Well, if you have your Bibles, would you turn with me please to the book of Daniel and chapter two, Daniel and chapter two. And we're looking tonight at verses 20 to 23. But to put it in its context, I'd like to read through the chapter from the beginning. Daniel chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I have had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. Oh, king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will give the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made an ash heap. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation. They answered again and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its interpretation. The king answered and said, I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.' The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There's not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter. Therefore, no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Choldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this reason, the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out and they began killing the wise men. And they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then, with counsel and wisdom, Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree from the king so urgent? Then Ariok made the decision known to the king. So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And here's our text. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his, and he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's demand. Therefore Daniel went to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me before the king and I will tell the king the interpretation. I want to read on, but we'll leave it there. Great. Well, I wonder if you can imagine what it would have been like if America, when it was founded, had not become a United States, but had become a little bit like we think of Africa, you know, a continent with lots and lots of little countries, or smaller sections of big countries, really, but lots of countries inside it. Well, that nearly happened after the War of Revolution. in 1787. The people who were in charge at that time had gathered in 1787 to make a constitution. This is what's called the Articles of Convention, which were the documents beforehand and had now become inadequate, they were now to be replaced by the American Constitution. They came together to form a constitution that would bind the states together as a united body. But they ran into difficulties and the work was hard. Nobody seemed to agree and they were clashing. One man by the name of Oliver Ellsworth said this, we grow more and more skeptical as we proceed. If we do not decide soon, we shall be unable to come to any decision. It was really touch and go whether or not they would be able to do it. Finally, someone with some spiritual wisdom spoke up. Benjamin Franklin, a man who I don't know was truly converted, but was a man who supported George Whitefield and was very pro the evangelical cause, said this, in this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us. How has it happened that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Light, in other words God, to illumine our understanding? In other words, how has it been that we've been here so long and we haven't once prayed about this? Because if we prayed about it, we'd get the help and the answer we need. Well, they did pray about it. And as a result, the Constitution of the United States was formed and the United States became a unified body. Well, I love that story because it shows the power of prayer when facing a dilemma, even a political dilemma. And that's what we find here in Daniel chapter two with Daniel's prayer of praise and Daniel and his friends in a political dilemma, a crisis in Babylon where Daniel and his friends have been taken captive in the sixth century before Christ. And Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, a real king who had the power to take life from people, was threatening that unless anybody did what he said, then they would lose their heads. And the people who he was attacking especially was the wise men, the Magi. We were talking about the Magi at Christmas. Well, this is the ancestors of the Magi. And he presented them with the problem of his dream. What he wanted was both the dream and the interpretation made known to them. It's a little bit like this cartoon I saw in the paper. I like the newspaper cartoons. They sometimes capture so much. Oddstreak in the Daily Mail is a picture of some ants all carrying food to their house, their nest. And they're all going along carrying food. And one of them has got very ambitious and has carried a huge sardine tin. And you think to yourself, that's amazing. But thankfully, the last ant is carrying the can opener. Now, what we have in this situation is the king is asking for both the can and the can opener. He said, I know what the can is. I haven't got the can opener. But I want you to tell me, I want you to give me the can and the can opener. I want you to give it both to me. And it was his test to see if the Magi were really telling the