So fun worshiping with you all every week if you have a Bible, and I hope you do. Will you grab it or turn it on or whatever you need to do and get to Daniel chapter four. We are continuing. Um, our series is Walking through the book of Daniel, really discovering what it means, how to live for our world, but not of the world. How do we live in a way where we are seeking a welfare for our city, trying to push back darkness in our city, but not being overtaken by the culture. Uh, of our, of our city and today's message, it, it's a difficult one. Let me just kind of throw that out there as a, just a warning to you. It's a difficult one. It's about pride. It's something that we all deal with. It's the root of every sin. And the reason why it's gonna be difficult for some of you is because you'll hear me talk about pride today, and you'll think that this sermon is for someone else. It's not. It is for you. In fact, one of the ways that you can best tell that you have a pride issue is that someone else's pride bothers you. And so if you're here today, at any moment, you're like, man, like I just, I really wish so and so was here to like hear, to hear this message. It's all right. It's for you. All right, we'll go ahead and we'll go ahead and nail that down. King Nebuchadnezzar. We've read about him a lot. He's been a main character in the book of Daniel so far. Remember in Daniel one, he, he brings people out of ex. He, he brings Israelites, he overtakes Israel. He brings 4,600 or so Israelites and exile and makes them become Babylonians. And, and Daniel and his three friends that we read about, those talks about those guys and. And we've seen over and over again where Nebuchadnezzar is almost battling with God a little bit. And chapter one, he is trying to over, he overtakes Israel and Daniel just says, Hey, like, don't let me eat the food and not see if I'm okay. And it turns out Daniel's okay, he's better than everybody else. So Nebuchadnezzar makes this lip service about Daniel's King and Daniel's God, and they're like, wow. We're like. What, what a God you have. And then in Daniel chapter two, he has a dream. Daniel interprets the dream correctly, and Nebuchadnezzar is impressed with Daniel's God again. And then in Daniel chapter three, what we talked about last week was Daniel's friends, they don't bow down to the culture. They don't bow down and worship something else, someone else other than God. And it gets them thrown into a fiery furnace and. There's a fourth man who's in the furnace. Jesus saves them. They have fellowship with God in the furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar is again impressed with the God who would save Shadrach, me shag and ab bid. Togo outta the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar's had a time. He's learned a lot, he's been impressed with, with God. But in our text today, Nebuchadnezzar is going to learn the hard way. That in God's economy, the way up is down. History proves over and over again that those who believe that they are God, those who believe that they have everything under control, those who believe the thing, like they actually pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. That's really hard to do, by the way, like I, I've never really understood that. Try it when you get home, like who got everything together? Prideful people history over and over and over again tells us that God quickly reveals to them that they are not God. In fact, counseling with people. It's something I have to say to a lot of guys. Hey, there's a God out there and you're not him. It reminds me of this general and, uh, in the Civil War who claimed that he, or in the Revolutionary War, he claimed that like he never lost a battle and he hadn't, and he was like at the top of his game. But he died from a tick bite. Like it just seems to be the case that God has a way of humbling people. And what's hard about this is that pride is sneaky. It doesn't announce itself. It creeps in when you're doing well, when you're succeeding, when when your hard work is paid off, pride creeps in and you start believing your own press. And what happens is you start forgetting who gave you talents and. Abilities and opportunities in favor In our text today, I'm just gonna throw out there like it is a wild story. It's an interesting story because it's the only, as far as I know, it's the only chapter in the entire Bible that's written by a pagan king. So this today's story is Nebuchadnezzar's testimony of how he finally was humbled by God and he came into a relationship with him. He finally surrendered to him. Okay, and so will you stand with me for the reading of God's word? We're just gonna read the first three verses of Daniel four, and then we'll walk through the rest. All right. Hear the word of the Lord King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples nations and languages. That dwell on all the earth peace be multiplied to you. It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the most high God has done for me, how greater his signs, how