From His Heart

Announcer: Today, on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, learn how to avoid humiliation before God.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Want to talk to you today about the chief sin of all sins. It's the sin of pride. And if you're walking in pride, going your own way, then God says, okay, here's the deal. I can't work with pride. So I have a plan. Plan A is you choose to humble yourself. You choose humility. Now, if you don't choose humility, God has plan B. And plan B is that he chooses humiliation. Humility, that's plan A. That's what he wants you to choose. You choose humility. If you don't do that, he chooses humiliation. Now, here's the question.

Which plan are you choosing in your life? How are you walking today? Are you walking in pride or are you walking in humility? We're going to find that out as we look at the life of Nebuchadnezzar.

Announcer: You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And the lesson today, humility or humiliation. Thank you for being with us. Now, here is the truly hard truth for us to swallow. God really does hate pride. And that's very clear from scripture. As the old quote goes, if you think you're all that in a bag of chips, well, that will bring a stench into the nostrils of God. Here's the test. Can you do an honest evaluation of yourself today? If not, you may likely discover that you are walking in pride, doing your own thing, going your own way.

And if that is true for you, then God has a plan just for you. And it may not be what you like to consider. Today, we'll learn the difference between humility and humiliation from Pastor Jeff's series, Shine, how to live the Christian life in an unchristian world. Now, if you miss hearing any of this broadcast or any we've aired this month, you can surely catch up at fromhishart.org. Click the listen link. If you can now, open your Bible to the book of Daniel, chapter 4. As Pastor Jeff uncovers God's plan for the proud, we can choose humility or humiliation.

Ronald Reagan was a favorite of mine. He served as president as most of you know. And he was also before he was president, he was governor of California. He was governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Ronald Reagan shares a story about going to Mexico City when he was governor of California. And he gave a speech and there was a big crowd and and after he finished with his speech, it just didn't go very well and it was a very unenthusiastic little kind of, you know, clap like that. And when he was done and he's like, man, and he thought, did I do that bad?

Is it just a rough crowd? What is it? Well, he went to sit down on the platform and the guy that got up after him, man, he showed him it wasn't a bad crowd cuz he was slaying the crowd. They were just clapping and cheering and and he was speaking in Spanish and and Ronald Reagan didn't understand anything he said, but he he felt embarrassed and awkward and he thought, you know, these people are this is going to be weird. So he said, well, I'm just going to start clapping too. And I I'll clap longer and louder and first and then they'll know that, hey, I'm I'm you know, okay with who I am and it just because they didn't clap for me, that's okay.

I'm still going to clap. And so he was doing it, clapping first and clapping longest and clapping loudest. Finally, somebody leaned over to him and said, hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you. He said, that man's interpreting your speech. Little embarrassing. Want to talk to you today about the chief sin of all sins. It's the most detestable sin, the most repulsive sin. When God lists the seven things he hates, this tops the charts. It's the sin of pride. Pride is the sin that caused Lucifer to fall from heaven, to become Satan, the father of the night.

Pride is the sin that caused Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. Hey, Eve, if you eat of that fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Pride is it's rooted in every other sin, wanting to be your own boss, wanting to call your own shots, wanting to sit on the throne of your life and be captain of your destiny and captain of your ship and say, I don't need to be dependent upon God because I can be my own God. That is rooted in pride. That is what Lucifer, the most beautiful angel said in Isaiah chapter 14.

Five times we read where he says, I will, I will, I will, I will. I will make myself like the most high God. I will raise my throne above God. And God said, oh no, you will not. And God cast him out. And then Satan went after humanity and all have fallen in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. And we all deal with this thing called pride. Now, the scripture makes it clear. Proverbs chapter 11 verse 2. When pride comes, then comes dishonor. Proverbs chapter 16 verse 8. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Proverbs 16 verse 5. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Assuredly, mark it down, he will not go unpunished. God hates pride. And he's not going to deal with pride. Peter said this in 1 Peter chapter 5. He said, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God lines up in battle against the proud cuz he hates it. He gives grace to the humble. And Peter says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time. Now, because God hates pride and it's very clear, if you're proud in heart, you're an abomination to the Lord.

