He Touched Me
Living in Babylon: An Exposition of Daniel

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all right, all right. Good morning church good to see all of you here this morning. Hey, we’re in the book of daniel daniel chapter ten and we’ve entitled this series living in babylon why babylon? Because babylon represents the world the world’s government, the world’s political structure the world’s economy even the world’s religion throughout the bible the word babylon has been a metaphor for the world. And just as daniel and his friends were carried into exile from jerusalem to the city of babylon and they had to learn how to live in babylon so we are like exiles exiles because we believe in jesus and we belong to the heavenly kingdom that is his kingdom but yet we live in this world and so we can as we study this book hopefully learn how to live in this world how to live in babylon

as exiles in this world we often need strength and encouragement. Would you agree with that we run out of strength? We get tired and we need encouragement for the journey and some of us are in mourning during this exile on planet earth we mourn for the loss of a loved one or for the loss of some other precious thing to us some are weak in body and and need healing some are weak in spirit and need encouragement others are afraid and need someone to alleviate their fears others are lonely and they’ve gone all week without a touch without human contact with another person. But what if we could experience the touch of the master’s hand? What if that were possible that that the lord god could touch us and strengthen us and guide us that his touch could heal us and wipe away our tears? What if what if the master could touch us no matter what storms lie ahead? What if he could hold our hand and guide us? You see there’s a very basic human need for touch

psychologists have determined this to be a powerful thing the science of touch they call it they’ve concluded that it is essential not only to our emotional and social health but even to our physical health. All we have to do is witness the child that was brought up in an orphanage of perhaps hundreds of children that were never held or never touched and notice the psychological and even physical detriment we need touch we were made for it a pat on the back shaking of the hands a lifting up by the arm, they express appreciation they express encouragement they express compassion without words the human touch but what if the master could touch us

well in chapter ten chapter ten of daniel the lord responded to daniel’s mournful prayer for understanding by touching him and strengthening him with the revelation of things from god’s perspective and i believe this morning that we can be strengthened in our understanding we can be encouraged by the master’s touch as he gives us an understanding of of what god sees when he looks at our situation from his heavenly perspective. So as we look at the text, i want us to talk about how we can be strengthened in understanding from god’s heavenly perspective are you ready? Got seatbelts on let’s do let’s do daniel chapter ten

i’m going i’m going to read the first nine verses and then make some comments about that and then we’ll we’ll continue in that fashion. So first of all the first nine verses of chapter ten in the third year of cyrus king of persia a word was revealed to daniel, who was named belteshazzar and the word was true and it was a great conflict and he understood the word and had understanding of the vision in those days i daniel was morning for three weeks i ate no delicacies no meat or wine entered my mouth nor did i anoint myself at all for the full three weeks on the twenty fourth day of the first month as i was standing on the bank of the great river that is the tigris i lifted up my eyes and looked and behold a man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist his body was like topaz his face like the appearance of lightning his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and the sound of his words like the sound of the multitude and i daniel alone saw the vision for the men who are with me did not see the vision but a great trembling fell upon them and they fled to hide themselves so i was left alone and saw this great vision and no strength was left in me my radiant appearance was fearfully changed and i retained no strength then i heard the sound of his words and as i heard the sound of his words i fell on my face in deep sleep deep sleep with my face to the ground this is god’s work

how to be strengthened and understanding from god’s heavenly perspective here’s the first way

behold his radiant glory behold his radiant glory first let me give you the occasion of this vision it was in the third year of cyrus the king we read that would make it around five thirty five b c daniels about eighty five years old now he’s no spring chicken anymore he started out he was carried off in exile probably around sixteen or seventeen years of age he was a teenager when he was carried off and sent off to babylonian u now he has served under many kings of babylon and now even of persia he’s around eighty five years old in the third year of cyrus five thirty five b c

i’ll show you a quick chart that i’ve shown you several times just to give you an awareness of where we are we’re right about here chapter ten can you see it? Chapter ten we’re about five thirty five five thirty four bc in the third year of cyrus king of persia babylon no longer exists persia has overthrown babylon daniel has outlived king nebuchadnezzar king belshazzar and now he is he’s under cyrus it seems that he might be in retirement now he served that first year but it’s about time for him to retire and he’s got time to spend three weeks fasting and praying and and that’s where daniels at right now he said it says he mourned for three weeks you ever done that? You ever you ever cried out to god for three weeks

