In the world today, the air is filled with exclamations of greatness wherever we go. The weather is great. The pizza I just had is great. My team is doing a great job. We wish we could say the economy was great. Cars, toys, clothes, all kinds of things are great. It goes on and on. So many exclamations of greatness in our world today. This is how King Louis XIV of France felt. He preferred to be remembered not as Louis XIV, but as Louis the Great. And just before he died in 1717, he arranged that his coffin be brought into the Great Cathedral of Notre Dame. And he wanted all the candles to be extinguished except the one that was on his coffin, because that would point to him as being the Great One. And to mark this occasion, he asked that the court preacher, Massilion, give the funeral oration. Now, Massilion, as he mounted the stairs of this high pulpit, it seemed as if there's something wrong here. It's not right. So he descended the stairs and blew out the remaining candle onto that coffin. He went back up to the pulpit and announced twice in French, only God is great. Only God is great. See, Louis XIV was dead. And as one man said, yes, he may be remembered today, but only through Louis XIV furniture. He thought he was great, but most people don't even remember him. In Daniel chapter four, the passage you're going to be looking at this morning, that word great is used five times in Aramaic, meaning to grow strong, to have strength. And King Nebuchadnezzar looked at himself and his kingdom as great. But God wanted to teach him and us, of course, and all those who would read it, what true greatness really is. And the entire Old Testament is filled with examples of God's greatness from creation all the way through even to the covenant God made with David, which was, of course, an eternal covenant. And confusion about this greatness results in profound chaos. The last words the Islamic jihadists uttered as they crashed the hijacked American United Airlines planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, the last words was, Allah Akbar! God is great! Problem is, Allah is not God, because Allah doesn't exist. If only they had known the true God, the Triune God, everything would have been different. all else would have gained its proper perspective. Yes, only God is great and no one or nothing will compare to His greatness, to His person, His work, His power. And so the story we look at today in Daniel chapter 4 is of Nebuchadnezzar. It's the pathway of a man from the pride of self and seeking his own kingdom and his own greatness to the praise of God and seeking first the kingdom of God. To the extent that we see the greatness of God, to that extent we will seek first His kingdom. If there's other things in your heart that is greater, you will pursue those things more than you will the kingdom of God. So again, I say to the extent that we see the greatness of God, to that extent we will pursue and seek first His kingdom. And that's the pathway that we've been created for. But sadly, in our world, it is so easily missed. Ever since Adam's first sin, we've all been born with this disposition. Remember what the essence of that first sin was. The essence of that first sin was the abandonment of childlike dependence on God in favor of godlike dependence on self. We are in control. We do what we want to do. Since the fall, all people everywhere have been born with this sinful nature of pride and the building up of our own little kingdoms here in this life, as if we know what is best. Jesus came into the world to change all of that. Jesus came into the world to convert people from godlike dependence on self, to childlike dependence upon God Himself. He died to pay the penalty for our sin, to show us the pathway to true life. He showed us the way to treasure God as our greatness. In other words, He died so that we would seek first His kingdom, not our kingdom. This means that all our boasting is in Him, not in what we have, not in what we can do, not in what we have accomplished. And in Daniel chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar had to learn this lesson the hard way. He's gonna be put out to pasture, literally, and live like an animal for seven years. And no wonder the chapter ends with his advice to all who follow him, to avoid seeking your own greatness in your own kingdom. He learned the hard way. God is able to bring to their knees anyone who seeks his own kingdom and is proud of it. This is what he did to Nebuchadnezzar, who really was one of the greatest kings in the history of mankind. His accomplishments are great from any human understanding. He conquered all the ancient Near East. And through it all, he thought he was the greatest. In fact, few monarchs in history have reached the heights of power and glory that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attained. And that's why he boasted the way he did in this story. The Greek historian Herodotus gives detailed explanation of the amazing achievements of Nebuchadnezzar. He stated, Babylon was a marvel in every way. The homes, the security, the walls would have made this a formidable city even in today's standards. The sheer amount of gold used made it breathtaking. The hanging gardens were considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was the greatest city of the world in its day. This city was a marvel of architectural planning and construction. The accomplishments represented there were indeed staggering and spectacular for their times. So he spent his entire life seeking to build this kingdom. And as a result, he