Imposter Syndrome

Peter Voorhees

Longing for a Savior • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Introduction

Last week was our first message in our new series, “Longing for a Savior”.

We are going to take the next 16 weeks and look at how in the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, they were longing for a Savior. They called Him the messiah, He was going to save the people from their sin, they were looking for God to do what He said He was going to do.

Genesis 3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

2 Samuel 7:12-13 “When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

They found themselves so often at the mercy of the empires around them, the culture invading their lives, and corruption from within that would lead them astray. God in His love and mercy would purify them, correct them, and continually send them prophets that would call them to faithfulness.

They would be unfaithful, but yet God would remain faithful.

“History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” -Mark Twain

We have a lot of parallels to the ANE follower of YHWH… it’s not the same, because Christ has come, Messiah has been revealed, come, lived, died, rose from the dead, ascended and is coming again.

While He has inaugurated His Kingdom, it is not fully consummated.

We find ourselves in Exile. We find ourselves longing to be home…

John 14:3 “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.”

John 17:24 ““Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation.”

Philippians 3:20 “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

My hope for this series is that we will allow this longing to rise up within us, give us permission to feel the weight of the brokenness of this world, in light of Jesus returning. That whatever we are facing today that we look through the lens of the inevitable return of Christ.

The next few weeks we are looking at the book of Daniel. How is this that they are longing for a Savior.

They’ve rebelled. God sends Nebuchadnezzer to take them into exile (605 B.C.)

They were brought into subjugation by Egypt, but as Nabopolassor came to power and overtook the Assyrian empire, his son made Israel a vassal kingdom. They supplied tribute, goods, and people to support the Babylonian empire.

But this is what Jeremiah says that God is saying, Jeremiah 29:4-7 “This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.””

Jeremiah 29:11-14 “For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.””

Church, we are in Exile… This is not our home, God will bring us unto Himself and eventually will establish His kingdom here on Earth. What we are going to see again this morning is that through out this book, it is not essentially about Daniel, but rather about God. It is a revelation of who he is and how he acts for our redemption. It’s to point us to God.

Main Point: In the moment of anxiety, through the practice of prayer, the prayer of petition and thanksgiving, making our requests known to God, the peace of God comes (guarding our hearts and minds (Phil 4:6-7)).

If you have your Bibles, let’s read our text this morning… we’re going to read Daniel 2:1-6, 11-23, 44-49.

Daniel 2:1-6 “In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled him, and sleep deserted him. So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, mediums, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. When they came and stood before the king, he said to them, “I have had a dream and am anxious to understand it.” The Chaldeans spoke to the king (Aramaic begins here): “May the king live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” The king replied to the Chaldeans, “My word is final: If you don’t tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be made a garbage dump. But if you make the dream and its interpretation known to me, you’ll receive gifts, a reward, and great honor from me. So make the dream and its interpretation known to me.””

Daniel 2:11–23 (CSB)

What the king is asking is so difficult that no one can make it known to him except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.” Because of this, the king became violently angry and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. The decree was issued that the wise men were to be executed, and they searched for Daniel and his friends, to execute them.

Then Daniel responded with tact and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon. He asked Arioch, the king’s officer, “Why is the decree from the king so harsh?” Then Arioch explained the situation to Daniel. So Daniel went and asked the king to give him some time, so that he could give the king the interpretation.

Then Daniel went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter, urging them to ask the God of the heavens for mercy concerning this mystery, so Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of Babylon’s wise men. The mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a vision at night, and Daniel praised the God of the heavens and declared:

May the name of God be praised forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him. He changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals the deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him. I offer thanks and praise to you, God of my ancestors, because you have given me wisdom and power. And now you have let me know what we asked of you, for you have let us know the king’s mystery.

Daniel 2:44-49 ““In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.” Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell facedown, worshiped Daniel, and gave orders to present an offering and incense to him. The king said to Daniel, “Your God is indeed God of gods, Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many generous gifts. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon. At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.”

This is the word of the Lord, let us pray… Amen. Please be seated.

It’s the unknown that gets me nervous. Not having been somewhere, not knowing the routine, not knowing the expectation can give me anxiety. Or being in situations that I haven’t been in for awhile or meeting people that I haven’t seen in a long while.

Many times I become anxious is because there is not a quick fix or it seems as if there is not a fix that will end well for everyone. (Health, finances, unhealthy relationships, etc.)

As a fixer, as a peacemaker, this creates and produces anxiety for me.

I think at some point every preacher, every pastor, every teacher along the way gets told “I don’t know that you are cut out for this?”

Well meaning people, but somewhere along the way, others look at the metrics of a lens other than God’s and say out of the most sincere place in their heart, “I don’t think you’re the right person”.

Now it’s at this point, the individual needs to discern… is this calling from God, or is it of man? Is what I’m doing what God has called me too or is this something I need to fulfill my internal desires?

