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Latest SermonsGOING WITH GODHOW TO GO WITH GOD As we bring this series on the life of Daniel entitled “Going with God” to a close, I want to highlight some of the key secrets in Daniel’s life that enabled him to go with God and to experience God’s amazing blessing in his life. There are some parallels between Daniel’s life and the life of God’s servant Joseph. Both were called of God to serve him in difficult circumstances in pagan countries. Both were cruelly taken from their homes and handed over to foreign masters. Both went through times of testing being falsely accused and lied about, but both maintained godly conduct and character and became respected by the pagan leaders. Most of all God used them to bless his chosen people. END TIME STORIES One of the recurring themes of the book of Daniel is the fact that human history is in fact HIS STORY, the story of God at work in relationship with mankind. We have seen in this book how his prophecies have been fulfilled in the history of mankind in amazing details, how kingdoms and rulers have come and gone as God in his perfect plan raised them and brought them down for His purposes. Up until now the prophecies we have dealt with have referred to past events that have already been fulfilled. Now however as we move into chapter 11, we encounter prophecies that God had given to Daniel dealing with the end times, events that still have to take place. A GLIMPSE OF GOD AT WORK As our exciting journey with this man Daniel starts to draw to a close, we now encounter Daniel as an old man at the age of eighty five. He had come into exile in Babylon at the age of fifteen and in the ensuing seventy years he had seen God work and move in amazing ways. God had revealed both Himself as well as his prophecies to him in ways few men had experienced. In his old age however, God was still not finished with Daniel and in chapter ten, he gives to Daniel just a small glimpse of God at work to encourage him in his old age. There are just three pictures that I would like to highlight in this passage which will hopefully encourage us that God is still at work and is in fact winning the battle. PRAYER GOD ANSWERS As we have journeyed with Daniel through this amazing book we have discovered many things about Daniel. He was a man of great courage, a man who followed God closely and was obedient to all that God instructed him to do. But perhaps the most outstanding feature and characteristic of this mans life, was that he was a great man of prayer. In Daniel 6:10 we are told of Daniel, “Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before”. SEEING GOD’S HAND IN THE END TIMES One of the blessings of the book of Daniel is that it demonstrates so well the fact that God is the author of human history and as he wrote with his finger on the banquet wall of Belshazzar’s banquet hall predicting the future, so he has written over the lives of rulers, nations and very ordinary people down through the years. At times of seeming chaos like, the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, the exile of God’s people from Judah to Babylon, the lions den and the fiery furnace, we have seen the hand of God at work in the midst of these crises achieving his plans and purposes for mankind. THY KINGDOM COME In our series last year entitled “Kingdom Breakthrough” looking at what the Scriptures say of the Kingdom of God, we discovered that the Kingdom of God has come with the coming of Jesus, continues to come with the work of the Holy Spirit, and will finally come in its fullness at the end of the age when Christ returns. We therefore live in a dynamic period in which we live in and experience the reality that the Kingdom has come, we see new breakthroughs of the Kingdom as it continues to come, but we also live with the frustration that the Kingdom has not fully come and we therefore look forward to the coming of the Kingdom in its fullness and completeness. DARE TO BE A DANIEL Perhaps one of the most well known stories in all of Scripture is the story of Daniel in the lions den. Since early childhood we have been taught in Sunday School the amazing story of God saving Daniel from the jaws of the lions. This however far more than an interesting Sunday School story but speaks to the very essence of what it means to go with God. OUR GOD REIGNS “The writing is on the wall” is a term used by the world to indicate the certainty of something that is about to happen. Few people however probably realise that this term comes from the fifth chapter of Daniel as the finger of God writes a message of judgement on the banquet hall of the king’s palace. What a terrifying and awesome sight that must have been. BE HUMBLE OR BE HUMBLED Last week we saw as Shadrach Meshack and Abednego go through the firey trial of the furnace that as we go with God we need to go in faith and that faith in God is therefore an indispensable part of our journey with God. Without faith and trust in God we cannot go with Him to the places He longs to take us. FAITH UNDER FIRE At the beginning of this amazing journey with Daniel we saw in 1:8 that Daniel had resolved within his heart to go with God. A critical element of going with God is the element of faith because God’s Word tells us that when we go with God we walk not by sight but by faith. Going with God is about going in faith. THE GOD OF DREAMS AND DESTINIES Last week we began our exciting journey with Daniel by discovering God to be a God who both rules and overrules. We were challenged by this fact to then go with God and encouraged that as we go with God, God will always come through for us, ruling as well as overruling. GOD RULES AND OVERRULES As we begin this exciting series in the book of Daniel entitled “Going with God”, we will be following the journey of a young man named Daniel beginning probably at the age of 15 years old when he was taken into exile in Babylon with God’s people and continuing all the way into his eighties when he had become one of the most influential men in the land.
