If you would please open your Bibles to the book of Daniel, chapter 4. Daniel, chapter 4. This is God's word. King Nebuchadnezzar, to the peoples, nations, and men of every language who live in all the world, May you prosper greatly. It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are His signs. How mighty His wonders. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom. His dominion endures from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous. I had a dream that made me afraid. As I was lying in my bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me. So I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before me to interpret the dream for me. When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came, I told them the dream, but they could not interpret it for me. Finally, Daniel came into my presence, and I told him the dream. He is called Belshazzar, after the name of my God and the spirit of the holy gods is in him. I said, Belshazzar, chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you. Here is my dream. Interpret it for me. These are the visions I saw while lying in my bed. I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong, and its top touched the sky. It was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it, the beasts of the field found shelter, and the birds of the air lived in its branches. From it, every creature was fed. In the visions I saw while lying in my bed, I looked, and there before me was a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice. Cut down the tree and trim off its branches. Strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the ground in the grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an animal. Till seven times pass by for him. The decision is announced by messengers. The holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to anyone he wishes, and sets them over the lowliest of men." Sets over them the lowliest of men. This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now, Belshazzar, tell me what it means, for none of the wise men in my kingdom can interpret it for me. But you can, because the spirit of the holy gods is in you.' Then Daniel, also called Belshazzar, was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, Belshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you. Belshazzar answered, my lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries. The tree you saw, which grew large and strong with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the beasts of the field, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds of the air, you, O King, are that tree. You have become great and strong. Your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth. You, O King, saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump, bound with iron and bronze in the grass of the field, while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live like the wild animals until seven times pass by for him. This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree. The Most High has issued against my Lord the King. You will be driven away from the people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules. Therefore, O King, be pleased to accept my advice. Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue. All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven. This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been taken away from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. Immediately, What had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done? At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the king of heaven, because everything he does is right, and all his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. Well, yesterday we saw three guys get thrown into a fiery furnace. In the story, that is, not literally here in the room. And we learned from that that when you're not afraid to die, it makes decisions easier. You don't have to compromise with sin. What is the lesson that we're looking at in chapter four? Let me summarize it for you and then we're going to look back through the story again. No matter how successful you become, give all the glory to God. No matter how successful you become, give all the glory to God. Now, I don't know what your ambitions are. I don't know if you're hoping someday to be a famous singer. I don't know if you're hoping someday to be a famous athlete. I don't know if you're hoping someday that you will be a business tycoon or that you will be president of the United States, an office that is increasingly believable that anybody could get it. But the text here actually deals with that. It really does. God is the one who lifts up one and puts down another. There was a time when I was growing up and I thought that in order to ascend to great office, you must really be some kind of special person. No, no, no. And the more I learned about those who had attained high office when I was young, The more I realized that they weren't all that hot either. In fact, growing up, I had the opportunity to get to know some really big, famous people, athletes, all that kind of stuff. Over the years, God's given me the opportunity to know a bunch, I mean, I would say more than a dozen professional athletes. Lot and in all kinds of sports, I mean football basketball baseball Golf I mean all kinds of folks who make their living as a professional in sports turns out every single one of them is human and and because they're human they're all sinners and because of sin their lives are all Broken. And it turns out they're just like us. I've known people in show business, people in the media, people who made a fortune in business, millions of dollars. And every single one of them turns out to need a savior because The great important thing is not how much money you make, or what everybody else thinks about you, or whether or not you're famous. The really important thing, the really important thing, not one of the really important things, the really important thing is whether or not you know Christ. If you don't know Christ, you got nothing. If you know Christ, you don't have to be rich, you don't have to be famous, you don't even have to be good looking. You can have a joyful, wonderful, abundant life. I saw the story somebody sent me just this week, the story of a very famous rich