Let's turn in our Bibles to Daniel 4 verses 1-37. Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth. Peace be multiplied to you. 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 to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed, the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And I told him the dream, saying, O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 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 heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a Watcher, a Holy One, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus, Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its root in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him. And let seven periods of time pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men. This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies. the tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heaven lived. It is you, O King, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, come down from heaven and saying, chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him, this is the interpretation, O king. It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord, the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules. Therefore, O 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. 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 said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O 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 kingdom 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. At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason 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 endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the hosts of heaven. and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can say can stay his hand or say to him what have you done 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 and still more great 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 far the reading from God's Word this evening. May He add its blessing to our hearts. As a child, sometimes when you're faced with what seems to be a constant barrage of instruction and governance by mom and dad, sometimes in your imagination you might say to yourself, wouldn't it be great to be king? Because when you're king, nobody gets to tell you what to do. You make your own decisions. And as you get older, as you move along in years, that goal perhaps becomes a little bit dampened, so you're not thinking of becoming a king anymore. But you might say to yourself as a young man, wouldn't it be great if I was my own boss? If I had my own company, I would have people who would do what I tell them, and I wouldn't have to listen to anybody. Nobody would be my boss, and nobody would give me instructions. And then when you become an adult, You realize that there is no such thing as a person who doesn't have a boss. There's no such thing as somebody who doesn't have accountability to anybody else. And nowhere is that more clear than in the account that we read together tonight. No place is it more clear when you're dealing with an emperor of the mightiest empire of his day, standing before God and being humbled in an instant. All mankind stands before the Lord, the King of heaven and earth. So when we come to this chapter, this fourth chapter of Daniel's Gospel, we learn something about the sovereignty of God over kings. The Lord establishes kings and kingdoms, and they must live yielding obedience to Him. That's the simple message of this chapter. And to see that truth, we want to break this chapter down into three parts. First, we want to see the dream and its interpretation in the first 27 verses. They want to see the dream and its consequence in verses 28 through 33. And they want to see the King and His restoration in verses 34 through 37. So, the Lord establishes kings and kingdoms, and they must live yielding obedience to Him. We're going to see the dream and its interpretation, the dream and its consequence, the King and His restoration. So let's first look at the dream. and its interpretation in the first 27 verses of this chapter. This chapter, of course, marks an interruption of sorts in the prophecy of Daniel. Daniel and his friends, for the first while of the prophecy, or for sure Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are nowhere to be seen. King Nebuchadnezzar is the central human character of this particular chapter. He is the person through whom we see the sovereignty of God on display. Remember, this is a book that in many different ways and from many different angles is going to teach us about the sovereignty of God. So here we have King Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the Babylonian Empire, who has taken the people of Israel out of the Promised Land and taken them into exile. And remembering the way that the person who first would read this prophecy would understand it, we have to recognize that the people of Israel were not what we would call at the top of their game at this particular part in history. They were struggling under the bondage of oppression. They were in exile. They would have been discouraged that the promise that God had given since the time of Abraham had been removed from them because of their idolatry and because of their faithlessness. And so in that sense, we can relate