Feasting on the Bring of Death - Daniel 5 - In Babylon

Yeah, and all of our campuses, man, let's praise God for what we're seeing.

Guys, if you've been around Mercy Heel very long, here's what you know. All right, the Deeper Initiative and things that we do, man, it's not about buildings, it's not about programs, it's about life change just like that. It's about God going deep in us and us going deep in our relationship with Him and seeing that extended.

The gospel comes to us on its way to other people, and we get a chance to see that happening in a story like this. It's exactly what the Deeper Initiative is about. And so, guys, if you jumped off the sideline and onto the frontline through the Deeper Initiative, man, be excited today because stories like this are happening in our church. And if not, it's a big invitation for you to jump in. And one thing that I want to do quickly here is I do want to just say, guys, we are one week away from the most important week of the summer. And I know that's a big thing to say. Man, student camp is a big week. Mission trips are a big week.

I know that. It's one of the biggest weeks of the summer where we get a chance to see hundreds and hundreds of children descend upon the campuses of Mercy Hill all around. Really the whole, you know, really all around Greensboro, High Point, east, you know, northwest, south. We've kind of been able to see, as our campus reach extends, this ministry go forward and these kids are going to come and we are so pumped to see them come in. I want to just kind of make one more sort of plea to you today and just say, hey, have you considered what it would look like for your family to be one to serve in Kids Week? I know that for my family, we have a lot of big hopes and dreams at this particular Kids Week. We have one of the children in our home that is yet to be baptized, is yet to place faith in Christ, but is of age. We have another one, Faith Ann, that is, you know, she's not quite of age yet. And so, man, we're praying.

We've been praying for months that it would actually be Kids Week that would be the moment where it clicks for one of our kids. And so, you know, I just think about how many other families are in that exact situation. Guys, it is, you know, engagement in terms of serving that will drive the attendance of Kids Week.

I wanted to show you guys this and try to just give you the best illustration that I could of it. All right, so just, you know, just real quick on numbers here. In 2021, all right, so 2021, we had 363 people serve, which turned into us seeing 710 children attend.

Okay, which is just an incredible number, awesome to see. All right, in 2022, we ended up seeing 546 people serve, which turned into 849 kids that came and worshiped and were able to hear gospel stories and all that kind of stuff. Now, if you can see what happened from 2021 to 2022 is that our ratios actually got better. Okay, because what we want to see, I mean, if you've been around kids lately in this generation, one adult for two kids, it's not enough, okay? All right, we need a better ratio than that, okay?

And so we got better. We were close to 63% or something like that in 2022. Now, for 2023, what we're hoping to see, all right, 2023, we're hoping to see at a 60% ratio, all right, and we would love to see, okay, this is a 20% jump also. It's a 19% jump, I think, okay? But if we see about a 20% jump again, it's going to put us over 1,000 children coming, which means that we're going to need to see over 600 adults serving.

And this is what I want you guys to see. It is this serving number that drives that attendance number. I'm just telling you the way God works in terms of preparing the jars, when we hit these numbers, we hit these numbers. I don't know this, I'm not a prophet, okay? But I bet you if 600 adults and students, okay, that's high school, middle school as well, all right, volunteers, if we end up hitting this number, I bet we're going to get pretty close to that number. Because if we prepare the jars, God just seems to fill them. So, man, I want to call upon you, man, if it's even only a day, a couple of days that you can serve, man, would you jump off the sideline and onto the front line and serve in this vital ministry with us?

You guys can sign up right on our website, and I pray that you will. You too, listen, it's about what God is going to do in you. You got a teenager that's exhibiting a lot of self-centeredness right now, put them in a classroom with a bunch of three-year-olds for hours.

Right? If your faith is stale, serve your way out of it. Okay, so it's not just about the kids that are going to be impacted. Man, this is about you and your faith as well, and I pray that we're going to see a bunch of people, new people, jump in. All right, if you have a copy of Scripture, turn with me to Daniel chapter 4. Guys, we have been praying over this week. I'm excited for this sermon, Thursday night service. All right, I'm not going to name his name at the Thursday night service, but one of the pastors I was sitting next to, and, you know, we started singing that song, I Throw Up My Hands and Praise, and he just threw his hands up and just about knocked me out. Okay, just, you know, and I'm not going to tell you his name. Okay, but I'll give you his initials.

