"Mercy" | Daniel 4 | Pastor Keith

Mercy awaits us. God is a God of mercy.

Let's open our Bibles to Daniel chapter 4 as we continue our

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

series on how to live as believers in a fallen world.

Daniel chapter 4, one of the great passages in the Bible.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

One of my favourite chapters, the prophet Micah says, you

know, often we go, well, what is God's will for my life?

And let me tell you, it's pretty.

It's pretty simple. It's in the Bible.

You don't have to go searching for it.

It's actually in black and white.

It's in the word of God, in the book of Micah, it says he has

shown your man what is good. This is what you have to do.

What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love

mercy and to walk humbly with your God?

There you are. That's God's will for your life.

You don't have to go looking for it anymore.

It's there. But there's something that

happens to all of us at different times, particularly us

in Australia. We're very proud people.

We say that. Well, yeah, we're strange.

We're proud. But there's pride and there's

pride and there's pride. The book of Samuel, Samuel the

prophet said, speaking on behalf of the Lord, You will save the

humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty.

God watches the proud people, He resists proud people that you

may bring them down. That's God's job.

God hunts down proud people. And Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8, King

Ecclesiastes 7:8

Solomon said the end of thing is better than its beginning.

The patient and spirit is better than the proud and spirit.

We live in a world that empowers you.

Come on, go out and get it. You know, do this, you know, put

yourself ahead, you know, and all this sort of stuff and you

know, say who you are and, you know, be positive and all that.

And it has infiltrated the church because the Bible is

completely against that sort of way of life where it says we're

to be humble, we're to be looking after one another, We're

to put ourselves up down and put others in before us.

How many times in Scripture do we read of God humbling someone

who has allowed themselves to become puffed up with their own

importance, their own self worth?

We can think of Samson thinking of going into the book of Judges

after Daniel. Don't know yet, but we think of

Samson and Judges chapter 16. You know the story of Samson,

Judges 16 · chapter mention

the mighty man, the mighty judge that God raised up powerful guy

and he fell for this lady Delilah and she was nothing.

He was a womaniser. The problem with Samson was with

was women. And anyway, you know, after all

the times he told her about this is where the strength of my hair

goes and where it comes from. And then finally he did tell the

truth in my hair. And eventually she cut his hair

and then she said, as previous times, Samson, Samson, the

Philistines are upon you. And so he awoke from his sleep

and it's one of the saddest verses in the Bible.

Judges chapter 16, verse 20. And Samson said to himself,

Judges 16:20

well, I'll go out as before, as other times I'll shake myself

free. But he did not know that the

Lord had departed from him. Imagine waking up.

God's gone. Then of course there's Peter.

We love Peter because we're all like Peter.

Matthew 2635, Peter said to Jesus even and I even if I have

to die with you, I'll never deny you Jesus Peter, you will three

times. As a matter of fact, one of the

greatest things that God must break, and I know because I have

it in the Australian culture before God can truly use us in

his Kingdom is our massive pride because we say how you going?

No worries, I'm good. We've seen it even in our

advertising. Remember the guys bogged and two

guys and other utes come up and he's in the bog.

And you, you need help, mate? No, just parking.

Just parking. No, I'm good.

That's us. That's classic ass.

I do that be broken down on the side of the road.

No spanners, no spares. You you got?

Yeah, I'm good, mate. Now she's right.

I'm too proud to ask for someone to help me.

We so often refuse help when we need it.

Now I'm going to sort it. We would rather struggle than

accept that we need assistance. Yeah, I did it myself.

Proverbs Chapter 11 verse 2 says when pride comes, then comes

Proverbs 11:2

shame. But with the humble is wisdom.

Proverbs 1618. Pride goes before destruction

and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Peter would say later in his letter.

One Peter 5 verse 5. Likewise, you younger people,

submit yourself to your elders. Yes, all of you.

Be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility.

