When Pride Builds Empires
Notes
Transcript
Me
Me
There’s a question pastors tend to ask each other pretty quickly when they meet:
“How big is your church?”
It’s not necessarily a bad question.
But it does reveal something about how easily we measure ministry like an empire.
Our hearts start wondering about worldly metrics like:
How big is it?
How fast is it growing?
How influential is it?
And if I’m honest, that question can start to mess with my heart a little bit
Because if church size is the measure, then I start wondering things like:
Am I doing something wrong?
Am I actually following God the way I should?
If I were doing everything right, wouldn’t we be seeing more people joining?
Those thoughts creep in.
And before long, you realize how easy it is to start measuring the kingdom
The same way the world measures success.
Numbers.
Growth.
Influence.
But the danger is that when we do that, we start treating the church like a business.
We borrow strategies from wall street and baptize them with spiritual language.
Without realizing it, the world’s definition of success quietly becomes our own.
Sometimes we even start thinking of the church like a market,
Trying to gather the biggest crowd we can.
Yet, Scripture never says the goal of the church is to build something impressive.
Because a big church does not necessarily mean a holy church.
And a small church does not necessarily mean an unfaithful one.
The real question is not:
“How big is the corner of the kingdom we built?”
The real question is:
“Are we living under the kingdom of God?”
We
We
But this isn’t just a pastor problem.
All of us have ways of measuring the kingdoms we’re building.
When people meet someone new, one of the first questions often becomes:
“What do you do?”
And what we really mean is:
How successful are you?
How important is your role?
How big is your influence?
Sometimes the kingdom we measure is our career.
Sometimes it’s our income.
Or maybe our reputation.
Or maybe our family.
We all have areas of life where we quietly want to step back,
Look at what we have, and say:
“Look what I built!”
Maybe not out loud.
But in our hearts.
We measure our lives by the size of the kingdoms we think we’ve built.
And Daniel 4 tells the story of the most powerful king in the world doing exactly that.
Nebuchadnezzar stands on the roof of Babylon and says:
“Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
That moment reveals the danger we all face.
When pride builds empires,
we start believing the kingdom belongs to us.
But Daniel 4 reminds us of something very different.
Abiding means living in God’s kingdom, not building our own.
God
God
Heed the Warnings (v.4-27)
Heed the Warnings (v.4-27)
Nebuchadnezzar stands on the roof of Babylon and says:
“Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
And the question Daniel 4 answers is simple.
What happens when a human being starts believing that?
Because Nebuchadnezzar didn’t just rule a city.
He ruled the most powerful empire in the world.
Babylon was one of the wonders of the ancient world.
Massive walls. Grand temples. Royal palaces stretching across the city
And yet this chapter tells the story of how God confronted that pride.
Not all at once, but step by step.
The story actually begins before the rooftop moment.
Because Nebuchadnezzar had already been warned.
Daniel 4:4 tells us the king was at ease in his palace and flourishing in his kingdom.
Everything was going well.
The empire was strong.
The king felt secure.
And that is often when pride grows the fastest.
But what makes this striking is that this wasn’t the first time Nebuchadnezzar had encountered the God of Israel.
In fact, by this point God had been confronting this king for decades.
Back in Daniel 2, God revealed the king’s dream when no one else could.
Nebuchadnezzar admitted:
“Your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings.”
Daniel was then elevated over the wise men of Babylon.
The king literally placed Daniel over the empire’s magicians and advisors.
Which means Nebuchadnezzar already knew that Daniel’s God was not like the other gods of Babylon.
Then in Daniel 3, three men who served alongside Daniel and worshipped the same God refused to bow to the king’s statue.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace.
But when the king looked into the flames, he saw something astonishing.
Not three men.
Four.
And the fourth looked like a divine figure walking with them in the fire.
Those men walked out of the furnace unharmed.
And Nebuchadnezzer declared that no god could rescue like their God.
God had already been showing this king His power and His wisdom over the other gods of Babylon
And now, around thirty years after the fiery furnace, God speaks again.
Nebuchadnezzar has another dream.
This time he sees a massive tree in the middle of the earth.
The tree grows strong and tall.
Its top reaches the sky.
It can be seen from the ends of the earth.
Its leaves are beautiful.
Its fruit is abundant.
Animals live under its shade.
Birds nest in its branches.
It is a picture of power, influence, and prosperity.
But suddenly the dream changes.
