This past week my family went to Virginia Beach for the day.  A friend of mine loaned me a book Do Hard Things to read during the One Generation Away.  This book could not have been any more appropriate to read during this teaching series.  Do Hard Things is a book written by teenage twin brothers.  Check out the description of this book.  It is must read for every teenager and parent.  It is time to join the REBELUTION!

A generation stands on the brink of a “rebelution.”

A growing movement of young people is rebelling against the low expectations of today’s culture by choosing to “do hard things” for the glory of God. And Alex and Brett Harris are leading the charge.

Do Hard Things is the Harris twins’ revolutionary message in its purest and most compelling form, giving readers a tangible glimpse of what is possible for teens who actively resist cultural lies that limit their potential.

Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, the authors weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as the launching pad of life. Then they map out five powerful ways teens can respond for personal and social change.

Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry from the heart of an already-happening teen revolution challenges a generation to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today.

Follow Alex & Brett Online
www.TheRebelution.com

You can get the book from Amazon.  I double dog dare you to read this!

Like most weeks, I have more to say than I have time to share.  Well I share a lot, but there is much I leave on table because of lack of time.  The book of Daniel is a prophetic narrative story, but we have spent most of our time on the person of Daniel.  Our focus for this series was on the godly development of his soul.  We tackled chapter 9 of Daniel this past Sunday, and I was not able to unpack the rest of the chapter in which Gabriel interrupts Daniel’s prayer.

READ Daniel 9:20-27

“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill — while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision of the evening sacrifice.  He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.  As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.  Therefore, consider this message, and understand the vision:

Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to annoint the most holy.  Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Annointed One, the ruler comes, there will be seven sevens, and sixty two sevens.  It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.  After the sixty two sevens, the Annointed One will be cut off  and will have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.  The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.  He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven.  In the middle of the seven he will put an end to the sacrifice and offering.  And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”  Daniel 9:20-27

What would you do if you prayer was interrupted by the Angel Gabriel?  If you think an encounter with an angel would be great, don’t forget as believers we have access to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  READ Hebrews 1:1-4

The angel Gabriel announces to Daniel three time periods:

• Seven sevens (49 years) = the returning and rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple
• Sixty sevens (434 years) = time between the rebuilt Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus (Annointed One, the ruler)
• One seven (7 years) = the period of end times (anti-Christ, wars, destruction)

These words draw Daniel’s heart back to the Mosaic Covenant that God made with his people in the desert.  He remembers God’s words of blessing and curses conditioned upon behavior and obedience.  The Mosaic covenant is conditioned upon an imperfect temporary sacrificial lamb. 

However, because we have experienced the coming of the Annointed One – Jesus, we do not have to look back to the Old Covenant.  We get to look to the New Covenant.  The one where Jesus gives us a new heart to follow him.  The only age in Daniel’s prophecy that hasn’t been fulfilled yet in the last seven years. 

But if you took notice there is one time frame Gabriel doesn’t mention.  It the age of church.  It the time frame that we are in now.  We don’t know how long this time period will last, but it is the age where we walk by the Spirit not by the flesh.  We are waiting when Jesus the Ruler will return, but we are called to work now to advance God’s Kingdom. 

In Daniel’s Day God pointed to Jesus.  During our day, we point towards the same person.  Come experience Jesus!  Come experience life!  Come experience forgiveness!  Come experience salvation!  God is here today!  Come experience HIM!

The Bible shares that Israel plays a very important role in the redemptive story.  Through this people and nation we received the Holy Word (Bible), and we received Jesus!  We will be enternally grateful to them.  We should honor and bless Israel.  This is not a political statement, it is a Biblical statement.  (READ Genesis 12)

Thanks for letting finish my sermon.  Don’t miss Jesus today!