Are you ready to learn tonight of how we are to live in Babylon? Gonna ask Ben to come and share with us tonight. Let's welcome him. If this is your first time with us for this series, Thriving in Babylon, welcome.
Let me tell you the goal of the series. The goal of the series is to learn to be faithful to God and fruitful for God in an increasingly post-Christian and Godless culture. Last week, Ryan brought up this idea that words change over time. They have a different meaning.
And the word that we were talking about last week is hope. Ryan really dove into hope. We talked about hope records and hope builders in our life, making sure that we're bringing things in that are healthy, reading scripture, and not taking in the garbage of this world. Biblical hope is a little different than what our cultural hope says it is.
Cultural hope says that it's a wishful thinking. It's like, I hope you can make it to the movies on Friday or whatever else. We hope a lot of things. But Biblical hope is the rock solid truth that God is in control, completely 100% holy in control.
And that's something that builds our confidence, it builds our faith up, and allows us to enter into tough situations and have this hope for eternity. Tonight, we're going to be talking about a different word that has so many different meanings. Cultural context is very different from Biblical context. But the word is humility.
I want you to take a moment real quick here, turn to your neighbor, and tell them about a time when someone demonstrated humility. So back in college, I had a mentor of mine. His name is Chris Wolfley. He's probably the most humble person I know.
And the reason why wasn't because of any one act necessarily. But when he would come alongside a lot of the guys that he was mentoring, the resident advisors, or discipleship leaders, whoever he was around, he was extremely authentic. Just talked about real life and the issues that he was even facing, as well as brought people along. He was a really strong mentor.
But he was just very open, which is something that was really impactful to me at the time. Tonight, we're going to be going through a lot more of Daniel, going into the story of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar. Humility in Daniel's life was very interesting. In order to see humility displayed in his life, we really have to understand the full context of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar's relationship.
And it started in chapter two. I'm just going to go through this real briefly, then we're going to do a deep dive into chapter two real quick here. So in chapter two of Daniel, we have King Nebuchadnezzar who has this dream, and Daniel interprets it. The interpretation of the dream basically says, Nebuchadnezzar, you're amazing.
You're the golden head of everything. You're at the epitome of everything you are. Chapter three, we have this situation with Shadrach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar has just built a huge golden statue of himself and has everybody to worship him.
Daniel gave him a big head. He built a big eagle of himself. Chapter three, he has another dream, Daniel interprets it. And it's the downfall of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Our key scripture for tonight is in 1 Peter 5, 5. It says, likewise, you who are younger be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves, all of you, not just the younger, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We're going to head over to Daniel 2 now. We're going to start in verse 11.
The king has had this dream, and he distrusts his wise men and magicians at this point here. And he asks them, he puts them to the test, and asks them to literally tell him the dream he had, as well as the interpretation. So he doesn't tell them the dream. He asks them to do that for him.
So it's like coming into something with no knowledge, absolutely no knowledge. You can't even fake it. So the king has put them up to this impossible test. And in verse 11, we're going to start here.
The thing, and this is the magicians, the childy, and they're saying, the thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. Because of this, the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the Cree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel responded with prudence and discretion to Ariak.
I don't actually know how to pronounce that, but I'm going to go with Ariak. Ariak, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Ariak the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? That's such a great question.
Then Ariak made the matter known to Daniel, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. We're going to skip down to verse 24. In between there, Daniel gets his closest friends and asks him to pray, and seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery. Daniel receives the answer in a dream during the night.
Verse 24, therefore Daniel went into Ariak, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation. Then Ariak brought in Daniel before the king, and hastened, said thus, I have found him on the exiles from Judah, a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.
Now at this point, Daniel is relatively nobody. He's just part of this magician's group. He has no influence or authority at all. And the king declared to Daniel, whose name was Beltejar, are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?
Daniel answered to the king and said, no wise men and chanters, magicians or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked. But there's a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar that will be in the later days your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in your bed. Daniel recounted the king's dream and gives him the full interpretation. We'll come back to that in a little bit.
