Not God

We're doing this with Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. We've got all kinds of small groups all over the county, and you can still join one if you go to tlc.org/Daniel. We've got curriculum available for free in the lobby. You can use it as daily Devo material as well. And today we're going to be in the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel. So if you happen to have your Bibles, your Bible apps, you can turn to those. You can follow along in your notes as well.

And the theme really to this chapter of the book of Bible. By the way, my name is Renée, one of the pastors here. I got so excited about the material I forgot to introduce myself. So the theme to this whole chapter, very, very important, deep spiritual concept, it really, really is. You can unpack this for the rest of your life, but you can summarize it in two words. And here they are, and if you forget everything else I'm going to talk about today, I don't want you to forget these two words because they're very important. They can change your life.

Are you ready for this? I'm going to incorporate hand motions to make sure you remember these two words, and some of you know what's coming. You take your hand. Go ahead and take your hand and make a finger. Point up. Say God. Now point to yourself and say not. Right. Let's try that again. Ready? God, not. You're not saying this very enthusiastically. So let me hear you say it with some conviction. Ready? God, not.

This plays out in so many ways. If I realize that I am not God, then if I'm up late with anxiety, I can say I am not God and I was never meant to carry what only he can carry. I'm not going to worry about that because I'm not God. That's not my job. Or when my plans go wrong, something kind of gets derailed. I can say, well, I'm not God and this may be part of his plan for my day. So rather than beat my head against this wall, what is there for me to see or to do or to learn here in this unplanned moment?

Or when a person behaves badly toward me, I can say, well, I'm not God, so I cannot control their behavior with my wrath, right? I can only control my response to them. Or when I worry about the headlines, I can say, well, I'm not God, so I can't control what may happen tomorrow on the national or the world stage. I can only do what I can do here now. This plays out in so, so many ways.

A man named Ernest Kurtz years ago wrote sort of the definitive history of Alcoholics Anonymous and the whole 12-step recovery movement, and guess what he called it? Not God. A history of Alcoholics Anonymous. Why did he call it Not God? Well, he said way down deep, every alcoholic's problem had first been claiming God-like powers, especially that of control. And he said recovery and sanity actually begins with a single realization, I need help from a power greater than myself.

But you know what this, I am God. I'm the center of the universe illusion. That is actually pretty popular. In fact, I looked it up this week on Amazon. Right now you can get I am the center of the universe T-shirts. I am the center of the universe coffee mugs for your car. The I am the center of the universe bumper sticker. And you can even get your kids started early with their very own I am the center of the universe onesie. Now, whoever has made these has figured out really everybody thinks they are the center of the universe.

Kind of like the writer Anne Lamont once wrote, The biggest difference between you and God is God doesn't think he's you. And this is actually a major theological issue in Scripture. In the Bible, you might know the story that kind of starts it all off. Way back in the book of Genesis, the tempter comes to human beings and says, When you eat of it, the forbidden fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be what? like God. And that's kind of been the core problem ever since. The core human problem, it's not just ignorance, it's not just misbehavior, it's really a kind of toxic pride.

And what that means is that the most important discovery in life is that I am not God. A speaker and writer that emphasizes this a lot is probably the most influential or one of the most influential pastors in my life, John Ortberg, who spoke here this summer at Twin Lakes Church. He talks about this a lot. And he points out that this is the theme for this chapter of the book of Daniel that we're looking at this morning. Not God.

And it's just such a great story to illustrate this point. And so I want to tell you the story. And this story unfolds, you could say, in three acts. Act one, all is well, or so it seems. Remember, this is happening about 600 years before Christ. The Jewish people are in captivity in Babylon. And in the words of the king of Babylon, verse four, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous. Everybody say prosperous. Prosperous. Prosperous is right.

Let me just give you a little bit of insight as to how prosperous this king was. Archaeologists have discovered 126 clay tablets written in cuneiform. They are just chronicles. Do you see all these little lines separating these? These are chronicles of the inscriptions of King Nebuchadnezzar's name that were put on all of his construction projects throughout the land. 126 tablets just to record the inscriptions chiseled onto his buildings. And his buildings were amazing.

As we looked at four weeks ago, parts of the walls of Babylon survive to this day. They're 3,600 years old. They're in the Museum in Berlin, and they're still so beautiful. So imagine King Nebuchadnezzar looking down from his palace, and he's seeing these walls, and he's seeing walls that connect to these gates that run for miles, about 20 miles, around the city of Babylon, by far the largest ancient city of its time. The walls were so wide that two chariots could ride on top of the walls side by side. Just immense. There was nothing like it in the world.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus says, In addition to its size, Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world. And Nebuchadnezzar built it. He was famous. So contented and prosperous is right. One little hitch. He has this dream. He says, I had a dream that made me afraid. Why? In Babylonian culture, the dreams of the king were omens. They foretold the future, especially of the empire. And so this dream terrified him. That's the way they saw the dreams of the king.

He said, as I was lying in bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me. And he goes on to describe his dream. He sees a glorious tree. It is the biggest tree on earth. Its branches spread all over the globe. It is its own ecosystem. It's full of animals and birds. And then the tree is mowed down into mulch until all that remains is a stump, which is then bound in iron from heaven. Now eventually a little root shoots back up out of the stump so it's not dead.

But then something weird happens as they happen in dreams. The stump changes into kind of a wild man. And a voice comes down from heaven that says, let him be drenched with dew and live with the wild animals and let his mind be changed to that of an animal. And then the king wakes up. Well, if my dreams foretell the future of the empire, what does this mean? He wants to know. And he calls in his advisors. And they don't know, as usual, what good are these advisors.

And so he calls in this young Jewish man, Daniel, who's helped him in the past. And Daniel knows what it means. And Daniel knows it is bad news for the king personally. So watch how he lays this out. This is so interesting. Verse 19, Daniel answered, My Lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries. Look how brokenhearted Daniel is about a bad portent for the king. This is the same king who destroyed Daniel's city. This is the same king who took Daniel captive.

Daniel's not rejoicing in this omen of the king's downfall, which is quite a role model for us. You and I are in a culture right now where we are encouraged to nurture our resentments, to curse our enemies, to destroy our enemies, and that's clearly not Daniel's spirit, is it? He's a foreshadowing of Jesus' command to love your enemies, to bless your enemies. But Daniel knows what it means, so he's going to say this bad news in as polite a way as possible.

Daniel says to him, your majesty, you are that tree. You're the tree. You've become great and strong. Your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky and your dominion extends to the distant parts of the earth. And so far that sounds about right to Nebuchadnezzar. But then Daniel says, and king, you're that stump. And you are that wild man because you will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals until you acknowledge that the most high is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth because Nebuchadnezzar thought he was sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and that the most high gives them to anyone he wishes.

Your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules. Say heaven rules with me. Heaven rules. In other words, Daniel is looking, he's standing before the king of the world, basically, and he's saying, king, God, not. Now, how many people do you think dared say this to the king? Not very many, but Daniel is not done. This is an amazing story. Daniel says, therefore, your majesty, be pleased to accept my advice. Again, as polite a way as possible to say, God is judging you.

Renounce your sins by doing what is right. Renounce your wickedness specifically by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue. Kindness to the downtrodden is a big, big, big, big deal to God. You see this in all of his judgments against kings all through the Bible, all the way into the New Testament, and that's one of the reasons we know that that's what he wants us to do and one of the reasons we emphasize acts of kindness here at Twin Lakes Church.

But the point here is that Nebuchadnezzar is not just being called to, okay, you can escape this bad thing by doing some religious ritual to the Jewish God. Nebuchadnezzar's being called for a complete soul reorientation. Yes, to say, you're God and I'm not God, even though I've been strutting around acting like I'm God, but he's also being called specifically to change his behavior, to renounce his sins. And the truth is, when I'm serious about getting right with God, a painful part of it is coming to recognize the truth about me.

And that is that I am not God and not just because I'm finite. And not just because, you know, I don't live in heaven. I'm not God because I'm not holy. I'm sinful. And I need to renounce my sins. And God really says this to us all, doesn't he? All of us have things in our lives that we know need to change, that we need to let go of. And if you're sitting here right now saying, no, I'm good, God not, all right? And God will bring little warnings into all of our lives about those things that we need to change.

Maybe through friends like Daniel or our spouse or through a sermon that we hear or a song we hear. Or maybe even in dreams like the king. Warning. Renounce that sin. Turn to God before it's too late. God warns us because of his grace, but often we end up doing just what the king did. Thank you so much, Daniel, for interpreting my dream, and then he does nothing to actually change. And that brings us to act two, hitting bottom.

Look at verse 29. 12 months later, 12 months later. So for 12 months, every day, the king has been waking up thinking, let's see, should I change today? Nah, there'll probably be no consequences. For 12 straight months, he's probably been like avoiding eye contact with Daniel, right? And then as the king was walking along the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, Is this not the great Babylon that I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?

Those self-esteem lessons really worked for King Nebuchadnezzar, all right? I don't know if you're old enough to remember Joe Namath. How many of you remember Joe Namath, the NFL quarterback? All right, good, a lot of us here in this service. Well, when he was really at the top of the world, he wrote a book. The title was this, I can't wait till tomorrow because I get better looking every day. And that's really about where Nebuchadnezzar's head is at, right? It's kind of, I was thinking it's like he's singing worship songs to himself. Oh me, oh me, how majestic is my name in all the earth. You know, this is this guy.

And it says, immediately, what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. I was thinking this is eerily like a story that happened actually in the 20th century. Howard Hughes, right? Billionaire, aviator, inventor, movie producer, one of the richest and most famous men in the whole world, but then a descent into madness, his hair grew long, his fingernails, toenails he withdrew from society, became a recluse, a strangely similar sudden change.

But I am very glad to report that for the king, this was not the end of the story. That brings us to act three, restored to sanity. And the turning point for Nebuchadnezzar comes in the 34th verse of the fourth chapter of Daniel, where he says, at the end of that time, and we find out that it was about seven years, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven. And when he says, I raised my eyes toward heaven, he doesn't just mean he looked up at the sky. It means he is pointing up, saying, God, not.

And my sanity was restored. Doesn't this sound to you like a share time in a 12-step recovery group, right? My sanity was restored. Kind of reminded me, if you like classic rock, you know that Eric Clapton is famous as one of the best guitarists ever, right? Back in the 1960s, the slogan, Clapton is God, was first painted on a wall in London, but then it spread like wildfire. I remember as a kid in San Jose, you'd see Clapton as God graffiti, just kind of randomly everywhere.

And you know what? When millions of people say you're God, it kind of goes to your head if you're not careful. And he lived like a God, a rock God. He had it all until he hit bottom, drinking at that time two full large bottles of vodka a day, addicted to heroin, lost his marriage, lost his sanity. And one day, alone in a room, he finally hit his bottom, and he writes about it in his autobiography. He says, I raised my eyes toward heaven. His words, I was absolutely terrified in complete despair.

At that moment, almost of their own accord, my legs gave way, and I fell to my knees. In the privacy of my room, I begged for help. I'd heard about surrender, something I thought I could never do. My pride just wouldn't allow it. But I knew that on my own I wasn't going to make it. And from that day until this, I've never failed to pray daily on my knees. And I choose to kneel because I need to humble myself when I pray. And with my ego, that's the most important thing I can do. And he identifies now as a Christian.

This man who was once called a god now says, you are never more of a mature adult than when you get down on your knees and bend humbly before someone greater than yourself. So Clapton had to hit bottom to realize it. The king had to hit bottom, but you don't. I hope you don't. Look at what the king says. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified him. He's not honoring and glorifying himself anymore. Him who lives forever, his kingdom is an eternal dominion. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures for generation to generation.

I looked at this verse and it really reminded me of the end of the Lord's Prayer, doesn't it? Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory. And we all need to pray that because we are all tempted to be about my kingdom, my power, my glory. And then he goes on and he says all the peoples of earth including me are regarded as nothing. Now he doesn't mean people don't matter to God, of course they do. He means the glorious glory on earth is nothing compared to God's glory.

He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth, no one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done? He means my life ultimately. It's not in my hands. It's in God's hands. Now, all of this, the story of King Nebuchadnezzar being humbled, this is not about the king is now thinking that he is worthless scum. That's not what humility is. Somebody once wrote, humility is not thinking you are worthless. Humility is agreeing with God about who you are.

You got that? Humility isn't thinking you're worthless. It's about agreeing with God about who you are. In fact, if you imagine kind of a continuum on the screen here with arrogance on one side and insecurity on the other, humility you could say is in the middle, right? Humility is equilibrium. Humility is peace. And the best place to find true humility, of course, is in an encounter with God in worship, like the king was having here. There's a right sizing of yourself, of your ego.

Somebody said it's like a Copernican revolution of the soul. Until Copernicus came along in 1543, we earthlings thought that we were the center of the universe. This, in fact, is an old pre-Copernicus map. And you can kind of see how the earth really is. All the planets revolve around the earth. Until Copernicus came along and he pointed to the sun and he said, actually, that is the center of the solar system. And guess what? Nobody wanted to hear it. But he was right.

Well, Daniel kind of played the part of Copernicus. King, you are not the center of the universe. God is. And the king didn't want to hear it. But not just the king. We're all born with a view kind of like this. That's me right at the center, and everything revolves around me and my plans. But one of the most important steps to maturity is realizing that's not how it is. It's actually so freeing to realize you are not God. I am not God.

Your feelings are not God. Your job is not God. Your finances are not God. Your reputation is not God. Your addictions are not God. Your past is not God. Your problems are not God. They don't hold God-like power over your future. And guess what? Even though it might feel like it, your grief is not God. Your wounds are not God. Your defeats are not God. And guess what else? Politics are not God. The president is not God. Your boss is not God. People's opinions are not God. Your opinions are not God. You are not God.

And part of my job this week as a pastor is to remind you of that. Let's try it one more time. Point up, say God. God not. That's what coming to church does for us. And that's why we worship God. Part of Trent and Elizabeth's job is to lift your eyes to God so you can feel that perspective through the wonder of worship.

Some of you know that my mom had Alzheimer's disease as she aged. And we took her to our home for several years until she died at 82. And toward the end, she could hardly say any words. She had six words left in her vocabulary. And it was very difficult for her to understand anything. But although she couldn't remember much of her past, although she could only say six words, weirdly, like with a lot of Alzheimer's patients, she could sing.

And the songs that she knew from her childhood, she still knew every single word. And her favorite songs to sing were the great old hymns, especially hymns about the greatness of God. And sometimes when I would walk into a room or we'd be driving, gosh, these are memories like they're from yesterday. And she would sometimes point to her head like this and she would look at me and say, why? Why? and just look at me.

And earlier I would hug her and I would say, I would try to explain disease and Alzheimer's disease and it's not your fault. But of course, information was difficult for her to, if not impossible, for her to synthesize and receive. And so I learned eventually that the only thing that I could communicate was the emotion of comfort to her. And the best way to do that was through those old hymns. And so my answer to her was, let's sing.

And we would sing songs like, holy, holy, holy, and she knew every single word. And we would sing songs like, how great thou art, oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made. We would sing it together. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, I see thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. And she would sing, how great thou art, how great thou art. And tears would roll and she'd be calmed down.

Because although she couldn't explain her suffering, and who really can explain any of our suffering? Knowing that she was not God and there is one who is gave her courage in all that chaos. Well, suddenly Nebuchadnezzar sees all of this with perfect clarity, too. Now, there's a little problem, which is that he's not king for very much longer. And the next crew that comes in is the party crew. And they're so arrogant and they're so disrespectful to God that one of them has a great idea.

One of them says, let's get the sacred golden items that we stole from the Holy of Holies at the Jerusalem temple and let's use them to mix our cocktails in and let's just get hammered. That would be so funny. And God does something that he never did before or after that in the whole Bible. And to find out what, you'll have to come back next weekend. But for now, Nebuchadnezzar sees all this with perfect clarity and he says, look at the last thing we ever hear from this king.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the king of heaven because everything he does is right. All his ways are just. And then he says with the tone of someone who knew and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. He knew something about that. So if the most important realization in life is that I am not God, then the most important question in life, really, is how do I get right with God? How do I get kind of reoriented with God?

And I love this final verse from the New Testament. Nebuchadnezzar was responding to this truth, even though he didn't know it fully yet. So you know what? Let's read this all together. This is Ephesians 2:8–9. It is a classic. Here we go. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

Not from yourselves, not by works, no one can boast, no room for boasting. It's all by grace. We believe God came to earth in Jesus and saved us because we were powerless to save ourselves. Jesus said in John 3 that everybody who looks to him will be saved. That's what King Nebuchadnezzar was doing when he said, and so I raised my eyes toward heaven. And so I'd love to give you a chance to do that in prayer right now. Would you bow your heads with me?

But here's something different. You don't have to close your eyes. There is a not God prayer in your notes, and I'm also going to put it on the live stream for those joining us there. And I want you to peek at that prayer because I feel like at some level we're all like old Nebuchadnezzar strutting around making our plans, and maybe you just realized you need to lift your eyes to heaven.

And so maybe as a recommitment, maybe for the first time, you can pray this prayer. I'm going to pray it out loud, and if you mean it, you can pray it silently in your heart. The not God prayer: Thank you, God, that I am not God and that you are. I want to confess to you that I know I'm not God. I'm finite, I'm imperfect, I'm a sinner, and so I lift my eyes to the heavens. I turn my eyes to you, Lord Jesus. I receive your gift of grace. I want to make Jesus my Lord and follow you for the rest of this life and then forever in the world to come. For yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory forever and ever. Amen.