Higher Ground

Diary Of A Mad Black Man

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. E.C. Polite

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Series Code: HG

Program Code: HG000002


00:45 You are God
00:52 The only Sovereign God
00:59 The only living God
01:09 Everlasting, ever loving
01:18 Ever living God
01:25 The only sovereign God
01:36 The only living God
01:44 Everlasting, ever loving
01:53 Ever living God
02:02 The only sovereign God
02:11 The only living God
02:20 Everlasting, ever loving
02:28 Ever living God
02:46 There is a name that I love
02:52 to proclaim
02:56 Master, Savior, Jesus
03:06 No name compares
03:12 To its awesome refrain
03:16 Jesus, we reverence your Name
03:22 with our praise
03:26 Jesus we reverence your Name
03:38 Oh Jesus,
03:42 Oh, oh, oh, Jesus
03:51 Your name is awesome
03:55 And greatly exalted
04:04 Jesus. Oh, Oh, Jesus
04:19 Jesus, we reverence Your Name
04:25 with our praise
04:29 Jesus we reverence Your Name
04:51 Your Name
05:24 Jesus we reverence Your Name
05:39 Your Name
05:51 We worship You
06:04 How I love Jesus
06:17 How I love Jesus
06:22 Jesus
06:27 Let me tell you why I love Him
06:37 Because He first loved me
06:42 loved me.
07:08 Praise unto
07:18 the Lord
07:27 Oh, oh-oh
07:31 Sing praise
07:37 Unto
07:44 the Lord
07:50 For He is
07:58 He is Good
08:04 For He is
08:11 He is good
08:20 Praise the Lord God
08:26 Forever
08:29 and ever
08:38 For His mercy endureth forever
08:45 His mercy endureth forever
08:51 His mercy endureth forever
08:58 His mercy endureth forever
09:04 His mercy endureth forever
09:11 His mercy endureth forever
09:17 His mercy endureth forever
09:37 His mercy endureth forever
09:44 His mercy endureth forever
09:50 His mercy endureth forever
10:10 His mercy endureth forever
10:15 His mercy endureth forever
10:22 His mercy endureth forever
10:29 His mercy endureth forever
10:35 His mercy endureth forever
10:39 And ever
10:44 His mercy endureth forever
10:51 His mercy endureth forever
10:57 His mercy endureth forever
11:02 Forever
11:04 And ever
11:19 Forever more
11:25 Forever more
11:33 Forever
11:37 Applause
11:49 Daniel, the 4th chapter; verses 28 through 34
12:02 Daniel 4, verses 28 through 34
12:10 There you'll find these words.
13:50 I thought today we would speak on the subject
13:52 Diary of a Mad Black Man.
14:04 One of the things I enjoyed growing up in my home
14:08 was having four sisters.
14:13 They say that confession is good for the soul.
14:17 So I'm about to confess some thing and have a good soul today
14:21 I knew at some point in all of my sisters' lives
14:26 they were going to keep a diary
14:34 It was my purpose in life
14:40 to figure out was it the top drawer
14:42 the middle drawer or the bottom drawer.
14:45 If I searched the dresser and it wasn't in the drawers
14:49 I knew to lift up the mattress
14:55 But one way or another I was going to find it because
14:58 inquiring minds want to know.
15:04 I will be kind enough not to tell you what I found.
15:08 They'd shoot me if I did, I learned a lot.
15:15 But we don't have to go searching for the diary
15:20 of this man for he opens it up himself
15:24 in Daniel the 4th chapter. Mind you it was not intended
15:29 to be a diary initially. It was supposed to be
15:33 a proclamation. But somehow along the way, the thoughts
15:39 of his mind shifted and the words changed and it became
15:44 an open diary for all those who live today.
15:49 Notice the first verse of chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar
15:55 the king, unto who? All people nations and languages that dwell
16:04 in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you.
