Trust in Babylon (Fiery Furnace)

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1500 words for intro and close (About)

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SERIES DESCRIPTION: In this series on the Book of Mark, Pastor Shawn and Krista highlight Jesus as the main attraction. This week, they explore Mark 5:21-34, where Jesus demonstrates His Kingdom authority over sickness by healing a woman's physical illness and her emotional pain of being unclean for 12 years.

Altar Instructions: Please come up when I begin the 1st of the last 3 sub points during point 3.

Series | The Main Attraction

Pre-Message Welcome

Grace Place family! It’s awesome to have you here with us today, whether in person or online.

I’m Shawn, and along with my wife, we serve as the Co-Pastors of this incredible church.

At The Grace Place, our mission is clear: we are Caring People, Caring for People.

We pray that you experience God’s care in our time together and in your life.

Spanish Welcome - 2nd Service ONLY!

A nuestra familia de habla hispana .... Bienvenidos… es-pera-mos que usted… y su familia.. se-sien-tan bien a-tend-idos también.

To our Spanish speaking family... welcome, we hope you and your family feels cared for as well.

Before we get into the message today….

Pastor Plug: Annual Business Meeting

· This year

One of the greatest freedoms we have in this country is - the freedom of religion.

· This is why we can freely gather and worship together today.

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Transition: This week we are starting a brand new series called…

Series | Not From Here

This is a series about the man Daniel, the faithful exile.

We’re going to see in this series how Daniel was taken into captivity from all he knows… we will also see God’s faithfulness in how He strengthen and empowered Daniel to live out his life of faith in a place he didn’t belong.

In fact… Today you might look at the world around you and feel much like Daniel… you might think to your self… “I’m NOT FROM HERE.” The truth is as a believer in Jesus… the Kingdoms of the world do not fit.

So… so.. this creates a tension… a tension between the Kingdom you born into -

No matter the generation you are born into… the country of origin you are born into… the realty is, if you are a believer in Jesus… you are NOT a citizen of this earthly Kingdom… You are… NOT FROM HERE.

In Jn. 18:36… Jesus said… My Kingdom is NOT of this world

Jesus he came to earth… a place he did not belong… he too was - Not from here.

and As a follower of Jesus… You are a part of the Kingdom of God…

The big question of this series is this… lets look at it together on the screen

How can we live in a land that we’re not from?

Both Daniel and Jesus knew how to do this… and I think we might find some comfort as we dig into this series.

Today we are going to be looking at Daniel 2 ESV

Daniel 2:

***Feel free to encourage people to listen to the Holy Spirit speak to them personally as the message is preached

LETS PRAY

YOU CAN WALK OFF THE STAGE WHEN YOU SAY AMEN

Transition: the title of our message today is...

Sermon Title | Dreams in Babylon

Before

Healing is exactly what we see in this story …

Introduction

On the way to healing Jarius’s daughter Mark tells this story of the woman with the Issue of Blood. Jesus Demonstrates his power over Sickness .

CONSIDER PT 2 (Going into the Word Doc Content

Without going into a ton of detail here…

The Dream Revealed and Interpreted (vv. 31–45)

In v.31 Daniel tells the king his dream.. he says..

English Standard Version Chapter 2

“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image

Here is what your dream means… and beginning in v.32 he goes on to describe the different parts of the Statue image that the King see’s… Each part of the Statue/Image represents a future Kingdom - he goes on to describe this series of Kingdoms… most scholars agree on what kingdoms these represent until we get to the feet..

Clay- these can all be on one slide…

The head -made of gold - representing - the Babylonian Kingdom .

This represented King Neb’s kingdom that began in 627BC

The chest and arms of silver - representing Persian King

That eventually over threw Babylon in 530BC lead the Medo-Persian Empire

The middle and thighs made of bronze - representing Grecian Empire

This overthrow of the Medo-Persian empire was lead by the imfamous Alexander the greats… in 323BC

The legs of iron - representing Roman Empire

Which came to an end around 476

The final Kingdom of man that we see in this vision is…

The feet & Toes made of a mixture of Iron & clay (specifically 10 clay toes) - representing two types of Kingdoms working together. Some remnant type of Kingdom Rome along with these 10 toes many believe to be a collective of 10 kingdoms.

Do we know exactly who these Kingdoms are - I personally don’t think so. Many speculate - I will leave that up to them.

What we do see in scripture is a repeat of this 10 collective of 10 kingdoms.

Danel brings it up again in Dan. and Rev 17:12

It’s also brought up again in Rev. 17:12

Most in our theological circle think we have yet to see this empire… it’s seen as a future Empire…

Others think we have already seem this empire come and go…

Here are some compelling reasons to consider for this Kingdom to be a future one

v. 44 tells us

English Standard Version Chapter 2

44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces

Let me ask you a question:

Have all the Kingdoms of man come to an end in such a way that that they have been FULLY Destroyed?

No.

When God sets Establishes His Kingdom of the world will come to an end.

This would mean that the Roman Empire would have-had to come to an end at the 1st coming of Christ or his assertion.

Did that happen? No, the Roman Empire continued long after Christ’s earthly life. Radicals later revolted against the roman empire but it was years later after Christ… so in my mind Christ coming did not bring about the end of the Roman Empire.

