All right, I'm in Daniel chapter 5.

Daniel chapter 5.

I want to welcome Westco, Rancho, just our campuses, those watching online, down in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, wherever you are, welcome, glad you're with us.

Daniel 5.

We're in a series called Something's Missing.

I read an article this past week that on August 17th, rather, the Chicago Cubs were hosting the Chicago White Sox, crosstown rivalry, and it got out of hand.

I don't know if you saw the photos.

It was a brawl, and it wasn't a brawl between the teams.

It was in the stands.

I mean, this was barbaric.

The trash-talking led to drink-throwing.

Then the next thing, there's name-calling that led to punch-throwing.

And as you look at the video, you're thinking to yourself, these are adults for crying out loud.

This is a barbaric scene.

You might say, well, alcohol was involved.

Well, later on, there really wasn't that much alcohol involved.

People are just losing their minds.

Now, at the same time this week, by the way, I read an article, a study by a university that claims that violence is increasing significantly at sporting events, not only in America, but all across the world.

The conclusion, more often than not, is that there is an unhealthy connection between the team and the fans.

Now, we've always had somewhat of an unhealthy connection, but now there is such a desire to gain your identity out of the success or failure of your sports team that the ebb and flow of your life, your demeanor, coincides with where your team is at any given moment, which explains why Angels fans are constantly depressed.

I also read an article that tells us that 2.8, now this is where it gets really interesting, 2.8 million, 2.8 million American 13 to 15 year olds now identify as trans.

And now there are sociologists claiming that to a great degree, a lot of this has to do with peer contagion.

Peer contagion is a unifying measure to discover significance and meaning.

So what we're being told now, there is a strong possibility that in today's culture, when identity supersedes everything, that the desire and need to be different, to stand out, to be recognized, and to belong to a group is so powerful that you are now willing to do whatever it takes so that you can be set apart different from the rest.

We're also told at the same time, there is a significant increase Between 13 and 15 year olds in America, significant increase of depression, anxiety, poor mental health concerning the young in our nation.

We are, as we've shown in this series, the most affluent generation ever in the United States of America.

We have better health care, liberty, we can travel, we have expendable income, and yet we are the most drugged generation.

in any generation in American history.

So we're better off than any other generation, yet we are the most anxious, depressed, and frustrated.

And so we search for coping mechanisms.

Now in Daniel 5, I'm amazed at how applicable an Old Testament story so long ago is to modern day America or modern day West.

The king in Daniel 5 is throwing a wild party in the palace.

Here's how it begins.

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.

While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, now we know Nebuchadnezzar, right?

In Daniel 1, 2, and 3.

Had taken from the temple in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, Might drink from them.

Verse 3.

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem.

And the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall near the lampstand in the royal palace.

The king watched the hand as it wrote.

His face turned pale.

He was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

Now, without context, this story doesn't mean a lot.

But when you understand the historical setting, everything changes.

Because Belshazzar is throwing this sensuous party and profaning the sacred at the same exact time Cyrus the Persian had just defeated Belshazzar's army 50 miles from the city.

And they're now camped outside the gates, ready to come in and destroy the city.

And what does Cyrus decide to do?

Sorry, what does Belshazzar decide to do?

Let's throw a party.

Think about this.

They're on the brink of extermination.

And how does Belshazzar respond to all of this?

Everybody in the city outside the palace is in total disarray because they're wondering if Cyrus is going to send in a delegation and speak in terms of peace, maybe so that the Babylonians could continue to be a vassal state.

Or is he going to come in, storm the city?

Lay waste to everything, annihilate everything.

Which one's it going to be?

So you can imagine.

And you know, Old Testament times, you took no prisoners.

You killed all the men, women, and children.

And Cyrus, as he's waiting outside sharpening his sword, Belshazzar is throwing a party.

And it's not just any party.

It's what he does at the party.

He's creating this extremely sensuous event.

There's food, there's wine, there's all the girls and the concubines.

And you know what concubines are, right?

So he's bringing in the wives and he's bringing in all their mistresses at the same time.

And then he goes into the locker room and he finds the key to the trophy case and he unlocks the trophy case and he gathers all the sacred plunder.

And he takes these trophies that are symbols.

of Babylonian victories, and he drinks wine out of the cups and serves food out of the bowls and the gold.

You don't see this in Old Testament times.

You don't see this in ancient history, period.

