Daniel (Week 4) - Those Who Walk in Pride He is Able to Humble

Daniel 428 through 32 says all this happened to King

Nebuchadnezzar 12 months later, as the king was walking on the

roof of the royal palace of Babylon.

He said, Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the

royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my

majesty? Even as the words were on his

lips, a voice came from heaven. This is what is decreed for you,

King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been

taken from you. You will be driven away from

people and will live with the wild animals.

You will eat grass like the ox. 7 times will pass by for you

until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all

kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.

This is the word of the Lord. I want to begin by sharing a

story from my time as a child. I was in elementary school,

maybe third grade or so, and I was invited to be a part of what

was called the Ankeny Gifted and Talented.

Wow, right. And it was for kids, I think,

who maybe showed promise or intellect or whatever it was.

But I was invited to come and participate in this.

And we got to do fun projects and learn during school.

And I remember that my research project, for instance, was done

on the Titanic, which was a very big deal in the 90s because the

movie came out, if you remember, right.

And so as a part of this Ankeny Gifted and Talented, and if I'm

honest with you, it kind of went to my head a little bit, OK?

I was a popular kid in elementary school, right?

I had lots of girlfriends, OK? I'm not bragging.

I find that strange now, OK. But this, this idea like this,

this program, the idea that I was a part of the gifted and

talented, if I'm honest, it shaped my view of myself.

I'm gifted and talented, right? And I think they probably since

changed the name of the program to prevent kids like me from,

you know, not being able to fit their head through the classroom

doors. And on the one hand, it was

great for self esteem, but on the other hand, not so great for

the ego, if you know what I mean, myself.

Evaluation was very high during this time until it was time to

apply to participate for the following year.

I remember replying and not really taking it seriously

because I wanted to go to a baseball game.

So I hurried through the application and then the

decision came. I was no longer invited to

participate in the Ankeny Gifted and Talented.

And everyone said, oh, I know, I know, I know.

I didn't get in. It was like the first time in

this moment where I realized I wasn't going to be able to to

join, where I realized something.

Maybe I wasn't as gifted and talented as I thought, right?

Have you ever had that humbling moment where you realized you

weren't as awesome as you'd like to believe?

Maybe it was that time you bombed the exam or when you

didn't make the team. Maybe it was someone like when

someone was chosen for the promotion over you.

Or maybe you experience heartbreak where your partner

didn't seem to want to be with you anymore.

Or whatever it was right and for.

The prideful person, the act of being.

Humbled is never pleasant, we. Squirm and we try to avoid it

and we don't like it. And often times, like for honest

in our culture today, we are we are so tempted to think too

highly of ourselves or or maybe if we've accomplished something,

we think that we deserve it and that we've done it all on our

own wisdom. But when we're humbled, we feel

exposed. Do we not like like the nerve of

a tooth? That can be painful when it's

exposed, but it's in these. Moments where we're actually

afforded an honest glimpse into ourselves.

In other words, these moments of humbling can act like a mirror,

right? Mirrors do not hide the

blemishes you'd rather choose to ignore.

They simply reflect an accurate picture of who you are.

Those who are proud and confident and bold and even

brash, right? Those people are celebrated.

Often times in our culture today.

Those are the people we. Elect into positions of power,

right? Not the not the people who are

meek and mild and soft spoken, right?

We want the powerful, the. Confident humility is not

something we honour much in our society here today.

And so the question for us that I'd like to explore as we dive

into Scripture is this. How can we?

Avoid an unhealthy, prideful self evaluation and instead

adopt A godly perspective for our lives.

So I encourage you now to turn to Daniel chapter 4, if you

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

could in your Bibles. We always encourage physical

Bibles to get away from our get away from our screens.

Daniel is in the Old Testament. If you'd like to turn there,

it's right after the the large book of Ezekiel.

If you're new to the word, we're just so glad you're here and

we'll put it up on the screen as well.

Daniel chapter 4, this chapter is sort of like a Part 1 of a

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

Part 2. Daniel Part 1, we're calling the

beast. Next week we'll start in chapter

5, which we're calling the feast.

You'll understand that next week.

But Daniel chapter 4, verse one says this King Nebuchadnezzar to

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

the nations and people of every language who live in all the

earth. May you prosper greatly.

It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and

wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.

How great are His signs? How mighty His wonders.

His Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom.

His dominion endures from generation to generation.

So Daniel chapter 4 launches out of the gate with King

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

Nebuchadnezzar proclaiming a sort of royal edict.

What's interesting here is that he's not actually enacting any

sort of law like a normal edict. But theologians believe that

Nebuchadnezzar here is sort of giving a confession in the form

of an open letter to all the nations.

Nebuchadnezzar is one of the most powerful rulers of the

superpower of Babylon at this time.

