I am so glad you're here.

I really am, because you could be somewhere else, but you're here.

Welcome, everybody.

I'm in Daniel chapter two, okay?

So if you have a Bible, it will be on the screen.

We're in the middle of what I consider to be an important series called Something is Missing.

I want to get right into it.

So we got to go.

You ready?

There is a quote that many pastors read, and in my research this week, I realized that I've heard this quote numerous times, but no one ever reads the second part.

And I was surprised that I did not know the second part.

So I want you to pay close attention.

We're getting right into it.

Listen to what C.S.

Lewis says.

He says, most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world.

There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Now that's the quote everyone reads.

Of course, the problem I have, I'm in this world though.

I'm made for another, but I'm here.

The rest of the quote goes like this.

Earthly pleasures, as he continues, were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

If that is so, I must take care.

On the one hand, never to despise or be unthankful for these earthly blessings.

And on the other, Never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy or echo or mirage.

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death.

I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside.

I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.

So he says, I must experience life with gratitude.

Don't poo-poo this world.

You're in it, you're not of it, but there are many blessings that come with it.

Don't think that because you're a Christian, you're not supposed to enjoy things.

He says, enjoy it, have gratitude, but never think that the total discontentment that you feel will ever pass until you get to the country for which you were made.

Paul Tripp.

is a devotional that my friend Tony Bennett, Coach Bennett, got me reading a few years ago, and he kind of rephrases Lewis's words when he says this, I give painful evidence every day.

I experience it in predictable and unpredictable moments.

I guess I should know better, but I am often caught off guard.

There is an insatiable longing inside of me, a thirst that never seems to be quenched.

This deep hunger doesn't go away no matter how busy I get or how hard I work to be distracted.

I long for justice, love, hope, peace, perfection, satisfaction, mercy, contentment, rest, harmony, joy.

And none of these longings ever get fully or gets fully satisfied.

And so in my quest for more, I am faced with the incontrovertible daily evidence that this simply is not all that there is.

and the sure truth that I was hardwired for another world.

Solomon in Ecclesiastes says in chapter 3, verse 11, that he, God, has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also said eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

In other words, there's something inside every single one of us that will be discontent.

Until eternity occurs, until it begins, until it eventuates.

But the problem is, I know in my heart, because I used to sit and listen to my pastor say this to me when I was young.

But what was my attitude?

As the pastor told me, don't live for the present, live for eternity.

I would sit there thinking this, well, that's because you're old, dude.

And you got nothing left.

You can say that now.

But I'm young.

I got my whole life ahead of me.

I still got my looks and my strength.

I got the whole world.

And what humanity...

I guess we could best be described, going back to my favorite illustration of the bug zapper.

You know, I never understood the guy who made the blue light and all the bugs fly into it and it zaps them.

And my question has always been, you know, bugs have a little brain, I'm certain, but is it so small that when a bug comes up to the blue light and sees all the dead carnage in the tray below, why doesn't the bug say, wait, this maybe is not a good idea?

All my friends are dead, but he doesn't.

He says, oh, the light is beautiful.

I must go to the light.

And he gets zapped and there's carnage.

That's humanity.

No matter how many times you hear it and no matter how many times the old people say it, you're gonna chase the blue light.

So I'm taking that as a given.

Now we here in Los Angeles, I mean, we're here, you know, we epitomize Hollywood, right?

I mean, there's so much plastic surgery around this place.

My goodness.

I don't know what's real and what's not real.

We place a halo around Hollywood.

That seems to be, I mean, we want to be on the big screen.

We want to be famous.

And even though your pastor tells you that they are the most depressed, anxious, suicidal, promiscuous community on earth, it won't change your pursuit.

The young will still go after it.

Here's what I want to do.

I want to take you to a familiar text.

This sermon has three parts to it.

The story, the warning, and the rescue.

The story, the warning, and the rescue.

Here's the story.

And it's in Daniel 2, verse 1.

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.

His mind was troubled.

I wish we had time to talk about the Hebrew word here.

It means that he was beating himself up.

He smote himself.