truth. He was rightly suspicious that these Magi, these Choldeans, uh and astrologers and so on that they were telling him lies when they were supposed to be interpreting his dreams so this time he tested them with this dream he'd had to hold it back from them so if they could tell him the dream and the interpretation that would be the test for him to know that they were telling the truth. Well, Daniel and his friends go to the God of heaven, and just as in the life of Joseph, and I think I'm right in saying it was in the second year as well of Nebuchadnezzar, like it is in the same equivalent time with Pharaoh, There was this dream given to the king and they both brought the answer to it and it elevated them to their positions of power. And what we have here in chapter 2, verse 20 to 23 is Daniel's prayer of praise. And I absolutely love this. You know, if I'd been Daniel and God had given me the answer to the vision, the answer to the dream, I would have just quickly got my coat on and said, take me to Nebuchadnezzar. I've got the answer. But not Daniel. Daniel paused. to praise, and he brought worship to the Lord before he went to the king. And what we have in verses 20 to 23 is absolutely wonderful. It is Daniel's prayer. And I have to say this, if Daniel in the lion's den is amazing, Daniel in the prayer closet is even more amazing. His prayers in the book of Daniel are really, really wonderful. And we learn so much from it. David Hocking. Sorry, not David Hawking, I'll talk about that in a minute. It is an explanation really based on Psalm 50, verse 15, where God says, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. And that's what God had done. They called on him, the Lord, in the day of trouble, and now they were glorifying him for what he had done for them. David Hawking, who's a great Bible commentator, says this about this prayer. In the Aramaic portion of this passage, and interestingly enough, when Daniel wrote this, part of it, he wrote it in the language of the Chaldeans so they could read about it as well, which is Aramaic. In the Aramaic portion of this passage, it is written like a poem. It is beautiful in its rhythm and poetic thought. Daniel was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit to bring a hymn of praise to God. You could sing this part. It's as though Daniel's heart was overflowing to God as he had seen what God had done. And that's exactly right. And I want us to look at this tonight because we're going to learn some wonderful things. Daniel saw not only the dream, he saw God. He saw not only a dream, he saw God. And what he saw of God really moved him to praise. He saw God's attributes, his authority, his ability, and his answers. And those are the things I want to share with you from this passage tonight, because I think this will encourage us at this time that we're in. First of all, Daniel praised the Lord for his attributes. And that's what we see in verse 20. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God, forever and ever. Now, this little phrase here is a beautiful phrase that actually has made its way into Jewish liturgy to this day. And there's a particular prayer, I think I might say it's called the Kirush prayer, where they use this phrase, this exact phrase regularly, blessed be the name of God. And you know, they often call the Lord Hashem, which means the name. And it's interesting, Daniel says, blessed be the name of God. He never says the name of God. He never says Yahweh. He never says Jehovah, which is the name of God in Hebrew. He just calls him the name of God. But he says, blessed be the name of God, a phrase which is taken as well from the Psalms. Daniel was rich in his scripture knowledge of course and he praises God for his name and blesses it forever and ever that God may have eternal praise and why does he want God to have eternal praise? for wisdom and might are his. Wisdom and might are some of God's attributes. Now what do we mean by God's attributes? Well what we mean by God's attributes are his characteristics, what God is like. And in Christian thinking, we have two lots of attributes. God has two lots of attributes that we recognize. There are what we call his communicable attributes and there are his uncommunicable attributes. His communicable attributes are things that we reflect to some degree with God, and other attributes, the uncommunicable attributes are things that are totally exclusive to God that we could never be. For instance, I would love to be omnipresent, wouldn't you? I would love to be everywhere at once where I've got to be, but I can't be. But God can be. He's omnipresent. That's his uncommunicable attributes. However, his communicable attributes are things that we can have a bit as well, not to the same extent and power as God has, but we reflect God as we've been made in his image. Things like his power, his knowledge, his wisdom, his truth, his goodness, holiness, love, justice, things like that, those are God's communicable attributes. Well, Daniel is praising God for some of those communicable attributes of God which he has seen in this answer to prayer. Wisdom and