What Are You Rooted In? - Far From Home - Pastor Trey Hildebrant

[MUSIC] >> Hasn't it already been such a great day, first-door Lando? >> I want to welcome in all of our campuses across Central Florida, our campus over in Horizon West, DeBarry and O'Koey, and of course, our brothers at the Marion Correctional Institute. Here at John Young, can you welcome everybody into church today? >> [APPLAUSE] >> Yeah, we're in a teaching series that we're calling Far From Home. It's a study of the Old Testament book of Daniel. Because we believe Daniel's life is a blueprint for how to live for God in a world that doesn't. It's how to stand firm and love well. It's the attention of both of them, which is important for us to recognize, because we could fall off the cliff on either side of stand firm and love well, we could stand firm in such a way that we become mean and ineffective in reaching people because we want to just make sure that we're right. Or we could, in the name of loving well, become soft and so inclusive that we miss God's truth. But what Daniel teaches us is that we can do both. That we can stand firm on truth, rooted in God, and love well, reaching those who are far from God for God. We see that in Daniel, all through Daniel. Today we're in Daniel chapters four and five. Next week we'll be with Daniel in the lion's den. As we see how prayer helps Daniel move through persecution. And then this is where I'm going to ask for your prayers. The final week of this series, Daniel seven through 12, we're going to tackle all the prophetic books of Daniel in one week. You're going to leave knowing everything you need to know about the end times. No more questions at all.

That's not what's going to happen. But we are going to teach Daniel seven through 12, two weeks from today. So we are excited about how God has already used this series to help us stand firm and to love well. Daniel chapter four and five, here's what's happening. This is a case study, it's two case studies, of two men who were not rooted in God. When I say rooted, what I mean is rooted is where we find our identity and our strength, our identity and our strength. We are all rooted in something. What guides you, what motivates you, what sustains you. We're all rooted in something. And King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel four and his son Belshazzar in Daniel five demonstrate the opposite. They demonstrate the opposite of being rooted in God. You know, sometimes it's helpful to see the opposite to understand what's good. Here's an example. Who loves coffee in the room? Across our campuses, raise your hand. Who loves coffee? If you didn't raise your hand, you're missing out on one of God's greatest gifts. I tell people, coffee makes my top five. It's my Jesus, my wife, my children, my church and my coffee. That's my top five. You see, sometimes to appreciate the best of something, you have to know the worst of something. So you think of the best cup of coffee, it's one of those French presses, it looks like a science experiment, but it's fresh coffee, it's pushed down right in front of you. You know what I'm talking about, a really fancy good cup of coffee. That's on one side compared to waffle house coffee. Now I got to say, I grew up in Georgia.

I love waffle house, the all star special, give me a waffle and some hash browns. I'm all in, but they're coffee. It's somehow a mixture of like, if you wanted to taste watered down cigarettes. That's what you get when you drink coffee from waffle house. But when you drink that coffee, you appreciate the best cup of coffee. It's like this spiritually, I'm going to make the turn. Psalm chapter 34 verse 8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." we have to taste and see that the world is bitter. King Nebuchadnezzar and his son live lives like the Waffle House cup of coffee. They give us a picture of the negative example of what it means to not be rooted in God. But where are you rooted? Think about your life right now, where are you rooted? Where do you find your strength? Where do you find your identity? Daniel 4 and 5 carry similar themes. But here's what's interesting. Daniel 4 is the lesson learned by King Nebuchadnezzar while Daniel 5 is the lesson not learned by his son, Belchisar. We're going to focus primarily on Daniel chapter 4. So let's jump in Daniel chapter 4 starting in verse 4. I, Nebuchadnezzar, so this is the king of Babylon speaking, I, Nebuchadnezzar was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. Now here's the risk we all face. When circumstances are good, we tend to uproot from God. It's pride. Pride is the risk when things are going well. Pride in the palace is a risk for all of us. And all pride is, pride is rooted in self, in selfish desires. Pride is rooted in self for identity and strength. What guides?