Be a humble person. God resists the proud but gives

grace to the humble. In other words, it's God.

When you're a proud person, you're going to all do things my

way. You flail your arms, I'm going

to do this. I'm going to do lead my family.

I'm going to be this and be that.

And God's put his hand upon your head and you'll, you ain't going

anywhere. I'm against you.

God's against you when you're proud.

I want to ask you a question and we'll get into Daniel.

Who holds the reins in your life this morning?

What do you mean reins? Reins, You know, horses, Who's

steering the ship? Who's got his hand on the the

till, the till of the rudder? When push comes to shove, who's

the king in your Kingdom? When it happens, who's the king

in your Kingdom? In other words, are you the

decision maker in your life, that of your family, are you the

one that is confident in yourself that you have all

things covered? Don't worry, I'll sort it out.

Or have you come to a place of reckoning, a place in your life,

usually after we have a great fall, A place in your life that

you don't trust yourself anymore.

You know why? Because you've hurt your wife,

you've hurt your kids, you've hurt your finances, you've hurt

yourself. And you go, I don't want to do

that again. You come to realise you don't

have all the answers, that you now realise you are flawed, that

you just don't know what to do most of the time.

And you now lean on God for every matter, every turn, every

battle. How to be a father, how to be a

mother. You know that as a husband you

need help. As a wife you aren't superwoman

and you've waved the flag of surrender.

Finally, as you know I'm involved with the AFL, have been

for 25 plus years now and I like researching AFL.

It's they say the games got faster now and a physicist has

calculated that when 100K AFL footballer running at full speed

collides with another 100K footballer travelling at full

speed, the resultant kinetic energy is enough to move 29,359

kilos, 3 metres. Think of that we would call that

physical impact. That would be a hit with a blow

approaching 1000 GS. That is 1000 times the force of

gravity. If you compare that with an

astronaut who when they take off experience approximately 10, 10

GSA pilot normally blacks out at about 20 GS, then AFL football

is quite violent. That's a physical impact.

But what about a spiritual impact?

What happens when a force greater than any of these

collides with your life? That is your soul, who you

really are. We would call this truly deep

impact. This is exactly what one man

experienced and he tells his story here, a Gentile king.

He gives his personal testimony of how God hid him with such

force that he was knocked from the Kingdom of humanity of

mankind into the animal Kingdom. Why would God do such a thing to

a man? Well, let's hear from the man

himself, King Nebuchadnezzar tell you in his own words.

Verses one to three, we'll see words of wonderment.

Verses 4 to 28 we'll hear words of warning, and verses 29 to 31

we'll hear words of woe. And then verses 34 to 37 we'll

hear words of a worshipper. So verse one of Daniel 4

Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples, nations, and languages

that dwell in all the earth. Peace be multiplied to you.

I thought it good to declare you the signs and wonders that the

Most high God has worked for me. He's going to name 4 things.

Four point sermon here in this very first few verses.

How great are his signs, the God of Israel?

How mighty are his wonders too? His Kingdom.

He's going to say His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.

He's in the prophecy now, and his dominion .4 is from

generation to generation. In other words, it doesn't

matter who comes and who goes. God, it is going to rule over

every coming generation. King Nebuchadnezzar wanted all

the world to know what God had done to his soul.

It was his testimony he was a new convert.

He became a great witness to both the Jews who were held in

captivity in Babylon and to the rest of the Gentile world.

He was the most powerful dictator man in the world.

He was the king of Babylon. It has been said that if you are

no witness, it is doubtful that you have experienced the

conversation. In other words, if your family,

your friends, your people, in your sporting team, in your

class, if no one knows that you're a Christian, it is very

doubtful if you really have been given your life to Christ.

In in the book of Acts chapter one, verse 8, Jesus said these

things to the church. But you shall receive power when

the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Why? So I can do hand stands and run

around the church and act stupid.

No, that you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, and until the end of the earth.