16:12 Understand that he is the most mentioned gentile king in the
16:17 Word of God. He reigns approximately for 43 years
16:23 His story speaks to his rise in power. His fall from grace
16:31 and his restoration through repentance. The first 6 chapters
16:36 of Daniel are historical in nature while the final six
16:40 are prophetic. But of those first six chapters he occupies
16:46 a prominent place in the first 5 chapters of Daniel. He's
16:52 somebody special. The Babylonian empire can trace its beginnings
16:59 all the way back to Genesis the 10th chapter. Turn there with me
17:04 quickly, Genesis 10th chapter. And notice here something
17:09 regarding the ancestry of Babylon starting with verse 1.
17:15 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah. Who were they?
17:21 Shem, Ham and Japheth. Look down at verse 6.
17:27 And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Cainan
17:35 Look at verse 8. And Cush begat who? Nimrod. He began to be a
17:42 mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord
17:47 wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before
17:51 the Lord, verse 10 and the beginning of his kingdom was
17:55 what? Babel or Babylon. You will notice that he is the
18:04 the descendant of Ham. And Ham is the progenitor
18:11 or the forefather of people of color.
18:23 Black folk. And so when we look back down through antiquity
18:26 and see some of the great archeological finds and the
18:30 inventions, bless your hearts, they weren't made by Steve Jobs.
18:37 They were made by people of color.
18:42 And so as we fast forward to Daniel 4, we recognize that as
18:48 the ancestry has gone on and continued to Daniel 4, we're
18:53 looking now, we're reading the diary of a colored man.
19:00 70 years later here he comes. Here he is on the stage of
19:08 human history. Verses 2-3 say I thought it good to show what
19:15 everybody, I don't hear you. The signs and wonders that
19:20 who? the High God hath wrought toward me, verse 3, how great
19:27 are His signs and how mighty His wonders. His kingdom is what
19:33 an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation
19:39 to generation. He lifts up for us his purpose for writing
19:45 is to share how the Most High has moved in his own life
19:51 and to declare before all those who come after him
19:55 that God Almighty is God all by Himself
20:02 and unless they get that basic principle
20:07 they may have something difficult to go through.
20:11 Notice verse 4,
20:14 I Nebuchadnezzar
20:17 was at rest
20:20 in my house
20:22 flourishing in what? In my palace. Here he is, kicking back
20:34 chillin, that's right. Sitting there with a cold one
20:44 thinking about everything that he has accomplished, he has
20:48 conquered Syria, he has conquered Phoenicia, he has
20:51 conquered Judea, he has conquered Egypt, he has
20:55 conquered Arabia and now he can enjoy the peace and
21:00 prosperity of all his conquests.
21:04 Babylon is one of the most famed and fabulous cities
21:08 of the then known world. It was probably only surpassed by
21:13 the glory of Thebes which by this time had been destroyed.
21:17 The circumference around Babylon is estimated depending on
21:21 who you read between 10-15 miles in its circumference. Now
21:26 that might seem small comparatively today but in those
21:30 days it was a very large city that was considered
21:34 a metropolitan. There were two walls that surrounded Babylon
21:38 one called the outer wall and one called the inner wall.
21:42 And I'm told that the walls were so wide that 5 chariots
21:47 could ride side by side with each other and not fall off
21:52 the wall. A magnificent structure. He built some 53
22:00 temples, 955 smaller sanctuaries 384 street altars, 3 palaces
22:08 one in the North that he considered his summer home.
22:12 Then there's one in the central part of the city
22:16 which was called his Trophy Room, where all of the
22:21 artifacts and spoils of victory were put on display there.
22:25 Then there was the Southern Palace which was supposed to be
22:30 the official residence of the King. In that residence
22:34 was a throne. Listen to the dimensions of his throne room
22:37 173 feet long, 57 feet wide and 66 feet high.
22:47 It is believed that it was in this throne room that Belshazzar
22:53 threw his party and then got scared at his own party
23:00 because a hand showed up by itself at the party,
23:04 stuck itself out from the super natural darkness and began to
23:09 inscribe graffiti on the wall which said the party is over.
