Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

SERMON
THE PROPHET DANIEL 7:1-13 [NLTse]
Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon, Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw. 2 In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of a great sea, with strong winds blowing from every direction. 3 Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.
4 The first beast was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was left standing with its two hind feet on the ground, like a human being. And it was given a human mind.
5 Then I saw a second beast, and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, “Get up! Devour the flesh of many people!”
6 Then the third of these strange beasts appeared, and it looked like a leopard. It had four bird’s wings on its back, and it had four heads. Great authority was given to this beast.
7 Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast—terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims with huge iron teeth and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them. Three of the first horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. This little horn had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly.
9 I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge. His clothing was as white as snow, His hair like purest wool. He sat on a fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire, 10 and a river of fire was pouring out, flowing from His presence. Millions of angels ministered to Him; many millions stood to attend Him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.
11 I continued to watch because I could hear the little horn’s boastful speech. I kept watching until the fourth beast was killed and its body was destroyed by fire. 12 The other three beasts had their authority taken from them, but they were allowed to live a while longer.
13 As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of Heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into His presence. 14 He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey Him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.

SERMON: “God Is Speaking – Are You Listening?”
What a wonderful and terrible week! Among the wonderful things: Those of you reading through the Bible this year with the daily readings from our Worship Bulletins and The Daily Walk Devotional read of the many different ways God uses to speak to people to get our attention and grant us direction. We’ve read of God giving messages in dreams to unbelievers for believers to help them understand, of His writing messages on a wall (literally) to have believers help the unbelievers understand, and of giving and explaining dreams and visions to us believers personally as a way of helping us be ready for the future He’s bringing…

Of course, among the terrible things this week was the never-ending storm and its path of destruction along the Texas coast. And yet, even there, as we were just sharing about in our prayers, the Lord has been speaking and revealing Himself, His plans, and His purposes to those who are watching and listening…

Across the Bible we see the Lord speaking to His people through dreams: To reveal His plans, to further His plans, and to put His people into positions and places of influence. For instance, the LORD reminded Abraham of the covenant they’d made together using a dream. The Lord protected Abraham’s wife, Sarah, by giving Abraham’s enemy, Abimelech, a dream. Joseph (of “Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” fame) dreamed and could interpret the dreams of others. His unwisely sharing his own dreams got him into trouble with his family, and his interpreting others dreams got him promoted to the prime minister-ship of Egypt where God used him to not only save the nation of Egypt through a crippling famine but also to save Joseph’s own family, providing for God’s promises to continue being fulfilled.

The prophet Samuel was given his first vision as a young boy (kids, take note: God loves you and wants to be close to you and speaking to you these ways, too), and Samuel was eventually led to anoint David king of Israel! God spoke to King Solomon in a dream that set the course for Solomon’s effective years of leadership. Of course, Daniel, as we read this past week, had many dreams and visions himself and was used by God to interpret the dreams of many others, which elevated him to positions of great influence for God, even while he was in foreign lands living among unbelievers. (Kind of like many of our situations today.) But this was not a merely Old Testament phenomenon.

Do you remember that Mary’s husband, Joseph, was given dreams to guide him towards marrying Mary and to protecting Jesus by having them escape slaughter by fleeing to Egypt? Pontius Pilate’s wife was given dreams she shared with her husband at the time of Jesus’ trial. The Gentile, Cornelius, was given a dream leading him to invite the apostle Peter to his home, and Peter was given a vision that led him to go to Cornelius’ and to share the good news with Cornelius’ whole household, and they became the first non-Jewish Christians! And, of course, the entire Book of Revelation is one vision – one waking dream – after another that’s been encouraging Christians to live by faith and stay the course and to trust God and remain faithful ever since.

And God used one natural disaster after another to lead the Israelites in “exodus” out of their slavery in Egypt. And He used wind and flooding to help Israel conquer militarily-superior enemies. And used year-after-year of drought to show those who worshiped the false-god Baal that He – the LORD, the great I AM – alone was truly the Almighty and the only god deserving of human worship! And He used the movement of the Earth and the heavenly bodies around our solar system and galaxy to announce to the Wise Men the birth of Jesus Christ. And used an eclipse and torrential rain and an earthquake to draw attention to Jesus’ death on the cross paying the penalty for sin and bringing us back from being separated from God.

God is speaking! All Heaven declares the wonders of the risen Lord! And yet, not every dream or vision is from our Father (though I do believe the Lord is making at least a point in every storm and natural disaster). But with that said, not every dream-interpreter speaks God’s truth, nor is every so-called prophet true when preaching and prophesying the imminent end of the world…

But our Father is speaking to us, and wants us to understand what He’s saying! Are we listening? And do we truly feel able to understand, especially when He’s speaking in such unconventional ways?

Job’s friend, Elihu, says this about the Lord: “God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears…” (Job 33:14-16) And the apostle Peter quoted the Word the LORD gave the prophet Joel, that, “In the last days, I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17 quoting Joel 2:28) And in the context of that promise, the Lord is clearly speaking to Peter and to Joel about more than just young men and old men being given His visions and dreams.

Does anybody here dream alot? … As I’ve already said, not every dream we have is God-given. Some weird dreams seem to be just the after-effects of having eaten something weird.  Other dreams seem to merely be the overflow of our mind not being able to stop after a busy day. Other dreams seem to be “purging dreams” where our minds replay the day’s events and work through all the emotions we – in those moments of the day – pushed aside. Of course, dreams can also be from Satan. (The enemy of our souls isn’t ignorant of the power of visions.) But, when we start to be more aware of our dreams as perhaps being from the Lord, we may find He is seeking to speak to us in such ways more than we thought…

Dreams and visions (and visions are simply dreams that we are given while we are awake) are primarily made up of symbolic images and allegorical circumstances: That is, a beast might represent a kingdom, or a tree might represent a kingdom; a star might represent a human or an angelic messenger; and the Lord walking among a bunch of menorah might represent God’s presence with His worldwide Church; etc…

In your dreams the Lord will use symbols that are familiar and personal to you and your understanding, and yet He might also use universal symbols that can be found in the Scriptures to get His message through to you. God customizes our dreams for each of us specifically. For instance, two people have dreams about their fathers. If one of them had a good relationship with their dad, their father in their dream might represent the Lord. If the other person had a bad relationship with their dad, their father in their dream might represent their own anger (that their dad stirred up or left behind), or, likewise, bitterness, or even hurts…

Of course, anything God says, whether through a dream, vision, impression, or “still small voice,” will always agree completely with what He has already revealed to us in His Word. Dreams do not have more authority than Scripture. Compare the content of your dream and its message to the Bible; if anything seems to contradict God’s Word or His nature, it is wise to disregard the dream—even if the dream comes true. The enemy can and will bring dreams to pass in the hopes of tempting us to put more faith in our dreams than in God’s Word. (And then use future dreams to lure us from the Lord.) (I know I horribly sad story about a woman who asked God for a baby, but when the Lord miraculously made her pregnant, on account of a dream, she aborted the baby, and in her upset, divorced her husband, and has been living in pain and misery ever since.)

But let me say this to all of us with regard to those dreams that God is giving us to reveal His plans to us and our place in those plans. First, know that ninety-five percent of dream-material refers to the dreamer rather than to anyone who might be being dreamed about. One of the greatest dangers in dream-interpretation is thinking that you’re getting guidance for other people. Almost always it’s about you.

So, when you dream about your husband or your wife, know that the dream may not necessarily be referring to your mate.
The message may be about what you, the dreamer, are “married to” emotionally or spiritually. Likewise, when other people are in our dreams, those persons are almost always a part of us being represented in our dreams by these others…
An often helpful procedure for hearing what God may be trying to say through our dreams is something like this:
First, write down your dream immediately upon waking up, if you can. (Interrupt your sleep to write it down, if necessary. Turn on a light. Get a pen and piece of paper. And write it down.) Some Christians who dream a lot keep a pen, pad, and bedside lamp nearby just for this purpose.

Second, write down the big events going on in your life right then. Include any major fears or worries you’re aware of being tempted by. (This context is helpful as you talk to others and pray in seeking to understand your dream.)
Then, talk the dream out with a trusted person. Let their questions, ideas, and insights add wisdom to interpreting your dream. (Notice I said “add wisdom”. Their insights and ideas might not be right. And yet they may be, or they may help you move towards God’s truth about it all.)
If there were symbols or images in your dream that are a mystery to you (because sometimes we know as soon as we wake up what this or that person or event stood for), look up the symbols that confuse you – those analogies and images that seem so strange – in your Bible. How does the Lord use those symbols and similar situations? You can also visit websites that deal with symbols and imagery. (You want to conduct this research prayerfully and sharing your findings with that trusted friend, because there’s a lot of folks out there that want to be known for interpreting dreams, but their work and messages are only from themselves and not from the Lord.)

After you’ve done all this homework and research, take the significant insights, leadings, and questions you’ve gathered to prayer. Meditate on these things. Ask the Lord to speak to you, to guide your thoughts, to reveal that which is still hidden. Since working to interpret dreams is not the same as God giving someone the gift of interpreting dreams, after all you’ve done the Lord may reveal things completely to you, but even if not, you can trust that, if you’ve been diligent, He will reveal to you that which He most wants you to understand.

The LORD is speaking, my brothers and sisters! He wants to reveal to us what He alone knows about us and the plans He has for us. No other god, no other power, no other force has ever shown themselves so willing to be known by, heard by, and be close with His people. No other god has shown Himself to be like this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Who gave His one and only Son to die for our sins so that we might be brought near, and get to live with Him, now and forever!