 Amen so Ezekiel chapter 27 so we're looking here at a story in the Bible Ezekiel of course is a prophet of Judah during the fall of Judah during he lived through the Babylonian captivity in the southern kingdom of Judah but here he's not talking about Judah here Ezekiel is talking about a city to the north a city called Tyre so before we get into the sermon this morning a couple weeks ago or a few weeks ago we had a sermon called who holds you up well this morning I want to give you a sermon called who made you who made you and I don't mean by who physically made you I mean who made you who put you where you are today so in Ezekiel chapter 27 we're actually looking we're gonna look at the at the center part of this story but basically Ezekiel chapter 27 and Ezekiel chapter 26 and then in Ezekiel chapter 28 Ezekiel the Bible God here is telling us about the judgment of this great city about this city called Tyre that is going to be judged and in the center of verse chapter number 27 we see you know this great description of what Tyre is and what Tyre has and where Tyre is getting all of its blessings look it down at Ezekiel chapter 27 and look at verse 16 so let's look at Tyre which by all means reading this this chapter that brother Ryan just read we could we can assume that Tyre is a greatly blessed city a greatly blessed city look at verse number 16 the Bible says and it will just read some of it we're not going to reread the whole chapter but just to make the point let me start in verse 16 where the Bible says Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making they occupied in thy fares with emeralds purple and broidered work and fine linen and coral and agate so this talking here about you know things the wares the things that you wear they're getting all these and these just aren't you know potato sacks that they're talking about here you'll you'll notice it it talks about blue clothing and purple clothing these are expensive items you know getting those types of colors of you know clothing and broidered clothing with you know these purple and these emeralds it's obviously fine linen this is expensive stuff look at verse 17 Judah and it's so it's talking about all these places that send Tyre all these blessings look at verse 17 Judah and the land of Israel they were thy merchants they traded in thy market wheat of Minoth and Penning and honey and oil and balm so they're saying here that that Judah now what came from Judah was food and they gave Judah you know Judah was farmland they gave food to Tyre which is ironic because one of the reasons that Tyre's being judged is because of their treatment of Judah during the captivity look at verse 18 Damascus now we're talking about Syria was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making for the multitude of all riches in the wine of hellbond and white wool Dan also in Javan going to and fro occupied thy fares bright iron Cassia and Calimus were in thy market Deedon was thy merchant in the precious clothes for chariot so here we're talking about things like you know building materials and medicines Calimus that were in the market came from all these different places verse 21 Arabia and the princes of Kedar the Bible says they occupied thee in lambs and rams and goats and these were they thy merchants so they even got livestock from you know they even got livestock from all these different places they shipped in everything look at verse 22 the merchants of Sheba and Rama they were thy merchants they occupied in thy fares with chief of all spices with all precious stones and gold Heron and canna and Eden the merchants of Sheba Asher and Chilmad were thy merchants these were thy merchants in all sorts of things in blue clothes and brighter work and in chests of rich apparel bound with cords and made of Cedar among thy merchandise so we're not talking about just things that that sustain them like food and you know your basic staples of life we're talking about all these luxuries you know we talked about luxuries things that you don't really need but if you have extra money you can get these luxury items you know nobody really needs you know when I go to go shopping you know I I don't really need diamonds I don't really need rubies I don't really need pearls I don't really need these things these are things that you buy when things are going well you know when you have extra money left over verse number 25 the ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market and thou was replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the sea so not only is this a country blessed but you see all these merchants from all these different places they love this city why why do they love the city because they're selling all their stuff to this city that's just consuming all these items so that the ships of Tarshish Tarshish is way to the west that comes across the Mediterranean sea to tire tire was this city on the coast and you know they're saying that the ships they love these people they love them I mean the ships the merchandise I mean it's similar turned to revelation chapter 18 it's very similar to the city of Babylon in revelation it's a very similar situation look at verse number 10 of revelation chapter 18 the last book in your Bible revelation chapter 18 so we see it's a very blessed nation look at verse 10 of revelation 18 standing afar off for fear of her torment saying alas alas the great city Babylon that mighty city for in one hour is thy judgment comes so here we see that this city is also being judged in revelation and the merchants of all the earth shall weep and mourn over her now do they weep and mourn so it's important to know that that all these people praised Tyrus they praise Tyrus why because they were able to sell stuff to Tyrus and similarly in Babylon we see that you know this is kind of a shallow love they have for these cities these merchants have kind of a shallow love for these cities and it says look the merchants shall weep and mourn over her well all you know that's nice they're sad I mean this city is being destroyed in one hour they're sad for these people no for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore they're only sad because like who