We encourage you to go back the next.

To our. To our.

Sermons from the last couple weeks to kind of get more

context, but what's fascinating here is that he is addressing

all the nations from the first person.

It says King Nebuchadnezzar saying I am now worshipping the

most holy God. The edicts made in the first

person because he's in recounting an experience that he

had with God. And unlike other chapters,

praise of Daniel's God is at the beginning of the chapter as he

tells his story verse 4. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home

in my palace, contented and prosperous.

And I had a dream that made me afraid as I was lying in bed.

The images and visions that pass through my mind terrified me.

So I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before

me to interpret the dream for me when the magicians.

Enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came.

I told them the dream, but they could not interpret it for me.

Finally Daniel came into my presence and I told him the

dream. He is called Belted Gazar after

the name of my God and the spirit of the holy gods is in

him. Verse 9 I said Beltejazzar,

chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods

is in you and no. Mystery is too difficult for

you. Here is my dream.

Interpret it for me. So in this passage,

Nebuchadnezzar finds himself as being contented and prosperous.

He's doing just fine, right? He had it all.

He had the power, he had the wealth, he had the entourage, he

had the influence, he had the achievement, he had it all.

But this dream of his one night disrupts all of that, and it

makes him afraid. So once again, Nebuchadnezzar is

given a dream of divine revelation.

And so he turns to the Judean exile Daniel, very similar to

chapter 2. And notice what he says.

About Daniel, he says, I know that the spirit of the holy Gods

is in you. Now Nebuchadnezzar is not

necessarily saying I know that the Holy Spirit is in you.

This is basically Nebuchadnezzar's way of saying

Daniel is very spiritual. Clearly he listens to God.

Verse 10 These are the visions I saw while laying in bed.

I looked in there before me stood a tree in the middle of

the land. It's height was enormous, the

tree grew large and strong and top it's top to touch the sky,

it was visible. To the ends of the earth, it's

leaves were beautiful and it's fruit abundant, and on it was

food. For all under it the wild

animals found shelter, and the birds lived in its branches.

From it, every creature was. Fed 13 In the visions I saw

while laying in bed, I looked. And there before me was a holy

1A messenger coming down from heaven.

OK, Nebuchadnezzar is sleeping. He's having a good time, he's

prosperous. And all of a sudden he has this

scary dream. And it's a dream about a tree.

Now trees during the ancient Near Eastern Time were often

symbolic for life and vitality. So Nebuchadnezzar in this dream

is the tree. His position as ruler of one of

the superpowers of Babylon gave him great responsibility to

steward his power well for the well-being of everyone under his

care. It reminds me of that famous

line from Spider Man. Any Marvel nerds out there?

Right, You guys know it. With great power there must also

come what great responsibility. And so Nebuchadnezzar has so

much influence, so much power. He's achieved so much.

But with that, this dream is showing him, comes great

responsibility. People are relying on him for

abundance and. For their food, just like the

tree and the animals and the fruit under it.

And notice in 13 it says that who visited visited him, A holy

one visited him. This is a messenger.

It's what we call the one of the phrase is called the watcher.

So this is the idea that there's these watchers in heaven who are

sort of observing all of creation.

And the watchers in scripture were members of what's called

the Divine Council and participated in delivering and

announcing the decision of the Most high.

Now, the ultimate Authority still still remains with the

Most High but. God also had a divine council

around him. So like when we think about

heaven, we think of like the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit. Maybe we picture angels like we

just sang about. But also there's what's called a

divine council, meaning they have some level of autonomy and

authority. To be able to observe the

affairs of humans and to be able to make decisions, isn't that

interesting? We'll maybe talk more about that

in a bit. But again, it reminds me of like

Marvel, if you're familiar, there's these like alien

sentient ancient creatures called the Watchers and their,

their whole point is to like observe human beings.

It's interesting. Verse 14, he called in a loud

voice. This is what the the, the

watcher, this part of the divine council.

This is what he declared in verse 14.

He called in a loud voice. Cut down the tree and trim off

its branches. Strip off its leaves and scatter

its fruit. Let the animals flee from under

it and the birds from its branches, but let the.

Stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the

ground in the. Grass of the field let him so

it's now the tree is now a hymn OK again this is referring to

Nebuchadnezzar. It says let him be drenched with

the dew of. Heaven, and let him live with

the animals among the plants of the earth, Let his mind be

changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an

animal till 7 times past for him, 17.

The decision is announced by the messengers or the watchers.

The holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may.

Know, don't miss this, that the Most High God is sovereign over

all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and

sets over them the lowliest of people.

So here we sort of see the the theme verse of this entire

chapter, which actually serves as the theme of the entire book

of Daniel. So what is the book of Daniel

about? Take a look at this last line

here that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on

earth. God.

