DANIEL 2 WISDOM AT WORK2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Daniel 2 Wisdom At Work

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016. Well, this morning we're in the book of Daniel and looking at chapter 2 because that's part of what we read this year as we're working our way through the Bible in three years. Sorry, not that we read this year, we read it this week. And we'll continue the book of Daniel this week and finish up

and then head into the rest of the minor prophets. And as we go ahead and continue in the Bible in three years, it's going to kind of quicken the pace a little bit because the books are getting shorter towards the end of the Old Testament. So we're going to be going through more books more frequently. There's going to be a lot of variety, and it's an exciting time to be reading through the scriptures together.

As we look at the book of Daniel this morning, I always like to give a little bit of the context to help us understand the time frame in which these things were taking place. And so as we consider the timeline of Daniel, it's very similar to what we've been looking at with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Daniel ministered there during the time that the Jews were taken captive,

So the very first time Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, Daniel was amongst those who was taken. And he is ministering there during that whole period, that 70 years of captivity, and he

Again, which is very similar to the time frame of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and we've spent a lot of time looking at those two prophets over the past couple months.

Jeremiah had a prophetic ministry to the Jews in Jerusalem leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. And so his mission was to call the Jewish people to repentance, to call them to get right with God. And they had the opportunity, if they would, respond faithfully.

to not be destroyed by Babylon and to be preserved by turning their hearts back to God and submitting themselves to him once again. And so that was Jeremiah's mission, and he prophesied to them in calling them to repentance.

Now Ezekiel also prophesied to the Jews. He had a prophetic ministry, but not in Jerusalem. His prophetic ministry was in Babylon. So when the Jews were taken captive, some were taken captive and some were left behind. Well, Ezekiel was one of those who were taken captive also.

And he stayed with the Jewish people there in Babylon and was ministering to them and speaking on behalf of God to them, calling them still to repentance because they still refused to repent, and also letting them know what God's plans were for them and that God was calling them to settle in and establish themselves there in Babylon. And so...

These both had a prophetic ministry to Jews, one in Jerusalem, one in Babylon. Well, Daniel is very unique and distinct from those types of prophetic ministries. He had a very different role because he was taken captive, but then he was positioned within the government of Babylon. And so he had a role within the government. He had authority, he had responsibility, but

And one of the things I always like to consider as I read through the book of Daniel is Daniel is a really great model for ministry in the workplace. And I'd ask you to consider that this morning and as we continue to read through Daniel. Think about Daniel in that context. You could think about Jeremiah and Ezekiel. That was the kind of ministry that would happen at church or at synagogue. You know, the people of God and their worship of God, but

Calling them to repentance in that. Daniel didn't minister in that kind of context. He didn't minister primarily to other Jews who knew about God. He was in the midst of unbelievers, people who did not know God, surrounded by unbelievers, and in the midst of responsibility. And a lot of his opportunities to minister on behalf of God were related to his responsibilities in the workplace, in the positions and authority that he had.

And so he provides a really good model for us of ministry in the workplace. And so I've titled the message this morning, Wisdom at Work.

It kind of has the double meaning. So we see the wisdom at work in Daniel's life and that he's living it out and we can learn a lot from the steps that he takes, which are, you know, very wise and we'll learn from that. But also it's wisdom at work, in the workplace. It's his place of occupation that these things are taking place, that are going on. And this morning, I encourage you to consider that so that we don't make the mistake of not expecting God to work and

outside of the church. I think we make that mistake many times that we think about God speaking, we think about God working, we think about ministry, we think about prophecy, we think about the things of God and we kind of limit it to certain places perhaps, different churches in different places or certain contexts and

But Daniel's a really great example of God using him, speaking through him, and making an impact to the world around him. And that is what God desires to do in each of our lives. Listen, God wants to speak to you.

And he wants to speak through you, and he wants to allow you to make an impact in your workplace. Now, you can also extend that to your family. You can also extend that to the church. You can extend that to every aspect of your life. There's no limit to the ways that God wants to speak to you, the things that God wants to reveal to you. It could be about your work. It could be about your family. It could be about your health. It could be in the context of the church. But God

God wants to give you wisdom and teach you the life that he wants you to live and how to live that life. And so that's what we want to consider as we look at the book of Daniel. And here in chapter 2, wisdom at work, there's four points we'll look at as we work our way through the chapter. I'm not going to try to hit every verse, but we'll kind of work our way through and get a good understanding of what took place here in Daniel chapter 2. So here is the idea. Here's the context of

King Nebuchadnezzar, he's the king of Babylon. He is the leader of the world empire at that time. Babylon had conquered the world and he has a dream. This dream, it's not very clear if he actually remembers it or if he's just using it as a test for his wise men, but he knows there's something special about this dream.

It's not just the normal, I ate too much the night before, and so I had some weird dreams kind of dream. This dream has been troubling him. He knows there's some very serious significance to it, but he just doesn't know what it means. And so he calls all of his wise men. Now,

the kings of Babylon, as well as many of the other kings in that time frame, they would have this collection of wise men. And it was made up of a variety of different people who practiced different kinds of wisdom. So there was soothsaying and witchcraft and all this type of different things that they would practice and astrology and all that. And they would pull in from all these different expertise to give wisdom to the king. And so he calls in his wise men and

And he says, hey, I've had this dream and I need you to tell me the interpretation. And so the wise men say, yeah, no problem. So what's the dream? And Nebuchadnezzar, again, it's not clear from the text if he remembers the dream and just doesn't want to tell them to test them.

or if he doesn't remember the dream, and so he needs them to tell them both. But either way, he says, look, if you can tell me the dream and the interpretation, then I'll know that you have the wisdom to be able to give me the interpretation. But if I tell you the dream, you're just going to make up something to kind of, you know, satisfy me. You're going to try to just make up something from the details, and I'm not going to be able to trust it.

So tell me the dream and then tell me the interpretation. And the wise men, they respond and say, that's impossible. We can't do that. There's no one here. There's nobody on earth who can do that. The only one who could do that is one of the gods. They didn't understand the true and living God of the Jews, but they did believe in gods, plural, and worshiped many gods. And so they thought, well, one of the gods could do it, but they don't dwell with men.

and so this is impossible nobody's ever made this request before and so they ask for the dream once again and nebuchadnezzar says look you're just stalling you're just trying to like pass the time until i've changed subjects in my mind and i'm not trying to pressure you anymore you're just you're just stalling for time and

Here's the decree for you. You guys are going to be put to death because you're just messing with me. You don't really have wisdom because you're not able to tell me my dream and the interpretation. And so the order goes out. And Nebuchadnezzar was a king who had this kind of authority. He could say, kill all the wise men and all the wise men had to be killed. And so the order has begun and the people are starting to be killed. In verse 13, it says, so the decree went out and they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.

Daniel was amongst this group of wise men because of the events of chapter 1, which I won't get into, but you can read about that if you didn't read it this week. So he's part of that group, and he's on the list. He is to be executed. How is he going to respond? And that gives us point number one here in verse 13 through 16. Point number one this morning is wisdom seeks counsel.

Here you have this impossible order by a superior, something that is, you know, not easy to do. It's difficult to accomplish, perhaps impossible to accomplish, but the order is given and it's being refused. And so now there's a life-threatening situation here. Daniel and his friends are on the list to be executed. They're seeking Daniel to put him to death.

And so what is Daniel going to do? And how does he respond to this situation? Well, verse 14 tells us, Then with counsel and wisdom, Daniel answered Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. Verse 15, He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, Why is the decree from the king so urgent? Then Ariok made the decision known to Daniel.

The search is on for all the wise men to put them to death. Some have already died. It's already taking place. Daniel's next on the list. Perhaps he hears the knock at the door. It's Ariok coming to fulfill the order of the king and put Daniel and his friends to death. And so Daniel here is faced with a serious situation. The urgency is high. The danger is high. And

How does he respond? In verse 14, it tells us, Daniel sought counsel in how to handle this very difficult, very dangerous situation that he was in. It's likely that he sought counsel from his friends. We often refer to them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

We saw them, introduced to them in chapter one. We'll see them again as well in Daniel. And so they're with him. We find out later on in the house, they're with him at his house. And so it's probably that these guys had a discussion. They heard about the news. They heard about what was going on and they know it's a dangerous thing. And so they begin to talk about Daniel seeks counsel on what he should do regarding this threat.

And I point that out to remind us that Daniel was not a lone ranger. He wasn't just out there all by himself, just working out, you know, whatever he needed to do and whatever he could figure out with all the wisdom that he had. Daniel is known for his wisdom, but one of the reasons why he was wise is because with counsel and wisdom, he answered Ariok. He had other people in his life

to help him, to talk through the situations and have good discussion about what's appropriate for the situation that's at hand. Now, on Wednesday, we talked about this concept a little bit as well, as we looked at Acts chapter 18, and there was this guy named Apollos, and he was eloquent, he was mighty in the scriptures, he was a really powerful, dynamic speaker there at the synagogue.

