Trying to figure out how to make my iPad not go to sleep after like a minute or two. I can't figure it out So we'll just try to put you to sleep or try not 20 Turn your Bibles, please to Daniel chapter eight Daniel chapter eight and I'm hoping that nobody is offended if I untock up here because it is hot Don't do it with this on your belt Okay All right, let's uh, let's go to the Lord for a moment. Thank you Lord for bringing us together We thank you that we can be more than conquerors in Jesus Christ One who loved us and gave himself for us pray this morning as we look into your word that it would be Words that are meaningful to us that they would speak to us because it is your word And we would be changed and challenged and become the more like the Lord Jesus Christ I pray for anybody here this morning It doesn't know you or that you would speak to their hearts through the Holy Spirit and draw them to Jesus Christ the only savior We ask in his name amen. All right, if you could turn to Daniel chapter eight and it's a little hard We're going through a series on Daniel We've been going through it for a while and when you're when you're on to speak like every four weeks or so And then you get smack of the Father's Day in the middle of all It kind of spreads out things so I'm gonna I'm not big on going back and reviewing things from the past I'd like to try to make what we have to say today relevant today So I won't go back and review where we are up to now But we all know Daniel if you don't know anything about Daniel he's guys in the lines then and now he's Writing some prophecies, okay, so that's that's kind of where we are at this point In Daniel chapter 8 verse 1 it says in the third year of the reign of King Belchasar a vision appeared to me Daniel Or appeared to me to meet Daniel After the one that appeared to me in the first time I saw in the vision and it so happened that I was look I was looking that I was in Shushan the Citadel Which is in the province of elam and I saw in the vision that I was by the river Yule Then I lifted up my eyes and I saw their stand beside the river a ram which had two horns and the two horns were high But one was higher than the other and the higher one came up last And I saw the ram pushing westward northward and southward so that no animal could withstand him Nor was there any who could deliver that could deliver from his hand But he did according to his will and became great and I was considering and suddenly a male goat came from the west across The surface of the whole earth without touching the ground and a goat head notable horn between his eyes And he came to the ram that had two horns Which I had seen standing beside the river and ran and ran at him with furious power And I saw him confronting the ram And he moved with rage against him and attacked the ram and broke his two horns and there was no power in the ram to withstand him But he cast him down to the ground and trampled him and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand Therefore the male goat grew very great But when he became strong the large large horn was broken and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven verse 20 And the ram which you saw having the two horns they are the kings of media and Persia and the male goat is the kingdom of Greece The layer of horn that is between its eyes is the first king as for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place Four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power Interesting a couple weeks ago John Mckim was here and he said Open your Bible get on your knees and get a message So you read the what the ram and the goats and stuff and think okay?
I think I might need a commentary here so but but the but the interesting thing and this is what's awesome about Prophecy and scripture often to tell you what you're reading people say I can't read Daniel can't read revelation because it's too hard I don't know what I'm reading well You read this about the goat and you read this about the about the ram and you're thinking okay I have no idea what this all about But if you keep reading and keep reading keep reading get down to verse 2021 says and the ram that you saw having two horns They're the kings of media and Persia and the male goat is the kingdom of Greece now Daniel wrote this before these kingdoms were even Empower he wrote these this is prophecy and then he names them and it and it's true This is it's fulfilled Nick and I were saying just before we'll be great to go back and find out what the oldest manuscripts are and just look at it And see what is written there in Hebrew or Aramaic on this chapter Anyway, that's that's just a kind of a side here I wish somebody somebody don't have to keep an iPad on for a longer period of time than two minutes Mary here you go I got a job for you. You just turn that on for more than two minutes. Thanks. Otherwise, I'm semi-nauteless All right true greatness a recently fired company president lasted two and a half years Which is about normal in these days in the corporate world?
He was Totally consumed and totally determined that he is going to get our company on the path to greatness We're going to greatness greatness greatness greatness great. I'll just turn that off after That's all we heard about greatness this greatness that how we can be great. We will be great the company will be great You'll be great blah blah blah blah and I remember being in a meeting one time and somebody says excuse me Mr. President when will we know that we've gotten there?
Well, you know anybody know what the term crickets means? It was silence in the room and it was like move to the next subject Because how will you know you're gonna get there? Well, I'll see the thing is as a believer. I know when I'll get there It's when I'm conformed to the image of Jesus Christ Then I'll say hey Got it.
