It is packed in here. It is. But man, it's such a great, great, great problem to have. You know, last week we started a new ministry season here. That's kind of when school starts and gets rolling. And not only that, but we're coming out of what we can actually describe as the largest summer in Burn Hickory's history. Uh, when it comes to ministry, it has been incredible. And if you were here last week, actually last week was the largest non-Easter Sunday that we have ever had, ever had. And I think we just blew that out of the water today, um, by the way. Uh, which is so cool. So cool. In fact, I just wanna brag on God just for a minute, uh, because I think we need to do this. Over the last 12 months here at Burn Hickory, we have had 426 people join the church.
Um, over the last year, year. Now I know some of you are like, well, what does that even mean, Matt? That means that they weren't here and now they're here. That's what it means, all right? Uh, in just kind of layman's terms. Well, and I, and I get it. You're like, "Well, they probably just came from other churches." No, no, no. Uh, listen to this. 262 people have made public professions of faith and be baptized over the last year. Um, yeah, that's like a golf clap. I don't know. I'm a little more excited about it than you are. I get it. Um, but that's cool. We've had about 18 to 20% growth in all of the areas. We've managed to fill up every parking lot that we've built, uh, before we built it. And it has just been a really, really, really good season to which, let me say this about it.
Number one, if you're new here, thank you. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for charging on the key to the kingdom of God with us. We want you to be a part of the family and we want to serve this community with you. Uh, number two, man, keep inviting your friends. Keep inviting your friends. I know you're looking around like, "Hey, how are we gonna do that? Hey, the Lord will handle it." I don't know. I just preach, okay? But listen, we want to use you to be all of the little many ambassadors in this community to watch God move. And come on, let's just do this together. And I say this often, I really do think that as good as the past is here at this church, God is just getting started. He's just getting started. All right? Well, hey, not only did we start a new ministry year, last year, we also started a new, uh, last week, we also started a new series.
A new series last week to where we said we're walking through over these next couple of months, we're just going to be walking through the Book of Daniel, the Book of Daniel. And we named the series Thriving in Babylon because, and we showed this last week and we're gonna keep showing it. We said that not only are we seeing the ancient city of Babylon be lived in, in Daniel's time, but we said that the spirit of Babylon carries on into any culture that stands against God. And we said that if we can see how Daniel stood and how his friends stood and how they not just survived, but how they thrived in Babylon, then we can see how we can thrive as Jesus followers in a culture that doesn't follow Jesus. The similarities are striking, we said last week. We watched Daniel and the boys last week be taken from their homeland of Jerusalem, be taken all the way to Babylon and held in captivity.
They were put into the Babylonian Indoctrination University last week. They were isolated. They were given new names and new beliefs last week. They were physically altered last week and made eunuchs. I'll let you talk about that one at lunch. They were given this pressure to live up to new standards last week. And eventually, they showed us last week what it looks like to put a pole in the ground and say, "Hey, listen, I don't care where culture goes. I don't care where the masses go. I'm going to stand for God. And I'm going to stand for God because what the end of the book shows us, God actually wins every single time." And Daniel and the boys last week in chapter one said, "Listen, we're not here just to survive. We're here to thrive. And we're here to make a difference for the kingdom." In fact, today we're going to be in Daniel chapter two, but let me read you one verse out of Daniel chapter 12, where it shows us if we're living in him, if we're remaining in him, it shows us who will be.
Daniel chapter 12: three says this, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever. Last week we saw that. We saw them shine. We saw them stand. And we saw last week in Daniel 1:17 that God gave favor to these guys. In fact, Daniel chapter one verse 17 says to these four young men, God gave knowledge and an understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And to Daniel, he could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. Now listen, that's a little bit of a foreshadowing into Daniel chapter two, because in Daniel chapter two today, let me kind of give you the thesis, what we're gonna see today is the boys have finished their training program. They've walked into living in Babylon. And today in Daniel two, we're gonna see emphatically that God shows us that there is one true God.
