SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to turn to uh Daniel chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we get the opportunity, we had the opportunity this morning to celebrate baptism.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful thing that is.
SPEAKER_00: So uh, and we're actually looking at an old testament uh conversion story.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody in the Old Testament coming to faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually uh Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar was a real person.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we look at the Bible and think, well, these we don't have a real record of these people.
SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of record of King Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: Uh two of the seven ancient wonders of the world were found in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: So the hanging gardens of Babylon, that was Nebuchadnezzar building that for his wife.
SPEAKER_00: And then another one that's attributed to around that time period, maybe to him, is uh his the walls of his fortress.
SPEAKER_00: So I did a little reading about Nebuchadnezzar this week, and one archaeologist wrote that his southern palace, which is the most excavated large building from ancient Babylon, boasts 50 courtyards.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're thinking about just the building and construction material and machinery they had, they built that all by hand.
SPEAKER_00: 50 courtyards and more than 600 rooms in this palace.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, to put it in perspective, Buckingham Palace has 775.
SPEAKER_00: So this was a large structure.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a lot of record of King Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: We have the historical records of his conquest of Israel, his capture of Jerusalem, his destruction of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem, his deportation of Jews to Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: We have all kinds of historical records of his life, but we don't have an historical record other than the Bible for what takes place in chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter four, uh, some people question his authenticity because we don't have it.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar suffered some sort of a mental episode that put him out of commission for several years, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think it was seven, but it's kind of vague as to how long it actually was.
SPEAKER_00: Um and then it ended by him returning to his right mind, faith in the Lord, and return to his former prominence.
SPEAKER_00: And some people say this is apocryphal.
SPEAKER_00: This didn't really happen in the real world.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is not real because they don't have any record of it outside of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think there would be a record of that.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is, is no, you wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't think they would make a record of something like that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh FDR, um, FDR for 12 years hid from the world, from the United States population, that he was dependent on a wheelchair.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a uh, what's the word, the conspiracy of silence with the press to protect him during that time so nobody would know because you wanted to exude power to the rest of the world, particularly the Nazis and the uh um the Russians.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we read this, it uh this is something that is from Nebuchadnezzar's own hand.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote it himself.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see it's in first person, and it's not Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: So Daniel 4 is neither myth nor fairy tale nor an entertaining anecdote.
SPEAKER_00: It is an account intended to reveal the radical grace of God to those who do not deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, it's a long passage.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna honor you and ask you to honor God as we turn our attention to his word and remain seated.
SPEAKER_00: So, this is in Daniel chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.
SPEAKER_00: It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
SPEAKER_00: How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_00: I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.
SPEAKER_00: I saw a dream that made me afraid as I lay in bed, and 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.
SPEAKER_00: Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream.
SPEAKER_00: But they could not make known to me its interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and I told him the dream, saying, O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, 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.
SPEAKER_00: The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these.
SPEAKER_00: I saw and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.
SPEAKER_00: The tree grew and became strong, and its height, its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: Its leaves were beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and it was in it was food for all.
SPEAKER_00: The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
SPEAKER_00: I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, that's an angel he's talking about, came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He proclaimed aloud and said thus, chop down the tree, and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, and scatter its fruit, let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze amid the tender grass of the field.
SPEAKER_00: Let him be wet with the dew of heaven, let his portion be with the beasts and the grass of the earth, let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.
SPEAKER_00: The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, 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.
SPEAKER_00: This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw, and you, O Belteshazzar, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him.
SPEAKER_00: The king answered and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.
SPEAKER_00: Beltashazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to 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 which beasts of the field found shade, and whose branches the birds of the heavens lived.
SPEAKER_00: It is you, O king, who have grown and become strong.
SPEAKER_00: 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 the band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field till seven periods of time pass over him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the interpretation, O king.
SPEAKER_00: It is a decree of the most high which has come upon my Lord the King, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And as 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.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable to you.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?
SPEAKER_00: 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 beasts 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.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagle's feathers, and his nails were like bird's claws.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and 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?
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me.
SPEAKER_00: My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.
