How Faith Faces the Future

Faith Forward is what we call our fall series through Hebrews 11 here at Twin Lakes Church. Good morning! My name is René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. I want to show you a cartoon. The other day my friend Kelly sent me this comic by Will Santino. Can you relate to this? You know, kind of like they tell you, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." But I'm running out of bottles here, right? Too many lemons!

Here's the question we're addressing today. What do you do when the bad news feels relentless? Does anybody need to get an answer to this question right now? Sometimes you turn on the news and there's always another negative news story. And you look at pop culture and it just seems like it's getting cruder and cruder all the time, right? And maybe even in your own life, some of your own hopes and dreams just don't seem like they are coming true. They're on hold. How do you not just give up when the lemons just keep on coming?

Well, this fall we've been in this series, Faith Forward. We're going through a part of the Bible called Hebrews 11 that addresses this specific feeling. Just a quick recap for you. Hebrews 11 was written to early Christians who started really strong, but by this time, maybe it's about 30 years or so after Christ, they're tired of waiting on Jesus to return and set everything right. They thought Jesus was going to come back like next week. And now it's been three decades; it's taking so long. They're tired of waiting for God to make things better. They're losing hope. In fact, they're thinking of quitting.

And all through the book of Hebrews, the author is saying, "Come on guys, don't quit. There are great things ahead and to inspire them." In Hebrews 11, this famous portion of the Bible, what he does is he tells story after story of Bible heroes who felt the exact same way, who actually were given a faith mission by God, but then got tired and started to lose hope. And some of them really didn't have very much faith at all, but they all had just enough faith to take the next step forward into the dark, and God did great things through them.

And we've been looking at all of these stories, or at least many of these stories in this Hebrews 11 series. We wrote a book that goes along with this called Faith Forward, and you can pick that up in the lobby if you haven't picked it up yet. And if you don't have the money for it, you can just grab a book. We want to put those books in your hands.

Well, toward the end of this chapter, the author says, "Now I want you all to think of the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, who quenched the raging fire." So who is he trying to get these people to imagine in their mind's eye? There were a lot of prophets, but there's only one book of the Bible that has all of these plot elements. Any guesses as to what that book of the Bible is? It's the book of Daniel, that's right. And so today what I want to do is plunge into a part of the book of Daniel.

Now, there's enough plot in the book of Daniel to take a whole series, and in fact, I have done a whole series on the book of Daniel here at TLC, but this morning I want to drill down into just one verse. It's actually one of my favorite verses of the Bible. Sometimes I read it and just weep. It is pretty obscure though. And to really get the emotional impact of this verse, what you have to understand is the historical and contextual setup to this one verse of the Bible.

But if you understand the story that leads up to this one verse, I think it's going to blow your mind. It's going to inspire you, especially if right now you are feeling like too many lemons. And so I'm going to take the first half of my time kind of describing the buildup to this verse, and then we're going to dive into this one sentence. Does that sound good? Okay, here we go.

Here's the timeline leading up to the book of Daniel. And we've covered some of these stories in this series around 2000 BC. Abraham is promised the land. And God says, "Great nations are going to rise out of you, and I'm going to give you a kingdom that will never end." However, after that, the promise doesn't really come true. I mean, he gets a son, but then the Israelites shortly thereafter, within about two or three generations, they become slaves in Egypt around 1400 BC or so.

The Israelites are released from slavery through Moses and then through Joshua. They reenter the promised land and they're pretty excited. But then battle after battle ensues as there's a lot of chaos around 1000 BC though, it looks like that promise given to Abraham a thousand years before is finally coming true because through David and Solomon, the kingdom is united. It's sort of the Camelot period of Israel. At last, here comes the promise. You know how long that lasts? About a hundred years.

Because shortly after that, there is a civil war. The country is divided into North and South. Sounds familiar? And then about 722 BC, the Northern Kingdom known as Israel falls to Assyria and it's wiped out. Ten of the 12 Israelite tribes that are up there in the North, they're gone completely. They're lost to history. I mean, like to this day. And then the Southern Kingdom, which has been hanging on, around 605 BC, it falls to Babylon. And when I say it falls, I mean the city, the holy city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the temple is destroyed, and the Jewish people themselves are shipped off for 70 years of captivity.