His initials were Niko Williams from the Clifton campus. Okay, so, you know, so since Thursday night, we've been really pumped about this sermon and this. Guys, here's the deal. I want to clearly lay out the gospel to you today, and this is why. Many of us have been walking through this series, and I hope it's been helpful for you.

It has been helpful for me. It's been helpful for my family to be thinking about some of these deep things, but here's the deal. All right, many of us in here have been hearing this message that's something like this. How do we thrive in Babylon even though this is not our home and our kingdom? Like this is where we have been put, seek the peace of this place, but you and I, believer, you're like, man, I'm not, this is not my home. I am in exile here. This is the reality that we've got to realize today.

That is not true for everybody in every one of our campuses. Many people are living here, but your home is there. But there are many people in our campuses today under the sound of my voice, and here's the deal. You're living here, and this is your kingdom. You have not, as Colossians 1, read this with me. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

There are folks in our midst today at our campuses. You know maybe even who you are. Listen, you've been doing the religious thing. You've been doing the morality thing. You're trying to get better. You're trying to clean your life up. You've been coming around church.

You're trying to do the stuff. You have not stepped over the line and given your life to Jesus Christ. You have not had this happen where you were transferred from the domain of darkness to the domain of the kingdom of his beloved Son.

And I want to give you that opportunity this weekend. This weekend is a weekend where we can, I think, look in the scripture and see. This is very true.

This is tough. Man, the Bible tells us God will not strive with man forever. And it might be that you are here today. And this might be the last time you hear the gospel and are given an opportunity to respond. I don't know.

No idea. Man, if God calls you today, there's no guarantee he's going to call you tomorrow. There's no guarantee you're going to be here tomorrow. So why would we not respond today? We're going to get into a story today where a man did not realize maybe or maybe he didn't care. I don't totally know. But the hurricane of God's wrath was right off the shore and he partied on the brink of the grave.

That's Belshazzar. And sadly, many of us might be doing the very same thing today. Man, we're distracting. We're moving.

We're making our life about something else. All the while, the hurricane of God's judgment is right offshore and is going to come ashore. And this is what I want you to see today.

God will, big idea, God will pass judgment over sin. Are we ready for that to happen? Man, are we ready to meet God? I want you to wrestle with something here today, every one of us, okay?

And here at our campuses, all over. Here's the deal. There are some people, the greatest desire in their life is to see God, is to stand before him. The greatest desire in their life is for the kingdom of God to come. There's other people who, if they thought about it for a minute, would realize, and maybe will today, that it's your greatest fear. What's the difference?

Man, the difference is if we can understand. You know, the finger of God is going to write over every one of our lives. For some, that finger is going to write, numbered, weighed, divided. For some, that finger is going to write, justified by the blood of my son.

Righteous, just as if you'd never sinned. What's it going to be for us? All right? Let's dive in. Here's what we're going to see. We're going to walk through this story today. Daniel chapter 5, again, one of these longer stories, but I'm going to try to get through it the best I can.

We're really going to try to nail down on this big idea. God is going to pass judgment over sin. Man, how are you going to handle that? There is one who offers you an out, who offers you the understanding of, man, by the blood of his son, he has paid the price for you. Will you take it today? I don't know.

We'll see. All right, here we go. Chapter 5, starting in verse 1. He made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine in front of a thousand. And Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, he commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought that the king and his lords, his wives and his concumides, might drink from them. Pretty bold move, probably because he had well tasted the wine. Okay?

That's what it says. He tasted the wine first? Yeah, I bet. He's not thinking real clearly here, it seems. I mean, he should have been able to know, we're going to see this. He has seen what's happened in Nebuchadnezzar's life. Nebuchadnezzar is probably not his actual father, it's an ancestor, but he should know the story.

It's probably his grandfather. But either way, he should know what happened in Nebuchadnezzar's life, but he's not thinking. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, his concubines, drank from them. And this is the point, verse 4.

You ready? They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Now, what we see here is a pretty arrogant and prideful man who wants to have this big party for himself and for all of the people in his kingdom and all of that. The truth is, calling it a party is probably pretty generous. It's probably an orgy. It's probably something that is the most godless thing you can imagine.

Women, drunkenness, flaunting possessions. What immediately came to my mind is 1 John 2 16. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, it's all at play here.

But I want you to understand something that we've said in this series a few different times now. Y'all, morality flows downhill from what you worship. Right?

That's what we saw in verse 4. What are they there to do? What we want to do is say they're breaking all these rules. Man, they're drinking to the point of excess and drunkenness. They're women and concubines. You just get the idea that it's this crazy party that's going on.