What's going on in Belshazzar's mind that he has the audacity to go to the trophy case that represents Babylonian superiority and take something that is sacred and use it in a profane way.

Why would he do this?

I mean, scholars still ask this.

Great question.

King Nebuchadnezzar, the king before Belshazzar, had passed all kinds of edicts prohibiting anyone from saying anything against the God of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because Daniel was respected.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were respected by the Babylonian kings of the past.

Yahweh had become respected because...

of the relationship Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel had with him.

Yahweh rescued Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego with fiery furnace.

Daniel translated Nebuchadnezzar's dream when no one else could.

And now here we have this Belshazzar going into the trophy case and profaning everything that is sacred.

Why would he do this?

That is the question scholars, theologians ask, what's going on?

And here's the answer.

And the answer is incredibly similar to what social theorists tell us today about the reason you and I do the things we do in the West.

This is the way King Belshazzar is coping with the impending doom.

He says to himself, you know what?

We're all going to die.

I'm just going to celebrate, throw myself a party, and I'm going to celebrate so loudly that I won't hear the enemy sharpening their swords outside the gate.

Ernest Becker, a book that I have referred to numerous times, and if you've never read it, you've got to read it.

It's called The Denial of Death.

And he won a Pulitzer Prize in The Denial of Death.

He was a social, he was a skeptic when it came to God.

But here's what he said in his book, and it became famous.

He said, read it carefully, human beings cannot live in the fullest awareness of the meaning of death.

Now, this is not a Christian we're talking about.

He doesn't even believe in God.

He's agnostic, at least.

If our death is personal extinction, so that when we die, there is no continuance, nothing that survives or goes on, and the son's death is the end of civilization, then everything previous will be totally insignificant to the mass of years and years of dead time, before and after, so that no one will be around to remember anything that was done.

He says, if that's what life is truly like, there's no way anyone can honestly look in the face of it.

Life would be unlivable.

So, he says, cultures, all of them, not just the West, come up with three primary coping mechanisms.

And all of these are in the West, and all of these are in the book of Daniel, in Daniel 5.

Here's what they are.

You've heard me mention them.

I'm going to go through them fast, just to remind you.

First.

It's the romantic solution.

The romantic solution in culture is the belief that if you can find that one true love, then all your feelings of insignificance, purposelessness, and meaninglessness will dissipate.

You say to yourself, young men do this, young women do this.

If I can just find my soulmate, the universe is disintegrating around me.

But if I can find my one true love...

then if I can just get the girl, if I can just get the guy, then my life will have ultimate meaning and purpose.

So I'm going to spend my life, and every culture does this, trying to find ways to find the soulmate.

Daniel, his narrative tells us that as death is approaching outside the gates, verse 3, they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

So he's saying the king, Let's surround ourselves with beautiful women while we die.

Because if we've got beautiful women around us, that gives our life meanings.

And the point is, in this particular coping mechanism, romance and sex becomes the path to meaning.

Does that sound familiar?

Come on.

That's the West.

Think about it.

Dating websites are a multi-billion dollar business now.

One of the fastest growing industries or enterprises.

And the thought is, I can drown out the drums of impending doom if I can just find hope and salvation in the life of another, which is the reason why love and romance is deified.

Almost every pop song you hear is about it, right?

Everything is about love.

Everything is about sex.

Everything is about romance.

Becker, in his book, coined the term apocalyptic hookups.

Now, I have tried to define that numerous times, and I feel that I have failed you.

So I went back to do a little bit more research.

Here's how Becker, I think, would describe apocalyptic hookups.

And when we're talking about apocalyptic hookups, it's where an older man is married to a beautiful young woman.

So she's 25 and he's 70.

Okay?

He asked the question, why is it?

Now, you're thinking gold digger.

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, well, of course, but there are plenty of 70-year-old men married to 25-year-old women that aren't rich.

So he's trying to ask the question, what would possess a young girl to marry someone who's 70 years old?

And he says, it's all about identity.

He says, the thought is, if this extraordinary person chooses me.

then I must be extraordinary.

If this successful man, money or not money, but maybe he has position or power, or maybe he's just respected in the community.

If this person validates me, that means my existence is justified.

If I matter to this person, I must matter, period.

So that she is not attracted to the person, but attracted to what the person symbolizes.

Now, of course, for the rest of us, there's a major problem and we know it.

There's no one or there's no way you can expect someone to save you in a relationship.

We're all flawed.

We're challenging at best.

