God's Warning Labels

Courage in Chaos. That is the name of our fall series in the book of Daniel. My name again is Renée, another one of the pastors here. Who is glad to be in church today? Isn't this great? I love church so much. Now that you've raised your hands already one time, let me ask you another question. How many of you are not perfect? Can I see a show of hands? Anybody not perfect here today? Good, I'm among your friends. Now, raise your hand if there's something specific that you would like to change or improve about yourself. Can I see that show of hands? Something specific. Okay, now raise your hands again if you've been putting it off. Can I see that show of hands? Most of us here. Well, then you are going to love today's story in the Bible.

But first, let's talk about warning labels. What I've done is I have scoured the Internet to come up with some actual warning labels on actual products. I'm not making any of these up. And you've got to wonder what's behind some of these. There's a story behind every single one, right? For example, on this Vidal Sassoon blow dryer, instructions for use, do not use while sleeping. Is this actually a problem? Sleep drying? On this Rowenta iron, lots of instructions, including never iron clothes while they are being worn. Now they tell me.

How about this auto shade brand windshield visor? The instructions say warning do not drive with sunshade in place, and they have to repeat it: remove windshield before even starting the ignition. You just know there's a story behind this one. Well, they didn't tell me I couldn't drive with it on; you know, it's their fault. And then this quick fold baby stroller caution: remove child before folding. No wonder it didn't work. And finally, this is a bottle of pills for the dog from the vet. The warning label says may cause drowsiness. Alcohol may intensify this effect. Use care when operating a car or dangerous machinery. Does this mean I got to keep my dog off the forklift?

Well, today I want to talk about God's warning labels. We're going to look at a story today in the Bible about a time God literally wrote warning labels onto the side of a palace. Just three words. The first one was repeated twice. Applying these three words is going to help you with whatever it is that you've been putting off changing. It's going to help you live a full life and a rich life, but you ignore these three words at your peril.

First, a quick recap if you're just joining us for the first time. This series, Courage in Chaos, is set in the book of Daniel. That's a book in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible. It starts right around 586 BC. The Babylonian army, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, marches against the kingdom of Judah. It destroys the kingdom. It even destroys the capital city of Jerusalem, and they take a bunch of Jewish captives back to the capital city of Babylon. And that is where the whole rest of the book of Daniel unfolds.

Now, fast forward in the story right around 47 years. We know the exact date that this story happens. I'll tell you how later. But it's August 12, 539 BC. How about that? We did not plan this when we started this series. But it's on this date in history. The place is the royal palace in Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar has been dead for 24 years. Over the border, the menace of the Persian army is growing. They are on the march against Babylon. And so what do the Babylonians do?

Well, verse 1 of chapter 5 of the book of Daniel says, King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for 1,000 of his nobles. Now, there's a lot here to unpack, but immediately you're introduced to a brand new character in the story, Belshazzar. Say Belshazzar with me. Belshazzar. We were considering that for the name of one of our children, Belshazzar Schlepfer, but we decided against it. Now, I'm going to use that joke as often as it gets a laugh. But who is Belshazzar?

For years, critics of the Bible said that the Bible is mistaken here because there was no such person as Belshazzar in any historical record outside of the Bible. Then a British archaeologist discovered what's now known as the Nabonidus Cylinder. This is a Babylonian record of all of their kings. It explains the story behind Belshazzar and names him, detailing how he came to take on the throne. Here's the whole story.

Nebuchadnezzar reigns for 43 years. But after his reign, the whole Babylonian empire really starts to fall apart in this soap opera of succession drama. His son reigns for just two years. He's assassinated by Nebuchadnezzar's own brother-in-law. He rules for just four years and then he dies. His son reigns only nine months before he is beaten to death by co-conspirators. Pretty brutal. And then a man named Nabonidus is king. Now, Nabonidus is the first one of all these people who is not directly related to the Nebuchadnezzar family.

