Balancing Ministry N' Work

We are starting what I have been calling Things We Need… List Two. This is the first of what I expect to be sixteen sermons. The first of the Things We Need is one that I question how I missed in the first list. My only thought is that is that it was written for follow believers.   John 3:16 “ 16  For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” The first of the Things We Need from List Two is Jesus! Jesus Needs to be front and center of our lives.  In December of 2018 we started a sermon series that I originally expected to run for three or four months at most, but as we got into it there was no way to really cut it down and it lasted almost thirteen months. We spent thirteen months studying Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and His teachings. We could have easily spent more time looking at the most influential person to every walk this earth. We Need...

The last couple of weeks we have continued our walk-through history and prophecy as we have reviewed what the angel shared with Daniel in the fourth and final vision. We have the benefit of seeing how this vision has played out over roughly 360 years. It proves to us that God’s Word is accurate and true. We have been reminded that our God knows all. We have seen that He is beyond powerful. We have read that those who honor God are refined, purified, and cleansed. Great reminders as we walk this earth in this uncertain time. Before we get into today’s verse, I do want to say that once again the different commentaries do not agree on a lot of things. Some point to these verses focused on the end of king Antiochus’ life and some point to our future and the rise and fall of the antichrist. We will look at a bit of both as we wrap up Daniel. Daniel 11:40 “ 40  “At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle, but the king of the North will storm against h...

We have seen that the exile is over and a small group of Israelites have returned home, but Daniel is not with them. We have seen that Daniel was crying out for his people over the struggles they were facing. An angel appears to Daniel, most likely Gabriel, and tells Daniel that he is treasured by God and that the angel was sent to explain the future of the Israelites to him. There will be four more Persian kings before Alexander the Great will come and conquer the Mede and Persian Empire. Alexander is the prominent horn on the goat that defeats the ram and he is the king who leads when the third of the four beasts begin. Alexander’s reign is short, his kingdom is divided, which was foretold in the earlier prophecies. The angel tells Daniel the future of what happens between the remaining kingdoms. The north and the south, Syria and Egypt, battle it out over and over again. The whole region gets involved including Israel at times. The prophecy was given in 536 BC and we see the beg...

 As we continue to wind down in the book of Daniel, we are focusing on the fourth and final apocalyptic vision given to Daniel by God. This fourth vision digs into the same events found in chapter eight but in a lot more detail. It also gives a look at the events that bridged the gap between the giving of this vision and when they take place.   The exile was over, but Daniel was mourning the struggles the people were facing. The Persian people did not want the Jewish people to be successful. They did not want them to rebuild the temple of God. As Daniel is praying an angel appeared to him. The angel told Daniel that he was treasured by God and that he came in direct answer to Daniel’s prayers. That would be very humbling, but he also told Daniel that he would have been there twenty-one days earlier but the ‘prince of Persia’, a demon, was preventing him from coming to Daniel. It took intervention of the angel Michael to allow the angel to get through. A reminder that our b...