And as I've said before, when young men and women tell me that all I need is my soulmate and my life will be complete, what do I always say?

Your troubles are just beginning.

They're just starting.

One flawed person hooking up with another flawed person doesn't mean a perfect relationship.

That math just doesn't work.

And when young men say, if I can just get married, and I hear this a lot, I know everything will be well.

And you and I know who are married, marriage is great.

It's sacred.

It's beautiful.

But man, you got no idea what you're in for once you get married.

How can any person be God-like to another?

You can't deliver on that.

We're far too flawed.

And like Nebuchadnezzar's dream, we have feet of clay from last week.

And it's only a matter of time before the statue crumbles.

This week.

I've got a little word game that I play before I go to bed.

And I love it, you know, because you check out, but at the same time, you're developing your brain, you're helping your brain fire.

As I'm playing it, I refuse to pay the $4.99 that I have to pay.

I'll watch the commercials or I'll just skip them.

I'm just not going to pay.

And a commercial came up, an advertisement came up, and I'm sure, guys, you've seen this.

It was an AI girl, probably, I'm thinking, 25.

Perfect in every way according to society.

And the question she asked me, what do you want me to do?

Not, would you like to engage in meaningful conversation?

Would you like to know more about me, my likes, dislikes, favorite color, music and movies?

No, a simple question.

She says, I'm unlike any relationship you've ever had.

Yeah, no kidding.

What would you like me to do for you?

Now, I want to go back again.

Can you imagine young men getting this advertisement, and all you got to do is click on the button.

Do you understand that the damage is incalculable?

Because young men are going to train themselves to be totally undateable.

Because their expectations and understanding of a real woman Is nil or worse.

Can I give you young men a piece of advice?

I've tried to avoid this, but I've got impending doom in my life.

I'm not going to live forever.

Let me get it off my chest.

Do you want to know how to get the girl?

Oh yeah.

This is going to be a short kind of spot somewhere on YouTube.

Here's how you get the girl.

You woke up with confidence.

You're positive, most of all respectful.

And by the way, for crying out loud, comb your hair and dress like you care.

That'll help.

And if you want to get the girl, here is the magic question.

Yes, I say magic.

Walk up to her and say, my name is, do you love Jesus?

Now listen to me.

If she says yes, first of all, if she says no, you don't want her anyway.

I mean, let's just cut through it right now.

No.

Okay.

But if she says yes, and she may be out of your league, you say, great, let's have coffee.

I'd like to know more about your relationship with God.

Now, if she says no, she doesn't love Jesus, you're safe.

You move on.

If she says, yes, I love Jesus, but she doesn't want to have coffee with you, suck it up, man.

Everybody gets rejected.

It's a numbers game.

You got plenty out there.

You got to ask until you find.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be open.

Besides that, you want the one God's picked for you, right?

So the one God has for you will ultimately, but you got to go through the numbers, man.

You got to be willing to be rejected.

My buddy Rick and I were talking about this.

I was rejected.

I don't know how many times.

You learn through it.

You become strong.

And then when she says yes, after you...

die of surprise, then you, oh, let's move on.

This is it.

By the way, if you get rejected, the best thing you can say is this, thank you.

By the way, it's cool that you love Jesus.

And you move on.

That might get you a second look.

You just never know.

There you go.

I've thought about this long and hard.

Plenty of...

Plenty of girls have given me the once over.

They looked once and it was over, but I kept going.

All right.

But remember, even if you get the girl, the romantic solution is not going to solve the problems that you think they're going to solve because a myriad of other problems emerge.

But cultures do this from almost the beginning of time to cope with life and impending death and meaningless and the feeling of insignificance.

You go to the romantic solution.

If that doesn't work, you go to the creative solution.

The creative solution is where you separate yourself from the herd.

And the task of your life is to show yourself and everybody around you that you are above and beyond.

Your devil is mediocrity and your savior is your unique gifts that will eventually enable you to achieve immortality.

You're different from the others.

You're a step above.

And that gives you the feeling of success and being substantial, of having meaning in a meaningless world.

You say to yourself, I'm going to be better at this than everybody else.

I'm going to build a bigger and bigger and better and better kingdom.

I'm going to stand out and be noticed.

And if I am, this will prove that I matter, that I have significance, and my life means something.

This will validate me, and my existence will be justified.

When King Belshazzar brings out the trophies, he's doing it to remind himself of how special and gifted he really is, and how he is above, or at least has been, all other men and all other kings.

