Sunday, October 26
2025-10-26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ8E6QxkgbM

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

When all I see is the battle, you see my victory. When all I see is the mountain, you see a mountain moved. And as I walk through this shadow, your love surrounds me.

There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you, and every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to you And if you are for me Who can be against me? For Jesus there's nothing impossible For more information, visit www.fema.org With my hands lifted high, oh God, the battle belongs to You. And every fear I lay at Your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to You. Almighty Fortress, You go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. Almighty fortress, you go before us.

Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. In every field I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.

Is that better? it's part of a two-part, and the first contrast is that of those who have sought their own trust and sought their own way. And the prophet Jeremiah, as he speaks God's words, God doesn't pull any punches with what he says. He says, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. And as we come into this time of worship, we want to take just a moment and remind ourselves of where our trust truly is. It's not in the strength of man, whether that's our strength or in the hope in another person to solve our problems or to fix all of our brokenness. Our hope is in the Lord. And we hear this assurance. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is not just in the Lord,

but notice this, whose trust is the Lord. And in Christ, our wandering hearts are forgiven, and we are made secure. And so we're going to sing an old song, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, but I think it's an appropriate song for a moment of repenting where our hearts have gone astray, but also a song of assurance for God's forgiveness. So we're going to sing, come thou fount of every blessing.

Every blessing to my heart to see the great streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mountain fixed upon him, mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer, here by the great help I've come. And I hope of Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed his precious blood

Oh, to grace how great a debtor To be unconstrained to be Let thy goodness like a feather By my wandering heart to thee Prove to wonder what I'm feeling He's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

It's so good, I almost can't believe Far beyond what hearts could ever dream The God who set the galaxies in motion Would descend to give His life for me For what could make perfection bleed for sinners What leads a king to pay so great a cost All my life, my heart will sing the answer Only the love of God Singing, oh how great is the love of God He paid our debt on that rugged cross For all our days we will sing our Savior's praise How great is the love of God It's so kind, it leads us to repentance It's so bright, the darkness has to flee Hallelujah, it cleared my guilty sentence For I was bound, but now I stand redeemed For what could break the chains of any prison What force could rob the power from the grave

What would trade my racks for heaven's riches Only the love of God Singing oh how great is the love of God He paid our debt on that rugged cross For all our days we will sing our Savior's praise How great is the love of God Though I try, my mind can't comprehend it It's so high, too marvelous for words I could sing a million songs about it And barely scratch the surface of your world This all my life, the better I'll be waving My anthem cry, no matter what may come And when I rise to walk the streets of heaven I'll still be singing this song For everything that you've done How great the love of God

Singing, oh how great is the love of God He paid our debt on that rugged cross For all our days we will sing our Savior's praise How great is the love of God How great is the love of God

Daniel chapter 8, we encounter in the first five verses two great beasts. One of them, as a ram, Daniel will say, as he describes it, no beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. And the picture there, as we'll see a little bit later, is the picture of the Medes and Persians and their empire that was great. And everything they came across, they conquered, often with great cruelty. But then in verse 5 of Daniel 8, we meet another great beast. And this great beast casts down the first one and tramples upon it. And it says this, there was none who could rescue the ram from his power. And there is this picture as it begins of these two ungodly governments that stand so great and so strong,

and they trample all that's in front of them, one becoming greater than the other. And the picture that Daniel chapter 8 begins with is oftentimes sort of a very dark and hopeless and fearful picture, especially for God's people. As these governments go on later in the chapter to oppress and to kill, and to bring great trouble and tribulation to God's saints. But we also have a different beast to deal with. Not necessarily a political one or one of man's making, but the beast of our sin and our brokenness. Just like these beasts in Daniel chapter 8 we'll find in verse 25, are broken but by no human hand. The monster of our sin, the fear of death, the threat of hell is removed not by our strength, but once again by no human hand. You see, our salvation is accomplished not by our goodness or greatness, but by this sovereign hand of God.