So he's torturing himself.

And the Bible says he could not sleep.

Now, if you know anything about Nebuchadnezzar, he's not a weak king.

He's one of the greatest leaders in human history.

Archaeological discoveries have learned, as we've unearthed all this information, astounding information about Nebuchadnezzar, that he was powerful, strategic, clever.

Historians believe that he's responsible for the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

He's very confident.

He's calculating, he's a competent leader, and he's very powerful.

Verse 19 of Daniel chapter five says, those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death.

Those he wanted to promote, he promoted.

So he has ultimate power.

But when we come to chapter two in the book of Daniel, the wind has been taken out of the king's sails because he's had a dream and he keeps having it.

And the dream is simple.

The great king sees this great statue of great splendor.

The head is pure gold.

The chest and arms are made of silver.

The belly and the thighs are bronze.

They have legs of, it has rather legs of iron and feet partly of iron, partly of baked clay.

And in the dream that he has, this little rock, and we're told not made with hands, this little rock, little bitty rock, knocks this huge statue down and then the little stone grows into a huge mountain.

And King Nebuchadnezzar keeps having this dream, partly because he's smart enough to know this dream is about something, about something important, that there is a kingdom that is strong, but that kingdom has feet of clay and little stones coming sooner or later to knock it down and destroy it.

Now, when I read this dream, I think of those guys at the gym.

Sometimes I go to the gym and these guys, huge upper bodies and teeny tiny legs.

I mean, it's hilarious.

You can tell they don't, leg day is not for them.

And I don't know how they walk.

This is what the statue's like.

It looks strong.

It looks like it goes to the gym all the time.

But its core and its foundation are made of clay.

Now, you and I don't have the gift of dream interpretation, but we don't have to.

Because we get a good idea of what this dream is about.

And Nebuchadnezzar wants more than a general idea.

He wants to know specifics because if he can figure out who this statue represents, I mean, is it his kingdom?

Is he the kingdom of gold?

And is his kingdom about to be destroyed?

What enemy's going to destroy him?

He hopes that by somebody interpreting this dream that he can circumvent the process, attack the enemy before the enemy attacks him, And therefore...

He's kind of, you know, he hopes that the words of Doc Brown in Back to the Future are true.

Your future hasn't been written yet.

No one's has.

Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.

King Nebuchadnezzar wants a good future.

He wants, if you know anything about the king, he wants to be worshipped and adored by everyone.

I mean, this dude, if you know anything about Daniel, built this 90-foot statue out on the plains of Dura and had everybody go out and bow down and worship it.

This guy is about self-glory, he's building his own kingdom, and now he's having this dream where this pesky little rock comes and strikes him down.

He wants to know what the dream means, so he calls for the Chaldeans.

The Chaldeans are the wise men of Babylon, people who are in the pseudoscience of divination.

They have practices in the occult, in communication with evil spirits.

They're called the Babylonian wise men, and they believed, as we've said almost every Christmas, that before something happens in the terrestrial, it's played out in the celestial, and then it's reinterpreted in the dreams of those who are involved.

So since King Nebuchadnezzar is having this dream, he thinks he's being communicated to somehow.

but he can't understand the interpretation.

The job of the wise men who claim to know the supernatural world and could interpret dreams is to basically tell him what the dream means.

Nebuchadnezzar, however, never went in for this.

This is one thing about Babylon that never got to him.

He thinks this is carnival trickery and tomfoolery.

But he knows it's also part of the Babylonian culture.

And if he stops the work of the wise men, it will be political suicide.

So he has to employ them.

So he thinks to himself, you know what?

I've got to know what this dream means.

He was sleepless in Babylon.

And he says to himself, if I'm not sleeping, nobody's sleeping.

So he calls for the Babylonian wise men, weary of their conniving.

Here's what the king says to him.

He says, okay, boys, this is pretty, this is clever on King Nebuchadnezzar's part.

He says, boys.

If you can really see into the supernatural world, and if you can really interpret dreams, here's what we're going to do.

