Have you ever created something and you were really proud of it? Who do you give credit to? Listen to this week’s episode about something magnificent Nebucanezer built and how pride took over him. Hear how Nebuchadnezzar learned a lesson on who to give credit to.Contributor: This week we hear from Ms. Gloria who leads out in sharing time on our Starting With Jesus weekly videos. She will share about a wonderful project that she completed and what a success it was. She will share with us how being praised for what we accomplish does not bring true happiness.

Have you ever created something and you were really proud of it? Who do you give credit to? Listen to this week’s episode about something magnificent Nebucanezer built and how pride took over him. Hear how Nebuchadnezzar learned a lesson on who to give credit to.Contributor: This week we hear from Ms. Gloria who leads out in sharing time on our Starting With Jesus weekly videos. She will share about a wonderful project that she completed and what a success it was. She will share with us how being praised for what we accomplish does not bring true happiness.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Starting with Jesus

Heather Bennett

Reflect and Renew May 2023

Missionary Prisoners

A King’s Nightmare

The Fiery Furnace

The Unseen Watcher

In The Lion’s Den


All my energy went towards children's ministry. I had little ones who needed me to be busy so they can be busy, if that makes any sense. Problem though, it seemed like the children's program in my area were less than ideal. I'll just do 1 myself. It was a successful program and was now the talk of the town.

Sure felt good for all I had done to be acknowledged, but why do I feel so terrible? Welcome to Reflect and Renew. Hey, I'm Katie. I'm so glad that you'll be joining me today. We will be learning and growing together in our walk with Jesus.

You will surely be encouraged and challenged as we study week by week and hear from the experiences of others. Have you ever created something and you were really proud of it? I enjoy sewing small quilted items like purses or wallets. I don't sew quilts. I just never have gotten into that.

But I do enjoy quilting purses. You go to the store, you pick out the perfect fabric, making sure all the colors are just the right hue, and then you take it home, cut out each piece, fuse it to the fleece. You can quilt it by sewing patterns into the fleece and fabric that are there together. And then you put all the different parts together, sew it up. Depending on the project, it can take hours.

But when it's done, when you've ironed it nice and crisp, You have a wonderful item that you created, and it's such a good feeling. I found that the bigger the project, the more time and effort that I put into something, the more proud I am of it. If it's something small, like cleaning up the kitchen, I think, oh, wow, that sure feels good to have a clean kitchen and then I go on with my day But when it's a big project like a fundraiser I did for a school and all the different elements that you have to make sure are just right Well when it's done when it's completed when it's finished. I just walk a little taller I can imagine that's how Nebuchadnezzar was feeling. It wasn't a clean kitchen or a clean house that he got done.

No. Because of his planning, his construction project, the focus that he had on his city. It's now called 1 of the most magnificent cities in the world. Before we jump into the story this week, I want to encourage you to check out the weekly devotional, Renew, Staying with Jesus. That's the devotional that we use for this podcast and you can find it on our website startingwithjesus.com slash renew or you can write to us at renew at starting with Jesus dot com.

You just ask for the devotional to be sent to your inbox every Sunday morning. And during our time together, we're skimming the surface of the devotional. But if you get it and you read it, I know you'll enjoy the different elements of the devotional. Why don't you check it out? Imagine how Nebuchadnezzar was feeling.

His city was done. The project was done. He was standing up on the rooftop of his palace, the grandest in the world, and admiring the works of his hands. Well, maybe not his hands specifically, but everything that his leadership had accomplished. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?

We can see a few things from his words here. First, he gives himself credit for building Babylon. I have built. The second thing is he gives himself the power. He says, by my mighty power.

And thirdly, he does it all for himself. For my majesty. Where is God in all of it? You might say, well he was a heathen king. He didn't serve God.

That is true. But God had been very, you might say, hands on with this king. Multiple times Nebuchadnezzar had been shown the power of God and he was brought to the place where he acknowledged God as the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets. And when he was on the plain of Dura He says to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. And they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies that they should not serve nor worship any God except their own God.

Do you see? He had had a real experience multiple times with the God of heaven. And just a year before, God had sent him a special dream where Daniel had warned him to turn away from his sins, be kind to the poor. Did he listen? Well, we don't know.

