This sermon delves into the story of Daniel in Babylon, where a wild party takes place with sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem being desecrated. The hand of God writes on the wall, foretelling the downfall of the king and the rise of Persia. The sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking the word of the Lord, being vessels of the Holy Spirit, and longing for the touch of God in our lives.

If you turn in your Bibles, please, to the book of Daniel, Sefer Daniel, the prophet Daniel, chapter 5. Daniel was in Babylon, and the king of Babylon, a very ungodly person, through a huge banquet. The Babylonian kings and others were famous for gigantic parties that ended up in drunken orgies. So Daniel is in Babylon, and one of these feasts are taking place. There were at least 1,000 lords there, wives, concubines, prostitutes. There were singers, there were musicians, there were dancers. It was just one wild all-night party. And it says here, verse 2, that the king commanded that gold and silver vessels would be brought in that had been in the temple in Jerusalem. All the party guests started drinking from the sacred vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem and had been brought to Babylon. In verse 4, they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron and wood and stone. As this horrible, blasphemous party was reaching its climax, probably the music was getting wilder. People were getting drunk. God only knows what they were doing there. But as this happened, in verse 5, in the same hour, the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw part of what the hand had wrote. In this wild, wild scene of thousands of people worshiping and praising and singing to the gods of gold and silver. All of a sudden, opposite the menorah, maybe it was the menorah even taken from the temple. I don't know. A man's hand appeared and began engraving words on the wall. And as the king looked, he was horrified. He was terrified. His knees started knocking together. He was panic-stricken. He was traumatized. Can we look at this picture? Here's a famous painting of this scene. Here's the king with all the wild party going on around him. And you can see the hand writing on the wall. And the king is terrified. The so-called wise men of Babylon couldn't interpret what those words meant. So they called in the prophet Daniel. And Daniel comes into this horrible scene. And look at what he says. Verse 23. You have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of his house before you and your wives and your concubines. You praise the gods of silver and bronze and gold and stone. And the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. And they have lifted themselves up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of his house before you and your wives and your concubines. You praise the gods of silver and bronze and gold and stone. And the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. I've been thinking about this scene for a number of months. As the ungodly flood gets deeper and deeper in the world. As the horrors of what's happening in the Middle East. Thousands, thousands upon thousands have been slaughtered. Little Christian children being decapitated because they won't turn on Jesus. All of these believers from Egypt, what happened to them. But it's killing Muslims. All around our neighborhood. And some of you will remember we took an offering for the refugee children of Syria. And we're putting together another team that's going to be going over to help out over there. And the family that was part of this congregation, we prayed for them here. And yesterday they sent pictures. The Carpenter family and their children, they're bringing boxes of shoes and putting them on all these little Syrian refugee children. But as I watch the evil growing in the Middle East, hatred, hate, genocide, murder, mass murder. This picture that we just saw, the picture we just looked at, the handwriting is on the wall. There is a hand behind history. And it's the hand of God. Everything is under his control. He knows what's going on. And at the crescendo of this horrible evil party, the Lord showed up. And he engraved his words on the wall. And what the words meant was this. Listen, King. God has numbered your kingdom. It's finished. And you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Your kingdom will be divided and given to the Persians. That very night, the Persians attacked and that king was removed. The hand of God is behind history. It is not the king's. It is not the president's. It's not the unions of different political parties. It's God. Praise the Lord. Amen. This scene, who are the vessels of the temple today? Well, there's one. The rest of you don't know you're vessels of the Holy Spirit, I guess. You're vessels of the Holy Spirit raising your hand. You don't want to be part of a situation where pollution is being put into your vessel, you as a vessel. When Persia attacked and Babylon crashed because of their ungodliness, look what happened. Turn to Isaiah chapter 44. The handwriting is on the wall, friends. God's handwriting can be found in this book. And he is victorious. Thank God that we had this victory shot in the camp here. Okay, Isaiah 44, verse 28. Who says to Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built and to the temple your foundation shall be laid. Who says to Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built and to the temple your foundation shall be laid. For me, this is one of the most amazing of all the prophecies in the Scripture. All the prophecies are amazing. But this is a prophecy by a Jewish prophet named Isaiah. He prophesied that a man named Cyrus would be the king of Persia. And that he would help the Jews come home and rebuild their temple. Cyrus was a Persian king. Now, that's amazing. But what's more amazing, this prophecy of Isaiah was