And at the cross, Jesus stands in our place and is broken for us. As he stands in our place, I want to read Isaiah 53. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, the Son of God, God accomplished what no human hand could do, and he reconciles us to himself. Father in heaven, as we gather at this table

from many different places and many different circumstances and situations. May you turn our hearts to you. May you help us to turn from our sin. May you help us and strengthen us to walk in righteousness. May you encourage our weary souls that your saints would take fresh courage, knowing that the clouds that so often we look ahead and see and fear are filled with your mercy. So may you refresh us with your grace and may you strengthen us with your spirit. We ask that you bless this bread and this cup and may we proclaim your son until he comes again. It's in his name we pray, amen. If you would take the bread, as Jesus said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. If you would take the cup, as Jesus said,

this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me. Father, we thank you for doing what we never could. We thank you that you have saved us by your power and through your grace, by the sacrifice of your son, that you have equipped us with your spirit. Strengthen our trust in you. May we stand firm upon the foundation that is your goodness and sovereignty. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So at this point, our children may be dismissed for Children's Church. We want you to know and to trust the Lord and know that he reigns over all things. And to sort of help us with that, we're going to move into our time of prayer, which is a very clear expression of our trust in God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Daniel chapter 8, we're going to just take a moment and sing two verses of Build My Life.

Thank you. Jesus, the name above every other name Jesus, the only one who could ever say Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Oh, we live for you Holy, there is no one like you There is none beside you Open up my eyes in wonder And show me who you are And fill me with your heart And lead me in your love to those around me Worthy of every song We could ever sing Worthy of all the praise We could ever bring Worthy of every breath We could ever bring We live for you Jesus, the name above every other name Jesus, the only one who could ever save Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Oh, we live for you Holy, there is no one like you

There is none beside you Open up my eyes in wonder And show me who you are And fill me with your heart And lead me in your love to those around me All right, let's go to God in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this vision that you have given to Daniel. We ask is that we look through this this morning, that you would encourage us, that you would strengthen us, that you would see that our hope is not found in any human hands, but in your hand alone. That your sovereignty would both confront our pride and comfort our struggling hearts. So we just ask that you'd be with us and encourage us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as we begin this morning, I was thinking a little bit about how it used to be when we would travel

when our kids were much younger. And it seemed like traveling got a whole lot more complicated as soon as we had children. Instead of just a bag for me and a bag for Rachel, we had to have a bag for each of the kids. And you had to have a diaper bag for the youngest kid. You had to make sure that you had car seats for everybody. In addition to car seats, you had to have strollers if you're staying overnight. You had to have pack and play. And it was at that moment, for me at least, when a minivan began to make a lot of sense, right? We went from the little car to the minivan just simply because we had to bring so many things with us. And I think as we come to

Daniel chapter 8, it might feel a little bit like there's a whole lot of baggage with us this morning. Almost immediately, this chapter begins to be confusing. And we may struggle with the writing itself. It is a vision that Daniel has from God. It's both prophecy, but it's written in the genre of what is called apocalyptic literature. And that word apocalyptic or apocalypses, it means to sort of reveal. And so God is revealing something, but it often does so through these symbols that we may be unfamiliar with. And so almost immediately as we begin to dive in, we begin to struggle, not just with the genre of the writing, but with the symbolism as well. And so this chapter opens up with a ram, and it has two great horns, but one horn is a little

bigger than the other horn, and it's charging around to the north, to the south, and to the west, and it is seemingly invincible. And it is very proud about that fact. And in verse 5, the goat arrives, and he comes with one horn from the west. And Daniel 8, 5 says that his feet don't touch the ground. What that means is incredible amounts of speed. And this goat with one horn confronts the ram with two horns and defeats the one who we just heard cannot be defeated. And the goat grows very, very great. Its horn is broken, and then four horns grow up north, south, east, and west. And then we zoom in a little more on one little horn in verse 9. So not only do we struggle with the genre and the way this is written,

we struggle with some of this symbolism. And then oftentimes we struggle with the interpretation. Hearing this vision, it's a bit terrifying, And it likely symbolizes some pretty terrifying events. And as the interpretation of this unfolds, that instinct that this is not good news, that there's a ram and a goat and there's this conflict and it's speedy and it's from the north and the south and the east and the west and it comes with such great power and might, we find that it is, in fact, picturing some pretty terrible things. And so we struggle, maybe not necessarily with understanding, although that's certainly true in some cases, but we struggle with the fact that we don't like to hear difficult or hard things. We also come, and we struggle with texts like this, because of the distance that we are from this prophecy.

