If you know me very well, you may know this, but I even though I've never had huge income and really don't have the means for this kind of thing, I've been on like seven free vacations to the Caribbean. That's unfair. That should not happen, but it has happened. I've got a lot of friends who like to go there and for whatever reason they want to bring me. And several of those vacations have been sailing trips. And one of those several years ago, I had gotten there later than everyone else, and I had that airplane feeling that you just want to take a break, and so I went down below the deck to take a nap. Now, what you may not know is this. The Caribbean Sea is very smooth, just the channel is protected by the island, so if you're between the Caribbean and the continent, you're fine. However, if you sneak out into the ocean, you're going to be able to take a nap. The Atlantic, which takes like one second, if you sneak out into the Atlantic, it's a holder for ballgame. And while I was sleeping downstairs, my friend Keith took us into the Atlantic, and so our sailboat went from this to this, and it threw me right out of the bed. I was like, what is happening? And I yelled and nobody heard me and I tried to run up the stairs, but I couldn't because of doing this, and I finally got up the stairs, and I ran to the captain's chair and caught myself down in it, and my friend Keith said, what do you think you're doing? And I said, well, somebody's got to drive this boat, and he said, I'm driving the boat. I said, why are you so rough? He said, because we're in the Atlantic now, I said, why aren't we here? I said, because I want it to come here, and I looked out and very flabbergasted, and he said to me, Ricky, I love you, and you're welcome on my boat anytime, but you do not get to drive, and you do not get to pick our destination. I want you to know something, it's very important that you understand this. God loves you so much, and he has brought you into his family and made you part of his church, and he thinks you are important, he is delighted by you, but you do not get to drive, and you do not get to pick your destination. You're going to have to trust him. And his plans for us are far bigger than anything you would have imagined, and they're far more wonderful than anything you would have imagined, but you don't get to pick their out, and you don't get to drive. We've been studying the book of Daniel this summer, and Daniel's a very interesting book, for a lot of reasons, it was written after the exile when Israelites have been taken into Babylon, the temple has been destroyed now, and everything has been taken out of it, and during that period Jeremiah writes a letter to all the people who have been taken into Babylon and says, this is what it's going to be, but don't worry, it's only been the last about 70 years, but it's been the last 70 years, so build houses and make friends and live in Babylon and maintain your distinctions, but in trusted Lord he's got great plans for you, plans to prosper you, just trust him. And the place we are in Daniel now is Daniel chapter 7, and the 70 years is almost up, not quite, and Daniel starts getting visions. Up until now Daniel's been the one who's been interpreting visions, and he gets a dream, he gets a night vision, and the interesting thing is he can't interpret his own dream, he needs someone else to do it, and I can't explain that to you, we can talk about that over a call if you want, but we're going to know about as much as we do now. And Daniel can't explain his vision, but he gets to talk to someone in the vision who explains it, please stand for the reading of God's Word, as we will see in a glorious way that God is doing something in history that's greater than you would have ever hoped, trust him, he's doing something in you for you and for you, greater than you would have ever hoped. Here's the word of the Lord as we pick up in Daniel's vision. And as I looked, Thrones were placed, and the ancient of days took his seat, his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool, his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire, a stream of fire issued and came out from before him, and thousands of thousands served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him, and the court sat in judgment and the boots were opened. And I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking, and I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, their dominion was taken away, but their lies were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions of behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. As Father Regent of God's Word, all men are like grass, and all of our glories like the flowers of the field, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but not God's word, God's word stands forever.
Don't worry, God is doing something in this play that He wrote that we call world history. He is doing something in history that's going to take longer than you think. It's going to be much greater than you think. It's going to be much more wonderful than anything you could have hoped for. You can trust Him. You can trust Him. The first thing I want to talk to you about is Daniel's vision. We didn't take the time to read the entire thing. It sounds a lot like the vision that Nebuchadnezzar has in chapter 2. I think that's because he's telling Daniel, in case you thought that was over by now it's not. He envisions four beasts. One is like a lion that has eagle wings, but the eagle's wings have been ripped off. That represents Babylon. They've already lost their ability to conquer and roam over the earth, but they're still a beast. Then he sees another beast that's awful and strong and powerful, and that represents Persia. Then he sees another beast that has an even more power for kingdom, and yet another that rules over the entire world with great power and influence and brutality and violence. He sees horns on these beasts, and the final beast has ten horns, but one of the horns grows stronger than all the other ones. He asks the angel in heaven, one of these tens of thousands times ten thousand, that's worshiping the ancient of days. He says, what's that all about? He says there's going to come one ruler amongst this kingdom that's going to be greater than all the others. He will rule over all the earth, but he will ultimately be judged, and then he says these words that really ring in our hearts, don't they? The son of man ascended to the throne. The son of man came to the ancient of days, and he sat upon the throne. What does this mean for Daniel? It means God is on the throne. The ancient of days occupies the throne. The same thing that Isaiah saw centuries before when King Isaiah had died, and he was scared, and he wondered, okay, the king is gone, the king is dead. What's going to happen to us now? And God gave him a vision that said, look, the throne is not empty. The throne, God has well-esconced as of the king, he is not going anywhere, he's not up for reelection, he won't be impeached, he's going to be king forever and ever. So you can rest and trust him. And the son of man is coming, and when the son of man comes to the throne with clouds, he will be the king, he is the king that you've been waiting for, the son of David who's going to rule the entire earth. That's all going to happen, Daniel. It's going to take longer than you think. It's going to take longer, and it's going to be much greater than anything he hoped for. So that's Daniel's vision, what does that vision mean to Israel? What does it mean to Israel? Well, kind of the same things that meant to Daniel, right? God is on the throne. I know you don't like how things are going. I know you don't like the ways they're throwing you out of bed, but you don't get to drive, and you don't get to pick the destination. God is on the throne, he is still driving the boat. And Jeremiah's promises, that God knows you, and has great plans for you, and plans to prosper you, they are still true. Furthermore, Isaiah's promises. I just got to read this whole text. It's so beautiful, right? Isaiah 11, there should come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his root, from his root, shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding of counsel, and of might. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord, and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf, and the lion, and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them. And they will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the knowledge of the gospel of the Lord will cover the earth, the way the waters cover the sea. Those promises are still true, Israel. He is on the throne. He is bringing all those promises to fruition. He's on the throne. And your part is a lot smaller than you think. Israel, I know you dream of being a great nation again. Whisper, you were never that great, but you don't know how big the world is, so we'll let that slide. You're not going to be the powerful political entity that rules the world. I mean, the beast of Babylon is doing it now, and there are more coming, we've got Persians, we've got Alexander, the great, we've got Julius Caesar, you're really not going to be a huge part of secular world history, and I hate to break that to you. You're not as big a part as you think. God's written the play, and he's directing the play, and he likes to star in the play, and you're going to get to be on the stage for a few seconds. It's okay. The play is beautiful, and the kingdom he's building is for you. It's just not you. You're not one of the kingdoms. Closely related to that is that the play is going to take a lot longer than you think. God's choosing a route that you would have never chosen, and you think that your kingdom is going to be restored in 70 years, and that's sort of true. You're going to get to come back to Israel, but this king you're expecting, he's a long way off, and the consummation of his kingdom is even further off. It's going to take longer than you think, and the reason why you're not as big a part as you think, and the play is going to take so much longer than you think, is because it is more glorious than you had ever hoped. Israel, what are you hoping for? You're hoping for peace in this hundred square miles that you call a nation. You're hoping for a king like King Solomon, who reign for a whole 40 years. I got bigger plans than that. I'm going to restore the universe to what it was, and I'm going to enthrone the son of man on the throne, and he is going to rule forever and ever over the whole universe. And you don't even know how big the universe is. You don't even know how big