Looking Forward from Behind Part 1 RDS7A

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of The Encouraging Word. Get ready to open the Book of Daniel together at Chapter 2, but hey, our phone lines are open right now. Love to pray with you and for you at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We're ready to connect.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of Daniel, Chapter 2, the Book of Daniel Chapter 2. In the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His mind was troubled and he could not sleep. I want to remind you that Daniel Chapter 2 is about the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had or the dreams plural as verse 1 tells us that this man went to bed and he dreamt. Now I want to say just a word by way of introduction about dreams.

I had a very, very good question asked of me this week. Last week I made a statement about dreams and my statement was that God no longer speaks to us through dreams and visions. I still stand by that but I want to clarify this because I want you to understand exactly what it is that I'm saying which I believe comes from God's Word. God no longer reveals prophetic revelation through dreams and visions.

There's no need for him to do that. God's prophecy is complete. We have in our possession the complete prophetic revelation of God in Christ Jesus. Now folks the reason I make that statement is that there are David Koresh's in the world.

There are Jim Jones's still alive. There are people today who are standing on public platforms saying that God has spoken to them in a vision and basically what they do is they harness around themselves a following of people who have itching ears who want to hear what they want to hear and these prophets like David Koresh, these self-proclaimed messiahs if you please, set themselves up as pedestals and convince a certain segment of the population that they have themselves become Jesus Christ's. God says Jesus Christ was and is the complete revelation of God to man. He is the absolute fulfillment of everything. God no longer has need to speak through even evil men like Nebuchadnezzar concerning prophecy and revelation.

We have the complete picture. So where do our dreams come into it? God can still inspire us through our dreams. God can still speak to our hearts. God can still cause thoughts to come into our minds while we sleep. God can still give us a word of assurance. God can still allow us to wake up in the morning with a fresh look upon the world compared to the despondency with which we viewed the world before we went to sleep.

God can still pour out His Spirit upon us and speak to our hearts but God certainly is not going to give us prophecy and vision related to revelation because His revelation is complete. There is nothing more to be done and there is nothing more to be said and if someone stands up tonight on television or in some segment of our society and says God has spoken to me and I want you to know that prior to the rapture of the church Jesus is actually going to come back in the form of a man and he's going to check out things for himself upon the world and he's going to give us special privileges and rights. Don't believe him.

That's exactly what happened with David Koresh. Folks that's happening in segments of our society and we need to be careful of that. The Bible warns us about false prophets. Be very careful of that.

Don't follow that. This is our prophecy. This is our word. This is the completeness of God's revelation to mankind and so it is that King Nebuchadnezzar becomes sleepless in Judah. He has a dream. He calls in his troops and he says tell me not what I've dreamed but he tell me what my dream was about and I submitted to you last time that this presentation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the interpretation thereof is very much like a spiritual play written by God through the Holy Spirit in three parts. The scene is Daniel's home or his cottage. The third act is from verse 24 through verse 30 inclusive of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel.

It takes place in the God house and the palace and you will remember the great consternation wherewith these men were confronted by the reality of the harshness of King Nebuchadnezzar. I concluded last week by making three statements. Number one that no man can of himself understand the revelation of God.

We are rendered useless in that department. We cannot of ourselves understand the revelation of God. Number two, a Christian is a man or woman on earth who is able to touch the things of heaven. What a privilege. By the way tithing is part of that privilege. You see when we tithe as when we live for the Lord and when we serve him and when we sing to him and when we praise him and when we pray to him and when we confess to him and when we fellowship with him these are all the things that become partners together in making us the kind of men and women who God gives to the authority and the capacity to be able to touch the things of heaven. I will submit to you ladies and gentlemen that as I study the book of Daniel on every occasion I ask God the following. I say to him, Lord if there is any way possible that you would allow this feeble man, this pastor, this sinner saved by the grace through study, through the word of God, by the Spirit of God would you allow me to touch the things of heaven? So that when I speak from the pulpit at First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina that I'm able to share the things touched in heaven, that's the revelation of God.

It's the unfolding of the character of God in heavenly places applied to our own lives upon this earth. Number three and it follows logically you cannot touch the things of God and the things that God does unless you have God living in you. Because it is absolutely spiritually impossible for a person who does not know Jesus Christ to communicate with God.

Now I want to run that by again. It is absolutely spiritually impossible for a person who does not know God through regeneration, through having confessed their sin and by faith trusting in him. It is impossible for that person to be able to communicate and talk with God. It is impossible.

Why? Because their sin separates themselves from God. God says that their eyes are not blinded that they cannot see and their ears are not stopped up that they cannot hear. It is because of their sin that they have been separated from God.

There is a wedge that has been driven between them and it is only because of the grace of Jesus Christ, the full revelation of God in Christ Jesus that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself that you and I have access and the ability to be able to touch the things of heaven. What a wonderful privilege and so it is that we come to this point in our study and we are reminded here right through our chapter two that our God reigns. We're moving now from act one of the spiritual play from verse 10 through 13 into act two from verse 14 through 23 and I want to read to you verse 13 of chapter two.

The Bible says and so let's go back to verse 12 for those who were not here. This made the king so angry, what made the king angry was that none of his wise men could tell him what he was dreaming about. This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon and so the decree was issued to put the wise men to death and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death as well. Now why was Daniel included in this morbid group? Well you have to go back to chapter one and to verse 19. Or go to verse 17 take a pic, to these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning and Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. In verse 19 the king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and so they entered the king's service in every matter of wisdom and understanding about them which the king questioned them.

He found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the whole kingdom. There was one problem, they now became grouped collectively with the Chaldeans and the sorcerers and all these people who consulted the median, they were part and parcel and recipient of the king's anger. We now move in this particular stage right onto the front porch of Daniel himself. Daniel is all of a sudden threatened, Nebuchadnezzar has said I'm going to kill all these wise men and in verse 13 we have a transition verse that moves us from act one which takes place in the palace of the king to act two which is going to take place around Daniel and in his own house. Notice first of all Daniel's predicament. Daniel was in a predicament. God had blessed him with great wisdom and now he was included among the wise men and the sentence was death but I want you to notice second of all Daniel's poise.

You see in verse 14 the Bible says that when Arioch the commander of the king's God had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and with tact. Now folks I must say something here because this is one of the greatest challenges that we face in the world today especially with our Christian faith. I believe that God we need to pray to the Lord that God would give us great wisdom in the way in which we respond to the godlessness that is increasing around us.

Oh forget the interruption we'll be back with more of this great message from Dr. Don Wilton but the world that is dark around us is not darker than the light that is within you. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior do you? Would you like to talk with someone pray with someone about that choice? Or perhaps you're at a place in your life where you know that it's time to deepen your commitment and you'd like to have someone pray you through the next.

