A Nebuchadnezzars Hymn 2

Please join me there in the fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel, for what really is perhaps the most dramatic experience of conversion that we're going to find anywhere in the Old Testament, and anywhere at all, really, aside from that of the Apostle Paul. Perhaps even more dramatic in the way that God supernaturally and personally invades the life of this great king and brings him to the place of bowing the knee right after he demonstrated a complete and utter lack of willingness to do that. Today, we're going to concentrate on those first three verses, and we were going to look at more. But I believe that we will do well to limit ourselves today to those first three verses, make mention of the rest of what is there but really constant in those first three verses in Daniel chapter four, and it reads, King nebuchad Nezar, to all people's nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, Peace be multiplied to you. It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. Amen, it sounds like praise. That's because it is. In fact, it sounds like a hymn. That's because it is. This is a hymn of praise to the Most High God. Don't miss the significance of the name that is used there. You know, the first time we encounter that name, the Most High God, it's when Abraham wins a battle against the various kings and he encounters this individual by the name of Melchizedek, who is a priest to the Most High God. That is the name that is resurrected. If you will here in the testimony in the hymn of none other than Nemechan Nezar, listen to this from Sean Michael Lucas. For the opening of our text. We hear this strange hymn of praise, a testimony to the signs and wonders of the Most High God. But don't miss this. These words are not coming from Israel's king David, Solomon Josiah or Hezekiah. Nebuchadnezzar declared these words. The pagan king had come to bow the need to Israel's God, and he did so by singing this hymn of praise. That's just good. He doesn't just bow the need of God. He doesn't just say, Okay, I surrender. It is not that kind of bowing. It is the kind of bowing that says, I'm not just recognizing that you are more powerful than me. I'm recognizing that you are the most high God. I'm not just recognizing that you are worthy of my submission to you. I'm recognizing that you are worthy of my praise. King David would have indeed been overwhelmed with joy to hear this hymn of praise. How do I know? Listen to what he writes in Psalm ninety six versus through six, Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord, all the earth, Sing to the Lord. Bless his name, Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He's to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Do you not hear echoes of what is happening here with Nebagan? David's desire is that the nations would worship God. Nebuganzar write to him and addresses it to the nations, to all the peoples, folks, Our God will have his praise. Amen, our God will have his praise. Though the nations roar and rebel, our God will have his praise. Now we know that there is coming that time we read about it now called the worship, where every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. To the glory of God, the Father. God will have his praise. But not just in the eschatological sense where everyone will ultimately bow to God, but also in the here and the now. God invades time and space and supernaturally transforms men who have next that are stiff against him, and he breaks them, and he blesses them, and then they bless him, they praise him. That is what our God does, And that's precisely what God did with nebican Nezer. First of all, in this effort that brings God such glory and praise. We see that God reveals his glory to the world. Look there, in chapter four, verse one, King Nebican aza to all people's nations and languages that dwell in all the earth. Again, this has echoed throughout the Psalms. But go back to chapter three, verses three through five, and you'll see the significance of it as you juxtapose King nebican Nezar in chapter three and King nebican Nezar in chapter four. Then the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the councils, the treasures, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered from the gathered for the dedication of the image that King nebecon Nezer had set up. And they stood before the image that nebican Nezer had set up, and the Herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded o people's nations and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn pipe, liar, trigon, harp bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebeca Nezzer has set up. In chapter three, he says, listen, people's nations and languages. There was a dream that said that there is an everlasting kingdom that will crush all the other kingdoms. There was a dream that said, I'm just the golden head. Now here's a statue that says, mine is the kingdom that will last forever and from generation to generation. That's what he said to the names in chapter three. Now in chapter four, he says to the nations, how great are his signs, how mighty his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. That's conversion, folks, that's repentance. That is a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn from listen o people's and old nations. I don't care what God says through his dream. I'm the king, and I'm the king forever. To listen, everyone, He's the king and he's the king forever, folks. When a man has defamed the glory of the Most High God before others, then he encounters that God in a