your planet is. It's a lot bigger than you think, and it's a lot more glorious than you think. And I'm going to bring peace to the entire universe, and I'm going to draw in all nations, and you don't even know that there are nations, but they're going to come. It's going to take longer than you think, because it's more glorious than you think. I read a story a few years ago, and I don't remember who I read it from. I think it was John Piper, but don't quote me on that. But some writer, whoever it was, was selected to play in this huge musical, a big musical, and he was only like seven years old, but they practiced an over and over and over, and he had the key part. And they had this great song, and they practiced it, and every day, when they practiced, the last thing they would practice was them coming on the stage and doing their bows, because you know, when you do a big play, you have to bow, and you want to do it right in a way that's respectful and pretty. And so the day finally came, opening night, finally, Clint came, and he went out there, and he sang his song, and they did their performance, and they went backstage, and they all lined up to come back out and do their bows. And one of the directors said to him, kids, where are you all going? They said, we're going back on stage through the bow, and he goes, we have to wait till the play's over. And they said, there's more to it. And they said, yeah, you got about two hours to wait, let me show you where to wait. You see, they were the lollipop kids, and the play was the Wizard of Oz. And you know, the little song was, we represent the lollipop kids. And the play hadn't even started when their part was done. And that's kind of how we are. We're a little part, and our part occupies a lot of our minds, because it should. And you were in the play, and you get to be on the stage. But it's not about you. It's about Jesus. And you should be thankful that you get to be in the play, but you also should be thankful that God is doing something in history that's greater than you ever hoped. He's doing something great that's in you, and for you, and through you. So trust him. That's the message for Israel about 2,700 years ago. What's the message for us today? Something crazy and weirdly different, you ready? God is still on the throne. He is on the throne. You can trust him. I know that life doesn't go the way you want. I know it hurts terribly, but God is on the throne, and you can trust him. And he's given us promises that are greater than Jeremiah 29. He's told us that everything, whatever it is, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how out from a left field that it feels, how unexpected it is, you can trust him to use it for your good because he loves you. He's going to use everything that happens for the good of the church because he loves you. And he's not going to go the route you expect, but you can trust him because he's good. A lot of you know that I spent about two of the last four years under a particular counselor named Rod. And Rod wasn't really a trained counselor, he was a pastor, and he was exactly what I needed. And I'm very thankful. I do not think I'd be standing here without him. And the reason why he was so good, he counseled me through my depression and what I should be doing and what I shouldn't be doing. And the reason why he knew is because of the suffering that he had seen. When Rod was in his 40s, his wife had three four children home and his wife died of cancer. And he went through a terrible darkness, a terrible sadness and depression and loneliness and had to raise these children without help. And as he prayed, he would just struggle with the Lord. Why did you do that? Why didn't you answer my prayers? We prayed for her healing over and over. Why did you do that? But what Rod did not know is that there was a woman in his city that he had never met and she was going through a terrible divorce. And her husband was revealing that his dark side was just incredibly dark. And she was not going to be able to raise the four children they had alone. And she needed someone to help her and help provide for her and to help lead her and to help guide that family. And so about five years after his wife died, Rod met this woman and they married. And he was there for her during the evil, awful storms that her ex-husband threw us in. It was not the route he would have chosen. But it was important. It's the route that God chose for him. And he told me once, he said, if my wife had known what I was going to go on to do, she would have been okay with this. Obviously she didn't get to pick dying of cancer. But I think she would have. She didn't know where I was going. The route's different and the seas are hard and you'll never hear me lie about that. But it's the route that God has chosen for us and he's can be trusted. Number one, you can trust him. He's still on the throne. Number two, because we are the generation that gets to look back on this. This is going to be the hardest pill for you to swallow already. For some of you, this is going to be very different than what you've learned in church or whole life. And I don't expect you to believe it yet, but I promise it's true. The son of man has come. He has come to the ancient of days and he is on the throne. And Jesus said that. Remember the dramatic story