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Nov 15, 2020

Opening Credits

Opening Credits

Passage: Daniel 10:1-11:2

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Of Kings and Kingdoms - Daniel

Keywords: prayer, conflict, spiritual, fasting

Modern people, across all sorts of divides, retain some belief in the world having a spiritual character to it. What does this passage suggest that character is? The book of Daniel ends with one last word on God’s greatest purposes--purposes which are spiritual in both ends and means. Daniel 10 is something like the opening credits of that final spiritual feature.

Order of Worship

OPENING PRAYER: The Consecrated Life
CALL TO WORSHIP: Romans 12:1-2a & Isaiah 6:3
NT READING: Galatians 5:16-17,22-25
MESSAGE TITLE: Opening Credits
CENTRAL TEXT: Daniel 10:1-11:2
RESPONSE: Communion!
Confession (Book of Common Prayer)
Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 103:8,10-12)
BENEDICTION: Romans 15:13

Readings & Scripture

OPENING PRAYER: The Consecrated Life
LEADER: O, Gracious God, it is your great will to make known the glory of Your Son.
ALL: Let us stand in this great gospel.
LEADER: Center our hearts. Renew our minds. Here is our duty.
ALL: To know the love of Christ. To consecrate our lives in gratitude and good works.
LEADER: Holy Spirit work in us the grace and beauty of Christ.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Romans 12:1-2a & Isaiah 6:3
ALL: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!

NT READING: Galatians 5:16-17,22-25
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

CENTRAL TEXT: Daniel 10:1-11:2
1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.

2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. 3 I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. 4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) 5 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. 7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. 8 So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. 9 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.

10 And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”

15 When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute. 16 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. 17 How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”

18 Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. 19 And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” 20 Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.

And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

Dan. 11:2 “And now I will show you the truth.

Confession (Book of Common Prayer)
Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sins, and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts: cleanse us from all our offenses, and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, that with reverent and humble hearts we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ your Son. 8/30/20

Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 103:8,10-12)
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

BENEDICTION: Romans 15:13
LEADER: 13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,

ALL: so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Psalm 124
  • Isaiah 6:1-9
  • Isaiah 24:21
  • Daniel 9:24-27
  • Matthew 26:53
  • Revelation 12:7-9

ILLUSTRATIONS:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. When modern people speak of being “spiritual but not religious,” what do they mean by “spiritual”? Tease that out: what supports their belief in the spiritual? What keeps them from rejecting it as a bygone belief? Compare and contrast that belief with how a Christian might think of being “spiritual.”
  2. Why is Daniel said to be mourning, fasting (vv. 1-3), and praying (v. 12)? What do his actions suggest about his beliefs about the physical world and the spiritual world?
  3. How would you describe the experience Daniel has with this figure who is like a man and yet more? What other moments in scripture share parallels with this one? Even if you’ve never had a similar experience (though if you have, do tell!), what might his experience suggest about what it is to be in the presence of what is divine? 
  4. What are we to gather from this angelic (?) figure’s activity before and after this encounter with Daniel? What apprehensions do you have about believing in unseen spiritual forces at work? What are reasons that belief is not unfounded? 
  5. What is this figure to Daniel? What does he do for Daniel? What might his provision for Daniel suggest about our human limitations in a spiritual world? What parallels might we find between this figure and the Lord Jesus? How is the latter even more?
  6. In light of Paul’s admonition to eat and drink worthily of the Lord’s table, he calls for examination prior to partaking. Do you ever prepare to receive the Body and Blood? Ever received guidance on ways you might?
  7. If the spiritual life as it’s been disclosed and illustrated in Jesus is not a reality we comply with but are nourished by, how do you seek and receive its nourishment?

QUOTES:

  • The main-title sequence – the opening credits – can be the most important moment in a film. James Counts (cited in a scholarly paper entitled “An Analysis of the Opening Credit Sequence in Film” by Melis Inceer) [see also this!]
  • Behold yon miserable creature. That Point is a Being like ourselves, but confined to the non-dimensional Gulf. He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no [grasp] even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality, for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy. - Edwin Abbott’s Flatland
  • Only by modeling true community, oriented toward the transcendent, can the church show a rapidly destabilizing world of expressive individuals that there is something greater, more solid, and more lasting than the immediate satisfaction of personal desires. - Carl Trueman
  • It's interesting that the question of "how do we get power" is defining some of our deepest political yearnings at the moment when what would actually help heal some of the spiritual poverty we suffer from is the question of "how can we be in service to & for each other. - Chloe Valdary
  • It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me. . . .-  Martin Luther King, Jr
  • . . .we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6
  • Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries Of THREE Dimensions; Having been previously conversant; With ONLY TWO; So the Citizens of that Celestial Region; May aspire yet higher and higher; To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE OR EVEN SIX Dimensions; Thereby contributing; To the Enlargement of THE IMAGINATION; And the possible Development; Of that most rare and excellent Gift of MODESTY. . . .- Edwin Abbott’s Flatland
  • The gospel does bring us solutions to these problems, but it does so by first solving…the deepest of all human problems, the problem of man’s relationship with his Maker, and unless we make it plain that the solution for these former problems depends on the settling of this latter one, we are misrepresenting the message and becoming false witnesses of God. - J.I. Packer

SERMONS / TALKS: