Re:Verse passage – Daniel 10:1-21 (day one)
Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty and Associate Pastor Bryan Richardson walk us through Daniel 10:1-21 in our Spring Sermon Series: “Faith Under Fire” A Study in Daniel.
Category: Daniel
Plan A
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day seven)
“to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness” vs 24.
There was no Plan B.
From the beginning of time, God had a plan: to end sin and bring righteousness. We get glimpses of this plan throughout the Old Testament. God would forgive the sins of His people, they would be restored to righteousness, but the righteousness would not last. The people would always turn back into their sinful ways. This was not the solution, but it pointed us towards the problem. Man cannot make an end of sin. Man cannot bring righteousness. Only God can, so God became man and ended sin, atoned iniquity, and brought an everlasting righteousness, but He wasn’t done yet! He gave us His Spirit that we might be emissaries for Him. He has equipped man to bring everlasting righteousness to other men through the Spirit living in us.
Repent, Witness, Disciple. This is the church. This was His plan from the very beginning. This is Plan A. There is no Plan B.
Day and Hour
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day six)
Let’s be honest, the best we can do is an educated guess as to the meaning of 70 sets of seven. We can devote all our time to its study and still understand no more than we when we began.
And that’s okay. We are in good company.
32 “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” -Jesus, Mark 13:32
Daniel didn’t understand. Gabriel didn’t know, and not even the incarnate Son knew the day or hour when these things would happen. So, what ought we do?
We do what Daniel did; we pray. Now is the day and the hour to seek God. We repent. We pray for mercy and restoration. And God listens and answers our prayer for we too are precious.
Both
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day five)
Throughout the book of Daniel we are presented with a tension that we must not only recognize but navigate. The tension is caused by the very nature and character of God being in relationship with man- powerful/personal, sovereign/intimate, immediate/eternal.
Daniel has experienced God dealing in his daily circumstances. Daniel has also experienced God’s glory and seen His everlasting splendor. We must do the same. We must look to God for daily strength and guidance while knowing He has created and controls the world (present and future). The challenge for the human heart and mind is to hold onto both ends of the tension. To praise and request. To worship and to obey.
(Lyrics from a new song I’m singing these days)
Who can spin the world around
And hold me ever close
Who can search the depths of me
And love me to the core
Who controls the world I see
And walks me through it all
Joy
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day four)
“But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” These words could have been written by Daniel, but they weren’t…Jesus spoke these words in John 17. Captivity and exile in Babylon was tough…the circumstances of daily life for the Jews were very difficult. When Daniel explained his vision, he was offering hope and joy. God was in complete control of their lives and circumstances, and the Jews could take comfort in that fact.
Do you feel that the circumstances of life are out of your control? Are you overwhelmed by what the future may look like? The message of Daniel and the message of Christ are the same…God is in control…He is sovereign over the circumstances of life…our relationship with Him brings joy that supersedes all circumstances. We can rest in the calm assurance of His sovereignty and His love for us. We can have joy!
Toward
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day three)
“…to bring in everlasting righteousness…”
Does an assured eventual eternal era of peace and goodness make current and future painful events more bearable? Only in the sense that it makes those events more meaningful. It doesn’t lessen the agony, the difficulty, the deep distress. But without meaning, nothing is possible. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” The greatest act of love that could ever exist, Jesus’s laying down his life for his friends, did not happen absent his awareness of its meaning, or it could not have happened at all. And by the way, “meaning” doesn’t signify for us that we understand something in every detail, but rather that we are assured that the actions or events in question will culminate in good for all those who’ve thrown their lot in with the Savior. History is headed somewhere.
Highly Esteemed
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day two)
At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. vs. 23
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine! Isaiah 43:1b
Believer, when was the last time you recognized your standing with God? Scripture tells us over and over again how much we are loved. Not because of our merit, or on account of status. We are his, and he rejoices over us. This doesn’t mean that we won’t face our share of challenges. We will continue to be refined until we reach glory, but in the midst of struggle we can rest assured that God loves us. Daniel is highly esteemed. It may be easy to look around and become forlorn, but don’t forget to look up. God is active and has not forgotten you.
Monday Re:Verse Blog Post – 5/4/20
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day one)
Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty and Associate Pastor Bryan Richardson walk us through Daniel 9:23-27 in our Spring Sermon Series: “Faith Under Fire” A Study in Daniel.
You are Loved
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:1-23 (day seven)
“for you are highly esteemed” 9:23 NASB
or In the ESV, “for you are greatly loved.”
Isn’t that what we all want to know and feel? That we are greatly loved? We desire that! We desire to hear that from family. We desire to hear that from friends. We desire to hear those words in a similar capacity from employers and peers. We desire to hear that from God. We may look at Daniel in admiration and say, “God could never say that about me.” But there is nothing further from the truth!
God says that to all of us. We are His creation and He has created us perfectly. We are greatly loved. The reason we don’t believe that is because this sinful broken world has infiltrated our mind and convinced us we aren’t perfect and are incapable of being loved, but the truth is the closer you get to God, the more time you spend dwelling in Him, the more clearly you will hear the words of our Lord saying, “You are greatly loved!”
In Jesus Name
Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:1-23 (day six)
On what grounds did Daniel pray? Daniel makes it very clear that his appeal for mercy is not based on his righteousness. He has none, nor the people of God. They all had gone their own way. Daniel’s prayer hinged on God’s character, not his own. If it was not for God’s righteousness, there would be no grounds for Daniel to pray at all.
What was true for Daniel, is true for us too. We pray in Jesus name because we come to the Father in His righteousness, not our own, otherwise we have no privilege to come to God at all.
This keeps us humble and bold. Humble because it reminds us we have been given so much, and bold because it reminds us we can freely approach the throne of grace without fear.
It’s an odd thought but true; Jesus died so Daniel could pray too.