But wait, even in this scenario, problems emerge.

First and foremost, you are creaturely, and nobody knows that better than you.

And you're going to feel it more intensely than anyone else that your creative work is ephemeral and meaningless unless it's attached to something eternal and something beyond, something that's going to last.

As a result, Something bad is going to happen in you, man.

You're going to go through your life as a guy or a girl, whoever, frustrated, dissatisfied.

There's going to be this growing deep internal anger because you know that no matter what you do or what you achieve will be forgotten by the time grass has a chance to grow over your grave.

Nobody going to remember.

And you're going to feel it intensely the older you get.

There's a second problem, though.

In the midst of that, C.S.

Lewis tells us in mere Christianity that pride, real pride, gets no pleasure out of having something.

Pride only gets pleasure out of having more of it than the next person.

You may think you're proud of being successful, intelligent, or good-looking, but when surrounded by those who are equal or better than you, You lose all pleasure in those things.

It's the comparison that makes you proud.

It's the comparison that you're above the rest.

You hear what he's saying?

I'm going to go back to my old example because I was a big Chicago Bull fans back in the day of the triangle offense and Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan got a lot of attention.

But because of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen's career also skyrocketed.

And there was an article written in Sports Illustrated called No Babe in the Woods.

It's December 13, 1999.

Scottie Pippen was born into poverty.

A small house crammed with a lot of people.

Poor family.

But by 1999, he was making $14.7 million a year through 2002.

Now, that was a lot.

That's when the money started really coming in, early 2000s, late 1900s.

Almost $45 million he made in three years, and he was making $50 million in endorsements alone.

70-foot-4 yacht, $100,000 Mercedes.

In the article, in the interview, the writer was trying to get inside Scottie Pippen's head and ask him what goes on in his mind in the pregame warm-ups.

Thought he was going to get some really good information.

Here's what he got.

Before every game in Portland's Rose Garden, so this is when Pippen's traded.

Pippin only has eyes for one.

He'll let his gaze drift over to the court side seat occupied by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of both the Trailblazers and the Seattle Seahawks, a man with a personal net worth of $40 billion.

Pippin looks at his employer's geeky exterior and wonders, how does he do it?

Tell me how I can make a billion.

I just want one of them.

Tell me how I can make a billion dollars.

Tell me how I can become a billionaire.

Dude, you've already got a hundred million.

And if you did get a billion, you'd want two billion.

And the point of the article is that we all look for something to separate us from the herd.

To make this ache of meaninglessness and unworthiness go away, but it never does because we keep running into people who are more meaningful and more significant.

And every time we do, it makes us feel less significant and less meaningful.

Remember, it's not enough to have something.

The important thing is that you have more than the other guy.

When success is used as a means to drown out the drums of death that happens to everyone, no amount of success will ever be enough.

And the uncanny thing is the more successful you are, the louder the beat of the drums.

And it's because your soul is screaming, you can't fill the eternal void with temporary means.

And so in Daniel, the Babylonian army has been defeated.

The Medes and the Persians are at the gate.

How is Belshazzar dealing with death?

The romantic solution, he brings in the concubines and the wives.

The conquest and creativity, the creative solution.

Let's get out our trophies from the past and remind ourselves of how awesome we are.

Meanwhile, the soldiers are sharpening their swords, getting ready to murder everyone and take away his throne.

Listen, I have beaten this like a drum.

I know that because there's no way I can give you the answer until I've convinced you of the problem.

And the problem is if my identity or my meaning or my purpose is attached to something temporary, you can try to cope with and blocked it out.

But the real you, the essential you, deep inside your soul, your soul knows.

You're living in a dream world.

And your soul becomes dis-eased.

And anxiety and depression becomes chronic.

Go back to the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox brawl.

Why is this happening?

It's happening because it's not just a game anymore to a lot of fans.

It's their identity.

And when you attack a person's identity, anger comes out.

New Zealand, I lived down there for 10 years.

I can tell you when the all blacks lose.

It is a massive cloud of depression that hangs over the country.

People are depressed.

They're angry.

They're frustrated because I don't know of another country who has their identity tied to their sports team more than New Zealand.

Part of it is because, and I got to be careful here.

We got a lot of listeners down in New Zealand.

So excuse me, Kiwis, but you know, this is true.

Part of the reason is there are small nations stuck down here at the bottom of the world.

Got to have something that's going to make us recognizable.

