The Whole Story of the Whole Bible (Daniel 7)

We're in the book of Daniel preaching through this throughout this fall, and we're going to be in Daniel chapter seven today. And again, these are really long passages. So instead of making you do all the reading, we normally read out loud together. I'm going to read this. I'm going to invite you to follow along in your bulletin, or you can read along silently as the words are up on the screen from Daniel seven. We're going to read the whole chapter.

In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream with visions in his mind as he was lying in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and here is the summary of his account. Daniel said, In my vision at night, I was watching, and suddenly the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea. Four huge beasts came from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, but had eagle's wings. I continued watching until its wings were torn off. It was lifted from the ground, set on its feet like a man, and given a human mind. Suddenly another beast appeared, a second one that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, 'Get up, gorge yourself on flesh.' After this, while I was watching, suddenly another beast appeared. It was like a leopard with four wings of the bird on its back. It had four heads and was given dominion. After this, while I was watching in the night vision, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, frightening and dreadful and incredibly strong with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, it trampled with its feet whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had 10 horns. While I was considering the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. And suddenly in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a human and a mouth that was speaking arrogantly. As I kept watching, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white like snow and his hair on his head was white as wool. His throne was flaming fire. Its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire was flowing coming out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. A court was convened, and the books were opened. I watched then because of the sound of arrogant words the horn was speaking. As I continued watching, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was removed, but an extension of life was granted to them for a certain period of time. I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. As for me, Daniel, my spirit was deeply distressed within me, and the visions in my mind terrified me. I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him to clarify all this. So he let me know the interpretation of these things. These huge beasts, four in number, are four kings who will rise from the earth, but the holy ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever, yes, forever and ever. Then I wanted to be clear about the fourth beast, the one different from all the others, extremely terrifying, with iron teeth and bronze claws devouring, crushing, and trampling with its feet whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the 10 horns on its head, about the other horn that came up before which the other three fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke arrogantly and that looked bigger than the others. As I was watching, this horn waged war against the Holy Ones and was prevailing over them until the Ancient of Days arrived, and the judgment was given in favor of the Holy Ones of the Most High. For the time had come, and the Holy Ones took possession of the kingdom. This is what he said. This fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it. The 10 horns are 10 kings who will rise up from this kingdom. Another king different from the previous ones will rise up after them and subdue three kings. He will speak words against the Most High and oppress the holy ones of the Most High. He will intend to change religious festivals and laws, and the holy ones will be handed over to him for time, times, and half a time. But the court will convene, and his dominion will be taken away to be completely destroyed forever. The kingdom, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given over to the people, the holy ones of the Most High. — Daniel 7

His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey Him. This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts terrified me greatly, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself. — Daniel 7

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You know, it's kind of self-explanatory this morning. So we're just going to go to communion. I am super excited to preach this passage. I love weird parts of the Bible, to be really honest. And this is one I've been looking forward to for quite a while. This is really the most important passage in the book of Daniel, and it's most important for a couple reasons.

First is it's the literary center of the book, which means that it's the halfway point. We're reading a Hebrew text, and this book is filled with Hebrew and Aramaic writing, but the way that Hebrew people wrote is they used the structure of the book to tell you the most important part of the book. So picture a butterfly. The two wings are important, but the part that really matters is the bug in the middle. And this passage is the bug in the middle. This is the most important part of the book.

The second reason that this passage is so important to us is that our Savior Jesus quoted from Daniel 7 all the time, more than any other part of this book. And in fact, his favorite self-designation, the way he identified who he thought he was and what he was about, is right here in this passage. There are lots of titles for Jesus in the Bible. You probably know some of these: Savior, Lord, Anointed One, Emmanuel, Messiah, son of David, king. But this one, right here, this one—son of man—when Jesus looked in the mirror and described who he was and what he was about, he used this one eighty-one times in the Gospels. Four times it's described him in the other writings in the New Testament. But this was his favorite. Don't you want to know why that is?