What sustains? Well, I come back to self and this is the Babylon mentality. Pride, and pride is a sin because it puts us in God's place. What we see in Nebuchadnezzar's life is he starts in chapter 4 and he says that he was prosperous, which by the way, prosperous is not inherently bad. I want to have a prosperous life. I know you do too. But that can, if we're not rooted in the right place, prosperous can lure us into independence from God, the first word of verse 4 is the keyword. What was it? I. That's it. I. There's always this pool to make us, our desires, our feelings, our comforts, our reputation, the center of our universe. It's thinking that if I am prosperous, then I'll have the good life. She's important. What do you think makes up the good life? Because how we measure the good life reveals our roots. How you measure the direction of your life or where you want to be in life, that reveals your roots. What's the idea of a good life for you? Much of what we may desire, we need to be honest, may be rooted in pride. It may be status. Big dog. You want people to see you. You've got the position. You've got the reputation. You've got the honor. It's status.

Or maybe it's success. Whether you've achieved something in life, you've arrived somewhere in a job or in performance in some place and your bank account looks great and now you can buy the boat. That's success. That's what I want in life. Or maybe it's a sneakier one, the one that I'm prone to, which is security. This is not the type of security that's rooted in a relationship with God. This is the type of security that's rooted in ease and comfort and convenience that something, if it were to interrupt, my security would take away the good life. See, but we can't measure the good life by things that can rise and fall on our circumstances, on the bank account, on worldly achievements, on popularity, or any other worldly metric. Because if we define the good life only by these things, it's a rollercoaster. And it's not a fun rollercoaster. It's like Velocicoster, but you haven't been strapped in. That's what that type of life is like. Why? Because all of this, the status, the success, the security can be taken away in a moment. Money, the economy crashes. There's always going to be someone better than you. Trophies? Well, everyone gets one. Politics, one party wins, and another loses. Health, a diagnosis, could crush you. is the center of our lives, our lives are fragile. We break easily. Bad news, pain, discomfort can take us out so quickly because our roots are in our circumstances, not in the one who doesn't change. Not in the one who never stumbles or never fails. And this is what happens to King Nebuchadnezzar.

Back to the scripture, verse four, he's feeling good. He's at ease in the palace until fear. Fear is introduced, verse five. I saw a dream that made me afraid as I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. Some of you read that and you immediately relate to King Nebuchadnezzar. You know that feeling of when you finally get tired on the couch at the end of a long day and you're thinking, okay, good, I'm ready to go to sleep. And then you go to bed and you put your head on that nice cool pillow and that's exactly when your brain decides I'm gonna bring up your worst memories right now, all of them. Everything that you've ever been worried about, it's coming up right now. And you lay there and you just kind of everything goes through your head and the fear and the worry and the concern about your past and regrets, all that's in your mind. And then when you finally get to go to sleep, you're starting to doze off and boom, is the front door unlocked. Like that's how many of us are dealing with this. We know what it's like to experience fear for King Nebuchadnezzar, pride turns quickly to fear. Now, it's not just that there is fear because everyone at some point is going to be afraid. Fear is part of life.

No matter how well life is going at one moment, we face something that brings fear. But that doesn't mean that fear has to take you out. Here's why, here's the key. The power of fear when things go bad is proportionate to the depth of our roots in God. Meaning the deeper our roots are in God, the less power that fear has over our lives, the shallower our roots are in God, the more power fear has to take us out. But here's the important part. Roots have to be grown before the fear hits, before things go bad. We can't grow our roots in God in the moment the fear hits, it has to happen before then. So what are we doing right now to help our roots go down deep in who God is? It's like this in marriage. Husbands, I hope to be helpful, by the way, I'm preaching to myself when I save these type of things. It's the need for date nights before the argument happens. Like it's you woo her, love her, romance her, take her on a date so that when you're not in the middle of the argument, you can't say pause, hold on, we need to go on a date. No, it doesn't work that way. If the roots aren't deep in God before the fear hits, the thing causing the fear can take us out. And back in Daniel's story, that's what's happening to King Nebuchadnezzar.