And what makes it all even worse is the place that conquered Jerusalem, the place where they are shipped off is Babylon. Babylon is mentioned about 300 times in the Bible and it's never good. Babylon in the Bible is sort of shorthand for evil. Right? And so, do you understand what's happening here? The people of the promised land, the people of God, although they had left their worship of God, the people in the holy city, Jerusalem, are seeing that city destroyed and the icon of evil in their culture has apparently won. All seems lost.

So, I mean, for most of the history, except for that hundred-year period of Camelot, that's a lot of lemons, right? Now Daniel is a young man when this all happens. Probably he's about 14, 15 years old, carted off to Babylon and he grows old there and he works his way into positions of influence within the government, even though he's a Jewish captive. And during that time, God says, "Let me give you a series of visions about the future for your people and for the world." And through almost nightmarish, dreamlike imagery, Daniel in these visions sees multi-headed, freaky animals, beasts crawling out of the ocean, all meant to be symbolic of future battles between evil kingdoms, which are represented by these beasts.

Kind of a perfect thing for Halloween, isn't it? That's why I'm talking about this today. Not really. But it's real book of Revelation stuff. And if this stuff, if the book of Revelation and apocalyptic visions in the Bible, if this stuff kind of freaks you out a little bit, right? If you've ever read a left behind book or watched some movie about the apocalypse and been a little bit freaked out, you are not alone because Daniel was pretty freaked out too. Look at his responses. He says, "After the first vision, I, Daniel, was worried. These visions that went through my mind frightened me." And then after God explains the meaning of the visions, he's no less frightened. He says, "I, Daniel, was now very afraid. My face became white from fear."

And then he has another similar vision, evil empires battling each other. And after that one, he says, "I, Daniel, became very weak and I was sick for several days after that vision. And then I got up and went back to work, but I was still very upset about the vision. I did not understand what it meant." Now eventually God explains to him and he understands that what these visions mean is evil is real, but God wins in the end. And in fact, in Daniel's lifetime, the exile ends. The Jews start to return to Jerusalem and begin more importantly to return to the worship of their God. And so hope is in the air, right? Everybody's happy now.

But then Daniel, who was an old man still in Babylon, gets another vision. And in this one, he's basically told, "Yeah, little reality check, Daniel. I want you to pass this along to all the other people. There's gonna be more beasts. There's gonna be more evil kingdoms. There's gonna be more wars, more crises before Messiah comes." In other words, there will be bad times along with the triumphs before things get better forever. And let me just say something. I am not a prophet. I want to make that clear. But this is true for you and me too. This sentence right here.

Just like the 70 years of captivity ended for them and they had some good years, but God's warning them, "But you also got to be prepared because there's gonna be more crises." I'm just here to tell you, COVID-19 is eventually going to subside. This emergency, this crisis, will subside. And a lot of the political crises we have right now will become things that people read about in the history books. Okay? They will be over eventually. And there will be other crises, other political things, and other wars around the world, and other diseases. In other words, are you waiting for the day that you turn on the news and it's only good? That is never gonna happen until Jesus returns.

And so after this reality check vision, Daniel is like, "Are you kidding me? I can't take it anymore. You know? Too many lemons." And he says, "At that time, I, Daniel, mourned for three full weeks. I ate no rich food. No, I don't know what that means. Like, he only ate oatmeal. I don't know. But no meat or wine touched my lips." So he's depressed. And God sends a messenger from heaven to comfort him because God loves Daniel. And here's how Daniel describes that messenger from heaven. He says, "His body was like topaz. His face..." Just try to picture this. "His face like lightning. His eyes like flaming torches. His arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze. And his voice sounded like the voice of a multitude." So when this person spoke, it sounded like, like, like one person sounded like, like a stadium. You know, thousands sounded like a waterfall.

So this person is sent by God to calm Daniel down. Would you be calmed down if you saw this? And by the way, who was this person? Well, scholars disagree, but I think it's intriguing. Some think this was actually a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. If you're taking notes, jot this down, Revelation 1, read Revelation 1, and you'll see that the Apostle John, when he sees Jesus, describes Jesus as very similar to this description. Pardon me. And in fact, he has the same response as Daniel does because Daniel, as I said, has not calmed down. His companions take off, and he says, "Gazing at this great vision, I had no strength left, and my face turned deathly pale, and I was helpless."

