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00:04 One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Okay, we're good now. I think it was my own doing. I switched myself off just
00:10 now. Okay. Sorry, AV team. Okay. All right. Good morning. Um, we we just read a uh a
00:18 rather complicated passage, right? I mean, it's amazing. It's it's it's it's full of imagery. It's uh full of numbers
00:25 and and pictures. And um uh when I was told that um I'll be preaching on this
00:31 uh passage, I kind of felt like Daniel at the end, you know, my color changed and uh um I was perplexed. I want to
00:39 keep that in my heart. Uh uh but I didn't I I I I let it out here. Um it's
00:44 it's amazing. We we we're starting in this uh new chapter now in Daniel. Um we have gone through chapter 1 through
00:51 chapter 6, which is kind of the historical account uh of of Daniel. And now chapter 7 uh to chapter 12 will talk
00:59 about the visions of Daniel. So we're getting into something which is called prophetic apocalyptic literature. And uh
01:07 we must understand that um chapter 7 is not chronologically
01:12 um after chapter 6. Uh chapter 7 is probably somewhere between chapter 4 and
01:19 five somewhere around there. Um it is a a younger Daniel. This is not Daniel who
01:24 went to the lion's den. Uh but this this Daniel doing the king of Belshazar uh when he's about in his 60s around when
01:31 he was in Daniel in the lion's den which we did last week. He was about in his 90s. Uh so please understand this is not
01:38 after this. This is actually now us recollecting some visions which happened throughout uh Daniel's uh ministry or
01:45 Daniel's lifetime in Babylon. Now um of course today we will spend some time u
01:52 going through the various imagery and and we're going to see uh some key points that we can drive out of there
01:57 and then we'll get into some application. Um let us uh pray before we get into this. Uh father Lord we just uh
02:05 thank you for today. We thank you for this morning. Uh Lord we just pray for uh your guidance and your wisdom right
02:11 now. Uh father I pray for your anointing that my my words be your words. Uh father we pray that we um u give us
02:18 grace to to hear your word and may it cut into our hearts and may it change our lives and I pray this in the name of
02:24 Jesus. Amen. Um one thing which is interesting to note that um the chapter
02:30 7 has a twin chapter and it's twin chapter is chapter 2 uh which uh um
02:35 brother Leen has has spoken about earlier on. Um it it's a vision of
02:41 Nebuchadnezzar about the great statue. uh we had it here and we we've spoken uh about it already. Now, apocalyptic
02:48 literature does a couple of things for us. Uh it's supposed to give us hope in in troubled times. It's supposed to give
02:54 us a a cosmic view on things. It's supposed to show us how how there's dualism at play, how how different
03:01 forces are at play at the same time. It's supposed to also give us hope in in in God's sovereign hand uh through all
03:08 things. That's what apocalyptic literature is supposed to do. And and you can see here Nebuchadnezzar's dream
03:14 was a dream of a man. It's kind of like man's view on on how the kingdoms will be developed. And and man, when they
03:20 look at at at the kingdoms, the great kingdoms are to come, they look at it like a a great gigantic
03:26 marvelous statue. Today, we're talking about the same four kingdoms, but we're going to see it from
03:32 from the cosmic perspective, from from God's view. And God's view on those four
03:38 kingdoms looks very different. It looks like this. It looks like beasts
03:44 devouring up humanity. See, see, God sees the kingdoms for what they truly
03:50 are. He doesn't see them as giant statues. He sees them them as beasts and
03:55 animals. So, what we're going to do is we're going to go and we're going to go through uh um the meaning and explain
04:01 some of the kingdom some of the pictures and and what kingdoms they actually represent. So we will go through the
04:08 first uh picture that we see here. We see first um there was a lion and it had eagle's wings. Then as I looked the
04:15 wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of man
04:21 was given to it. So we see this first picture of a of a lion with with eagle's wings and and scholars have said that
04:28 this must be the Babylonian Empire. This is the Bible and because of of later on
04:33 in in in in literature we'll see that um the Old Testament refers very often as a lion as Nebuchadnezzar and we also see
04:40 that and we we read early on in Daniel that um he actually eventually lost his mind and then God restored his mind and
04:47 was given back to him again. So we see this picture here and this first beast is the Babylonian or Babylonian Empire.