transforming way. He cannot help but make it known to his former audiences that he was wrong about God. But when you are safe, this is different than when you're saved. You have to tell somebody that is true. When you're saved, you have to tell somebody. When you're converted, when you're changed, you have to tell somebody. That's not the point that's being made here. The point that's being made here is that there are some people who are not just regular, ordinary sinners. There are some people who are actually blasphemers of God. There are some people who go through their lives and they don't shake their fists at God. They don't necessarily live outlandish public lives of sin and rebellion against God. In fact, they may live their life in a way that attempts to be pleasing toward God. There are many people who live their lives in ways that are decent and moral, if you will. And when those individuals come to faith, they recognize that their decency wasn't decent and. Their morals weren't moral. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the individual who says he doesn't believe in God and yet hates him. Do you catch that? Those are the vocal atheists of our day. There is no God, and I hate him? Signed Richard Dawkins. There is no God and I can't stand him. Those are the atheists of our day. But this man is even beyond that. It'd be one thing for an atheist to say there is no God and I hate him. That's not what never says. Nebekanzer says, there might be a God, but he pales in comparison to me. I am the king of kings. I am the Lord of lords. I am the everlasting one. I am the one who will rule from generation to generation, and I want the entire. World to know it. That's who he is. And when you blasphem God like that and he gets a hold of your life, you're gonna make that right. By the way, this is one of the marks of true conversion. When a man's life is changed, he cannot help but be broken over the sin of his past, and he cannot help but have a desire to set that which was wrong right. That's what we see here. Notice also that this language is not new language. Put your finger here and turn over to Psalm one five thirteen. He sounds like another king Psalm thirteen. There, King David says, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Daniel four to three. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom Psalm thirteen. And your dominion endures throughout all generations Daniel four to three. His dominion endures from generation to generation. It's almost verbatim, is it not. How would King Nebuka Nezar know anything about the songs of David? Could it be because he got sick and tired on more than one occasion of hearing them from the mouths of Daniel, Hannaniah, Michael, and Azariah. It's like a godless father in a home where his wife and children know and love God, where his children run around constantly singing the songs of Zion, and he gets tired of them. He grows weary of them. He begins to hate those songs that his wife and his children sing to this God whom he doesn't believe in, and yet he hates. And then one day that father is converted, and all of a sudden, those little ditties that drove him crazy, he can't get enough of them. Has anybody ever been there? Anybody here grow up in church, has a hardened rank sinner, hate going to church, hate hearing those songs, hate singing those songs. And then one day come to faith in Christ. The rock breaks you and you bow the knee to Him. And then all of a sudden, all of those things that you despised come flooding into your mind, and you recognize that the reason that you despise them was because that they were true, and they reminded you of who you were before a holy and righteous God. And now you love them for the same reason, because they're true, and they remind you of who you are before a holy. And righteous God. And yet He has redeemed you. That's where nebukud Nezzer is. Secondly, God reveals his glory through a nation that had no peer, King nebuican Nezzer to all the people. By the way that you want. To understand the significance of King nebeican Nezzer, notice who he addresses this too. This is not the head of a great nation who is addressing his people. Well, actually, it is the head of a great nation who's addressing his people. But notice whom he considers his people. King nebuican Nezer to all people's nations and languages that dwell in all the earth. And you hear that, and you go, boy, he's arrogant. No This is after his conversion. This is not arrogance. This is just a statement of fact. He's that big, he's that powerful. They had wiped out all of the known powers of the world, and the whole world was bowing down to them and paying tribute to them. And God humbled him. And now this one whom others worship, writes a decree. He doesn't notice. He doesn't write the decree saying, everybody, you must worship the God whom I worship. He writes the decree saying I was wrong. God is God and I'm not. He endures forever and I don't. This is what Ian Dugan says about this. From being a persecutor of the faithful in the previous chapter Nebica, Nezar has now himself become a witness to the faith. This is a striking shift in the life of the most powerful man in the world. But is it not also merciful? This is not the only time God does this. In the Bible. God encountered the most powerful man in the world in the Book of Exodus. His name was Pharaoh. So there we had the most powerful man in the world, who's the leader of Egypt. Here we have the most powerful man in the world, who's the leader of Babylon. By the way, when he consummates his power as the most powerful man in