Excuse me. But he realizes that this is probably going to be a problem because there's almost cult-like devotion to the Nebuchadnezzar family. And he's thinking, I need to somehow get into this family to establish that I'm part of this dynasty. So he marries one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters. They have a son together, and Nabonidus puts him on the throne as kind of the crown prince or the puppet king, and he is Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, I bring this up because you've got all this soap opera drama happening in Babylon, and while this is distracting the Babylonians, what are the Persians doing? Well, they are gathering their strength and conquering the world. Cyrus is the leader of the Persian army, and his armies wipe out the Babylonian army about 50 miles south of the capital city of Babylon and then they surround the city with their troops under siege. Belshazzar is here in the palace surrounded by the mighty Persian army. So he throws a party.

Back to that verse. King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine in front of the thousand. Kind of like tonight I'm gonna party like it's 539 BC. Now why would he do that? Well, here's the way he probably sees it. He's protected by walls that stretch for miles around the city of Babylon. They are 85 feet wide, topped by 250 defensive towers. The Euphrates River flows right through the city, providing an endless supply of absolutely fresh water. They've got stockpiles of food to last years and farms inside the city walls. So the way he sees it, he's impregnable. Plus, they're gathered in the massive central palace, which is surrounded by even more walls and even more guards. So, you know, they're good. They felt zero concern. Foolishly.

This party has fascinated artists for centuries. Why would you party in those circumstances? This is one I love by an artist named John Martin from a couple of hundred years ago. But I love the detail here. Outside there's thunder and lightning in the sky, and the guard towers are crumbling, symbolizing this imminent storm brewing just outside the walls. But inside, they party on.

At some point, somebody decides to bring out the gold and silver objects that have been taken from the Jerusalem temple, from the holy, from Solomon's temple. And not only did they take them out of, you know, the safe, but they decided they're going to fill them with wine. They're going to make toasts to the pagan gods to deliberately desecrate the objects of the Jewish god. Somebody goes, you know, all praise to Marduk, and everybody thinks that's hilarious. Pretty soon everybody's raising up the goblets from the Jerusalem temple to praise all these other gods. That's just fantastic. The party gets crazy.

When suddenly a disembodied finger appears writing on the wall of that palace. This is Rembrandt's rendition of it. The way I imagine it, first one person sees it and nudges the person next to him. Then somebody else sees it, and pretty soon everyone notices the writing on the wall. Yes, that is exactly where the phrase, the writing on the wall, comes from, meaning a bad outcome is near. This writing on the wall is three little words, like a little chant: Mene, mene, tekel, parson.

The Bible says suddenly the whole party stops. The musicians stop playing, and the goblets clatter to the floor, and they're just staring at this thing. You ever been in a situation where entertainment just suddenly stops and everybody gets really serious? We were flying back from Europe a couple of years ago. About two hours into the flight, we're over Iceland, coming back from the UK to San Francisco. Everybody's just sort of been happily distracted, drinking their food and dinner and looking at the screens and the seat back in front of them. Suddenly, all the entertainment systems stop.

Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. There's a warning that goes on all our screens. There's a ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, and we look up, and there's smoke all throughout the cabin. The pilot comes on the intercom. You ever notice how these pilots always sound like they have just woken up from like 12 hours of sleep? Every single airline pilot. He goes, excuse me, folks. Got a warning light here in the cockpit showing there's fire on the plane. We'll get that cleared up for you. In the meantime, please pay attention to the flight attendant's oxygen mask instructions. We know you have a choice. Thank you for choosing to fly Delta. You know, this is his spiel. What's happening? Is this really going on? Yes, there was a fire on the plane.

You know how nobody ever pays attention to the flight attendants when they teach you how to buckle your seatbelts? Everyone was listening now. Not a soul was talking. Now, spoiler alert, they did find the fire. It was in the kitchen, and they put it out. We made it. But that was kind of intense for about a half an hour before that got resolved. When it got resolved, the entertainment systems never came back on. They were just done. They didn't know how to reboot them. So for the next 10 hours, guess what we did? We made friends. We actually talked to people. I performed three baby dedications at a wedding. No, just kidding. But that's kind of what happened at this party. God stops their entertainment machine not because it's wrong to party and enjoy life, but because sometimes something's on fire and you need to pay attention to the instructions.