And finally, this chapter is so important that I'm titling the sermon "The Whole Story of the Whole Bible." This one's kind of a flyover. It's a flyover of what God's up to and what God's up to in your life and what God is up to in geopolitics and what God is up to in the history of the world. I couldn't pump up the volume this morning any higher for this.

Understanding Apocalyptic Literature

So if you've been here so far, let me give you a context of what we're doing. Before I want to launch in, I want to remind you that what we're about to read is a little bit more like an acid trip than a story. Up until this point in Daniel, everything reads like a story. Chapters one through six have main characters and they tell you where it's going. Things unfold and there's a plot. But suddenly you hit chapter seven, you push the clutch in and we're going full bore apocalyptic. And apocalyptic literature in the Hebrew Bible is kind of acid trippy. Nothing is exactly what it seems.

So two rules about reading apocalyptic literature. One is it's crazy symbolic and it's stylized, which means that nothing in this is literal. It's all symbolic. That's the way apocalyptic literature is written. If you've ever read the Book of Revelation, you're like, what in the world? Right? It's different.

Second, the best people in this room to understand apocalyptic literature are kids. Because most adults, we have turned off most of our imagination muscles. We're not so good at it anymore. But if you gave this scene to the classes down the hall, you'd get some great pictures out of this, and they would be right. Because the way you read apocalyptic is not like you read Google Maps. It's like you read an impressionistic painting. It's meant to be glanced at and meditated on, not studied and picked apart.

So let's jump in to the apocalyptic acid trip, which is Daniel 7. We're going to look at this, if you take notes, under just the four headings of the whole history of the Bible: creation, fall, redemption, restoration.

So here's the background. Before in this book, the king Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar are the ones having the dreams and the visions. Now it's Daniel. And Daniel is telling us this in first person. He has this vision where he looks down and he looks up.

When he looks down, it's like he's looking down on the planet, and he sees these four hideous beasts that are violent and are waging war. And it tells us he's terrified by what he sees. He turns pale. But he also looks up. And when he looks up, he looks up into the very throne room of God, and there is one that he describes as the ancient of days. This is a description for God Almighty on His throne. It's like seen out of the Book of Revelation, almost the same language. He looks up into heaven, and there is God on His throne, white hair, white beard.

If you ever wondered where Gary Larson from the Far Side got his depictions of what God looks like, right here in Daniel 7: the Ancient of Days. Picture of God with white hair and a white beard—a lot more fire in this one than in Gary Larson. But here's what I want you to see. He's looking up into the throne room of God, and he sees God on this throne. It's like a mobile throne with wheels on it, with flames on it—like a hot rod. And around Him, all these other thrones are placed, and then in front of Him is this great host of people who are serving and worshiping Him.

Now, what's fascinating about this is that there are thrones there—God on His throne, and all these thrones in this image, in this vision—but they're empty. The thrones are placed, but the crowd is out here. And I want you to think about a throne. A throne is not just a gilded seat. A throne is a place of power. It's a place to be sat on and used. It's a place where rule happens—not just a place of honor, but a place of rule and authority. Here, the assembly is standing in front of God on His throne and all these empty thrones.

The Design of Humanity

Now, this passage has all kinds of hyperlinks back to the very beginning of the Bible, to Genesis chapters one and two. And it helps us understand that we can read these together like a hyperlink on websites that takes you somewhere else to inform what you're reading. So here's the first hyperlink: the empty thrones. In the first chapter of the Bible, in Genesis 1, God creates human beings as the very crown of creation, the very pinnacle of creation. And the language of Genesis 1 that God is using about Himself is royal language, and He uses that about His people. So God creates, and after six days, God rests. The picture there is a sovereign king who has finished waging all his battles and done all his work, and he now rests from his work. Kings do this. It's royal language. God has established His Kingdom. And not only that, but God has designated His human beings that He made—the man and the woman made in His image—to be the very crown of creation in order that they might rule with Him. That language of dominion is all wrapped up in what humans are designed to be. That language of ruling.

You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under their feet. — Psalm 8

When God made humans in His image, He gave them dominion. That's a Genesis 1 term. And then He turns in Genesis 2 and says to Adam, "Name the animals." Again, an expression of royal authority—this is what a king does. A king names subjects, gives titles. This is what God intended you and me to be. We're made to rule with God. When God designed humans, He wasn't making a Roomba—an electronic robot vacuum cleaner, right? He's not making slaves.