person who went to a church that is supposedly Christian, but not so much. And as I read about this person's life and circumstances and so forth, I wrote back. I said, what a sad story. A person whose life was filled with abundance and yet never found abundant life. If you've got wealth and power and fame and you don't know Jesus, it's all empty. It's all empty. Nothing else can satisfy. Money cannot satisfy you. So I'd like to try. Well, I bet you would. But I'll tell you something. It doesn't satisfy. When I was 30 years old, a fellow came to see me, and he was absolutely miserable. partway through what was a string of failed marriages. And he was having to do child support and all this stuff because he'd blown it. He was in a kind of a bind financially. As I recall, he had $35 million personally. And he was just really feeling the pinch. He didn't get a lot of sympathy from me. This is a guy whose monthly income was more than my annual income. And he's feeling the pinch financially, because he's got a kid to support. A kid to support. I had three at that time, one of whom was handicapped. We had a lot of medical bills. We had to pay an awful lot for insurance. And this guy's telling me his sad song. I just, I didn't go for it. And of course, he hadn't really earned all that money. He inherited it. Oh, it just gets sadder, doesn't it? Let me tell you something. Money, no matter how much it is, will never satisfy you. One of the richest men in American history was asked, how much money does it take to make a man happy? He said, just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. It's always, it's the carrot dangling out of reach. You'll never get to the point where it's enough. It's not enough. Money can't satisfy you. Fame cannot satisfy you. There are people who think if they could just make it to the top of the charts musically, if they could just win that Oscar, just win that Emmy, just win that Tony, if they could just get that prize, that would do it. It doesn't. It doesn't. One of my favorite show business personalities that I never did get to meet, I'd love to meet him in heaven, but I'm not sure he's there, but he may be. His name was Red Skelton. He was a comic. Red Skelton said, I was at the movie theater the other day. He said, I was enjoying myself. And then somebody yelled, hey, Red Skelton's here. And he said, all of a sudden, I was surrounded by people wanting autographs. And he said, after a few minutes, I was sorry I'd yelled that. Even when you're famous, you want more adulation. And then when you get it, you want privacy. And then when you get privacy, you've got to do something to try and get back in the public eye. Because it can't satisfy. The privacy doesn't satisfy. The adulation doesn't satisfy. Many years ago. I had the privilege of traveling to Ukraine to preach over there and hold meetings. And I took one of my kids with me. And every place we went, we were the first Americans that they had encountered. And so folks would line up to get my son's autograph. He had accomplished nothing at this point in his life. But he was an American. And he said, at first, it was really great. He said, after a while, it was really sad. Let me tell you something. You cannot find satisfaction anywhere except in Jesus. He satisfies. Nothing else does. Food can't do it for you. Drugs can't do it for you. Alcohol can't do it for you. Sex can't do it for you. Nothing will satisfy except Jesus. Well, here was a guy, Nebuchadnezzar, who had reached the pinnacle of success. He was world famous. And not just as one of the players, but as the player. He was the guy. Everybody in his realm looked to him as the man. And he liked it. But he had a pride problem. And he was cruel. to the oppressed. That's why Daniel says, you need to repent. And what that would look like is, renounce your sins, do what is right, and be kind to the oppressed. Be kind to the oppressed. Well, that was great advice, but Nebuchadnezzar didn't take it. Because why should he? He's Nebuchadnezzar. He's the guy who was able to say, I built this statue, and anybody who doesn't bow down to this statue is to be executed. We're going to throw him in the furnace. And then after God saves Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he says, OK, anybody who says anything bad about their god, he's going to be cut in pieces and his house reduced to rubble. I mean, this is a guy who loves to throw his weight around, loves to make sure everybody knows he can cause heads to roll. You better not mess with me because I can kill you. He loved that. He loved being that guy. Who alone really has the power of life and death? God does. And every bit of authority that we have here, we get from God. Romans 13 tells us that the reason we are supposed to submit ourselves to the governing authorities is because God is the one who is the authority, and all the other authorities on Earth derive their just powers from Him. Now, here in this country, we say in our documents that our government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. What that means is we are a nation of rebels, going all the way back to the beginning, who basically say, we will only allow you to tell us what we are to do if it's what we want to do. And if we don't like what you tell us to do, we don't have to do it. If enough of us rise up and say, no, we don't like that, then we just change our rulers. OK? We get to vote people in and out of office. We don't have the divine right of kings in this land. We are a democratic republic. We have laws. I'm all for that. But if there's not agreement and commitment to a worldview that says service and sacrifice are necessary for this fabric to hold together, it's not going to work. The republic will be destroyed when Congress discovers that it can bribe the citizens with their own money. de Tocqueville said that in the early 1800s. I paraphrase, but that's almost a quote. When Congress discovers that it can bribe the citizens with their own money, the republic is ended. Well, yep. It's happening. What are we to do? I would suggest that we, who are concerned, ought to do what Nebuchadnezzar was told he ought to do. Repent. Repent of our wickedness. Be kind to the oppressed. We need to repent. Now what happened with Nebuchadnezzar? And by the way, I love the fact that this insert in the middle