But what's uphill from that? We want to praise the gods of gold and silver and bronze and stone and all. Right? What we worship flows down into what we do. You know, one theologian said it like this, what you believe about God, what you think about God, what comes to your mind about God, when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Why?

Because it will control everything else that you do. You know, Belshazzar doesn't trust the God of Israel. Man, he wants to worship all the gods of his ancestors.

And so what does he do? He brings out these vessels from the temple when it was conquered in order... Listen, okay, they didn't need the goblets from the temple because they had run out of solo cups, okay?

That's not what happened. What happened is they go and get these cups in order to make the point, this is what I think of your God. My gods are going to be worshiped today, and this is what I think of yours.

My gods are superior, the gods of gold and the gods of silver, and it drives them into a drunken madness. Of course, the problem with this all is that there actually is a real God in heaven who actually cares about his vessels, okay? And he cares about what's going on. And so for Belshazzar, like I said, the hurricane of God's wrath is sitting right offshore here, and it's about to come onshore pretty fast, and that's what we're going to end up seeing. Now, before we get into that, the finger and the writing on the wall and all that, and if you're new to it, we're going to get into this whole story, but judgment is looming here, and I want to make one point. Judgment is looming, yet Belshazzar shows cosmic unconcern for that. Now, there's two ways to think about this. Number one is that the party is going on in order to distract him from what is necessarily coming. There have been historians that have said, hey, the Persians were probably right outside the gate. Now, the walls of Babylon are 300 feet high and 80 feet thick. They've got enough food to last for 20 years, but there's still an army right outside your gates.

And so what do they decide to do? Instead of fortifying all that, they've decided we're going to party. You know, I was thinking about my life, and I was like, well, where have I seen this before? Oh, yeah, 1999, Y2K, okay? If anybody remembers that, all right? I realized this week in talking to our City Project students, I said something about Y2K, and I realized none of them were born.

Okay, they weren't with us. A party like it's 1999, why? Because the world's going to end. Y2K, remember this?

People had crazy parties and all this stuff. They didn't know it was going to happen. I don't know. Actually, you know, so that's been thought.

You know, hey, there's a big party. I don't think that's what's going on. I think what's going on is not that he sees the impending doom. It's that he doesn't care. And he don't see it, and his gods are gold and silver, and he's the man, and he's got a thousand people there and concubines, and we're going to drink. And that's what I think is more going on.

He's distracted, although the storm is right offshore. I think a better illustration for this, guys, I know, I hope, listen, families, man, I hope you talk to your kids. I hope this week, June 6th, you know, shouldn't go by without us talking about D-Day and talking about some, you know, people that made that sacrifice, and I hope you were able to do that maybe with your kids. But it reminded me of December 7th, 1941, right? The day that we'll live in infamy, right?

Why? Well, because I just, you guys have seen the pictures. Anna's grandfather was actually there at Pearl Harbor.

He remembered, I mean, he's just looking in the mirror, shaving, thinking about he's about to be home for leave. You know, it's right at Christmastime and all that. I don't know if you guys have seen, you know, the pictures or movies play this up where you just kind of have that picture of guys throwing the baseball on the deck of the, you know, of the ships and all. Nobody realizes that there's 350 Japanese fighters. There's bombers, torpedoes, six aircraft carriers.

The entire weight of the Imperial, you know, Navy is on its way, right? We don't see it. We didn't know.

3,500 Americans were either killed or wounded, and half the, you know, almost the whole Pacific, you know, fleet was wiped out. They didn't know it then, but all they had done was awaken the sleeping giant, okay? But I just think about that story, and I'm like, man, isn't that a little crazy?

You could be throwing a baseball or shaving or thinking about going home. Americans were hanging Christmas lights, but they were coming. And I think about that for us in this text.

That feels like it reminds me a little bit of Belshazzar. Man, the Medes and the Persians are coming. This is the night when world history changes, and yet he's partying.

And he's distracting. It's the ultimate folly. It's partying on the brink of the grave. It's celebrating right on the brink of your own distinction. I fear today that with us and at our campuses that there may be some people here that are doing the exact same thing. You have figured out how to not think about your own mortality. You have driven by distraction and distraction and distraction in order to get away from even thinking about these things. Blaise Pascal said it like this. The most consistent human reaction to unpleasant thoughts about their own mortality is distracting themselves with amusement. It's the rap song from Drake, I ain't here for a long time, I'm here for a good time, okay?