There is one God that is in control. His eternal kingdom reigns. And here's the deal. And if we trust him, the rock of our salvation, then we will not only make a difference on this earth, but we will live in glory with him forever. That's Daniel chapter two. But let's get into the details for a minute because these boys, they knew that they were there to make a difference. You know, it's really easy when you live in a culture that, that doesn't stand for God to do a couple things. It's really easy. I mean, kind of first off, just to isolate and kind of say that we're gonna go stand in a different way. It's really easy just to live this separatist lifestyle. It's really easy just to judge other people and retreat, but it's also really easy just to give in. But listen, if we're gonna thrive in Babylon, that we gotta know that we're called to make a difference, to be a light in the Babylon we're living in.
And here's the thing in chapter two, even in times of crisis. Chapter two today, we're gonna see a crisis that turns into a conquering moment for God. So let's jump into the text today. I just wanna show you God's shine. And I wanna show you what our calling is. I wanna show you God's kingdom. And I wanna show you how we can be amazed at God's faithfulness every single time. All right? There's 49 chapters in, or 49 verses in chapter two. We're not gonna do them all. Thank goodness. We'll never make it to lunch. But we're gonna start in verse one and you'll see what this means. Here he goes. It says this. In the second year of his reign, just gonna walk through the text and pull some application. Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king, he summoned them magicians and the enchanters, the sorcerers and the astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed.
When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, "I have had a dream that troubles me. And I," he said, watch this, "And I wanna know what it means." Now, if this were a movie, I want you to get this in your mind, because in my mind, this is happening in the middle of the night. All right? King Nebuchadnezzar keeps getting woken up by this dream. He keeps kind of woken up and he's disturbed by this dream. And you gotta put yourself in the context of the king. The king is not used to not knowing. He's not used to having every bit of knowledge at his disposal. He's not used to not having every, anything answered for him. He had been grown up in the king's house to be the next king. And these dreams though were something he couldn't figure out.
Something he couldn't get to. So what does he do? He calls his top magicians and enchanters astrologers and sorcerers. And in verse four, it says this. Them, the astrologers answered the king. They're standing before him. They said, May the king live forever. 'Cause that's what you say when you don't wanna be killed by the king, right? They said, tell your servants the dream. And we will interpret it. So in other words, here's in a nutshell what these little guys did. All right? These little guys took their magic 8-ball out, right? Child of the 80s. Anybody remember this, right? They took their magic eight ball out and they said, will the king live forever? They're like, oh yeah, the king will live forever, right? Does, is the king gonna get a girlfriend soon, right? There it is, right? You remember that, right? Well, not exactly. That's not exactly what he did.
And, and listen, it's a toy. Don't be emailing me like that's sorcery in church, right? Here it is, okay? Here's the deal.
These people of Babylon, they had, they had studied dreams. For years and years, they had interviewed everybody they could find with dreams. And they had made this book looking at the dreams and how these people's lives lived out. They made this what you would kinda call a decoder ring for dreams. So that what they would want you to do is they'd want you to tell you the dream. They'd go back to their little magic books. They'd look up all the stuff. They'd come back to you and they would tell you what they thought your dreaming. In other words, if there's a, I don't know, if there's a bird in your dream, you will fly away and be successful, right? If there's a tall, handsome man in your dream, you'll be happy forever, right? If it's an utter darkness in your dream, uh-oh, get ready, right?
That's what they did for a living. And they were really good at what they did. They were really good. Kinda like the Madame Tusso up here on 41, right? They were really good at what they did in talking in such generalities, such nuances that you thought they knew what they were saying. Some of you are reminding me like, yeah, I paid $25 for that once in New York. No, right? But Old King Nebuchadnezzar was pretty shrewd. And you're gonna see this over and over every single week. He begins to catch on to what they're doing. And so in verse five through eight, in verse five throug eight, Old Nebuchadnezzar looks at him and goes, Hey, listen, here's the deal. Here's how this is gonna work. I'm not gonna tell you the dream. Some people think that he didn't know the dream. I think he did another dream.