mighty his wonders his kingdom is. An everlasting kingdom in his dominion endures from generation to generation. May God bless the reading of his word. You can be seated. So this is where we're on the text. Lemme give you some background before we jump in. King when King Nebuchadnezzar is writing what happened to him, and he writes in a way like he, he's been restored, he's back on the throne. He has his kingdom again. And it's interesting because he could have hidden his humiliation. He could have not read, he could have left this out of the story. He's the one who decides to write this letter to all nations peoples and languages. Like he's writing it to everyone and he is concerned that people would hear about what God has done for him. He has experienced something so life changing that he wanted the whole world to know about it and just, which is interesting because what was so life changing was that he was humbled. To a point of humiliation. C. S Lewis said that pride is the complete anti God state of mind. Pride is the root of all sin. It's the first sin that casts Lucifer out of heaven. It's the sin that cast Adam and Eve outta the garden. And the reason why this is important is thinking about our series called Counter-Cultural, walking through the book of Daniel. Is that our culture celebrates pride. It celebrates arrogance and our culture. It says like our culture preaches to promote yourself. God says, you'll do well by humbling yourself. The culture tells you to pro, like follow your heart, like just do whatever your heart tells you to do. The Bible says your heart is wicked like the Bible or the, the culture tells you that you're self made and. And the Bible says that Jesus teaches in John chapter 15, that apart from him you can do nothing. The culture says, Hey man, just fake it till you make it like, act like you're something. Walk around with confidence on the line of arrogance. And God says, the way up is down. And I just want you to know that like this isn't just something that that is taught, but Jesus actually modeled this. Jesus is. The one who, who humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. He, one pastor wrote nothing sets a person so much outta the devil's reach as humility because it's humility is the way of Jesus. And, and Nebuchadnezzar, it's interesting, this is kind of, it's just some observations from the text that maybe you should take note of in verse one, he, he says, EZ are all people's nation languages. That dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. That's a very Jewish introduction. Like shalom, peace be multiplied to you. Daniel's had an influence on him. He's actually experienced the. The God of Israel. And, and then it says in verse two, like, it's good for me to show you, like this is good for you to hear this story and notice what the mo, what the, the God of the most high, the most high God has done for me. This is true of every testimony. So before we go, like pressing on pride, like just understand what God has done for you is is incredible. And sometimes we bind into this lie that we have to have like a really bad childhood or we have to like make bad decisions for a period of time and our testimony isn't good, like isn't strong if we haven't walked through some like bad decisions. I'm just gonna tell you like that is a lie from the enemy. Like when what God has done for you and you recognizing that you are way worse than you ever imagined, but God loves you way more than you could ever hope. And when you trusted in him, he saved you. Like that's what God has done for you if you follow Jesus. And so we need to be the kind of people who we know that it's good for others to hear what God has done for us. So let's be the people who say, Hey, lemme tell you what God has done for me. This isn't just mere theory for Nebuchadnezzar. This is not mere theology for King Nebuchadnezzar. This is. Transformation for him. Well, the first thing I want you to see in the text is that God humbles the proud. The first thing I want you to see in the text is that God humbles the proud, and we're gonna see through verse four through 18 that he humbles the proud because they don't recognize his position. Wow, that God humbles the proud because they don't recognize his position. Look at verse four. King Nebuchadnezzar starts the story. He says, I Nebuchadnezzar was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. He's comfortable, he has everything that he would ever want. He's successful. He's untouchable. He's conquered virtually the entire known world. He, he is. Bill, he's built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens of, of Babylon. He's has a mass wealth, like he is the World Bank. He has all kinds of glory. He has everything he's ever wanted. He's at ease one day in his house. And by the way, it's, it's when you are at ease in your house and prospering that pride is the most dangerous. See, we rarely grow proud in pain. We grow proud in success. And what we learn throughout the Bible is that, is that sometimes success can be