You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
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Amen.
Turn with me this morning to Daniel chapter 4.
Daniel 4.
There's been a clash of kingdoms going on so far in the book of Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon in one corner.
And Yahweh and the kingdom of Israel in the other corner.
Who's the true king with the lasting kingdom?
Who's going to come out on top?
After an initial flurry of activity from Nebuchadnezzar conquering God's people
and taking vessels from God's temple back to His own gods,
God has one round after another shown Himself convincingly to be the strongest king,
the God greater than all the gods of Babylon.
Last week, in fact, at the fiery furnace,
God showed up to rescue His people from the clutches of Nebuchadnezzar and his idol
and to prove once again that He is the only one worthy of our worship.
Today, in round 4, chapter 4, God throws the knockout punch.
This is the last time we'll hear from Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel.
His kingdom fades and God and His servants continue and stand.
But Yahweh doesn't just defeat Nebuchadnezzar in this chapter.
He does it in such a way that when it's over,
his opponent calls a press conference, so to speak, to praise the power of God.
Nebuchadnezzar's declaration to all peoples is recorded at both the beginning and the end of this chapter.
I want us to read it together before we then go back and walk through the story
that led him to make such a declaration as this.
For now, we'll start reading at verse 34 of Daniel chapter 4.
Let's give our attention to God's holy word.
At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to 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.
And He does according to His will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay His hand or say to Him,
What have you done?
At the same time, my reason returned to me,
and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me.
My counselors and my lords sought me,
and I was established in my kingdom,
and still more greatness was added to me.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven.
For all His works are right, and His ways are just,
and those who walk in pride, He is able to humble.
Pray with me.
Father, indeed, You are the one whose kingdom lasts forever,
from generation to generation.
You are the one who is able to humble the prideful.
And Father, we struggle with our own pride,
and we would ask this morning that through Your Word,
You would humble us.
That You would not only humble us,
but give us great dependence upon You.
Father, do that in my heart first.
That the one who speaks Your words this morning would not do so in pride,
but in complete dependence upon You.
Holy Spirit, work in my heart and in all of our hearts
that Your Word might do its mighty work,
and that we would be different forever
because we met with You this morning.
We do ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Once upon a time, in a faraway land,
a young prince lived in a shining castle.
Although he had everything his heart desired,
the prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind.
But then one winter's night,
an old beggar woman came to the castle
and offered him a single rose
in return for shelter from the bitter cold.
Repulsed by her haggard appearance,
the prince sneered at the gift
and turned the old woman away.
But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances,
for beauty is found within.
When he dismissed her again,
the old woman's ugliness melted away
to reveal a beautiful enchantress.
The prince tried to apologize,
but it was too late,
for she had seen that there was no love in his heart.
And as punishment,
she transformed him into a hideous beast
and placed a powerful spell on the castle
and all who lived there.
Ashamed of his monstrous form,
the beast concealed himself inside his castle
with a magic mirror
as his only window to the outside world.
The rose she had offered
was truly an enchanted rose,
which would bloom until his 21st year.
If he could learn to love another
and earn her love in return,
by the time the last petal fell,
then the spell would be broken.
If not, he would be doomed
to remain a beast for all time.
That's a fairy tale.
The prologue, of course,
to the classic fairy tale
we know as Beauty and the Beast.
But in real human history,
there was another such prince
in a shining castle,
in a faraway land,
with everything his heart desired,
but spoiled,
selfish,
and unkind.
And Daniel chapter 4
is the story of that prince
becoming a beast
until he learns something significant
as well as the other prince had to do.
Until Nebuchadnezzar learns
his own humble state
in the glory and might
of the true king.
Let's start the story there
with King Nebuchadnezzar,
the self-made man.
Nebuchadnezzar is so proud of himself,
isn't he?
We've seen this king over and over
through the first chapters of Daniel.
Already he's marked by Aaron,
arrogance, right?
Narcissism, we would say these days.
Obsessed with his own glory.
And you see it coming again
in verse 4 of this chapter.
I, Nebuchadnezzar,
was at ease in my house
and prospering in my palace.
And you think, by now,
oh no, that may not last real long.