I don't know who Drake is, okay? Somebody in our sermon planning did know, okay? But I think about that for us. Hey, how many of us may be there today? How many of us might be distracting ourselves? And what is it?

It's endless scrolling to get away. It's ultimate obsession with fitness. We had one of our City Project students say there was a time in my life where fitness was driven by I want to outrun mortality. I've got to be fit so that I can outrun.

It's thinking about our kids' sports and success. And what I want to say today, I want to rattle the cage. What I want to say to you today, if that's you and you're coming around, you're hearing truth today, stop partying on the brink of the grave. There is an opportunity for you to come out of the judgment that you are under because of your sin. Let's see it, verse 5, let's keep going. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of a wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. The king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king's color was changed and his thoughts alarmed him.

And his limbs gave way and his knees knocked together. The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler of the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. I don't have time to chase this but let me just say this, there is a big time theme in the book of Daniel of the failure of the wise men in every age.

Okay? There are questions that we must turn to God for the answer. And I don't have time to chase that right now but man, it's all over the pages of this story. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed and his color changed again, okay?

And his lords were very perplexed. Now, if you've ever heard the phrase, the writing is on the wall, now you know, okay? This is what it is, right? It comes from this story and when we say the writing is on the wall, here's what that means in our vernacular.

It's the same thing as here. I don't know what exactly is going on but I know it's not good. That's the writing on the wall, right? When someone says that. And that's what happens here. Man, God shows up and these people are terrified.

I want to say something that I said in the intro. Don't you realize today and doesn't this shake you today to know that sitting in the same room, there are people whose greatest desire is to meet their Savior. And there's people whose greatest fear would see the fingers and the hands of God show up in their life.

Let me ask you this question. When God shows up, will we be terrified? Would you be terrified? I mean, this is terrified.

The Bible doesn't do a ton of potty humor but a lot of commentators think this actually is. That what is meant by all this stuff about loose limbs and joints is like, man, he's losing function here. He's pale. He's terrified.

His knees are knocking together. Why? Because he knows the gig is up. Man, the gig is up. I'm not God.

A thousand people partying, all that kind of stuff. It takes one moment of God showing up for us to realize that ain't me. It's not me. I want to be praised. I want to sit at the top. I want to be the king. He's actually not even the king, by the way. Belshazzar is the king of Babylon. He's not the king of the Babylonian empire. Okay? This guy, I mean, I think Daniel has a little bit of a tone with him that is a little bit like, man, Nebuchadnezzar was at least a pretty big conquering king. You're kind of a windbag.

Okay? And you see it here. The sheer terror that comes out, guys, rattle the cage a little bit, shake the foundation. Man, is one of your greatest desires that the kingdom of God would break through to earth, can you wait to see what God is going to be like and do in heaven?

Or is it something that you're like, man, if I stood before God right now, man, because I don't have any covering for my sin, he's going to see right through me. Look at verse 10. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall and the queen declared… Now, this is not the queen as in his wife. It's probably the queen mother, which you would know if you ever watched Downton Abbey. Okay? Not that I did.

All right? So the queen mother. O king, live forever.

Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. The king Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, astrologers. Because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called and he will show you the interpretation.

Now I'm going to skip ahead a little bit here into verse 17. Now, one of the cool things I will say about this is, guys, are we known? Daniel was known for God's wisdom being in him. Are we known for that? Are there people that are like, man, we need to go get that person because they have a Daniel-like spirit and they're discerning.

I pray that it would be us. Then Daniel answered and said before the king… Now, the king had said, remember? He had said, hey, you're going to get all these gifts. Well, from what Daniel's going to say is you can keep the gifts because what's the point of getting a promotion the day before the company goes bankrupt, okay?

Basically, all right? And that's what he's going to say here. Daniel answered and said before the king, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him its interpretation. Probably reading the writing wasn't a problem. Many people probably could have read what it was.

They just didn't understood what it mean. It was in Aramaic, but they didn't understand why a, you know, God hand had shown up and written this stuff. So, O King, the Most High. Now, here's what he does. He takes him back to what he should have known. God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed. And whom he would, he kept alive. Whom he would, he raised up. And whom he would, he humbled.

And when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, that's what we saw last week. He was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. And he was driven from among the children of mankind and his mind was made like that of a beast. And his dwelling was with the wild donkeys and he was fed grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven. And he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, listen, though you knew all of this. You should have known.

You have seen how God has moved in the world. You have heard stories from your ancestors. You should have known.

Man, I would just hate it for somebody here this weekend, one day, years from now, to wake up in the afterlife in a place called hell. And you're like, man, I knew. I remember because somebody told me.

They told me. You should have known that you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels of his house have been brought in before you and your lords and your wives and concubines and you drank wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, stone, which you do not see or hear or know.

But the God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways you have not honored. This is powerful, y'all. It's just a powerful text.

I mean, I don't know how much we even got to do. The imagery is right there. You should have known.

You had the story. But yet you chose your own kingdom anyway. And this is going to be your demise. Daniel is getting pulled out of retirement here. He's probably in his 60s. And he's speaking truth to the king. I think that's a really awesome thing for our church.

I was thinking about this, talking to another pastor this week. And it's like, man, that kind of retiree boomer type generation, I mean, you just have such an opportunity to move the needle for the kingdom in so many different ways. And you see Daniel all the way in his 60s like, man, I'm not done. They're calling me in.

It's a little bit like all the Rocky movies. They just keep calling him back in. Now he's 60 years old. It's time to go. He's like, all right, whatever.

So he comes back in. Keep your gifts. I don't need them.

You're about to have this place ripped out of your hand anyway. And what does he say to him? He's telling him, you should know that God humbles the prideful. You've seen it. Somebody has told you these things, and yet you don't know.

This is tough for us, but it's the truth. The issue with Belshazzar is not ignorance. It's arrogance. He knows, man. But he don't want to know. He don't want to see it.

He wants to continue life as the party as he knows it. And I think there's a subtext here that what Daniel was trying to get him to see is like, hey, man, Belshazzar, listen, okay? You and I both know how great Nebuchadnezzar was, and that ain't you. Now I'm reading into that a little bit, okay?

But I think that's kind of what's going on. Like, hey, man, Nebuchadnezzar was a pretty bad dude, and you're kind of not. If God could humble him, what do you think he does with us?

I think about that for us. I don't know about you guys. I mean, I've never been the ruler of the known world with a kingdom with walls 300 feet high and 80 feet thick, and I killed who I wanted and kept alive who I wanted and all the things that they said about Nebuchadnezzar. I've never known that type of power. Nobody in here probably has. If God can humble him, the point is, what about you?

What about us, right? Finish the story. Then from his presence, the hand was sent. This writing was inscribed.

This is the writing that was inscribed. Many, many tekel parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter. Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and are found wanting. It says, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command and Daniel was, even though he refused it, he was clothed in purple. A chain of gold was put around his neck and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

That very night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old. The word weighed wanting divided. Now, this is what's interesting, okay?

That word divided, actually, another way to translate that word is Persian. Now, here's what I want you to see, okay? This is what I want you to see. Listen, I'm going out on a tiny bit of a limb here and if you disagree with this, I do think this is absolutely in the camp of one of those things that we can agree to disagree on, okay?

But I'm going to tell you what I think about this story. Did God give Daniel specific interpretation of dreams and discernment in specific areas that we've seen in this book? Absolutely. Here's my take. I don't think you've got to have some grand vision from God to understand what Daniel understood here. Did God don him with something? Maybe. Or it might be that Daniel walked in and was like, okay, here we go, we've got this massive party, you guys are all drunk, thousand women here, probably being abusive.

Oh, what are those? Oh, those are the articles from God's kingdom and you guys are drinking them to make the point that your gods are the real gods. Oh, and this hand shows up and it says numbered, weighed, and divided, and the word divided also means Persian.

And oh, by the way, we all know they're kind of right out of the gate, probably. I think Daniel, in his own wisdom, looked at it and was like, hey, man, it's over. That's what it means. It means it's over. It means you probably have had chances, you should have learned from Nebuchadnezzar, it's over.

And it was over. I don't know that it takes a prophet to understand the meaning here. I think just the clear word of God, which is totally sufficient for us, shows us what we need. Man, we sin, God judges, there comes a point when it's over. For some of us today, we keep kicking that can down the road over and over and over again, and the reality is you don't know if there's a next time or not. We sin, it deserves punishment, God comes in his justice, and there comes a time when the playwright walks out on the stage. And when the writer of the play walks out on the stage and the curtain comes up, it's over. That's going to happen in our life either through death, it's going to happen in our life because Christ comes back and it's over.

