Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. So grateful that you
are here with us today. And I realized my headphones
are not plugged in. Sorry, glad you guys are here.
That we've been working on the studios, so a lot
of you can see that there is a different look.
If this is the first time you've joined us here
on the Wednesday Bible Study, we have transitioned since the
last time we're together. I told you this was coming.
(00:21):
Doesn't really affect the Wednesday Bible Study crew. But the
Rick and Bubba Show retired at the end of the year.
In December, we went on a three week sabbatical and
now we are back. It is the Rick Burgess Show,
So I'm still here. Big Box Entertainment is the new company.
But so you just kind of see a new look here.
(00:44):
But as far as the Bible Study still brought to
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twenty five And if you want to find out everything,
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(01:06):
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(01:27):
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And that's the majority of the people that come to
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(01:49):
a day Saturday. And then you also find out what
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Man's church a swag that we can get? Hey, we're
gonna get the fellowship with all these other churches that
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(02:12):
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at one of them or all of them, and you
can find that at the Manchurch dot com. Also this year,
we'll have a new curriculum that will come out later
in the year. Now we have a new resource and
I'm not supposed to talk about it, but you know me,
(02:32):
I mean, come on, you can't trust me with cut stuff.
But anyway, but a new resource that I'm just really
jacked about that's going to be available at the conferences first.
So if you're at the conference, you'll hear about it
and we'll have it and then it'll release to the
country whether you're involved in our Men's ministry or not.
Coming up in the spring. So so anyway, it's it's
(02:54):
a book bottom line that I have written and it's
being published and it's picking up a little momentum in
some places we normally don't go because of the topic.
So that's kind of cool, you'll pray about. That's a
great opportunity and should lead to some great opportunities to
do interviews and say things and talk about Jesus. So
it's coming out this year, So if you're come into
the conference, you can get one. If you're not, you're
(03:16):
gonna have to wait till the spring. So there you go.
So let's open up in a word of prayer and
let's jump right in. We're in Daniel chapter ten. Everybody,
remember we're studying Daniel, and today we are going on
a ride. I'll tell you that, and I cannot wait.
I'm so excited. Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today.
We're so excited about the opportunity to open up your
Holy Word. I mean, we're going we got some deep
(03:37):
stuff today, Lord, and we need your help to just
comprehend what we're attempting to wrap our minds around today,
just as Daniel felt when he saw this vision. And
so Lord, I pray that you'll be with us as
we unpack this today, be with all of those who
are hurting, that are grieving, and maybe are creeping over
to this Bible study today for the first time, just
(03:59):
looking for hope. May they find it in you. In
your name, we pray Amen. All right, So let's talk
about what's going on in ten Okay, Cyrus, as it
was predicted by the prophet, Isaiah has released the Hebrews. Okay,
so they're out. This time in Babylon is over. But
(04:20):
here's the problem. You had the more spiritual Jews, that
those devoted the Hebrews, that were ready to be released,
and they're ready to work their way back to the
Promised Land. They're going to go back to Canaan. Okay,
they've packed their bags, they're gone, but many remain behind.
Now there's a lot of reasons that a lot of
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them remain behind. There's the not so good reason that is,
we just like Babylon now, we don't want to go.
We've established a life here, we're doing fine. We have
no desire to go to the Promised Land. We just
want to stay here. But then you had people like
Daniel who also didn't go. And the reason that Daniel
does not go is he just old, He's really old,
(05:04):
he's weak, and he just can't he can't make the journey.
So he realizes that he's his job now has been done.
He's certainly receiving prophecy, which we now have. And as
a matter of fact, Daniel's prophecy on the on the
rule of the Gentiles, how clearly and precise that Daniel
(05:25):
is shown how world history laid out. It was so precise,
so detailed, that people who oppose the Holy Word of
God have tried to find They've tried to find a
way to explain it because it's supernatural. They got a
lot of problems when they try. But what they're trying
to convince you is that this Daniel person didn't write
(05:47):
this stuff. There's no way the historic Daniel did this,
because it would have been a supernatural vision that he
got right, So it can't be God. These are the
ones that oppose God. So they try to say, no,
somebody who was in the middle of all this wrote
it like they were. They were not in the middle
of all that. They knew what was happening because they
were living it, and they just pretended it was it
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was why they it was before that happened, and and
all that just falls silly flat. Uh. So we're not
going to spend much time on that chasing those rabbits
because those accusations are just so silly. Now I want
you to try let's try this, okay, to start this,
let's see if we can't put ourselves in the mindset
(06:27):
and and the plight of Daniel. And it really wasn't
that hard for me when I was preparing for you.
I embraced this pretty quick. And and and that I
think you will too, a lot of you anyway, So
I want you to picture what's happening. He it's not
that he doesn't want to go. He just can't make
the journey, okay. And he's having a tough time because
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he's been praying and he's not getting an answer from
God okay about the things that he's seen. And he
wants to know more. He wants some explanation, he wants
some comfort, and he's not getting it, okay. And and
so he's he a lot of his friends and acquaintances
they did leave, Okay, So you have to picture picture
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you're looking. You've been waiting on this, you've been you
know that people are going to be taken out of
the captivity of Babylon and out of the you know,
the Persians, and and so you're you're looking at this
and it's happening, but it's happening on a timeline that
you're so old and weak you can't go. But those
that aren't too old and they aren't too weak, they're going.
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And now there you are in Babylon, just just and
you know, he's been taking and he's had a good
life in Babylon as far as comfort. I'm not talking
about that. It's not loneliness. I'm talking about He's walking along,
seeing the hanging gardens, he's seeing this wall that, of course,
you know, the Babylonians thought could not be penetrated. Of
course they forgot about going under it. But anyway, but
he's walking through all this and he's alone. And you
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have been left in a pagan kingdom, and all the
people that serve the god that you serve, they've left you,
except for the ones that aren't solid anyway, So all
you got left other than other old people who were
too weak, you got a bunch of secular Hebrews now,
or we would say carnal if it was you know,
(08:13):
in the New Covenant, Cardinal Christians. They love the world.
They're living in the world. You got nobody solid with
you anymore. We don't know where shadrack me shack in
the bed and to go are. We don't know what
they're they're not mentioned anymore. So we don't know whether
they've passed away, they left two we don't know. So
so here he is and in his home this and
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this is the beauty, and this is the first takeaway.
We ain't gonna take long the first takeaway. His home
was Babylon, but his heart was in the Promised Land.
Let's let that resonate. Our home right now is Babylon,
but our heart better not being Babylon. Our home is Babylon,
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but our heart better be in Heaven. Heaven focused the
new Jerusalem, the new Heaven, the new Earth. That's where
our herd art to stay. And I've said this before,
difficulty will do that. And my wife thought about this
one of the things as we all start going along
and people start going on before us, if nothing else
(09:21):
will give you heaven, focused to having people you love there,
sure will. So now Daniel is looking toward that Promised
Land because a lot of people he loves are going there,
but he's not. His home is Babylone, but his heart
is Canaan. Okay, So let's jump into the first couple
of verses here, verses one through three. So there's a
(09:43):
delay that's being experienced. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
Understand that my day job is all about marketing. And
what do I know about marketing is the wonderful tease
you're always coming up next. Let me tell you something
why this delay is happening. You ain't ready for it.
(10:04):
It completely blew my mind on why God's answer to
his prayers, why they were delayed. I was not prepared
for what I learned. How's that for a tick? Okay,
So it's coming, so so here we go. All right.
So so Daniel, as we know, very old and and
(10:24):
and this is a test that he's got to pass again,
he says, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
a word was revealed to Daniel who and this is
not just somebody him throwing this in this this is
pretty important right here. Who's named? Who was named Belshassar?
And the word was true, and it was a great conflict,
(10:46):
and he understood the word and and had under understanding
of the vision. So what is all this? Okay, Daniel's
very old, physically weak, but hey, spiritually alert. There's another takeaway.
There's take wait number two old folks in here. Okay,
his body might be getting old, and he might be
(11:07):
physically weak, but he's spiritually strong as he's ever been.
How about you? How about me? My body may age,
but that doesn't mean my spirit does. Am I as
on fire for Jesus right here at sixty as I
was a few days after I repented of my sin,
turned to Jesus and was redeemed in nineteen ninety six.
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I would say I'm stronger today than I was then,
Maybe not physically, but absolutely spiritually. Okay, So this is
where Daniel. He's as alive as he ever was. To
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is ageless,
and you know where we find him. Think about how
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disappointing all this is right now from an earthly standpoint.
I'm stuck in Babylon. I knew that I was gonna
be over seventy years. I didn't know that i'd be too.
I wouldn't be physically able to leave. I knew all that.
But here he is instead of doing poor poor pitiful me, Hello,
poor poor pitiful me. He's feasting on a divine revelation.
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Daniel's forecast of kingdoms and wars, as I said a
minute ago, so accurate, so accurate. Everything he says, I
saw it, understood it. I understand. Great conflict is coming.
I've asked for more details. I've asked for some comfort
about this. I want you to think about this. You know,
(12:38):
I talk a lot about when we talk about prophecy.
I talked a lot about it in the Revelation study.
I talked about Daniel a lot in the Revelation study.
I'm going to talk about the Revelation a lot in
the Daniel study. But in both studies, lots of references
have already been and will continue to be. To Matthew
twenty four, this is Jesus when we have some really
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fortunate people that go, you're here, now, tell us what's happening,
tell us what where we should expect. When Jesus himself
calls Daniel an authentic prophet, well, if you're a follower
of Jesus, that's the only endorsement you need. Okay, what's
he a prophet. Well, according to Jesus, he was. So
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Jesus tells us, who's going to show up? By the way,
in this chapter to preincarnate Jesus is going to show up.
He said that Daniel was an authentic prophet. Can you
imagine that endorsement on the back of your book? Hum? So,
the vision came in the third year of Cyrus. He
tells us that news of the difficulties facing the Hebrews
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and the Promised Land. He saw that. But until Daniel
gets this visitor, he could only speculate on the severity
of what he was seeing for his people. Okay, now,
I want you now to look at verses two and three.
And the reason why I want you to notice that
he is reminding us that he was named Belshe see
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he's talking about this Babylonian thing. It's still on him.
I mean, hey, I'm the one I've been you know,
I got this Babylonian name. I'm still here in Babylon,
and I've seen all these things. But I want you
to look at verses two and three. He begins a
fast that with a determined resolution. Okay, look at two
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and three. In those days, I Daniel so we know
he's writing it was mourning for three weeks now. The
reason why he's mourning is he's not getting an answer.
He knows they've left, he knows difficulties coming for his people.
He wants to know more. He's been praying to know more,
and he's been praying to be comforted, and it's not happening. Okay,
(14:44):
I ate no delicacies, no meat. I had no wine,
or as a Baptist, grape juice entered my mouth, nor
did there. I'm not afraid to make ourselves, nor did
I annoy it myself at all for three full weeks.
So here's what we find. Daniel's soul is grieved because
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of the spiritual condition of a lot of things, the
Babylonian Jews. This makes him sick. The ones that have
just embraced the Pagan kingdom. They were eating, they were drinking,
they were marrying, they were given into marriage. What does
that sound like, Matthew twenty four When we're gonna see
the same thing again, those of us said, no, we're hey, guys,
(15:25):
what's going on? Y'all just have like nothing's happening, you know.
So anyway, so they didn't have any concern for the
pioneering Hebrews that were headed to Palestine or already there.
They didn't care. They didn't care about this hostile, gentile
world that they'd all been sent out to. They didn't care.
But Daniel did care. Why because of the visions from
chapter eight and chapter nine. He knows what's coming and
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they should know too, but they don't seem to care.
Have you ever been concerned about something that was incredibly
important in the spiritual realm? Something God said something? You
since coming, You're coming. You look around, nobody else cares? Well,
we should expect that nobody. Why don't y'all care? Do
(16:07):
y'all not understand what's happening here? And I will tell
you we're living in a time of just total chaos,
total paganism. I mean things we would have never even
uttered or are sitting there on our TV. They're right
in front of us. They're walking in the light on
the streets, and we can sense God's anger burning against
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all this and you look around, nobody cares. That's how
Daniel felt. You can probably relate to that. So the
time of the Gentiles was in full force, and he
led lamented over this remnant that had gone back to
the Promised Land, and it was only a remnant. Like
I said, a lot of them just stayed behind because
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they wanted to do. Some stayed behind like him, because
they had to. But the ones that went it was
not the large number of the Hebrews. It was just
a remnant, as it always is it seems so. I
remember one time I was I was ostracized for using
the term remnant, and I had to tell the young
man who was speaking to me as an older man,
I said, the reason why I use the word remnants
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because it's in the Bible. Well, you just shouldn't say
this in men's ministry, that it's just going to be
a remnant. And uh. And that makes the people feel
like that if they're if they're there, have to be
part of some special group. But they do. They do.
Jesus said few if you would like, I guess you
want to go. I guess you're like. I'll tell Jesus
that he don't know what he's saying. He's the one
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that said few. I didn't say few. He's the one
that said I'm calling a remnant. I didn't say that.
He's the one that keeps saying I always fight. I
always have a remnant. I always have a remnant, no
know how bad bad it is, I always have a remnant.
Those are his words. So if you don't like that,
you'll have to take it up with the one and
only living God. I'm gonna be quiet about it, but
you be sure and go tell him he don't know
what he's talking about. Because it makes people feel bad,
it hurts their feelings. But you take that up with him. Well,
(17:56):
I'm often running in the new year, arnor so here
we go. But anyway, so three weeks, he agonized, no
answer was coming from God, silence from heaven? What you
ever had? This happen only added to the burden. Have
my hands up? And it feels silly, But I'm not
(18:16):
saying I mean I even know, we all know, but
sometimes we do things just even though we know. Have
you ever sometimes did a poor, poor, pitiful me? And
you start kind of you almost start questioning if God
even hears you? God, you do you know what I'm
going through, right, don't you? Why won't you give me
some answer? Why do I not have it? You're going
to be shocked, and why he's not getting the answer.
By the way, teaser number two, and this is adding
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why is God not giving me the answer? And here's
how this test ended. Let's get into four. On the
twenty fourth day of the first month, as I was
standing on the bank of the great river that is
the Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and I looked
and behold a man clothed in linen with the belt
(19:02):
of fine gold from Euphas around the waist. His body
was like burrow, his face like the appearance of lightning,
his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like
the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his
words like the sound of a multitude. So here we go,
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So the test, and all the poor, poor, pitiful me,
it comes to an abrupt end by divine visitation. Okay.
Now keep in mind that if you go back through
history during this time, when they can document when these
this was written by Daniel his fast that he just
had been on for three weeks. It spanned from the
(19:42):
passover feast of of unleaven bread. Uh, these two feasts
that he had to passover and the unleaven bread. Now,
these are two feasts that the Jews would would would
participate in because it was to celebrate them being freed
from the bondage in Egypt and God's deliverance from that bondage.
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Cyrus had just set them free again. But Daniel doesn't
participate in it. He faster it because he's looking for
an answer. He wants a vision. So we know he's
on the banks of the Tigris. Now this, this divine
visitor shows up. You know, the Tigris and the Euphrates,
they're always connected with what the Garden of Eden, the
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Garden of Eden, and what happened at the Garden of
Eden before the fall. God would walk in the cool
of the day with man and woman, with humans, with
Adam before he made Even so, it's interesting you look
at this and he says, I look, and there I
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am in the river of this associated with the Garden
of Eden, and here is the preincarnate son of God
that has come to comfort me. Now why do we
know this? You know, And when he's describing him this
UFAs or this was a region that was known for
(21:05):
producing gold. So when he looks, he's just using something
he's relating to looks like it came from that region
where all the gold is he's got this on the
reason why we think this is clearly the preincarnate Jesus,
that this happens throughout the Old Testament, Revelation one twelve
through fifteen. Make a note of that. You're going to
see a very similar description. And we know the preincarnate
(21:29):
appearance of Jesus is throughout scripture. There's so much imagery here.
He's got the burrel, which is it's a beautiful gem.
It's like them, it's like transparent. The linen that he
sees always was a linen that the priest of Israel
would wear. It's a symbol in scripture of what righteousness.
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And we know who makes us fully righteous, Jesus, And
we know that his loins are girded with this golden girdle,
and girded means you know they would they would pull
these up for battle so they could run and to
protect themselves. And then the face blaze like lightning, eyes
burn like fire, the limbs like burnished brass. This is
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always a symbol. Remember this in the Revelation we study
that always a symbol of judgment. He was something that
would strike terror immediately. This is the thing that's so
amazing about the son of God, that this imagery would
even remotely consider this kind of glory of becoming a man,
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and to stand on the banks of this river on
earth appearing as a man too Daniel to comfort him.
I hope you all find as I did, comfort in
that no matter how glorious he is, and no matter
how far removed he is from us, he still is
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willing to connect to us in our time of need.
That's to me, that may be one of the most
incredible things, incredible truths that any of us could grasp,
that God would even give me the time of day.
And so now I'm no Daniel. But still Daniel is
no God. And we'll talk about that coming up. So
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Daniel sees this, and yet and look, this is important.
Here comes a real important point. Hang on to this.
This is a little deep, but I want you to
grab it because it's good what Daniel sees here. And
you're going to tell by his reaction to what happens.
And I think this is the right balance when dealing
with God. One of the things that we have lost
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in this balance is we've lost the fear of God. Okay,
which makes us not very wise. According to scripture, we
should fear God. But the beauty of this moment is
that Daniel sees the image, the glorious image of the
preincarnate Jesus, And yes he's terrified, but the same time
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he's comforted. Man, that's good. Have you ever been there.
I'm terrified of God, but I'm also comforted by him.
And the very thing that causes me to have terror
is the same thing that comforts me because of who
he is. Because if he's got me, if he's got me,
(24:22):
then everything's really gonna be all right, because there's nobody
bigger than him, nobody higher. So anyway, both of these
things are in play, terror and sympathy. Now I want
you to look at at verses seven and eight. I
found this interesting, and I, Daniel alone saw the vision.
For the men who were with me, imagine that did
(24:44):
not see the vision, But a great trembling fell upon them,
and they fled to hide themselves. So I was left
alone and saw the great vision of this great vision,
and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance
was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. So there
(25:04):
were other people there. Daniel's not hanging out on the
banks of the tigers by himself. They's some other guys there,
of course, you know, I don't know if you'll ever
had these friends. We're out, Okay, Now, why if they
didn't see it, what causes them to run? The others
were there, but Daniel says, I'm alone now I loan
(25:25):
see the vision. So what was it that caused the
others to run? The sound? So you have to document
that the sound of the voice, that's all they needed
to hear. They'd have to see anything. The sound of
that thunderous voice was all they had to hear, and
they were gone. Now, Daniel, this is another reason why
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that the case is made. This is to preincarnate Jesus.
Daniel has already seen Gabriel once and he didn't have
this kind of reaction to this person he sees. He's
already seen Gabriel. I mean, if it was Gabriel, I said, well,
there's Gabriel again. Now Gabriel's gonna come on to see.
But that's not what he sees right now. Okay, So
this is the reaction. Daniel had seen Gabriel and that
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was frightening. But apparently this visitor, by Daniel's own words,
is much more frightening. Okay. Remember angels are just creating
beings too. They're above us, but they are created, They're
not God. Okay. And so this is the thing you
start thinking about some reference verses here, and I hope
and we see this throughout scripture. Keep in mind, this
(26:29):
is Daniel. Daniel gets called righteous. I just told you,
Jesus mentions him when he's when he's talking to the disciples. Okay.
This is not a person that God's upset with. Okay. However, however,
Daniel's reaction is just like Isaiah. Anybody think Isaiah was
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not in good standing with God? My goodness, But what
did Isaiah say when he saw God? Woe is me?
For I am a man unclean? Did Job say, who
was blameless and upright? When his suffering took him into
such intimacy with God? He said, I despise myself. Okay,
(27:10):
look at Ezekiel. I fell on my face. Ezekiel won
twenty six through twenty eight. I fell on my face
when I saw God. And that don't see him fully
or it would have killed him. But just what they
saw of God. Okay, Remember even Moses had a turn.
Don't look right at me Moses, you'll die, Okay. So
that's the beauty of the Son of God, that part
(27:30):
of the Trinity. We do have a little more access
than we do sometimes to the Father. But here, and
remember what happened when Saul of Tarus encountered Jesus. He
fell on the earth blind, so Daniel he was, he
was calm. But then but then that calmness, I love this,
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the comeliness then turned to corruption. And that's the part
I think we miss sometimes. Is all we want is
the peace that comes with the presence of God. And
there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that we
shouldn't appreciate that and celebrate that. But encountering God for
us always shouldn't always bring just comfort. It ought to
(28:17):
bring conviction. It ought to bring some kind of awareness
of how sinful we are, because that's what's happened to
everybody else who's encountered in And I don't know about y'all.
Y'all pretty good people. I love you, But I don't
see a whole lot of Daniels and Isaiah's and these
Eqiels in here. Now. I might see a couple of Sauls, okay,
(28:38):
But what I'm saying is if they recognize their sinfulness
because of the comparison to God, who are we not
to repent? Who do we think we are? Daniel recognized
his own sinfulness, Isaiah recognized it, Ezekiel recognized it. We
(28:59):
don't job did we don't? I mean we gotta think
a little, a little more of God, a little less
of ourselves. And that's what happens to everybody who truly
encounters God. I think it's uncontrollable. I think I could
even say watch this, I'm gonna step in the presence
of God and I'm gonna be good. It's impossible. Watch
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me stand boldly before never happen because of who He
is and who I am. So this is the takeaway
right here, you're ready for this. We love Daniel, He's
in high he's held in high regard. However, Daniel was
a good man, Daniel was a godly man. Daniel was
a holy man. But who can stand in the presence
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of God? Nobody, or if my English teacher was here,
no one. Okay, look at nine, here's here's here's the
proper response by the way to standing in the presence
of the part of the Trinity. Then I heard the
sound of his words. And as I heard the sound
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of his words, I fell on my face in a
deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Daniel, this encounter,
he passed out. I couldn't take it. It was so
overwhelming that I passed out. Now now, now, now chills
are already building. Now we love these next few verses.
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And it's going to harken us back to Patmos. We're
going back to Patma's going ahead here in this case,
we're going to Patmos. Remember, John says, I can't even
take this. I can't take this vision. Right now. I
see Jesus in his glorified state, and I can't take it.
Daniel had a very similar experience, long before he was
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in that manger, and long before he went to that cross,
and long before he walked out of that tomb, and
long before he ascended back to where it came from.
So look at the reaction and behold a hand this
verse ten now and to behold a hand touched me
and set me trembling on my hands and knees. And
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I love this moment. So so Daniel's passed out, okay,
And so here we have and this is where it
gets a little confusion. They because Gabriel's with him. We're
gonna find this out in a minute. We don't know
whether it's it's Jesus himself. I tend to think it
is because of what I saw in the revelation. But
either the angel that was with Jesus, which turns out
in a minute to be Gabriel, who has an explanation
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on the delayed prayer, you're not gonna believe. But anyway,
so so so either the Son of God or Gabriel.
They they don't want to address Daniel laying down on
the ground passed out. That's not good. That's not what
he wants. So he touches him. All Daniel can do
on the first touch is I'm off my face, but
now on my hands and knees. Still not enough. No, no,
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get up, you get up and face me. Look look
at it eleven. And he said to me, Oh, Daniel,
man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you,
and stand upright for now I have been sent to you.
I think now we probably are moving to Gabriel. Okay,
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now I want you to think about I mean, this
is this is emotion rises up in me and maybe
it does for you. I don't want to be controlled
by my emotions. But the ain't nothing wrong with your emotions.
It's part God made emotions, and we were given emotions.
Now I wouldn't listen to them, and I'm not going
to follow them. But there's some wonderful things about when
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you are overcome with emotion in the presence of God.
You know, I don't. I don't like when people say
things like be careful when you're teaching, that you start
trying to get an emotional response. I don't know about you.
I repented because of an emotional response that that was,
that was a part of me. I was so overwhelmed
by my sin. You call it what you want to.
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But I didn't stand there resolute, refusing to be emotional.
I broke down and wept. You know I don't. I
don't let my emotions run me, but sometimes I let
my emotions convict me. You know, so so so anyway,
so we see this moment and and can you imagine
can you imagine hearing these words from an angel that
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was that was told to tell you by the one
and only living God, Old Daniel put your name there,
man greatly loved I bet that felt good. That's a
good remedy in it to hear that you were loved
by God. You know what he's saying, just because you're
in a bind and you're lonely, and you're old, and
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you didn't get to go to Promised Land, and you've
been wondering where I am. I love you. I haven't
abandoned you. I see the things you're doing for me.
I see your obedience. Okay. And you're gonna hear in
a minute something about spiritual warfare that I've never known.
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So so here's what the here's a response to that.
And when he spoke this word to me, I stood
up trembling. So I've gone from face down to my
hands and knees. I'm now standing still trembling. Probably a
good way to be, okay. And so then look at
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verse twelve. He said to me, fear not, Daniel. From
from the first day that you set your heart to
understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have
been heard, and I have come because of your words
are prayers. Okay, So this is interesting. So now we
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believe this is Gabriel who's now the spokesperson. He's a
herald angel. He's had some pretty big responsibilities, we find
in scripture, and so we believe that the Son of
God because we know, we believe the preincarnate hasn't completely left.
But it's not speaking to Daniel. And you'll see why
in a minute. And he speaks to Daniel. And what
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wonderful words to hear is for Daniel who's talking to
this angel? And the angel says, and we do believe
it's Gabriel. God heard the prayers of Daniel, and God's
answer was on the way the moment that you prayed them,
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stand by, stand by. So what are some of the
reasons that God's answers are sometimes delayed? I'll give you
a couple that I'm gonna tell you what happened here.
It's not what happened here, but I'll give you some
and then we'll get to what happened here. Sometimes hear
me now and we're just gonna talk straight down. Okay,
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have y'all missed this as much as I am. This
has been like me not having nutrition or something. Man,
it's so good to be back. Sometimes we're not hearing
from God because we're not in any spiritual condition to
receive the answer. God's ready to give us. You're not
hearing it because you don't have yourself spiritually right. You're
causing you know, those who don't know my day job.
(36:19):
It's a lot more things now, but it still is radio.
But now it includes all this YouTube stuff and apps.
But at the heart of it, it's a radio show.
And that was my love of radio. And what do
we know about a frequency is that if I'm not
in the right position for that tower, you know, to
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bring the frequency to me, there's gonna be static. I'm
out of the range of it. And what happens is
we let unrepented sins stay in our life and we're
not getting our act together spiritually. And here we are
crying out from some revelation from God and we're in
no condition to receive it. So that's one two. Sometimes
we ask that's the wrong thing, and God delays why,
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hoping we'll figure that out. You ever had that before,
You ever prayed something before and then go back and said, well,
I don't even know what I was thinking. And God's like, good,
I'm glad I didn't have to tell you that. I'm
glad you figured that out. I'm not answering that wasn't
the world you're asking me. That's the wrong thing to
ask me, right, So then you get to three. Sometimes
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God uses natural means to accomplish his purpose. Now what
we mean by that things that are of the world.
Here's a perfect example. Sometimes you pray to be healed
and it's a long process for the cancer to be gone,
and then ultimately you're like, well, I did get healed,
but why that took a while. And God's well, sometimes
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I'm just letting that happen as it would happen, but
I'm still in it. I didn't have you just stand
up out of the bed and walk away. I had
you go through the treatments, and at the end of it,
I had you cancer free. Or maybe has to do
with natural disasters and the way the world works, maybe
it's aging, whatever the case may be. He's just using
the limit. He's allowing the limitations of this falling creation
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to still do his work and it takes a little longer.
Of course, he's not surprised by that. But then you
get down to this one, this one I didn't know about,
and I'll be honest, we I'm not crazy about it. Okay,
So here we're going to learn what happened that delayed
the answer to Daniel's prayer. And I hope that you're
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ready for it. Okay, so he's been told, we heard
you prayer. God sent me to you. I've been trying
to get to you. Are you all ready for this? I've
been trying to get to you, But look at this
thirteen The prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me
twenty one days. But Michael, one of the chief princes,
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came to help me, for I was left there with
the kings of Persia and came to make you understand
what is to happen to your people in the latter days,
For the vision is for days yet to come. I've
been trying to get to you, but the high ranking
demons that serve Lucifer stop me. Did you know that
(39:17):
could happen? I couldn't get to you. I'm a herald angel,
remember the third of the angels that went with Lucifer.
They were from all different ranks that were with God,
some stronger than others. We saw that in the revelation.
We get to the to the tribulation, and we get
to Armageddon, we see that there are different strengths on
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both sides. Now, the good news is God's got two third,
Lucifer's got one third, but he's got he's got some
pretty good players. And so when we talk about the
Prince of Persia here this is not the literal prince,
my goodness, that's Cyrus. What he's talking about is there
are there are demons that are supernaturally in charge of
evil dictators and evil kings and evil kingdoms. There's a
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spiritual component to it, and the higher ranking demons based
on the effect. Like when you see something like Hitler,
well that that was nobod. I was just somebody controlled
by demon. There was a human being there, but behind
all that was a demon, because Satan hates the Hebrews, okay,
And so this has been going on, and what he's
saying is this one that was assigned to Persia and
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all the horrible things they did. I couldn't get past him.
He was too much for Gabriel, but he wasn't too
much for Michael. And he said, finally Michael came to
I mean, when Michael came in, that kind of swung
it to our favor. So here I am. Did any
of you know that I didn't I had never learned that.
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So one thing I will say, and it's one things
I've always been pretty aware of and concerned about. Even
early on in my walk with crisis, I began to
understand because the Bible talks about it, the spiritual realm,
it's absolutely I think some of us live our lives
like that's not real, and we do very stupid things
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because we don't believe it. Paul tells us about this,
Jesus tells us about this. If right now God decided
to flip the switch and you could see the other dimension,
and you and I could see the war that is
raging all around us in the spiritual realm, you'd never
go to sleep again. You would not not off to
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sleep tonight. It's real and it's serious. Now, what's the
proper balance. We're not real good at balance as human beings,
are we The proper balance is not to obsess over it.
That's not to be so intrigued by that you're always
looking for it, and you want to get into it,
and you want to start dealing with witchcraft, and you
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want to start dealing with all this stuff. I'm so
intriguing about the spiritual rialm and demons I'm obsessing over
angels and demons and I want to go and get
as close to all that as I can. You're an idiot.
Don't do that. Now there's the other end of the spectrum.
I don't care about it at all. Now that's not
smart either. You know, you don't want to be you know,
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one of the examples that was used in one of
the commentaries was you don't want to be living in
the times we're living in. But when it comes to
the spiritual world, you're in the Middle Ages, And they
were talking about I mean, you realize in the Middle
Ages we had people dying, only to discover that one
of the reasons why they were dying is the doctors
just weren't washing their hands. Now we hear that and go,
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how stupid was that? What the time they didn't know
They had to figure that out. And what they're saying
is if you are that, don't be too naive about it,
but don't obsess over it either. But I will say
the one thing that I think we got to really
really watch. We have got to stop participating in things
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that bring darkness into our lives, because what you're saying
to these demons now is You are welcome to come
in into my home, into my life, into my mind,
into my heart, into my desires. Don't be dumb and
become a sin daredevil when it comes to the spiritual realm.
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You were just told in scripture today that there are
demons that are so strong they kept Gabriel at bay
for three weeks trying to get to Daniel. And you
think you're gonna miss with them, They're gonna eat your
lunch and they're gonna destroy you. I've been involved in it.
(43:43):
I have been involved in spiritual warfare. As I sit
with you right now, I'm in spiritual warfare. I mean,
I literally have to go after this and talk to
somebody about a death threat on my life. Okay, so
I'm living it. But what I'm telling you is I
sip fine because I'm under the authority of Jesus Christ.
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But I'm still going to turn it in because I'm
not gonna be a daredevil about it. Okay. So, but
what I want you to know is that we should
never fear demons as long as we're standing with Jesus.
But if we leave him and decide to take them on,
that's that's so foolish. And like I said, I was
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involved in one one time of a spiritual cleaning of
a home. And I'll be very general about this. And
and I and I've encountered them. And I watched a
friend of mine be completely blinded, completely blinded by the
attack of a demon. Now, praise God, the sight returned
and and and they were turned away in the name
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of Jesus. And there were other righteous men. And but
I'm telling you it's the real deal. That and that
that's the reason why people say, well, why don't you
you you a little over the top about Halloween, aren't you?
And I That's what I always say. If I'm standing
before God, I can make a strong case before God
and why I didn't do it, more than I can
stand before me and tell him why I did. Now,
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if he looks down for the strong and said, now
I was all over the top, you were good. Fine.
But what I don't want to do is stand there
and here and go, what in the world are you doing?
How many times have I warned you about this stuff?
By the way, he hates witchcraft, hates it, hates it.
I mean, we have a movie in this country right
now that people assessed over it's literally called wicked. It's
(45:33):
called wicked, and we can't get enough of it. And
he says, I hate witchcraft, I hate sorcery. He hates it.
Why would I even be entertained by anything that God hates?
And the spiritual realm is extremely serious, extremely serious. So
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we learned learn what happened. Daniel is learning that his
prayer was great, and his prayer was right. But what
he was opposed by darkness, he ranked it. Now, some
of us may be living a life and you know
(46:19):
it's Acts nineteen when the seven Sons of Skiva were
going to cast out this demonic man because they saw
Paul being treated like a celebrity and they wanted some attention.
And they say to this, in the name of Jesus
that Paul calls upon, come out of this man. Now,
let me tell you. What you don't want is for
the demons to have so little regard for you that
they would come back to you and say, Paul, I
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recognize you know, I mean Jesus, I know, Paul, I recognize.
But who are you now? Remember you've heard me teach
this lesson again, But some of you are new. I
mean in the past, I'm gonna teach it again. Why
didn't the demons do what these men said if they
used Jesus's name, Why because they didn't belong to Jesus.
They actually opposed you, Jesus, and the demons knew it.
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So the name of Jesus in these sons hands had
no power. I'm going to say that again. The name
of Jesus in the hands of people that don't belong
to Jesus doesn't have any power at all. The reason
why Paul could cast out demons is because he belonged
to Jesus. These men could not because they didn't. It
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was a show. Jesus had no idea who they were.
So the question is, if we were those men and
we were ready to clean them out of our house
and out of our lives, do we have any integrity
at all that we represent Jesus. So now we get
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into verse thirteen. I've unpacked that pretty good about these princes,
and you see this not being a human prince. And
you know, if you go to Second Chronicles, you'll see
the Prince of Persia me. This is used a lot
of times for these high ranking demons or even Satan himself.
Second Chronicles thirty two twenty through twenty one. And you
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know the reason why we know this isn't Cyrus. Cyrus
cannot stop Gabriel, so it's not a human prince of Persia.
It's the dark spiritual forces behind the Prince of Persia.
That's important for you to know that this is a
fallen angel, some kind kind, a very powerful member of
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Satan's hierarchy. We know that from the New Testament that
there's various orders that exist among the spirit powers, both
angelic and demonic, and of course this one has his
allegiance to Satan. But here's what I love this. This
is another line. Write this one down. This is another
big one if you've got something to write with, and
it comes from Ephesians six twelve. You know, we know
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about the spiritual realm there even when to reference that.
But this is something you need to know and we
see this in the life of Daniel. Every time that
we decide to pray, hear me, now, that's important. Every
time we decide to pray, we engage in war. You
are you're stepping into the to the war that's going
on between demons and angels. Every time you pray, you're
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engaging in war. I hope you pray like you're going
to war. So we also know that the human prince
of Persia was Cyrus, but that that's that's not who
this is. This Prince of Persia, supernatural and demonic, was
so powerful he hindered a herald angel for three weeks.
And of course this brought Michael, who was called chief,
(49:39):
one of our chief princes. Now his arrival swung the balance,
as I said, of the conflict. An arch he's called
an archangel, a martial angel in Revelation twelve. And he's
also what been said, he's the one that defends Israel.
He's the one that fights for the Hebrews. Okay, so
it's important. So the vision does come, and we will
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not do that today. The vision that you're going to
see the angel reference the vision, but it's coming next
week and it's a long one and it's complicated. In
chapter eleven, so we're going to go from Malachi to Matthew. Okay. Now,
it will leap the church age to the latter days,
but we've already discussed that. If y'all remember that three
weeks ago, that's what kept throwing Daniel off. And it
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continues to throw a lot of people off. When they
were Old Testament prophets. They didn't understand the church age,
they didn't know what to do with it. And so
it will actually be skipped next week. But it's a
long vision, and here's the reaction fifteen through nineteen. And
you'll see that Daniel was going to struggle again in
a minute. So he says, when he had spoken to
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me according to these words, I turned my face toward
the ground, and I was mute, and behold, one in
the likeness of the children of man touched my lips.
You think that is Then I opened my mouth and
I spoke. I said to him who stood before me, Oh,
my lord, we know that by reason, by reason of
the vision, pains have come upon me, and I retain
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no strength. How can my lord servant talk with my lord?
For now no strength remains in me, and no breath
is left in me. The Son of God is still present.
Daniel go silent again after hearing all this from Gabriel.
Daniel is weak from the fast. I think that's probably
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in play. Most commentators think so too. He's also old,
and he you know what he does. I love this
and this is what we should do. I love the advice.
I never will forget hearing this from the late Adrian Rogers.
Don't forget. You can go tell Jesus on people. You
can go tell Jesus your problems. You know what, Daniel
starts saying, I'm struggling. He's sitting there, going why would
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you even speak to me? Lord? But while you're here,
I'm hurting, I'm struggling, I'm weak. I don't know that
I can take this, which, by the way, you've heard
my testimony before. That was one of the greatest moments
in my entire spiritual life when I finally said that
this is too much, no matter how much strength I
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may have, no matter how strong a man I think
I am, this is too much. And I basically heard
the same thing finally, so you're so weak you have
to depend on me now you don't have a choice.
And I will tell you that has been the sweetest
time in my life spiritually, when I was depending on
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the Lord God Almighty to breathe. There's nothing quite like it.
I don't wish it on anybody what it takes to
get there, but I will tell you when you're there,
it's as good as it gets when you truly are
totally dependent on God. And he's saying, for now, no
(52:57):
strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.
I can't do it anymore. You ever been there can't
do it anymore. They can't go anymore. Well, this is cool.
Look at eighteen and nineteen having again one having the
appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. That's
the preincarnate Jesus. And he said, old man, greatly loved,
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fear not, Peace be with you, Be strong and of
good courage. And as he spoke to me, I was
strengthened and said, let my Lord speak, for you have
strengthened me. Now you talk about something as all of
you here. I know in the room, we have other
Bible teachers, we have pastors. We got it all in here. Okay,
(53:47):
you know what we all say, that'll preach. Okay. So
what you have here is when Daniel finally says, I
got nothing left, the Lord said, finally I'll strengthen you.
You know why the Lord isn't strengthening some of us,
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as we are not coming to terms with that we
have nothing left. We're still trying to do things of
our own strength. And what we foolishly think sometimes is
if I'm too weak right now, that must be bad.
I gotta get stronger, I gotta get tougher, I gotta
step up. And what we should do is say, Lord,
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I don't have the strength, but you do give it
to me. Give it to me. I need your strength,
and you know what Daniel gets it. Listen to that.
And he said to me, oh man, greatly loved, fear
not peace be with you, Be strong and of good courage.
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But who provided the strength? Did Daniel all of a
sudden find the strength of his on accord? No, the
Lord gave him the strength. He is our strength. Stop.
Stop stop trying to do it on your own. It
only leads to frustration. It only leads to sickness, It
only leads to despair. Understand that we can't but he can't.
(55:16):
But he can't, we have access to him. If you're redeemed, Lord,
let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me. Amen.
Twenty Then he said, do you not know why I've
come to you? But now return to fight against the
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Prince of Persian while they still fighting. And when I
go out, behold the Prince of Greece will come. But
I'll tell you what is inscribed in the Book of Truth.
There's none who could tends by my side against these
except Michael, your prince. Angels back. The angel says, I'll
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tell you, Daniel, don't worry. I'm going to tell you
of the terrible and ceaseless attacks that are going to
take place on the Earth in the years ahead, conflicts.
The world's going to be ravaged. The Promised Land is
going to get ravaged over and over again. Satanic princes
keep the world in upevil. No peace on Earth, that
(56:22):
is impossible. I'm gonna say that again. I know a
lot of us like to go out and think we
can come up with some planet's gonna bring peace to
Earth other than Jesus. The forces that are running this
earth stopped a herald angel for getting a message from
God to a prophet for three weeks. They own the
(56:43):
governments of this world. They own the leaders of this world,
and there will never be peace up. Evil is all
because we have Satanic princes that are empowering Satanic and
due leaders. And the wars are never going to stop
(57:05):
until the final one when Jesus comes. And that's okay.
I'm just saying, don't be frustrated. Don't expect something that's
never going to happen. Now, what we should be going
after is John sixteen thirty three. Is peace. Jesus. I
say this so that you'll have peace. I'm the prince
of peace in this world. You will have tribulation, that's
(57:28):
the evil forces. But never lose joy in your heart.
You always have joy in your heart. You always be
at perfect peace because I've overcome the world. But that's
to come. It's not now. Now. Has he overcome our problems? Yes, yes,
do we find peace and solitude in him? Yes, But
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I just went to see a friend of mine that
is dying of als and he has perfect peace in Jesus.
But he's still dying. His body is, his spirit's not
his body is. Because why we're not there yet. He
hasn't wiped away every tear yet. We sickness isn't gone yet,
death isn't gone yet, mourning hasn't stopped yet. But he says,
(58:09):
even in the midst of that, understand why that's happening,
and never never lose sight that I've really solved your
biggest problem. You're redeemed and that's basically what he's saying. Again,
Persia at this time was ruling, and he's saying Greece
is going to rule. The Herald Angel says, I'll fight
the prince of Persia. Michael is the protector of your people.
(58:32):
That's why he threw him in there. Hey, don't worry,
Michael's with me. We're going back to fight. How about
the end hout? How about it? He said, I'll go
get Michael. We got to go back and fight some more,
but I'll get back to you. The unseen world is real.
Human beings are susceptible to this world. Because of our ignorance,
(58:53):
we dabble in this mess. We're curious to a fault.
But you got to understand when it comes to the
spiritual realm, you must understand this. If please understand this,
we're out of our league. We're out of our league.
You don't want to live in the spiritual Middle Ages.
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What's the best protection against the war that's going on
around us? It's simple prayer from a righteous man or
woman who has their Bible in their hand and they're
in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's how you go
to war. You made fully righteous by what being redeemed,
(59:36):
you learn the word of God, so you know what's
going on, and you're in dwelt by the very presence
of God his Holy Spirit, and then you're ready. Until
those things take place, you're not. Let's prayer, Lord, thank
you for today. What a powerful, powerful message. If there's
(01:00:00):
people right now and they're confused by all the things
that are going on, I pray in the glorious name
of Jesus, this will be the day that that man
or woman will repent, will turn from their sins and
turn to you, Lord for the peace that you promise.
And today will be the day they say, I want
to be redeemed by you, Jesus, and only you can
redeem me. Then they become fully righteous in you. Then
(01:00:23):
they have a desire to take your word of God
and to learn it, to eat it, to understand it,
so you know what's going on. And then we get
all the discernment, we get the comfort, we get the conviction,
we get the sanctification by your Spirit, the Holy Spirit
that now dwells in all who have been redeemed, and
the glorious name of Jesus, we pray, Amen, Thank you,
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. So grateful that you
are here with us today. And I realized my headphones
are not plugged in. Sorry, glad you guys are here.
That we've been working on the studios, so a lot
of you can see that there is a different look.
If this is the first time you've joined us here
on the Wednesday Bible Study, we have transitioned since the
last time we're together. I told you this was coming.