It's our rugby team.

In our world, this is where it gets, by the way, that's why you have hooliganism in the soccer world as well.

More and more research.

Why do these guys come out and they just lose their minds?

Well, they lose their minds because identity, meaning, self-worth, all tied, all tied, self-esteem to their favorite soccer club.

They have been flowing their life, success and failure.

Now, here's where it gets really interesting.

I've worded this carefully.

Lean in here.

In our world today, We have combined the romantic solution and the creative solution.

So we have a generation of millennials and Gen Z's that want desperately to separate themselves from the herd.

That's natural.

Everybody wants to do that.

We want to be different than everybody else.

And we need our identity to be centered in that difference.

We don't want to be mundane, mediocre, average.

The problem is...

Sex has become the ultimate pursuit for meaning, significance, and identity.

I'm going to read that again.

We need to separate ourselves from the herd.

We need to be different than everybody else, and we need our identity to be centered in that difference.

Sex has become the ultimate pursuit for meaning, significance, and identity.

As a result, here is what's happening.

Transgenderism is more about identity than it is sexuality.

Lesbianism and homosexuality, we're learning.

is more about belonging and identifying with a specific group than it is about the sexuality.

And these groups are known to be incredibly accepting, loving, encouraging, exactly what the millennials and Gen Zs care most about.

So that to belong to a group, listen carefully, I don't say this lightly, I know I'm going to get pushed back, doing the best I can to try to understand this.

And by the way, This should make you love more.

This should make you reach out even more if you really care about those who are different from you.

To understand where they're coming from, to understand the dilemma, to understand the battle.

To belong to a group that has given you acceptance and identity will inspire you a willingness to say yes to things that you may not prefer.

Identity.

is stronger than sexual attraction.

Did you know that?

Heterosexuals wanting to fit in and feel valued will say yes to sexual experiences they may not prefer.

Just like identity is stronger than sexual attraction when a Christian says no to sex outside marriage.

Do you think Christians aren't tempted to have sex before marriage?

Why on earth would they just not go ahead?

Because their identity as a Christ follower is more important and more powerful than the sexual temptation.

This is one of the reasons there's so much anger toward groups of people who attempt to challenge the morality of the gay, lesbian, and transgender communities.

Because you're not simply attacking their sexuality or sexual preferences.

You're attacking, in their minds, their very identity.

The thing that gives them ultimate meaning.

The thing that separates them from the herd.

The thing that gives them ultimate acceptance and belonging.

And you do that with anybody on any topic, they're going to come out swinging.

I'm not saying that it's right.

I'm simply saying, understand where people are coming from.

Understand how deep the desire to identify and belong and be accepted really is.

Because the church needs to do a better job of offering that same thing of belonging and significance and meaning while still staying true to the word of God.

So cultures everywhere, the romantic solution, the separate yourself from the herd mentality.

And then third, now this is the one, if you've been saying, yeah, people do that, that's not me.

Okay.

Really?

The third is the most dangerous.

It's the religious solution.

The gods of the modern world assist us in our attempts to drown out the noise of death with religious efforts.

So religious people, that's another coping mechanism.

I'm going to prove to me, myself, and the world that I am righteous enough to whatever's next, I'll be there.

You with me?

Every culture develops some kind of religious ethic or work effort to prove to you and everybody around you that you may not know what's next, but whatever it is, you're good because you're right.

Secular counseling today, much of it, is designed to help people learn to face the reality of death, give it meaning, and live with its uncertainty.

Grief counseling helps people learn to integrate death into their lives and to accept it as normal.

Good luck with that, right?

That's never going to happen unless you live in a dream world.

You know death is not normal.

I mean, yeah, it happens to everybody, but you know there's something badly wrong when our lives are moving closer and closer to impending doom.

Meaning-centered therapy helps people find purpose through relationships, values, creativity, spirituality, or contributions despite impending death and the demise of everything.

The primary goal in modern counseling, and by the way, you better be careful who you allow to speak things into your head.

The primary goal of modern secular counseling is to help people learn to acknowledge death and how it's simply part of life.

And every time I hear that or see that, I think of a story about little Tommy, who's like 10 years old, and his little friend Jackie, who's 10 years old, died.

And he goes to his mother, and he's crying.

He's so upset.

And his mother says, hey, Tommy, don't worry.

Jackie died, yes, but now he's going to go into the ground.

And his body's going to die and decompose.

