Beginning the day in prayer! Father, when we seek Your kingdom above all else all that we need will be given to us. We often quote this scripture without seeking You first. Our lives are upside down as we try to seek everything else but You. When we turn everything over to You, not only our problems but our entire heart that’s when transformation occurs. We begin to understand beyond the physical senses how You’re involved in our day-to-day lives holding us up by Your grace.
The Lord already knew every hardship that would arise... and He’s planned people and blessings to show up just to bless you. Just watch...this is the season you see God become so very personal to you! I declare the Lord knows how to comfort and soothe your heart...just watch.
WHEN JESUS SHOWS UP
When Jesus Shows Up. Thank Him for showing up in your trouble to bring you out.
Something That Nebuchadnezzar Was Not Ready For! Someone once said of the preaching ministry that the job of a preacher is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. How do you do that in one message? How do you do both? How do you disturb the comfortable, and comfort the disturbed? Well, Nebuchadnezzar was which of the two? He was comfortable and he needed to be disturbed, and God sent him a vision to do that.
I usually talk about the three Hebrew boys, but this morning I am going to go down memory lane with King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was introduced to four extraordinary Jewish youths, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These three young men refused to bow down to the gods of this world. Well, these three Jews wouldn't, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, their names in their Jewish tongue. The question must be asked, have we bowed down to the gods of this world – lust, greed, envy, lying, and more. It’s time for the church to stand up and live according to God’s word.
What the king didn’t expect was for Jesus to show up and save them in the fire. Yes, we must sometimes endure the pain and heat of the fire but hold on a bit longer because Jesus is going to show up. When you walk through fire, understand the destruction of Satan won’t work because Jesus is about to show up. Go to your Bibles and open to Daniel chapter 4. As we look at one of the most important chapters in the Bible. The reason I say that is because this chapter opens what I consider to be one of our greatest enemies, also the greatest enemy of what God wants to do in the church, and that is pride. Everything that God wants to do in our lives, pride opposes.
And so, the final phrase in this chapter has become for me one of the sweetest in all the Bible, those who walk in pride He is able to humble. It's a remedy. Our God is a God who hates pride and yet deals with it so wisely, and we're going to see that today.
I FEAR THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD MORE THAN THE JUDGEMENT OF THIS WORLD’S SYSTEM.
Ecclesiastes 8:12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.
Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.
Daniel 4:1-37. HUMILITY, PROVIDENCE, AND SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Human Pride: The Root of All Evils
Go to your Bibles and open to Daniel chapter 4. As we look at one of the most important chapters in the Bible. The reason I say that is because this chapter opens what I consider to be one of our greatest enemies, also the greatest enemy of what God wants to do in the church, and that is pride. Everything that God wants to do in our lives, pride opposes. Everything. If you're not a Christian and I were to stand and tell you that your righteousness was like filthy rags in God's sight, there's something inside you that riles up. What is that? Well, it's pride. And if I were to tell you that you had to receive salvation as a gift paying nothing, but just receiving it simply as a gift, there's something inside you that says, no it can't be. "We are more unwilling," said a Puritan scholar, "to give up our righteousness than our sins." And why is that? Because of pride.
Alright, and then once you become a Christian, are you finished? Are you saved; you're done? No, our "salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed," there's a journey to be traveled. "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me," that's journey language, isn't it? And what is it that fights every step of the journey? It is pride. Because as we're advancing, we're putting sin to death, we're seeing problems in our lives, they're exposed by Scripture, by good preaching, by a friend who speaks the truth to us, and there's something inside that fights. And what is it? It is pride. And so, we have pride exposed and revealed in Daniel chapter 4. But we have more than that, we have the remedy and the only remedy, a sovereign God who sits on a throne and who reveals Himself in all His majesty and His splendor as a King of kings and a Lord of lords. Who rules over the kingdoms of men and over individual men no matter how powerful they are.
Preaching in the year 411, St. Augustine as he was ordaining a bishop warned against pride, and he said this, he said, "Pride is a great vice, and the first of vices, the beginning, the origin, and the cause of all sins." Now stop and think about that, the beginning, the origin, the cause of all sins. It's what cast down an angel and made him into the devil. Pride was the cup which on being cast down he gave to the man still standing for him to drink. The beginning of every sin is pride because pride is the desire to replace God with oneself.
Alright, and then once you become a Christian, are you finished? Are you saved; you're done? No, our "salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed," there's a journey to be traveled. "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me," that's journey language, isn't it? And what is it that fights every step of the journey? It is pride. Because as we're advancing, we're putting sin to death, we're seeing problems in our lives, they're exposed by Scripture, by good preaching, by a friend who speaks the truth to us, and there's something inside those fights. And what is it? It is pride. And so, we have pride exposed and revealed in Daniel chapter 4. But we have more than that, we have the remedy and the only remedy, a sovereign God who sits on a throne and who reveals Himself in all His majesty and His splendor as a King of kings and a Lord of lords. Who rules over the kingdoms of men and over individual men no matter how powerful they are.
And so, the final phrase in this chapter has become for me one of the sweetest in all the Bible, those who walk in pride He is able to humble. It's a remedy. Our God is a God who hates pride and yet deals with it so wisely.
Preaching in the year 411, St. Augustine as he was ordaining a bishop warned against pride, and he said this, he said, "Pride is a great vice, and the first of vices, the beginning, the origin, and the cause of all sins." Now stop and think about that, the beginning, the origin, the cause of all sins. It's what cast down an angel and made him into the devil. Pride was the cup which on being cast down he gave to the man still standing for him to drink. The beginning of every sin is pride because pride is the desire to replace God with oneself.
The central lessons in Daniel 4 we need to hear very much. That God rules over the kingdoms of men and is satisfying to the soul, and that those who walk in pride He can humble. Do you know people in your circle, in your life, and in your ministry that need humbling. Pray for them, God can humble them.