for twenty one days he said i was in mourning and this is an expression of fasting i think he talked about it it wasn’t a complete fast it was a daniel fast he he ate no delicacies the man went without cheesecake for three straight weeks. Man that’s serious business right there. He had no meat. They didn’t go to bills or parkers or any of these other places around town. He had no meat. No wine entered his mouth. He didn’t annoint himself. Which would have been the practice in those days. He didn’t take care of his body. He didn’t shave. He didn’t. He let himself go for three weeks. He he was trying. He was trying to get god’s attention. He needed understanding about this exile. He has survived babylon. now when do we get to go back to israel? When do we get to go back to jerusalem? Cyrus? Listen, cyrus. The first year of his reign. Now it’s the third year. But the first year of his reign, he announced that the jews could go back and rebuild.

So now two years have gone by. And there’s nothing happening. Now some people have gone back. I want to show you an archaeological discovery. This is called the cyrus cylinder. And on this now i don’t know how anyone can read it, but people can read it. There are people who have studied to be able to read this and you read it, you read it in a way and then you rotate i guess you have to put it on a spit to read it together, revolve it here, but it in this cyrus cylinder is recorded where cyrus gave the decree that the jews could go home and isn’t that wonderful it’s in the it’s in the bible first, but now, in recent days, they’ve discovered that it really did happen, like we didn’t know that already, right? It really happened and he sent him home, but see now here’s what seems to be happening, they’ve gone back, but they’ve run into all kinds of persecution, and they started laying the foundation of the temple, and then they lost heart and and there it sits. You ever seen a building like that where they started it and they don’t finish it and every time you drive by and look at you go wonder what happened there looks like they broke ground and then they quit, you know, like that he’s dishardened and he’s he’s, he’s brokenhearted.

Now, in case you’re concerned that this is some other daniel than the one who used to work back there for nebuchadnezzar, he reminds us in verse one that he used to be called belteshazzar and he hadn’t referred to that for several chapters but here i think he’s been retired for a couple of years he’s liking about the way i’m the same guy that used to work for the king they used to call me belteshazzar that’s that’s kind of the background he gives right here and and he’s he studying and he’s praying and after three weeks he has a vision of a man in linen who is this who is this it’s appearing to him let’s just look at it just for a second

verse five i lifted up my eyes he was down by the river tigris by the way the men like to be where he could look over a body of water i am with you daniel i get that i don’t get the part when you went without cheesecake for three weeks but i get the part where you like to look over the water and pray and he was there with some of his fellow jews and they were by the river praying and and he lifted up his eyes and he saw a vision a man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold of Uphaz this man when he spoke it sounded like a crowd it sounded like he’d gone to a uh to a football game and a great stadium of people was crying out and he couldn’t distinguish the words he could only hear the volume of the sound and knocked him out and he fell with with his face to the ground. Who is this man? I want to make a proposal that this man is christ i will admit that there are other opinions some say it’s only a heavenly being representing christ well representing god it’s certainly that it is certainly a heavenly being but i would make the case that it’s christ

it reminds me of paul’s encounter on the road to damascus where he saw a great light that blinded him and he heard a voice that said, saul saul, why do you kick against the goads? And his fellow travelers knew something had happened but they didn’t hear the voice. It reminds me of that it reminds me in the book of matthew when when peter james and john went up on the mount and christ was transfigured before them, and so his face shown like lightning, and then two other fellows showed up with him moses and elijah and they had that same kind of appearance. It reminds me of that scene somewhat, but it mostly reminds me of what the apostle john wrote about in the book of revelation.

And so i’ve prepared a comparison to give you my conviction that this is the preincarnate christ that he appeared here’s daniel man, listen to this he didn’t immediately give daniel his answer for understanding what he gave him was jesus you see, you might have a lot of questions today i can’t wait to get to heaven because i’m going ask god a lot of questions listen, you’re going to see jesus and you will forget everything you were thinking and that’s what happened to daniel? It knocked him look at this this is from what we just read daniel chapter ten versus five to nine and this is what john reported when he encountered jesus

