Well, good morning. Got a Bible? Go ahead and open it to Daniel, chapter eight. Daniel, chapter eight. If you haven't been with us, we've been marching through the Book of Daniel for several weeks now. We're going to continue kind of chapter at a time. Well, actually, next week we take. We're not going to do a chapter, we'll do half a chapter because there's a lot there next week. So as you're turning there, let me ask you a question. How many of you would like to know the future? Some of you are like, I don't know if I want to know the future. That sounds terrifying, right? Some of you are like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I think knowing the future could be really helpful in a lot of areas of life. If you're in school right now, how many of you would like to know if a pop quiz was coming? Yeah, totally wouldn't be a pop quiz, but you would, like, you probably would live differently the night before, right? You might read a little more, you might study a little more. Right. It would change the way that you did things today. Because knowing your future tomorrow, maybe. Let's think about it from an adult perspective. How many of you would like to know. Let's say you invested in the stock market. How many of you would like to know what that stock was going to do before you invested in it? You can raise your hands as well. All right, Be honest now. Some. Some of you are like, that's called insider trading, and that's criminal, Michael. You can't actually do that. Well, what if it wasn't a criminal thing? What if it wasn't a cheating thing? What if you could, like, live with, like, insider living, where you knew the future and it actually changed the way you live today? Like, what if that was actually the key to knowing your daily purpose in life was what the future was going to be? If you were given knowledge about your future, I imagine it would change your life. It would probably change how you spend your time. Probably should change what you prioritize in life. It should change what you say yes to. It should change what you say no to. Now, last week in chapter seven, Jake did a great job preaching through that text. That is kind of weird, right? Some of you here last week. It's weird. All right, I'll admit it. There's some weird stuff happening in Daniel. The first six chapters. You're like, yeah, this makes sense. And then you get to chapter seven and it starts getting really weird and bizarre. He starts getting these visions. And if You've read ahead. You're like, I don't have a clue what this is about. Right? So last week in chapter seven, Jake summarized it this way. He said, faithfulness today comes from passion for someday. Faithfulness today comes from passion for someday. We have this passion for what's to come, the future that we know as Christians. And it should fuel faithfulness in our lives today. The question for us to wrestle with in chapter eight is what does that faithfulness look like, though? What does faithfulness actually look like? So in order to figure that out, we're going to see how Daniel responded to another vision. That's really bizarre. Okay, so you got to hang on with me this morning. Let's start in chapter 8, verse 1. It says, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel after that, which appeared to me at the first. So Daniel's getting another vision. He got one vision, last chapter, he's getting another vision. Now, this one occurs just a couple years later. The vision last week was in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar. This one is in the third year. So it's a couple years after. And he's learning about, like, what's God showing me? Okay, now chapter eight is gonna have some really crazy scenes. It's gonna feel like you're watching a sci fi movie for a little while, not reading just a book, but you're watching this fast paced, moving, kind of crazy thing happening. But I'll tell you that the outline of chapter eight is pretty easy. Here's the vision, here's the interpretation. That's it. Okay? And the way that we're gonna look at it today is what was Daniel seeing in the vision? What was God seeing? Or what was God's perspective? And what should we be seeing now? I'm gonna tell you from the beginning. You gotta hang on for a little while for us to get to what we should be seeing. Cause the vision's crazy. What God's seeing is amazing. But then we're gonna get to how this applies and impacts our lives. But we gotta understand it before we get there. So you guys ready to hang on? Okay, let's start verses two through four. And I saw in the vision. And when I saw, I was in Susa, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai Canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were High. But one was higher than the other. And the one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and eastward. So it's coming from the east. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased, and he became great. So what's the first vision that he's seeing? He's. He's seeing a ram. Okay? And this ram is kind of interesting because it has two horns and they're different sizes. And it's coming and it's powerful and it's great. It's charging from the east. No beast could stand before it. No one could be rescued from its power. Now, you gotta understand right here from the beginning, and you learned this last week in chapter seven, that in Daniel, beasts often represent kingdoms, okay? And horns often represent ruling powers. So Daniel's catching this vision of kingdoms to come and ruling powers to come. So it starts with a ram. Let's keep going. Verses five through eight. As I was considering. Behold, a male goat came from the west, across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal. And he ran at him in his powerful raft. And I saw him come close to the ram. And he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great. But