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Give God
the Glory
A Sermon by Jennifer
McGill
Based on Daniel 4:28-37 This summer I made time to do some leisurely
reading. There is one book I found of particular interest,
"The God Chasers" by Tommy Tenney. The title was
intriguing. In this book Tommy Tenney expounds on the importance
of worshiping God we honor Him for the awesome wonder that He is
and we are thus ushered into His presence. the only way to
worship God is to know Him.
To be a God chaser you follow hard after Him, you look to
please God, not the preacher, not the deacon, not the Sunday
School teacher. You look to please God. He still asks us today,
"Do you want me?" "What are you willing to do to
get me?'
We say yes, I want you. But we don't want to change. We stay
angry and don't want to be called into his ministry. We don't
want to move. If we are going to be a God chaser, then we must
give up something. Ask Abraham. You recall that story. God told
him to get out of his father's house and go to a land that he
would direct him. Abraham was a God chaser. To be a God chaser
you must give up pride.
If the truth be told, most of us want to be in control. We
want to control our own lives. We don't want to give up anything
and would like to keep God at a convenient distance. There are
many of us right here in this room who have a control problem.
We sometimes even believe we control God. This control problem
stems from pride. For pride is an excessively high opinion of
oneself--it is to be conceited.
I need to pause right here because if you are thinking about
someone else that has a problem with pride, you just need to
look at yourself. This message I am delivering is to help us see
God clearly. pride blinds us. It is a dangerous thing. Pride has
started wars, ended marriages, friendships. It is the root of
racism, and hinders forgiveness. No wonder it is on God's top
seven of things He hates. Proverbs 6:16 says that God hates a
proud look.
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Today, I brought someone along that will
help us see God. His name is King Nebuchadnezzar. Many
of you good Bible students have heard of King
Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar is known as the
scoundrel that destroyed Judah and burned
Jerusalem--God's city. before he would destroy a city,
Nebuchadnezzar would take the best that that city had to
offer, including its leaders, its gold, its teachers,
wise men, best warriors, and most promising youth.
Daniel was one of the King's many captives led back to
the Kingdom of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple of God and took
all of the gold goblets and incense burners. He took all
the best Judah had to offer back to Babylon. That was
Nebuchadnezzar's war tactic. |
He was a hard king. But one thing that I like about him was
that he allowed spiritual freedom to his (slave). They were free
to worship their Almighty God.
King Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom spanned from 605 B.C. to 562
B.C.. He was the most powerful King in Babylonian history. He
conquered Egypt, Assyria, and Judah. That is over a thousand
miles of territory. Nations surrounding him feared him. King
Nebuchadnezzar was strong, powerful, and had a control problem.
King Nebuchadnezzar thought himself great because of his great
accomplishments, his victories over conquered peoples.
Nebuchadnezzar did not realize that he was great because God
made him great.
Nebuchadnezzar was part of God's holy plan to punish Judah
for serving other gods. Judah and Israel worshipped other gods.
From the time they left Egypt, generation after generation,
Israel worshipped Baal and other gods and God would send His
prophets to warn them. He sent plagues and famine. They would
then get their act together. But as time passed, they would
again return to their worship of idols.
But our God is a merciful God. He is long suffering and kind.
But when God has had enough, he has had enough. Because of their
continued rebellion God allowed Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon,
to overtake them.
While relishing his victories, King Nebuchadnezzar one night
had a disturbing dream. He called on astrologers and magicians
and none of them could tell him anything. Only Daniel, the
Hebrew boy, could tell the king the significance of his dream.
Daniel began by letting it be known that it was not by his power
that he interprets dreams but by the power of God. This was King
Nebuchadnezzar's first encounter with Daniel and his
interpretation of dreams.
Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar that his empire would be the
most successful in the history of Babylon. But God's kingdom
would supersede the power and success of King Nebuchadnezzar's
kingdom. God tried to tell the Babylonian king something. But he
refused to hear God's message.
King Nebuchadnezzar had yet another dream. I dreamed, he
would tell Daniel, about a tree looked as if it touched the
heavens. It grew as high as the clouds in the sky. Everyone on
earth could see it was beautiful and abundant. There was fruit
on it for all. It was shade for the beast and a home for the
birds.
And i looked and there was a messenger from heaven that said
cut down the tree, strip the leaves, and scatter the fruit. let
the animals be scattered from it and the birds from its
branches. But leave the stump and its roots, bound with iron and
bronze remain in the ground, in the grass of the field.
Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live
with the dew of heaven and let him live like the animals among
the plants of earth. let his mind be changed from that of a man
to an animal, till seven times pass by for him.
The sentence is rendered by decree of the watches, the
decision is given by order of the holy ones, in order that all
who live may know that the Most High is sovereign over the
kingdom of mortals. he gives it to whom He will and sets over it
the lowliest of human beings.
This dream bothered Nebuchadnezzar because he could not
figure it out. he called on his magicians and astrologers again
and again and they could not figure it out. And so he called on
Daniel. When the king told Daniel his dream, it disturbed him
and his whole countenance changed King Nebuchadnezzar pressed
him to share the meaning of his dream.
Daniel began his interpretation, O King, you are the tree.
You have become great and strong. You saw a messenger, a holy
one, coming down from heaven. The Most High has issued a decree
against you. You will lose your mind for seven years and you
will be driven away from your kingdom and for seven years you
will live with the animals and eat grass like cattle and be
drenched with the dew of heaven.
Seven years will pass by you until you acknowledge that the
Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them
to whomever He wishes. The messenger said to leave the stump.
That command means that your kingdom would be restored when you
acknowledge heaven rules.
Daniel gave King Nebuchadnezzar sound advice. The king had to
renounce his sins and do right, be kind to the oppressed and
maybe his prosperity would continue. King Nebuchadnezzar did not
hearken to Daniel and a year later King Nebuchadnezzar's
nightmare was fulfilled.
One year after the lord gave him warning, King Nebuchadnezzar
was walking on his balcony and admired and said, "Is not
the great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the
kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my
mystery?"
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The words were still on his lips when a
voice from heaven said all that Daniel told him would be
fulfilled. And immediately King Nebuchadnezzar was
driven away from his kingdom. In the wilderness, he ate
grass like cattle, his hair grew like feathers and his
nails like the claws of a bird. King Nebuchadnezzar lost
his mind and bearings in reality. For seven year
Nebuchadnezzar roamed in the wilderness with the animals
until one day he raised his eyes toward heaven. |
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When you lift your eyes toward heaven some changes take
place. You realize that is is not all about you, it is about
God.
To his people King Nebuchadnezzar recounted the wonders
of the Almighty God, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto
heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the
Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is
from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing and He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest Thou?
Not only did his understanding return to him but his reason
also returned. he was able to do his job and his honor and
splendor were returned to him even greater than before but this
time he had a new song. Now Nebuchadnezzar praised and extolled
and honored the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and
his ways judgment. Those who walk in pride He is able to abase.
King Nebuchadnezzar learned to give God the glory. It took a
bout of insanity for him to realize that God was responsible for
all that he was. He realized that God is sovereign, which means
He can do whatever He wants to do, when He wants to, and how He
wants to.
King Nebuchadnezzar went through seven years of eating grass
and living in the wild with the animals before he learned to
give God the glory. Many of us are the same way, we are full of
pride -- thinking we're all of that until God allows something
to come our way where we realize that He is the Great "I
AM."
We need to honor God for who he is. He said before anything
was, I AM. Everything that you see and don't see He created. The
heavens and the earth, He created. He created us in His image --
not a dog, cat, or monkey. We are created in His image. He kept
us in good health. We need to give God the glory. We honor Him
because He is so wonderful. He is so magnanimous. he is so
awesome. . . . He is.
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This awesome God gives us an opportunity
to have a relationship with Him. You have been trying to
be in relationship with Him for a long time. that's why
you have been running from man to man, woman to woman
looking for somebody to complete you. But you have not
found him yet. You have not found her yet. That's why
you have been studying Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.
Because you are looking for God. |
You want to know why nothing is working, why you still have
that same empty feeling. You tried to fill it with
relationships, jobs, family, but if you are honest with yourself
you know that you are still empty. There is one that can fill
your void and that is Jesus Christ. the only was to know God is
through His Son.
Jesus said if you reject me, you have also rejected my
Father. And rejecting Him will lead to eternal destruction. lay
aside your pride because salvation is something you can not do
for yourself. Today is your day of salvation.
The doors of the church are open. *
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