Gives the kingdoms to whoever he wants, even the lowliest people.

In other words, God gets to do what he wants.

God chooses who gets to rule. And what this means is that even

if it means that some of those who are in power, like the tree

like Nebuchadnezzar, need to be. Cut down From time to time, God

instills kings. He raises them up, but he also

deposes them, as we'll see in the next chapter.

But notice how how Daniel responds here to Nebuchadnezzar.

This is crazy. Notice, notice his response.

Like if I was Daniel, I'd be like told you so, right?

You'd get what you deserve. But that's not Daniel's

response. Verse 19 Then Daniel, also

called Beltichazzar was greatly perplexed for a time, and his

thoughts terrified him. So the king, said Beltichazzar,

do not let the dream or it's meaning alarm you.

But Daniel answered Beltichazzar answered.

My Lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and it's

meaning to your adversaries. You see, Daniel knew what this

dream meant. Nebuchadnezzar was the tree that

was going to be chopped down. And notice here Daniel is

showing genuine compassion and concern for King Nebuchadnezzar,

even though up into this point he is a he's an evil king and an

evil ruler. He is showing what theologians

they say, say he's showing genuine warmth here to this

king. There's there's a relationship

that had been built here, which is absolutely remarkable

considering all that Nebuchadnezzar had done up into

this point. And so Daniel, in his concern,

he says, oh, if only this applied to someone else, not

you, Nebuchadnezzar, not you. And he goes.

On to interpret the dream for Nebuchadnezzar, he says.

I'm so sorry, Nebuchadnezzar, but you are the tree.

It's because of yourself proclaimed greatness that God

is. Going to chop you down and

you're going to become like a wild beast.

You're going to roam the earth, your hair is going to grow long,

you're going to eat grass. You're going to become as low as

it gets, Daniel. It's almost as if Daniel's

heart's broken for the king in this news, in this

announcements. And it says here in Daniel 425

that the Nebuchadnezzar is going to be as low as it possibly gets

until verse 25. It says until you acknowledge

that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on

earth, Nebuchadnezzar, you're going to stay in this low

position until you acknowledge that the Most High God reigned

supreme. What I appreciate here is that

Daniel tells it like it is, right?

He delivers the difficult news real quick.

Let me ask you, do you guys have truth tellers in your lives?

Do you have people who will tell you like it is, even when it

hurts? I would say this, Every one of

us needs people in our lives. I can just tell the truth,

right? I've got people in my life like

my my buddy Jared, for instance. Last week we were setting up.

I'm flustered about something and he finally just like sat me

down and he's just like, dude, it doesn't matter.

Relax. You know, he's like telling me

the truth and telling me what I, what I needed to hear.

And I so appreciated that. Well, I didn't appreciate it in

the moment. I actually was kind of annoyed

at him. But you know if you know.

Jared, like he's a truth teller and I appreciate.

That, but then he also took the time to pray for me.

It wasn't just correction, it was actually concern.

It was love. That makes sense.

We all need truth tellers like Daniel in our lives.

Who is? It for you.

Daniel delivered the harsh words of judgement, but they weren't

his own words of condemnation. They were gods.

Look, I'm sure Daniel had plenty of his own words of condemnation

for Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sure Daniel could have come

up with his own condemnation after what Nebuchadnezzar did to

his three friends the chapter earlier, but instead he he.

He's restrained enough to just share what God is sharing with

him. So don't take this story as an

excuse to run up to your boss and be like, hey, God wanted me

to let you know that you're kind of a jerk.

OK, that will not go well for you.

Probably. The point is, there is a time

and there's a place to rebuke and correct and to edify those

who are oppressive. But it's also critical to listen

to the Holy Spirit's timing and not just act out of our own

emotional volatility, right? We got to listen for the

Spirit's timing. On that, and it doesn't matter

if it's your coach or your teacher or your boss or your

pastor or your mentor or your governor or your manager,

whatever it is we need. To, like Daniel, refuse to

respond from our own pride when we're confronting, because how

many of you know that when. Pride confronts pride.

Everybody loses. People fall.

So next, Daniel? Doesn't just issue the issue,

the harsh judgement, but he also shows Nebuchadnezzar a way

forward. Here is what it says in verse

26. Verse 26.

The command to leave the stump of the tree with its ruse means

that your Kingdom will be restored to you when you, what's

the word, acknowledge that heaven rules.

Verse 27. Therefore, Your Majesty.

Be pleased to accept my advice. He listened to Daniel pleading,

saying, please accept my advice. Here it is.

Renounce your sins by doing what is right and your wickedness by

being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your

prosperity will continue. So what's Daniel's loving advice

here? He's saying, Nebuchadnezzar, you

got to renounce your sins. You got to start doing what is

right. You got to start being kind to

the oppressed, to use your power and influence to actually be a

blessing and take care of people rather than using them for your

own means. He's saying you need to

acknowledge God and change your bad habits.

Look. True church, true repentance is

not just something that happens in our mind or in our heart.

It starts there. Repentance starts with a change

of mind, but then it. Must lead to a change of.

Direction and a change of action.

True repentance is changing ungodly things that are within

your control. All of us have things in our

life that are ungodly, that are within our control.

Repentance means living that out.

This is Daniel's encouragement to Nebuchadnezzar.

But notice this. Rather than chastising the king,

Daniel is pleading with him to repent.

He's pleading with him to repent.

He wants the king to be saved here.

Do you notice that? And he's encouraging repentance.

He's encouraging a change of direction.

Have you ever had a friend that. Pushes you, you ever had a

friend that challenges you and encourages you into a life of

godliness, right. This is our whole vision behind

our discipleship bands, our our groups of two to four people

that meet and actually have transparent conversation where

we're actually able to encourage one another in the Gospel and,

and move closer and closer so we can become like Jesus together.

Do you have someone like that in your life?

And here's what happens to Nebuchadnezzar.

It's sad, but in verse 28 it says all of this happened to

King Nebuchadnezzar, meaning all of this punishment becoming like

an animal happens to Nebuchadnezzar 2912 months later

as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of

Babylon, he said. Is this is this?

Not the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by

my mighty power and for the glory of My majesty.

Notice here in this passage that it shifts back to the to the.

Third person. So now this is like a narrator.

Talking about Nebuchadnezzar as Nebuchadnezzar is losing his

mind. So Nebuchadnezzar is no longer

like a reliable narrative in this picture, rather Daniel or

someone else's recounting the stories.

Picking it up from here. And then what we see happening

here is that 12 months go by, and so we don't know if

Nebuchadnezzar repented at first, but then sort of backslid

or if God was just. Patient with him for 12 months,

giving him opportunity. Either way, what we see is that

Nebuchadnezzar refused to take Daniel's advice to repent.

Notice the language here for Nebuchadnezzar I have built.

By my mighty power for the glory.

Of my majesty, do you hear the pride in all of this?

Do you hear Nebuchadnezzar's heart?

Now you may be thinking like this is just a story.

Like, would anyone actually talk like this in real life?

And the answer is yes. The historical Nebuchadnezzar

definitely did talk like this. In fact, we have archaeological

evidence of of Nebuchadnezzar's words that sound extremely

similar to what we find here in Daniel Daniel.

So for instance, we have these these cylinders were often times

used and they were scribed for the dedication of temples and

structures in ancient Mesopotamia.

They contained cuneiform writings.

In fact, one of these cylinders, these sort of clay, it was

almost act like paper. One of these clay cylinders

recently sold for over $600,000. Isn't that amazing?

I mean, I don't know about you, but like, forget Tesla.

I'm putting my retirement into clay cylinders from

Nebuchadnezzar. OK, got to diversify that

portfolio, right? But I went ahead and read one of

these cylinders this last week and boy, was it a hard read.

It was hard to get through to be honest with you, because

Nebuchadnezzar is just bragging. About himself the whole time.

So these are Nebuchadnezzar's word.

I'm, I'm pulling some quotes not from Daniel.

These are from the clay cylinders, for instance.

Nebuchadnezzar says things like a thing which no king before had

ever done. I constructed an enclosing wall,

4000 cubits in length, Mountain High, right?

Just exaggerating. I love this one from a from a

little bit earlier. He says, I am Nebuchadnezzar,

king of Babylon the great, the mighty, the favorite of Marduk,

the powerful Prince, the beloved of Naboo, the ruler who knows

not weariness, the wise Lord. And then he says, the darling

and the joy of the heart of the great gods, right?

Do you hear the language here? He's bragging about himself so

much. It's like a Kanye West song.

OK, But it's like, dude, Nebuchadnezzar, if you're going

to, like, brag about how hard you are, don't call yourself the

darling joy of the gods, right? Like, you just lost some

credibility with me. But anyway, what we see here is

Nebuchadnezzar. Is full of himself.

Now here's the thing. History shows us that

Nebuchadnezzar's deeds were indeed great.

He accomplished a lot throughout history, right?

Here's another archaeological find.

It's called the Tower of Babel Steel or Steely, and it shows a

great image here. So on the left is what the

actual image looks like. On the right, they've

highlighted what's actually on the on the inscription there.

What we see is that King Nebuchadnezzar is standing next

to one of his great ziggurats. It's sort of like the

skyscrapers of the age. And what we see here is, for

instance, Michael Row off. He writes it this way.

When it talks about Babylon's great and mighty.