Suddenly they're all staring at the writing on the wall. What do these words mean? Pardon me. The queen mother, Belshazzar's grandmother, says, you know, there used to be an old guy who once interpreted dreams for your grandfather, the king. Let's go get him. Enter Daniel. Belshazzar says, if you can tell me what the writing on the wall means, I will give you some really sweet clothes and I'll give you a gold chain and I'll make you my top assistant. Daniel says, yeah, you can keep your rewards, but I will tell you what this means. First, I'll tell you why it's even there.

Here's what he tells him. He says, your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar was given power and glory and the throne by the great God of heaven. But when he got puffed up with arrogance, he was stripped of all of that in a day. He became like a feral animal, homeless and senseless until he acknowledged that God is the one who rules over everything. We saw that story last weekend. Daniel says, King, you knew his story. From childhood, you could have learned his lesson. Yet you didn't humble yourself, and you went even further than he ever did. In your pride, you brought these objects from God's holy temple, and you've been drinking toast to senseless gods and not honoring the God who gives you every breath you breathe and who controls your destiny.

Daniel is not saying you shouldn't be having fun. Daniel is saying the reason you have what you have is by the hand of God. You would have nothing if not for the hand of God. I just want to stop right here and say that is so true of all of us. That is so true of this church. I look out at the Hope Center when Mark showed that amazing video. There is no reason that that Hope Center is built than the hand of God. In this church's history, you may not know this, but this church was closed for almost nine years in the 1920s. The fact that this church didn't die is nothing but the hand of God.

I'll tell you something else. The fact that TLC en Español has now gone for a year without a pastor, but we hope to have an announcement about that in a few weeks. In that year, they've grown by 15%. That is nothing but the hand of God. The fact that you have what you have, that is nothing but the hand of God. It is the hand of God that decides when I'm promoted. It is the hand of God that decides when I live and when I die. I'll give you a little bit of homework. Just for fun, at some point this week, look at yourself in the mirror and say, you know, I know I'm pretty sharp. I know I work pretty hard. But all of the things that I have in life, everything that I've got, I'd be nothing without the hand of God. Say nothing but the hand of God with me out loud. Nothing but the hand of God. Amen?

That is what Belshazzar did not get. He thought it was all him. He didn't realize it was all grace. So back to the story, Daniel says, O king, you've set yourself up even over God, and that is why God has sent this hand to write this message. Here is what it means. Everybody's leaning forward, and the room has got totally quiet. Daniel points to the writing on the wall and says, this is the inscription that was written: Mene, mene, tekel, parson. This is what those words mean.

Mene, and this was a word that meant numbered or counted. Mene, God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel, and tekel meant weighing, like weighing on scales. Tekel, you have been weighed, O king, and have been found wanting. And perez, which is a form of the word parson, that means divided, and it's also a pun because parson can also mean Persian. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

Oh, yeah, speaking of the Persians, what are they doing outside the walls this whole time? Well, it turns out, and we know this from Herodotus, a Greek historian writing about 100 years later, they were digging canals. They were diverting the river and drying up the Euphrates, so the soldiers just marched up the dry riverbed to enter the city. Herodotus tells us it was October 12, 539 B.C., if you translate it into the Gregorian calendar. No guards, not a spear was thrown in the conquest. It was a total peaceful takeover. Why? Well, the guards were all partying with everybody else.

And so verse 30, the last verse of chapter 5, says that very night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of 62. The new Persian king announces freedom for all the political prisoners and announces that the Jewish people can return to their homeland after 70 years of captivity, but Daniel has made some enemies. Some of the people in the new administration say this person is too powerful. They come up with a bulletproof, ironclad, waterproof scheme to get Daniel in trouble and killed. What happens next is what we discover next weekend.

But today, the question is, this is a great story, right? But what does a story mean to me? I want to wrap up with three applications. I want to suggest that the same finger of God really could write the same exact words for each one of us. They could be written on my wall. They could be written on your wall. Because their point is also made in other scriptures for all of us. You could say these are God's warning labels. And warnings are good. I don't know about you, but I need warnings in my life.

So check this out. Those three words on the wall. First word, mene, repeated twice. Mene, mene means numbered. Because as Daniel said, the king's days were numbered. This is true of me too. This is true of you too. Our days are numbered. Our days at anything, including life, are numbered. We just don't know the number, most of us. You could say the warning label here reads, quantities are limited. Look at this great verse, Psalm 90:12. Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are. Help us to spend them as we should. What's the number? Did you know the average lifespan in America is 25,550 days? That's not much.