And it tells us that there's Aquila and Priscilla, this husband and wife who are there in the service, and they hear him speaking, and they recognize, wow, he's really powerful, he's really great, passionate, but he doesn't have the whole gospel message. And so they pull him aside later, and they share with him, hey, we want to give you a better understanding of the ministry of Jesus Christ and what that means, and

And in doing so, they pour into him, and then it tells us there in chapter 18 of Acts, he goes from there to Corinth, and his ministry is now even better, that he is effective at sharing the gospel, at bringing people to Jesus Christ, and proving and demonstrating that Jesus is the Messiah that they were waiting for.

And we see the importance there of Apollos being able to receive. He had lots of good things going for him. Again, he was passionate. He was mighty in the scriptures. He was eloquent, but he was able to receive. He had people in his life and he was allowing them to speak into his life and receiving from them, learning from them, taking counsel. And then he was more effective going forward.

And I want to encourage you to consider this because many times we can become just kind of like the Lone Rangers. We have people around us, but we don't really allow them to speak into our lives, especially when it is serious decisions that need to be made. And I want to encourage you that Google is not a substitute for good counselors. Google can maybe get you some information and can get you some random wacky ideas, but you need to have people around

who love you and who love God in your life, who can counsel you, who can give you insight and share with you things that you're not going to see on your own, but

but people that you'll receive from and respect because you know they love God and love you. And that's an important part of Daniel's character here. He is able to receive counsel. Not only just receive it, but he seeks it out. He goes and gets this counsel that is needed for this crisis that is at hand. This is a concept that's taught all throughout the scriptures.

Proverbs 15, verse 22 says, Plans go sideways without counsel. But there's a safety, there's an establishment with a multitude of counselors because you've thought through the issues, you've thought through the things at hand, and you have some better insight and understanding to go forward with wisdom.

And this is something that we all need. We all need this. You know, there's a lot of times in my life that I've done things without seeking counsel and, you know, learned from that the hard way. And there's a lot of times that in ministering to people who've made decisions and changed their lives and gone directions and then later on have sought counsel as they're trying to deal with all of the issues that result, you know, there's a dangerous thing for us to just kind of charge ahead and

and not stop and allow some other people in to help us make decisions. Now, that doesn't mean that, you know, now other people become your Lord, you know, but that you give them the invitation and the opportunity to speak into your life, and then you evaluate those things with God and allow God to direct you in how to take the steps that he wants you to take.

In your life, maybe you don't have the serious situation with the king of Babylon is threatening your life and you're going to be cut in pieces if you don't respond a certain way. Maybe you don't have that exact situation, but you do have dangerous decisions. You do have things that are going to impact you, your family, and people around you for decades to come.

And you need to receive counsel on those situations. You need to have some people in your life who love you, who'll be able to share the truth with you. You have decisions to make that are bigger than you. And let me just share with you that here at Living Water, we are so blessed. We're blessed with a wealth of wisdom, right?

We have here in our midst people who have walked with God for many years, and you have access to these people. They're not limited and exclusive and, you know, often a chamber somewhere, and you

No, they're sitting around you in the pews. They're sitting around you that they're accessible to you. You have access to people who've walked with God for twice as long as you've walked with God. That's a great wealth of resources and counsel that you can tap into. There are many men and women who are just filled with great life experience. They've experienced highs and lows and a variety of different things. And we're blessed and God is

pulled us together as one body for that purpose, for that reason, so that we can minister to one another and benefit one another with, well, our experience of walking with God and our experience of living this life. And so I would encourage you. There's opportunity. You can seek counsel. You can look around and find those who would be able to speak truth into your life and help you evaluate situations for what they really mean.

And also, let me extend that a little bit further and say, husband and wife, seek counsel beyond your spouse. So when I say, you know, wisdom seeks counsel, don't just talk to each other.

I mean, that's good. You need to talk to your spouse and seek counsel from your spouse. But don't just limit it to that. And you as a couple, as you're making decisions and facing situations, I would encourage you to go beyond that. And even as a couple, seek counsel and allow other people to have some input into your life and the decisions you make and give you some insight into how to handle the things that you're facing.