And then this man or this being who looks like a man starts to speak, and he says, "And when I heard the sound of his voice..." Remember what it sounds like? This multitude. "I fainted, and I lay there with my face to the ground." And on your own time, today's some time, look up Revelation 1. John has the same exact response when he has a similar vision. And the same thing happens to John that happens to Daniel next. Daniel says, "A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees." And this person said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you. And stand up, for I have now been sent to you. And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling."

Well, what does this person say, the son of man, this being say to Daniel? Well, he starts off by saying, "Hey," kind of almost like I start every single email that I'm responding to. He's sorry for my delay in responding. He says, "Yeah, you've been praying for a while and repenting of your sin. I heard you. Sorry, it took me so long to get back to you, but there's this evil battle going on, and there's another war that's going to be happening." And Daniel almost stops him, like says, "Wait a minute. I said to the one standing there before me, 'Master, I am upset and afraid because of the vision. I feel very weak. You want to have a conversation with me? Well, how can I, your servant, talk with you, my Lord? My strength is gone, and I can hardly breathe.'

And maybe you feel like that sometimes when you look at the news, or when you look at your life, or when you think of the way culture is going right now. It's just like wave after wave of what feels like these evil beasts. Well, in verse 18, again, the one who looked like a man touched me, gave me strength. And then he says this, and this is the one verse, now that you know all the background, now you know all the emotional buildup, right? All the lemons that have been pelting Daniel and why he's feeling this way. Now you'll understand the context for this verse. This heavenly messenger says, "Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed. Peace. Be strong now. Be strong."

My guess is that there are many people here who feel exactly like Daniel. Because these days, even our news can feel like a never-ending series of apocalyptic doomsday visions. Only at least Daniel's were inspired by God and accurate. Well, we're being fed on our news feeds and through news media, seems like just uninspired, never-ending forecasts of catastrophe. And every time there's a glimmer of hope, you know, it's like, "Yes, but, yeah, you're going back to Jerusalem, but, yet we survived the bomb cyclone, but you know the drought is not over. Yes, I know, I know, too many lemons." And we can feel overwhelmed.

Well, this is why I want to focus in on this verse for the rest of my message today. Because, you see, this is God's message for you, not just for Daniel. I want to demonstrate something to you. Every one of these truths is repeated in the Bible for every single believer. There are four words of encouragement for you from this one verse. So listen to the Word of God for you. You could break it down into these four categories.

Number one, refuse to fear. And you can refuse. It's a choice. The messenger from heaven tells Daniel, "Don't be afraid." Did you know that a form of the phrase "don't be afraid" is in every single book of the Bible? You think this is a pretty important message for God to get across to you? Please don't be afraid. Why would that be so important? Well, I think one reason is fear is limiting, right? Fear makes you lock doors and not take opportunities and not start conversations and stay away from people. I know that's the way it affects me at times.

And I think that's why one of the very first things Jesus says after his resurrection, "To his disciples who were huddled behind locked doors," the Bible specifically says because of their fear of authorities, he says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Do not let." To some degree, fear is about what you let. What you allow, are you letting people influence you to fear? Because these days, fear has been monetized. Can I just speak frankly? Some of you are addicted to negative thinking. You are by what you allow to influence you on your newsfeed.

And I get it. Here's why this has happened. We're living with unprecedented levels of uncertainty right now and uncertainty leads to anxiety. And the way we deal with anxiety is often by seeking as much information as possible. We think, "If I can just stay informed at all times, then I'm going to feel less anxious because I will be less uncertain." But it doesn't work that way, does it? Let me ask you, in Daniel's lifetime, who was the most informed person on the planet about the future? Daniel! God tells him what's going to happen and even when it's going to happen, and does all that lessen his anxiety? Apparently not. Right?

What lessens Daniel's anxiety is not information, even if it's accurate. What lessens Daniel's anxiety is reassurance about God's presence and love. So how do we apply this? You can get all the information you really need every day from the news, probably in 15 to 20 minutes a day, max. But the way we access information these days is designed not only to provoke you to fear because fear keeps you reading, but it's also designed to be addictive. Because there's always another suggestion for a story, that their algorithms are figuring out what you tend to click on.

