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[0:00] Well, good morning.

[0:19] Will you pray with me? Lord, as we look at your word now, Lord, we are reminded of what a precious gift your word is.

[0:32] That you have given to us, Lord, a written revelation of who you are. That you have written down to us, for us.

[0:47] Lord, these words that tell us about who you are, what kind of God you are in this world, and what it means that we live in a God that is ruled and reigned over by you.

[1:01] God, I pray this morning that we would be those who tremble at your word. Because we tremble at you as we see your greatness. Your majesty, your beauty.

[1:14] Lord, your honor and glory. Your grace and mercy. Lord, as we see all these things in you, we pray.

[1:26] We pray that you will help us to have hearts that respond rightly to you. God, be with me, I pray this morning. Use me, Lord, to make clear your word.

[1:39] And through my words, that we might all know you better. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, many of you know that I'm a Lord of the Rings fan.

[1:56] If you don't, you will by the end of the introduction. Lord of the Rings is perhaps one of the greatest pieces of literature in the 20th century.

[2:07] It is one of the most powerfully written pictures of much truth in the world. And right at the heart of it is the ring.

[2:21] The ring of power. Or this little trinket that the enemy so dearly desires that drives the whole plot line of the story. The ring is, for everyone who comes close to it, a temptation.

[2:39] Because in it there is power. And that power that is to be used is a power to control. Think about the different characters. Gandalf, the wizard who has come to aid this great rescue or this great battle of light against darkness, of good against evil.

[2:57] When offered, the ring says, no, don't give it to me. It would be too much. The power would be too great and I could not use it only for good. Boromir, the valiant soldier from Gondor.

[3:13] Who sees the ring and as the movie. It is a gift. Sees it as a weapon. May we not use the weapon of the enemy against himself. Not knowing its danger.

[3:27] And so he seeks to grab the ring and use it for his own power and own control. The elf lady, Galadriel.

[3:42] In the land of Lothlorien, Frodo offers the ring to her and says, I would give it to you. She says, long have I desired this that you now ask.

[3:53] And have seen the danger that I would take it by force. But now you offer it me freely. And if you gave it to me, I would become a great queen. I would rule and be mighty and terrible.

[4:04] And all would bow down and worship me. And I would do create a great kingdom. Boromir's brother Faramir later in the story finds out that this little hobbit, Frodo, in his captivity bears the ring of power.

[4:25] The thing that his father most desires. Faramir says, no, I could not use it. Though we stand on the edge of darkness and feel like we will lose this battle, we could not use this thing to try to win a kingdom for ourselves.

[4:46] Even Sam Gamgee, the faithful, loyal servant, who in a moment of great heroism takes the ring to try to accomplish the mission for which his master, whom he thinks has died, to continue on with that, he feels the pull.

[5:08] He sees himself, he envisions himself as this great warrior to overthrow the kingdoms of the enemy and to build up his great kingdom instead.

[5:22] In all of these, in all of these, the ring holds forth this temptation. Take hold of this power to build your kingdom on your own terms, to do your own thing.

[5:35] You will be the sovereign ruler over all. And yet, Tolkien, in all of his wisdom and steeped deeply in the Christian story and in the Christian theology, says, this is a power that is evil.

[5:54] This is not a good power. To take control of the world, to make our own kingdoms. Even in the characters who are good and would use power for good, see the danger and resist it.

[6:16] Friends, this morning, I wonder if in your life, you have felt that power and the pull. If you felt that pull to take hold of that power of its temptation to be the master of your own life, to build your own life, to build your own kingdom where you have sway over it all and to rule over all.

[6:42] Maybe you think that's far too grandiose for your life. Maybe you think, no, I don't really think about those things. But as I was considering my own life in light of this, I thought of a few things.

[6:59] I thought of the frustration that boils up in my heart when my kids' shoes are again strewn across the kitchen floor and not in the cubbyhole where they were supposed to go.

[7:10] And the door, this green door, left open again, again. And you think, why can't they just do what I want them to do to make our life a little more orderly and a little more clean?

[7:26] And I see in myself this desire to control, this desire to have power to make this kingdom convenient and easy for me in the ways that I want it to.

[7:40] I see it when I have this impulse that wells up in my heart to give someone unsolicited advice. Oh, you could probably do it this way.