And fertilizer's going to happen.

It's going to go to the top of the grass.

And animals and new life's going to come and eat.

And they're going to live and survive.

And suddenly...

Little Tommy runs out of the room crying.

He says, I don't want to be fertilizer.

Who wants to be fertilizer?

I mean, it's kind of like the circle of life, right?

You think, does that really help you?

Oh, I'm going to be fertilizer.

Well, that makes my life complete and meaningful.

The soul knows death is coming.

It knows accountability is coming.

He has placed eternity in our hearts, Ecclesiastes told us.

And if creation exists, there's a creator.

If right and wrong exists, there's a moral law giver.

If justice exists, there's an ultimate judge.

And deep inside, we all know that we're going to die.

And the Hebrews 9, 27 is true.

We know that it has been appointed unto man once to die and then to face the judgment.

You can kid yourself and you can try to cope with your life and the impending doom in a thousand different ways.

But down deep inside, you know for this world to make any sense at all, there has to be some sense of justice tied to it.

And one day we're all going to stand before God.

and given accountability for the way that we've lived.

And so what do we do?

We find in every culture religious efforts to try to convince ourselves that we're okay.

So we say, if I do this and do that, that will merit rewards.

If I do this and live this way, that will grant me the right of passage into something beyond that is really never identified.

So I do the good as I define it as good.

I do the bad, or I avoid the bad as I define bad, to determine my own destiny.

That's called religion.

So that when death is knocking at the door, I can say, well, at least I'm good.

At least I'm going to last.

Whatever's next will surely include me.

And when you challenge their subjective conclusions about God, eternity, origin, meaning, morality, destiny, they're going to come out swinging.

That's why you can't have religious conversations with people.

You're attacking.

You're talking about their identity.

And they've got far too much invested in it to be wrong now.

That's why honest dialogue doesn't exist anymore.

regarding the search of truth or for truth.

Rather than contemplate that I could be wrong, that God does exist, that there is a Savior, I can't let you go there.

I've got to snuff out your voice because I have far too much invested in my identity.

I can't let it go now.

Becker in his book actually says this.

And remember, he's basically a secular atheist agnostic.

He says, how easily religious people will shed blood to purchase assurance of their own righteousness.

Our need to deny our nakedness and be arrayed in glory will keep us from acknowledging that our emperors have no clothes.

In other words, even if you were to talk to somebody and show them history does not support your religious beliefs, there's no empirical evidence, and everything we know nullifies your beliefs, they're still going to back it up.

they're still going to come out swinging because they've got far too much invested.

Every culture does it.

The closer you get to death, the more frantic you get, and the deeper you dive into the romantic solution, if I can find the one, the creative solution, I've got to set myself apart, or the religious solution, I'm just going to be righteous.

That's the story of mankind.

Modern man.

I think this was GK Chesterton.

Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness or spending time shopping, which is the same thing.

As modern man's need for heroic dedication has provided less and less by a culture that disbelieves in any moral, spiritual, or social heroism, that same society finds ways to contrive to help him forget.

That is a picture of the modern world and a pluralistic society.

Okay, and then we come to Daniel, the great party crasher.

Like all sacrificial, or sorry, superficial kingdoms, his begins to crumble.

Now, this narrative is so important.

We're going to read the Bible.

Is that okay?

I've made a lot of comments.

Let's let the Bible speak for itself.

Let's go back.

First of all, we read in verse 6 that the king watched the hand as it wrote.

His face turned pale.

He was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners.

Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

Wow, that's a lot of loot.

Daniel, if you can interpret this, whoever interprets this dream, I'm gonna give you all the wealth, a third.

In the kingdom.

And if you have a third of the wealth, that means you have the decree and the power to create even more wealth.

The problem is nobody could decipher the words written on the wall.

And they couldn't tell the king what it meant.

It's hard to translate from one language into another if you can't read the first language.

And so they called Daniel.

And Daniel shows up and indicts Belshazzar.

The famous line, you have been placed on the scale and found wanting.

But here's the rest of the story.

Verse 8, then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant.

So King Belshazzar became even more terrified.

His face grew more pale.

His nobles were baffled.

The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall.

May the king live forever, she said.

Yeah, he's going to die that night, but that's neither here nor there.

Don't be alarmed.

Don't look so pale.

There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him.

You can tell she doesn't quite understand what's happening here.

And he says, in the time of your father, he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods.

Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners.