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Now back to today's message looking forward from behind with Dr. Don Wilton. I want you to listen very carefully you see when we begin to understand Daniel's poise in the middle of his predicament we begin to learn something about Christian character and behavioral response how God calls upon us to respond. Now we all struggle with that don't we I struggled with that all my life because I'm a public speaker and because I'm out front there have been many times in my life that some of the greatest mistakes I have made in my life even as a believer have been my intolerance. It has been my lack of discretion, it's been my lack of discernment, it's been my inability to judge real situations and to weigh up context and to ask God for wisdom in the way in which I respond and when the way in which I deal with things that sometimes can be very frustrating. James puts it like this in James chapter one he says if any of you by the way lack wisdom why don't you ask God and guess what'll happen he won't just give it to you he'll give it to you liberally. Now moms and dads how many moms and dads here tonight need some wisdom I do. How many teenagers here tonight need wisdom? We need wisdom you need wisdom how do you respond when you're on their campus at school or when you go to college and you're faced with these predicaments and people come and say listen why don't you do this why don't you smoke that why don't you go there why don't you surrender that we need to know how to respond in the predicaments of life. Churches are no different folks there are things that happen in churches that cause great consternation a church is a very delicate place because it's a church but a church is a sea of individual people every one of whom has their own personality and temperament all of us come out of different perspectives all of us have experienced pain and hurt and anger and joy and sorrow and we come together as a church and and we make decisions together as a church and I want to tell you something I am so deeply grateful that at First Baptist Church God has seen fit to bless us with a spiritual unity and a happiness in this fellowship of encouragement would you say amen to that folks I cherish that God's the one who teaches us he gives us restraint but that doesn't take away the fact that we don't face crises in our lives all of us face crises some to greater and some to lesser extents as I began to study this passage God began to speak to my own heart on how to handle crisis how do you handle a crisis whatever it might be a financial crisis family crisis physical crisis emotional crisis a mental crisis a crisis that involves choice a confrontational crisis a character crisis things that come upon us every moment of every day how do we handle these things I want to make six suggestions for you taken from God's Word tonight let's see what Daniel did in the midst of his predicament number one don't be in a hurry I tell you if you've anything like me I'm one of these instant coffee generation people I want it now and I want it real hot I'm like that for I tell you what it's got real bad I have to check myself I've got to watch myself when I come to church because inevitably I'll get behind some dummy on the wrong side of the road and they don't realize I've got to get to a meeting and they look as though they've got all week to get wherever it is they going I know you've never been there before it's amazing you know we've got McDonald's and Wendy's and Burger King and we've got Chick-fil-a and we've got everything in between we've got drive-throughs some places have got two and three drive-throughs and everything like that but it is amazing how my fingers start to wrap when I tell you they've taken longer than 37 seconds to deliver my french fries and my broiled chicken with no mayo and mustard and when I get it and it's cold then I'm really going to be upset what kind of place is this anyway you see folks we live in a world in which we treat the crises of life in exactly the same way we rush out the door and we want to act and sometimes we act too quickly we don't stop and think and it seems to me here this man Daniel was in a crisis he was about to lose his head and he turns to this man called Ariok and he buys time if I could just roughly interpret the Aramaic dialogue that is going on here he says cool down son let's not be in such a hurry no no no no let's not rush out here and execute me right now let's sit down and think about this let's talk about this man-to-man you see we live in a reactionary world folks if you want to see reactionary go to a high school basketball game and just watch some of the parents in the stands now I'm going to stop right there and move on to the next subject listen it's hard especially when you have a son playing in a game to sit on that seat and behave like a pastor but you know the reality is folks there's some people in the stands of life who explode over the most insignificant things I mean you'd think that that referee down there is the devil incarnate and you'd think that by bursting a blood vessel up here that he's going to change his call down there and actually he's not and life becomes interpreted like that and we are confronted by crises and we react out of the perspective of our mode of operation listen to what happens here don't be in a hurry calm down by time number two second step on how to handle a crisis is return to your roots I want you to notice something in verse 16 the Bible says at this Daniel went into the king and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream for him and then in verse 17 then Daniel returned to his house and explained these things to his friends Hanani, Mishael and Azariah Daniel about to lose his head first of all buys time in his predicament then he turns around walks away from his predicament and he goes back to his roots you know do you know what he does he says you know I don't know how to handle this exactly he looks around and he he sees people and he goes back to his roots could could you help me work through this predicament could I share something with you folks sometimes it's a good thing to unload go back to your roots catch your breath stop what you're doing you're out of control when you get out of control you're going to get into a speed wobble and if you get into a speed wobble you become a candidate for a head-on collision just stop think about what's going on return to your roots number three seek godly counsel talk to people gather them to yourselves I was speaking about this this morning how that God speaks to us through godly friends through parents through through those that God has placed around us educators doctors who not just administered medicine but they are spiritual people they love the Lord Jesus Christ our associates in the church friends people that we work with our grandparents go and sit down and talk to them and share your crisis with them number four pray the prayer of faith what a powerful message there's more to come tomorrow I hope you'll join us again for the next edition of the encouraging word but it could be that God has placed godly people like this radio station this podcast this actual delivery of the message of God from Dr. Don Wilton into your life because he is using it to speak through you and to you if God stirred your heart and there's a response you'd like to have someone pray with you about we're here to do that our number is eight six six eight nine nine word now that's eight six six eight nine nine nine six seven three and we stand ready to connect with you 24 hours a day to talk to listen to pray and to put great resources in your hands like the daily encouraging word pie book I all those details are online at TEW online.org we would love to connect with you but before we get away the most important thoughts from our pastor are next are you ready would you pray this prayer with me right now dear God I know that Jesus loves me and that he died on a cross for me today I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus and I give him my heart and my life in Jesus name I pray amen if you've prayed that prayer from your heart and you've given your life to Christ I welcome you to the family of God you are my brother my sister in Christ let's get engaged together because we are connected together forever as believers in Christ and don't leave whatever you do because I'll be right back if you've given your heart to Jesus if you've made a decision perhaps a new line in the sand and you'd like to have someone pray with you and for you it's what we love to do we're here at eight six six eight nine nine word right now during the broadcast and actually 24 hours a day at the other end of eight six six eight nine nine nine six seven three and online at TEW online.org to speak with you to pray with you and maybe put some great resources like our free daily encouraging word Bible guide in your hand that'll help you grow in your faith hello everybody you know my friends know me as Don Wilton pastor friend neighbor dad husband grandpa but I'm going to tell you people all around the world just like you know and identify Dr. Billy Graham as that man that God used to reach so many people around the world for the Lord Jesus Christ I had the privilege of knowing Mr. Graham in a very personal and intimate way both as his friend and as his pastor in fact for many years I drove up to his home in Montreat North Carolina and visited with him every Saturday just like friends do everywhere we sat together and ate together walked talked we discussed politics friends places people we laughed our heads off we did everything one could possibly imagine that's why I wrote this wonderful book Saturdays with Billy it's all about a personal relationship and I hope and pray that Saturdays with Billy will be a blessing to you will inspire you and will encourage your heart just as Mr. Graham encouraged my heart and changed my life God bless you my friends that's what we're here to do to encourage you eight six six eight nine nine nine six seven three or meet us online at TEW online.org also a great place to discover what it means to be an encourager hello my friends I want to speak to you personally today from my heart to yours I don't think there is ever a better or more important time for us to respond to our world by standing up for righteousness now with this in mind I would like to invite you to become an encourager ministry partner you see together we can impact lives both now and for all time and all eternity the encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported ministry and to know that you are standing with me financially enables me to move forward with confidence to do the work God has called me to do just simply say I want to become an encourager thank you so much for helping me that number once more is eight six six eight nine nine word that's eight six six eight nine nine nine six seven three or meet us online at TEW online dot o-r-g preacher Wilton I just wanted you to know how my family life has changed I gave my heart to God listening to you on the radio now my wife has a new husband and my kids have a new dad and I thank God for your ministry