Certainty Among Uncertainty

Have you ever wondered about the future?

If you have your probably with the majority of people.

Because people have always wondered whats next

And people are always trying to make predictions on what the future looks like.

This past week I found a few predictions that people have had that were pretty bad

In 1903 as cars were coming out there was an aritcle put out that said cars are just a fad and horses are here to stay

There was a also one about the telephone when it first came out saying why would someone want to talk on a phone where we have telegraphs where every communication is carefully worded.

In 1951 there were experts who said by the year 2001 kids will most likely be unable to read because of the invention of the TV (we are doing good)

Around this time they all said we would have been able to smell the TV (maybe thats why we can still read)

Everyone remember y2k?

And even right now there are predictions that say eventually there will be zoos that have dinosaurs again. (theres no way thats going to go wrong).

But with all seriousness there is this attraction for humans to know whats coming next.

And today we are looking at a story of a king that was wondering about his future.

and so we will be in Daniel 2 today and in case you missed last week, last week we saw Jeruselum get taken by Babyloin

And as part of this they would take the best people and bring them back to Babyloin to serve Babyloin.

And of these people there are four guys that we have been focusing on named Daniel, Shadrack, meshak and Abenego.

And these four men decided they were going to remain faithful to God in a culture that is asking them to chase the flashy things.

And today we are going to see them actually help the king interpret aa dream where He was wondering whats next.

So we are in Daniel 2 and we will not get to everything, so I want to encourage you to read this passage later on because we wont get to everything.

But we will start in the first 5 verses and it says this:

Daniel 2:1–5 NIV

1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. 2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.” 4 Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” 5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

So the passage starts with a problem.

Because at this point Nebuchadnezzers reign was expanding to other areas and cultures, and he has gained a lot of power,

But you know what the issue is because when you rule everything… You rule everything.

And there is a lot of stress that comes a long with it,

What if things fall apart, what if people rebel, what if a more powerful nation takes over

And so King Nebuchadnezzer was having dreams and could not sleep at night.

and in verse 1 it says his mind is troubled and the Hebrew word for troubled is actually literly translated as to beat persistatly.

So Nebechanezer is awake at night and over and over again can not get this thought off his mind.

And you can probably picture this because I am sure each one of us have had this happen where their is an uncertainty in our life and whether its night time or day time all we can think about is that one thing.

you are anxious, you can’t eat, you can’t sleep, all you can think about is this one thing and you just keep coming back to it.

And here is what I want you to get, because while we love to know the future there is no way to know exactly what is going to happen in our lives.

I mean we do not know where we will be one year from now.

We don’t know if we will live in the same house

If we will have the same job

If Our car will still be running

What our financial situation will be

Anyone else getting anxiety?

Because heres a quote I have heard

“The less we know the more uncertain we feel” and the opposite of that is true as well. The more we know the more certain we feel.

And so when things get really uncertain in our lives we find ourselves in a place like Nebechaanzer.

Wondering whats next and what we will do if things fall apart.

And there are two ways that a lot of times we choose to respond when we face uncertainty.

and heres the, first because you will notice Nebechanezer is uncertain and we see him in verse 2 call together all the enchanters, sorcerers, and anyone he can find to not just interpret his dream but to tell him exactly what he dreamed.

And this is what I want us to get because when things are uncertain, we turn to other things that are uncertain in hopes that they provide certainty.

I mean think about.

If things are uncertain at your job our natural instinct is to double down at work so you will get certainty that your job is secure

If your finanaces are uncertain, we will probably try to find other ways to either bring in extra income or make some additional cuts so our finances are certain.

And these things are not bad most of the time, in fact if your finances are not doing well you want to figure that out right?

But the issue is that it is impossible for these things to give us 100% certainty.

I mean think about this bowl, Arika and I have had these dishes since we got married and we have only ever had 2 break

Think about it, we have Liam and Finn in our house. These things are tough.

And so if you told me well you know this is tough, so drop it, its not going to break.

But here is the thing I am not going to do it, because ill be on the couch if it does break right?

And It will probably be good, but Im not going to do it just because I think it will be good because I can be really certain, but theres always that chance.

To often in lives we find certainty in these things

And you get to verse 11 and look what the enchanters and sorcerers say. They say:

Daniel 2:11 (ESV)

11 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

Even these people know they do not stand a chance, but look at this other option in verse 17-23. It says this:

Daniel 2:17–23 ESV

17 Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 18 and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20 Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. 21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; 22 he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. 23 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”

So Daniel hears this and instead of tryin to make somthing up or run away he gets his friends togehter (Hanniniah, Mishel, and Azariah) (also known as shadrack mishack and abendego)

And they get a white board out and they begin a brainstorming session right?

No before anything they actually begin to seek God and pray to God.

Because I think a lot of times when things like to happen we like to rush to action, but we forget to come to God.

And this is the issue, because we forget the thing that fuels us.

(I have said this before)

But its almost like if you had a car, but no gas, I could push the car a little bit, but if the gas is not it it, what are we doing?

Because anytime God wants to use us, we need to have God as part of it right?

And whats neat is God reveals everything to Daniel on what the dream is and what it means and the last part that we read Daniel just praises God.

And I love how he praises God, because if I had to some it up, he basically says I am praising you because life is uncertain and scary, but in the middle of the uncertain and scary you are certain.

You know when life is uncertain, God is certain.

He does not change, He knows whats going to happen, He understands our hurt, He know the past and the future and he know exactly what is happening in our life today, yesterday and tomorrow.

And you might go how is this possible, but its almost like a parade,

Imagine there is a parade in Buchanan. Everything is happening all at once right?

But you can only see one part of the parade right?

And so if the Blosomtime float passed me its not the the blossomtime float in done, its its passed me.

But whats neat is how God sees our life and all of history is not just looking at the moment, but he sees almost the birds eye view of everything happening.

And this is beautiful, because you might be wondering whats going to happen or will this happen, but God sees exactly every peice of your life and of everything all at once.

So when you begin to turn to God, life can be very uncertain, but you have a very certain God that is guiding you in the middle of the uncertainty.

And look at verses 26-28 (I promise we are coming to the end. It says this:

Daniel 2:26–28 (NIV)

26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come…

So the king says are you able to tell be whats my dream is?

And I love Daniels response because he does not go of course I can, but he says no I can’t do it, but God can.

And this is the God that last week Nebechanezer sent a message saying He is dead or defeated.

And Daniel is saying you cannot have certainty inourselves but there is so much certainty in God.

And let me close with this because Daniel closes and interprets the kings dream and I do not have time to go into it as much as I would like, but Daniel tells him that his dream basically measns there are other kingdoms that will come after his, but he says those specific kingdoms will not be as strong, in fact there may be division,

and he tells him that each of these kingdoms are made from human hands, but then he says there is another kingdom, that is not made from human hands

But it is a kingdom that God will establish, and He says this is a kingdom that will last forever, and it is coming.

And the beautiful part of this is about 500 years after this story there is a person by the name of Jesus that comes who is fully man and fully God, and He gives us a taste of that kingdom.

And what I love about this is that Jesus eventually dies for us on the cross so that we can be a part of this kingdom.

But before he does he actually has a meal with his disciples that we call the last supper.

And we are going to remember this as we close by recieving communion togehter.

Because this meal showed us that in the middle of an uncertain world one thing is certain their is a God chasing after you.

Communion

Will you pray with me?