This is what separates this book from every other piece of ancient Near Eastern literature. If you go read all the other Samaritan, Mesopotamian, Ugaritic creation myths, all of them have the gods making people as their servants and slaves. And this is what's bizarre and wild and amazing about the Bible. The Bible pictures for us a God who makes people in His image not as His slaves, but to be His vice regents. Vice—like vice president. Regent—like ruler. He made and designed humans to rule alongside of Him.

This is why all of us have this sense—every one of you—and this is God-given: "I was made for greatness." And that's not boastful. You were made for glory. You were designed with that deep in you. God made us to rule with Him. And this also tells us why it is that humans love stories about Cinderella, the rags-to-riches stories. Why do we love stories about a wandering ranger who turns out to be the king? Why do we love stories about four children who stumble into this other world where they're eventually crowned? There's something in us that knows this—we're made to rule with Him.

The Fall and Its Consequences

Of course, this arrangement doesn't last. The story of the first chapters of the Bible tells us: God told His crown of creation, His co-regents, "Any tree but that one; all the rest of this is yours," and they take from it. And this introduces the fall. And yet—can I just push this with you?—and yet, God is not done with this purpose in history. This purpose of looking for a partner, looking for someone to rule alongside of Him, looking for somebody to fill up the empty thrones.

The fall didn't just affect human ability or human suitability to take those thrones. It actually affected everything with regard to the order of creation, how everything stacks up, the hierarchy of how things are supposed to go. So if you notice this passage, when Daniel looks down, he sees four what? Beasts.

He looks down and sees four beasts, and yet they're ruling. The beasts are vicious, but they're in charge. He looks down. He looks up and sees God in control. He looks down and sees the beasts are ruining. This is what happens as a result of fall. The beasts are in charge. Humanly beasts, beastly humans.

So Daniel seven gives us these pictures of these four really creepy beasts. And they're supposed to be creepy. They're all sort of disfigured, distorted, right? You get the lion with two wings, the bear with bones in his mouth who slumps to the side, a leopard with four wings, a beast with 10 horns. They're meant to be distorted, creepy. And this is going back a long time. But Toy Story one, the original Toy Story movie, Andy's neighbor, Sid, has all these toys, but they're distorted toys. So there's this one called Baby Face. Remember this one? This is a doll's head on an erector set spider. It's super creepy. It's the stuff of my nightmares. And like that, these beasts are meant to be distortions because what's happening, you have beastly humans and humanly beasts. All the beasts are representative of earthly kingdoms.

Now we saw this back chapters ago in Daniel chapter two. So we're going to put up this slide. This is just a review here, but it's the same pattern. In Daniel two, God is telling Nebuchadnezzar, "Here are the major kingdoms coming for the next five hundred years. This is what's coming down the pike." You, Nebuchadnezzar—He gives them this picture of this statue. You're the head of gold. Babylon. After that, will come the next part of the statue: the shoulders of silver. That's the Medio Persian Empire, and that lasted about another two hundred years. It was defeated by Alexander the Great, who's from Greece. And again, that's now the torso of bronze. And then Rome defeats, at the Battle of Carthage, defeats Greece. And that's the legs of iron and has feet of clay. This picture is given to Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, what's funny about this, this is the story of what comes in human history for these five kingdoms to come. And this is repeated here in chapter seven. We're going to see this in two weeks. This is repeated again in chapter 11. Now, there's been a lot of writing about these things. What do all these beasts represent? And always, if you're reading the Bible, the most basic answer, the most simple explanation is usually the right one. So these are not all about forces today. These are about these empires, and they're outlined over and over in this book.

You can actually go and do some study on this. Babylon is modern day Iraq. Medio Persia is modern day Iran. Of course, Greek is the Greek Empire. Rome is the Roman Empire. And this is all the stuff that's in our museums, all the artifacts from these empires.

