THE MOST HIGH RULES

- Well, good morning, tell me welcome all our campuses today. (audience applauding) Good to see all of you. I just have a couple of announcements today. Number one is this, in our state, we have an election this Tuesday. And here's what I'm telling you that for. Born again, Christian people get out and vote. It is your responsibility to do that. (audience applauding) As a reminder, you're not voting for a pastor. As a reminder, I heard it said this week, your vote is not your valentine. You do not have to be in love with a candidate. You don't have to agree with everything they do. I don't know if I've ever met anybody I agree with everything they do. You want to vote for those who vote for life, who vote for the church, who vote that we can keep our Bibles open, who vote that we can live for Jesus, because liberty is what brings freedom. And so you want to do everything you can. I'll tell you this, your vote does matter. Your vote does matter. (audience applauding) And for those who say, well, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna use my vote, my not voting as sending a message. The only message you're gonna send is we're gonna get the wrong people in office.

That's the only message you're sending, so vote, okay? Enough said on that. Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, we gather on the first Tuesday of every month to pray. And it's so cool that our national elections always do that on first Tuesday for us. They always do it around our schedule. So we'll be here seeking the Lord in prayer, regardless of who gets elected, because we know regardless of who gets elected, Jesus Christ is still in the throne. He's still ruling and reigning. I'm gonna serve him, my man. (audience applauding) Couple things also. Next week is the 16th anniversary of Brave. 16th anniversary. (audience applauding) It's gonna be a special Sunday. We'll have testimonies, baptisms. Just so you know, every time you hear that we're gonna have baptisms on a weekend, if you've never been baptized with water, it's a great time to get baptized. But even if you have, it's a great time to bring lost people to church, because I will be sharing the gospel very, very clearly. So if you are born again, and you just want to celebrate the weekend, bring somebody who doesn't know Jesus

to church next Sunday, it'll be a great time. Veterans Day's the 11th, so the Sunday after that, we're gonna honor all veterans in our service, okay? So regardless of branch, we're gonna honor you. We have a coin for you. We're gonna honor you like we did for first responders. So if you've served in military, or have friends that have served in military, or neighbors that have served in military, you'll want them to be there for that as well. I think that's about all the announcements I have. I wanna get to preaching the word. As always, if you wanna use that QR code in the back of your seat, if you have questions during the message, you can go to Q and A with PJ, and I'll be happy to answer those questions. I try to record those here after our second service. So if you have questions about the message, send those in, be happy to help with that. With that, let's go before the Lord and get ready to hear His word before us. Would you pray with me? Our Father in Heaven, we do give you all the honor, glory, and praise for who you are. And Lord, we ask in the moments that we have together today that you would speak ever so clearly to each one of us. And Lord, we're praying because that's exactly what you wanna do, because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that it is you who are speaking,

so our prayer collectively this morning is speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, speak directly to you who will believe what He tells you and who will by faith put into practice what He shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen, amen. God wants your attention, God really wants your attention. He will go to great lengths to get your attention. He created you in His image and His greatest desire is that you would have a personal relationship with Him. And so for the moment you breathe your first, He's working on you to draw you to Himself. God wants your attention. Just like we as parents sometimes want our kids' attention. I remember what it was like as a little kid. If my parents called me by Jeff, it wasn't as big of a deal. But if it was Jeffrey, it began to get a little more serious. If it was Jeffrey Dennis, I knew they meant business. And if they spelled out my whole last name, which takes about five minutes to say, I knew I was in trouble. They were trying to get my attention. And God is always working to get our attention. He's always allowing us to experience certain things or not experience certain things, so that He can get our attention. The reason we go through the things that we go through in our lives,

while we can't explain always the why's, the why behind the why is because God's saying, because I want to get your attention here. I want to have your full attention. And as we've been studying the book of Daniel, we saw how God's been trying to get the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful ruler in the world at that time. And in chapter one, what we see is, He takes all of the spoils from Israel, brings them back to Babylon, puts those goods in His temple, basically saying, "My God's better than your God." So in chapter one, as God's trying to get His attention, He ignores God. In chapter two, He needs a dream, He needs interpreted. Daniel's able to tell Him the dream and the interpretation of the dream. And so now, King Nebuchadnezzar is curious about God. He's gone from ignoring Him, now He's curious about Him. And in the great story in chapter three, where He throws Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego on the furnace, and there's four men in the furnace. Now guess what? Now he's not only curious about him, he's experienced God. He's had an encounter with God, but he still hasn't turned to God. What you're gonna see here in chapter four today is Nebuchadnezzar bowing before God.