KINGDOM BREAKTHROUGHLIVING IN THE LAST DAYS Events on the global financial markets over recent weeks with Wall Street losing 2,4 trillion dollars or 22% of its value in 8 days has had the world in a frenzy with governments scrambling to try and minimise the damage to their respective countries. It is amazing to think that a country like Iceland has effectively gone bankrupt overnight. I WILL BUILD MY PEOPLE As we get to the final in our amazing series at looking at the Kingdom of God, I want to look at the fact that God is in the business of building his people to become real sons and daughters of the Kingdom. Jesus makes a statement in verse 18, “I will build my church..”. The word that is used in the New Testament for church is the word ekklesia which literally translated means “the called out ones”. Church therefore as many already know is not about the building, the pews or the religious rituals, but it is about the people of God. KINGDOM PEOPLE This morning as we continue on our journey of looking at the kingdom of God breaking through into this world and into our lives, I want to become very practical by asking the following question. If the Kingdom has come albeit not completely, what do Kingdom people look like? In other words how does the Kingdom of God impact our lives on a daily basis? Derek Morphew describes Kingdom people as the “Already – not yet people”. KINGDOM FEASTS As one reads through the various Scriptures both Old and New Testament relating to the breaking through of the Kingdom of God into the history and experience of mankind, a common picture and emerges out of all these significant accounts and it is the picture of a feast or a banquet. God in his infinite wisdom has sought to explain the coming of the Kingdom of God both past present and future in the picture of a feast or banquet. I would suggest that there is good reason for this. KINGDOM LIFESTYLE One of the more popular programmes screened on TV has been the “Lifestyle of the rich and famous” in which the viewer is afforded the opportunity of looking into the opulent and lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous and to bemoan ones lot that one has not been as fortunate as those living this kind of lifestyle. This type of lifestyle is looked to by the world as the benchmark of success and happiness and many people will go to any lengths to ensure the attainment of such a lifestyle. STORIES OF THE KINGDOM For me there is nothing better than sitting with someone around a camp fire who can really tell stories that hold your attention for hours. This was very much part of our culture in the past but sadly has been lost. As Jesus walked the dusty streets of Palestine he loved to tell simple stories to those around him but in so doing would share some profound truth that he desired his hearers to understand. These stories we refer to as parables and more often than not these stories were about the Kingdom of God that Jesus had ushered in with his coming to earth. BRINGING IN THE KINGDOM Over the last four sermons in this series we have been establishing from the Scriptures both Old and New Testament how the Kingdom of God has broken through into the experience and reality of mankind. Beginning with the exodus of God’s people from Egypt, the reign of David and Solomon in the Promised Land and then the coming of the promised Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ which ushered in an experience of the Kingdom not yet seen by the people of God, we recognise that the Kingdom has come but will still come in its fullness at the end of the age when Christ returns. CHRIST BRINGS THE FUTURE INTO THE PRESENT We have seen how the Old Testament prophets spoke of a coming Kingdom and the promises of that Kingdom. Many who read those promises understood them to be fulfilled only at the end of the age when God would bring the history of mankind to a close. With the coming however of Christ to earth proclaiming that the Kingdom of God had come, much of what was only expected at the end of the age became a reality in the present. This morning as we continue our series in understanding the Kingdom of God, I want to invite you to join with me as we consider the fact that Christ brings the future into the present. THE AUTHORITY AND MYSTERY OF THE KINGDOM As we look back on the exciting journey we have already been on in rediscovering the wonderful truth about the Kingdom of God, we have seen that when the Kingdom comes, the King of the Kingdom comes as a confronting, a covenanting and a conquering king seen in the Exodus from Egypt, the journey to and conquering of the Promised Land and the reign of David and Solomon. PROMISES OF THE KINGDOM As we began our series past time we looked at three pictures that the Old Testament gives to us of the Kingdom of God. As we considered the freedom of the Jews from Egypt, the journey to the Promised Land and finally the conquering of the Promised Land we saw three aspects of the King of the Kingdom of God. We saw that he is a confronting, a covenanting and a conquering King. As King David and Solomon reigned over Canaan the Kingdom of God had become for His people a reality. Click here to view or download the full sermon (32KB) PICTURES OF THE KINGDOM As we begin our series on the Kingdom of God we recognise how important it is to understand that the Kingdom of God has broken through into the experience of mankind, that it breaks through each day and that it will ultimately breakthrough at the end of the age where once and for all the Kingdom of God will be established in its fullness. The Kingdom has come but are we living in the power and the blessing of the Kingdom that has come? I suspect that many of us are not and are missing out on the blessing and the power of the Kingdom that God intended us to experience. Click here to view or download the full sermon (30KB) |
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