You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Wonderful, wonderful song.
Man, you get a song like that, new members joining the church and being baptized, just
makes you want to skip the sermon and go home, doesn't it?
It does make you want to do that, doesn't it?
Yeah, me too.
Turn with me though to Daniel chapter 2.
It is needful for us to hear from God's Word.
Last week we began to look at what it's like for God's people to live in Babylon, to be
engaged in a pluralistic culture in such a way that we maintain a singular devotion to
God as His distinctive people.
Last week we saw that it was absolutely essential to have a proper perspective on what's valuable,
to know that God is supremely and eternally valuable above all the treasures of the world.
Today in this next scene we'll see how important it is to have a proper perspective also on strength,
on strength and where it really comes from.
What happens here in chapter 2 is Daniel finds himself in another tense situation in relationship
to a powerful and ungodly king.
Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubles him.
He's bothered by it and he demands that the magicians and sorcerers of Babylon tell him not only what it means,
but tell him what the dream actually was.
And his wise men and magicians, some of them come to him and say,
King, we can't do that.
That's not how this works.
You tell us the dream and then we tell you what it means.
And Nebuchadnezzar says, if that's the way it is, all of you will be killed.
He commands the execution of all the wise men in Babylon,
which includes by this point Daniel and his friends.
So the captain of the king's guard comes to Daniel and he comes to execute him with his sword.
Daniel slows him down, calls a prayer meeting,
receives the dream and the interpretation from God,
praises God for that,
and then heads to tell the king what he has learned.
We will come back to look more closely at the parts of the story I just ran through really quickly there.
But all of that happens before we learn the dream and its meaning.
I'll read that part to you from God's word in Daniel 2, beginning in verse 31.
This is Daniel speaking to Nebuchadnezzar.
You saw, O king, and behold, a great image.
This image mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you and its appearance was frightening.
The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver,
its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand,
and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces.
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken in pieces
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors.
And 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.
This was the dream.
Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom,
the power, and the might, and the glory,
and into whose hand he has given wherever they dwell the children of man,
the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens,
making you rule over them all, you are the head of gold.
Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you,
and yet a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth.
And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron,
because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things.
And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.
And as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron,
it shall be a divided kingdom.
But some of the firmness of iron shall be in it,
just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay,
so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.
As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay,
so they will mix with one another in marriage,
but they will not hold together just as iron does not mix with clay.
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 all these kingdoms and bring them to an end,
and it shall stand forever.
Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand,
and that it broke in pieces the iron,
the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.
A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this.
The dream is certain,
and its interpretation sure.
Thus far God's holy word,
let's pray and ask for his help in understanding it.
Father, it is your word,
and we come as those unfamiliar with dreams and interpretations and prophecies,
but also as those very familiar with the challenges of living in a world
that doesn't share our beliefs,
and sometimes is hostile to our values,
and approaches things different from how you have directed us.
And so we ask for your help that you would teach us
what we need to know in order to live and to love and to serve
where you have placed us.
We believe you have placed us here and called us here.
We believe by your spirit you will give us what we need for that,
and so God, would you do that as we look to you.
It is your word we would wish to hear this morning.
Speak to us by your spirit.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
When I was growing up,
I would occasionally catch part of an episode
of the World's Strongest Man competition on ESPN.
It was one of those things that I sometimes slowed down on,
and one of the names I remember hearing and seeing
was the name Magnus Samuelson.
Magnus Samuelson is pictured here.
Quite a guy, isn't he?
I mean, he actually holds the record
for the most times participating
in the World's Strongest Man finals of this competition.
And of course, his name is Magnus, right?
Great, mighty, and he looks the part.
Magnus won the World's Strongest Man competition
one of those years in 1998.
Pretty impressive guy, don't you think?
Looks pretty strong, especially behind me.
He looks pretty sharp.
But even the year he won,
his strength had limits.
He didn't pull that truck forever.