to the people of Israel. We also are weak in how we follow God. We also face the consequences of our sin when we live in the presence of God. And the sovereignty of God, of course, is a reason for hope for His people. It's not a reason for fear. in the sense of a fear of judgment, but it is a reason for hope when we come to God and we see Him sovereignly ruling over all the world and over the kings of this world. And so that's what we see when Nebuchadnezzar takes center stage. We begin to have this lesson laid out for us, this lesson of the sovereignty of God. Now, the exact timing of this event is not known to us. It's not related to us in the story. So the best we can say is that at some point between 602 BC, which is when Daniel finished his three-year course of Babylonian wisdom, to about 562 BC, which is when King Nebuchadnezzar died and his son succeeded him on the throne. We don't know exactly when it happened, but what we do know is that Nebuchadnezzar, during his reign at some point, had an event take place that shaped his life. it is unclear again, and it is speculative to consider whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was truly converted. In the previous two chapters, certainly when he was confronted with God, he was not converted. Many people have spilt much ink trying to decide whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was converted in this particular account. But since we cannot be sure either way, And since that's not really the point of the chapter, I think we should leave that alone and leave it aside and instead look at what the central message of the chapter is. We can say with great confidence that we can't be sure about the condition of Nebuchadnezzar's soul. Nebuchadnezzar does recognize God's work in his life, and his response to this work of God's life is to pen an open letter to his people. When King Nebuchadnezzar in verse 1 says that he's writing to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, that's King Nebuchadnezzar's humble way of describing his own kingdom. The Babylonians were notorious for this, for ascribing to their kingdom basically the whole earth. Whether they were ruling the whole earth or not wasn't important. In their own minds, they were in charge of the whole earth, and so King Nebuchadnezzar, when he writes this open letter, he writes it to every subject who lives within the borders of his kingdom. And Nebuchadnezzar, as he recognizes God's work, he wants his people to know about it. Now, this past week, as I was reading some news headlines on that came in on my email, there was a headline that read, Senator Rubio tweets Bible verses, semicolon, people question if he's lost his mind. Now, of course, part of the concern for the people who think Senator Rubio has lost his mind was the nature of the verses that he was tweeting. But for the others, it was that he was tweeting Bible verses altogether. Because in our own country, we have this false notion That somehow we should be able to separate our Christian life from our public life. That somehow Christianity, our faith in God, is something that's private. We don't talk about it. We don't talk about politics or religion when we're at family gatherings, right? That's kind of the mantra of our nation in some sense. But Nebuchadnezzar doesn't have any of those hang-ups. He's not shy about what God's done in his life. He's actually eager to tell his people, the people of all nations and all languages, what the Lord did to him and what the Lord did for him. And he does that by way of relaying a vision. Nebuchadnezzar is a dreamer. He has dreams and they mean something. And so here, Nebuchadnezzar, again, does as he did in the second chapter of Daniel. He summons to himself all these different wise men from his kingdom. You see it in verse 7. He calls the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. And he asks them all, by decree, to come to him to interpret the dream. And it says in verse 7, that they could not make known to him the interpretation of the dream. Now, we don't understand and we don't know exactly why they couldn't, why they didn't decide to try to make something up. It's possible that because of Daniel chapter 2, they decided, well, we better not mess around with this king because if we get it wrong, it's into the fire or it's off with your head and your house is a pile of ruins and you're torn limb from limb. That's kind of Nebuchadnezzar's modus operandi with dealing with subjects that he thinks are not being faithful to him. So it could be that they were being cautious because of their history with King Nebuchadnezzar. But whatever the case is, whenever these wise men can't interpret the dream, Daniel is called last of all. It's not explained to us again why Daniel is called last of all, but Daniel is called because the king knows that the spirit of the holy gods is in him. That's how Daniel is described in verse 8. And so he calls Daniel before him, and beginning in verse 10, he begins to lay out his dream to Daniel. He describes the dream. He describes this dream of a great tree that's healthy and strong. It's planted right in the middle of the world, and it's huge, and it's taken over the entire world, and it's kind of an active growing. The tree in the dream is continuing to spread itself, even as King Nebuchadnezzar is