See, God doesn't just wanna take people that go to church, church-going types, and get their attention. He wants to get the attention of every single person in the world. And while we're studying King Nebuchadnezzar today, and what God did, and what links he went to get his attention, I want you to think about what links and attention God is going to get you in relationship with him today. So I invite you to turn to Daniel chapter four, Daniel chapter four, and as you're turning there, let me just set the scene for you because this is gonna be King Nebuchadnezzar's personal testimony. So really what he's gonna do in those first three verses, he's gonna spell out where he's going for the entire chapter. He's given a summary of what this looks like, and here's what he says, he says, Nebuchadnezzar, the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth. May your peace abound. It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders, which the most high God has done for me. How great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. Now, this is really setting up what the whole chapter is gonna be about

because after Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he didn't bow before the Lord. He was amazed at what had happened, but just like us. When God tries to get our attention, we can kind of walk through the same things. For some of you, God's been trying to get your attention, but you've been ignoring him. You're like, "Ah, I'm not really that interested." Some have had encounters with the Lord in such a way where you've seen some things and you're, makes you curious about him. Others of you have maybe heard his voice or experienced him in a service or when you're driving down the road, and now all of a sudden you've had an experience or encounter with him, but God wants more than that. You know what God wants? God wants your full allegiance. He wants your complete heart. He is the Lord, and he wants you to make him the Lord of your life. And so this is where we're gonna pick up today as we look at this first person testimony of King Nebuchadnezzar. This one we read about in the Old Testament all the time, the greatest leader in the world at that time. And I want you to know as we go through this, that the truth is that the most high rules, the most high God rules.

I'm telling you, it's election season and people get all worked up about it. I don't get worked up about it. I do my part, I vote. I only get one vote. When I'm done, I'm done. And here's what I know. Before I vote, during when I vote, after I vote, Jesus Christ is my King. He's my Lord and I'm a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Amen? (congregation applauding) And we need to be aware of that in all of our lives. Jesus Christ must be the foundation in our lives. And so today I wanna give you five truths about the fact that the most high rules and the first truth is this, that God's blessings are a fragile foundation. God's blessings are a fragile foundation. Notice what King Nebuchadnezzar starts in his testimony. Here's what he says. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was that ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. Now, for many of us as Americans, we'd be like, amen. You've arrived. You're at ease in your house. You're flourishing in your palace. You have everything you need. You're not in need of anybody else. How blessed is that?

Friends, that's not a blessing. Blessings are gifts to be enjoyed for a season, but they make a horrible foundation to build your life upon. Marriage is a blessing, but it's seasonal. I love watching couples who have been married for 40, 50, 60 years that have been through it together. They've wrestled through things. They've done life together to the highs and the lows and they genuinely love each other, but it's seasonal 'cause at some point in time, usually one goes before the other and when the one goes, the other one's devastated. It's a blessing. It's just a blessing for a season. You don't get to hold on to it forever. Money can be a blessing, but it makes a terrible foundation. I mean, if money comes into your life, it's a blessing that you can use for things, you can buy things, you can serve other people. It's a blessing, but if it becomes your foundation, you're gonna be miserable. Health is a blessing. Health is a blessing. Me without it, we really can't do what we need to do, but if health becomes your foundation, you're gonna be miserable. Like blessings are given to you by God and God does give blessings.

The Bible says he causes the rain to fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous. God blesses all people. He's always blessing, but the way to take a blessing is to hold it with an open hand and as it comes through your hand, use it and as it leaves, don't try to grab on to it. They're seasonal, and by the way, can I say this 'cause I feel like I need to say this You don't need to hide your blessings. When God blesses you, you can thank God for it. You can tell other people about it 'cause if you truly know what came from Him, all you're doing is you're thanking the giver of the blessing that you had. And sometimes when we get in cadre's, you know what it's like when you're being blessed and you're in a season of blessing, but somebody else is struggling with the very thing you're blessed with, you wanna shut your mouth and the enemy tells you don't say anything 'cause it's really, really hard for them right now. You know, you're in a cadre with a bunch of young couples and everybody's trying to get pregnant. And there's one couple that can't get pregnant and you find out that week that you got pregnant and you're like, yeah, I don't wanna say anything in the group 'cause if I say I got pregnant but they can't get pregnant, it's gonna really hurt their feelings.

No, I wanna thank God that this is what He did for me. It's not something that I did. It's something he did and I'm thankful for that. I can celebrate those who saw. If you cannot celebrate other people's blessings, there's a problem with you. - Yes. - Celebrate your blessings. Don't be embarrassed by your blessings, but then mourn with those who mourn. Be there for them 'cause if you know it's a blessing, it's not like you're special that you got this. It's only from God and it's seasonal. If you have kids, it's seasonal, it's seasonal. Even if they live a long, healthy, prosperous life, it's seasonal at some point in time, they're leaving the nest and they're gonna go do their own thing and then they'll come back when they need money and all that kind of stuff. But it's seasonal, you know what I'm saying? And so you have to enjoy the blessings you have when you have 'em because the only place you can enjoy blessings is when in the present. Now here's Nebuchadnezzar. He was at ease in his house and flourishing in his palace. And the problem that he had is his whole life was built on himself. If your life gets built upon you, if your life gets built on your blessings, you will be one of the most miserable people

on the planet. I mean, just think about all the things. We could use so many examples in life of things that are like such a blessing, it's so great. Nothing's ever gonna happen to this. Like the Titanic in 1912, the unsinkable ship. It didn't even make one voyage. And if you haven't seen the movie, I'll save you three hours. It hit a iceberg in sinks. That's it. I mean, this is like the perfect ship and nothing's ever gonna happen to you. Or how about something a little closer to home for people in my age group? Remember those things we used to do on a Friday night or Saturday night if we were gonna see a movie at our house? We had to go to a store and get a thing called a cassette. VHS section, Betamax section. You remember what I'm talking about? - Blockbuster. - You got it. (audience laughs) Remember the name at the store? Blockbuster. Maybe cruise into Blockbuster and you look at all the covers and I mean, that place is never going out of business until it did. I mean, nothing lasts forever. No blessing is intended to last forever. It's intended to be used for a season and enjoyed

