Brilliant in Babylon 4
"TKO'd in the 4th"
“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and defied the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God...there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Daniel 3:28–29
I. ROOT OF PRIDE
1. A failure to see that every good thing comes from God.
vs.30 “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a
royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?”
vs. 32, “You think you did all this, Nebuchadnezzar. God’s ultimately in charge of it all. Every talent you have, every breath you take, every ounce of strength you exert is a gift from him. He sets up and tears down whomever he wants.”
2. The foolish assumption that ‘the good life’ will last forever.
II. RESULT OF PRIDE
1. Competitiveness
C. S. Lewis = that the quickest indicator lights that indicate you have pride is that some other person’s pride bothers you.
Mere Christianity. “If you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me… or patronize me, or show off?’
C.S. Lewis said that pride is a funny disease, because those who suffer most from it never know it, but they make everyone around them sick.
John Calvin = Nebo’s insanity gives us a picture of the blindness of human pride: When someone is insane, they don’t know they are insane, but everybody else does!
2. Ingratitude:
“...did not glorify God as God, nor were we thankful.” Romans 1:21
3. Entitlement:
4. Overconfidence:
5. Self-will:
6. Stinginess and Exploitation
III. REMEDY FOR PRIDE
John Calvin said = “Neb’s insanity alone didn’t wake him up. God’s Spirit had to give him eyes to see.”
34 But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven
and my sanity returned to me.
Mark Twain: “The world laments you for an hour, and it forgets you forever.”
READ VS. 34 AND ON
CS Lewis Pride is a strange disease. Everybody around you knows you have it before you do. You feel great, but it makes everyone around you sick.