(00:21):
Doesn't really affect the Wednesday Bible Study crew. But the
Rick and Bubba Show retired at the end of the year.
In December, we went on a three week sabbatical and
now we are back. It is the Rick Burgess Show,
So I'm still here. Big Box Entertainment is the new company.
But so you just kind of see a new look here.
(00:44):
But as far as the Bible Study still brought to
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(01:06):
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(01:27):
one if you'd like. Then you can find hotel blocks
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And that's the majority of the people that come to
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(01:49):
a day Saturday. And then you also find out what
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Man's church a swag that we can get? Hey, we're
gonna get the fellowship with all these other churches that
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of that. And so if you want to join us,
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(02:12):
I'm going to reserve my tickets, I want my tickets.
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at one of them or all of them, and you
can find that at the Manchurch dot com. Also this year,
we'll have a new curriculum that will come out later
in the year. Now we have a new resource and
I'm not supposed to talk about it, but you know me,
(02:32):
I mean, come on, you can't trust me with cut stuff.
But anyway, but a new resource that I'm just really
jacked about that's going to be available at the conferences first.
So if you're at the conference, you'll hear about it
and we'll have it and then it'll release to the
country whether you're involved in our Men's ministry or not.
Coming up in the spring. So so anyway, it's it's
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a book bottom line that I have written and it's
being published and it's picking up a little momentum in
some places we normally don't go because of the topic.
So that's kind of cool, you'll pray about. That's a
great opportunity and should lead to some great opportunities to
do interviews and say things and talk about Jesus. So
it's coming out this year, So if you're come into
the conference, you can get one. If you're not, you're
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gonna have to wait till the spring. So there you go.
So let's open up in a word of prayer and
let's jump right in. We're in Daniel chapter ten. Everybody,
remember we're studying Daniel, and today we are going on
a ride. I'll tell you that, and I cannot wait.
I'm so excited. Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today.
We're so excited about the opportunity to open up your
Holy Word. I mean, we're going we got some deep
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stuff today, Lord, and we need your help to just
comprehend what we're attempting to wrap our minds around today,
just as Daniel felt when he saw this vision. And
so Lord, I pray that you'll be with us as
we unpack this today, be with all of those who
are hurting, that are grieving, and maybe are creeping over
to this Bible study today for the first time, just
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looking for hope. May they find it in you. In
your name, we pray Amen. All right, So let's talk
about what's going on in ten Okay, Cyrus, as it
was predicted by the prophet, Isaiah has released the Hebrews. Okay,
so they're out. This time in Babylon is over. But
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here's the problem. You had the more spiritual Jews, that
those devoted the Hebrews, that were ready to be released,
and they're ready to work their way back to the
Promised Land. They're going to go back to Canaan. Okay,
they've packed their bags, they're gone, but many remain behind.
Now there's a lot of reasons that a lot of
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them remain behind. There's the not so good reason that is,
we just like Babylon now, we don't want to go.
We've established a life here, we're doing fine. We have
no desire to go to the Promised Land. We just
want to stay here. But then you had people like
Daniel who also didn't go. And the reason that Daniel
does not go is he just old, He's really old,
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he's weak, and he just can't he can't make the journey.
So he realizes that he's his job now has been done.
He's certainly receiving prophecy, which we now have. And as
a matter of fact, Daniel's prophecy on the on the
rule of the Gentiles, how clearly and precise that Daniel
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is shown how world history laid out. It was so precise,
so detailed, that people who oppose the Holy Word of
God have tried to find They've tried to find a
way to explain it because it's supernatural. They got a
lot of problems when they try. But what they're trying
to convince you is that this Daniel person didn't write
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this stuff. There's no way the historic Daniel did this,
because it would have been a supernatural vision that he
got right, So it can't be God. These are the
ones that oppose God. So they try to say, no,
somebody who was in the middle of all this wrote
it like they were. They were not in the middle
of all that. They knew what was happening because they
were living it, and they just pretended it was it
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was why they it was before that happened, and and
all that just falls silly flat. Uh. So we're not
going to spend much time on that chasing those rabbits
because those accusations are just so silly. Now I want
you to try let's try this, okay, to start this,
let's see if we can't put ourselves in the mindset
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and and the plight of Daniel. And it really wasn't
that hard for me when I was preparing for you.
I embraced this pretty quick. And and and that I
think you will too, a lot of you anyway, So
I want you to picture what's happening. He it's not
that he doesn't want to go. He just can't make
the journey, okay. And he's having a tough time because
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he's been praying and he's not getting an answer from
God okay about the things that he's seen. And he
wants to know more. He wants some explanation, he wants
some comfort, and he's not getting it, okay. And and
so he's he a lot of his friends and acquaintances
they did leave, Okay, So you have to picture picture
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you're looking. You've been waiting on this, you've been you
know that people are going to be taken out of
the captivity of Babylon and out of the you know,
the Persians, and and so you're you're looking at this
and it's happening, but it's happening on a timeline that
you're so old and weak you can't go. But those
that aren't too old and they aren't too weak, they're going.
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And now there you are in Babylon, just just and
you know, he's been taking and he's had a good
life in Babylon as far as comfort. I'm not talking
about that. It's not loneliness. I'm talking about He's walking along,
seeing the hanging gardens, he's seeing this wall that, of course,
you know, the Babylonians thought could not be penetrated. Of
course they forgot about going under it. But anyway, but
he's walking through all this and he's alone. And you
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have been left in a pagan kingdom, and all the
people that serve the god that you serve, they've left you,
except for the ones that aren't solid anyway, So all
you got left other than other old people who were
too weak, you got a bunch of secular Hebrews now,
or we would say carnal if it was you know,
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in the New Covenant, Cardinal Christians. They love the world.
They're living in the world. You got nobody solid with
you anymore. We don't know where shadrack me shack in
the bed and to go are. We don't know what
they're they're not mentioned anymore. So we don't know whether
they've passed away, they left two we don't know. So
so here he is and in his home this and
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this is the beauty, and this is the first takeaway.
We ain't gonna take long the first takeaway. His home
was Babylon, but his heart was in the Promised Land.
Let's let that resonate. Our home right now is Babylon,
but our heart better not being Babylon. Our home is Babylon,
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but our heart better be in Heaven. Heaven focused the
new Jerusalem, the new Heaven, the new Earth. That's where
our herd art to stay. And I've said this before,
difficulty will do that. And my wife thought about this
one of the things as we all start going along
and people start going on before us, if nothing else
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will give you heaven, focused to having people you love there,
sure will. So now Daniel is looking toward that Promised
Land because a lot of people he loves are going there,
but he's not. His home is Babylone, but his heart
is Canaan. Okay, So let's jump into the first couple
of verses here, verses one through three. So there's a
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delay that's being experienced. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
Understand that my day job is all about marketing. And
what do I know about marketing is the wonderful tease
you're always coming up next. Let me tell you something
why this delay is happening. You ain't ready for it.
(10:04):
It completely blew my mind on why God's answer to
his prayers, why they were delayed. I was not prepared
for what I learned. How's that for a tick? Okay,
So it's coming, so so here we go. All right.
So so Daniel, as we know, very old and and
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and this is a test that he's got to pass again,
he says, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
a word was revealed to Daniel who and this is
not just somebody him throwing this in this this is
pretty important right here. Who's named? Who was named Belshassar?
And the word was true, and it was a great conflict,
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and he understood the word and and had under understanding
of the vision. So what is all this? Okay, Daniel's
very old, physically weak, but hey, spiritually alert. There's another takeaway.
There's take wait number two old folks in here. Okay,
his body might be getting old, and he might be
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physically weak, but he's spiritually strong as he's ever been.
How about you? How about me? My body may age,
but that doesn't mean my spirit does. Am I as
on fire for Jesus right here at sixty as I
was a few days after I repented of my sin,
turned to Jesus and was redeemed in nineteen ninety six.
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I would say I'm stronger today than I was then,
Maybe not physically, but absolutely spiritually. Okay, So this is
where Daniel. He's as alive as he ever was. To
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is ageless,
and you know where we find him. Think about how
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disappointing all this is right now from an earthly standpoint.
I'm stuck in Babylon. I knew that I was gonna
be over seventy years. I didn't know that i'd be too.
I wouldn't be physically able to leave. I knew all that.
But here he is instead of doing poor poor pitiful me, Hello,
poor poor pitiful me. He's feasting on a divine revelation.
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Daniel's forecast of kingdoms and wars, as I said a
minute ago, so accurate, so accurate. Everything he says, I
saw it, understood it. I understand. Great conflict is coming.
I've asked for more details. I've asked for some comfort
about this. I want you to think about this. You know,
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I talk a lot about when we talk about prophecy.
I talked a lot about it in the Revelation study.
I talked about Daniel a lot in the Revelation study.
I'm going to talk about the Revelation a lot in
the Daniel study. But in both studies, lots of references
have already been and will continue to be. To Matthew
twenty four, this is Jesus when we have some really
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fortunate people that go, you're here, now, tell us what's happening,
tell us what where we should expect. When Jesus himself
calls Daniel an authentic prophet, well, if you're a follower
of Jesus, that's the only endorsement you need. Okay, what's
he a prophet. Well, according to Jesus, he was. So
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Jesus tells us, who's going to show up? By the way,
in this chapter to preincarnate Jesus is going to show up.
He said that Daniel was an authentic prophet. Can you
imagine that endorsement on the back of your book? Hum? So,
the vision came in the third year of Cyrus. He
tells us that news of the difficulties facing the Hebrews
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and the Promised Land. He saw that. But until Daniel
gets this visitor, he could only speculate on the severity
of what he was seeing for his people. Okay, now,
I want you now to look at verses two and three.
And the reason why I want you to notice that
he is reminding us that he was named Belshe see
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he's talking about this Babylonian thing. It's still on him.
I mean, hey, I'm the one I've been you know,
I got this Babylonian name. I'm still here in Babylon,
and I've seen all these things. But I want you
to look at verses two and three. He begins a
fast that with a determined resolution. Okay, look at two
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and three. In those days, I Daniel so we know
he's writing it was mourning for three weeks now. The
reason why he's mourning is he's not getting an answer.
He knows they've left, he knows difficulties coming for his people.
He wants to know more. He's been praying to know more,
and he's been praying to be comforted, and it's not happening. Okay,
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I ate no delicacies, no meat. I had no wine,
or as a Baptist, grape juice entered my mouth, nor
did there. I'm not afraid to make ourselves, nor did
I annoy it myself at all for three full weeks.
So here's what we find. Daniel's soul is grieved because
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of the spiritual condition of a lot of things, the
Babylonian Jews. This makes him sick. The ones that have
just embraced the Pagan kingdom. They were eating, they were drinking,
they were marrying, they were given into marriage. What does
that sound like, Matthew twenty four When we're gonna see
the same thing again, those of us said, no, we're hey, guys,
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what's going on? Y'all just have like nothing's happening, you know.
So anyway, so they didn't have any concern for the
pioneering Hebrews that were headed to Palestine or already there.
They didn't care. They didn't care about this hostile, gentile
world that they'd all been sent out to. They didn't care.