but it doesn't last forever. So here's the truth. Thank God today for your blessings and enjoy the blessings He's given you today. If you spend more time thanking Him for what He's already blessed you with instead of begging Him for what you don't have, you will be a much happier person. James 413 and 14 says it this way. Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go "to such and such a city and spend a year there "and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. When your blessings become your foundation or if your blessings become your foundation, you'll always be anxious. Because if your blessings become your foundations and you gotta do everything and work everything to keep your blessings beneath you. If money comes and money's a blessing, you can stew it up for a while and you're like, "Paul, I know what it is to have plenty. "I know what it is to be and want. "Praise be the name of the Lord." But if it's your foundation and money comes in, like, "This is really good. "I need more of this." And money's my foundation and you go after it,

you'll be a miserable person. Health's good, right? Health's fine, thank God if you have your health. But if it becomes your foundation where every single day, all you think about is your health for 10 hours a day and that's it, that's gonna be a miserable person. 'Cause what you're doing is you're trying to hold on to the future and the present and it doesn't work. So use your blessings today, steward them well today, thank God for them today, praise the giver for them, but don't make your blessings a foundation because God's blessings are a fragile foundation. Secondly is this. God shakes where you're standing. God shakes where you're standing. So if you're blessings are your foundation, just know this, your foundation's gonna get shook. 'Cause notice King Nebuchadnezzar, verse five. "I saw a dream and it made me fearful." And these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. See, if your blessings are your foundation, any news that you hear will always scare you. If your blessings are a foundation, like safety's my foundation, anything you hear in the news will scare you to death. If money's your foundation, anything you hear in the news will scare you to death. If your marriage is your foundation, everything you hear will scare you to death.

And there's people walking around all the time that make their living by scaring their lives. way, but blessings are your foundation. And so they talk about why your blessings are going to get taken away. And then you panic. But if Jesus Christ is your foundation, come whatever comes, you're fine. Amen? And that's what King Nebuchadnezzar doesn't know at this point. He's at ease. He's flourishing. He's king of the world. He's got everything he needs. And yet what happens? He has a dream and now he's freaking out. Because the dream is showing him that not everything is going to remain the same. And if blessings are your foundation, you're always going to love the status quo. You're never going to want to go on an adventure with God because you don't want anything to change in your life. And the visions kept alarming him. So I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. This time he's actually going to tell them the dream. You remember in earlier chapter he said, you tell me the dream and the interpretation. This time he's going to tell me the dream. And then he's going to ask them to give the interpretation. Then the magicians, the conjurers, the childians, and the diviners all came in. And I related the dream to them, but they could not make its interpretation known to me. So basically the whole occult that is part of his king's palace comes in. He tells them the dream. They can't do anything with it. We're like, we're sorry. We don't know what that means. But finally Daniel came in before me whose name is Beltashazzar. Now keep in mind this is King Nebuchadnezzar's first-person testimony. You remember the name Daniel means God is my judge and Beltashazzar is of their gods, which means to protect the life of the king. So even after Daniel had served him, even after he'd seen the power of God work through Daniel, he still called him Beltashazzar because he saw him as the guy that could protect the king. Now listen, there's a lot of people in the world that like the blessings of God as long as God keeps giving blessings and they like hanging out with Christians as long as they're blessed by Christians. But they want nothing to do with the God that you serve. That was King Nebuchadnezzar. He liked that Daniel could do things for him. He liked that he got to experience God when he was around him. He just didn't want anything to do with him. So he still called him Beltashazzar. So when Daniel came in before me, his name is Beltashazzar according to the name of my God. And I notice this, I mean, he's seen so many things and he's like, yeah, let me tell you about my God. His God's done nothing. God isn't even a God. And yet he's so steeped

in his religion and so steeped in himself. He can't see that. And in whom is a spirit of the holy gods talking about Daniel and I related the dream to him. Now there wasn't just a spirit of the holy gods. There was the spirit, the holy spirit of God that was working through Daniel. Make no mistake about it. So he says to him, oh, Beltashazzar, chief of the magicians, magicians, since I keep wanting to say musicians, but it's not. It's magicians. Oh, Beltashazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen along with its interpretation. Now why? Because he's worried. Everything's at ease. He's flourishing. He's good. When you're flourishing and you're good and that's your foundation, anything that isn't flourishing and good is going to agitate that. It's not going to stay the same. It might not be. Hey, tell me my dream. Tell me what it means. I got to know. I got to know what it means. I got to feel peace again. I feel no peace. What if this doesn't remain? So he tells him that. Verse 10. Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed. I was looking and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great. The tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit was abundant in and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches and all the living creatures fed themselves from it. He's like, I had this dream. I see this tree. The tree's a massive tree. The tree feeds the whole world. The birds land in it. It covers and gives shade to the rest of the beasts. I mean, it's this incredible massive tree that's doing great. And it's got foliage. It's beautiful. It looks incredible. And this is what he says in verse 13. I was looking in the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed and behold, an angelic watcher, a holy one descended from heaven. So as he sees this dream in angel descends and speaks to him. Verse 14. He shouted out and spoke his follows. Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the beast flee from under it and the birds from its branches yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the field. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let a beast's mind be given to him and let seven periods of time pass over him. This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers most high God is ruler over the realm of mankind and it bestows it on whom he wishes and sets