The psalmist says, help us to spend them as we should. Everybody spends their lives on something. You trade your breath for doing something. The question is, are you going to spend it on something that's worthwhile? You could jot this down. The question to ask myself is, do I live like my days are numbered? Because they are. Instead of letting that depress you, you should let it liberate you. Let me explain.

So there's a famous Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoevsky. He told the story of the time he was arrested in Russia. True story. He was sentenced by the court to be executed. However, they would play a cruel psychological trick on their prisoners in those days. They would say it's the day of your execution. They would blindfold you. They would tie your hands. They would lead you in front of a firing squad. They would fire at you, but you felt nothing because the guns were loaded with blanks. Can you imagine the psychological torture of that? He went through this. But this experience had a transformative effect on him.

He said the morning of his execution, he woke up knowing it would be, allegedly, the last day of his life. He ate his last meal, and he said he savored every bite like he never savored food before. Every breath of air was taken with an awaRenéss of how precious it was. As they marched him to the wall, he felt the sun beating down on his face and appreciated the warmth of the sun like never before. He said everything around me seemed to have, in his words, a magical quality. When he did not die, everything in his life completely changed. He became forgiving where he'd been bitter. He became a thankful person where he'd been resentful.

He always claimed it was that experience that even made him into a novelist because he had a vivid demonstration of how few his days really were. When I know, hey, my days are numbered, I just don't know the number, that's going to clarify your priorities. That's going to make you intentional about the way you live. That leads right to the second word, tekel, which means weighed. Remember what Daniel said? Dan, I knew him. I know him pretty well, so I call him Dan. Remember what my buddy Danny said? The king's life had been weighed and found wanting, but we're all going to be weighed. You could say the warning label here reads, scheduled for inspection, because one day we will all be weighed.

Look at 1 Samuel 2:3. The Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. In 1 Peter 1:17, it says, the heavenly Father will judge or reward you according to what you do. So what is he going to judge you on? Not your grade point average, not your net worth. Jesus has this great description of the judgment where the Lord says to those receiving a reward, I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me something to drink. I was a stranger. You invited me in. These are the things that weigh something to God on the scales.

The question to ask myself is, do I value what God values? And does it show in the way I live? Now you might be thinking, well, wait a minute, I thought we were saved by grace, not works, and now here it says we're going to be judged by our deeds. Hang on, that's a great question. I'll get to that. But first we need to get to the final word, parson, which means divided. God divided the kingdom from the king because the king had been heedless of the warnings, and he'd been living this corrupt life.

By the way, an interesting thing, when you look at the Babylonian descriptions of the Persian conquest, all the Babylonian writing that survives, they all thought it was great because none of the Babylonian leaders actually loved Belshazzar. They all thought he was corrupt. In fact, they also criticized him for sacrilege against the other gods. So that accusation's not just in the Bible. He was corrupt, he didn't heed the warnings, and it had these consequences, right? The message here to all of us is warning side effects. The things I do have side effects. They've got consequences.

And again, this is repeated for all of us. The Bible says later, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, that means the sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. You reap what you sow. You harvest what you plant. Yes, bless you. I'm licensed to do that. Raise your hand if you're a gardener. Can I see how many of you enjoy gardening?

So I'm going to show you a picture of every California gardener's arch enemy, the common garden snail. Did you know that these guys are not native to California? Their ancestors were all brought over in 1849. This is true. To be eaten as escargot. Yes. In fact, every single snail in California can be traced back to one French chef in 1849 who brought them over. We actually know his name: Antoine Delmas. He had a vineyard right over the hill in South San Jose. He decided to open a French restaurant there, so he brought over a crate of escargot snails, but they escaped.

I want to know, how does a snail escape? How slow do you have to be as a cook to not catch the escaping, come back here, you dog of a snail? I don't understand this whole story, but it's true. Now billions of snails causing billions of damage. Why do I bring this up to me? Great example of sowing and reaping, right? Have you heard the law of sowing and reaping? There are three corollaries. First, you always reap what you sow, right? You don't lose snails and find kittens. You reap what you sow. You want a happy marriage, but you plant criticism. What are you going to reap? Criticism.

