I Dare You: Speak Out! - Part B

I'm not trying to force you into a mold that God hasn't put you in, but I do dare you to get out of your comfort zone. And I want you to take away two things. I dare you to care first.

I dare you to care. You'll only talk to people if you care. Even if you're not naturally a conversation starter, you can still talk to others about Jesus. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip dares you to care enough for the lost to share the gospel with them. But before we begin, we want to let you know about a pair of resources that help you love the time you spend in God's Word and see God's sweeping plan for humanity across the pages of scripture. Ready to upgrade your Bible study in 2023? We have a plan and a package for you. Skip Heitzig's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, is an ideal companion for a survey of the entire scope of scripture.

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That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Daniel chapter two today as we join Skip Heitzig for today's teaching. Now about this time, Nebuchadnezzar is riveted in his seat with his mouth partially open as he realizes, bingo, that's exactly what I dreamed. This kid nailed it.

That's what I saw in my dream, a polymetallic image standing in front of me, completely stationary until suddenly out from nowhere like a missile from heaven, like a sci-fi movie, this stone hit the bottom of it, destroyed the image, and in its place was a mountain that filled the whole earth. A couple of noteworthy things before we continue. Don't you find it interesting that what he saw was a statue?

What's noteworthy about that? Well, they're in Babylon, the capital of idolatry. There are statues everywhere. God speaks to an idolater in a language an idolater can understand. He would be familiar with the imagery and so he sees an image.

Second, it's an image of a man because we're dealing with man's rule, man's kingdoms, the times of the Gentiles as Jesus called it. A third thing that is notable about the dream itself is that it's top heavy. It's heavier on top than on the bottom. The specific gravity of gold is 19. The specific gravity of silver is 11. The specific gravity of bronze is 8.5.

Of iron, 7.8. And the specific gravity of clay is around 2. That means this image is unstable. It's top heavy.

And that is how every nation and kingdom of man on the earth is. It's top heavy. It's unstable at best. As you work your way down the statue from the gold from the top down to the toes, the clay, there's a decrease in value from gold being the most expensive to clay being like worthless. As you decrease in value, however, you increase in strength except for the very last one that is the clay. The iron is stronger than the bronze which is stronger than the silver which is stronger than the gold being the softest.

So we have a decrease in value, a decrease in specific gravity, but an increase in strength. Now, let's continue. Verse 36.

This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And whoever or wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all.

You are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth, and a fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron inasmuch as the iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything. And like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and the toes partly of potter's clay, partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron, partly of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.

As you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as the iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings, those final kings as represented by the toes, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left to another people. It shall break in pieces and crush all the people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God, notice the great God. He's speaking to a king who worshiped 13 different gods as the chief deities of Babylon. The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain.

The interpretation is sure. Now I need your attention because I'm going to work quickly through what he sees and what this means and what has happened with accuracy as Daniel peers into the future from Nebuchadnezzar's time onward. We'll revisit it at other times in Daniel.

We'll get a snapshot today. We begin with the head of gold. Daniel says that's you, king. You're the head of gold. You're the king tuna. You're the big enchilada. You're the big kahuna.

You're the guy. You're the world governing empire, and he was. He was at his peak of glory at this time. Governed the whole world of a nation and of a city that was called the city of gold. About 90 years later, the historian Herodotus visited Babylon and said this city has more gold than any other city I have ever visited in my life. Gold leaf on the palaces and on the public buildings. It oozed, he said, out of every pore of Babylon. It was the golden city. And Nebuchadnezzar had reign over that city until 539 BC when another coalition of kingdoms came together against it. As represented in verse 39, after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours. Nebuchadnezzar probably bristled at this point.

He had built Babylon to last forever. And now this young upstart says, here's your dream. That was right. Here's what it means. You're going down.

Another one's coming up. We're not told who that is here. We will be told who that is in subsequent chapters. It is the Medo-Persian Empire, a coalition of Medes and Persians. Under Darius the Mede, who will take the city and oust the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, that's chapter five, and Cyrus the Mede, or Cyrus the Persian, excuse me, will reign over the kingdom in a dual capacity. What's interesting is Darius the Mede will establish a new form of government called the tribute, where every one of his captives will be demanded that they pay him in silver. Silver was the metal of that empire. It will be much larger geographically.

It will be much inferior or weaker because it will lack central government. And it is that weakness that a young Greek yuppie named Alexander, who thought he was really great, will take advantage of. And Alexander the Great will be the next world governing leader, as also mentioned in verse 39, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over the earth. Alexander the Great was very ambitious. In 334 BC, he, through a series of brilliant battles, took over many of the world's most famous battles, took over Medo-Persia, and the world for that matter.

