Most High God rules the Kingdom

All right, let's celebrate a couple things, okay?

Let's celebrate a couple things.

Um number one, we are having a covenant family membership gathering this coming up Saturday.

Um, it's gonna be in social circle.

A lot of people ask the question: how do I join?

How do I become an official part of Church at the Grove?

Uh your first step is to go through our Covenant Family Membership Gathering.

You learn our mission and values, and we get to know you a little bit.

We want to make sure you know what you're getting into.

So this Saturday in Social Circle at 5:30, we try to do these once a month, and so we'll do another one in November.

Haven't decided the exact date yet on that.

Um then the second thing I want you to know, and I want to celebrate, is that we are entering into a season of prayer and fasting tomorrow.

The 21 days of prayer and fasting.

So here's how that works as a church is you make sure that we have your email, and if you haven't, you go like our Facebook page, and we'll be putting out devotionals, audio, video, it's either or or or both and um over the next 21 days to help you uh just just kind of focus on the Lord.

You choose what you fast.

It might be related to food or it could be something else.

It might be it might be media or or or or some type of thing in your life that you want to pull away from to focus on the Lord.

And that's 21 days.

We feel like that this is an important season in the nation, uh, our country, and and and we want to focus on the Lord in the midst of everything and for him to have his hand on everything.

And here's the here's the last thing I want to celebrate before we dive into scripture.

Um, Brandon Stubbs is over all of our worship and and and uh and worship ministries and all our tech stuff, and and and you wouldn't know this unless you uh were know Brandon personally, because when he's not here, he's down in social circle, but he's not at either place today.

That's because he and his wife Amy had a little baby boy this past week, Deacon Lee Stubbs.

And so let's celebrate.

Um so Brandon, if you're watching, which I know you're not, because you're either catching up on sleep or you're changing a diaper, and and or one of your two children are crying, and so you're with your wife who who you so folk turn the computer off and focus on her.

And so, but we celebrate Brandon and um Amy and little Deacon Lee and and uh Riley Kate now has a little brother, and so we're excited about that.

All right, so here's we're in Daniel chapter four.

If you've got your Bibles, turn to chapter four uh of your Bible and you look electronically or uh the old-fashioned leather and paper.

Um, Chuck Colson, and if you don't know who Chuck Colson is, this is dating me, but Chuck Colson is a famous uh political figure, but also a famous theologian that passed away in April of 2012.

But he first became famous because he was the architect of Watergate during the Richard Nixon administration.

If you don't know what Watergate is, you need to catch up on your American history.

Maybe one of the biggest political scandals, if not the biggest, in our nation.

Um and so uh Chuck Colson was found out to be the the head honcho.

He was known as Richard Nixon's hatchet man in the early 70s.

He was chief counsel for Richard Nixon.

And listen, here's what he he was known to have said.

This is a quote from Chuck Colson.

He said, I will walk over my grandmother for Richard Nixon.

That's what he said one time.

He was ruthless in his leadership.

He he was ruthless.

And so um he ended up going to prison for Watergate.

And so then he got out of prison and and and he ended up founding a ministry later called Prison Fellowship that thrives today, supporting the families, uh, the wives and husbands and families of those that are in prison.

But after he, before that, after he got out of prison, he was trying to reestablish his his law practice.

And so he was trying to trying to get some business, and he ended up um taking uh this man by the name of Tom Phillips, who was the chief executive of Raytheon at the at the time, he he took him out to have a meal, trying to get some of his legal business.

And so Tom Phillips kept directing the conversation back to the Lord.

And what Chuck Colson didn't know at the time is that Tom Phillips recently had come to Christ at a Billy Graham crusade.

And so Tom Phillips keeps directing the conversation back to Jesus Christ.

And so, as a matter of fact, he keeps referring to this book that he had read called Mere Christianity, and he keeps referencing a chapter in that book called The Great Sin.

And I don't know if you know what the great sin is, but I'm gonna tell you what the great sin is, the great sin is pride.

See, pride and power hold significant grips.

They hold, they grip our hearts and lives, and they can grip the lives of men, especially men or women who have prestige or positions of power.

And so C.S.

Lewis calls pride the great sin.

And it is the great sin.

It is the sin that caused Satan, who was the chief lead worshiper in heaven.

Before Satan was the devil, Satan was known as Lucifer and was in charge of worship in heaven.

And it caused him to rebel against God and to consider himself higher than God, and that he should have worship, and he should have the attention of the heavenly host.

And it caused him to be cast out of heaven to the earth with one-third of the angelic host.

The great pride called sin.

It's what caused humanity to fall, the fall of humanity.

It's what caused Adam and Eve to rebel against God, to consider their way better than God's way.

And as a result, they had to exit the garden.

And as a result, they had to endure death and aging and disease and all the things that we see from the fall of humanity and the broken world that we live in.

And so pride is the one vice in which no man in the world is free.

And of which hardly anyone, unless you were a follower of Jesus, would ever you're imagine your own self guilty of.

And so Chuck Colson had a very public downfall.

But Chuck Coulson's story is really everybody's story.

It's everybody's story.

Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

And so, as we've said over and over in this series, Daniel 1, 2, and 3, it's not just about what happened, it's about what always happens.

And as we read Nebuchadnezzar's story, it's what always happens when we consider how pride impacts the human heart and the human life and human history.

And so we need to know that God hates pride.

God hates it because it challenges his sovereignty, it challenges his will, it challenges his ways, and so we can't, we cannot just just gloss over this great sin called pride.

And so what we see in Daniel chapter 4 at the very beginning, the first few verses, is we see a testimony from Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

And it's funny because we get to see the testimony that results from the rest of the story in the whole book.

Here's what C.S.

Lewis says when he talks about pride.

C.S.

Lewis in that chapter of the great sin, he says, a proud man is always looking down on things and people.

And of course, as long as you're looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

And so Nebuchadnezzar's been looking down on other people.

He's been looking down from his perch as the leader of the greatest superpower that the world knew at the time.

And so here's the big idea.

And this big idea comes right out of the several verses out of this chapter.

Here's what it says that the Most High God rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

The Most High God rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

So here's a quick, here's a quick um, just kind of a uh, you know, going back and catching us up, um, a quick review just in case you've missed.

2,600 years ago, 605 BC, uh, this evil king Nebuchadnezzar of the evil kingdom of Babylon, they march 700 miles from the area that we would know as modern-day Iraq.

They go to the southern kingdom of Judah and they conquer it.

And then after they conquer it, they take the smartest, the young people with the most potential that had the most intellectual capacity.

They take them back and march them 700 miles back to Babylon and they enslave them.

Daniel, it's not a good thing.

This is a bad experience.

Daniel is castrated.

He he will never understand what it means to be a father or a parent.

Uh he's a vegetarian, he's he's made to eat the food from the foreign kingdom.

It's not a good day for Daniel when all this takes place.

But Daniel is faithful to his God.

Despite his circumstances, he is faithful and he is put in a place of authority and leadership because he has something about him that is different, that stands out.

And so we find Daniel in this part of the story where he is he's no longer a teenager, he's probably 45 to 50 years old, and and and and and and he he he's called into counsel Nebuchadnezzar, who goes crazy and is about to disappear for seven years.

But here's the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar, the the testimony that we get before the rest of the story.

He says, I, King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and language, languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.

It seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his key and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

And so we see the testimony where Nebuchadnezzar has been looking down, but now he's looking up.

But here's the biography that takes place that gets him to this point where he can share the testimony.

Verse 4.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace, and I saw a dream that made me afraid.

And as I lay in bed, the fancies and visions of my head alarmed me.

So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

The magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in and I told them the dream, but they could, but they could not make known to me its interpretation.

Which, by the way, I we I feel like I've read that sentence over and over and over in the first three chapters.

These astrologers, these magicians, these Chaldeans, these um these wise men.

So what do they do?

They they keep getting called into the king's palace.

I have a dream.

They don't do anything.

They don't do anything.

It's it's it's it's kind of like construction workers, you know, that are, I'm kidding, but it's just they're, you know, people that are improving our roads.

It's like it ha it takes forever, and I know they're doing something, but it just doesn't seem like it's getting accomplished.

And and I apologize if you're in that field and that work.

But I'm I'm just there over and over and over, these wise men are not very wise.

And then here's what it says in verse 8.

Last Daniel came in before me, who was named Beltashazzar after the name of my God, and whom is the spirit of the holy gods.