Maybe for a time he did, for a couple weeks or a month, or maybe not. Either way, everything that God had told him would happen, happened. Nebuchadnezzar became like a wild animal for 7 years. After this time period of living in the field, eating grass like an ox, Daniel chapter 4 verse 34 says, and At the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me. And I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever.

For His Dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. Now, who is he giving the credit to? To God. Has he learned his lesson? I think so.

What an experience. Who do we give credit to when we finish a project? Do we take the praise to ourselves or do we give God the credit? It's something to think about. This week we hear from our very own Miss Gloria, who leads out the sharing time for our Starting with Jesus weekly videos.

You can find those videos on our Starting with Jesus YouTube channel. A lot of times kids enjoy that. In fact, that's 1 of the highlights of the whole video for many of them. Miss Gloria is going to share with us about a wonderful project that she completed and what a success it was. Everyone was giving her all kinds of praise for a job Well done, but she didn't feel happy.

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Saying those words was such a temptation for me. Pause, saying thank you was a temptation? Who's ever heard of that, being a temptation for anyone? If you say those words, aren't you just being polite?

Isn't that just called having good manners? Being courteous? Well, let me fill you in so you'll understand my predicament a little better. I've always been a go-getter, a doer, a shaker. I put my best foot forward in all I do.

When I had kids, all my energy went towards children's ministry. I was so excited. I had little ones who needed me to be busy so they can be busy, if that makes any sense. They're kids, I thought. They need some quality activities to keep their little brain sharp and active bodies moving.

I need to get them involved with something. I need to get them involved with everything. So that's what I did. At least I tried to. Problem, though, it seemed like the children's program in my area were less than ideal and not what I wanted for my children.

Like for example, I tried a few of the local VBSs, but they were chaotic and wild. Fun, yes, but there was not a whole lot of Bible story learning in any of them. In 1 particular 1, the teachers would just sit around and chit-chat about their week or gossip about so-and-so or stay on their phones the entire time, paying little, if any, attention to the kids who were also sitting around discussing their favorite worldly cartoons or movies. And sometimes the teacher would even join in on those conversations. Can you believe that?

And the music played was so loud and fast paced it made the children want to dance, and dance they did. Even if you could manage to hear the lyrics, they were shallow and repetitive. The Bible stories were trivialized and very superficial. Sometimes facts were doctored up to make for a more exciting storyline. Important meanings were omitted due to disinterest from both students and teachers.

Unfortunately, Jesus was not the center there. Surely my kids needed to go to a VBS, but please Lord, not at these places. I looked around at different VBSs, but they all seemed to have almost the same atmosphere. Ugh, I was so frustrated. As a new mom, I wanted more for my kids, a lot more.

There was a VBS in every corner. I could find none that were halfway decent. At least that's how I felt as I looked around my area for something of spiritual quality and with chaos control. And that was my problem for a while until I had a bright idea. Instead of sitting there pouting that things were less than great.

I'll just do 1 myself. I can help or get involved or do something. God will help me. I just know he will. And God did.

He helped me put together a VBS that was perfect. He sent me helpers that cared and tried their best to make it worthwhile for every child in attendance. We had a great time digging into God's Word every day. Craft time was organized and methodically run. Games were coordinated beautifully and encouraged players of all levels to participate.

Worship time was not a dance party, but instead it was a time for praise and worship in an elevating and edifying way. Bible stories were not trivialized and did not include fake news to make the stories more interesting. Everything was biblically sound and centered on Jesus. The goal of each volunteer was to make sure the kids walked away knowing how much Jesus loves them. The precious time we spent together in that VBS was used to get the kids spiritually ready to receive great blessings from above.

The hearts of the young and old were lifted to God. Now, I'm not sure if you've ever felt that before, where everything that could go right, went right. It's like the opposite of what they call Murphy's Law. God had orchestrated the whole thing so perfectly. Wow!

Thank you, God. Thank you for giving me the energy and know-how in planning, organizing, assigning, and doing. You helped me from start to finish. Well, you would think the story ended there, huh? On a happy note.

Energetic Mom saves the day! Woo-hoo! A Bible-based VBS where Jesus is at the core. Wonderful! Everybody goes home happy, right?

Nope. That's not where the story ends. There's 1 last part, the most important of all if you ask me. It's the part where I learned my lesson. What?

