Knocked Down
Notes
Transcript
1. Have you ever caught yourself needing to get knocked down a level?
Like you thought you were the best in the world at something but then realized maybe you were not as good as you thought.
A lot of you know this but I swam in High School and college.
And when you swim there are a few different leagues, and I coached and swam on a summer leauge, and these were kids that mostly just swam during the summer.
But then I also swam on a league where we would practice almost everyday 5 hours a day. And it was open to every age group.
And so I would swim on this summer league, and I would dominate, I mean It felt like I was the best swimmer in the world,
But then I would swim on this other league, and people were good.
I mean people that swim at the olympics would be at these races. (I would see Michal Phelps at these races multiple times a year).
And I remember there was one summer leauge season I was coming off of, feeling like I was amazing
And there was a swim meet at the US. Naval academy.
And the Navy brought there swim team.
And as you can imagine the Navy has a pretty good swim team.
And I remember my first race I get up to dive in and I look around and am surrounded by these huge guys that towered over me.
And I look at my coach and go what in the world.
And if I remember correctly they lapped me in the water.
I think it was safe to say I got knocked down a level.
And you know on a serious note there are times where we need knocked down a level
And sometimes its we are just going look how amazing I am, (we migh not say it but we think it)
But other times it can actually be a lot deeper then that,
It might be we say it so much that we go wow look at all I have done, (and we might not come out and say this) but in our heads we begin to think of those area where God has moved (clearly) and we take credit for what God has done.
It might be that there is something in our life that we are doing wrong, and we don’t recognize it,
And we just need someone to say “whats going on here?”
And really today we are continuing this series called “In The Fire” where we have been going through the book of Daniel,
And today we are looking at a guy that was knocked down a level.
And so we will be in Daniel 4 and if you have been with us, we have been looking at the story of 4 men (Daniel, Shadrack, Meshak and Abenego)
and these 4 guys had there city captured and then were taken from it to the nation that captured them.
And heres the thing though because this culture lived very differently then how they lived, and really it was a culture that largely was far from God,
But in the middle of this these four guys have remainded faithful to God.
And if you were here last week we saw 3 of them Shadrach, Meshak and Abenego thrown in a furnace for not worshiping a statue that was set up.
But as they are thrown in we see God save them, where they did not even smell like smoke as they walked out.
And the amazing thing here is that Nebechanezer cannot help but praise God, and we see God begining to work on His heart, not really where He has begun to follow Him, but where He acknowledges “wow this God is pretty amazing”
And so that takes us to where we are today, because Nebechanezer has a dream and we are not going to get into the actual dream (I would encourage you to read that on you own)
But we will be looking at what this dream met for Nebechanezer, and how Daniel confronts Nebechnezer about this dream.
Because we see Nebechanezer, really gets knocked down a level.
And so we are starting in Daniel 4:19 and then jumping down to verses 24-27 and this is what happens. It says:
19 Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!
24 “This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: 25 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes. 26 The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules. 27 Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”
So look how this starts because Nebechanezer has this dream and he has come to Daniel for this interpretation.
And it tells us for awhile Daniel was perplexed meaning he did not want to tell Him this interpretation,
Because you probably caught this but this is a really hard truth,
Because he was to tell Nebechanezer that he would basically turn into a wild animal (where he would act like one) unless he turned from His sins.
And this is why it says Daniel is terrified to tell the king this, and h even says, I wish this was for your enemies not you.
And here is what I want you to get, because a lot of times there are some hard truths that we might know God wants us to talk to someone about,
Where maybe what they are doing or how they are living is just far from God.
And we are going this is not a good way to live,
But I think while Daniels hesistant, his heart is in a really good place.
Because if we are going to confront someone, we cannot do it apart from compassion.
Its almost like has anyone ever had spinach in your teeth?
Whenever someone tells you there is spinach in your teeth there are two people.
Theres one person, who sees it, and they see the spinach in your teeth, and you can almost see them smile as they tell you have something in your teeth,
Because while outworldly they seem like they are helping you, inwardly they are thinking “wow that is so embarissing and I caught them”
But then theres another person who actually has your best intrest in mind and they tell you and whats going through there head is “this person is amazing, but theres this thing that thats getting in the way, and I want to help them get it out,
And I think my fear is to often when a hard truth happens Christians begin to look like the first person.
Where we bring something up and we weponize it to tear someone down, and to elevate ourselves,
when how we should be looking is like the second person, where we go you are a beautiful person, but there is something and it is just taking away from the beauty that God has created you in.
I want to help you be the person God has created you to be because this is not you at your best.
And can I just say Daniel had every right to weapenize this Chritism, because Nebechnezer captured his city, took him from his friends and family, last week he tried to kill his friends, he changed Daniels name.
And Daniel would have had every right to laugh at him, to celebrate this, but you can see his heart breaking for Nebechanezer.
We cannot confront without compassion
In fact even in Matthew 9 (in the New Testement) Jesus is out ministering all day and a crowd is following him and it would have been so easy to call it quits, but it says that Jesus sees them and has compassion, because they were like sheep without a shephard.
And in that passage the word compasion that Jesus felt is litterly translated as “His bowls twist”
Meaning he had such strong compassion that his stomach hurt, because of how he felt for these people.
What would it look like to have compassion in our confrontation?
And lets keep moving because back in our story Daniel goes please renounce your sin, do what is right, be good to the oppressed, turn to God
And maybe you can change your destiny,
you know God is very patient with us and we see him being patient, with Nebechaner because look at this next part. verses 28-33
28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. 32 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.” 33 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 like the claws of a bird.
So its a year after Daniel tells Nebechnezer and Nebechnezer is on the roof
And you can picture him looking out at what he has built and him saying wow look at all I have done,
And I did it for me, aren't I just amazing?
And I want to pause here because Nebechanezer has a major pridee issue, and when there is pride in our lives it distorts out hearts and everything around us.
Its kind of like how on the mirrors of your car theres this small caption that says what?
“Objects appear closer then they appear”
And its because the mirror distorts the image a little bit and its different then reality.
And what happens if you go by the distorted image it causes a crash doesn’t it?
And heres what I want you to get our pride often times causes us to crash
because we will either go I am the center of my story, and all of the sudden everything aligns with us, or we will say God is the center of my story and everything I do aligns with Him.
And we see Nebechanezer loose everything,
And I am not saying follow God or get turned into an animal, but God was showing Nebechnezer that he may have built his kingdom, but God is the one in charge.
And look what happens and we will finish on this because after awhile in this state Nebechanezer gets it, and he actually turns back to God and look what happens in verses 36-37. It says:
36 At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
Nebechanezer has a knew perpose, he says, now I Nebechanezer no long praise myself, but i praise and exalt the king of heaven.
You know as we close I just think about the damaging effects of pride,
Because pride makes it so we confront without compssion,
It makes us feel like we are better then everyone around us
It makes us defend our sin
It makes it so we become numb to what God is doing
It can make us act like animals
And probably the most damaging effect it makes it so we elevate ourselves and lower our God.
What would it look like to humble ourselves,
To place ourselves and place ourselves where we get off our thrones and give God the throne of our life?
Because our little kingdoms and nothing compared to God’s kingdom.
Will you pray with me?
You know as we close one of the beautful things as we worship is there is a humbling that happens because we elevate the name of jesus and we begin to find ourselves in His story.
So as we close lets go ahead and and sing this song elevating His name.
What would it look like to move from look at the beauty of my kingdom and what I have built to look at the beauty of God’s kingdom and what He is doing in me and around the world.