I told him the dream, saying, Oh Beltashazzar, chief of magicians, know, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that no mystery is too difficult for you.

Tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.

And here's so here's here's a part of Daniel's story is he has something different about him.

Nebuchadnezzar doesn't have the theological foundation to understand that it is the spirit of God that lives in Ena.

And he says it's the spirit of the gods.

So he can't get the language right, but he recognizes something that is different in Daniel.

It's a different spirit.

It's the same thing that we see in Joshua and Caleb that distinguishes them from the other ten spies that have gone in to spy out the promised land, right?

And so there's something about him.

It is the Spirit of God.

He has been faithful.

He's been faithful to his Lord, but he's also faithful in his service in a foreign land to an evil leader.

What a tight rope to walk.

It only can happen by the Spirit of God.

And so he's called in to interpret this dream.

And it's a strange dream, and and let me just surmise it.

It's this idea that there's a strong tree that Nebuchadnezzar dreams about that grew and grew and it became tall and it reached the heavens, so tall that it could be seen, it could be seen from one end of the earth to the other.

It was a beautiful tree that had tons of fruit and provided food for all.

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

And then he said, he said, he dreamed, he said, the dream is that an angel comes down from heaven and proclaim proclaims that the tree should be chopped down, that the branches stripped off, and the stump of the tree and its roots would be left.

Here's what the angel says.

Look at verse 16.

Let his mind be changed from a man's, talking about Nebuchadnezzar.

Let a beast mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him, seven years.

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, that's the there's a whole theology of angels and holy beings that's all throughout scripture.

We can't, uh we don't have time to dive into, to the end that the living may know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.

This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw, and you, O Beltas Hussar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.

And so this idea that Daniel has something in him that King Nebuchadnezzar has watched over years and years.

He probably comes to Babylon as a teenager, let's say 14, 15, or 16 years old.

So if he's 45 or 50 years old, Nebuchadnezzar has watched Daniel's faithfulness over time.

And it's the Spirit of God that's in him.

It's the same spirit that empowered Jesus to live in the middle of a Roman Empire and represent God.

Jesus embodied God.

He was God.

But here's what you need to know that the same spirit that gave Daniel wisdom that was embodied in the person of Jesus, if you put your faith in Jesus, that same spirit lives in you in 2020.

In a year of chaos, in a year where we see the world seeming to fall to pieces, the Spirit of God that empowered Daniel, that was embodied in the person of Jesus, lives inside of you if you call Jesus Savior and Lord.

And so Daniel interprets the dream.

Here's what he says, verse 19.

Then Daniel, whose name was Belta Jazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him.

The king answered and said, Bel Tazar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.

Beltashazar answered and said, My Lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies.

What is he saying?

He's saying, This is not good news for you, King Nebuchadnezzar.

What I'm about, may this, may this, may this not be true, because this is not, what I'm about to tell you is not good.

The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so so that its top reached to the heaven and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under the beast of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived.

It is you, O king, who have grown and become strong.

Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.

And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven.

Let his portion be with the beast of the field till seven periods of times pass over him.

This is their interpretation, O king.

It is the decree of the most high, which has come upon my Lord the King, that you shall be driven from among men, your dwelling shall be like with the beast of the field, you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

And it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree.

Your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules.

So this is not good news for Nebuchadnezzar.

His power is going to come to an end.

He'd accomplished some great things.

This was the superpower of all superpowers.

I mean, the expanse of Babylon was significant.

And Daniel warns him, hey, your time is short.

And ultimately, the King of Kings was going to bring humiliation upon Nebuchadnezzar so that he and all in his kingdom would know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom that he will.

So Daniel goes on to warn the king and advise the king.

And here's where Daniel, you almost can sense that he's a pastor, shepherding, somebody that he cares about.

And I I believe, I believe that Daniel loved Nebuchadnezzar.

That sounds so strange.

But you hear the heart of a pastor.

Shepherd.

Here's what he says in verse 27.

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you.

Break off your sins by practicing righteousness.

And your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed.

That there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

You know what he's telling Nebuchadnezzar?

He's saying repent.

Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, repent.

Turn from your wickedness.

Turn from your evil ways.

Turn.

May God grant you mercy.