the world, it's at the Battle of Carcumission six oh five, where he defeated altogether. Now Egypt, how does God intervene with nebeca Nezar. It's with dreams and eventually with what we would call schizophrenia. Talk about that next week, this so called mental illness that had for seven years. Whom did God use? Well, here he used Daniel to interpret the dream. With Pharaoh, he used Moses. Was the outcome? Well, with Moses, the outcome not so good. Pharaoh and his army end up drowned in the Red Sea. But here. The outcome is nebug Nezzer bows the knee and he doesn't get swallowed by the sea. It happens later. When you look at Herod slash Pilot slash Caesar, they're the leaders of Rome. These individuals whom we encounter. Herod and Pilot are the individuals who are over this region of Jerusalem. The relationship they occupied the Jewish homeland. The intervention there, this was not Plague's and this was not dreams. The intervention was the son of God being born in Bethlehem. Who is the nemesis? That wasn't Moses, It wasn't Daniel. The nemesis is Jesus Christ himself, the God Man. What is the outcome? Moses dies in the wilderness so Israel might go to the Promised Land. Daniel dies in captivity. Israel eventually comes out. Jesus dies on the cross at Calvary so that he can achieve both access to the Promised Land and freedom from activity. So when you read Daniel chapter four, know that God has done this before and that God will do this again. God will have his praise. God will be worshiped among the nations. Thirdly, God reveals his glory through a weak nation in the midst of a strong one. God reveals his glory through a weak nation in the midst of a strong one, again a pattern that we see. Remember the beginning Daniel chapter one, verses one and two. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, never commends. The King of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord gave Jerusalem. I'm sorry, Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of thesls of the House of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and place the vessels in the treasury of his Gods. That's where we begin. We begin with a stronger nation that overcomes a weaker nation, and from then on we see how God uses this weaker nation in the midst of the stronger nation, to humble the stronger nation and to bring praise to himself. Again, we saw this in Egypt, did we not. There is a weaker nation enslaved to a stronger nation, and the weaker nation bring glory and honor to God in the midst of the stronger nation or kingdom. Here we see a weaker kingdom that is taken into captivity by a stronger kingdom, and God gets praise for himself in the midst of the stronger kingdom. And later in the coming of Christ, what do we see. We see the kingdom these Jews under exile, or not under exile, but under Roman rule, who humble that kingdom? How through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the way we see it today in the church, do we not the weaker kingdom. We have no armies, We have no weapons that would make the greater kingdoms in which we live all over this world be afraid. And yet God has ordained that He would be praised in the midst of all these kingdoms in the earth, through that weaker kingdom that proclaims his gospel. Paul gives us a picture of this in First Corinthians Chapter one. Look with me there, if you will, beginning of verse twenty Corinthians, chapter one. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world, For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preached to save those who believed. For Jews demands signs Greeks to seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him you are in Christ, Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. This is why. God has always used weak things in order that He might bring glory and praise to himself. Not the strong thing, so that men can explain. How it is that they became powerful and dominant, But the weak thing, so that the only explanation can be. There is a God, and you are not him. There is one who is worthy of worship. It is not you, o King, powerful though you may be, and that is absolutely the testimony of Nebekannzzar. Finally, God reveals his glory personally and supernaturally, God reveals his glory personally and supernaturally. Look at this and Daniels Chapter four, verse two, it has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. Don't miss that. Don't miss that. All of that matters, not that the Most High God has done before me, but that the Most High God has done for me. Commentators debate as to whether he's pointing to chapter three or chapter four, and the Hebrew Bible actually these first three verses are part of chapter three, so some put this at the end of the Golden Statue narrative. And so the question is Nebeka Nezar as he talks about what brought him to this transformation? Is he talking about what he saw whether hen and I am Michel or Azariah? Or is he talking about what God did to him for seven years? The answer to the question is easy, Yes, Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. What did God do saving these men in the fire? Did God use that? Sure? He used that? The dream that was interpreted by Daniel, did God use that? Yeah, sure he used that. Those seven years of living like a beast? Did God use that? Yes, he used that, and ultimately it was that that brought him to his knees. Listen to this again from Dugod. King Nebkneja watched Shadrak Meyshak in a bit to go emerge unscathed from the fiery furnace and Daniel three even as Saul saw the Lord. The Lord's grace sustained Stephen through his violent death in Acts