Return to Sanity
Dan 4 Mar 11, 2012
Intro:
A young woman was seeking some help: Pastor, I have a besetting sin, and I want your help. I come to church on Sunday and can’t help thinking I’m the prettiest girl in the congregation. I know I ought not to think that, but I can’t help it. I want you to help me with it. The pastor replied, Mary, don’t worry about it. In your case it’s not a sin. It’s just a horrible mistake.
A deacon, who was full of himself, was teaching a boy’s Sunday school class. He was working hard to stress the importance of living a Christian life. With an air of arrogance he asked, Why do people call me a Christian? After an awkward silence one of the little guys said, Maybe it's because they don't know you.
Let me suggest you consider the difference between dogs and cats. The master pets a dog, and the dog wags its tail and thinks, He must be a god. But the master pets his cat, and the cat purrs, shuts its eyes and thinks to itself, I must be a god.
Pride:
As we walk through this season of Lent, preparing to worship through serving our crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus, we have joined a journey of repentance. We have asked God to awaken us to the reality of sin and how it robs us of life and joy, and in His kindness lead us to repentance and life. Last Sunday we talked about and repented of the sin of idolatry, of making anything more important in our lives than God. We learned from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego how choosing to obey God leads to freedom and deliverance. Today we are going to continue in the book of Daniel and see the sin of pride.
Dan 4 (NLT):
1 King Nebuchadnezzar sent this message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world: Peace and prosperity to you! 2 I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me.
3 How great are his signs,
how powerful his wonders!
His kingdom will last forever,
his rule through all generations.
4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living in my palace in comfort and prosperity. 5 But one night I had a dream that frightened me; I saw visions that terrified me as I lay in my bed. 6 So I issued an order calling in all the wise men of Babylon, so they could tell me what my dream meant. 7 When all the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and fortune-tellers came in, I told them the dream, but they could not tell me what it meant. 8 At last Daniel came in before me, and I told him the dream. (He was named Belteshazzar after my god, and the spirit of the holy gods is in him.)
9 I said to him, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too great for you to solve. Now tell me what my dream means.
10 While I was lying in my bed, this is what I dreamed. I saw a large tree in the middle of the earth. 11 The tree grew very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see. 12 It had fresh green leaves, and it was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade, and birds nested in its branches. All the world was fed from this tree.
13 Then as I lay there dreaming, I saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven. 14 The messenger shouted,
Cut down the tree and lop off its branches!
Shake off its leaves and scatter its fruit!
Chase the wild animals from its shade
and the birds from its branches.
15 But leave the stump and the roots in the ground,
bound with a band of iron and bronze
and surrounded by tender grass.
Now let him be drenched with the dew of heaven,
and let him live with the wild animals among the plants of the field.
16 For seven periods of time,
let him have the mind of a wild animal
instead of the mind of a human.
17 For this has been decreed by the messengers;
it is commanded by the holy ones,
so that everyone may know
that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world.
He gives them to anyone he chooses—
even to the lowliest of people.
18 Belteshazzar, that was the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now tell me what it means, for none of the wise men of my kingdom can do so. But you can tell me because the spirit of the holy gods is in you.
19 Upon hearing this, Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar) was overcome for a time, frightened by the meaning of the dream. Then the king said to him, Belteshazzar, don’t be alarmed by the dream and what it means.
Belteshazzar replied, I wish the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies, my lord, and not to you! 20 The tree you saw was growing very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see. 21 It had fresh green leaves and was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade, and birds nested in its branches. 22 That tree, Your Majesty, is you. For you have grown strong and great; your greatness reaches up to heaven, and your rule to the ends of the earth.
23 Then you saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Cut down the tree and destroy it. But leave the stump and the roots in the ground, bound with a band of iron and bronze and surrounded by tender grass. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with the animals of the field for seven periods of time.
24 This is what the dream means, Your Majesty, and what the Most High has declared will happen to my lord the king. 25 You will be driven from human society, and you will live in the fields with the wild animals. You will eat grass like a cow, and you will be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses. 26 But the stump and roots of the tree were left in the ground. This means that you will receive your kingdom back again when you have learned that heaven rules.
27 King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will continue to prosper.
28 But all these things did happen to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later he was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon. 30 As he looked out across the city, he said, Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.
31 While these words were still in his mouth, a voice called down from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you! You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. 32 You will be driven from human society. You will live in the fields with the wild animals, and you will eat grass like a cow. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.
33 That same hour the judgment was fulfilled, and Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society. He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven. He lived this way until his hair was as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails were like birds’ claws.
34 After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever.
His rule is everlasting,
and his kingdom is eternal.
35 All the people of the earth
are nothing compared to him.
He does as he pleases
among the angels of heaven
and among the people of the earth.
No one can stop him or say to him,
What do you mean by doing these things?
36 When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.
37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.
Starting in comfort and prosperity:
It is a long story. I am only going to pluck out a few things for us to look at. First, the story starts in the good times: 4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living in my palace in comfort and prosperity.
Now, the good times are to be enjoyed. They are the gift of God. Relationships are healthy, friends and family are healthy, life has some balance and rhythm, maybe there is even prosperity and comfort. But there is a danger to be wary of. When life is comfortable and prosperous, what need do we feel for God?
And here is the dangerous lie lurking beneath the surface: it is a lie that cuts to the core of who we are in relationship to God, one that undermines many of our deepest understandings of who God is and how we relate to Him. Are you ready? It is the lie that God exists to help us out in difficult times. It is the lie that says we need God when life is hard, and we struggle, and we feel desperate and we have tried everything we can think of, we have exhausted our human effort, so now then we should turn to God for help. That is a lie. That is not what God exists for. Yes, true, God does help us in times of trouble, we must turn to Him in times of struggle. He is there when life is hard. But God does not exist just to bail us out when things get bad. God is not a superhero that shows up in the nick of time and swoops us up mere seconds before we crash on the sidewalk; then plants us on our feet, gives us a sparkling smile, and roars off to the next catastrophe. One time I was talking with someone and they were telling me about something going on, and I said, I’ll pray for you about that. They responded, oh, no, it’s ok, it’s not that bad yet.
Are you with me? If we define our relationship with God as merely Him as the cosmic bailer-outer, then we live as if we are the center of our lives. We do what we want, what we think is best, what will meet our desires, reserving some place for God to come and help us when we can’t do it ourselves.
And most of the time, we can. We can do it ourselves. We can manage. We can even create some comfort and prosperity. Like Nebuchadnezzar.
And then, like Nebuchadnezzar, we dive head first into the sin of pride.
The advice:
Back to the story: the King has a weird dream. I think he is sort of prone to them, we saw one earlier in the book of Daniel. We understand weird dreams. Some of us have them also. I had a weird one a couple months back, more of a nightmare actually. I was downstairs in our church basement. And no, I’m not talking about my waking nightmare. We were almost finished reconstruction, and in the dream I could feel all the stresses and problems and felt like they were almost over. Then I noticed another hallway. And at the end of the hallway was another door. I went and opened it, and discovered we had another entire facility behind that door, same size, still underwater. We were back to square one and I had to face everything all over again.
The King’s dream is about a tree, which gets cut down, and then turns into a man who lives like an animal until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.
It is a dream about what will happen to the king if he refuses to see God as the one in control of the universe, if he continues to believe he is in control of his life and continues in pride.
Daniel pleads: 27 King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will continue to prosper.
There is a great theme verse for all of Lent, and for all of life. Stop sinning and do what is right. I know I say that a lot. Because sin leads to pain, and to death, and yet many times we play around with sins like they are harmless; we think we can handle it, we think they don’t really do any harm, or we even convince ourselves there isn’t really anything wrong with them anyway. They aren’t big sins like murder or adultery. A little bit of pride is ok, isn’t it?!? No! Stop sinning! Daniel pleads with the king, because he doesn’t want him to suffer, to wander around for 7 years like some wild animal, eating grass, sleeping outside, drenched with dew. What is the solution: stop sinning.
Pride:
29 Twelve months later he was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon. 30 As he looked out across the city, he said, Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.
He had a year after the warning. But he didn’t change. The root of the sin: it is the attitude. I did this; That was me; Didn’t I do a great job!
There is not a whole lot of difference between what I hear from Nebuchadnezzar and what I hear from voices all around me today. We think pride is a good thing. We should be proud of our accomplishments, we should have lots of self-esteem, we should look at all the great things we can and have done, and we should celebrate them. We deserve it. We have earned it. And where is God? Well, again, if we see our relationship with God as limited to Him as the bailer-outer when things get tough, then He isn’t there. He’s left out. He’s pushed off into the corner, to stay there until we need Him.
And that is the heart of the sin of pride. Pride is devastating to the life of God within us, primarily because it focuses us on ourselves and tricks us into believing that the good things of life are somehow produced by us or are given to us because we are so great or so worthy or so important. And pride seeps in, and starts to lie. You deserve that; You did a great job now everyone will respect you; You really are a great Christian, you went to church today even though it was daylight savings time and you had to get up an extra hour early. Way down deep, pride destroys us because it takes God out of His rightful place at the center of the universe (or, at least, out of the center of our universe), and puts ourselves there on the throne.
Return to Sanity:
As an immediate consequence to Nebuchadnezzar’s sin of pride, all that he dreamt came true; he became essentially a beast. But then, 34 I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever. 36 When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom.
There is a beautiful phrase there: when my sanity returned. I like that. When we take even a moderate step back, and see the bigger picture, it is insane to believe anything we have or have done, any comfort or prosperity, is really any of our doing. Where did the prosperity come from? Well, the skill of my hands, the insight of my mind. Who gave you your hands? Or your mind? Or the raw materials you worked out of? Or the food that provides the glucose that your brain needs to work? Or even the very breath that provides oxygen to your lungs? Did you make your heart beat?
A moderate step back and we can see that it is all a gift from God.
See, God doesn’t want to be a superhero, a cool idea in our minds that helps when we are in trouble. He wants to be a friend. A spouse. A companion. God wants us to walk the journey with Him, day in and day out, always recognizing Him, always accepting all of life as a gift from His hands, not full of pride that we have done something, but rather full of praise to the God who made it all and then lent us a portion to enjoy.
That is a way of life and joy, of freedom and adventure. Pride kills, pride suffocates, pride disillusions. Pride leaves us roaming around like wild animals, ignorant of the true glory of God around us, relying instead on ourselves. The way of Jesus is better. And when we embrace that way, we can say with Nebuchadnezzar, 37 Now I, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.