are we going to sell our stuff to you know they're destroyed are you know they're saying our businesses are destroyed our livelihoods are destroyed verse 12 the merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine linen and purple and silk sounds familiar right and scarlet and thion wood and all manner of vessels of ivory and all manner vessels of the most precious wood and a brass and iron and marble and cinnamon and odors and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beast livestock and sheep and horses chariots and slaves and the souls of men that doesn't sound good that the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from me and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from me and thou shalt find them no more at all the merchants of these things that means the people selling these things which were made rich by her so that's why the merchants love tyrus that's why the merchants love Babylon shall stand afar off for fear of her torment weeping and wailing and saying alas alas that great city that was clothed and fine linen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls for in one hour so great riches has come to not and every shipmaster and all the company and ships and sailors and as many as trade by sea stood afar off and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning saying what city is like unto this great city and they shall cast dust on their heads and cried weeping and wailing saying alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all the ships in the sea by reasons of her costliness for in one hour she has made desolate basically a very similar story with revelation 18 and the city of Babylon all these ships all these merchants just bringing all these wonderful items to tyrus and to Babylon and the merchants were just you know they're distraught because they're not going to be able to sell anything anymore all these things by the way that nobody really needs all these things that were just luxury items and things that you know are just great over blessings that you don't just luxuries is what these things were turn to Ezekiel chapter 27 so you say you know tyrus is going to be destroyed tyrus who has all these things this city who's who's just greatly blessed has all these you know wonderful you know luxuries that they're enjoying they're going to be destroyed but the question is why why are they going to be destroyed look at verse number 27 of Ezekiel 27 the bible says thy riches and thy fares thy merchandise in thy mariners and thy pilots like hawkers the occupiers of thy merchandise all thy men of war that are in thee and in thy company which is in the midst of thee shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of ruin so god here is saying that all these things are going to be destroyed in the sea now turn to Ezekiel chapter 28 but the question is what have they done what did they do to deserve this why would god destroy them look at Ezekiel chapter 28 look at verse number two the bible says this son of man say unto the prince of tyrus thus saith the lord god because well here we go because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said i am god i sit in the seat of god in the midst of the seas yet thou art a man and not god though thine set thine heart as the heart of god so this is the main problem right here okay there was a lot of actions that tyrus and you'll notice that when god judges let me just go off for a second when god judges somebody in the old testament you know he does a complete job that's why you can you can say when you're out soul winning and you're giving somebody the gospel that hey god is the perfect judge god doesn't miss anybody so the back story here is that when juda gets taken into captivity you know tyrus takes advantage of juda they you know and god does that when god judges his own people he then goes back and he also judges any nation that took advantage of that situation you will find that throughout the the entire bible you will find god is a complete judge so he will also judge nations that take advantage of you know his people during their time of judgment and that's exactly what's happening here but the main point and the main problem with this king of tyrus was that he claimed to be god and he put himself in the place of god now ezekiel 28 of course is a great parallel passage comparing the king of tyrus to satan himself and we're not going to get into that but basically this is satan's problem is satan wants satan wants to declare himself as the most high the bible says and that's what the king of tyrus did that's why it's a great parallel passage you know the ezekiel 28 goes into some some statements and things that it must only be talking about satan but it applies to the king of tyrus which is why it's a great parallel prophecy here so look his heart was lifted up so much now i mean i think that we all get prideful in our lives but i don't hopefully you don't get so prideful in your life that you put yourself in the place of god that would be but that's where this guy was that's where this guy was and god is going to bring him down and throw him into the sea the bible says he's going to destroy this this man's city he's lifted up through blessings they were lifted up by their blessings now look this is a common pattern aside from the king of tyrus if we just look at the pattern of his city the pattern of a nation this is a common pattern throughout history of prosperous nations it's not just tyrus and not just babelon in revelation this is what happens to nations this is what happens i mean the u.s today i mean if you don't look at this story in ezekiel chapter 26 27 and 28 and see the united states you're not i mean you're not opening your eyes if you don't read you know revelation 18 and see the similarities of the united states you i mean you're not you're not you're not opening your eyes when you're reading the bible i mean you think about the united states today how many have you ever been on the gulf of mexico if you're ever on the gulf of mexico all you will see from the southern coast of texas you will just see ships you will just see large ships coming in i mean all the way through the horizon it looks like