Sermon 01/11/04 am

Jim Huskey, "Hey, Self!!"

We're going to continue our study this morning from the book of Romans,

chapter 12. I'm going to begin that study in a little different way

than normal. Normally, I would just read the text and begin from

there, but I'm going to back into it this morning. Beginning in

Daniel 4:28 we read, "All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar."

Since it just says "all this", we'd have to back up a little to find

out what the "all this" was. So backing up in that fourth chapter

we find this is what happened. Nebuchadnezzar had another vision

or another dream. He sought the magicians and the soothsayers, etc.

from his domain to make known what the vision meant, but none of them

could do it. Finally Daniel was called in. Beginning in verse 9 of

chapter 4, we read, "O Belteshazzar (Daniel), master of the magicians,

because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no

secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dreams that I have

seen, and the interpretation thereof. Thus were the visions of mine

head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and

the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the

height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of

all the earth; the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof

much, and in it was meat for all; the beast of the field had shadow

under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and

all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed,

and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven; he cried

aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches,

shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit; let the beasts get away

from under it, and the fowls from his branches; nevertheless leave the

stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in

the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of heaven,

and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth; let

his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto

him; and let seven times pass over him. This matter is by the decree

of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the

intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the

kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up

over it the basest of men." Dan. 4:9-17.

Nebuchadnezzar was troubled. He'd had a dream earlier, remember, that

Daniel had interpreted that told of the greatness of his kingdom and

the rise of other kingdoms after it and the establishment of God's

kingdom. But this dream was different. Something was being hewn

down and he didn't understand it and he wanted to know the meaning.

Daniel gave him the interpretation. Beginning in verse 20, we read,

"The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height

reached unto the heaven, and the sight there of to all the earth;

whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was

meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose

branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation; it is thou, O

king, that are grown and become strong; for thy greatness is grown,

and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.

And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from

heaven and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the

stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and

brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with dew of

heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven

times pass over him; this is the interpretation, O king, and this is

the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord, the king;

that they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the

beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,

and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall

pass over thee, till thou knowest that the most High ruleth in the

kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And whereas they

commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; they kingdom shall be

sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do

rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and

break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing

mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity."

Dan. 4:20-27. Then in verse 28 we read, "All this came upon the king

Nebuchadnezzar."

But you see, it didn't happen right then. Look at the next verse.

"At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of

Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I

have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and

for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth,

there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee

it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee; and they shall drive

thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field;

they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass

over thee, until thou know that the most High rulety in the kingdom of

men, and giveth it to whomsover he will." Dan. 4:29-32. Twelve months

later!!! Just as Daniel the prophet had said, the things that were

mentioned by Daniel in the interpretation in that vision Nebuchadnezzar

saw befell him. Verse 34 begins, "And at the end of the days I

Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding

returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and

honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting

dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation; and all

the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth

according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants

of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest

thou?" Vs. 34,35.

What was the problem? Nebuchadnezzar had an over-estimated high

opinion of himself and what he had done. Now we're back to Romans 12.

In verse 3 Paul said, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to

every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than

he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealth

to every man the measure of faith." Did you know that most of the

problems in churches, most of the problems in homes sometimes, most

of the problems in society are the result of someone who does not have

an accurate opinion of himself/herself. Just think about that. Paul

warned us about thinking too highly of ourselves. In other words,

we get the feeling that "I ARE IT! I've got to be the center of

everything. Everything has to evolve around me." When we get that

opinion of ourselves, we start acting like that. Then trouble ALWAYS

follows. IT ALWAYS FOLLOWS!!!!! Since we think we're so important,

every time someone says something, we think they're talking about US.