over it the lowliest of men." Then Daniel said, "This is the dream which I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now you, Beltashazzar, tell me its interpretation and as much as none of the wise men of my kingdom is able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able for a spirit of the holy gods is in you." I mean, you see this? So there's huge tree, but now the tree is going to be chopped. And now there's going to be a gait of iron bronze around it to protect it from being anything less than a stump and to keep it from becoming more than a stump. And then it says something really, really interesting. I think this is the part that terrifies him. It says this that, "Let his mind be changed," and I was talking about an individual from that of a man and let a beast's mind be given to him and let seven periods of time pass over him. I mean, part of the dream is this, that there's a man and he's going to lose his mind for a period of about seven years, and instead of having the mind of a man, he's going to have a mind of a beast, and he's going to eat like cattle eat and do all these things. So he's freaking out. So he says, "Daniel, tell me what it means. I need to know what it means." And before Daniel interprets a dream, you need to see this, that God shakes where you're standing. When you build your life on you, when you build your life on your blessings, you will never have a solid foundation. You will always be fearful, you will usually be anxious, and you will always be concerned about what's coming next. And you'll walk around as if to say, "Man, it's bad out there and it's going to get worse and I don't even understand it." But God always shakes where you're standing because why? Because God wants to draw you into a relationship with himself.

I mean, in World War II, you heard the statement, "There's no atheists in foxholes." A lot of hardened atheists who went to fight in World War II when the shell started coming and their friends were getting killed and they knew they were minutes away from losing their own life. A lot of atheists prayed in that moment, right? Because why? Because God was shaking their foundation like, "Oh, you haven't called out to me yet? I bet I can ordain some circumstances where you may want to call out to me." Or what about, for those of you who are alive during 9/11? If you were a churchgoer during 9/11, you will know wherever you went to church, it was three times as large as the next weekend. It was about two times as large as the second weekend and had a few extra people the third weekend and then back to normal by week four. Why? Because just because you have an encounter with God and just because it kind of opens your heart to, "I really need him. I really need him." Doesn't mean that you really want him, right? And so God's always shaking the foundation, but God doesn't bring you to church just so you can feel something or hear something or God doesn't do things in your life or engineer circumstances just so you can be like, "Oh, I think God's available." God does it because he wants your whole heart. We live in a culture that thinks it's enough just to have a God encounter. If you've ever been to a rock concert, I was at a concert this week where a singer got up and talked about their newfound faith in God and how he was there and the whole crowd was like, "Great. It's awesome." So I'm listening closely. I'm like, "I think I talk about Jesus, personal relationship, studying the Word, change behavior."

There was none of that. It was just, "I hear the voice now, and it's really encouraging." And everybody's like, "That's awesome." And then she was saying, "I hope every one of you gets to hear his voice, "Oh, that's great." But there was no call for repentance. There was no call for lordship. There was no call for any of that. And here's the truth. God loves all people. He gives you encounters like that, not so you'll be like, "I can hear God's voice and I love." No, so that you'll repent and believe that he's the Christ and be the Lord of your life. That's what it's all about. I mean, there's a lot of people that have had encounters with God that will go to hell. A lot of people, because God has been trying to get hold of everybody. So a lot of people have encounters with God, but just because you've had your heart strangely warmed doesn't mean you're in the kingdom. And that's what he's saying. God shakes where you're standing. And that's why we got to run to him. Proverbs 18, 10 says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and they're safe." Psalm 20 verse 7 says, "Some boast in chariot, some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God." Or even as I preached on this last Wednesday night in Matthew chapter 7, I mean Jesus told you to build a foundation. And he said, "You're going to build a foundation, but you're going to build it on the sand or you're going to build it on the rock and where you build the foundation is going to make eternal impact because storms are going to come regardless of where you build.

But if you build on the sand, when the storm comes, you're going to be devastated. But if you build it on the rock, if you build it on the lordship of Jesus Christ, yes storms will come. Challenges will be there. It will be difficult, but at the end of it all, you'll still be standing with the Lord when it's all said and done. Amen? Where do you build your foundation is the question because God warns before he does never ever thought you'd go through, right? And if you haven't, you will. Because God has us go through seasons that we would never pick for ourselves, that we would never choose, that we'd never understand the wise, because why? Because He's shaking the foundation. Because if you were certain about everything God did, well I know why God did everything in my life, I know everything, you wouldn't really need God. The reason that you have uncertainty in your life, like I'll never understand why and fill in the blank, here's why you don't understand why, so that you can make your certainty the Lord Jesus Christ. For His ways are higher than your ways and His thoughts are higher than your thoughts and that's His answer for why He did what He did. That's it. If you're looking for answers on this side of heaven as to why all these things happen to you, can I just assure you, you may never find them. You may not even find them when you get to heaven, it may just be the Lord's like, "I allowed that to happen and I engineered that to happen so that you would look to me so that I could truly be your God, so I could be your place of certainty." And that's why life doesn't always go our way. That's why there's those times where we're like, "That's not fair," or, "How come that's not working out?" And God's like, "Because I need more of you and I want you to depend upon me more."