And then Nebuchadnezzar gets a warning
through a dream that he and his kingdom
will be cut down
and are coming to an end.
We'll come back to that part in just a bit.
But he gets that warning
and still a year after that warning,
we read this in verse 29.
At the end of 12 months after the dream,
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?
And you think, bless his heart.
He just doesn't get it, does he?
We've been reading your story.
We know how this is going to go.
You didn't do all of this.
But maybe that's what you expect
from the king of Babylon,
the enemy of God and his people.
He's the villain.
He's the bad guy in the story, right?
Of course he's like this.
My eight-year-old daughter Caitlin
came downstairs one morning this week
and I was working on my sermon
and she looked over the computer
and saw Nebuchadnezzar typed in there
and she said, oh, Nebuchadnezzar,
I don't like him very much.
She said, he's always grouchy.
I thought, oh boy,
our Sunday school teacher's doing a good job.
They've pegged Nebuchadnezzar.
He's always like this, right?
That's just who he is.
But stop and think for a minute.
Think of all Nebuchadnezzar has seen.
Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
rise to the top of his advisors
to the cream of the crop.
A dream interpreted for him
about the fall of his kingdom.
Three men spared from the fiery furnace.
You think he'd begin to pick up
on something here, right?
Then think of all of the things
that he's said as he's witnessed
these events happening.
Daniel 2 at verse 47,
the king says to Daniel,
truly your God is God of gods
and Lord of kings
and a revealer of mysteries
for you've been able to reveal this mystery.
And then the next chapter,
in chapter three,
Nebuchadnezzar says after the fiery furnace,
blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego
who sent his angel
and delivered his servants
who trusted him
and set aside the king's command.
They yielded up their bodies
rather than serve and worship
any God except their own.
I'm gonna make a decree.
Any people, nation or language
that speaks anything against the God
of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
shall be torn limb from limb
in their houses and ruins
for there's no other God
who's able to rescue in this way.
Sounds like a guy who's met Yahweh, right?
Think of all the things he's done.
Promoting God's people in his government.
Protecting God's people
through his decrees like that one.
Trusting God's interpretation
of his dreams through Daniel.
This is the second time.
And you'd think he'd be getting
the message by now, wouldn't you?
Nebuchadnezzar is on board.
He understands who the true king is.
But as we've seen,
that's not the case, is it?
What we see here in this king
is that pride blinds us
from seeing our true selves
or our true king accurately.
Despite what Nebuchadnezzar
has supposedly learned,
he still surveyed his kingdom
and thought highly of himself.
He was walking on the roof
of the royal palace in Babylon,
verse 29 says.
A view from which you could see
not only the walls of the city,
thick enough for four chariots
side by side to ride
along the top of the wall.
He sees the expanse of his city
and how far and how magnificent it looks.
From the roof of the royal palace
in Babylon,
you can see the hanging gardens
that Nebuchadnezzar has built.
One of the glories
of the ancient world.
And his pride obscures
the reality of his condition
and the true king of heaven.
He misses that all of these things
come from God
who gives power to whom he will.
Perhaps it's his power
that leads him to feel self-sufficient,
that he's got that kind of influence
over so many people.
Or maybe it's his possessions,
which do seem pretty impressive,
you've got to admit,
when you think about Babylon
and all Nebuchadnezzar can call his own.
But whatever it is,
he looks out over his kingdom
and he thinks,
yes, I am pretty awesome.
I am really fabulous, you know.
As I stand up here and look out,
I really am something.
And we may chuckle at that,
but we do the same thing ourselves,
don't we?
We saw last week
how easily we,
like Nebuchadnezzar,
worship idols
to get what we really treasure.
How often does our relative wealth
tempt us to believe
we are self-sufficient,
self-made men and women?
Haven't we,
like Nebuchadnezzar,
praised the name of God
in here on Sunday?
Prayed to Him?
Confessed our need of Him
only to find our fickle hearts
wandering right back
to building our own kingdoms
on Monday morning?
Nebuchadnezzar's not the only one,
is he,
to praise God with his lips
only to see his life
not back it up time and again,
back and forth praise,
and then living for my own glory?