might. What we might say is God's knowledge and wisdom and his understanding of everything. When you're talking about wisdom in the Bible, you're talking about wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Those three things are all wrapped up. It's like having a three-legged stool. You can't have one without the other, otherwise it won't hold up. And those things are all tied up together. And Daniel is just full of worship and praise for this. Think of God's wisdom and his knowledge and his omniscience, his incredible understanding, if you think of it like that. It is absolutely amazing what God revealed to Daniel. There's a commentator I like, and he's written some books that are very easy to read. I really recommend them to you. His name's Ken Campbell, and he's written great books. In one of his books he wrote, he tells about when he was a student at college, and one of his professors was a man by the name of F.F. Bruce. F.F. Bruce was a a massive theological scholar, a real legend in modern history. And he was one of his lecturers at college, and he obviously was after a few brownie points, and he had F.F. Bruce around for tea. He got his wife to cook tea and said, come and have tea. And F.F. Bruce came in and they were very relaxed together, had a nice time. And as he was looking at his set of encyclopedias on the bookshelf, He said, I see you've got old so-and-so. And he named the encyclopedia set. And he said, sorry, I don't recognize that name. And he said, well, the name is a name that I concocted as a child when I read those volumes. And it was a memory device to help him remember the things in the volumes. And it turned out that when he was a child, well, let me read to you what Ken Campbell says. He says, you see, Bruce had read the 10 volumes of this encyclopedia as a child, and he recounted how he had found an error in the date of Prince Edward's wedding. He then described the volume, page number, column, and paragraph in which the mistake was to be found. That was when I discovered that F.F. Bruce could remember accurately just about everything and anything he read, and the man read prodigiously. I have met a few other people since with photographic memories and have always been moved to envy. Yet how small is their knowledge when compared to omniscience? And what a great way of explaining it. To have an understanding like that, knowledge like that is amazing. But even that is just a faintness compared to God's wisdom, God's knowledge, God's understanding. Let me describe to you what God's knowledge is like. and his understanding because it's so much greater than ours. Animals have a degree of knowledge, but it's not the same as ours. We're more knowledgeable and understanding and wiser than they are. But God's knowledge and wisdom is higher still. You see, God's knowledge is not creature knowledge, it's creator knowledge. God never learned. Isn't that a staggering thing? God never learned. It's just intrinsic to him and unlike our knowledge, his knowledge is perfect, all-seeing knowledge. That's a staggering thing, isn't it? You know, I know a bit about guitars. And the more I learn about guitars, the more I love the instrument and everything. But I haven't got perfect knowledge. And even if I lived to be 1,000, there'd still be more to learn. That's the beauty of music. It just never seems to know. It never seems to end. But with God, he has perfect, all-seeing knowledge. Not only that, it's a knowledge of all eternity. Think of that. It spans all of time. Eternity past, before creation, and eternity into the future. And not only that, but God knows all the things, not only all the things that have happened, but all the things that could have happened as well, in any circumstances or chain of events. if he had planned and organized things differently. And his knowledge and wisdom is unfading and consistent. You know, I was really embarrassed on the door. I forgot someone's name. Now, normally, I can get away with it by calling them brother or sister, but this morning, I just couldn't think of their name, and I just had to say, I'm so sorry for a split second, and it came back to me. I've been finding I've been forgetful of names more. I'm turning into my mum. It's terrible. But you know God never forgets anything like that. His knowledge and his wisdom is absolutely unfading. And what an attribute that is. And when it comes to God's planning and organizing, therefore when Daniel saw this dream and saw its interpretation, he was praising God, his wisdom, that was involved in all that was there. And his might, all the things we said about his knowledge, we can apply to his might as well, because God's power is unequaled, and his power is what is enabling the things that he has planned and revealed to come to pass. And omnipotence hardly needs any explanation. Wisdom and might are his. Now, I love these two attributes being put together by Daniel. You know why? Because these are two attributes that atheists love to attack most about God. If you ever have a conversation with an atheist, one of the things they're bound to pull out the bag is the old conundrum of why is the world like it is? And what they tend to say is this, can't God, if your God exists, can't he do something about it? If he can't do anything about it, he's not omnipotent. He hasn't got all might. But maybe he has got all might, but he hasn't got the wisdom to do anything about it. Maybe he's got the wisdom to know he needs putting right, like we do, but he hasn't got the power. So which is it he hasn't got? Daniel comes with an answer to us. He said, wisdom and might are his. They both belong to God. And God in his sovereignty and his wisdom is able to handle all these things. So this is a wonderful description of God. And I want you to take it to heart tonight because everything else we're going to talk about is resting on the foundations of these attributes about God's wisdom and might. A.W. Pink in his book on the attributes of God said, the infinite knowledge of God should fill us with amazement. How far exalted above the wisest man is the Lord. Oh, how the realization of this should bow me in wonder and worship before him. And it should do the same for us. Let's see the second thing that Daniel praises God for, and that is his authority in verse 21. He says, and he changes the times and the seasons. He moves the kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. We'll come to that second part later. I heard about a guy who was taking his first flying lesson and the teacher took him up in the plane, they were flying around and he gave the student the chance to control the plane as they sat next to each other with dual controls. He had a great time, and he said, OK. He said, well, now we're going to put it down. And the students said, OK. And they started to bring the plane in. And as the instructor watched the student, he noticed the student was the calmest he'd been the whole time. He was really impressed. And as the plane came down, it suddenly came down very sharp. And as it landed on the runway, it went bounce, bounce, bounce. And it bounced about 50 feet back up in the air and came back down again and down again. And eventually it came to a stop. And the teacher turned to the student and said, that was the worst landing I have ever experienced. How could you do it? And the student looked at him and said, me? He said, I thought you were flying the thing. Now, when you look at the state of the world, isn't that how you feel sometimes? Who's in charge? I thought you were in charge. No, me? You're in charge. The world is in a chaotic state, isn't it? Who is in charge? Well, Daniel knows from this vision and from his experience of God, God is in charge. And what we see here is God's authority explained in these words. Because what Daniel's vision, what Nebuchadnezzar's vision has been about, as we read on in the chapters, is a changing of the kingdoms of the world's future, right the way up to the second coming of Christ. I wish I'd had time to go into that to explain to you the different empires that Daniel saw in succession because history proves that this was a true account in the Bible because it happened afterwards just as Daniel wrote it down. And it reveals the authority of God that he knew this and he organized this and brought it about. And Daniel gives us two wonderful phrases. He says, first of all, he changes the times and the seasons. And he says, God is in charge of the different seasons in history. Now, this was very relevant to Daniel because Daniel in Babylon was on the threshold, he had crossed the threshold into a new season of biblical history. He was now in what was called the times of the Gentiles. Israel had lost their king. The last king had been taken off the throne, and the reason Daniel was there was he was a prisoner of war. They'd all been taken out of the land. They'd been cast out of the land, as God had prophesied through Moses they would do if the nation went away from him. He would spew them out of the land and take them away until the land had a rest from them, and then they could come back. Well, they were in this time now where they were out of the land, and it was no longer a Jewish king who was ruling over the Jewish nation. Now it was Nebuchadnezzar, the Gentile king. And it gave the beginning of the new era called the times of the Gentiles, the very times that we're still in today and will still be in right up until the next Jewish king comes, whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's when the times of the Gentiles will end. But Daniel was at the other end of that, whereas we're at the end of it, he was at the beginning of it, and he'd seen that change. And he was saying, who brought this about? Well, it was God. He changes the times. and the seasons. And you know, very often in history there are times where you feel like, you know, the world has moved into a new era. Things have changed. The world is different now. And it's almost like the tide, you know, with new waves coming in. You just thought, you know, I thought we wouldn't be in this place forever. And now we're in something even more. And it's like new times and seasons are coming all the time. Think what a difference, even in our day and age, technology