{"id":18383,"date":"2017-01-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-008-god-rewards-faithfulness\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:35","slug":"daniel-008-god-rewards-faithfulness","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-008-god-rewards-faithfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 008: God Rewards Faithfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18383","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 008: God Rewards Faithfulness","sermon_date":"20170115","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":20060,"sermon_slides":20061,"sermon_mp3":"","sermon_id":"11517107458","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"2:46-49","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nLesson 8, God Rewards Faithfulness, Daniel<\/a> 2:46-49\n\nJanuary 15, 2016\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If I could invite your attention to the book of Daniel, chapter 2 and verse 46, trying to cover this morning verses 46-49. Of course I always want to give a shout out also to our live streaming folks, people that tap into us online, so thank you for joining us.\u00a0 We have a church here and then we have an online church, and God is blessing both, for which we\u2019re very grateful.\u00a0 Daniel 2:46-69, the title of our message this morning is God Rewards Faithfulness.\u00a0 Do you believe that, that God is a rewarded of faithfulness?\u00a0\u00a0 We see a tremendous testimony of this in the lives of four very young people after a season of trial, verses 46-49.\n\nOf course, as you know, God has raised up this man, Daniel, during the dark and difficult days of the Babylonian captivity, to operate as sort of a role model related to how the nation of Israel is to act and conduct themselves during a time period when people who do not believe the way they do have power over them.\u00a0 Are you in that kind of circumstance at your job, or maybe in your family, around people that generally don\u2019t view life the way you do, through your biblical lens?\u00a0 How do we act in those circumstances?\u00a0 The book of Daniel helps us.\n\nDaniel also was raised up, as you know, as a prophet of God, to explain the prophetic plan of God during this unique time period, as Israel is being bullied by various Gentile powers, a time period that started with Nebuchadnezzar and actually for the history of Israel will extend all the way to the Second Advent of Christ.\n\nSo we find ourselves at the very end of chapter 2.\u00a0 Chapter 2 is a revelation, if you will, of Gentile history.\u00a0 You know the story, we\u2019ve gone over it multiple times; Nebuchadnezzar has received a dream, Nebuchadnezzar being the Emperor who was in place that God used as His instrument to bring Judah into captivity.\u00a0 He had a dream and he reveals to his wise men an impossible standard which is tell me the dream and its interpretation, not just the interpretation but tell me the dream itself.\u00a0 The year is 603 B.C.\u00a0 Daniel is probably about 17 years of age at this time.\n\nYou know, there\u2019s so many young people that really kind of drift through life as if they had no hope; as if God really didn\u2019t want to work in their lives, they\u2019re too young to be used by God.\u00a0 And how the Word of God is a sharp rebuke to that mindset, for we see God strategically working in the life of a very young person.\u00a0 In fact, four young people, they made a decision to honor God and God honored them, not just throughout the course of their lives but almost immediately in their youth.\u00a0 This is a message we need to be sending to our youth as well.\n\nSo Nebuchadnezzar, verses 2-13, demands the dream and its interpretation.\u00a0 The only one who could get over this bar is God Himself, which God does by revealing the dream to Daniel, verses 14-23.\u00a0 Daniel then recites both the dream and its interpretation, verses 24-30.\u00a0 And then you get into the very interesting prophetic section that we covered last week, the actual contents of the dream as well as its interpretation.\n\nWhat did Daniel see?\u00a0 He saw a giant statue; he saw each body part of the statue represented by a different metal, metallic substance.\u00a0 He saw the statue destroyed.\u00a0 And then Daniel begins to interpret that dream, as each body part of that statue represents a different empire that God would rise to power and trample the nation down during the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 So Daniel, as a 17 year old, all the way back in the sixth century, sees these nations that would come against the nation of Israel, beginning in the time of Daniel and stretching all the way to the Second Advent of Christ, wherein this stone cut without human hands would shatter the statue, speaking of the immediate destruction of the kingdoms of man at the end of the tribulation period, yet future.\u00a0 And that statue grows and grows and grows till it fills the earth.\n\nThe message to both the Hebrews and the Gentiles is that the kingdoms of man seem quite powerful but they are temporary.\u00a0 They are ultimately destined to be replaced with God\u2019s eternal kingdom.\u00a0 Evil has the upper hand for a season but that\u2019s not how it will always be.\u00a0 And even as we, in the\u00a0 year 2017, are awaiting for this kingdom to come we can pray as our Lord taught us, \u201cThy Kingdom\u201d what? \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s hope for planet earth. There\u2019s hope for our world.