I'm there and then but that's gonna take eternity and it'll be for all eternity like that But in this world to say I'm gonna get on the path and I'm gonna go to greatness and that's where I'm headed So they tell me about the back this works, and I'm like my father-in-law. I like old things better Hey guys Can we go to the old one? Or can you guys advance to the next slide would be helpful? Wait a minute, which one I go in here?
Like seriously, how's this work? I'm gonna just say next is that down? No, and that's up Okay, all right good. Thanks.
I don't know why to put the lettering upside down then if that's up Why is the lettering pointed down? Let me say Matt probably picked this up on Amazon Okay, so how do we define greatness greatness out there everywhere? You see it in advertising Nike loves greatness I mean, you know, you just do Google Nike greatness and like a million ads show up Intel Sony playstation greatness That's sitting in your basement in this hot weather playing on your PlayStation forever. That's greatness One Bell does now is greatness and brewing so it greatness is out there everywhere and then the bottom one is true greatness That's where we were headed as a company Remember Trump gonna make America great again back in 2016 and he shares doing a making a great joke of it So how do you get there?
What is a great person? So in this world? What the old one back? The world would say our society would say a person with great power a person with power is great.
They control people they control events That's a great person a person with prestige they have accomplishments they get lots of accolades That's a great person or a person in position. They have status in this culture They have a status in society that the president of a school. They have a great job That's what the world would tell you or perhaps it's a person with great possessions I mean I just selected a few pictures here at the bottom I mean, there's only one that really has a name attached to him But this past week or so that the CEO founder of Amazon just became the richest man of all time in our times Solomon probably had way more wealth than him But but the richest man of all time now So of course he's gonna have like there's gonna be book deals It'll only be available in Kindle and all of this stuff So it's it's you know, this is what the world is saying is greatness is that greatness by having a lot of power by having prestige by having Position by having possessions you see if we sit back and we listen to what the world is saying We're gonna buy into this. We're gonna think that this is what will make you great.
That's the big lie It really is you see what we need to be concerned about is something else the dictionary says the greatness Yeah, that's the Webster one. It says the property possessed by something or someone of outstanding importance Secondly unusual largeness or size to do or extend well I guess I'm greater than some of you, but the the other thing is it says in a different dictionary look that It says it says that great to be great is something that is considerably above average or remarkable Now the problem with that is that that says that something is not above average But not remarkable you're inferior The doctor say I have an inferiority complex really yeah, you are you're inferior because there's somebody greater so that's That's the dictionary from the dictionary definition now. There are I did a little Google search. How many people are called the great Catherine the great Ivan the great, you know, and there's also Ivan the terrible I think it was to and Napoleon the great here the great 150 people take the title the great I Dropped it after I read that and realize that there's just too many of them 150 people have used the title the great in their name But it refers that they're greater than somebody else they're greater than everybody else, but you see What is a great what is a great person is God but defined greatness as Christians?
That's what we have to be concerned with does God really care about my money Does God really care about my power does God really care about my prestige? Yes, he does he cares about all of that stuff He cares about how I use it. He cares about how I can measure that up against his greatness I do not have great wealth God owns everything I do not have great power God made everything out of nothing I do not have great prestige. He's God.
I'm not You see when I measure up against God He's concerned do I put my greatness my power prestige and power and all of those things do I put that above him because if I do I'm a fool and I'm lying to myself, but God does look for greatness and we're gonna look at Daniel And we're gonna look at what he says you see we can live lives and be a great person in God's estimation I really believe we can I'm not here to tell you look you're always gonna be inferior You're always gonna be if you're don't strive to work you can strive for greatness and God you can strive for greatness as a person walking before God you see we can go through our life and say I'm just gonna be matter. I'm gonna have mass and occupy space Remember that that was definition wasn't yeah matter is anything that has mass and occupy space some of us are more matter than other people are But that's what we can do and be useless and so on or we can do great things for God We can allow God to do great things with us Daniel the prophet. I'm gonna say Could use the title Daniel the great because he did great things for God He did great things before God as he lived up before God, so there are three people we're gonna look at in this chapter That was my introduction There are four kingdoms. We looked at in Daniel chapter 7.
There was anybody remember them Babylon, need a Persia Greece and Rome Today we're gonna look at two of them. Okay. We'll look at me to Persia and Greece now Daniel the prophet Hmm Daniel the prophet Yeah, okay, three describes great Daniel the prophet Cyber is the great now it's not a great and then I'm also gonna say that there is a verse that I love that there's one Who's greater than all of them and it says that he was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according the spirit of Paulius Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the one that is truly great.
He is the one that truly deserves the title of great now Daniel the prophet I mean apart from us in the church who loved Daniel the prophet and loved to read the stories of Daniel and in the book of Daniel He's not gonna make time magazines hundred most influential persons list. He's just not I mean really he's Jewish captive. He was a teenager. He was taken into captivity That's pretty shameful because your people are conquered and captured and and you're led away kind of usually in this slavery In fact by the time we get to Daniel chapter 5 and Nebuchadnezzar is not around and King Balshazar is Having this big wild party and writing comes on the wall.
Anybody know what the writing on the wall and Daniel Everybody not if you remember that if you remember it three people and the king said I'm gonna bring in my wisest man I'm gonna bring in the smartest guys in the kingdom who didn't he bring in? Daniel What am I gonna do? I'm gonna bring in it like that Jewish captive guy? No, forget it But Daniel was the one who actually do the interpretation so Daniel just to give you an idea in the world He was not thought of as anything great yet God considered him great Why do I say that because God gave him visions God gave him this ability to interpret dreams?
You know what Jesus says about people who think they're great He says for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God Jesus said that Luke chapter 16 verse 15 What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God You see if I have a lot of money If I have a lot of power and prestige and position and I say I am great I am great and I blow and blow myself up over that. I mean puff myself up You see in God's estimation. I'm just an abomination when it comes to that. I'm just blowing my own horn and he's laughing He's looking saying pray.
You think you're great. I got all of that. I own all of that and see Daniel was one of the he got it Right from the start. I'm not great.
I'm just God's humble servant John the Baptist Jesus said about John the Baptist in Luke chapter 7 verse 28 Matthew chapter 11 verse 11 He said there is none greater than John the Baptist Well, a lot of churches have been named after John the Baptist and a lot of shrines and places have been named after John the Baptist Does that make him great? No. What did John the Baptist do? He ate bugs lived in the desert walked around telling everybody he saw to repent Then lost his head to a wicked king and Jesus said among men there is none greater than John the Baptist Hmm that picture of greatness is a lot different from the one I showed you way back as to what people think is greatness A guy with a leer jet a guy with a fancy car and a guy with a woman John had none of those yet He's called and declared by the God of heaven as the greatest of men So God's estimation of greatness is a lot different from ours.
So what made Daniel great three things? It's a long way Number one humility we read that in chapter 8 verse 1 if you want to go back and look at that verse again It's interesting because you can read verses a million times over and not get this But it says in verse 1 it says in the third year of the reign of King Belchasar a vision appeared to me Daniel Is that what it says in your Bible? Yeah, see that's all I thought what does it really say? It says to me to me Daniel Now if I were to come up here and say a vision from God came to me to me David you're gonna say well really you So Daniel was saying in the third year of the reign of King Belchasar a vision came to me to be Daniel Like the tone of it all like you go back and look into the grammar.
It's almost like I'm surprised I can't believe it God spoke actually to me you got a lot of people to quote there say God said this to me God said that to me God spoke this God spoke that yeah, really But usually if God does speak directly to somebody they're humble about it and here's Daniel being very humble about it Daniel saying God spoke to me in this vision to me Daniel Can you believe that Daniel is taken by surprise that God would even speak to him when God's When King Saul were actually let's go back even before that Moses at the burning bush He was just absolutely amazed that God would even speak to him that he would use him because why are you talking to me? I said sputter I can't go and do your spokesperson to the people of Israel He was shocked King Saul who unfortunately became really boastful and prideful But when he was first He says am I not a Benjamin a Benjaminite? Of the smallest of the tribes of Israel and my family the least of the families of the tribes of Benjamin like God why are you picking me? I'm nothing King David who am I Lord and what is my house that you have brought me this far?
Paul the apostle Always look back on his life And he thought of all the times that he persecuted Christians all the stuff that he put them through all the Killing all of the stonings that he oversaw and what does he say? Oh wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death He called himself the chief of sinners we might say turn say if I did a poll tell me who's the greatest Christian that probably has ever lived Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul what does he call himself the chief of sinners? Humility is what made Daniel great humility is what will make a person great before God the second thing Singularity Yes, he Daniel always pointed to God no matter where he stood no matter what King dragged him in in the middle of the night and said Daniel I'm gonna kill everybody. Yeah.