He said, I'm not gonna tell you the dream. What's gonna happen here is you're gonna tell me the dream and you're gonna tell me what it means. No, uh-oh, calling him to the carpet, right? And if you do, he says, I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna give you all the riches. I'm gonna give you all of this stuff. I'm gonna reward you greatly. But then he says, Hey, or you're just a bunch of liars. And what I'll do is I'm going to knock your houses down into rubble. I'm gonna cut you into pieces. That's what old Nebuchadnezzar says. You gotta read it. It's in the next verses. To which all of these guys begin to panic. They've been called out. And you look at verse 10, watch what they say. The astrologers answer the king. And they said, there is no one on earth that can do what the king asks.
No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing for any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king. Oh, you might wanna underline this, except the gods. And they, they said, do not live among the humans. Now that's a good point. And I don't wanna run past this point. So let me mention this. Let me pause and just say this. Here it is. Let me pull something from this. Education is incredible. All right? It's great. Scholarship is amazing. Science is amazing. Historical learning and looking back is amazing. Institutions are important. Having all these people and knowledge around us on the earth is so important, but write this principle down just so you'll remember it. Earthly wisdom and knowledge falls short of godly wisdom and knowledge every single time. Every time.
Now, don't mishear me here. I'm not saying students quit school today and just be a godly person. That's not what I'm saying, okay? But what I am saying is this. What are you doing to seek the heart, the mind, and the wisdom of King Jesus? That's what I'm saying. Why? Because listen, earthly wisdom is awesome. But heavenly wisdom is what matters. It's what matters. Why? Because of what's happening in the story here, right? The men of the wise men court, they had brought in all together the smartest of the smart, the wisest of the wise, all history, all of the stuff. They've brought in all of the occult that they could bring into it. All of the sorcery they, they could bring into it. But here's what happens because it always happens. It failed them. It failed them, right? Why? Because it always leaves us hanging.
Earthly wisdom is awesome, but there's always a point to where it can only take you so far without God. Church, what we're seeing today is it's not the earthly wisdom that leads to life. Earthly wisdom was about to lead to death, right? It was the godly wisdom only from above that could bring life. Watch having the story. These guys, they couldn't do it, right? They couldn't do it. So watch the king. Verse 12. This made the king so angry, angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. That's a big deal, right? Every advisor, every smart person, the whole institution, he was about to burn the whole house of cards down. So a decree was issued, verse 13, to put the wise men to death. And the men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.
In other words, Daniel and the boys here, they had graduated from the program. They're probably some kind of little junior members of the Wise Men Club here, and they are also going to be killed. It's amazing what anger out of control can do. Amen? Something like, yeah, that's my story. It's what you're seeing. But listen, as Christ followers, what you're about to see is you're about to see in verse 14, Daniel is about to rise up to the scene. He's about to show us what happens. He's about to show us how to deal with life in any crisis moment. You say, well, man, why does that even matter how to deal with life in crisis moment? It matters because of this. Because at some point, believer, at some point, Jesus follower, you are going to be in the position Daniel is here. Now, it's probably not going to be this extreme, but there is going to be a point in your life where no one else knows what to say.
No one else knows where to go. No one else knows how to get through this. And as we as Christ followers, if we can tap in to the God of the universe, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, He can give us the wisdom and the knowledge to move forward to give Him glory. But how does it happen? Glad you asked. 'Cause Daniel's about to show us how we can make a difference in these moments. Look at it in chapter two, verse 14. It says this. Let's read it and pull a couple difference-making reflections. It says this in verse 14. It says when Iraq, the commander of the king's guard had gone out to put the death, the wisemen of Babylon, because that's what the king ordered, right? Daniel spoke to him with wisdom intact. And he asked the king's officer, why did the king issue such a harsh degree?
Iraq then explained the matter to Daniel. Verse 16. And what did Daniel do? It says this. At this, Daniel went to the king and asked him for time so that he might interpret the dream for him. Now, let me bring this into a little bit of a list that we might be able to live this week because this is showing us how to make a godly difference in a crisis. We just read two ways. The first one is this. If we're in a crisis moment and we wanna show godly wisdom and not just earthly wisdom, verse 14 shows us that we need to, number one, we need to speak with wise composure. It's what we're seeing in Daniel, right? The exact words is that he spoke, if you read the verse again, with wisdom and tact. I don't know about you, but in times of crisis, wisdom intact is not normally the free flow of information, is it?