Every time someone does something we don't like, we think they're

trying to GET AT US. I remember a good sister in a congregation where

I worked. I hadn't even gotten my feet wet there and she started

telling me all this stuff, how everybody was always talking about,

everybody was doing this or that. I know this is not the way to win

friends and influence people but I finally said to her, "Honey, I

want to ask you a question. Who ever told you that you are that

important? The truth is, they probably don't care. They've got their

own problems, so they're not going to spend all their time talking

about you." See, what happens when we begin to think of ourselves so

much, then we get EVERYTHING out of proportion. That destroys a

right relationship between us and those around us. It destroys a right

relationship between us and those in our families, between us and those

in the church.

Now on the other hand, we also must guard against looking at ourselves

as being incapable of anything and worth nothing. You see, God put a

value on us when he let his Son die for us, so that means we're

important. If we understand that in its light, he (Jesus) also died

for everybody else. As someone as aptly said, "The ground is level

at the foot of the cross." Nobody's standing on high ground there.

Everyone is important. They have a role, a place to fill. Now they

may not fill it, but they have one. When they don't fill it, that

creates a burden on someone else. On the other hand, when they try

to fill everybody's position, then that creates a burden on everybody

else. You see, when a house cat tries to become a lion, you've got one

frustrated house cat. People, when they're frustrated, have a way of

taking that frustration out of everything and everybody around them.

Well, how do you keep from doing that?? You learn to think of yourself

as being no better or no worse than everybody else. The apostle Paul,

in this same 12th chapter, verses 4 and 5, said, "For as we have many

members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we

being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of

another." Now Paul, in I Corinthians 12:14 said "For the body is not

one member, but many." The point he makes in both Romans 12 and in

I Corinthians 12 is that it takes all these different components to

make it up. Now they're not all alike. They don't all do the same

thing, but they're all important. I've been amused over the years at

the evolutionists' philosophy, and it would be funny if it weren't so

serious and our children being indoctrinated with it. Talk about a

woman changing her mine - they can't compare to the evolutionists.

You see, they've had to retreat so many different times from so many

different places, because the evidence has shown them to be wrong.

They still, however, hold on to that dogma, and it's still being

taught to our children in school. Not too many years ago they

had determined that there were about 220 parts of our body that we

don't need. According to them, these parts were left over from the

time we walked around on all-fours, or swung from trees by our tails.

Now they're down to about three or four parts. One of the parts they

say we don't need are our fingernails and toenails. They say these

are left over from that era when we have to dig our claws into the

tree to climb it. Well, have you ever closed your finger up in a door?

Have you ever missed the nail and hit the thumb right on the nail? It

feels so good, doesn't it !!! Do you know why it feels so good????

There are more nerve endings per square inch under those little nails

than anywhere else in your body !!! Well, that makes sense. They are

there for protection. They decided we didn't need tonsils and we

didn't need adenoids. They're just left over things. Well, as near

as I can determine from what little bit, and I do mean little bit,

that I've been able to read about medicine, our body without those

two parts is sort of like an air-conditioner without a filter on it.

Those parts are there to act as filters to filter out things we don't

need to get into our systems, so they act as a filter. That's why

they become inflammed. They become filled with the poisons they're

trying to keep from being distributed to the rest of our body. So

what we need to understand is that even in our physical bodies, it

takes all the parts functioning as they should function for the body to

truly be healty and perform at it's peak. It just takes ONE part to

quit functioning, whether a hand, a foot, some "minor" organ, to throw

the whold body out of balance. So Paul said, 'Brethren, through the

grace of God, I'm saying, don't think you're IT. You are part of

something that's a lot bigger than you are.'

Over in the Old Testament Moses was described as the meekest of all

men. Well, what does that mean? You know, we have this concept of

meekness as being some milktoast character who stands for nothing and

falls for everything and lets everybody just run over him. No, that's

not what Moses did. Remember when he came down from Mt. Sinai with

the tables of stone and found the children of Israel doing what they

did? What did he do? He got man. As best I remember, he was the

one who broke those tables God had given him in the mountain. He sure

did. He's described, however, as the meekest of all men. Moses

understood his mission. He lost himself in a cause that was greater

than himself. How do I say that? You remember that God got very

frustrated with the children of Israel, too, and he told Moses to

stand back away from them and he'd destroy them, the whole nation

of them, and make of Moses a greater nation. Remember what Moses

said? "...Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them

gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not,

blot me, I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written."