Because there are those who do things a lot better than you do… there are many preachers, teachers, pastors who do what I do but do it 100x better. But am I called? Have I heard the voice of God? Have I conferred with His word? Have others verified this call in my life? Do I have the peace of God in the midst of it all?

That’s something that the world can not take, if we don’t give it to them, that peace that passes all understanding… the world can’t take that. People can’t take that. Only God can give it. So do you have it!?

YOU

What do you do when you are overwhelmed?

How do you do with surprises? Good surprises, bad surprises?

Harvard Business Review did a study on what happens to most people in the moment/time of anxiety:

You think you don’t have time for actions that would help you.

You don’t utilize your unconscious mind enough.

You interpret feeling overwhelmed as a weakness.

You default to your dominant approaches and defenses.

You withdraw from your supports.

Can you identify with this? What is pretty cool/wild is that I see Nebuchadnezzer and his reaction in these tendencies in our text.

GOD

Something was troubling the king to cause him bad dreams and sleeplessness. According to an ancient (Akkadian) saying, ‘[Wo]e and anxiety create (only bad) dreams’ (cf. Eccl. 5:3). Each year in the early part of his reign Nebuchadnezzar’s expeditionary force went to the extremities of the empire to ensure that subjugated lands paid their taxes. In 604 Ashkelon had put up stiff resistance and had had to be reduced to rubble; in 603 an extra large army, siege towers and heavy equipment are mentioned, and Babylonian troops were in the field for several months. Such a show of prestige hid a fear of inadequacy: his spirit was troubled. This dream takes place in Nebuchadnezzar’s second year, while he was gaining control over his new kingdom in the face of challenges from the west. He made a failed attempt to invade Egypt in his fourth year, and a rebellion arose from Judah in his seventh year.

2–3. The king would work out his anxiety on those specialists in psychic phenomena whom he housed and fed for just such an emergency as this. Magicians … enchanters: see the note on 1:20. Sorcerers (Heb. mĕkaššĕpîm; cf. Exod. 7:11; 22:18) were in certain periods resident in Israel (2 Chr. 33:6; Mal. 3:5), though their presence was condemned (Exod. 22:18; Deut. 18:10). This word comes only here in the lists of diviners in Daniel 1–5. ‘The fourfold listing indicates the levy of the whole fraternity on this occasion.’ Chaldeans (cf. the note on 1:4) here denotes experts in magic lore, a non-Babylonian use of the term. Herodotus (c. 450 BC) used the word in this sense. ‘The new slant to the word is easily explained as arising after the intrusion of the new Persian empire and religion, when “Chaldean” became a religious designation just as “Jew” became.’ These experts in dreams worked on the principle that dreams and their sequel followed an empirical law which, given sufficient data, could be established. The dream manuals, of which several examples have come to light, consist accordingly of historical dreams and the events that followed them, arranged systematically for easy reference. Since these books had to try to cover every possible eventuality they became inordinately long; only the expert could find his way through them, and even he had to know the dream to begin with before he could search for the nearest possible parallel. The unreasonable demands of the king and the protests of the interpreters in verses 3–11 are in keeping with his character and the known facts concerning dream books.

5. There is every likelihood that Nebuchadrezzar had forgotten the details of the dreams that had been haunting him. ‘Consciousness naturally resists anything unconscious and unknown’, but to be unable to recall the dream only added to his anxiety and therefore to his irritability. According to eastern superstition it was ominous not to be able to remember a dream: ‘If a man cannot remember the dream he saw (it means): his (personal) god is angry with him.’9 Until the dream was both recalled and interpreted it hung over him as an evil dream, bothering and defiling him. The word from me is sure is the correct understanding of a Persian word misunderstood in AV, RV: ‘the thing is gone from me,’/“my word is final”, that is, ‘I have forgotten it.’ The king is emphatically laying down the law. If these so-called specialists cannot solve his problem, there are plenty of better men where they came from, and he will have them mutilated and their homes ruined. There is evidence that such threats were not uncommonly carried out.

2:10–11. To defend themselves, the wise men asserted that the king was making an unreasonable request, one never asked by any other potentate. They attested that the future belongs to the gods, not to men. Interestingly this was an admission that they had deceived the king in their past interpretations, a startling revelation from those held in high esteem in the court.No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans. The tone of the sages deteriorates from respect to despair as they realize Nebuchadnezzar’s resolve. They do not appeal to their gods for help but rather assume it is not forthcoming. Babylonian gods “do not live among humans” but remain distant, disinterested, and unwilling to help (cf. Isa. 47:12–15). This sad picture contrasts with “the God of heaven” (2:18), who is near to listen when the Judeans pray, is interested in their dilemma, and is willing to help (2:19–30).

Pierce, R. W. (2015). Daniel (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; p. 31). Baker Books.

Pentecost, J. D. (1985). Daniel. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1333). Victor Books.

13–16. Daniel has the ability to keep calm under severe shock and pressure, to think quickly and exercise faith in a moment of crisis, these are aspects of prudence and discretion seen in Daniel here (14; cf. Phil. 4:7).

2:17–18. In this time of testing Daniel was calm. He returned to his house, sought out his three friends, and together they prayed for mercy from the God of heaven. (“God of heaven” is a title used of God six times in Dan.: 2:18–19, 28, 37, 44; 5:23, nine times in Ezra, and four times in Neh. Elsewhere in the OT it occurs only in Gen. 24:3, 7; Ps. 136:26; Jonah 1:9.)

Mercy is God’s response to a person’s need. Daniel recognized his own inability in the circumstances and turned to God in confidence, expecting the Lord to meet his need.

Pentecost, J. D. (1985). Daniel. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1334). Victor Books.

31-35. There can be little doubt that this dream reflected the fears of the Babylonian king, who had so recently come to the throne. People who have unrealistic ideas or too high an opinion of themselves, or who make grandiose plans out of proportion to their real capacities, have dreams of flying or falling.

It’s important and helpful to know and understand that Daniel would come to respect and love Nebuchadnezzer. So though, he is threatening the lives of all the wise men (Daniel and his three friends), Daniel would one day have compassion on Nebuchadnezzer.

Nebuchadnezzer is suffering from imposter syndrome, his understanding of his own weaknesses and human frailty, and is making devastating decrees… sometimes we give him a bad rap… God wants to reach Neb., God wants to save Neb.

Daniel’s life is in danger. God delivers or he’ll be delivered over to God… knocking on heaven’s door.

44–45. By contrast the God of heaven will work out his sure purpose to set up a lasting kingdom in the days of those kings; the expression is vague, for no kings have been mentioned since Nebuchadnezzar, but it is natural to assume that the writer intends the kings of the last-mentioned kingdom. Whereas the world-kingdoms had been taken over by successive conquerors, none will take this kingdom by storm. The fact is rather that it will bring all these kingdoms to an end, but will itself endure for ever. Though the kingdoms have appeared to be consecutive, there is a suggestion here that they could be contemporary, but this is part of the symbolism of the statue, which in the nature of the case represents all the kingdoms as falling at the same time. Some commentators have thought that the division of the legs and toes in the last kingdom should be interpreted, but again these are part of the symbolism of a human figure, which would not be complete without them.

Baldwin, J. G. (1978). Daniel: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 23, p. 95-99, 102, 104). InterVarsity Press.

What do we know is that even this kingdom, this empire, this democracy will end one day… that’s ok, because that is what they do. But do you know who’s reign will not end… it is King Jesus. He is our hope. Don’t let those who say, “Our nation is ending”, “Our nation is no longer great”, “Watch out for them because they are going to bring our nation down”, don’t let them cause you to look at someone else and fear… If we are not gaining compassion, love, and Christ’s heart for people, then whatever is stoking fear is not from God.

Love wins, church. Every. time.

Love wins.

If you’re missing me on this point… God is love. Love wins. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love those you disagree with. It wasn’t just Daniel saving his own skin… it was loving to meet Nebuchadnezzer in his hour of distress.

Daniel’s actions

Upon hearing, asking questions

Gathering friends together to pray

Seeking the only one who has the answer, which when given turns to praise

Comes to Neb seeking only to speak to what God has revealed (not about himself… contrasted with Arioch)

God elevates Daniel (cf. 1:20)

Neb’s actions

Fear and anxiety in his role and responsibility

Lashed out in violence and a heavy hand

Heard the dream and the interpretation which brings peace, comfort, and assuages anxiety

What are we fretting over? What is stressing us out?

Have we given it to God in prayer?

Have we sought out trusted friends, pastors, allies that we know will pray for us, with us, on our behalf?

Have we mobilized all of heaven for our request for God to make it known?

What might happen if those things we are stressing over we bring to God in prayer and seek His face diligently for?

What might happen if we started to see those over us, our bosses, our direct reports, those that have some sort of authority over us, with compassion and concern? What if we started praying for them and for God to answer some of their prayers/needs for what is concerning them?

What might our work place look like if our bosses knew we were praying for them? If it’s appropriate, what might happen if we concerned ourselves with asking our bosses, how can I pray for you? or “I’ve been praying for you because I want to see you do well, and I’ve found myself not knowing how to pray accurately for you, is there anything I can pray for you about?”

How might we start to see the Kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven.

This is how we start to see Jeremiah 29:7 “Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.””

The New International Version Chapter 29

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper

Response

If you need prayer this morning, we want to make that available to you. If you want to respond because you are anxious about something, please come receive prayer.

If you want prayer to be bold in your workplace to pray for you direct report, your boss, your supervisor and you need boldness, would you respond by coming forward and being prayed for.