Feats. It says Babylon contained 2 of

the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens and

the city walls. The outer wall stretched more

than 8 kilometers and according to Herodotus, had enough space

at the top to enable A4 horse chariot to turn around.

So Nebuchadnezzar had built some some pretty impressive stuff.

He actually. History shows us he had some

clout. But notice his language and

Daniel, he says I have built by my mighty power.

For who? For the glory.

Of my majesty. And God wasn't OK with that.

Whose glory is Nebuchadnezzar concerned about?

His own. He's oozing with pride here.

Self accomplishment, self importance.

His self evaluation is high and he's speaking this out loud.

What happens next? Verse 31.

Verse 31. Take a look.

Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven.

This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar.

Your royal authority has been taken from you.

You will be driven away from people.

And you will live with wild animals, you will eat grass like

the ox. 7 times will pass by for you until you what acknowledge

that the most highest sovereign over all the kingdoms on earth

and gives them to anyone he wishes.

Verse 33 Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar

was fulfilled. He was driven away from people

and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the

dew of heaven until his hair grew like feathers of an eagle

and his nails like the claws of a bird.

We see the descent of Nebuchadnezzar as he loses his

sanity and it becomes, it says, like an animal, like a beast.

We may hear a story like this and be like, did this?

Could this even really happen? Like is this real?

Did he actually become like an animal?

Well, history shows us that there's actually this

psychological phenomenon that can take place.

It was originally called lycanthropy, whereas it's the

idea that a person actually believes.

That they're an animal. And so more specifically,

there's a psychological term which is called Bo anthropy,

which is where a person believes that they are actually an ox or

a cow. So this is documented in mental

health catalogs. It's a known phenomenon.

There's less documented cases now than there were passed

because we're now able to recognize it as mental health,

provide medication, etc. Right.

What's interesting, though, is that now we're also seeing a

rise on the Internet, for instance, in this phenomenon

where people are identifying as what's called other kin or

therians. OK, this is the.

Idea where people identify as not being humans, but rather

they believe that they're actually an animal.

So they believe, for instance, that on all.

Levels, except physical, they are a wolf or whatever.

OK, kind of interesting. And So what we see here with

Nebuchadnezzar is that it's not demeaning his condition, but

what we see is he's having a break from reality.

But notice something. His first break from reality.

Was believing that he was like a God.

His first break from reality was his pride.

Nebuchadnezzar forgot, as we see in chapter one, that it had been

God who delivered Judah and Daniel and Shadrach Meshach, and

it had been God who delivered them into his hands.

Nebuchadnezzar forgot in chapter 2 that it was God who had

actually interpreted his dream for him.

Nebuchadnezzar forgot in chapter 3 that he didn't.

Even have the power to harm God's children, Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego. And yes, well, yes, it was his

orders that the great Babylon had been built.

He had forgotten. It was because of those he'd

been oppressing that Babylon was able to be built.

You see, it was their sweat. It was their toil, it was their

building who allowed for the greatness of Babylon.

In other words, let me put it this way, Nebuchadnezzar's

prideful self evaluation was his first break from reality.

Becoming like an animal was just the result.

Does that make sense? Pride had already distorted

Nebuchadnezzar's view of reality before his mind unravelled.

In other words, the most dangerous break from reality

was. When he believed he'd built it

all himself. When he believed he was

something. And it's almost as if the Divine

Council of Heaven looks down on Nebuchadnezzar and says

something like, if you want to act like an animal, you're going

to become like an animal. If you're going to act like a

beast and oppress people and use them for your glory, then you're

going to become like 1. And here, what do we see next?

Notice. Notice how we're about to switch

back to the first person. Nebuchadnezzar is now going to

recount for himself what happens next.

Verse 34. At the end of that time, I,

Nebuchadnezzar, I love this, raised my eyes toward heaven,

and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High I.

Honoured and glorified him who lives forever.

So how was Nebuchadnezzar's sanity restored here?

It was by raising his eyes to heaven.

By recognising that this was. God's world, and he was just a

small part in it. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar's

sanity was restored when he acknowledged God as the ultimate

king. You and I, church, all of us

need a reality check like Nebuchadnezzar about the order

of kingship in the universe. Which you agree, Dana?

No one fellow. She writes it this way.

A man who thinks he is like a God must become a beast to learn

that he is only a human being. I one time got to be a part and

sit into a AN in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Even though I'm not an alcoholic I was able to go and support a

friend and I love my time there. It was it was great and one of

the Co founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.

His name is Bill W He has this famous quote which eventually

became the 12 steps of A, A and recovery in general.

This is what he said. First thing he says.

We. Admitted we were powerless over

alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.

And I love this next line. Don't miss this.

We came to believe. That a power greater than

ourselves would restore us to sanity.