Your lesson? Yep, I learned my lesson. You see, I did everything with such gusto and drenched in prayer that everything went smoothly. Everything was a success. Everyone joined and showed up.

Everybody was happy. My head was spinning with how great the VBS turned out. I couldn't catch a breath with all the hugs I got from the little ones. There was no downtime during the program and the kids were extracting so much from their lessons. It showed.

It was all so perfect. Everything was so perfect. And as I continued to pray for help and wisdom, it just kept being more perfect. No complaints, everyone was all smiles. I was on cloud 9.

It was a successful program and was now the talk of the town. And that's when the story takes an unfortunate turn. The compliments on a job well done started pouring in. Little had 1 compliment been made when the next was already in mid-sentence. Wow, I thought, what do I say?

I worked super hard to make this happen. I put my best foot forward. I went and I got and I did and I shook. I dove in head first and was the last 1 out of the water. I gave it my all.

I went all out. Early to rise, late to bed, driving here, driving there. I stopped at nothing, whatever it took. I got the job done, 110%. I gave nothing less and oh how people noticed.

Sure felt good to be recognized. Sure felt good for all I had done to be acknowledged. And this my dear friends, brings us back to how I started this talk. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Saying those words was such a temptation for me and I fell for it.

I thank people as they complimented I thank people as they hugged me and patted me on the back in my heart I knew I should be pointing to God and giving him full credit from start to finish it was all him who thought of the theme. It was him who inspired the helpers to come. It was him who gave me the energy to do it all. It was him who kept order and maintained a spirit of love and learning throughout the entire week. But people were thanking me, me, and I was saying thank you.

Now at first I told myself, there's nothing wrong with me saying thank you. I'm just being polite and courteous, right? I had worked hard and people noticed. There's nothing wrong with that, right? But why do I feel so terrible?

And as I thought about this, I began to loathe people's compliments. The honor and fame of all of it was just too much to bear. The more people thanked me, the more I felt like a complete failure. Instead of basking in the sunshine of my success, I stood there, a fake smile on my face, a heaviness in my heart, and an unpleasant feeling in my gut. So I decided that I should give the glory and credit to God, the 1 who had made all of this possible.

I should have done that from the start. So I had a little heart to heart with God and asked him for forgiveness. And I started giving him credit in public. But now my words sounded awkward as I pointed to God with every compliment that came my way. I heard the words coming out of my mouth, and I knew they were true, but boy did it not sound like me at all.

Luckily, the more I gave the honor to God, the easier it became, and the more happy I felt. Phew! My burden was lifted and my spirits were high again, and I knew it was all thanks to my loving God. Jesus had come through yet again. I was more satisfied now than I was after the VPS program.

Lesson learned on my part for sure. Now what about you? What would you have done? What would you have done? What do you do when people praise and honor you?

Do you smile and take all the credit for yourself? God has given us all talents. He's given us abilities. And it's not wrong to use them. In fact, He wants us to use them.

But it's important to remember who gives us those talents, Who gives us the health, the strength, the mental ability to accomplish a job? Do we give God that credit? Each week we have a challenge that helps us to apply our lesson. It can be awkward when we start to give God the credit if we haven't done so before. And you even heard that a little bit from Miss Gloria where she talked about how when she started giving God the credit it just didn't sound like her.

So what do we need to do when something's a little hard or a little awkward? Practice, right? Practice makes perfect. So this week we're going to practice. Think of a time when you used your talents for God.

Tell the story first the way you might tell it as if you were the star of the story and then tell it again with the focus on God. What kind of a difference is that in the telling? Is the story the same? You might even do this exercise during family worship and talk together as a family about ways we can practice giving God the credit. Let's pray.

Lord, help us to be humble. Help us to give you the credit. Thank you so much for the talents and abilities you've given each listener that you want us to use for you and for your glory. Help us to do that. Help us to Give you the credit when a job is well done.

Help us to point people to you. In Jesus' name, amen. This podcast is sponsored by Starting With Jesus. To find out more about other programs Or to find out the links that were shared in this podcast, just check out the description box below.

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Series

Reflect and Renew May 2023

The Unseen Watcher

Description

Parent Series

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Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Missionary Prisoners

14m

A King’s Nightmare

11m

The Fiery Furnace

17m

The Unseen Watcher

17m

In The Lion’s Den

12m

Sound Doctrine