when he was strong, the great horn was broken. And instead of it, there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Anybody confused yet? Okay. Yes, Most of you. All right. That's okay. We're gonna get there. That's what my job is to help you here. So vision number one. There's this ram with two different sized horns. Now enters a male goat. This male goat is not just any male goat. Cause it has a conspicuous horn right between its eyes. I like to call a unigoat. Okay, so you have a unigoat in this vision, but it's not just any unigoat. It's seems to be a flying unigoat. All right? So its feet don't even touch the ground. Its feet don't touch the ground. And it comes to a head with the ram. It runs at the ram with powerful, enraged wrath. It strikes it. It breaks its two horns and tramples the ram to the ground when it was strong, though, the. That horn gets broken off and four horns grow in its place. All right, so it gets weirder. Four horns come up when it's really strong. Now let's read about the last part of the vision. Some of you are like, why did I come to Veritas today? Okay, we'll get there. Verse 9. Out of 1 of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. Now, toward the glorious land is to Israel. So Israel is playing a role here. It grew great even to the hosts of heaven. And some of the hosts and some of the stars, it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of the sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it with a regular burnt offering because of the transgression. And it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. So you got the ram, the goat. The goat takes out the ram, but the horn is broken off of the goat. Four horns grow in its place. And then it says, out of one of those little horns. One of those horns, there's a little horn that grows, okay, this little horn becomes exceedingly great. It even becomes exceedingly great to the stars, which are most likely the people of God, but also to the host of heaven. And we have to realize in our lives, guys, we live in a physical world, but there's a spiritual world that we live in as well. There's a spiritual battle going on for our souls at all times. And it seems like what's happening with this little horn is it's affecting both the physical world and the spiritual world. And it says. It throws down all this stuff. I think he's saying this little horn is trying to destroy the people of God, that the regular burnt offerings are taken away, that the place of the sanctuary is overthrown, and it's going to throw truth to the ground. What it seems like is happening here is that evil is reigning. Evil is reigning, particularly evil toward the things of God. Whoever this ruling empire is, is trying to take out the worship of God and the people of God. So what's Daniel seeing here? First part of this. Like, what's Daniel seeing? He's seeing a ram, a goat, and a little horn. Okay? That's what he's seeing. Now, in this type of literature, in the Bible, in the Bible, there are different genres of Scripture. Some of you are like, wait, I didn't know I was going back to school to get a grammar lesson, right? You're going to get a history lesson in a second, too. So just hang on. You might pass class tomorrow. So you different genres of scripture, you get narratives, you get poetry, you get epistles or letters, but you also have, in scripture a few times, apocalyptic literature. And that's what's happening here, where the Bible uses this highly, often really bizarre language to kind of unveil supernatural realities, especially about the future, oftentimes about the future. And when those realities get unveiled in these really weird ways, bizarre ways, it's supposed to, like, invoke, like, a response in us. And so I know none of you are going, oh, yeah, a ram and a goat and a little horn does not do anything to invoke a response in me. So just hang on. Because I want us to look at what God's seeing. But before we get there, like, we need to understand, like, how is Daniel gonna get this? Like, how is Daniel going to get this vision? Because I'm assuming that you've had a dream before that seemed really vivid, and you're like, I'm so confused. Anybody ever had a dream like that? Right. Yesterday, Erica. And up wakes up. She's like, I had really weird dreams last night. And I said, me too. I talked to Michael Jordan for a long time. Okay, why I talked to Michael Jordan, I'm not sure, but talked to him for a long time in my dream. So how is Daniel supposed to understand this bizarre thing? Look at verses 15 through 19. When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. That should give you a breath of fresh air, because Daniel doesn't even get it. Okay? And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called Gabriel. Make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood, and when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end. And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face onto the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. He said, behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. So Daniel's confused. And this is where God is so kind and. And so gracious, he sends Daniel somebody to help him interpret this vision, he sends an angel named Gabriel. Now, Gabriel is one of two named angels in the Bible. There's Gabriel, and then there's one that has a really great name. Does anybody know who that is? Michael. There you go. All right. So you have Gabriel and you have Michael. And Gabriel comes to him and says, hey, Daniel, I need you to realize this. This is for the time of the end. He's saying, like, this is obviously to show you something about the future, but how far into the future now, as we get closer to winter? Now, one thing that we love to do in our home during winter is we play a lot of