I'm not only going to ask you to interpret the dream, I'm going to ask you to tell me what I dreamed.

And he says, oh, by the way, if you can't, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

That's job pressure right there, buddy.

And their response is this.

No one can do what you ask.

That phrase is loaded.

It's a telling admission.

Many of the advisors to the king would have been the senior priest in the temples that were scattered along Babylon.

So they're supposed to be in touch with the gods.

They're supposed to have this supernatural information that was inaccessible to normal human beings.

That's why they're paid.

Man, in doing a little research about these wise men, they had it made.

They were on easy street.

They got to eat the palace food and drink the palace wine and sleep on the palace beds and enjoy all the luxuries of the palace.

So King Nebuchadnezzar says, boys, it's about time you earn your keep.

When he goes to these advisors and they say, no one can do what you ask, they're admitting what King Nebuchadnezzar has thought all along.

That there is such a thing as revelation, that the gods may be real, but they don't communicate with man.

The supernatural realm, if there is one, does not interact with the natural.

And so these wise men are charlatans.

Here's the king's response that you will find in verse 12 and 13 of Daniel 2.

This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

Now, why Daniel and his friends?

Because they're part of the wise men crew.

That the king is angry because they're supposed to tell him.

what the dream means.

And he's tired of their impostors.

Now, what is amazing, if you study the book of Daniel, this is another one of those cases where this is another proof that the Bible is the word of God.

How on earth can this dream tell us hundreds and hundreds of years before the Medes, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, the four kingdoms, how can you know those kingdoms are coming?

and the strength and the power of those kingdoms, unless God reveals that to us.

Now, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they know their God.

They know who their God is.

And even though the Babylonians trained them in these pseudo-sciences, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in exile in Babylon.

They want to go back to Jerusalem.

They want to go home, but they believe that they're here in this moment because God wants to use their particular talents and gifts.

to accomplish something great in Babylon.

So they're not sitting around pouting, oh, I wish we were in Jerusalem.

Oh, we hate the exile.

No, they don't like their situation, but they truly believe that God is sovereign and God wants them in Babylon for this time and in this place.

Now, because they are guilty by association, they too are gonna be put to death.

And Daniel hears this news that Ariok has gone out, the messenger of the king, And all the wise men are going to be summarily executed.

Daniel gets his accountability group together, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And he says, boys, unless the Lord tells us this dream and its interpretation, we will never see Jerusalem again.

What's so astounding about this?

It's before Daniel has the prayer meeting, before he knows whether or not God is going to tell him the dream or not, look at what happens in chapter 2, verse 14 through 16.

When Ariok, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom intact.

Daniel's not panicking.

He asked the king's officer, why did the king issue such a harsh decree?

Ariok then explained the matter to Daniel.

At this, Daniel went into the king and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream for the king.

So he goes and tells the king, give me time.

Yahweh's gonna tell me the dream.

Man, if he comes back without the dream and interpretation, he's gonna be killed, slaughtered on the spot.

But Daniel goes in with such a resolve and peace because he knows, he knows, he's confident.

God's gonna give me, this is what I do, Daniel.

I interpret dreams.

This dream has come to me for the purposes of God.

Yeah, I might be suffering.

I might be afraid.

I might be a little fearful.

If you know anything about Daniel 3, they're going to be thrown into what?

The fiery furnace.

But he says, this is my calling.

Now, let me just take a time out here.

When I was in Tennessee in my study break, I got to go down.

I was in Kentucky, but I got to go down for one day to reconnect with my high school basketball coach's wife, which I mentioned, and a few of the players.

And if you've heard, if you've been here a long time, you've heard me mention the name Keith Turner.

There's a sermon I do where I draw tape on the backboard, and Keith Turner was the guy that was the first one to dunk at our high school.

And you know, they do that all the time now, but back in the 70s and 80s, it was kind of a new thing.

We've evolved.

I had dinner, I had lunch with Keith Turner, Elvin Brown, who played at the University of Tennessee, and Keith played at the University of Tennessee Tech.

And it was so good to see them.

I hadn't seen them for, since high school.

Well, college.