chapter eight. Yet neither man was immediately converted by this experience. Miraculous demonstrations of God's power can certainly stop people in their tracks and make them think, but true conversion can only be accomplished by a personal experience of God's power and grace. They didn't have an impact on him when he saw God's deliverance of Hannah and II Michel. And yes it absolutely did. But you don't get saved. You don't get converted because of what you see God doing in other people. That only happens because of what God does in you personally. We have a hard time with this, well, we have a very hard time with this because we all want God to do the big flashy showy thing, and then when God does the big flashy showy thing, we all sit back and go. How do those people not be saved? Because it's not the big, flashy, showy thing that is the power of. God and dessohilation. It is the Gospel. And particularly the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the individual who hears the gospel, who's made alive. There are several implications of all of this, and I want us to look at how and where the rubber meets the road on this first, in the area of evangelism and missions. How ironic is it that we believe. That the way to reach a man is to appeal to his intellect or his emotions. But God reached Nebucha Nazzar by literally taking his mind away from him. Amen, what do we say? And we get this? I get notes like this, I get questions like this all the time because here's what we believe. We believe that God can reach the weak and the feeble minded and the unintelligent. But man, you know, he can't save smart people. And so the notes in the letters go a little something like this. You know, you know, brother, I got this friend and I just wanted if you can help me with my friend because my friend is really smart. My friend is a lawyer, my friend is a doctor. My friend is a scientist, and I was wondering if you had something for lawyers and doctors and scientists. And my answer is, yeah, the Gospel. Yeah, I understand that. But see, my friend is really really really really really smart. See my friend is a physicist, but my friend is a rocket scientist. You know, my friend is this my friend is that you really don't understand. It's just, you know, I need something. Yeah, the Gospel, but we don't believe that. Basically, what we're saying is, yeah, I get that, I get the Gospel. I get all of that. But if you could just sort of tell me how I can get three guys into a fire and get them to not be hurt, I'm sure that would do it. Nope, it didn't, it didn't. Maybe if you could show me how to get a finger to write on a wall. No, no, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. If someone could come back from the dead and tell my brothers about this horrible place that I'm in where I'm just begging for someone to dip their finger and water and touch my tongue. Lord, if you could just get somebody to go back from the dead and tell my brothers about how bad it is here they'd be rescued. Ah, what's the answer If they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't even believe if someone rises from the dead. By the way, we know that, why because Jesus rose from the dead, and there were people in his day and his time who saw him and still chose not to believe. See, what we need is not some manipulative means by which we can capture the minds and emotions of men. That's what Paul means when he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God and the salvation to all those who believe, unless, of course, their IQ is above a certain point. Then turn to the next page. We got something else for them. Help you if you believe that it is the God of the universe. And so what does Paul say? You know, we looked at First Corinthians, the end of First Corinthians chapter one, look at what he says in First Coriantians chapter two. And I when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men. But all the power of God. It is Christ, his Gospel, and it is the God of the universe who awakens men's hearts. You see, this is the great irony in our day, the great irony in our day, for example, with the altar call, and people ask us that all the time, because we're not. Alter call folks. What what? What? Why don't you do that alter call thing? Man? You know, I was there, and you know, and I heard I had. I had a preacher to say to me once I preached a message at a conference and he leaned over and he said to me, brother, for you to give an alter call, half the room, would it came down? I just smile at him. Sometimes you got to pick your shots on the inside of me. I'm going, yeah, that's exactly why I'm glad I didn't. Do. You know where that comes from. A man by the name of Charles Finny here the second grade Awakening Charles Finny. The altar call was part of Charles Finney's new measures, And the reason that Finny relied on the altar call is because he believed that salvation. Was about getting man to act upon his will. So what was important was for us to engage men in certain ways so that we could force their wills into action. Because if you could force their wills into action, they would be saved because of that will that was forced into action. And one of the new measures that he had was the altar call, because if you could just, through your preaching, through the songs, through the service, through whatever, get a man to move, that would do it. That would do it. He did not believe in the sovereignty of God, and so he created his new measures in order to act upon the will and the emotion of men, because that is what Finny believed was necessary for