And every time you click on something, it improves the accuracy of that algorithm. And so it's so easy to go, "I'm just going to spend 15 minutes looking at the headlines," and an hour and a half later, you're still down that rabbit hole. You can get all the information you need 15 minutes a day max, but then you need to change your focus from the never-ending apocalyptic imagery on the news to the hand of Jesus on your shoulder. Change your focus to Jesus.

You know, I think I've told you many times what my father sang on his deathbed the day he died. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." You know, I was just reading a book by a guy who is a Mensa member, has one of the highest IQs, you know, of anybody living right now, and he wrote a book about right thinking that I happened to see the other day. And you know how he consumes the news? He reads the news once a week, one of the smartest guys on the planet.

He says, "You really don't need to read it more than once a week, you know." And he says, "The rest of the time I turn my brain, my valuable brain, to more productive topics." Fascinating idea. I don't know if I could do that, but 15 minutes a day? If he can do it once a week, he can do 15 minutes a day, and then spend the rest of time focusing on Jesus and what Jesus gives you. And then point two, "I realize I'm beloved of God." The next thing this heavenly being says to Daniel is, "You who are highly esteemed." Now, watch this.

Generally, you might have noticed I use the New International version of the Bible, but occasionally I'll use other versions that I, not because I happen to prefer their wording, but because I actually think they're more accurate to the original language, and this is a great example. "You who are highly esteemed" sounds so bloodless, doesn't it? It sounds like, "I'm eyeing you for a promotion, young man." But the original language is much more passionate, and I think other translations capture it better, like the old King James version says, "Oh, man, greatly beloved." Or the New American Standard Bible says, "You who are treasured." Or the New Century version, "God loves you very much."

You can see how they're triangulating on what this original word really means, which is, "Man, God just passionately cherishes and treasures you. You're beloved." And did you know that this applies not just to Daniel? Did you know that the word "beloved" is used nearly 70 times in the New Testament to refer to all believers? Anybody who's trusted in Christ, who turns from their selfishness and sin and turns in faith, mustard seed-sized faith, toward Jesus, God says, "Oh, oh, you're..." In fact, God so loved the whole world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. That means God so loved you.

Think of what it would do to your freak-out level if you really believe this. I love what Henri Nouwen said. He said, "We forget so quickly that we are God's beloved children and allow the many curses of our world to darken our hearts. Therefore, we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind others of theirs." This is one of the reasons I talk about this so much at this church. I love the way an author named Trevor Hudson puts it. He says, "Does the truth of your belovedness reverberate throughout your being?" Right? Do you delight in it as a small child delights in her father carrying her out of church now? You know, but seriously, does the truth of your belovedness just echo through your soul?

What does that look like? What difference does that make to you? Here's what it looks like. The Apostle Paul in these familiar verses in Romans 8, look at this. He says, "I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." You know, Paul had a pretty scary life, but he was not scared. Why? He knew the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Like that song says, "My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in your love."

When you really soak in this truth, that's when you can third rest in God's hand. The messenger from heaven says to Daniel, "Peace." And again, it's a message for you and me too. Remember how Jesus says to the disciples, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give you. His peace is a gift." So how do I receive that gift? One of the best known yet least practiced parts of the Bible is Philippians 4:6–7. Would you read this out loud with me? Let me hear you read this. "Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks."

You know what? I've been actually practicing this this week. Imagine that a pastor actually practicing what he preaches. You know, like you things have been stressing me out worrying me. Well, I've been stopping to ask God first for what I need instead of worrying. I mean really specifically asking and then giving thanks like, "God, thank you for that great sunset." We've had some great sunsets lately, haven't we? And guess what's been happening to me? Well, exactly what's promised next. Read this out loud with me. "And God's peace, which is so great, we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Again, instead of letting all the apocalyptic imagery on the news run like a hamster on a wheel over and over, that's kind of mixing metaphors, isn't it? Apocalyptic imagery, hamster on a wheel. Instead of letting all those multi-headed beasts run on a wheel over and over in your brain, give it to God and rest in his hand. And then finally you can, number four, just receive his strength. You receive it. Daniel is told, "Be strong now. Be strong," as in receive the strength from me. He's not told, "Daniel, buck up." You know? "Try real hard not to be afraid." He's like, "Let my strength infuse your spirit." And in fact, look at his reaction.