I don't know, but I'm just telling you, there's coming a time. Now I know some people have looked at this story, and here's what I want you to make sure you understand too, okay? These stories are put together for a very particular reason. If you weren't here last week, I would encourage you to go back and catch up. But guys, the Nebuchadnezzar story and the Belshazzar story are very similar, right?

Pride, pride, you know, all that kind of stuff. In Nebuchadnezzar's story, God gives him years to repent. In Belshazzar's story, he has like 30 seconds or maybe not even that. Some people say, listen, some people look at these stories and they're like, well, that's not fair. It's not fair that God would give Nebuchadnezzar a chance to repent, but with Belshazzar, he just comes in with his justice.

Listen to me very closely. What do you mean it's not fair? Fair is getting what you deserve. That's the definition of fair. God in his grace can do what he wants.

If he never did it at all, he would still be just. You know where I learned this? Listen, I was my first year at North Greenville College, okay? Right up there in Tigerville, South Carolina, okay? And I'm up there and it's my first year, first couple months on campus. And one day we get back to the campus really late one night and I decide willfully, I'm going to park in the wrong lot so I can get back to my dorm faster because I'm really tired. And I'll get up in the morning and I'll go move my car. Now I get up in the morning and I go to move my car and there's a ticket. All right, it's like a $15 you got to go pay the campus security or whatever, right?

No problem. So I go up there and I'm like, man, this is kind of a bummer. I've never got a ticket.

I don't know exactly. You know, I got to pay the money or whatever. And so I get up there and here's what happened. There was a girl in front of me. She was also first year, whatever. And she's very emotional about the ticket, okay? And, you know, she's very, you know, very pleading about the ticket or whatever.

I'm not making a bunch of stereotypes here. I'm just telling you what happened, okay? And the guy's super nice to her and the guy says, you know what? Hey, no problem. Listen, we're going to give you a warning.

Make sure you park in your lot. Oh, thank you. You know, she was very thankful. Okay, great. Well, now I'm feeling really good, right? I walk right up.

Hey, man, it's my first couple months on campus. I said, listen, man, I got this ticket. I just didn't know if there's any kind of way we can work something out or is there, you know, can I get a warning, whatever.

And he's like, oh, no, it'll be $15. Listen. And I said, hey, man, I just saw how you dealt with who was in front of me. And I saw you let her off. Yeah. I said, well, that's not fair. Listen to me.

He said, what in the world does how I deal with her have anything to do with the fact that you parked in the wrong place? It was like. Here's my money. You pay, you pay, you pay for your education, right? It was like, here's my money.

Thank you for the ticket. Now I sort of understand God's grace. Right. Now, what we want to do is we want to say, well, if he was gracious here, he has to be. What do you mean he has to? I don't like getting in the habit of saying God has to anything. We shouldn't be like, oh, I can't believe God would not. How are we not blown away that God has shown grace at all? When what we have done is nothing but sin and rebel and our hearts are deceitfully wicked.

And this is what I'm getting at here. Y'all fair is getting what we deserve. It is God's grace, which listen to me, is available for you. It is available for anybody in this church right now who will respond and take him up on it.

It is available for you today. That grace is there for you. But listen, it's not a fair thing. God showed mercy on him, didn't show mercy on him. Man, this is God's prerogative. It's about what we deserve. Well, what do we deserve?

Well, you could say it like this. What do we deserve because of our sin? That's the real question that we need to wrestle with. Honestly, as we start to begin to wrap up a little bit here, what we've got to deal with is two passages of scripture that have become very popular.

I think to talk about with this, it's people call it even the Romans wrote or whatever. But there's two pages I want to take you in the Bible that are just so clear on this. OK, what do we deserve? Well, here's what the Bible says. Romans three twenty three for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now, I know that what you're thinking is, yeah, but I've never thrown a thousand person crazy party with drunkenness and been the king and drank out of it. OK, well, let's just let's walk across the bridge here.

All right. Many times the Bible will show us something in a grand display that you and I are guilty of in our everyday life. Grand display every day. You're right. I've never had a thousand person party and drink out of the vessels from the temple. Have you ever taken any blessings that God gave you and use them for your own devices?

Right. Man, have we ever been in situations that were totally compromised? Have we ever distracted ourselves absolutely into oblivion? Have we ever abused anything? Have we ever abused eating, drinking, watching Netflix, something like, you know, scrolling?