\n\nDaniel has explained in great detail all of these kingdoms leading to the Second Advent of Christ, without compromise.\u00a0 He has explained this to Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Daniel, as a seventeen year old may have been tempted to compromise; maybe I won\u2019t tell him that his empire is going to replaced one day, maybe I should just tell him what he wants to hear and that Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s empire is going to go on forever.\u00a0 But Daniel does not acquiesce to compromise but he tells the kind the truth.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting how, if you\u2019re a person of conviction and gracefully stand up for what you know is right, God has a way, does He not, of taking care of us.\u00a0 God took care of Daniel.\u00a0 We see exactly how God blessed and took care of Daniel here in verses 46-49.\u00a0 What four things happened at the end of this chapter revealing to us the fateful hand of God towards the non-compromized life of a young person.\n\nThe first thing that happened to Daniel is given in verse 46, he became the recipient, if\u00a0 you will, \u00a0\u00a0of personal honor.\u00a0 Notice verse 46, it says, \u201cThen King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense.\u201d\u00a0 What we discover here in verse 46 is God rewards faithful people.\u00a0 In fact, Jesus spoke of this, did He not, in Luke 16:10.\u00a0 He said, \u201cHe who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.\u201d\n\nStudy this through the Bible and you\u2019ll see this theme.\u00a0\u00a0 Who does God bless?\u00a0 Who does God take and expand their borders?\u00a0 Who does God promote?\u00a0 It\u2019s generally speaking people that have a mindset, or a lifestyle of faithfulness in things that at first glance seem very insignificant.\u00a0\u00a0 You take, for example, David, you when the man of God, Samuel, came to anoint the next king of Israel and Jesse brought out all his sons there in the book of 1 Samuel, you\u2019ll remember that Jesse didn\u2019t even bring out David, because David was so insignificant in\u00a0 terms of his size.\u00a0 And\u00a0 do you remember what David was doing?\u00a0 He was just tending some sheep, that\u2019s all.\u00a0 And Samuel said to Jesse there must be someone else here.\u00a0 And he brought out David and you know the story, David became the first or the second King of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 David was faithful in something very small.\u00a0 Joseph, who I\u2019ll mention a little bit later, the same pattern.\u00a0 Everywhere Joseph went in adversity, whether it was prison, into Potiphar\u2019s household, you\u2019ll notice this attribute in Joseph\u2019s life that he was faithful no matter where God put him.\n\nThen finally the day came for promotion; this is how God works.\u00a0 You see, you might be involved in some task or doing something that very few people are aware that you\u2019re involved in it and\u00a0 yet God has called you to do it and whether your boundaries will expand or not is largely contingent upon whether you can be trusted with something small.\n\nYou know, at the College of Biblical Studies where I teach I give take home exams.\u00a0 And people say why in the world are you giving the students take home exams, don\u2019t you realize that they could cheat on the take home exams.\u00a0 And yet I was born in the morning, but it wasn\u2019t yesterday morning; yes, I realize that, but here\u2019s why I do it.\u00a0 And this is exactly I tell my students: yeah, you can cheat on this test, you can fool me but guess who you can\u2019t fool\u2014you can\u2019t fool God.\u00a0 And God, how in the world is He supposed to entrust you to ministry, how in the world is He supposed to entrust to you the souls of men and women when you can\u2019t even be faithful on something as minor as being honest in a take home test.\u00a0 And whether you\u2019re honest with this take home test or not is largely your ticket concerning whether God is going to use you or promote you or not.\u00a0 And once I start talking like that I usually get the student\u2019s attention.\u00a0 The reality is God promotes and rewards people based on their faithfulness in something small.\u00a0 Sometimes it is obedience even to the possibility of death.\n\nNebuchadnezzar was the leading emperor of the world at this time, he could have killed Daniel in an instant.\u00a0 Daniel, as an intelligent 17 year old no doubt factored that in, but he remained faithful to the vision that God had given him.\u00a0 He faithfully reported it and the opposite happened, Daniel became very prominent in the land of Babylon, into his adult years, into his career.\n\nThe book of Philippians, chapter 2, verses 5-11 says this.\u00a0 \u201cHave this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, [6] who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and<\/em> being made in the likeness of men. [8] Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] For this reason also, God highly\u201d what? \u201cexalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10]so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.\u201d\n\nWhere is Jesus today?\u00a0 He\u2019s been exalted to the highest place, \u201cabove every name.\u201d\u00a0 But do you see the order here?\u00a0 That exaltation came when he became obedient, humble if you will, to the point of death.