We confessed together earlier this morning
that we have a tendency to do that
and trust ourselves rather than God,
but we'll do it again this week,
won't we?
After all we've seen
and all we've learned,
we'll fall again
and fail to trust Him.
To be honest,
it is quite ridiculous
ridiculous that we do that.
You'd think we'd know better by now.
You'd think we'd have gotten it figured out
and stopped pursuing our own desires
and trusted that God knows best.
But you know,
sin is ridiculous.
That's what it's like.
We should look and say,
this makes no sense.
Why do I live this way?
The pride in our hearts
blinds us
to seeing
the seemingly clear reality
about ourselves
and about our true King.
It's why pride often comes
before destruction
and a haughty spirit
before the fall
because it blinds us
and so of course
when we're walking around blinded,
we're likely to stumble
on something.
We don't see reality
the way we should.
Have you ever in your heart
looked out
from your back porch
or your office window
and thought to yourself,
oh yeah,
I am something.
Or maybe you've walked in
to look at your kids
sleeping at night
before you go to bed
and you've looked over them
and thought to yourself,
is it not this a great life
or family?
Or kingdom
that I've built?
Haven't I done
just a wonderful job?
I haven't struggled
with that since last night.
Percy Shelley captured
the emptiness
of our feelings
of grandeur
in his classic sonnet,
Ozymandias.
If poetry is not your thing,
this is the poem,
but if you're not
going to figure it out
anytime soon
what he's saying,
I'm with you.
What he sees
is a broken statue.
This statue
with only the trunk,
the legs left,
and this broken face,
the head of the statue,
sitting there
in the middle
of the desert sand.
And he realizes
that there's a plaque
on the bottom
of a statue,
like all good statues,
to tell you
who it is, right?
Who is it
who had this statue
built of himself?
And it's down here
towards the end
of the poem.
On the pedestal,
the words read,
My name is Ozymandias,
King of kings.
Look on my works,
ye mighty,
and despair.
The king is so confident
in his own might,
and Shelley says,
Nothing beside remains.
Sand.
A broken head,
some crumbling rock,
and desert
all around.
As far as the eye can see,
that's all that's left
of apparently
a once mighty kingdom.
We outwardly prosperous,
successful people
of southeast Huntsville
need to realize
something this morning.
It's hard to see reality
when you've built
or accumulated
lots of things
that seem great
and wonderful,
but really don't last.
It makes it hard
to see the reality
about yourself
or the reality
about God.
Nebuchadnezzar's pride
blinded him
to the reality
that he was not
the king of kings,
that he wouldn't
last forever.
His days would pass,
and his kingdom
would end.
That's the reality
that Nebuchadnezzar
only realizes
as the humbled beast.
Now there's a dream
here in this passage
and then Daniel
interprets the dream
for Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel's interpretation
recounts almost
all of the dream
in the interpretation,
so I'm just going to read us
the interpretation part
and you'll get
a pretty good idea
of the dream itself.
Let's read at verse 20
of chapter 4.
Daniel talking to Nebuchadnezzar
says,
The tree you saw
which grew
and became strong
so that its top
reached to heaven
and it was visible
to the end
of the whole earth
whose leaves
were beautiful
and its fruit abundant
and in which was food
for all
under which the beasts
of the field
found shade
and in whose branches
the birds
of the heavens lived.
It is you,
O king,
who have grown
and become strong.
Your greatness
has grown
and reaches to heaven
and your dominion
to the ends of the earth.
I mean,
Nebuchadnezzar
was quite a guy,
right?
And Daniel says,
It's true.
This tree in your dream
is a picture of you
and your kingdom.
But there was more
to the dream.
And because the king
saw a watcher,
a holy one,
coming down from heaven
and saying,
Chop down the tree
and destroy it,
but leave the stump
of its roots in the earth
bound with a band
of iron and bronze
in the tender grass
of the field.
And let him be wet
with the dew of heaven
and let his portion
be with the beasts
of the field
till seven periods
of time pass over him.
Because that happened,
Daniel says,
this is the interpretation
of that, O king.
It is a decree
of 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 for you
from the time
that you know
that heaven rules.