of Daniel's book is a letter from Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar to the peoples, nations, men of every language who live in all the world, may you prosper greatly. He now has a very positive outlook on life. It's my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders, His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, His dominion endures from generation to generation. What is He now doing? He is not saying, I am the great and powerful Nebuchadnezzar. Have accomplished great things and everyone everywhere should know how great I am He is right and he says it is my pleasure to tell you about how great God is It is now my joy to praise the Lord What is giving him pleasure now that he's got more power than he had before remember at the end of the chapter? Says after his sanity was restored his position was even greater than it was before but now he's not talking about how great his position is and Now that he has an even greater position than he occupied before, even more splendor than he had before, now he is focused on telling people about the greatness of God. I want to ask you a question. Are you focused on the greatness of God and proclaiming how wonderful He is? Let me tell you. God is more magnificent than any of the things in his creation and more magnificent than you and I can grasp. A friend of mine who writes a devotional each day based in Atlanta was suggesting in yesterday's devotional, it was an excellent devotional, that the first thing Satan did in order to lead our first parents, Adam and Eve, into sin was not to say flattering things about them, but to diminish their view of God. Because when we begin to get a diminished view of God, then we begin to be open to having an inflated view of ourselves. That's exactly right. And do you know what the best cure is for an inflated view of yourself? having a proper view of God. When Isaiah caught a glimpse of God, he fell on his face and said, woe is me. I am undone. Because when we realize how great God is, we realize how messed up we are. Pastor what I thought you're trying to help all these children have a positive self-image I'm really disappointed I've been watching your devotionals lately and it sounds to me like you you're always talking about the fact that we all have sinned and fallen short Of the glory of God. I know that verse is in the Bible, but it's not the only verse Well, you're right it's not the only verse but it's one that a whole lot of people want to overlook We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and And what we need is to realize how great and awesome and mighty and wonderful and loving and pure and magnificent and holy God is. And then we will lament our sinfulness, and we will cry out to God for mercy and grace. It's been weeks since I've used this illustration, so I'll use it again. The lady goes to see the photographer to look at the proofs of her portrait. I want you to have it memorized. She looks at the pictures of herself and she says, I don't think these pictures do me justice. And the photographer says, lady, you don't need justice, you need mercy. Got it? That's our story, folks. That's our picture. We need mercy. We need mercy. We don't need for somebody to recognize us for what we really are. Oh, God forbid. OK? We need God to love us in spite of who we are. Religion tries to tell us how we can do this, this, this, and this and make ourselves something wonderful. The gospel tells us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is how we know what God's love is like. He didn't die for us because we were good. He didn't die for us because we were deserving. He died for us because he loved us. He didn't love us because we deserved it. He loved us because he chose to love us. Oh, but I would like to feel good about myself. Well, let me just give you a suggestion. Stop feeling about yourself. Start focusing on God. And as you worship him and adore him, you'll actually have moments where you forget about yourself. And that will do you a world of good. It really will. OK, I'm tired of talking about myself. Why don't you talk about me? I think that was a Jack Benny line. But we are so self-focused. Nebuchadnezzar was like that. He was so thrilled with who he was and the position that he had obtained and all the things that he had done. And after God gave him a dream that warned him of what was to come, instead of repenting of his pride and his wickedness, he walked right into the wrath of God. He walks out on the balcony, he looks over his land, and he says, I want to quote him. Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? How would you like to work for that guy? How would you like to be married to somebody like that? Wouldn't that be wonderful? Yes, it's true, I am the greatest. Well, it's not a good way to live. And it didn't last. Immediately, he lost his sanity. Now, when it describes what happened to him, he ended up with dreads, hair that looks like feathers, I mean, we actually now have people who are trying to put feathers in their hair. But there are all these pictures here of a guy who was living like an animal because he was thinking like an animal because he'd lost his sanity. But what I want you to understand is he lost his sanity before people could tell he lost his sanity. when you look at everything and you say, this is what I have done by my power for my glory. You're nuts. OK? In other words, what we call sanity is the ability to make rational decisions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Nebuchadnezzar, in the view of people around him, was sane up until All of a sudden, for some reason, he lost his mind. What God did was peel back the veneer and show what he was really like apart from God's enabling power. You know what I can do apart from God? Nothing. Nothing. I can't draw my next breath apart from God's power. Every day, all day, I keep declaring my dependence on God because I know I know that apart from him, I can do nothing. Every time I'm gonna speak, I always pray and say, God, apart from you, I can do nothing. I'm trusting you that I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. I thank God all day long for the little things in life. I mean, Stuff that you'd consider mundane. I'm saying, thank you, Lord. Thank you that worked out. Thank you I can do this. Thank you