In other words, you can tell everyone wherever you go about

who Jesus Christ is and what he's done to your life and how

he's changed you. That's why the Holy Spirit was

given to you. Nebuchadnezzar wanted everyone

to know what had happened to him.

This is true of every person who truly gets saved.

You have to tell people you want to tell people.

Helen and I, we got saved on a Tuesday and we that coming

weekend before we went to church on Sunday, we went out Saturday

and visited all our family and we told every one of them, all

my brothers, all Helen's side of the family as well.

Guess what's happened? We received Christ, We became

born again on Tuesday evening. We want to tell you it's the

greatest thing that ever happened to us.

You know what they said? That's nice, good for you.

It's good that you got yourself involved in something.

But we had to tell them. No one told us to.

We just, we're off. Guess what?

And we told everyone, you've got to tell everyone, like the woman

at the well, when Jesus spoke to her and he changed her life

there and then she ran into town to everybody.

You got to come and listen to this guy.

He's the Messiah. You see, that's what a Christian

does. When they become born again,

they have to tell everyone, you can't not say I'm not a

Christian. You have to tell them, you know,

I'm a believer. You know, I believe in God.

Did I tell you that I'm a Christian?

There are no secret Christians. Whoop.

Someone might see me going to church.

Turn the other way. Wait for a bit.

They've gone now. I'll go.

What of your salvation? Do you have a witness to tell of

the wonder of what God has done in your life?

Every believer does. You know why?

Because he saved you. A Wretch like me.

He saved you. He's changed you.

You're no longer going to die and go to hell.

Now you are born again. You have life, you have hope.

You know what's going to happen. You can read the Bible, you can

understand it. God speaks to you.

Almighty God who created heaven and earth.

We had a little baby I saw this morning.

You want to know about miracles? Just going to have a look at

that little baby. A little baby Mariah.

God created that child. There was no child and now there

is a child. God is the giver, creator of

life. And you know what Jesus says?

I have come to give you life. Not church, not religion, but

life more abundantly. If you come in here and sit here

like it's a funeral, then you got the wrong deal,

Nebuchadnezzar said. Peace be multiplied.

He said, hey everybody listen up and he's going to tell them.

I, I not a great story about himself.

You matter of fact, you kind of like something.

Well, don't tell everyone what happened to me that I was insane

for a period of time. No, that's hush, hush.

He recognised that there were many in the Empire who are not

at peace with God and he longed in his heart that they might

have peace, which he experienced.

So we see the words of warning. Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my

house and flourishing. I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in

my house and flourishing. Now I want to stop there.

Guess what? That word flourishing.

And I only learnt that this time in my study of Daniel means to

be green. It's when you describe a plant

and it's and it's flourishing with lots of extra green leaves.

Very interesting. It means be green like growth,

green leaves on a tree. And flourishing in my palace I

saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on my

bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Therefore I issued A decree to bring in all the wise men of

Babylon before me, that they might make known to me the

interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, that

actually is the word scholars, the astrologers, the Chaldeans,

the soothsayers came in, told them the dream, but they did not

make known to me its interpretation.

But at last Daniel came before me.

His name is Beltashazzar. Notice he calls him the Hebrew

name. This time first Daniel,

according to the name of my God, and him is the spirit of the

holy God. I told the dream before him,

saying Beltashazzar, king of the chief of the magicians, because

I know that the spirit of the Holy God is in you.

No secret troubles you. You explain to me the visions of

my dream that I've seen and it's interpretation.

These were the visions of my head while on my bed.

I was looking and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and

it's height was great. The tree grew, became strong,

it's height reached to the heavens.

It could be seen to the ends of all the earth.

Man, it was known by everybody. It's leaves were lovely, it's

fruit abundant in it was food for all.

The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the

heavens dwelt in its branches and all flesh was fled, fed from

it. Notice Nebuchadnezzar was at

rest. He was flourishing, he was

green, his life was lush with growth.

He was doing well, in other words.