But Daniel did care. Why because of the visions from
chapter eight and chapter nine. He knows what's coming and
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they should know too, but they don't seem to care.
Have you ever been concerned about something that was incredibly
important in the spiritual realm? Something God said something? You
since coming, You're coming. You look around, nobody else cares? Well,
we should expect that nobody. Why don't y'all care? Do
(16:07):
y'all not understand what's happening here? And I will tell
you we're living in a time of just total chaos,
total paganism. I mean things we would have never even
uttered or are sitting there on our TV. They're right
in front of us. They're walking in the light on
the streets, and we can sense God's anger burning against
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all this and you look around, nobody cares. That's how
Daniel felt. You can probably relate to that. So the
time of the Gentiles was in full force, and he
led lamented over this remnant that had gone back to
the Promised Land, and it was only a remnant. Like
I said, a lot of them just stayed behind because
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they wanted to do. Some stayed behind like him, because
they had to. But the ones that went it was
not the large number of the Hebrews. It was just
a remnant, as it always is it seems so. I
remember one time I was I was ostracized for using
the term remnant, and I had to tell the young
man who was speaking to me as an older man,
I said, the reason why I use the word remnants
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because it's in the Bible. Well, you just shouldn't say
this in men's ministry, that it's just going to be
a remnant. And uh. And that makes the people feel
like that if they're if they're there, have to be
part of some special group. But they do. They do.
Jesus said few if you would like, I guess you
want to go. I guess you're like. I'll tell Jesus
that he don't know what he's saying. He's the one
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that said few. I didn't say few. He's the one
that said I'm calling a remnant. I didn't say that.
He's the one that keeps saying I always fight. I
always have a remnant. I always have a remnant, no
know how bad bad it is, I always have a remnant.
Those are his words. So if you don't like that,
you'll have to take it up with the one and
only living God. I'm gonna be quiet about it, but
you be sure and go tell him he don't know
what he's talking about. Because it makes people feel bad,
it hurts their feelings. But you take that up with him. Well,
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I'm often running in the new year, arnor so here
we go. But anyway, so three weeks, he agonized, no
answer was coming from God, silence from heaven? What you
ever had? This happen only added to the burden. Have
my hands up? And it feels silly, But I'm not
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saying I mean I even know, we all know, but
sometimes we do things just even though we know. Have
you ever sometimes did a poor, poor, pitiful me? And
you start kind of you almost start questioning if God
even hears you? God, you do you know what I'm
going through, right, don't you? Why won't you give me
some answer? Why do I not have it? You're going
to be shocked, and why he's not getting the answer.
By the way, teaser number two, and this is adding
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why is God not giving me the answer? And here's
how this test ended. Let's get into four. On the
twenty fourth day of the first month, as I was
standing on the bank of the great river that is
the Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and I looked
and behold a man clothed in linen with the belt
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of fine gold from Euphas around the waist. His body
was like burrow, his face like the appearance of lightning,
his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like
the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his
words like the sound of a multitude. So here we go,
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So the test, and all the poor, poor, pitiful me,
it comes to an abrupt end by divine visitation. Okay.
Now keep in mind that if you go back through
history during this time, when they can document when these
this was written by Daniel his fast that he just
had been on for three weeks. It spanned from the
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passover feast of of unleaven bread. Uh, these two feasts
that he had to passover and the unleaven bread. Now,
these are two feasts that the Jews would would would
participate in because it was to celebrate them being freed
from the bondage in Egypt and God's deliverance from that bondage.
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Cyrus had just set them free again. But Daniel doesn't
participate in it. He faster it because he's looking for
an answer. He wants a vision. So we know he's
on the banks of the Tigris. Now this, this divine
visitor shows up. You know, the Tigris and the Euphrates,
they're always connected with what the Garden of Eden, the
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Garden of Eden, and what happened at the Garden of
Eden before the fall. God would walk in the cool
of the day with man and woman, with humans, with
Adam before he made Even so, it's interesting you look
at this and he says, I look, and there I
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am in the river of this associated with the Garden
of Eden, and here is the preincarnate son of God
that has come to comfort me. Now why do we
know this? You know, And when he's describing him this
UFAs or this was a region that was known for
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producing gold. So when he looks, he's just using something
he's relating to looks like it came from that region
where all the gold is he's got this on the
reason why we think this is clearly the preincarnate Jesus,
that this happens throughout the Old Testament, Revelation one twelve
through fifteen. Make a note of that. You're going to
see a very similar description. And we know the preincarnate
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appearance of Jesus is throughout scripture. There's so much imagery here.
He's got the burrel, which is it's a beautiful gem.
It's like them, it's like transparent. The linen that he
sees always was a linen that the priest of Israel
would wear. It's a symbol in scripture of what righteousness.
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And we know who makes us fully righteous, Jesus, And
we know that his loins are girded with this golden girdle,
and girded means you know they would they would pull
these up for battle so they could run and to
protect themselves. And then the face blaze like lightning, eyes
burn like fire, the limbs like burnished brass. This is
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always a symbol. Remember this in the Revelation we study
that always a symbol of judgment. He was something that
would strike terror immediately. This is the thing that's so
amazing about the son of God, that this imagery would
even remotely consider this kind of glory of becoming a man,
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and to stand on the banks of this river on
earth appearing as a man too Daniel to comfort him.
I hope you all find as I did, comfort in
that no matter how glorious he is, and no matter
how far removed he is from us, he still is
(22:56):
willing to connect to us in our time of need.
That's to me, that may be one of the most
incredible things, incredible truths that any of us could grasp,
that God would even give me the time of day.
And so now I'm no Daniel. But still Daniel is
no God. And we'll talk about that coming up. So
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Daniel sees this, and yet and look, this is important.
Here comes a real important point. Hang on to this.
This is a little deep, but I want you to
grab it because it's good what Daniel sees here. And
you're going to tell by his reaction to what happens.
And I think this is the right balance when dealing
with God. One of the things that we have lost
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in this balance is we've lost the fear of God. Okay,
which makes us not very wise. According to scripture, we
should fear God. But the beauty of this moment is
that Daniel sees the image, the glorious image of the
preincarnate Jesus, And yes he's terrified, but the same time
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he's comforted. Man, that's good. Have you ever been there.
I'm terrified of God, but I'm also comforted by him.
And the very thing that causes me to have terror
is the same thing that comforts me because of who
he is. Because if he's got me, if he's got me,
(24:22):
then everything's really gonna be all right, because there's nobody
bigger than him, nobody higher. So anyway, both of these
things are in play, terror and sympathy. Now I want
you to look at at verses seven and eight. I
found this interesting, and I, Daniel alone saw the vision.
For the men who were with me, imagine that did
(24:44):
not see the vision, But a great trembling fell upon them,
and they fled to hide themselves. So I was left
alone and saw the great vision of this great vision,
and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance
was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. So there
(25:04):
were other people there. Daniel's not hanging out on the
banks of the tigers by himself. They's some other guys there,
of course, you know, I don't know if you'll ever
had these friends. We're out, Okay, Now, why if they
didn't see it, what causes them to run? The others
were there, but Daniel says, I'm alone now I loan
(25:25):
see the vision. So what was it that caused the
others to run? The sound? So you have to document
that the sound of the voice, that's all they needed
to hear. They'd have to see anything. The sound of
that thunderous voice was all they had to hear, and
they were gone. Now, Daniel, this is another reason why
(25:46):
that the case is made. This is to preincarnate Jesus.
Daniel has already seen Gabriel once and he didn't have
this kind of reaction to this person he sees. He's
already seen Gabriel. I mean, if it was Gabriel, I said, well,
there's Gabriel again. Now Gabriel's gonna come on to see.
But that's not what he sees right now. Okay, So
this is the reaction. Daniel had seen Gabriel and that
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was frightening. But apparently this visitor, by Daniel's own words,
is much more frightening. Okay. Remember angels are just creating
beings too. They're above us, but they are created, They're
not God. Okay. And so this is the thing you
start thinking about some reference verses here, and I hope
and we see this throughout scripture. Keep in mind, this
(26:29):
is Daniel. Daniel gets called righteous. I just told you,
Jesus mentions him when he's when he's talking to the disciples. Okay.
This is not a person that God's upset with. Okay. However, however,
Daniel's reaction is just like Isaiah. Anybody think Isaiah was
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not in good standing with God? My goodness, But what
did Isaiah say when he saw God? Woe is me?
For I am a man unclean? Did Job say, who
was blameless and upright? When his suffering took him into
such intimacy with God? He said, I despise myself. Okay,
(27:10):
look at Ezekiel. I fell on my face. Ezekiel won
twenty six through twenty eight. I fell on my face
when I saw God. And that don't see him fully
or it would have killed him. But just what they
saw of God. Okay, Remember even Moses had a turn.
Don't look right at me Moses, you'll die, Okay. So
that's the beauty of the Son of God, that part
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of the Trinity. We do have a little more access
than we do sometimes to the Father. But here, and
remember what happened when Saul of Tarus encountered Jesus. He
fell on the earth blind, so Daniel he was, he
was calm. But then but then that calmness, I love this,
(27:56):
the comeliness then turned to corruption. And that's the part
I think we miss sometimes. Is all we want is
the peace that comes with the presence of God. And
there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that we
shouldn't appreciate that and celebrate that. But encountering God for
us always shouldn't always bring just comfort. It ought to
(28:17):
bring conviction. It ought to bring some kind of awareness
of how sinful we are, because that's what's happened to
everybody else who's encountered in And I don't know about y'all.
Y'all pretty good people. I love you, But I don't
see a whole lot of Daniels and Isaiah's and these
Eqiels in here. Now. I might see a couple of Sauls, okay,
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But what I'm saying is if they recognize their sinfulness
because of the comparison to God, who are we not
to repent? Who do we think we are? Daniel recognized
his own sinfulness, Isaiah recognized it, Ezekiel recognized it. We
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don't job did we don't? I mean we gotta think
a little, a little more of God, a little less
of ourselves. And that's what happens to everybody who truly
encounters God. I think it's uncontrollable. I think I could
even say watch this, I'm gonna step in the presence
of God and I'm gonna be good. It's impossible. Watch
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me stand boldly before never happen because of who He
is and who I am. So this is the takeaway
right here, you're ready for this. We love Daniel, He's
in high he's held in high regard. However, Daniel was
a good man, Daniel was a godly man. Daniel was
a holy man. But who can stand in the presence
(29:44):
of God? Nobody, or if my English teacher was here,
no one. Okay, look at nine, here's here's here's the
proper response by the way to standing in the presence
of the part of the Trinity. Then I heard the
sound of his words. And as I heard the sound
(30:04):
of his words, I fell on my face in a
deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Daniel, this encounter,
he passed out. I couldn't take it. It was so
overwhelming that I passed out. Now now, now, now chills
are already building. Now we love these next few verses.
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And it's going to harken us back to Patmos. We're
going back to Patma's going ahead here in this case,
we're going to Patmos. Remember, John says, I can't even
take this. I can't take this vision. Right now. I
see Jesus in his glorified state, and I can't take it.
Daniel had a very similar experience, long before he was
(30:46):
in that manger, and long before he went to that cross,
and long before he walked out of that tomb, and
long before he ascended back to where it came from.