But what's the big story? The big story that God's telling him is, "This is what looks like it's happening. Looks like the beasts are ruling the world, but God is still on His throne. It looks like the beasts are in charge, but God is still on the throne."

The Pattern of Inversion Throughout Scripture

Remember, this is what started out in the book first part. Genesis one, two, and three. What happens in Genesis chapter three? This beast, a serpent comes in, speaking and talking and kind of looking like a person, and tempts the man and the woman. They take the fruit, and everything is inverted. And this is the pattern throughout Scripture that people begin to act beastly. We begin to act like beasts and animals.

In the story of Cain and Abel, God warns them like, "Hey, sin is crouching at your door like an animal waiting to pounce on you."

In Psalm 73, Asaph says:

Surely in my sin, I was like a brute beast before you. — Psalm 73

In the Book of Job, there's a passage that sounds like straight out of Planet of the Apes, where Job is talking about, "This is what it's like to be human sometimes. We live out of our beast nature."

This is what I'm like. And so this is Daniel seven. The full inversion here is the beasts are ruling.

Now, this is true if you read current geopolitical events. If you look at what's happening right now, the beasts are ruling the world. So it's not hard to look at what's happening in Ukraine with all the war with Russia. You're like, wow, it seems like baser forces are at work in the world. We could see this in Gaza. Hamas attacking Israel unprovoked. Seems like there's a lot of violence and bloodshed. Israel's counter response has been, in my opinion, over the top in some ways. Lack of concern for civilian life. It's hard to watch this. And it looks like the beasts are in control.

And yet if we're honest—and we've got to be really honest if we're going to look out there at the beastly behavior in the world—we also have to be willing to look in the mirror because there is also the problem of beastly behavior in us. Now, we don't like to talk about this, and we sure don't like to let other people see this.

But in our more honest moments, we know when we look in the mirror that there are elements of the beast in our nature all the time. We act like animals. We live out of our baser desires. We act like we're cornered and trapped. And what happens? The claws and teeth come out in us.

Doctor John Cox, we brought him in. He was talking this fall about relationships. And he says, one of the problems with us is that we do our emotions rather than processing our emotions. We just do them. Neuroscience will tell you that when people get triggered and get upset, we act out of our brain stem, which people call the animal brain or your reptile brain. This is what comes out of us. This is the great inversion, and it's not just out there. It's in here too.

So here's a little dare for you this morning. Talk to somebody who knows you well. If you dare—roommate, spouse, your kids, that's a really hard one, good friend—where are you seeing beastly behavior come out of me? Where do you see me acting out of these cornered animal baser instincts? Where are you seeing this in my life? It's hard to look in the mirror. This is one of the reasons we're part of a church community: having other relationships allows other people to hold up the mirror so that you know it's not just out there, it's in here.

But don't despair. And this is the good news of this passage this morning: do not despair. Do not despair of what's going on in the world. Don't despair over what's happening geopolitically. Don't despair of what's happening in American politics. There's a lot to be discouraged about, am I right? Do not despair. Do not despair as you look in the mirror and you get in touch with the beastly nature inside of you. Why? Because there's a Son of Man. And this is the stuff that I'm so excited to talk about with you this morning.

The Son of Man

I saw in the night visions, and 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, and His kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. — Daniel 7:13-14

What's he talking about? Daniel is not just talking about a son of man like a human, but a particular person—the Son of Man. It's a title. It's a technical term. It's like when we call Batman the caped crusader or the dark knight. We all know he's not just one of a bunch of dark knights or one of a bunch of caped crusaders. He's the one. He's the Batman. He's the dark knight.

And the Son of Man looked for in this passage is a human being who will be every bit human and yet will be what every person, every human being since Adam failed to be—will not live out of the beastly nature. He will rise up and ascend into that royal courtroom and take one of those thrones, and himself will become a bridge for others to come in as well.

God has been working throughout history to bring this Son of Man to the throne and to fix what was broken in Eden and to fix what's broken in us. And at several points in the Bible, there are these prototypes. The Book of Daniel is really cool for this. It's like a preview, a prototype of the coming Son of Man.