fails to recognize and see the greatness of God. And sadly, there are many people today who call themselves Christians who follow along the same lines. too often in talking with Christians, I see we're not moved by God's greatness. Because we're more moved with other things in our lives, new cars, better jobs, our own kingdoms, what we can gain, how we can get ahead. We love to talk about that and we can get excited about those things. But we often talk about God's greatness in passing. But most Christians do not realize And as I was studying this and I was looking at it, it hit me. That many of us fit more with Nebuchadnezzar in this story than we realize. We just don't want to admit it. Too many of us are consumed with building our own kingdom. We want to see our greatness. We want people to see us. And the focus of this chapter is repeated in identical terms, done three times, in verses 17, 25, and 32. And the focus is simply this, that the people will know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He wishes. See, that is true greatness, right? The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, not us, not man, God rules. So Nebuchadnezzar begins his story by stating this truth, the truth that he learned, and then he moves on to tell the story of how he came to this great conclusion. And it gives us the emphasis of this chapter there in verse 3. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation. So He sets the stage. He wants to tell us what it is that He learned and then He tells us how He learned it. So let's look at this passage. And the first thing we see is that our God is great in all His works in verses 1 through 3. Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth. May your peace abound. It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation." So notice, he opens this story by proclaiming that God can be seen in all of his works. He's the Great One. And this event, this time period for Nebuchadnezzar took place at the pinnacle of his success. This is when everything was all together for him. This is the pinnacle. This is where he was, quote, the greatest. And we're going to see that a warning came to Nebuchadnezzar from God, which, of course, Nebuchadnezzar disregarded. Why? Because he was consumed with his own kingdom. He wanted to build his kingdom. He wanted to build his name. This is about me. I am the great one. And he missed out. And it was here when God had to show this man where greatness truly is found. And it was in light of this that Nebuchadnezzar wrote to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language who live in all the world. He wants everybody to know what he learned. He was so captivated. He was so moved by the greatness of God. He wanted everybody to know about it. He had some advice for all of them. And it's advice that is ignored to our peril if we don't listen. He personally experienced this great power of God. He had seen the miraculous working and spectacular deeds of the Most High God. It was worked out in his own life. He experienced it. He saw it. And so basically what Nebuchadnezzar is saying in these verses is he's saying, you want to talk about greatness? Let me tell you about how great God's signs and how mighty are His wonders. He wants everybody to hear about it. He wants everybody to know this. But what's the amazing thing here? The thing that really is staggering is that this is a chapter, the only chapter in all the Bible written by a pagan king. You ever think about that? It was written by a pagan king, who at one point did not trust in God. Of course, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And I want you to notice something here. There's bookends to this story. In verse 3 and in verse 34, he makes a statement. He says, God's kingdom is an eternal kingdom and his dominion endures from generation to generation. So he says that at the beginning and he says that at the end of the story. Those are the bookends. This is what the whole chapter is about. He opens it and he closes it with this statement. And remember, a pagan king said this. This was not a theological scholar that made this statement. The greatness of God so overwhelmed him, he can't contain himself. He wants to make sure that everybody knows where greatness is found. He wants people to see the utter foolishness of attempting to build their own kingdoms as if they are something significant. He learned it the hard way, but now he wants us to see it is foolishness to build your kingdom in this world. And see, at times, too often, I know I find it in my own life, we get caught up with our own lives, that we do miss the greatness of God. Thus, we are what we seek. In Matthew 6.33, as I mentioned before, Jesus commands us to seek first His kingdom. Please understand. Regardless what you accomplish in this world, whether it be wealth, prestige, stuff, a so-called better life, influence, power, and on and on. All of these things, regardless what you accomplish, all of it is nothing. It is weak. It never satisfies, because it is insignificant. It is small in comparison to the greatness of our God and His kingdom. We were created to know and to enjoy the greatness of God. We exist and the universe exists for us to know the greatness of God. Not to build our tiny little kingdoms to let people know, look how great I am, look at what I accomplished. We were created to know and enjoy the greatness of God. That's what we need to be driven by. This is what we need to be consumed with in life. that our God is great, beyond measure. And the promise, of course, from Jesus when He gave that command is that He will add everything else to your lives. So rather than focusing on everything else, let Jesus take care of everything else. We need to drive our lives to know the greatness of God and to be overwhelmed by this greatness so that He would move us and stir us. And our God's greatness, of course, can be seen through His works. We see this not only in our private lives, but even in our own recent history. Just think about it. What happened to Hitler and his so-called domination? We saw the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, something we thought could never happen. What happened? Hell. There was this dismembering of the great world power known as the Soviet Union. People were terrified of the Soviet Union. No longer Soviet Union. What about Saddam Hussein, who wanted to rule the world? And so many more, on and on and on it goes. See, these powers thought that they were great. They thought that they had it all. And today, people are worried about the World Health Organization, or China today, that they wanna rule, they wanna govern, they wanna make sure that they control our lives. At work, I hear people talk about this, and they're terrified. These powers who think they are something, They are nothing in comparison to the greatness of God. I am not worried about China and its power, because my God is greater than China. I'm not worried about the World Health Organization and all these other people who are trying to gain control, wanting to take our money and all of these things. Listen, they can have it all. My God is greater than all of that. And we need to focus and be driven by the fact that our God is great. See, what's impossible to us is not even a strain to our God. God displays His greatness throughout our world. The problem is that too often we miss it. And that was Nebuchadnezzar's problem. He didn't see it. And why? Because he was blinded by the building of his own kingdom. He was so consumed with his own life and his own kingdom that he missed the awesome power of God. And it's not like he didn't know it. Daniel was there, told him about it. He still ignored it because he's too caught up. And I would just say that there are many who claim to be Christians in our world today the same way. Why are so many not internally affected by the greatness of God? They may talk about it. They may hear it. But the reality is they would rather talk about other things, the game last night, the car they just bought, whatever it is, the job, the new technology. Boy, that really excites us. But when it comes to talking about the greatness of God, I don't even know He's great. And we move on. I believe that can be very sinful. So Nebuchadnezzar learned that our God is great in His works there in verses one through three. Secondly, Our God is great in His warnings, verses 4 through 18. This section gives us the details of a king who had everything except the living God. He was blind to God's greatness, but God in His grace still warns him. I love that. He could have just let him go, but God warns him. Nebuchadnezzar was blind to God's greatness, But God's grace works. He tells a story of how he was at rest in his palace. Everything was going well. It was smooth sailing. He had this enormous empire, everything wonderful, except for one thing, a dream, a dream. And that's not too bad for one who bore the burdens of an empire that covered everything from present day Iraq, to present day Syria, Turkey, Israel, and all the way down to the Nile River to Egypt. All of that he governed. It was his mighty kingdom. Many a monarch would have loved to have Nebuchadnezzar's problems. So he had this dream. And notice in verse five, it just terrified him. I saw a dream and it made me fearful and these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. So it scared him, it frightened him. He wanted answers but his advisors couldn't help him. In verses 10-12, Nebuchadnezzar described the dream in which was a tree that grew to a great size. It says, now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed. I was looking and behold there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great. The tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its foliage was beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves from it." So it was a healthy tree, leaves and abundant fruit. All the beasts of the field found shelter under it. All of this seemed fine. This description was an incredible description. It's amazing. So why was he so disturbed? In verse 13, an angel from God came from heaven and explained in alarming ways that this tree is going to be cut down. The leaves stripped, the branches lopped off, the fruit scattered. The fact that it was an angel indicated how serious this was. And it is significant that in verses 14 and 15, the angel changes his address from this tree to personal pronouns. He goes from it to him. Notice. And verse 14 and 15, he shouted out and spoke as follows, chop down the tree and cut off its branches. Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it. In the new grass of the field, and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. And let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Note the change. It goes from it to him. Because now he makes it very clear. Nebuchadnezzar, this is about you. This tree represents you. And so the point here is that the message is aimed at a man, Nebuchadnezzar. And he gets the point. That's why he's frightened. And it is in the context of this that we have the theme of the chapter repeated again in verse 17. We see that God is doing this, why? So that the living may know, that the living may know personally, intimately, that the living may know deeply and be moved by the fact that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men. Please understand it's been this way throughout history. It was that way before Nebuchadnezzar, during Nebuchadnezzar's time, and after Nebuchadnezzar, and it will be permanent. Our God reigns. He's the Almighty. Promotions in this world do not come from the East or West, but from God alone. All of them, even those of ungodly nations, it comes from God. He's got His purposes. But this also includes the tearing down of nations. It's all in God's hands. It doesn't come from other nations. It comes from God alone. So the point of Nebuchadnezzar here in telling this story is basically this. If we were to sum up what he wants to say, he's basically saying, listen up, all of you who are living. Greatness is not found in mortals, their nations, institutions, or achievements, whether they are intellectual, scientific, moral, or spiritual. No, greatness belongs exclusively and uniquely to our God, period. That's the point he wants to get across. And you have to learn it the hard way. And so Nebuchadnezzar makes clear that God is great in all of his works, and he is great in his warnings. And he knows this intimately, as we will see. Because we come to the next section, verses 19-33, and we see that our God is great in his judgment. Our God is great in his judgment. See, we esteem and we appreciate the greatness of God so long as it is connected to His mercy, to His kindness, to His love. Boy, we love that. We appreciate that. But what happens when exclusive loyalty is demanded? What happens when we have to give up everything to go after Him? Then it's a little bit difficult. There's a little uneasiness, a slight dissatisfaction. Why? because we want to be able to do what we want to do. And that's what's difficult about the greatness of God here in this third scene that we're going to look at. This dream perplexed Daniel and he was afraid because he knew it was about him. If the dream was aimed at the king's enemies, it would have been easier for Daniel. But because of his relationship with the king, it alarmed Daniel. Why? Because he knew it was to bring him down. And so in verse 22, Daniel explains that he identifies the tree as representing the king. He explains that Nebuchadnezzar had become great and strong like the tree, and it reached to distant lands. Everybody knew about King Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, we still know about him today, hundreds of years later. But just as the tree was cut down, so would he be cut down, and he will live like a wild animal for seven years. And why does this happen? Well, Daniel explains it in verse 25. That you be driven away from mankind in your dwelling place, be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle, and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time will pass over you until, and that's the key, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes. He states that theme again. God is great, not Nebuchadnezzar. And so Daniel exhorts him to repent. Turn from this kind of thinking. Turn from looking at yourself as great and turn to true greatness. And in verse 30, we see the heart that seeks after its own kingdom. Because we read, the king reflected and said, this is a year later, the king reflected and said, is this not Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? Think he's a little bit self-consumed? Note those words, I myself have built. By the might of my power. And why did he do it? He tells us that. For the glory of my majesty. By my power and for my glory. Do you see the problem here? It's significant. Yes, it's pride, but it's more than just pride. See, when we seek to build our own lives, when we seek to build our own kingdoms, when we become very consumed and self-consumed, we are just like Nebuchadnezzar. And that's the heart of those seeking after this world. One pastor stated about this, he said, when I see what I have built, I love to savor the fact that my intelligence and my initiative and my power were the causes of this greatness. It came from me and through me, I did it for me. And we may not actually use those words, but many times, that's what's going on in our hearts. We begin to focus on what we do. And so note the origin of this great achievement. By my power, I did it. Look at me, people. And who's the recipient of this great praise? For my glory. We all like that. We all want to be pat on the back. Wow, look how great you are. Look what you accomplished. See, this kind of living is what I call self-sufficiency rather than God-sufficiency. It's the enjoyment of self-exaltation rather than God-exaltation. It's like the church at Laodicea in Revelation, chapter 3, verses 14 to 22. They were satisfied with what they could accomplish. They were satisfied in what they had. It was all about them. And see, our world is full of this. That's what our world is about. But sadly, it's crept into our churches all across this land. When we strive for more of this world, when we live for the pleasures of this world more than we do for God, then we fall into this Nebuchadnezzar category. You don't need to have a lot to fall into this, because it's not determined by what you have, it's determined by what's in your heart. And if in your heart you desire that more than anything else, if you want to pursue that more, then you fall into that category. If the greatness of God does not affect us deep in our hearts, then please understand we may be falling into the very trap that Nebuchadnezzar had. And God doesn't take it lightly. God does not delight in people when people go after their own kingdom. Look at verse 31 and 32. While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it has been declared. Sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes. In other words, to seek after your own kingdom to pursue your own life, to build up your own life, make it about me, is to live like an animal. Because when you look at animals, they're the most important people in the world for them, or the most important means for themselves, right? It's all about them. Those of you who have pets, you know, you have dogs, right? The household is theirs. It's all about me, what they want. That's how animals live. And so God is going to do that to Nebuchadnezzar. You want to pursue your own kingdom? You want to be like an animal? You're going to live like an animal for seven years. And that's why God made Nebuchadnezzar live like this. Being self-consumed puts man in a class with the beasts of the field. And He's going to show that to Nebuchadnezzar. When we put ourselves in the place of God, we're no better than any beast. And that's the problem with the world. That's why we have so much chaos in this world. Because man is living for himself. He's neglecting God. And the more that we neglect God in this world, the more that we put ourselves up front, the more we build our kingdoms, the greater the chaos will be. And that's what we see happening. Animals live for themselves, and that's what we see in this world. But see, God is able to bring arrogant, boastful, self-willed persons down off their high horses. He knows how to humble people. It's what He did to Nebuchadnezzar. He did this to people like Hitler, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Saddam Hussein, and on and on the list goes. They've all been humbled and been removed. They thought they were great, but they don't even exist. Good preacher that Daniel was, he pressed home his appeal for a change of heart. Notice in verse 27, back in verse 27, he says, Therefore, O King, may my advice be pleasing to you. Break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity." In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, please repent. Please repent of your selfish, self-centered building of your own kingdom. Turn from this. See, repentance from being consumed with his own kingdom and focusing on God's kingdom is what Daniel was asking him to do in order to avoid that judgment. And that's what God desires. He wants us to long for Him. That is what we should have every day of our life, to long for Him, to long for His greatness, to long for His mercy, to long for His glory, His honor, everything to be about Him, everything we do to be consumed with Him. That's what God desires because that's why He created us. In Isaiah we read, God created us for His glory. And so when we pursue our kingdom, we are not living for His glory. That's the problem with Nebuchadnezzar. And so God desires repentance when we don't long for Him. God desires His children to seek Him. And so God is great in His works, as we have seen. He is great in His warnings. And we just saw that He is great in His judgment. And finally in verses 34 through 37, our God is great in all His ways. For seven excruciating years, Nebuchadnezzar finally lifted up his eyes to heaven. He had to learn where greatness rested. Notice what we read here. But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have you done? At that time, my reason returned to me, and my majesty and splendor were restored to me, for the glory of my kingdom and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out. So I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are true, and his ways just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride. So he went through seven years of misery before he finally, think about how stubborn he is, seven years living like an animal before he finally looked up and said, okay, I give up. Now, we may look at that and say, wow, but let's be real. And many of us that probably would fall in the same place, I probably really would. But he finally looked up and God restored his sanity. And immediately he began to praise the Most High. I want you to notice here, there's two changes that took place in Nebuchadnezzar. Two major changes. First, the way he thought about God changed. There in verse 32, the second part, it says, until you recognize until you know, you acknowledge, until you are moved and overwhelmed that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and He bestows it on whomever He wishes. Nebuchadnezzar, the only reason why you have what you have is because God bestowed it on you. So this is not how great my kingdom is, this is how great God's kingdom, He gave it to you. That's what he had to learn. The way he thought about God had to change. I would dare say that the way that many Christians in our world today think about God has to change. The truth that God rules the kingdom of men must grip our minds. The sovereignty of His will must become the deep, solid foundation of all of our thinking in everything we do. We hear it from this pulpit and that's a great thing. We claim to believe it and that's good. We need that. But my question is this, does it overwhelm you? Does it grip your heart throughout each day? Is it something that you meditate on daily or only once a week when we come to church? So the first thing we see about Nebuchadnezzar's change is that the way he thought about God changed. Second, we also see that his heart changed. And this is so important. The way he felt about God changed. In other words, he didn't just learn it in his head. He felt it in his heart. That's the point of verse 34. I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. See, at one time he said this about himself. Now he's saying it about God. See, the only person who does justice to the greatness and the sovereignty of God is the person who sings, who rejoices about it. The person has a song in their heart because he or she can't help themselves. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't help himself. I received this advice many, many years ago as a young pastor when I was just starting out. I received it from a godly man. He said, watch out for a person who wants to talk about the greatness of God, but has no song in his heart. In other words, they just want to talk about it, they want to debate it, but they're not moved by it. In fact, what they're really moved by is their knowledge. Let me show you my knowledge, rather than being moved by it. When we consider the greatness of God, it should affect us internally. It should overwhelm us. We should be moved by it. Many years ago, when my kids were young, I guess they were about eight, nine, ten years old. On a Sunday afternoon, we went to a little restaurant after church. I just, I was in the mood for chicken wings. So we went to this, amen, we went to this restaurant and it had, it had TV screens everywhere and there's different sports. And on several of the screens, there was a golf tournament on. I know nothing about golf. I really don't. One time a person said, hey, I shot a birdie. I thought he actually took a gun and shot a bird. I just don't know golf. And so we're sitting there eating. It was fairly quiet, because if you watch golf, it is quiet. And so we're just talking, then all of a sudden I hear this one man stands up and he throws his arms up. Oh, yes! A lot louder. Oh, yes! What a great shot! He said that I don't know how many times, four or five times. What a great shot! He jumped up, he's high-fiving people at his table, and he's going around to other tables, smacking the hands and stuff. And then he sits down, and I'm thinking, wow, this must have been a hole of one, or maybe the ball bounced off a couple of trees and went in or something. I don't know, but a great shot. So I look at the replay, and it was maybe, if I remember correctly, like a seven or eight foot putt. Now, I don't know if that's big or not. I don't know. But we saw the replay, and he did the same thing. Wow, what a great shot. My daughters looked at me like, I said, ignore it. Just ignore it. But that night, God worked on my heart when I was by myself. He said, Frank, my heart is working in me. And he said, this man gets a what, about a two-inch ball, I guess. He hits it seven feet into a hole, and he makes sure that everybody in the restaurant knows it's a great shot. He can't contain himself. It's so overwhelming. He wanted everybody to know whether you like golf or not. He wanted to make sure everybody knew it was a great shot. I don't know anything about golf. I still remember 20 years later. It was a great shot. He was overwhelmed by the greatness of that putt. How is it that a man could look at a two-inch ball roll into a cup and be so overwhelmed? He doesn't care what he looked like. He doesn't care what people think of him. He wants to make sure you all know that shot was great. How is it that he could do that? We have a God who said, be, and the entire universe came into existence, and we're not moved. It doesn't stir our hearts. We should be the loudest people on earth shouting, our God is great. Our God is great. Rather than, and I don't decry golf. Some of you love golf. That's great. And it probably was a great shot and that's fine. All I want to say is that He was moved by a shot. And we have a God who works every moment of every day in our lives. You are here today, right now. Your heartbeat right now is governed by the sovereignty of God. That's His greatness. Every breath you take right now comes from God. That should overwhelm us every moment of every day. We should be moved by His greatness. Please understand, The biblical opposite of pride is not pondering the greatness of God, but praising the greatness of God, delighting in it, resting in it. And the result of resting and delighting and praising God's greatness is found in Isaiah 26.3. It's not on the screen, but listen. It says, the steadfast of mind, God, you keep in perfect peace. Think about that. When we are steadfast in mind, thinking on Him, focusing on Him, seeing His greatness, what do we have? peace. In a world where there is no peace, we can have peace. And it's found in our great God. The more we see God's greatness, the more we will have peace. What I find interesting here is, look at verse 37, because here He uses three active participles, meaning it's ongoing. praise, exalt and honor or glorify. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar gave ongoing continuous anthems of praise of God. He can't help himself. And he knew why God had done this as well. It was because everything he does is right and all of his ways are just. And so Nebuchadnezzar found out what too few people find out. Only God is great. It took him seven years, but he learned it. In comparison to God, all peoples of this world are simply nothings. God did what he wanted to do in the past, he will continue to do as he pleases now, and it will continue on for all eternity. Nothing and no one will stop him and say, what are you doing? God answers to no one, because he alone is great. That's what Nebuchadnezzar learned, and that's what he wants everybody to know. Even thousands of years later with us, he wants us to know. Nebuchadnezzar lost it all to be reminded, only God is great. Only God is great. Think about it. To whom or to what shall we compare our God? There is nothing. There is nothing and there is no one. He has no limits. He has no match. He has no rival. There are no comparisons that can approach His infinite greatness. We live in a culture where we are bombarded with the call to build our own kingdoms, to have more of this world. The old adage still stands, the one who dies with the most toys wins. People are moved and excited by new electronics than they are with God. They love to build their comforts and desires. In fact, there are many who get into debt to build their own kingdoms and then they try to get it paid off and they want to learn money management so that they can buy more stuff to gain more of this world to build their own kingdoms. Please understand, in the news, we don't hear very much good news. We hear a lot about world rulers, wars, corrupt politicians, corrupt government, people attempting to use electronical systems to control people. I hear people talk of this, especially at work, with great fear. It's a scary world, what's going on. Yet I know that our God alone is great and He determines what will take place. It's not our government. It's not China. Okay? It's not the people of this world that determine what's going to happen. Our God and our God alone will determine what's going to happen. For He alone is great. And my prayer would be that we would be overwhelmed by His greatness. That when we talk about God's greatness, we'd be like that man in that restaurant. We shout, wow! Wow! He is great, infinitely great, indescribably great. I've told Christians recently that if you watch the news, please watch it in the context of God's greatness. If you can't do that, then please don't watch the news, because it'll just rip your heart out for fear. When I watch the news and they talk about what's going on and what's going to happen, I look and say, listen, my God is still on His throne. He's greater than all of this. He will bring it to pass as He deems fit. Not man. Hurricanes are going to be coming. I got news for you. My God is greater than those hurricanes. He will guide the hurricanes the way He wants for His purposes. And He will bring about good things because He is great. and He alone is great. So rather than focus on this world and gaining more of it, rather than focusing on the news and allowing it to cause us to fear, I wanna encourage you, I wanna call on you this morning to join me in crying out to God. Oh God, incline my heart to you. The psalmist prayed this prayer many times. Oh God, incline my heart to your word. Oh God, incline my heart to know you, to know your greatness. and let His greatness overwhelm us in our day-to-day walk. The reason why I pray this is that the day would be filled with great joy and delight and peace because we see the greatness of God. I am convinced with everything that is in me that the answer for believers today and everything that goes on in this world is the greatness of God. And so I would encourage you to see it, to know it, to meditate on it, to pray. Ask God to open your eyes to it. Moses asked God, Lord, show me your glory. Noah, God, show me your glory. Show me your greatness. Help me to live day by day, moment by moment, at work, at school, wherever I go, help me to see your greatness, rather than what this world has to say. And there you'll find peace, regardless what happens in this world. And one of the greatest things that our God has done that we could see His greatness is in the gospel. There may be some of you watching or some of you here that don't know Jesus Christ and don't understand what we're talking about. But please understand, there's no greater work that was done than when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again because we sinned and He paid the price. And Jesus Christ said He is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. And the only way to heaven, well, the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ. So if you're here and you've never trusted in Jesus Christ, I wanna encourage you, make today the day where you begin to trust in the greatness of God by trusting in His Son. If you have any questions or concerns about that, after this service is over, please come up front. We have some people here that would love to talk to you and tell you more about this gospel, that you can experience what we experience. the beauty and the awesomeness of our God. Let's pray. Our God, you indeed are great. And Lord, I know that we all can sit here and say we believe it, and I'm glad we do. But oh, how we desperately need to be moved by it. Lord, it's very easy to be distracted in this world, distracted by so many things, distracted by things that are happening So I would pray for myself and for everyone here. Incline our hearts of God today. Incline our hearts tomorrow as we go to work and start another week. Incline our hearts regardless of the storms that come across our path. Incline our hearts to you, to your greatness. Open our eyes to see more of you, more of your greatness, that we would be transformed. Like Nebuchadnezzar, we will turn and praise and worship you constantly. Indeed, our God, You are great, and to You be all the glory, in Jesus' name, Amen.