- If you'll take out your message notes, past few weeks we've been in a series about passing the 10 common tests of life and they're all covered
in the Book of Daniel and in the Book of Daniel, we
have all 10 of these tests. Eight of them are tested, Daniel
himself had to go through, one of them his friend goes through, and one of them the King
of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, has to go through, which
we're gonna look at today. Now I've said in each of these sessions that before there is blessing,
there is always a testing. Before every blessing,
there is always a testing. God wants to see if you can handle what he's about to give you. Greater responsibility, greater
blessing, greater success or prosperity or spiritual
experiences, greater influence. God wants to know can you
handle what you've already got before he gives you even more
and God tests you with stress before he trusts you with success. We've talked about this every single week. God wants to see if you can handle it. Jesus explained this
principle actually in Luke 16. Look up here on the screen. Jesus said this. "You must be proven
trustworthy in small things "before you will be trusted
with greater things." That's before every
blessing there's a testing. "And if you have not been faithful "with what is not your own, "who's gonna trust you
to give you your own?" Before God trusts you with success, he tests you with stress. Now so far in this series,
we've looked at five tests. Let's put them all up here on the board and see where we've been. We looked at first when
your world is shaken up. That means when the
test of a major change. We've looked at when you're
pressured to conform. Peer pressure is a test in your life. We've looked at when your
beliefs are belittled and remember we talked to the students particularly about that, about at school. We talked about when you're
asked to do the impossible. When a boss or somebody in your life says, "I need you to do this." You go, "I don't have the
time or the money to do this." That's a test, when you're
asked to do the impossible. Then we looked at when the heat is on and we talked about the young men going through the fiery furnace because they refused to bow down to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Now the next five weeks, let me show you where we're going, okay? Here's some of the other
tests you're gonna see. We're gonna look at when you need to have a difficult conversation. You probably need to know how to do that. When you have to share a hard truth with somebody you love or is in your life. When you need to have a
difficult conversation. Then the next one, when
people work against you at work, at school, or
somewhere else like that. You maybe even feel like
they're plotting against you. We're gonna look at that test. When your situation looks hopeless. We're gonna look at,
that is a test in life. God often allows things to
get so bad, it looks hopeless. Then when the answer to
your prayer is delayed. That's one everybody needs. You need to know the
skill of how to handle a delayed answer to prayer,
that is a test, this is a test, but this weekend, we're
gonna look at this one. When God tests you with success. You say, "Wait a minute. "I know stress is a test. "I know suffering is a test,
but success is a test?" Of course it's a test. Have you ever seen success ruin anybody? Oh, of course you have. It goes to their head, they get stuck up. It changes their character. They crack up, they can't handle it. Success has ruined a lot of people. In fact, VH1 built an entire channel of biographies of rock
groups that cracked up, messed up, broke up once
they got successful. Success is as much of a test
in your life as suffering is. In fact, I will tell you as a pastor and having worked with
people now for over 40 years, more people are ruined by success than they are ruined by suffering. You might not think it, but
when you're in suffering, you go straight to God, but when you're
successful, you forget God. For every nine people who can handle pain, you can't find one person
who can handle fame and the praise goes to their head. The Bible talks about this. On the screen, Proverbs 27:21 says this. A hot furnace tests silver and gold, but people are tested,
read this with me aloud, by the praise they receive. Well, did you know that every time you're complimented, this is a test. I tell pastors,
"Compliments and criticisms "are kinda like chewing gum. "You chew on it a little while,
but you never swallow it." (congregation chuckles) Because both of them
can really mess you up. He says, "People are tested
by the praise they receive." Human beings are the only
animal that God created that when you pat them on
the back, their head swells. (congregation laughs) So we wanna talk about the danger of pride and arrogance and ego
when you're successful because it's easy to forget God. This is just as much a test as all the tough times you go through and it's one that we
often don't understand, but Daniel Chapter Four tells
us how King Nebuchadnezzar that we've been looking
at for several weeks now literally lost everything because of his pride, his arrogance, and his ego. Now let's just review. Nebuchadnezzar is the most successful man on Planet Earth at this
time, 2,500 years ago. His father had been the King of Babylon. He was a young general in his dad's army and he single-handedly
defeated the Assyrian Empire, which was the most
powerful empire of its day and now all a sudden,
the Babylonian Empire is bigger than the Assyrian Empire because of this young man. He comes home the conquering
general and he is a rock star. At a very early age,
he's very very successful and when his dad dies,
he succeeds his dad. He becomes the Emperor of Babylon. Then he expands the Babylonian Empire until it becomes the most powerful empire in the world of that day. Everybody feared Nebuchadnezzar. Then not only that, he built the most beautiful city in the world. In that day, it's called Babylon and he built what were called the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon for his wife, which were called one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,
just like the pyramids. I mean, it was of that quality. People wanted to just go to Babylon to see the thing that he had built. As I said, he became the
most powerful man on earth, but Nebuchadnezzar had a
problem and it was his pride. It was his ego. Some people have a problem
with anger their entire lives. He had a problem with pride,
with arrogance his entire life 'cause he had one success after another. Now this story, chapter four,
picks up when he's in his 50s. So he's already well into his
leadership as the emperor. He's a very powerful man and one night, he has a very disturbing dream. Now this is 32 years
after that previous dream that we looked at that
he couldn't interpret, which he called in a guy
named Daniel to interpret and so 32 years later, he
calls Daniel back and goes, "Hey, man, I got another weird dream. "Can you tell me what it means?" Daniel tells him he's sad to