SPEAKER_00: We have questions about what actually happened, what transpired, and we trust that you will guide our discussion this morning by your spirit to the things that we need to reflect on as a group and as individual people in this room to guide us and lead us by your spirit and your word.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray that you would guide and lead me.
SPEAKER_00: Um there's just a lot here.
SPEAKER_00: Too much to communicate, and things are gonna fall out of my head.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray that you would direct my words to minister to the people who are here in a way that would cause them to see that you are the Lord most high God and that they would turn their eyes to heaven, that you would be praised, and they would be built up.
SPEAKER_00: Bless us and be with us, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, everything people outside of Christianity often express that they hate about Christianity are the very things that people within Christianity love about the gospel and about Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, people who have experienced the gospel uh adore the following things.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that we are sinners, the world hates that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the Bible says that we are sinners, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ loved us.
SPEAKER_00: Everlasting condemnation waits for those who disobey God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: But for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who sins against God is dead in their trespasses and sins.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: It's by grace you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: Sinners are God's enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still his enemies, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: So there are things that outside of the church people will express that rubs us the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: And then there are things, once you've experienced it, you've seen yourself and you see the gospel of Jesus, it does have an impact on you.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see is Christ is central to our understanding of how God sees us and how God sees us as sinners.
SPEAKER_00: This has always been the way of it.
SPEAKER_00: I've been uh using this quote quite a bit over the past couple of weeks because I love it and I need to hear it as well as other people need to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: It's from a guy named Richard Sibbs, and he said, We have this for a foundational truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in us.
SPEAKER_00: We even hear it trickling down through this passage, the grace of God in Jesus Christ trickling down.
SPEAKER_00: You might not, you might not have seen it, but I had a lot of time to kick this passage around and read it over and over this week.
SPEAKER_00: And there was something that caught my eye.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Daniel 4.17.
SPEAKER_00: And in Daniel 4.17, it talks about the lowliest that God is determined to give.
SPEAKER_00: He gives it to whom he wants, to the lowliest of men, in verse in 4.17.
SPEAKER_00: But knowing what the whole Bible says about the king that's going to sit on the throne, I kind of feel like God is giving a hint, a little nod and a wink, saying, I'm not talking in general.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking specific.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean just I set lowly people into power positions of authority, because that's not the way we always see the world work.
SPEAKER_00: But he has one individual person.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel 4, 17, we read the sentence is by decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Who's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about Jesus, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Who's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the lowliest.
SPEAKER_00: This is in Matthew 11, 29.
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: First Peter 2.24 says, Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's saying that Jesus put himself in our place, taking the consequences for our sin, so that we would be placed in his place and receive the benefits of being the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: So seeing the lowliness of Jesus for our sakes makes Jesus beautiful to us.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just mean you go to heaven when you die, it means that Jesus becomes beautiful and desirable to you, and you want to live for him and live with them.
SPEAKER_00: You want what he wants for the world, you want his vision for the world.
SPEAKER_00: And today, as we're reading this, we get to see the Old Testament version of this.
SPEAKER_00: Not everything has been revealed yet about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's not until Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00: But as we go through this, we read about in the life of Nebuchadnezzar pictures of God's grace to a person who didn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: But God is showing grace to this person.
SPEAKER_00: So Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar's story is a picture of grace because there's no human reason why God should show this kind of favor and this kind of kindness to Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: If you just look at his history with Israel and with Jerusalem, he kind of leveled Jerusalem at one point, abducted these young men and others, and brought them back to Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: He destroyed Solomon's temple.
SPEAKER_00: At one point, he tore down the walls of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fire of all things.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not a person who deserves any grace from God.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, God showed his amazing grace to Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: And you can hear it in Nebuchadnezzar's words at the end of the letter in Daniel chapter 4, verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise 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.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what we're reading in the Old Testament, is a testimony of God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a testimony of his belief in the Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: It reads a little bit like the royal decrees that you've already read in Daniel, but it reads a little bit like the Pauline epistles, where Paul is writing to a group of people and telling them about the grace of God, but more than that, it really is a reflection of kind of modern testimonies.