Exo. 32:31,32. Moses understood that he was engaged in something

more important than he, himself, alone. Well, that's exactly what

Paul said with respect to the body. The body as whole is more

important than any single member that makes it up. Thus, in a way

we might say, when we understand our role and our relationship to

each other other, we are involved with something that is greater than

we are. It's when we collectively put our efforts together, put

ourselves together, that that body functions as it should. And I'll

tell you something else. That's when we're most happy, too, whether

we're talking about the church, the home or in society. When we are

busily engaged in the tasks we consider more important that we are,

that's the first step in becoming happy and well-adjusted. God has

always intended for us to be invovled. When he put Adam and Eve in

the garden of Eden, they could not create the garden, but they were

told to dress and keep it, take care of it. That's when man is most

happy. I have an awful lot of clients who come in the office. Now

they don't work. They get a check every month, but they don't work.

They're disabled. Now they're in a whole lot better physical condition

than I am, but they're messed up up here (in the mind). The best

therapy for them, although the Supreme Court has ruled upon several

occasions now that that can't be a law, is for the them get a job and

do something productive. Well, that's what God intended from the very

ouset, that we be involved in something greater than ourselves. That

helps us to happy and productive, it helps us get along better with

others because we understand that 'hey, I'm important, but I'm no

more important than that other person is. God loved them enough to

let his Son die for them just as he did for me. That person may have

a different ability than I have, but both of us are important.' The

last space shuttle- remember what happened and why? Did the engine

fail? No. Did the computers malfunction? No. A little tile - a little

tile not properly secured.

God has used some unusual people over the years. Remember that old

gal who hid the spies from the children of Israel at Jericho? Rahab?

Read the genealogy of Christ and you'll find her in it. What was she?

She's called a harlot. She hid the spies, did as they told her to do,

left a scarlet cord in her window and when the nation of Israel

marched into the city of Jericho, she had herself and her family in

the house where that cord was in the window and they were spared; and

eventually her named would be recorded in the genealogy of Christ.

I've got a feeling there were a lot of those Jews......well, you

remember on one occason Jesus was allowing a woman to wash his feet.

She was considered a "woman of the street". The Jew sitting there

watching, and knowing the reputation of the woman, said, 'Master, if

you were all you say you are, you'd know what ind of woman this is

and you wouldn't let her touch you.' What does that say? "Ain't none

of us more important and any of the rest of us." God can usse the

feeblest as well as the brightest, and when their talents are pooled,

with everyone doing the things they can do, it's then that everything

begins to work more smoothly. We'll get along much better, we'll

get along with our family members better and certainly in the church

we'll get along better. See most church problems come about because

some member of the congregation (I won't use the expression that

describes them) gets to thinking they're more important than somebody

else and what he or she wants is more important than anything else.

Some time there are doctrinal issues involved, but most of the time

it's not doctrinal, it's personal because they can't get along with

each other.

After Paul had said 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice' in the

first verse, he said that comes about by getting our minds straightened

out. Part of getting our minds straightened out is self-evaluation -

learning to think of ourselves in a true light. The Bible describes

us all as sinners, so that puts us all on level ground.

The rest of this book of Romans is everyday, practical christian

living. It's applied christianity, and we'll talk about some of those

things in our next lessons. You see, I need to get myself right, and

learn to think properly of myself, just as Jesus pointed out in the

sermon on the mount. "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be

comforted." We have to learn to realize where we stand in relationship

to God. When we learn that, then we're on our way to getting things

right. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for their is the kingdom of

heaven." "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth."

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for

they shall be filled." All those things have to do with the way we

look at ourselves and the way we look at God. When we realize our

poverty of spirit apart from God, it opens the door for faith.

When the door of faith if opened, it opens the door for repentance,

when repentance is opened, it opens the door for obedience. It all

begins here, in the mind, like other things.