So here are three things the Son of Man is going to do. He's going to restore humanity's proper relationship with the animals. What do I mean by that? There are several prototypes of this in the Bible. Can you think of a person, actually a group of people, who were on a boat with a lot of animals that did not eat them? Noah. Right. Noah. It's one of the pictures of these humans living in right relationship with the animals. In the Book of Daniel, you've got Daniel thrown into the lion's den, and the lions don't consume him. And then there are passages we read around Christmas from Isaiah chapter 11:

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion, the fattened calf together. A little child shall lead them. A cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like an ox. A nursing child shall play over the hole of a cobra. The weaned child shall put his hand in the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be covered full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. — Isaiah 11

What the Son of Man is going to do: He's going to make everything right in the right order again.

The second thing: the Son of Man will restore humanity's relationship with God by becoming a perfect human being, doing all the things that we were supposed to do, not living like a beast.

Let me retell this whole story in light of Genesis. Daniel and his friends—these four young men—were taken into exile into Babylon. But listen to the language of the first chapter. They were men, young youths, without blemish, of good appearance, and skillful in all wisdom. That's the exact same language in Genesis chapter three where the woman looks at the fruit and said it was without blemish, of good appearance, and desirable for making one wise.

Nebuchadnezzar is the anti—he's another beast. He takes Daniel and these young men and destroys them, consumes them. But Daniel doesn't. In Daniel chapter one, he goes in, he's at the king's table, but he refuses to eat the king's food. He refuses to take what's not rightfully his, what the Lord hasn't provided for him. And therefore, for us, he's like a prototype. It's like a preview of what's going to come. This coming Son of Man is going to be like Daniel in this way. Now, it doesn't mean Daniel is sinless. He's just a prototype of what's to come. He acts like a human in a beastly world.

And finally, the Son of Man, when He comes, is going to restore humans to their role as God's vice regents so they can fill the thrones. This is a human who ascends to the heavenly court. It says:

This one will be given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages will serve Him. This dominion is an everlasting dominion. It won't pass away.

This is why Jesus picked this title. This is why He chose this. When He looked in the mirror, this is what He saw. Jesus self-identified as the Son of Man. When He used this title 81 times in the Gospels, He used it concerning Himself. The religious leaders of His day went bonkers. They knew exactly what He was claiming to be. "Wait, you think you're the Son of Man who's going to restore our relationship with the animals and God and make us suitable to rule with God? Who do you think you are?"

They weren't thinking, "Oh, you're claiming to be only human." That phrase could sound like Jesus saying, "I'm just a human like you. I make mistakes." No. They wanted to kill Him when He said this. They said, "That's blasphemy. He's saying, 'I'm the human who will be the bridge. I'm the human who will restore you and everything. I will make things right.'"

Is Jesus the Fulfillment?

Let's ask the question. Is Jesus the fulfillment? Let's check the boxes.

Is Jesus the one who restores our relationship with the animals? There's a little throwaway line in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is cast out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and what happens while He's out there? It says:

He was being tempted by Satan, and He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

He's with the wild animals. So is Jesus a new and better Noah? Is he a new and better Daniel in the lion's den restoring our relationships with the animals? Check.

Second, Paul calls Jesus the second Adam in 1 Corinthians 15. Remember, the word Adam in Hebrew just means human, person, man in Hebrew. So Adam was the first Adam. Jesus is the second Adam. Adam is the first man. Jesus is the second one. 1 Corinthians 15, he says this:

In Adam, the first one, all die, but also in Christ shall all be made alive. The first Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. For by death came through one man, so life has come through the resurrection of the dead.

So Jesus, is He the new and better Adam who's going to restore our relationship with God? Check.

And finally, Jesus, will He restore us as vice regents? Yes. We will sit on those thrones. Those thrones of Daniel 7 will be filled in that divine courtroom. There's a little song that the early Church used to sing. This is quoted in 2 Timothy 2:

This saying is trustworthy. If we died with Him, that is, if our sinful nature has been nailed to the cross with Him, we will live with Him. That's eternal life. If we endure, we will reign with Him.

This is what God's up to in the world and in your life. And if you look in the mirror most mornings and you're disappointed by what you see, and you feel like a failure, and you despair—you're like, "I feel like I was made for glory, and really this is what I am?"—there's something about that that's just right on. And it's not just right on in line with our fairy tale stories, stories of four children stumbling into a kingdom and being crowned, and a ranger who's wandering, and Cinderella. It's right on in this book. This is the story of what God is up to in the world and in you.

And your longings for you to be made right and everything to be made right? Oh, God is not done with this story yet. Jesus is the Son of Man. Do not despair. I know that there are weeks when you struggle with sin, you struggle with assurance, you struggle with despair over American politics, you struggle with despair over geopolitics. And you go like, really? This all seems like chaos because you're looking down. You're looking down. The beasts are running the universe. You're looking in the mirror and you're like, Man, I see a lot of beasts. Look up. Look up. Look up.

What We Do While We Wait

Now, what do we do while we wait for the restoration of all things? I need you to know this. God needs you to know this. This is why this is in your Bible so that you will not despair. And we need to know that things are going to get worse before they get better. That's really clear in this passage. Things are going to get worse. There's going to be more beastly activity coming. You just wait. This is going to get dark. It's going to get darker before the dawn, and especially for Christians.

You know, there's writing here about this fourth kingdom, and it's clear. It's not just Rome. It seems like the spirit of Rome just continues patterning itself out through history. That's intentional. This last beast with the 10 horns is Rome, but there's talk about all these kingdoms that are supposed to come. But this is what it says: there's gonna be a great power in the world that will make war against the saints of the most high, against God's people, against you, against the church, and it's gonna get worse. This beastly kingdom will last for times, times, and half a time. That does not appear on my watch. It's clear over and over in scripture. We don't know what that means, but God does. He has set a time. He's got a timer set. It's not random and abstract.

Two Equal and Opposing Dangers

So look, there are two equal and opposing dangers when it comes to talking about end time stuff. There's one: obsessing over the end times. There are certainly groups of people who obsess over the end times. I mean, you can get on the Internets and study on the Googles all the Daniel seven stuff, and it's an acid trip of its own. Some of you grew up in churches with charts and flow charts and charts about charts. That's a danger of living just completely in panic mode about that.

But the other opposite problem is ignoring it. It's forgetting this, not even thinking about this. The problem of our congregation is not the obsession, it's the ignoring. Our tendency is to live as if Jesus will never return, and to get carried along up and down every wave of geopolitics and American politics, or to live as if everything you have right now is just going to go on like it is for forever. We expect our next generation, everything will be better for them than for us. We're all trying to live in Barbie Land or in the Disneyland of the universe. We sort of live that way. Things are going to get better and better. And that's not theologically true, and we need to be wise to this.

The end time stuff is not just for nerds, Bible nerds, or weird churches. It's for all of us. If you know a blizzard is coming, I know what happens in Raleigh. You know what happens in Raleigh when a blizzard is coming? We go buy up all the eggs and bread and milk, like we're going to be homebound for COVID. We know how to respond when that kind of news is coming. I want you to be awake today to the fact that there is a Son of Man and things are going to get bad, but don't just keep looking down. Look up. God is on the throne.

Three Things to Remember

So this morning, let me summarize this way. One, remember who you are. You are not just a beast. You are made for glory. If you are in Him, you will sit on a throne and reign with Him. And that's one of the things that we have that should lift our hearts. If you're disappointed with who you are, you're made for glory.

Second, remember who He is. He is the Son of Man. He is the Son of Man and He will finish the job that He started.

And finally, remember what time it is. Remember what time it is. There's a real kingdom coming, and this isn't it. Expect a fight.

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Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word. There's nothing like your word. And as hard as some parts are, we thank you that it gives us a true picture of who you are and how you're at work in this world. Lord, I pray for every person in this room, Lord, where they come up in here encouraged or discouraged, hoping or despairing, Lord, I pray you would lift up our eyes to Jesus, the Son of Man who will finish the job. Lord, help us to lock our eyes on Him and what He's up to. Help us not just to look down, but to look up. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Let's respond to God's Word together in song. Would you stand with me?