The Kingdom is Coming

Daniel 2:44 NLT

44 “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.

You know what? We have all been afraid before haven’t we? There are just things that can shake us down to the core of our being. The thing that I think is the worst is when you just don’t know what is going to happen next. Things are uncertain. Maybe it’s because of decisions you’ve made or because you have no control.

I think about the Israelites. The Israelites were living in a scary place with a scary king ruling over them. King Nebuchadnezzar had taken many of them out of their land to Babylon.

One night King Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned. He had just had a dream he couldn’t understand. He called in all his wise men, and they scratched their heads too, unable to figure it out.

Exploding in anger, he ordered all of them to be killed unless someone could explain the meaning.

Once again God put one of His people in the right place at the right time. Daniel pleaded with God to reveal the mystery. And sure enough, He did.

“You had a dream,” Daniel said, “about a statue. Its head was gold, its chest and arms were silver, the middle was bronze. And the legs and feet were made of iron and clay.”

That wasn’t all! “In your dream,” Daniel continued, “a rock crushed the statue and began to grow and grow into a big mountain. The rock is God’s kingdom. Your kingdom, and others after yours, will fall. Not God’s. His kingdom will last forever!”

God was reminding His people, and Nebuchadnezzar, there is a more powerful kingdom coming. There is hope, no matter how scary things look. God is still King over all. And His kingdom will go on and on forever.

This is in the Bible for a reason. Not only is it recording an important historical story, it is telling us today that God is in control. His Kingdom is what matters the most.

You and I are going to face difficult situations. That’s just a fact. We can’t escape all the problems of life. In fact, you may be watching this video today facing the biggest challenge of your life. I want to offer you encouragement today.

God KEEPS His word. This book of Daniel recorded a real king with a real kingdom. It’s not just a fairy tale. The dream was real and Daniels interpretation was true.

The four parts of the statue were four kingdoms: the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.

Sure enough, each of these kingdoms would come and then go!

Here’s the encouragement for you today: God’s kingdom is still growing because God is still King.

So, why should we walk around being scared of what the enemy can heap on us? We shouldn’t!

Remember what Paul told the Corinthian believers:

1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT

57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have the victory through Jesus. Don’t walk around with your head held low! No way! Yeah, things might not look good every single moment, but I can personally attest to the fact that things can change in an instance.

At one point in my life I was running a fairly good sized business. Well, we were growing and sometimes money was tight. To make our payroll we depended on our customers to pay their invoices on time. I can remember one specific time when a customer was behind and we were stretched to the absolute max. There was no way for us to pay our employees unless a miracle happened.

Well, I remember the agony I went through. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I just knew that we were about to lose everything we had worked for up until that point. I had almost given up, but God had different plans.

The day before our payroll deadline came we recieved a check in the mail I wasn’t expecting. It more than covered payroll. The relief I felt was incredible.

How does this story relate to what we are talking about in Daniel?

You see, I was so afraid of losing our business because I didn’t know that check was in the mail. Had I have known the check was coming I would have not been so fearful.

Guess what folks? We need to stop walking in fear of the unknown. The check is in the mail. We have the victory through Christ because no matter what happens in this life we are part of a kingdom that will never fall.

Those Israelites lived in a different land that worshipped different gods. They were out of place. Longing for their home land. They were living under a king who had taken away their homes in the promised land. Everything looked horrible. Like God was not on their side.

But this dream the king had was proof that God had not forsaken them. That He was going to restore was was stolen. They were going to walk in victory.

And you can too. When you accept Jesus you are part of the kingdom of God and they enemy has no authority over you anymore. You can be assured of the fact that God has not forsaken you. Even when you can’t see what’s next, you can rest in the fact that God’s kingdom will never fail.