23:19 It was here on this wall adjacent to the Southern palace
23:24 was a structure that houses what we know today as the famed
23:30 Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
23:32 One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, Babylon
23:38 Nebuchadnezzar built this particular vaulted structure
23:42 it was 7 tiers high because of the fact that his wife
23:47 Emmatasi was from Media, the daughter of the King of Media
23:52 and she missed her homeland and all of the verdurous
23:55 surroundings of the Medes and because Babylon didn't seem to
24:01 have a whole lot of trees and verdure he decided to build
24:06 the hanging gardens that grew from off of the roof structure
24:10 Way back then they had a pipe system, a sprinkler system
24:14 if you will, that brought the water up from the Euphrates
24:18 River and sprinkled it all throughout the Hanging Gardens.
24:21 You thought we were smart,
24:23 they were smart before we got the sprinkler system.
24:31 Man will do anything to make his woman happy, won't he?
24:36 I remember when we were living in Germany, mama took us to
24:41 a place in downtown Darmstadt, Germany, called Rusina Kapelle
24:47 which translated means the Russian Chapel.
24:50 And it was built by a man who had married a Russian Princess
24:54 who was homesick for Russia. And so he had acres of land
24:59 acres of soil transported there and built a chapel in the same
25:05 dome like architecture that she was familiar with in Russia
25:11 A man who knew what he has to do to please his woman, so
25:15 you ain't got a man like that you need to tell him, see ya!
25:26 What're you hangin around him for?
25:30 Y'all better get this women, you better get this sisters.
25:33 Get this. I'm giving you this for free.
25:37 It will cost you more in the divorce court.
25:45 The centre of Babylon's glory, however, was not the Hanging
25:49 Gardens, as magnificent as you think they are.
25:53 In fact, it was a temple tower called Etamanenke, and when we
26:00 translate Etamanenke, it simply means, The Foundation
26:04 of Heaven and Earth. It was part of the great Temple complex
26:10 Esagila, which also translates "He who raises the Head"
26:15 Keep those translations in mind, He who raises the Head.
26:20 The bricks outside the city walls were painted in yellow
26:27 The gates were made in the color of sky blue.
26:33 The palaces were built in bricks of rose, the temples were made
26:39 out of bricks of white. There was a river that flowed through
26:43 the center of the city. And as I describe all of this grandeur
26:48 to you, something ought to quicken your mind.
26:52 You've got a city that's almost square. You've got walls around
26:58 the city. You've got gates every 65 feet in the city. You got a
27:07 temple in there that calls itself the Foundation of Heaven
27:10 and Earth. You've got a king whose name means, I'm going to
27:15 protect my stone. His grand father's name Nimrod meant
27:21 'He shall rebel.' And in here you've got a temple system
27:26 called Esagila which means 'He that raises the Head'. He shall
27:31 bruise your heel but you shall bruise his head. There ought
27:36 to be something that goes off in your mind when you hear
27:40 the description of Babylon. I will ascend above the heights
27:44 of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.
27:49 Babylon was notorious for it's secret and mysterious religions
27:58 and cults. Things that have remained hidden even over the
28:06 civilizations. And here we find our king. Up on the roof,
28:15 walking around, looking at all this grandeur, and verse 31
28:23 says, verse 31 says, or 30 says "the king spake and said,
28:29 Is not this the great Babylon that I have built?"
28:38 This is significant. Because when we read verse 5, he says
28:44 in his diary, I had a dream.
28:49 You need to understand that in that area of the world, a dream
28:56 is very significant. In fact you can find some old black folk
29:00 today who put a whole lot of stock in a dream.
29:05 I grew up in a home where Mama had dreams. I got sick of her
29:09 dreamin. Because, I don't know why, but God would
29:17 reveal to her stuff I was doing.
29:26 You had already figured it out that that's a lie. Fool proof.
29:32 I'll never forget Dad brought me my first reel to reel
29:37 tape recorder. You know we didn't have cassettes back then.
29:49 I'll stay away from them folks, they're tryin hurt my feelings.
29:55 They were reel to reel. And I told Mama that I wasn't listenin
30:03 I wasn't recording any of the, what do they call that, RB?
30:07 Was it called RB back then? So there you go,
30:34 I was recording stuff on my new cassette, well not cassette
30:40 my reel to reel player. And Mama had a dream.
30:47 That I had been listening to the artists of that day.
30:53 Earth, Wind. Oh.
31:01 Average white band. Ohio.