\n\nAs you go through life\u2019s struggles and you\u2019re doing something insignificant and menial and nobody is there to give you any accolades it\u2019s so tempting to think that God has forgotten about us.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is, the Bible teaches payday someday.\u00a0 Maybe your exaltation, like Daniel\u2019s will be in this life; maybe it\u2019ll be in the next; that\u2019s within the providence and the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 But the reality is payday someday.\n\nHebrews 6:10 says, \u201cFor God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re ministering, you\u2019re giving of yourself, you\u2019re in a place of anonymity, obscurity and yet we learn here that God doesn\u2019t forget.\n\nRevelation 22:12, Jesus says, \u201cBehold, I am coming quickly, and My\u201d what is with me? \u201cMy reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.\u201d\n\nGalatians 6:9 says, \u201cLet us not lose heart in doing good,\u201d why not? \u201cfor in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.\u201d\u00a0 So tempting to grow weary, to give up, to quit on\u00a0 your assignment, and\u00a0 yet the Bible teaches payday someday.\n\nDaniel was honored as a very young person because of his attitude of putting God first in all things.\u00a0 And like a very good man of God he directs praise not to himself, not to his education (and he had on one of the best in Babylon, as we\u2019ve studied) not to his intelligence, not to his skill, not to his family background, you see him directing attention directly back towards God where it belongs.\n\nNotice, if you will, verse 47, \u201cThe king answered Daniel and said, \u2018Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.\u2019\u201d When this revelation (through Daniel) comes to Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar praises Daniel, verse 46.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, of course, didn\u2019t know any better being a pagan himself.\u00a0 And somehow, it doesn\u2019t say how, in the course of the conversation Nebuchadnezzar begins to redirect praise away from Daniel back to God.\u00a0 I have a tendency to think, I can\u2019t prove it, that somehow Daniel deflected the accolades and directed them back to their proper source, to God Himself.\u00a0 This is what true servants of God do.\u00a0 They are not so much interested in their own notoriety, they are interested in God\u2019s notoriety.\n\nIn Acts 10:24-25, it says this: \u201cOn the following day he entered\u201d that would be Peter, \u201cCaesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.\u00a0 [25] \u201cWhen Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him.\u201d\u00a0 Worshiped who?\u00a0 Worshiped Peter.\u00a0 Why would Cornelius do that?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know any better; this is the first Gentile that has been converted into Christianity.\u00a0 And what is Peter\u2019s response?\u00a0 [26] \u201cBut Peter raised him up,\u201d in other words Peter stopped the process, \u201craised him up saying, \u2018Stand up; I too am just a man.\u2019\u201d\n\nYou\u2019ll find the Apostle Paul doing the exact same thing in Acts 14:11-15, it says: \u201cWhen the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, \u2018The gods have become like men and have come down to us.\u2019 [12] And they began<\/em> calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. [13] The priest of Zeus, whose temple<\/em> was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. [14] But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out [15] and saying, \u201cMen, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You know, the angels do this too; you worship an angel, if it\u2019s a true angel the angel doesn\u2019t like it.\n\nRevelation 19:10, it says this: \u201cThen I\u201d that\u2019s John, \u201cfell at his feet to worship him. But he\u201d that\u2019s the angel, \u201csaid to me, \u2018Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God....\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd you would think John the Apostle would learn his lesson, but he does it again, just a couple of chapters later.\u00a0 Revelation 22:8- says, \u201cI, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.\u00a0 [9] But he\u201d the angel, \u201csaid to me, \u2018Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t claim to know everything there is to know about God but this much I know\u2014God is zealous for His own glory.\u00a0 Isaiah 42:8 says, \u201cI am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.\u201d\n\nI\u2019ve shared with you the three G\u2019s of ministry; you commit any of these G\u2019s your days are numbered.\u00a0 Number 1, don\u2019t touch the gold (embezzlement); number 2, don\u2019t touch the girls, that\u2019s sexual immorality; and number 3, most importantly, don\u2019t touch the glory.\u00a0 And if you watch the destruction of ministries it\u2019s so sad because it\u2019s always the same thing, over and over again, somebody commits the sin that I\u2019ll call the three G\u2019s.\u00a0 This is why 1 Timothy 3:6, when it speaks of laying on of hands of people (which we just did) it talks in that book about not laying hands too quickly, watch the character of the person.\u00a0 1 Timothy 3:6, of elders, it says he should \u201cnot be a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.\u201d What is the condemnation of the devil? First comes pride, then comes what?\u00a0 A fall.