at night it looks like a city there's so many ships coming in and as you go out 30 40 50 miles into the gulf of mexico it's just ship after ship after ship san francisco is the same way you've ever been to san francisco and you ever stood on the golden gate bridge what's coming under the bridge constantly ship after cargo ship after cargo ship after cargo ship i mean this is us what are they bringing blue clothes precious stones timber mercedes-benz vmw's that's what they're bringing they're bringing all these things that they're just luxuries they're luxuries and on the other side of that as far as the merchants when i'm reading this as far as the merchants we went to a couple mission trips a couple years ago for for two consecutive years and we went into the the manila bay and we were out on a cruise on manila bay and what do you see you see cargo ships but they're not they're not coming they're leaving the cargo ships are leaving where they going they're coming here is where they're coming these are the merchants that are sending i mean this is happening today this is the exact same thing that is happening today so what i mean what the question is what can we learn from all this and i've said this before i'll say it again every national example every example of a nation in the bible can be applied to us personally i mean we can not only learn from it as our nation but look we can learn from it personally in our lives it can be applied directly to our lives so this is what we're going to be doing this morning we're going to be talking about you know blessings this morning and where did your blessings come from who made you who made you who gave you what you have and you're like i already know the answers that well let's just dig into it and figure out why when we receive blessings there's so many troubles there's so many problems that that are caused so the first thing i want to talk about this morning is this the first lesson about your blessings and things that things that you receive as blessings in your life to remember and when you read Ezekiel chapter 27 you must remember this because look all these things all these things that said you know they're gone in the day of destruction in the day in revelation chapter 18 it was one hour that all these things were gone in one day in one hour the first thing that you need to realize is that blessings come and blessings go that is the first thing that you need to realize in your life look this year this past year i'm sorry last year from my understanding was a pretty good one for most of you was a pretty good year for most of you but but look we must keep in mind that those blessings can go as fast as they can think i want you to think about this for a minute i want you to think about this morning all you that had a great year in 2020 if you didn't have a great year uh you know just still listen but look in 2020 if you had a great year think of the fragility of that success and most of you if you have a business or you're running this i mean you know that you know success is fragile you know or you know just think of all the things that had to go right for that success to take place i mean look people needed to recognize your efforts maybe if you had efforts that paid off somebody had to recognize those efforts you know or not i mean you don't think there's people out there you don't think it's easy for people to not recognize your efforts there there's a majority of people out there that love just taking credit for everybody else's effort why did someone recognize yours so maybe somebody recognized your effort in 2020 you know they easily could have taken credit for it and not given you any recognition happens all the time happens all the time it's almost normal today for people to take credit for you know people some people don't have any ideas some people aren't good at their job so you know you get somebody who feels like they can take something for their own they're going to do it many people so i mean you think about the fragility of your success look somebody recognized your effort somebody was there i mean look daniel was somebody who was really good at you know giving credit where credit was due and we'll talk about that a little bit later but think about you know think about a business think about sales couldn't sales just not turn out the way that you want them to turn out i mean couldn't couldn't think of you know a business thriving think about all the things that need to go right for a business to actually thrive think about the merchants but you're like oh you're sitting in the pew this morning you're sitting in the chairs this morning and you're like ah but i have great ideas i just have great ideas first of all i mean that that's another one in itself where did your ideas come from and but an idea has a million unforeseen things that can make it not a good idea you can have a lot of ideas i mean think about it i've had a lot of ideas but those ideas don't turn out because of maybe things like cost or things like maintenance or things like you know it would just take too long to build that idea or things like you know there's a here's a great idea i actually had a patent on something one time and it just there was just no market for it look it takes it takes a lot more and i've said this to people who have asked me um questions on on ideas and maybe i could get a patent on this or maybe look it takes a lot more than just a good idea a lot more than just a good idea i mean what if it doesn't perform like you think it will this is where math comes in kids what if the performance of your ideas just not what you thought it would be because you didn't think of something what the point is there's all sorts of risks and unknowns with ideas all sorts it takes more than just a good idea to be successful much more so the first lesson this morning is that success that all these blessings are very fragile realize that they can come and that they can go that's the first thing the second thing is this god will use others to bless you remember that notice notice this morning how nothing how nothing came from tire i mean nothing came from there it was just talking about all the places that tire bought