SPEAKER_00: So I actually did this this week.
SPEAKER_00: As I was reading this, I felt like this feels like a modern testimony.
SPEAKER_00: So I just looked up what is an outline for a modern testimony?
SPEAKER_00: And the modern and the outline for a modern testimony is after, how, and before.
SPEAKER_00: So the beginning of your testimony, you talk about what came uh before.
SPEAKER_00: What was your life like before you came to know Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How did you come to know Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And then after you came to know Jesus, how did your life change?
SPEAKER_00: What have you experienced?
SPEAKER_00: So there's your outline for the morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's like before, how, and after.
SPEAKER_00: So that's really what we decided.
SPEAKER_00: Before, what was your life like before you came to faith?
SPEAKER_00: So Daniel chapter 4, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted nothing to do with the Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: I felt, he felt fine wherever he was.
SPEAKER_00: Uh God came looking for him.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't looking for God.
SPEAKER_00: So God in his grace initiated.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, what does it take?
SPEAKER_00: What does it take for a person to be transformed and converted to faith?
SPEAKER_00: We have this modern myth that if a person has enough evidence, then they're going to change their mind and they're going to become a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to believe if they're given enough evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar is proving that to be false.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at the story we've gotten so far in Daniel, in chapter one of Daniel, he brings these young men in.
SPEAKER_00: These are Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They are head and shoulders better and knowledge and understanding the others.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, these Christians are pretty knowledgeable.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter two, there's a dream he can't interpret.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel, a follower of God, comes in and gives him the dream and tells him what it is.
SPEAKER_00: That's a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter three, he throws Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael into a fire.
SPEAKER_00: While they're in the fire, they get up and start walking around.
SPEAKER_00: A fourth person joins them in the fire and is walking around.
SPEAKER_00: And then when they come out, there's no smoke, there's no burned, singed, anything to do with them.
SPEAKER_00: So Nebuchadnezzar has not just evidence, he has incontrovertible, undeniable proof.
SPEAKER_00: And I guarantee, I think if I saw guys coming out of the fire like that, he would have won me over with that.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, you got me.
SPEAKER_00: I believe it now.
SPEAKER_00: I can't really explain that.
SPEAKER_00: And Nebuchadnezzar actually says that.
SPEAKER_00: As he begins his letter, he wants to show us the signs and wonders that God has showed him.
SPEAKER_00: He had the evidence, but he still didn't believe.
SPEAKER_00: What was holding him back?
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't he believe after chapter three?
SPEAKER_00: You would think he would have.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he tells us in chapter four, verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: What was holding him back?
SPEAKER_00: Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he's able to humble.
SPEAKER_00: It was pride for him.
SPEAKER_00: And for a lot of us, that's that's the case.
SPEAKER_00: This is from Saint Augustine.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Augustine is known as being a very well-known saint from the past in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he said about himself.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I was held before conversion, not with an iron chain, but with the obstinacy of mine own will.
SPEAKER_00: He could see it, but he just didn't want it.
SPEAKER_00: It was pride.
SPEAKER_00: So something else had to happen for Nebuchadnezzar to believe.
SPEAKER_00: He had to be humble.
SPEAKER_00: He had to have his see his broken humanity in a way that he hadn't seen it before.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where we leave him.
SPEAKER_00: And we get into our next question.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar, how did you come to believe?
SPEAKER_00: How did you come to live?
SPEAKER_00: How did God get your attention?
SPEAKER_00: He had a terrifying dream.
SPEAKER_00: And in the dream, what he heard was, you're not just going to lose your kingdom, you're going to lose your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to lose your reason unless you repent.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this fascinating thing is Nebuchadnezzar's looking at his life and all the things that he's enjoyed, and he attributes it all to himself.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way a lot of us really are in life, is God is so generous to us so consistently that we can live our lives with the illusion that we don't need him.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Nebuchadnezzar is.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar's, what's happening to him is he's having to see that he's dependent on God literally for everything.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel, actually, in verse 27, gives him a call to repent, believe, and obey God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So God says he's going to do this, and Daniel says it, repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe God will relent on that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you.
