Living Water Community Church

All of the precision in how the prophecies play out point to the precise nature of God’s knowledge and control over the events which are yet to come to pass. We can trust a God who has a plan and is bringing all He plans to pass. All of history centers on the promise of the coming man who will crush the serpents head. The man who will establish a kingdom which will never end. The man who is not only the Messiah but also God’s only beloved Son. We continue to work through this really precise prophetic declaration by the angel of the Lord. We don’t serve a God who only has the big picture in mind. He is not just fixed on the big points of history. He knows all the details and all of those details work together to exalt the person and work of Jesus for eternity. This means our hope rests not in blind faith or not yet fulfilled promises. Our faith rests in our faithful God who sent His only begotten Son to be our substitutionary sacrifice. He paid the penalty for our specific sins so we would never have to pay th

We will continue to look at an additional fundamental aspects of God’s nature. As worshippers these things help us to worship Him properly. Isaiah was prophet who had ministered during the time of king Uzziah. Notice how the opening verse here takes place in the year king Uzziah died. Uzziah was mourned by the people as a great king even though toward the end of his reign he had become prideful and ultimately died of leprosy for his prideful acts. Given the context of king Uzziah’s death Isaiah going to the temple was probably to seek comfort and wisdom in a time of national and personal grief. Instead of comfort Isaiah has a life altering vision. The vision begins in verse one with I saw the Lord. The word translated as Lord is the word Adonai and it is used to refer to a sovereign or king. The picture this is painting is the king is dead but Isaiah is confronted with the fact there is still a king on the throne. The ultimate king of Israel has not stopped being king. He is sitting on a throne which is high

We worked through the first part of Daniel 11. It seems very much like an interesting prophetic passage with lots of what appears to be generic odd indecipherable references. Yet as the angel declares these things and we look in history at what took place it becomes really clear the angel of the Lord was declaring for Daniel things which quite literally came to pass. On top of this the things which happened all happened in sequential order following the order laid out by the angel. There are declarations in here which match up with kings daughters who were married off for potential alliances. In both cases what appeared to be a power move was either cut off by the death of the princess or the queens loyalty changed from her father to her new husband. Both of these things are clearly prophetically declared to Daniel. There is even a reference to a king who essentially does nothing significant. The section we looked at wrapped up with the story of Antiochus III. He conquered Egypt gave his daughter to the Egypt

I want us to look at our main passage today as a starting point for exploring the what is essentially a event we should never come to feel like we completely understand. On the one hand it is simple to explain. God entered into our world and became one of us. On the other hand the implications of that statement should arrest our thoughts. Why? Because we are human. Because we can perceive our own limits. We should marvel at what God did. We know if we put too much of anything into our bodies they essentially overload and die. Too much water and you drown. Too much heat and you die of dehydration or burning. Too much cold and you freeze to death. Too much electricity and your heart seizes up and you are electrocuted. The list could go on and on but I think you get the picture. So think about what the incarnation is putting before us. God the maker of the universe. The one who called our thermonuclear sun into existence with the word of His power on the fourth day and not only our sun but every sun and and ever

We worked through chapter ten of Daniel which is really the first part of the section which ends in chapter twelve. In the last chapter we saw an amazing testimony to the reality of spiritual warfare. Daniel had been fasting from meat and wine and other delicacies for three weeks. He describes himself as in mourning. There is an angel which appears to Daniel and the contents of his message tell us Daniel must have been mourning over his fellow Israelites who were in captivity. The angel starts out by describing how he had been delayed by the prince of Persia for twenty-one days. Michael had come to help and this seems to be the reason this angel finally got through. The scene we see play out between this angel and Daniel sounds very much like the scene between Paul and Jesus on the road to Damascus and also has aspects of the meeting between Jesus and John at the beginning of the book of Revelation. Is this just another angel or is this the appearance of a pre-incarnate Jesus. If this is a pre-incarnate appea

We worked through the end of chapter 9 which deals with the 70 weeks for which Daniel is prophetically famous. It is an interesting chapter with a lot of mystery surrounding the exact meaning of the text. By the time Jerome was creating commentaries around 400 AD there were already 9 different understandings about what Daniel was pointing to with his 70 weeks. There are however several things in the text which clearly point to the person and work of Jesus. These are the things which we focused on as being really relevant for our study. There are 6 things listed as being fulfilled in the 70 weeks vision.• To finish the transgression• To put an end to sin• To atone for iniquity• To bring in everlasting righteousness• To seal both vision and prophet• To anoint a most holy placeJesus is the only clear answer to the fulfillment of all these things. He brought an end to transgression and sin for many. He atoned for their iniquity. He brought in the dawn of everlasting righteousness. He is the culmination of the pro

We will continue to look at some fundamental aspects of God’s nature because as worshippers we must know some of these things in order to be able to worship Him properly. Let’s begin by looking at what David told his son Solomon about God right after telling him God was going to use him to lead the people and build the temple. The reason David says this is important is because the Lord God searches the hearts of men and He understands all their plans and thoughts. What goes on in your mind and heart is known by God. God is with all His people at once and we can worship Him knowing that He is here with us. 

