Knockout, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with JD Greer. Friend, I am terrified to think about being in a place ever again where I do not have the assurance of God guarding my present, giving life to my relationships and blessing in my relationships.

I am terrified about being in a place where I'm not sure that God is securing my future. Pastor JD Greer, as always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. If you recall, last week on the program, we talked about the roots of pride. The first root is the failure to recognize everything. Every breath you take is a gift of God.

And the second root is the foolish assumption that this will last forever. If you missed the first part of this message, you can check it out at JD Greer dot com. Today, Pastor JD will take a look at what God has to say about pride's fruits. And pride's cure.

These are definitely reminders that we all need from time to time. So let's get back into Daniel chapter four, as Pastor JD picks up where he left off with a message titled Knockout. They would raise chariots on top of the wall it was so wide. The point I'm making is, if anybody should have felt secure about the future, it was Nebuchadnezzar. He could not be attacked.

Literally no army in the world compared to Babylon's. He couldn't be fired. He was an unchallenged monarch. He can't go bankrupt.

He's the World Bank. But you and I both know that God has a way. And you might be sitting right now on top of the world. You might have enough savings for any contingency. Or maybe you're young with so much talent that everybody keeps telling you the world is your oyster.

It's all there for you. But then everything changes with a simple three word diagnosis. You've got cancer. For a little over a year ago, an invisible virus that none of us had heard about shut our society down. Reminds me of the famous words of the builders of the Titanic who famously boasted not even God could sink this ship.

Oh, but then there's that iceberg. I remember reading a Civil War history one time that talked about one mighty Civil War general who boasted that he had never lost a battle. And it was true. But then he became violently ill and died from a tick bite. You think about the imagery there.

You've got a general who can conquer any army, but a small insect you can crush under your feet not only takes him to illness, but takes him out of life. Maybe this has happened to you this year through your spouse telling you that she's done. I see that happen. I remember my first ministry assignment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'm a 22 year old youth pastor. And I'm sitting there with one of the wealthiest men I'd ever been in the presence of. He's at least 30 years older than me just bawling his eyes out.

I'm 22 years old. He's bawling his eyes out to me because his wife had just come home and told him she was done. Maybe something happened this year with one of your kids. Maybe it's happening right now.

Ain't no pain like kid pain. And you know the mightiest people in the world can be reduced to nothing because something's happening in the life of their kids that they don't know how to control. Maybe like Nebuchadnezzar it's happening through mental illness.

The human body is so delicate, so fragile, so easily thrown off. And then you watch one of those nature documentaries on Netflix and realize how fragile our entire ecosystem is. I was watching one the other day and the scientist was explaining that the right solar flare in just the right direction at just the right time could destroy life on Earth as we know it. And we'd have about eight minutes from when it happened to all being destroyed or an asteroid or an earthquake. The financial markets can get disrupted. The right set of factors creates a Wall Street crash and then billionaires start jumping out of windows.

Somebody says the word gas shortage and North Carolinians begin filling up plastic bags with gas. You know who you are, okay? Y'all crazy.

I'm just gonna say it. The point is we're not as impregnable as we think we are, folks. Part of Satan's lie in the Garden of Eden was you will not surely die. It is a lie that he whispers over and over on repeat in our ears today. It's not that he convinces us that death is not real.

It's just that he makes us forget about it as a reality. Oh, no, no, no. Don't worry about that. Don't think about that.

You're not gonna die. Years ago I was watching one of those faces of death documentaries. And I had this video footage of this guy who his job was filming people who parachuted out of airplanes. He would, you know, a couple go on their honeymoon. They'd do a parachute jump and he'd jump out after them, get some great footage so they could have it as a memory. And so in this particular documentary, you see him, you see his camera jump out of the plane. He's getting some great shots of this couple as they're doing their parachute thing. And then after about a minute, the camera starts to go like crazy. And the commentator comes on and says, we think it was at this moment that this man realized that he had jumped out of the airplane without his parachute. He'd just done it so many times he forgot to put it on. It was one of those morbid, chilling things.

You just watch this camera for another minute and then it just goes dark. You know, you and I, when you think about it, we're actually in that situation. Death is certain. It's not like we don't know the grounds there. And none of us have any idea how far that we have to fall. And Satan says, don't worry about that.

So right now, you might walk out on your roof, you might look out over your empire, your portfolio, your future prospects and say, look at what I built by my power, for my glory and my enjoyment. And with one small flick of the Almighty's finger, everything changes. When I was a teenager, one of the things that God used to shake me up was a kid that I had grown up with who died in a car wreck.