salvation. Fast forward to today and we have even churches in reformed circles who are still using. Finny's new measures to act upon men's wills. The way services are structured and organized, you know what we call the traditional worship service. Three hymns and a special followed about three points in a poem and an altar call. Hey, man, you've been to that church. I'll see that hand all right? And so where does that come from, folks? That comes right out of the revivalist movement in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. That's the camp meeting service. That's the tent meeting service, that's the evangelistic service. And so what do you do? Well, you know, you have your you know so set up, and you have your testimony. The testimony is an extremely important part of these new measures. You have the testimony. And by the way, the testimony cannot be I grew up in a home where I was catechised, and growing up in that home where I was catechised, I was bathed in the Word of God, bathed in the Gospel, and came to a point in my life where I realized that I was believing and was grateful to God. From a parents who catechized me, from a church that preached the Gospel. I was grateful to God and I'm saved. Amen, How holy your praise the Lord? Do you remember when not necessarily, but I know I'm believing and trusting in Christ. That testimony does not make it at the evangelistic service, folks. The testimony that makes it at the evangelistic service is, by the way, this is the one that we call a great testimony. Have you heard his testimony? He has a great testimony. What that means is that there's lots of sin and some sort of powerful experience. At the end of that. Lots of sin, the great testimony, the three hymns, the special the special piece of music to set. The tone for the sermon that's designed to move toward the clothes, and the invitation had bowed, REI closed. If you're here and you've done anything wrong in your life, you're here. You want to go to heaven when you die. You have loved ones who've gone on there before you, and you don't want to spend eternity without them. That's you. Just look at me right now. I see, I see, I see. All over this room people are looking at me right now. The methodology I was taught in seminary was the hand up, stand up, come up methodology. You start with the lower level of commitment. Just raise a hand. I see that hand. By the way, When you do this, you have people strategically. Placed throughout the audience, who will also move at this time, I see that hand stand up. Okay, some of the people standing are counselors, but people don't know that. They just know people are standing, so they feel free to stand. Well, if I've got you to raise your hand, and I got you to the next level commitment, which was to stand up, and now I get you to the last level commitment, you're already standing up. You feel like a fool if you just sit back down. So come up here, you come up here. I'll lead you in a prayer. You pray this prayer, you really mean this prayer. If you pray that prayer and you really meant that prayer, then right now you can write your name in the front of your Bible and this date, because on this date your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I see on your faces that you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you all are sitting there going he was at that service. No, I was actually probably leading one like it somewhere else. Salvation is not the result of man having his will manipulated. Salvation is the result of man having his soul made alive to God, his spirit made alive to God. Salvation is the result. Of the God of the universe invading the life of a man and calling him to himself. And he uses the power of the Gospel and the clarity of the Gospel to invade the life of a man. That is why you can have twins sit in the exact same service who've grown up in the exact same family, and hear the exact same sermon on the exact same day, and one of them be converted to nothing the other. This also has implications when it comes to politics and government. Here's what's interesting. God converts nevkn Mezzar with absolutely no intention of using him to deliver Israel. In fact, the very next chapter. Says nothing about nibicon Nezer at all. He is simply gone and another king has taken his place. We've said this again and again and again, every time God shows himself real. We said, oh, by the way, there's still captives. Oh by the way, there's still slaves. This is still true. Here in chapter four, what we see is this great conversion of Debacon Nezer, and he makes this great statement, and you would think that in the next chapter things are absolutely transformed for the people of God in the midst of a nation that now has a godly king. Guess what he's gone. We know nothing about what he changed when he changed. Why because that's not the point. Oh, if we could only get a godly president, that's not the point. That's not the point. God's people are still in captivity. God's people stay in captivity now. Granted, much better for them with a converted king than with an unconverted king. Amen, much better for them. But folks, this is not their kingdom, this is not their home. They are not here so that this can become the new Promised Land and Babylon can become the new Israel. No no, no, no no. By the way, they're here because of their own sin and rebellion, and because God is pruning his people. Newkneza being converted has absolutely nothing to do with that. He's also given them a timetable. We need to keep this in mind, especially during times like this where everyone places