You reap what you sow, and you reap more than you sow. We planted a couple of peach trees in our old house in San Jose, and years later they reaped thousands of peaches. You reap later than you sow. Harvest always takes a while. Plant good seeds in your marriage, and the harvest is later. It's not going to be immediate. Or plant bad seeds in your life. The harvest comes later. You reap what you sow more than you sow later than you sow. Now the good news is there is always time to change what you're planting. But the question for us to ask here is, am I considering the long-term consequences of my behaviors? Because there are always consequences, always, in some way, good or bad.

So these three warning labels, you could say, from the story are for all of us, right? Quantities are limited, that's true for all of us. Scheduled for inspection, that is true for all of us. Warning side effects, that's true for all of us. Now this is not a story about condemnation for you and me. This is just a story about correction. This is not about God's going to judge whether you're good enough and if you are good enough then you are going to get to heaven. That is definitely not the message of the Bible. We are saved. We are forgiven. We're justified. We get to heaven. How? By God's grace alone.

I love this verse. It's in Titus 2:11–12. Look at this verse. It's so great. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. So salvation is by the grace of God. I'm saved by grace. Your sight by grace. Nobody can say, I was good enough to go to heaven. It's all God's grace, man. It's all God's grace. Raise your hand if you're happy about that. It's all God's grace.

But sometimes people tell me as a pastor, they go, Pastor, I'm saved by grace so now I can do whatever I want. Right? Well, here's something else the grace of God does for us. The grace of God also teaches us to say no. To what? To ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Would you say that phrase out loud with me? In this present age. You're not just saved by grace for the future age, for heaven. God's also concerned about this present age in which you live right now. He wants you to live an abundant life.

So for this present age, where in your life do you see God's warning labels for you? Now, I am not going to apply this for you. That is the Holy Spirit's job. But I do want to invite all of us, you and me, to just pause for a minute and think, where could God be saying something to me here? Maybe quantities are limited. The days that you have with your kids before they leave the house. So spend time with them. Or with your aging parents, the days you have with them before they leave the earth. Right? Or maybe scheduled for inspection. Maybe that's a little tap on the shoulder for you this morning. Are you spending your time on what matters to God? Loving God, loving people.

Or maybe the side effects thing. There's an area of your life that you probably already know you need to change because of the potential consequences. Whatever it is for you today, the point is not guilt. The point is growth. The point is not condemnation. The point is transformation. I don't want anybody to leave here feeling hopeless or guilty. I want you to leave feeling hope that God cares for you and loves you so much that he's willing to warn you. Why would he warn you if he didn't care about you? And that by his grace he's willing to help you change.

It's kind of like this. And I'll close with this. The other day I'm sitting in traffic. I am stopped on Mission Boulevard. Now, behind this dog training van, and I had to take a picture of it. There it is, this nice sprinter van for this mobile dog trainer. I looked at the ad on the back of the van, and I noticed a line: Problem dogs welcomed. I thought, that's what God says. That's what church ought to say. We're not just for perfect dogs. In fact, there are no perfect dogs. Problem dogs welcome.

You know, when God sees something in my life, he's so honest, right? He says, Renée, you're kind of a problem dog in this area. But the good news is problem dogs are welcome. In fact, Jesus says problem dogs are kind of my specialty. You know, we started talking about God's warning signs. But here's the really great news. God's warning signs always come with welcome signs. Think of who Jesus attracted: all the outcasts, the people who knew they had issues. Jesus spoke the truth to them, but with such grace that they just wanted to follow this guy. The living Jesus is here now too, with warning and with a big welcome for you.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your head with me? Lord, as we prayed in the words of Thomas Akempis earlier, turn my wandering feet into the right path. Turn what is evil in me into good and what is good into what is better. Lord, thank you so much that we are saved by grace. So this is not about guilt. This is about love, your gracious, loving direction. Thank you that by grace I'm not only saved, but I can learn to live a wise and self-controlled life in this present age. I am asking for your loving help in taking the next right step toward you, toward your love, and toward love for my neighbor, and toward your will for my life. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.