He didn't hold that log up above his head forever.
However, his strength eventually gave out.
He faced his limits.
He ran out of strength.
In many ways, Nebuchadnezzar was the Magnus Samuelson
of his day, the world's strongest man.
He was the ruler over the glorious kingdom of Babylon,
an ever-expanding kingdom at the time,
full of human learning and accomplishment,
featuring the hanging gardens of Babylon,
one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, right?
An amazing kingdom.
And who's at the top?
Nebuchadnezzar.
He holds the lives of thousands and thousands of people
in his not-so-safe hands.
A very strong, very impressive guy.
But what God is telling Nebuchadnezzar in this dream
is that as impressive as his strength
and the strength of his kingdom is,
it is ultimately very limited.
Like all other human sources of strength,
his kingdom is a false source of strength
and that it won't last.
Daniel is clear in explaining the dream to the king
how outwardly impressive the kingdom of Babylon is.
He makes it very clear.
Look at verse 31 that we read earlier.
It says,
You saw, O king, a great image.
It's a mighty one with exceeding brightness.
It's frightening when you look at,
and the head is of fine gold.
And as you keep reading down to the interpretation,
which, by the way,
how nice is it to have the dream interpreted for you?
I mean, that saves us a lot of trouble
and a lot of speculation.
It's especially nice if you're the preacher.
So the dream comes,
and Nebuchadnezzar is told,
You are the head of gold.
The one that's described as great and mighty
and exceedingly bright.
It's sparkling.
It's dazzling, isn't it?
This statue.
And Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head.
Strong and impressive.
The gold on the statue is the strongest material,
the most glorious, dazzling part of the statue.
Nonetheless, despite these wonderful outward appearances,
it will be destroyed, right?
Isn't that what we read?
Not only will there be other kingdoms that take its place,
but do you remember verse 35, what happens to them?
All of those kingdoms,
the wind carries them away
so that not a trace of them could be found.
When the statue is shattered,
it doesn't just break up.
It disappears.
It's blown away.
There's no trace.
It comes to nothing.
Nebuchadnezzar, you and your kingdom are being put on notice
along with all the other man-made kingdoms of the world.
Your strength might look good,
but it won't last.
This story teaches the same reality in another way.
It's not only human kingdoms that are limited in their strength,
but also human strengths.
This chapter is not only about the meaning of the dream itself,
but we also have this life and death situation
before Daniel even gets to the interpretation of the dream, right?
The king wants to know his dream and what it means.
All the wise men in the nation are failing to be wise enough to do it.
Daniel, though, if you recall from last week,
is just finishing up as valedictorian of Babylon Prep.
He's the guy, right?
Dreams are his thing.
Dreams and visions, we've been told,
that's Daniel's strength, his expertise.
He graduated at the top of his class in those fields.
Certainly, he will know what to do
with Nebuchadnezzar's question, right?
Certainly, this impressive guy, valedictorian Daniel,
will craft a way out of this mess.
Listen to how Daniel responds when it comes to him.
Verse 17.
Daniel went to his house
and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
his companions,
and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven
concerning this mystery.
And then Daniel comes to Nebuchadnezzar later.
Verse 27.
Daniel answered the king and said,
no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers
can show to the king the mystery.
The king has asked,
but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries,
and he's made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be.
But as for me, the wisest guy you've got,
this mystery's revealed to me,
not because of any wisdom I have
more than anyone else alive,
but in order that the interpretation may be made known
to the king.
Here was one of Daniel's strengths,
but he knew he wasn't strong enough or wise enough
to handle it on his own.
We have such a warped sense of strength, don't we?
We are such capable people here in general at Southwood.
Very strong.
Most of the people in the world would look and say,
y'all are successful, capable, strong,
self-made men and women,
able to handle life and lots of things
that would come at you.
And here's the problem.
Every one of us has the natural tendency
to live in our own strength for our own kingdom.
We do.
Every one of us,
especially those of us who are capable and successful.