May God change the outcome of this dream and interpretation.

Become a man of character.

Leverage your leadership for the good of others.

And maybe God's judgment will not come upon you.

And here's a couple of things I think all of us should know.

And this is this is in general, right?

Because it's not always about what happened.

It's about what always happens.

Two things about leadership.

Leaders are accountable.

Leaders are accountable.

They're accountable to somebody, some organization, a board.

Leaders are accountable to people.

But more importantly, leaders are accountable to God for where God places them.

Here's what else we need to know about leadership.

Leadership is a stewardship, and it is temporary.

Leadership is given by God, and as a result, it is temporary.

As quickly as it can be given, it can be taken away.

But Nebuchadnezzar doesn't listen.

He's still looking down.

And here's what happens.

Verse 28.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.

At the end of twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.

And interpretation becomes reality.

Because of his pride and haughty heart.

He could have changed.

But twelve months pass by, and he's on the roof of the royal palace, admiring everything in his kingdom.

And there's three things that happen, and listen, and listen, they apply to us.

These three things happen.

The first one is pride of self.

Verse 30, and the king answered and said, as he's out on his rooftop, listen to what he says.

Is not this great Babylon, which what's the next word, one letter?

I, which I have built by my mighty power, as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty.

You know what James said?

He said, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

And so Satan wants us to believe that pride is not our problem, it's somebody else's problem.

And so the pride of self.

And so the pride of self, there's two different extremes of pride that I want you to understand.

And one of them is the most obvious.

Where I don't need anybody else, I don't need any help.

I don't need anybody to offer me any support.

And here's what that extreme of pride says that I don't need grace.

Grace is not needed in my life.

But the other extreme of pride is this idea of self-loathing, weakness.

Sometimes it's even the mask of humility, but here's what it says is when you are gripped by maybe areas in your life that you hate and that you're weak in.

It might be your past.

It might be the past behavior, past experience, past life, maybe the sin from your past, or maybe it's the way that you don't like how you look, or whatever it is that you loathe about yourself.

And here's what that extreme of pride says that grace isn't enough.

It's not sufficient.

God's grace is not enough.

I'm beyond God's grace.

And so this is not only Nebuchadnezzar's story, this is our story.

It's the story of every individual, it's the story of human history.

God hates pride, and he will humble the prideful heart.

And so that's what he does with Nebuchadnezzar, and it's what he does with all of us.

He walks Nebuchadnezzar through the valley of humiliation.

Verses 31, he says, While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you.

And you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.

He was driven from among men, and he ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.

And so he goes through humiliation.

There's a difference between humiliation and humility.

Humiliation is when God has to move in and humble you because you are unwilling to humble yourself.

Humility is where you are voluntary in lowering yourself.

I've had people over uh the course of my ministry, they'll say, Pastor, I'm just I'm praying, I'm praying for humility.

I'm like, don't pray for that.

You don't, you don't, you don't want to pray for humility.

Why?

It's not even because what does the scripture say?

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

So there's a difference between humiliation, which is what God does when he comes in, and humiliation can be a gift.

Humiliation is what brought me to a place of brokenness where I had to reach up and ask Jesus to save me.

Humiliation, so so humiliation can be a gift from God, but but God says, Hey, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

And so Nebuchadnezzar goes crazy for seven years.

He becomes like a beast of the field.

He goes from the top leader in this superpower in the ancient world, crawling on his hands and knees while eating grass in a field.

And so who knows?

I mean, it could have come across as a mental breakdown.

What was happening in the kingdom of Babylon while Nebuchadnezzar is out eating grass in the middle of the field?

What's going on with the kingdom?

I don't, we don't know.

But I think he probably had a cabinet that was trying to run the kingdom and maybe keep his humiliation from becoming public knowledge.

Maybe it was it was the the maybe it was the national media that was covering up the story or the state-run uh system of information, and who knows what's going on completely, but the kingdom continues on.

Seven years go by.

And then what's the result?

You have the pride of self, the valley of humiliation, and then you have the praise of God.

Listen, this is Nebuchadnezzar's story, but it's our story as well.

Pride, humility, or humiliation, and it results in praise of God.

At some point, the Apostle Paul says it in Philippians 2.

He says, Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

At some point, so at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done?