He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems.

Call for Daniel and he will tell you what the writing means.

Verse 13, so Daniel was brought before the king and the king said to him, are you Daniel?

One of the exiles my father, the king brought from Judah.

I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.

Verse 15, the wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it.

Now I heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems.

If you can read this writing, tell me what it means.

You will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

Then Daniel answered the king, you may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else.

Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

Verse 18.

Your majesty, the most high God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor.

Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him.

Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death.

Those he wanted to spare, he spared.

Those he wanted to promote, he promoted.

And those he wanted to humble, he humbled.

But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory.

21.

He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal.

He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox, and his body was drenched with dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the most high God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets them over them anyone he wishes.

But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.

Instead, you set yourself up against the Lord of heaven.

You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them.

You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

which cannot see, hear, or understand.

But you did not honor the God who holds his life in your hand or his hand, your life and all your ways.

Therefore, he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

This is the inscription that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parson.

Here's what the words mean.

Mene, God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Teke, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Pere, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Verse 29, Belshazzar's command.

Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

That very night, Belshazzar, king of Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of 62.

Now, I don't have the time I need, but I'm taking it anyway.

We cannot get away from this, folks.

This is the whole setup for where we're going.

If the party is a reflection of man's way of dealing with death, the coping mechanisms, then the indictment is God's way of successfully dealing with death, meaningless, hopelessness, drinking, shopping, romanticizing, offering marriage to the gods and whatever else we do.

And this is the beginning of this answer that I have for you.

And I know I've been beating this like a dead horse.

But until I convince you, the answer will not go down deep.

I've got one more shot at it.

How then can we cope with this?

What are we supposed to do?

And the answer involves understanding that all experiences...

Listen now, listen.

You've got good air condition.

You can do this.

You can do this.

By understanding that all your experiences, no matter how wonderful they are, are temporary and cannot and will not ever provide ultimate meaning.

And then getting yourself to the point of humility where you ask the question, where then is meaning discovered?

Where is the cure for this dis-ease in my heart, for this frustration and anxiety and depression?

What can grant me wonder and hope for which my soul is searching and longs?

With what or with whom can I connect to pursue that which will make everything okay?

Now let me preach for a moment.

What have you been doing?

Let me preach for a moment.

Three quick lessons.

I can do it quickly, so okay.

Number one, hear the word of God.

Verse 17, then Daniel answered the king, you may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else.

Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

Why does Daniel turn the king down?

Daniel's making a point.

He could have taken everything the king offered and gone back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the kingdom.

It was that much wealth.

But he says, keep it.

I don't want it.

Why?

I don't want it because this is not a product of my research.

This is not something that I'm coming up with.

It's not the product of my insight or analysis.

This has nothing to do with me and everything to do with God.

This is about God's revelation.

This is about God revealing himself.

These words are not mine.

Oh man, this is so good.

Belshazzar is no different to us.

What happens in the West when we're unable to read the writing on the wall?

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners.

What do we do?

Every time something happens in America that we can't understand, we will end the world's experts.

And they start talking this gibberish that makes no sense, as if somehow they've got this incredible wisdom to make all of us okay.

Let's call in the PhDs, the socialists, political scientists, or theorists who have their place in the world.

I'll grant you that.

But they're just modern day enchanters, astrologers, and diviners.

And they still can't read the writing.

They just don't know what it means.

I'm simply saying that when it comes to ultimate meaning, scientists are no more helpful than the wise men of the past.

When it comes to meaning and purpose and significance.

Daniel is saying you don't need wise men.

You need the all-wise God.

You need the voice from heaven.

You need objective truth.

You need revelation.

If you want ultimate answers to ultimate things, you can only get them from the ultimate one.

You need the word of God.

Mystical meditations aren't going to do it.

Existentialism won't do it.

Your visit to the psychics, California psychics, won't do it.

Religious law keeping won't do it.

You need the objective word of God.

And let me just say, right here is your answer.

Right here is your answer.

The question is, how do we dig it out?

How do we dig it out?

Number one, hear the word of the Lord.

Number two, identify the revelation of God.

Has God already revealed himself?

Yes, he has in the person of Jesus Christ, historically, objectively, convincingly.

John 1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.

And the word was God, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Listen, God revealed himself in history, not through philosophy, not through religion, not through religious efforts to justify ourselves.

He revealed himself through his son.