In this time, we know from history that this time that Daniel begins chapter 8 with is somewhere between 554 and 553 years before Jesus is born. We'll see some of this fulfillment happening very soon in the life of Daniel, others, the little horn. We'll see maybe about 160 years before Jesus. We might struggle with the culture or the religious practices of the day. There are the numbers in verse 14 of 2,300 evenings and mornings. And so we come to this text with some baggage, and the first baggage might be the obstacle of understanding. We might hear these words and say to ourselves, there's so much that I don't understand, I don't know if I can, or maybe some of us go, I just don't even know if I want to. And this sort of brings us to our second piece of baggage this morning.

even if I can understand it, how does this text impact me? It happens a long time ago in a country far, far away that's not just separated by time and distance, but it's separated by culture. How can this chapter, Daniel chapter 8, have anything that helps me? I'm here. I've had a hard week. I've had a hard month. I've had a hard year. I'm struggling. I'm tired. I'm discouraged. Or maybe I'm busy and things are going well. And I don't have time to try to decode around the goat and them fighting and however many horns Daniel is writing about. How does this text intersect with our lives thousands of years later? I would say this, Daniel 8 is not here to confuse us. It is written for God's people who, in the immediate context, are in exile.

which just simply means they're far from home. And it's written for those who would soon face the overwhelming power of those who would oppose them. And likely, God's people in this time feel powerless, afraid, and maybe even forgotten. And then here we are, and sometimes it feels like we are far from home. And sometimes it feels like we face overwhelming power in overwhelming obstacles, we face overwhelming opposition, and maybe we feel powerless, afraid, and even for God. And the reality is you and I live in a chaotic world, and we can very much identify with the feeling that Daniel's readers would have felt. We frequently fight for control in things that do not last. Even as Christians, we're tempted to find security in human strength their human ability or human understanding, and the things that we trust in other than Christ

always fail, and we're left even more anxious and even more overwhelmed than where we started. And so here's what chapter 8 does for us as the people of God. In one sense, it's like a bucket of cold water on our self-sufficiency, right? Every human power, plan, and source of security crumbles. And in many ways, what this chapter does is takes a bucket of cold water and throws it on our pride. But while this confronts us, it also comforts us, right? The same hand that brings down the proud is the one that sustains his people. Now, this may sound strange, what I'm going to do, but I want to try to explain the outline of Daniel chapter 8 so you can see how it fits together. We'll talk a little bit about it, and then we'll try to bring some encouragement to our

hearts from this text. So I've kind of labeled this point a prophetic quesadilla. And I want you to think about Daniel chapter 8 a little bit like a quesadilla. You have two sides. On one side you have the vision, which is in the first 14 verses, and then on the other side you have the interpretation of this vision. And there in the middle, sort of holding it all together, you find the first named angelic messenger in Scripture. His name is Gabriel, and he comes to Daniel with the interpretation. And so if you were to take this quesadilla and fold it over on one side, you have the vision. In the middle, you have the angelic messenger, Gabriel, who comes with the word of reassurance and the interpretation of the prophecy, and then you have that interpretation.