SPEAKER_00: Break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, repentance and belief and obedience, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where that ends, a call to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: But then Nebuchadnezzar in the next verse, Daniel 4, 29 to 30, he answers that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I actually looked that up because sometimes words have a lot of meanings from one language to the next.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought maybe it was just he said something, like Nebuchadnezzar said, but the word is actually he replied.
SPEAKER_00: He responded.
SPEAKER_00: So he's responding to what has just been said by the Lord and by Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: And this is his response.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of 12 months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, and the king answered, he responded and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?
SPEAKER_00: He's responding to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then in the very next verse, 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 beasts of the field.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God do this?
SPEAKER_00: Like the mental illness that he was facing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Nebuchadnezzar didn't really have the moral categories that the Jews did or that we would.
SPEAKER_00: He made the rules for himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a rule follower, he's a rule maker.
SPEAKER_00: So how does a person like this become humbled?
SPEAKER_00: How does a person who thinks he's God like be humbled?
SPEAKER_00: He's made animal-like.
SPEAKER_00: There's something wonderful about human beings.
SPEAKER_00: We are creatures.
SPEAKER_00: We're like the animals in certain ways, but we also are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about us where there's the spark of divinity, there's life in us, there's reason in us that's different from the animal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So he is given the status of an animal, the mindset of an animal, the lifestyle of an animal, the appearance of an animal.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, seems lower than a man.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of disease was this?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was just a spiritual affliction, but uh there is a thing called boanthropy, where a person thinks they're like a cow.
SPEAKER_00: Uh lycanthropy, uh, where a person thinks they're somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: What is that in Latin?
SPEAKER_00: Lycanthropy.
SPEAKER_00: Werewolf, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is where we encounter God, is He is meeting us in our brokenness with His healing.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Tim Keller said.
SPEAKER_00: He said, It's only when you reach the very bottom, when everything falls apart, when all your schemes and resources are broken and exhausted, that you are finally open to learning how to completely depend on God.
SPEAKER_00: As is often said, you never realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.
SPEAKER_00: You must lose your life to find your life.
SPEAKER_00: So, how does that happen for us?
SPEAKER_00: How does God humble us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, some of it is we we see our weakness and our dependence through times when we've really messed something up, or through something we thought we we thought we would never do something and we did it.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to see the brokenness of our soul, of our morals, of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We get caught up in a substance abuse issue that we never thought we would fall into.
SPEAKER_00: We experience a moral flaw.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we have things going on internally that we can't control.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was a study that was done in 2024 that just talked about people getting to the end of their rope and their jobs.
SPEAKER_00: It said 55% of corporate executives suffer from some sort of mental illness.
SPEAKER_00: Just carrying that all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We get to the end of our rope and we turn our eyes to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Turn our eyes to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: No, I want you to see this about Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: He acknowledges his need, he looks to the one who can rescue him, and he receives the grace that he needs.
SPEAKER_00: He simply lifts his eyes to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't make any moral reform, he doesn't make any promises.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, he just looks to heaven and says, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: I have to look to you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't, this is God's project.
SPEAKER_00: He rescued Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so how does this conversion happen, this change in our core as we encounter God and his goodness in a way that we thought God could never be good to us?
SPEAKER_00: Did it work?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar tells us in the very last verse, Daniel 437, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise 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 him.
SPEAKER_00: God humbled him to rescue him.
SPEAKER_00: And we all come up against that.
SPEAKER_00: Especially religious people.
SPEAKER_00: Religious people bump up all the time against these things that we think, I'm doing it well, I'm doing it well, and then we blow it.
SPEAKER_00: And then we try really hard to do better.
SPEAKER_00: And it never, ever works.
SPEAKER_00: It may work for a time.
SPEAKER_00: After a while, it creates the uh the illusion that I'm doing it right.
SPEAKER_00: But in general, we don't.
SPEAKER_00: And this is true of every religion.
SPEAKER_00: It's true of the legalistic end of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: It's also true of other religions in general.