when he is being questioned before his crucifixion. He's being questioned by the high priest and the high priest said to him, by the living God, I assure you, tell us if you're the Christ. And he said to him, you said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven. And that's confusing, right? He says, coming. And we always associate that with the second coming with Jesus's return. But that's not what he's talking about. What does the text say? He is coming to the ancient of days where he will be in throne. Jesus has already come. He is presently on that throne. And he is going about this work of rebuilding his kingdom and making it perfect. And he is doing way more than you think he's doing. Way more than you think he is doing. Way more than Israel expected, but way more than we expect. Because we tend to get locked into our generation. It's hard not to. And locked into our culture. It's hard not to. And we, like most people throughout history, really think Jesus is about to come back because we just can't imagine it getting much worse. And I want you to know that everybody is not that way. There has been a certain kind of heretic that's called an apocalyptic end of the world, end of times heretic. And the very first one was in 145 A.D. A whole hundred years after Jesus died. His name was Martian and he gathered people together. And he said, you've got to leave the church. The church has polluted. It's evil. It's not doing anybody any good. We've got to go to these laws. We've got to change the Bible and throw away two thirds of it. And the reason why you need to come and live with me on this mountain is Jesus is about to come back. It's about to happen. And that lie, that story that heresy has been in the church all the way up. The most recent popular one was Harold Camping. Telling everybody in 1994, the church has abandoned the gospel and it's abandoned God and the Holy Spirit has abandoned the church and you need to get out of the church. You need to stop giving your money to the church. And you need to give it to me in my ministry because Jesus is coming back in 2011. And he didn't. Harold Camping at least died for pennant. It's always been there. That believes that we don't say it this way but we really think that God's whole work is about us. And since I'm here, it's time for it to end. And some of us, you know, we get a little cynical and we think, well, God's just abandoned our area. He's abandoned the church and, you know, that's a serious conversation we can have. He's the Holy Spirit withdrawn from the American church. I think he has. I really do when I growling. I'm not seeing a lot of conversions in the church nationwide. I think we're seeing a time of the waves going back toward the beach, toward the ocean. Does that mean Jesus's work is done? No. The church is just getting started in South America. It's just getting started in Asia. It's just getting started in most parts of Africa. You somehow think that God doesn't care about them. You think they're going to have a shorter time of fruitfulness and gospel work than we did. Why would that? Okay, the European era of the church is kind of dying out. Okay, well, there are other continents and the gospel is going to be there for a long time before his work is done. God is doing something with us. He's on the throne, but it's going to take longer than you think. And it's going to take longer than you think because it is more glorious than you ever hoped. Now, some of you still are wondering about this whole idea that Jesus has already come. The Son of Man has already come. Your question is this, why does it say he's coming? If he's talking about his ascension to heaven, which I believe it is, when he's surrounded by the clouds and he ascends to the throne of God, why does he call that coming? And the answer is because the throne of God that Jesus sits on is not a million miles away. It's right here with us. The illustration I use is that Jesus is right here. We just, we can't see him because we're on the stage and he's backstage, but he's not far away. He's just right there. And this throne is right here with us. That's good news. You see, something enormous happened when Jesus was raised from the dead. He conquered sin. Up until that point, the evil one was on the throne. And he kicked him off. And he conquered death. And that's why the gospel has been growing ever since. And he's right here with us. And he's working in us and he can see us and he loves us. And his reign hasn't ended. It's only begun. Philippians 2 says he's going to see every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that's not just American knees and American tongues. It's all over the world. Paul and Corinthians 15 says even more. It says he will reign until every enemy is under his feet. And the last enemy to be conquered is death. He's got a long time to go. We've got a long time to go. Why is that important for us? Because we get impatient. We get impatient. You see what Jesus is doing is he's bringing the spiritual invisible reality into visible effect. He's realizing it for us. That's true of our holiness. We talk a lot about being justified by faith and being justified means that God's applied the blood of Christ to us. Our sins have been forgiven. And we were righteous in his sight. The illustration I used last week was that