Have we ever abused working? I mean, we could get into all of this stuff to distract ourselves. We can put ourselves squarely in the shoes of Belshazzar. Guys, every one of us have sinned. Here's what Romans 623 says. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. That what we know is this.

What we deserve is death, just like Belshazzar got. But there is a free gift that God gives us in his son, Jesus Christ. This is what I told you in the intro. The finger of God is going to write something over your life, numbered, wanting, weighed, divided, or just as if I'd never sinned, righteous because of the blood of Christ.

What is it going to be for you? I know some of you are new and you're like, wait a minute. OK, we were talking about Daniel, but now we're talking about Jesus.

OK, how does this exactly work? Well, listen, Jesus shows up. The Bible is pointing to Christ in every page. OK, it's pointing to show us the love of God in the face of Christ and the greatest act of love for us in the cross. It's pointing to it all the time.

And the Bible points to Christ all the time. We have rebelled. We have been consumed with our own devices. We need a covering. We need a way out of the wrath of God.

Well, where do we get it? We get it in Jesus Christ. What does Jesus do? Jesus is the true and better Daniel. Listen, Daniel made known the judgment of God. But Jesus took the judgment of God for us. He didn't just proclaim it. He took it into himself.

I want you to think about this with me. For proclaiming and showing the judgment of God. What happened in Daniel's life?

Daniel was clothed in purple. He was given a sign of kingship and he was proclaimed to be a ruler in the kingdom. Well, you know what? When Jesus Christ took the judgment that is deserved for us.

Well, you know what? Actually, he was clothed in purple. He was crowned with the signification of the king, crown of thorns. And placed right on his cross was the sign, you are the king of the Jews. Man, Jesus Christ is the ultimate Daniel. He's the truer Daniel who doesn't just come to proclaim, but he comes to take, not just make judgment known, but to take it on our behalf. This is the clearest gospel message that I can tell you, okay? Just like Belshazzar, every single one of us have sinned.

We have fallen away from God and we have chased our own devices. But Jesus Christ, 2,500 years later, is sent to do similar work than Daniel did, but better and truer on our behalf. And that work was to step in for us, not just to judge us and make us understand what was coming, but to take it for us. Jesus went to the cross and took the penalty for our sin, every single one of us, if we would put our faith in him.

It's available for every one of us. If we would put our faith in him, what we would have is, listen, you wouldn't stand before God with all of your sin and all of your works and asking God, hey, sort all this out. But instead, one day you would stand before God united with Christ because you put faith in the work that he did on the cross. Here's how we say it at Mercy Hill. Jesus lived the life you didn't live and died the death that you deserved so that in his resurrection you and I could walk in the newness of life.

That is as true today as it has ever been and it is available for you. So here's what I want to call you to do in conclusion. Trust the gospel and have God's judgment pass over you. Have the judgment of God fall upon Christ for you. That's what he's offering you today.

You know, numbered, weighed, divided. He's offering you an opportunity to have him absorb what you deserve in order that's what's left for you. There's nothing but life in the kingdom with him. You know, I think about this. You've been warned. Have you guys ever been warned of something that you just didn't listen and you've reaped? Man, listen, I've wanted to do this for 10 years. A few weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, I had the chance to go catfish noodling.

I don't know if anybody in here knows even what that is, okay? You dive down to the bottom of the lake and you stick your arm in a massive hole and you just wait for the biggest catfish you've ever seen in your life to bite your hand and then you grab him and you hold on like a rodeo, okay? I've been waiting to do this for 10 years, all right?

And I had the chance. I get there with the guys that were going to do it and they're like, hey man, here's your gloves. I'm like, man, I ain't going no gloves.

They're like, what do you mean you're not going with gloves? I'm like, listen, man, if I'm going to the depths of Lake Tillery to do battle with the beast, I'm going with my jean shorts and Jesus, okay? That's it.

That's all I'm going with. And, dude, listen, we did it, man. We got down there and wrangled out this 40, 50-pound catfish. I'd show you guys a picture, but I have no shirt on and my jean cut off jean shorts and I don't want it listening, guys. I don't want to do that to you, okay?

I don't want to, you know. But I thought, this is what was funny, man. I went down there and the first time I stuck my arm way up in there, okay?

This is crazy. You're at the bottom of the lake and you're laying down and can't breathe. I mean, you guys know me. I about can't breathe anyway, okay? So I'm down there and I'm like, the first time this thing bites me, I was like, oh my gosh.