In revelation chapter one so a man clothed in linen the son of man clothed in a long robe a belt made with fine gold with a golden sash around his neck body like beryl so we didn’t have that one so i left it blank and then this one i leave blank because he describes his head hairs of his head were white like wool like snow face like the appearance of lightning face was like the sun shining in full strength eyes like flaming torches, eyes like a flame of fire, arms and legs like burnished bronze feet were like burnished bronze were fired in the furnace words like the sound of a multitude voice was like the roar of many waters and then john has two more descriptions in his right hand he held seven stars from his mouth came a sharp two edged sword but both daniel and john have this in common fell on his face and deep sleep, fell out if they were dead. they both had the same reaction i’m telling you, and i’m fine with this being some other heavenly being, but i believe it’s christ, he gave him a radiant, glorious vision. He pulled back the curtain and he let daniel see his glory and who is the glory of god, isn’t it Christ isn’t christ the glory of god, what is glory, by the way, when you say that word glory, when i was growing up and some of the older people would get excited about the preaching of god’s word, someone would shout out glory, i always like to hear that i thought it meant something special, but i wasn’t sure what it meant. I knew they were excited. Glory was it. i think, the closest synonym to the word glorious is beauty, beauty beauty is hard to define it’s, easier to define a basketball than to define beauty. A basketball, i can say well, it’s about this big and it’s round and usually comes in an orange color and has the stripes on it it has a place where you put air in it. And i was taught when i was a boy, but your middle finger on the place where they put air in it , enter there abouts and then stroke your hand like this. I could talk a lot about a basketball, but we’re trying to describe beauty. I end up trying to say, well, have you ever seen the rising of the sun over the atlantic ocean? Have you ever been in the mountains and seen the blue sky and the white clouds? And have you ever laid on your back and looked up and just thought about the different shapes? If you ever seen a newborn baby, have you ever seen a bride on her wedding day? That’s the best i can do, all i can do is give you have you seen because it’s really hard to describe beauty and so god showed him his beauty? He showed him his glory. I think he showed him christ.

Psalm nineteen verses one through four the heavens proclaim the glory of god. The sky displays craftsmanship day after day. They continue to speak night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word their voices never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth in their words to all the world. His creation declares his glory. We see something about who god is. We see something of the creator reflected in the creation.

We see the beauty of humanity in isaiah chapter forty three, it says, bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who was called by my name, who my created it for my glory, whom i formed and made you were made to glorify god. You were made to be reflections of his image made in his image the imago dei in the latin, made in the image of god, that you would reflect his glory.

Just as the moon has no light itself, but it reflects the light of the sun into a darkened world. The moon is the glory of the sun, and christ is the glory of god and man is the glory of christ. Yet most fully we see the glory of god in the son of god hebrews chapter one the son is the radiance of god’s, glory, and the exact representation of his being he’s the radiance of god’s glory

john chapter one verse fourteen the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth he’s the glory daniel saw it i don’t think he knew what he saw it knocked him out he fell into a coma on his face do you know that christ prayed that you would see his glory too You know he prayed that john chapter seventeen he prayed that you would share in his glory the glory that you have given me he’s praying to the father here you know some say that the lord’s prayers the lord’s prayer the one back there matthew chapter six our father which art in heaven that’s really the lord’s model prayer you want to find the lord’s prayer go to john chapter seventeen this is this is lord this is him praying to his father he’s not teaching any body who to pray he’s praying the glory that you’ve given me i have given to them that they may be one even as we’re one eye on them and you and me that they meet may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me father, i desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where i am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world hear what he says i want them to be our glory father so that the members of the bride which is the church that the world will be attracted to me because my glory is reflected in them and then some day i want them to come and see me in my glory now listen daniel caught a glimpse but someday you’ll spend eternity with the one and not only will you see him in his glory but you will share his glory or you will be given a glorified body that can live eternally with christ amen can you say amen to that i don’t know why you wouldn’t say amen to that

sometimes we don’t understand why god has done a thing or allowed a thing to happen we don’t understand why we’ve lost some wonder why marriage failed or why we’ve got a sickness we don’t understand and we might mourn for two or three weeks and we might question god god i don’t understand this i don’t it’s not that you question his existence you question whether or not he’s being fair to you now i don’t think this is fair god have you ever prayed like that i have