\n\nHow easy it is to forget this and sort of\u2026 maybe take a little bit credit for what God has done.\u00a0 The Bible warns us against this.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar is redirected, as a pagan, he didn\u2019t know any better, back to God.\u00a0 And notice the thing that Nebuchadnezzar begins to say about God.\u00a0 He calls God here \u201cthe God of Gods.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar calls God the \u201cLord of kings.\u201d \u00a0[Daniel 2:47]\u00a0 This what we call in language a superlative; it means the highest.\u00a0 So when you use the expression \u201cHoly of Holies,\u201d you\u2019re not just using a reference to a <\/u>holy site, you\u2019re referencing the<\/u> holy site, the ultimate holy sight.\u00a0 When Solomon calls his masterpiece The Song of Songs he\u2019s not just saying this is a song, this is the ultimate song.\u00a0 The superlative is used here to describe God, not just Lord but \u201cLord of kings.\u201d\u00a0 Not just God but the \u201cGod of gods.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that Nebuchadnezzar gives no credit to the Babylonian system that failed to produce the result that only Daniel\u2019s God could produce.\n\nRevelation 19:16, in describing Jesus, says this: \u201cAnd on His robe, and on his thigh He has a name written, \u2018KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus is not interested in being a roommate with another god.\u00a0 He\u2019s interested in authority and supremacy over your life.\u00a0 And we teach at this church against the doctrine of Lordship salvation because it\u2019s a view that really is not found in the Bible.\u00a0 The doctrine of Lordship salvation, meaning if Jesus is not Lord of all then He\u2019s not Lord at all; that\u2019s a wrong way of thinking.\u00a0 However, that is not to negate the fact that he is the Lord of Lords!\u00a0 He is the King of Kings!\u00a0 He is the ultimate authority; He wants total and complete authority over your life, the way you think, every facet of your being.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a reason why the great writers of Scripture called themselves slaves of Jesus Christ.\n\nThe Greek word for slave is doulos<\/em>; Paul calls himself doulos<\/em>.\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 It\u2019s a slave; it\u2019s a servant.\u00a0 It\u2019s somebody that exists to fulfill the will of another.\u00a0 That\u2019s the calling on the Christian.\u00a0 That\u2019s what God is trying to bring forth in our lives.\u00a0 And He deserves it because He is the revealer, not just of mystery, singular, verse 47, but mysteries.\u00a0\u00a0 What is a mystery?\u00a0 It\u2019s something that\u2019s never been revealed before in the history of man; it\u2019s something that God revealed to Daniel here.\u00a0 There is no amount of intellectual exercise, academic acumen, exerting of the flesh that could have arrived at the proper understanding of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream.\u00a0 It\u2019s only available because a disclosure from heaven.\u00a0 And if that is true shouldn\u2019t the insight be credited to God Himself.\n\nAnd you have to watch Nebuchadnezzar very carefully because you\u2019ll notice in verse 47 he says, of God, he uses the expression \u201cyour God.\u201d\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say my God yet, he says \u201cyour God.\u201d\u00a0 And what is happening here is Nebuchadnezzar has taken the first step in a path that will lead, I believe, to his conversion.\u00a0 In fact, by the time God finishes with Nebuchadnezzar, the end of Nebuchadnezzar is revealed in Daniel 4, the last story related to Nebuchadnezzar, by the time you get to verses 34 and 35 you\u2019ll notice that Nebuchadnezzar is more than just an observer.\n\n[Daniel 4:34-35, \u201cBut at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. [35] All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, \u2018What have You done?\u2019\u201d]\n\nHe\u2019s in a personal relationship with God and\u00a0 yet it took chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 to get there.\u00a0 The reason I share this is because many of us share the gospel with people and we have a tendency to think that if they\u2019re not saved right there on the spot we\u2019ve failed when in reality evangelism is a process.\u00a0 This is why it is analogized to farming.\u00a0 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, \u201cI planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.\u201d\u00a0 I did one thing, Apollos did another thing and God did His part.\n\nYou\u2019ll find the same agrarian terminology used in John 4:35-38 concerning evangelism, which says, \u201cDo you not say, \u2018There are yet four months, and then<\/em> comes the harvest\u2019? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. [36] Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. [37] For in this case<\/em> the saying is true, \u2018One sows and another reaps.\u2019 [38] I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus is saying to the disciples you\u2019ve got converts all over the land of Israel because somebody, way back when, planted a seed.\u00a0 A seed is planted into Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s life in chapter 1, in chapter 2, that is about to sprout into full harvest.