So look at the reaction and behold a hand this
verse ten now and to behold a hand touched me
and set me trembling on my hands and knees. And
(31:06):
I love this moment. So so Daniel's passed out, okay,
And so here we have and this is where it
gets a little confusion. They because Gabriel's with him. We're
gonna find this out in a minute. We don't know
whether it's it's Jesus himself. I tend to think it
is because of what I saw in the revelation. But
either the angel that was with Jesus, which turns out
in a minute to be Gabriel, who has an explanation
(31:27):
on the delayed prayer, you're not gonna believe. But anyway,
so so so either the Son of God or Gabriel.
They they don't want to address Daniel laying down on
the ground passed out. That's not good. That's not what
he wants. So he touches him. All Daniel can do
on the first touch is I'm off my face, but
now on my hands and knees. Still not enough. No, no,
(31:51):
get up, you get up and face me. Look look
at it eleven. And he said to me, Oh, Daniel,
man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you,
and stand upright for now I have been sent to you.
I think now we probably are moving to Gabriel. Okay,
(32:12):
now I want you to think about I mean, this
is this is emotion rises up in me and maybe
it does for you. I don't want to be controlled
by my emotions. But the ain't nothing wrong with your emotions.
It's part God made emotions, and we were given emotions.
Now I wouldn't listen to them, and I'm not going
to follow them. But there's some wonderful things about when
(32:34):
you are overcome with emotion in the presence of God.
You know, I don't. I don't like when people say
things like be careful when you're teaching, that you start
trying to get an emotional response. I don't know about you.
I repented because of an emotional response that that was,
that was a part of me. I was so overwhelmed
by my sin. You call it what you want to.
(32:55):
But I didn't stand there resolute, refusing to be emotional.
I broke down and wept. You know I don't. I
don't let my emotions run me, but sometimes I let
my emotions convict me. You know, so so so anyway,
so we see this moment and and can you imagine
can you imagine hearing these words from an angel that
(33:22):
was that was told to tell you by the one
and only living God, Old Daniel put your name there,
man greatly loved I bet that felt good. That's a
good remedy in it to hear that you were loved
by God. You know what he's saying, just because you're
in a bind and you're lonely, and you're old, and
(33:46):
you didn't get to go to Promised Land, and you've
been wondering where I am. I love you. I haven't
abandoned you. I see the things you're doing for me.
I see your obedience. Okay. And you're gonna hear in
a minute something about spiritual warfare that I've never known.
(34:07):
So so here's what the here's a response to that.
And when he spoke this word to me, I stood
up trembling. So I've gone from face down to my
hands and knees. I'm now standing still trembling. Probably a
good way to be, okay. And so then look at
(34:28):
verse twelve. He said to me, fear not, Daniel. From
from the first day that you set your heart to
understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have
been heard, and I have come because of your words
are prayers. Okay, So this is interesting. So now we
(34:52):
believe this is Gabriel who's now the spokesperson. He's a
herald angel. He's had some pretty big responsibilities, we find
in scripture, and so we believe that the Son of
God because we know, we believe the preincarnate hasn't completely left.
But it's not speaking to Daniel. And you'll see why
in a minute. And he speaks to Daniel. And what
(35:15):
wonderful words to hear is for Daniel who's talking to
this angel? And the angel says, and we do believe
it's Gabriel. God heard the prayers of Daniel, and God's
answer was on the way the moment that you prayed them,
(35:35):
stand by, stand by. So what are some of the
reasons that God's answers are sometimes delayed? I'll give you
a couple that I'm gonna tell you what happened here.
It's not what happened here, but I'll give you some
and then we'll get to what happened here. Sometimes hear
me now and we're just gonna talk straight down. Okay,
(35:56):
have y'all missed this as much as I am. This
has been like me not having nutrition or something. Man,
it's so good to be back. Sometimes we're not hearing
from God because we're not in any spiritual condition to
receive the answer. God's ready to give us. You're not
hearing it because you don't have yourself spiritually right. You're
causing you know, those who don't know my day job.
(36:19):
It's a lot more things now, but it still is radio.
But now it includes all this YouTube stuff and apps.
But at the heart of it, it's a radio show.
And that was my love of radio. And what do
we know about a frequency is that if I'm not
in the right position for that tower, you know, to
(36:40):
bring the frequency to me, there's gonna be static. I'm
out of the range of it. And what happens is
we let unrepented sins stay in our life and we're
not getting our act together spiritually. And here we are
crying out from some revelation from God and we're in
no condition to receive it. So that's one two. Sometimes
we ask that's the wrong thing, and God delays why,
(37:03):
hoping we'll figure that out. You ever had that before,
You ever prayed something before and then go back and said, well,
I don't even know what I was thinking. And God's like, good,
I'm glad I didn't have to tell you that. I'm
glad you figured that out. I'm not answering that wasn't
the world you're asking me. That's the wrong thing to
ask me, right, So then you get to three. Sometimes
(37:24):
God uses natural means to accomplish his purpose. Now what
we mean by that things that are of the world.
Here's a perfect example. Sometimes you pray to be healed
and it's a long process for the cancer to be gone,
and then ultimately you're like, well, I did get healed,
but why that took a while. And God's well, sometimes
(37:45):
I'm just letting that happen as it would happen, but
I'm still in it. I didn't have you just stand
up out of the bed and walk away. I had
you go through the treatments, and at the end of it,
I had you cancer free. Or maybe has to do
with natural disasters and the way the world works, maybe
it's aging, whatever the case may be. He's just using
the limit. He's allowing the limitations of this falling creation
(38:07):
to still do his work and it takes a little longer.
Of course, he's not surprised by that. But then you
get down to this one, this one I didn't know about,
and I'll be honest, we I'm not crazy about it. Okay,
So here we're going to learn what happened that delayed
the answer to Daniel's prayer. And I hope that you're
(38:30):
ready for it. Okay, so he's been told, we heard
you prayer. God sent me to you. I've been trying
to get to you. Are you all ready for this? I've
been trying to get to you, But look at this
thirteen The prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me
twenty one days. But Michael, one of the chief princes,
(38:53):
came to help me, for I was left there with
the kings of Persia and came to make you understand
what is to happen to your people in the latter days,
For the vision is for days yet to come. I've
been trying to get to you, but the high ranking
demons that serve Lucifer stop me. Did you know that
(39:17):
could happen? I couldn't get to you. I'm a herald angel,
remember the third of the angels that went with Lucifer.
They were from all different ranks that were with God,
some stronger than others. We saw that in the revelation.
We get to the to the tribulation, and we get
to Armageddon, we see that there are different strengths on
(39:37):
both sides. Now, the good news is God's got two third,
Lucifer's got one third, but he's got he's got some
pretty good players. And so when we talk about the
Prince of Persia here this is not the literal prince,
my goodness, that's Cyrus. What he's talking about is there
are there are demons that are supernaturally in charge of
evil dictators and evil kings and evil kingdoms. There's a
(40:01):
spiritual component to it, and the higher ranking demons based
on the effect. Like when you see something like Hitler,
well that that was nobod. I was just somebody controlled
by demon. There was a human being there, but behind
all that was a demon, because Satan hates the Hebrews, okay,
And so this has been going on, and what he's
saying is this one that was assigned to Persia and
(40:24):
all the horrible things they did. I couldn't get past him.
He was too much for Gabriel, but he wasn't too
much for Michael. And he said, finally Michael came to
I mean, when Michael came in, that kind of swung
it to our favor. So here I am. Did any
of you know that I didn't I had never learned that.
(40:49):
So one thing I will say, and it's one things
I've always been pretty aware of and concerned about. Even
early on in my walk with crisis, I began to
understand because the Bible talks about it, the spiritual realm,
it's absolutely I think some of us live our lives
like that's not real, and we do very stupid things
(41:11):
because we don't believe it. Paul tells us about this,
Jesus tells us about this. If right now God decided
to flip the switch and you could see the other dimension,
and you and I could see the war that is
raging all around us in the spiritual realm, you'd never
go to sleep again. You would not not off to
(41:34):
sleep tonight. It's real and it's serious. Now, what's the
proper balance. We're not real good at balance as human beings,
are we The proper balance is not to obsess over it.
That's not to be so intrigued by that you're always
looking for it, and you want to get into it,
and you want to start dealing with witchcraft, and you
(41:54):
want to start dealing with all this stuff. I'm so
intriguing about the spiritual rialm and demons I'm obsessing over
angels and demons and I want to go and get
as close to all that as I can. You're an idiot.
Don't do that. Now there's the other end of the spectrum.
I don't care about it at all. Now that's not
smart either. You know, you don't want to be you know,
(42:14):
one of the examples that was used in one of
the commentaries was you don't want to be living in
the times we're living in. But when it comes to
the spiritual world, you're in the Middle Ages, And they
were talking about I mean, you realize in the Middle
Ages we had people dying, only to discover that one
of the reasons why they were dying is the doctors
just weren't washing their hands. Now we hear that and go,
(42:37):
how stupid was that? What the time they didn't know
They had to figure that out. And what they're saying
is if you are that, don't be too naive about it,
but don't obsess over it either. But I will say
the one thing that I think we got to really
really watch. We have got to stop participating in things
(42:59):
that bring darkness into our lives, because what you're saying
to these demons now is You are welcome to come
in into my home, into my life, into my mind,
into my heart, into my desires. Don't be dumb and
become a sin daredevil when it comes to the spiritual realm.
(43:19):
You were just told in scripture today that there are
demons that are so strong they kept Gabriel at bay
for three weeks trying to get to Daniel. And you
think you're gonna miss with them, They're gonna eat your
lunch and they're gonna destroy you. I've been involved in it.
(43:43):
I have been involved in spiritual warfare. As I sit
with you right now, I'm in spiritual warfare. I mean,
I literally have to go after this and talk to
somebody about a death threat on my life. Okay, so
I'm living it. But what I'm telling you is I
sip fine because I'm under the authority of Jesus Christ.
(44:04):
But I'm still going to turn it in because I'm
not gonna be a daredevil about it. Okay. So, but
what I want you to know is that we should
never fear demons as long as we're standing with Jesus.
But if we leave him and decide to take them on,
that's that's so foolish. And like I said, I was
(44:26):
involved in one one time of a spiritual cleaning of
a home. And I'll be very general about this. And
and I and I've encountered them. And I watched a
friend of mine be completely blinded, completely blinded by the
attack of a demon. Now, praise God, the sight returned
and and and they were turned away in the name
(44:48):
of Jesus. And there were other righteous men. And but
I'm telling you it's the real deal. That and that
that's the reason why people say, well, why don't you
you you a little over the top about Halloween, aren't you?
And I That's what I always say. If I'm standing
before God, I can make a strong case before God
and why I didn't do it, more than I can
stand before me and tell him why I did. Now,
(45:11):
if he looks down for the strong and said, now
I was all over the top, you were good. Fine.
But what I don't want to do is stand there
and here and go, what in the world are you doing?
How many times have I warned you about this stuff?
By the way, he hates witchcraft, hates it, hates it.
I mean, we have a movie in this country right
now that people assessed over it's literally called wicked. It's
(45:33):
called wicked, and we can't get enough of it. And
he says, I hate witchcraft, I hate sorcery. He hates it.