God has placed other people in your life to help you with those things. And so Daniel was one who sought help

Now, you can take it too far, and you can just always talk and try to get everybody's opinion, and you can get, you know, a thousand different opinions, and now you're indecisive, and you never take action. You don't need that. You don't have to get everybody's opinion in the whole room. Just, you know, pick a couple people. Daniel had three friends. That's maybe a good, you know, kind of rule of thumb. Just find three people who love God and love you, and give them opportunity to help you work through some of the situations that you face and the crises that you experience.

And so the first thing we see is that wisdom seeks counsel. Point number two, as we move on, verse 17 through 23, wisdom asks God for revelation. So not only are we seeking counsel from the people around us, that's appropriate, biblical, godly counsel,

But of course, we also need to look to God and ask for his perspective on the things that we face. Verse 17 says, Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision no to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon."

So Daniel goes back to his house and he has there his three friends. Now they have their Babylonian names and their Jewish names. So here's their Jewish names, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three guys are there with him. And so Daniel, having spoken to the king and gets a little bit of time allowed for them to be able to, you know, seek the Lord and figure out what to do.

Now he comes back and they're seeking mercies from God, it says in verse 18. Their lives are on the line. The stakes are high. But again, notice that Daniel is not alone. Even as he's seeking God for mercy, he's not doing it all by himself. He has his friends around him, his counselors with him, and they are calling out to the Lord for mercy. They're asking God to

to reveal this secret. Now, again, the wise men responded to King Nebuchadnezzar and said, this is impossible. If I was to come to you this morning and say, yeah, I had a dream last night, you know, tell me what the dream is. Where would you go? What resource would you use to pull up that information, right? There's not a database for that. So they're looking to God and they're saying, God, you know what the dream was. And they're asking God to reveal it.

They're asking for an absolute miracle. They're not asking for it, you know, well, like we have most of the wisdom. We understand most of what we need to do. And we just need like a little bit more God. They're asking for something they're completely incapable of without God. Knowledge, information, insight. They have no way of coming across without God bringing special revelation and speaking miraculously to them.

And I think for every one of us, this is something we should take to heart and understand. You know, God wants to speak to you in these kinds of ways. He doesn't want to take, you know, the information you have, the insight that you have, and just kind of give it a little bit of a nudge. But God wants to work in your life, and he has the capacity to

to speak to you in ways that are radically beyond anything you could ever know on your own after research or study or meditation or contemplation or anything like that, that he can bring information to you that you need supernaturally. This is part of the way that God works because he is God, because he is alive. And so they're calling on God. They're asking God. Notice, all the wise men...

Told Nebuchadnezzar, hey, there's nobody who could do that. Maybe the gods could do that, but they don't dwell on men. They didn't even try. Well, let's seek one of our gods and see if he'll reveal. They didn't even try. They didn't have any expectation that that could be done, except Daniel and his friends recognized we have a God who rules on high, who knows all things. He's all powerful. We can ask him, and if he chooses to, he can reveal to us

This dream. He can give us that kind of information that's not accessible any other way. And so they asked God for revelation. They asked God to speak to them supernaturally. James tells us in James chapter 1 verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Now, James spoke that in the context of trials. When you're going through trials and there's a lot of crazy hard things happening in your life and you don't know why and you don't know what to do, you can ask God for wisdom. And here it's a promise. God will give you wisdom when you ask him for wisdom. He gives liberally and without reproach. Later on, James will say, sometimes you have not because you ask not. And that's again why I say,

thinking about God outside of the context of this building. Because in your workplace, there's going to be situations and things that are above your head, that are over your head, that are outside of your capacity. But you know, you can ask God for wisdom outside of this. God doesn't want to only work in your life in the context of your relationship with people here at church. He doesn't want to just work in your life in the context of understanding what the Bible says. But

But the way that you live at work and within your home, there's going to be decisions that need to be made and things that you face, situations that are just beyond your capacity to deal with. Ask God for wisdom. And you can apply that across the board to all aspects of your life. There's high stakes, impossible requests, hard things, difficult decisions. And you can ask God. And God, listen, God wants you to know his will.

It's not some mysterious thing that he's like, kind of like a pinata, right? It's like you're swinging for it, trying to get it, and he's like, whoop, whoop, whoop. Missed it again, missed it again. That's a game I like to play with kids, right? Give me five and I move my hand. That's not what God does with his will. He wants you to know his will. He gives you that opportunity. He says, come ask. He wants to bring revelation. He wants to speak to your heart. Ask God for revelation with those situations at work, at home, at home.

Ask God for revelation and wisdom about how he wants you to handle and the things that are going on behind the scenes. God is able to give that kind of wisdom and revelation to you. Verse 19, then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. You see what happened there? They asked God for revelation and then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. God spoke to Daniel. He revealed it in a special way.

He brought forth what was needed. And they were seeking God because they, well, their lives were on the line. They wanted this revelation because they were going to die if they didn't receive it from God. And God says, you got it. Good job. You asked for it. I'll give you the wisdom that you need. And it says here that he blessed the God of heaven. Now, here's an important thing. And sometimes we kind of rush ahead because we get so excited when God speaks.

But make sure you take a moment to thank God and rejoice and celebrate when God gives you the wisdom and the revelation that you asked for. Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And the next couple of verses are just all about Daniel praising God and thanking God and rejoicing that there is a God who gives this kind of revelation and wisdom to his people.

In verse 23, he says, I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's demand. We asked and you responded. You gave us what we needed. Thank you, God. We praise you. And he takes this moment to celebrate the revelation that God has brought. And so when your boss asks for the impossible,

When he gives you crazy deadlines or when they set things before you and everybody else is grumbling and like, we can't do this. This is impossible. There's nobody who could do this. How do you expect us to do this job? Don't join in that fray, but instead seek counsel and ask God for revelation and look to God to reveal to you what he wants for this situation. And again, you can extend that from the workplace to the home, to the neighborhood, to the nation, to the church, wherever you find yourself.

seek counsel and look to God for revelation. Now, one other thing I'd point out before we move on, notice in here that Daniel, very important, he asked the king for time. In verse 16, it tells us Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Here's a key element of asking God for revelation. It's going to take time.

It takes time for us to spend the time in prayer, seeking God and asking God and presenting a request before God. But it also takes time, and I think we miss out here sometimes, in receiving from the Lord the response to that prayer. God wants to give us his will. He wants to show us his will, but he's also teaching us to walk with him. And so sometimes that means he doesn't respond instantly, but

We don't know how much time took place, but he asked the king for time because he knows, king, we need to go seek. There is a God who can do this. There is a God who can reveal this, but we need to go spend some time with him and present our requests and have opportunity to hear from him and giving God time to respond. And so I would encourage you to make sure that that's an element that you consider as well as you're asking God for revelation. I don't know why I'm struggling with that word all of a sudden.

When you're asking God for revelation, don't just, okay, you know, you're on the 91. All right, God, I need revelation. And boom, you know, I got to get past these cars and I got to get to work. And then now, okay, I got, Lord, you didn't give me an answer. You didn't, you know, reveal anything to me. Well, we also need to set aside some time and to give God opportunity to speak to us in that way.

Well, moving on to verse 24 through 28, here we have point number three, and that is wisdom gives God the glory. Verse 24 says, Therefore, Daniel went to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.

Verse 25. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?

Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king, but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. And he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these. And then he'll go on to describe the dream. But here we see Daniel saying,

When he receives the revelation from God in the previous verses, he takes a few verses to thank God, to praise God, to celebrate what God has done. But he doesn't only do that privately. Now, as he has the opportunity to share the results with King Nebuchadnezzar,

He makes sure, and there's a couple times he points out, it's not just here in this verse, but he points out to King Nebuchadnezzar, this isn't me, this isn't my wisdom, this isn't, you know, something I came up with. But very important in verse 28, he says, there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. This was Daniel's opportunity to give God the credit and the glory for this work.

He stands before the king. Again, he's the king of the world at this point. King Nebuchadnezzar has all power. He can execute anybody he wants. He can do anything he wants. And now as Daniel stands before him, he has the opportunity to declare very clearly to his face, right in front of him, and he has his full attention. There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. Daniel makes sure to give God the glory. Now here's what I want you to consider in all of this.

This whole scenario is set up by God. Notice in verse 28, he says, there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. This is all the result of God speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar. God revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. God was speaking prophetically about the future to this king.