So for me… I believe this Feet mingled with Clay is future Kingdom that will come and eventually be destroyed by Christ at the 2nd Coming of Christ when he comes to Establish his Kingdom on Earth.

WOW - THAT WAS A LOT :)

Here is whats I believe is important to notice:

I want you to notice the succession of Metals:

From weaker to weaker metal.. .Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron, and eventually a non metal… caly.

Each new Kingdom is temporarily strong enough to over throw the previous kingdom… but not strong enough to last…

In essence each new Kingdom “thinks is stronger because it over came the previous” yet… is actually weaker-and last a lesser amount of time.

At the end of the description of the Dream…Daniel reveals…

A final Kingdom

We see this in v.34

English Standard Version Chapter 2

34 As you looked, a STONE was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay…

What is this Rock that is mightier than than the strongest metal?

That easily destroy’s the Image/Statues of these succeeding Kingdoms?

Daniel see’s the coming Kingdom of God that topples the final Kingdom of man.

As we look at v. 35 we see the total inhalation of human Kingdoms… scripture says…

English Standard Version Chapter 2

v.35b the wind carried them away, so that NOT A TRACE of them COULD BE FOUND. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel see’s It’s the Kingdom of God - that grows mightier and mightier…

That begins to take over the earth and eventually grows becomes a GREAT MOUNTAIN that FILLES the WHOLE EARTH.

This final Kingdom will last an Eternity

v. 44 IN THOES DAYS God will set up an everlasting Kingdom - this new Kingdom will crush the Gentile Kingdom.

Just like your mind is blown… so was King Nebs..

Nebuchadnezzar’s Response and Promotion of Daniel (vv. 46–49)

The king bows and falls on his face before Daniel and honors him (this is shocking for a Babylonian king to do).

in v.47 He says….

English Standard Version Chapter 2

47 The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings

He says… Daniel… your God is the the greatest of all gods

in v. 48 the King promotes Daniel to one of the highest positions in Babylon.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

48 Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon

Once again… Daniel leverages this moment… not just for Himself… but for his friends.

he requests positions for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as well.

Some times it’s NOT all about what you know - it’s about WHO you know.

You might want to make sure your rollN with Daniel -

Transition: the title of our message today is...

Sermon Title | Uncertain in Babylon

I would like to point out 3 things I notice about this story and then we are going to consider what the Holy Spirit might want to be saying to us.

The first thing I want you to notice IN YOUR NOTES is…

Point TWO. v.25-26

Text

Trans

Sub point ONE. v. 25

Here is the question I believe scripture is inviting us to ask ourselves today…

Question: Do I have any cares that you need to cast on Jesus?

Text

Trans

Here is the question I believe scripture is inviting us to ask ourselves today…

Question: Do I have any cares that you need to cast on Jesus?

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Trans

PAUSE -CLIP BEGINING

PAUSE -CLIP ENDING

Study Content

Transition: As I close today….

So today… if you do NOT know Jesus as your Lord and Savior today is your day…

Salvation Altar Call

I believe Jesus is here today, and He wants to save you. Salvation simply means to deliver or to free. It’s not just about delivering you…

It’s about believing

Believing in Jesus means trusting what He say’s—about sin, and eternal punishment, thats the bad news.

The good news is this… that His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins, making us right with God.

Ephesians 2:8 reminds us: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Salvation requires two things:

1. God’s Grace—His undeserved gift of forgiveness and life because of His love for you.

2. Faith—placing your trust in Him for salvation.

If you’ve never asked Jesus to save you, today is your day. If you’d like ask him… , raise your hand.

I want to invite you to Repeat a prayer after me

· There is nothing magical in this prayer.. it simply is a way of declaring to Jesus what has taken place in your heart.

Here is how I would like to end the service for everyone else….

Call to Action Altar Call

We’re going to end the service with A question as we do nearly every week.

ALL ACROSS THE ROOM – HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT spoken to you in anyway today?

Going Deeper

What stuck out to you the in this passage? v. 1-13

Will I be ready when he returns? v. 1-3

What things are distracting me from Jesus? v. 4-8

How am I following his directions, How might I be missing it? v. 9-13

What might the Holy Spirit be saying to you in light of this teaching?

How might the Holy Spirit want to transform you in light of this teaching?

What actions might the Holy Spirit want to take in light of this teaching?

Tongues & Interpretation

1. To STRENGTHEN the Church (1 Cor14:5)

For prophecy is greater than SPEAKING in TONGUES, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be STRENGTHENED.

Believers, God has operated through this gift today to strengthen you today. Let your faith be strengthened and know that God is in control and using supernatural measures to speak to us.

2. Is a SIGN for unbelievers. (1Cor. 14: 21a, 22)

1 Corinthians 14:21–22 (ESV)

In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

22 -  So you see that speaking in tongues is a SIGN, not for believers, but for UNBELIEVERS.

The Bible explains to us God has chosen to use this gift to be a sign for you. A sign for what? It is a sign of his realness for those of you who have been doubting or questioning the existence of God. He wants you to know he is REAL and he wants to bring you spiritual life and health. If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior... he wants you to know he has gone to great lengths to show you his love today. (Great opportunity for a salvation altar call if it fits).