But here's the beauty of how God does it. Here's the beauty of how God does it. God always warns before He wounds. God always warns before He wounds. He always lets you know what's coming before it's coming. He's telling King Nebuchadnezzar, "This is going to be the decree, this is what's going to happen." Now, notice what Daniel says in verse 19. Then Daniel, whose name is Beltashazzar, was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him. The king responded and said, "Beltashazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you." Beltashazzar replied this, "My Lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you and its interpretation to your adversaries." It's really interesting, Daniel got carted off into Babylon, he was deported into Babylon, got there and put in captivity, ends up serving in the king's palace, he's going to get this vision that's not good for the king, but instead of being like, "I can't wait to tell him this, I hate King Nebuchadnezzar," that's how he says, he says, "My Lord, if only this was your enemies and your adversaries that felt this way, it'd be okay. This is going to be hard for me to tell you." It means he's serving in a foreign land, but he's still showing honor to the one that he serves under, right? That's what he's doing. He's going to tell him what the interpretation is and King Nebuchadnezzar said, "Well, don't hold back. I mean, don't let it trouble. You've got to tell me the whole thing. I've got to know what this dream means. I need to understand it, so please tell me everything." So here's what he says.

He says, "The tree you saw, which became large and grew strong, whose height reached to the sky and was visible to all the earth, and whose foliage was beautiful and is fruit abundant, and in which there was food for all under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the sky lodged, it is you, O King. For you have become great and grown strong, and your majesty has become great and reached to the sky and your dominion to the end of the earth." Let me tell you something. That tree you saw, the one that the whole earth saw, the one that all the birds landed in its branches, the one that covered all the beasts of the field, the one that provided food, the one that was beautiful, the one that the whole world knew about, King, that's you. You're the one the whole world knows about. You're the one that people are dependent upon. You're the one that's done all these great things. It's you. Now, if the vision ended there, that would have been great for King Nebuchadnezzar, but he's going to go on and tell him the rest of the vision and what that means. Notice what he says in verse 23, "In that the King saw an angelic watcher, a holy one descending from heaven and saying, 'Chop down the tree and destroy it, yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a hand with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him. This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the Most High which has come upon the Lord, my King." He's like, "Remember, you had that part of the vision where the angel came and told you, the tree was going to be chopped down. Well, you know the tree's you. You're about ready to be chopped down to the stump." There was a band that was left around it's going to protect it and it's going to keep it from getting any larger.

And then guess this, remember the part about the man that was going to lose his mind and be in the field? I'm about ready to tell you what all that means and I want to let you know something else. This is decreed by God. Can I tell you something? When God makes a decree, he doesn't change his mind. When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth in the life and no one comes to the Father except through me." Can I tell you what that means? It means Jesus is the way, the truth in the life and the only way people get saved is through him. There is no other way, right? When Jesus says in the Bible that when people die and they meet him, they're going to hear one of two things. They're going to hear well done, good and faithful servant enter into your rest or they're We're going to hear, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. That's what you're gonna hear, one of those two things. And let me tell you, if you enter the kingdom of God, that's done, it's secure, it's over, you're with them forever. And if you're exited out, that's done, that's forever. There's no way back in. And eternity's a long time. So I got said eternity in her hearts. That's why she's trying to get your attention. Because this life is just a opening act for eternity. And he wants you to know that it's a long time. So hell's a real place where people get punished for all eternity. And when you hear those words,

depart from me, a worker of iniquity, I never knew you, you go to Hades, you go to the place of the dead, you go to hell, and then you await Revelation 20, which is the final judgment for all those whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life. And then you get cast into the eternal lake of fire. And you know how long that is? That eternal lake of fire is as long as eternal life is. And there's no crossing over. You say, well, why do you have to tell us that on a Sunday morning? Because God loves you so much, he's giving some of you a warning. 'Cause some of you are ignoring God. Some of you are curious about God. Some of you have even had encounters and experiences with God, but God is trying to get your attention because God wants your complete heart and he wants to be Lord of your life. And that's all that matters. And so that's why he tells us this, 'cause he loves you enough. He's like, this is what's going to happen, so be ready before it does. It's called God's mercy. Now notice what he says in verse 26. And in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is heaven that rules.

Therefore, okay, he's gonna give him advice. So here's what he says. He's like, you're gonna get your kingdom back. He's like, that's why it's a stump. That's why God's not taking the whole tree. It's gonna come back to you, but it's only coming back to you after you recognize that it is heaven that rules. After you recognize that it's the God of heaven that rules. After you recognize, you're not in charge. After you recognize, it's not about you. After you recognize, it's not about what you've accomplished. After you recognize, life wasn't geared for you. After you recognize that God is in control of everything and that he leads everything, and you're willing to bow and submit to that, then God's gonna give you your kingdom back. Now, when God decrees it, that's what's gonna happen. God has decreed this, so would you like to take a guess as to what happens? That's exactly what's gonna happen. That's exactly what's gonna happen. Now here's what Daniel does. Now, we know that Daniel was close to the king, but we have this idea that Daniel and the king were like buddies and maybe they weren't fishing together and they were homie. It wasn't like that. There's the king and then Daniel serves him. There were times of Daniel didn't do what the king wanted.