We worked through the beginning of chapter 9. Most of it is a prayer recorded by Daniel. The prayer is prompted by the prophecy of Jeremiah. He had declared their exile was going to last 70 years. Daniel knew they were coming up on the time predicted and Daniel also knew the people were still not in a state of repentance. Daniel turns to God and intercedes on his own behalf and on behalf of the people. He makes confession and calls on God for mercy. He is acting as a representative of the people and in this way points forward to how Jesus stands in our place before God and bears His wrath against our sin on our behalf. He is our great High Priest and the best hope we have. Daniel demonstrates this by starting his prayer with a verse focused on adoration of God. Pointing to God’s great promise keeping nature and the way he demonstrates love to those who love Him and are His. He then goes on to ask God for show mercy for His own name sake. The point Daniel is making is how they do not deserve God’s mercy but si

We worked through the prophecies of chapter 8. It is a remarkable chapter because in it Daniel not only has a vision but an angel tells him what the vision means and gives the names of the countries the animals in the vision represent. The vision also included a specific king who would be serious source of oppression for Israel. There are 10 things prophesied specifically about this king. • His power will be great• It will not be his power alone• He will cause destruction• He will succeed in what he does• He will destroy mighty men and God’s saints• He will make deceit prosper by cunning• He will be a great in his own eyes (He will be a legend in his own mind.)• He will destroy many without warning• He will rise up against the Prince of princes• He will be broken but not by human handsAntiochus Epiphanes fits this description exactly. He had great power. He claimed to be the incarnation of Zeus. He set up an idol to Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem. He sacrificed pigs on the altar and forced the Jewish people

We worked our way through the vision of Daniel in chapter 7. This is the last part of the book written in Aramaic. This simply points to how this vision was intended to be widely available to the people of the day, even those they lived among in exile. Daniel has a dream of 4 beasts. This dream seems to have many parallels to Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream of the statue with 4 sections. It starts with the lion that has eagle’s wings. This beast has its wings ripped off and it is given the mind of a man and stands on 2 feet. In a variety of ways this points to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. This beast is followed by a bear with ribs in its mouth. It has one side larger than the other. This is a reference to the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. The Persians were stronger than the Medes which explains the different sizes of the bear sides. After this there arose a leopard with 4 heads. The leopard most likely points to Alexander the great who conquered the known world swiftly and died young. His kingdom was div

We continued to look at how knowing about God is critical for us to be able to worship God. This has been a critical theme to the topic of worship. What I have discovered in studying this subject has been how clearly the Bible points to what we need to know about God. There are certain aspects to God’s nature which the Bible itself declares as critical to knowing and worshipping God. There are some fundamental things about God we must understand to properly conceive of who we are engaging with. First and foremost the Bible presents us with a God who is a person or probably is better stated as having personhood. This is part of what being created in the image of God is about. We are people and have personhood because God has personhood and we are made in his image. This means simply we can relate to God and engage with God as a person because we understand personhood. Secondly and fundamentally God is a trinity and has eternally existed as a trinity. This means one of the fundamental aspects of God is relation

We worked our way through the last narrative section in the book of Daniel. It is the majestic and familiar story of Daniel and his night spent in the lion’s den. The story is driven by men jealous of the power and favor God had granted Daniel. He has taken on a new role advising Darius, the new ruler of Babylon. Darius was planning to place Daniel over all the wise men and this did not sit well with some of them. Since they couldn’t seem to establish any dirt on Daniel they resorted to lawfare. They knew Daniel prayed to his God three times a day. They suggested to Darius, he should issue a decree for all men to make their prayers and petitions to him alone for the next 30 days. If they petitioned anyone but the king they would be thrown into the lion’s den. Darius was a new king and thought this was a good idea, probably seeing it as a way of establishing his authority over the newly conquered territory. Since this was a law of the Medes and Persians it could not be changed. Upon learning the document had b

Each chapter we have worked through so far has given us different aspects of God’s nature and work. • In chapter 1 - Daniel and his 3 friends were made healthy and strong on a vegetarian diet. This was clearly a work of God and it communicates to us how God remembers His people and sustains them. The message is about how God never forgets His own people even when things seem to be going really wrong.• In chapter 2 - Nebuchadnezzar is troubled by a dream and demands his wise men tell him both the dream and its meaning or die. God gives the dream and its meaning to Daniel and rescues him and his friends from death. • In chapter 3 - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow to an idol and are thrown into an extremely hot furnace. Nebuchadnezzar sees a fourth man like a son of the God’s walking in the fire with them. He calls them to come out and declares how their God is the true God. This points to how God is with His people in all circumstances.• In chapter 4 - Nebuchadnezzar gives his testimony of how God

We heard the final part of what I call Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony. It is the only chapter in Daniel which appears to be the dictated words of someone else and in this case it is Nebuchadnezzar asking Daniel to write down these things. It is the greatest king of that day bearing witness to the greatness of the God of Daniel. He bears testimony to this by pointing out how he had a dream which troubled him. He called on many wise men to tell him the dream but it was finally Daniel who was able to interpret it. It is a dream about a great tree which reached to the heavens was visible everywhere on earth and was the sustainer of all the birds and beasts. In the dream a watcher from heaven comes and declares the tree should be cut down but a band of iron and bronze are to be put around the stump until 7 times pass by. Daniel was hesitant to give the king what amounted to bad news. The king saw this and told Daniel not to fear. So Daniel tells the king how he is the tree and he is going to be cut down and driven int

We will continue our study of worship by the content of our worship according to scripture. To put it a little more clearly what dose the Bible indicate we are required to know in order to worship. This becomes vitally important when we consider how salvation is primarily about creating worshippers of God. It then makes sense God would communicate to us through His word how our worship should be shaped. For instance those who are followers of Islam do not believe Jesus is a member of the trinity. They do not believe Jesus is God in the flesh. Because of this no matter how much worship they offer they are creating a false god who falls short of the God of the Bible. What you believe matters when is comes to worship. 

We worked through the first part of Daniel 4. In this chapter we have Nebuchadnezzar having another dream. The chapter starts out with this appearing to be a dictation from Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar starts out by giving glory to the most high God. The God who has shown His power to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Because this story starts out this way and because of the way it ends this appears to be Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony and confession of faith in this God he is giving glory to. Nebuchadnezzar is a prospering in his palace and at ease when he is troubled by a dream which alarmed him. It is a cryptic dream and he calls on all his wise men to come and none of them could interpret the dream. Finally Daniel comes before him and he tells him the dream. He saw a tree which grew and became great and its height reached to heaven. You could see it from anywhere on earth. It provided food and shade for all the beast and birds. Everything was fed from it. A holy one

We worked through chapter 3 and in it we really get a view into the second major time God confronts Nebuchadnezzar. The first time God confronted Nebuchadnezzar was with the recurring dream. The dream he demanded his wise men tell him along with its meaning. God uses Daniel to convey the dream and its meaning but also Daniel points out to Nebuchadnezzar how God is the source of the dream and its interpretation. This made it clear to Nebuchadnezzar where the source really was. The second time was in Daniel three when Nebuchadnezzar demanded his leaders from all over his kingdom come and bow down before the statue he has constructed. We are not entirely sure what drove this demand. The Bible does not record for us the motivating factors but there is a historic record of a rebellion in the kingdom of Babylon about the tenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. If this was the motivation behind this then it was a test of loyalty. Failure to comply was a sign of disloyalty and explains the extreme consequences for not

We worked through the end of chapter 2. Here we witnessed Daniel going before Nebuchadnezzar with his dream and its interpretation. Daniel makes it clear to Nebuchadnezzar how it is impossible for men to know what he dreamed, but God in heaven knows all things and He gave Nebuchadnezzar this dream to reveal to him what is coming. Daniel then tells him he dreamed of a massive statue with a head of gold, chest of silver, waist of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. A stone is cut without hands and strikes the feet of the statue and the rest of the statue falls on it and is shattered to dust and blown away by the wind. After this the stone grows to fill the whole earth. Then Daniel explains what the dream means. The different metals of the statue represent world empires. The head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon. Daniel explains how each of the successive sections of the statue replace the one before it. The feet of iron and potters clay are not stable and the stone cut without ha

We began to explore the part of Daniel where the king has a dream and ask the wise men of Babylon to tell him the dream and the interpretation of it. The kings advisors object to this and ask for Nebuchadnezzar to tell them the dream and they would give the interpretation. This angers Nebuchadnezzar who demands they tell him the dream as well as the interpretation because he believes they are frauds. They again object and tell him to know the dream is in the realm of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar is enraged and orders his executioner to kill all the wise men of Babylon. It appears on hearing this the wise men scatter. The executioner goes to the school where Daniel and the other new wise men in training are being taught. They apparently did not know what had transpired so Daniel asks what’s going on to bring on their death. The executioner tells him and Daniel asks if he could interpret the kings dream for him. The executioner takes Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and he arranges for some time to seek God for the answers

We explored what scripture has to say about the centrality of worship to the Christian life. Quite literally worship from a scriptural point of view is the reason we are saved. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, the third temptation was to worship Satan and receive the nations of the world without going to the cross. We looked at whether this was a legitimate offer or not, but according to scripture Jesus Himself recognized Satan as the ruler of this world prior to the cross. This raises of course other questions. One of them is when did Satan become the ruler. This had to take place when Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At this point in History Adam went from being the vice-regent or ruler of this world by command of God to being the conquered ruler of this world by means of following Satan in disobedience. Through his fall Adam lost his rulership to Satan. This only pertained to the command God gave Adam to rule over the earth in Genesis 1:28. Jesus as the new and bette