[7:51] Don't you think this? My brother and sister-in-law actually have outlawed, don't you think, as a sentence from their marriage. Because if you think about it, what it is is saying, don't you think that I'm right and you ought to do what I'm about to suggest you to do?

[8:08] That's what it means. And so often I find myself just welling up in my heart. Don't you think you could do it this way so that the world would be a better place according to me?

[8:20] I see it in my own heart when even when I don't say anything and even when I don't do anything, in my own mind, I look at someone and I look at their actions and the shape of their life and their words and I dismiss them and I look down on them and I think to myself, gosh, I'm glad that I don't have to deal with that person on a more regular basis.

[8:53] Because I know what's right and they're wrong. when I see these impulses welling up in my heart, I see that I have a desire to build a kingdom where I am the one who sits on the throne.

[9:12] I have the power to determine what is right and wrong. I have the power to control what happens and doesn't happen in my little kingdom. And even if my desires are good, even if I want my kingdom to bless the world, to bless my children with a happy and neat home, to bless my friends with a better way to live, to bless our city with a better church, even if my desires are those things, still, if I am at the pinnacle, I too have felt the same pull of the ring that the characters did.

[9:57] Friends, this is not a new temptation in the world. In fact, one of the most powerful places we see it is when Jesus Christ walked the earth. As he came into his adulthood, as he came into his ministry, right after his baptism, he went out into the wilderness.

[10:14] And do you remember what happened there? The tempter came. And the tempter came and said, don't you think, don't you think that you can gain what you most want some other way?

[10:30] If you will just submit to me, if you will just test God rather than trusting him, if you will just give your power over, I will give you everything you want.

[10:42] I will give you the kingdoms of the world is the last part of it. without the cross, without the thing that is yet to come. This temptation has been going on for hundreds and thousands of years for us to want to build our own kingdoms.

[11:03] It is in fact embedded in the very core of the Bible story going back to Genesis when in this garden where God in his ruling and reigning and caring for his people had done everything for them.

[11:17] And yet when the insidious words came in, maybe you can be like him. Maybe you can be out from under his rule and rule on your own. Make your own decisions. Make your own choices.

[11:32] Adam and Eve said, I will do that. I will choose that power. I will make my own kingdom rather than living in God's.

[11:44] What does God think of us? What does God think of us? How does he want us to think of him and to respond to him as we think about the kingdoms of this world and the kingdoms of our lives?

[11:59] Well, this brings us to our story, to our passage in Daniel today. We're in the book of Daniel. If you haven't been coming, we're doing a series through the book of Daniel.

[12:11] We've already looked at chapters one through three. We're looking at chapter four today. And in this story, we are going to see how God works in a particular circumstance with the king of Babylon.

[12:26] Has lots of things to teach us. I'm going to take a slightly different approach rather than reading the whole chapter. I'm going to retell the first half because it's a long chapter.

[12:36] There's some repetition. And I'm going to retell the first half of the story with a little bit of commentary just to get us into it. But I encourage you to turn there.

[12:47] What's the page number? I forgot to look. 740. Yeah, that'll get you close enough. 740. Because we're going to look at a few verses explicitly just to get us through the passage.

[13:01] But we're going to look at the first 28 verses. Rather than reading them, I'm just going to talk through. But let's start and look together at Daniel 4 verse 1.

[13:13] Let me read verses 1 through 3 to set the stage for this. King Nebuchadnezzar, who is the king of Babylon, this new power that has risen and now is ruling over all of Mesopotamia, King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.

[13:36] It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion endures from generation generation to generation.

[13:56] We come to this place and this is how the chapter begins and it's an interesting start because most of the time stories begin, if you look back at chapters 1, 2, and 3, stories begin with a little bit of a setting and then there's a problem that builds and it's building towards some kind of resolution that we get later in the story.

[14:15] But interestingly, here, the end of the story is right up front. Nebuchadnezzar says, this is what I want to tell you. I want to tell you about this God and how great He is.

[14:28] Which is a striking thing because what we've already learned about Nebuchadnezzar is that He has built for Himself a great kingdom.

[14:40] In chapters 1, 2, and 3, what we've seen is that this great kingdom of Babylon has come even to Jerusalem, even to the place where God's people live and He has shown His power in such a way that He has taken Daniel and His friends off to captivity in Babylon and He is in the process of assimilating them into His culture.