SPEAKER_00: This is from John Stott in his book, The Cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's a British pastor and author, and he describes uh the unique upside-down, irresistible kingdom instituted at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And he had a conversation with a young man who was a Muslim, and in that it's very duty-bound.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the story as he tells it.
SPEAKER_00: Irresistible is the very word an Iranian student.
SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing all this stuff in Iran right now?
SPEAKER_00: There are Christians in Iran.
SPEAKER_00: There are Christians in the rest of the world who are from Iran.
SPEAKER_00: Irresistible is the very word an Iranian student used when telling me of his conversion to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Brought up to read the Quran, say his prayers, and lead a good life, he nevertheless knew that he was separated from God by his sins.
SPEAKER_00: When Christian friends brought him to church and encouraged him to read the Bible, he learned that Jesus Christ had died for his forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: For me, the offer was irresistible and heaven sent, he said.
SPEAKER_00: And he cried to God to have mercy on him through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Almost immediately, the burden of my past life was lifted.
SPEAKER_00: I felt as I felt as if a huge weight had gone.
SPEAKER_00: With the relief and sense of lightness came incredible joy.
SPEAKER_00: And at last it had happened.
SPEAKER_00: I was free of my past.
SPEAKER_00: I knew that God had forgiven me and I felt clean.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to shout and tell everybody it was through the cross that the character of God came clearly into focus for him, and that he found Islam's missing dimension, the intimate fatherhood of God and the deep assurance of sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you would say the same.
SPEAKER_00: You grew up in a legalistic environment and you tried your best to justify yourself by your actions and you couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And then turning to Jesus, you found grace.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, it wasn't a religious background.
SPEAKER_00: It was just one day looking at yourself and recognizing I need God.
SPEAKER_00: I need God.
SPEAKER_00: I know a young man at Clemson who was on the football team, and uh he was larger than life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna call him Michael just because he may have an online presence and somebody may try to find him.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so Michael uh was a big guy.
SPEAKER_00: He was a defensive uh end, and uh he was a partier.
SPEAKER_00: So he would go downtown at Clemson on the weekends and uh after the games and on Sunday and on during the week when he could.
SPEAKER_00: And uh everybody loved him.
SPEAKER_00: So he would go, he would get behind the counter, make drinks, pour drinks for people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he had a lot of uh lady friends, uh, but he had gotten involved with a Bible study with some Christians on the team, and they liked him too because he came.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he ended up doing is he would go to FCA and play the FCA crowd there, and then he'd go to the bars and he would play that crowd.
SPEAKER_00: And then on Saturdays for the games, he would play that crowd and be who everybody expected him to be, and felt like he was doing really well.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was this one Saturday he talked about where he said he woke up after a night of partying and just felt disgusted with himself.
SPEAKER_00: And for the first time, he actually prayed.
SPEAKER_00: He lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said he rolled over in bed, put his feet on the floor, and stood up as a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: He experienced the power of the gospel in that, the freedom of that, and the transformation of that.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we talk about becoming Christians, yes, there's freedom.
SPEAKER_00: But when you experience the grace of God, it's transformative for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't get to see how this plays out in Nebuchadnezzar's life.
SPEAKER_00: This probably, there were two times in Nebuchadnezzar's life, you know, we have everything recorded except there are these two 10-year periods where we don't have anything recorded in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's likely that in the latter of those two, which is 10 years before he died, so the 10 years it's blank until he dies.
SPEAKER_00: It's likely that this took place in his latter years.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't have a real record of that.
SPEAKER_00: But we do see the great change that takes place here.
SPEAKER_00: One of those is in Daniel himself here.
SPEAKER_00: He actually has this great affection for Nebuchadnezzar of all people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I came in and I was Daniel, and Nebuchadnezzar says this dream and says, and God says, I'm gonna take you down, you're you're gonna, I'm gonna remove you, I would say, serves you right, you pagan king.