fatal. Sometimes fame, sometimes fortune can actually lead to our destruction. And so Daniel's there and or, or teen Nebuchadnezzar is there, he's at ease in his palace. And then, and then God interrupts. In verse five, he says, I saw a dream that made me afraid. It's interesting how people who have everything that anyone who would ever want can quickly become afraid. And he's afraid and he has these visions and these dreams. And, and lemme just paraphrase for the sake of time, lemme just paraphrase the dream. The dream is that Nebuchadnezzar sees, he dreams this really large tree. That reaches to the heavens and birds nest in the branches and animals find shade under its branches, and it even feeds the people like it is this extraordinarily tall and strong and, and ginormous tree. And, and then in the dream what happens is there's a watcher, there's a holy one, an angel if you will, that that commands the tree to be struck down. And so the tree is chopped down. All the branches, all the leaves, they're chopped down the, the trunk, it's chopped down, and only thing that's left is a stump in roots. That's the dream. God steps in. He gives him this dream, and, and then he hears this, chop it down, strip it bear, but leave the stumps and this tree, it, it represents him. It represents his greatness. It represents his influence. It represents his coming downfall. And what's the purpose? The purpose what the text says is that to the end in verse 17, that that they may know that the most high God rules in the king rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom that he will and sets over at the lowliest of men. So basically. We have this dream, the angel, like we have this tree. The angel tells them to chop it down. It's chop down, and then we're told why it's chopped down. Basically to humble the kingdom and to remind everyone that even the most powerful people among us are, are not the most powerful people in the universe. That God in heaven is the one who sets kings up and takes them down, that they ultimately have to answer to God. But we need to recognize, we need to point out that the, the stump remains. So this is a reminder, this is good news for people like us. When we find ourselves in discipline from God, when God chastises us, when something goes wrong, that our dis that God's discipline isn't to destroy us, but it's to reveal sin in our lives and to redeem us. Did you notice that the stump remains? I told you that the stump remains, and part of the dream is that. The roots remain so that it can be rebuilt after a period of time. It's a sign of mercy. So these people who are proud, they God, God humbles them. And then 19 verse 19, Daniel shows up on the scene and he's basically gonna say, look, the reason why God humbles the proud is because they don't. They don't repent it. His patience. So Nebuchadnezzar, he comes and he, he calls Daniel to interpret the dream. He, he tells Daniel to interpret the dream. If you, if you have your Bible, these things are important to, to mark down. He calls'em to interpret the dream because he knows that Daniel can interpret it and he knows that he will. In other words, Daniel has the right reputation with the king. That he's actually, he knows that he can, and he knows that the Holy Spirit of God and dwells Daniel. And so he knows who Dan, like Daniel's God is, and he knows Daniel can do it. So he has this reputation. So Daniel comes, and it's interesting the language because Daniel, when he hears the dream, he's troubled. That's what the text says. He's troubled, not because he's afraid, not because he. Ca or not because he, he's afraid of what the, the king will do to him or that the king will be upset with him, but he's troubled because he cares. It's interesting this, this guy Daniel, he was captured as a teenager from his family. He watched Nebuchadnezzar order, the place where he grew up, be destroyed. He was taken from home. He was enslaved by this man. Him and he cares about him. That's a, that's a picture of a heart that's been transformed by the gospel. It's one that recognizes that people aren't actually our enemies, that people who are far from God, that we, our heart actually breaks for them when they experience the judgment of God. Daniel loves the king. Daniel cares for him. It's a heart of a godly man. It's truth wrapped in compassion. And so Dela Daniel delivers hard news. He just looks at him eventually. He says, the king or the tree? The tree you saw, it's you. And God has granted Nebuchadnezzar greatness. The problem is that King Nebuchadnezzar took credit for it. And what's the verdict? The verdict, you can go read it is that for seven years, king Nebuchadnezzar will act and look like an animal. It is, it's written out. He will act, he will eat grass, he will have the do of heaven on him. His nails will grow long like an animal, like he will act like an animal. The most powerful person in the world at that time is going to be cast out into, into the wild to act like an animal for seven years. It's the way that God humbles him and he