The Reversal of Pride

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. We're concluding Pastor Robert's series called The Kings of Babylon where he brings to life the stories of four ancient kings. Today, Pastor Robert is going to talk about the rewards that await us when pride is reversed. Pastor Robert has so many great insights to share with us.

So let's tune in with him now. All right, we're going to finish our series today called The Kings of Babylon, and we're going to be talking about the fourth king, which is Cyrus. And I'm going to just give you a little bit of history on the book of Daniel first, and then I'll tell you what this message is about. You need to know that Daniel ministered to all four of these kings.

And just let me show you some quick scriptures. Daniel 1 21 says, Thus Daniel continued until the first year of king Cyrus. And we're going to be talking about Cyrus today. And Daniel 6 28, this is actually where we ended last week at the end of chapter six. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus, the Persian.

So we talked about Darius last week, now Cyrus. Now to let you know, Daniel has 12 chapters. The first six chapters are historical chapters. They're the history of what happened during the exile. The exile is the 70 years when God took Israel, the people of Israel, out of the land in the Babylon in captivity.

Okay, that's called the exile. So the first six chapters are the history of the exile. The second six chapters, chapters seven through 12, are the visions that Daniel received, that most people believe are about the end times, and some are about the end times, but some are about things that were going to happen until the Messiah came and when the Messiah came. All right, so let me just show you, you can read these, but it would take a whole nother series, but just Daniel 7 8 9 10 11 12, just the first verse. All right, Daniel 7 1. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. Daniel 8 1. In the third year of the reign, king of Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me. Daniel 9.

In the first year of Darius, the son of hard word of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king of the realm of the Chaldeans. Now here's what I want you to notice. In the first year of his reign, I Daniel, now keep hold this phrase for later in the message, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. So Daniel was saying, I understood that we would be released after 70 years.

Just know, once you notice that, we'll come back to that. Daniel 10 1. In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel. Daniel 11 1. Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I Eve and I stood up to cover and strengthen him. So you can see how it just keeps going through how he's saying, In the first year of this king, I had this dream. In the third year of this king, I had this dream.

Are y'all following me? Now, Daniel 12 verse 1. I want you to watch how it starts and watch how many scriptures in the New Testament this one verse.

I wish I could have given them to you, but I don't have time. If this was a seminary class, I'd give them all to you, but I don't have time on a weekend message. But Daniel 12 verse 1 says, At that time, Michael shall stand up. Michael, Michael the archangel, shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, a great tribulation, such as never since was since there was a nation, even that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered. There's a rapture.

Everyone who is found written in the book, and the New Testament talks about the book of life. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever last. That's 1 Thessalonians 4. Those who sleep asleep will awake, right?

Some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. That's Revelation 20. That's Daniel. Are y'all following me? So it's amazing.

All right. So we're going to talk about Cyrus, and I've been telling you that Cyrus is the surprise. What does Cyrus represent? So here's the title of the message this week. This is the surprise. The reversal of pride. Pride can be reversed.

Let me say it another way. A prideful person can become a humble person. A prideful person can become a humble person. So let's ask this, though, because we've got Nebuchadnezzar and God humbled him.

Darius and God humbled him. We've got all through Scripture God humbling people. So does God humble people?

Yes. God does humble people. Why would God ever humble anyone?

I'm going to give you some answers, but let me just give you one that's not even in my notes, all right? And that is that pride, we've heard pride comes before a fall. That's actually not what the Bible says. It says pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Look it up yourself. But our little saying has become, you know, the Bible says pride comes before a fall. Pride comes before a fall. No, it comes before destruction. A haughty spirit comes before a fall.

Okay. So why would God ever humble anyone? Simple, to keep them from being destroyed. In other words, because He loves you. So let me give you three reasons that God wants to reverse pride in your life. Number one, God's plans for you are for your good.

God's plans for you are for your good. Deuteronomy 8 16, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know. He listened to all my children as they went through the wilderness. That He might humble you. So God did this to humble them. That He might humble you, and that He might test you to do you good in the end.

There it is right there. Straight out of the Bible. Why would God ever humble anyone? To do them good for their good. Matter of fact, you probably made this statement at some point. I know God is humbling me, and I know God is testing me right now, but I know it's for my good. If you're a mature believer, you know Romans 8 28, that all things work for good for those who love God and called according to His purpose. Right?

Okay. So He's doing it for that. But we're talking about the exile. That was talking about the wilderness. Do you remember Daniel said, and I told you to remember this, he said, I started reading the book of Jeremiah, and that's when I figured out it was 70 years.

Remember that? Let me show you the scripture. Jeremiah 24 verse 5. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. By the way, this is right before they're taken captive. Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place.