Let me ask you something. Is your first default response to blow up, accuse or fight? Or is your first response in a crisis to bring godly wisdom to the table? You see, that's what Daniel did. He could've gone into the king. He could have gone in guns and blazing. He could have gone in yelling, but somebody has to be the adult in the room. Amen? And what does Daniel say? Daniel comes in with wisdom intact. Why? Because he knew the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He knew the one that can make a difference. He knew that his life from the moment he trusted the Lord till this day had prepared him to speak to the situation. So the head executioner comes in. His life is on the line, right? He's there. He's standing before the king and he brings wisdom intact. Do you know how you know if you're the one that brings wisdom intact to situations?
You know how you can tell instantaneously? Two people you can ask. You can ask your wife. You can ask your kids. And they'll tell you. You can ask them. Number one, Daniel stood with this wise composure, but number two, how do we make a difference in crisis? We also stand with radical courage. We stand with radical courage. Where do you see that in the text, Matt? It's implied in the text because he stands before the king. You just didn't pop in before the king. But somehow Daniel got an appointment with the king on the spot instantaneously. It's probably because of the earlier chapter where God had already blessed him and given him favor. It's already where the king had saw him as somebody that could stand. Daniel stands in front of the king. He stands up for the rights of all of these people. And then the king does what?
The king actually gives him some time. Now the king didn't give the other wise men time, but he gave it to Daniel. And in fact, in verse 17, it says this. Then Daniel returned to his house and he explained the manner to his friends, Hannaniah, Michiel and Azariah. Now look at it again, because we mentioned this last week, because Daniel didn't just go in by himself and hope to stand by himself the rest of his life. No, he stood with his radical courage because number three, if we're gonna make a difference in crisis, number three, he also leaned into his godly community. He leaned into these guys. To do what? To hold him up. He wasn't on his own. He wasn't by himself. Listen, no matter what your parents taught you, you need other people to help you walk with Jesus. From the oldest of the old to the youngest of the young.
You need people in your life. Daniel, in this moment, what did he do? He leans in to these guys that he had been doing life with. He leans in for them to get his back, to hold him up. We will always fail when we try to do it on our own. So we leaned into them. And what did they do together? Just walking through the text, verse 18. And then he, Daniel, urged them to plead for the mercy from God. What does that mean? Pray. Plead for the mercy from God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he arose or this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Are you seeing the process here? He steps in with his composure before the king. He speaks wisdom intact before the king. He has this radical courage about him.
I'm gonna stand in the name and the banner and the power of Jesus. He gets the word from him of what needs done. He leans in to his biblical community. He walks back to the biblical community. And what does he ask him to do? Number four, if we're gonna make a difference in crisis, then we've gotta cry out to God with this heartfelt prayer. With prayer. Listen, prayer is such an understudy and utilized tactic of God's power. Did you know that prayer is the conduit for God to move in our lives? It's prayer. Prayer is not part of ministry. It is the ministry. Prayer is that connection point where we stand before a holy God and we honestly just say, I need you. It's not the last line of defense. It's the first line of defense. We're gonna continue seeing this in Daniel's life. So what happens when they begin to pray?
Verse 19 says, during the night, the mystery was re - was revealed to Daniel in a vision. And then Daniel praised the God of heaven. If we wanna make a godly difference in people's lives, here's number five. We praise God specifically and we praise God personally. We praise him. Now listen, Daniel here is praising him after the dream came to him, but I'm gonna propose that we need to praise God before the storm. We need to praise God in the storm. And we need to praise God at the end of the storm when it's over because we know the God that's going to make the outcome his. We know the God that has designed everything to be designed. We need to praise God. And let's read the praise. Verse 19. Watch Daniel and the wisdom he brings to us that says this. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.
And he said, praise be the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and power are his. Oh Lord, watch these descriptors, verse 21. He changes the times and seasons. He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge and to the discerning. He reveals the deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in the darkness and the light that dwells in them. I thank and praise you God of my ancestors for you have given me wisdom and power. And you have made known to me what is asked of you and you have made known to us the dream of the king. Now let me boil it down because this paragraph is both, A, the scariest thing that you can read in the Old Testament because God knows your heart. He knows your dream and he knows your mind and still loves you.