It was gruesome. He'd been one of the coolest kids in school. And I remember standing there in front of his casket thinking, Jamie is in eternity.

I wonder if he's in heaven or hell right now. And at that moment, realizing that everything that he and I competed in, sports, grades, girls, attention, popularity, none of that mattered to Jamie anymore. Pride's roots are the failure to recognize that everything, everything, every breath you take is a gift from God. And then second, the foolish assumption that it's gonna last forever. Those roots gave birth in Nebuchadnezzar's life to several fruits. You can see several fruits of this.

Let me just list them out and I'll try to move through them quickly. Number one. Number one, pride's fruits competitiveness. Nebuchadnezzar's language is filled with boasting, I, I, my, my, my glory means the attention that people are given to me.

Nobody compares to me. That's the surest sign that you're eating up with pride. The surest sign you're eating up with pride is you're always comparing yourself to other people. I do not mean a healthy desire to do your best. I'm talking about a drive to show that you are the best. C.S. Lewis said that one of the quickest indicator lights that will show that you got pride at work in your heart, get this, not what you think it is, he says it is that some other person's pride bothers you.

I've always loved this little section of mere Christianity. Listen to this. If you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself how much do I dislike it when other people snub me or refuse to take any notice of me or patronize me or show off in front of me. The point is that each person's pride is in competition with everybody else's pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at somebody else being the big noise.

Two of a trade, never agree. Pride is essentially competitive. It is competitive by its very nature.

So there you have it. How much does somebody else's pride annoy you? How much are you like, I just hate how they're always bragging, always talking about themselves, always wearing those clothes to show that they're the best, always driving that car to show that they're the best. Oh, they just think that they're something. That is the surest sign that you got a terrible case of pride. You see, their pride is competing with your pride. That's why it bothers you. You're mad because they got the attention and deep down, whether you admit it to yourself or not, you want to be attention.

It ticks you off that they think they're something because deep down, you want to be thought of as something and their somethingness is getting in the way of your somethingness and you don't like that. The irony about all this is that you don't even recognize that you have it. But it's obvious to everybody else around you.

C.S. Lewis said that pride is a funny disease because those who suffer most from it never know it, even though it makes everybody around them sick. That's the irony of pride. John Calvin noted that Neb's insanity gives us a picture of the blindness of human pride. When somebody's insane, they don't know that they're insane. Everybody else knows they're insane.

They think they're normal. Competitiveness, number two, ingratitude. In gratitude, the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 said the reason for the fall ultimately, watch this, was we did not glorify God as God, nor were we thankful.

We didn't acknowledge the source of everything. Gratitude is the sign of humility. You recognize that everything you have is a gift and as a sinner, you don't deserve any of it, so you're constantly giving God glory for it and thanking him for it. See, that's always tied to number three, ingratitude's ugly twin brother, entitlement.

Entitlement. Pride says I deserve good things. Look at what I've done. I worked hard. I worked harder than everybody else. I did something good. I did something difficult. I did something special. I sacrificed myself. I did what nobody else had done before me. Of all the people who worked for this, I deserve it most.

I, I, I, my, my, my. Therefore, I deserve glory. I deserve praise, appreciation, more money, a better marriage, better kids, a break, whatever.

And when your life is going well, pride says, well, this is as it should be. I deserve this blessing in life. I'm owed this kind of marriage. I'm owed these kinds of kids. I deserve this kind of friend. I deserve this job, whatever.

You should thank me. And when things go poorly, pride says, this isn't fair. This isn't right. And you live with resentment, blaming others for how they have let you down. Your husband, your friends, your kids, you blame God. You see, by contrast, when things go well for humility, humility says, wow, this is all an undeserved gift.

This is mercy. Thank you, God. And when things go poorly, humility says, well, God is growing me, which is good because I sure need it. Thank you, God.

Thank you, God, even for this struggle because I know that you have a good purpose in it. Pride leads to entitlement. Humility leads to gratitude. Number four, fourth fruit, overconfidence.

Nebuchadnezzar believes that his kingdom is going to last forever. In the New Testament, James tells us that a sign of pride is that you take the future for granted. In fact, James goes on to say, don't be so arrogant as to declare that tomorrow you're going to do this or that because you don't know what tomorrow holds. Your life, he says, is fragile. It's like a vapor that can be whisked away by the slightest whiff of God's hand. Rather, James says, you should say, if the Lord wills, then I'll do this or that.

If he doesn't will, then I won't do that. Overconfidence is seen in the bold self-assurance that the future's always going to be bright. I always find a way to end up on top. I get knocked down, but I get up again. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger and any other bunch of 90 songs I can quote. And listen, y'all, a little can-do attitude is great.

I love it. But realize that you can only do any of that as God supplies the strength. How does Paul say it?

Paul got knocked down, got back up again, but how does he say it? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Overconfidence will always lead you to number five, self-will. Self-will.

Watch this. Nebuchadnezzar is not afraid to go into the future without God because Nebuchadnezzar believes that he has all he needs to make life work. But God is about to show him how foolish that is.

You see, there was another wealthy king, King Solomon, who actually believed the opposite. He said, Proverbs 1-7, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God in that context means a recognition of how much you need him.

I fear God. For example, like I fear oxygen. It's not that I'm terrified of oxygen. In fact, it's all in this room and I'm very grateful for it. I just know that oxygen is essential for life and so I fear being separated from oxygen and would never put myself in a situation where I would be without it.

I am terrified of being in a situation where there's not enough oxygen because without it I would die. Those who go through life without seeking to know God's will are those who are foolish enough to think that they can make it in life without him. There is a foolishness that precedes rebellion. You think it's a rebellion problem, you think it's not one control problem, it is a foolishness problem.

What is it going to take to wake you up from that insanity? Friend, I am terrified to think about being in a place ever again where I do not have the assurance of God guarding my present, giving life to my relationships and blessing in my relationships. I am terrified about being in a place where I'm not sure that God is securing my future. That leads us to number six, stinginess and exploitation. Verse 27, Daniel pleads with Nebuchadnezzar. Separate yourself from your sins by doing what's right and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. It's significant that Daniel puts repentance in terms of a new attitude toward the poor. Listen, he does that because a sure sign of pride is a callousness toward the needs of others.

Right? If you feel like you're responsible for everything in your life and that you got nobody to thank but you, then you have no natural compassion for those who are poor. If they had worked like I did, they would have what I have. But when you realize how much you owe to God, that every breath is from him and the fact that you're not under judgment is a gift of mercy from him, then your heart naturally goes out to others in need. I love that little phrase, showing mercy. I told you this chapter is written in Aramaic, the language of Babylon, and in Aramaic, that phrase literally translates as complain on behalf of. The sign that you are humble is that you complain on behalf of the poor.

You advocate for the poor. Entitlement is a sign of pride. Advocating for the needs of others is the sign of humility. So in Nebuchadnezzar, you see the roots of pride, you see the fruits of pride, and I want to show you really quickly pride's cure. By the way, can I tell you how frustrating it is for a preacher to have pride's roots, pride's fruits, and then pride's, come on, something rhymes with roots of fruits.

I spent way too long trying to come up with another word there, and I could not get it. Pride's roots, pride's fruits, pride's solutions, and nothing worked, okay? If you can come up with it, it'd be great.

This one's pretty short. Pride's cure. Suffering. Failure.

Maybe it's happening to you right now, but I need you to understand that failure by itself is never enough, because failure more often than not leads to more bitterness and more resentment. God's Spirit has to wake you up in your failure. He has to reach out his hand like he's about to do to Nebuchadnezzar and just take the edge of his chin and just lift it up. John Calvin said again, he said, Neb's insanity did not wake him up.

Seven years, he was insane. It didn't wake him up. God had to give him eyes to see. You see, you start to hear in your soul a voice that is calling you to look upward to heaven. You feel in the edge of your destroyed chin, God's fingers taking your chin and saying, look up. At the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. That's the look of repentance. My sanity returned to me. Is that happening to you right now? Do you hear his voice in your soul calling you to look up? Friend, how much, how much are you gonna have to suffer?

How much more? Nebuchadnezzar's final statement here might be one of the most stunning declarations of humility anywhere in the Bible. It's written by a pagan king.

What does he say? Look at it, verse 34. No, the most high God lives forever. You see, Nebuchadnezzar's flatterers had always greeted him with, oh, king, live forever.

But Nebuchadnezzar now says, oh, no, that epitaph belongs only to God. We're all temporary. Our lives are like vapors in the wind. Our kingdom's like sandcastles on a beach. Don't flatter yourself, he would tell you, that we're all gonna remember you when you're gone.

We're not, to quote the great Mark Twain, the world laments you for an hour and then forgets you forever. It's like I've told you before, at your funeral, your family's gonna gather up all those prized possessions that you spent a lifetime accumulating and that you were so proud of. And they're gonna say, what in the world are we gonna do with all this junk? They're gonna take it to a bunch of thrift shops and try to get rid of it or get somebody to come out and buy the whole lot of it.

Then they're gonna hold up your clothes and make fun of it. Then it's it. You're gone. Nebuchadnezzar continues, verse 34, like God, only God's kingdom is in eternal dominion. His kingdom is from generation to generation. See, that means that trying to erect a life independent of him is like a gnat trying to build a nest on the surface of the sun or a kid trying to build a sandcastle on the beach in the middle of a hurricane. Only one kingdom lasts forever, he says, Jesus says.

And only one life to live will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. And only things done through his power will last. You can't make that marriage work.

You can't make those kids turn out right. We can't build this church unless the Lord builds those houses. Those who build them labor in vain. Apart from me, Jesus said, you can't do anything. All the inhabitants, Nebuchadnezzar says, are before him like nothing. Verse 35, God's not impressed with Babylon. He's not impressed with America. He's certainly not wowed by the summit church.

My talents are your money. He has no need of any of us and our greatest achievements are of no consequence to him. He does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. Verse 35, he is fully in charge of history. Armies of angels move at his commands as do the smallest molecules on our planet and in our bodies. Not a sparrow falls from the sky apart from his permission. Not a hair from our heads without his knowledge.

We're just inhabitants of the earth. God is in control of it. There is no one, he says, who can block his hand. His power is irresistible. No one ultimately will ever frustrate his purposes. Not you, not Nebuchadnezzar, not Hitler, not Hollywood, not Washington, not the U.N., not Satan, not Donald Trump, not Joe Biden.

Nobody. He does whatever he pleases and nobody can stay his hand or say to him, what are you doing? All his works are true and all his ways are just. In the end, we're going to see that God was just and true in all that he did and it's our complaints that we're foolish.

We feel so justified right now, don't we? God, what are you doing? God, I don't understand this.

God, if you were good, if you were really kind, this is what you would do. But when our eyes are open to see what God is really up to, Nebuchadnezzar's going to be standing right there saying, yep, told you, you're the foolish one. You and I are going to seem like three-year-olds who are questioning the wise and loving ways of their parents. The prophet Isaiah, who was a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar, said it this way, the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish, the arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride will be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. So Nebuchadnezzar concludes, he is able to humble those who walk in pride. The mightiest men and women ever to walk the face of the earth on that final day are going to find themselves crumbled up in a heap before the king of the universe, unable even to lift their heads. For at the name of Jesus, the apostle Paul tells us, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and every tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That's it. That's the conversion testimony of the richest, most powerful, most wicked king in ancient history. He is able to humble those, all those who walk in pride, and that included by the grace of God, J.D. Greer.

Y'all, this blows my mind. I get to be in heaven with Nebuchadnezzar. He's gonna greet me there. I'm gonna get to call him Brother Nebuchadnezzar.

What about you? Has he humbled you? You ready to listen? And you understand the worst thing for you is to go into eternity un-humbled. And for God right now to wake you up through some tragedy is nothing compared to facing the terror of his wrath on that day of judgment.

And that leads to probably the best part of this story. Jesus was the true king. And even though Jesus walked his whole life in submission and humility, at the end of his life, God still drove him into the wilderness of suffering and he died like a beast on the cross. And because of that, see, he can forgive us from our sins and restore us from our insanity. You remember that little phrase in verse 26?

We went over it really fast. But leave the stump with its roots? A stump with roots can grow again. When Jesus died on the cross, his life was pulled up by the roots so that he could forgive and restore you so that those who die in him are never really dead. And that no matter what you have done or how sin has destroyed your life, he can rebuild and restore what the locusts have eaten and he can grow you again to everything you're supposed to be if you let him.

Humbled, Nebuchadnezzar went from being one of the wickedest, most pagan kings in history to lifting his eyes in worship to God. And if God can save him, there is no one too far from God's reach. You're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. We're here on your radio station daily and on the web 24-7 to help you dive deeper into the life-changing message of the gospel. We hope you'll join us here as often as possible.

But if you ever miss a message or tune in late, you can always catch up online free of charge when you visit us at jdgreer.com. And today we'd like to get a very important resource into your hands. It's a personal study called the Book of Daniel, Shining in Babylon. It will teach you how to study and become a better student of the Bible.

And the best part is it follows along with our current teaching series. When you give to Summit Life, you make it possible for us to deliver these daily programs and all of the other resources on our website. Donate today by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or it might be easier to give online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Join us tomorrow when Pastor JD teaches about another story of God taking down a prideful, rebellious, selfish king here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.