1. Pride The owner of an old-fashioned corner grocery store in a small country town was fond of quoting a scripture after each sale. He had three old friends that would sit around a pot-bellied stove, playing checkers on a faded board. His ability to produce a scripture for all occasions never ceased to amuse the old timers, and they would listen to see what verse he would come up with that was relevant to the sale made.
• A lady purchased some material and he said, "She seeks wool, and flax, and works willingly with her hands."
• A man bought a sack of flour and he said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
• A little boy bought some candy and as he rung it up he quoted, "Suffer the little children to come unto me."
It was nearly closing time when the chimes over the door jangled loudly. A well-dressed young man, obviously a stranger from one of the larger towns down the road, entered. "Can I help you?" offered the proprietor. "I need a blanket for my horse," said the man. "He's out in his trailer and it's too cold for just one. Bring me the nicest one you've got!" The store owner went in the back store room and came back with a brown blanket. "That'll be five dollars."
"Five dollars? You've got to be kidding!" said the man. "This horse is a thoroughbred. He gets only the best! He wouldn't stand still for an old five-dollar blanket." Without comment, the store owner took back the blanket, then merely selected a different color and brought it out. "This one's $25 dollars."
"Now, look," said the young man, "Perhaps I didn't make myself plain. This isn't just any old horse! He's worth thousands! Now I want the best, most expensive blanket you've got! Understand?" The owner once more went into the store room, pulled out another color of the same material and brought it back. "This is the only one left, and it's $100." "Now that's more like it!" said the proud fellow as he paid. Throwing the five dollar blanket over his shoulder, he left.
The old timers stared silently at the shopkeeper as they waited to see what possible scripture he could come up with for that sale! Going behind the register, he rung up the hundred dollars and said, "He was a stranger, and I took him in."
This wasn’t what Jesus meant, but Pride certainly goes before destruction (Proverbs 16.18).
2. Have you noticed the Pride issues in the culture today? Pride in America; Gay Pride; Pride about our favorite sports teams; Political pride issues; Pride is the root of many other sins – we will handle it on our own, without God and are led to other sins.
3. Daniel 4 – God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride
• A Dream and Daniel’s Interpretation – 4.4-27
o The Tree was Nebuchadnezzar
o To be cut down – opportunity to return [We had a Crape Myrtle planted in our yard last year; insects killed it; we thought we would have to cut it down but the roots have produced new growth – God demonstrated Grace to Nebuchadnezzar
• When He realized the authority of Heaven he was restored
4. We are living in a crazy world much like Babylon
I. Contemporary Insanity Happens When We Pursue Prosperity Without God (4.4)
A. Prosperity from God is Intended as a Blessing for Others (Genesis 12)
1. The cycle begins with honoring God through giving – Malachi 3.10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
2. Then God blesses and we give and he blesses. . . .
B. Prosperity Can be Perilous to Us
• Luke 12.18 Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods.
• Deuteronomy 8.11-20 (vv. 11; 17; 18a; 20a)
11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. 12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! 14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath. 19 “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. 20 Just as the LORD has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the LORD your God.
• USA is in Delusional chaos over pursuit of prosperity
C. Prayer is Key to Keeping Our Proper Focus
1. Prayerlessness may indicate a wrong focus
2. Prayer is not a “fire-alarm” relationship with God
3. “I don’t pray because I have everything I want.” Andrew Carnegie
II. Contemporary Insanity Happens When We Reject God’s Warnings (4.4-27)
A. God Loves Us and Wants the Best for Us (“Torah” = Instruction); So He Warns
B. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and Daniel’s Interpretation Were Warnings to pay Attention
1. Dreams Have been Integral in God’s Work
• Joseph and His Family – warned of famine
• Joseph – warned in a dream about Herod
• Pilate’s wife – warned in a dream regarding Jesus
• Nebuchadnezzar received warning through his dream
2. Nebuchadnezzar was warned to repent and do the right things – Mercy of God
III. Contemporary Insanity Happens When We Fail to Be Thankful (4.28-30)
28 “But all these things did happen to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later he was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon. 30 As he looked out across the city, he said, ‘Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.’
o Acting Like an Ox/Cow (4.31-33)– sometimes God gives us what we ask for or treats us as we are behaving – Hebrews and quail; Moses answered prayer regarding the preservation of the people??
o Isaiah 1.3 Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them.”
The First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was called a Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise and was issued by the Continental Congress in November of 1777, following the Colonial victories over British General John Burgoyne in the Battles of Saratoga. Near the end of the American War for Independence—after the British House of Commons had voted to end the war in America, but before the formal signing of the Treaty of Paris—the Congress proclaimed another Day of Thanksgiving, to be held on November 28, 1782.
But the first Thanksgiving Day celebrated under the new Constitution took place on November 26, 1789, the first year of George Washington’s presidency It was to be “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” John Adams and James Madison also issued proclamations calling on Americans to observe certain days with fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving, but after Madison no President of the United States issued a proclamation for Thanksgiving until Abraham Lincoln.
On October 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln made the traditional Thanksgiving celebration a nationwide holiday. Since this proclamation, each of his successors as president has issued a Thanksgiving proclamation every year.
IV. Restoring Our Godly Sanity – There is Always Hope with God (4.34-37)
A. God’s Nature is to be Slow in Judgment (4.29 – 12 months)
2 Peter 3.9 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
B. God is Anxious to Take Us Back – Isaiah 66.2b
I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word.
1. Prodigal Son – Luke 15
2. Nebuchadnezzar Honored God and God Restored Him to his Kingdom
4.34 34 “After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever.
4.36 36 “When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.
4.37 37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.”
1. Who is really the problem?
Back in the 1840’s, a world famous medical center in Vienna, Austria had a problem. In their maternity wards, women were dying at the rate of 1 in 6 pregnant women. Doctors of the day felt the death rate was due to delayed lactation, excessive fear, or poisonous air.
But then a young doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis arrived and was placed in charge of the maternity ward. He was troubled by the death rate. He observed that the women who were examined by the doctors and medical staff became sick and died much more often than the women who were not examined.
He traced the behavior of their doctors back to the autopsy room. These doctors often went to the morgue and examined bodies of people who’d died in the previous 24 hours. Immediately afterward – without washing their hands – the medical staff visited pregnant mothers and would do pelvic exams.
Sensing a connection, Dr. Semmelweis instituted a strict policy: any medical student or doctor who’d visited the morgue was required to carefully wash their hands before visiting the maternity ward. Mortality rates immediately went down only 1 out of every 42 mothers died. When this policy was applied hospital wide… other death rates came down as well.
What the response of the medical staff? They howled in protest – they scorned him, belittled him, and eventually fired him.
When he was hired at another hospital in Budapest, he obtained the same results for patients… and encountered the same rejection by the medical staff. Eventually he ended up in an insane asylum because the obvious remedy for these mothers was rejected and the death rate rose again to their previous levels. He was helpless to change the situation. So, who should have been put in the asylum? (None of These Diseases by S.I. McMillen, M.D. pp 24-26)
2. The contemporary culture will call you “crazy” for following God but be assured; you are in your right mind.
a. You Exalt God
b. You Humble yourself (James 4.10)
c. You acknowledge the ways of God are right
d. You stop modifying, excusing, explaining away the bible and just do it.
3. What will it take? Our Culture coming back to the right mind:
2 Chronicles 7.14
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