The dream actually
comes true
in the worst way
right at the height
of the king's pride
right when he's making
that statement
of how awesome Babylon is
as he looks at it.
Verse 31,
those words are still
in the king's mouth
and a voice falls
from heaven.
O king Nebuchadnezzar,
to you it is spoken,
the kingdom has departed
from you
and you shall be driven
from among men
and your dwelling
shall be with the beasts
of the field
and Nebuchadnezzar
immediately becomes a beast
and fulfills the dream
that he has had.
we must see the darkness
of our hearts
of our sin
for what it really is.
The beastliness
that is true of us.
That we're not
the greatest of kings.
That we have no power
and no great deeds
to trust in before God.
That what we accomplish
doesn't impress God.
We have to see that reality
in our own hearts
and lives.
While pride blinds us
to that reality
so we don't see it clearly,
humility opens our eyes
to our own weakness
and God's strength.
We learn those things together,
don't we?
John Calvin says
in his Institutes
that that's how it works.
Knowledge of ourself
and knowledge of God
coming hand in hand.
They work together.
As we see our own emptiness
and need,
we see God's fullness
and provision
at the same time.
It's when we see
how incredibly worthy
of all worship
and glory God is
that we know clearly
that we are not
worthy of worship
and glory.
It's when we come
to the end of ourselves
that we begin to see God
for who He really is.
And that's what we can learn
from watching
Nebuchadnezzar's life.
As amazing as were
all the signs and wonders
from God
that he had already seen,
there was too much
of himself left
to see God
as the only true king.
God was impressive to him.
He said as much,
didn't He?
But Nebuchadnezzar
was pretty good too.
You know?
I mean,
as far as kings go,
He had a few things
going for Him.
He'd done some
pretty powerful stuff.
And so God persists
in showing him
His beastliness
in all its ugliness,
in all its limitations,
until Nebuchadnezzar learns
that the Most High rules
the kingdom of man
and gives it
to whom He will.
Three times that's repeated
in this passage.
Until you learn
that heaven rules,
that Yahweh is not
one God among many,
but is the Most High God.
Just as the prince
in the movie
has to learn
as a beast
to love,
and that true beauty
lies within,
Nebuchadnezzar has to learn
as a beast
to bow,
and that true power
lies above.
Nebuchadnezzar has to see
himself as nothing
to see God
as everything.
That's how he describes
all the inhabitants
of the earth
in verse 35.
That includes him, right?
One of the inhabitants
of the earth,
he says,
all of them
are accounted as nothing.
Nothing.
They don't register
on God's scale
in the scheme
of powers
and of glorious rulers
and great kingdoms.
Even the most powerful
are not on the chart.
Only God is king
and He will reign forever.
So if His kingdom
is everlasting,
mine never rules.
If all power
and authority
comes from Him,
mine is never
my own
to glory in.
Are you willing
to see your beastliness
this morning?
Do you see the horror
of your own
self-focused
desires
and decisions
and what a life
built around
my glory
looks like?
Do you acknowledge
the absurdity
of your own
claims to control
and glory
that it makes
no sense
to think of ourselves
as strong?
If you're willing
in humility
to be completely
weak,
you will find
God
to be for you
immeasurably
strong.
And that's really
the beauty
of the gospel
of grace
that we see
on display
in this passage,
isn't it?
Perhaps the pride
and the depravity
of King Nebuchadnezzar
is not surprising
to you.
Maybe you expected
that of him.
But the gracious
pursuit
of the King
of Heaven
certainly
is amazing.
We can't say
for certain here.
There are
some commentators
who take
Nebuchadnezzar's
statements
of praise
for God
in this story
to be yet again
more examples
of his false
worship
just like the
statements we read
from earlier
in the book.
But I think
the evidence
is pretty strong
toward Nebuchadnezzar
finally and sincerely
bowing the knee
to Yahweh.
I think that's
what happens here.
Regardless
of that reality,
what we can say
for certain
is that God
is amazingly
gracious
to the guy
who all the way
through the first
stories of this book
is his arch enemy
in these stories,
right?
Whose kingdom
is set up
against his.
The king
deserves,
of course,
to remain
a beast forever.