I saw them.

So it's been probably 40 years since I'd seen them.

And I was the only one that hadn't aged.

I'm amazed.

I just, it's amazing when you see your friends and you're that, man, do I look that old?

Do I look as old as they look?

After I left that day and we had talked and reconnected, I got a text message from Keith.

He said, Jeff, thank you so much for lunch.

It was great seeing you.

I want you to know that you influenced my life early on.

I remember it like it was yesterday when we were at team camp in Maryville.

And he mentions a player's name that I don't want to mention, but he said, and a few others were making fun of you for your faith and you did not flinch and you held strong.

Think about that.

I did that when I was 16 years old and he still remembers it.

Here's the thing, I often wonder, you know, when you're 60, you have time to reflect.

I always wondered why I was the captain of the basketball team.

Okay, it's time for total transparency.

I wasn't the best player on our team.

I probably wasn't even the second, third, or fourth best, honest.

I played on a great team.

As a matter of fact, I was the only player that did not get a Division I basketball scholarship out of the starting five.

It was a good team.

I wasn't there to play basketball for me.

I look back now, I was there for God.

I was there to bring Jesus to Keith Turner, to James Henry, to Elvin Brown, to Terry Barker.

Even though there were those who made fun of me, there were five or six who went on.

I wasn't there to play ball.

I wasn't there because I had some great career ahead of me.

I was there for Jesus.

You know, I look back at every phase of my life now, and I'm never there for me.

I'm there for him.

But why do you think it's different for you?

Just because I'm a preacher, you think it's different for you?

Daniel was right.

God told him the dream and the interpretation.

And he goes into the king's court.

Now, before he goes, I mean, we are made in the flesh.

Daniel's so happy that he got the dream and the interpretation, he wrote a little song.

He's having a little singing and dancing.

And he says, praise be to the name of God forever and ever.

This is verse 20 through 23.

Wisdom and power are his.

He changes times and seasons.

He deposes kings and raises up others.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

He reveals deep and hidden things.

He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with him.

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors.

You have given me wisdom and power.

You have made known to me what we ask of you.

You have made known to us the dream of the king.

He's happy.

He's not going to die now.

Okay?

So Daniel interprets the dream for the king.

Verse 37 and 38.

Your majesty, you are the king of kings.

Small K.

The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory.

In your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky.

Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.

You are the head of gold.

You can imagine at that point, King Nebuchadnezzar wants to partay, right?

Woo, I'm the king, I got all the kingdoms.

But he knows what's coming.

Verse 44, in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

Nor will it be left to another people.

It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of the mountain, but not by human hands.

A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces.

That's the story.

Now what's the warning?

You ready?

It's so important for us.

First, no king, president, prime minister, dictator, or any other leader rules without God's permission.

Now, if you're like me, that is a hard one to swallow because I start thinking of Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

I'm sure Michael thinks of Idi Amin.

I think of Lenin and Stalin and Hitler.

Pastor Jeff, no ruler rules without the authority from God?

Here's the answer.

I don't know.

I don't know the mind of God.

Only God can connect all the dots and bring ultimate good out of ultimate chaos.

And just because I can't see a reason does not mean there is no reason.

It just means that I'm not God and my knowledge is limited.

Besides, here's the bigger question.

Stay with me, skeptic.

Hear me out.

If God does not exist, none of these leaders are a problem.

Because if God does not exist, atheistic evolution.

is the explanation for the universe.

And in atheistic evolution where there's no God, the weak have to be discarded so the strong can survive.

You can only ask the question of pain, suffering, and evil in the context of God's existence.

You may never solve the problem of evil, but it has to be resolved in the context of God, not apart from him.

Because if there is no God, nothing really matters.

It's the survival of the fittest, and the weak must be discarded.

Do you understand the minute you ask the question of pain and suffering, you are assuming the existence of God and the intrinsic value of human life.

Now, just quickly, while we're on this topic, let's go back to the cross again.

Do you think there were any people standing around saying, boy, God doesn't know what he's doing here?

What's God doing?