And so the reality, I think, when it comes to Daniel 8, for us to understand it is to understand it sort of all put together like we would a quesadilla. So I want to start in verses 15 through 17. When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it, and behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man, and I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulay, and it called, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. So he came where I stood, and when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face, and he said to me, understand, O Son of Man, that the vision is for the time of the end. Now, what's interesting about the position that Daniel finds himself in, for much of his career, Daniel has been the wisdom guy, right? He's been the guy who

has the answers. In fact, the end of chapter 1 gives us sort of this summary of Daniel and his friends that they're, you know, very much better than anyone else in their field. We've seen Daniel interpret dreams and visions. We've seen Daniel stand for what is right. And so here is the guy who has made his entire career in giving wisdom and interpreting dreams. He now finds himself in the place of the people that he has spent time helping. He needs help understanding. And for Daniel, that would have been normal because Daniel's rallying cry through all of his wisdom is that wisdom ultimately belongs to the hand of God and that he gives it to who he will. But for us, this is humbling because we like to have the answers. We like to think that we have

it all figured out. And we like to have it all wrapped up in a nice little bow. And here is Daniel. And as he sees this vision, hears the vision, thinks about the vision, watches it unfold before him, goes, I don't understand it. And Daniel needs help, right? The one who stands for what's right in the face of the opposition, the great prayer warrior, king confronter, dream interpreter struggles here. And that says something to us that Daniel can't. He can't do it. We can't do it. But there is one who can, and he comes to Daniel with the message of what is about to happen. And so here comes Gabriel, sent by God. We see it here in these verses, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. And as Daniel has said in chapter 2

in verse 28, there is a God in his mystery. And so the question is, when we face those moments where it seems like everything unfolding in front of us is terrifying and scary and overwhelming, and we can't understand it, we struggle to understand it, where are we running to? The example of Daniel is this. Daniel, in Daniel chapter 2, facing the threat of death in an impossible situation, not just to interpret a dream, but to describe the dream. Look at what he does. He went to his house, made the manor known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery. And so Daniel, and the message so far has been there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and we run to him to help understand.

And that's exactly what happens in the middle of this chapter is God sends someone to help him understand. Now for us, sometimes, and let me give you a little tip about the Bible here, sometimes when we come to something that confuses us, what we have to do is just keep reading. So if you read these first 14 verses and you go a ram and a goat and there's horns and there's four horns and there's one horn and there's all of these things, What's interesting is by the time you get to the end of the chapter, the angel comes and tells us what it means in a way that is so clear. People have leveled the accusation that this is written after the fact because the interpretation of this prophecy is so boldly clear in relation to history.

And so sometimes what we're called to do is to keep going, to keep praying. Sometimes we're called to keep reading and see how God's story unfolds. Let's take a look at the vision and its interpretation. So we want to be sort of reminded of what we covered at the very beginning, right? There's a ram, there's a goat, there's horns, there's desolation. Listen to what the interpretation is, beginning in verse 19. He said, Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, For it refers to the appointed time of the end. And for the ram you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Medes and the Persians. And if you remember at the very beginning, it says that there's two horns, both very tall, but one a little taller than the other.

This alliance of the Medes and the Persians is one that while an alliance is also an alliance based on the fact that one is stronger than the other. And the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. And for the horn that was broken in the place of which four others rose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of the kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. And so when Gabriel says here, we begin to see what happens. And although it stretches centuries into the future for Daniel, we actually begin to see this happen in Daniel's lifetime. We begin to see this kingdom, the Medes and the Persians,

that Daniel will end up working for them. This great king of Greece, Alexander the Great, when he dies in 323 B.C., His kingdom, the one horn, is destroyed. He dies. And then there are four rulers who arise. The one horn is replaced with four. And this little horn, Antiochus Epiphanes, he rules the Seleucid Empire from 175 B.C. until his death in 164. And he is the one who likely emerges in Daniel 8.23. And we know that he sort of wages a ruthless war, not necessarily just against God's people in Jerusalem, but against God himself. He will desecrate the temple. He'll stop the sacrifices that occur in the morning and the evening for this period of time. This 2,300 evenings and mornings, people have argued how many days, how many years this really is, but it likely fits into this time where he stops the offerings

in the evening and the morning in the temple. And then there arises a man by the name of Judas Maccabees. He's called the Hammer. He will go and lead a rebellion against Antiochus Epiphanes in his pride and anger, and he will be overthrown. And it's from this period of time where the celebration of Hanukkah develops, where the candlestick in the temple, even though it only has one day of oil, runs for day after day. This is all well-documented historically. And if you want to read a little bit about it, you can essentially look up any of these names and find the history laid out. You can read the book of 2 Maccabees. There are so many details that fit into this section of Daniel. But in the big picture, what you see is an empire being replaced with another empire