04:54 Of course, we know that the four beasts represent four kingdom because that's what the interpretation of the angel was
04:59 in the vision that we saw earlier on as well. Next, we see the next beast um
05:06 which is a bear. And the bear is uh lopsided. It says it was raised up on one side. So, it kind of shows um that
05:13 this bear has two parts to it. Uh uh and one side is bigger than the other one.
05:19 And that's why we can say this is the Meo Persian Empire which lasted from 539
05:24 to 3331 BC. It has two sides, two kingdoms, the Meo uh uh P Persian
05:31 Empire. And of course, one was more powerful than the other. The next
05:37 picture that we see is a leopard, a leopard with wings. Now, the leopard is
05:42 one of the fastest animals in the kingdom. And imagine a leopard with wings is is even faster. So therefore we
05:48 we say that this this imagery represents the Greek empire because Alexander the
05:54 Great swiftly took over the uh the known world back then. He did it so fast
05:60 within uh 10 years. I think he was age 32 when he was king over the entire
06:05 empire and I think he was in India when rumor says he was sitting in his room and weeping because there was nothing
06:11 left to conquer. And uh so he was 32 years old. He he did it really quickly
06:17 and um that's why we say it's the Greek empire. Also, we see here that the beast had four heads and we also know that the
06:23 Greek empire eventually was divided up by his four generals when um when Alexander the Great u passed away. So,
06:29 his four generals took over uh the kingdom. What we're going to spend more
06:35 time on is looking at the last beast. Um this was the best image I could find online. Um and it says here that this
06:42 beast was unlike any other beast. It was it says here after this I saw a night
06:47 visions and behold a fourth beast terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly
06:52 strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces and stemped
06:58 uh stemmed what was left out with his feet. Um it was different from all the
07:03 beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns. It it it just shows a very
07:09 very powerful beast that was unlike anything else before. It's a kingdom unlike any other kingdom before. And
07:16 that gives us the imagery of of the Roman soldiers stampeding across the knowing world, crushing everything in
07:23 its past, ultimately taking up what's probably the greatest and biggest kingdom that we ever had. And it lasted
07:29 from 168 BC to 476 AD. This is the Roman
07:36 Empire. Now from this imagery we can see and explained in the vision it's also said
07:41 this this beast had 10 horns and the 10 horns are supposed to represent 10 kingdoms that that they come out of
07:48 that. Now 10 and and Arnold will spend more time next week talking about numbers and the meaning of numbers. Um
07:54 but however the the 10 represents a fullness. It could be completeness. It could be a whole number of kingdoms that
08:00 will come out of that. And out of these number of kingdoms, we see again another imagery that ultimately from those
08:07 kingdoms will come this little horn. Now people ask, who's that little horn? I
08:13 mean, it's it's boastful. It has a loud mouth. People might say it's Donald Trump. Uh um because he does have little
08:19 hands, right? Uh um so ultimately we do not know who it is, but um it is the spirit of the antichrist which is put
08:27 forth. Um we see that here I considered the horns and behold there came up among them another horn a little one before
08:34 which the three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a
08:40 man and a mouth speaking great things. So ultimately we can see that there was
08:46 this this beastly kingdoms right this beastly kingdoms that came out of the sea and the sea oper always represents
08:52 chaos and and humanity and this this beasts came up and ultimately it came to this last beast which had a had a horn
08:59 and and this horn was very boastful and truly going against God screaming blasphemies and this is what we see is
09:06 the spirit of the antichrist or what Thessalonians will call uh the man of lawlessness. It's interesting to to take
09:13 this Daniel chapter and hold it against Revelation 13 because you will see the
09:19 same kind of imagery being put in Revelation 13. You see, this is Revelation 13 and you can recognize the
09:26 imagery uh right away. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea again, a beast coming out of a sea with 10 horns. So,
09:33 we know it's a it's the same as the last beast as well. And seven heads with 10 diadems on its horn and blasphemous
09:39 names on its head. So again, the the blaspheming going on. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, which was the
09:46 second beast we looked at. Its feet, sorry, the third one. And then the feet were like a bear, which is the second um
09:52 beast that we looked at. And its mouth was like a lion's mouth, the first beast we looked at. So you can see how here