A messenger from heaven declares that the tree must be cut down.
Its branches stripped.
Its leaves scattered.
The animals and birds flee.
The kingdom will fall.
And notice who the king calls to interpret the dream.
Daniel.
The same Daniel who had already proven that the God of Israel reveals mysteries
By this point Daniel had likely been the chief of the wise men of Babylon for more than thirty years.
Which means Nebuchadnezzar had already seen again and again that Daniel’s God,
and how the wisdom given to Daniel was far greater than the gods of his empire.
The king may not worship the God of Israel.
But he knows there is something different about Him.
Then Daniel explains the meaning.
“You are that tree, Your Majesty.”
The tree represents Nebuchadnezzar.
His kingdom had grown powerful and far-reaching.
But notice something about Daniel in this moment.
Daniel 4 tells us that when Daniel first heard the dream,
He was alarmed for a while.
His thoughts troubled him.
The king actually has to tell Daniel not to be afraid to explain the dream.
Why?
Because Daniel already knew what it meant.
And Daniel did not want this judgment to fall on the king.
Daniel even says:
“My lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you.”
In other words, Daniel wishes the warning was for someone else.
Daniel actually cares about this king.
The same king who conquered Jerusalem.
The same king who carried him into exile.
And yet Daniel still speaks the truth.
“You are that tree.”
Then Daniel delivers the full meaning and the warning.
The king will be driven away from people.
He will live with the animals.
He will eat grass like cattle.
And this will happen until he learns something.
“The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and gives it to anyone he wishes.”
But even then, the story shows God’s mercy.
Daniel doesn’t just interpret the dream.
He pleads with the king.
Look at verse 27
“Break off your sins by practicing righteousness and showing mercy to the oppressed.”
That is an incredibly bold thing to say to a king.
Daniel is telling the most powerful man in the world
That his pride is sinful and that he needs to repent.
Kings in the ancient world were not used to being confronted.
People did not tell emperors they were wrong.
People certainly, exiled prisoners, did not tell emperors they needed to repent.
And notice what this shows us
God is not eager to destroy the king.
God is giving him a chance to turn.
Daniel is essentially saying:
This does not have to end in judgment.
You can still change.
God was giving Nebuchadnezzar a warning.
And not just one warning.
Many warnings.
Over many years.
This is the character of God.
In Exodus 34, God describes Himself as compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in faithful love.
God is all those things,
Even with proud pagan kings.
Before God humbles the proud, He often warns them.
The question is whether we will listen.
Because the warning is really an invitation.
An invitation to step down from the kingdom we are trying to build.
And to live under the rule of the true King.
A Kingdom of Hubris (v.28-33)
A Kingdom of Hubris (v.28-33)
But Nebuchadnezzar did not listen.
And the next line in the story is one of the most tragic in the chapter.
Verse 29 says,
“Twelve months later…”
A full year passed.
A year to reflect on the dream.
A year to remember Daniel’s warning.
A year to humble himself before God.
But when the year ended,
The king walked out onto the roof of Babylon.
Looking over the greatest empire on earth.
Looking out over
The city he believed he built.
The empire he believed he controlled.
And standing above it all, the king began to speak.
Saying:
“Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
Listen carefully to the king’s words.
I built.
My power.
My majesty.
Four times in one sentence the king puts himself at the center of the kingdom.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s mind, Babylon exists for one reason.
His glory.
But heaven hears those words differently.
Verse 31 says that while the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven.
“The kingdom has departed from you.”
The king who believed he ruled the world suddenly cannot even rule himself.
His sanity is taken from him.
He is driven away from people.
He lives like an animal in the fields.
He eats grass like cattle.
His hair grows long like eagle’s feathers.
His nails like the claws of birds.
The king of Babylon becomes like a beast of the earth.
And there is a deep irony in this.
Earlier in the dream the animals lived under the tree.
They found shelter under Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom.
But now the king himself becomes like one of them.
The ruler of the empire now lives among the animals of the field.
The empire builder cannot even control his own mind.
Some modern readers try to explain this medically.
There are rare psychological conditions where someone believes they are an animal.
Commentators sometimes point to that as a possible explanation.
But Daniel is not trying to give us a medical/mental health diagnosis
Daniel is explaining something far deeper.
He is exposing the deeper sickness behind the king’s fall
The sickness that hides behind so much human sin.
Pride.
This is what pride does.
Pride convinces us we are kings.