board games. And when you're playing a board game and it's been lasting for a long time, you might say, like, oh, thank you. This is coming to an end. Right. Does that mean the end of the world is coming? I guess. Unless you're playing Risk or something. Right. But, like, you get to the end of it, like, the end is coming. That doesn't mean, like, the end of life is coming. It just means the end of the game is coming. Right. That's kind of what's going on here. This angel Gabriel is saying, this is to show you a more immediate future, what's going to happen to the Israelites. But here's another thing that you need to know about this genre of scripture, apocalyptic literature, that oftentimes this type of literature has a dual purpose, and it's to show you something in the more immediate future, but also to show you something and have application to a further future down the road. So what Gabriel is trying to tell Daniel, hey, I'm going to show you what's going to happen to the Israelites in their near future. But this also applies to a Bunch of Saints. 2025 and Cedar Rapids. Oh, this. This has implications for all of us. So what was God seeing? Let's look at verse 20. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. Oh, that's it. Like, we got it. We know what the ram is. It has two horns. The two horns are different sizes because there was a kingdom called the Medo Persian Empire. Some of you are like, whoa, I didn't know we were getting this kind of history. It's going to get crazier. All right, Medo Persian Empire. The Persians were stronger than the Medes, represented by a larger horn. All right, so what Daniel is seeing in a ram, God seeing is like, oh, I'm going to tell you about a future empire to come. You're Ruled by the Babylonians now. But there's, there's another empire that's going to take over. Now let's look at the second part of it, verses 21 and 22. And the goat is. Excuse me. And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken in place which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. So we know who the ram is the Medo Persian Empire. So the question becomes who is the goat? Definitely not Lebron. Alright, maybe that's why I was dreaming about Michael Jordan. I don't know. Who is the goat? The goat here in this vision is the king of Greece. Oh wait, so this ram's talking about the Medo Persian empire, but it's going to be taken over by the Greek empire. And the horn between its eyes is to represent the first king who was really dominant and who dominated kind of the world empire really quickly. Maybe like his feet weren't touching the ground. It was a guy from history that you may know as Alexander the Great. The Bible is predicting, hey, there's this guy named Alexander the Great that's going to come and his kingdom is going to happen incredibly quickly. And while it's really strong, the horn's going to be broken though. Because if you know anything about Alexander the Great, he conquered really quickly, but he died really early. He, he died at probably age 32. And he died so young that he didn't have a successor. And so they split his kingdom up into. Wonder how many parts. Four parts. They split it into four parts. Four conspicuous horns come up. Right, this is what Daniel's seeing. Like here's the crazy thing, this is 350 to 375 years before it actually happened, guys. And we can look back and go, wow, the detail that God is showing Daniel is amazing. It's amazing, but he gives the most detail not to the ram, not to the goat, but to this little horn. So let's look at verses 23 through 25. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king, a bold face, one who understands riddles shall arise. His power shall be great, but not by his own power. And he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning, he shall destroy many and he shall Even rise up against the prince of princes, and he shall be broken, but not. But by no human hand. So this little horn rises up. Now, just to clarify, some of you are like, oh, we talked about a little horn last week. It actually is a different little horn in chapter seven than chapter eight. But he's just using this imagery to help us understand this. So this bold faced, arrogant king rises up. One of these kind of these empire, this Greek empire has been split into four parts. And now one of them rises up, and one of them rises up against the Israelites, hates the Israelites. And it says he initiates destruction against the people of God. The stars and the hosts were trampled. Mighty men and saints were destroyed. He initiates destruction against the worship of God. He takes away the regular burnt offerings. He overthrows the sanctuary. And it says he tramples on the truth of God. He wants to destroy the word of God. So here's this ruler that's going to rise up, that's going to be against the people of God, against the word of God, and against the worship of God. Guys, this is not good news for Daniel. It's not just any kind of vision. It's like a nightmare. Because think about his context. He's already in Babylonian captivity. He's thinking, okay, this one's going to come to an end. It will come to an end because Medo Persians are going to conquer it. But there's going to come another empire after them, this Greek empire that's going to be split into two, split into four parts. And they're going to hate you even more than the Babylonians do. They're going to try to take you out as people. They're going to try to take out your worship, and they're going to try to take out the word of truth. So who is this little horn? In history, there's near universal agreement that this is a king known as Antiochus iv. Some of you may know the name Antiochus Epiphanes. All right? Antiochus means God, man. The illustrious one, the one who acts like God. Epiphanes was given to him. That was a name given by his enemies