But it was a false rest. This is where Australia sits at

the moment. Our nation sits at a false rest.

We've just signed all these agreements.

We got mining going to kick off again.

We got, you know, submarines going to be built with this

millions and billions of dollars sign here and works going to go.

And you know what? We've lost God with a we, we

have, you know, a young kid can leave school and go to work on

the mines and end up earning hundreds of thousands of dollars

and have great wealth, but we have the highest suicide rate in

young men in Western society. Why is that?

Nebuchadnezzar was at risk. A false risk, a deceitful risk,

one that like the rich farmer Jesus told the story of who

said, man, I'm, I'm doing well, man.

What crops are good? I'm going to build bigger barns.

And that night an Angel came to him and said, no, you're fool.

You're living without God tonight.

Your soul is required. And he died.

He'd taken no thought for his soul, the farmer, his future,

his eternal destiny. Nemukanezar had defeated all his

known enemies. No more nations to conquer.

Walking on the roof, his palace, he thought, man, I am the man.

If he had braces, he would have been flicking them around.

You know, he was proud, arrogant, completely full of

himself, a a self made man. Don't we say that man?

That guy's a self made man. Good on you.

So God sent him a dream to arouse him from his false

security because God loves this man.

Nebuchadnezzar had many previous powerful encounters with God.

Daniel and his three friends. He'd seen how how wonderful they

had come and appeared even though they hadn't eaten all the

food that he they were supposed to eat.

Daniel had told the king his dream and his interpretation.

Remember, he had that first dream.

Daniel revealed it to him, astounding the king personally

after he built the golden image and witnessed the miracle in the

fiery furnace of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Staying alive in the furnace. And he had seen another person,

a fourth form in the fire, a person like under the Son of

God. So he was not ignorant of the

miracles of God. Yet here was the king with all

his power, all his possessions, but he was in poverty.

He was frightened. Poverty of his soul, just like

the Church of Laodicea. That's the modern church today

in many places. Jesus said of the modern church,

Revelation 317 You say you're rich, you've become wealthy, you

have need of nothing. Jesus is outside of that church,

the Church of Laodicea, knocking on the door, telling people to

come out and meet him, and you do not know.

He said to that church that you are wretched, miserable, poor,

blind and naked, Frightened, Nebuchadnezzar turned to the

wrong source again. He asked for the wise men,

didn't help the wise men filed as before.

Psalm 118 verse 8 says it is better to trust in the Lord than

Psalms 118:8

to put confidence in man. Psalm 11 says blessed is the man

who walks not on the counsel of the ungodly.

Who do you seek counsel from? I hope you get it from the Lord.

You know the Bible says he is the wonderful counsellor and ask

me, I don't have a clue. I still can't work out what

colour to paint the fence. I've no idea.

People say, well, I need to come for counselling.

Well, all I'll do is go. What are you telling me about?

I we find that here. Let's see what it says to do

about that. But Daniel came.

They say he calls him Daniel. Nevu Caneza shares his dream to

Daniel in the hope of relief. What does it mean?

The key character or element in this dream?

I have a dream. It's about a tree.

A tree? Yeah, the tree that's cut down.

Daniel verse 13. I saw in the visions of my head

upon my bed, and behold, A watcher that's an Angel, a holy

one, came down from heaven. As he's telling the dream.

He cried aloud and said thus cut down the tree, cut off.

Now notice this and he's talking about a tree.

But notice how they change from the neuter pronoun goes to the

personal pronoun. Cut off his branches, shake off

his leaves, scatter his fruit, let the beast get away from

under it, and the fowls from his branches.

The Angel, the Watcher is sent and seen and heard by the king.

Nebuchadnezzar is fearful. Verse 15.

Nevertheless leave the stump so after the tree is cut down in

the dream, so the stump is left roots in the earth still there.

Bind it with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of

the field. Let it be wet with the jewel of

heaven. Let him notice, Speaking of the

tree, graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth.