But it's also one of the most super encouraging parts of the Old Testament because it shows right here that what? That God moves and God reigns and God is in us. And although man can't do it and science can't do it and education can't do it and the occult can't do it. Listen to me. God can do it. He can do it every time. Church, never forget this as a follower of Jesus. Not only are you grafted into the family of God, but God has offered you all of His power as the creator and the sustainer and Emmanuel that is with us. I put it in a principle in their notes for you. You can write it down. There is nothing that God does not know and that God cannot give us. Nothing. Nothing is hidden from Him. No matter how hard, no matter how hard we strive on earthly terms, we may never know the answer.
The God that created us, the God that saved us, and the God that sustains us knows. He knows. Man, I just love this because the best and the brightest of the world, they always fail. But the God of the universe always reigns. Let me ask you this before the next verses. Are you praying like this to the God of heaven? Are you lifting up praises like this to the one that can make a difference? Are you standing with courage? Are you using wisdom and tag? Are you gathering your community of believers around you to make a difference? Just let me show you what happens when we do. So Daniel is given the dream. He asked this executioner in the, in the, in the event here, Hey, let me see the king and I'll tell him his dream. I'll tell him what it means. And he does.
Watch what happens in verse 26 through 28. Oh, it gets good. Says the king asked Daniel, also called Belcher's arm. Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it? Daniel replied, no. Wise man and chanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about. You see what Daniel's doing? He's not taking any credit. He's not saying this is on him. He's not saying I can do it. Oh, but look at verse 28. Remember last week I said, but Daniel decided in his heart, that was the key verse. Watch this next verse, church. But there is a God in heaven. Man, you may wanna circle that. You may wanna underline that. You may wanna star that. For those of you who got seven, 17 colors, pencils, draw arrows to it. He's like, listen, there's no wise man that can do this.
But here it is. But there's a God in heaven who can. Watch this, watch this. There is a God in heaven, verse 28, who reveals mysteries. He has shown Nebuchadnezzar, what will happen in the days to come? And your dreams and visions that pass through your mind as you were lying in the bed are these. Write this principle down. Somebody needs to hear it this morning. There is a God in heaven that can. There's a God in heaven that can. Thought I'd get a little bit more out of that, but maybe not in this service. There is a God in heaven that can. Amen. He, and here's what that means. No, no, not now. Here's what that means. No. No. Not now. Here, here's what that means. There's a God in heaven that, that, that can what, Matt? To which I would answer that was yes.
He can. He can move mountains. He can raise the dead. He can give life. He can give eternity. He can heal the sick. He can heal the blind. He can heal anything. He can set you on a path. He can break down pride. He can give you life abundantly. And here's the thing in the whole story right here. I get it. You can't. And I can't. I can't make the relationship work, but he can. I can't make the way where a child come home, but he can. I can't get rid of the anxiety in my heart, but he can. I can't get rid of the addiction, but he can. And I love this point. And here's why. Because here's the deal. If we really believe that God could and God would, and whatever we ask in his name, then we will always make a difference in no matter what Babylon we're standing in.
That's the point. That's the point. The earthly wisdom can't do it, but we serve a God that can. But will we trust Him? Now listen, that's so powerful. And actually, that's probably where we should land the plane. All right? Probably. Actually, most churches was, but here's what I know, you're the gifted class. All right? You're the gifted class. So real quick, to drive this point home though, I wanna show you the dream. Because the dream blows this concept up and shows us that not only God can, but God will. So real quick, let me show you the dream, the meaning of the dream. Let me show you God's power, that God's in control, and that we can fully trust Him. Now, listen, if you need to go to the bathroom, this is not the time. Jus hold on. All right? Here it is. Okay? Here it is.