\n\nSo you share the gospel with someone and you don\u2019t see an immediate conversion when in reality God is doing far more in that than you probably would expect; maybe He\u2019s just called you to plant the seed, because without a seed we can\u2019t have a harvest, can we, or a crop.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into details but I\u2019ve received calls from people that knew me decades ago, people that I\u2019ve forgotten, conversations that I\u2019ve forgotten, people that apparently I had spoken to related to spiritual things but that at the time I never thought would get saved; I\u2019ve received more than one phone call of someone saying it was something you said when we were in college and we were standing by this building, I couldn\u2019t even remember the conversation, and I\u2019m thinking to myself, I did a lot of things in college, I hope you\u2019re not remembering everything, but you said this one thing and it bothered me for years until the Lord used it to bring me to faith.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s you, maybe that\u2019s how God is working in your life.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be discouraged, be faithful and let God do His work.\n\nPersonal honor, praise to God, and then we have a promotion, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 Notice if you will verse 48, \u201cThen the king\u201d Nebuchadnezzar, \u201cpromoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The fact of the matter is God is in the promoting business.\n\nAll the way back to the time of Joseph we read these words; Genesis 41:37, \u201cNow the proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants. [38] Then Pharaoh said to his servants, \u2018Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?\u2019\u00a0 [39] So Pharaoh said to Joseph, \u2018Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. [40] You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.\u2019\u00a0 [41] Pharaoh said to Joseph, \u2018See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.\u2019\u00a0 [42] Then Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph\u2019s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put the gold necklace around his neck. [43] He had him ride in his second chariot; and they proclaimed before him, \u2018Bow the knee!\u2019 And he set him over all the land of Egypt. [44] Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, \u2018Though<\/em> I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.\u2019\u00a0 [45] Then Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt. [46] Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s an amazing set of verses when you remember what Joseph went through from age 17 to age 30.\u00a0 You know the story.\u00a0 And in an instant his fortunes were reversed.\u00a0 And 1,200 years have passed and God is doing the same thing to Daniel.\u00a0 And 2600 years have passed since the time of Daniel, God is doing the same thing because God does not change, He is the same yesterday, today and forever.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand how God does it, I don\u2019t understand when He does it, I don\u2019t even understand if it always comes in this life or in the next.\u00a0 But I know this much, that God promotes people.\u00a0 And this is so important to understand because when you talk about promotions we\u2019re all interested in that and we waste so much energy trying to promote ourselves when in reality the Bible says, in Psalm 75:6-7, \u201cFor not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; [7] But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.\u201d\n\nProverbs 18:16 says, \u201cA man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened with Joseph.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened with Daniel.\u00a0 That\u2019s what God wants to do with you.\n\n1 Peter 5:6 says, \u201cTherefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.\u201d\u00a0 Notice this expression \u201chumble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,\u201d there\u2019s no need to toot your own horn, there is no need to promote yourself, there is no need to want to be seen by people.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of standing humble before God so that He may exalt you.\u00a0 When is that\u2014\u201cat the proper time.\u201d\u00a0 God has this whole thing under control, He knows when the time of exaltation is to come and if you\u2019re trying to promote yourself before the proper time it\u2019s an exercise in futility; the only person it makes look foolish is the self-promoter.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice something here and it\u2019s so easy to read over this and not pay attention to it, but it says Daniel was promoted and became chief prefect over all of the wise men of Babylon.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:48, \u201cThen the king\u201d Nebuchadnezzar, \u2018promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 Well who were they?\u00a0 They are forerunners of what we call the magi, that are on all your Christmas cards, that we just celebrated.\u00a0 I like this one here, \u201cWise men still seek Him.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s these men coming from the east.\u00a0 If you do a word study on east you\u2019ll discover that east in the Bible, whether it be Eden, the tower of Babel, is always located in the area of Babylon, 350 miles to the east of the nation of Israel.\n\nAnd so we discover these men in the New Testament seeking Christ at a particular time in history.