Skip down with me to verse 46 here. This is the impact that Daniel had on king Nebuchadnezzar. Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, truly your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries.
For you have been able to reveal this mystery. Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and she prefected over all of the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request to the king and appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the providence of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court.
That'll be important later. Let's take a moment and pray for a quick. Father God, we just praise you and we thank you for tonight. I pray that you allow us to understand your word more fully, allow us to just be able to apply this concept of humility to our lives.
We thank you for everything that you're doing and we give you praise and you're right. Amen. I love this story of Daniel because he displays such a huge amount of courage. He asks for a meeting with the king in the face of death.
He actually approaches the person who's been told to take his life. How many of you guys will be running the other way? That's what I would be doing. Daniel knows and trusts that God has a plan.
Daniel knows that King Nebuchadnezzar is part of God's plan and this scripture really sets up the relationship between King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. Daniel becomes a trusted advisor. He becomes someone that has the king's ear. Now in a couple of moments we're gonna dim the lights and watch Larry what he has to say about humility.
And I hope that after tonight we'll have a deeper and more impactful understanding of humility. After the video we'll begin by defining what humility is from a scriptural standpoint, then we'll talk about what scripture says we can demonstrate humility and then finally we'll talk about internalizing or feeling about humility. Because we wanna move from head knowledge of what humility is to heart knowledge and put it into action. So let's take a couple moments and we'll watch this video.
I really liked that video just because it contrasts our real cultural definition of humility. It's so different when you read scripture and just look at what real humility is. So we're gonna start tonight after this, defining humility will examine kind of how our current culture uses the word and then we're gonna talk about how scripture defines it. So our current definition, when I was doing the study for this, I did what any millennial will do, they hopped on Google, they typed in Define Humility and found the first thing.
So the first thing that it says is a modest or low view of one's own importance. Some of the synonyms were modesty, meekness, lack of pride, lack of vanity, diffidence or unassertiveness. Our current definition, our cultural definition describes a coward. It describes somebody that's gonna hold back.
It describes somebody that is contrasted to Daniel. Our worldly definition of humility is more closely associated with humiliation and insecurity than with the power and influence described in the book of Daniel. Daniel, as we read in chapter two, he's courageous, he's confident, Daniel's bold and he's ambitious. Our cultural definition of humility has none of those things.
It says we should hold back, not tell anybody about the skills that God has given us, the talents that God has granted us. It tells us we shouldn't be a part of this world, we should keep it all to ourselves. Our definition of humility describes someone without courage. And we've been talking a lot about courage and that hope gives us courage.
Larry, when he wrote a book on all of this as well, to supplement this. And in the book, Larry has this quote, it says, but together, courage and humility can shake the very foundations of hell, advancing the kingdom of God into the most unlikely of places, even in Babylon. Courage and humility can shake your Babylon too. Let's take a look at what the Bible says about humility and we'll start in Romans chapter 12 verse three.
Says, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. So there's a difference between our cultural definition of humility, it says, hold back everything. Even if you're good at something, don't tell anybody. But, biblically, it says, think with sober judgment and according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Sober judgment, meaning that it should be an accurate assessment of yourself. In Galatians 6, 3, and 4, it says, for anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself, but let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Biblically, humility is not low self-esteem. Daniel didn't have low self-esteem when he approached the king.
It's also not downplaying our accomplishments. If we think of King David, or David when he was going up against the giant. He didn't downplay his accomplishments when he fought the giant. He said, I already killed the bear, I already killed the lion, and I'm going to kill you now because God is with me.
He didn't downplay any of his past experiences, didn't downplay any of his accomplishments. He actually used them to transport him into the success that God has for him. It's also not a lack of ambition. If you turn with me to Matthew 20, there's a story in here of the Sons of Zebedee, and when they asked their mom to go approach Jesus, they're the mama boys, it's great.
And the mom starts and says, then the mother of the Sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, nearly before him, she asked him something. And he said to her, what do you want? She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom. And Jesus answered, you do not know what you're asking.
Are you able to drink the cup that I am able to drink? They said to him, we are able. He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those who it has been prepared for by my father. And when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.