Yet when Nebuchadnezzar
acknowledges
God's greatness,
when his reason
returns
after some time,
perhaps seven years,
we don't know
for sure,
he's restored
to his senses
and to his throne.
Look at verse 34.
At the end
of the days,
at the end
of my days
as a beast,
I,
Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted my eyes
to heaven
and in the moment
of me looking
up to heaven,
sanity comes.
Reason
returns
to me
when I look
up to heaven.
I bless
the Most High,
praised and honored
Him who lives
forever,
for it's His dominion
that's an everlasting
dominion
and His kingdom
that endures
from generation
to generation.
And at that same time
that my reason
returned to me
when I saw
things correctly,
for the glory
of my kingdom,
my majesty
and splendor
returned to me.
My counselors
and lords
sought me again
as the king.
I was established
in my kingdom
and even more
powerful,
even more greatness
added to me.
Nebuchadnezzar's
restored
and in fact
grows
after being a beast.
Wouldn't have seen
that coming.
Consider the incredible
grace
and patience
God shows
to this pagan king.
Think about it
for a minute.
Nebuchadnezzar
has brutally
murdered
the people
of God.
He has repeatedly
spurned
God's miracles.
He has sought
His own glory
above all else.
He has neglected
the poor
while living
a lavish lifestyle.
He has built
monstrous idols
to be worshipped
by everyone.
He's done
everything
to earn
the judgment
of God.
Shouldn't God
give up on him?
Shouldn't He be
done with him?
That's not the heart
of our God
is it?
His grace
reaches
to love
those who seem
least deserving.
He delights
to display
the riches
of His grace
by pouring it out
on the spiritually
poorest
of men.
You're not
beyond His grace
this morning.
You're not.
No matter
what you've done,
no matter
how you feel,
you're not beyond
the reach
of His grace.
Are you burdened
by the shame
of beastly
desires
and actions
in your present
or your past?
Do you know
that reality
and it weighs you
down and you
can't even lift
your head?
Listen,
you need to know
Christianity
is not a religion
where the favor
of God
falls on those
who appear
most deserving.
Christianity
is good news
that takes
beasts
and wretches
and makes them
children
of the King.
That's what
the gospel,
the good news
of Jesus Christ
is all about.
It's a situation
where the lost
are found
and the blind
see not because
they looked
inside themselves
and found
the moral fortitude
to earn God's
favor,
to perform
just well enough
to deserve it,
but because
they gave up
on earning it
and they looked
up to heaven
like Nebuchadnezzar
to receive
God's favor
as a gift
that they could
never
have earned.
God relentlessly
pursues
the proud
king
until he
humbles him
and makes him
look to heaven
for help.
That's how God
works, isn't it?
It's what he does
in our hearts.
God's grace
makes proud
people humble
and humble
people his
children.
He opposes
the proud
but gives grace
to the humble
we read.
And sometimes,
sometimes his grace
is so incredible
that it doesn't
just find
the humble
person
and come
meet him
there.
Sometimes it
chases after
the proud
person
and actually
turns him
into a humble
person
then meets
that humble
person
and adopts
him as his
child.
And many of us
know that story
don't we?
We've experienced
it firsthand
that his grace
has humbled
our prideful
hearts
and then
in our lowest
point met us
there to say
but I love
you
and you're
my child.
It's not
the great
king that I
wanted to adopt
it's the
humble
lowly
beast.
You I love
you're my
child.
Sometimes he
does that.
He allows us
to see our
emptiness
and then he
meets us
there empty
and gives
salvation
that's by grace
alone
nothing we
could have
earned.
Look how
Daniel reflects
that heart
of God
toward this
stubborn
violent king
in this
passage.
Daniel has
some bad
news to tell
him doesn't
he?
Daniel because
he knows
the interpretation
of the dream
is dismayed
for a while
it tells us
I don't know
how long
Daniel doesn't
want to tell
the king.
He has so
much respect
for this
pagan king
that Daniel
doesn't even
want to deliver
the bad
news.
Nebuchadnezzar
has to pull
it out of
him.
And when
he does
Daniel says
my lord
may the
dream be
for those
who hate
you and
its interpretation
for your
enemies.
I don't want
this to be
true of you
it's bad
news.
Then in
verse 27
after Daniel
tells him
the dream
he says
listen king
hear my
heart for you
in light of
this terrible
dream you've
had.
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.
Daniel cares
about this
guy doesn't
he?
He wants
him to
prosper.
That makes
no sense.
He realizes
he has bad
news for the
king but
he's taken
to heart
the compassionate
and gracious
heart of
his God.
He desires
the welfare
of even the
pagan king
who has
persecuted
God's
people and
spurned
God
himself.
In doing
this Daniel
reflects the
call of the
prophet Jeremiah
who tells
the exiles
to seek the
welfare of
the land in
which they
live to
pray for
it to
work for
its blessing
and that
of its
people.
And so
Daniel
remarkably
offers life
through
repentance
to a
king who
has already
ordered the
death of
him and
his friends.
Amazing.
But that's
the heart
of God
reflected
in his
servant.
Do you
reflect that
same heart?
Do you
pray for
and seek
the salvation
of your
enemies?
Goodness.
I struggle
with my
friends.
Who needs
to hear the
hope of the
gospel from
you?
Whom have
you given
up on
assuming he's
so arrogant
and so
stubborn that
he's beyond
the reach of
God's
grace?
Who needs
to know
the message
of repentance?
There is yet
time to turn
from her own
attempts at
control and
look to
heaven.
That's the
heart of our
God that we
are called as
his people to
reflect.
What we see
about him
particularly in
this passage,
we learn about
God here is
that his grace
extends to
his proudest,
most hardened
enemies.
You don't
get a much
better example
than Nebuchadnezzar.
For depth
of depravity,
for years
of resistance,
the Bible
offers few
worse characters
than this
king of
Babylon,
but God's
grace knows
no bounds
and it
restores even
the beastly
king.
I didn't
read you the
whole prologue
to Beauty
and the Beast
at the
beginning.
There's one
more sentence.
After saying
that if the
prince couldn't
learn to love
and be loved
in time,
he would
remain a beast
forever,
it ends
this way.
As the
years passed,
he fell
into despair
and lost
all hope.
For who
could ever
learn to
love a
beast?
Who
could love
a beast?
Have you
ever asked
that question
about yourself
in your
shame,
a particular
moment or
season of
discouragement,
being aware
of your
failures?
Have you
ever wondered
that towards
someone else
that you
don't seem
to be able
to find it
in your
own heart
to love
such a
beast,
to care for
them and
want their
good?
Who
could love
a beast?
Praise
God.
Our
gracious,
faithful,
forgiving,
patient
king does
love people
like that
and people
like us.
And just
as the
beast is
restored to
a prince
in the
movie,
I believe
that thanks
to the
incredible,
undeserved,
persistent
love of
God,
Nebuchadnezzar
is restored
to being
not merely
an earthly
king over
Babylon again,
but a
prince,
a child
of the
true king
over heaven
and earth
because there's
grace for
beasts
and arrogant
leaders
and short
tempered
parents
and selfish
kids.
Grace that
finally takes
our hearts
from their
self-centered
bent and
focus and
turns them to
heaven to
see God as
the supremely
valuable,
the supremely
powerful,
the supremely
gracious
king that
we all so
desperately
need.
Let's pray.
God, would
you turn our
eyes there this
morning?
If we can't
see ourselves
for who we
are, might
we see you
as supremely
valuable and
powerful and
gracious as
the king
who delights
to love
and to
restore
and to
forgive,
might that
give us
an awareness
of our
need for
you to do
that in
our lives?
Father, for
those of us
who can't
see a God
like that
at all,
we've never
known love
like that,
would seeing
the beastliness
of our
hearts,
the selfishness
of the way
we treat
others,
the emptiness
of trying
to make
life all
about us,
might in
that moment
that give
us a vision
for your
glory, that
there is
something
worthwhile
and someone
worthy of
all of our
praise.
Oh, Father,
do that work
in our hearts
by your grace
because it's
the thing that
you love to
do.
Would your
grace be
strong and
powerful in
our hearts
today?
We ask
it in
Jesus'
name.
Amen.
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