Daniel Chapter 5 Verse 13

• Can you imagine this scene? Food scattered all over the tables…half-drunk people with glazed eyes surrounding the room…and what’s this? The cups, the plates…familiar to Daniel! His heart must have sank, man. To be brought into this room and to see the debauchery and what’s worse, the prized possessions of Israel, (that he no doubt observed as a little boy in wonder) filled with Babylonian wine…

• But what’s this? A neon sign there on the wall…glowing…and it begins to take all of his attention because it’s there, too high for any of the folks to reach. No ladders lying around…and immediately he is able to read the code, man. Immediately he knows that this is it for all of them…as was foretold by the prophets…and his eyes come back to the wanna-be king…and he looks into the eyes of a dead man…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 14 – 16

• Here we go again. Daniel knows all that has been offered, is not his to give. “Bankrupt” reads the sign there on the wall and Daniel knows it. Same position of Satan man when he tempted Jesus…when he tempts us…when this world and this flesh tempt…man know the truth, the offerings of our three-fold enemy, the flesh, the world and the fallen angel…they are vaporware because the offeror is bankrupt!

• “I’ll give you gold,” it will be gone that night. “I’ll give you a Belshazzar jersey, my number is 666,” but before the night is through it will be the wrong team…”Oh, I’ll give you authority and kingship over the entire world!” But before the night is spent, your kingdom will be no more! WORTHLESS!

• Good to go for the next couple hours mind you! Plenty pleasure-ful for a very short period of time…but then utter deficiency enters…”want” is on the way. “Loss” is on the way, man…poverty and regret before the night is through and yet we fall for it! Please man we don’t need the writing on the wall, its right here in this book!

• “Hey, loser king, keep your trinkets because you’re bankrupt! I got something real coming for me!” James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” When does that arrive? When “he has been approved…” When is that? Right when he endures temptation man…”when he is tried” it says there in the Greek…right then man…the presence of God…palpable! The power of God…phenomenally perceivable and the embrace of the King…comforting…presence, power, embrace, those are the only things that can pacify my rage and console my grief…

• God has something so very real for us…but so often we swallow the lie…we get into a habit of accepting gifts from the one thats bankrupt and those gifts are gone just about as quickly as they arrive leaving us in the same state as our enemy…bankrupt…Not Daniel. He read the book and applied it…He walked in wisdom…

• All that was offered to him by this worthless king was garbage disposal milk-shake to someone like Daniel, to folks like you and me I pray who know the truth! He knew from the beginning of the scene that the fate of the king was sealed and a man named Cyrus would take his place. Written nearly two hundred years earlier by Isaiah in Isaiah 44 and 45…and even the next kingdom would not stand because the Greeks would get it after the Medes and the Persians…

• Only one kingdom will stand folks…our choice.   Take the plastic dime store common junk offered by passing, worthless powerless fakes or go after the glory of the King sitting upon the throne of the kingdom that will be forever…that has real power…that can make us well and that does love us personally…doesn’t just call on us as a hired whore when we’re needed…as Belshazzar has done to Daniel…not invited to the party. No meal placed before him. No honor given to him…”do this, and then I’ll pay you…” I am not for sale…are you? Jesus died for me when I owed HIM!!!

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 17 – 21

• I wonder if Belshazzar looked at the cup he was holding and listening to Daniel was like, “oh junk…this isn’t good…”

Daniel Chapter 5 Verse 22

• Wow! So Belshazzar knew all of this!? The whole time, he had been told what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. He had read Nebuchadnezzar’s letter to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell on the earth (as Nebuchadnezzar had opened his letter in that manner). And yet, (here da key) he did nothing about it…other than he disallowed humility! He heard it, believed it…but never learned it!

• Man we should be alarmed when we read the Bible, when we are taught the truth! You ever wake up to a blasting alarm? We set our alarm clocks on these nice sweet little chimes and what does that cause us to do? Go right back to sleep! Snooze man…unconscious! But let your home alarm go off…what happens? You spring up! Emergency! We must do something or we’re about to get got! But so often not so when we read God’s Word…why? Because we refuse to humble ourselves although we know all of this…and the burglar burgles! And the murderer murders…while we sleep!

• This very night, while the king and all his cronies party…the Medes and the Persians are outside the city wall, which was completely impenetrable as we so often feel that we are…that no matter what we’ll be fine…everything will continue as it is…not so…this very night they are outside diverting the great river and causing the inlet to the city which went under the wall to dry up…and as soon as its stomping depth, the armies of the Medes and Persians run in and take the city…Belshazzar missed the alarm man…don’t you miss it too!

Daniel Chapter 5 Verse 23

• One of the longest verses you’ll find with the worst pronouncement possible! Your gods…they’re false! It’s all coming down around you, because of what you’ve done man…you are responsible…and those that you have offered yourself to, they cannot help because they are not real! The entire time you were worshiping the one in the shadows…as he hid himself so strategically from you and fooled you into thinking the gold and the bronze and the silver and the iron and the wood and the stone were worth your while…now your life is imploding and the Father God who loves you so entirely much that He gave Himself so that you could have a chance…even now remains rejected…and time is up…

Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 24 – 31

• Up until the very end, Belshazzar was trusting in his prize of plastic and no doubt Daniel slipped them off as he made his exit. Because Daniel walked in arraigned in a crown incorruptible and the shine of its splendor was being blocked by the scrap of Satan that Belshazzar had placed upon him…no thanks…I’ve got something real Daniel said…and you’ve lost it all…

God’s desire is for us to have the real deal. To the point that He loves you so much, wants the best for you sooooo much, that He paid all that was possible to be paid…simply so that you might choose Him…

God has something wonderful for you, something real, something that will satisfy that loss we all have as a result of our own sin…I’d like to read you a story and then I’m through…

Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl. One day when she and her mother were checking out at the grocery store, Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at $2.50. How she wanted that necklace, and when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money. I'll tell you what. I'll buy you the necklace, and when we get home we can make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for the necklace. And don't forget that for your birthday Grandma just might give you a whole dollar bill, too. Okay?" Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the pearl necklace for her. Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure enough, her grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had paid off the pearls. How Jenny loved those pearls. She wore them everywhere-to kindergarten, bed and when she went out with her mother to run errands. The only time she didn't wear them was in the shower-her mother had told her that they would turn her neck green! Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny went to bed, he would get up from his favorite chair every night and read Jenny her favorite story. One night when he finished the story, he said, "Jenny, do you love me?" "Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you," the little girl said. "Well, then, give me your pearls." "Oh! Daddy, not my pearls!" Jenny said. "But you can have Rosie, my favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me last year for my birthday. And you can have her tea party outfit, too. Okay?" "Oh no, darling, that's okay." Her father brushed her cheek with a kiss. "Good night, little one." A week later, her father once again asked Jenny after her story, "Do you love me?" "Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you." "Well, then, give me your pearls." "Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Ribbons, my toy horse. Do you remember her? She's my favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play with it and braid it and everything. You can have Ribbons if you want her, Daddy," the little girl said to her father. "No, that's okay," her father said and brushed her cheek again with a kiss. "God bless you, little one. Sweet dreams." Several days later, when Jenny's father came in to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lip was trembling. "Here, Daddy," she said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father's hand. With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box. Inside of the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. He had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing. So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasure. Presence, power, embrace, relationship, salvation and even a mission!!!