be the bearer of bad news, but he says, "Well, King,
what this means is this. "The dream you've just
had, it means that God "is fed up with your arrogance. "He's fed up with your
pride, with your ego. "You would have nothing
if it weren't for God. "Everything that you've got in life "is because God allowed you to have it "and if God didn't want you to have it, "you might be homeless on the street, "but you've taken all
the credit for yourself "and you should've known
better, Nebuchadnezzar, "because God's shown you a bunch "of miracles since the
Jews have been here." Remember the one where, and by the way, he built this 90-foot statue to himself. Remember we talked about that? That's an ego problem, when you say, "Hey, I'm gonna build a 90-foot statue "and every time they blow the horns, "you bow down and worship me." He thought he was God and then how God saved
the three young men, the Hebrew men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, and said, "You went through the fire." He said. "You saw that miracle "and you proclaimed at the end of that "there's only one true God "and you made this public declaration that "God is God and not you,
but then you forgot it "and you didn't follow up
on that public commitment. "For the last 30 years,
you haven't served God. "You've been serving yourself "and so your time is about up "because God gave you all of these chances "and because you haven't humbled yourself "and you haven't depended on God, "God is gonna remove
you as the king of the "greatest empire in the
world for a season of time." He says, "Not only are you
gonna lose your kingdom. "Sir, you're gonna lose your mind. "You're gonna actually
lose touch with reality. "You're gonna go insane. "So much so that you're gonna
be kicked out of the palace. "You're gonna go live in
the desert like an animal. "Your hair's gonna get all matted "because nobody's gonna care for you. "Your fingernails are gonna grow out "so long, they look like claws." He said, "You're gonna live like an animal "because you truly will
actually lose your sanity "for a period of time." Daniel then says, "But
here's the good news, King. "You can avoid it all. "You don't have to go through
this humiliating experience "if you will humble yourself "and if you will listen to God "and if you'll just start
honoring God with your success." Get this phrase, if
you'll start honoring God with your success, you can avoid the fall. Now unfortunately, the king
did nothing about this. He had the dream, he
gets the interpretation, and he immediately forgets it. He goes on his way, still
living the ego trip. Still being, it's all about himself. He procrastinates doing the right thing. He does nothing to humble himself and he forgets the whole incident and so he lost everything
he had worked for. The most powerful man,
influential man in the world ended up being homeless and insane out on the streets, out in the desert, but Daniel says, "If
you'll start honoring God, "you'll avoid it all," but he didn't. So he fails the test of success. Now let me just say this to you. You can be expected to be
tested in your success. Whatever level of
success you have in life, God will test you. If you pass the test, you get more. If you don't, you get less. Jesus said it, it's taught
all the way through Scripture. I don't want this to happen to you, so what I want us to do this weekend is look at this story, 2,500 years old. You can read about it in
archeology, this happened. I wanna just simply ask three questions. Number one, what gets people into trouble when they start succeeding in life? 'Cause I see successful people fallen by the wayside all the time, financially, relationally,
mentally, socially, spiritually. What gets us trapped and what causes us to get into trouble when we succeed? Number two, I wanna
ask, what are the steps to recovery after you've failed? Because what Nebuchadnezzar
did, you need to do too if this ever happens to
you and number three, what are the things that I
need to remember about God that will stabilize me, whether I'm going through success
or through suffering? Nebuchadnezzar learns four things and you need to learn 'em,
you need to memorize 'em, so that whether you're in
good times or bad times, these things will stabilize your life. We get into trouble because, number one, we get comfortable and
complacent with success. We get comfortable and complacent. Now this happens to all of us. When things are going good,
you just get complacent. Daniel Chapter Four, Verse Four, "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was
enjoying a time of peace "and prosperity in my kingdom and palace "and I was taking it easy
without a care in the world." Does that sound like somebody
who's praying every day? No. Let me ask you a personal question. Do you pray more in pain or pleasure? Well, there's no doubt when you do. You pray more when you're in pain. When you're in pain, oh God,
I need your help right now. When things are going great,
hey, let's go to the beach. You're not even thinking about God when things are going good in your life and so it's pleasure that pulls us away. It's the good times when pride
creeps in that we forget God. I want you to notice all
the personal pronouns in this next statement of Nebuchadnezzar. He said, "I said to myself, just look." Notice the I's and the me and the my's. I said to myself, okay,
you ever talk to yourself? Oh, you do it all the time. "I said to myself, just
look at this great city "of Babylon that I have created. "I, by my own mighty power, have built "this beautiful city for my glory. "I built it to show my power, my might, "my majesty, and my glory." Wow, that's quite humble, isn't it? (congregation chuckles) (chuckles) This is a problem right here. Remember the lesson of the whale. When you get to the top
and you're ready to blow, that's when they harpoon you. (congregation laughs) Be humble or you will stumble. Nehemiah needed to go read Chapter One of Purpose Driven Life. The first line, it's not about you. No, it's all about God, he
thought it's all about himself. Now throughout the Bible,
we're warned constantly about the dangers of pride. The middle letter of pride is what? I, the middle letter of sin is what? I, pride causes sin. Pride is the root of all sin. No matter what the sin is, I
know God says don't gossip, but I think I know better
than God, so I will gossip. I know I'm supposed to
forgive that person, but I know better, so
I, pride is the root. I know what God says about
sex, but I'mma do my thing. I know what God says about money, but I'm gonna do my thing. I know what God says about, pride is the root of every other sin. Pride is the sin that got
Satan kicked out of heaven. God hates pride more than
anything else in life 'cause it says I'm God
and I don't need God. The Bible says pride
goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall and Nebuchadnezzar had a
major fall in his life. Look at this verse on the screen. Proverbs 16 Verse Five. The Lord despises pride,