back in two thousand one on july six, two thousand one my mother died my father died when he was thirty nine i was eight years old and then my mother died when she was sixty six that still seems pretty young to me these days especially as i get closer to that age myself that doesn’t seem that old and when she passed away the one who had been both a mother and a father to me really i got aggravated at god and i started fasting and praying several weeks went by even a few months and i determined i would get up early every morning and i was going to get this right between me and god because i knew he was right and i was wrong but we needed to work it out and so i started going to the old office over to the miller office building back before we had property of our own we were still renting i would get there at seven in the morning and lay on my face on that old brown carpet in there and that that office who knows what was in that carpet i would lay there and go god, i don’t feel like you’ve been fair to me i really i can’t see how this is fair to mehave i have i not done these things for you and haven’t i given you these things and you you took my daddy when i was a little boy and i have not held that against you but now you took my mama didn’t it just don’t seem right i’m just telling you the truth i’m just telling you

i found out something that i knew from seminary, i knew that the hebrew word for glory was chabod whenever the glory left israel the woman who gave birth as she died called her son ichabod ichabod which means the glory has departed ichabod you know can also be translated not just glory can be translated heavy weighty because the glory of god weighs much and on that particular day after several early morning seven days a week even before i would preach on sundays i would start at the office and pray and go god, you’ve not been fair to me please tell me what’s going on and you know what? He didn’t say a word to me here’s, what happened? And i hesitate , i’ve i’ve never preached this, but i felt god laid on the heart to mention it in a sermon

this was october in two thousand one i was laying on my face and here was his answer i felt a hand on my back pressing me down and it was heavy and i just lay there and started crying i said, ok, ok, i understand i understand i’m good and i never questioned again about his fairness it’s what i felt was his glory and you might not understand what i’m talking about but i felt this glory now didn’t see what daniel saw, but i know that was god, something too big for the room squeezed his way in there and got on top of me, and his answer was, i’m a big god, and you’ve got little questions, okay, look, i wouldn’t recommend to you that you seek such an experience, and i’m not proposing that you leave here. God, i want an experience like that because it might knock you out. It certainly felt like it was going to knock me out like i’m too little let me up, i get it. I got no more questions for you, he’s a radiant god and his glory is in christ. And when you know him and see him, he is yours. And he wants to share his glory with you and he shared it with daniel, let’s keep reading

You want to hear some more from chapter ten let’s, pick it up at verse ten and behold hand touched me and set me trembling on my knees and he said to me on my hands and knees and he said to me, oh, daniel, man greatly loved there it is again, we saw that chapter nine, man, i love that part. They said to me, old daniel man greatly loved understand the words i speak to you and stand up right. For now i have been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, i stood up trembling. And then he said to me, fear not, daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your god. Your words have been heard, and i have come because of your words the prince of the kingdom of persia, what in the world the prince of the kingdom of persia withstood me for twenty one days. But michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, for i was left there with the kings of persia. And he came to make you understand, and i came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision is for days yet to come when he had spoken to me according to these words, i turned my face toward the ground, and i was mute and behold one of the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then i opened my mouth and spoke, and i said to him, you stood before me oh my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me and i retained no strength how could my lord’s servant talk with my lord for now no strength remains in may and no breath is left in me then again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me and he said, oh man greatly loved fear not peace be with you be strong and of good courage and he’s and as he spoke to me i was strengthened and said let my lord speak for you of strength and may then he said do you know i have come to you but now we’re returned to fight against the prince of persian when i go out behold the prince of greece will come but i tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth there is none who contends by my side against these except michael your prince and i’m going to make two observations about this final part are you still with me

here’s the second way that we can be strengthened in our understanding by seeing things from god’s perspective be strong in his mighty power be strong in his mighty power i want you to take note that in in verse ten, verse sixteen and verse eighteen he says a hand touched him did you see that i titled this message he touched me he touched him three times the first time in verse ten he touched him now i believe we’ve got a change of personnel here at verse ten may i comment on that versus five through nine i believe that i believe that was the pre incarnate christ i believe that was christ revealed but in verse ten we have a interpreting angel show up now who’s the interpreting angel in chapter nine who was the angel who came and gave them this is gabriel here he’s unnamed daniel is so off his game he didn’t ask the angels name but i think this is gabriel but he is unnamed it’s certainly a holy being right it’s a it’s a heavenly being and this one this one’s not like the first one who spoke like the sound of a multitude this one’s going to interpret