Pride convinces us we are in control.
Pride convinces us the kingdom belongs to us.
Pride takes the gifts God gives us
our success
our influence
our achievements
And slowly rewrites the story so that we become the king in control
Daniel 4 shows what happens when pride forgets who really rules.
God is able to humble even the most powerful king in the world.
A Kingdom of Humility (v.1-3, 34-37)
A Kingdom of Humility (v.1-3, 34-37)
And for a time that is exactly what happens to Nebuchadnezzar.
The king lives like an animal.
Driven from people.
Eating grass in the fields.
His hair grows long.
His nails like claws.
The ruler of Babylon becomes like a beast of the earth.
Until one moment changes everything.
Verse 34 says,
“But at the end of those days, I lifted my eyes toward heaven.”
And that is the turning point of the whole chapter.
The moment the king finally looks up and recognizes the reality he has been denying.
The king who once stood on a roof looking down at Babylon now lifts his eyes up toward heaven.
And the moment he does, everything changes.
“My sanity returned.”
Nebuchadnezzar finally sees what Daniel had warned him about all along.
“The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind.”
The king who once said,
“I built this kingdom by my power for my glory”
Now says something completely different.
Verse 35 says,
“All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And no one can stop His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’”
The NET Bible translates it in an insightful way
35 No one slaps his hand and says to him, ‘What have you done?’
In other words, no one can grab God’s hand and say, “Stop.”
No one can challenge His rule.
No one can question His authority.
The king who once believed the world belonged to him now realizes something.
There is a throne above his throne.
But something even more remarkable happens.
The chapter actually begins with Nebuchadnezzar telling this story himself.
Look at how the chapter opens.
Verse 1.
“King Nebuchadnezzar, to the peoples, nations, and languages that live in all the earth: May your prosperity increase.”
Then verse 2.
“It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.”
And verse 3.
“How great are His signs. How mighty His wonders. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.”
And when you realize what is happening here, it is astonishing.
This chapter of Scripture is written as a royal proclamation.
A testimony.
From a pagan king.
The man who conquered Jerusalem.
The man who destroyed the temple.
The man who once demanded people worship his golden statue.
Is now testifying to the world about the God who humbled him.
God took the most powerful ruler in the world, broke his pride, restored his mind,
and turned him into a witness.
The greatest change is not his throne.
It is his heart.
The king who once demanded worship now gives it.
The man who once built monuments to his own glory
Now tells his empire about God’s glory.
Verse 37
“Those who walk in pride He is able to humble.”
Nebuchadnezzar spent his life building an empire.
But he finally discovered something greater than his kingdom.
The rule of the true King.
And that is the lesson of this chapter.
Abiding means living in God’s kingdom, not building our own.
You
You
Nebuchadnezzar learned something every human being eventually has to learn.
We are not as in control as we think we are.
This king believed he ruled the world.
But Daniel shows how little control he actually had.
He could not control his pride.
He could not control his anger.
He could not control his sleep.
He could not even control his own mind.
The man who ruled Babylon could not rule himself.
And that is true for all of us.
We spend much of our lives trying to build something.
A career.
A reputation.
A life that feels secure.
But underneath it all is a quiet assumption.
That we are in control.
That this kingdom we are building belongs to us.
That our success is ours.
Our influence is ours.
Our lives are ours.
But Daniel exposes the illusion.
There is a throne above our throne.
For Nebuchadnezzar, that moment came when everything he built was taken away.
His throne.
His power.
His reputation.
His sanity.
But even that humiliation was not cruelty.
It was mercy.
God did not destroy Nebuchadnezzar.
He humbled him.
Remember the dream.
The tree would be cut down.
But the stump would remain.
He was stripping away the pride that had kept him blind to the truth.
And sometimes God does the same thing for us.
Sometimes, in His mercy,
God begins to remove the things we thought we needed.
The success.
The control.
The reputation.
The kingdom we were trying to build.
In John 15, Jesus says that the Father prunes the branches so they can bear real fruit.
And that pruning oft feels painful.
Because God is cutting away the very things we thought defined us.
Not to destroy us.
But to help us finally see the truth.
To lift our eyes toward heaven.
To recognize the King we had been ignoring all along.
That is exactly what finally happens to Nebuchadnezzar.
After years of pride.
After the kingdom is stripped away.
The king finally lifts his eyes toward heaven.
And in that moment he sees the truth he had been denying all along.