It surprised even him how quickly he gained control. What is noteworthy for us is that the metal that this empire was known for was bronze. In fact, historians call them the brazen coated Greeks because the soldiers bore a new amalgam of metal on their chest, their breastplates, their shields, their helmets were bronze. FYI, when Alexander the Great was pillaging and killing and marshaling his way throughout the world and he was coming against Jerusalem, this is according to Josephus the historian. Anybody here of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian? Josephus says that as he was coming against Jerusalem, Jaduah the high priest at the time came out to meet Alexander the Great with a scroll of the book of Daniel and opened the scroll of Daniel and showed Alexander the Great where he was predicted, prophesied as one who would take over the world. According to the historian, he dismounted from his horse and Alexander the Great paid homage to the God of the Jews.

But the story continues. The bulk of the focus is on the fourth kingdom mentioned in verse 40 shall be as strong as iron. Again, we're not told who this is but if we look back at history, again they were looking forward, it was prophecy to us it's history. A nation came and the description given befits the kingdom of Rome. The iron legions of Rome like a steamroller slowly but definitely took over the world that these three other kingdoms had occupied. Now if you were to look at the image as Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream you would notice that the legs formed the longest part of the statue. As Rome would have the longest era of ruling, a thousand years, I mean Babylon ruled what 60 almost 70 years under Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar then it was over.

A thousand years Rome would rule but even as the image shows a bifurcation, a split and two different legs, the kingdom became divided into east and west in 395 AD and eventually as the image would even depict it weakened and it became brittle and fragmented. And at last there are ten toes at the bottom of that image, partly of iron, partly of clay. Ten toes, ten toes, ten toes.

I want you to remember ten toes, can you tell? I'm not going to uncover it all now but keep that in mind because we'll get to chapter seven and the same truth but in a different image comes you'll see a beast with ten horns and that same image will be seen in the book of Revelation chapter 17, a beast with ten horns and the angel will tell John who writes these things down, the ten horns which you saw are ten kingdoms kingdoms and ever since Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 and Revelation 17, for thousands of years scholars have anticipated some form of a revived Roman empire. More to say about that later. In the days of those kings says Daniel, Christ a stone cut out of heaven will come. Now here's what's amazing, here's what's interesting. If we were given the job to depict world history in the form of a statue we would do exactly the opposite of what is revealed. We would begin with clay after all those were primitive people way back then but then we became better and more educated and more enlightened so we'll use iron and then we became more enlightened and much better and much smarter and so we'll use silver but then we became like totally really brilliant gold and here we are today in the 21st century the golden age of technology and God would say now you're really dreaming because he tells you what it's really like you might begin refined and beautiful but like every kingdom like every era like every epoch there is a deterioration. This is how God reveals it. The best part is the last part, the everlasting kingdom. In the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. Man here's Nebuchadnezzar wondering what the future holds. He's getting the future given to him in spades.

He's getting a full scope of what is coming. He's being shown that all the he's being shown that all the kingdoms of men will halt when a stone cut out of heaven comes to the earth. Question what is that stone? Who is that stone? It is Christ. In fact he is even called by that in other portions of scripture. Isaiah chapter 28 God says behold I lay in zion a stone for a foundation a tried stone a precious cornerstone whoever believes in him will not be ashamed.