Let his heart be changed from that of a man.

Let him be given the heart of a beast, Let 7 times Passover him

seven years. The band of iron stop the stump

from rotting, stop it from being removed.

And it's a symbol that Nebuchadnezzar is going to be

bound for a period by insanity. The tree was not to be

completely uprooted and destroyed because it will be

revived. The stomp and the roots were to

be left in the earth. There is hope, a prospect of

hope for the man. Restoration is available, Mercy

is available. There is hope and a future for

all. For seven years he would have a

derangement, living as an animal, as a beast.

But during that period of time, God would accomplish his work in

the heart of the man and then return his sanity.

So what's the reason for the dream?

It tells us in verse 17 to teach a much needed lesson.

This matter is by the decree of the watches and the demand by

the word of the holy ones. Why?

To the intent that the living may know that the Most High

rules in the Kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will,

and sets up over it the basis of men.

In other words, God rules everything.

Nebuchadnezzar was to learn. There is one ultimate ruler.

It's God. That this ruler is greater than

all men, and that this ruler is more powerful than all men.

And in his hands rest the dividing and disposing of all

humanity. As you and I watch the political

scene, we see Albanese, we see Trump, we see Putin, we see

Starmer in the UK, we, we see all these different governments

around the world. You know what God's doing?

He's putting all the pieces where he wants them.

People vote. But God's going like this

because his plan, and we've been through it in Revelation.

It's, it's coming to pass. And what's the centrepiece?

Israel, Israel, the church has a task at the moment where to

witness. And then when the church is

taken out the plan, the clock ticks back, which we'll get to

later in Daniel Chapter 9. And Israel will become again as

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

it is the real focus again of the world, anti semitism, I'm

afraid. And I'm sad to say it's just

going to grow worse and worse and worse.

Israel, we see a piece and I sent it out of my devotions this

week. I pray you get our devotions

both past Israel's and mine. Points 19 and 20 of the Trump

plan, not made by Trump's government, actually by two

billionaires, did the planning with the government of Israel.

And points 19 and 20 say that there will be a unification of

all faiths, that there will be a tolerance and that Palestine

will eventually be recognised. Palestinian.

There will be a 2 state set up. Just read the Bible this piece

at the moment it's only for a moment.

James chapter 4 verse 6 it says, but God gives more grace where

James 4:6

he says God resists the prayer, but gives grace to the humble.

Peter says, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand

of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

Napoleon Bonaparte at the battle of Waterloo.

On the morning of the great battle, the little general stood

gazing upon the field of battle, and he described to his

commanding officer his strategy for the day.

For that great campaign he said, We will put the inventory here,

the cavalry there, and the artillery here, and at the end

of the day England will be at the feet of France.

Wellington will be the prisoner of Napoleon.

After a pause, the commanding officer with him said, But we

must not forget that man proposes, but God disposes.

Napoleon responded Understand Sir, that Napoleon proposes and

Napoleon disposes. Victor Hugo the historian went

on to ride of the situation. And from that moment that

Napoleon said that Waterloo was lost because God sent driving

rain and hail so that the troops of Napoleon could not manoeuvre

as they had planned on the night of the battle.

And it was Napoleon who ended up prisoner of Wellington and

France was lost to the feet of England In verse 18, this dream

I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen.

Now you Belteschezzer, declare the interpretation.

Tell me about it, because I know the wise men aren't able, but

you're able, for the spirit of the holy God is in you.

Verse 19, Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar was astonished for

one hour because he knows the dream.

He goes, ah, yeah. And his thoughts troubling.

He said, I wish this dream, If you read through, I wish this

dream was about your enemies, O King, and not about you.

And Daniel pleads with the king to change.

It's a warning from God, O King, you kind of change.

Here was the impact #1 Daniel spoke the truth.

And love the most powerful person in the world.

It was a warning from God. Have you ever been warned by

God? I have.

