Here is tonights LF talk
Introduction:
From The Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876 found at eyewitnesstohistory.com
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pfcuster.htm
In late 1875, Sioux and Cheyenne Indians defiantly left their reservations, outraged over the continued intrusions of whites into their sacred lands in the Black Hills. They gathered in Montana with the great warrior Sitting Bull to fight for their lands. The following spring, two victories over the US Cavalry emboldened them to fight on in the summer of 1876.
To force the large Indian army back to the reservations, the Army dispatched three columns to attack in coordinated fashion, one of which contained Lt. Colonel George Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. Spotting the Sioux village about fifteen miles away along the Rosebud River on June 25, Custer also found a nearby group of about forty warriors. Ignoring orders to wait, he decided to attack before they could alert the main party. He did not realize that the number of warriors in the village numbered three times his strength. Dividing his forces in three, Custer sent troops under Captain Frederick Benteen to prevent their escape through the upper valley of the Little Bighorn River. Major Marcus Reno was to pursue the group, cross the river, and charge the Indian village in a coordinated effort with the remaining troops under his command. He hoped to strike the Indian encampment at the northern and southern ends simultaneously, but made this decision without knowing what kind of terrain he would have to cross before making his assault. He belatedly discovered that he would have to negotiate a maze of bluffs and ravines to attack.
Reno’s squadron of 175 soldiers attacked the northern end. Quickly finding themselves in a desperate battle with little hope of any relief, Reno halted his charging men before they could be trapped, fought for ten minutes in dismounted formation, and then withdrew into the timber and brush along the river. When that position proved indefensible, they retreated uphill to the bluffs east of the river, pursued hotly by a mix of Cheyenne and Sioux.
Just as they finished driving the soldiers out, the Indians found roughly 210 of Custer’s men coming towards the other end of the village, taking the pressure off of Reno’s men. Cheyenne and Hunkpapa Sioux together crossed the river and slammed into the advancing soldiers, forcing them back to a long high ridge to the north. Meanwhile, another force, largely Oglala Sioux under Crazy Horse’s command, swiftly moved downstream and then doubled back in a sweeping arc, enveloping Custer and his men in a pincer move. They began pouring in gunfire and arrows.
As the Indians closed in, Custer ordered his men to shoot their horses and stack the carcasses to form a wall, but they provided little protection against bullets. In less than an hour, Custer and his men were killed in the worst American military disaster ever. After another day’s fighting, Reno and Benteen’s now united forces escaped when the Indians broke off the fight. They had learned that the other two columns of soldiers were coming towards them, so they fled.
After the battle, the Indians came through and stripped the bodies and mutilated all the uniformed soldiers, believing that the soul of a mutilated body would be forced to walk the earth for all eternity and could not ascend to heaven. Inexplicably, they stripped Custer’s body and cleaned it, but did not scalp or mutilate it. He had been wearing buckskins instead of a blue uniform, and some believe that the Indians thought he was not a soldier and so, thinking he was an innocent, left him alone. Because his hair was cut short for battle, others think that he did not have enough hair to allow for a very good scalping. Immediately after the battle, the myth emerged that they left him alone out of respect for his fighting ability, but few participating Indians knew who he was to have been so respectful. To this day, no one knows the real reason.
Little Bighorn was the pinnacle of the Indians’ power. They had achieved their greatest victory yet, but soon their tenuous union fell apart in the face of the white onslaught. Outraged over the death of a popular Civil War hero on the eve of the Centennial, the nation demanded and received harsh retribution. The Black Hills dispute was quickly settled by redrawing the boundary lines, placing the Black Hills outside the reservation and open to white settlement. Within a year, the Sioux nation was defeated and broken. “Custer’s Last Stand” was their last stand as well.
Over 200 men lost their lives that day because Custer disobeyed an order. His orders were to identify where the Indian army was and to wait for back-up. But Col. Custer thought it was an easy task… so he attacked.
This wasn’t the first time Custer’s pride and arrogance had gotten him into trouble. George Custer graduated dead last in his class from West Point. But he was also tremendously successful during the Civil War. Shortly after the Civil War ended and he was made the youngest General in Unites States history, Custer made another huge mistake. He had orders to move the cavalry 200 miles into Kansas. After he arrived there, he decided to take 75 men with him on a personal trip against the orders of his superiors. While on that trip, his small and tired band of soldiers were attacked by Indians and two men were killed. Instead of retreating back to his fort, he pursued these Indians and lost a couple more men. And then when a few others decided that they needed to go back to get help, he had those men tracked down and shot as deserters. For this mistake, he was court-martialed. He lost his rank and was docked a year’s salary.
In the end, Custer’s legacy is one of pride and arrogance that made him famous but eventually got him killed.
Tonight, we are going to take a look at a similar case of a leader who’s pride got the best of his judgment. Let’s take a look at Daniel 5.
Daniel 5
5 parts of the story
I. The sacrilegious act (1-4)
Temple articles used for evil.
This was a huge slap in the face to God, who had delivered the Jews into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar
II. Failure to Decipher the writing (5-9)
The hand of God (maybe the preincarnate hand of Christ) writes on the wall.
The king knew this was a judgment against him! His knees knocked in fear.
He made a challenge, anyone who could read and interpret these writings would get a purple robe, a gold chain, and become the 3rd highest ruler in the land.
No one could read or interpret what the writing was.
III. Request for Daniel’s Interpretation (10-16)
The queen mom comes into the banquet hall and tells the king that Daniel can do it.
It’s been 23 years since Nebuchadnezzar was king… Daniel is a forgotten figure by this time.
IV. Reason for Belshazzar’s Judgment (17-24)
First of all, Daniel refuses the kings rewards. This is a matter of purity.
This is a two-fold judgment
i. Human: He abused power and lorded it over everyone
ii. Pride: God stepped in to judge his pride for what he did with the goblets
Belshazzar moral failure
i. Didn’t learn from family history
ii. Pride was his chief failure
V. Judgment pronounced and fulfilled (25-31)
The meaning of the inscription
i. Related to money
1. Mene, mene: Gold weights
2. Tekel: gold coin
3. Peres: ½ gold coin
ii. Symbolic meanings
1. Mene, mene: number
2. Tekel: weigh
3. Peres: divide
Daniels reward (29)
The fulfillment
i. Persians slipped under the walls and killed the king that night!
God is bigger than your ambitions
Let’s take a look at this story of pride and arrogance and see what it could possible teach us for today.
Those of you who know me well know that I have a fierce belief in you.
It’s not just you. Actually I have a tremendous belief that together, we can change the world.
There is something deep inside of me that can look at you and see that if you would just trust in God with everything you’ve got… that you can change your world. To me, it’s more than a dream… it’s a reality just on the horizon. Praise God that many of you are trying to use the skills we are equipping you to do.
In my dream, you will grab a hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ so clearly and with such might that you’ll share your faith freely.
But this is my dream, it is my hope. It is what drives me to lead you.
But there are also some of us hear that don’t want to do this. I’m training you with skills that you can use in your daily life… little baby steps… but you are too prideful to use them.
– You look at truth and you are too prideful to see that you have a role. (See the vision, but don’t think it’s for you!)
– You hold on to this worldly ideal of popularity. You are so worried about what others think about you that you are willing to let your friends not hear the gospel so that you can go on with your little dream of being popular.
– You are filled with head knowledge but infants on application.
This is pride in action.
Evan right now, some of you are shutting me down emotionally because you don’t want to deal with your pride. You think I’m attacking you when actually I’m trying to help you see your potential.
If you are willing and able to see past all your fear and pride… you can see what I see. We have the ability to change our world.
Seeing how you can change the world
In the past few weeks I have been working on giving you some skills for leading your friends to Christ. Let’s close out today by giving you a glimpse of “the big picture.”
One person reaches one person who reaches one person.
What is your role in this link? You are the first person!
You are getting to know your squares for a reason, a part of the process.
Right now, I am focusing you on learning your friend’s story. As your relationship develops you will begin to see how you and your friend have a lot in common. Pretty soon, we’ll be teaching you how to weave your story and your friend’s story together. The last step will be you sharing God’s story. What is it in your relationship with the Lord that has changed you? What has He done for you? How are you different because of your relationship with the Lord? Then, as you get more comfortable with talking with your friend about your relationship with the Lord you can share God’s story. How He provided Jesus as your savior, etc. That’s the big picture!
In the time we have left, I want you to take some time to get with a leader and talk about what you’ve been doing with your squares.
One last question: As we close tonight, are you ready and willing to both recognize your pride and overcome it? Can you commit to that now?
The writing is on the wall for you… how will you respond?
Pray
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