\u00a0 We covered this in our Christmas message (those of you that came on Christmas day)\u00a0 why these men were seeking Christ at this particular time in history.\u00a0 Because if you go back to the time of Moses there was a guy named, Balak, the King of Moab, who hired Balaam to curse Israel as Israel was making its way from Sinai through the Transjordan, that area of Moab, and the king of Moab didn\u2019t like these Jews coming into his territory so he hired a prophet for profit, a prophet with the right price, to curse Israel.\u00a0 And the prophet of God\u2026 Balaam tried to curse Israel seven times, tried his best, and every time out of his mouth did not come a cursing but a blessing.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if I said that wrong, he hired him to curse Israel, he tried to curse Israel seven times (which isn\u2019t that smart) and out of his mouth every time he cursed him came a blessing.\n\nAnd it\u2019s in the book of Numbers, chapter 24, verse 17, the fourth oracle that Balaam gives says this: \u201c\u2026A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel\u2026.,\u201d it\u2019s a Messianic prophecy.\u00a0 And where was Balak?\u00a0 Where was he from?\u00a0 Where was Balaam from?\u00a0 We learn in Deuteronomy 23:4 that Balaam was from Mesopotamia where these wise men came from.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 23:4, \u201cbecause they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.\u201d]\n\nSo through the generations what had happened is the connection of the Messiah to a star had been handed down for 1500 years.\u00a0 That\u2019s how they knew to look for a star.\u00a0 And if that weren\u2019t enough in the 6th<\/sup> century, about 800 years after the time of Moses Daniel properly interpreted Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream and according to verse 49, verse 48 really, Daniel is promoted into the ranks of the magi.\u00a0 Now we haven\u2019t gotten there yet but Daniel is going to give a very specific Messianic prophecy, Daniel 9:25, telling you the exact day that Jesus will show up and proclaim His Messianic credentials to the nation.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:25, \u201cSo you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u201d]\u00a0 I believe that these magi, as this tradition was faithfully passed down understood the Balaam prophecy, understood Daniel\u2019s prophecy, they put two and two together and they knew that that star appearing at a certain time in history meant something.\n\nAnd probably when Balaam was giving his oracles and Daniel was explaining the prophecy of the seventy weeks and actually was promoted, if you will, into the ranks of the magi through the providence of God, I really doubt that either individual knew what was happening and how God was using them, and how God was setting the stage for the conversion of these magi.\u00a0 And He was putting into place the circumstances where the birth of Christ would be honored by somebody, certainly Israel would honor it, Herod was killing all the firstborn, but at least these pagans would honor it.\u00a0 And God used 1,500\u00a0 years in advance in the case of Balaam, 600 years in advance in the case of Daniel, their lives in a way to set the stage for the entrance of Jesus.\n\nThe fact of the matter is\u00a0 you have no idea what God is doing in your life.\u00a0 Probably if God showed you what He is going to do through your obedience this week (and hopefully last week) it would fill you up with so much pride you would start to think more highly of yourself than you ought.\u00a0 So God doesn\u2019t reveal everything but the movement of God, the sovereignty of God through the life of an obedient believer becomes so obvious.\u00a0 God actually reaches down and wants to use our lives for eternal purposes.\u00a0 I can\u2019t believe that God acts that way towards me.\u00a0 Perhaps there\u2019s subsequent generations that are going to be blessed somehow through you; I don\u2019t know how it all works but God does, and He will take and use you and what you give Him.\n\nAnd you know, here is Balaam, cursing Israel; that\u2019s so not smart.\u00a0 Have you noticed that every time Israel gets attacked God comes through and gives them a holiday as a result?\u00a0 You attack Israel, Israel gets a holiday.\u00a0 Haman came up with a plot to abolish or eradicate the Jews and the Jews got a holiday out of that called Purim.\u00a0 Antiochus Epiphanius had the same idea in the intertestamental period and Israel got another holiday out of it called Hanukah.\u00a0 And how smart is it for the nations of the earth, even as I\u2019m talking here, January 15th<\/sup>, to be gathering in Paris to plot the removal of Judea and Samaria out of Israeli control?\u00a0 How smart is that, for them to do that?\u00a0 You push Israel God\u2019s going to come through and they\u2019re probably going to get another holiday as a result, because God has given the nation of Israel a special calling and covenant, and how that needs to be respected.\u00a0 But the nations of the earth have a very difficult time learning this; apparently they\u2019re going to have to learn it yet again.\n\nSo we have the personal honor to Daniel, praise to God, promotion of Daniel and as we conclude the chapter notice that Daniel does not forget his friends.\u00a0 Verse 49, \u201cAnd Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king's court.