things from i mean don't you think that that's important look that makes that makes those blessings even more fickle for a couple of different reasons first of all they're not as sustainable if you're getting everything from somewhere else those blessings are not as sustainable it's that simple go back to ezekiel chapter 26 go back to ezekiel chapter 26 if you have nothing if you do if your blessings don't come from yourself or people close to you look it they're easier to take away they're easier to lose look at ezekiel chapter 26 in verse number first of all verse number seven talks about how they're going to be invaded by babelon we won't read that but look at verse number 12 look what the bible says that's going to happen with these riches and they shall make a spoil of thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses and they shall lay stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water now the beauty of this verse right here is that what actually happened to tire tire had two parts of it tire had a coastal city and then tire had an island that was about two miles offshore and babelon laid siege to tire and they took the city but they couldn't take the island they just it was too well it had walls that were 150 feet tall and they couldn't break through they couldn't get i mean nebuchadnezzar spent years trying to siege this island city of tire and he couldn't break through but alexander the great did and you know what he did he laid he took the dust of the city sound familiar 250 years after verse 12 do you hear what i said 250 years after god said this in verse 12 alexander the great took the dust of the city and the ruins of the city and he laid it in the water and he built a land bridge to the island and he besieged the island he took his navy and he blockaded the island so they couldn't get supplies and he took the island that way by taking what is he killed chapter 12 prophesied and now go you do a do a satellite view of tyrus and what you will see is a peninsula it is still like that today so that's a great prophecy in the bible right here but the point is god's judgment is complete and he wipes the floor completely god's the perfect judge and look it's never a good thing when all your blessings come from somewhere else you say why you know number one like i said it's fragile it's fragile but number two is a nation that cannot provide for itself is like a man that can't provide for his family a nation that can't provide for itself look if i want to destroy you as a man you know what i do if i hated you if i hated you and i wanted to destroy you you know what i would do this is just me if i wanted to completely ruin you i wouldn't kill you i would give you everything for free i would give you all these things and make you appreciate nothing that would not only ruin you but it would ruin future generations of your family look at sections of our society today that have been ruined for generations because of this very thing but look if you get everything from everywhere else that's an extreme example but if you get everything from everywhere else and you don't build anything yourself you will not appreciate things you will become unappreciative turn to zeff and i at chapter one you will become unappreciative and apathetic you will begin to not care you will just have all these luxury things you will think it's normal you will just think that people owe you things this is what you will become as a nation and as a person it will happen to you zeff and i at chapter one look at verse number 12 the bible says this i mean look at zeff and i as another prophet during the fall of juda and look at what he says here this is just spot on on what will happen to you if you receive blessings from elsewhere and you appreciate nothing in verse number 12 it says initial come to pass at that time that i will search druslan with their candles and punish the men that are settled on their leaves that say in their heart the lord will not do good neither will he do evil they're just apathetic god's not going to do anything he's not going to he's is even here god's dead god's not involved in this god's not going to get involved you know i mean these are the people that are saying peace peace when war is coming he's like you know they're doing all these wicked things and they're about to be judged like god he's not even paying attention is what they're saying here but he is paying attention and judgment is coming that's the point of the prophets to come and just to speak against people like this saying hey judgment's coming judgment's coming no no no no not not not peace not peace war is coming but these people are god god will not do good neither will he do evil therefore their good shall become booty and their houses the desolation and they shall also build houses but not inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards but not drink the wine thereof the bible says here is like all their stuff all these these things that they that bless them and turn them into this they're going to be booty for somebody else they're going to be spoils people are going to take them all away they're just kind of like me god's neither here nor there here's the these are the people the prophets were speaking against right here from complacency to apathy remember that all your goods will become spoiled the bible is saying it's not good but look if you build things if you build things if you're a nation that builds things you appreciate those things i mean you know we used to say when we were kids like when we were kids we used to say cars really not because what we hated was we like had all these junky cars when you know i was in high school we had a junky car and your friends had junky cars and we work on our junky cars and we bolt stupid things to our junky cars to try to make them go faster and we invent things to put on our cars that don't cost any money what we hated was the kid whose parents just went and bought them like a new Camaro man we hated that guy here we'd be like you know what your car is not your own till you work on it we would say your car is not yours until you've modified it spoiled kid because he's driving this new car and it's faster than all our cars and it's a better car than all our cars and our cars are never going to be as nice as this kid's car it was like hey you know at least these are ours we worked on these things we made them our own so it was the same kind of theory same theory a nation that just gets everything from everywhere else a person that just gets everything it just you become ruined you don't you don't appreciate those things so all these blessings from afar became a snare to tire they became a snare to Babylon so we see that success is fragile we see that God can use others to bless you but it's dangerous so we can conclude turn to James chapter one we can conclude in James chapter one we conclude look at James chapter one verse 17 the bible says James chapter one verse 17 the bible says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning look every blessing comes from the lord don't ever forget that and he uses a multitude of others to bless us other nations other people etc i mean personally i mean you know you can be a blessing to you know your family your children your spouse all these people can bless you as well you say you say this morning you know you say this is none of this is a surprise i know that all my blessings come from God and i know that you know God uses people to bless me and i know that if my business is doing well that it's from God and that all these different things and these ideas you know they're just God's ways of blessing me and i know that when you know that person helped me here and recognized me for this that you know i know that that really came from God and that's that person was just being used by God to do that you say i know all this stuff is like why are you even like talking about this like this is like christianity 101 stuff i mean was anybody surprised by anything i've said so far were you surprised brother i'm just kidding now the point is i mean this is pretty basic stuff but i mean let me ask you this question if this is so basic if this is so 101 why does everyone take God's blessings and turn against him if it's so basic why does everyone get blessed in their life and turn against God why does everyone get puffed up and filled with pride and turn against the Lord why can't we i mean think of the king of tire the worst example of this i mean he got so puffed up he claimed to be God i mean he's like the extreme of the spectrum you get puffed up with pride because you've gotten some blessings you know you're kind of moving in that direction but the guy actually took it you know further than anybody except maybe satan you know good job who wants that award nobody but look why do we let these things fill us with pride and turn us against the Lord why do we do it why can't we take a blessing why can't you take a blessing and thank God for it enjoy it and glorify the Lord for it i mean why why is that so difficult for us to do i mean why can't here's another why can't we bless other people with our blessings i mean that's a great methodology by the way that's a great methodology as soon as you get blessed just bless somebody else just be like it's like a hot potato i mean that's a great methodology just write that one down and just do that that will help you not get puffed up and not get prideful you receive i mean my wife got our coffee paid for this morning on a small small thing somebody just paid for her coffee the car ahead of her and then she just like paid for the people behind us i don't know what the point of that is but that's what happened i mean it was like somebody paid for 20 dollars for the car for us and it only cost us four dollars we came out of that one ahead you know so my whole day is made because of that no i'm just kidding but i mean when you receive a blessing bless others immediately that's just a great little methodology to just try to keep yourself down a little bit in your life why do we become puffed up i'm going to tell you why this is where you know maybe you'll learn something new here's why people get puffed up when they get turned to ecclesiasties chapter two ecclesiasties i mean talk about a book that is exactly what we're talking about okay ecclesiasties chapter two why do we get puffed up why can't we take a blessing the right way why can't we as people take a blessing thank god for it praise god for it be appreciative of it why is it like three days later that we've already forgotten about it or you know it's three or four days later or a week later we're just like man i'm awesome i mean here's the thing you know the reason that i got that blessing is because i'm great why are we like that and don't tell me that you're not like that because everybody has that thought at least trying to come in through their fleshly you know self okay so look it happened to solomon it happened to solomon look at ecclesiasties chapter two and here's the first reason that this will happen to you and the first reason is this is people will praise you when you're up people will praise you when you're up look at ecclesiasties chapter two in verse number nine i mean there's a lot we could read in ecclesiasties but the bible says in verse number nine it says so i was great and increased more than all that were before me in jerusalem also my wisdom remained with me you ever get into that competition with somebody you know like oh yeah you know you know maybe you graduated with a bunch of people or you know you went to school with a bunch of people and you're comparing on facebook who's more successful in their life and you're like oh yeah oh yeah well look at this picture of steak and look at this picture of this i just ate this look where i am look where i am you know all this kind of stuff you're just competing with people i mean saw him in one saw him in one he won the competition that we could never win he won the competition he's like i was the greatest i increased more than all that were before me people came from all over the world to tell him how great he was and and not only that but then he had something that you you'll probably never have but people are just giving him stuff you're so great here's all a bunch of gold you know we're not you know hopefully that's never happened to me okay but i