all their hopes at a single election, because somehow that will bring us to the place where everything will change. Nothing could be further from the truth. This also has implications for the way we think about suffering, trying to understand what God is doing in your suffering from your finite vantage point is like looking through a keyhole and trying to determine the layout of a room. You only see a fraction, You only see a peace. Your view is utterly obscured. You have no idea how and why God is using your suffering, none whatsoever. This is important to keep in mind when you suffer. Daniel is suffering right now. Israel is suffering right now. The idea that nebekad Nezer would be converted and then their suffering would end would only make sense if they're suffering because of nebekand Nezer. But they're not. They're not suffering because of nebukand Nezer. Wrong king. Amen, there's a whole list of kings that you need to name off. If you want to talk about why they're suffering, beginning with the one who is deposed here. Nebukan Nezers not the reason for their suffering. So the transformation of nebekan Nezzer is not going to ease their suffering. This is important. It's the Romans eight verses twelve to seventeen. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if the spirit, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of. Adoption as sons by whom we cry ah Bah Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with him. There it is we suffer. It's our lot. We suffer. By the way, allow me to just give you a little theological perspective to help you on this. We talk, for example, about Christ's humiliation and his exaltation, and we don't understand Christ's humiliation and exaltation. That's one of the reasons that we don't understand our suffering. We talk about Christ's humiliation, and for most Christians, you ask them what is Christ's humiliation, they will start at the cross. They may back up to the garden, but Basically, that's where you see Christ's humiliation, his humiliation when he's suffering on the cross, and his exaltation. You know, he's resurrected. He's see that at the right hand of the Father is going to come back again. There's exaltation starts then, folks, Christ's humiliation begins with his incarnation. Being in this world at all was part of his humiliation. By the way, you understand that, you get a better understanding of your suffering. You see, you think your suffering started when your health went bad. That's wrong. It's kind of like the kid who went to a subpar school was telling somebody this earlier. You know, kid goes to a subpar school and he gets great grades at this subpar school. His school's terrible, but he gets wonderful grades. Now he graduates and leaves that school and he goes to another school that is a very good school. So he was in high school walking around with a bunch of imbeciles. Smartest thing ever. Now he goes to a university that's top notch because of how well he performed his high school. And he takes a test and he fails it. He fails his test, and he's got a bowed head, and his father comes to him and says, son, what's wrong? Said, I failed this test. I never failed the test before. I don't know how I can bring up so dumb so quickly, to which his dad responds, Son, you were always this dumb. You just never took a test that would show it to you. When you're suffering comes, here's what you need to know. You are suffering long before that instance. You'd just gotten so used to it that you didn't know it. We suffer, We yearn we long for release from this place. And it is only. The fact that there are those times when it's more real to us than others, the heightens our understanding of suffering. Do you know that every time you fall asleep that is an example of your suffering? Do you know that every time you eat it's an example of yourself? Wait a minute, what are you talking about. I love falling asleep, Yes, you do. Why because your body has to sleep and it has to rest. But there's going to come a time when you'll be released from that. That is part of your weakness. You're being reminded of your weakness, and you have to eat. You have to sustain yourself. Your body is growing old and decaying every day. I'm just not aware of it until you get the cricks in the Pains two Timothy, Chapter three, verses ten through thirteen. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Aconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from all of them the Lord has rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a god in the life in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted, while evil people and impostors go from bad to worse. Deceiving and being deceived. That's our lot. We live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world. So even on days when Nebuca Nezars have one hundred and eighty return arounds, we still live in a fallen world. This also has implications for our pursuit of fame. We want fame, we pursue fame. And here's why we want fame. And we pursue fame because as we are prideful, selfish, arrogant people. However, we say we want fame, and we pursue fame because we want God to use us so that we can reach the culture for Christ. Let's analyze that statement, shall we. I want God to use me to reach the culture for Christ. Therefore I will pursue with every fiber of my being fame and high position so that God can use my fame and my high position to make himself known. That's backwards. I want to make much of Christ, and I want to impact the world for the cause of Christ. Your prayer, that's what you really want, is not God, would you please make