You want to tell me my strength is limited?
I'll train longer.
I'll work harder.
I'll plan better.
And I'll jump over the next hurdle.
Just wait and see.
Listen, Babylon is child's play.
Around here,
we're working on ruling solar systems, right?
We can handle it.
And in that strength,
we live for our own kingdoms.
It can be an actual nation focused on man's strength.
Or it can be a self-made family or company
or whatever else you think your strength can control.
The kingdom of will, for example,
to tell you what it looks like in my life,
that I'm often seeking to build in my strength,
consists of an always pleasant wife
with three always obedient kids
in an always moral country,
leading an always growing church
that is always delighted when sermons run over 40 minutes.
It's a fictional kingdom,
but it's nice to dream.
These are things I think I can control, right?
Things that I know I so naturally and consistently live for.
How do I know that?
It's because I see how I respond
when I don't get those things.
When those things don't go the way I desire.
The emotions of anger
or anxiety
or fear.
The responses of ratcheting down,
working harder,
this will happen,
or just yelling louder,
you will be that way.
Maybe that's happened in your kingdom before.
But sometimes we look around
and we think we've done a pretty decent job
building our kingdoms.
I'm just like Nebuchadnezzar
in this passage,
thinking I can build a strong and glorious kingdom
where I'll be safe and secure,
supported by my own remarkable strengths,
gifts, abilities, wisdom.
And God's putting me on notice this morning
as He does Nebuchadnezzar
that all the kingdoms of man
will be wiped away,
will come to nothing.
There may be days that I'm impressive to myself
how well I've built my little kingdom,
how in control of it I am,
how things seem to go my way.
And God says,
it's false.
You've been tricked.
It'll be gone in an instant.
It'll disappear.
You know, there's another tendency I have
besides living in my own strength
for my own kingdom.
And that's a tendency to despair
at the end of my own strength.
When my strength runs out to give up entirely,
it would seem reasonable for God's people
at this point in exile, wouldn't it?
They're far away from the promised land,
looking around,
and from all appearances,
God is absent.
Babylon is strong.
There's really no hope.
Put yourself in Daniel's shoes.
He made it through training, right?
I mean, that was nice.
He might not have been expected
to survive that long,
but now the captain of the king's guard
is at his door with a sword
and orders to execute him and his friends.
Certainly, it would be right to give up at this point.
Hope is lost.
At the very least, Daniel, give up on God.
He's obviously not coming through for you.
Following him is not paying off.
Go to your strengths.
You know this stuff.
Come up with a new plan.
Then, right?
At least try to figure your own way
out of this mess.
Where have you said to yourself
or to a friend,
I just can't do it anymore?
Maybe it's a piece of that kingdom
you've been seeking to build
that seems to have no hope.
I've tried everything I know to do
and this marriage is hopeless.
I'm done with it.
Or perhaps because that marriage
did fall apart,
that this family
or this life I have with God is over.
He's never come through
and I just can't wait for him anymore.
Maybe it's a crisis with a child.
I was such a godly parent
and I did everything I was supposed to do
and God never showed up
and did his part.
I give up.
Perhaps it's a professional crisis.
I tried to live for God
in the workplace
and now I'm fired
and I got a bad review.
There's nowhere for me to go.
If this is how God treats
his children who seek to honor him,
then I'm done.
Get me out.
Have you been in one of those low places
where the strength you've been living on
is just gone?
There's nothing left.
You don't even have the heart
to hope God could come through anymore.
That's how it feels sometimes, isn't it?
There doesn't seem to be any evidence
that he's there
and I'm tired of hoping he'll show up.
Here's where God wants to surprise
our very capable,
self-reliant hearts
with the true source of strength.
And I know that part of your being
very capable people
is that you already know
the true source of strength,
don't you?
You're so well educated.
You've been to church before.
You know the true source of strength.
I'm not confused about that.
I do know that we all like to live
in our own strength,
that I'm not the only one
who struggles in my own strength
to build my own kingdom.
So maybe we're missing something.
Perhaps one reason we're missing it
is that the true source of strength
appears at first unimpressive.
This right here is 91-year-old
Svend Steensgaard.
That's Svend.
Svend, just before this picture was taken,
walked about 10 steps across the room.
Not only does Svend Steensgaard
not sound quite like Magnus Samuelsson,
if you had seen Svend walking across the room
twice in 10 steps,
you would have leaned forward
to catch him from falling down.
It appeared he could hardly keep himself up.
Not particularly impressive at first.
But 91-year-old Svend Steensgaard,
while outwardly unimpressive,
is actually quite strong.
Svend, at 91 years old,
deadlifts about 300 pounds.
That's way beyond my limits.
Okay, just to clarify,
that's a lot.
Svend is a strong guy.
Outwardly unimpressive, perhaps,
but amazing strength
in a place you didn't expect to find it.
God shows us the source of true strength
again in this passage,
both in the events taking place
and in the dream itself.
First, notice the divine strength
that Daniel appeals to in his crisis.
Even the pagan magicians know
this situation is beyond human strength.
And in verse 11, they say,
King, the thing you're asking is difficult.
No one can show it to the king
except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh.
Daniel's not pretending to be wiser than they are.
He agrees.
Daniel goes, they come to him for an answer,
and he gets his friends and says,
Seek mercy from the God of heaven.
That's the only place that an answer could come from.
Here's what I mean by being unimpressive.
The armies of the nation of Babylon
are coming to kill you.
And Daniel's response is,
Hey, could we hold on a sec?
I need to have a prayer meeting.
There will be four of us in attendance
at the prayer meeting
before you decide to kill us.
That doesn't make a lot of sense, right?
Not real impressive.
Seriously, Daniel,
you're the valedictorian of the wise men.
Come up with a real plan, right?
What?
And Daniel says,
Oh, yes, that's right.
A real plan.
Huddle up.
Here's the plan.
Seek mercy from the God of heaven.
Hmm.
To our warped sense of strength,
this makes no sense.
We chuckle.
And we're people who've sat in church,
and we know that praying
is supposed to be a good thing,
but seriously,
the captain of the king's guard
is at the door with a sword.
Well, after God comes through
and reveals the dream
and its meaning to Daniel,
Daniel prays again,
and here we get in his prayer
the heart of what this passage
teaches us about God.
This is a beautiful prayer.
Daniel says,
Blessed be the name of God
forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
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.
He reveals deep and hidden things.
He knows what is in the darkness
and the light dwells with him.
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've made known to us
the king's matter.
Be so encouraged by this,
by who God is.
The point of the prayer
is that God has true strength
and wisdom.
Notice all the particular ways
this can comfort us
as Daniel gets specific.
It is God who removes
and sets up kings.
He's in charge of the nations, right?
Including ours.
He makes those who trust him wise.
He will direct you
in difficult situations
when you look to him.
He even knows
what is in the darkness.
The things you can't understand
and don't know
that are going on.
When life makes no sense to you,
he gets that too.
He's in control of it.
But it's not just that God's strength
is the one we should trust
instead of human strengths.
It's also true that only a divine kingdom
will stand forever.
Back to the king's dream.
In the midst of these impressive metals
that are making up this statue,
enter a rock.
A stone cut out by no human hand
that strikes the statue
and breaks the whole thing into pieces.
End of verse 35.
But the stone that struck the image
became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.
And in the days of those kings,
the ones who've built their human kingdoms,
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that shall never be destroyed.
Nor shall the kingdom be left
to another people.
It'll break into pieces
all these kingdoms
and it will stand forever
just like that stone cut
from the mountain
by no human hand
grew and stood forever.
A small piece of rock
whose origin is what really mattered.
That it was not man-made,
but divine.
Not from a human hand.
The kingdom that destroys the others
will not be passed
to another group of people.
It will be divine
and will last.
And the little stone
will become a great mountain
and the mountain will expand
to fill the entire earth.
Of the increase of His government
and of peace,
there will be no end.
Unlimited strength.
Incredible might.
An unending kingdom.
The stone, of course,
is Jesus
who after the Babylonian Empire,
the head of gold,
the Medo-Persian Empire
that comes next,
the Greek Empire
under Alexander the Great,
and then in the midst
of the Roman Empire
where the iron and clay
down at the legs and feet,
in the midst of that Roman Empire,
Jesus shows up
in an unimpressive manner,
doesn't He?
Outwardly,
very unimpressive,
little beauty or majesty
that would attract us to Him,
Isaiah tells us.
With a ragtag group of fishermen
and other Jews
in the midst of the mighty Roman Empire
and in the midst of apparent weakness,
He displays immeasurable strength
that changed the world forever.
In Luke 20,
Jesus refers to Himself
as that stone
that crushes those
on whom it falls.
The unimpressive stone
that hits the clay feet
of the impressive statue
and causes human kingdoms
to crumble.
In a passage discussing
the cross of Jesus,
Paul explains,
1 Corinthians 1,
the surprising strength
of God.
That Jesus,
the one seemingly weak
and hung on a cross,
is actually the power of God
and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1,
25,
the foolishness of God
is wiser than human wisdom
and the weakness of God
is stronger than human strength.
Jesus,
in many ways,
the weakness of God,
the cross is foolishness.
Jesus,
Jesus first is stronger
than man's strength
in crushing human kingdoms
and then becomes a mountain
that in its magnificence
and might
fills the entire earth
with His kingdom
that never ends.
So what?
So what for us?
Listen,
so we too find
our true strength
in our own weakness.
as Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 12,
admitting our own weakness
turns us to Christ's strength.
The power of God
rests on me
so that when I am weak,
then I am strong.
That's just the way
our Heavenly Father is.
He loves to be strong
for His people.
So not only is He
immeasurably strong,
which is nice to know
theoretically,
but God's unlimited strength
is especially
for weak people like me.
Kids,
you can write that down
in your bulletin.
It's not just kids
that Jesus loves me
is for,
that we are weak
but He is strong.
That's for all of us
who know ourselves
as little,
who are weak
so that He
is strong.
That's the point
of the gospel,
isn't it?
None of us
very capable adults
is any more capable
of working our way
to God,
of standing for God
before pagan rulers,
of having faith
when faced
with persecution.
See,
it's vital
that we admit
our weakness
in the hardest times.
At the times
it seems most dangerous
to acknowledge weakness.
When we're tempted
as Daniel
must have been
to think
the solution here
is to assert
our strength,
then especially
we must cry
to God
for mercy.
When Daniel
opts to admit
his need
and cry for mercy,
God answers
and it gives Daniel
the opportunity
to point others
to God's strength
as he does
in verse 30
with Nebuchadnezzar.
Because he's willing
to admit
that he's not stronger
or wiser
than any other man,
he's able to say
there's a God
in heaven
who is
and he gets
to testify
to the world's
strongest man
that there's
someone stronger
than he is.
Y'all,
when we pretend
that we are
the strong ones,
our friends
and neighbors
are offered
the hope
merely of being
more like us.
When we admit
we are weak,
our friends
and neighbors
are offered
the comfort
of us being
like them
and the hope
of one strong
enough
for all of us.
Isn't that so much better?
Isn't that
what we've been called
to point people
to one strong enough
for all of us
to depend on?
Here's the rub for us.
Do we actually
practically
believe this?
Really,
ask yourself.
I've told you
very little new
this morning
and you may
nod your head
today
but honestly
will you
bow your head
and cry out
to God
tomorrow
the next time
you're in a tight
spot?
We really struggle
here,
don't we?
I know I do.
This week
I really wanted
to preach
a good sermon
and I had a little
bit smaller
window of time
than usual
for a variety
of reasons
so I thought
to myself,
you know,
I kind of
have a general
idea of what
the sermon's about.
It's about our
weakness
and God's
strength
and the value
of prayer
so I know
exactly
how to get
this sermon
ready.
This is one
of the things
I do.
I do sermons.
I did what?
Cracked the study
Bible,
spread out the
commentaries,
dove in,
got to work
fast.
Right there
in the middle
of it I get
to Daniel
turning to God
in prayer
and I think
that's important
I should tell
people to do
that.
I'm going to
prepare skillfully
and efficiently
to tell everyone
to rely on God.
Stop depending
on their own
strength and
trust God.
That's what I'm
going to do.
That happened.
It's not just
a sermon
illustration.
I was reading
about Daniel
turning immediately
to prayer
but I sure
wasn't.
I more naturally
trust my own
human strengths.
I give lip
service to
prayer but
often my lips
don't actually
pray.
I decided
this week
that probably
if a pastor
forgets that
when it's
staring him
in the face
and he's
writing a sermon
about it
I suspect
life gets
going fast
and engineers
forget
when they're
hard pressed
at work.
I suspect
moms forget
when their
family seems
to be
falling apart.
I suspect
Christians forget
when their
friends are
hurting and
they're more
comfortable
offering human
solutions to
them than a
divine savior.
We're quicker
to give advice
than admit we
need to cry
out for help
and we know
the one who's
strong to save.
Haven't you
been there?
Don't you feel
that in your
own heart?
In a pluralistic
culture that
preaches
independence
you could
easily be
like every
other voice
around.
That's the
world we
live in.
You can do
it.
I'm going to
encourage you.
You're strong
enough.
God's people
should be
marked
distinctively
by our
dependence
and prayer.
Here's the
reality we
have to face
today.
We are
God's
children.
We have
a direct
line to
the one
who rules
over the
kingdoms
of the
world,
who removes
and sets
up kings
and we
don't pray.
We fret
and read
political
analysis
instead.
We talk
about
passionately
wanting God's
kingdom to
advance in the
world and
wanting to be a
part of that
ourselves,
but we're so
self-reliant
that we don't
pray.
We don't
pray to the
one who has
promised to
turn a small
stone into a
mountain that
fills the whole
earth.
We must
repent this
morning of our
warped sense
of strength,
that we would
turn to
ourselves before
turning to
God.
Where are you
longing this
morning to
see God's
kingdom come,
but it feels
hopeless or
unreasonable?
Get four
weak,
desperate people
pleading to a
strong God.
Cry out to
Him and watch
what He does.
Do you believe
that's who He is
or does that
still sound
silly?
Are you
willing this
morning to
lay hold of
Him and say,
I believe He's
like that,
that He delights
to show Himself
to be strong
for you
and to make
His kingdom
into that
massive mountain
that you can
stand firm
on.
May we hope
in no other
kingdom and no
other strength
than the one
that will fill
the earth
forever.
Let's pray.
Father, we
confess that
we like the
feeling a lot
more of
thinking we
can handle
it.
For a while
at least it
makes us feel
better.
We confess
we're quick to
give up on
You and to
think there's a
better shot
with our own
methods than
with crying
out to You.
We think we
could fix
something and
You probably
wouldn't care
to.
Father, give us
eyes to see
how strong
You are,
how magnificent
Your kingdom
is,
to know
the love
of a Father
that is strong
for us,
who delights
to care for
His children.
children,
and as we
see You
like that,
might we
indeed cry
out to You
more often.
Might our
hearts become
increasingly
dependent on
You.
Do that work
in our hearts,
not just for
our sakes,
not just so
we'll be better
people,
but so that
Your kingdom
will be made
great,
and many will
know of the
greatness of
Your name.
We ask it in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
For more
information,
visit us
online at
southwood.org.
For more
information,
visit us
online at
southwood.org.