[15:02] He shows no sign of releasing His power or giving up any of His sovereignty. In fact, what we saw in chapter 3 is that as He erected this huge statue that people would bow down in homage to Him to unify and to strengthen His rule and His sovereignty over His kingdom, those who didn't respond to that would be killed and would be killed violently and demonstrably in a fire.

[15:36] And it says that Nebuchadnezzar, his response to those who didn't respect His authority was anger, deep anger that He was not being recognized as their sovereign.

[15:51] And so it's in this context then you get to the beginning of chapter 4 and suddenly, not suddenly because you see a hint of it at the end of chapter 3 but you see a strong, Nebuchadnezzar is saying, look, the God most high is a great God above all gods.

[16:08] and you just, and it begs the question, Nebuchadnezzar, how did you get there? How is this the thing that you most want to know?

[16:20] It almost seems like this is a royal decree that's being put forth. The king puts forth a decree to his whole kingdom, this is what's true about the most high. And then it begs the question, how did you get there?

[16:33] And so this is what the next section tells us about. The next section which we're not going to read but I'm going to summarize for you is Nebuchadnezzar basically saying, I was at ease and prosperity in my kingdom.

[16:44] I was doing great. It seemed like we were at the top of the world and there was nothing that could stop us, nothing that could spoil our happy kingdom.

[16:56] But then I had a vision and this vision disturbed me and it disturbed my sovereign peace that I was living in and this contentment that I had.

[17:06] And this vision was of a tree and the tree grew and it spread its branches until it spread up to heaven and covered all of the earth and in the tree all the birds and animals came and found refuge and found provision.

[17:24] And so it was a picture of a great flourishing of this tree and all who came under its rule. but then into this vision came a watcher and the watcher stepped in and the watcher said cut down the tree.

[17:40] Cut down the tree, clip off its branches, scatter those beings that were finding provision and safety under this tree. Scatter them to the ends of the earth.

[17:52] Take it down to a stump. Bind the stump up so that it won't be so that it won't be killed completely.

[18:06] Look with me in verse 12 for a minute. Right? This is the picture of the tree. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it and the birds of the heaven lived in its branches and all flesh was fed from it.

[18:23] But then the watcher came and it says interestingly it says after this tree is cut down and it's bound up do you see how the the pronouns change?

[18:37] It's fascinating. This is such cool language. Look with me for a sec. Verse 14 right? It's strip off its branches scatter its fruit but then you get down to verse 15.

[18:49] Leave the stump of its roots and the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze among the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts and the grass of the earth.

[19:05] He goes on and basically says let whatever this tree was now it becomes a him and let him not be a person but let him experience life as if he were a beast.

[19:18] He's going to run around and eat grass. To experience the dew of the heaven means you have no shelter. It means you're sleeping out on the ground and when you wake up in the morning you are wet because you have no shelter over your head.

[19:32] So this is the vision that Daniel has and as you might imagine he's disturbed by it. What does this mean? What is this all about? And so what he does is he calls his magicians as typically he does says hey what does this mean?

[19:46] And typically as what we've seen in Daniel they don't know. I don't know what good they were but his magicians didn't seem to be able to come through in the pinch when the things were really important so he called on Daniel because Daniel has been helpful before and Daniel comes in this is where we are in verse 19 and following Daniel comes in to tell him to tell him more about the dream before we keep going I want to say one more thing verse 17 look with me again because it gives the purpose it actually says there's a purpose for this dream verse 17 the sentence is by the decree of the watchers the decision of the word of the holy ones to the end that the living may know that the most high rules the kingdoms of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men it's kind of fun when you get the punchline of the story that clearly it says this is so Nebuchadnezzar is saying what is the meaning of this it's fascinating because it says right here this is the meaning of it here's the vision but the magicians they don't know or maybe they were too scared to say it maybe they actually knew exactly what this was about and they were playing dumb because they weren't going to be ones to say what Daniel said to him because Daniel comes and Daniel has great he hears it and he trembles he knows what it means and his first response is he's fearful not for himself

[21:30] I don't believe but he's fearful for Nebuchadnezzar there's actually a kind of kindness that Daniel shows in saying do you really want to know what this means because it's not a good message for you and then his second response is actually can I just say that I wish this were really about your enemies I really wish this were about someone else and not you but then in verse 22 it is you oh king who have grown and become strong your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven and your dominion to the ends of the earth verse 22 but then in verse 25 you will suffer humiliation until you know that the most high rules the kingdoms of men and gives it to whom he will your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules

[22:32] Daniel's final word in this story is in verse 27 he encourages Nebuchadnezzar to respond to this vision therefore oh king let my counsel be acceptable to you break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity so now we know the vision and now we know what its meaning is it's a proclamation of judgment that's going to come on Nebuchadnezzar with an offer to respond now with repentance to rule his kingdom in a way that would show something different that would show that he knows that there is a king most high who rules over Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom and so he would show mercy and show kindness to the oppressed and so we pick up the narrative in verse 28 as we find out how

[23:37] Nebuchadnezzar responds to all this all this came upon king Nebuchadnezzar at the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon and the king answered and says is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty you can see it coming can't you while these words were still in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven oh king Nebuchadnezzar to you it is spoken the kingdom has departed from you and you shall be driven from among men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules the kingdoms of men and gives it to whom he will immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar he was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles feathers and his nails were like birds claws as a storyteller tells the story he lays out

[24:59] Nebuchadnezzar had every reason to know exactly what was coming and how to respond to it differently he had all of that information and yet he didn't he looked at his great kingdom and he said this is the kingdom that I have made and it is my glory that is displayed here he has taken the ring and exerted its power and he has shown the pride of it and God steps in and says no no I won't allow this I am going to humble you and in his humbling it is not a kind humbling it is actually a humiliation he becomes beast like one of the commentators wrote it this way while he was full of his own importance

[26:00] Nebuchadnezzar's world revolved around himself it did not strike him how unrealistic this was until he was brought low by illness one of the things that's striking to see is that when God tried to show Nebuchadnezzar the reality of his state he humbled him so low that he was living like a beast he was less than fully human isn't this what pride does to us as we exalt ourselves out of the place that we were created to have under God's rule when we push ourselves up and magnify ourselves and take hold of that ring and say this is my kingdom and my power and I'm going to do what I want for my glory and for my greatness we actually become not great humans but less human in that moment all

[27:12] God is doing to Nebuchadnezzar is showing him the reality of the foolishness the insanity of his pride God steps in and says no and so for seven periods whatever those periods were we don't know seven just means you get to the end of it and it's complete I think that's the best way to read it when those seven periods were over the story continues look with me again verse 24 the end of the days that is the end of those seven periods whatever it was I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven let's just stop there for a minute that's not simply he looked up because he wondered if there was a cloud in the sky or a bird was and my reason returned to me and

[28:40] I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever and he goes on to sing this hymn of praise for his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him what have you done and he repeats it then Nebuchadnezzar at the same time my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom my majesty and splendor returned to me my counselors and my lord sought me and I was established in my kingdom still more greatness was added to me now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven for all his works are right and his ways are just and those who walk in pride he is able to humble so having been exposed in the foolishness of his pride now the storyteller comes and says and this is what happened when

[29:57] Nebuchadnezzar repented when he recognized his need and he turned to God God restored him do you see how gracious God is in the midst of this his kingdom was not taken from him you wonder it's one of those places in a movie where you just wonder what in the world happened in his kingdom during these seven periods of time who was ruling and what were they saying about the king who had suddenly disappeared but whatever did happen and however those things were managed God kept his kingdom for him and when Nebuchadnezzar turned and lifted his eyes and acknowledged and did you notice in his hymn what he said the one that I am acknowledging in worship his dominion is the greatest dominion his kingdom is the kingdom that lasts forever and rules over all things in heaven and on earth I acknowledge him as the one who rules over all and

[31:04] God not only restores him but God blesses him still more greatness was added to me after he had humbled himself and did you notice that his reason returned pride if pride is a form of insanity humility is the means by which we actually see things rightly we are the most reasonable people when we are humble not proud and so we know how Nebuchadnezzar got there through this incredible experience Nebuchadnezzar the king over Babylon the greatest power in that part of the world at least at that time from the biblical standpoint it was the only part of the world so it was the greatest kingdom ever or the greatest kingdom of that time

[32:05] Nebuchadnezzar was ruling over it and yet he at the end was the one saying there is a most high God in heaven and he is the one who rules over all he is the one who rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and he sets over them those who humble themselves the lowliest ones so this is our story what are we to do with it how are we to respond to this I think there are two things there are two things in this passage that we are to to glean from it for our own lives one is that there is a warning there is a warning in this to the proud who would exalt themselves this is a warning to the nations how easily do we humans in arrogance think that our kingdom will last forever and yet we know from history that the

[33:16] Romans thought that and Alexander the Great thought that and Genghis Khan thought that and the sun never set on the British empire and if we want to be careful we would say perhaps we are the most in danger of this as Americans today because we are this kingdom and if we think that this kingdom will reign forever let us recognize the danger and the warning of those who arrogantly say my kingdom and my glory is the greatest thing as we engage in our political process this fall maybe this humility is something we ought to look for and to pray for for our leaders and for the process so this passage is meant for us to hear it as a warning probably few of you rule over nations maybe none

[34:29] I don't know I don't know all of you so who knows maybe you rule over smaller kingdoms though maybe you rule over a department maybe you rule over a company more of you probably rule over your family all of you will rule over your careers your relationships at least you will seek to do that you will seek to take that place of ruling over it and you know that's not wrong back in the garden of Eden God set Adam and Eve over the world in an appropriate role we are not meant to say oh I should never have any influence or power shy away from any place where I might actually be in charge of or shape or be in control of others that's actually an abdication of responsibility that's not what we're called to do but what we are to recognize is that when we have that impulse to grasp the ring and to take power for ourselves and to not acknowledge that we are always under the most high

[35:47] God who rules over the kingdoms of men we are in grave danger we are in grave danger of losing ourselves of losing our reason of losing our sanity of oppressing people and most of all of robbing God of glory and honor that he rightly has and usurping attempting to usurp his place in the world and he will not let us do it in the end it will lead us to ruin whether in this life or in eternity if we continue to do that one commentator says it this way we are a bunch of nebuchadnezzar clones wanting to call our own shots to direct our own show puny as it is and seldom except in a rare moment of sanity we stop to consider how asinine our passion for self deification is how silly we are to think that it really is about me when there is a

[36:53] God most high in heaven what might it look like in your life if you are in danger of this if you if this warning is for you it might look like desperation I can remember times like this I remember a staff team that I served on and we were having some conflict and we were working through some things and one day I kind of laid down my chips I said this is where we stand and this is what I think we need to do and they responded with questions and maybe with a little bit of insolence and independence I'm not going to say that it was all on me but at that moment I lost it I was so desperate for them to simply recognize my leadership and follow me and when they didn't I did not respond in patient strength of leadership

[37:57] I responded in anger I responded in despair and I responded in desperation have you ever seen that in your own heart that desperation of if I and you know what happened to me I said if I can't get you to follow me I'm going to take my own marbles and go home I walked out of the meeting I said I'm done when you guys aren't going to want to follow me I'm done that was not a godly response was not my best moment God used it to show me a lot in retrospect have ever seen yourself get that way with your kids with your spouse maybe even in the internal world of your own private life are you trying to be a rule are you trying to rule over some perfect kingdom in your own head can can look like life killing control this comes out in different ways the nag the nitpick the never ending critique the critical spirit it's never good enough can't you do a little more oh did you see this spot that can come out of a heart of just wanting to be so desperately in control to make it all right that instead of rejoicing in those who are with you in your kingdom whatever it is and joining together in a band of seeing what

[39:40] God would have for you you end up using them because they just become instruments to you trying to achieve some form of perfection some form of control friends when we in our pride grasp on to this desire for this power to control to be in charge ugliness comes out of us I remember when I was a high school soccer team we had a cross town rivalry I was at the private school the public school we were both vying for the regional championship and it was the last game of the season and literally people were standing three deep all the way around our soccer field that had no bleachers so standing three deep all the way around the whole town was there and it was ugly there were four red cards given it went to a shootout it was the ugliest soccer game you've ever seen I remember one mom yelling her face bright red kill him break his leg

[40:48] I am not kidding you and friends we laugh at that but don't you see how for him for this woman in that moment she so longed to win she so longed for her child to vanquish the foes that a mom was standing on a sideline advocating breaking another kid's leg friends when we get to this may we heed this as a sign of warning that our hearts are not right before God and God will not let us continue in these things but there's also a comfort there's a great comfort in this passage that there is a God most high who rules over the kingdoms of the earth think about the exiles those who had been taken away from Jerusalem with no hope of ever returning necessarily they wondered

[41:52] God where are you and where could you be and I'm having to live in this country that's a foreign land and with foreign gods and I'm serving a foreign king who is arrogantly exalting himself and God comes and he says I am still here and I am still reigning and there is no power that is over you in this world that is out of my control and friends that is great comfort the worst situation the worst boss the worst teacher the worst parent you have God is still reigning in your life and it does not mean you need to be passive it does not mean you have to simply roll over and take whatever evil comes your way but it does mean that in the midst of facing these situations you can know that there's a

[43:01] God most high in heaven and that is great comfort and not only does he rule over there but God pursues us do you see that God is pursuing Nebuchadnezzar this is the fourth chapter where we see Nebuchadnezzar and God interacting and every time God has shown up so greatly that at the end of the chapter Nebuchadnezzar is saying wow that God is pretty great and the next chapter is like wow he's really great and the next chapter is like wow he's super great and yet he still doesn't believe in him if you look through the details of the story he still thinks that Daniel has like some spirits from the gods he can't acknowledge that Daniel's power comes from God most high but at the end he does God graciously pursued him even through this great trial and this humiliation we talk about humbling like that's a noble thing and humiliation like it's a terrible thing but don't you see here God humiliates

[44:01] Nebuchadnezzar so that he might be restored so that he might be freed from the insanity of his pride and friends he's pursuing you he won't let you take the ring and he won't let the ring rule you forever if you already have he's pursuing you and calling you to repent to repent of your pride to humble yourself before him and friends this is not a surprise is it because when God did the greatest work in the world to establish his kingdom how did he do it Isaiah had predicted that the one who would come would be the king of kings and the lord of lords but when he came he came in a humble estate he came in a manger he lived a life of relative obscurity and when he took up his ministry

[45:16] Jesus he walked in both humble obedience to his father and with a fierce desire to fight the battle against any pride he did it at the beginning in the temptations and he did it at the end do you remember his words in the garden of Gethsemane father is there any other way if you can let this cup pass me by please would you do it but not my will but your will be done and so the words we read earlier he did not account equality with God something to be grasped but humbled himself humbled himself to take on human form humbled himself to take on slave form humbled himself to take on death at the cross for our sins for our pride for our arrogance self exaltation for our kingdom building name and death this is how he pursues us.

[46:47] And this is how he wins us. And this is how he establishes his kingdom. Because by his death and then by his resurrection, he has defeated the power.

[47:03] And the call to repent is a call to come. Call to come and not to forsake any of your kingdoms, but to take your kingdoms and to put them under the kingdom of God. To take your life and to put it under the rulership of the Most High.

[47:20] He makes this claim to all the nations of the earth. Pastor Greg pointed out two weeks ago, this is right in the middle of the Aramaic section of this book, which is the trade language meant to be proclaimed to all nations.

[47:36] That this God, the God of Daniel, is the God Most High, who claims rulership over everything. He is not a tribal God. He is not a local God.

[47:46] He is a global God. And he calls all people everywhere to repent. To repent of their pride and to turn to him. And to see how he has lovingly pursued them in his son, who built his kingdom, not through arrogant self-exaltation, but in humble self-sacrifice.

[48:11] Dying on the cross for our sins. So that he might be the one exalted to the highest place and given a name that is greater than every other name.

[48:22] So that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Friends, I wonder if you this morning hear this word as a comfort that God is with you as you are humbly walking.

[48:39] Stand firm. Hold to him. I wonder if some of you hear this as a warning. That you have been building your own kingdom in your own way.

[48:51] God calls you to turn from the foolishness of that pride. And to humble yourself before him. And put yourself in the place of receiving just like Nebuchadnezzar did.

[49:05] Receiving all that God gives to you. Knowing that it will be enough. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this story and for your word.

[49:18] God, I pray you will use it in our lives to humble us and to see you more clearly. Lord, we honor you and worship you as the God most high.

[49:33]  In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.