me famous and powerful? No, God, will you please make me humble and weak and poor, so that as you manifest your glory in my life, no one will confuse it with the position that I hold. It's backwards. If you really want God to gain much glory from your life, ask him to humble you, to make you smaller, not great, to make less of you, not more, so that Christ might be exalted in your weakness. That's what Paul is saying in Corinthians, Consider yourselves, brothers. God didn't go grab people from the top of the heap. You know what's interesting about that. We always want the famous athlete, the famous actor, the famous whomever to come to faith in Christ so that they can change the world. You know what's interesting about that, as soon as that happens to a famous person, you stop hearing about them. I mean, we could go through the list of names, couldn't we all of the individuals. Just look at the last few decades, all of the individuals who were powerful and great athletes and great actors and all this sort of stuff. Family, And now we're driving I guess it was a couple of months ago. We were driving up to Dallas for something. I don't remember what it was, but as we were leaving Houston, we had the radio on and we at Christian radio station talked about an event for men. And at this event for men, a famous Texas professional athlete was going to be speaking at the event. And the statement that the radio host made just sort of grabbed my attention because they talked about this person's story, this is one of those people with a great testimony, okay, and how they went from the absolute loads of the lows to the gutter to the top of their profession. And the radio announcer said, he has the story that men need to hear, and right then I turn off the radio, and I turned to my family, and I said, what's wrong with that? There they go. Only Christ has the story that men need to hear. Men don't need my story, men don't need his story. They need Christ's story. We need men who make much of Christ. Now, who make much of their own story. Well, fast forward a few days. We're about to drive back from Dallas, and we turn on the radio and this famous Texas athlete who's an athlete in Dallas, was picked up for drunken disorder. And part of his great testimony that men need to hear, by the way, is how God delivered him from alcoholism and drug abuse. Now there's a video of him. Getting into an altercation while he's drunk at a bar, just before he comes up to Houston to tell men his story that they need so desperately to hear. In the words of that Texas theologian, doctor Phil, how's that. Working for you? The minute you start making your story the heart of the matter, you set up yourself and everyone around you for nothing but disappointment because your story is unsustainable. But when Christ's story is what matters, God brings nebeca near to the four changes, His heart has him make this grand decree, and then in chapter five there's another king. Why Because this is not about nebcad Nezar. This is about God taking the smallest, weakest nation and setting his love on them and calling them his own. This is about God using them to defeat more powerful nations and establishing them as a nation in their own right. This is about God warning his people when they fall into sin and begin to look too much like the nations around them. This is about God taking his nation by the nape of. Their neck and bringing them, kicking and screaming into captivity and slavery in the midst of another nation that he raised up just for that purpose. This is about God pruning. And sustaining his nation in the midst of this other nation, so that they might emerge never again to be as powerful as they were before, only to walk through history, limp through history until such a time as He raises up a king through that nation that has absolutely nothing to do with them being powerful and known as a geopolitical entity, but has everything to do with God redeeming a people for himself by the person and work of Christ. That's the story that matters, And Daniel and that's the story that matters in the book of You. Do we celebrate when God takes a king and smashes him with the rock and gains praise for himself, Yes, but no more than we do when he does it for a beggar. Why because this is not about whom God says. This is about the God who says, from the guttermost to the uttermost, what are the implications for you? Here? They are. There are many you under the south of my voice who could be renamed Nebuchadnezzark. There are those of you who have built up your own statues and your own kingdoms so that you can receive your own praise. And that is my favorite turner. Phrase about this is from James Montgomery Boyce, and when Boyce preached Daniel chapter four, his title was the sin that God will not tolerate. And some of you are right there and your mind's ie. The only statues that matter are the ones erected to you. For some of you, the only reason that you serve God is because you believe that doing soul will fortify your statue. It will help men to make much of you, and it will help you make much of yourself. I stop by to tell you you're going to die, and the next chapter will have a king whose name is not yours. Bow the knee to the One True Living God. Bow the knee before the rock, before the rock breaks, you bow the knee, and bless the Son that he might bless you. Bow the knee. That's what this is all about. That's the reason that This is a tremendous chapter, because Nebuka Nezar bows the knee, and it would be just as significant a chapter in your own life, should you come to faith in repentance,