I come right up to the surface. My whole hand is just blood. It's not like a cut.

It's just like scraped off, okay? And I looked at the guys and I was like, I'm going to need a pair of gloves now, okay? But we've all done stuff like that, right? We've all done stuff where we're like, you got warned and it's like, well, whatever. Guys, I think about that today, man. This is real serious.

I mean, we think about, man, for the rest of your life, you could go back and wish that you didn't hear, listen, you've heard today. Man, you have been warned. The finger of God is going to write something over every one of our lives. Is He calling out to you today for you to place your faith in Him? God is moving toward you today.

If He is, if that is true, man, would you respond and move toward Him? I'm going to ask us to do this on all of our campuses. We're going to move into an invitation time. Would you just bow your heads with me, close your notes and just kind of hang with me for just a minute? I want to give you an opportunity here to respond to this Gospel message that you have heard.

Guys, there's no guarantee that He'll call you tomorrow. You've clearly heard the Gospel. Jesus stood in your place to absorb the penalty for your sin. What's left for you is righteousness. What's left for you is a united existence with Christ for all time. Man, would you step into that? The way you step into that is real simple. We admit that we're a sinner.

We believe in what Christ has done for us and we confess that He is the Lord of our life. I want to give you the opportunity to do that today. Listen, I know some of you guys are thinking right now, man, this is just emotional or whatever and I can do this later. Listen, if God has been after you, if the hound of heaven has been after you and He's calling you today, who do you think it is that's telling you, you don't need this and you can wait?

It's not God. He wants to reap the glory of a life changed. He wants to live with you in heaven forever. You have the opportunity today to come to Him. All right, so your heads are bowed, eyes are closed.

Here's what I'm going to call you to do. I'm going to pray an opportunity for you to receive Christ today and to step over that line and to become a believer. Become a Christian. Ask Jesus into your heart.

We say it a thousand different ways. But just, you know, man, I wasn't and now I am. And Christians in the room, be praying. Man, we've had a lot of spiritual warfare around this type of stuff. And we want to see some life change happen and we believe God's after some people here today.

So here's the deal. I'm going to go into a prayer. If you want to pray this prayer with me, man, you just pray in your heart silently. You pray to God in an authentic way and He's going to save your soul today. He's going to forgive your sin and just give you a place in His kingdom forever.

You pray this with me. Father, I know that I'm a sinner. Like Belshazzar, I deserve your judgment. But I believe the truer Daniel stepped in on my behalf. I believe what I deserved was the cross, but that's what he took for me. And I believe the wrath over my sin fell upon him. And I trust him for that. I trust that Jesus stood in my place.

You repeat this after me. God, I admit that I'm a sinner. And I believe Jesus has done everything necessary to save me. And I confess to follow Him as the Lord, the boss of my life forevermore. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. You guys at all of our campuses, I don't know. The Lord knows.

I bet you there's dozens of people that have prayed to receive Christ. Can we give God some praise for that today? Hey, man, we play around with different invitations and different things that we want to do. Here's the invitation that we want to do this week, okay? We're about to go into a song.

You guys know we respond every week, pray, bring, sing, okay? And, man, this is the response that we want to have today. Man, during that song, I want you to text ready to this number, 336-967-6604.

Man, jot that down. Leave it up there for just a minute. Man, I don't even know if our guy's in the back.

Is there a possible way to flash that number again maybe in the middle of the song? You guys are magicians. Y'all can figure that out.

Okay. Man, text ready, 336-967-6604. Let me tell you exactly what's going to happen, okay?

It's exactly what's going to happen. You're going to text that number, and it's immediately going to shoot you back a little form to fill out. The form is going to be your name, your phone number, although we'll have it, I guess, from the text, but your number, your email. And here's what the text is going to say. A pastor from your campus is going to contact you on Monday, June 12th.

Okay, so that's his Monday coming. All right, so, man, you let us know, and what we want to do is we want to engage with you. We want to have that opportunity to get some correspondence going, see what's going on in your life. Listen, guys, if there's something else crazy, maybe you didn't pray to receive Christ today, but it's like, man, you've walked away, you're trying to come back, you need to be baptized. If there's something going on in your life, you text ready. And that way a pastor is going to call you on Monday, June 12th, okay? All right, let's all stand at all of our campuses. Man, hey, this is a great time for us to bring our tithes and offerings or be reminded to do so. Let's sing to the Lord and let's pray, man, for those who have accepted Christ here this weekend.