mean people are just giving saw him in all this gold this is probably never going to happen to you either but look people are going to praise you when you're up they're going to tell you how great you are you get in a position of power somewhere at work or whatever you're going to have all kinds of people they just start treating you really nice for i mean no reason it's going to be weird they're just going to be super nice to you they're all going to want to be your friend i mean this is what happened to saw them they're going to flatter you turn to proverbs chapter 29 they're going to flatter you they're going to tell you you're great when maybe they don't even think you're great but they're going to tell you all these things and look this is where the snare is set this is where the snare begins because look not only will that not only will that kind of treatment by other people destroy your appreciation from god because then what they're doing is they're telling you you're great i was great saw them and said i was great i mean you compare saw them into somebody else that we're going to look at in a few minutes but look at proverbs chapter 29 in verse number five this is why the bible says this in proverbs it says a man that flattereth his neighbors spread a net for his feet and as all these people are nice to you and telling you how great you are you're just walking right into that net you're walking into a trap and your pride is getting puffed up and your appreciation for god is being is being lowered and you're walking into that trap that's why in proverbs 16 18 you're not the turn there it says pride goeth before destruction i mean the flatterer and the setting of the net that's just one means of that destruction but you're going to walk into that and it says in haughty spirit before a fall so the pride is going to blind you the pride that you get from people telling you things is going to blind you and you're going to walk into traps and you're going to get caught by those traps that net is going to get you and you're going to appreciate you know and then you know god may get to the point where he actually destroys you and that you know blessings come and blessings go now look there's somebody that was very good at not letting this happen to him turn to daniel chapter two the best example hands down in the bible of somebody that was extremely successful that gave every single credit to the lord is daniel for sure look at daniel chapter two and look at verse number 26 he was very good and you know what he was very good at deflecting this so look at what he always does when people are telling him how great he is and people want to praise him he stops it right away he always stops it right away look at daniel chapter two and verse 26 the bible says of course the king is looking he has a dream king nebuchadnezzar has a dream he doesn't know what it means he's like you know what nobody knows what it means and he goes and he brings all the wise men and they're like okay we'll interpret the dream tell us what it is you know and he's like you know um he's like no you know tell me what the dream is first and then interpret it and they're like oh we're fraudsters we can't do that who nobody can do that and so he says i'm going to kill i'm going to kill everybody i'm going to kill all the wise men and daniel and his buddies they're part of that so daniel the lord reveals the dream to daniel and look at verse 26 and the king answered and said to daniel whose name was belta shazar art thou able to make known unto me the dream which i have seen and the interpretation thereof daniel answered in the presence of the king and he said the secret which the king had demanded cannot the wise men the astrologers the magicians the soothsayers show unto the king but there is a he says he says they can't he's like they can't do it the decree for their death has already happened he said but he says look the king is saying look at this point daniel already knows the dream daniel already knows what the answer is right now he has the answer that the king wants in his mind god has already shown it to him when he's speaking right now and he says and the king says can you show me this is what happens can you show me the dream daniel could have just said yes and then told him but what did daniel say he says look he's like nobody can tell you this dream he's saying none of your wise men can tell you this dream but verse 28 there is a god in heaven that reveal the secrets and make it known to king nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these as for thee oh king thy thoughts came into my mind upon thy bed what should come to pass here after and he that reveal his secrets make it known to thee what shall come to pass he's saying it's not coming from me but as for me this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that i have more than any living he's like look it was not revealed to me because i'm great he's like god told me the dream god is going to reveal the dream to you and it's not because i'm great so he even he even brings himself down to the king but for their sakes there shall be made known the interpretation to the king that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart daniel already knew the answer at this point he could have taken credit just by saying nothing he could have just said nothing the king could have said do you know the dream and he could have just told him the dream he could have said nothing but instead he tells him god revealed the dream and god revealed secrets and no wise men can do this so always remember with blessings you are the recipient not the source you are the recipient of blessings so look and another thing is what is that what is the last thing that daniel does here turn to daniel chapter 2 and look at verse number 49 the king made look at verse 48 what happens to daniel here what happens to daniel daniel receives a great blessing here a great actual blessing we're talking about a man that became second in command of two empires of two worldwide empires in verse 48 then the king made daniel a great man and gave him many gifts great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon then the next thing he