\u201d\n\nHow tempting it would have been for this 17 year old to say well God gave the dream and the interpretation to me so I get the credit, when in reality if\u00a0 you go back to Daniel 2:17-18 you\u2019ll see that this is a team effort, \u201cThen Daniel went to his house\u201d this is after Nebuchadnezzar said everyone will be killed amongst the wise men, \u201cThen Daniel went to his house and informed his friends,\u201d plural, \u201cHananiah, Mishael and Azariah,\u201d those are their Hebrew names, \u201cabout 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.\u201d\u00a0 This was a team prayer meeting; this was a team result.\u00a0 They went into Babylon as a team; they were subjugated through a pagan educational system as a team.\u00a0 And do you know the interesting thing about the word \u201cteam?\u201d\u00a0 The letter \u201cI\u201d is not found in the word \u201cteam,\u201d is it?\u00a0 We have a big case of the \u201cI\u2019s\u201d many times, I did this, I accomplished that, God is using me, when in reality if you\u2019re honest with yourself there is a whole cadre of people around you that God is orchestrating your lives together.\n\nYou know, at Dallas Seminary I took a class, one of those classes (I won\u2019t give the professor\u2019s name) it was one of those classes where I don\u2019t remember anything; I frankly don\u2019t even remember how I passed the class.\u00a0 It was a class called Trinitarianism, but I remember this one thing: this particular professor was talking about the community within the trinity, the great mystery of the trinity and how the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live in harmony and fellowship with each other and how each part of the trinity plays a different role in executing the plan of God.\u00a0 And he stopped in the middle of his lecture and he said this, he said you, by way of application, will accomplish nothing in ministry without a team.\u00a0 And I thought to myself well, that\u2019s a dumb application because God has gifted ME, and God is working through ME, and God wants to use ME, and then you get off in the ministry and you realize how totally helpless you are and how dependent you are on other people.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it providential that on the very Sunday\u00a0 morning where we laid hands on two team members that this whole subject of team is found right here in the passage that we\u2019re working from.\u00a0 \u201cThere is no \u201cI\u201d in team, there is no me, myself and I in the word team; it is teamwork.\u00a0\u00a0 Now some members, for whatever reason, are more prominent than others, some are more visible but what does the Apostle Paul say: those members of the body of Christ which are less visible than others, he\u2019ll explain this in 1 Corinthians 12, are indispensable supports.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see my lungs, yet what if one of them just decided not to work?\u00a0 The whole body would suffer.\u00a0 There are things that God has called you to do at this church that may seem menial, they may seem insignificant, they may not get you a lot of notoriety, they may not get you a lot of accolades,\u00a0 yet God has called you to do it.\u00a0 And if you just decide I\u2019m not going to do it, it\u2019s like a lung that no longer works.\u00a0 The church can\u2019t go forward the way God wants it to go forward because He\u2019s designed it as a team, as community.\n\nDaniel remembers his team.\u00a0\u00a0 Do you know that you\u2019re part of a team?\u00a0 Are you a player on the team?\u00a0 God has called us all to play different roles.\u00a0 Daniel remembers his team.\u00a0 Daniel remembers his friends.\u00a0 Can I say something to you?\u00a0 So does God!\u00a0 Daniel remembers his friends just like God does.\u00a0 Proverbs 18:24 says, \u201cA man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.\u201d\u00a0 People let you down, people desert you, people frustrate you, people can alienate you, wound you, that\u2019s part of living in a fallen world.\u00a0 Sadly even in the church world this happens.\u00a0 But God doesn\u2019t forget; God doesn\u2019t forsake.\u00a0 In fact, the day is coming where God\u2019s team is going to be rewarded with authority, just like Daniel\u2019s team was.\n\nRevelation 5:10 says this, \u201cYou have made them\u201d plural \u201cto be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not just the reign of Christ, it is the reign of the church under the delegated authority of Christ, because God doesn\u2019t forget His friends.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t forget His team any more than Daniel did.\n\nAnd then notice this last clue here at the end, where it says, \u201cappointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was<\/em> in the king\u2019s court.\u201d\u00a0 Notice the different offices here.\u00a0 Daniel, apparently is serving in the king\u2019s court, according to verse 48 he is ruler over the whole province of Babylon.\u00a0 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are placed into positions of what it says here, \u201cadministration.\u201d\u00a0 You say well who cares?\u00a0 It\u2019s significant because when we start chapter 3 next week there will be a command given to the whole province of Babylon to commit an act of idolatry and there\u2019s only three dissenters: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego dissent, everybody else acquiesces and we say well, what about Daniel?