Do you mind saying these words? For their own good. Into the land of the Chaldeans, which is Babylon. I told you, God did this for the good of His people. Not to punish them, not because He's mad at them, not because He's going to get it back, teach them a lesson. I'm going to really teach them a good lesson.

He's doing it for their good. Now there's another scripture in Jeremiah that you know. As a matter of fact, we quote it. As a matter of fact, it was in the little ceramic bread thing on my grandmother's table. You remember that? It was the verse of the day.

Bread for the day or something like that. And you'd pull it out, read a scripture, and then put that one in the back. So I remember, you have quoted this scripture, I'll bet you.

But I also bet you, you didn't know the context. Jeremiah 29, 11. You ever heard of this scripture? For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace, and one version says thoughts of good, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Now you're ready for this scripture you quoted?

You want to know what the context is of it? Watch verse 10, the verse right before it. For thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you. That's where the verse came from. It's referring to the exile. Now, let me show you one more scripture here. Second Chronicles 36, 22 and 23. These are the last two verses of Second Chronicles. In the first year of the second in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.

We just read the two scriptures. The Lord stirred up the spirits of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation through all his kingdom, and also put it in writing saying, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord of God of heaven has given me, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem. Now, we're going to see that actual scripture as well, where he commands Cyrus to fund the building of the temple, a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is among you of all his people.

May the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. In other words, all of you who are of Jerusalem, y'all go up and do this, and I'm going to fund it. I'm going to resource it.

Okay. Now, here's what I want you to know about this. Second Chronicles 36 with the two verses we just read, the last two verses, Second Chronicles 36. Are you ready for this? These are the last two verses chronologically of the Hebrew scriptures, not Malachi.

These are the last. This is the way the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures end right here. With the rebuilding of the temple, Jesus comes along and says, you see this temple? You've worshiped at this temple? But I'm telling you, listen to the way he says it.

I think he said it like this. Tear this temple down, and I'll rebuild it in three days. I'm changing the way you thought about the temple.

I'm about to make my temple in your heart. But here's what I want to tell you. Here's the good news, okay? If you get yourself in trouble, even if God is disciplining you like he was his children, he's doing it for your good. He's doing it for your good. If you're going through something right now, you need to know it's for your good. It was always for their good, and he said it over and over again.

Here's number two. God knows you before you know him. So no matter what type of home you grew up in or no matter what you went through, God knew you before you knew him. So it is believed that Daniel, not only when he was reading Jeremiah, he also read Isaiah and showed these scriptures to Cyrus, and that's why Cyrus gave the decree to build the temple. We don't know that Daniel's the one that showed him because the Bible doesn't tell us that, but we think Daniel would have been the logical one because he's the one who had access and he had his ear, okay?

Now here's the amazing thing. God said, I named you. I'm the one that gave you your name. What you don't know is that when Cyrus was born, his grandfather was the king, and his grandfather had a dream that his grandson was going to overthrow him. Now the grandfather, the son's name, who was the father of Cyrus, listen to what his name was, Cambyses the first. Why wouldn't his son be named Cambyses the second?

By the way, Cyrus named his son Cambyses the second, okay? So the grandfather has this dream that his grandson is going to overthrow him, so he orders him to be killed. They give him to one of the king's upper guys there. He takes him out, but he meets a shepherd and his wife who are burying their stillborn son. And he switches babies with him. He takes the dead baby back and says, look, the infant has been killed to the grandfather of the king. The shepherd names him Cyrus, even though his father named him Cambyses the second, because if he had been named that, someone would have known who he was. Are y'all following me?

Okay. He names him Cyrus. God says 150 years before he comes into power, I'm the one that named you.

I knew you. And then he makes this statement, and you're my shepherd. For the first 10 years of his life, he's raised by this shepherd and his mother.

And he thinks that's his parents, and he thinks he's a shepherd, and he learns to tend sheep, and he thinks he's going to be a shepherd. Every year when they took the baby back, the grandfather ordered him to be killed, mourned so much every year on his birthday that finally on his 10th birthday, he was mourning so much on his 10th birthday that they finally said to him, got the nerve up to say, King, he's not dead. He's not dead. He's not dead. He's not dead. He's not dead. He's still alive. And he said, please restore him.

I want to be able to meet my grandson. So they go and take him. He has no clue though. He thinks he's been taken from his real parents. See, the shepherd. He goes and begins living in the palace, finds out he's the grandson. By the way, the prophecy came past. He did overthrow his grandfather. He did become the ruler of the world. But when he becomes the ruler of the world, the prophet comes to him and he says, Tim, look right here.

This was written 150 years ago. And God says, I'm the one that named you. This is amazing.

This is amazing. I'm telling you, God knows. He plans. He's got it all planned out, everything. So he knew you before you knew him.