Listen carefully. Daniel shared the truth with a

man he served and loved, Nebuchadnezzar.

He didn't go, oh, I can't tell you.

You know, as a brother and a sister in Christ, there are

times where you'll need to share truth to say what you're

planning. You know, I know you're planning

to do this or this is how you're living.

You can't do that. You don't say, you know, you

shouldn't be doing that. You should know better.

God gives us warnings. People don't care how much you

know until they know how much you care.

Daniel cared about the king, and he said, king, I wish it was

about your enemies, but hey, I got to tell you this is a

warning. Verse 21 Daniel was fearless,

whose leaves were fair, and the fruit, the tree thereof, and in

it was meat for all under the peace of the field.

Verse 22 Hear what he says, King.

You imagine him saying this. You're the tree.

Then when Nathan said to David, you're the man, King, you're the

tree. You're grown, you've become

strong, your greatness has grown, it's reached into heaven.

Your dominion covers the earth. Babylon is a powerful empire.

Wherefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable.

Notice what he says he says. He says it with love with it.

Break off the sins. Hey, God knows you're in trouble

and he's trying to warn you. Break off your sins by

righteousness, your iniquities, by showing mercy to the poor.

And if it be a lengthening of your tranquilly that the Kingdom

listen. Daniel's words rolled off

Nebuchadnezzar with little impact.

So it appears one year later, verse 28, look what happened,

Daniel 4 verse 28, one year later, all this came upon King

Daniel 4:28

Nebuchadnezzar at the end of the 12 months.

He was walking about the royal palace of Babylon.

The king spoke saying, look what he's doing.

Is this not great Babylon? I am the greatest that I've

built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honour

of my majesty. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar thought

that Daniel was wrong and that God had forgotten.

If God is, if God speaks to you, it stays.

It's not like, oh, it doesn't matter anymore.

When God speaks to you, you better.

Nothing's going to change in your life until you sort out

what God has told you to do in that time.

You can pray for everything else, but he's saying nothing.

You're back here, nothing, nothing more until this gets

sorted. The city with 11 mile long outer

walls. So thick was the wall that you

can ride 2 Chariots abreast around it.

Proverbs 29. One says he that being often

reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that

without remedy. The warning, beware how you and

I treat the patience and long suffering of God.

Well, if God lets you sin and continue to sin, it's not God.

God. Oh, that's OK, don't worry about

it. No, it's bad.

Verse 28. All this came upon King

Nebuchadnezzar at the end of 12 months.

And while the word was in his mouth, verse 31, a voice fell

from heaven like that King Nebuchadnezzar to you would have

spoken. The Kingdom has departed from

it's gone now then, and they shall drive you from men.

Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, they shall

make you eat grass like oxen, and 7 * 7 years shall Passover

you what there. But there's an end part until

you know that the Most High God rules in the Kingdom of men, men

and gives it to whomever He chooses.

Verse 33 The very hour the word was fulfilled concerning

Nebuchadnezzar, he was driven from men and ate grass like

oxen. His body was wet with the jewel

of heaven till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and

his nails like bird's claws. If you look and examine how long

a duration it takes for the hair and your fingernails to grow

like that, it is 7 years. While the word was in the King's

mouth, there fell a voice from heaven.

The king is departed from you. The judgement of God fell

instantly. God shall not be mocked.

As soon as the voice stopped speaking, the king became

irrational. It's called in the dictionary.

You can look it up. Lycanthropy today.

A psychiatric syndrome. It's when a person believes they

have been transformed into an animal.

Nebuchadnezzar thought and lived as though he was an oxen.

It's said that in that seven years they kept him within the

walls of the Palestine, but in the fields where he ate and

grazed, and that it was Daniel who cared for him over those

seven years. And Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach

and Nabinagar ran the Kingdom of Babylon all this time so that no

one knew what was happening to the king to guard him.

