sermon from Nov. 7

Hope for Your Pride

Daniel 4

Series on “Our Mission” (part 9)

What do you think your biggest problem is? Think hard on this. You may think that it is a problem with work, relationships, marriage, or children. The Bible says something different. The Bible says that actually your biggest problem is “pride” (not in the fact that God made us), but in our poor attempts to fail to admit our moral bankruptcy and to try to create life and significance apart from Him. Today we will learn about the cancer of pride and how it almost destroyed one man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar and how he was healed:

STAGE ONE: PRIDE. vs. 29 – “Is this not the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

STAGE TWO: BAD DREAMS. vs. 5 – ‘I had a dream that made me afraid.”

STAGE THREE: A WILLINGNESS TO HAVE SOMEONE SPEAK INTO HIS LIFE

STAGE FOUR: GOD’S SEVERE MERCY

• God’s plan A: instruction, Isaiah 6, “Come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as the snow”
• God’s plan B: discipline, Psalms 32 – “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go (plan A). Do not be like the horse or mule which has to be controlled by bits and bridle (plan B).
• Because Nebuchadnezzar fails to listen to Daniel, God disciplines him severely. He loses his sanity and is reduced to a form where he is like the beasts of the field.

STAGE FIVE: REPENTANCE, SANITY, REBIRTH

• “He raises his eyes to heaven” (to this point all he could see was his self-absorbed self).
• He acknowledges that all he is and has is a gift from God and that he cannot boast in it, but only God
• John Newton: “Grace has taught his heart to fear, and grace his fears relieved.” What about you?