What's interesting here is that you have two disciples and their mom who are very ambitious. The person that becomes indignant is not Jesus. He doesn't shut him down. He just gently corrects them saying, this is what it's gonna cost.
You're asking for something that is huge. It's massive. And he's referring, when he says, are you able to drink the cup that I am able to drink? He's referring to the suffering that he's about to go through.
And he's saying, are you able to go through the same things that I'm going through? That's how he responds to their ambition. It's not out of possibility, but he also corrected him and said, this isn't for me to grant even. You're asking the wrong person.
Now we know a little bit about what Bible says humility is not. Okay, let's take a look about what the Bible says humility is. We're gonna start in verse 25 of Matthew 20. This is right after he heard that all of the others were indignant at the two brothers.
Jesus called them and said to them, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercised authority over them. It shall not be among you, but whoever will be great among you must be your servant. And whoever will be first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Biblical humility is serving others.
It's thinking less of yourself and seeing that other person, whether they are your friend or your quote unquote enemy and serving them. You know, Jesus came to this world and there were so many enemies that he had, but he came for everybody. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, as a ransom for many. See, now we're starting to move from a definition of humility to what the Bible says, how we can demonstrate humility.
Servanthood does not mean that we become a doormat. We're not called to just let people walk all over us. That's not what servanthood is. Let's look again at the relationship between King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel.
Daniel 2, 48 to 49, then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. And basically declared that God is God of God, Lord of Kings, and gave Daniel all these high honors and whatever else. But if you look at that last line, but Daniel remained at the King's court. There's something different about that.
And I love that that is added in because you see the contrast Daniel made a request of the King. He appointed Shadrach, he was checking to go over the affairs of the Providence of Babylon. But Daniel remained at a King's court. He liked him.
He wanted to be a part of the King's court. He wanted to be there. He gained the ear of the King and he wanted to serve him. He wanted to be in relationship with him.
He was able to influence his quote unquote enemy. Biblical humility is demonstrated through our relationships. And today I fear that we are far more prone to isolate than infiltrate. First Corinthians 5, 9 through 13 says this, I wrote to you in my letter, not to associate with sexual immoral people, not at all meaning the sexual immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since you would need to go out of this world.
But I'm writing, but now I'm writing to you, not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reveler, drunkard or swindler. Not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging others? Judging outsiders.
It is not those inside the church, is it not those who inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those on the outside, purge the evil person from Mungio. So we see first Corinthians, the Corinthian people, they're this root that thought that they were constantly under torture basically. They're saying this is too much to bear, right?
We talked about that when I was last year. Like we have to be a part of this world, we have to be a part of all this sin and we have to be a part of these drunken parties and whatever else that's going on. And Paul's like, you're contrasting so many different things. He's trying to correct them here.
The goal of their life is to win people over to Christ. That's the goal of our life. We're supposed to win people over to. We're recruiting people to follow Christ, teaching them to know the word, teaching them to know scripture.
And our goal is not to judge everybody around us. That's not why we're here. We're not here for fighting. We're not here to attack everybody around us.
As I was watching the video, I was thinking, if we had applied this concept of humility to Facebook, how would our conversations change? Anybody ever talk about politics? I think that things would change pretty quick, especially in Illinois here. I haven't been here long, but I know that's one of the key topics that we talk about a lot.
But if we saw people not as our enemies, saw people as people, as God's children, they might change our conversations quite a bit. I think we have a fallible understanding of our interactions with non-Christians sometimes. And I want us to ask the question. It's a rhetorical question.
Are we endorsing sin when we have a normal, friendly relationship with those who believe differently? I don't think so. I think we're supposed to have normal, friendly relationships. That's how we show Christ to the world.
That's how we show Christ on Facebook. We have these good conversations, but we're not there to attack. We're not there to hate people. I look at the story of Jonah, who's called an Innova, and he hates them.
He can't stand them. There's a whole lot of history behind why Jonah hates the Innovites. They were ridiculed to his. They were awful to them.