09:58 all the the different kingdom beasts were put into one final big beast, one
10:04 final animal. And ultimately what we can derive from that is is to look at it from a cosmic perspective and see yes
10:11 there are going to be earthly kingdoms. They're going to rise up from the chaos of of man. And from this earthly manly
10:19 kingdoms eventually will rise this spirit of the antichrist. This little horn who will go ultimately completely
10:27 against what God has wanted. He will blaspheme against God. He will go against God's design. Why can I say that
10:34 they're going against God's design? is because God created in Genesis, every animal, one of a kind. But every animal
10:41 that we see here is a hybrid animal. So, it's completely going against God's
10:46 design. An epitome of it is the little horn, the spirit that will boastfully go against God. Now, we'll see more
10:55 illusions or or similarities between Daniel 7 and Revelations 13. Here it
10:60 says in the green uttering hotty and blasphemer's words. And we see in Daniel 7 in the green, he shall speak words
11:06 against the most high. See the similarities there. And then in the red you will see it says authority was given
11:12 for 42 months. In Revelations uh 13 and in Daniel 7 we see times and a half. Now
11:20 why are they the same? Is because times and a half stands for 1 year plus 2
11:26 years plus a half year. So altogether that's three and a half years which is
11:32 42 months. So it's actually the same imagery which is being put forth there. And what that ultimately represents it's
11:39 the number seven in Jewish custom is always a number of of completeness of fullness of eternity. And three and a
11:47 half is the half of this. So it just means it's a it's a temporary time. So ultimately the the time given to that
11:54 beast is is a temporary period. The kingdom will not last forever. it will eventually be crushed. Again, Arnold
12:00 will speak a lot more on numbers next week. Now, the question is why am I
12:06 holding Daniel 7 towards uh Revelation 13? Is because Revelation 13 gives a bit
12:13 more of a picture. Uh some people say that when you look at prophetic apocalyptic literature in in the Old
12:19 Testament, it's kind of like walking around in a dark room where you you feel around and you you recognize the chair and you recognize the bed and you
12:26 recognize the table. But when you look in the New Testament, it's kind of like switching on the lights and and and suddenly you see a bit more. And that's
12:33 what we can see in Revelation 13, it says a bit more. It says, "And to it the
12:38 dragon." So, and to the beast, that last beast with the 10 horns, the dragon, which is the the symbol of the
12:44 Antichrist, the symbol of Satan as well, gave his power and his throne and great
12:50 authority. So here's this picture of this dragon giving his authority
12:55 to the beast. This is an imagery that Satan is trying to do. He's trying to
13:00 represent and and pretend to be like God, like God the father giving dominion
13:06 and power and authority to God the son. So here you can see the ultimate picture
13:12 is that this spirit of the antichrist will come and pretend to be like God the father and pretend to pass authority on
13:20 to the beasts. And here it says one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound. Again an imitation. See, the Satan will
13:28 come and he would try to look as if he was slain, as if he died, and as if he would be resurrected again. But, you
13:34 know, it's a fake because it just seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. And the whole earth
13:40 marveled as they followed the beast. And then everybody is fooled. The world is fooled by the imagery and and what what
13:47 Satan and the world is doing. And they worshiped the dragon for he had given his authority to the beast. and they
13:53 worship the beast saying who is like the beast who can fight against it. So here
13:59 we see the ultimate epitome of what's going to happen is from the earthly kingdoms from the chaos will come
14:06 kingdoms from the kingdoms will come the antichrist who will ultimately pretend
14:11 to be like God pretend to have the authority like god pretend to be like the son of god the father-son
14:17 relationship is going to try to be imitated and everybody's going to be fooled and from there we'll see the next
14:23 scene and the next scene is the ancient of days the ancient of days will will
14:30 come down in his glory. This is a man robed in white with white hair and fiery
14:35 thrones. And immediately we see this picture of this being God. The reason we know it's God because the the color
14:41 white there is always represented with holiness. And we see the picture of fire there. And fire has always been the
14:48 representation of God from from the burning bush with Moses, right? through the fire going through um the the
14:55 covenant of Abraham. He went uh through there through the fire coming down in in Acts. Fire always has the power to do
15:02 two things. Fire can consume you. Fire can judge you and fire can refine you.
15:10 So this is always the two works that God does, right? It is either he he'll bring you into condemnation or he'll bring you
15:17 into refinement. And of course, we know that happens to us through the power of Christ on the cross. So, we see this
15:24 picture here of the ancient of days coming down and he's slaying that beast.
15:29 He's overcoming that beast. He's beating that beast. And when that happens, um
15:34 the next picture arrives and we see the son of man coming down from the clouds.
15:42 So he comes down from the clouds and what happens is the ancient of days God the father gives and hands over all
15:48 authority to him all he will inaugurate the or he will consumate the final
15:55 kingdom um all dominion will be given to him that kingdom will will reign forever
15:60 and ever it's an everlasting kingdom that will be set up this is when Christ
16:05 returns and why can I say so confidently that this son of man is Jesus Jesus.
16:13 Well, because Jesus in his days always referred to himself as the son of man.
16:20 It was one of his favorite terms to to call himself. He always says, "I am the son of man." And I think the best
16:26 picture that we can see is in Mark uh 14:61-62.
16:32 Again, the high priest asked Jesus, "Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?"
16:40 And Jesus said, "I am." And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand
16:46 of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. So you can see this imagery from
16:53 Daniel 7 that Jesus takes on himself being the son of man coming from the
16:58 clouds of heaven. So the son of man is Jesus. He will ultimately inherit the
17:04 kingdom. He will have a a kingdom that will last forever and ever.
17:10 So this is the imagery. This is the vision that we see. So what what what do
17:15 we do with all that? Well, I think the author and and and and the story tells us something about God.
17:22 It shows to us that God is always in control of all things, even in control
17:30 of these beastly kingdoms. Yes, God is the one who allows them to
17:35 rise up. You see that in the imagery. If we I'm going to go back to the imagery of the four beasts and you will see
17:42 God's hand in play in every one of these
17:47 beastly kingdoms. See the first one it says here the wings were plucked off and
17:54 it was lifted up and made to stand on two feet.
17:59 Who's doing the plucking? Who's doing the lifting? Who's making
18:04 him stand? You will see God's hand in the picture. God's sovereign hand in control even
18:12 over the Babylonian or this first beast, this first kingdom. And in the second
18:18 one, you see here, a bear was raised up on one side and it was told, "Arise,
18:25 devour much flesh." Who was doing the raising? Who was doing
18:30 the telling? It's God the Father. It's God who's doing the raising. It's God who's doing
18:36 the telling. God is saying stand up and devour much. God's hand is in that
18:44 situation. In the third one, you see dominion was given to it. It is only God who has the
18:52 power and the authority to give dominion. Again, we see God's sovereign
18:58 hand in control even over beastly kingdoms.
19:04 And here in the fourth one, the final beast, it says, "They shall be given." Who's they? They are the holy people.
19:10 It's us. They shall be given into his hand. And
19:16 again, it's God who does the giving. Yes, God's hand is in play. even in the
19:24 kingdoms which are so beastly and seem to be blaspheming against him and going
19:30 against everything he has designed. But yet God is at hand. God is in control. God's sovereign hand is at play.
19:39 And we see that God is both in control of goodness and evil throughout the
19:45 whole scripture. Let me just name some scriptures for you here. In Lamentations we read, "Is it not from the mouth of
19:52 the most high that both good and bad come? Shall we receive good from God?
19:58 Shall we not receive evil?" Job. And God says, "I make well-being and I and
20:05 create calamity." In Isaiah, the Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down
20:10 to sh and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he
20:17 exalts. 1 Samuel and in Ephesians, the New Testament, he who works all things,
20:26 good and bad, good and evil, all things in accordance with the counsel of his
20:33 will. And it's so important that we know that because then we can go to scriptures like Romans and then he will
20:38 work all things for the good for those who love him. All things, all good things and all evil things will work for
20:46 good for those who love him. So God is sovereign.
20:53 God is in control. Even the most evil things that you may think of right now, God is in control. God's hand is always
21:01 in play. God is sovereign. He's the author of history. Nothing happens without his knowledge. Nothing happens
21:07 without his power. Nothing happens without his presence.
21:13 Spurgeon is the one who said that the dust modes are suspended in the air by divine appointment.
21:20 God is sovereign over all things. So what do we do with that? I mean what
21:28 do we do with that information? I mean Daniel saw it and and this was Daniel's reaction. As for me, my spirit
21:36 within me was anxious and the vision in my head alarmed me. It it is alarming when you think that God's
21:43 control of evil too, right? And it makes me anxious.
21:49 And it says, "As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me and my my color changed, but I kept the matter in
21:55 my heart." And that's like many of us when we understand that that God is sovereign
22:02 and God is in control. And we keep that matter in the heart because how do we tell our friends who are not Christian
22:07 that God that we say is a good God and loves us is in control of even the evil
22:13 things. I mean I don't want to tell anybody that. I leave that out of my gospel
22:19 presentation. It's alarming. It's perplexing. It's it's it's struggling to to to talk about
22:26 that. But
22:32 see Daniel, he came from a picture where by the cross has not happened yet.
22:39 See, we we understand how evil things can work for God's glory.
22:47 What is the most evil thing that ever happened on earth?
22:56 It's the cross. It's the crucifixion of Christ. that God came from heavenly places,
23:05 walked on earth, and what did Christ do? He healed people. He healed the lame. He
23:12 gave the blind sight. He restored people. He communed with them. He freed
23:19 them. What did humanity do in response?
23:25 They put him on the cross. We put him on the cross. We nailed him on the cross. We We
23:32 blasphemed against him. We mocked him. We spat on him. We put a spear in his side.
23:41 The most evil thing that ever happened or will ever happen in the history of
23:48 humankind is crucifying our living God and killing him on the cross.
23:59 But isn't that also the most glorifying thing that ever happened?
24:05 Isn't the cross also the act that brought the most glory to God
24:11 because it paid for all our sins and therefore all of us can now come
24:16 into the presence of God. All of us are redeemed through that cross. So, can you see how the most evil thing that ever
24:24 happened produced the most glory that ever happened?
24:30 Can you see how how how the how God is at hand at that?
24:36 Now, if the most evil thing that ever happened can produce the most glory that ever happened, then what is true for the
24:42 greater is also true for the lesser.
24:47 It means every evil, every every suffering, every every pain, every hardship, every consequence of of things
24:53 also in a peculiar way brings glory to God.
25:01 You see, it must bring glory to God. If our suffering and our pain and our
25:08 hardship because the consequences of evil would be because evil is prevailing
25:14 because evil is overcoming God because God is not in control. Then evil has prevailed for evil's purpose and evil's
25:22 means and evil's time. Evil is prevailing if God is not in
25:28 control. What hope is found in that? What hope is found when evil does evil
25:34 and it prevails for its own purposes? It means that God cannot take care of
25:39 us. There's no hope found in that.
25:45 No. But if God is sovereign and if God is in control of even the evil, the hope
25:51 is found. Because then every bad thing, every pain that we feel, every suffering
25:57 that we have, every anxiety, every sickness, every financial difficulty,
26:03 anything that we face here has purpose and is absolutely meaningful
26:11 and it's working towards a glory for God.
26:17 And that's when the the words of Paul in Corinthians come alive when he says
26:24 these momentary afflictions are producing are creating they are making
26:30 for us an eternal weight of glory.
26:37 If it's true for the greatest, it is true for everything lesser than that.
26:46 So how are we supposed to react in that situation? Well, the first people who really
26:53 understood that God is sovereign, that God is in control even over calamities,
26:59 the first people who understand that he will come back down from heavens and and ultimately he will reign are the people
27:05 in Acts, the church of Acts where people started going out and and proclaiming his word
27:12 and and growing his kingdom. And we can see how they reacted. And we should imitate their reaction. You see,
27:19 when they had hardshiped, this is what happened. We read this in Acts chapter 5. And when they had called the
27:24 apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the
27:32 presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. They were
27:39 rejoicing because they know that their suffering in a peculiar way is producing glory for God.
27:47 And every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease
27:52 teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. This needs to be our reaction
28:00 when we understand that God is in control over all things. his hands place and whatever suffering we have, every
28:07 suffering that we appropriate for the cross and for the purpose of Jesus that he is at hand and ultimately we
28:13 understand that it will propel us to go out and tell everybody the good news.
28:20 This is how we must react. This is how the church reacted in the
28:25 early days when they understood that the kingdom of God is going to come. It is at hand. They said repent. The kingdom
28:31 of God is at hand. And they had urgency about it because they knew the time is short.
28:37 It's not seven, it's 3.5. The time is short.
28:44 But the trouble is we lack that hope because that hope is not tangible,
28:51 right? I mean, it seems so far away when Christ is coming. We we we can't seem to
28:57 to touch it and and grab it and feel it right now. I think maybe because we are as a church
29:03 a people who who always want immediate results. We want to go out and and spread the
29:09 gospel and and we immediately want to see people come to faith. We want to have direct results to our endeavors.
29:17 This hope it's it's not tangible. So how do we make hope tangible?
29:23 Well, we cannot have this this this narrow view. We cannot see that how our efforts as an individual contributes and
29:30 how the how people come to faith or how how people grow from our efforts. We have to see how we faithfully
29:37 go and and and work for God's purposes and how then through the body of of
29:43 faithful individuals through the body of Christ through the church how that brings hope to others. How through then
29:51 the combined working of of a church people come to faith. You have to see how the body grows.
29:58 Today you have an article in your bulletin by Pastor Rama.
30:03 It showed how how he had suffering, how he had pain, he had an accident, and how the church got behind him,
30:11 how we went and prayed for him. And through the church acting, he was
30:18 able to give witness to the people who came around. and he was able to give glory to God's
30:25 name. See, it's when the people of Christ come together that things happen.
30:33 Same thing happened for me when I came to faith. See, I didn't come to faith
30:39 because of a single person acting. I came to faith because many different people started doing so. I remember
30:45 there was this this girl in in my college. Um she was the housemate of of my girlfriend back then and she was a
30:51 Christian. and I wasn't and um she used to pray for me and and just live a a
30:57 really godly life and I I was able to look at that. And then um I had this other friend who who continuedly just
31:04 just lived a a a good Christian life in front of me and and when I was in need and in trouble, she she ministered to me
31:11 and she didn't always Bible bash me. You know, she just she was just Christ in the way she reacted and lived towards me
31:16 until I had no other choice but to ask her, "What's so different about you?"
31:22 And then she was able to point to Christ. I look at my mom who who for 15
31:28 years was the only Christian in our family and and and prayed every day for the salvation for me and my family. I
31:36 look at my dad who who eventually became a Christian and I'm thinking that's crazy. I mean this this this this
31:42 socialist industrialist who always taught me that Masimo religion is the opium of the people.
31:50 Yeah. Suddenly he becomes a Christian. I look at this this this guy who I was
31:57 in a business meeting and and and suddenly I was having a conversation with him. He says Masimo I need to go to
32:03 another meeting but why don't you come with me? He kind of like cos me into going with him. And I I went to this meeting and suddenly I enter this room.
32:09 There's 10 Chinese guys raising their hands and singing hillong songs songs and I'm like, "Oh man, that guy conned
32:16 me. I didn't want to be there." Yeah. And and I I was there and and suddenly this
32:24 other man came. He shared a testimony, but his life was changed through Christ.
32:29 He used to be a drug dealer and then he met Christ and his life changed. And it's a testimony that that spoke directly to my heart.
32:37 Then I remember I had lots of questions and I started going to church and I saw the preachers faithfully preaching messages that spoke again to my heart. I
32:46 had more questions and I eventually was introduced to a cell group leader and what he did was um he taught me how to
32:51 pray. I remember I was sitting in a Starbucks at 4:00 in the afternoon and I was telling him about my troubles in my
32:57 life and how everything's terrible in my life and he told me more all you've done is talk. All I've done is pray now you pray. It
33:05 was a big Indian guy. Guys, when he says pray, you pray, right? And and I I never
33:11 prayed out loud in my life before. And and suddenly he I I prayed, "No, dear Lord, please help me with my struggles.
33:17 Please help me with my drug addiction. Please help me with He said, "Ma, I can't hear you. Dear Lord, please help
33:22 me with my troubles. Please help me mim 4:00 in the afternoon. Dear Lord, please
33:29 help me with my drug addictions. Please help me, Lord." And I don't know what else I prayed. in the middle of a
33:35 Starbucks at 4:00 in the afternoon. And you know what? What he told me after that? That was powerful.
33:41 If you can do that every day of your life, if you know if you can do it in the middle of a Starbucks at 4:00 in the afternoon, what stops you from doing
33:48 this every day of your life? And I started to pray.
33:53 I remember there was one time I was sick and my mom's prayer group came around me and and they prayed and I was healed. I
34:01 woke up the next morning and and and I was healed. Of course, back then I said coincidence.
34:07 I didn't believe. But you know, when I share my testimony
34:12 with people and I I show them all these different events, people always ask me, "M, is it is it because of your friend
34:18 that you accepted Christ?" Says, "Yes, it is." Or, "Is it because that your your mom prayed?" I said, "Yes, it is."
34:24 "Is it because that the guy who who brought you to this business meeting?" I said, "Yes." And that is the reason I
34:30 accepted Christ. Or is it the reason because the people prayed and and you eventually heal. I like yes that's
34:36 that's that's the reason because at one point of time in my life I I sat down I I looked back
34:44 and I realized wow these cannot be coincidences.
34:51 It cannot be a coincidence. These are all incidences of God happening in my
34:56 life. You see, these were all different people who didn't come together and have a
35:02 grand meeting. Let's save Masimo. No, these were all people who, in spite
35:07 of the situation, in spite of the politics, in spite of the troubles, in spite of me calling them at 4:00 a.m.,
35:13 picked up the phone and ministered to me, in spite of the fact that nobody was going to church with it, still prayed
35:18 for for me in spite of the situation, in spite of of of all the things around the world.
35:25 still kept faithful to God and ministered and did their ministry.
35:30 You see, when when a church when different people come together and serve God and understand he's sovereign and do
35:36 their work, the overflow of a church of a body coming together is people like me getting saved,
35:44 people like you getting saved. It's the overflow. See, we we always
35:50 wait for direct results. It's indirect results. And and is it not that every person sitting next to you right now,
35:57 everybody who is in the Lord is a testimony of the eternity to come.
36:05 We are tangible hope because we are the people who will spend eternity together.
36:12 We are the beginning of the kingdom of God right now, right here.
36:18 It's people. Our purpose must be to gather more people into the kingdom.
36:23 That is tangible hope. Everyone here is here because somebody
36:29 invited them to church. because somebody invited them to Alpha
36:34 because somebody was brought up by Christian parents and did their work and ministry in such a place who because
36:41 somebody shared the gospel with them because somebody prayed for them. That's
36:47 why we are here. Let's be that church.
36:55 Let's have that hope when the body comes together. The
37:01 overflow of the work of the body is people coming to faith.
37:07 And I know it's it's not easy because we will be persecuted.
37:14 Adversity will come against us. People will ridicule us. People say
37:19 we're crazy. People will not understand.
37:24 Persecution will come. Trouble will come. Forces are at work against us.
37:30 But as I asked the worship team to come up, let me let me read you what the son
37:36 of man said, what Jesus Christ said when he gave his sermon, his most famous
37:43 sermon. This
37:50 is the son of man speaking to his people. And he said this,
37:56 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
38:03 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall
38:09 inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be
38:16 satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
38:23 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
38:28 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are
38:33 those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
38:40 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of
38:46 evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is
38:52 great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were who were before
38:58 you. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall it
39:05 saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except
39:10 to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world.
39:18 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
39:24 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house.
39:32 In the same way, let your light shine before others
39:39 so they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
39:48 Will you rise with me as I pray for this blessedness for our church?
39:57 Father Lord, we we are perplexed when we see these beastly kingdoms,
40:06 when we see the turmoil of the world that we live in, where everything seems to be going against your design.
40:14 But we trust that your sovereign hand is at play. We know that you work all
40:21 things for good for those who love you.
40:26 So, Father, as we as we meditate on your sovereignty, give us the strength and give us the
40:32 spirit to gather your people into the kingdom.
40:39 For we have hope. We know as certainty that you will come again
40:45 and your kingdom will reign forever. Let us be the salt and the light.
40:53 Lord, let us have this blessedness. And I pray this in the name of Jesus.
