Jesus: The Light

I John 1:5 tells us that God is Light. And for us, those who believe in Him, He is our light.

Let’s take a moment and pray:

Jesus, you are the light of the world. In You there is no darkness at all. Your light shines in us and through us. We pray that you would light our paths through your Word today. We are dependent on Your direction. Apart from You, everything is darkness and confusion to us. Shine on us and through us Lord Jesus. Amen.

The last 3 weeks, we’ve begun studying through the book of Daniel. Last week we talked about the fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were joined in the furnace by a fourth man. This fourth man had a different appearance than the three friends. He is described by Nebuchadnezzar as a son of the gods and later as an angel. Likely, the fourth man had an appearance of light or brilliance to gain such a description.

Two weeks ago, we talked about how God miraculously revealed Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar said he would not tell his dream to anyone but that his wise men had to prove their worth by telling him the dream and interpreting it. Otherwise, he would kill all the wise men. Daniel stepped in and asked the king for time. That night, God revealed the dream to Daniel. Daniel had a beautiful prayer at that point.

The Fourth Man

Daniel 3

Welcome! Today we look at a familiar passage of Scripture, Daniel chapter 3. This passage is often summarized in children’s Bible story books, and so some of us have known this story since before we could read. But I think there is plenty here that is interesting, plenty that is “meaty,” and plenty that we can apply to our lives.

Let me first remind you of the background for the book of Daniel. Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were captured by the Babylonians in one of several raids that ultimately led to the total downfall of the Israelite nation, or more precisely, the split nation consisting of Israel and Judah. This downfall was repeatedly prophesied by the Israelite prophets, who said it was sure to happen unless the Israelite people truly repented and turned from worshiping false gods and performing other detestable practices all while abandoning the Law given to Moses generations earlier.

The Rock

Daniel 2

Welcome! Today we continue in our study of the wonderful Book of Daniel, focusing on Chapter 2. To get started, let me remind you of the context of the book of Daniel and briefly review what happened in Chapter 1.

The book of Daniel takes during and after the fall of the land of Israel. God allowed Israel to fall, in fact, He repeatedly warned His people that the fall was coming, because they had forsaken God. God, who is the orchestrator of all of history, used a man named Nebuchadnezzar son of Nabopolassarto do this. Nabopolassar started things by delivering Babylon from its dependence on Assyria and destroying Nineveh. While Nabopolassar still reigned, he sent his son Nebuchadnezzar to lead military campaigns, and under Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians defeated the Egyptian army and drove them back to their homeland, essentially ending the Egyptian empire for good. Nebuchadnezzar continued with other military campaigns to defeat the Syrians and the Phoenicians, and Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon after his father’s death to take the throne of what we call the neo-Babylonian Empire, the greatest empire in terms of might and reach the world had yet seen.

The Test

 Daniel 1

Today, we begin a new series. Over the next 11 weeks, we will study the book of Daniel. This book is familiar to most of us. Many of the events of Daniel’s life we learned about as children in Sunday school or vacation Bible school. Daniel in the lions’ den.Daniel interpreting dreams. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago in the fiery furnace. The writing on the wall.

Time and again throughout the book of Daniel, we see the God of Israel (Yahweh, Jehovah) demonstrating His power and sovereignty. The little “g” gods of Babylon and the wisdom of their followers is shown to be empty and powerless by the one true God.

The Bible is unique in so many ways. It includes history, incredible details about the past. It includes prophecy, miraculous predictions of things to come. It includes instruction on how to live. It includes the explanation of why we are here. It includes the means by which we can have eternal life. It is profoundly concrete. There are mysteries in the Bible, but the Bible is no means a mystical book. You can read it and understand it.

Money Part 2

Good morning! Today we come to the conclusion of our topical series exploring the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. This is also the second part of a two-part message on Biblical guidelines for wisdom in the area of finances. I want to start with a recap of some of the things we talked about in Part I, which we actually covered two weeks ago. (Last week was our monthly communion and sharing time and John spoke about hard hearts vs. hearts soft to the things of the Lord.)

Two weeks ago we looked at a variety of passages not only in Proverbs but also in the teachings of Jesus and came up with the following main points:

I. Seek the Lord in your financial decisions. – We talked about guarding against compartmentalizing our faith with regards to financial decisions. In every significant financial decision, we should pray and seek Biblical wisdom. This is simple to say but can be difficult to do, particularly if we have built up a habit of making financial decisions on our own.