watching. But eventually, there's come this holy one. this messenger from heaven, which commands that the tree would be chopped down and the fruit would be stripped from the tree, and then all that would be left from this tree would be a stump. No more shelter for the birds, no more shelter for the other animals who are taking shelter under it. Only a stump that is bound with bronze. And as the angel announces this judgment to King Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, We ought to note a few things that are a little bit strange about the message of the angel. The angel, as he proclaims aloud, starting in verse 14, he begins to talk of the tree in the third person masculine pronoun. Now, I don't know how you relate to trees, but in my mind a tree isn't it. A tree isn't it, but the messenger is calling the tree a hymn. He's talking to it about as if it were a man, this tree. But beyond just simply this use of the personal pronouns that the angel uses, he also gives to the tree human characteristics. It says that, in verse 16, that his mind should be changed from a man's. and that he should be given a beast mind instead, and that a certain period of time should pass over him. These are personifications that are given to this tree, and it leaves Nebuchadnezzar scratching his head. He doesn't know what to do with it. And so he asks Daniel to give him the interpretation. Now, what is not clear to Nebuchadnezzar in his carnal mind is made clear to Daniel by the Spirit of the Holy God of heaven, not the Spirit of the gods, as Nebuchadnezzar would think. It is from the Spirit of God Himself. God makes plain to the Emperor of Babylon, through the Lord's messenger, what is going to take place. And as Daniel receives this dream, you see Daniel operating with great integrity. In verse 19, you see after Daniel hears the dream, he's dismayed for a season. Now, Daniel doesn't have to try to puzzle and figure out how he's going to put together the presentation of this dream. He knows it. Immediately, God gives him understanding. But the understanding that he's given causes him to be dismayed. Daniel wants the best for the king. He understands what God is saying to him, and he knows it's not good news for the king. And so Nebuchadnezzar has to reassure him. He has to say, don't worry, everything's going to be fine. Just explain the dream to me. And then beginning in verse 20, Daniel begins to give a flyby, a review of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had already told him, and he interprets it for the king at the same time. And the first thing that he makes clear to King Nebuchadnezzar in verse 22 is that Nebuchadnezzar is this tree. Nebuchadnezzar is the golden head on the statue in chapter 2, and he's the tree here in chapter 4, this great and mighty tree under which the entire world takes shelter. All the animals from the field take shelter under him. The great tree in that sense represents the global domination of Nebuchadnezzar and his empire, the greatness of his rule, the greatness of his dominion. And of course, that part of the dream is no trouble. Nebuchadnezzar would gladly hear that interpretation several times a day, I'm sure. He wouldn't mind at all. The problem is not in the blessings that God has given to to Nebuchadnezzar. The problem rather is with the decree to chop the tree down. Once Nebuchadnezzar is identified as the great tree, what follows next is the command of the angel to chop the tree down, to strip it of its branches, and to cause it to wander in the field like a wild animal. The problem is with the fact that the tree is going to be no more, and all that's going to be left is this stump, at least for a season. This judgment that has been decreed is that Nebuchadnezzar will be removed from his throne, but not only from his throne, he's going to be removed from among men altogether. He's going to be cast out, whereas now he's the center of the known world, he's going to be an outcast in a matter of months. And, of course, it seems that, as this is being described, that more than just being an outcast, he's going to cease from being human altogether. He's going to resemble a beast of the field. He's going to eat grass and he's going to be covered in the dew as he spends his night and his day in the open field. The only good news for Nebuchadnezzar in this dream is that stump, isn't it? Only good news for Nebuchadnezzar is that stump remains. His kingdom isn't totally torn away from him. There is hope for the future. This stump remains for this king. The kingdom will be restored to him. It will be confirmed for him when he acknowledges the rule of heaven, it says in our passage. And so in this sense, Nebuchadnezzar is being used by God as an object lesson. He's using the mightiest king of that time to establish his own sovereignty over all the world. Now, the reason we can ignore the speculation about Nebuchadnezzar's conversion is because this chapter isn't seeking to deal with Nebuchadnezzar apart from using him as his object lesson. The only interest this chapter has in Nebuchadnezzar is to show that he is under the complete control of the God of Heaven. God can set him in power, and when he decides, he can remove him from power. Nebuchadnezzar is only an object in the hands of Almighty God. With all of Babylon's might, with all of