If Jesus is his son and the Romans are crucifying him, God has obviously lost control of the situation.

You think that was happening?

You think the disciples were saying we were wrong the whole time?

Of course it was because you don't know the mind of God.

That's why the cross is brilliant in the mind of God.

It shows you that when all of the world is in its worst moment, it could be centered in the will of God at the same time.

God may be doing his best work in you when you're suffering the most.

Second thing is, remember that God can recover from all injustice.

He can recover from bad kings.

He sets them up and he takes them out.

He ensures that he puts everything together to accomplish his purposes.

And when there are people who suffer and die, God is the author of life.

And the God who gave life the first time can give it the second time, and the life the second time is far more glorious than the first life.

The big question is not whether you're going to suffer, live, or die.

The big question is, are you ready to meet God so that you will live forever?

That's the question.

So first, no king, president, prime minister, dictator, or any other leader rules without God's permission.

And just because you can't see the reason doesn't mean there is no reason.

Second, no matter how strong or brilliant a kingdom is, it always has one major weakness.

What is it?

People They're all flawed.

They all have feet of clay.

They will come to an end.

Listen now.

No form of government, no matter how good or productive, can ever be the kingdom of God on earth.

Socialism, communism, capitalism, monarchy, anarchy, everything.

They will all fall short.

John Linnick says, there is no pathway to paradise that bypasses the dark side of human nature.

And the Enlightenment told us that through the advancement of science and technology, we would experience the utopian dream.

And as I've said before, We've become more and more advanced in technology.

Now we're just more and more advanced in the way we can kill each other.

We're not good at managing God's blessings.

And I have to say this because I feel like I'm still being misunderstood here.

I'm trying to reword it and I hope I'm clear.

Yes, Christians must be politically involved because we're in a democracy where you and I have the right to vote.

We must elect leaders as best we can who represent in their legislation godly things.

We should indeed vote to protect the unborn.

We should indeed vote to protect the sacredness of marriage and of gender.

However, a political party or person must never become our savior.

Our identity can never be in any human government or agent.

And be careful because if you align too far with a person or a party, when that person fails, and they will, they're flawed, then people are going to look at you and they're going to think your identity and your trust and your faith and your hope is in a political party or a person rather than in Christ.

They're going to believe it's in a particular form of government.

Defend your positions, not your party.

Defend your weak and helpless, not the strong and mighty.

Identify as a Christ follower above and beyond a Republican, Libertarian, Independent, Democrat, or whatever.

Don't you see what is happening?

God is reminding Daniel and the king that history will only reach its goal by supernatural action from the outside, not the inside.

So what's the warning again?

What's the warning again?

Daniel 2, verse 34, while you were watching a rock was cut out, not by human hands, struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chap on the threshing floor in the summer.

Man, that's nothing.

The wind swept them away without leaving a trace.

But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

Verse 44, in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom.

And we're told that it's never going to be destroyed, nor will it be left to other people.

It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will endure forever.

Now, here's the warning.

Guys, talking to you again.

I'll get to the women eventually.

You and I are Nebuchadnezzar's men.

Nebuchadnezzar came to Babylon with a dream, the dream of building his kingdom.

And he builds this statue.

Again, chapter three, to his glory, a towering colossus.

And then the dream comes.

And it shows him that all man-made kingdoms have feet of clay, so he can't sleep.

And he walks the halls at night.

He's under duress.

He's angry.

He's lashing out at the wise men, wants to kill them all.

That's a bit overkill, don't you think?

Until he becomes a genocidal maniac, angry at the world.

And what is his real problem?

His real problem is he's discovering his identity, his foundation is tied to something that's so weak, a little rock, a small thing.

can knock the whole thing down.

You have to look at Daniel 2 in light of Ecclesiastes, and you have to look at both of them individually and then cosmically.

Individually, how many people come to LA looking for a dream?

How many young people are going to move to the West?

They say there's a mass exodus.

Okay, I haven't seen it yet.

You're all on the 210 freeway every time I go home.

They say there's a mass exodus.