The Most High rules.
Now scripture does not give us every detail of Nebuchadnezzar’s life after this moment.
But it certainly sounds like the testimony of a humbled man.
A king who once glorified himself now praising the God of heaven.
A king who once demanded worship now confessing that God’s kingdom is eternal.
And the question the story leaves us with is not just about Nebuchadnezzar.
But about us.
Because we are not so different from this king.
Most of us are not building empires like Babylon.
But we are building kingdoms.
Little kingdoms.
Kingdoms of success.
Kingdoms of reputation.
Kingdoms of influence.
Kingdoms where we want our name to matter.
Where we want people to look at our lives and say,
Look what they built.
Sometimes that kingdom shows up in our career.
Where our identity becomes our job title.
Where success at work begins to define our worth and identity
Sometimes in our money.
Where security starts to come more from our bank account than from God.
Sometimes in our family.
Where our children’s achievements become a reflection of our own success
Sometimes even in ministry.
Where we quietly measure faithfulness by influence, recognition, or church size
But today there is another kind of kingdom people build that did not exist in Nebuchadnezzar’s day.
The digital kingdom.
Social media has given everyone a small platform.
A place to display our lives.
Our opinions.
Our identity.
To curate the version of ourselves we want the world to see
And it becomes very easy to start measuring our worth by what people think of us.
How many followers.
How many likes.
How many people noticed what we posted.
Without realizing it,
We start doing the same thing Nebuchadnezzar did on the roof of Babylon.
Looking out over what we think we built.
And saying in our hearts,
Look what I did.
But Daniel reminds us of something we desperately need to hear.
There is a throne above our throne.
And one day every kingdom we build will be humbled.
Every reputation will fade.
Every career will end.
Every empire will fall.
But there is one kingdom that will never fall.
The kingdom of God.
And the good news of the gospel is that God did not leave us trapped in that illusion.
Jesus Christ is the true King Nebuchadnezzar never fully understood
Where Nebuchadnezzar climbed to the top of Babylon to praise himself,
Jesus came down from heaven to save us.
He died for our pride.
He died for our rebellion.
He died for every moment we tried to sit on a throne that belongs to God.
And three days later He rose from the grave.
Proving that His kingdom will never end.
So the invitation of the gospel is simple.
Step down from the throne.
Turn to the true King.
For some of you, that means repentance for the first time.
Maybe you have spent your life building your own kingdom.
Your identity.
Your success.
Your control.
But the invitation of Jesus is simple.
Turn to Him.
Trust Him.
Submit to His rule.
Receive the forgiveness He purchased at the cross.
And enter the kingdom of God.
And for those who already follow Jesus,
Daniel still speaks to us.
Because even Christians drift back into building their own little empires.
Our careers.
Our reputation.
Our influence.
Even our ministry.
And this chapter calls us back to something better.
Abiding.
Living under the rule of the true King.
Remembering that everything we have comes from Him.
And everything we build belongs to Him.
Because abiding means living in God’s kingdom, not building our own.
So what might that look like this week?
It might mean surrendering control in prayer.
God, this career is not my kingdom.
This reputation is not my kingdom.
This future is not my kingdom.
You are my King.
It might mean receiving the pruning God brings instead of fighting it.
When something in your life is shaken.
A plan falls apart.
A door closes.
Instead of asking, “Why is this happening to me?”
We begin asking, “God, what are you teaching me about Your kingdom?”
And sometimes it simply means lifting our eyes toward heaven again.
Remembering who our King really is.
So the question Daniel 4 leaves us with is this.
Are we trying to build our own kingdom.
Or are we living under the rule of the true King?
We
We
If a proud pagan king could finally see this, what excuse do we have?
Nebuchadnezzar saw God’s rule through dreams and discipline
We have seen it in the cross and the empty tomb!
So the question is not whether the King has spoken
The question is whether we will listen.
Will you lift your eyes toward heaven.
Or keep trying to hold together a kingdom that cannot stand.
Because those who walk in pride He is able to humble.
Benediction
Benediction
May you go hearing the words of Jesus and putting them into practice.
May your life be built not on the sand of pride, control, or self-made kingdoms, but on the rock of Christ and His unshakable reign.
And when the rain falls, and the floods come, and the winds beat against you, may you stand firm, because your life is founded on the true King.
Go in peace, under the rule of Jesus, and abide in the kingdom that cannot fall.
Amen.