King would kill Daniel. I mean, there weren't buddies. So here's what Daniel's gonna say back to the king. Once he tells him the vision in verse 27, I love this. This is courageous of Daniel. Therefore, O King, may my advice be pleasing to you. I hope you'll take this advice. I hope you don't get mad when I tell you this. Break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity. He's like, here's my advice. Based upon what I just told you, if I were you, I'd stop sinning. Like now, stop sinning now. Live righteously now. Stop your iniquities now. Show mercy to the poor. Now, why is he, why is showing mercy to the poor? Such a big deal. Because whatever God does for you and whatever influence or leadership you have, it's never for you, it's always for others. So King Nebuchadnezzar has all the influence in the world for what purpose? To serve the people. What are the purpose of a politician? To serve the people and their constituents? What's the purpose of a teacher? To serve the class?

What's the purpose of a coach? To serve the team? What's the purpose of pastor? To serve the church? What's the purpose of a parent? To serve one another and their marriage and their children? Every influence you have, it's not about you, it's about serving other people. What was King Nebuchadnezzar doing? Was he serving anybody? No, he's sitting with his feet up in his hands behind his head, watching sports center, totally feeling at ease, growing in luxury, having a good time and not caring about anybody except himself. And you say, that's a bad king. It's not about the king. What about you? How do you use your influence to serve others? How do you use your influence to have mercy on others? And when you say something like, well, those people, they don't deserve it. You're not showing mercy. Mercy means they don't deserve it, but it's in my power to show mercy anyway. That's what Christ did, right? And that's what Daniel's telling him. So he's like, hey, my advice to you would be based upon this. This is really serious and God doesn't change his mind. Maybe God would be patient with you. And the Bible is replete with God saying that he does this.

I mean, when God called Ezekiel to preach to the nation, he said in Ezekiel 33, 11, say to them, as I live declares the Lord, but rather that the wicked would turn from his way and live. Turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die, O house of Israel? God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. Whoever the most wicked person that ever lives is, and I don't know exactly who that would be, if they die apart from Christ, Jesus is not up in heaven saying, "Ugh, show him now." Now they'll know that I'm got, there's none of that. He takes no delight in the death of wicked people. Wicked people don't die where he's like, "Yeah, that's not what he does." Why? Because he demonstrated how much he loved the world by coming and dying on a cross for the sins of all humanity in hopes that people would repent and turn to him. Anybody, anywhere, anytime can turn from his or her sin and come to him. So his desire is showing mercy and warning so that you won't experience that. God's desire is that no one would go to hell. God's very patient with all of you, it says in Second Peter, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to the knowledge of Christ. Why hasn't Jesus come back? Why is he not here yet? 'Cause he's so patient and he knows if he came back today,

some of you wouldn't be going with him. So he's bearing with great patience for you in hopes that you would give your heart and your life to him. That's his desire. He loves you that much. That's how much he cares. I mean, we see this all the time. I mean, if you go to the doctor and they give you a diagnosis that your arteries and your heart are blocked, it's a window. It's an opportunity to do something with it. Some people get that warning and they're like, "Yeah, whatever, I'm still gonna eat fried chicken "every day and I don't care." And other people are like, "What do we need to do? "What needs to change?" Some of you hear about the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and for some of you it's like, "I don't care." And for others of you, then what must I do? I mean, it's kind of like, you know what rumble strips are? They're on the side of the road. It's what your right tire hits sometimes when your wife looks at you and like, "What are you doing?" (audience laughs) They're rumble strips. They keep you from going off the road. They're like a little warning sign. God's word is a rumble strip.

Like, this is truth, this is what's happening. Even the most hardened atheists, I gotta tell you this, and I'll finish by sharing this today when I get to the end of my message, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The most hardened atheist, everybody in Islam. Every Hindu, every person who's followed Confucius, every nominal church goer, every atheist, every one of them will bow and say that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It's a fact. You can take it to the bank. (audience applauds) And even if that makes you so angry, you'll never come back to church again. I'll see you when you bow and tell him that, okay? I'm telling you the truth. God warns before he wounds because he wants you to know him. He also does this when you don't respond the way he wants. God humbles the proud. God will humble the proud. Notice this. All this happened in Nebuchadnezzar the king, verse 28. Now notice this. I mean, this is like shocking to me. Verse 29, 12 months later, 12 months later. That's a year.

Do you think he had enough time to change his mind? Do you think he had enough time to repent? I mean, if God would have given him five minutes and say you have five minutes to change your mind, that's plenty of time to repent. It's 12 months later since Daniel said, if I were you, I hope you take this advice. I hope you'll repent. I hope you'll stop living in sin and start living righteousness. I hope you'll use your position to serve other people and show mercy to them. 12 months later, check out what happened. This is he, King Nebuchadnezzar, was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. And the king reflected and said, here's what he's saying, 12 months after that, is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power for the glory of my majesty? I mean, 12 months later, he's on the roof and sometimes we all have this rooftop moment where we're looking at things and we falsely think we did something when it was all God that did it. And he's looking at it, he's like, how awesome is this? How great is this palace? How great is this kingdom that I myself have built for all my majesty and with all my majesty?