written 200 years before Cyrus was born. It was written 200 years before Cyrus was born. The hand of God was going to be on a man named Cyrus, who he's going to use for his purposes to bring the Jews home. Look at chapter 45, verse 1. The Lord is talking about a man named Cyrus, the king of Persia, who had not been born yet. Thus says the Lord to his anointed. He's saying he will anoint this king to Cyrus, who my right hand has seized. God's hand comes down in history. He seizes a king named Cyrus, who then tells Ezra, I'm going to give you all this money. I'm going to give you all the vessels from the temple. Take them back and I'm going to give you everything you need to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. He was anointed by God to free the Jews from captivity and bring them home. I wonder what Cyrus will be used in the nations now. He's telling his precious group from Britain. We know that God had called them to be a Cyrus nation to bring the Jews back home. Our friends from Finland, you're called to be Cyrus to help the Jews come home. So Cyrus goes to Ezra and they start the project. Turn to Ezra chapter 1. The hand of God got a hold of a Persian king and drove him to God's purposes. Ezra chapter 1 verse 1. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, which is right after the big party we just saw, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all the kingdom and put it in writing. The king of Persia sends out a proclamation to his kingdom. These Jews are going back to Jerusalem and restore the temple and we're helping them. Ezra was the man that was used by the Lord to do this. Look at Ezra chapter 7. We just saw that the Lord's hand seized Cyrus. Have you ever been seized by the Lord? Anybody? I'm the only one. I remember when I had to make a big decision in my life, it was like I was seized and he turned me around and said, do that. God's hand is the hand behind history. It's the hand whose fingers made the stars. Hallelujah. You need to know the touch of the Lord in your life. He wants to touch you. He doesn't want to have to turn you around and push you somewhere. He just wants to touch you. He wants to touch you with his love, his compassion. He finds this wonderful, this is like this scribe Ezra was a wonderful man of God. Ezra chapter 1, excuse me, chapter 7, verse 6. Now Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe of the law of Moses, which the Lord of God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. They were in captivity. God got a hold of the king. He stirred up his spirit. He said, go to Ezra and give them everything they need to go back to Israel. Look at verse 9. From the first day of the month, he began the journey. And on the first day of the fifth month, he came to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God upon him. God was guiding Ezra all the way. There were robbers. There were bandits. There were storms. There were valleys. There were mountains. He took him back with the good hand. The good hand of his God was upon him. You need to long to know that the good hand of your God is upon you. You ever met anyone that you know the hand of God is on him? Oh, you'll meet him. There's some of them are sitting in this room. That the hand of God is upon him. I think I'm going to embarrass Danny. Years ago, Danny and Luan, before they had their first baby, and Danny got out of the army and got a job, and we got to know them. The Lord had told me the hand of the Lord was on him. Luan, the hand of the Lord was on you too. So I was in Helsinki, I think it was, Finland. I was sitting with a person that ran a big organization and said this wonderful question to me. What do you need? How can we help? I said, oh, what we need is we need a salary for a guy who the hand of God is on him. He's called to be a pastor. He's called to be a pastor. So some years later, he became a pastor. Why? Because the hand of God was on him. Because there was something in him that God said, here's somebody that I can use. Hallelujah. There's people all over here I could choose. The same thing has happened to me. We need to long for the touch of God in your life. The touch of God in your life. That he's touching you, and he's leading you, and he's directing you. This is what we need. I want to be a man touched by God, and I want to feel the experience that touches the Lord continually. I want to be touched by God, and I want this touch to continue. Now, why did he choose Ezra? Why did he choose Danny? Why did he choose Peter? Why did he choose any of you? Why did you choose people to come from YWAM from, I don't know, you're all over the place. Why did he choose you to come from Kona, Hawaii, to be here today? Why did he choose you to come from Hawaii and be here today? The eyes of the Lord are always looking to and fro around the world for somebody whose heart is continually turned to him, and he puts his hand out. Look at chapter 7, verse 10. Here's the reason. Here is how you get the touch of God in your life. This is why God used Ezra. Verse 10. Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. Ezra was a man that loved the word of God. You need to prepare your heart every morning to seek the word of the Lord. It's where the transformation takes place. Ezra prepared his heart to seek the word of the Lord and to do it. You know, some of you know that I've gone through a kind of a difficult week. So my wife told me this morning she has a word for me. She said it's about walking through the afflictions of David. Remember David and his afflictions. It's about King David, but she applied it to me. So I don't remember my afflictions because I got touched in the worship. If you come to a worship meeting and the hand of God doesn't touch you, something's wrong with you. The manifest presence of God comes and you don't want to be touched by it. Ezra was a man who devoured the word of God and he did it. So God said, I'll put my hand on him and use him to change history. Look what it says. He had prepared his heart to seek the Lord and to do it and to teach the statues and ordinances in Israel. Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the word of God and to do it and to teach the statues and ordinances in Israel. When the hand of the Lord comes on you and you're touched by the Holy Spirit, you're touched by the Lord, if you prepare, the British people have to go. See you Mike, great to see you. Here's a wonderful congregation. We did a conference there. Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. Hallelujah. Turn to Isaiah chapter 11. We're talking about the hand behind history. Isaiah 11. Verse 11. It's one of the verses that changed my life. Isaiah 11, 11. It shall come to pass in that day, that day is this day, that the Lord shall set his hand again, not the Babylonian, not Ezra bringing the people back a second time, again, to recover the remnant of his people who are left. He will redeem them and he will possess them and he'll bring them back. Elam here is Syria, I mean, is Iran. He will set up a banner or a sign to the nations, assemble the outcasts of Israel, gather together to disperse of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Let me say this to you. We are living in this moment right now. The hand of the Lord has brought the people back. God did it. God is still doing it. It's the hand of God that's doing it. And woe to anybody that comes against the purposes of God. The hand of God brought the people here. The hand of God is bringing them by the hundreds from the Ukraine right now. They're coming from France. It's happening again. Oh, it looks bad. The anti-Semitism all over Europe. But let me tell you a secret. The handwriting is on the wall. For those nations. And the handwriting is on the wall for this nation because he's bringing them back from all over the world. All over the former Soviet Union. Praise the Lord. We're sitting in a prophetic moment on Mount Carmel right now. God's hand is moving things around in history. We may not understand it all, but he's doing it. When the hand of the Lord comes on somebody or a nation, it represents power. You need the power of God in your life. Thank God some of us started jumping and shouting about the power of God in this world. We need the power of God in our life. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. Hallelujah. We need to walk in that. We need to believe it. We need to memorize it. We need to put it in our heart. The hand of the Lord means power. It means protection. It means provision. Everything that Ezra needed, he got. Everything that Ezra needed, he got. Superabundantly more than he needed. This is what the hand of the Lord coming on somebody is all about. It's the prophetic. The hand of the Lord comes on somebody and a word of prophecy comes through. Did the hand of the Lord come on Elijah? The hand of the Lord came on Elijah is what the scripture says. And he ran from here 26 miles over there. And he wasn't even tired. Maybe it was the first marathon. The hand of the Lord came on him and he ran ahead of Jahab's chariot. Did the hand of the Lord, it was the power of God came on him. Why? Because God found somebody he could use and he could empower him. Don't you want to walk in this kind of victory? Hallelujah. His spiritual son, Elisha. They're out on the battlefield. Surrounded by enemies, just like today. They're running out of water. Man, animals are going to die. The army is going to die. Three kings are having their meetings and can't figure out what to do. Jehoshaphat says, is there a prophet of the Lord anywhere around here that knows of the word of God? They said, yeah, Elisha is over there in that tent. Elisha comes out. There's the kings. The soldiers are terrified they're going to be overrun by the enemy. So they say to Elisha, what should we do? Elisha says, bring me a musician. The king, what did he say? What, he's going to sing a song? What is going on here? Bring a musician? The enemy is about to attack us. They got weapons. Somebody comes out with a harp. Starts playing. What does the scripture say? The hand of the Lord came on Elisha in the worship. He heard the word of the Lord. Big ditches all over this place. He saved the nation. One man. Because he knew how to worship the Lord. In the midst of a war, the hand of the Lord came on him. The Lord gave him the answer. We're in the midst of a war. We are in a spiritual war. Whether you know it or not, you're in a spiritual war. And if you will get along with the Lord, even if you're on the battlefield, you need to train yourself to worship the Lord, and the hand of the Lord will come upon you. Glory to God. Don't you want the hand of the Lord to come upon you? Turn to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Verse 20. I have found my servant David. God was looking for David. David didn't know what his future was, but God was looking for somebody whose heart was after his own. I have found my servant David. With my holy oil, I have anointed him, with whom my hand shall be established, and my arm shall strengthen him. Isn't this wonderful? A little shepherd boy. Probably playing his harp. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The most beautiful worship songs the world has ever known from this young man. They impacted millions of people for thousands of years and still do every day, all around the world. As he worshiped the Lord, when the Lord chose him, he found him. He put his hand on his son. The hand of the Lord came on David. Hallelujah. What is the true center of history? Alexander the Great thought it was him. He drank himself to death when he was 32 years old, but he thought he was the king of kings. The Assyrians thought they were the center of history. The Assyrians thought they were the center of history. ISIS thinks they're going to be the center of history. Iran thinks they'll be the center of history. The Third Reich, they thought they would be the center of history. Communist movement in Russia, they thought they would be the center of history. My friends, none of those are the center of history. The center of history is a man. His name is Yeshua. His hand is directing everything. You could walk through Israel, but you come to a little Jerusalem in those days. People walking through Israel. They didn't go to the temple. They didn't go to the palace. They didn't go to the king's house. They went to a little Jerusalem, and there was a little hill, and a man was nailed to a cross. Cruel spikes driven through. His hands were wide open. The blood dripping down. This is the hand behind history. He said, it's finished. And Satan and his demons thought, we won, we won. Three days later, he exploded out of that tomb. He showed Thomas's hands. And he said, blessed are you who have seen, but blessed are you even more so that haven't seen. His hands are reaching out to anyone who would have him. This is the hand behind history. This is the hand that wrote on the wall. This is the hand that was on Elijah. This is the hand that was on David. We need a touch from the Lord. We need to know the hand of the Lord directing our life. All the famous people bypassed that little hill. Who is he? All things were created through him and for him. This is the hand that's behind history. It's the hand of our God. It still has holes in his hand. When we meet him in glory, we will see those hands. This is the hand that is moving history. Hallelujah. All things were created through him and for him. I want to finish with something. Who is hanging on that cross? This is who he said he was. I'm the alpha. I'm the omega. I'm the beginning. I'm the end. Who is and was and is to come. This is the hand that is behind history. Years ago, we went to hear David Wilkerson speak. He had come back to New York to start a congregation. I was so impacted by that man. It was the anointing that was on him. As we got on the drive going home in the subway, she can't stop crying. She's sobbing on the subway. Frankly, it was embarrassing. I mean, I'm wondering, what do these people think I did to her? And finally, I said, what is it? She said, the hand of God. The hand of God. I said, okay. Our whole history changed because a few days later, we met that man. But God had found somebody he could put his hand on. The Lord wants to do this with all of us, that we know that the hand of the Lord is resting upon us and guiding us. And they brought the little children to him, that he might touch them. Yeshua loved for the little children to come to him, and the disciples said, get these kids out of here. He was laying his hands on the children. The creator of the universe. Came down in human form, that he might lay hands on the dead, and they would be raised from the dead. He would put his hands on eyes, and the eyes that couldn't see would see. Let the little children come to me. Do not forbid them. Such is the kingdom of God. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter into it. He took them up in his arms, and he laid those precious hands on them. We need to come to him as a little child. And say, I want your hand on me. I need your guidance. I need your healing. I need your direction. I need your revelation. I need your anointing. Come to me. And if you don't come as a little child, you won't enter into the kingdom of God. You'll be on the edge of outer darkness, another kingdom. The Lord is stretching out his hands toward us. They're nail scarred hands now. Which he did for us. Which he did for us. And he says, come to me as a little child, and I will touch you. How many of you are desperate for the touch of God right now? Come as a little child. Just come now. Come as a little child. Leave your pride. Just come as a little kid. The hand of God is behind your histories, writing your book. What a magnificent gospel the Lord has given us. That the creator of the universe would come down in human form. And he stretched out his hands and nailed them to a cross. The hand that had written on the wall in Babylon. The hand that had come on David and Elijah. The hand that had grabbed ahold of Cyrus. He wants to touch you. Come as a little child. Little children are innocent. They don't know that they're doing bad things sometimes. You just tell them to cleanse you. If there's anything obstructing the hand of God touching you, he'll heal you. He'll heal your mind. He'll touch your heart. You'll know the touch of the master. He's the potter. He will shape us. He'll make us a vessel of honor, fit for the master. He's here for anyone who will. He's here saying, I want to touch you. Open your heart. Just like Ezra. He had an open heart. The Lord wants to touch your heart. Hallelujah. Can you thank him? All you can do is thank him. The hand of the Lord on us. The hand of the Lord touching us as little children. Amen. Let's pray this prayer together. Father, thank you for sending Yeshua. Yeshua, thank you for coming. Thank you for choosing to come. Thank you for allowing them to nail you to that cross. But we believe, we haven't seen the hands, but we believe. Forgive us for not thanking you enough. Lord, would you begin touching people? They don't need the touch of a man. They need the touch of you. Touch each one, Lord. You love the little children. Hallelujah. I want the touch of God in my life. If you do, you tell the Lord. Whatever it costs, Lord, I want your touch. Because you pay the ultimate price. Let's worship him. Lord, touch us. Lord, touch us as we worship you. Jew, Arab, Gentile, worshiping you again. He is, he was, he always will be. He's the hand behind history. He's the hand behind your story. History is his story. Beginning and the end, the first and the last, everlasting God. Ha-olam, ha-olam, ha-olam.