Daniel says, "When he spoke to me, I was strengthened." And I said, "Speak, my Lord, since what? You have given me strength." He doesn't have to gin up courage. This is supernatural strength from God. Now, why does God strengthen him? Not just to make him feel better. Watch, God has him go on a mission. He basically says, "I want you to turn your fears from inward to outward and bring these visions to the people who need to hear this." But God is giving him strength for his mission. Kind of like God says in this verse from Isaiah 41:10, "Don't be afraid, for I'm with you. Don't be discouraged, for I'm your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

Reminds me of a story. A lot of you know a couple from our church, Dick and Ivy Otto. They lived in Uganda for decades helping churches out, especially in children's ministry. Well, one year a local team went over to help them out, and one member of the team, Janet, is a physical therapist. And Janet notices at an orphanage she's working at in Uganda, a young boy of about 12, this young boy, Richard. Well, Richard couldn't walk. He could barely hold anything. In fact, Richard hadn't even stood up in years. Now, remember Janet is a professional physical therapist, and she thought he must have cerebral palsy because Richard was showing all the symptoms, or she thought perhaps some sort of vitamin deficiency.

But Janet began to work with Richard and found out that with help, he could stand. And then, after just two days, Richard was standing and walking on his own. And she left physical therapy instructions explaining how he could continue to exercise. Like you can see him playing with a balloon here to help him learn balance and how to walk and run as he chases the balloon. And here's what Janet's conclusion was when she came back. And I want you to listen to this. She says, "It turns out Richard did not have cerebral palsy. He did not have a vitamin deficiency." You know what he had? He had a hope deficiency.

He had given up as an orphan so sure he had no future and nothing good to live for, and hopelessness paralyzed him literally, not metaphorically. But once he believed that there was a future for him, that God so loved him and had a purpose for his life, it completely changed his life. Now, you just think about that for just a second. Because just like for Richard, a hope deficiency can paralyze you. But when you find hope in Christ for your future, everything can change for you.

And I just want to tell you something. You know, Jesus said, "Whenever two or three or more are gathered together, there I am in the midst of them." And that means Jesus is here, and he's here with you if you're joining us virtually on the live stream right there on your couch or wherever you're joining us from. Jesus is here. And just as he did for Daniel and those disciples in the upper room and for the Apostle Paul, I believe he's coming down every pew and he's coming over to your couch and he's putting his hand on your shoulder and he's saying, "Don't be afraid. Peace. You are dearly beloved and now receive my strength."

Some of you, if we could see your souls, they would look like Richard's body before Janet was able to help him out. But we're here to give you hope today so you can get up and start to move faith forward again. You know, that's one of the reasons that we do our acts of kindness projects and our food drive, because there's people all around us like Richard. A couple of years ago, a single mom told me this during our food drive. Listen to this. She said, "René, when I got those bags of food, you know it didn't just feed me and my kids. It gave me hope that someone cares about me because I had given up all hope."

And that's why I'm so passionate about our food drive every year because I know from my own childhood, being the recipient of food drives, it gives people hope that someone cares and eventually people follow those clues to the people who love them and they find faith in Jesus. See, to receive all these things, maybe you're thinking, "Well, yeah, sure, Daniel was beloved and received this rest from God and so on because, I mean, he was Daniel, right?" Well, do you understand that you can receive all these things simply when you turn toward God in faith and receive these things as his gift of grace?

You know, in all these visions of Daniel, there's really one big idea that gives him hope and it's true in all of the visions and it's this. Ultimately, God wins. Amen? In fact, jump to the very last verse of the very last chapter of the book of Daniel and this messenger from heaven says this to Daniel, "As for you, Daniel, go your way to the end. Keep moving faith forward. You will get your rest. You're going to pass away one day, but at the end, you will rise to receive your reward." Say, "You will rise" out loud with me. You will rise.

That's talking about the promise of resurrection the day that the Messiah Daniel foresaw. "We'll return and we'll set all things right and we'll wipe away disease and we'll wipe away injustice and we'll reunify his people and establish his kingdom on earth. You will rise and when you place your trust in him, then you can have this same hope." And this is not just like church propaganda. This really makes a difference.

You know, every week in the series, we're meeting somebody from TLC and hearing their faith journey and today I want you to meet somebody who has had many crises in his life. Talk about a lot of lemons, but I want you to listen to how Rob Stewart got through them. Watch this.