has made. I mean, just five years ago, none of us had heard about AI. And it has caught everybody off guard how quickly. They're scrambling to make rules, how to govern it. They're trying to work out how this intelligence in computers is going to affect us. It's a new season, isn't it? A new era in humanity. And we are seeing the changes and the times and the seasons around us. And he says, with this as well, God removes kings and raises up kings. Well, he had seen that happen with his own king. Zedekiah had been taken off the throne, and now Nebuchadnezzar had been raised up. And the reason Nebuchadnezzar had had this dream and was anxious about his future was because he perhaps was knowing that it wasn't going to be forever, that he was also going to be on the throne. I noticed back in verse 9, he said to the wise men, therefore tell me, he said, if you do not make known to me The dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for you have agreed to speak lying corrupt words before me till the time is changed. In other words, you've agreed to tell me lies until you know I'm out of office or I die out. And I think he knew his fragility and was worried about it. And this is what gave the platform to the vision he had. But Daniel is saying it's God who removes kings and raises up kings. Now, it's wonderful. Daniel saw the Lord was sovereign in it all. And he gave the credit to the changes in history, even difficult and challenging changes to God himself. And I want us to see this tonight, because dear friends, this very night, I believe we could be on the threshold of a new time and season and a new king raising up. You know, tomorrow, is the inauguration of President Trump, isn't it? I was in Marks and Spencer's recently, and I saw the copy of The Economist magazine. And I like to look at these things in the shop, because I can't afford to pay six or seven quid to buy them. But the picture on the front just grabbed me. Donald Trump walking onto the stage of the world. and tomorrow that's gonna happen. And I've gotta be honest with you, I really like Donald Trump. I like a lot of what he says and I think a lot of his policies really make sense and he seems to be very friendly towards the evangelical Christians and I'm really pleased about that. He's against the woke agenda and I'm really pleased about that. And he seems to be holding Islam at bay and wants to do that in his country and I'm really pleased about that. But I've got to tell you something, that man also frightens me. And when arguably the most arrogant man in the world becomes the most powerful man in the world, doesn't it make you think, what is coming next? And I think that's how everybody feels at this juncture in world history. What is coming? Well, we can take comfort that God is on the throne. God is on the throne. He is the one who is in charge. And he changes the times and the seasons. It's very interesting to me. Now, you can say, oh, John, you're just reading into this. But I do think God sometimes gives us little hints and clues in history, in events that happen. And you look back and you think to yourself, was that a warning from God? I think it's really interesting that TikTok has been banned and switched off in the United States just before President Trump comes in. You say, well, what's the big deal about TikTok? Well, think about it. What goes TikTok? A clock, right? Time. And TikTok has been stopped. It's almost like a little visual picture. God is saying the times. and the seasons are changing. It'll start again, probably. President Trump will probably start it again and get it going. But it's just like a little, little thing. Is that what God's saying? I can't help wondering whether or not the fires that we've seen in Los Angeles are just something of a little visual warning. God's saying, you know, we could be in for a turbulent time. The city of angels is burning. Who knows what is ahead? We don't know. I hope that everything that happens in his presidency will turn out to be good. And you'll be able to say to me, John, you had nothing to worry about at all. But what I can say is this, change and decay in all I see, oh thou who changest not, abide with me. God is on the throne, and we can look to him for a peace and assurance in these difficult days that the Lord has the authority. Who was it who brought Donald Trump into office? You say, well, it was the American people. True, but ultimately, It's God who removes kings and raises up kings. Maybe he's done it at this time for his purposes as we will see. So let's keep our eyes on the Lord and not on any man. And thirdly, we see here his ability in verse 21 to 22, the second half of verse 21. It says, he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him. God not only has wisdom and knowledge, but the amazing thing is God shares wisdom and knowledge. And this is what Daniel is praising for here. The ability that God gave Daniel, God's own ability to understand, he gave to Daniel to understand. So he could understand the vision, and he could understand what was happening in this time. And he gives wisdom and knowledge to those who