\u00a0 Did Daniel himself acquiesce to this command and the reality is we have an explanation as to why Daniel did not acquiesce, he was not in the normal government structure that Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were in.\u00a0 And consequently it is highly likely, it is not just possible, but probably that Daniel was out of the country at the time fulfilling his obligations to the king in another role.\n\nWell, why bore you with that detail?\u00a0 Because when you watch A & E, Mysteries of the Bible, and the History Channel, they will sell you on this idea that the book of Daniel is fabrication and a fraud because everybody knows Daniel was a godly man so why would chapter 3 indicate that everybody worshiped the image except three dissenters and not mentioning Daniel as a dissenter.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is there\u2019s a very plausible explanation and you see a hint of it in verse 48 and verse 49.\u00a0 And all I have to prove is it\u2019s possible this could have happened.\u00a0 Would you not agree this is a possibility?\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t there 2,600 years ago, neither were you, neither was the history channel, neither was A&E, neither was Mysteries of the Bible, they weren\u2019t there either.\u00a0 We\u2019re all wrestling with the text that\u2019s 2600 years old, all I have to do is demonstrate the possibility and the plausibility of an interpretation which maintains the integrity of the book of Daniel.\n\nYou see, the critics have decided to take an interpretation that damages the book of Daniel. Okay, that\u2019s their will, that\u2019s their decision.\u00a0 I decide to take an interpretation which honors the book of Daniel.\u00a0 It\u2019s not claiming fundamentalism, it\u2019s a reasonable explanation, because beloved, your kids and your grandkids, who are filled with all of this erroneous information are going to be looking to you for an answer.\u00a0 I saw this on YouTube, I saw this on TV, what do you say mom?\u00a0 What do you say dad?\u00a0 What do you say Grandma?\u00a0 What do you say Grandpa?\u00a0 And I want to equip you to answer those questions.\n\nA tremendous day in the life of Daniel.\u00a0 What do we take away from chapter 2?\u00a0 Number 1, the Mosaic Law taught Israel how to live inside the land, now we have to learn how to live outside the land and this is why the examples of the four Hebrew youths are so significant.\u00a0 How do you live?\u00a0 You consecrate yourself to God, you live by faith from crisis to crisis doing nothing more than continually entrusting yourself to your faithful Creator and who do you trust with the results?\u00a0 God.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to worry about outcome of your life, you just need to worry about not compromising in your baby steps, where you\u2019re at now, doing exactly what God has called\u00a0 you to do without compromise.\u00a0 How it ends up, martyrdom or promotion, is up to the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 Allow God, if it\u2019s His will, to promote you in His due time rather than engaging in self-seeking promotion.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a more appropriate way for us to live in the\u00a0 year 2017 amidst our Romans 1 culture.\u00a0 Live for God, trust your circumstances to God, leaving the results unto God; personal honor, praise to God, promotion of Daniel, promotion of Daniel\u2019s three friends.\n\nOf course\u00a0 you could be here wanting to know how you could be rightfully related to this God who blesses and that\u2019s what we call the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel is good news because Jesus did it all; He did the heavy lifting, we trust in what He has done in our place.\u00a0\u00a0 You may not understand everything there is to know about theology but you can all understand this: that what you get from God you receive as a gift.\u00a0 What you get from God is not what you do for yourself, it\u2019s what God has done for you and you trust in that.\u00a0 Our exhortation to you is to trust in God, in the promise of Jesus Christ, even as I am speaking and the Holy Spirit has placed you under conviction, respond in the privacy of your own thoughts, in the quietness of your own heart the best you know how and trust in God\u2019s promises.\u00a0 Trust in Him and Him alone for the safekeeping of your soul.\u00a0 If that\u2019s something you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word you have altered your eternal destiny.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nBut what about those of us that are walking with God, that know God, what are we to do.\u00a0 No compromise.\u00a0 John Walvoord writes these words in his Daniel commentary: \u201cThus Daniel, the obscured Jewish captive who would have been lost to history like many others if he had compromised in chapter\u00a0 is now exalted to a place of great honor and power.\u00a0 Like Joseph in Egypt he was destined to play an important part in the subsequent history of his generation.\u201d Payday Sunday.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this ancient book and yet it speaks directly into our time period.\u00a0 We are grateful for its preservation, we\u2019re grateful for a church that wants to hear it proclaimed.\u00a0 Convict us deeply, Father, of these lessons we\u2019ve learned this morning from these final four verses in chapter 2.\u00a0 Be with us as we move into chapter 3 next week, we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t