You see, when people who are addicted, people who are caught

in cycles of shame and defeat and sin and well-being, people

who are caught in doing things that are not good for

themselves, what they admit, what Bill W admitted, what

recovery programs from all across the nation have to

finally admit, is that we need a.

Power higher than ourselves To restore us out of that sanity

insanity, we need a power higher than ourselves to bring us back

into sound thinking. And this is true for us today.

It's when we place God in His rightful place that our minds

and our hearts are made right again to sound thinking and to

God's truth. Look, we need a new way to live

when we're not bound to sin and the choices and deception, but

that can only come, can only come when we look to God to

restore our sanity. Verse 36 Again Nebuchadnezzar

says at the right time that my sanity was restored, my honour

and splendour were returned to me for the glory of my Kingdom.

My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my

throne and became even greater than before. 37 Now I

Nebuchadnezzar, this is crazy. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise

and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he

does is right and all his ways are just.

The final words of Nebuchadnezzar are right here.

Final words we have that that we know of as he says, and those

who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

Those who walk in pride, God is able to humble.

After all that Nebuchadnezzar went through, from from

believing he was the greatest like a God, to being humbled to

be like an animal, to being restored, his final thought, his

final warning, his final plea, his final encouragement is

simply this. Those who walk in pride, God is

able to humble walk in humility. All of us have to have to come

to terms with this in our lives. In some way or another.

All of us are tempted to elevate ourselves.

There's a psychiatrist. By the name of M Scott Peck, and

he once wrote this. He says mental health is a

dedication to reality at all costs.

All of mental health, all of therapy, all of psychiatry.

He says it's a it's a dedication to reality, no matter what the

cost. And I love that definition.

Our faith is a faith of reality. Our faith is a faith and a

dedication to truth. At all costs.

Even when it, even when it feels like it hurts us.

You know what I mean? And herein lies the danger in

the problem of human pride, right?

Let me put it this way. Pride distorts our view of

ourselves. It distorts our view of others.

It distorts our view of God and it distorts.

Our view of our role in the universe.

We all must accept a proper perspective of God in our lives

to be grounded in humble reality at all costs.

For Nebuchadnezzar, this meant looking up into heaven.

A theologian, Joyce Baldwin. She puts it this way.

It is important to note the connection here between the.

Exercise of faith and the return of reason.

While he was full of his own importance, Nebuchadnezzar's

world revolved around himself. It did not strike him how

unrealistic this was until he was brought low by illness.

And I love what she writes here. Don't miss this.

I love this. Sanity begins with a realistic

self appraisal. Sanity begins when we.

Actually have a reality check, a realistic self appraisal.

When Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that he wasn't God, he recovered

his capacity to perceive reality correctly and act accordingly.

Pride is the sin that spawns so many others in our lives, and

each of us have to battle against it.

Because here's the thing. Here's what I've learned about

pride in my own life and the life of others.

That pride is sneaky and it takes on different forms for

different people. Have you never noticed that?

It doesn't doesn't always manifest the right way.

It's not always the the boastful, cocky person who's

saying I'm the best, aren't I right?

Pride is. Sneaky.

It can slip into anyone at any time.

Let me just give you some examples of pride.

And as I'm I'm saying this, I encourage you not to think about

others, but maybe to think about yourself.

OK, number one example of pride, believing you're above others,

believing you're somehow special or above the rules, right?

Like like everyone else needs to follow the speed limit and use

their blinker. But when I don't do that, it's

not that big a deal, right? Anybody.

OK, I just saw someone raise their hand.

I don't think it was for that, but it's believing that you're

above others. Maybe that my way is best,

right? Another example of pride is is

vain glory. In other words, cockiness.

Just believing you're you're the best and you're the greatest.

How about entitlement or believing you're owed something?

How about self absorption or self obsession?

Narcissism is kind of a buzzword here today.

Elitism, which is the idea of believing that you're somehow

above others, right? That you're somehow above the

lowly, or maybe at your job you're above the menial task, or

at church, you're above setting up and tearing down.

OK, no one would ever think that.

No one ever say that out loud. I'm sure here, not at presence,

but whatever it is, right? It may be elitism in the form of

believing you're above certain classes as you're hearing about

love. Inc and the, and the people who

are down and out and addicted and hurting and painful, right?

Like, if you're honest with yourself, is there any sense of

pride where you believe that you're somehow above those

people? Maybe for the intellect, maybe,

maybe you should. You believe you're above people

intellectually, you've got the smarts, you're gifted and

talented or whatever, right? Maybe you believe you're above

certain people, certain racial. Classes or economic classes or

whatever it may be. And so we all have to ask

ourselves, in what ways am I tempted to view others as

beneath me? In what ways am I tempted to?

Elevate myself some symptoms of pride and let's just see if any

of these resonate with you as much as they did with me.