I mean, my interpretation, if I was writing a commentary, is what an idiot. I mean, you've had a year to get your heart and life right with God. Doesn't want anything to do with him. And notice this, verse 31, I love this, while the word was in the king's mouth. While he was saying, my kingdom's awesome, my majesty's great, while the word was in his mouth, a voice came from heaven saying. So while he's saying this out loud, God starts speaking to him through an angel. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared, sovereignty has been removed from you. and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes. So while he's saying, "Aren't I great? Is it my kingdom great? Look what I built for my majesty. I'm awesome." While he's saying that, the voice is in his ear saying, "Hmm, it's over for you." Your leadership's done and it's done for a season and here's how long that season is. It's a period of seven years. We'll talk about the sevens and the sevens as we get further in Daniel, but for now it's a period of about seven years and here's what's going to happen for seven years. You're not even going to live like a human anymore. You're going to live with the animals. I'm going to give you the mind of an animal. I'm going to give you grass to eat like an animal. You're no longer even going to associate with human beings until you get to a place where you realize that I'm the most high God, until you get to a place where you realize I'm the one that's been trying to get your attention, you're going to stay there. But when you do, I'll bring you back. Now, when God decrees something, does he do it? He's going to do it exactly the way he said. Notice this. Verse 33, "Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle and his body was drenched

with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like the eagles feathers and his nails like bird claws." So when does this happen? Immediately. He goes from being king to being an animal. He goes from being a king to having the mind of an animal, eating like an animal for a period of seven years until his hair grows like eagle feathers and he hasn't cut his nails in seven years, so he's got like bird claws on his hands. It's a bad day for him. It was a bad period of seven years for him. Why? Because he failed to admit that the Lord is God, that the most high rules. He could see all the encounters. He could get close, but he couldn't give God his full allegiance. God warned him. God told him what was going to happen in a dream. And sometimes we read this. How many of you have had a dream they don't know the answer to? They can't interpret. That's everyone of mine, just so you know. I've had lots of dreams. I'm like, I wake up. I'm like, I don't have any clue what that means. And when people are always trying, well, it probably means this. It doesn't. He's got this dream. God tells him, here's what the dream is, and it comes to fruition exactly like he said it was going to happen. He went from standing on the palace as the king of the world, saying, "Look at me. Look what I built. Look at how awesome as I am to immediately be an out acting like a beast of the field, eating with the cattle, eating grass for seven years." Why would God do such a hard thing? Because he loves King Nebuchadnezzar. And he knew that was the only way he was ever going to get him to turn. Now, we have one verse that talks about those seven years, but I want to tell you this. I don't know where you've been for the last seven years, but it probably hadn't been that bad. I mean, you haven't been living like an animal with an animal mind, eating animal food for seven years. I know there's people that refer to themselves as furries, but that's a whole other subject. They don't have to. They don't have to stay there because that's not their identity. But my whole thing is he humbles the proud. I mean, we've discovered, you know, through archaeology that thousands of bricks from Babylon were stamped with King Nebuchadnezzar's name. Even in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein in the same place had bricks on his palaces with his name stamped on it. And both are gone and the Lord still reigns and rules. Amen? I mean, that's what we need to understand is that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. Jesus said in Luke 14, 11, "For everyone who wishes to exalt himself will be humble, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." 1 Peter 5 says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, therefore humble yourselves unto mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time."

I mean, you'll even know in Acts chapter 12 and for those who went to Israel with me, we stood right in the place where King Herod was there one day wearing his garments of silver where the sun hid it and they were all shouting out. He's like a God and he started taking all the praise. So God's like, "Okay, I'm done with him." And he fell over and croaked and got eaten with worms. God can't stand pride. He can't stand you thinking you're in charge of your life. You say, "Well, I'm not a king. I don't have that kind of authority. But when you live your life saying, "This is my life. This is my phone. This is my job. This is where I'm going to go at school. This is what I'm going to do. This is what I'm going to get married. This is where I'm going to live. This is where I'm going to have my life. This where I'm going to plant my family. This is the house I'm going to pick. This is the car I'm going to have. This is the thing I'm going to do. This is what I'm doing for fun. This is how I'm using all my time. When you live for you, God will engineer all sorts of circumstances in your life to say, "I don't want you living for you anymore. I want you living for me." That's what he's doing, King Nebuchadnezzar. And to get his attention, he became an animal for seven years. He humbles the proud. God is not afraid to humble the proud. It's not afraid at all. God also restores the humbled. He also restores the humbled. Notice this, verse 34, but at the end of that period, I mean, we've had seven years in verse 33, and I know what we're like as Americans, like what kind of animal was he really? And what kind of grass did he eat? Was like Kentucky bluegrass or whatever? God doesn't answer any of those questions because he doesn't care that you know the answers to all that. What he cares is, he went through a long period of time to get somebody's heart to turn to him, just like he'll do with you. And notice what he said, but at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven,

and my reason returned to me, and notice what he did. And I, now he's talking first person. He's not talking about their God anymore. He's talking about his personal testimony, and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever. And here's how he did it. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, means I'm in nothing compared to him. But he does according to his will in the host of heaven. And among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" God can do whatever he wants, and we can't question what he does. He's perfect in all of his ways. At that time, once he praised him, notice what happened. My reason returned to me, and my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out. So I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and the surpassing greatness was added to me. Didn't God say he was going to do that? Didn't God say, after a period of seven years, after you know that I'm the most high, I'll give you your kingdom back? So who gave him his authority? God, who took away his authority? God, who gave him his authority back?