Our hope to find meaning, significance, and hope for defeating death is found not in a thinking, not in a philosophy, but in a person, the person of Jesus Christ.

Listen now.

Charles Tooley, an American sociological king, developed a concept that I've mentioned before called looking glass self.

Very respected.

And he said that a person's self-concept is determined by what he thinks the most important person in his life thinks about him.

You with me?

A person's self-concept is determined by what he thinks the most important person in his life thinks about him.

So whatever the most important person in your life thinks about you, to a large degree.

will determine what you think about yourself.

Now listen, you religious people.

Listen, it's not enough to believe in Jesus.

Right theology is not enough.

How many of us know someone whose identity is tied to being right about a theological position, like Calvinism or millennialism or other isms that call schisms everywhere?

And these people tend to be miserable people because their salvation is in a position, not a person.

They're as empty as those who pursue other idols.

Religious activity is their savior.

Their hope, meaning, and significance and justification comes from them being right.

and their religious efforts.

They're separating themselves from the herd by being right.

Being right is their identity and the reason that they come out swinging when you want to debate.

Jesus must be more than a doctrine or position for you.

He must have preeminence in your life.

And when he does have preeminence in your life, your self-esteem will be off the charts because nobody loves you like him.

Now I got to finish.

Hear the word of God, identify the revelation of God, and the end, put away false idols.

This is why I wanted to go through this.

If we can do this and we can have a massive repentance in this place, when I hit the next series, we're going to hit the ground running.

And again, it's something that I've been dealing with in my entire life.

This is the place that God has taken me that I want to take you because I'm like you.

I don't want to play around anymore.

You know, I want to be serious about this.

What's missing?

Something's missing in all our lives.

King Belshazzar.

God says, what's wrong with you?

You should have known better.

You had Nebuchadnezzar as an example.

He majored in the creative solution and the religious solution.

And he surrounded himself by religious people.

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And he learned nothing and ended up out in the desert talking to himself.

You're far worse, Belshazzar, because you knew better and you still didn't listen.

And the real issue concerning our denial of death, folks, and our refusal to listen intently to the knock at the door is pride.

It's pride.

You think you are okay without the transcendence.

But to go on this journey...

The first thing you got to do is just admit.

You got to lay everything down.

You got to lay it down.

You got to stop using sacred things in a profane way.

You got to stop using the joys, the things in life that are wondrous.

You got to stop using them as if they are final and ultimate things.

You say, well, I will.

I would never take something holy and pure and treat it as if it was unholy and impure.

I'd never do anything like that.

But that's exactly what we do when we treat the gifts of gods as if they are God themselves.

When sex and romance, creativity, religion, somehow that becomes our God, and we think that's what will save us.

Knowing that you have those false gods in your life, and repenting of those false gods, two different things.

Two different things.

Daniel says the God of heaven is a God of revelation.

He's a God who writes on the walls of our lives.

So here's my statement.

What message is God writing on the walls of our hearts?

Can I tell you what it is in America?

He's writing the message of anxiety, fear, depression, and dis-ease.

Would a good loving God do that?

Absolutely, if it saves you.

If it wakes you up to the futility of your pursuits, absolutely.

It hopes that one day you'll finally come to the conclusion, my way of doing life is not working.

There's got to be another way.

And you humble yourself.

And you seek Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Because John says, whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow within them.

Okay, Jeff, you preachers say the same thing.

This is where the series is different.

You preachers say the same thing.

Seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added.

That there's something beyond, something's missing.

There's only one who can fill it, but you never tell us how.

You never tell us how.

Oh yeah, it's coming.

This whole series is a setup for the next one.

But I think you're somewhat convinced.

But we can't go there until, first of all, you acknowledge your idols and repent of them.

I do it, you do it, and say, this is not working.

I still enjoy these things, but they're not my Savior.

Help me, Pastor.

What does the Bible say about knowing and experiencing something where that I'll no longer say something's missing?

Father, thank you for your love for us.

Thank you for Daniel 5 and what it clearly communicates.

And I pray in Christ's name, I pray for wisdom and understanding.

I pray for the ability to communicate these truths that can transform us, that can change us from this day forward.

And I know that no man is perfect.

No man, we are all flawed.

We all have issues.

But in Christ, oh, to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.

To seek him above and beyond all things.

Show us the way and give us the courage to walk in it.

That streams of living water may well up within us.

And our eyes will be open and our joy will become central.

And sorrow only peripheral.

In Christ's name, everybody said.