divided into sort of four different kingdoms, and then one kingdom horrifically and voraciously opposes the people of God. And this vision may seem distant, right? Rams, goats, Persia, Greece. But beneath it all is a truth that is so close to us that God knows, God reigns, and God's hand is steady. Throughout all of this chaos, throughout the terrifying beasts, through the great horns, through the beasts that move so fast, their feet don't seem to touch the ground. Who can stop the sacrifices in the temple? Who pursue and kill God's saints? We see that God, even in all of this, is in control. So three things I want to do this morning. to direct your heart to the hand of God. And first of all, I want us to see this. I want us to see the providence of God,

the fact that he knows and that God reigns. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. Verse 5, and as I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground, and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes, and the goat conquers the ram, and the goat leads to great difficulty for God's people, and things are terrible. In fact, we find this description. By his cunning, he shall make deceit prosper under his hand. And in his own mind, he shall become great. And in fact, this is a great historical picture of Antiochus' epiphanies, because he will issue coins with that word

epiphanies, that I am the manifestation of God, of Zeus. And many people will play a play on his name to mock him behind his back. He's one of those people who is a legend in his own mind. Even without that, he is insanely dangerous. Without warning, he shall destroy many. And then here you see his ultimate rebellion. This isn't against God's people, but he shall rise up against the prince of princes. And here's where he meets his match. He shall be broken, but by no human hand. And what we find as history begins to unfold from Daniel and through the Medo-Persian Empire and Greece rise and fall, exactly as God has revealed. Daniel's going to see some of this unfold in his own life. It will impact him because he'll go from working for one kingdom to another.

And here's what we see. God doesn't just know the future, that he ordains it. And sometimes for us, our struggle is moving this truth from our heads. Yes, I know that God is sovereign down to the depths of our heart. And we may say God is in control, but sometimes when life seems out of control, that truth feels distant. And one of the ways forward, interestingly, in trusting the sovereignty of God, is looking backward and seeing how his sovereignty has worked, not just in history, in Daniel chapter 8, and the events that follow, but in our own lives as well, to see what God has done. If God can name kingdoms before they rise, He can deal with what is happening in your life right now. The second thing I want you to see is the reality of this battle.

I want you to see this. His power shall be great, speaking of this little horn. His power shall be great but it says this but not by his own power shall he cause fearful destruction and he shall succeed in what he does and destroy the mighty men and the people who are his saints the power of this little horn is not his own and what's interesting if we look a little farther in Daniel chapter 10, we begin to glimpse that behind all of the things we see, there's a spiritual reality. In fact, in Daniel chapter 10, we'll read it in just a minute, but there is a delay in Daniel's answer to prayer because the messenger of God is delayed by a messenger of the enemy. So here a king rises, not in his own power,

but then he comes up against another power. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper. These verses we've just read, but look at how he ends. He shall be broken by no human hand. And in Daniel chapter 10, as we hear this delayed answer, the kingdom of the prince of Persia withstood me 21 days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, the archangel, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia. What we're talking about here, and while it sounds hard for our ears, we are talking about a spiritual reality where there are angels and archangels and there are spiritual forces and the forces of evil and Satan and his demons that oppose the work of God. And what we see unfolding in Daniel 8 is not just a battle of kings and princes

and territories and resources, but what we see is a battle of good versus evil. A king who rises with great power through none of his own, empowered by the enemy, comes up against the prince of princes and is broken through no human hand. And what we begin to see and what we must realize is that there are spiritual powers oftentimes behind the earthly conflict that we see. The persecution of God's people that unfolds is not just political, it's spiritual. And so many times I think we end up aiming at the wrong target. We fight people instead of recognizing the spiritual reality behind the chaos. So many times we see the symptoms as our enemy rather than the reality behind them that sin and Satan are the ones who are at work in our world. And the people that so often we're tempted to attack,

the reality is they are captives in need of rescue. And so Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6, we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers. So we stand firm in truth and in prayer and in the strength that God gives us through the Spirit and the grace of the gospel. And we must be reminded that our strength is not our own. It comes from the hand of God who fights for his people. And if you've seen through the book of Daniel, one of the things Daniel does is he fights through prayer. We sang it as we started this morning. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands raised up. Because our hope in this is not necessarily a physical battle, but a spiritual one. The spot with spiritual weapons and spiritual defenses.