to mean madman, a God man, the psycho. All right, that's what you're getting here. That this guy. And now, now, why would they call him that? Let me give you a little church history. He hated the people of God. He hated the Jewish people. He enslaved them. He tried to exterminate them. In essence, he was the Hitler of the ancient world. And God's saying, this is the guy coming, Daniel this is the guy that's coming for you and your people. He hated the word of God. He ordered his men that anytime that they found the Torah, they were to tear it up and they were to burn it. He trampled on the word of God. Like, this is real life history that God's predicting in advance. And Antiochus not only hated the people of God, he wanted to trample the word of God, but he banned the worship of God. You can't do your regular burnt offerings. And in fact, I'll make my own offering in the temple. And where all the sacrifices were made in the temple, Antiochus Epiphanes would come into the temple one day and sacrifice a pig, an unclean animal, on the altar to a false idol. This is a man that's trying to turn out the lights on Christianity. In fact, years later, the Jews would revolt against him. And the Jews still celebrate this today, kind of when the lights were turned back on on their religion. And it's called Hanukkah, the festival of lights. Like, this is real history happening. So there's evil and it's awful. And Daniel's like, whoa, this is what I'm seeing. But look back at the end of verse 25, it says, and he shall be broken, but by no human hand. The evil's not going to last forever. By no human hand. We've heard that in Daniel thus far. In chapter two, you get this vision of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about. And there was this rock that was going to come and destroy the statue. And the rock was cut out by no human hand because it's saying God's going to establish his kingdom that's going to destroy all these other kingdoms, which we get the same language here. Hey, Antiochus Epiphanies, he's not going to rule forever. God's going to take him out. Evil does not win. So when Daniel is seeing, like, oh, I'm seeing a ram and a goat and a little horn, what is God's perspective here? What is God seeing? He's seeing a Medo Persian empire, a future Medo Persian empire, a future Greek empire. He's seeing Alexander the Great. He's seeing that king kingdom split up in four parts. And this little guy named Antiochus Epiphanes is going to hate the Israelites. And he's also seeing the rise of all these kingdoms and the destruction of all these kingdoms. Guys, they're like, accuracy of this is amazing. Like, this is incredible to like, see this kind of truth and go, wow, Jesus God predicted this 350 to 375 years in advance. This is amazing stuff. What should we be seeing? God knows the future. God knows the future. Can you imagine if somebody like, in the 1400s, they wrote and they described, hey, one day there's this guy named Washington, and he's going to defeat the redcoats and he's going to, like, become the first king of this, like, country that hasn't even been, like, founded by, found by explorers yet. Like, can you imagine that? We go, that's crazy talk. Like, nobody could predict that. And that's why a lot of people think, like, oh, Daniel, must have been written after all this happened. Guys, that's a really human perspective. This was written before it happened because it was written by God and it was decreed by God. God knew the future, but he didn't just know it, he decreed it hundreds of years in advance. He was wise and he was purposeful in his sovereignty over the future, over evil, over the destruction of evil kings and kingdoms. Guys, God isn't sitting around waiting and looking ahead to see how things are gonna turn out. And then, oh, I'll make a plan B. That's not how God operates. He doesn't just know the future because he knows what people will choose to do. He knows the future because he said, this is what the future's gonna be. That's how amazing our God is. Kings and kingdoms rise and fall because of God. Your life starts and ends because of God's. Kings don't manifest their future reigns, kingdoms don't manifest their empires, and. And people don't manifest their futures. There's a bunch of garbage in our society, like, work hard and manifest your future. You don't rule the future. God determines your future. So God knows the future. But what in the world are we supposed to do with all this great. God knows our future. Yeah, I believe that, but what are we supposed to do? So you get this first act of grace in this chapter where God sends the angel Gabriel to help him interpret it. But look at verse 26 says this. The vision of the evenings and the mornings, that has been told is true. But seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now. Seal up the vision. Remember the vision. Now, when you hear that word seal, sometimes. Okay, I just have to say this. When I say sil, Sometimes my South Carolina comes out and you think it's like, S I L L. I'm saying S E A L. I don't know how to say it. Well, okay, so he's saying you think of this, you're like, oh, I want you to hide this forever. Okay, he's not saying hide it. He's saying, I want you to preserve this. Because this vision is not just good for Daniel. This vision needs to be preserved. Cause it's really good for future generations. What an act of grace that God would preserve his truth so that we could understand it, to have it for later. Knowing the future cannot change yesterday, but it absolutely should change how you live today. So how are you to practically live it out? Let's see how Daniel responds. Right here at the end, verse 27, it says this, and I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. But then I rose and went about the king's business. But I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. He