31:11 What kind of church is this? Lord have mercy.
31:23 I better move on. You all will be thinking about all these
31:25 songs, I can't finish my sermon.
31:32 I wanted to tell Mama that I had been recording religious
31:36 music. But God had already revealed to her the decadence
31:42 that was on the tape and before I could get my light out Mama
31:46 took my recorder, threw it against the wall and broke it up
31:57 Now my Mama's here. Don't you all bother her. I love her.
32:01 She was looking out for my soul. Dreams were important.
32:07 And the kind understood. He'd had a disturbing and distressing
32:12 dream. This wasn't the first time that he'd had a dream.
32:16 But this man had a fixation with his dreams that was a
32:21 little bit inordinate. He would have a dream, he would wake up
32:26 and forget about what the dream was and then ask somebody
32:31 you better tell me what I dreamt or I'm going to put you to death
32:39 That was a rough brother.
32:45 Here he is. He said he had a dream.
32:51 Daniel came and revealed the dream to him and let him know
32:57 exactly what he dreamt. But it was so horrifying to Daniel.
33:02 We're told that Daniel couldn't even give him an answer.
33:06 He stood there speechless for one hour.
33:11 Scared about what the dream revealed
33:16 And the king said, Dan, come on boy, tell me what I dreamt
33:20 Don't be sacred, tell me what I dreamt.
33:24 I'm not goin to hurt you. And so Daniel went over and said
33:29 The tree that you saw in your dream that covered the earth
33:35 and animals playing underneath its boughs and then you heard
33:40 the watcher saying, Cut the tree down but save the stump.
33:43 That tree is you.
33:51 The Lord is going to bring you down
33:55 because of the pride of your heart.
33:59 And you will eat grass like the beast of the field
34:06 At least the Lord was going to make him a beast
34:13 Your hair is going to grow out like feathers.
34:17 Of an eagle. Your fingers, your fingernails will grow nails that
34:24 that looks like a bird's claws.
34:28 Now he knew this was how the dream was gonna be interpreted
34:34 And look at something here in verse 27. Daniel says to him
34:41 Listen, this might help you. Delay this, it might. Wherefore
34:46 O king let my counsel be acceptable unto thee and break
34:50 off thy sins by righteousness and thy iniquities by doing what
34:57 showing mercy to the poor. If it may be a lengthening of what
35:02 thy tranquility. History tells us
35:09 that it was another year after that Nebuchadnezzar went
35:16 for a stroll on the roof looking at all the grandeur of Babylon
35:21 Opened his mouth to declare his greatness, Is not this
35:27 great Babylon I have built? And while the consonants and
35:33 and vowels were in his mouth
35:37 His words were interrupted by someone else's words
35:40 O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken. The kingdom is
35:48 departed from thee and they shall drive thee from men
35:52 and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field
35:55 They shall make thee to eat grass as the oxen and seven
35:59 times shall pass over thee until thou knowest that the Most High
36:04 ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He
36:09 He will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar
36:20 Some commentators say he was stricken with a mental condition
36:26 called lycanthropy where an individual's reason leaves
36:31 them and they begin to think, believe,
36:34 and process like an animal.
36:39 No longer the great king, the great conqueror. Now he has
36:45 descended and deteriorated into an animal of the field.
36:52 What happened to this great man who built this great kingdom?
36:57 How did he fall into such a state of being. Instead of
37:02 us asking what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and how he
37:06 deteriorated to this animal like state, we ought to ask
37:09 our own selves the question, What happens to us
37:15 when we turn a deaf ear to the appeals of God?
37:18 What happens to us when we persist in our sins?
37:23 What happens to us when we no longer have an inclination
37:29 toward spiritual things? I want to lift up to you beloved
37:32 three things as to how we become animal like in spiritual terms.
37:38 Here's the first one, in Daniel 2. Daniel 2, verse 46.
37:44 and 47. Daniel 2, verses 46 and 47.
37:48 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped
37:54 Daniel and commanded that they should offer him oblation
37:59 and sweet odors unto him. The King answered unto Daniel
38:03 and said, Of a truth it is your God, what? A God of Gods
38:09 And what else, Lord of Kings. What else? A revealer of secrets
38:14 seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. Here's the first way.
38:21 The first way. You emerge into a spiritual animal like state.
38:28 You ignore a convinced mind.
38:34 Ignore a convinced mind. You heard what he said, didn't you?
38:41 You know what this is about. He had just had a dream
38:44 in Daniel 2. And God showed him the image of what?
38:51 Talk to me, Daniel 2.
38:56 Great image, isn't that right? Great metal man.
39:00 And it looked interesting. The head was made of what?
39:05 What about the breast and arms?
39:09 What about the belly and thighs?
39:13 What about the legs, what about the feet?
39:17 Iron mixed with clay. And as he beheld this image
39:22 he saw something supernatural happen.
39:26 What was it? He saw a stone that was what?
39:31 Cut out from a mountain by some excavators, is that right?
39:35 No! With unseen hands. And what happened to the stone?
39:40 It hit the image in the feet, the statue came down
39:47 and that stone became what? A great mountain and filled
39:52 the whole earth. And Daniel told him
39:58 You are the head of gold. The kingdoms that shall come
40:03 after you are Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome
40:08 and then the kingdom will be divided. But in the days of
40:12 these kings the God of Heaven will set up His kingdom
40:14 and His kingdom will know no end. That was the stone O King.
40:20 And to that Nebuchadnezzar responds, Your God is bad
40:27 I'm convinced of that. But how often beloved, how often
40:33 are we convinced about the goodness and the greatness of
40:37 God and yet we still turn to do our own thing?
40:42 Despite the miracle He wrought in our life, turn to Daniel 3
40:50 Daniel 3, verses 29 and 30. Daniel 3, verse 29 and 30.
40:57 We deteriorate into a spiritual animal state by first of all
41:03 ignoring a convinced mind. What's the next thing we do?
41:06 Daniel 3:29-30. Therefore I make a decree that every people
41:11 nation and language which speak anything amiss against the God
41:16 of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces
41:22 and what else should happen?
41:29 Then the King, did what? Promoted Shadrach, Meshach
41:36 and Abednego in the province.
41:41 Here's the second thing that occurs. How we deteriorate
41:44 spiritually into spiritual animals.
41:48 By ignoring a convicted mind.
41:53 The first step was to ignore a convinced mind. The second
41:57 thing is to ignore a convicted mind.
42:02 You will recall that this particular declaration comes
42:05 on tail end of the fiery furnace experience.
42:09 In Daniel 2 we saw that image made out of multiple metals.
42:14 But on the plain of Dura we see something else occur
42:19 Nebuchadnezzar decides I'm going to recreate that image
42:23 but it's going to look slightly different. I'm going to do a
42:26 remix to it. Instead of me just being the head of gold
42:32 what am I going to do? I'm going to make the entire image
42:37 out of gold. He was declaring before the world, My kingdom
42:44 is the one that's going to be here forever. It's not gonna be
42:47 anybody else after me and there certainly won't be a stone
42:51 kingdom to come into play. And so he sets up this statue
42:55 and then he declares that when the trumpets start to play
42:58 that everybody there should do what? Bow down and worship
43:05 the image. Do you hear anything prophetic in that?
43:08 There's a day coming when the trumpets will play again
43:11 and the command will be to bow down or die. And the consequence
43:18 was that you were going to be thrown into a fiery furnace.
43:25 There were three brothers who decided they ain't doin that.
43:33 I'm going to stand right here.
43:37 Anytime a believer stands up for Christ, somebody always
43:43 notices. I can remember, I can remember just last year or so
43:51 when we had the experience of the Word to save. And there was
43:54 a lady who was baptized in our meeting named Erica Davis,
43:57 do you remember that? Do you remember Erica?
44:00 The reason why Erica came to the meeting was because
44:03 she noticed something different about one of her co-workers
44:08 Gerald Bruce, one of the deacons in this church.
44:14 If you stand up straight, if you walk correct, if you speak
44:22 right, if you treat folk the way they should be treated
44:26 folk are going to notice there is a difference about you
44:30 and it's going to testify even when you're not giving a
44:34 Bible Study. Your life will be an epistle read of all men.
44:41 And so here they are, here they are, the three epistles.
44:45 Standing up. Men coming to grab them to throw them into the
44:50 fiery furnace. Ah? They get in there. And the heathen king
44:56 he has a theophany. He says,
44:59 I thought we threw three men in the furnace
45:07 I see 4 men and the 4th man looks like, who told him that?
45:18 Because God's people ought to look different. God's people
45:22 ought to be distinguishable from everybody else.
45:25 Remember now, he is the King of an empire that has over
45:30 300 gods. But yet he can look in the furnace and say,
45:36 there's something different about this God.
45:38 He doesn't look like any other God I've seen before.
45:43 This must be the Son of God. He was convicted
45:48 to the point that he had Shadrach, Meshach
45:53 and Abednego to come out of the furnace. Did you ever
45:57 think to yourself why he didn't ask all 4 of them to come out?
46:12 Anybody that can show up in fire, you can stay.
46:17 But he was convicted that this God was above all other gods
46:23 there was something special about him. Look at the 3rd step
46:26 The 3rd step in Daniel 4. Daniel 4, verse 27 and 28.
46:33 Wherefore King let my counsel be acceptable unto thee
46:36 and put off thy sins by righteousness and thy iniquities
46:39 by showing mercy to the poor if it maybe a lengthening of
46:44 thy tranquility. Verse 28, All this came upon the King
46:48 Nebuchadnezzar. Here's the 3rd step. In descending or
46:53 deteriorating into an animal like state in spiritual terms
46:56 First, you ignore a convinced mind. Second you ignore a
47:00 convicted mind. Third, you ignore a converted mind.
47:05 Remember now that after Daniel gives him the interpretation
47:10 to this dream and says you might be able to delay
47:14 this animal thing if you will just stop your sinning
47:20 and start taking care of the poor.
47:23 Stop thinking about YOU
47:28 and start thinking about others. Stop focusing
47:33 on your narcissistic desires and start thinking about
47:39 the charitable needs of those who live around you. If, If,
47:45 The word IF is in there, isn't it? If you do this he says
47:48 it might prolong the outcome.
47:53 Nebuchadnezzar was so converted by this message that we find out
47:59 that he obeyed what Daniel said for only one year.
48:05 And after that one year?
48:10 PRIDE sprung up again.
48:17 Paul tells us that we ought to have a funeral
48:22 for ourselves how often?
48:26 He said, I die daily.
48:33 Because just when you think that old man is gone
48:37 just when you think the taste is gone out of your mouth
48:43 Just when you think you've got your spending under control
48:47 Just when you think you've broken it off
48:51 Just when you think you don't have to snort anymore
48:58 You'll wake up one day and find yourself back
49:04 where you used to be. That's why it's so important for us
49:10 to not wake up in the morning and try to trust ourselves,
49:16 Our Scripture lesson says, We can't put trust in man.
49:20 That's not just talking about other men. That's talking about
49:24 us too. The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it?
49:32 That question begs the answer you can't even know it.
49:37 And it's your old heart.
49:41 He had a convinced mind, he had a convicted mind
49:46 he had a converted mind and yet look at him in the field
49:54 grass between his teeth, hair all down his body
50:00 nails long and unkempt.
50:06 Let me tell you something about God.
50:08 I'm bringing this to a close. I asked you a question
50:12 at the beginning of this message. What was it?
50:18 How far will God go to save us?
50:24 God will allow us to deteriorate to the lowest state of living
50:29 but yet even in that low state of living, notice He was going
50:35 to live how long out there? Talk to me.
50:39 Seven years. That means that 7 winters were going to come too.
50:45 But yet he let hair grow like eagles' feathers
50:51 to keep him warm so he would not die of frost bite.
50:57 Being in the field he wouldn't be the only beast out there
51:00 There would be other beasts out there. Don't you think they
51:04 might try to attack him? And so the Lord let him grow claws.
51:15 So that he could protect himself because God knew that one day
51:20 his reason would return to him. The Bible says that he was
51:26 in the field and one day he decided to look up
51:31 to the heavens. Understand something beloved.