And God's people clothed in the armor of God, depending upon the power of God, that must be a reality in our life. Third, we see that there is a power of hope. And I want to direct us to the fact that our strength is in the lamb. And at the end of verse 25, he shall rise up against the prince of princes. He shall be broken, but by no human hand. And so we've seen the ram, we've seen the goat. They represent earthly strength. They're impressive, but they're temporary and limited. Their time runs out, their horns break. And our hope ultimately is not in the ram or the goat or whatever current animal represents our hope of salvation. I want to go to Revelation chapter 5. And I want to show you this picture of heaven that is wonderful.

And right before this, there is a picture. We talked about prayer, and we've spent time praying this morning. There is an incense, a pleasant smell, wafting up before God, and it says it's the prayers of his saints. And here's the vision in heaven in Revelation chapter 5. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. And in Daniel chapter 8, we see the prince of princes is the one who casts down. and takes away the power of the ram. You see, Antiochus Epiphanes' oppression is a foreshadowing and a picture of the oppression of God's people.

And what we find is that our hope is not in a goat or in a ram, but it is in the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And if you are weary and if you are fearful,

Evaluate where your hope is. Not in rams or goats or whatever animal symbolizes the things that you're hoping in. Human systems, human leaders. It is in the Lamb who reigns forever. And the final word from God is that for God's people, it's defeat, it's deliverance. And that's where we find ourselves, and it's a bit of a struggle. We live between the vision and the victory. Daniel chapter 8 and verse 27, I, Daniel, this is Daniel's response after seeing and trying to process this, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I arose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. Daniel is overwhelmed. Even though he's had an explanation, he doesn't completely understand all that has occurred. But notice what he does. He arises, and he goes about the king's business.

Isn't that a wonderful picture of faith? You don't have to see or understand the entire plan to walk in obedience. St. Clair Ferguson of this passage writes this. He just simply says he did his duty. Daniel's knowledge of the future didn't lead to retreat, but to steadfast faithfulness. And maybe you're overwhelmed, maybe you're in the midst of chaos, maybe you feel the darkness of sin and spiritual opposition. Daniel 8 isn't meant to frighten you, it's meant to free you from trusting that which cannot last, that God knows he reigns, and his unseen hand, his hand of providence, humbles kings, but also holds on to his children. So when God throws that bucket of ice water on your illusion of control, I encourage you, don't cling harder to those things that fade away. There's only one hand that we cling to,

and it's the hand that truly holds the world, the hand of God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we struggle sometimes with these pictures, with the symbolism, with the prophecy, with the interpretation. Help us not to struggle with the fact that you reign over all things. That you are sovereign in our joys and in our sorrows and our victories and in our defeats. You're sovereign when we see the way clearly laid ahead of us and when we have no idea what's around the next corner. And so may you give courage and strength to your saints. May you help us to see that you reign. This battle we fight is spiritual, and then our ultimate hope is in the Lamb. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We're going to stand and we're going to sing a song we sang last week,

but it fits so well as Daniel and Revelation oftentimes overlap. And so we're going to sing about the Lamb. So let's go ahead and be standing.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Holy, holy is He Sing a new song To him who sits on heaven's mercy seat. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is he.

Send a new song to him who sits on heaven's mercy seat. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything and I will adore you. Filled with wonder, o'er-struck wonder, at the mention of your name. Jesus, your name is power, breath and living water, such a marvelous mystery.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything and I will adore you. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything and I will adore you.

We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For more information, visit www.fema.org Thank you. Thank you.