Here's number three. God's plans for you include provision. God's plans for you include provision. Ezra 1, verse 4. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the free will offerings of the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

Ezra 3, 7. They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food and drink and oil, to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the permission which they had from Cyrus, king of Persia. God was providing for them everything they needed through Cyrus. This is the reversal of pride.

When pride gets reversed in your life, you immediately step into God's plan for you, and you also step into God's provision for you. And Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were always provided for. The children in Israel, their clothes didn't wear out, and their shoes didn't wear out.

And I know you ladies wouldn't like having the same pair of shoes for 40 years, but they didn't wear out. There wasn't a Nordstrom's in the wilderness, so God provided for them. So even when the children of Israel were in a time of correction from God, and even when Israel was in a time of correction, God was providing. But as soon as they were humbled, the children of Israel in the wilderness walked into the Promised Land, which was a land that had houses built by giants.

The giants were over nine feet tall, nine foot king size beds, nine foot big screen TVs. Not bad. And then when the children of Israel were released, and went back to rebuild the walls of their city and their temple, every penny was provided for already. This is our God. This is God. This is God. This is our God. This is God. This is God. So, God humbles us, but that's not the ultimate.

The ultimate is that you humble yourself. Because even when God humbled Nebuchadnezzar, he had a choice. He had to humble himself. God humbled Darius and Cyrus, and they humbled themselves. Belshazzar did not humble himself.

Remember that? Even though God humbled him. Okay, so how do you humble yourself? I asked God that question for many years. I said, God, I want to be humble, but I really don't want to be humbled.

I never had that thought. I want to be humble, Lord, but I really don't want you to humble me. But the Bible says humble myself, so how do you humble yourself? Well, the Lord showed me one day, and he gave me the greatest example of humbling yourselves. It's the person that humbled himself the most that ever lived.

It's Jesus. Philippians 2, verse 5. You must have the same attitude that Christ had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God, though he was equal with God, as something to hang onto or to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privilege. He gave up his equality with God. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. So how do you humble yourself? The word humble has about four or five definitions in the Greek.

This is one of the definitions. To rank yourself below others. To rank yourself below others.

And Philippians 2, if you backed up a little bit, verse 3 says this. Let each esteem others better than himself. When I thought about this, the person that I thought of that has always esteemed everyone better than herself is my wife.

Always. She's the greatest example of humility I know. She, she esteems me. She esteems everyone we meet. She's constantly wanting us to help a person in need. She's talked to me about giving cars to single moms.

We, we have, we give cars when God tells us to. And years ago, the Lord told me, I handle all the finances in our family. I, I don't mean that in a wrong way toward her, but she can't count. And she will admit it. She does not understand numbers. She, I was telling her one time something about our finance. She says, ah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She, she just, she cannot.

So I just handle it. So years ago, the Lord told me when she wants to give something, whatever it is, you give it. He told me that whatever she wants to give, you give. Cause she'll come sometime to say, she, I remember the first time she did it, she said, I'd like to help this single mom. I want, I'd like to get her a new car, a car. We bought her used car, but I like to get her a car.

And the Lord said to me, whatever she says, you do it. She's very generous, but she just, she's always generous with everyone else. She's never generous with herself. So every year at Christmas and anniversary and birthday, I call Elaine, our daughter, where's Elaine, right there, to find out what, what does mom want? Cause she won't tell me. Cause she knows I'll go buy it. So Elaine starts hinting around, just letting you know, this is Elaine is the spy.

You remember Elaine was the spy. So a few years ago, I said, what does she want? And she said, mom swore me to secrecy.

I said, sugar, I'm going to pull a rank. She said, well, she would like the certain purse, but it's very, very expensive and very extravagant. And so she said to me, please, don't ever tell your dad this, cause this is too expensive of a purse, but I like this purse. And so I said, because she said, it's very expensive.

I said, well, how much is it? And when she told me, I came close to having a heart attack. That was the closest, closest I've come to dying other than the helicopter. It was closest. And I thought, are you sure she doesn't want another car? You know, I, you know, that's just, that's crazy.

That's crazy. So I, but I went to the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to do? Here's what the Lord said to me. Now listen, He said, I would like to give that purse to my daughter.

He said, I want to show my daughter how much I love her. So a few weeks after that, we go to speak at this church and a widow in the church came to Debbie and said, God told me to buy you this. And she opened it up and it was the exact same purse that she wanted.

The exact same purse. And she said to her, this is from a father to his daughter. God wanted you to have this. I'm telling you God's plans for you are good. No matter what you're going through, God knew you before you knew Him.

And God's plans include provision. We want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, please go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. We're so glad that you joined us today. Next time, we're starting a brand new series. Well, until then, have a wonderful and blessed week.