Well, I'm pointing to God most high God most I got he did it every time He was single-hearted. He always exalted God before three kings before Nebuchadnezzar before bell Shazar and before Cyrus to meet and right from his youth He did the same thing the third thing that made him great is his consistency It started when he was a youth when he was a young man It says that he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself And then by the time he's 80 years old and thrown into a lion's den why because it was his custom since his early days It says in chapter six and an excellent spirit was in him. He was consistent He was always consistent always doing the same Faithfully serving God now we get to the next slide maybe No, guys, I just like pushed one up and then one down and it's going in like Okay, the living stone brothers Who's heard of David Livingston hands up? I mean seriously put your hands up because it's looking like nobody's heard of him, okay?
Nobody at the back ever heard of David Livingston good. Thank you I've heard of David Livingston. Hank is heard. Thanks.
Okay, I'll start calling you all by name Okay, I'm gonna ask the question one more time who has heard of David Livingston hands up. You got hands stick it up All right, good. Okay, David Livingston had a brother who's heard of John Livingston? Just as I thought nobody there are two brothers and after their Sunday school class And I don't know whether they were teaching it or attending it They were in Scotland This is where they grew up and they were discussing what they want to do with their lives the first brother John said I want to be rich and famous and I'm gonna be great the second brother said well my goal is to follow Christ to the fullest You know the second brother you all heard of or many of you heard of it should say all but many of you heard of famous David Livingston Missionary medical doctor and explorer of the country continent of Africa.
I think he's buried in Westminster Abbey I think one of those great churches in England His brother actually got history. He became rich came fairly well known, but it wasn't dude was wealth He was famous for one of the thing. He was the brother of David Livingston He wasn't actually known for his wealth in fact. He died.
I found out he died in Canada He got wealthy in Canada He owned property and blah blah blah blah blah and then he died here and he's buried somewhere and at his own request This is his own request on his headstone. He had these words written here lies John Livingston the brother of David Livingston Who was great? The one who served Christ the one who gave it all the one who went to Africa the one who explored the one who went to the People who needed to hear the gospel David Livingston Above average above normal. He was a great man.
Why because he had a humble spirit and he was faithful that to God is greatness Riches mean nothing summary Summary a great person First of all the great person bows before the Lord God. There's a great person points toward God. He is faithful to God He has personal humility. He has spiritual singularity.
His life is driven and focused on God He has an ethical consistency So what do you want for yourself? Do you want to be king of a mountain for a day or do you want to be a child of God for eternity? That's really what comes down to I'd rather be a child of God for eternity. That's greatness That would be much greater than really my own castle for a few days Parents, what do you want for your children?
How do you define greatness? Is it in sports hockey soccer football? Baseball what is it? I had time to spend with a client the other day and his brother great baseball player drafted by the San Francisco Giants I said wow, that's great.
He's well not really you didn't get to play. What do you mean? He's always a million others that were drafted to he just wasn't good enough. So that's a great, but still a great baseball player He said yeah, but greater if he made it in I'm thinking okay, that's that's so fleeting He said my dad brought us up to play a major league baseball That's what he did.
He brought us up all of our lives And he said one game one pitch I blew up my arm and I knew I'd never play major league baseball and my whole life was on that moment And it was done. Do we want to do that? Or do we want to be a child of God for eternity and serve the God of heaven? Which which would you prefer parents like do we measure our kids greatness by report cards by the sports?
They're in by those accomplishments, you know Daniel was humble Daniel was the guy who This was me when I was a kid I was writing up some stuff in a book last night and I remember it's a DJ play based I'm not thinking yeah, I did but you know what? I was the guy that when they did that on the bat and they got to pick first I'm the guy who at the end of it because I got to take I'm against his last one left and I'm on the team I was Daniel last guy on the team just got picked But you know what if you have a kid that doesn't make the team and he's a humble attitude about it You got a great kid. That's what the greatness is. It's in the humility.
It's in the consistency It's in the singularity now. I gotta really move along here. I won't be very long with these guys Matt I'm gonna cancel your prime subscription Okay, Cyrus the great I read this at the start But it's worth reading again It says in the third year of the reign of King Bill Shazar if I stand there you can't read can't see through me Can you okay? All right in the third year of the reign of King Bill Shazar a vision appeared to me Daniel meet to me Daniel after The one appeared to me the first time I saw a vision that happened while I was looking in sushi Okay, so first three I lifted up my eyes and saw their standing beside the river a ram that had two horns and two Two horns were high but one was higher than the other and the higher one came up last and I saw a ram pushing westward northward and so That no animal could withstand him nor was there any that could deliver from his hand but he did according to his will and became great Interesting first forces and he became great.