Verse 31. I'm gonna read you the dream. I'm gonna talk through the application and you're gonna have to read a bunch of verses when you get home. All right, ready? Here it is. This is Daniel. He's standing before the king. He's about to give him the dream. Here it is. He says, "Your majesty." Here's your dream. All right? Your majesty. You looked. And before you stood a large statue, an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance, and the head of the statue was made of pure gold. Its chest and arms was out of silver. Its belly and thighs were out of bronze. Its legs were out of iron and its feet were partially out of iron and partly out of baked clay. Now that'll change your life, amen. No, not unless you know what it means. It's the point, right? So let me stop for a minute and walk you through what you're seeing here, because when you see what it really is, it will change your life.
Let me walk you through it. I put a little image on the screen for you. First of all, he described this enormous statue and his head was made out of gold. His head was made out of gold. Now, in verse 38, actually, we see that this head made of gold is the representation of the empire of Babylon, of Nebuchadnezzar's empire that was forever terrain. Nobody would take it over. Nothing would do something. This empire would never be toppled because I, Nebechadnezzar are the beast of the beast. Amen? Well, it did topple actually in chapter five in a couple weeks from now. We'll see that this empire of gold, Babylon, because it was made out of gold. It had more gold than anywhere on the planet. Nebuchadnezzar had a gold throne room. All tons of buildings were made out of gold. It toppled to what we now call the Medo-Persian Empire.
The Medo-Persian Empire is the next section of the statue in Daniel chapter five, came in and they actually overtook Babylon. It's history. We see it in history. We see it in the book of Daniel. Now, this Medo-Persian Empire is represented by two arms. There's the Meades and then there's the Persians. They came together, united together, and began this force that toppled Babylon. Now, it's made out of what? You see it right here, right? It's made out of silver wine. Because silver was what they actually used to create an accounting system based on silver that much of which we still use today. God has shown them that they're gonna do this. So you've got the Babylonian Empire fall into the Mito-Persian Empire. As you start moving down the statue, it began to s - to show us next is the midsection that is now showing us this future empire that is going to capture and conquer the Mito-Persian Empire.
Now, I know you know this, but who is it? The Greeks. It was the Greeks. You're remembering your history at this point, right? And there was this little king that did a little bit of stuff named Alexander the Great, right? They came along and conquered not just this Medo-Persian empire, but conquered all of the empires. The Greek empire. It was the empire of all empires. They used so much bronze that became the bronze empire. Their helmets, their swords, their chariots, all of it. And what's God doing? God's showing King Nebuchadnezzar that your empire's gonna fall, the next empire's gonna fall. And now he's showing us that the ones coming in the future from Daniel's time is going to fall. Now, this is a superpower empire. Nobody could ever take over this empire until Alexander the Great died at 33 years old. And if you see, there's two thighs there representing that his, he had no heir and he gave his kingdom to two of his generals in history.
And then eventually though, this empire weakened and fell to the who? Good job. The Romans, right? The Romans. You know this. I'm just reminding you that. Why? Because the Roman Empire is the empire of all empires. It's what we're seeing in a dream. But the Roman Empire is depicted with iron. Why? Because the Roman Empire ruled with iron. They used iron in such a mighty way that no one could stand against them. Are you seeing the progression? Babylon thought they were something. The Mido-Persians thought they were something. Coming up, the Greeks are gonna think they're something. Then the Romans are gonna think they're something. But eventually, eventually, what we're gonna be able to see is that the feet of to - feet and toes, the 10 toes that we're seeing in the statue is the next stop in the dream. Eventually, what we're gonna see in the future is that none of those empires will ever rule.
There's another empire that's coming. There's another one. And I love this, because when we get to the feet and toes, there's three things I wanna show you. Number one, it hasn't happened yet. Number two, if you're a follower of Jesus, you don't have to worry about this happening because in the twinkling of an eye, Jesus is going to come back one day and rapture us, the church, Christ followers, to go back with him. And when he comes, what's gonna happen is this next empire, the 10 nation conglomeration of probably former Roman colonies is gonna come together during the time of tribulation, is gonna form, is gonna rule. The antichrist is gonna come and take over the rule of this empire. But good news, because this empire is going to fall as well. And who's it gonna fall to? Jesus. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
What we're about to see is that Jesus is gonna come in, take over, wipe this empire out, start his millennial reign. And listen, unlike the rest of the empires that have fallen in rose, fallen in rose, Jesus' empire will never fall. That's the point of the whole dream. The point of the whole dream is you can't trust the wise man. You can't trust yourself. You can't trust your own power. You can't even trust your empire because every one of those are going to fall until the King of Kings and Lord of Lord establishes his empire and it will rain forever. Say, I don't know if I'm buying that, Matt. Okay, let's see what Daniel says. Look at verse 34. Says this while you were watching. He's telling him his dream. He said a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. And it struck the statue's feet of iron.