Why would I even be entertained by anything that God hates?
And the spiritual realm is extremely serious, extremely serious. So
(45:59):
we learned learn what happened. Daniel is learning that his
prayer was great, and his prayer was right. But what
he was opposed by darkness, he ranked it. Now, some
of us may be living a life and you know
(46:19):
it's Acts nineteen when the seven Sons of Skiva were
going to cast out this demonic man because they saw
Paul being treated like a celebrity and they wanted some attention.
And they say to this, in the name of Jesus
that Paul calls upon, come out of this man. Now,
let me tell you. What you don't want is for
the demons to have so little regard for you that
they would come back to you and say, Paul, I
(46:39):
recognize you know, I mean Jesus, I know, Paul, I recognize.
But who are you now? Remember you've heard me teach
this lesson again, But some of you are new. I
mean in the past, I'm gonna teach it again. Why
didn't the demons do what these men said if they
used Jesus's name, Why because they didn't belong to Jesus.
They actually opposed you, Jesus, and the demons knew it.
(47:04):
So the name of Jesus in these sons hands had
no power. I'm going to say that again. The name
of Jesus in the hands of people that don't belong
to Jesus doesn't have any power at all. The reason
why Paul could cast out demons is because he belonged
to Jesus. These men could not because they didn't. It
(47:26):
was a show. Jesus had no idea who they were.
So the question is, if we were those men and
we were ready to clean them out of our house
and out of our lives, do we have any integrity
at all that we represent Jesus. So now we get
(47:51):
into verse thirteen. I've unpacked that pretty good about these princes,
and you see this not being a human prince. And
you know, if you go to Second Chronicles, you'll see
the Prince of Persia me. This is used a lot
of times for these high ranking demons or even Satan himself.
Second Chronicles thirty two twenty through twenty one. And you
(48:11):
know the reason why we know this isn't Cyrus. Cyrus
cannot stop Gabriel, so it's not a human prince of Persia.
It's the dark spiritual forces behind the Prince of Persia.
That's important for you to know that this is a
fallen angel, some kind kind, a very powerful member of
(48:32):
Satan's hierarchy. We know that from the New Testament that
there's various orders that exist among the spirit powers, both
angelic and demonic, and of course this one has his
allegiance to Satan. But here's what I love this. This
is another line. Write this one down. This is another
big one if you've got something to write with, and
it comes from Ephesians six twelve. You know, we know
(48:53):
about the spiritual realm there even when to reference that.
But this is something you need to know and we
see this in the life of Daniel. Every time that
we decide to pray, hear me, now, that's important. Every
time we decide to pray, we engage in war. You
are you're stepping into the to the war that's going
on between demons and angels. Every time you pray, you're
(49:16):
engaging in war. I hope you pray like you're going
to war. So we also know that the human prince
of Persia was Cyrus, but that that's that's not who
this is. This Prince of Persia, supernatural and demonic, was
so powerful he hindered a herald angel for three weeks.
And of course this brought Michael, who was called chief,
(49:39):
one of our chief princes. Now his arrival swung the balance,
as I said, of the conflict. An arch he's called
an archangel, a martial angel in Revelation twelve. And he's
also what been said, he's the one that defends Israel.
He's the one that fights for the Hebrews. Okay, so
it's important. So the vision does come, and we will
(50:00):
not do that today. The vision that you're going to
see the angel reference the vision, but it's coming next
week and it's a long one and it's complicated. In
chapter eleven, so we're going to go from Malachi to Matthew. Okay. Now,
it will leap the church age to the latter days,
but we've already discussed that. If y'all remember that three
weeks ago, that's what kept throwing Daniel off. And it
(50:21):
continues to throw a lot of people off. When they
were Old Testament prophets. They didn't understand the church age,
they didn't know what to do with it. And so
it will actually be skipped next week. But it's a
long vision, and here's the reaction fifteen through nineteen. And
you'll see that Daniel was going to struggle again in
a minute. So he says, when he had spoken to
(50:41):
me according to these words, I turned my face toward
the ground, and I was mute, and behold, one in
the likeness of the children of man touched my lips.
You think that is Then I opened my mouth and
I spoke. I said to him who stood before me, Oh,
my lord, we know that by reason, by reason of
the vision, pains have come upon me, and I retain
(51:03):
no strength. How can my lord servant talk with my lord?
For now no strength remains in me, and no breath
is left in me. The Son of God is still present.
Daniel go silent again after hearing all this from Gabriel.
Daniel is weak from the fast. I think that's probably
(51:26):
in play. Most commentators think so too. He's also old,
and he you know what he does. I love this
and this is what we should do. I love the advice.
I never will forget hearing this from the late Adrian Rogers.
Don't forget. You can go tell Jesus on people. You
can go tell Jesus your problems. You know what, Daniel
starts saying, I'm struggling. He's sitting there, going why would
(51:48):
you even speak to me? Lord? But while you're here,
I'm hurting, I'm struggling, I'm weak. I don't know that
I can take this, which, by the way, you've heard
my testimony before. That was one of the greatest moments
in my entire spiritual life when I finally said that
this is too much, no matter how much strength I
(52:11):
may have, no matter how strong a man I think
I am, this is too much. And I basically heard
the same thing finally, so you're so weak you have
to depend on me now you don't have a choice.
And I will tell you that has been the sweetest
time in my life spiritually, when I was depending on
(52:33):
the Lord God Almighty to breathe. There's nothing quite like it.
I don't wish it on anybody what it takes to
get there, but I will tell you when you're there,
it's as good as it gets when you truly are
totally dependent on God. And he's saying, for now, no
(52:57):
strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.
I can't do it anymore. You ever been there can't
do it anymore. They can't go anymore. Well, this is cool.
Look at eighteen and nineteen having again one having the
appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. That's
the preincarnate Jesus. And he said, old man, greatly loved,
(53:22):
fear not, Peace be with you, Be strong and of
good courage. And as he spoke to me, I was
strengthened and said, let my Lord speak, for you have
strengthened me. Now you talk about something as all of
you here. I know in the room, we have other
Bible teachers, we have pastors. We got it all in here. Okay,
(53:47):
you know what we all say, that'll preach. Okay. So
what you have here is when Daniel finally says, I
got nothing left, the Lord said, finally I'll strengthen you.
You know why the Lord isn't strengthening some of us,
(54:09):
as we are not coming to terms with that we
have nothing left. We're still trying to do things of
our own strength. And what we foolishly think sometimes is
if I'm too weak right now, that must be bad.
I gotta get stronger, I gotta get tougher, I gotta
step up. And what we should do is say, Lord,
(54:30):
I don't have the strength, but you do give it
to me. Give it to me. I need your strength,
and you know what Daniel gets it. Listen to that.
And he said to me, oh man, greatly loved, fear
not peace be with you, Be strong and of good courage.
(54:52):
But who provided the strength? Did Daniel all of a
sudden find the strength of his on accord? No, the
Lord gave him the strength. He is our strength. Stop.
Stop stop trying to do it on your own. It
only leads to frustration. It only leads to sickness, It
only leads to despair. Understand that we can't but he can't.
(55:16):
But he can't, we have access to him. If you're redeemed, Lord,
let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me. Amen.
Twenty Then he said, do you not know why I've
come to you? But now return to fight against the
(55:38):
Prince of Persian while they still fighting. And when I
go out, behold the Prince of Greece will come. But
I'll tell you what is inscribed in the Book of Truth.
There's none who could tends by my side against these
except Michael, your prince. Angels back. The angel says, I'll
(55:59):
tell you, Daniel, don't worry. I'm going to tell you
of the terrible and ceaseless attacks that are going to
take place on the Earth in the years ahead, conflicts.
The world's going to be ravaged. The Promised Land is
going to get ravaged over and over again. Satanic princes
keep the world in upevil. No peace on Earth, that
(56:22):
is impossible. I'm gonna say that again. I know a
lot of us like to go out and think we
can come up with some planet's gonna bring peace to
Earth other than Jesus. The forces that are running this
earth stopped a herald angel for getting a message from
God to a prophet for three weeks. They own the
(56:43):
governments of this world. They own the leaders of this world,
and there will never be peace up. Evil is all
because we have Satanic princes that are empowering Satanic and
due leaders. And the wars are never going to stop
(57:05):
until the final one when Jesus comes. And that's okay.
I'm just saying, don't be frustrated. Don't expect something that's
never going to happen. Now, what we should be going
after is John sixteen thirty three. Is peace. Jesus. I
say this so that you'll have peace. I'm the prince
of peace in this world. You will have tribulation, that's
(57:28):
the evil forces. But never lose joy in your heart.
You always have joy in your heart. You always be
at perfect peace because I've overcome the world. But that's
to come. It's not now. Now. Has he overcome our problems? Yes, yes,
do we find peace and solitude in him? Yes, But
(57:48):
I just went to see a friend of mine that
is dying of als and he has perfect peace in Jesus.
But he's still dying. His body is, his spirit's not
his body is. Because why we're not there yet. He
hasn't wiped away every tear yet. We sickness isn't gone yet,
death isn't gone yet, mourning hasn't stopped yet. But he says,
(58:09):
even in the midst of that, understand why that's happening,
and never never lose sight that I've really solved your
biggest problem. You're redeemed and that's basically what he's saying. Again,
Persia at this time was ruling, and he's saying Greece
is going to rule. The Herald Angel says, I'll fight
the prince of Persia. Michael is the protector of your people.
(58:32):
That's why he threw him in there. Hey, don't worry,
Michael's with me. We're going back to fight. How about
the end hout? How about it? He said, I'll go
get Michael. We got to go back and fight some more,
but I'll get back to you. The unseen world is real.
Human beings are susceptible to this world. Because of our ignorance,
(58:53):
we dabble in this mess. We're curious to a fault.
But you got to understand when it comes to the
spiritual realm, you must understand this. If please understand this,
we're out of our league. We're out of our league.
You don't want to live in the spiritual Middle Ages.
(59:14):
What's the best protection against the war that's going on
around us? It's simple prayer from a righteous man or
woman who has their Bible in their hand and they're
in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's how you go
to war. You made fully righteous by what being redeemed,
(59:36):
you learn the word of God, so you know what's
going on, and you're in dwelt by the very presence
of God his Holy Spirit, and then you're ready. Until
those things take place, you're not. Let's prayer, Lord, thank
you for today. What a powerful, powerful message. If there's
(01:00:00):
people right now and they're confused by all the things
that are going on, I pray in the glorious name
of Jesus, this will be the day that that man
or woman will repent, will turn from their sins and
turn to you, Lord for the peace that you promise.
And today will be the day they say, I want
to be redeemed by you, Jesus, and only you can
redeem me. Then they become fully righteous in you. Then
(01:00:23):
they have a desire to take your word of God
and to learn it, to eat it, to understand it,
so you know what's going on. And then we get
all the discernment, we get the comfort, we get the conviction,
we get the sanctification by your Spirit, the Holy Spirit
that now dwells in all who have been redeemed, and
the glorious name of Jesus, we pray, Amen, Thank you,
Host
Rick Burgess
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