I begin this morning with a question. I sometimes ask this congregation. Here I thought about what you want written for your epitaph. Here I thought about what you want to be your legacy. I asked the men in the Wednesday morning Bible study that I'm part of sometime ago what they wanted for their epitaph. One of them said he died a scratch golfer. Those of you who might have their aim a little higher than that, Martin Luther King Jr. at his tomb is written these words. You won't be surprised. Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty. I'm free at last. This is from an actual tomb in a cemetery in ribsford, England. The children of Israel wanted bread and the Lord sent them mana. Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife. The devil sent him anna. I don't get it either. Just read it. Benjamin Franklin wrote his own epitaph as a much younger man. He said this is what he'd like to have written in his tomb. The body of B Franklin printer. Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding lies here food for worms. But the work shall not be lost. For a will as he believed appear once more in a new and more elegant addition, corrected and improved by the author. George Washington at his burial vault in Mount Vernon. There's people question with you really a Christian or not. Let me just say there's a plaque on the wall above the two. I don't know if the plural of sarcophagus is sarcophagi, but let me say that for George and Martha Washington. The plaque on the wall says, I am the resurrection and the life of the Lord. He that believed in me though he were dead, shall he live, and whosoever live it and believe it in me shall never die. John 11, 25 and 26. And there's a stone plaque outside that burial place that says this about George Washington. Firm and every honorable purpose and pursuit yet gentle, humane, and condescending that word had a different meaning back then. A sincere Christian doing in all things the will of his master and resting his hope of eternal happiness alone on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So why am I talking about this today? Well, Stephen Covey and his seminal worth seven habits of highly effective people said we should begin with the end in mind, begin with the end in mind and he says you should imagine yourself at your funeral where different people are going to talk about you. What do you want them to say about you? Someone from your family, someone from your community, someone from your house of worship, someone from your workplace. They're all going to talk about you. What do you want them to say about you? And he says now live your life in such a way that that's what they'll say. And with that idea in mind to begin with the end in mind, we're looking at day and no chapter five this morning. I'm going to do things a little bit out of the ordinary this morning. I want you to look with me at the last two verses of day and no chapter five verses 30 and 31. We'll look at the last two verses first. That very night, Bell Shazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain and derest the need to go over the kingdom at the age of 62. Who was Bell Shazzar, king of the Babylonians? Why was he slain? Why do you have to die in order to make way for derest the need to take over his kingdom at the age of 62? And why should you care? I'm glad you asked the question. Let's pray and then we'll look at it. Father, we're so grateful for this time where we're reminded. This is not an abandoned planet and that you have taken upon yourself to redeem your fallen race, your sent your son. And the fullness of time to come born of a woman. And we look to you in this time. And my prayer this morning is that out of the glorious riches of Jesus Christ, you would strengthen us with power through His Spirit and our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, and that we being rooted in established love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that we might be filled with the measure of the fullness of God if we pray in His name. Amen. So the question before the house this morning is, what do you want them to say about you when you're gone? What would you like for your legacy to be? Let me review it since I was out last week. When the book of Daniel, the book begins at 605, 606 BC and now we're fast-forwarding in time, Daniel has served faithfully in King Nebuchadnezzar's court and now between chapters 4 and 5 King Nebuchadnezzar has died. We don't know how many years have gone by, but apparently it's quite a few. And now Daniel is a much older man. He's probably somewhere around 80. And he's sort of, if you'll let me say this way, he's been put out to pasture by the new king, One Belt Shazzar. And so in Daniel chapter 5, Daniel's almost unknown in this administration. And Belt Shazzar, the king of Babylon, we read his legacy here for all of history and it gives us some interesting insights into his character. Reward me then beginning at verse 1, you're going to see, he's a man who has no respect for the things of God. No respect for the things of God. Verse 1, King Belt Shazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with him. While Belt Shazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cobblets that Nebuchadnezzar's father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem and the king and his nobles, his wives, his concubines, drank from them. Let me stop here, you get the picture. King Belt Shazzar, his wife, wives, his concubines, all his buddies, they're in their royal palace, drinking beer, feeling rather mellow. This is a beer commercial just waiting to be filmed right here. And while they're all getting mellow, somebody says to Belt Shazzar, you know your father. By the way, this word could