says, this is what has to happen. But Daniel, it's interesting because Daniel offers hope. In verse 27, he, he says, therefore, oh king, let your counsel be acceptable to you. And this is what he tells him. Listen, break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. So basically, this is Daniel's message. Repent while there's still time that. Listen, you, God is going to judge you. He is going to judge you because of your pride, but you can repent while there's still time. And he says, break off your sins. In other words, stop what dishonors. God says, practice righteousness. Replace sin with obedience to God and show mercy. Treat the lowly with compassion. I'm gonna say something a little hard, so I'm gonna smile before I say it. Okay. There's a lot of you that are so, you're so bound up in your sin, in the root of its pride, and God is being so incredibly patient with you. But what we are allowed to learn in the text is that God won't be patient forever. And every time you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ that God sent his son to die for you because of your sin. And that God calls you to live a holy life. Like that's what's best for you When, when God tells you, Hey, you need to do this. It means you need to help yourself. And when God says, Hey man, you don't need to do this. It means, hey, don't hurt yourself. And you ignore that over and over and over again. And then you hear messages like this that says, Hey, you need to stop with the sin. In other words, like repent of your sin. And start running to righteousness and walking in righteousness and showing mercy, and you ignore it. Here's my warning to you. God is extraordinarily patient, but he won't be patient forever. The reason, listen, the what happens in the text, what happens in the text is that God longs for repentance. He longs for repentance, but. But Nebuchadnezzar tubes is judgment. And I just want you to know like God longs for your repentance. He longs for relationship with you. He desires that he doesn't desire that. Any repairs, he doesn't desire any will be judged. But here's the deal. Some of you all, you are just holding onto God's patience and you're just holding and trusting in it and trusting it, and you're like, I'll get there one day. That's not the way it works. I'll never forget when I was in high school, someone told me like, man, I'm a big fan. Like I love Jesus' savior right now, but I'm not gonna surrender to him as Lord yet. Hey, that's bold to say out loud. And some of you're like, man, I can't believe someone would say that. Well, some of y'all are living that way. You just don't say it. And this text is a warning to you that your pride of thinking that you're gonna do things your own way. That your pride in thinking that you have it all together and you can be impressed with God, but not surrender to him, that's going to destroy you. It's going to destroy you. God is extraordinarily patient with us, but there's coming a day what the text says is that his patience isn't gonna endure forever. That he will one day judge the world. But notice also is that they God, God humbles the proud because they don't acknowledge his provision. In verse 28. It's super interesting and so Daniel tells him this. He tells him why he needs to repent, and he tells him that he needs to break off of his sins or stop dishonoring God. You need to practice righteousness and you need to show mercy. And then the text says, this is what, how Nebuchadnezzar records, what happens next? He says, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar and at the end of 12 months, 365 days. He was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon and look at verse 30, and the king answered and said, is not this the great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? In other words, he's on his rooftop, impressed with himself. He's like, man, look what I've done. Nothing can touch me, nothing can stop me. And in verse 31, I mean, there's, there are five I statements. It's, it's remarkable. It's like my, like this is not the great Babylon that I, I have built, I've conquered, I have built, it's by my, by my mighty power and, and for the glory of my majesty. Five Sta. I mean, and then verse 31. It's so interesting, while the words were still in the king's mouth, their fellow voice from heaven. Oh, king Nebuchadnezzar, to you, it is spoken. The kingdom has departed from you. And then he's driven out and he turns, I mean, he, he lives like an animal for seven years. This is what we learned from King Ne, from King Nebuchadnezzar up until this point. And it's probably the most common form of pride in our hyper religious culture. And I say our culture, like our immediate context. Like there's a lot of churches around, there's a lot of church people around. You know what I'm saying? And um, and this is the most common form of pride. Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. Nebuchadnezzar makes statements about how he's impressed with Daniel's God, how he's go. Great. No one's above him. Most common form of pride with the religious people is being impressed with God being, being able to tell people that, that I'm impressed with him. Now, can you believe what God's done, but not actually surrendering to him? Nebuchadnezzar is impressed. He just doesn't surrender to him. It's just a reminder that pride must die in us or nothing of Heaven can live in us. The tree that once reached toward the heavens that the dream says that everyone around the world could see is now on the ground. Proverbs 16, verse 18 is right. That pride goes before destruction. So this is the greatest factor of your life. Like, understand this is what's important for us. Like I recognize that. Unless you've built like a kingdom and I don't know about it, you're like, man, I can't really relate to that. But here's the deal. There are things in your life, whether it's your, whether it's your health, your, your family, your inc, your, your, your finances, all that you've been able to do, or all that you've been able to build. When you get to the point where you stop forgetting, like who gets credit for that and you think that you do, you are in a tough spot with God. When you start thinking, look what I built, it's like you're on Nebuchadnezzar's roof saying, look at all that I've done, and you forget that God is the one who's put you in the positions that you've been put in. God is the one who's given you the health to be able to do what you've done. Every dollar that you've ever been able to accumulate, God's the one who gets credit for that. Everything like every good gift is from God is what the Bible says and what happens. What we learn is that when we won't humble ourselves, God will do it for us. And for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar lives like a beast, but God never forgets him. The the stump remains and mercy is waiting. Let's finish this up. The next thing I want you to see in the text is that God exalts the humble. Verse 34. It looks how it reads. It says, at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar, listen, look at this part of humility. He was on the top of his roof. Now he's look and he was looking down at all that he had done. Now the Bible says that he says, I lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me and I bless the most high and praise and honor him who lives forever. And then listen to this theology. He went from my, my, like, my glory, my, my, my power, my kingdom. Now listen to this, for his dominion is the one that's of the everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. In verse 35, he says, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does. He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? He can, he confesses that it's God who's going to last forever. All the inhabitants of the earth are, is nothing. He understands now that God rules not him. One theologian, he says like, humility is to make the right estimation of oneself. It's understanding where you fit in the in, in. The. The story of reality where you fit in God's story. It's just the truth that when we exalt ourselves, God brings us down, and when we humble ourselves, God will lift us up. It's just the truth. All throughout scripture, when when we exalt ourselves, God brings us down, and when we humble ourselves, God will lift us up. And look how the chapter ends in, in verse 37. He says, now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and and extol and honor the kingdom heaven for all of his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. I find that intriguing. Most of us would be upset if God humbled us. We would find it to be as we would find it not right. We would think that God was somehow not just, and he says that all of all of God's ways are right. All of his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he can. He can humble. This was, this was Nebuchadnezzar's testimony and sum it up in this, I was walking in. Pride and God humbled me and I'm better for it. It's so interesting, like Nebuchadnezzar lost his intelligence to find true wisdom. It's interesting that when Nebuchadnezzar, when he, after the seven years, his sanity returns to him. What theologians have written for centuries is that pride is spiritual insanity. It makes us all believe that we're self-sufficient. But when we're actually humble, it restores us to reality. And the reason why it restores us, restores us to reality is because the one who lived the perfectly humble life is Jesus. And when relationship with him we're restored a reality and, and nebuchadnezzar's story remarkable, but, but it really does point to a greater king. I mean, think about it. Think about it like Nebuchadnezzar was one who. Who exalted himself as the king of king of the world, and Jesus, the one who made everything, sustained everything, humbled himself. That's what the Bible says in Philippians chapter two. The Bible says that though he Jesus was in the form of God, was with God was God. He did not account equality with God as a thing to be grasped or a thing to be exploited. Your Bible translation may say. But