Daniel 4 - The God Who Humbles

Main Idea: We should humble ourselves before our sovereign God.

WE HUMBLE OURSELVES BY ACKNOWLEDGING THAT GOD KNOWS BEST

• He has the best plans for the nations.

• He has the best plans for us.

WE HUMBLE OURSELVES BY ACCEPTING GOD’S DISCIPLING

• We turn from sin to His righteousness.

• We turn to the Savior in troubles.

WE HUMBLE OURSELVES BY ADORING OUR SOVEREIGN GOD

• We recognize His works.

• We recognize His character.

• We share Him with others.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

We are returning to our study that we've been in, in Daniel 1 through 6, and looking at what in the world do we do in a wicked world as the people of God?

And as flawed, sinful people ourselves, how do we interact with this world's kingdoms and cultures? And the Book of Daniel deals so much with this. This was four Jewish boys that were kidnapped and castrated in about five, about 604 BC or so.

They were taken hundreds of miles away from home. They were forced to serve in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And they decided to live for God despite their circumstances.

And they show us an example of what it looks like to thrive in exile, to live for the Lord in a culture that does not.

But in our study, we've not only seen how God was working with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, but we've also seen how God was working with King Nebuchadnezzar. That God doesn't just care about like you, he also cares about the politicians.

And I know for some of you, that's a bad word. But God also cares about every single person and includes those in leadership. And so we have seen how God was working with Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar had been shown a dream in chapter two, illustrating the remainder of human history, including specific elements of the Medo-Persian Empire.

From decades later, the Greek Empire begun by Alexander the Great after that, and even the Roman Empire.

And God had made it clear to this human ruler that he was truly the one in charge and that Nebuchadnezzar was just a temporarily assigned leader and a plan that would last far, far longer than Nebuchadnezzar.

However, despite repeated signs from God that Nebuchadnezzar was not, in fact, a god himself, as the Egyptians and Babylonians often told their kings, oh yeah, you're a god, you're a small god, you're not an almighty god, but you're a god.

And despite God's best laid out plans and moments to show Nebuchadnezzar that he was not god, he still acted like it.

He demanded worship, he demanded complete obedience, and prayer, and adoration, and he just didn't realize that there was someone that was more important than him that was in charge.

And in today's chapter, we will see that God is able to do with human rulers as he sees fit.

As we've been walking through, if you're new to Tabernacle, how we go through the Bible, I don't just like open up to a page or something on a Monday and go, okay, well, here's what we're going to talk about this coming Sunday.

Every week as we go through, we're just going next chapter and next verse through the Bible. So this was not specifically intended to be on this day before election and Tuesday.

But it will nonetheless give us some comfort and some challenges personally and some encouragement as we look at the Word of God. Because today's message isn't just about the bloviated pride of someone 2,500 years ago. It's also about our own pride.

Pride that causes us to look down on and condemn and criticize others. Pride that causes us to brag about our own accomplishments, our own purity of motives and actions while degrading others.

Pride that refuses to allow anyone to say anything wrong about us and refuses to allow us to shut our own mouths when it comes to the faults of others.

As we'll see from the life of Nebuchadnezzar, pride is not just a personality quirk, but a declaration of war against the only true God.

Pride declares, I don't care what God's word says, I will think and say and do what I want because I'm right and I'm important. But as we know from Proverbs, pride is one of the seven notable sins that God uniquely despises and hates.

James 4 tells us that God will resist us if we are operating in pride. And even those that don't know much of the Bible have heard, pride goes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

Do you want God to hate your motivations and actions, to resist you and for you to experience destruction in your life? If you don't want those things, then we must humble ourselves before our sovereign God.

We must humble ourselves before our sovereign God. We'll see how that looked in the life of Nebuchadnezzar a few millennia ago, and discover what it looks like for us to humble ourselves today. Let's take a moment and pray.

And I'd encourage you and I challenge you. Ask the Lord, God, would you show me who I really am today? Warts and all, faults and all, show me who I really am so that I know how I need to respond to you.

Let's pray together. God, forgive us for our sin against you, because we know there is no one who does not sin. We have sinned and done wrong.

We have been wicked and, Lord, we want to return to you with all of our heart and our mind. Thank you that you hear our prayers. We want to see you powerfully move and work in our hearts and attitudes and lives this morning.

Lord, may you help those that do not yet know you as Lord and Savior to be saved from their sins today. And may you help your children to rejoice in living in humility before you and others.

Thank you that because of Jesus Christ and his love that he showed us on the cross, we can pray to you and call you not just our God, but our heavenly Father. We love you. Please speak to our hearts this morning.

Amen. Well, we're going to be reading through Daniel chapter four. If you've got a copy of God's word, please open that up to Daniel.

If you've got a phone or something with a Bible app, tap on over there. It's in the Old Testament, about little, about three quarters of the way through the Old Testament. We'll also have the verses here on the screen for you.

Let's read through, and then at the end, we'll look at the points for the sermon today. First, here's a letter. Most of the Old Testament, if you know, is written by the Jewish people, by the Hebrews.

And here's one of the few sections that was not written by a Jewish individual. King Nebuchadnezzar, to those of every people, nation, and language who live on the whole earth, may your prosperity increase.

I'm pleased to tell you about the miracles and wonders the Most High God has done for me. Can I tell you that that ought to be your prayer and your testimony to others as well. Are you happy?

Are you pleased to tell other people about what Jesus is doing and has done for you? How great are his miracles and how mighty his wonders? His kingdom is an eternal kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation.

Human kingdoms, human kings, if you will, in America today, human presidents or governors or mayors, it's only for a short time, but God's rule never ends. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.

I had a dream, and it frightened me while in my bed. The images and visions in my mind alarmed me. During this time period in human history, it was not often, but sometimes, God spoke to people through dreams.

Nowadays, you have a bad dream. You dream something weird, like we're going to read about with Nebuchadnezzar. You might think, had some bad crap.

But during this time, this was a way in which God, at specific points, wanted to tell specific individuals something. This is much like what we read in chapter 2 as well. Verse number 6.

So I issued a decree to bring all the wise men of Babylon to me in order that they might make the dream's interpretation known to me.

When the magicians, mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, but they could not make its interpretation known to me.

These were individuals, some of them that were intelligent and knew much about perhaps science and the ways that different stars would align and what that meant for the different seasons of the year, but they couldn't tell Nebuchadnezzar what was

going on in his soul. As I mentioned back in chapter 2, there is one person who knows what's going on on the inside of you, and it's not a fortune teller. It's not whoever's writing the astrology column in a newspaper.

There's one who knows what's going on on the inside of you, and that's the Lord. It's Jesus. It's turned to him to see what's true about us.

It says this in verse number 8. Finally, Daniel named Belteshazzar after the name of my God. He worshipped the Babylonian god Bel, and so he had named Daniel, which was a name, a Hebrew name, declaring Yahweh Elohim as God.

But here Nebuchadnezzar had named Daniel Belteshazzar. He says, in a spirit of the holy gods is in him. He says, he's got some connection with the spiritual realm.

And so I called him in. He came before me and I told him the dream.

He said, Belteshazzar, head of the magicians, because I know that you have the spirit of the holy gods and that no mystery puzzles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I saw and its interpretation.

Certainly as Nebuchadnezzar is interacting, even though he's heard over and over and over again about the one true God and how the one true God can work and act, he still just thinks that God is one of many.

And so he follows and listens and tries to get advice from everyone else before finally turning to the Lord. How many times in our life do we do the same? That we turn to everything else in our life before we turn to prayer?

We might ask all of our friends before we talk to our one spiritual friend. Let's turn to the Lord first. Let's turn to His word first to determine our actions.

Here is this dream that he said in verse 10, in the visions of my mind, as I was lying in bed, I saw this. There was a tree in the middle of the earth and it was very tall. The tree grew large and strong.

Its top reached to the sky and it was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful. Its fruit was abundant and on it was food for all.

Wild animals found shelter under it. The birds of the sky lived in its branches and every creature was fed from it. As I was lying in the bed, I also saw in the visions of my mind a watcher.

This would be an angel, a holy one coming down from heaven. He called out loudly, cut down the tree and chop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit.

Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground and with a band of iron and bronze around it in the tender grass of the field.

Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share the plants of the earth with the animals. Let his mind be changed from that of a human and let him be given the mind of an animal for seven periods of time.

This word is by decree of the watchers, the angels, and the decision is by command from the holy ones. This is so that the living will know that the most high is ruler over human kingdoms.

He gives them to anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people over them. Go back just one, two slides for me now. This is something that every Christian in America, one truth that we always need to be reminding ourselves of.

God is the one that is ruler over human kingdoms. God never drops the ball with where a nation is at. He has his sovereign plans and the big things that he's working out, but he's the one that is the ruler, and he gives them to anyone he wants.

And then the next slide there, and he sits over them the lowliest of people. And certainly that's been true. As you look at world history, I think there's one town in Michigan or Wisconsin that elected a dog as its mayor.

You can look that up. True story. And I don't know how that fits in with that verse, but that's an interesting little tidbit for you.

I want you to remember. On Tuesday, no matter what happens, God was the one that was in charge. God's the one that sets it up.

Let's go on to verse 18. This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had.

Now, Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because none of the wise men in my kingdom can make the interpretation known to me, but you can, because you have a spirit of the holy gods. That is, the breath of God is in Daniel.

If you're a Christian today, the holy spirit lives in you. Like the same holy spirit that was working in the life of Daniel is working in your life as well.

When people want to hear from God, when they want to know what God's word says, when they want to have spiritual encouragement, are they turning to you?

The only way to foster that is to continually be in the word of God, to learn what he says, to learn how he thinks, so that when we talk to others, when we give advice, when people are coming by, we're not just spouting off Bryon's opinion.

We're not just saying, Shelley says, but instead we're saying, this is what the word of God says. The Bible says this. You have that same spirit of God living in you.

What are you doing with it? Verse number 19, then Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, was stunned for a moment and his thoughts alarmed him. The king said, Belteshazzar, don't let the dream or its interpretation alarm you.

When you're asking someone like, hey, God's given this message, what does it mean? And the person's a little freaked out. I don't know if I'd be pressing as much as Nebuchadnezzar.

I might be like, okay, you take some time, I'm going to go over here far away from the scary interpretation, but Nebuchadnezzar presses in.

Biltashazzar answered, my Lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you and its interpretation to your enemies. He's saying, this is not good news for you as the king.

And so I wish because I love you, because I serve in your kingdom, I wish that this would happen to someone else, some enemy nation. And I wish it didn't happen to you.

Verse number 20, the tree you saw, which grew large and strong, whose top reached the sky and was visible to the whole earth and whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant and on it was food for all, under it the wild animals lived and in its

branches, the birds of the sky lived. That tree is you, your majesty, for you have become great and strong. Your greatness has grown and even reaches the sky and your dominion extends to the ends of the earth.

I'm sure that part Nebuchadnezzar was like, yeah, keep going, that's great. Keep talking, I'm great.

Verse 23, the king saw a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven and saying cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground and with a band of iron and bronze around it and the tender grass of the field, let him

be drenched with dew from the sky and share food with the wild animals for seven periods of time. This is the interpretation, your majesty, and this is the decree of the most high that has been issued against my lord, the king.

You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals.

You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time until you acknowledge that the most high is ruler over human kingdoms and he gives them to anyone he wants.

He says, in essence, you're going to the loony bin. You're going to lose your mind. And as you look nowadays at some of the psychological whatever, this is a condition that would be known as Bowenthropy.

This was actually something that was specifically remarked about Nebuchadnezzar's son that he went through this same type of thing himself, that he literally thought that he was an animal and behaved in that way.

It's not often like remarked about rulers. You know, no one writes in their highlight reel. Oh, and for the last seven years, I went nutso.

They don't normally put that, but it is even remarked about Nebuchadnezzar's son that he also went through this same time period. This would have been in about the last decade, 10 to 15 years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign in Babylon. Verse number 26.

As for the command to leave the trees stump with its roots, your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that heaven rules. Therefore, may my advice seem good to you, my king.

Separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity. Go back just one slide for me real quick.

I do want to note, notice that what Daniel doesn't say is you are a king, not a prophet. You're a king, not a priest. And so you don't have to follow God's word.

You don't have to follow God's laws. He says, if you want to not undergo the punishment of God, separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right and separate yourself from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy.

As the people of God, may we always be encouraging, yeah, perhaps our mayor doesn't have to be a pastor. If any of you nominate me to be the mayor of Baltimore, we're going to have some very stern talkings too. I am not ready for this.

Certainly, that our local leaders don't need to be amazing spiritual leaders. But as we look at the Old and the New Testament, the overarching theme that we see again and again is we should advocate for righteousness from everyone.

It doesn't matter the realm that it's in. May we encourage all to follow God's work and God's ways. And so, I'd encourage you, no matter who gets voted in on Tuesday or Saturday or February or whenever, pray for them to walk with God.

If they don't know Jesus, and maybe that's proven through how they talk or how they act or the things that they write down, pray for them to know Jesus. Pray that they would be saved. Pray that they would follow God's way and not just their way.

That they would follow what the Lord has for them, not just what the people sponsoring them or donating to their cause. Pray that they would follow God's way. Verse number 28.

All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. This is how it happened.

Verse 29, at the end of 12 months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king exclaimed, is this not Babylon the great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and from my majestic glory?

While the words were still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it's declared that the kingdom has departed from you, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time until you acknowledge that

the most high is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants. At that moment, the message against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people. He goes mad, and as his food, he eats grass like cattle.

His body was drenched with dew from the sky until his hair grew like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird claws.

I don't know if you've ever seen in perhaps the Guinness Book of World Records, the pictures of those that have the record for longest nails. It is gnarly and disgusting. I would never show you guys a picture of that.

Grosses me out. Someone that has no personal care, no personal hygiene. And I know we've got some middle schoolers in here.

I'm not necessarily talking about you guys, but genuinely someone that gives no care, that does not even view themselves as human because their mind is so warped and twisted. And this was what Nebuchadnezzar was going through.

His hair, it's matted, it's all stuck together. I don't know if you've seen eagle's feathers, but you know, there's no getting through that. It's the wind is there to catch that.

It helps them with updraft and being able to fly everywhere. And that's kind of like the consistency that was for Nebuchadnezzar's hair and his nails never clipped or trimmed. It just grows into basically like claws.

Verse number 34. But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar looked up to heaven and my sanity returned to me.

Then I praised the most high and honored and glorified him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing.

You are not as important as you think you are in comparison with God. You think you can put off God's plans. You think you can put off obedience to God or turning to him as your savior or following him with your life.

But his kingdom, his dominion, his way, his will is what we are called to follow. We are the created. We are not the creator.

He is, and so all the inhabitants of the earth, they're counted as nothing. He does what he wants with the army of heaven. Even the spiritual beings, the angels and demons, God commands.

How much more ought we, lowly flesh and blood, temporary, one day to die? How much more ought we to follow the Lord? Cezanne, the inhabitants of the earth, there is no one who can block his hand or say to him, what have you done?

God knows more than you know. God's got better plans than your plans. Let's trust him.

Verse 36, At that time, my sanity returned to me, and my majesty and splendor returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and my nobles sought me out. I was reestablished over my kingdom, and even more greatness came to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the king of the heavens, because all his works are true, and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

Think again, that verse in James, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So what do we do as a result of all of this? We have to humble ourselves before our sovereign God.

But what's our game plan? What's our battle plan? How do we humble ourselves?

Well, number one, Jesus is our perfect example of humility, and then we're gonna look at three ways that Jesus was humble, and from the passage, what Nebuchadnezzar has for us.

Don't worry, by the way, this should be, Lord willing, the very, very end of the message, very brief. So we want to look first. How does Jesus show us about humility?

First, in Matthew 11, in verses 28 through 30, Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart.

If Jesus is humble, he didn't come to earth and say, here's what all of you deserve because of your wickedness, and I've come to bring the hammer down on you.

No, no, he came, he loved, he lived with us, he walked with us, he didn't bring down the fire and brimstone on top of us, and instead he died for our sins in our place. He was humble, and so we ought to follow him in his humility.

Philippians chapter two, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he'd come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.

Jesus' humility interacted with how he treated us. It influenced how he interacted with his heavenly father that he obeyed.

Matthew 26 and verse 39, Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane fell face down and prayed, My father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Jesus didn't insist on his own way or his own greatness.

Instead, he said, I want the will of God to be done. So these three brief points here at the end, and then we'll close. First, we humble ourselves by acknowledging that God knows best.

This was what Nebuchadnezzar did not listen to and did not obey. We can see that God has the best plans for the nations. Saw this as we walked through everything that God said about the plans for Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece and Rome.

And as he reiterated to Nebuchadnezzar about all of the good things, all the people that were fed, all of the great accomplishments that Nebuchadnezzar had experienced in Babylon.

God has the best plans for the nations, and he wants there to be justice, that there would be punishment for sin, and he wants there to be mercy, that people would be cared for that are in need.

And all human nations are headed towards combining into one human kingdom that then Christ will come and reign over. And you can read about that all through scripture.

But the point is this, God has a plan for the nations, and God has a plan for America even this week. Psalm 47 verses 8 and 9 says, God reigns over the nations. He's seated on his holy throne.

The nobles of the peoples have assembled with the people of the God of Abraham for the leaders of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted.

In John 19 and verse 11, Jesus said to Pontius Pilate who condemned Christ to death on a cross, he said, you would have no authority over me at all, Jesus answered him, if it hadn't been given you from above. God is the one that is moving in nations.

And while we certainly don't understand all of what God is doing in our world today, as we read back through the books of Habakkuk and many other books of scripture, we can go, God, like, why did you allow this to happen? Why did you allow this army?

Why did you allow this ruler? We need to realize God is God, and we are not, we humble ourselves by saying, God, I don't know what you're doing, but I accept it.

If God gives us opportunities to have increasing freedom and to share our faith and to live out our lives as we feel like God would have us to, wonderful, amazing, that comes from the hand of God.

If God wants us to go through perhaps more difficult times where we don't have perhaps the, you know, financial freedom that we once did, or where maybe it makes us stand out a bit more, if we stand for some biblical values and say what God says,

that is also the plan of God if he has that for our nation. So let's trust that God knows what he's doing with America and Maryland. Not only does God have the best plans for nations, he's got the best plans for us.

And we can see that even as he's interacting with Nebuchadnezzar. He didn't go through all of that with him so that Nebuchadnezzar would just be humiliated. He did it so that Nebuchadnezzar would know God and that God rules over everything.

And God has that same plan for you, not to make you go insane, but God has the plan that you would know him.

God has the plan for you to be saved, that you would turn from your sin, repent of your wickedness, and turn to Jesus in faith and say, God, please forgive me. I've been imperfect. I've been flawed.

And I'm choosing to follow you and your way. You are my Lord and my master. Will you save me?

And the Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you have any questions about that, I would love to talk with you after the service today or maybe at an appointment this week.

God's plan for you also includes the local church, by the way. Paul tells Timothy that Jesus established the church as the pillar and ground of the truth. The Bible says that the church is the bride of Christ.

I've mentioned it before. You got problems with Samantha. You have problems with my wife.

We are not going to be simpatico. But to love Christ is to love and to be a part of his bride. God's plan for you is the local church.

And God's plan for you is that you would know and rejoice in him for all eternity. God does not plan for you to just one day die.

And that's it instead, as we would read in the book of in the book to the Corinthians, that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And I'm so thankful for that hope of heaven. Today, do you act as though God knows best?

Do you obey him? Do you follow what his word says about your habits, words, relationships, and finances?

If you don't follow what God's plans are for you that are explicitly written in his word, don't expect your life to follow the trajectory that he wants for you.

As he says in Jeremiah 29, I know the plans I have for you, this is the Lord's declaration, plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. He says, you will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. So God has the best plans for the nations, the best plans for us, and we humble ourselves secondly by accepting God's discipling. This was what Nebuchadnezzar did not do.

He did not turn from his sin and instead he remained in it. Today, we ought to turn from sin to his righteousness.

James 1.21 says, therefore ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

Colossians 3 tells us to put to death what belongs to our earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry, to put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from our mouths.

He says, do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices.

And he says, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another.

Just as the Lord's forgiven you, you are also to forgive, and above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. We must turn from sin to the righteousness of Christ.

You're never walking in humility before God while simultaneously choosing to live in rebellion against him. If we're to humble ourselves before God, we must turn from our sins to accept the righteousness of Christ and walk in it.

But not only are we to turn to righteousness from sin, we're also to turn to the Savior and troubles. When Nebuchadnezzar came to a census, he didn't just change his actions, he looked to God and acknowledged God. And we are to do the same.

1 Peter chapter 4 and verses 12 to 13 says, dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you.

Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.

In your trials, you can either blame and hate and reject and ignore God, or you can humbly accept that things will happen in your life that you don't like, and you can choose to turn to the Lord anyway.

It does crack me up sometimes when I tell my kids, specifically my son who's four, like, hey, we're going to be doing this today, or hey, it's time to go to bed. And I get the, no, I don't want to do that. This is the worst.

I'm so sad, the worst is when he goes, I miss mommy. And I'm like, listen, mommy would tell you the exact same thing if she were here. And we do that to God.

God says, here's the plan that I have for you. Here's what I want you to walk through. And we just go, oh, God, I wish I was in charge.

I wish, and we don't realize he's got the good plans and he's the one that we can turn to in our troubles. Takes humility because it says, I'm not God. I'm not the one who should be calling the shots, but you are.

And then lastly, today, we humble ourselves by adoring our sovereign God, just like Nebuchadnezzar's response at the end of it, where he just went on a praise fest about the Lord. First, we recognize his works.

I think of the song, Count Your Many Blessings. You want to humble yourself before God, realize everything that he has done.

When upon life's billows, your tempest tossed, when you're discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Look at what God has done in your life and thank him for it. Tell others about it. Thank God for his works.

He has saved you. He has redeemed you. He has put clothes on your back and shoes on your feet.

He's given you a home. He's given you people that care about you. Thank God for his works.

Secondly, recognize God's character. Even as Nebuchadnezzar talks about God's works are true. His ways are just.

He is the great king of the heavens. Realize who God is. Recognize his character.

It is a humbling thing to recognize that there is someone who is more kind than you, more just and holy than you, more truthful than you.

And he knows every single time that you have fallen short, lost your temper, gossiped or disparaged someone else. And a thousand other failures. And yet he still loves you.

Want to be humble? Realize who your God is and who you are in comparison. Let that lead you to have sympathy and forgiveness for others as God has that for you.

Think back to Isaiah and Isaiah 6 as he sees God in all of his glory and he goes, woe is me because I am an unclean person and I live in the middle of a bunch of unclean people and I'm not worthy to be in front of this God.

May we have that mindset as we approach God and we go, God, you are incredible and amazing and holy in every way. And I don't deserve to come to you, but you have invited me to come to you.

God, will you forgive me and will you help me to live for you and to love and to forgive others? Then lastly today, we share him with others. You want to be humble?

Share Jesus with other people.

Even as Nebuchadnezzar did with his advisors and his nobles, and he's writing to back and all the way in verse number one, where he's like, hey, all the people and nations and languages, I'm going to tell you about what the most high has done.

We, you and I today in 2024, at work tomorrow with our friends, with our family this upcoming weekend, we ought to share Jesus with others. Can I tell you one of the big ways that pride shows up in my life? I get scared to share my faith.

And because my faith, my job, why I'm on the East Coast, because all of that is tied together, it means that sometimes I get nervous to answer when people ask me what my job is. But what is that? It's pride.

It's pride that I'm scared to mention, that I've given my life to talk about Jesus in the Bible. I'm scared of people's opinions and judgments, scared that they might think that I'm trying to like shove ill will down their throats.

But if I truly love Jesus, then I've got to talk about Him. I'm not nervous to talk about Samantha. I'm proud of her.

I can talk to you all day about my wife. Other family members, maybe I might not be so quick to own. But today, are you proud of Jesus?

Or are you proud of other people's opinion of you? Let's share Jesus with others because He is Lord. He is good.

He is forgiving. He has good plans, and He wants to change people's lives for the better. Today, we must, we should humble ourselves before our sovereign Lord.

We saw what happened in the life of Nebuchadnezzar when he wasn't humble. We just end up making a mess of our own life when we don't submit in humility to the Lord. Today, I want to ask you these.

Are you being humble in accepting God's plans for our nation and for your individual life? Are you being humble in following God's way and rejecting sin in your life? Are you being humble in worshiping God for who He is and what He's done?

And are you being humble in sharing Jesus with your circles of influence? Today, the choice before us are are we gonna declare war on God through our pride, or are we going to humble ourselves before our sovereign God?