see it physically, I believe he saw it in his spirit and so under. And another thing, just before we get to read scripture, in a moment, under Daniel's no compromise lifestyle. I mean, this is incredible. King Nebuchadnezzar, as a result of Daniel's obedience to God, God showed up in supernatural ways. Haven't got time to go into the fiery furnace and him surviving a den of lions.
[00:16:35] But because of this, King Nebuchadnezzar made a complete U turn.
[00:16:41] And this is what he said, okay. He says, right, I now decree that Babylon needs to worship the true living God, Daniel's God.
[00:16:53] Is it possible, church?
[00:16:56] Is it possible that kings and queens on earthly thrones in this nation, leaders in parliament who are threatened on every side with political agendas and people from every religion and persuasion and lifestyle, is it possible there could be such people on seats today that can make such a U turn in our nation that says, we're going to bring back Jesus into the classrooms, we're going to restore the bibles back in hotel rooms. Our children are going to learn the Lord's prayer again.
[00:17:36] Is that U turn possible?
[00:17:41] And so it happened under Daniel.
[00:17:44] Incredible.
[00:17:45] And so all the people had to then stop worshiping Nebuchadnezzar and his statues and worship the living God. Didn't stay like that. It changed again, but for a season. Incredible.
[00:17:59] And so Daniel had visions relating to God's sovereignty. In other words, God's and hand over the nations, his control, his power over the nations. We're at a time church where we need to get a vision again for God's hand and his sovereignty over the nations, over great Britain.
[00:18:22] And Daniel had visions. There's a lot of mystery and imagery. But two things are really clear as you read the book of Daniel. Can I just say, if you're a new Christian, don't go straight to the book of Daniel.
[00:18:34] Well, not the last part of it, anyway. And don't get to the book of Revelation. If you are discipling new christians today, send them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
[00:18:44] Yeah, don't send them to Daniel or revelation. Not a good idea. But two things are really clear.
[00:18:51] Daniel's prophetic announcements or proclamations. We're going to read some of them in a moment, reveal future happenings.
[00:19:00] Secondly, they all point to the absolute victory of God over all demonic activity and power.
[00:19:11] People who are rising up earthly men and women to take their seat and place in society with their voice.
[00:19:19] Right. God will have absolute victory and does have absolute victory. And over the nations.
[00:19:28] Over the nations.
[00:19:31] Just quickly, and this is important, I do say this for those who are new christians amongst us. We love our new christians. First time christians amongst us.
[00:19:40] It's incredible. First generation christians.
[00:19:45] When we talk about the beasts, and we'll hear about the beasts again, go to Graham after the service. That'd be wonderful. The beasts. Many scholars believe that the beasts represent great empires. So the empires of the day were Babylon, Persia, Rome, and Greece. Okay. So it refers to the beasts, these empires that seek to raise themselves. Okay? And if you look at the history of all these empires, they all have a king or, you know, whoever, and they elevate themselves above everything. They get the people to worship them. Okay. And their culture and their DNA. And then the prophecies, which is incredible. There's another prophecy here, is referring to the coming of Christ. I love reading prophecies in the Old Testament. Many of us go to Isaiah, you know, at Christmas, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. But we're going to read one here that prophesies about the son of man in the Book of Daniel. Coming for Daniel to see that. Incredible. And it's in. In this context, this is why I had to go around.
[00:20:48] I call it the Reekin round the block a little bit. Here we come to the reason why Daniel calls God the ancient of days. So, Daniel seven. It's not a huge reading this morning. We're gonna go from verse nine, and then I'm gonna be finished in a bit. Wow, that's great.
[00:21:10] It says, this is Daniel. He says, as I looked, thrones were set in place. If you read it in the King James version, it says this, that thrones were cast down.
[00:21:24] So it gives you an idea of man's earthly thrones. It's what Daniel sees. Thrones were cast down and the ancient of days took his seat.
[00:21:38] His clothing was as white as snow.
[00:21:44] The hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him. That's talking about the heavenly host, the angelic beings. Just picture that this morning, the ancients of days is seated, and he has a multitude, a multitude of angelic hosts that surround him. How glorious. We will see that. We will see that one day. Church, it says, the court was seated and the books were opened. It's talking here. You can read further. In Daniel eleven, it says, everyone whose name is found to be written in the book of life will be delivered. There is a book of life. We don't often talk about it in church, but there is a book of life and all of those who have laid their lives down. And this is what we were talking about last week, about radical discipleship.
[00:22:53] This is not about lukewarm living. This is not about. Well, I'm going to have 1ft in the world's culture and 1ft in the kingdom culture.
[00:23:00] This is about radical discipleship. This is about coming before a holy God.
[00:23:09] And do we know that our book will be found, our name, sorry, will be found to be in the book of life?
[00:23:18] Let me just say, church. That no throne can compare to his throne.
[00:23:22] No throne.
[00:23:24] I know we all like our celebrity gossip. Come on. And I don't just mean, you know, like the big basketball players and, you know, the football players, we all love our celebrity gossip. We do. That's why reality tv has gone through the roof, because everyone loves to stare in and be an insider into the world of somebody famous, rich.
[00:23:47] But that does not even compare to the glory, the fame, the honor of the ancient of days. And then Daniel goes on, he said, then I continue to watch because of the boastful words of the horn.
[00:24:05] Horn usually stands for strength and authority. In this case, demonic.
[00:24:10] I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. There will be a day when Satan and all his angels will be absolutely cast down forever and ever.