In other words, he's just described this beautiful statue. And now Daniel says, Hey, Nebuchadnezzar, while you were having this dream, a rock out of the sky came in, not by human hands, but it struck it on its feet of iron and clay and it smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold, it was all broken into pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. And the wind swept them away without leaving a trace. Oh, circle these next three words. But the rock. Ringing any bells from the New Testament, anybody? But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the earth. Let me bring the dream down. Here it is. Kings and rulers. Kings and rulers will rise, will fall, will rise will fall. They will all rise. They will all win in a moment, but eventually they're all going to fall.
That's the point of the whole story. Nobody knew you're gonna fall. Alexander the Grey, you're gonna fall. The meads and the Persians are gonna fall. All the Caesars of Rome is gonna fall. And I got news for you. Even the good old United States of A is going to fall, but Jesus's kingdom will rain forever. And are you gonna trust your kingdom or his? That's the goal here. That's the story here. And I love this. Why? Why, why, why? Why? Why is this so cool? Here, here's the deal. Here's the. 'Cause the rock Jesus, not made by man, but by God, shows up and is the stone that the first time, remember Matthew 21:42, the stone the builders rejected? The next time Jesus shows up with his church will not be rejected and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and everything else will be smashed to the ground.
And his kingdom will rise. The millennial kingdom will come out and we will reign with him forever. You wanna make a difference in crisis? You wanna make a difference in times of tribulation? Know that we win in the end and let's live like it. It's what he's saying. No, no, no, no, no. Rea with me these last verses. Oh, we're gonna, we're, we're, we're gonna make it. Here it is. All right. Says this. Verse 44 says the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. In other words, this one's here forever. None of the rest of them, they're all temporary. Everything else in your life that is not Jesus is going to go away. It says it will crush all those kingdoms. It will bring them to an end, but itself will last forever.
This is the meaning of the vision of the rock that was cut out of the mountain, not by human hands. A rock that broke the iron, it broke the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, and the pieces. You say, man, what did that have to do with anything? It has to do with everything. This is not just a dream that some crazy king in way, way back had. This is a description that God was faithful in saying every single thing that has happened throughout history has happened. And oh, listen to me, church. And God is faithful that what he has proclaimed here is about to happen, will happen one day. You know why this is so relevant today? It's because God is showing us that mankind is not getting closer and closer and closer and closer to God with the passing of time. Mankind is not ascending or evolving toward God.
We're going the other way, away from God. No civilization will ever last, meaning that there will, and there has always been crisis. There has always been kingdoms being conquered. There has always been people like all of us that have stood up in pride and thought we had it all together. But God has not only sent his rock the first time to walk in first century Galilee, but he will send his rock again to give us eternity. Eternity.
Eternity. He'll make his kingdom and all knees will bow to him. So here's my question. Here's how we're leaving today. With all this in mind, with, with God literally showing Nebuchadnezzar all of the history of mankind, you know, there will never be another empire like one of those. That's what he showed us. He described perfectly every world empire from the moment of Nebecha nezzar's life till the time Jesus was born. And he's describing to us, Hey, put your mind on the things that are above and live for the kingdom that will stand forever. With all of that in mind, folks, are you gonna trust in you and your kingdom? Are you gonna trust in his? Are you gonna trust in you and your wisdom? Are you gonna trust in his? Two questions this morning. Number one, for those of you that don't know Jesus, I can't see a better description of who he is and what he's going to do than what we just saw this morning.
What's keeping you from giving your heart and life to Jesus and saying I'm yours? Number two, if you are a believer, are you living for your kingdom and wisdom or his? Because I guarantee you, yours will fail you and his will.