remember in earlier chapters there was a voice that said gabriel make him understand i think that that happened here i think that god said ok i pulled back the curtain and let you see my glory but now gabriel make him understand i think that’s what’s going on starting in verse ten a hand touch me i think that’s the hand of the angel who represents the hand of god and he sent me trembling on my hands and knees in other words and got him up on all fours that’s as far as he got him there for a minute he got him up on his all fours he’s shaking all over them other dudes that were with him they’re hiding somewhere in the woods they see daniel down like in a coma and they’re like we’re not going over there something going on it’s its something otherworldly he’s down there next to the river tigris laid flat on his face and then a hand touches him and gets him by the arm and gets him up on his all fours and then keeps lifting him and finally gets him upon his feet do you see it? He said to me oh daniel man greatly love understand the words i speak to you stand upright stand up while i’m talking to you daniel i’m getting you up now you are greatly loved and we see the word strength strengthened and strong eight times in the text eight times in verse sixteen verse seventeen verse eighteen verse nineteen he came to strengthen him for understanding he’s eighty five years old now people he’s gone without cheesecake three weeks i can’t get off that i’m sorry he’s fasted the daniel fast it’s not a complete fast it’s water and vegetables is what it looks like that was all that was left to him for three weeks he’s eighty five years old he’s old and he’s been fasting and mourning and now he’s caught a vision of god the man’s weak and he needs strengthening why? Because chapter eleven and twelve are coming and there’s more to be told and for sure here in chapter ten is really just getting daniel ready to endure chapter eleven and twelve so you need to come back next week because this is getting you ready and me ready to endure chapter eleven and twelve because it’s a load and he’s preparing him strengthening him for it

So a hand touched him and first time it touched him to strengthen him in verse ten got him up on his all fours and got him stood up but he’s still weak and he couldn’t talk he was mute he couldn’t talk and so he touched his lips and that reminds me of the book of isaiah where he said i’m a man of unclean lips and i come from a people of unclean lips and then an angel came up from the heavenlies he said he could see the heavenly throne and he came up and he took a tong and he took he took a piece of coal off of the alter before god that was burning and he took that piece of coal and flu up to isaiah and touched his lips with that with that piece of coal he says ok you can speak now your lips are clean now i bet he felt that you know but here he touched his lips touched his lips he was no longer mute and could talk they touched him a third time

verse eighteen so he was strengthened for understanding notice something in verse twelve remember chapter nine the gabriel arrived and said from the moment you first started praying a word went out and i am here in response to that word. And remember i talked last week that there was a hebrew professor who did a scientific study and he read daniel’s prayer out loud in hebrew, he said, took him about three minutes and therefore it must be about a three minute flight from heavens throne to daniel’s upper room now i don’t know how scientific that was but that’s what the professor concluded but something went wrong here because in like manner now, listen to this. When you pray the minute you pray the father hears it because you’re his kids and you belong to him the minute you pray the minute you start, he don’t wait the minute you start he says shhhhhhhh, one of my kids is talking to me right now he hears that he hears it. Did you know that you had that when you’re praying to jesus name, do you know the power you have, but on this particular day it took him three weeks to get to daniel, what in the world did we just read are you understanding this he’s telling daniel something about spiritual warfare, he’s telling daniel something about what goes on in the heavenlies when we pray stuff happens that happens in the unseen world, that is beyond our sight in the physical world that that is happening an engagement happens a heavenly warfare happens because we’ve prayed now.

Gabriel was sent the minute i don’t know if you’ll read this i read this and that’s what then he said to me, fear not, daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your god your words have been heard and i have come because of your words that’s verse twelve and in verse thirteen says the prince of the kingdom of persia with stood me now who’s, that guy that’s a demonic presence that’s what some have called a territorial satanic ruler, a fallen angel under satan, who is the prince of this world, and under him he has set he’s assigned princes over nations and people groups, and this one is not the king cyrus is the king of persia he’s not this angel he would have had no trouble beating up on cyrus, but cyrus is the one who’s already said the jews can go home so god is using him, but there’s an evil presence over persia, that’s battling and hates god’s people and so whenever gabriel comes flying in tow to respond to daniel he gets attacked by the prince of persia in the heavenly realms and he’s fighting him and he has to call for help who’s he called for he calls for michael one of the chief princes that’s in verse thirteen i called for michael and i left him there fighting they kept him busy so i could come over here to be with you now that’s what’s going on right there so he’s he’s parted the curtain and he’s let him see the glory of god now he’s left the curtain open so that now he can see the war in the heavenlies we sang a song back in the nineties stephen do you remember this song making war in the heavenlies bringing down principalities yeah we used to sing that song steven’s going and we aren’t bringing it back that’s for the old people but that’s what’s going on here michael whose name means who is like god that’s what his name means who was like god ?