Not a believer, this guy who didn't know anything about the Lord. He knew a little bit about the Lord because he conquered the Jews, but he didn't worship God. He didn't walk with God, but God spoke to him about the future. But he spoke to him in a way that he needed help to understand what God had said. Now, God could have just as easily. It's not that, you know,

God's vocabulary is very limited. And so he just kind of drew some rough pictures for Nebuchadnezzar and then Nebuchadnezzar had to seek some help to figure it out because that's unfortunately, God's limited and he only has crayons. And so that's all he can use to paint a picture. No, no, no. This is all set up by God. This is designed by God. And so here is Nebuchadnezzar who has this mysterious message. He needs it decoded. And God has strategically placed someone there in the midst who knows him.

who is now going to be able to testify of God before the king. God could have just as easily given Nebuchadnezzar a very clear message that he would understand, and, you know, it would all be over at that point, that he just, okay, well, here's exactly what God said, here's the timeline of the things that are going to happen, and God gave him the future. But God didn't do that. Instead, God went through all of this to set up this meeting for

where Daniel would stand before King Nebuchadnezzar and say, there is a God in heaven. Unlike all the other gods that you worship and all your astrologers and soothsayers and all those guys, and they couldn't seek their gods and bring you this revelation, but there is a God in heaven. And here, Daniel is able to give a very clear and bold testimony of the reality of God on the throne of all eternity. God set this up.

And all Daniel is called to do here is to walk in the midst of the plan that God has set up, and he's established it. It's God who's done all the hard work. It's not like Daniel had to figure out, okay, how can we get King Nebuchadnezzar to hear the message to know that there is a God in heaven? Daniel didn't have to figure that out. God had all that worked out. And what Daniel had to do, well, seek counsel, seek revelation from God. And now when he has opportunity, make sure he gives God the glory and the credit.

for the word that was brought forth. Now listen, I go to that great length to point all this out to say God is doing that exact same thing in our lives as well. This wasn't a reaction. This wasn't God thinking, okay, Daniel's in a pickle, man, he's in trouble. If I don't give him some special revelation, I mean, he's really going to be in trouble. He's going to come to heaven too soon. I don't want him to come to heaven too soon. So I better give him the answer to this dream.

It wasn't God reacting to Nebuchadnezzar's command. God set all this up in advance in the same way. As you encounter a crisis, as you encounter difficult situations, difficult decisions, as you're dealing with these kinds of things in the variety of contexts that you do, it's not just...

You're seeking God and he's responding and reacting to that situation. But maybe think about it from the other side and understand that maybe God has set all of this up so that you could stand face to face with your boss and say, hey boss, there is a God in heaven. Hey mom, there is a God in heaven.

Hey, friend. Hey, judge. Hey, coworker. I don't know who God might be connecting you with, but that he's working these things out for you to have the opportunity to declare who he is to people around you. It's kind of like the bump, set, spike in volleyball, right? I mean, you got your teammates there, you're working together, and you're putting the ball in the exact right spot for the final guy to come and go, boom, and spike it.

That's what God does. He sets all this up and boom, he's put it in play and right there, it's right there. It's just now it's your turn. Hear from the Lord. God wants to speak to you and he wants you to use what he shares with you to make an impact and he sets you up for that spike. He sets you up to make the play because he's at work in the lives of the people around you and he's at work in your life as well. God wanted to give Daniel this opportunity. What if God wants to give you a chance to tell your boss? Now,

It may not come the way that you think, right? You wouldn't think the chance that Daniel had to share there is a God in heaven to King Nebuchadnezzar would come from this kind of situation, right? I mean, maybe Daniel would share a really good message at the synagogue, and then word would get back to King Nebuchadnezzar, and King Nebuchadnezzar would invite Daniel, hey, I heard you shared a good message at the synagogue, so would you come and share with me what you shared at the synagogue? That would be one way we could imagine it happening, and we prefer it to happen that way, but what if it's a crisis?

What if it's, you're going to be fired if you don't work this out. And through that, God uses you to reveal him to the people around you. God wants to work. He doesn't use the methods and the means that we might think or anticipate, but he is at work. And there's the opportunity for him to speak to us, to reveal to us supernaturally things from on high so that we have the opportunity to stand before him.

the people around us and say, there is a God in heaven to testify, to witness that he is real and he is on the throne. Well, Daniel goes on from this point to tell him the dream. And I'm not going to get into the details of the dream. We could spend weeks and weeks and weeks talking about this dream and the interpretation, but let me give you the overview just to give you a sense of what took place there and a reminder of how big God is. So here we see the dream.

In verse 30 through 35, Daniel tells him about the dream that he had. King Nebuchadnezzar saw a statue, a great image, and it was made up of different metals. And so the head was made of gold, the chest and the arms were made of silver, its belly and its thighs were made of bronze, its legs were of iron, and then its feet were mixed iron and clay together.