that means he hates it. You can be sure that the
proud will be punished. There are many, many verses in the Bible. The Bible says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Grace is the power you need to change. If you need to change
something in your life, you need to be humble. God resists the proud, that
means whenever I'm prideful, I'm on the opposite side of God and my arms are too short to box with God. He's gonna win every time. God hates pride, but we get comfortable and complacent with success. Second thing is we don't pay
attention to the warning signs. Now often in your own life,
when things are going good, you don't see the warning signs, but in every success are the
seeds of your own destruction. But often the signs are not
seen because pride blinds us. I teach pastors and I
tell pastors all the time, "Always being in the
spotlight blinds you." That's true in any area of life. Right now on this stage, there are, I don't know, several hundred
thousand watts sitting on me. It's kinda blinding. If you're in the
spotlight all of the time, you can't see clearly and so
it's not good for your soul. That's why I tell pastors,
"You need to go home "and mow your own lawn
and change the diapers "and do some laundry and wash the dishes. "Do the stuff that real people do. "Do everything like you just need to "keep in touch with your roots." We don't pay attention
to the warning signs. Now God clearly warned Nebuchadnezzar. He didn't just remove him from office. God cared enough about
this king to warn him. He gives him a dream. He brings Daniel to interpret the dream. Daniel says, "This is gonna
happen and you can avoid it. "You can avoid this massive
fall in your career, "this embarrassing experience, "if you'll just humble yourself. "Honor God, stop forgetting God. "Do the right thing." So God said, "I'm gonna
warn you in advance. "You're about to lose your kingdom "and you're about to lose your sanity." Question. What are the warning signs in your life when you're heading in
the wrong direction? Do you even know what they are? Do you know what the warning
signs are in your life that you've kind of gotten off track? That you're getting a little prideful, that you're forgetting God. Do you even know what those signs are? Conflict could be a warning sign. If you're having conflict
in a relationship, that's a sign you're on the wrong track. Chaos in your life
could be a warning sign. Confusion, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing right now. That's a warning sign. You're not as well connected
to God as you ought to be. You're doing it on your power, like if it's to be, it's up to me. Temptation can be a warning sign. I'm just being tempted at work, at school, with
someone or something. That's a warning sign and
God warned Nebuchadnezzar, "You're gonna lose it all, buddy. "You're very successful, you're the most "powerful, influential,
successful guy in the world, "but you're gonna lose it all
if you don't change quickly." Daniel tells the king that
he needs to do two things. Now pay attention to this, verse 27. Here's what you do to avoid
the humiliating experience. Two things, repent of your
sins and start doing right. Then number two, begin
to show merciful kindness to the poor and oppressed. Then God will allow
you to keep prospering. If you want to maintain your success, you need to do these two things. First he says, "Repent." Now we've talked about this word. It just means, change your mind, change your attitude,
change your thinking. The word repent in Greek is metanoia. Meta means change, noia means your mind, to change your mind. I used to think this way about my life. Now I think this way about my life. That's what repent means. You just change your attitude. You got some stinking
thinking in your mind. You got a checkup from the neck up and you need to go, oh,
that's the wrong thing. I've been thinking this is all about me. It's not, it's all about God. The Bible says repent,
change your mind, why? Because humility is a choice. Let me say that again,
humility is a choice. It's something you
choose to do to yourself. Did you know that never in the Bible are you told to pray, "God, humble me." Not once in Scripture
are you ever told by God to pray, "God, humble
me, God, keep me humble." Doesn't say that. It says humble yourself. It says multiple times, humble yourself. Humility is a choice. Now let's just define these
two words, pride and humility. Pride is when I accept the credit for things that God and other people did through me and for me. When I accept the credit that
doesn't really belong to me. I couldn't have done it without God. I couldn't have done it
without other people, but I'm acting like it all
came because of my brilliance. Pride is accepting credit for things that God and others did
through you and for you. Humility, humility is not
thinking less of yourself. It's thinKing of yourself less. Lot of people think humility means I walk around going, "Oh, I'm no good. "I'm nothing, I'm worthless,
I'm just a pile of junk." You're not a pile of junk. Jesus didn't die for junk. You're infinitely valuable to God. Look at the cross, it shows
how much you're valuable. Jesus died for you, that's
how valuable you are, but you're also deeply flawed and broken and you have weaknesses and
mistakes and sins in your life. Both are true. You're deeply flawed
and you're deeply loved. Both of 'em are true. In pride, or humility is just having a realistic estimate of yourself and it's not putting yourself down. It's thinking about others,
it's getting the focus off you. Here's the difference. If I walk into a room where
they're having a party and I say, "Hey, how do I look?" I'm thinking how do I look? That's pride. If I walk into a room or
a party filled with people and I say, "Who needs my help?" That's humility. Humility is not thinking less of yourself. I'll say it again, it's
thinKing of yourself less. The humble person isn't
going around going, "Oh, I'm so humble, I'm so humble." The humble person is so busy
thinking about other people and thinking about God, they're not even thinking about themselves,
that make sense? Humility is other person centered. It's God centered and the more you think about and care about
others and care about God, the more humble you will be. So he says, "You need to repent "and you need to humble yourself." That's a choice. You don't want God to humble you 'cause if you don't humble
yourself, God will humiliate you and there are plenty of ways to do that. You don't want that to happen and it's a whole lot
easier to humble yourself than to have somebody else
have to do it in your life. Then he says, "The second
thing you're gonna do." He says, "If you do this,
you can avoid the big fall." He says, "Serve the poor." Serve the poor? Why in the world would God tell the most powerful man in the
world to serve the poor? Well, there are many,
many reasons for this. First, it get the focus off yourself. You're thinking about people who have more needs than you
do, when you are succeeding. Second, it keeps you
in touch with reality. You know, in America, we don't
realize how blessed we are. We live in a bubble. Let me just put this in perspective. If you have any coins in
your pocket right now, any, or any coins in a little dish at home or you got some in your purse, you are already wealthier than over 90% of the people in the world. You just even have a thing called money that's just laying around. If you have a refrigerator
with food in it, you're wealthier than 50% of the world. See, most people would
love to be poor in America. Everybody is rich in America, everybody, even the poorest of the
poor in America are rich because we have safety nets
here to take care of people. Even the poor have a
television or have a phone. They have clothes. They have a roof over their head. Most of the world would
love to be poor in America. That's why you live in a bubble until you go on a peace trip and you see how the rest of the word really does live. When you serve the poor, it
keeps you in touch with reality, which by the way, is one of the
reasons you should volunteer in the Peace Plan to assist the poor, care for the sick, educate
the next generation. The things that we do in Peace Plan. You need to volunteer personally. You need to volunteer locally. You need to volunteer
to go on a peace trip. The more successful you are, the more you need to stay
in touch with the poor. That's what the Bible says. Let me just show you some
other biblical reasons. We'll put them up here on the screen. You might write these verses down 'cause they're not in your outline. Proverbs 14:21. You wanna be happy, well,
the Bible says this. If you wanna be happy,
be kind to the poor. It is a sin to despise anyone. You're walking down the street. You see a homeless person
there, sitting there, hoping for a buck or something
and you just ignore them. It's a sin to despise anybody. If you wanna be happy,
be kind to the poor. Look at this next verse. Proverbs 14:31. Whoever mistreats the
poor insults their maker. God considers it a personal afront when you dis a homeless person. Whoever mistreats the poor,
let me go back to that one. Whoever mistreats the
poor insults their maker, but whoever is kind to
the needy honors God. That's how you honor God. God says, "You honor me when
you honor the people I made." Proverbs 21:13. Those who shut their ears
to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need. You want God to take care of your need? Well, are you taking care
of anybody else's need. This is what happens in small groups. When you care for other
people in your small group and their need, they'll be
there for you in your need. You're gonna reap what you sow. If you don't ever help
anybody, are you doing anything totally unselfish to help other people who couldn't possibly help you back? God says that's like banking
goodwill in the bank of heaven. Let me show you another
one, you wanna be a leader? Proverbs 29:14. Love this in The Message, paraphrased. Leadership gains authority and respect when the voiceless poor
are treated fairly. You wanna be a leader in the community? Leader at work, leader on a
sports team, leader at school? Leadership and authority and respect comes when the voiceless poor
are treated fairly. You know, most of you know this story that 14 years ago, when I wrote the book Purpose Driven Life, it
became a huge global success, far more than I could have ever imagined. It was the bestselling book
in the world for many years, like four or five years. It was number one on the New York Times for over three years. It's the most translated
book in the world, except for the Bible. It's in 137 languages. When that book became the bestselling nonfiction hardback in American history, it brought in tons and tons of money to me and it also brought in
tons and tons of influence. All of a sudden, I'm getting
calls from people like Bill Gates and Jack Welch and the President of the United States and head of the UN and
I'm getting asked to speak at Davos World Economic Forum and TED and the UN and Congress and I'm going, "Wait a minute, I'm just a pastor." The whole reason, this
is probably the only large church in America
this size not on TV and it's intentional because I didn't want to be a celebrity. I didn't want our church
to be turned into a studio. I love you and I love our church and I didn't want it to
be this famous person, but the book kind of ruined that. (congregation laughs) (laughs) You know?
(congregation applauds) All of a sudden, enormous
amounts of money, tens of millions of
dollars start coming in and all of a sudden, enormous
amount of notoriety or fame and when you write a book and the first sentence of the
book is it's not about you, (congregation chuckles) then you know the money is not for you and the fame is not for you, so I'm gonna go, "Okay, Lord, "obviously I know this money's not for me. "What do you wanna do with it? "I'll just give it away, but how do you "want it to be given away?" I'm a pretty simple guy. If I got a pair of jeans and
a good T-shirt, I'm happy. I don't need a lot of bling. So I began to pray through Scripture and God gave me two passages of Scripture, one from the New Testament
on what to do with the money and one from the Old Testament on what to do with the fame, the notoriety. In First Corinthians Nine, Paul says this. "Those who teach the Gospel "should make a living by the Gospel." In other words, it's
okay to pay your pastor. It's okay to pay a missionary, a priest. It's okay to pay people who serve God full time, that's fine, but Paul says, "But I will
not accept that right. "I have the right to
be paid for what I do, "but I will not accept that right "because I wanna serve the Gospel for free "so I'm a slave to no man." When I read that, I thought,
that's what I wanna do. So Kay and I made five decisions on what to do with the money. All of a sudden, unexpected success. What are we gonna do with this success? Money and fame, what
are we gonna do with it? Well, we're gonna use
it to serve the poor. We're gonna use it to help other people and so we made five decisions. First we said, "We're not
gonna spend the money on us." I still live in the same
house I've lived in 25 years. I drive a 16-year-old Ford truck. I bought my watch at Walmart, actually this one was given to me. It keeps the same time as your Rolex. (congregation laughs) Doesn't go any faster or any slower, okay? (congregation applauds)
You know, I paid $15 for it. I don't need a whole lot of things 'cause I don't need
things to prove my worth, so we said we're not gonna
change our lifestyle one bit. Second, I stopped taking a
salary from the church in 2002. Third, I added up all
the church had paid me in the previous 22 years,
many of you know this, and I gave it all back. So I have now served this
church free for 36 years. I'm a volunteer pastor, okay?
(congregation applauds) Nobody pays me to do this, okay? So those of you who
volunteer in this church, well, welcome to the club. I'm a volunteer pastor, okay?
(congregation laughs) In fact, I'm a full time volunteer and when some of you retire, I expect you to volunteer full time, okay? Because I'm a volunteer pastor. This is the difference between
professional and amateur. A professional is paid to do good and those of us who are
amateurs, we're good for nothing. (congregation laughs) Actually, the word amateur
comes from the word amore. You know what that is, the word love. An amateur does it out of love. The professional does
it to be paid for it. I am not a professional pastor. I'm an amateur pastor, I
do it because I love you and because I love Jesus. Nobody pays me to do this. Then we set up a foundation
called Acts of Mercy to help the vulnerable and the poor and people with AIDS and children and widows and orphans and
all kinds of things like that and then the last thing, most of you know, Kay and I became reverse tithers. Now we'd been raising
our tithe every year. We got married 41 years ago. When we got married,
we gave 10% to the Lord and the next year, we gave 11% Next year, we gave 12%. Our third year of
marriage, we raised it 3%. Every year, we raised
our tithe giving away because I just wanted my heart
to grow bigger every year. Every time I give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life. Every time I give, my heart grows bigger. Every time I give, I
become more like Jesus. I wanna be like Jesus. So on years that it was
very tight financially and the cupboards were bare, we would still raise our giving, like a quarter of a percent. On years I'd get a raise
or we'd have a windfall or something and we'd raise it 4%, 5%. Most of you know that today, Kay and I give away 91% and live on 9%. I've played this game
with God for now 41 years. God says, "You give to
me and I'll give to you "and we'll see who wins."
(congregation chuckles) I've lost that for 41 years. I dare you to try that one. That was actually the easy part. What do you do with all that money? Just give it away and
it's been so much fun just giving it away, so we did. We just gave it all away. The second thing though was what do you do with the
fame, the attention? This is a thing that you get when the more successful you become. I was reading for that
and I came up on Psalm 72. Psalm 72 is a prayer by Solomon, the son of David, who
was the King of Israel. At that time, he's the most powerful man in the world in Israel. He is the king of the United
Kingdom, its apex of power. He's the wisest man in the world and he's the wealthiest man in the world and in Psalm 72, it's his
prayer for more influence. When you read this prayer,
it sounds so self-centered because in this prayer,
Psalm 72, Solomon says this. "God, I want you to make me more "successful than I already am. "I want you to make me famous. "I want you to spread the fame
of my name to every nation. "I want everybody to know who I am. "I want you to give me more influence, "more power, more visibility." It sounds totally self-centered until you read the motivation. Then he says so that,
here's the motivation, "So that the king may
support the widow and orphan. "The king may release the oppressed. "The king may help the poor. "That the king may care for the sick. "That the king may help those "who are in prison and oppressed. "That the king may be the defender "of the immigrant and the foreigner." Today, he's mentioning all the people who are marginalized in society and he's saying, today, he'd say, "So that I can help the mentally ill "and the handicapped and
the aged and the elderly "and all the people that we wanna "push off to the side of society." In that passage, I remember tears were coming down my face as
I read that passage. God said to me, "The purpose of influence "is to speak up for those
who have no influence." God did not give you success
so that you can be a fat cat and prideful and buy an island and have drinks with
little umbrellas in 'em. (congregation laughs) God gives you success
not for your benefit, but for the benefit of others and when you understand
that, God will give you more. If you're faithful in little, then you'll be faithful in much. I know, some people
hear that story and say, "Well yeah, Rick, if God
gave me millions of dollars, "I'd give millions away too." No you wouldn't 'cause
you're not doing it now. I had a track record of being generous when I didn't have the money. I had a 36-year track record on that. The fact is, do you know
why God let me be the author of the bestselling book
in American history? He knew what'd I do with the money. He knew he could trust me with the money, that I wasn't going to use it on me and that the first sentence
would be, it's not about you. One of the verses that God showed me when I was having to go,
'cause it scared me to death, I said, "I know what
success does to people. "A lot of money, a lot of fame
can ruin you very quickly." One of the verses God gave me, this verse on the screen, Proverbs 31:8-9, speak up for those who
cannot speak for themselves. Ensure justice for
those who are perishing. By the way, that would include the unborn because they can't speak for themselves and they are certainly perishing. Speak up for those who
can't speak for themselves. Ensure justice for
those who are perishing. Yes, speak up for the
poor and the helpless and see that they get justice. So we are to repent, change our attitude, and we are to serve the poor. This is the warning that
God gives to Nebuchadnezzar. He totally ignores it and so
the third thing that happens, write down the third problem, is we put off doing what we know is right. This is the third reason
that Nebuchadnezzar fell and it's gonna be the third
reason that you might fall in your success if you
don't hear the warning. We put off doing what we know is right. We procrastinate, we postpone. We delay, we defer, we dawdle. Daniel Four Verse 28 says this. After he had this dream interpreted, 12 months later, oh, wait a minute. 12 months later? What's he been doing for the last year? God says, "You're gonna lose your kingdom "and you're gonna lose your
mind if you don't change." Well, what did he do? What in the world is he doing? He's dawdling, procrastinating,
delaying, deferring, ignoring, forgetting, not
changing anything in his life. Now let me ask you this. If God warned you, if God
tonight warned you in a dream, "You're gonna lose everything "you've ever worked for in your life "if you don't change,"
would you wait 12 months? Let me ask you that. Personally, if God warned you. The truth is, he has warned you. It's right here in this book and he says, "If you'll do these things, "I'm gonna bless you and
you're gonna succeed in life. "If you don't do these
things, you're gonna fail. "You're gonna hit the wall. "You're gonna have dead
ends, delays, difficulties, "and things are not gonna go
the way you want 'em to go." There's a way that seems right onto a man, but the ins thereof are the ways of death. So we put off doing what we know is right. He knew what to do and it says here, 12 months later, 'cause he hadn't done anything, all of what Nebuchadnezzar dreamed did actually happen to him. He lost it all. He's taking a walk on a flat roof of his royal palace in Babylon and as he looked out across a city and I'm sure it was quite
magnificent, the skyline, he boasted to himself,
he's talking to himself, I'm sure he's going, "Man, Nebby." You know, he calls himself Nebby. (congregation laughs) "Nebby, you are the man. "You're the dude. "You're number one. "I mean, everybody wants
to be you, you know? "Gotta be good looking,
he's so hard to see. "You are the man." As the words were still on his lips, a voice came from heaven. "This is what God declares to you, "decrees to you, King Nebuchadnezzar. "Your power's being taken away. "You're no longer the
ruler of this kingdom. "You're gonna be deposed from the palace, "ostracized by everyone, "forced to live with the wild animals." Immediately, it all happened. He lost his kingdom and he lost his mind. He literally went insane. History confirms this, that
there was a period of time that we don't actually know
how long he was in this loss, where he lost his mind
and lost his kingdom because the Bible says, "You're gonna lose it for seven periods." Some scholars think that
means seven seasons, which would have been a
little bit less than two years and some people think
it means seven years, which would have been a long time, but it wasn't like a month or two. He has a major CEO burnout and it's public and it's embarrassing and the guy who was the most
powerful man in the world is now drooling on himself and acting like an animal in the desert
and can't even make sense. That's humbling, that's humiliating. He's out of touch with
reality, becomes a fool, he's unreasonable, he acts like an animal. By the way, you haven't
ever seen it like this, but have you ever seen a friend who all of a sudden decides to not do what God wants them to do and they walk off a cliff and
do something self-destructive and you're going, what in the world? Have you lost your mind? You're going, wait a minute. Tell me, you're gonna leave
your wife and kids for her. Have you lost your mind? Wait a minute, you're
gonna leave your husband and you're gonna break up
your marriage for that guy? Have you lost your mind? People do this all the time,
self-destructive behavior because they're running from God. So his life just
collapses in a very public and humiliating way and
we see it all the time. In fact, the news love to
cover this kind of stuff, but God has mercy on Nebuchadnezzar and after this period of humiliation, whether it's two and a half years or a couple years or seven
years, we don't know, he restored his mind and
I want you to see now the steps that Nehemiah
took back to sanity. This is the road to recovery
and he did three things. When you have a major
failure in your life, you need to do these exact three things. He looked up, he woke up, and he spoke up. Let's look at the first. Number one, write this down. Three steps to recovery after failure. First, look up to God. Look up to God. The Bible says in Daniel Four Verse 34, at this time, after this time had passed, you know, when he had lost his mind, I, Nebuchadnezzar, he's
giving a testimony. This chapter is his testimony. "I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven "and my sanity returned." Literally, it says in the Hebrew, he lifted up his eyes to heaven. Do you need to do that today? Some of you've never
taken this first step. You're in a heap of trouble right now. You're in a mess. You're in a mess in your life. It's going the wrong way,
but you're looking to everything else and
everybody else to solve it. You're looking to other people. You're looking to the government. You're looking to yourself. You expect your husband
or your wife to solve it. Whatever, you're in a mess. You need to look up to God. You need to get your eyes
on heaven, refocus on God. Not be looking at anything
and everybody else. Now by the way, sometimes
God has to lay you flat on your back to get you to look up. I hope he doesn't have to do that to you. Just do this now, look up to God. The second thing he did is he woke up. Here's the second step. Wake up to God's greatness
and start worshiping. Wake up to God's greatness,
not your own greatness, but God's greatness and
start worshiping him. Worship just means focus on God. When you focus on God's
greatness, that's called worship. You wake up to God's greatness
and you start worshiping. Get your focus off
yourself, off your problem, off your humiliation, and you
get your focus back on God. How do you do that? Well, you start worshiping again. If in the past, you
used to read your Bible a little bit every day
or try to pray every day and read the Bible, that's
called a quiet time, you need to do that with regularity. You need to develop that habit and start focusing,
worshiping on God every day. If you've been inconsistent
in your small group or you haven't been in a
small group for a while, you need to get in a small group again. You need to start going every week and be consistent worshiping God. You see, in good times,
you start backing off, and go, hey, I don't need
to go to church this week. I'll go once a month, that's cool. Now that we got money, let's buy a boat or a cabin or a condo or an RV and we'll spend three weeks playing and once a month, we'll go to church. Really? Is there anything more
important in your life than worshiping God and hearing
from him on a regular basis? If you know something that
will help your life more than going to worship God,
stand up and tell us right now because I'll go do it with you 'cause I'm not gonna waste my life. Just tell us. No, getting in touch with
God every week in worship. You need, you know, when the
doors are open at a church, I'm gonna be there, why? 'Cause I've often wondered
what if that was the week God wanted to speak to me that was gonna turn the direction of my life, build the career that
I never even imagined and if I didn't go that week, I missed it. I missed it, I don't wanna
miss what God says to me. Some of you need to make a re-commitment to be at worship every single week. Not like once a month or
every two weeks or whenever. It's more important
for me to hear from God than to hear from television or hear from anything
else going on in life. So I wake up to God's greatness
and I start worshiping again and I'm there and I
worship God all the time. Verse 34. Nebuchadnezzar says, "My sanity returned "and I praised and worshiped
the most high, that's God, "and I honored the one who lives forever." This is the second step to recovery. My sanity returned when I
started praising and worshiping and being grateful for the
things God has done in my life. Now I want you to write this down. I don't know what bad thing
you're going through right now, but I will tell you this. We get better, we get better when we replace pride with praise. We get better in any area of our lives when we replace pride in
ourselves with praise to God. Now let me say it again. Every time things are
going good in your life, this is as much a test as the bad times, as the delays, the difficulties, and the suffering and the pain. Every time things are
going good in your life, God's gonna go, are they
gonna become prideful or are they gonna become praiseful? Are they gonna just think,
hey, look how cool we are, I am or look how cool God is? I would not have any of
this if it weren't for God. About 1,000 years before this event and this happened about 2,500 years ago, 1,000 years before this event, Moses said the same thing to the Jews who were coming out of 400
years slavery in Egypt. God had promised for generations. "I'm gonna save you and I'm gonna "take you out of slavery from Egypt "and I'm gonna give
you a land of your own. "It's called the promised
land and it's a cool place." They spent 40 years
walking across the desert where God tested them many times and Moses is actually more afraid of the success in the promised land than he is of the slavery in Egypt. He's much more worried. He says, "I'm afraid you guys are "gonna stop depending on God
when things are going good, "when you're in the gravy
years of your life." So he says this, he gives this warning before they go into the promised land. Deuteronomy Eight Verse Two. "Remember how God led you through "the wilderness these past 40 years." He's talking to the Jews who've been enslaved and then freed. "He humbled you while you're
out there in the wilderness "by letting you go hungry." You know, sometimes God humbles you by letting you go hungry. You're hungry for a
relationship you don't have. You're hungry for a need or a job or something that you don't have and God lets you go hungry
in order to humble you. He said, "He humbled you." He said, "He tested you
with hardships many times." We're all familiar with that. "To test your character and to see "if you will obey whatever
he commands you to do." Will you obey God when
things aren't going good? Now he says, here comes the
other test, the test of success. "Now God is bringing
you into a good land." This is the promised land,
a land with plenty of water. You can have all you want. With bountiful crops, with
orchards full of fruit, with abundant copper
and iron in the ground, so you can build your
tools, make your tools. You will lack nothing. Your bank account will be big enough. You're not worried about
paying your bills anymore. So he says, "When you're
full and you're satisfied "and you're prospering, praise the Lord. "Praise the Lord with gratitude
for all he has given you." The attitude of gratitude
is the first line of defense against falling into ego and arrogance. The more grateful you are,
the more humble you will be. The more prideful you are,
the less grateful you are. So he says, "Praise God." Remember you got two choices when things are going good in your life. Praise God or be proud of myself. He says, "When you're full and satisfied, "be grateful to God," but
he says, "Be careful." This is a warning, danger, Will Robinson. Warning that you do not forget the Lord, that you continue always to
obey every command of God. It's so easy to forget God
when things are going good. Otherwise, when you have
built your fine houses and your gold and silver have multiplied, in other words, you've
got money in the bank. Your stock portfolio's doing good. Your heart will become proud. Here's praise and pride contrasted and you will forget it was God who saved and delivered you out of your slavery and gave all this to you. Have you forgotten that? When you become successful, do not think I did this all by my own strength. I became rich by my own power, you know? Look how cool I am, I'm
entrepreneur of the year. Instead, remember that
it is God, your Lord, who gives you the ability and
strength to produce wealth. Those guys, those of you
who are entrepreneurs, you need to write that verse down and put it in your car and on
your desk and in your mirror. That it is God who gives you the ability and strength to produce wealth. That is a gift from God. That is a gift from God and
you need to thank him for it. He says, "I warn you. "If you ever forget God and you begin "turning things into
idols that you worship." I turn my car into an
idol and I worshiped it. I turn my boat, I turn my career. I turn things that
we've created into idols instead of worshiping the
creator of everything. He says, "I warn you,
if you ever forget God "and begin turning things
into idols that you worship, "God will destroy it all and your nation, "just as he has destroyed other nations "before you who forgot God." I don't know another verse in the Bible that is needed by America
than that verse right now. Our nation has forgotten God. Let's just remember, this
nation was founded by believers, Christians, who came to America,
they were called Pilgrims to start a new country, a new land where they could worship God freely. They came for religious reasons. They were called Pilgrims. They're the Pilgrim
fathers of this church. For 300 years, the Bible was taught in every single classroom
in America for 300 years. It's only been taken out of
schools about the past 75 years and we've forgotten God. I shudder to think what could happen to our nation, to our country. What is he saying here? Success is dangerous. He's saying, "Be careful. "There is a danger when you
experience the blessing of God." You see, let me just put
this in perspective for you. Your greatest test in life not may be when you lose your job, but when you get a new job and all of a sudden
you're so involved in it, you forget God and church and worship and service and ministry
and all these other things. Your greatest spiritual test in life may not be when you go into
debt, but when you get a raise and you go out and you buy some stuff that keep you from thinking about God because you're so busy out saying, "Well, this weekend,
we're not going to church. "We're gonna do recreation." We're gonna wreck creation. (congregation laughs) At the lake, at the beach, at the river. We're gonna go wreck creation. So you get a raise. Let me just tell you, here's what you do. When God blesses your
life, you welcome it. Thank you God for this blessing. You celebrate God's blessing in your life. You celebrate the successes, but then you get on your knees and you humble yourself and say, "God, I realize I wouldn't have "any of this if it weren't for you. "I could've been born in Sudan "or Biafra, Pakistan, Myanmar. "I could be a homeless kid
on the streets somewhere. "I didn't choose when
and where I was born. "I didn't choose my natural giftedness. "I didn't choose my talents. "I didn't choose the freedoms
that I have to excel. "It all comes from you, God." You humble yourselves. Now while Nebuchadnezzar is
going through this recovery, he learns four things about God. He wants to tell the whole world about him and the next four statements
I want you to write down because these are statements
that will stabilize your life, whether you're going through
success or suffering. Doesn't matter if good times or bad times, you need to always
remember these four things that God is in control, write these down. Four things Nebuchadnezzar says about God that he learned in his fall. Number one, God's kingdom
will outlast everything I do. God's kingdom will
outlast everything I do. So if you want to make a
lasting impact with your life, bet on the kingdom of God. Your career is not gonna last, but the kingdom of God
is gonna last forever. Verse 34, God's rule is everlasting and his kingdom is eternal. That's why Jesus said, "Seek first, "make your number one
priority, the kingdom of God "and all this other stuff that you need, "the passion, the pleasure, the position, "all the stuff you need,
it'll be taken care of. "Seek first the kingdom of God "and all these things
will be added unto you." He said, "Make your number one "priority something that's gonna last." Not my career, not my
reputation, but God's kingdom. Build your life on God's kingdom. It's far more important than your career. God didn't put you here
just for your career. So he says, "I learned God's kingdom's "gonna outlast everything I do." Second thing he learned was this. God's approval matters
more than all the others. Everybody else may disapprove of me, but if God approves of
me, doesn't really matter. You only need one
person's approval, God's. If God likes you and you like you, doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. You don't need other people's
approval to be happy. You just need God's approval. In verse 35, he says all
the people on the earth are nothing compared to him. Who do you want when you die, who do you want saying good job? The people around you or God? You made your life count,
who do you want saying that? God or just a bunch of people? Third thing he learned. God's power is absolute, which means he's big enough for any problem you're
gonna face in your success. Verse 35 and 37, Nebuchadnezzar says this. "He, God, has the power
to do whatever he pleases. "He can do it among the angels of heaven "and he can do it with those
who live on earth, okay? "His power's absolute. "No one can stop him or challenge him "or even question what he does "and those who walk in
pride, he is able to humble." Nebuchadnezzar would have
said, "And I'm Exhibit A." Okay, I was the most prideful man on the planet and God humbled me. Now look at verse, the next
verse, verse 36 or yeah, 36. Said, "When God restored my sanity, "he also gave me back
my honor and kingdom." This is true, this is what happened. "All my leaders returned to me "and my kingdom became greater than ever." So if you've had a big
fall, it's not over. It's not over till you're dead. He said, "I had all my
leaders returned to me. "My kingdom became greater than ever, "so now I praise and
I exalt and I glorify, "that's called worship, the
king of heaven, that's God." He says, "I'm a king, but
he's the king of heaven "because everything he does,
God does, is always right. "It's always true and it's always fair." Now that means, here's the
fourth thing he learned, write it down, God never
makes any mistakes. We do, but he doesn't. We don't understand why
everything's happening, but we do, he does and we don't have to understand. I'm sure the people in Babylon said, "Wait a minute, we got a leader "who went insane for seven years." Well, God's still in control. All these things are
saying God is in control. So what does he do? He looks up to God and then
he wakes up to his greatness and he's in control and he worships God and then the third thing that the king did and you need to do this when
you're going through a failure, he looked up, he woke up, and then he spoke up about his recovery. Tell others how God has
saved and changed me. Tell others how God has
saved and changed me. Now I love the fact that this is a pretty humiliating experience, to be the most important man on the planet and now you're, as I said, out
there drooling in the desert and you can't even put sentences together, but he's not shy, he's not
embarrassed about his fall. He's not embarrassed about
how God restored him. In fact, he tells the entire world, he'll tell anybody who listens. The Bible says this. King Nebuchadnezzar sent a letter to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world. By the way, that letter,
it's this chapter. This is his story, this is his story. This, by the way, is Nebuchadnezzar's celebrate recovery story. It's his testimony. If Nebuchadnezzar were here today, he'd stand up and he'd say, "Hi, my name is Nebuchadnezzar. "I'm a believer who struggles with pride." (congregation chuckles) Do you realize Nebuchadnezzar's
gonna be in heaven? You're gonna meet him there. This Babylonian king's gonna be there because he became a believer and a worshiper of the one true God. He's gonna be there in heaven. You can meet him. He says, "I wrote this letter "to the leaders of all
the world, every nation." He said this, "May you prosper." That's how he starts his letter. "I want to tell you about
the wonderful miracles "that God has done for me." Then he tells his story to all the leaders of the world through a letter. How'd you like getting a letter from the king of the greatest empire telling you his testimony? He told other people. He woke up, he looked up, he spoke up, and he looked up, and he
woke up, and he spoke up. Now let me ask you a question. Has God done anything for you? Has God saved you from anything? Has he shown his grace to you in any way? Have you been changed by God in any way? Then who are you telling? Are you telling anybody how
good God has been to you? Are you telling anybody how
good God has been to you? Well, no. Why not? Why have you not told your
story to anybody else? Well, you know, it'd be kind
of embarrassing to do that. That's called pride. That's your problem,
that's the very problem that got this guy in trouble. When you are saying, "Well, I don't wanna "talk about God with my friends
or the people I work with." That's called pride. It's saying, I'm embarrassed
to say God has been good to me. I'm embarrassed to talk about
how he's changed my life. That's pride. You need to think about that one. Would you pray the
prayer of Nebuchadnezzar? Say God I don't wanna get complacent and comfortable in my life. I wanna pay attention
to the warning signs. I don't wanna stop putting off
what I know to do is right. I don't wanna procrastinate anymore. I wanna humble myself before you. I first take this step, I look up to God. Some of you, this is the first
time you've ever done this. Say God, for the first
time, I'm looking up to you. I've looked to myself and
everybody else for the solution, but I'm saying today,
you are God and I'm not and I'm sorry for the
times I've acted like it. You know what's best and I don't. Say God, I wanna wake up to your greatness and I wanna start worshiping you. I wanna focus on you, not my problems, not my pain, and not even my successes. I wanna replace pride
in my life with praise. I wanna stop focusing
on me and focus on you. I wanna recommit myself
to being at worship. Nothing's more important
than me getting to know you because, God, your kingdom's
gonna outlast everything I do. I want my impact to last. What you're doing's far more lasting than my own career or anything else. God, forgive me for worrying about the approval of other people. Help me to remember I don't
need their approval to be happy, that your approval is
all that really matters. Help me to remember that
your power is the absolute, that you are in control. The history is your story. You're bigger than any
problem I'm gonna face and I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna trust you because, God, I believe you never make any mistakes. You're always true,
just, loving, and right. Then Lord, help me to tell other people. Forgive me for my shyness, my
cowardice, my embarrassment. Lord, if I'm truly humble, I'm gonna tell other people all
the good you've done for me. Help me to tell others how you've saved me and you've changed me. If you've never invited Jesus Christ to be the Lord, the manager,
the CEO of your life, say, "God, I open my life to you today. "Jesus Christ, you become
the manager of my life. "I want your plan and purpose for me, "not the one that I've
been trying to go on." I humbly ask you to help me to live with an attitude of gratitude, realizing that everything comes from you. I pray this in your name, amen.