be father, could be grandfather. Belt Shazzar could be literally Nebuchadnezzar's son. It could be his grandson. We're not sure exactly. We'll just say, we'll go with the way it's hoarded here. I'm not doubting the text. That's once you know this word could be taken more than one way. And so we'll go with the text here in his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken the gold and the silver goblets and other items from the temple in Jerusalem when they raised Jerusalem and kidnapped Daniel and the boys. And so somebody reminds of me, your father took those really cool goblets from the Jews temple in Jerusalem. We say we break them out and drink from them. Wouldn't that be cool? They're right around and says, yeah, let's do that. It's not in your text, but trust me, that's how it went down. So they do. And they're swilling wine in a pagan palace using utensils and items that were meant for the glory of God Almighty. God had told Moses to put in his temple. Now God gets angry, but I don't think it's so much that they're using those goblets as utensils. I don't think it's what made God so mad. God was never that invested in the items and the artifacts and the incidentals. He was never that invested even in the temple itself. It's stone in his mortar. He was much more concerned with the invested with what those things represented. God's abiding presence with his people, Israel. So what really made God angry was what happened now in verses 4 through 6. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall near the lampstand and the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. What angered God was Bell Shazzar giving his glory, God's glory, to a bunch of lifeless idols of gold and silver and wood and iron and stone. God is very concerned for his glory and he will not tolerate it being given to anybody or anything else. Let me say it again. I want you to hear this. God is very concerned for his glory and he will not tolerate it being given to anybody or anything else. Probably 200 years or close to that before this happens at Daniel chapter 5. The prophet Isaiah had uttered these words from Isaiah 42 verses 5 through 8. This is what God the Lord says, he who created the heavens and stretched them out who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it who gives breath to his people and life to those who walk on it. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and I will make you to be a covenant for the people in a light for the Gentiles to open eyes that are blind to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not give my Lord to another or my praise to idols. And this is exactly now what Belshazzar has done. And God is angry with Belshazzar because he's serious about his glory. He will not tolerate it being given to anyone or anything else. Belshazzar is a man who has no respect for God nor the things of God. I meet his descendants every day in my neighborhood watching my kids' athletic events writing on the metro rail, even working around here. I run into the descendants of Belshazzar every day who have no regard for God or the things of God. These are people who think Jesus is what you say when you're angry. They think God is just a prefix before the word damn. I meet the descendants of Belshazzar all the time. They could learn a lesson from the pagan king who lived 500 years before the birth of the one that we celebrate. God's serious about his glory. He won't tolerate it being given to anyone or anything else. He will not tolerate it being overlooked or ignored. There's another insight here into Belshazzar's character even though he has no respect for the things of God. He's a man who in a time of crisis turns to God. We have made verse 7. The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to be brought instead of these wise men of Babylon who ever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom then all the kings' wise men came in but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled. The queen hearing the voices of the king and his nobles came into the banquet hall. O king, live forever, she said. Don't be alarmed. Don't look so pale. There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight, intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father, the king, I say, appointed him chief of the magicians and enchanters, astrologers and diviners. This man Daniel and the king called Belshazzar was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel. He will tell you what the writing means. So Daniel was brought before the king and the king said to him, are you Daniel, one of the exiles, my father, the king brought out from Judah? I have heard the spirit of the gods is in you that you have insight, intelligence, and now standing wisdom. The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means if they could not explain it. Now, I have heard that you were able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed and purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck. You will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom. Let me just make this as plain as I can. Belshazzar didn't give a rip about God. But in a time of crisis, he cried out to that same God. And again, I mean his kind all the time. They live their lives completely divorced from their reality and there's a God with whom we must deal until the crisis comes, until their loved ones in the hospital, or their loved ones dies, or their marriage falls apart, or their kids on drugs are in jail. And then they remember there's a God, and they cry out to him in a crisis. Why is it the same people, and you know this, always, reflexively and stately, when the crisis hits the first words, are, oh my God. I don't mean the shallow trivial way that a