But you know, even if there was, there's still a whole new young generation that's going to come because this is the, this go West.

And they want to come and build a dazzling self out here in Los Angeles to build up a personal kingdom.

And they're going to be constantly haunted by the fact of how fragile their kingdom really is.

Every man I know, This is our problem.

And I am the chief of all sinners.

If you, if you, we think when we're getting, you know, we hit our 30s, we get married, we've got our wife, got our children.

And then suddenly we think, man, if I can just build my little kingdom here, my job, my business, my family, my marriage, children, recreation, belong to the golf club, whatever it is I want to do.

If I can just have my little kingdom within the parameters and, and I'll even go to church to make sure I keep myself morally centered.

But here's the problem.

The older you get, even though you've given so much effort to build your little kingdom, and the angels are playing a little tune for you.

You hear the little tune the angels are playing?

They're trying to get your attention.

That's their little tune.

Suddenly you wake up one day and you realize my kingdom is so fragile.

Your wife criticizes you.

You thought your wife was just going to praise you all the time.

Your teenage daughter thinks you're a disaster.

Your son thinks you're clueless.

And your stuff requires constant attention and resources.

And God is saying to the king, if you build your life on anything else other than me, you're going to be haunted with these types of fears.

Everything has feet of clay.

And it's only a matter of time before a little stone will come in and everything will come crashing down.

Now, stay with me, guys.

Okay, don't turn me out because you think I'm a pastor.

And because I'm a pastor, I don't know what it's like in the real world.

Well, I lived in the real world before I became a pastor.

I had a job, a real job, as you would say.

And I'm telling you that no one understood this philosophy better than the great philosopher, theologian, Dr.

Seuss.

Again, I've read a few lines from this.

But I went back this way and said, wait a minute, what's the full story?

So in his work, Yertle the Turtle, he says, and you're not going to have this on the screen, just the last part.

But here's what Dr.

Seuss writes.

I'm Yertle.

I'm ruler, said Yertle, of all that I see, but I don't see enough.

That's the trouble with me.

With this stone for a throne, I look down on my pond, but I cannot look down on places beyond.

This throne that I sit on is too, too low down.

It ought to be higher, he said with a frown.

If I could sit high, how much greater I'd be.

What a king I'd be ruler of all that I see.

So Yertle the turtle king lifted his hand, and Yertle the turtle king gave a command.

He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone.

And using these turtles, he built his new throne.

He made each turtle stand on another one's back and he piled them all up in a nine turtle stack.

And then Yertle climbed up.

He sat down on the pile.

What a wonderful view.

He could see most a mile.

Oh, mine, Yertle cried.

Oh, the things I now rule.

I'm king of a cow.

I'm king of a mule.

I'm king of a house.

And what's more beyond that?

I'm the king of a blueberry bush and a cat.

I'm Yernel the turtle.

Oh, marvelous me, for I am ruler of all that I see.

But then, here's where we pick up the story, that plain little Mac, Mac is the name of the turtle on the bottom of the pile.

That plain little Mac did a plain little thing.

He burped.

And his burp shook the throne of the king.

And Yertle the turtle, the king of the trees, the king of the air and the birds and the bees, the king of a house and a cow and a mule.

Well, that was the end of the turtle king's rule.

For Yertle, the king of all Salome sand, fell off his high throne and fell plunk in the pond.

And to save the great Yertle, the marvelous he, is king of the mud.

That's all he can see.

What a great...

illustration of the futility of us guys trying to build a kingdom and how fragile it is and how soon it can be destroyed.

You say, Jeff, be clear, man.

What are you saying?

Here's what I'm saying.

In all of life, every aspect of your life, there's always going to be a ground note running of cosmic disappointment.

We've all done it, guys.

I did it.

Even though I was told not to, I thought, man, if I can just be an all-American basketball player, my life will be complete.

If I can just go to Africa as a missionary, I'll have everything I've ever wanted.

If I can just have a son, if I can just have a daughter, if I can just break 80 on the golf course.

Oh man, if I can just write a book and people would know my name, if I can just be a pastor of a mega church.

And what did I get for all of this?

Three and a half years of anxiety.

None of those things will work.

Because every time you gain that which you thought would save you, the hole in your heart just gets bigger.

We're like Eric Little and Harold Abrams in Chariots of Fire.

And if you know Eric Little's story, he's a Scottish athlete.

He won the gold medal, I think, in the men's 400 meters at the Olympic Games in 1924 held in Paris.

And if you know his story, he's remembered because his final group race was to be run on Sunday, and he said, I'm not going to run.

My identity, I enjoy running.

And when I run, I feel the presence of God.

But my identity is not in winning the gold.

My identity is in God.

He comes first.

And people thought that was strange.

Alternatively, in a conversation that Eric Little has with Harold Abrams, Harold Abrams says something that probably represents most of us.

He says this, I have but 10 seconds to justify my existence.

And even then, I'm afraid I will not.

What's he saying?

If I don't win the 100 meter, What's the use of living?

And then my fear is that I do win it and I realize what's the use of living?

Everybody in life gets to decide which kingdom you're going to build and you can't fake it.

You're either gonna build God's kingdom or you're gonna build an edifice to yourself.

And here's the thing you cannot escape, no matter how much you try, your emotional health and stability will be determined by which kingdom you choose to build.

Now don't misunderstand, working is a good thing, guys.

You know, God wired us to work, right?

I mean, we're supposed to work and get a sense of satisfaction.

But when you begin to think of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization, it's going to crush you.

You'll be an emotional rollercoaster because on the one hand, a promotion can make you feel euphoria, but a failure can devastate you because in your mind, it will invalidate you.

Work can give you meaning, says Tim Keller, but it can't be the meaning of your life.

Jeff, why are you picking on us men?

Okay, this is going to hurt a little.

Because women figured this out a long time ago because we men have been disappointing them for years.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

In American culture, most women are brought up, at least in the South and the Midwest, it's probably different in California, but most women are brought up to think, my life will be complete when I have a husband and a family.

And then they get the husband.

And they put unrealistic expectations on the husband because they expect the husband to save them.

So they either get angry, get divorced, or they work on the marriage and they take those unrealistic expectations off the husband.

And then they really enjoy the husband because their great love is Jesus himself.

Women learn it far earlier in life than we men.

They learned that I love my husband, my husband's a gift of God, but my great love is my relationship with Jesus.

And the woman who learns that her great relationship, that everything she's looking for is not going to be found in her man, it's going to be found in Jesus.

Then she will enjoy her man even more.

But you have to look at this cosmically too.

We're told in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor will it be left to another people.

It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Now I want you to notice something.

Everything in the story, almost done now, everything in the story, you've got gold and silver and bronze and iron and clay, and yet the rock, the simplest form, is the thing that God uses to symbolize his kingdom.

Why?

Don't you wish it was a huge block of gold came and destroyed the statue?

You know, a spear of bronze and silver.

No, he says just a rock.

Because God, please hear me, God uses the wheat to confound the mighty.

The Bible says that you and I, from the moment we were born, were given gifts, talents, and abilities for the purpose of building the kingdom of God.

Most of us, as we go through life, Satan hijacks it, and we use it to build our own kingdom.

We become very selfish, and we want to build a glorious statue to ourselves, and we get so busy and distracted doing that.

That the very God who gave us all the gifts that were meant to be used for building his kingdom is ignored.

And because he's ignored, listen, because he's ignored, you've got a hole in your heart because it's like you were put together and built to do something, but you're not doing it.

And because you're not doing it, There's this deep, deep desire somehow to find your place in the world.

And the last thing you think will solve this dilemma is to start building the kingdom of God because that requires generosity, sacrifice, and service.

Right?

And the whole world tells you that is not the way up, but Jesus tells you the way up is down.

He who wants to gain his life will.

Lose it.

So preachers will tell you this again and again and again.

And see, the problem is you think that it's only pastors and preachers and teachers who are holy men and priests who do the work of God.

But the Bible believes in the priesthood of all believers.

And it tells you, no matter what your job is, wherever you work, you're not there for you.

You're there for God.

And his purposes.

When you wake up and begin to see that.

You're going to gain a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that you've never had before.

Now, what does that look like?

I don't mean, please, on Monday morning, if you're, let's say you work at your reception at a dentist's office, please don't go in there and say, oh, y'all going to hell until you meet Jesus.

Don't do that.

Please don't do that.

Uh-uh.

No.

But it is getting involved in the lives of people around you.

It's saying, can I pray for you?

It's starting a Bible study at your place of employment.

Are you known as a Christ follower where you work?

Or would that shock people?

That's why you're frustrated and depressed.

That's why you're just uneasy because you're building your kingdom.

See, the thing about God is he lets you take all the resources he gave you and he lets you build your kingdom.

But it's secondary to the kingdom of God.

If you were to have a dream, if God were to give you a dream, what would the dream do?

If God were to ask you whose kingdom are you building, what would you say, honestly?

Are you using your time, your talents, your monies, everything God has given you?

See, this isn't the whole answer, but it's the beginning of the answer of why you know something's missing and you're frustrated.

As long as you intend on living for yourself, your life is going to be a mess.

Do you remember?

Let's close like this because I'm out of time.

And I had so much more to say.

Do we have to go do this again?

Do you remember when I was playing Little League Baseball?

And I'd stare at the sun, and my mother said, don't do that because your eyes will go crossway.

But they never did.

And I loved to stare at the sun because I was bored.

Can you imagine ADD playing left field in peewee baseball, and the ball never goes there?

That's where you put the worst players, because it never goes there.

So you've got a lot of time on your hands.

And I loved, I just loved to do things your mother told you not to do.

You know, I'd collect four-leaf clovers, and every once in a while a ball would come out.

What's that?

Oh, that's a baseball.

Maybe I should throw that in.

And as I've said before, I know you've heard this, but it's a great illustration.

I learned, and you can do this even with lights, I learned to stare at the sun just for a moment and then close my eyes.

And if you do that, when you close your eyes, you've got these beautiful dots that bounce around.

It's amazing.

It's beautiful.

It really is.

I mean, I enjoy purple, green, pink.

Now, but I was frustrated because they're kind of in your peripheral vision.

You can't really see them because they're bouncing.

And I learned that if I stare at the sun for like 15 seconds, close my eyes really hard, the dots will bounce.

And if I will stop trying to look at the dots and fix my gaze on a fixed point in the background, all the little dots will stabilize and I can see them all in my peripheral vision.

It was fun.

Years ago, I wrote this in response.

And this is the rescue, by the way.

If you spend all your time taking your happiness pulse and focusing all your next pleasurable experiences, your life will become unstable.

But if you spend your time focusing on the bigger picture, trying to align your life with God's purposes in the world and the way he designed you to play your role, your little dots, your life will come into focus.

You will find it by letting it go.

This is what Jesus said, unless you pick up your cross daily and follow me, unless you die to yourself, unless you die to yourself.

You're not going to find the joy that you're looking for.

That's not the full answer, but it's a beginning.

Whose kingdom are you building?

There's only one that's going to last, right?

There's only one that's going to last.

I hope it's the kingdom of Christ.

Father, thank you for a powerful narrative and story, and I pray in Christ's name that every single person...

would ask the simple question of how am I investing my time and talents into the kingdom of God?

What am I doing at my workplace?

What am I doing as I'm living my life?

Is there something in me and about me that shows a kingdom that is not of this world?

The kingdom that I ultimately long for, is there something about my life that would show others there is another kingdom, one that will last?

One that will break down every other kingdom and grow into a big mountain and cover the earth and will last forever and ever.

I pray for anyone in the room, anyone in my voice that has not made their way into that kingdom, that maybe this would be the time that they would recognize that you come into the kingdom by grace, your sins are forgiven, and you will live with Christ forever.

And your life will be about a kingdom that will never ever end, where every year is better, every experience new, where there is perpetual wonder.

in the kingdom that is to come.

In Christ's name, amen.