he's projected the righteousness of Christ upon us just like these flames have been projected upon the screen. And when you look at the screen you're looking at a white screen, right? But what you're seeing is black and orange and yellow. Because you're not seeing the screen. You're seeing what's projected on it in the same way. God has projected the righteousness of Christ upon us. And he doesn't see sinners. He sees his children who he loves dearly who have the righteousness of Christ. That's all very, very true. That's called justification. And not but and he's doing a work of sanctification in our lives and that takes a lot longer. And it's as if the Holy Spirit comes in with a paintbrush. The projection is still there, but he's painting it in. So that one day we won't need the imputed righteousness of Christ. We'll still have it always. But one day we're going to look like Jesus. When we see him we're going to be like he is. One day the day is coming when he can turn off a projector if you wanted to. And all the black and orange and yellow would still be there. He's painted it in. And what he's doing to us individually. He's doing to the world. He reigns. The world is his. But it doesn't look like it. When it looks like it, there will be no more violence. There will be no more injustice. There will be no more people using their power, their wealth, their influence to crush others to exalt themselves. There will be no more prideful rulers looking down on the people around him. The things will be real. And that's important because it's important for you to know that because he expects you to help. He expects you to help with your sanctification. He expects you to help with glorification. And that matters. That affects everything we do. Right. It's why we pick up litter when we see it because our word expects us to clean up this world. When he returns, he wants to find it clean. Right. When your dad's out of town, when he comes back, what does he expect? He expects to sit alone mode. Kids, I can't even hear this. He expects the kitchen to be clean. He expects the laundry to be done because you're grown up. You're not babies. When Jesus returns, he expects his earth to look like it's supposed to look and he involves us in it. And this glorious work is going to take longer than you think because it's bigger than you dream. It's going to involve the hard things of life. In the good times of life, we can trust him. He gave himself for us to engulf us in this plan to renew the universe. We get to be on his team. We're like John Paxon for those of you who remember the 90s. John Paxon was the official slow white guy on the Chicago Bulls. That was his official position. And of course, Michael Jordan won every game for them. But fascinatingly, in the finals when they were playing against the Phoenix Suns, and they were down by two with three or four seconds left, and they already won three games. This is going to be the fourth championship game. They're going to win the NBA championship. Michael Jordan kicked the ball out to John Paxon. And he got to take the shot. That was the greatest moment of his life. Now a team of five John Paxons would not have been in the championship. But he got to be on the team. And we get to be on the team. And our contributions are important because he left somebody because he likes it. But it's taking longer. It's taking longer than we think. Because he's restoring it to be something more beautiful than ever. Most of you don't know the name Ted Kelly. And most of you don't know what a 1964 Ford GT is. But a 1964 Ford GT is the most rare car that was ever built in America. And the most recent one that was sold was sold for over $2 million. And Ted Kelly wanted to build one. So he was fascinated with it. And he started gathering the parts and building it. And he insisted that every part be original. And he went all over the world. He searched the world and worked years on the internet. He searched the world looking for parts. But they were expensive. And Ted mortgaged his house. And Ted ran up his credit cards. And Ted sold off his property. And Ted toward the end when he just had a few parts left to get but had no money left. He started doing what a lot of us did in college for pizza money. He started selling his plasma and blood. And he would go to different places and lie about the last time he had given. And he almost died because he had given his blood for this model car. Because he wanted to be just right. Now, no, that's true. But it's a great image what Jesus is doing. He's taking his time because he wants this world to be right. He's not going to settle for being almost right or a little bit right. He's giving himself to make all of it completely right. It's going to take longer than you think. But it's a lot more beautiful than anything you hope for. Please pray with me. Father in heaven, these plans of yours are just hard to believe because they're so magnificent. And we pray that when your son does come back, you'll find us not the lazy and unprofitable servants who need to be beaten but the faithful ones who invested your gifts to make this kingdom, your kingdom, to make it beautiful. Would you give us the grace to be what you declare us to be so that we can be part of the work that you're doing? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.