God, and notice how he responded. Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the kingdom of heaven, for all his works are true, and all his ways are just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride. Nebuchadnezzar, who lived like an animal for seven years, all his ways are just, all his ways are good, and he's able to humble those who walk in pride. That's me, and praise God that he loves us enough to engineer circumstances enough to bring us to our knees enough so that we'll seek him while there's still time. Amen? And that's what he's doing here. I mean, you see it in stories throughout church history. You know, John Newton, the slave trader who turned pastor who in 1772 wrote the lyrics of amazing grace. The one who'd been the former slave trader, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Or Chuck Coulson, who worked for President Nixon, who was kind of his hatchet man, who got in prison after Watergate, and then as a result came to know the Lord and spent his life with prison fellowship, taking the gospel to prisoners all over the nation, right? Or how about the apostle Paul that wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, who was spending his life hunting down, torturing, and making sure Christians were killed that found mercy by the Lord and gave his heart and life to him and spent the rest of his life building Christ in his church?

Friends, that's what he wants to do with each and every one of us. It tells us in James 4-10, "Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you." Psalm 51-17 says it this way, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not oppose." Somebody's end by reading this verse I told you I was going to read because this is what you're all going to experience. And as you hear this verse, here's what I want you to think about. Are you someone who's been ignoring God? Are you someone who's just been curious about God? Are you someone who's had an encounter or experience with God? Or are you one who bows to God? Because you will bow now or you will bow later. Philippians 2 verse 8-11 says, "Being found in appearance as a man," that's Jesus, "He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. He died for the sins of the world. He died in your place for all your sins. He came to show mercy to you by dying for you. For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Here's my question. Are you ready to bow to him? I love you enough as a pastor to say, "I want all of you to be ready to bow to him." And you don't get ready to bow to him by telling him what you're going to do to get ready. You don't tell, "Well, I'm going to join the church now. Well, I'm going to get really serious about God now." You bow to him by saying, "I'm done being the Lord of my own life,

and Jesus, I need you to be the Lord of my life." I'm done with my blessing being the Lord of my life. Jesus, I want you to be the Lord of my life. I'm not asking if you prayed a prayer to receive Christ. I'm not asking if you joined a church. I'm not asking if you're in a cadre. I'm not asking if you're a good person. I'm not asking any of that stuff. I'm asking if you met Jesus Christ today, face to face, what would he say to you? Have you already bowed your heart and your knee and your allegiance to him? And if not, would you make this moment that moment? Much like Daniel, I plead with you to turn from your sin. I plead for you to receive the righteousness of Christ. I'm not asking you to get all religious, but Jesus Christ is calling you by name because he wants a relationship with you. And if you have a relationship with him and you know that you're born again and you know for sure, Jesus is my Lord, then how can you use your influence to show mercy to others so that they too can come to know the King? I want to invite you to stand. Our Father in heaven, we give you all the praise, glory, and honor and here in this moment, we just want you to do work in our hearts. Lord, all of us come from different backgrounds. We've all had different experiences, different encounters, but Lord, your desire is that we would all personally

know you as our Lord and Savior. So I want to first pray for those who would say, that's me, I know that Jesus Christ is not my foundation, but I want him to be, what do I do? Here's how you pray. Lord, save me, save me now. I know if I met you, you'd say, get away from me. But I heard your voice today and I want to give my life to you, come into my life, forgive my sins, make me clean. And Lord, for those who prayed that, who confess you as their Lord and Savior, who no longer want to live in their sin, it's not about them trying harder, it's about them surrendering now to you. And Lord, I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would come in and dwell them like your word says that you do and that they would tangibly notice their lives beginning to change. And Lord, I also pray for those of us who would say, without a doubt, I'm born again. God shown me mercy, he's humbled me in my pride and he's given himself to me. Lord, open our eyes to who we can show mercy to this week, who we might think in our heart that person's undeserving, that group of people who are undeserving, but you would say, I died for that person in that group of people, would you go show mercy to them? And Lord, we pray for those who came to Christ, they would sign up to get baptized.

Lord, many would bring more people to church next week to hear the gospel. And Lord, you would do something in our hearts, you'd open up our hearts and minds to Christ Jesus in new and fresh ways. And Lord, we just want you to know today, we love you. We know that you're the Lord. We know that the Lord God, the Most High God, the Lord Jesus Christ, rules and reigns in this universe and we give you all glory. We give you all honor and we give you all praise in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Could we give God praise for his word this morning? (congregation applauding)