At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me, my counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praised and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

So you know what the opposite of pride is?

The opposite of pride is praise, the opposite of pride is worship, the opposite of pride is looking up rather than looking down and saying, you are the most high God.

And you rule and you give your kingdom to whom you will.

Where's Daniel?

We don't know absolutely, but based upon probably looking at the rest of the story, Daniel is faithfully serving in the role that he had already been given, waiting for his king to return.

You see, we teach this a lot, we we we have, and I believe this, there's there's two major strands of DNA, theological DNA, that run through the Bible.

And we have been teaching in Daniel, and this the heavy strand that we have spent time focused on is the is this strand of DNA that runs through Scripture that I call the kingdom DNA.

And this idea that God is a king, Jesus is our king, and kings rule, and kings demand obedience, and kings have ambassadors, kings give responsibility, but there's another strand of DNA that runs through Scripture, and we call that the strand of covenant.

And this idea, this idea that God is, yes, he's a king, but he is our heavenly daddy, he is a father, and fathers have family, and we are adopted sons and daughters of our heavenly father, and through Jesus, we don't work and we don't do anything to gain our standing.

We receive it as a free covenant gift.

It's about resting, taking on the yoke of Jesus that is easy and the burden is light.

And so Jesus came that last week of his life.

It was really about covenant.

He invested in his disciples, he gathered them together, and he, after he had surrendered to the Father's will in the garden, and where he where he would sweat drops of blood, and he would say, Father, not my will, but your will be done.

I will drink of this cup that you want me to drink from.

And he taught his disciples, and he served them, modeled for them servant leadership, and he told them, he said, You don't really understand it yet, but I'm about to endure something, and then I'm gonna have to leave.

But it's a good thing because when I leave, there's another one that will come, and he's called the Comforter, and he will be given to you, and he will empower you, and he will allow you to carry this covenant throughout the earth.

And so he gave them a meal.

He said, When I leave, I want you to continue to eat and share this meal until your king returns.

And so I believe that Daniel was faithful for the seven years while King Nebuchadnezzar was gone.

He was faithful until the king returned.

And so we're called to be faithful until our king returns.

And the same spirit that empowered Daniel lives inside of us.

And so we partake of the Lord's Supper, of this meal called communion, until Jesus returns.

And we'll share a meal that will be the meal of all meals when Jesus comes.

So we partake this morning.

Would you pray with me?

As it rains, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will rain upon us as we close this time together.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for the story of Daniel.

Thank you for the fact that you are our King, but thank you also, Lord, for the covenant that comes through Jesus and the hope that we have through his life and his death and his resurrection.

And so, Father, would you work in us as we push aside pride and we embrace your presence as we conclude this morning with the Lord's Supper?

May we be faithful.

May we be like Daniel and have the Spirit of God living inside of us that will allow us to be faithful until our King returns.

And so we share in this meal.

We share in the Lord's Supper, remembering his broken body and remembering his spilt blood.

God, as he said, and we do it out of obedience and we do it, Father, just knowing that you have something in store for us when you return.

When our King returns, we're going to share a meal that surpasses all meals.

And it will be a beautiful thing.

Jesus took the bread and he passed it around to his disciples and said, This bread represents my broken body that was broken for you.

Prophet Isaiah said, By his stripes we are healed.

And he said, When you eat of this, you remember how my broken body provided the remission for your sins.

I took that as punishment in your place.

Eat in remembrance of me.

And they ate the bread.

Let's eat it together.

Then he took the fruit of the vine.

And he said, This represents my blood that is spilled for you.

It's the blood of Jesus that washes away our sins.

It provides for our forgiveness.

It provides new life in us.

He says, drink in remembrance of my new covenant with you.

And he passed a cup around and they drank.

Let's drink together.

And as we share in the Lord's Supper together, let's conclude with worship and let's worship.

Let's worship.

Let's push aside pride.

Let's defeat pride.

Let's push it down.

Let us look up.

Let us exalt the name of Jesus this morning.

We're going to sing the story of the gospel and let's sing it loud and let's sing it with gusto and with life.

Let us not do so with indifference, but even in the posture that we carry, let's remember the goodness and the grace and the beauty and the majesty of our Lord and our Savior that provides for our redemption.

We love you, Jesus.

Amen.

Would you stand with me?