51:34 Beasts don't look up.
51:38 Only people look up. And when he looked up
51:45 his understanding came back and all before this he wanted
51:52 to build an empire that men could look at him and praise him
51:57 but as soon as his understanding came back, he said, look at it
52:02 again, look at it again. I bless the Most High, I praise and
52:08 honor Him. It sounds like a testimony service to me
52:11 that liveth forever whose dominion is an everlasting
52:15 dominion and His kingdom is from generation to generation.
52:20 Notice something here. Notice something here, look at me
52:23 when he began to go into this testimony service
52:27 and began to praise Him, he had not made it back to the palace
52:33 and gotten cleaned up yet.
52:40 Are you listening to me? All too often when we sink and
52:46 deteriorate into a low state of being we want to wait until we
52:51 stop doing this, wait until we stop doing that, wait until I
52:55 stop drinking. Wait until I get away from her, wait until I
53:00 get away from him. Wait until I turn in my tithe, wait until I
53:04 break this snortin, wait until I stop these bad habits
53:09 but the moment the understanding comes into your mind and the
53:14 Holy Ghost impresses you that there's a God who takes care
53:18 of you, there's a God who loves you, there's a God who wants
53:21 to save you, there's a God who's looking for you; at that moment
53:26 before you stop anything He expects you to look up
53:29 and praise Him. Praise Him for keeping you alive.
53:33 Praise Him for your right mind, praise Him for your health
53:38 praise Him for the whole, praise Him for your family, praise Him
53:43 for your job. Praise Him for everything you've got even if
53:48 you don't have it. Because for the child of God
53:54 the Bible tells us, No good thing will He withhold from them
54:00 that walketh uprightly.
54:08 The Bible doesn't ever tell us what happened after this.
54:17 But history tells us that, Nebuchadnezzar after he came
54:21 out from the field only sat on the throne two more years.
54:26 And he died. But there is no record after this
54:32 that he ever went back into an animal like state again.
54:38 His heart was fixed, his mind made up.
54:45 He had a convinced mind, he had a convicted mind
54:50 he had a converted mind. He understood that Daniel's God
54:57 had more wisdom than anybody else's god. He understood that
55:01 Daniel's God had more power than any other god. He understood
55:05 that Daniel's God had more authority than any other
55:09 person's god. What is God trying to say to Eddie Polite today?
55:16 What is God trying to say to Pat Reed today? What is God
55:21 trying to say to Orville Brown today? What is God trying to
55:25 say to Gloria Price today? What is God trying to say to
55:29 Michael Brown today? He's simply trying to tell us
55:34 that I'll do whatever is necessary to save you.
55:37 I won't stop at nothing. I gave my life for you.
55:42 I value the sacrifice I gave for you. And so I've got to
55:47 do what is necessary so that no body will ever say I didn't try.
55:55 The diary of a mad black man is the diary of many of us today.
56:04 Can't you remember what you used to be?
56:07 Don't you remember when you first gave your heart to Jesus?
56:11 You remember the joy you used to have? You remember how you
56:16 used to stay up all night and read the Word.
56:19 You know how you used to walk up to strangers
56:22 and just testify, even though they could tell you that you
56:28 were crazy. You still did it.
56:32 You remember the fire that was shut up in you?
56:35 And like Pasha the king trying to shut Jeremiah by slapping his
56:41 mouth shut and Jeremiah saying it's like fire sharp in my bones
56:46 I can't keep it to myself. Gotta tell somebody
56:50 what Jesus has done for me. But along the way
56:55 the fire has gone out. You don't have the same passion that you
57:01 used to. Maybe because you've fallen and descended into
57:07 such a low spiritual animal like state. You've lost your zeal
57:13 you've lost your inspiration. You've lost your love for truth
57:18 and now like Nebuchadnezzar you find yourself in a forest
57:23 full of trouble and you're asking, What is God doing to me?
57:28 Why is all of this going on in my life? What did I do so
57:33 wrong that I've got to be out here groveling like an animal?
57:39 Instead of looking at it as if the glass is half empty
57:46 why not look at it as if it's half full?
57:49 God is trying to save you.


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Revised 2016-03-23