that I've got a car to drive. Thank you I've got a home to live in. I get up every morning. The first thing I do as I get out of bed is I get on my knees and thank God for a good night's sleep and for the ability to get up and serve him. And when, I mean, last night I had a good night's sleep. Night before? Not such a good night's sleep. I still got out of bed, got on my knees, and thanked God for a new day and the privilege of serving him. I'm telling you, whatever you're going through, you need to be thanking God for what you've got. You need to change your orientation and realize everything you've got comes from God. Start rejoicing in what you have. Start rejoicing in what you have instead of being focused on what you don't have. Because if you're focused on what you don't have, I had a cardinal that tried to get into my house for months. It's a number of years back. I'm sitting there trying to have my devotions. This cardinal is beating its head against the glass. I believe, actually, he was seeing his reflection and regarded it as a male rival. No, I don't think so. Okay? I mean, you can have that theory, and you may be an expert in ornithology, but I think you're wrong. Because I watched this bird, and I went outside to look at the angles and look at the reflection, and he was seeing the inside of the house a lot of the time. Okay? He was wanting to get inside. Okay? And he would go around from place to place trying to get in. And I thought, what a crazy bird. He is totally focused on where he can't go instead of enjoying all that he has available to him. Acres and acres and acres with bugs to eat. I mean, who could ask for anything more? OK? I mean, what does he want? If he got inside my house, he wouldn't be happy. He'd be looking for a way to get out. Because there's not a lot to eat at my house for birds. I mean, every now and then we have bugs, but not that many. We don't keep a lot of seed lying around. What does he want? God sent that bird for me. Because I kept trying to ignore the bird long enough to complete my prayers to God. And what was I praying about? Oh, Lord, if you would please just do this. I'm just praying that you'd, you know, I know you've given us many blessings, but now, Lord, I'm asking you to do this. And all of a sudden, it occurred to me. I'm just like that bird. My prayer is not focused on the greatness of God and what he has done. It's all about what I don't have. Oh, God, forgive me. I've been acting like that bird. Please forgive me, Lord. Changed my heart. You know what the bird did? He went away. That's his last day. His job was over. I know he was wishing that I had figured it out sooner, because he had to have a horrible headache. But I mean literally, it was like when I realized that God had sent that bird to show me what I was acting like, the bird left. which confirmed for me that the bird was trying to get in the house. But I'm just telling you, Nebuchadnezzar had the completely insane orientation of being self-focused and praising himself and doing stuff for his glory instead of being focused on the glory of God, his greatness, his awesome power, his majesty, his might. We still talk about Nebuchadnezzar today. But he's no longer in power. Do you know who is? I'll tell you who's in power. The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and he gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men. The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. God is still in power. And all the people who are in government, whatever their role, President of the United States, Senate Majority Leader, House Majority Leader, whatever it might be, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, I mean, what a title. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. That's this year. It's all temporary. They're all temporary. Nixon was president. We all remember him as the great man, no? No, not so much. What I'm telling you is this, if you set your sights on worldly achievement, you are behaving insanely. Well, I think we ought to have lofty aspirations. I do too. Set your sights on holiness. Desire God Seek his face Long to know him more Ask him to change you from the inside out and conform you to the likeness of Christ who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped But he laid down his life for us. He was obedient Even to the point of death on a cross Therefore God is highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. I that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. That's where we need to be focused. Nebuchadnezzar didn't get the full picture, but he came out of insanity to the point where now, instead of telling everybody how great he was, he was focused on telling people how great God is, because God's kingdom His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. And no one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done? You know what that means? God doesn't answer to you and me. Adrian Rogers, the late Adrian Rogers, dear godly man, said everybody wants to work for God. The problem is we all want to be consultants. Folks, we need to repent, and we need to worship, and we need to adore the God who is God. Always has been, always will be. And if we love and trust Him, our lives will be sane. and blessed. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for loving us when we were bent on building our own kingdom. Thank you for delivering us. Thank you for smashing our idols. Father, we live in a land where it is very evident that you put the lowliest of men in charge. I pray that you would grant us the blessing of leaders who know that about themselves. I pray that you would deliver us from the arrogance of people who think that they have made their own way. Father, I thank you that our salvation is not in a political party, it's not in a political movement, it's not in government of men. Our salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ who laid down his life for us. Help us to trust in you and to rejoice even when current events look as if they're run amuck. Thank you that you are working out all things in accordance with your plan in order to exalt the name of Jesus throughout the earth. It is an American pride that we need. It's humility. Deliver us from evil. Glorify Jesus in and through us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.