he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And so God highly exalted him. It's the reality. It's the reminder that the way down always leads to the way up in God's economy. The world will tell you to climb higher. Make yourself great. Take your crown. And Jesus says, the way of the kingdom is actually to serve, is actually to surrender to me, is actually to take up a cross and follow me. And that's what Jesus did. And there was none greater than him. See, it's so interesting and there are, there are these parallels all throughout the Bible, but. Like in Daniel Ford, this tree was supposed to be this big, this, this picture of this kingdom that was bigger than anything else in the world, and it's chopped down because of Nebuchadnezzar's pride. But Jesus, the Bible says in, in the book of Galatians that anyone who is hung on a tree is under the curse of God, and Jesus is put on a cross and he takes upon all the judgment that you should receive. Like the cross of Jesus Christ screams, I know these people are prideful. The cross of Jesus Christ screams, I know these people think that they can do it all by themselves. Like the cross of Jesus Christ screams like, man, like these people are, think that they're gonna be God unto themselves and they're gonna need a savior. But the way that you, ironically enough, the way that you enter into relationship with the savior of the world is by surrendering to him. This idea that you can be saved by God and not surrender to him is nowhere in the Bible. In fact, one of the ways you can actually tell if you've been saved by God is if you have surrendered to him and you're living a surrendered life. Like, let me encourage you today. Don't be the type of person who's impressed with God, but not enough to surrender your life to him. Like that will surely lead to your destruction. And you may be here today and you may recognize, and you've experienced this and, and you know that actually trying to be God of your life, all the things that you're trying to do, your soul's not meant to carry. And you're actually beating yourself down. You actually don't know how to handle it. You don't know what to do. One of, one of the ministry, my first pastor in Knoxville still, uh, I was 25 years old. 25, I guess, 24 at the time. I was 24 years old. And I'm meeting with this guy who had built several businesses across North Knoxville, very wealthy guys in the church. He's up up there in age, and he says, pastor, I wanna meet with you. Okay. Like, he's a guy that like young people like me, look at me, I wanna be like him. Like he's got it together. Like he's done all this stuff. Like he's the, he's one of the who's who's, you know, and he just starts weeping. He is like, I can't do it anymore. I just can't do it. I can't try to, I can't try to be God anymore. We've all gotta get there. But you are never meant to be God of your own life, that your soul can't handle it. That's why, that's why you might be a reason why you live a life of constant anxiety and constant stress. You're trying to carry things that your life's not meant to carry. And this is what's remarkable though, is that Jesus, a king of the world, the one who died for you. He says that if you are, if you are weighed down by your sin, if you're way down by life, he says, Hey, come. Come on with me. He says, take. Take that off and put my yoke upon you and take my burden on you. My burden's light. It's. He says, I'll carry it for you. But it requires your humility and so what I'm gonna do during this time, like I don't know what's going on in your life. I know that pride is sneaky though, and I know that in moments that you think you're supposed to, like, it's hard to walk the line of being thankful and then being like that turning into pride. The enemy loves making people pride. So I don't know where it is for you. I don't know if you're super prideful about your kids. I don't know if you're super prideful about your job. I don't. I don't know. But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pray that the spirit will search your heart and make known to you the areas that you actually need to surrender. That areas that you might actually just be impressed with God, but not surrender to him areas that. That you think that somehow because of your might, your power and your glory, you were able to make all this work and that the spirit of God would convict your heart. You would repent of that and then you would stand and worship. Okay? So I'm gonna invite you to stay, Steve. I'm gonna pray for you. And when you're ready, stand and worship. If you're here today and you're like, man, I've never surrendered to Jesus at all. Now I'm invite like today's a great day to do that, but you have to humble yourself. You have to bow your knee to him. And the way that you humble yourself and follow Jesus is by turning of your sin, turning from your sin and, and trust him. You recognize that Jesus' way is way better than your way. Your sins not cutting it, and you turn and you start to follow him. All right? So pray with me.