Remember what we said Gabor means mighty warrior and it means he’s a mighty warrior of god he’s the one that god sends whenever it involves the messiah but michael is the prince of the jewish nation he’s the archangel according to the book of jude you can read about michael is in the bible here in this chapter twice, verse thirteen, verse twenty one he’s mentioned twice in jude one nine he’s called an archangel who disputed with the devil over the body of moses and revelation twelve seven he’s, the leader of the angels, who did battle with the dragon, which is satan, and cast down his angels, so that a third of them fall to the earth in chapter ten he’s the one who helped gabriel and he’s, the one who is the prince he’s the prince over the jews. So he’s the one over them he’s assigned to them. Man, we’ve learned some stuff here that is new and interesting to many of us.

Chapter six of ephesians says this finally be strong in the lord and in his mighty power be strong in the lord in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of god so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes for our struggles, not against flesh, but against the rulers against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. So, listen, when you get in a fight with your spouse, you’re not fighting with them christian, the evil one hates your marriage i’ve got some post it notes in my office i still have them there, it says i’m not the enemy you stick him on each other’s forehead and have a good fight it is really hard to fight it’s kind of laughable your neighbors not the enemy your spouse is not the enemy your child, your boss, your co worker, your friend at school that has betrayed you they’re not the real enemy

second corinthians chapter ten says for though we walk in the flesh, we’re not waging war according to flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of god and take every thought captive to obey christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Now listen, how do we battle like that? We battle in prayer, we battle in the word and then we let the angels take the battle to the heavenlies now i don’t understand all this i’m just telling you what god showed, daniel, i don’t think you need to be looking for the devil under your bed when you get home tonight not trying to scare you quite the opposite know this that the minute you pray god moves see there’s a warfare going on today now the victory has already been won in jesus but there’s still little skirmishes taking place all over planet earth

number three here’s the third way continue to comment on these final verses be encouraged by his great love be encouraged by his great love notice he said it twice in verse ten and verse nineteen daniel oh man you’re greatly loved man you just came from the father’s throne you just don’t know how much he loves you the minute you started talking, he said gabriel go and i picked a fight on the way in here and if i’m looking a little frazzled i think gabriel showed up he still had his armor on man he you know he still had the smoke of battle coming off of him you are greatly loved i’m telling you because it cost me something to get to you

fear not don’t be afraid verse twelve verse nineteen he tells him twice god don’t be afraid god loves you what are you afraid of? The creator loves you what are you afraid of? Don’t be afraid there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear there’s no room

god has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind what were you afraid of it says now set your heart to understand verse twelve it’s your heart right so you can understand this be strong your people verse fourteen look at that i came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days in the new testament and in this day we talked about this last week were in the age of the gentiles the time of the gentiles but he says there’s something coming in the latter days and he’s not we’re talking about chapter ten he’s getting him ready but i told you to get him ready for chapter eleven to have when he’s going talk about it he’s got to get strong enough to handle it because you get ready to tell him some stuff that’s gonna be hard to hear but there’s some stuff for your people coming in the latter days and he says i need you to be unafraid and then in verse nineteen he says i want you to be at peace i want you to be strong and i want you to be courageous he refers in chapter twenty one to the book of truth i think the book of truth includes that which is written down but it also includes which is inscribed in heaven which will come to pass the gods already made his plans and they will come to pass look, a truth and verse twenty one i’m gonna tell you what’s been inscribed it’s coming it’s already written down and hadn’t happened yet, but it’s hard written down and we’ll show it to him let you write it down so that my people can read it man, he has pulled back the curtain and chapter ten my goodness suddenly to see the glory of god he’s leading to see the warfare in the heavenlies that we don’t need to be strong in ourselves, but we need to be strong with god’s mighty power and then he says, and this is what’s going to help you.