does daniel requested the king he set Shadrach Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon but daniel sat in the gate of the king he blesses his friends right away he takes his blessing just blesses his friends just like that so look the conclusion is this i mean look even secular secular philosophy has said that there is no self-made men you can read you can read secular philosophers secular books secular thinkers that will tell you there's no self-made men there's no i mean we love to to hear stories about somebody that came from from nothing and became some big powerful person because that tells us to hey anybody can do it through hard work and i mean these are great secular stories that people like to look to read i mean these these these rags to riches stories but even the secular people know that there is no self-made men along the way somebody agreed somebody gave them a job somebody blessed them in some way everybody could have ignored them everybody could have been against them and that you would have gotten nowhere there is no such thing as a self-made man even in secular philosophy but to the christian we must recognize that every good gift comes from above everyone had god use someone to give them a leg up give them a break along the way and anyone who gets prideful from blessings i mean is a fool yet people do it all the time anybody that gets prideful from blessings i mean they will ultimately end in destruction i mean it's a travesty it's a travesty tire is an extreme example of this travesty not only were they blessed but they use their blessings to be evil and oppressive so not only did they they have great blessings but they used those and they and they didn't appreciate god for it but they took it steps further and they used it to oppress people they used it to you know do evil to people and god i mean god's not going to let that go if you get prideful from blessings christian i mean god is not going to let that go i mean that is not going to go unanswered i mean think about a father i mean this is exactly how god looks at us think about a father who thinks his children aren't appreciating things what is your reaction if you're a good father to that situation the perfect father is going to punish those situations is going to realize that you know what i've spoiled these children i've spoiled these children to the point where i am ruining them if god is pouring blessings on your life and you're not appreciating them but you're using them to build yourself up with pride god is going to realize that he's ruining you with blessings and he's going to he's he's going to go the other way for sure and things are going to get ugly depending on how far you take it depending on how hard you are to teach god destroyed tire so look stay humble in your success because you know you may not always be successful i mean it's a great it's a great test of character to see someone who is successful and who can receive blessings because the flesh wants to get puffed up flesh wants to look down on others the flesh wants to say you know brother i i don't know you know why you just can't get it together like me i don't know why you're not so successful like me it's a great testimony of character to someone who is handling success with humility just because you're saved doesn't mean you're going to have good character unfortunately that's what comes with you know salvation by through faith alone be a blessing to others in your success that's the first thing daniel did he immediately saves his friends you know you didn't make you just remember that god uses others to bless you pay that forward this has applications for soul winning as well by the way i mean this is soul winning this is soul winning you think you deserved salvation you think you deserve look you deserve to go to hell you think you deserve salvation yet somebody somebody preached the gospel to you somebody took the time to be that blessing to you somebody took the time to open a bible and explain the gospel to you i mean why in the world i got mine i'm saved yeah you are i'm saved i got mine look at all these unsaved people out here just all these all these all these people these wicked people i mean i mean that's true in a lot of cases but i mean can that turn us in i mean can that make your heart turn a certain way i mean the prideful the prideful saved christian will lose the heart for the lost and what a tragedy that would be i mean god blessed you with salvation somebody god god had somebody walk to you and tell you the truth and take the time to tell you the truth i mean don't just hang on to that and keep it for yourself i mean it is a person of great character that goes out and says you know what i i mean it has been saved for 10 years 15 years that knows that there's nothing they can do to not be saved that will go out and say you know what i didn't deserve this and the least i can do is show somebody else the least i can do is actually and i look i didn't even come up with that idea the least i can do is just listen to what the bible says and go show somebody else and pass that blessing on i mean that's the model of how this world is supposed to get saved by passing that blessing of salvation on to others by telling people the truth because people don't know and some people want to know not everybody wants to know but some people want to know we will find people today that want to know and we'll tell them so look it's a basic message this morning but it's a huge problem it's a basic message but a big problem you know hey all your blessings come from god tell me something i don't know well then why does everyone ruin their lives because of blessings that's why ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books it's just a great example of a guy that did it wrong and he's trying to help other people not do it wrong it's god's word trying to help us remind us that's why you see so many things repeated in the bible because god's trying to help us hey i know the flesh and i know how you are and i know you know your sinful nature be warned of these things so appreciate your blessings don't use them against the lord let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer