Rev It Up pt. 2
Repentance That Leads To Restoration
Daniel 4:19-22
Last week we talked about Resolutions that lead to revival… Resolve Not to defile myself (Daniel refuses to eat the kings food),
2-resolve to daily diet on what is healthy (he determines to eat only what is healthy and biblically sound)
3-resolve to depend on God for the impossible (he believes in God to tell him the kings dream) and interpret it),
4- resolve to display his glory with my life. (before he tell what the lord revealed he gives all glory to God)
Last week we left off with Daniel being taken hostage into Babylon by king Nebuchadnezzar.
The king needs someone to interpret a dream but not only interpret it but tell him what the dream was…
As we pick up the story today the king has another dream and this time he tells everyone what the dream was but again he needs to know the interpretation of the dream.
Daniel 4:19-22
1. Bad attitudes/actions Lead to Remorse
“My Lord if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!” Daniel 4:19
Daniel seems to have this, “I regret to inform you” approach to this interpretation… here is the meaning of this, and you’re going to regret asking…
…you’re going to regret what you have done to cause it. Because I wish this was about your enemies and not you…
Here is the simple truth about Nebuchadnezzar that seems to exist in all of us… He was inattentive to protect what he was blessed with…
Daniel 4:22 says your majesty, you are that tree, you have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to the distant parts of the earth.
We all have the potential to take the blessings God gives us and show enough ungratefulness to operate in that responsibility that we can loose it…
Esau – sells his birthright for what? A bowl of stew… why because he didn’t honor what God had bestowed upon him.
Gen. 25:29-34 – read
Esau trades the lasting benefits of his birthright for the immediate pleasure of food…
He acted on impulse, satisfying his immediate desire, a decision he will regret.
Esau’s life is filled with choices that he must have regretted bitterly. He appears to be a person who found it hard to consider the consiquences.
Reacting to the need of the moment without realizing what he was giving up. How many of us have been there?
Though Daniel is nervous about being the bearer of the bad news… it is exactly what the king asked for and needs to hear..
Sometimes we simply need to hear it like it is… not that what is coming is judgement but as a warning that things will get worse if we don’t watch it.
Esau didn’t have this warning perhaps because he wouldn’t have heeded to it anyway, lets review what Neb does with this warning…
“This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree the Most High has issued AGAINST my lord the king. You will be driven away from people and will and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven…” Daniel 4:24-25
Daniel 4:25b-27 = read
In the midst of living with regrets God still provides hope… a warning comes in the form of the interpretation
And advice comes in the form of a message to acknowledge and repent…
The problem we
have is even with warnings and advice we still think we can outsmart the consequences…
Watch and pray that you will not enter into temptations. Matthew 26:41
Peter was given this warning from Jesus, and yet he failed to heed to it as when the trails came, Peter denies… you and I have this same problem…
Let he who stands take heed lest he fall. 1 Cor. 10:12
Daniel 4:28-32 – read and expound
2. Regret Leads To Remorseful Hearts
Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails were like the claws of a bird… Daniel 4:33-34
Regret turns to remorse when we are living out the consequences of our actions. When we don’t heed the warnings or take advantage of the advice.
The king knew the consequences yet still chose his Pride filled actions that lead directly to the punishment.
There is a godly remorse and a sorrow or remorse of this world… the remorse of this world leads to depression and death…
…but the sorrow of the world produces death. 2 Cor. 7:10b
Many people are sorry Only for the effects of their sins or for being caught, and they don’t allow that sorrow to bring lasting change.]
Its one thing to be sorry that you got caught, its another thing to Not let that sorrow bring lasting change in your life
Let’s compare two men who are filled with remorse for having denied Jesus: Peter & Judas.
Judas’s act of remorse in bitterness leads to suicide…Peters remorse leads him to a place of repentance
3. His Remorse Leads to Repentance
“At the end of that time, I Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven…” Daniel 4:34
Neb who is in the midst of the consequences of his actions, stops to “lift his eyes toward heaven. It shows us that in trials that we put ourselves in we can still look to heaven with a repentive hearts and be forgiven.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus… so that you will not grow weary and loose heart. Heb. 12:2
2 Cor. 7:10 for God can use sorrow in this world to help us turn away from sin and turn to salvation. We will never regret that kind of remorse.
The kind of remorse that leads to a sorrow that leads to repentance… can we start this year off, as we Rev it up…
…by allowing our regrets lead to remorse and our remorse leading us ultimately to repentance?
Look many of us have had the guilt heaped on us, (falsely I might add) that, “you’re only sorry cause you got caught” and the one who got hurt is unforgiving toward you…
Or “if you didn’t get caught you’d still be doing it.” Well thank God for His grace that we have been caught, because in that Regret remorse may come…
In that remorse Repentance can be found if it’s a Godly remorse that will lead you to repent and change.
It matters NOT how you got to repentance, what matters is that you get to a place of Godly sorrow that leads to repentance.
And do you know what flows from a repentive heart? From a repentive heart comes a heart for worship…
“I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation.” Daniel 4:34
Neb starts to worship the God of Daniel verbally. He confesses God as “The Most High” v.34 and gives honor to the Lord.
The fact that the king (who at one point wanted all to worship him) is now UNASHAMEDLY worshiping the King of kings, the creator God in the presence of all others will cause others to react the same.
When we begin to let the worship of God flow out of our gratefully repentive hearts, others will begin to participate in that worship.
4. A Godly Repentance Leads to Restoration.
“at the same time my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me… I was restored to my throne and WAS EVEN GREATER THAN BEFORE.” Daniel 4:36
It seems that a great strain is lifted off of Nubuchadnezzar as soon as he recognizes his sin and turns toward God. Something happens within him. “My Sanity was restored”
When we repent and seek God, All that mindful clutter begins to dissipate as we give entrance to the Lord Jesus.
With His entrance once again in our lives comes a Peace.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 = PEACE PLAN
Not only does God restore our minds but as well He restores our image, starting with how we see ourselves…
At the same time my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me… Daniel 4:36
Neb who was once arrogant and proud is now humbled in God’s presence and sees himself in view of God’s mercy and in that, his own honor and splendor are returned to him.
He now has a good image of who he was meant to be.
Maybe you have thought too highly of yourself than you should have or perhaps thought so less of yourself that it developed some unhealthy insecurities…
We are to be the reflection of Christ Jesus… I may not be all that I am cracked up to be, but the Christ in me makes me who I am.
I may have caused all sorts of bad images of me but Christ will restore that in His time
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18
Not only is our mind restored and our image but everything we lost is restored and we are given even more… we become greater that we ever were…
My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne AND became even greater than before. Daniel 4:36
When we are in the midst of regret its hard to see any good that can come, let alone seeing what good become great.
It is a Godly remorse that leads to a Godly repentance which leads to restoration
"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you" (Joel 2:25).
How many years did you waste before you repented and surrendered all to Jesus?
But wouldn't you love to get back those years and live them for the glory of the Lord?
How often have you thought, "I could have been so much further in Christ! I could have brought so much joy to His heart!
I could have saved myself and my family so much pain and suffering. How blind and stupid I was: how enslaved by the devil!
I can never make up for all those wasted years."
I don't care if you have been saved 30 years or 30 days - God can and will restore all your wasted years!
God puts us right back on His divine schedule. His eternal purpose and plan are right where He planned them to be. Nothing Is lost!
The Lord God desires to pour out on us all the blessings and joys in Him that we missed earlier! Yet He doesn't make it all up with outpourings alone! These outpourings become overflowings!
There is such power in repentance. It brings back to us all that the cankerworm destroyed. God resurrects it all!
Paul says, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). In other words, "Forget your past and press on in Jesus!"