still didn't understand it. And he got an interpretation of it. Now, why wouldn't he understand it? He can't GRASP what's coming 350 years in advance. He doesn't know about these future empires, so he can't understand all the details. But we have the luxury of looking back in history because for him, it's like, I can't figure out the future. But for us, we're like, oh, God knew the future ahead of time. So what can we know? Here's the first thing that you can know from this vision. Know that evil against God's rule and reign will continue. Evil against God's rule and reign will continue. Yes, even to this day and in our lives. How will evil continue? Evil will continue to trample on the word of God, to devalue the word of God. Evil doesn't value God's word as authority. This is the authority for our lives. God, guys. Well, what does evil do? Evil tramples on top of it and says that I'm the authority. We're to say no. We're going to put ourselves underneath the authority of scripture and listen to what it says. But if you want to continue in evil, you go, oh, I know that's what the Bible says. But I'm going to live life how I want to live it. Because you are trampling on the truth of God by living a lifestyle that way. That's not the way that we're to live. But guys, that is the way that our world will continue to live. Will continue to prioritize their truth, our truth, over God's truth. There is no your truth. You don't have truth like God's truth. This is it. You don't determine your life. Like, this is God's work. But God's truth is going to continue to be twisted and, and downplayed and ignored and disregarded. Evil's gonna continue. Guys, you're like, whoa, thanks for the good news, Michael. It gets worse. Not only is our world gonna continue to devalue the word of God, our world's gonna continue to hate the people of God. Jesus promised it, right? Hey, the world hated me. Guess what, disciples? The world's gonna hate you too. The world is going to continue to come after and persecute the people of God. Just last week, an American missionary in the country of Niger was kidnapped. No idea where he is currently. This is one of our brothers in Christ. In the country of Nigeria, over 4000 Christians are martyred each year, more than anywhere in the world. Number one, be really grateful that you can come and you can worship in a place like this on a Sunday, freely. But guys, we should be troubled like man. Evil's going to continue. The world's going to continue to trample on the word of God. It's going to continue to try to destroy the people of God. And it's going to continue to try to turn out the lights on the worship of God. And guys, this is awful. This is tragic. And how did Daniel respond? He was overcome and lay sick for some days. He was sickened by it. He was disturbed and troubled by it. Guys, we shouldn't just get used to to the evil in our world, the evil against Christians. We shouldn't celebrate it, but it shouldn't surprise us because it was promised and God knows our future. But how did Daniel respond? He was overcome and lay sick for some days. He didn't lay in bed and stay sick forever because evil was continuing for some days. He lamented, he grieved. But lament doesn't just stop with sadness. There's a turning. And what did Daniel do next? It says, then I rose and went about the king's business. I rose and went about the king's business. But how could he do something like that? Like, how long is this evil going to last? Go back to verses 13 and 14. Then I heard a holy one speaking. And another holy one said to the one who spoke, for how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate and the giving over of the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? Like, how long is this going to happen to the people of God and the worship of God? And he said to me, for 2300 evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state. Now, I don't have time to go into all the what the 2300 days means there. Check out beyond the Message podcast. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Okay, but here's the point that I believe that God's trying to make here. The days of evil are numbered. There is a number put on by God. Evil will not last forever. Like, that's good news. Evil's gonna continue, but only until God says, that's enough. And, guys, it may be in your lifetime, it may not be in your lifetime, but. But Jesus will return and destroy evil forever. That is incredible news. And that's what we're seeing in this text. Guys, the days of evil are numbered. That's what makes Daniel be able to rise up and go about the King's business. That was his job. Well, wait, evil's gonna happen in the future, but the days of evil are numbered. Get up and go do your job. This is what faithfulness looks like. In first Thessalonians, Paul writes this letter to this church, and they're wondering about the return of Christ, and they're wondering how they should live waiting on the return of Christ. And this is what he says in first Thessalonians, chapter four. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us, how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you should do so more and more. So let me give you an idea. So what are we supposed to do as we wait on the return of Christ? Yeah. Walk and please God, just as you're doing. Just keep doing it. Now, what does that look like? Verse 2. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now skipping to verse 7. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Sorry. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but. But God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed, is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more. To live a holy life, love one another, and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs, to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent upon no one. Live quietly, do your work, live holy lives, love one another. And then they were confused. This last verse, they were really confused, like, okay, people have died before Jesus comes back. What's going to happen to them. He goes, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, those who have died, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. So what is Paul trying to tell the church? Hey, as you wait for the return of Christ, it's going to be bad, there's going to be evil. But this is how you should live. This is what faithfulness looks like. Live holy lives, love one another, live quiet lives, work hard, remember the return of Christ. It's not get freaked out and fight to change the future like get up, obey the Lord, love one another and wait for his return. It's not okay, well, Jesus is coming back. God wins. I guess I can do whatever I want now. He goes, no, be holy, live holy lives. Because some of you go, well, if Jesus is going to win, that's all going to be good in the future. Then I can just live my life however I want to. Today he said, no, no, no. If you got a relationship that needs reconciled, reconcile. Don't go, max out your credit card, don't go, max it out because, well, Jesus is coming back. I can do whatever I want today. No, that's a terrible way to live. But knowing your future, it should change how you live today. You should keep caring about your kids choices. Even when it's really hard, keep caring about them. Don't give up. Keep going to your job. Well, God wins. I guess I don't need to go to work tomorrow. No, you go and you work as unto the Lord. That's what he's called you to because you know your future. Get out of bed, go to work, love other people and and obey what he's asked you to do. Why? Because he wins in the end. So go live for the person who wins now. Do what God asks now by trusting what God will do later. Do what God asks you to do now by trusting what he will do with you later. Live holy, loving, quiet, hopeful lives because you know your future is secure now. How does God graciously help us in this? Guys, remember God's grace in this vision. Daniel, I'm going to send you Gabriel to help you interpret this. I'm going to preserve the truth for you. What does God do for us as we wait for Christ to return? Aren't you grateful that he's preserved the truth? That you have God's truth that guides you in how to live? Psalm 119, 105 says this. Your word is a lamp to my feet and A light to my path. How do you live a faithful life now? Like you. Go to His Word as you wait for Him. Go to his word. He's preserved the truth for you. He hasn't just preserved the truth for you. He's given you a helper to know how to live. Not an angel named Gabriel. It's way better. He's given himself through the Holy Spirit to dwell in you. In fact, In John, chapter 14, it says these things. I've spoken to you while I'm still with you. This is Jesus talking. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Why should your heart not be troubled when the world is chaotic and evil seems to be reigning? You got a helper. And the helper is God dwelling in you. If you were in Christ, you have his truth to help. You know what faithful living looks like. And you have a helper to help you actually live it out. But here's the even better news. Not only do you have truth, not only do you have a helper, but God graciously sacrificed his son so that you could live faithfully. Because you can't pull it off on your own, guys. And when the Israelites. How are we going to do this? They're all coming after us. How are we going to pull this off? What we need to do, as we look back into history is go, man. We have a savior that was more severely attacked than the Israelites. That Herod tried to kill him as a baby. The devil tempted him three times. His hometown people tried to hurl him off a cliff. The religious leaders tried to put him to death. Pilate had him flogged. Pilate had him handed over to be crucified. The Roman soldiers mocked him. They spit on him. They struck him and they crucified him. For what? Because of all the transgression that he did wrong? No, guys, for all of our transgressions. That's God's grace. That he would not only preserve the truth, that he would not only send you a helper, but he would send a savior to die for you to live the life that you couldn't live. That would put an end to all the morning and evening sacrifices. Because he was the perfect sacrifice once for all. And his name's Jesus. As we Come to take communion here in just a second. That's what I want you to remember. Yeah, evil's going to continue, but the days of evil are numbered. And God defeated death in his Savior and Jesus in his Son. Guys, Jesus is coming back. That's good news. And if that's our future, then live differently. Live differently. And if we all start to live differently, what would that look like? Guys, let's be a people. Let's be a church humbled by our ignorance. We don't know all the details, but we sure know the one who does. Let's keep depending on him, seeking him. Let's be a church that's troubled by evil. Like, consider the persecution of Christians around the world. Don't like just gloss over that, grieve that. But don't grieve without hope. Jesus is going to end evil. He's coming back. So be humbled by our ignorance. We want to be people troubled by evil. And we want to be a church that is faithful to God. We want to be holy, loving, steady, hopeful people because we know the God who knows the future. Amen. Let's pray. God, you are so good. Thanks for your grace in preserving this vision. It seems so crazy, but it's so accurate. Lord, may we leave this place today after worshiping you. And may it motivate us. May this vision inspire us to live faithful holy lives forever. Pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.