If you think you are all that in a bag of chips, that just is a stench in the nostrils of God. And if you're walking in pride, doing your own thing, going your own way, then God says, okay, here's the deal. I can't work with pride. So I have a plan. Plan A is you choose to humble yourself. You choose humility. That's God 's plan A for you and for me. We choose humility. We choose to surrender. We choose to yield before God. We choose to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. That's God's plan A.

We choose it. Now, if you don't choose humility, God has plan B. And plan B is that he chooses humiliation. Humility or humiliation. You can humble yourself or God will humble you because God hates pride. Now, in our study in the book of Daniel, which we've called this series, Shine, how to live the Christian life in an unchristian world, we're going to see in chapter 4, very interesting chapter about the conversion of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on the earth was an egotist to the nth degree. He was so stuffed full of himself.

And we we saw that in Daniel chapter 3 where he makes this tall 90 ft statue, 9 ft wide and overlaid it with gold and had the people come together and and to worship and bow down before his image. It was a monument to himself. And and if you didn't bow down, you were going to go in the fiery furnace and and he had set up in Daniel chapter 3 a big day to honor his kingdom, to honor himself, for the people to worship his image. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't do it. And that day dedicated to his image ended up being a day where God showed who God was.

And Nebuchadnezzar at the end of Daniel chapter 3, he begins to sing that song, there's no God like Jehovah because what what other God can deliver out of the fiery furnace? Only Yahweh can do that. And so now about 25 to 30 years have passed. And Nebuchadnezzar is getting toward the end of his reign. He lived to be 72. He's probably now in his 60s around mid 60s. And he has a dream. And in his dream, there's some things that happened that really shake him up. He's a guy that had some some weird dreams. He had dreams in chapter 2.

God spoke to this guy through dreams. Well, he speaks to him again through dreams. And it 's not a message for the nations. It's a message for Nebuchadnezzar that has implications for you and me today and for people who have ever lived. It's a message about pride and humility. Nebuchadnezzar, I'll begin reading in verse uh 11. Here's the story. He has this dream. He calls in his guys, his Chaldeans and soothsayers and magicians, all his his smart guys to interpret the dream. They couldn't interpret the dream. I don't know why he even called those guys in because he called them in in chapter 2 and they couldn't do anything.

So he but he calls them in first. They can't interpret the dream. So he calls in Daniel because he says, Daniel, there's something about you. And Daniel has been serving the king now for decades. Daniel, there's something about you. There's a spirit of the holy God's in you is the way Nebuchadnezzar put it. And he said, so tell me the interpretation of the dream. And it says in verse 11, here's his dream. He says, now these 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 abundant 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 living creatures fed themselves from it. Okay, no big deal on that. That's a good part of the dream. Just like, oh, this is so nice, so wonderful. And then he says in verse 13, and 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.

He shouted out and spoke as follows, chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts 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 earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let a beast mind be given to him and let seven periods of time pass over him, seven years.

This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers and the decision is a command of the holy ones in that the living may know key verse that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men. This is the dream which I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now, you built a shazar which was the Babylonian name for Daniel. Tell me its interpretation in 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 God's is in you.

And Daniel interprets his dream. God has a plan. Humility, that's plan A. That's what he wants you to choose. You choose humility. If you don't do that, he chooses humiliation. Now, here's the question. Which plan are you choosing in your life? How are you walking today? What are you doing today? Are you walking in pride or are you walking in humility? We're going to find that out as we look at the life of Nebuchadnezzar. Want you to notice three insights today from Daniel chapter 4, such a key chapter. Insight number one, God wants us to hear and heed the message of warning, to hear it and to heed it.

Daniel listens to the king tell his dream. And Daniel was a special special guy. God's hand was all over Daniel. And God spoke to Daniel and God revealed things to Daniel. And so when Daniel hears the dream, he gets the interpretation and it alarms him because he sees what's getting ready to come upon King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel liked Nebuchadnezzar. I mean, he served him. He loved him. He knew Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan, but Daniel truly cared for him. And so when he had the the interpretation of the dream that came to him from the Lord, his face was alarmed and and King Nebuchadnezzar says, don't hold back, Daniel.

Tell me what it is. And he said, oh, I wish this interpretation would apply to your enemies and not to you. Here's the thing. King, you're the tree. You're the one that's grown so tall and so luxurious and so abundant and and you're the the the monarch of monarchs, the king of kings. And Babylon is the the nation of nations, ruling the whole earth. And God is getting ready to cut you down. And you're going to lose your mind. And you're going to be driven from mankind and you're going to be living like a beast for seven years.

And it is going to happen to you until you understand verse 25 that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he chooses. And he says to him, 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. You don't rule, Nebuchadnezzar. Heaven rules. And you need to learn that lesson. And so this is coming upon you. And then Daniel says to him in verse 27, King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice.

Stop sinning and do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will continue to prosper. Now, it took guts to tell the king, the most powerful man on the earth, the guy that has a hair-trigger temper, the guy that can go off on you and just throw you into the fiery furnace or say like he did in Daniel chapter 2, put to death all the wise men because they're no good, they're worthless, they can't interpret my dream. And so Daniel, he was love in his heart with a concern for the king and no doubt Nebuchadnezzar knew that.

He said, listen, king, here's my advice. You need to repent. You need to do what's right. Hey, God may be merciful to you and and so who knows? So you need to get your life right because this is coming upon you. And you have a window of opportunity now to do something about it. You need to remember this about God. God is very compassionate and very gracious. And even when God says judgment is coming, if people will repent, so often God relents from what he said he was going to do. The scripture says this about God.

Isaiah chapter 30 verse 18. The Lord longs to be gracious to you and he waits on high to have compassion on you. When Moses asks the Lord in Exodus chapter 33, Lord, show me your glory. And God says, I you can't see my glory. You can't see my face. No man can see my face and live. I can only show you the backside of my glory. And so he put Moses in the cleft of the rock and he covered him there with his hand and he passed by Moses. And when he did, God gave Moses his resume.

And this is what's on God's resume. The Lord, the Lord, God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. That is God. He he's compassionate. He he suffers with us. He cares for us. He's merciful to us. Daniel said Nebuchadnezzar, listen, I know God and God is gracious and merciful and if you'll get your life right, who knows what he'll do because he's skewed to the good and he's skewed to mercy and grace and forgiveness. And God responds to repentance. Even when he gives you a dream which is really a nightmare and he gives you that and shows you that he's getting ready to cut you down, pal, you big tree.

And because you're so stuffed full of yourself, if you'll repent, God so often relents. Do you remember when Jonah went to Nineveh? He didn't want to go to Nineveh. God called him in Jonah chapter 1 to go to Nineveh and go preach. And he said, no, I don't I don't like those people, those Assyrians. I don't I don't want to go there. And he got on a ship, boarded a ship in Joppa and went to Tarshish. It's as far away as he could get from Nineveh cuz he hated the Ninevites. And Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria.

And Assyria at the time of Jonah, they were the big bad boys in the ancient Near East. They were the ones that controlled everything. And Jonah didn't want to go preach to them because Jonah was afraid that if he preached to them, they may respond to his preaching and God may have mercy on them and Jonah didn't want God to have mercy on the Assyrians. He wanted them to die and fry. And so he didn't want to go. And he had a little timeout in the belly of the fish. And then he finally in Jonah chapter 3, he he goes, you know.

He's like, okay, I'm ready to go now. God, he's a little worse for the wear. And but God sends him there and he sends him with a message. Here here's Jonah's sermon. You can preach it sometimes. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. That was the message. That's all he did. He just walked through the city. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will Nineveh will be destroyed. And the people of Nineveh, they heeded his message and they responded from the king on down and they put on sackcloth and they humbled themselves and they fasted and they they fasted from food and from water.

They didn't have anything and they called upon God and they turned from their wicked ways. And the scripture says this in Jonah chapter 3 verse 10. When God saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them and he did not do it. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, you need to turn from your wicked ways. You need to repent. You need to start doing good to the poor. And perhaps God will have mercy on you and God will prolong your prosperity. And God will relent because he did that same thing to the Assyrians in Nineveh.

Hey, I don't know what's going on in your life. I don't know what you're participating in, but listen, any sin that you're participating in is a sin that has a foundation of pride. It's you going your own way, doing your own thing. Whether that sin is some kind of sexual immorality, it's rooted in pride. Whether that sin is some kind of greed, it's rooted in pride. Whether that sin is some kind of bitterness, it's rooted in pride because you're in charge and you say, God, your way is not right. My way is right and this is what I'm going to do.

God is giving you a message through me today. Turn around. You're on thin ice, pal. I don't want you to keep going in the direction you're going because that ice is getting ready to crack and to break. And plan A is you choosing humility and plan B is me choosing humiliation for you. And God doesn't like plan B and he doesn't want to use plan B. He wants us to choose plan A. So the first insight, God wants us us to hear and heed the message of warning. Insight number two, we tend to presume upon the mercy and grace of God.

Now, here's the deal. Okay, Daniel stands up, courage, tells the king, king, you need to repent. And like I said, that's not an easy thing to do. It's like when Nathan the prophet went in to talk to David the king and said, you're the man. You need to repent. You've done something so much more terrible than the story I just described to you about the man who killed his friends uh little lamb. You need to repent. Anytime you stick your finger in the face of the king and say you need to repent, man, it's it's a nerve-racking thing because that guy can go off on you.

And so here's Daniel and he did that. And Nebuchadnezzar listened to him and he pondered it and he put it off. Now, people do that all the time. They come to church and we give the invitation and we tell people, you need to give your life to Christ before it's too late. And they ponder it and they think about it and the spirit of God is moving on their hearts. And and when we stand up to sing, boy, they they take their fingers and they dig it into the back of the pew and they hold on for dear life and they're like, I'm not I'm not going down there.

I'm not going to go down there. And they fight and they resist God. Why? Because of two things, fear and pride. Pride. What are people going to think of me? And so they don't come and you put it off and put it off and put it off. That's what Nebuchadnezzar did. He put it off and days turned into weeks and weeks turned in to months and months turned into a full year. And he didn't do anything. And nothing happened to him. See, this is this is what we do. We presume upon God's grace because God things don't happen just like that.

And he is just stuffed full of himself. Look what I have built. Look what I have done. But the problem was God's patience had run out. And it says in verse 31, while the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared sovereignty has been removed from you. Bam. When God's judgment falls, it falls like a hammer. Maybe you've stumbled into this program today for the first time and feel the convicting pull from the Holy Spirit about your pride. Today would be a wonderful day for you to visit our website at fromhishart.org.

Click the Y Jesus link. There you're going to find free resources and materials from Pastor Jeff to help you better understand what is happening to you and what you can do to become all that God created you to be. You can find out more about that when you go to fromhishart.org, click the Y Jesus link on our homepage. Now, if you've been a believer for a long time, you know how important broadcasts like this are to a hurting and a lost world. This is possible through From His Heart because of the faithful support of our faithful listeners.

Your financial support can help us continue, also add new stations to share this good news. This month for your gift of any amount, we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's new six lesson series, This Is War, overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil. You can get it on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 download. Just request it when you make your gift today. It's our thanks for your support. Call 866-40 Bible, 866-40 Bible. Or go online to fromhishart.org. Tomorrow we'll hear what happens when God turns out the lights and the party is over.

Join us on Friday as we again open God's word and share real truth, love, and hope from his heart.

Announcer: From His Heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out about that. Go to fromhishart.org.