have understanding, as it says here in verse 21. And this is something Daniel's praising God for, and which we can praise God for too. Let's look at this phrase by phrase. He gives wisdom to the wise. There's a little saying, you know, a word to the wise. Have you heard somebody say that? It would be a word to the wise to say this to someone. I remember a comedian saying once, it's not a word to the wise that's needed, it's the foolish ones who need it. But actually, it's the foolish ones who don't want the words of wisdom, isn't it? And this is what scripture says. It's the wise man who loves to be instructed. It's the wise man who loves to receive more wisdom. And this is the basis on which God works. God gives wisdom to the wise. In other words, the person who's wise enough to ask God, I want more wisdom, God will give them more. And as Jesus said in Matthew 13, to those to whom those who have more will be given. Those who do not have even what they do not have will be taken away from them. So he gives wisdom to the wise and he makes wise people wiser still and knowledge to those who have understanding. Here Daniel does define these three separately. What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge in this context? Really the two are linked together but the way I'd say it is this, you can be wise or you can know something but not be wise enough to use it. But God gives you wisdom and knowledge. He gives understanding and then the wisdom to know how to do it. Somebody may have great intelligence but be a great fool. But God's saying here, Daniel's saying here, he gives knowledge and understanding to those who have understanding as well. And he brings greater revelation. to those who seek the Lord for it. And verse 22, he reveals deep and secret things, is a reference of course to the dream, but it's true about God in general, that God reveals deep and secret things to his people. You remember we talked about this when we talked in the Proverbs about the secret things belong to the Lord, but those things that are revealed belong to God. I can't remember the proverb, he told you, I was having trouble with my memory. But the secret things belong to the Lord. That's Deuteronomy 29, isn't it? I can't remember the proverb, we looked at it recently. But the point is, God gives revelation of deep and secret things. He reveals things that man couldn't possibly know. His covenant is revealed, it says in Psalm 25. And he gives knowledge of this, secret things in Proverbs 3. I think it might be 25 as well or 22 to those who are his children as well. So he reveals things that are not known and he makes people to know. And the last part of verse 22 says he knows what is in the darkness. What was the darkness Daniel was talking about? Is it, you know, God can look out on a pitch black night and see, you know, if there's a cat down the road or something? Well, of course, God does have that ability, but that's not really what he means. What he's talking about is the darkness of Nebuchadnezzar's mind. Daniel didn't know what was going on in his head, and maybe even the king didn't fully understand what was going on in his head, but God knew what was going on in the darkness of his head. And that which nobody else could access, God could access. And he knows what is in the darkness, and light, or another way to put it is illumination. dwells with him. God can illuminate our minds, he can teach us things. And actually this is what God does for his children when they come to him and they ask him for wisdom and knowledge. He, you know, James 1 verse 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him. And if we seek the Lord like Daniel seeks, then we will have this great blessing given to us as well. I mentioned Billy Graham this morning, I'm going to mention him again tonight. You know, around the time of his early visits to this country, they had a great crusade in Scotland. The Telscotland Crusade. And Billy Graham was traveling from the South up to Glasgow where the Crusade was on this train. A lot of very amazing spiritual things happened to Billy Graham on that train journey, actually. It's a very, very interesting time in his life. But one of the things that happened was a sense of his great inadequacy for the crusade ahead. And he says this in his book, Just As I Am. He says, before I went to bed, I felt a great burden of prayer. In my pajamas, I got on my knees and prayed for the meetings in Glasgow, particularly for the press conference the next day. I asked that the Lord would give me wisdom. A verse kept coming to my mind. The verse says, so he, that's God, fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Psalm 78 verse 72, the King James. He says, I also prayed that the Lord would give me a good rest. I had been having difficulty sleeping the last few nights and was tired. No sooner had I prayed and crawled into bed than I went sound asleep. And do you know what? In 1955, when that train got there, and he got off the train, he had to go to a meeting. First of all, his first meeting was with the ministers who had called this crusade and called Billy Graham across. And