Babylon's power, with all of Babylon's wealth, with all of Babylon's people, they're failing to worship what they should. They're looking to the secondary character, Nebuchadnezzar. when they should be looking to God Almighty. The reason for this dream is stated actually explicitly, and if Nebuchadnezzar was paying attention, he wouldn't have to call Daniel in even, because the angel tells him the reason for the dream. He says in verse 17, The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end, here's the end, here's the goal, here's the reason, that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men. It's an establishment of the sovereignty of God over kings, the sovereignty of God over King Nebuchadnezzar specifically, but over kings in general as well. And so as this part of this dream is made clear to Daniel and through Daniel to King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel calls Nebuchadnezzar to turn from his own pride, doesn't he? He calls him to turn away from it in verse 27. His counsel is to break off from his sins and practice righteousness instead. To show mercy to the oppressed. To show kindness. Turning from iniquity. Turning towards mercy. That he would be spared from the judgment of God. It wouldn't be the first time that God spared foreign power from judgment. Think of Jonah in Nineveh. He calls out and they repent and the judgment is stayed on that scene. But in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, the dream does have a consequence. And so we want to look at that consequence next. In verse 28, that's where the consequence of this dream begins to play itself out when it says rather ominously at the beginning of that section, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. Now we should notice something there. We should notice something as we begin verse 28. From verse 1 through 27, it is a first-person, blow-by-blow account recorded by Nebuchadnezzar. But here in verse 28, something changes. Now, all of a sudden, we're introducing a third-person narrator. Why is that? Because Nebuchadnezzar is losing his mind. because Nebuchadnezzar, by the hand of God, is about to be wandering in the field for seven seasons, however long that may be. The narrator then describes the downfall of the king, and the king had the vision, he had heard its interpretation, he had heard the warning from Daniel, and what did he do? He forgot. Here we are in verse 29, 12 months later, and Nebuchadnezzar doesn't have a care in the world. After one year passes, he's walking around on the rooftop of one of these buildings that he has built for his own glory, and he comes out with it. He's observing the greatness of his kingdom, and he forgets to say what is so easy for all people who are in power, or for all people in general. It is God who has given it to me. He is prideful. The first person pronouns in this section should strike us as the quotation from the king comes as he describes the splendor of Babylon. Is not this the great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as the royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? This is a man filled with pride. A man completely ignoring the sovereign hand of God and installing him in the privileged position that he enjoys. And immediately the consequence of the predicted dream is applied to him. God in his mercy warned But then God, in his justice, carries out his sentence. In his righteousness, he judges this emperor. And the event is extraordinary. It's accompanied with a voice that comes from heaven, which pronounces sentence. And the mighty emperor is not only driven away from men, but in a sense becomes subhuman. He becomes insane. He's eating grass and he has no care for his personal hygiene. He's described in the passage as letting his hair grow so long as if it were to resemble feathers from a bird. And his nails are so long that they seem like claws. You see, beloved, the warnings of the Lord are never to be neglected. If verse 17 says God is sovereign over men and He rules and installs whom He wills, He is not, God is not without option when He's facing a rebellious ruler. He's not without option when it comes to a king or a president or a prime minister filled with pride. He's not faced with a helplessness when it comes to the faithlessness of men, even if they be powerful men. For any man to ignore the sovereign God of heaven is an act of treason. And for any man who commits treason against the God of heaven, the consequence is always, always the judgment of God. Now that judgment is certainly for normal folks as the people of Israel who are reading this prophecy by the pen of Daniel will recognize as they are in exile. It is for normal folks but it is also for the mighty. It is also for the powerful. That's because scripture teaches us that man faces the same judgment. Doesn't matter what your station is, it doesn't matter where you were when you were on the earth, you all face the same judgment. That's what it says in Hebrews chapter nine. in verse 27, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. This is the universal condition of man. And how have you lived? Have you lived as a prideful rebel, treasonous against the God, the Sovereign of heaven and earth, as Nebuchadnezzar was living, as Israel had been living? or are you submitting yourself to the God of