And then there was a stone that came from heaven and struck the statue and demolished it. And then that stone was established as a great mountain. So that was the dream that Nebuchadnezzar has. In verse 36, Daniel says, God spoke to Daniel, gave him supernaturally this specific dream, this specific image with all these details. And now what's the interpretation? Well,

These different metals in this statue, we actually learn, represent the world empires that were going to be established there at that time. And so Daniel says very clearly in verse 38, he says, Nebuchadnezzar, you are this head of gold. And so the head of gold represents the Babylonian empire, which ruled from 612 to about 539 B.C.,

And so there was this world empire that was Babylon, and King Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler of it. But Babylon was conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire, and that's described in verse 39. He says, Now that's not a lot of detail about it, but the Medo-Persian Empire was

comes into power and was inferior to Babylon in several respects. And again, I'm not going to get into the details, but there's great details here. So if you want to dig into it, if you're looking for something to do and seeking the Lord, this is a great opportunity to just be in awe of who God is and how big he is. But so it describes the Medo-Persian empire, which lasted from 539 to 330 BC. Then you have the belly and the thigh of bronze, which

Also staying in verse 39, it says, then another, a third kingdom of bronze shall rule over the earth. After the Medo-Persian empire, Alexander the Great comes on the scene and he conquers Persia. He goes all throughout. He conquers the whole region. And now it's the Greek empire that rules the world. And so there's this succession of world empires, which...

God revealed ahead of time. Now we're looking back and I can share the dates because it's history. It has happened and we're able to see it was fulfilled exactly the way that God said. Of course, in Daniel's day, this was all future. And so the only one that existed already was the Babylonian empire. But then they got to watch these world empires. Now it's interesting because

When an empire is conquered, it doesn't have to be another world empire. Many times, in fact, when an empire is conquered, it's split into a variety of them. But here God is declaring very specifically world empire, world empire, world empire. And then the fourth empire. Verse 39 and 40, we have the iron, which turns out to be the Roman empire. Coming on the scene around 63 BC, lasting until 475 AD, a long time ago.

And here they come in with iron. They establish this final kingdom or this fourth kingdom.

And then he has the feet of iron and clay. And this is the one where it kind of departs from history and this is yet future. So we have this feet that's mixed iron and clay. And he explains, look, this is going to be a mixture. It's going to be a divided kingdom. There's going to be some different things about it. But the timeframe is very specific. In verse 44 here of Daniel chapter two, it says, "'In the days of these kings,'

So in this statue, you have this representation of these different world empires, different kingdoms that have taken place. Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greek, Roman, Greek,

But then there's this last element of the dream that is not yet fulfilled, that will be fulfilled when Jesus Christ returns and establishes his kingdom here upon the earth. And so there is going to be the still yet future fulfillment of this. And we can be certain of that because we've seen all the previous ones be fulfilled before.

before it. And so there's great insight here from the Lord. This dream is also going to be reiterated in the book of Daniel. I think it's chapter 7. So we'll read that this week and even get further insight from the Lord on that.

So that's a quick look at the dream, a little bit of overview and understanding of the way that God works and what he spoke. This is what he gave to King Nebuchadnezzar. He wanted to tell him about the future. And so he set up all of this to be able to have Daniel standing before him and saying, there is a God in heaven.

Well, finishing it up, verses 46 through 49 with point number four, wisdom produces good fruit. Check out verse 46 and 47. It says,

It goes on to tell us in verse 48 and 49 that Daniel is promoted. He's given a position of even greater authority over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel also petitions the king and brings up his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they all get positions of authority as well.

And so instead of their life being, you know, ended shortly, cut abrupt, you know, by being cut in pieces, they're promoted, they're established, they're blessed because of their wisdom. Because they sought counsel. They asked God for revelation. They gave God the glory as he worked and revealed. And then you see the result is good news.

Notice what it says in verse 47. The king, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the whole world empire says, truly your God is the God of gods. I had all my magicians, all my soothsayers, and all the gods that they worship. Your God, Daniel, your God stands apart from all their gods. Your God stands apart from everything else. There's something unique and special. This doesn't actually mean that Nebuchadnezzar, what we would describe as, you know, became a Christian, became a Christian.

But he comes face to face with the truth, the reality that there is a God. Now, God's still going to be working with him. You see in Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar and God kind of go at it where Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's God and God says, no, you're not. And he makes him an animal for seven years. There's still issues that Nebuchadnezzar is working through, but he has the opportunity here. He comes face to face with the truth, with the reality. Your God is the God of God's.