In one minute he went from wearing the royal robes of

monarch to crawling on all fours and eating grass.

So 7 long years rolled over Nebuchadnezzar's life.

Seven years of judgement, but there was to be an end.

And that's the good thing. You know, God doesn't just

discipline you and nail you and that's it.

That's it. Look at the prodigal that came

home. The dad didn't say, well, no,

no, come on, I don't want to see you.

That was the problem with David. Remember with Absalom, when

Absalom wanted to see David, they said, I don't want to see

you. And just Absalom's rebellion

grew more and more and more. David was not a good father.

When sin entered the heart of this man, his gaze was diverted

from heaven, from looking up to earth.

Now in Isaiah chapter 4522, a great verse, you should know it.

It's the very verse that a young Charles hadn't Spurgeon between

the age of 17 and 18 heard in a little church with about 18

people and the preacher said, Isaiah 4522, look to me and be

saved all you ends of the earth, for I am God.

There is no other and he pointed to young Spurgeon.

He said can you look, Can you look?

You can look, look to God be saved.

This morning, young man Spurgeon was saved on the spot.

That's all you have to do is look.

But then came words of worship, the evidence of a change.

Pride was gone and the most High now surrounded his praise.

Look at verse 34. Now at the end of the time, I,

Nebuchadnezzar noticed, lifted my eyes to heaven, no longer

looking down on the grass, and my understanding returned to me.

And I bless the most high and praise and honour of him who

lives forever. For his dominion is an

everlasting dominion. His Kingdom is from generation

to generation. It's interesting that all

animals look down to the only man.

Humanity looks up. Every Sinner who turns to God

has learned that he who hates and judges sin is ready and

willing to receive and save sinners.

You know, if you're a Sinner here today, and I was like you,

a Sinner, I'm a Sinner saved by the grace of God.

But at one time I sat in a church being a Sinner.

And Psalm 86, verse 5 says this. For you, that's you.

Psalms 86:5

For the Lord, you Lord are good, ready to forgive.

God just is waiting, ready to forgive.

He's plenteous in mercy. He offers me.

He's not here to judge you. His judgement for you fell upon

His Son on the cross. He's here to give you mercy.

He's plenteous in mercy. And to all them that call upon

you, all you have to do is say, Jesus, receive me.

Verse 35. Nebuchadnezzar attributes

absolute power and authority to the King of heaven, whose works

are true, His ways of judgement. So here he is after these seven

years, confessing to what God has done in dealing with him was

right and just. Is that that was terrible what

God did to me? No, and saved him from himself.

He also admitted that he'd walked in pride and had been

humbled by this amazing experience testifying of the

change that God brings to a man. When you come in a relationship

with God, God changes you. To Corinthians 517, all things

are passed away. Behold, all things become you

when you become a creature in Christ.

He learnt he was nothing and that God was everything.

You know that this morning Nebuchadnezzar, it's believed,

lived for one more year after this amazing transformation.

So what does it mean? This story of this man in 2025

for you and I as believers today, you and I, we also need

to realise that God's patience with us has a limit.

Some of you may be testing the limit.

You know, kids test the limit when you or I ignore the

prompting of the Holy Spirit. And that's when the Holy

Spirit's been telling you the same thing over and over and

over and over. You go, well, yeah, I will, I

will. Turning you towards repentance

and whatever sin is plaguing us, our heavenly Father will reach a

point when he sees that change will come with only some tough

love, discipline. You know, people go to gaol

sometimes. God sends them to gaol.

God allows them to go to gaol because it's there.

They wake up. You know, sometimes something

will happen to you and God's got to go.

I've got to, I've got to shake you out of this because it seems

if I let you go, you're going to continue to live how you are

living. There are times when things

happen in our life. We go, man, I, I didn't see this

coming. And it's God going hello, hello.

When hard times come upon us, we should always prayerfully

consider whether it is any change we need to make to the

way we live. What am I?