There's great fear and he's desperate for answers down to verse six. So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. So King Nebuchadnezzar calls up his Babylonian band of magicians and star watchers and he's looking for answers. But if we remember through the stories of Daniel chapter one and two, I don't know why he's going back to them because they've already proven they don't have the answers that he's looking for. He's looking for answers for his fear in all the wrong places. Don't miss this. Babylon always under delivers. That was true then and it is true now. The world does not have good answers for our deepest fears. But then King Nebuchadnezzar remembered that there was another in his kingdom that he could lean on in times of need. Daniel, verse eight. I love the way the scripture talks about how he perceives Daniel. He says this at last, at last Daniel came in before me. He who was named Belchasar after the name of my God

and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods and I told him the dream. At last Daniel came in. Some translations say finally. You almost sense King Nebuchadnezzar's relief. Finally Daniel has showed up. The king knew that he was going to get better answers for what was causing him fear. him trying to put words to what he senses about Daniel. He says in Daniel is the spirit of the holy gods. He's just describing Daniel, my friend, he's calm. He's steady. He's able to help. Man, I hope we all have someone in our lives who is far from God who talks about us like this. Maybe it's a neighbor or a co-worker or a close friend. They don't even believe what we believe about Jesus, but because of Jesus in you, when you show up, it's like, "Whoo, Billy's here." I don't know if there's a bill in the room, but Billy's here. Man, I don't believe what Trey believes, but I'm really grateful that Trey's here. What an opportunity for us to show people who Jesus is by living like Daniel. See what Daniel does is Daniel has answers that the Babylonian magicians don't have. What he does over the next few verses is he talks about the dream and interprets the dream. Here's the overview. The dream is about a big tree and the tree starts strong and it starts glorious and it's producing much fruit and it's providing for many, but then in Daniel chapter 4, verse 22. This is Daniel speaking back to the king. It is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to the heaven and your dominion is over the ends of the earth. This sounds positive, but verse 23. And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, chop down the tree and destroy it, believe the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, meaning he's going to be outside and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, the animals of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him. So now we see why the king is full of fear. His dream is a vision that his kingdom is going to be destroyed from the king and the palace to with the animals in the field. Let's connect this to the story in Daniel chapter 5, because King Nebuchadnezzar's son has a similar response to a similar message. This is years later after Daniel 4. We see Belshazzar

is in the palace and he's throwing a party, but he's not just throwing a party. What he's doing is he's using the holy items that were in the temple in Jerusalem for his party. The primary problem is revealed in Daniel chapter 5 verse 23. It says, "But you," Belshazzar, "have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven." It's his pride. That's his undoing. And back to the party. They're having the party. They're using the holy items from Jerusalem. And while they're in the middle of this party, go read the story. A ghost hand, a supernatural hand, appears and begins to write something on the wall in the middle of this party. Their response is worth noticing. Daniel chapter 5 verse 6. When the hand starts writing, then the king's color changed and his thoughts alarmed him, his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. I wonder what makes your knees knocked together. I don't know if it's snakes, spiders, cockroaches. Yeah, I always hear somebody go, "Yeah, that's it." In this case, there's this supernatural ghost hand appears and starts writing something on the wall. What does the hand write? Jumping over to Daniel 5 verse 24, we see the explanation. Then his presence, then from his presence, the hand was sent. And this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed on the wall. Many, many tekel-parson. This is the interpretation of the matter. Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez or Parson, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Many, many tekel-parson. It's ancient Aramaic written on the wall, and it simply means the kingdom is coming to an end. I find it interesting that it says the kingdom has been weighed and found wanting that it's almost like God was looking at Belshazzar's life and saying, I've waited. I've looked- cannot handle the weight of your life. The strength of his life was his own glory and pride and it was not strong enough to hold his future. Belsesar actually dies right after this moment. In Daniel chapter five, verse 30. But looking at both stories, notice the similarities. At the thought of losing their kingdoms, little K kingdoms at the thought of losing their kingdoms,