Jesus own words Matthew 21 whoever falls on this stone will be broken but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powder. Good old king Nebuchadnezzar is getting a history lesson he's getting schooled by God. He's being shown that God controls history and here's king Nebuchadnezzar he won't last long there will be others after him and the kingdoms that are will soon become the kingdoms that were as Daniel's vision will unfold throughout history very very accurately. Now some in listening to this might have this thought it's a predictable thought okay well this is a pretty amazing kind of a thing that he saw all that was coming and okay I'll grant that that's pretty fascinating that's pretty cool and yes it could be maybe inferred that it's Greece and then Rome etc etc. I just say hold on to your hats you ain't seen nothing yet what do you get through the rest of Daniel it is so pinpointed in its accuracy but see people will look at the passage like this and go okay that happened and that's interesting and that's cool and quaint but I don't believe that Jesus Christ is literally going to come back to this earth and set up his kingdom. Well I feel sorry for you if you can look at a text of scripture that predicts things and they actually happen happen happen happen and then there's one element that hasn't happened in I don't think that's going to happen that can never happen really wouldn't you say that what has happened proves what will happen did you know time Newsweek magazine put out an article sometime back there's a significant number of Americans that do not believe we made it to the moon they don't they think it's a conspiracy the article says the reason these people don't believe we made it to the moon because they can't understand the physics of space travel that would propel a human being from earth to the moon so because they can't understand it they won't believe it I'm sorry if you can't understand the astrophysics of Christ's return I can't either but as I look at prophecy which is now history that has been fulfilled so accurately and I look at that last little piece I say yeah I think that's going to happen too it's a matter of time so here's Daniel comes before the king speaks with authority with humility and with accuracy speaks out and now what I consider the very best part of the story the results and that takes us to the last couple of verses look at verse 46 Daniel spoke out with victory he achieves his desired result then king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face ouch it wasn't an accident it was on purpose he fell on his face prostrate before Daniel and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him and the king answered Daniel and said truly your god is the god of gods the lord of kings a revealer of secrets since you could reveal this secret just let that wash over you do you understand what's happening here's a pagan polytheistic king who is making a confession of faith however deep however shallow that all of his gods are wrong and he believes in that god Daniel's god because all the 13 gods of Babylon and their priests have remained silent and could silent and could not give him the interpretation nor the dream Daniel and his god have and he says your god is the god then the king promoted Daniel gave him many great gifts made him a ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over the wise men of Babylon Daniel petitioned the king and he said Shadrach Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon but Daniel sat in the gate of the king so he is promoted now which will give him greater influence in the future all of this because Daniel dared to speak up god's truth in a pagan culture to a pagan king now I want to close this off I want to bring it down to its takeaway you never have to be afraid of truth if you have truth why are you afraid to tell people the truth god's straight truth is mightier than the devil's crooked lies never be afraid of the truth hey can you echo what Paul said in Romans chapter 1 here's what he said for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes can you echo that I'm not ashamed of the gospel now I understand not everybody's an initiator not everybody's vocal not everybody likes to go up to people and go hey can I have a minute of your time we're not all wired that way I get that I understand that I had friends who used to go door to door knock on doors just cold open the door tell them about Jesus I wasn't wired that way I had friends who went along with them one time and when they knocked on the door they then immediately prayed god don't let anybody be home in Jesus name they were they were scared stiff I'm not trying to force you into a mold that god hasn't put you in but I do dare you to get out of your comfort zone and I want you to take away two things I dare you to care first I dare you to care you'll only talk to people if you care if you really believe the gospel message and you believe that those who trust in Christ will spend eternity with him in heaven and those who refuse Christ will drop into hell if you care about that that's what will motivate you beyond that point if you don't care you won't say anything ever Jesus when he looked at the crowd didn't see an annoyance he saw sheep having no shepherd they were weary and distressed and the bible says Jesus when he saw them had compassion on them that's caring I dare you to care and second I dare you to share because if you care you will eventually share that's the hard part this is the nervous part this is where we get tongue twisted you say how do I do it simple not really simple but the directions are simple you first pray for boldness for love and for boldness and then you open your mouth and see if it worked if it doesn't work then you can get on the video and say I'm here to tell you it doesn't work that's my testimony I'm here to tell you it my testimony doesn't work but if you were to dare to care to pray to ask God for boldness and then say something anything to somebody about Jesus it could be your own personal story hey can I tell you what happened to me this is just my story let me just tell you what happened to me or can I invite you to church just just start there just invite them or give them a Christian music cd or a book or a booklet or something just say something share the news it's good news it's great news in 1949 true story a man by the name of john courier was convicted of murder sentenced to life in prison eventually he was paroled to a work farm near nashville tennessee and he worked in hard labor until 1968 his case was looked at again and his case was terminated he was a free man a letter was written to john at the work camp a letter which he never got the message of freedom that he never read he worked on that work camp for another 10 years hard labor he's a free man the letter said so he didn't know about it how would you feel if the most important message that you could ever hear year after year after year failed to be delivered to you god's come with a message of freedom two thousand years ago his son died on the cross to take away punishment to open up the doors of heaven and to give us everlasting life that's not just good news that's great news and I know we're not all wired the same way but if you just dare to get out of your comfort zone to care and to share you will be so far ahead of the game see jesus said you're the salt of the earth and what he implied is by the text itself you and you only are the salt of the earth you and you only are the light of the world the world doesn't see you or hear it from you they won't get it from anybody god is saying you are my last hope for the people of your generation that's Skip heitzig's message from his series i dare you now here's Skip to share how you can help keep this broadcast going strong connecting you and others around the world with god's word it's easy to become wrapped up in ourselves or caught up with the world's ways but we're called to a higher purpose and we strive to encourage you in whatever the lord may be calling you to that's why we share these affirming bible teachings to push you on in your pursuit of the lord and you can help encourage many others in living out god's calling on their lives your gift today means more people can connect with god's truth visit connectwithskip.com donate to give a gift that's connectwithskip.com donate or call 800-922-1888 800-922-1888 thank you for your generosity tune in tomorrow as Skip heitzig explains that when you stand up for god there's a cost to pay but there's also a reward the three men in the story we're about to read are men who dared to stand up while everybody else around them bowed down and because of that they faced the trial of their lives a burning fiery furnace connect with Skip heitzig is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever-changing times