he went in with a man by the name of John Sutherland Bonnell, and he was a pastor up there. And when he got in and sat down next to Billy Graham, he grinned at him and said, I want you to know this is the greatest gathering of theologians in Scotland in modern history. Billy Graham said, that did not help. But you know what? God answered his prayer and gave him the wisdom he needed to be able to handle those men. He was just a country farmer's boy, just a preacher from the farms. God helped him to be able to lead the theologians in an evangelistic work there in Scotland that bore eternal fruit. So friends, let's find encouragement in this. You know, God's ability, he's willing to share with us and reveal deep and secret things. He can teach us about the Bible. He can teach us the wisdom we need for our situation if we wait on him. I'm sure in your life, as there is in mine, there's a great need for wisdom. So let's seek the Lord who gives generously to those who need it without finding fault. The final thing we see here is his answers, which Daniel praises God for in verse 23. And he says this, I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's demand. The language switches here. He no longer talks about God as he, but now he talks to you. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. And he comes with praise to the Lord for what he had asked of the Lord, the wisdom he needed to be able to interpret that dream, which was going to save their lives and the lives of the other wise men. And what God did was an absolute miracle. I don't know how well this illustration will make sense to those of you who are not really very good yet with your mobile phones, but mobile phones have an ability to do something called Bluetooth, where you can send information from one phone to the other phone just by putting them near them. And when you Bluetooth it, you can Bluetooth all sorts of things, a song. from one phone to another song by putting the phones near it. And what's in that phone gets transferred to that one. Well, that's what God did to Nebuchadnezzar. He Bluetoothed to Daniel. He Bluetoothed the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had from Nebuchadnezzar's head to Daniel's head. It's amazing. And he transferred the knowledge of it and the understanding of what it meant to Daniel so he could go. It was an amazing answer to prayer, a miracle. And Daniel knew with confidence that it was what God had revealed. He didn't go into the king and said, King, I'd like to have a guess. I might have got it right. He went in. I will tell the king what his dream was. He knew. God had given it to him. It was that clear and that certain. What an amazing answer. And he realized that this is what we had asked of God. I love that. He said, God made known to me what we asked, because he remembered he wasn't the only one praying. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or as their Hebrew names are, Hananiah, Mishael, and Nazariah. had been praying with him, and they had been seeking the Lord in a prayer meeting together to get the answer to the king's demand. God had given an amazing answer to prayer, and Daniel is praising God for this. You know, dear friends, we need to remember that God does answer prayers, and we need to praise him, praise him much when he does. This morning in my sermon, we've had a lot of Billy Graham illustrations today. I don't really apologize for it, but I'll say sorry anyway. But this lady is Joan Windmill, and she was an actress who was converted at the Haringey Crusade, London Crusade. I was able to use the testimony of that in my sermon this morning. But there's another story that goes with that whole episode, which will intrigue those of you who were here this morning, having heard how wonderfully she was converted. I'll read it to you. It says this. Years later, Joan heard that a man in Australia had seen her photo in a newspaper in 1954, the year before the crusade. and had said to his wife, you may think it very strange, but somehow the Lord has burdened me to pray for this actress. Right there and then, they got on their knees and prayed. A few weeks later, the burden lifted. Right at the time, the London Crusade was taking place. Halfway across the world, their prayers had been answered. Isn't that amazing, you know, how God works in answering prayers. And I love, I wonder if we would ever have known about that had God not brought that forward, well we wouldn't have done, but what a lovely thing to hear about God's answers to prayer like that. And do you know, dear friends, we must be quick to give God the glory and the praise for the answers, too, like Daniel did. Daniel was praising the Lord because his answers to prayer help build our faith, don't they, and encourage us to go on. So what a wonderful prayer of praise Daniel brought before the Lord. And as we said earlier, it really does reveal not only how spiritual Daniel was, but it reveals how great God is, and he's our God. And as we go into this week ahead, And into this new change of time and season, whatever it holds, he holds it. Let's give him our prayers and our praises.