How about being easily offended having to get the last word in?

My wife just said OK. How about an unwillingness to

hear opinions? That you don't agree with,

ignoring correction. Dismissing your issues,

believing you always deserve better, Thinking you're owed

something, believing you've accomplished something on your

own or by your own power. Maybe it's just generally

judging. Others.

And how about this last one? Just rarely acknowledging God.

Just rarely acknowledging where it all comes from.

Over and over and over in this chapter.

The encouragement is to acknowledge God and I love that.

It's like the theme, just acknowledge God and all of it.

I love the definition of of acknowledge.

This is straight out of Merriam Webster or whatever.

Like here's the definition for acknowledge.

It means to take notice of. It means to recognize the

rights, authority and status of, to disclose knowledge of or

agreement with, and finally to express gratitude or obligation

for. These are the perfect

descriptions. For what we are called to do

with God, right? You and I are called to take

notice of God, all the ways He's blessed us and filled us and

given us good things. You and I are called to

recognise the rights and the authority of the status of God.

He is God and we are not. All of us are called to disclose

the knowledge of agreement with in other words.

When we make a mistake, we say God, I acknowledge it was my

mistake and finally, we are called to express gratitude and

obligation to God. He has bought us with a price.

Deuteronomy 817 puts it this way.

You may say to yourself. My power and the strength of my

hands have produced this wealth for me.

But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the

ability to produce wealth. Look, you may think you're

slaving away at your 9:00 to 5:00 every week, that it's on

your power that you were able to accumulate wealth and buy your

things and do that. No, no, no, Scripture reminds us

it's God himself who gives us the ability to even produce

wealth. None of it belongs to us.

That's why as Christians, we freely give back to God.

The encouragement of Daniel Forest to acknowledge God for

all of it. To acknowledge God when there's

food on your plate. When your boss notices your

work. To acknowledge God when you you

surprised yourself at how well you did on the test.

When you're giving influence over others.

Acknowledge God when your child randomly comes up to you and

gives you a hug and says I love you.

Acknowledge God every single day when you wake up and you have

breath in your lungs. We are called to acknowledge Him

in all things. There's a thousand ways to give

him his glory and exalt his name and praise his name.

This is how we live a life of worship, and it's a humble

recognition that we know where it all comes from.

It's all from Him. This is the kind of attitude

that fosters humility and it undermines pride.

So my encouragement to all of us here today is to look up to

heaven like Nebuchadnezzar, to look up to heaven and have our

sanity restored. So literally, practically this

week. My, my, my encouragement, my.

Challenge to you is to. Literally go out and look up at

the night sky and look up at the stars.

When's the last time you did that, by the way?

When's the last time you just like fathomed the depths and the

greatness of of God Almighty, the one who names every star,

trillions of them, Go look up to heaven and be returned to your

sanity. Look up to heaven, look into

eternity and realize how small you really are.

Psalms 90 puts it this way. Teach us to number our days so

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Teach us to number our days. We know it's limited.

We know we're not eternal that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Ask God for a realistic self appraisal.

Killing our pride does not mean that we wallow around like a

slug on the ground thinking we're no good, right That's.

That's the opposite. But rather, we're inviting

reality in. So as we think about the story

of Nebuchadnezzar, one thing I want to ask you is do.

You have truth tellers in your life like Daniel.

Do you have people who can? Call you out before you fall to

pride. And do you listen to them?

Do you have people who will meet you with love and concern even

when they have to bring difficult news?

The bottom line for us today is this.

We are humans in God's world, not God's in a human world.

We are just humans living. In God's world, not God's living

in a human world. Look, we live in a secular age

church where all we see here today is what we can see and

what we can touch and what we can taste, right?

And so we're deceived. To thinking we are actually

God's, that this is all there is, that there's no real meaning

or intention or purpose. That's the message of the world

here today. And if we operate from a

perspective that this is all there is to life, we will miss

out on the humble recognition that God is greater than all of

it. So many of us live as if we're.

In a human world and we try to play God.

Look, we have infinite knowledge.

It seems through the Internet and through AI we have.

Access to the latest and greatest resources for mental

and physical health we live in. One of the richest countries of

the world. Those are all great things, but

the danger is that all of these things will allure us into

believing and acting as if we're God's in the human world.

And our temptation to preserve beauty and to cheat death, and

to indulge in pleasure and to live comfortably and to elevate

ourselves has. To be brought back into reality

that God is above it all. We want to live in a Burger King

world where we have it our way. But we are not gods in a human

world. We're just humans in God's

world. This is the message of Daniel.

He is the Sovereign. 1 Daniel had an opportunity to show his

own pride here too, right? He could have condemned

Nebuchadnezzar. He could have lowered him down.