lot of young people use that today. Oh my God, OMG, and worse. I don't mean that. I'm talking about when the crisis hits, when the hurricane's bearing down on us, or the tragedy strikes, the first words out of the lips are, oh my God, you want to say, listen to yourself. There's a reason you respond that way. I mentioned you before the ship captain caught out in the hurricane, he cries, oh God, save us. And come yourself, say no time for boys. We saw it when the Murrow Building, Oklahoma City, April 19th, 1995, when the Murrow Building was detonated, when the bombs were detonated, the building collapsed, killing 168 men, women and children, and we cried out to God. We saw it on 9-11, when the tears struck and killed 3,000 Americans in New York City, in the Pentagon, in that field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. When those kind of tragedies take place, horror and evil beyond comprehension, we look to someone bigger than us to help us deal with it all. When our brave men and women and the armed services come home wounded or their bodies come home, haven't been killed, that's when we look up to God, and cry out to the God who has ignored the rest of the time. We look to Him, we say, oh God, help us, oh God, come. And the families and the friends gather around and we're surrounded by our communities of faith at a time like that. Even when it's just lost with a healing ball, like a hurricane, a Katrina or an Andrew, then we look to God, and people tend to be more respectful. Even the secular media, which never cuts Christians or break ever, even them, they, back off a little bit. They're a little more respectful. The face of tragedy. Bel Shazard does the same thing. When his pagan idols turned deaf and his magicians, his enchanters, his astrologers, and diviners, and they couldn't help, then he turned to the God of Daniel. He turned to Daniel and his God. And his pattern, we've seen over and over in Daniel's book. Paganism fails, Yahweh rules. Paganism fails. Yahweh rules. Let me just be clear to us, I'm too. I'm really not trying to be critical of this foxhole, bomb shelter, faith mentality. God is so gracious. He comes alongside the foxhole and the bomb shelter and the deathbed. He's pleased to allow people to come to him under any circumstances. So I'm not trying to be overly critical when I am saying is, how much better is it if we turn to God before the crisis hits? Before when the middle of the storm or the tragedy, before we cry out, oh my God, to a stranger, how much better to turn to God who is a friend? I would urge you today, if you don't know this God, that today would be the day of salvation, but you don't find yourself in Bell Shazzle's predicament. You don't know where to turn. Now there's a third insight into Bell Shazzle's character here. There's no respect for God to the things of God. Yet in a crisis, he does turn to that God. He's a man whose life is laid bare before this God. Pick it up in verse 17. Then Daniel answered the king. You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means. O king, the most high God gave your father a nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death. He put to death. Those he wanted to spare. He spared. Those he wanted to promote. He promoted. Those he wanted to humble. He humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass-like cattle and his body was dressed with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the most high God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes. But you, his son, O bell Shazzar, have not humbled yourself though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblet from his temple brought to you, mingling your wives, your wives, and your concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron and wooden stone, which cannot see or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life in all your ways. Therefore, he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. I want to stop here and make this comment. Verse 17 is an astonishing response for an exile, a foreigner, a Jew and Babylon, a hired hand who's been forgotten and put out to pasture, for him to look at the king and say, keep your trinkets, keep your nice gold robes, keep the reward, okay, I don't need them. But I'm going to tell you what that inscription says. I'm going to do that because my heart is bound to a higher allegiance. My heart is bound and held captive to God Almighty. Wouldn't you love to hear that just once from one of our elected leaders? One of our appointed leaders just once. Love to hear one of them say, I know my position on this is going to cost me money and prestige. Maybe even my job, but I'm going to vote my conscience anyway. Wouldn't you just love to hear that? And for them to mean it, Daniel's life was open to God. Bell Shazer's life was laid bare before God. And here's the punchline to the story. Everybody knows the expression, the writings on the wall? Well, this is where it comes from. Verse 25, This is the inscription that was written, many, many, Teckel Parson. This is what these words mean, many, God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Teckel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Paris, your kingdom is divided and given to the needs and Persians. And then at Bell Shazer's command, Daniel was clothed in purple. The gold chain was placed around his neck. Here's for claiming the third, highest ruler in the kingdom. We don't know exactly why. Bell Shazer would go ahead and do that to a profit of doom. Maybe it was the wine talking. Maybe he thought it was funny. A joke, a funny little man giving in his prophecy. Maybe he thought that if he gave these gifts to Daniel, though, maybe this best stuff wouldn't come upon him. We don't know exactly why, but we know this. This is Bell Shazer's legacy. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. You, Bell Shazer, are a lightweight. You are a piece of lint on the pages of history. You're a footnote in the book of Daniel. You, Bell Shazer, you don't measure up. You're being replaced. And Bell Shazer's story is a byword for defeat. Is it not the writings on the wall? That's what we say. When we know this story is over. It's over. Abandoned hope. The writings on the wall. Back to verse 30, where I started. That very night, Bell Shazer, King of the Babylonians, was slain and derris the meat took over the kingdom at the age of 62. This week, the sports fans mourned the loss of a man who had been a sports hero and then a figure in American broadcasting. Don Meredith. Dandie Don, they called him. He was one of the original broadcasters of the Monday night football and helped make it the sports institution that it has become. And Don, or Dandie Don's, they called him. Dandie Don was known for when a game was pretty much out of hand when it was clear who was going to win and who was going to lose. Dandie Don would warm up and he would say, turn out the lights. The party's over. It's time to call it a day. The party's over for Bell Shazer. It's over. Turn out the lights. The writings on the wall, Bell Shazer, you have been way on the scales now and wanting. What a legacy. What a legacy. Now, if you've been here for the last couple of months and we've been going through Daniel, if you've been paying attention, this plot is seen familiar to you. A pagan king who gets two full of himself and then God speaks to him through Daniel and says, you better repent before his nebuchadnezzar two times. Once in chapter two, once in chapter four. And when King Nebuchadnezzar got two full of himself, which he did, God sent him a word and either immediately or after a while, Nebuchadnezzar repented and was restored to his glory. Bell Shazer hears the word. He does not repent. He continues in his foolishness and he is slaying that very night. So what's the message? You've heard the word of salvation, folks. You've heard the word, the good news. You've heard it sung this morning. Jesus came for sinners. If you have never repented of your sins, taking your eyes and your affections off yourself, and turned to Jesus as Lord and Savior, it's time to repent. You like Nebuchadnezzar. You may get another time or two. You may get a few more years to consider your ways. Or like Bell Shazer, your life may be re-required of you soon. I'm not a prophet nor the son of one. I have no idea. And I hope all of you, many more years, you come visit me when I'm in the nursing home. I hope you will. But no one is guaranteed tomorrow. The message of Daniel is today is the day of salvation, repent while you have the chance. You contrast Nebuchadnezzar and Bell Shazer. They're both simple men who get too full themselves. Think that they're the most important thing in the world. They're both neglect and neglect. To give God the glory, do His name. And you contrast them with the humble king, who's birth we celebrate, who was due all the glory in the honor, and how the rights and privileges of heaven have set them aside for lost and simple men and women. You contrast the two different kinds of kings, the two different kingdoms. The difference ladies and gentlemen is repentance. Nebuchadnezzar had the opportunity to repent of his sins. And he did so in Bell Shazer. He died that night. Don't take God's grace for granted folks. Don't take for granted. There's always been other chance. One day, one day, like Bell Shazer, our lives will be required of us. And each of us will be gone from this life. But listen, we will still exist. The question is, one of location, location, location. We will still exist after we stand before the God with whom we must deal. And we will either hear the words, depart from me. You cursed my father. I never knew you. A well-done good and faithful entered into the joy of your master. I began by reading you some epitaphs, words that were written about some of our great Americans and some founding fathers. You close with another one from John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, the son of John Adams, the second president. These were his final words. The last words he uttered. This is the last of earth. I am content. Would you like to be able to say that when you die? Follow Jesus, folks. Jesus, safe, and him alone. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, be grateful for these words uttered to and through your servant Daniel. Now, they echo down to us today. Now, they remind us that you're the same guy yesterday and day and forever. You take your glory seriously and you will not tolerate it being given to anyone or anything else, but that you do offer the opportunity for repentance. Lord, it's here today in my prayers for anyone who has yet to repent of his or her sins or see the payment that only Jesus can make on the cross for those sins. My prayer today is that that man, that woman, that young person, would open his or her heart and mind and soul to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and begin to follow him this very day. And for all the rest of us, Lord, who made that decision by faith many years ago, many decades ago maybe, that you would remind us today. You would remind us today how good it is to be an adopted son or daughter of the Lord most high. It was to live in such a way today that we would bring glory and honor to you as praying Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you for being here with us today and receiving now the Lord's benediction. Go now in the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit, and live the life, amen.