I then made the point (probably a little strongly) that we all are like King Nebby - we engage in self-praise. We may not be as blatantly arrogant as Nebuchadnezzar was, but we use various things to bring ourselves praise. It might be your job, it might be your family, it could be your possessions, it could be an addiction, it could be fashion, it could be anything that you use to give your primary praise to yourself rather than to God. And out of his love, God will crash our lives through discipline so we might gain a proper perspective of who HE is - then we will gladly give Him our primary praise.
After each service, I got lots of "great message!" feedback, but more than compliments, I wanted to see and hear about conviction and life change. And boy did I ever!
After the 11:00 am service, a 70-year-old lady (I'll call her Dee) came up to me, told me she had never been to New Covenant before, had tried to go to a different church this morning, but ended up at the wrong church. To make a long story short, someone from the "wrong" church drove her to New Covenant's parking lot. She walks into the service and I begin preaching about how we use our addictions to praise ourself rather than God. This hit her square in the heart because she has a gambling addiction. She began to share how God has been working in her life, and she knew it was beyond coincidence that she was at New Covenant this morning.
Dee has a long road ahead, but it is evident God is working mightily in her life. Would you pray for Dee? Pray she can give up the gambling. Pray she would experience freedom in Christ. Pray she can get connected to the right women who can help her grow in her relationship with Jesus and find her satisfaction in him, not in playing high-stakes games. Pray for her marriage (it's not good). And pray her kids (who thankfully all love Jesus) can be the right help and support to her.
While you are at it, would you pray for those I didn't talk with who were being convicted of sin this morning? Perhaps this includes you, so pray that you would not give into self-praise, but rather would exalt God alone, because He alone is worthy of it. Because while the crash of God accomplishes beautiful things, it can be very painful. And I'd rather see you (and me) giving Him praise before He has to discipline us to that point.
(By the way, if you live in Cedar Rapids and didn't hear my message this morning and happen to read this on Sunday afternoon, I invite you to come at 5:00 pm tonight. If you don't know how to get to New Covenant, here are directions.)
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