- Hi, everybody. Thanks
so much for tuning in.
And I sure look forward
to being together again.
Hey, but until then,
thanks for joining us
from the comfort of wherever
you are joining us from.
And for those of you who have
allowed us to be your church
while your local church
is gearing up to reopen,
we have certainly
enjoyed having you
and we will be here as
long as you need us.
Today, we begin a brand
new four-part series
entitled "Leading Through,"
and the subtitle is
"Three Essentials for
Navigating Uncertainty."
"Three Essentials for
Navigating Uncertainty."
Now here's the thing.
Here's what we all
have in common.
In light of everything
that's happened
the past several months,
there's a sense in which we
are all picking up the pieces,
moving forward the
best that we can,
but many of us, and I
bet this includes you,
many of us are responsible
for helping other people
move forward as well.
Family members, maybe employees,
team members, students,
members of the community.
So if you're a parent, a
manager, a business owner,
an executive, a
teacher, a coach,
a mayor, maybe part
of a city council,
people are looking to you
and they're looking
to me for direction.
They're looking to
us for inspiration.
And mainly they're
looking to us for hope.
And you know this
because you're a leader.
Leading under
normal circumstances
and leading in normal conditions
is tough enough, right?
But leading people
through and out of
what we've just come through?
Not for the faint of heart.
And, and I won't
tell if you won't,
but the people who are
looking to us for leadership,
they have no idea
how unprepared we are
and how unprepared
we feel, right?
Because come on, we don't
have all the answers.
We don't have all the answers.
We don't always know what to do.
And isn't it true?
We're just kind of making
this up as we go along.
At least I know I am.
So anyway, having the discipline
and I think having the humility
to admit that you don't
have all the answers,
it actually makes
you a better parent,
a better boss,
a better teacher,
a better government official,
a better coach.
It makes you a better leader.
I mean, come on.
There's no point in
kidding ourselves
and there's no point
in kidding the people
who are looking to
us for direction.
Uncertainty is a
permanent part of life,
and it's a permanent part
of the leadership equation.
In fact, uncertainty,
uncertainty is why the
world needs leaders.
It's why your
family, your company,
it's why your city needs you.
So here's what we're gonna do.
In this series we're gonna
discuss three essentials
for leading through
times of disruption
and leading through uncertainty.
Now I think these
are non-negotiables.
I think to some degree these
are irreducible minimums.
They're always important.
But in times of uncertainty,
I think they're more
important than ever.
But before I give you
the three essentials,
today I wanna
spend a few minutes
reading a story from
the Hebrew scriptures,
our Old Testament,
that draws all of us
who were influencers
into the broader context
of our responsibility
as leaders and influencers.
So whether it's at home or
work or in the community,
this ancient narrative,
I think this ancient
narrative reminds all of us
of the most important
thing we can keep in mind
as we think about our
leadership and our influence,
and it's simply this.
That leadership is
always a stewardship.
Leadership is a stewardship.
Now we don't use the term
stewardship very much,
but in ancient times
a steward was someone
appointed by a king
to represent the king.
So a steward had the authority
of their authority, the king,
because the king
loaned it to them.
It was given to them,
and it could be taken away.
And as we're gonna discover,
this is true of our influence
and our leadership as well.
And the more successful we are,
the more successful you are,
the easier it is to lose sight
of this very, very,
very important
component of leadership.
To put it bluntly,
to leverage kind of modern
business vernacular,
we don't have people.
We don't have people.
We have responsibility to people
because someone loaned
us our responsibility.
All leadership is a stewardship.
And here's the second part.
Not only is it a stewardship,
it's temporary, it's temporary.
The clock is ticking.
Time will eventually run
out on your influence.
Time will eventually run
out on your authority.
Eventually it'll either
be taken away from us,
or we will simply give it away,
because it's temporary.
And the reason it's
temporary is we're temporary.
And knowing there's an
expiration date on our influence
should inform our
posture and our tone
and our humility as leaders.
We should lead with the end in
mind because there's an end.
Eventually our time runs out.
And when it ends, your legacy,
your legacy will be established.
And here's some bad news.
Your legacy, your memory
will probably be established
by your final chapter,
not necessarily
your finest chapter.
Again, it's not
fair, but it's true.
Leadership is a
stewardship, it's temporary,
and here's why today's
narrative is so instructive.
It's a stewardship,
it's temporary,
and we are accountable.
Everybody is
accountable to somebody
for how they steward or
manage their influence.
But today's narrative,
today's narrative reminds all
of us that our accountability,
our accountability as
leaders goes beyond a boss,
a board, a
constituency, or a base.
In fact, if you believe in
some way, shape, or form
that all men and women are
created in the image of God,
and that, consequently,
the people you lead
and the people that
you're raising,
the kids that you're raising
are technically or actually
your brothers and your sisters,
then ultimately we
are accountable to God
for how we lead and how
we leverage our influence.
Jesus taught this.
Jesus modeled this.
And today's text illustrates it.
Today's story takes place
around 580 BC, 580 BC.
And the main
character in the story
was an extraordinary
military and political leader
who confused progress
with greatness,
which is so easy
to do, isn't it?
And he was ultimately
brought to his senses
in a very unusual way.
His name is Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar was literally
the most powerful man
in the world in the
day in which he lived.
He was the king of Babylon.
He resided in the
city of Babylon,
which is located
in modern day Iraq.
Now this is super important.
About 20 years before the story
we're gonna look at today,
about 20 years before that,
Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah.
The city of Jerusalem
was actually spared
for the time being.
But while he was there,
Nebuchadnezzar went in
and rounded up members
of the nation's elite,
their citizens, their best
and their brightest people,
and brought them active
Babylon as hostages.
And included in this number
of folks where Shadrach,
Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel.
Then, a few years later,
Nebuchadnezzar
returns to Jerusalem.
He sacks the city.
He destroys the temple.
But before he destroyed
it, he looted it.
And then he takes all the
contents of the Jewish temple
to Babylon,
and he places them
in the palace vault.
Now I need you to
log all of that away
because those details
become very important
toward the end of today's story.
Now, Daniel and the
Judeans exiled in Babylon,
for them, the moral of
this story was simple.
That God was judging
the nation of Israel
for its disobedience,
and that basically God was
putting the nation in timeout
until they got
their act together,
until they decided to become
faithful to the covenant.
So for them, that's how they
understood these events.
But King Nebuchadnezzar
didn't see it that way.
The way he saw it,
it was very simple.
His God, Marduk, was
clearly more powerful
than the Jewish god, Yahweh.
And Israel's god had lost.
So consequently, that's just
the end of the story, right?
But as it turns out, that
was not the end of the story.
In fact, it's actually
why we know this story.
Daniel documents
these unusual events
in the Old Testament
Book of Daniel.
He'd been in Babylon for
about 20 years by this time.
He'd become a trusted advisor
to King Nebuchadnezzar.
And according to Daniel,
Nebuchadnezzar had a
disturbing, terrifying dream
that he was absolutely sure
had some kind of significance
for him and possibly
for Babylon.
And so Daniel documents what
Nebuchadnezzar describes
as this horrible dream.
Here's what he writes.
He said, "I, Nebuchadnezzar,
was at home in my palace,
"contented and prosperous,
"and I had a dream
that made me afraid."
And here's what he dreamed.
He dreamed that there was
this enormous, beautiful tree
that was visible
to all the earth,
and all the animals
of the earth rested
under the canopy of
this enormous tree,
and it provided food for
all the earth's creatures.
Then, in the dream he hears
this loud voice from heaven
that says, "Cut it down."
And in his dream,
suddenly this enormous tree
is cut down to a stump.
And then in the dream,
the voice says this.
It says, "Let him be drenched
with the dew of heaven,
"and let him live
with the animals
"among the plants of the earth.
"And let his mind be
changed from that of a man,
"and let him be given
the mind of an animal,
"till seven times
pass by for him."
And then the voice
announces this.
"The decision is
announced by messengers,
"the holy ones
declare the verdict,
"so that the living
may know that."
And here's the bottom
line for Nebuchadnezzar
and here's the
bottom line for us.
That all the world would know
that "the Most High is sovereign
over all kingdoms on earth
"and gives them to
anyone he wishes
"and sets over them the
lowliest of people."
So when Nebuchadnezzar
wakes up from this dream,
he is terrified,
and he knows it has
something to do with him.
So he calls in all
the usual suspects
to help him
interpret this dream,
and they either can't
or perhaps they won't,
and eventually he
brings in Daniel.
And when Daniel hears
Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
he also is terrified.
In fact, Daniel is so terrified
when he hears
Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
that Nebuchadnezzar actually
has to comfort Daniel.
And here's what Daniel says.
He says, "My Lord,
"if only the dream
applied to your enemies
"and its meaning to
your adversaries."
But it doesn't,
it's all about you.
And then I think, perhaps,
because of what he
was about to say,
Daniel takes a step
back and he says,
"King Nebuchadnezzar,
here's what the dream means.
"The Most High God has decreed
"that you will be driven
away from humanity.
"That you're about to
become like a wild animal.
"That you're going to
humiliate yourself publicly.
"And that this will go on
until you finally acknowledge,"
and then maybe he takes
another step back,
"until you finally acknowledge
that the Most High God,
"not you and not Marduk,
"is sovereign over
the kingdoms of men."
And then he gives him a
little bit of good news.
He says this, he says,
"Your kingdom will eventually
be restored to you,
"but not until you
acknowledge that heaven rules.
"Therefore, your majesty, be
pleased to accept my advice."
And then Daniel
steps into his role
as an advisor to the most
powerful man on the planet,
and here's what he says.
He says, "Renounce your
sins by doing what is right,
"and your wickedness by
being kind to the oppressed.
"It may be that then your
prosperity will continue."
Well, Nebuchadnezzar was
terrified by the dream,
but apparently he wasn't
all that terrified,
because nothing
changed for 12 months.
And then everything changed.
12 months later,
King Nebuchadnezzar
was walking on the roof
of the royal palace of Babylon,
and he said to himself
or he said out loud,
"Is not this the great
Babylon I have built
"as the royal residence,
"by my mighty power and for
the glory of my majesty?"
(chuckles) And we can hear
the music change, can't we?
And we can pretty much guess
what happens next, can't we?
"The words were
still on his lips
"when a voice came from heaven."
And the voice said this.
"This is what is decreed for
you, King Nebuchadnezzar."
Now King Nebuchadnezzar is
the one who's accustomed
to making the decrees.
Now someone is making
a decree about him.
"King Nebuchadnezzar,
"your royal authority
has been taken from you."
It's been taken because
it can be taken,
and it can be taken
because it was given.
It was on loan.
It was a stewardship,
Nebuchadnezzar.
And Nebuchadnezzar,
you didn't know it.
But you are accountable and
you're being called to account.
You made it all about you,
and now you're through.
"King Nebuchadnezzar, you will
be driven away from people
"and you will live
with the wild animals.
"You will eat grass like the ox.
"And seven times,
"seven times will
pass by for you,
"until you acknowledge."
And here's the bottom line.
"Until you finally acknowledge
"that the Most
High is sovereign,
"the Most High is sovereign
over all the kingdoms on earth,
"and he gives them
to anyone he wishes."
And immediately Daniel
says, immediately,
"Nebuchadnezzar was
driven away from people
"and he ate grass like the ox.
"His body was eventually
drenched with the dew of heaven
"until his hair grew like
the feathers of an eagle
"and his nails like
the claws of a bird."
Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind,
possibly stricken
with boanthropy.
Boanthropy is actually a
real psychological disorder
where the person is
suffering from it
actually believes that he
or she is a cow or an ox.
So what happens is his
attendants or his wife
walks in one day
and they find King
Nebuchadnezzar
crawling around on all
fours making animal noises.
They take him out
to a private garden
and they try to keep
this story private,
and he lives there.
We don't know how long,
but eventually he comes
back to his senses.
And when he's told what
happened, of course,
he's absolutely humiliated.
And he puts two
and two together.
He remembers the dream
and he remembers Daniel's
interpretation of the dream.
And Daniel takes
down his confession,
and here's what
Nebuchadnezzar said
at the end of that time.
He said, "I, Nebuchadnezzar,
"I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised
my eyes toward heaven,
"and my sanity was
finally restored."
And then, (chuckles)
then of course he did.
"Then I praised the Most High.
"I honored and glorified
him who lives forever.
"His dominion is an
eternal dominion."
Suddenly it's not
all about Marduk,
it's all about Daniel's God.
"His dominion is an
eternal dominion.
"His kingdom endures from
generation to generation."
This is so powerful.
"No one, no one can hold
back his hand or say to him,
"'What have you done?'
"And now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
"praise and exalt and
glorify the King of heaven,
"because everything
he does is right
"and all his ways are just.
"And those who walk
in pride... (chuckles)
"Those who walk in pride,
he is able to humble."
So here's the lesson for
Nebuchadnezzar and for us.
Leadership, even kingship,
is a stewardship.
It's a gift, it's temporary.
Leaders and kings, leaders
and kings are accountable.
And so we dare not,
this is our lesson,
we dare not leverage our power,
we dare not leverage our
influence to oppress.
Now this whole incident
with Nebuchadnezzar
did not happen in secret.
Wherever there were slaves,
there were no secrets.
And this story
eventually circulates
throughout the royal
family and beyond.
Then, follow along, 40
years go by, 40 years later,
by this time
Nebuchadnezzar dies,
there were two or
three other kings
that lasted for a
very short time,
but 40 years later,
the new king of
Babylon is Nabonidus.
He's the brand new
king of Babylon.
He's the king of Babylon, but
he is no King Nebuchadnezzar.
And as the glory of
Babylon begins to fade,
in the East, the Persians,
under the leadership
of Cyrus the Great,
begin to flex their military
and economic muscle,
and Cyrus the Great sets his
sights on the city of Babylon
with all of its
legendary wealth,
and he launches a campaign
of conquest and destruction
with Babylon, the city of
Babylon, as the ultimate prize.
So King Nabonidus, who's
the king now in Babylon,
he put his co-regent,
Belshazzar, in
charge of the city.
I know it's a lot of names.
He puts Belshazzar in charge
of the city of Babylon.
Then he and the Babylonian
army go out to confront Cyrus
who's making his way
toward the city of Babylon.
Well, the Persian
army under Cyrus
decimates the Babylonian army.
They capture Nabonidus and
they march on the city.
And Cyrus knows, Cyrus knows
that the great city of Babylon,
the defenses make it
pretty much impregnable,
but he's gonna march
on the city anyway.
Meanwhile, inside
the city of Babylon,
Belshazzar, who now
considers himself the king,
prepares the city for
a protracted siege.
He reinforces the gates
as the Persian army
surrounds the city.
And he is so confident the
Persians will never breach
the walls of Babylon.
I mean, from his perspective,
the Persian army is
gonna thirst to death,
starve to death,
or if they stay too long,
they're gonna freeze to death.
But there was no way they
would take the city of Babylon.
So with the city's
defenses set, (chuckles)
Belshazzar decides
to throw a party.
A huge party.
Now, in light of
what happens next,
it's important to note that
Belshazzar was actually
the late King
Nebuchadnezzar's grandson.
In the text, it refers to
him as Nebuchadnezzar's son,
but that's just the
way they talked.
He was actually King
Nebuchadnezzar's grandson.
So here's what happened next.
"King Belshazzar
gave a great banquet
"for 1,000 of his nobles."
This was a big party.
"And he drank wine with them.
"And while Belshazzar
was drinking his wine,
"he gave orders to bring in
the gold and silver goblets
"that Nebuchadnezzar his
father," or his grandfather,
"had taken from the
temple of Jerusalem."
We talked about that
up top, remember.
"So they brought
in the gold goblets
"that had been taken from the
temple of God in Jerusalem,
"and the king and his nobles,
his wives, and his concubines
"drank from them."
They essentially made a
mockery of these sacred things
that had been taken from
God's temple in Jerusalem.
But it gets worse.
"As they drank, as
they drank the wine,
"they praised the gods of gold,
"the gods of silver,
of bronze, iron,
"the gods of wood and
the gods of stone."
And Yahweh had
finally had enough.
The text says that suddenly,
"Suddenly the fingers
of a human hand appeared
"and wrote on the
plaster of the wall,
"near the lampstand,
"in the royal
palace." (chuckles)
And the party stopped, right?
The king watched.
"The king watched the
hand as it wrote,"
but he can't read
what's being written.
In fact, nobody can read it.
The text says that
"his face turned pale
"and he was so frightened
that his legs became weak
"and his knees were knocking."
And then Belshazzar announces
to everybody at the party,
"Anyone who can read this,
"anyone who can read and
interpret this writing,
"I will make them the third
highest ruler in the kingdom."
But nobody steps up.
Now his queen,
who apparently either
wasn't invited to the party
or who left early,
hears all of this commotion,
or maybe she hears
a lack of commotion,
she steps into the banquet hall,
she glances up at the wall
and sees this strange
writing on the wall,
and she comes over to
the king and she says,
"Pumpkin," or however she
referred to Belshazzar.
"Pumpkin," she says.
"Don't be alarmed.
"Don't look so pale.
"There's actually a
man in your kingdom
"who has the spirit of
the holy gods in him.
"King Nebuchadnezzar
actually appointed him
"to be the chief of the
magicians, enchanters,
"astrologers and
diviners a long time ago.
"And this man has in him the
ability to interpret dreams,
"explain riddles,
"and to solve
difficult problems.
"Call for Daniel,
"and he will tell you
what the writing means."
Now, Daniel must've been
in his 70s by this time.
Apparently he'd been
forgotten by everybody,
except perhaps the queen.
So they find Daniel,
they usher him in.
Belshazzar repeats
his promises of wealth
and glory and power.
Daniel shakes his head.
He glances up at
the strange script
that's written on the
plaster and he says,
"You may keep your gifts.
"You may keep gifts for
yourself, Belshazzar,
"and give your rewards
to someone else.
"Nevertheless, I will read
the writing for the king
"and I will tell
him what it means."
And I'm sure you could
have heard a pin drop
in the throne room
as Daniel begins.
And he says this, "Your
majesty, your majesty."
He recounts a little history,
puts this in context.
"Your majesty, the
Most High God,"
and here's our word,
"gave your father or your
grandfather Nebuchadnezzar
"sovereignty and greatness
and glory and splendor."
It was a gift.
Because, he says,
"Because of the high
position he gave him,
"all the nations and all the
peoples of every language
"dreaded and feared your
grandfather Nebuchadnezzar.
"But when his heart,
"but when his heart
became arrogant and
hardened with pride,
"he was deposed from
his royal throne
"and stripped of his glory."
Until, until, until.
"Until he acknowledged."
And here's the bottom line.
"Until he finally acknowledged
"that the Most High
God is sovereign
"over all kingdoms on earth
"and he sets over them
any one he wishes."
Then I think he paused,
and he looks at Belshazzar
right in the eye
and he says this.
"But you, but you,
"but you, Belshazzar, his son,
"have not humbled yourself,
"though you knew all of this."
You've heard this story before.
You knew what happened
to your grandfather.
You've been warned,
you should know better.
"But instead, you
have set yourself up
"against the Lord of heaven."
And then I think Daniel
got a little bit angry,
because as he looked
around the throne room
and he saw these
precious articles
that had been stolen
from the Jewish temple
being used the way they were,
and he shakes his finger
in the face of the king
and he said,
"You had the goblets from
his temple brought to you,
"and you and your nobles and
your wives and your concubines
"drank wine from them."
You have made a
mockery of Yahweh.
And then, to make it worse,
"You praised the gods
of silver and gold,
"of bronze, iron,
wood, and stone,
"which cannot see or
hear or understand."
He just offends their
entire pantheon of gods.
"But you did not honor,
"you did not honor the
God who holds in his hand
"your life and all your ways.
"Therefore he sent the hand
that wrote the inscription."
To which he could have added,
and are you really sure you
wanna know what it says?
"Here is what the words mean.
"Mene, God has numbered
the days of your reign
"and brought it to an end."
Belshazzar, your
leadership was a loan,
and God is calling the loan.
"Tekel, you have been
weighed on the scales
"and you have been
found wanting."
You are accountable,
you've been evaluated.
"Peres, your kingdom
is divided and given
"to the Medes and the Persians."
It's been taken away.
You thought it was yours.
It was never yours.
He gives and he takes away,
and now he's taking it away.
Now, while all of
this is going on,
while they're having
the party, you know,
while Daniel's interpreting
what's been written
on the plaster,
unbeknownst to
anyone in the room,
Persian engineers were
actually diverting
a portion of the Euphrates River
into a swamp outside the city.
Now the Euphrates
River actually ran
under the wall of Babylon
and through the city,
that's why they had an
endless water supply
and that's why they were not
afraid of a protracted siege.
But here's the thing.
By diverting the water supply,
the Persian engineers caused
the level of the
Euphrates River to drop.
And when it was low enough,
a Persian SEAL team
swam under the wall,
killed the Babylonian
guards guarding the gates,
and then dragged those enormous
steel-girded doors open,
and the Persians look the city.
In fact, Daniel tells
us that that very night,
"That very night, Belshazzar,
king of the Babylonians,
"was slain.
"The Most High is sovereign
over all kingdoms on earth,
"and he gives them
to anyone he wishes."
Now, I'll be honest.
I'm not sure how all that works.
But if it's true,
and I think it is,
there's something
there for all of us
who have any measure
of influence.
Your talent, your education,
your family connections,
your hard work, your discipline,
or maybe just your
plain luck, you know,
puts you in a
place of influence.
But what you do
with that influence
determines whether or not you
are a leader worth following,
a leader worth emulating.
And this is what's so
catalytic about this idea.
Unlike Nebuchadnezzar
in his early years
and unlike Belshazzar,
when we view our influence,
when we view our influence,
however great or small,
when we view it as a
temporary stewardship
for which we are accountable,
we will be far less
likely to spend it all,
focus it at all,
or leverage it all on ourself.
And we will be far more
inclined to leverage
our leadership and our influence
for the sake of those we
have the privilege to lead.
We won't need to be reminded
that greatness is
more than progress.
When we embrace this
definition of leadership
that incorporates the idea
that it's a stewardship,
that it's temporary and
that we're accountable,
we won't have to be
reminded that people matter,
that people matter most,
that what's best for people
is always what's best.
We won't need to be reminded
that people matter to God,
because we will live
with the understanding
that it's God who loaned us
our temporary opportunity
to begin with.
So, whether you're
leading a family,
a business, a nonprofit,
a division, a department,
a team, a city, a
state, or a nation,
remember this.
Leadership, leadership
at every level,
leadership is always
a stewardship.
It is always temporary.
And you are accountable.
And here's why.
Because the Most High
is sovereign over
the kingdoms of men,
and he gives them temporarily
to any one he wishes.
Now all of that is simply
the setup or the context
for where we're going
over the next three weeks.
And next time we're gonna tackle
the first of these
three essentials
for leading through times of
disruption and uncertainty,
so please, please, please,
don't miss part two
of "Leading Through."