I considered myself a pretty average person. I grew up in the trades and I got married when I was 26 and had my first child when I was 28. And next thing I know, I've got three kids that are about four years apart. And then my son Jordan got sick at about 15 months old. So they ran an MRI scan and they found the tumor. It was called the juvenile pylocytic astrocytoma. And he passed away on May 8th and at two and a half years old in 1992. And it was, you know, really, really hard time. My former wife got severely depressed and we handled our grief completely differently. And unfortunately, we went through a divorce a year later, but we eventually got things worked out and co-parented and I remarried six years later to my wife Karen and we had a son a year later after we got married and life was good.

And my son Brendan, my firstborn, we did everything together. We snowboarded, we raised a motor cross, we mountain biked, we did a lot. I was really close to Brendan. And tragically, 13 years after Jordan died, Brendan and I were snowboarding on New Year's Day at North Star and Truckee, all of a sudden I just lost Brendan. We weren't off out of bounds or anything. We just lost him. Finally, someone skied over the top of his snowboard. He was inverted in the tree well and suffocated. So we were obviously in total shock and grief for months and months. It could have been easy. I think I told you this before to get in the fifth of Jack Daniel someplace in a gutter and just deal with my grief that way. But I chose to turn my grief outward. It was a choice and it took faith to do that because you try to see what good could come out of tragedy like this.

And one of the things I did in Jordan's memory was I started a foundation after he passed. We just had our 28th annual event and we've raised money and awareness for Family House and other families that are going through cancer treatment. We've raised about $4.7 million since the beginning. So and after Brendan died, I was just so devastated. It was just much harder than losing Jordan because that 18 years with him. But ultimately turned the pain outward and we went to Uganda and we built two orphanages there in Jordan and Brendan's memory about a year after he died. And it was really helpful for me to get outside my pain and help someone else in their pain.

You've gone through cancer. You and your wife both have had COVID. Yet you have such a positive attitude on life. Where does that come from? I couldn't imagine going through these kind of tragedies without having a relationship with the Lord, knowing that we would see our boys again and that we knew the end of the book that there would be no more heartache and pain in heaven. And I think faith is a choice that you're choosing that God's going to bring good out of this somehow. And that when I get on the other side, it won't matter the pain and loss I went through because the reunion is going to far out distance the sadness that I've had to carry through these tragedies in my life.

What a story. So what do you do? What do you do when the bad news feels relentless? Well, Rob is such a good example to me. Such a good example to me. And his attitude reminds me of something that a woman named Catherine Marshall wrote about a flight that she took on an airplane. And Catherine, if you know her story, she had tragedy in her life too. But here's her experience. Through the windows on one side of the plane, she sees this amazing sunset. But out of the window on the other side, all she sees is a storm, dark and threatening. And she says it was like God was telling her, well that's life.

You see, until the end of time, as Daniel saw in his visions, there will be frightening dark clouds and there will be beautiful sunsets. And you get to choose what window you are going to look through. Now ultimately, the plane is still going to get to the same destination, someplace great. That is in the hands of the pilot, not yours. But until then, you'll have more or less joy based on what you choose to notice through the windows.

So here's what I want us to focus on as we leave here. Look through this window. Remember, the voice of this heavenly being is described by Daniel as sounding like a great multitude, right? Well, we have kind of a multitude here today. And so what I'd love for us to do is read this verse together out loud. And as you hear this happening, try to imagine what that must have sounded like. And I want you to hear these words from heaven as words for you right now, because there are people here this morning for joining us online who need to hear this word. So let's be the messenger from heaven to those around us and those watching online. Here we go. Don't be afraid. God loves you very much. Peace be with you. Be strong now. Be courageous.

Let's pray. Lord, I pray that we would hear this message from heaven as your message to us. There are so many people here this morning for joining us online who need hope, who need help to stand. And God, if anybody needs to settle the issue of their very first step of faith, who they trust as Lord, may they do so right now and say, "I choose to place my trust firmly in the Son of Man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. I don't understand it all, but I want to have that same personal relationship that Daniel had and that the Bible promises that I can have." That, "I have come to believe" is what it's going to be, be key to me dealing with life when the lemons just keep being tossed at us. Thank you, Lord, for your promise. And Lord, we also pray for those going through real trial right now. Like the missionaries in Haiti, we continue to lift up those 17. We pray for their deliverance and that they may experience the supernatural strength that Daniel experienced in this passage. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.