[00:24:28] It says, the other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but they were allowed to live for a period of time. I'm not going into this again. Get Graham.
[00:24:37] In my vision at night, I looked, and there before me was one, like a son of man. That's Jesus coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. You ready for this? Just remind ourselves this morning that we serve a triune God. God the father, God the son, Jesus, God the Holy Spirit.
[00:25:11] And it says, right at the last point, it says, his dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. This is talking about the eternal kingdom of God.
[00:25:27] Can you see why I'm slightly, slightly excited about bringing heaven's culture to earth?
[00:25:34] I feel like I'm not wasting my time.
[00:25:37] I feel like I'm not doing this in vain.
[00:25:40] Come on. I might not feel like turning up sometimes. I might feel like having a sleep in and not turning up to a prayer meeting on Zoom.
[00:25:49] But can you see why we're kind of like I'm sacrificing to.
[00:25:57] It's good to lay our lives down.
[00:26:01] And this morning, what I really want to do is to get us thinking again, despite all that is going on, how glorious he is.
[00:26:15] If somebody said, what's the main aim of this church? I would say to point everyone to the glorious person of Jesus Christ, to look to him always. Don't look to man, don't look to us, because we're. Do you know what? Phil and I are very weak. We've got loads of faults. We have.
[00:26:32] That might surprise you.
[00:26:35] We have got a ton of faults.
[00:26:38] But I hope in our leadership, we constantly point people to Jesus because he will never let you down. He doesn't turn up late, he doesn't miss things.
[00:26:49] We do.
[00:26:51] He doesn't.
[00:26:53] He's the one that's coming again. He's the one who has the title of the king of kings, the Lord of lords, the living one, the ancient of days.
[00:27:03] Incredible.
[00:27:08] And Daniel saw this vision in a pagan world.
[00:27:16] Can the church today. Lawson, you led us. Brilliant this morning. You had thrown in there and you didn't know what I was speaking about. You had thrown in there.
[00:27:27] Yet the eternal aspect in there is incredible.
[00:27:32] All pointing to Jesus.
[00:27:35] And this is why we gather as a church, so that we can bring all our worship, we can fix our gaze on the loveliness of who he is.
[00:27:51] We just bow your heads this morning. I really haven't got any much more to say. I hope the word of God has done that. Just bow your heads this morning.
[00:28:02] In such a pagan world, in such a world that would mock.
[00:28:13] That would mock what Jesus did for us 2000 years ago.
[00:28:33] In a pagan world, in a world that is just. I mean, yeah, it's all around us now.
[00:28:39] Can we make a difference?
[00:28:42] Can one person can the Esther Daniels can, the Phil Daniels can the Ellie Rutleys just put your name in there? Can you really make a difference?
[00:29:01] Absolutely.
[00:29:03] Absolutely. Absolutely, we can make a difference. I believe not only is there a window of opportunity, and I believe this with all my heart, God's slowly revealing a prophetic message that I believe I'm going to bring to the church in autumn. It hasn't quite come yet. There's parts of it coming and there's a prophetic message that God keeps throwing things into my spirit.
[00:29:30] But I believe not just a window of opportunity, I believe it's a window of favor on the church.
[00:29:36] If we will seek the face of God, if we will fast, we will pray not just corporately, but in private.
[00:29:52] In private, because the growing actually happens in private. God just elevates us in public because of what has taken place in the private. He will use us for his glory because of the private.
[00:30:07] And this window of favor is going to come to the church.
[00:30:13] We're going to see a harvest of souls, the broken, the lost, those who are at their wits ends, those who are struggling mentally with all kinds of mental illnesses, those who have been ravished by the enemy, by Satan, who have been under his influence for too long. I believe the church is in a favourable time, and I don't say this lightly.
[00:30:53] I believe God is bringing people to us. You need to watch out over the next couple of weeks and months. Watch out for these people, because God is going to bring them to you.
[00:31:01] And, Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you would embolden your church in this season, Father, that you would, because some of us need the desire to go and seek your face. Right, God, we're sorry for the distractions.
[00:31:20] We're sorry for those things. We know you prompt us. We can sense you prompted us to go into the secret place. But then, so something grabs us.
[00:31:29] Lord, will you give us the desire as a church to seek you in these days, Lord, to come away? It might just be for ten minutes, but it might be three times a day, just to seek your face, to connect with you, to say, lord, I'm here. Count me in for your purposes. Make my life count in this window of favor and opportunity that you've given us as a church that we may bring glory to the name of Jesus. Lord. Embolden your people for such a time as this as God emboldens you church, as he gives you that desire to seek him.
[00:32:22] There's going to be showers of blessing. Come on your life.
[00:32:28] Showers of blessing.
[00:32:31] It's going to come on your life and your family. We don't do it for that.
[00:32:37] But he's so good.
[00:32:41] He's so good.
[00:32:44] He so loves you.
[00:32:46] And dont sit there going well, how could he love me? I havent given him any attention this week.
[00:32:56] He loves you.
[00:32:58] Go again this week.
[00:33:01] Walk out of this place and go God, Im going again this week. Im going again this week.
[00:33:09] Hes going to surround this place with showers of blessing.
[00:33:14] Don't worry about consequences as you step out. Don't worry about the persecution.
[00:33:21] He's got you and he loves you.
[00:33:25] The ancient of days the ancient of days from days of old he is Alpha Omega beginning and end.