But Daniel didn't just have the wisdom of God, he also had the

character of God. And he respond with compassion.

And so when we are confronted with oppressive people.

Over us. Look, you and I have an

opportunity to model Jesus in those moments.

Well, to model Jesus who turned the other cheek and as it says

in First Peter, that when they hurled insults at him, he did

not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no

threats and instead he entrusted himself to him who judges

justly. Church, the world needs less

harsh critics and more truth tellers like Daniel.

We can call out evil when it's necessary, but we can do it with

compassion and love in God's timing.

So maybe here today you are actually one of the prideful

people who are in a season of humiliation.

Maybe you're in a season where you feel like you have been

lowered, like you are a a chopped tree and a stump that's

barely sticking out of the ground.

Maybe you feel. Lower than you've ever been

before. Maybe you're facing obstacles,

maybe you you realize how far you've fallen.

And I just want to encourage you here today and to say that that

even in that season where Nebuchadnezzar was being chopped

down, there was still a word of hope and encouragement for him.

Because it said in Daniel 415, it said, but let the stump and

its roots bound with iron and bronze remain in the ground.

In other words, the stump of Nebuchadnezzar's life wasn't

pulled up. Uprooted and thrown away.

Instead, in God's grace, bounded with iron and bronze.

In other words, God protected Nebuchadnezzar even in the midst

of his lowest moment. And so if you're here today and

you feel like you've been chopped to pieces, you're low to

the ground, and you feel like hope is lost, let me just

encourage you that it doesn't necessarily mean that God is

done with you. Just because you're in a season

of being lowered doesn't mean it's the end.

Hebrews 12/16 it says because the Lord disciplines the one he

loves. John 15 reminds us that he cuts

off every branch in me that bears no fruit.

Well, every branch that does bear fruit.

He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

God is not done with you yet. Even if you're in a season of,

of humiliation and your pride is being killed right here and now,

God may be putting his protection of iron and bronze

around you. He is not wanting to uproot you,

He is wanting to refine you. To circle back to when I was in

elementary school, even though I had to go through a moment of,

of realistic self evaluation, even though I wasn't maybe a

smart or intelligent or a brainiac like I liked to

believe, there was still this moment that took place when I

was in 5th or 6th grade where I was invited to go to a youth

camp at Fort Dodge. And I was invited to, to go

because my teachers actually identified me.

My, my guidance counselor recommended me as someone who,

who showed leadership potential. And I think I was, I think I

was, I was 1, one, one person chosen from our entire school.

I think it was one boy and one girl.

And I remember going to that camp, I remember being, having,

having instilled in me these leadership principles as I

taught me skills of communication, as I taught me

problem solving, teamwork. And I got to do a bunch of other

fun stuff. And, and I'd kind of forgotten

about that memory until this week as I was talking about

being lowered and I was talking and thinking about the idea of

God restoring people even in the midst when they're being humble.

And I and I share that story about being selected for that,

not because it's about me whatsoever, but it just reminded

me of God's faithfulness in my life.

It reminded me that even though I had to be lowered, even though

my pride was maybe cut, cut away from me, that God was still

moving and he still had his hand on my life.

And even at a young age, for whatever reason, God chose me to

be a leader, not even having any idea that I would one day be

helping lead a church and one day be given more and more

opportunities. But all along the way, it was

just A1 symbol of many of God's faithfulness, of bringing

incredible leaders, incredible mentors, incredible parents,

incredible people who believed in me all along the way.

And I shared the story, not to talk about myself whatsoever,

but but to invite you to recall. Has God been faithful like that

in your life too? I wonder if for some of you who

are feeling lower than ever at this point in your life, I

wonder if God is just bringing you through a season of

refinement. And I wonder if this season is

necessary, not so that God can get rid of you, but so that He

can use you for even greater purposes down the road.

What if this is just the beginning of God using you for

something beautiful and good? And are you willing to humble

yourself enough to say yes, God, here I am, send me whatever it

is. God loves restoring people who

are broken. Maybe you're just broken in the

room today. I wonder if God wants to bring

restoration to you. If God was willing to show his

compassion to King Nebuchadnezzar by giving him a

second chance, how much more compassion will he show you, his

beloved child? Psalm 113, as I close it, says

he raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the

ash. He he seats them with Princess

and with the Princess of his people.

Luke 1 says. He has brought down the rulers

from their Thrones, but has lifted up the humble.

The Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms of earth, and he

sets even the lowliest of people over those kingdoms.

Jesus Christ was the lowliest person who ever lived, but yet

He was elevated to the place of highest authority over every

Kingdom for all time, for all of eternity.

And even Jesus himself was willing to pray to the Father.

Yet not my will, but yours be done.

I pray that we we would be able to pray that same prayer.

We are not gods in a human world, we're just children in

our father's world.