heaven? The question is whether your judgment from God is paid by Christ or whether you will seek to satisfy divine justice by presenting yourself before the courtroom of God in your filthy rags, which are your best works. How will you come to the judgment seat of God? Will you be covered by Christ or will you come in your own pride, in your own strength? and the dream's fulfillment is a stark warning with regard to the truthfulness of the lesson that is taught in this vision that the king has received. God is the sovereign over every and any man. And when he decides that your time has come, there's not anything that even the most powerful emperor can do. God's judgment falls on those who rebel against him. The only solution to escape the consequence of this rebellion is repentance. The only solution is worship. Worship of the only one who's worthy of it. And that leads us to consider the king and his restoration in the last verses of our chapter. Beginning in verse 34, the narrative again returns to a first-person narrative. Nebuchadnezzar again resumes the telling of this account and his mind is restored. His mind is restored and he gives He gives praise to God. No longer is the focus of Nebuchadnezzar on his greatness and his might and his majesty as it's established in his kingdom, but rather on the God who is over him. And you see that in this little poem that's recorded for us in verse 34 and 35, speaking of God's dominion and his kingdom enduring from generation to generation, that the inhabitants of the world are as nothing before the Lord. He does as He pleases in heaven and on earth, and no one can stop Him. No one can stay His hand. And so as He turns to the Lord, this once mighty tree, the stump is released from its shackles. As He acknowledges God, His kingdom is restored to Him. And not only was it restored to Him, but it's even made greater than it was before. It's significant because these are the last words we hear from Nebuchadnezzar in this entire book. He's been kind of a looming shadow in the first four chapters of this book, but this is how he exits. He exits the mighty emperor, the one who would tear people limb from limb, who would put their houses into piles of rubble if they didn't follow him. This one now, in ashes, comes before God, acknowledges Him as the Sovereign Lord, the One who will do with people as He sees fit, something that He thought He had privilege to previously. The king had learned the lesson, you see, that God is sovereign over all men, even over great kings. So Nebuchadnezzar's profession is to say that God is good, to say that God is just, that he does as he wishes and to walk before him in pride will lead to your humiliation. That's how King Nebuchadnezzar exits the scene. Of course, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are the terminal illness of mankind. That's how we live and that's how we die. It is the opposite, of course, of Christ, who was our Savior. Here we see the opposite of what Christ is like in Nebuchadnezzar. Paul describes the ministry of Christ in the book of Philippians, he describes it as one where Christ forsakes self. It's the picture of one who humbles himself even to the point of death, the point of death even of the cross. Of course, the crucifixion, Christ undergoing it, it's a selfless act that purchases the pardon for his people. Far different from how Nebuchadnezzar ruled and reigned. Because God loved you, because God sacrificed himself for you, now you can love God and you can love your neighbor. In that sense, Christ is the perfect King. He perfectly expresses heavenly love for his people. Nebuchadnezzar is Of course, a picture of a man who despises this love from God and boasts about the treasures of this world rather than seeking the face of the Lord. He trades in eternal glory for earthly accomplishment. Of course, the difference between these two kings is that Nebuchadnezzar's reign can be taken away like that, whereas Christ's can never be. Christ's reign is eternal. It will never end. His kingdom will be from eternity into eternity. And so, this King, this Christ, this mediatorial King, He has gathered from among all the peoples of the world, some for Himself. He has brought them into his own kingdom. He has gathered his people within his kingdom and he protects them then. He protects them against their enemies, even if their enemies be their own hearts. Even if their enemies be the people who live right around them. That's what he did. That's what he did for Daniel. That's what he did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Perhaps he did it for Nebuchadnezzar as well, as God turned a rebel to himself. It's unclear. But because this truth of God being the sovereign who works in the hearts of men is true, there are certain things that we ought to take away and take home from this passage. The first one is that we should pray for our leaders. Pride is not a sin unique to rulers, but they are more susceptible to this sin. So it is not only a command to pray for those who are in authority. They are in positions uniquely set for these temptations, as Nebuchadnezzar is. But in a sense, we can expand this to pray that pride would be kept from everyone. But thinking specifically about our rulers, our leaders. In our own political climate, we have a climate filled with accusations being lobbed back and forth. People are accusing this person of that thing, and they come back with an opposite accusation, just as seemingly detrimental to our nation. And that's what we see. Accusations of impropriety. It doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican. They're accusing each other constantly. Now why are they accusing each other? Because they're so concerned about what's true and right? I would submit to us that they're concerned more with propping up their own party. was saying, look at the kingdom that we have built for ourselves. Look at how powerful and mighty we are. They're trying to gain power. And so the political climate in our nation is so filled with Nebuchadnezzar's original sentiment. There's a constant game going on to see who can get and hold power. What does this chapter teach us? God is sovereign over every single one of them. And He can remove them from power just as quickly as He would like to do. So pray for your leaders. Pray for them, not because they're Republicans or because they're Democrats or because you're better because you're an independent. Pray for their security. Pray that they would recognize who it is that they're serving. Pray that they would see that they are not sovereign over this nation, but that God rules in heaven over them. That they are accountable before him. And so pray for them. Pray for your rulers in this way. Pray for their protection from pride. Pray for wisdom for them to serve the one who is sovereign over them. Do not leave them to fend for themselves, but implore by prayer for them. And then the second thing that we learn from this passage is that we should humble ourselves before the Lord. Of course, pride is established in Nebuchadnezzar's boasting, but it's also established in Nebuchadnezzar's forgetfulness. Nebuchadnezzar very clearly, by the mouth of the Holy One, the One who he knows has the Spirit of the Gods in Him, the Spirit of God Almighty, Daniel, he has been warned by Daniel that this is coming. And within 12 months, Nebuchadnezzar doesn't think a thing about it anymore. Not only is he prideful in his boasting about Babylon, but he's also prideful in his forgetfulness. To view the word of the Lord as insignificant is an act of pride. And we know this. We know this to be true. If you have children, if you have had children, you know this is true. I'll give you a simple example. You tell your child, Darling child, fruit of the womb of my darling wife, I love you deeply, I care for you, I feed you, I make sure that you get to your school or to your practices on time, and we have a nice bed and a room for you, and we bought you all sorts of toys. Now, I have only but one small request of you. Would you please, at the end of the day, put your toys in the bucket? And the child says, yes, dad, I will do that because of your graciousness to me. I love you. And then you go walk in to tuck them in in the middle of the night. And what do you step on? Lego or army soldiers or something. And you hop around on one foot for a while. Now, you say to that same child, four weeks from today at 2 o'clock, 2.05 PM, Your friend is coming to play with you. All you need to do is to remind me to pick him up at 159. Where is that child going to be at 159 four weeks from that day? They're going to be knocking on your door. Hey, Dad, it's time to get my friend. You see, the problem with the instruction about the toys wasn't that they couldn't remember it. The instruction about the toy was that they didn't bother to remember it because there was a despising of the instruction from the parents. And that's what's going on with Nebuchadnezzar. And that's what goes on in our own hearts as well when we say to ourselves, a book's not important. I don't need it so much. Why would I bother to read? I have other things to do that are, look at the majesty of my kingdom that I have built for myself. It is in the forgetfulness about God that we manifest great pride against Him. So, when we come to the Lord, humble ourselves before Him, not only in humility and not boasting, but also in humility of recognizing who He is and that His words matter and that they're significant to us. Even the pagan king recognizes that God is sovereign over all nations and over all people. How much more should we as God's people? To fight with God is certainly sin. To actively rebel against God is certainly sin. But to shrug about Him, who cares? That is the greatest disrespect you can give to the sovereign of the universe that is imaginable, to think that he's insignificant. It's the same thing as fighting with him. The last contribution of Nebuchadnezzar in this book is to act as an object lesson for us. This mighty emperor, he's an object lesson. His pride is used to show that the Lord sets up kings and kingdoms. All of these kingdoms, all of these kings, they all belong to the Lord. They don't belong to men. And it is in that truth that the obligation to live for God is found. God is sovereign over all of it. He owns all of it. All of it belongs to Him, so all of it should serve Him. This is the implication of God's sovereignty over kings and presidents and congressmen and senators. It's the implication of His sovereignty over them, and they should tremble in fear before Him. But beloved people of God, So should you and I. Let's pray together.