SPEAKER_00: You're God's gonna bring you down just like he should have a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: Like I would go off on it.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And you may think, well, that's because he thought he would get killed.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's that.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Daniel in Babylon?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Jews had been disobedient, and God brought judgment on the Jews, and he brought some of them into Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: They were exiles because of their sin, but God in his grace had met them in the place of their judgment with grace.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel, having experienced this grace and seen Nebuchadnezzar as somebody who God is dealing with, has great compassion on him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that kind of compassion for the broken, for the lost, for people who are struggling?
SPEAKER_00: If you have experienced the grace of God in your life, then you're going to have compassion and show grace to those who are hurting.
SPEAKER_00: Great assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Not just great humility, great assurance.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament says this being confident of this, that he who began a good work will carry it on to the day of completion.
SPEAKER_00: He began a good work in you, he'll carry it on.
SPEAKER_00: That's where my assurance comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know where my assurance comes from?
SPEAKER_00: I've got a good wife.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: I do, but that's not where my assurance comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my assurance comes from the fact that I'm a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: That's not where my assurance comes from.
SPEAKER_00: My assurance comes from the fact that God began a good work in me.
SPEAKER_00: His hand has been upon me, and I trust that he's going to carry it on to the end.
SPEAKER_00: It's not up to me, it's up to him.
SPEAKER_00: So great assurance, great humility, and uh great impact.
SPEAKER_00: Grace creates conversation partners that you didn't expect.
SPEAKER_00: Just by living out the grace of God in your life, it creates opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: A pastor in New York City told a story of a lady who showed up at his church for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And uh she said, I've never been to church before, but I wanted to come to yours.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, why did you show up today?
SPEAKER_00: And this is the story she told.
SPEAKER_00: She said she had gotten a job with a large firm in New York City.
SPEAKER_00: It's a dog eat dog world.
SPEAKER_00: And she made, uh, she wanted to do really well.
SPEAKER_00: She overworked, and she ended up messing up something huge.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, it was a career-ending mistake for her.
SPEAKER_00: It was going to be over.
SPEAKER_00: But then she found that nothing came of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so she went to her employees and she said, What happened here?
SPEAKER_00: And they all said, Well, the person who's over you took all the heat for all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I knew something about New York City.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody does that.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody does that in the corporate world.
SPEAKER_00: Is if somebody under you makes a mistake, that's their mistake.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to take any responsibility for it.
SPEAKER_00: So she went into this man's office and she said, Hey, I heard this from people.
SPEAKER_00: I know I made a career career-ending mistake here, and you covered for me.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you do that?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, you know, you're young and getting your feet under you.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought I would give you a leg up and just kind of take the heat.
SPEAKER_00: And I've earned some bone, you know, brownie points here.
SPEAKER_00: I've got some longevity, and that's why I did it.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, I don't buy it.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Because I've known plenty of people who've been here for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: They have all these chips built up, they've got the cred.
SPEAKER_00: They would never do this.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you do it?
SPEAKER_00: So he hemmed and hawed and told another story to her.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Nope, I don't buy it.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you do it?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, I'll tell you why I did it.
SPEAKER_00: I did it because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And I have a savior who took my sin with him to the cross and he paid for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: And when I saw you come in and you know make this mistake, I decided I was going to be like my savior and pay for yours and cover over yours.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, That's why I came to your church, because I said, Where do you go to church?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You come to he comes to this one.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel gives us that assurance.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel gives us that kind of uh humility, and the gospel through us creates this great impact.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a curious thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit interesting as the passage as we're reading through it.
SPEAKER_00: Is why is this why is this testimony in the middle of Daniel?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's writing to his covenant people.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this here to begin with?
SPEAKER_00: And what God is showing them is I have your back.
SPEAKER_00: I told you I was gonna bless you.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna bless you in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: The way I was gonna bless you is I've been having a conversation with Nebuchadnezzar all these years, all these years, working on his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think you've been safe here?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think you have the good life that you have here?
SPEAKER_00: It's because I've been at work behind the scenes doing something that you never would have expected.
SPEAKER_00: So God is working in you.
SPEAKER_00: God is working in our government.
SPEAKER_00: God is working in places you can't conceive.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've got a plan, it's going to come together, and to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: He's watching over us.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.