This is going to help you so that you’re not afraid of the future not afraid about what i’m getting ready to tell you you’re not afraid of death , you’re not afraid of the enemy, you’re not afraid at all because, man, you just don’t know how much he loves you you are greatly loved in the hebrew could also be translated. You are precious to him, you’re like the most precious thing in all of his creation you’re like a fine jewel to him beloved to him

john chapter fifteen jesus speaking, he says greater love has no one than this that someone would lay down his life for his friends well, that’s what jesus did for us he says you want to know how much i love you i love you this much i love you this much he stretched out his hands and he allowed those soldiers that he made to nail him to the tree that he created because everything comes from him and he allowed that to happen because he loves us this much

in the book of ephesians chapter two says because of his great love for us god who is rich and mercy made us alive with christ even when we were dead in our transgressions it is by grace you’ve been saved his salvation via the cross by the blood of the lamb is evidence of his great love for us you are greatly loved don’t be afraid be at peace be strong be courageous,

John in chapter three of his first epistle see what great love the father has lavished on us i mean like he’s lathered it on he has lavished it that we should be called children of god and that is what we are you’re a child of god, you’re a child of god, you are sons and daughters of god some have said won’t we be like angels we get the glory no, that would be a demotion because the bible says you will judge the angels the angels are servants of god and they will be servants of you they already serve you see how the angel serves daniel he says you just don’t know daniel i had to come the minute you started praying because the father sent me because you’re greatly loved i had to fight to get you you know that touch is an expression from god how much he loves us. So when he sent jesus which is the glory of god man he went around touching people everywhere he went did you ever study that in the gospels he touched so many people because you want jesus touched me

in the book of matthew chapter eight he touched peter’s mother in law who was lying sick with a fever and he touched her by the hand and her fever left her and she rose up and cooked for the whole clan. He touched the eyes of two blind men who were chasing after him. Lord have mercy on us and in matthew chapter nine he touched their eyes and they could see a leper came to him imploring him and kneeling before him and said, if you will you could make me clean you’re able but are you willing? Well, he could have healed him from a distance because who would touch a leper who would touch someone who has such a disease so so putrid and awful and terrible to look at and even smell what a terrible disease leper leprosy was that it decayed and killed the body and so that body parts actually fell away exposing even the skeleton of the face and of the body it is a terrible disease. People had to carry a a stick with a ball saying unclean unclean so that they were kept separate from but not jesus he stretched out his hand,

it says in the book of mark chapter one he stretched out his hand and he touched the leper he said to him, i am willing be clean and immediately the leprosy left him and he was clean. He had skin like a baby after jesus touched him and mark chapter seven a man that was deaf and dumb came to him and he couldn’t speak. He could just lay down before him and jesus knew what was the matter and he put his fingers into his hears and cleaned out his ears so he could hear and then he took a hold of his tongue. I read this this is awesome, said mark chapter seventy took his tongue and grabbed a hold of his tongue. He says be opened he could hear he could speak tell you what he doesn’t mind touching you wherever he needs to

when peter on the night that he was betrayed in the garden of Gethsemane when peter took out his sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers that was there to arrest him jesus leaned down and picked up his ear and touched the soldier that was there to arrest him and healed is you and he said no more of this touching the man’s ear and healing i tell you what jesus when he touches you you’ll never be the same if you receive the touch of jesus he loves you so much he loves you so much he wants to reveal his love to you wants to show you his glory he wants you to be strong in his mighty power he wants you to know that he loves you are you willing and are you able to be strengthened in this understanding from this heavenly perspective

bill gates who wrote a song back in nineteen sixty four shackled by a heavy burden neath a load of guilt and shame then the hand of jesus touched me and now i am no longer the same he touched me oh and now i know he touched me and made me whole oh have you been touched by this glorious jesus let’s pray

lord i sense your presence this morning i know you walk the aisles amidst the rows touching people even now if only we could draw back the curtain we would see it the spirit of christ is here is he touching you are you willing to say lord, save me, lord, heal me, touch me if you cry out the minute you cry out the minute you pray he’ll move. Lord, i believe in you pray with me lord, i believe in you i believe you died on the cross for my sins, that you were raised from the grave, that you live today come, come and touch me, live in me, strengthen me and make me a child of god. I want you to be my lord and savior if you prayed that prayer believing he’ll move, he says, behold, i stand the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, i will come in others are here and, you know and he’s in your life But maybe you’ve been asking god some questions like this is not fair. Why has this happened to me well, right now just say lord touch me. Lord, i want you to show me so i’m strengthened and given understanding so i can move on so i can keep on believing whatever it is good to decide he’s god, he’s got something to tell you we pray in christ’s name, amen.