Is this a message for me? Are you telling me something

about this, whether the origin of our struggle is the

discipline, disciplinary hand of God, or just the fact that we're

living in corruptural bodies in a fallen world, Sorrow has its

purpose. Storms that come upon our lives.

God allows the storms to come. It's always a purpose for the

storm. God came to Nebuchadnezzar at

full speed, man. He knocked him from humanity

into the animal Kingdom. It took seven years to re blow,

recover from that blow. But verse 36 says, And notice

when Nebuchadnezzar came back, how much better was he?

An excellent majesty was added. In other words, my Kingdom

became greater and my wisdom became greater than before.

That's always the point. When you stick to God's will, it

always works out better. Your will doesn't work that way.

And here's the deal. You know you and I would give up

on one another. You could give up on someone.

You know What's the bother? God's tenacious.

He didn't give up on you. He won't let go.

I want to ask you this morning, have you been living like

Nebuchadnezzar? I just been gone about my

business. Look what how how well I've done

to some of you. This passage and Daniel is a

warning. Your pride is redlining.

It's dangerous, would Daniel say to you through our text this

morning, hey, you're the tree. You're the tree.

For some of you, God has allowed already for you to be cut down

all that you thought you were, all that you had, all that you

work for. It's in ashes.

It's gone. You've lost everything.

There was a sickness within the tree.

And if it was allowed to fester and spread, everything would

fall apart for good. The tree had come down.

But remember, don't take the stumps out.

The roots are still on the ground.

There's still hope. There's mercy.

God says he wants to restore you.

Mercy awaits you and I. There's always hope.

For He loves us, each one of you.

To you who are proud, God's going to just stand in front of

you and he's gone. You ain't going anywhere until

you change. I'm going to stand and block

you. Block your life, block your way,

block everything you try to do. I'll resist you.

His desire is to stop you from walking the path of danger.

That's why he's blocking you. How often kids go well.

Why, why, why wouldn't you let me do what all the other kids

do? Why can't I do that?

You're going because I want to keep you safe.

I don't want you to get hurt. And to you who have been cut

down, if you were like Nebuchadnezzar is today, today

is the day for you to lift your eyes to the Lord.

Deliverance, blessing, salvation, peace will be yours

immediately as you surrender. It's a hard thing to do to

surrender. You know.

We stand with their hands lifted up their their praise, but also

their surrender. This morning.

When you choose to surrender, that means as Jesus said, if you

want to follow me, you deny yourself.

You take up the cross. What does a cross do?

It kills you and follow me. I surrender all.

You know that hymn written 1855 All to Jesus I surrender all to

Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him

in His presence. Daily live.

I surrender all. I surrender all, all to thee, my

blessed Saviour. I surrender all, all to Jesus.

I surrender humbly at his feet. I about.

Sounds like Nebuchadnezzar, doesn't it?

Worldly pleasures all forsaken this morning.

Mercy awaits us all. There is hope.

God's patience is great, but it's not unending.

As the worship team comes forward, God will save his

righteous children from the coming wrath that's about to

fall upon their world. Seven years of judgement, The

judgement of God called the great tribulation, and the rest

of humanity will endure 7 years of suffering.

Verse 37 Nebuchadnezzar said Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and

extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are

truth, His ways of justice. What he did with me was right

on. And those who walk in pride, he

is able to put down man. I know that mission

accomplished, God sought to humble this mighty king, and the

mighty king was indeed humbled, and I believe many people say

otherwise, saved. God gave the Kingdom back to

Nebuchadnezzar better than it was before, and I hope one day

to meet him in glory. King Nebuchadnezzar, if you're

here today, what has God spoken to you about?

You haven't had a dream and you've had the Word, and the

Word sits with you now. Where do you sit?

What is now your action? What is your reaction?

God stays the same. He loves you.

His mercy is there for you. He's the same yesterday, today,

and forever. And whatever He's doing, He's

trying to do to benefit and bless you.