And Jonah just wanted nothing to do with them. But when Jonah gets this call from God, it's like, hey, you need to go to an Innova. I don't want to do that. That sounds terrible.
They're the worst people. They're my enemy. And Jonah goes, we're running the other way. I think sometimes we do that.
We're more prone to isolate ourselves than to infiltrate our culture. Larry said this, when our passion for God overrides our compassion for lost people, something has gone terribly wrong. When we come to the point where we'd rather see judgment than salvation, we're no longer aligned with the heart of God, we become more like Jonah than Daniel. Biblical humility treats everyone with respect.
And I agree with Daniel. Yes, everyone. We can try and go around it as much as possible. We can try and say, but not this person, but not this person, because of their whole past and life and everything.
But God's called us to everyone. Philippians 2, 3 through 11, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God to be a thing to be a grassed, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let each of you not look to his own interests, but to the interests of others.
That's the definition of respect. It is looking out for your enemy. And that sounds so counter to everything that we are. Everything in me does not want to see them benefit.
I want to lash out. I want to defend. I want to say you're completely wrong, but we're called to be part of their world, too. We're called to be here.
God's place is here for a reason. Remember, God is in control of who's in control. This is where we're in America, and we're not in control. We're not.
I don't know if we've looked around much. One thing I will say here, giving others respect does not mean compromising the standard that God has set before us. We're called to respect, not to sin. Daniel obviously followed the dietary restrictions and just said, I'm going to continue this way.
He did it very tactfully and did it wisely and got in and up blessing him. He gained favor. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedego. They were not going to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's idol.
They were not. We're called to respect, not to sin. There's a big distinction, and we have to hold that very strongly in our culture. Otherwise, we become weak.
We become hypocritical. Turned with me to Luke 6, verse 27 through 36. Says this. Let's say to you who hear, love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek.
Offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak. Do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you.
And from one who takes away your goods. Do not demand them back. And as you wish that from others, and as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?
For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Or even sinners do the same. And if you lend from those whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. But love your enemies. And do good. And lend expecting nothing in return.
And your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the most high for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful even as your father is merciful. That passage really describes servanthood.
That describes what we are called to do as to show respect. Demonstrating humility by loving our enemies. By doing good to those who hate us. And blessing those who curse us.
And praying for those who abuse us. I work out at Hope for Rift Center. If you didn't know that, we have a very interesting group of people. It's wonderful.
But any time you're in retail, there can be some very interesting people that come in. You know? A lot of you that are working out there all the time. And you guys know, my second day that I was here, I got screamed at.
I got yelled at. And I'm just walking in. I went out the lady and she came up and just started ringing me out. I was just, oh no.
What do I do? I didn't even know anything about the situation. But we're called to love. We're called to love people.
And sometimes they're in tough situations too. We need to be genuinely concerned for their best interests. Now I'm going to remind you, in Daniel, we see chapter two as Daniel interpreting the first dream of Nebuchadnezzar. He says that you're this high-end mighty person, you're the epitome of where you're supposed to be, you're the golden head.
And so it kind of puffs that Nebuchadnezzar up. He takes it to heart. And then in chapter three, we see him building this golden idol of himself, Shadrach, Shech, and Abednego say, I'm not doing that. We have that whole story there.
And then in chapter four, King Nebuchadnezzar has another dream. And it's almost identical to the situation in chapter two. They're supposed to be parodies, right? And Daniel four, verse 18 through 19, we're going to go there in just a second.
This dream basically is the judgment of King Nebuchadnezzar. It's his complete downfall. He's got all this pride in God's like, I'm not having any of it because you think that you are in charge of everything. You've done all of this.
I did it. You know? But I want us to take a moment and really examine Daniel's reaction to the interpretation that God gives him. In verse 18 it says, the stream I can Nebuchadnezzar saw and you, O, Belthagar, tell me the interpretation because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation.
But you are able for a spirit of the holy gods is in you. Then Daniel's name was Belthagar was dismayed for a while. His thoughts alarmed him. The King answered and said, Belthagar, let not the dream or the interpretations alarm you.
Belthagar answered and said, my Lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and it's interpretation for your enemies. That is not the reaction I would have. If I was him, I would be running the other way. I would be overjoyed.
I'd be giddy. I'd be like, oh, yes. The Israelites are finally free. You know?
You're going down. But Daniel doesn't do that. In fact, before he even speaks, he was dismayed. He couldn't even get his thoughts together.
His thoughts alarmed him. That's how internalized it was for him. That's how internalized humility was for him. He goes even farther in this thing.
May the dream be for those who hate you and it's interpretations for your enemies. So now we're taking some time to define what the Bible says about humility and how we demonstrate humility. Now we need to look at how we internalize it. What would your reaction be to the meaning of the King's dream?
If you got that interpretation, how would you respond? Would you be condemning him? Would you be giddy? I probably would.
That's an area that I need to grow in. We're all on this path or on this journey. Jeremiah 29 verse 4 through 7, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles who may have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat produce, either produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, wives who are your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear the sons and daughters, multiply their and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf.
For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. You need to prosper and live with those around us. One key note here is that our enemy's prosperity does not mean our loss. That last line there, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.
I think that's so true of today as well. It's true in our workplaces. It's true in our families. It's true in all of our relationships.
Part of our role is moving from a warfare mentality into a persuasion mentality. Like Larry said in Second Timothy, that we shouldn't be quarrelsome. We shouldn't be jumping on Facebook and attacking everybody. We shouldn't be doing all this.
A warfare mentality fights with those around them. It defends its position at all costs and it attacks when the enemy, when the opportunity presents itself. The contrast to that, the persuasion mentality inspires those around them, points out different opinions with gentleness. And that's the key there.
I remember Jesus was very gentle with those who opposed him. He was very gentle. The persuasion mentality uses opportunities to build relationships. I liked what the video said.
It talked about who our real enemy is. In Ephesians 612, I'll run through this as quick as possible here. Ephesians 612, where we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Our enemies are not the people who disagree with us on a regular basis.
They are not the people who believe differently. It is solely the darkness in this world. It is Satan himself. It is the demonic powers in this world.
And that's who we truly are fighting against. We may disagree with politics. We may disagree with our coworkers over certain things. We may disagree with our bosses and our families.
But we need to remember that we're called to be part of this world. We're called to be a light. If we attack everything that comes at us, we just become a bug zapper, spreading death and decay all around us. And that's not what the gospel calls us to do.
That's not what Christ came to this world for. Christ displayed ultimate humility. He laid down his life for each and every one of us in this room and the people we know, this whole world. He brought us back to life.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins when Christ came to save us. Humility and courage have the ability to shake the very foundations of hell in our world. Our enemy is not the unchurched. But our ability to apply humility to our lives may be the first step in their salvation journey.
So as we wrap up today, I want to go through three different questions that I want you to ask yourself throughout this week. The first question, and we're going to take a moment and write something down here. The first question is where in your life do you need to practice humility? So take 30 seconds and write down an area or a friendship or a location.
Where do we need to practice humility? The second question is are there people in your life that you're fighting with on a regular basis? And are they really your enemy? How are we treating them and applying humility towards them?
Is there a way that we can approach those situations differently? How will humility, this is the third question, how will humility help to alleviate tension in your home or work life this week? Easter is coming upon us and I think that humility gives us a great opportunity to begin talking with people who are quote unquote enemies. They give us the ability to have influence in our workplaces and our homes and relationships.
And hopefully we can bring them to church and have them meet Jesus because Jesus does such great things for us. It's changed our entire life. So Father God, I just thank you for tonight. I thank you for being so evident in our lives and being gracious and gentle with us when we were opposed to you.
Father God, I pray that we enter throughout this week with humility and to each and every relationship, each and every situation that we're a part of. I pray that we continue to showcase your love to this world. I pray that you allow this to move from head knowledge and to heart knowledge and that we would begin to act with courage and power and have more influence in the city of Springfield. God.
I just pray and thank you for tonight and in your name, amen. Thank you guys.