Again, right before you have Daniel saying, there is a God in heaven, and now you have King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging this truth. Truly, it's real. What you're saying is true. There really is a God. The fruit that was produced by the wisdom of Daniel was good fruit. It brought good results.

Not just in that, you know, they were promoted and blessed, but in the fact that they had this opportunity before the king to declare the reality of God and that truth was acknowledged and accepted by King Nebuchadnezzar face to face with the truth. And so this is what wisdom at work looks like. This is the way that God wants to work in all of our lives today.

For us to have wisdom, again, we seek counsel. We ask God for revelation. We give God the glory as he gives the revelation. We don't try to take the credit for ourselves or credit our own smarts or imagination or thoughtfulness. But when we honor God, as we seek him and respond to what he puts on our hearts, it will produce good fruit. I want to finish up this morning in James chapter 3. Would you turn there with me? James chapter 3.

Here, James talks about wisdom also. And as he talks about wisdom, he makes a distinction between wisdom that is from above and wisdom that is from this earth. And so there is different kinds of wisdom. And it's important as we seek wisdom that we make sure that we're seeking and pursuing the wisdom that is from above. James chapter 3, verse 13, it says, who is wise and understanding among you?

Verse 17.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Here, James, as he talks about wisdom, he says, look, if you're wise and understanding, in verse 13, he says, show it by your conduct.

Wisdom from above is not just intellectual, in-your-head philosophy ideas, but wisdom from above is wisdom that you live, wisdom that you put into practice, wisdom that affects your life, your actions, your decisions, your movements, and your moments. Let him show it. Are you wise? Well, live it out.

And he describes the wisdom from below. It's, well, it results in bitter envy and self-seeking, things that are not of God, things that are not good. And he says, look, we're self-seeking and confusion and envy. It's not of God. Every evil thing is there. That's not from the Lord. But wisdom from above is radically different. It's pure and peaceable and gentle and willing to yield. It's full of mercy and it's full of good fruit.

And that's the thing I want to end with this morning. God has good things in store for you. He wants your life to be full of good fruit. He wants to do amazing things in you and through you. But wisdom from God is wisdom that needs to be put into practice and lived out. And so I want to encourage you, live out these things. Put into practice this wisdom. Again, it's not just philosophy and thoughts and intellect in your head, but

God wants to speak to you at work. He wants to speak to you regarding your family, regarding perhaps your health, regarding church, regarding different areas of your life, different aspects of your life. He's at work and he wants to give you the wisdom that you need. So seek counsel, ask God for revelation, put it into practice, set some time aside to seek God for those things that you face and then put it into action, put it into practice, live it out and give God the glory for it.

and you'll see that the result of the wisdom that's from above is pure and peaceable and gentle and produces good fruit. That's what God wants for you. Give him a chance. Seek him and let him speak to you about your life. Let's pray. God, I lift up all of our hearts to you. Each one of us, Lord, we...

We come together regularly. We worship you together. And yet, Lord, there's so much unique aspects to our lives. And we face radically different things and things many times we feel alone in. But of course, we know that there's similar things we're all experiencing together. But all of our situations are different. The contexts are different. The people are different. And Lord, we need your insight. We need your touch. We need your direction.

to be able to navigate and handle all these things in a way that brings forth good fruit. And so I pray for each of us, God, help us to walk in the wisdom that you provide. And Lord, one aspect of that wisdom is, well, the people around us. I pray, God, that you would give us a humility, that we would be able and free to invite others into our lives and allow them

to speak forth truth and to give a different perspective and give insight from you and from their experience about the things that we face. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to be open and receptive and not just take it then as our Lord and we do everything they say, but then to take those things to you and evaluate them and allow those truths to shape who we are and what we do in the light of your word and your counsel. As we now, Lord, ask you for revelation, I pray, God, that you would speak to each one of us

In the issues that we face and the decisions that we need to make, Lord, you know beyond all things that we could ever even imagine. Lord, you know all the roots and intentions of every person, of every individual. You know the future. You know the past. You know the ins and the outs completely. Lord, would you give us the revelation that we need, the special insight that we need from you to live lives that honor you and glorify you. Help us, God, to represent you well.

I pray that you would speak to us, reveal secrets to us. Lord, not that we would gossip about them, but that we would honor you in the way that you've called us to. I pray that you would help us, God, to glorify your name, produce in our lives the good fruit that you desire, the abundant life that you have promised to us. I pray, God, that you would work in us. Help us, Lord, to live it out, not just think about it, not just talk about it.

but to show it by our good conduct that we walk with you and know you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.