So what made him great first of all his kingdom grew it grew like crazy It grew exactly the the middle Persian Kingdom grew exactly the way he says here exactly first of all he count went westward to To Babylon to Mesopotamia the Syria Asia Minor and Macedonia interesting the Bible says that's what it's gonna Go and it's gonna merge northward. This is before the kingdom This is before it all happened to Colchis modern-day Georgia Armenia Iberia lands around the Caspian Sea and then he conquers of Levant Egypt Libya and Ethiopia This is what Daniel saw in the vision. How do you know that he didn't and he couldn't it was a direct revelation from the spirit of God God spoke directly to Daniel told him this Cyrus was great But here's the problem with being great in this world There's always somebody greater right around the corner come to take your spot and that happened So Cyrus as much as he was great and as much as he thought of himself as great and and probably his followers thought he was great There was somebody who was gonna be greater You know King Solomon said a greatness in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 12 18 He says I attained greatness and he describes all the greatness he attained and then he says but this was vanity I attained all of this stuff all of this wealth all of these things, but it was empty in the end It was worth nothing greatness doesn't last in this world as short-lived Jesus says what does a prophet a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Those are sobering words You might be working really really hard in this life You might be trying really really hard to attain and get to a point or to get some money or to get whatever you want to rise up in your job Do not exchange your soul for that Jesus says the next verse or what will a man give an exchange for his soul if you are exchanging anything for your soul It's a foolish thing to do What will a prophet a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul next we have Alex into the great Alex into the great It says suddenly a male goat came from the west and across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground The goat had a notable horn between his eyes and then he came to the ram with two horns Which I had seen standing by the river and ran into him with furious power And I saw him confronting the ram and moved with rage against him and attacked the ramp and broke the two horns There was no power in the ram to withstand him But he cast him down to the ground and trampled him and there was no one to deliver the ram from his hand Therefore the male goat go to very great, but when he became strong the large horn was broken in its place four notable ones came up Toward the four winds of heaven.
Okay, so Alexander the great considered himself and also considered by his mommy to be very great Here's the story in Alexander Alexander's dad was Philip the second of Macedon and he really didn't think Alexander was all that great dad was a warrior Alexander liked playing Nintendo actually what he really liked to do was read books all the time he was a scholar He was a student so he said I'm gonna get him a I'm gonna get him a Tutor and he gets a man named Aristotle Everybody's heard of Aristotle probably or most of us have Aristotle comes in and tutors him Philip then dies when Alexander's 19 years old So Alex Anderson's okay, whoa, I'm gonna take over now I'm gonna take over this kingdom little did people know that he was going to be so savage and so swift and so brutal It says that it was a goat that was running across and his feet weren't even touching the ground That's how fast he moved he moved with that kind of swiftness in fact a story is told He went to the city of tier or tire whichever way you pronounce it and he went into the city and he said okay We're on our way through we're moving on through do us a favor Can you can we go to your Walmart and get some supplies and the people in the city of tier said no? No, we're not gonna we're not gonna do that So you know he did he killed every single person in the town every single person in that city I'll extend to the great butchered and killed that's how ruthless he was and he's called great his mother said You're so great that we think you're God and he believed that and so here he goes and at 33 years old It's all in 12 13 years he conquered the whole world first of all and then at 33 he broke down and wept because there's nothing else to conquer He probably thought the earth was flat if he didn't he could have come over here and maybe taken a few things on But anyway, he figured at that point time. I'm done. I've conquered everything.
I'm 33 years old. Oh, man Alexander the great here's what happened. Oh drinking with the boys after he conquered everything. I'm gonna drown my sorrows He picked up a virus.
How big is a virus? Hmm? And he died almost overnight Big mighty Alexander the great wiped out by a virus a virus that's so small. It's microscopic smaller than the back area It's tiny yet it came along and killed him and then what happened?
Well, it says here that Hmm, there was one big horn the horn was broken off and then it was kingdoms given to four little horns What do we do Alexander? What do we do with your kingdom? They gave it to his four generals? Huh?
Yeah, no prophesied that long before there was an Alexander the great long before there was four kingdoms Past of two on rather the kingdom divided up into four. All right. Thank you for bearing with me through the history class So what so what quick question asked right you've sat through well that clocks fast. So it's only like coming up on 12 So what long history lesson and it's a hot day hotter up here than down there actually The first point is the Bible is reliable.
I've been saying this all along This is prophecy Daniel predicted these things even name ring the kingdoms before they existed and history shows It was totally fulfilled exactly the way he said it would be done exactly one kingdom into four two horns one bigger than the other Middle Persia persons bigger than the means the second thing. I don't care what you are but kings don't impress God Politicians don't impress God celebrities don't impress God. I don't impress God. You know God never says well He never looks at something says well Wow Nothing would make God say well.
He's God He is great compared to him. I'm not But there are those who strive for greatness in this life and their fools and I want you to turn with me please to Look chapter 12 look chapter 12. It's a short reading there I think many of you know this my wife reads this to me every time I say I'm gonna tear down the old shed and build a new one Look chapter 12 verse 13. It says then One from the crowd said teacher tell my brother To divide the inheritance with me and he said man who made me a judge or an arbiter over you to take heed and be aware of Come to business for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses Then he spoke a parable to them saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentiful and he thought within himself saying what shall I do?
Since I have no room to store my crops. So he said I will do this I will pull down my burns I will build greater and there I will store my crops and my goods And I will say to my soul soul you have had many goods you have many goods laid up for many years take your ease eat drink And be merry now I want you to notice this and anytime you see the words by God underline that in your Bible But God said to him fool this night your soul will be required of you then who's will those things which you have Then then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God You see I can be rich towards myself. I can put my whole life into myself and try to be great Whether it's possessions or power or prestige or whatever it might be the rich fool.
I want you to notice He was rich, but you know what he's known as the rich fool Not the rich man not the rich farmer the rich fool his whole life was bound up into himself He lived for the here and now you see if you're trying in any other way to please God other than coming to the Lord Jesus Christ Who died for you on the cross and took all of your sin you will never get there you will never please God You will never do anything to warrant heaven It's only when you humble yourself and say I am not great God you are and you provide it away from me to go to heaven You sent the Lord Jesus Christ to take my sins That's the person that God looks to if we look to ourselves we will be fools So what doesn't press God serving others does if you want to be great, and I think I have a slide on this Even my new slide didn't go in there. Okay, if you want to be great get low get humble get down Husbands serve your wives love your wives be humble wives serve your husbands and be humble notice up at the husband's first Men be humble love your wives as Christ love the church and then it's easy for your wives To serve you and to serve God and serving you parents serve your kids dad mama Tell you what if you've got this and you're serving one another and you're serving Jesus Christ your kids will get it It's easy for your kids to serve you if you are as parents serving Christ Christians Northbrook church all of us serve one another you know somebody texted me this weekend and told me some news and Said don't worry. I'm on it. Then there looked after this I got another text this week from somebody else just so you know blah blah blah was able to do this Met needs for other believers that were great difficult times Serving one another that's great.
That is great of the estimation of God. I'm gonna close to the poem Water before you this written by my favorite favorite author anonymous Jesus and Alexander died at 33. It's not interesting. They were both 33 years old when they died Jesus the carpenter son Alexander the great Jesus and Alex and her died at 33 one lived and died for self one died for you and me the Greek died on a throne the Jew died on a Cross one's life a triumph seemed the other but a loss One led vast armies forth the other walk alone one shed a whole world's blood The other gave his own Jesus and Alex and her died at 33 one died in Babylon one on Calvary one gained all Forself and one himself he gave one conquered every tongue the other every grave the one made himself a God The other made himself less one lived but the blast the other but the bless Jesus and Alexander died at 33 The Greek made all men slaves the Jew made all men free father.
We thank you this morning that we can know you We thank you father that You make it clear to us that Greatness is found in humility is found in serving. It's found in loving the most high God It's very very clear to us Lord from your word our possessions do not make us great our position does not make us great Our power does not make us great our prestige does not make us great our Savior can make us great as we let him live and work through us I thank you for sending your son the Lord Jesus Christ to die on Calvary's cross to take our sins That we may boldly come before you before your throne asking and you give Father, I thank you for this great example of Daniel and I thank you for the examples that you've given of Alexander the great and Cyrus the great great in their own estimation and in their own minds but Daniel one who's truly great before God Help us Lord to serve you help us in these difficult days To be heavenly minded and to look to the most high God. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
I wonder