Stand Up

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Welcome to Thrive this morning. We are in our second week of a series in the book of Daniel called Stand, and we're learning how to stand. How to stand firm, how to stand up, how to stand out, how to stand even in the fire. And I'm really excited about this message. I didn't plan on it being, well, I just thought it would be a good series to start the year, but boy, a lot of people have been making stands lately, have they not? And some of them are just different versions of selfishness and egotism. We're not trying to do that here at all. Daniel did not make that kind of stand in his book. Today, we're looking how you can stand up, and we have a case study today. In Daniel chapter 4, we have a case study of what pride looks like in this man, King Nebuchadnezzar, and how literally pride comes before the fall. But we also have a case study on how to handle a proud person, because Daniel comes to and stands up to King Nebuchadnezzar, and he stands up, though, not in his own pride, because boy, you can fall into pride when you face someone else who is proud. I don't know if you've ever noticed that, but it's like, wait a minute, and then all of a sudden it's a game of one upping the other, correcting the other, proving the other wrong. We've had a lot of that going on, too. But Daniel doesn't do that. What he does is he stands up both with care, with caution, and with conviction. But let's read. We're going to do a summary of Daniel chapter 4. It's a long chapter. It's something that's worth your reading, probably. So we start, and it is a first-person account. It is kind of a testimony from Nebuchadnezzar himself, much of this chapter. So Nebuchadnezzar says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed, the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me, so I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these. I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were beautiful, and its fruits abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus, Chop down the tree, lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies. This is the interpretation, O king. It is you. It is a decree from the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed to you from the time that you know that heaven rules. Therefore, king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity. As this came upon king Nebuchadnezzar, at the end of twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, Is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence, and for the glory of my majesty? Well, the words were still in the king's mouth. There fell a voice from heaven, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. So those are a few of the verses in this chapter. It was a pretty long reading, but you need to kind of have at least that much to understand what the story is all about. And from today and from...