fear takes over. A storm is moving against their status, success and security. And they are unprepared for the loss. Think about your life. If status, if your success, if your security were lost, would you have roots that could handle that? Because fear is coming. Storms are coming. Loss is going to happen. Where are you rooted? Because how you make it through those losses in that fear and those storms is directly proportionate to the depth of your roots in God. And back to King Nebuchadnezzar, chapter four. What happens is he gets the dream interpreted from Daniel. Daniel actually gives him a chance to change some time passes and King Nebuchadnezzar has cycled back to pride. Verse 29, I want you to see this of Daniel four. At the end of the 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. Quick note, God will give us chances to repent and return to him. In verse 27, Daniel said, "If you repent of your sin and seek righteousness, judgment will slow down against you." Nebuchadnezzar had a moment to listen. And we're going to have a moment here in just a few minutes. He had a moment to listen to uproot from himself, but he gets stuck in his pride.

Verse 30 describes it even further. And the king answered and said, "Listen to his pride, is this not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence for the glory of my majesty?" He's back bragging up high on the roof of the palace, which probably at that time the roof of the palace was literally the highest place in the kingdom. I picture him somehow ignoring the warning, the thing that kept him awake a year ago. He saw his kingdom coming to an end. But when things got good again, he rooted back in himself. And now he's standing on the roof of the palace saying, "Look at me. Be careful. Where in your life did you once depend on God? Did you once look for him for answers? Maybe it was for a spouse or for kids or for a job or for a purpose and for direction. And God whispered, and God gave, and God met you in your moment of need. We are so quick to find ourselves back on the palace again, saying, "Look at me." What happens is something eventually will knock us off. And in verse 31, this is what happens. While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven. Oh, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it has spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. There's the loss.

"And you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know, I love this, this is the key, this is the key, this is the key, until you know that the most high rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will." Immediately, the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws. Gross. He's eating grass. Fingernails like claws, he's gone crazy. Some scholars say that this is a metaphor for King Nebuchadnezzar having a mental break. Some think it's literal that he literally was out in the field, eating grass, either way, brother's not doing good, and neither is anyone who walks away from God. I don't have to yell at people to preach this, because life will preach it to you. apart from God don't work. A life without roots in God moves towards chaos. The pride and then fear hits and life becomes chaotic. The ways of Babylon always end in chaos. King Nebuchadnezzar goes from the top of the palace to the dirt of the field. He goes from the highest place to the lowest place. He goes from rule and reign to chaos. Now it may take longer for some, but the ideas, the identity and the idolatry of Babylon are not strong enough to stand the weight of our souls and the storms of our lives. Babylon is in chaos. But church, go with me here. What a beautiful place to begin sharing the

gospel message. Why? Because life with God is better. It's expanding our view of the glory of God and the gospel. Here's what I mean. It's easy to think that the gospel is almost exclusively about heaven and hell. Maybe you've heard it said, I heard it said this way many times, that you need a personal relationship with Jesus so that you don't go to hell for eternity. So we pray for our eternity and for some this is the extent of what it means to be a Christian. And the consequence is that we experience faith almost like taking medicine. Now I'm a big baby. I don't like taking liquid medicine. I'd rather call fall night than take night quail. That is of the devil. But here, here, go with me though. How many of us see faith almost like that? It's almost like we see faith. Like, I'll take the medicine of Jesus to deal with my hell eternity problem, but I don't really know if I like it. And of course, the salvation from hell, salvation from hell is central to the gospel message. It's the greatest news imaginable. That apart from God, we are lost. We are dead spiritually and we are going to hell for eternity. But God in His great love for us has made a way through the person of Jesus Christ for us to be saved for eternity. Heaven is the ultimate prize. But there are many people who claim salvation from hell for eternity, but live in hell and like hell today. Following Jesus is more than just medicine to get to heaven, but it is joy and strength for today. And so we root in Him. So we root in Him for our good in eternity and for today. Christians should be building the strongest lives in the world. Lives that aren't prideful, that aren't full of fear, that aren't chaotic demonstrating to the world to Babylon the goodness of life in Christ that we can have strong, stable and rooted lives. A life rooted in God is strong. So you have a decision to make today. Are you going to root your life, King Nebuchadnezzar's journey, or are we going to root in God? And when you root your life in God, you begin to live as light and darkness. Why? Because God is eternal, He's unchanging and He is unaffected by events of human history. He has never been surprised, confused or called off guard. When we are rooted in Him, in a world of spiritual, emotional and moral insanity, may we be known as people of strength, people of peace, people of hope to live like Daniel, that when someone sees your life, they think, ooh, there's something different there. I know for some of you that feels unobtainable. You feel caught in sin or pride, even the current chaos of life and you're asking the question, can I really root in God? But Daniel chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar

is actually a story of restoration. Look at what happens with King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel chapter 4, verse 34, down to verse 37. I'll read those two verses. "At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar," I love this, "lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the most high and praised and honored Him who lives forever." Verse 34. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, notice that the chapter ends. At the beginning, he said, "I, Nebuchadnezzar." And he rooted in himself by the end after going through the storms of life and realizing that he could not make it through on his own at the end of this chapter. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven for all his works are right and his ways are just and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. What a powerful picture of restoration. The king had always put himself highest and he went crazy. But his sanity was restored when he looked higher than himself, he looked up, surrendering himself to God. Church, if you feel called up in chaos and pride and sin, the way back to rooted, the way back to rooted in God, the first step is surrender. Surrender is the way back to rooted. 'Cause our journey through life is very different than king Nebuchadnezzar's, the invitation that God gives us. He says, "You can root in me." And by the way, that doesn't take away the fear. We're still gonna experience fear and problems in storms, but the next step is different when you've been rooted in God. When you experience fear, do you try to take control? Do you try to keep the status, the success,

and the security or or or or? Do you choose surrender instead? And when you choose surrender in the middle of the fear, in the middle of the chaos around us, when you choose surrender, you know what God always does? What he did for Nebuchadnezzar, he can do for you is he restores. He restores. And that's the invitation we have today. I just wanna give us a moment. Rooting in God is more than just one moment in a church service, I know that. But rooting in God does have to start in a moment. You've gotta start somewhere. So across the room, would you close your eyes just a moment? And I want you to ask yourself, maybe it's a whisper prayer to God, where are you rooted? And the way to know where you're rooted is simple. We've hit it today. How do you define the good life? There are a lot of good things that I want for my life, but that doesn't mean that's where I'm rooted. How do you define the good life? And then on the other side of that, how do you respond to fear? How do you respond to storms? Is that revealing? Maybe even a storm that you're in right now, it reveals that you are moving from pride to fear to chaos

and there's just this cycle. Why does my life always feel chaotic? And why do I seem to feel crazy? And what God might be inviting you to do today, instead of fighting for status, success, and security is to surrender. Surrender. And you reroot in him tomorrow. And again and again. So Jesus right now, I pray a surrender prayer over our church. If we are rooted in self, or rooted in anything other than you, would you uproot us right now? And would we surrender and root in you? And as a result, would we be like Daniel? When we walk into rooms at work and at school and in the neighborhood or around with friends at last? Finally, use us for your glory. We love you Jesus and it's in your name we pray. Amen, amen, amen, amen. (congregation applauding) - Hey, we love you all so much. Hey, if you need to take a next step of any kind in your faith, you can text the word next to 40777. Whether it's a conversation about Jesus, baptism, joining a small group, joining a team, becoming part of our church, text next to 40777. Also, hey guys, real quick, you love Jesus, right? We're getting out a little earlier,

which means I need you to love Jesus in the parking lot. Okay, we did a lot in this service. Seven baptisms, praise God. We got to celebrate veterans. We'll hope to see you back next Sunday as we continue far from home. (congregation applauding) [BLANK_AUDIO]