Lift Your Eyes with Pastor Ben Carruthers

Pride is sneaky because it can look like success. One minute we’re standing on the roof of our own “Babylon,” taking credit for what we’ve built, and the next minute we’re wondering why our inner life feels fragile, reactive, or out of control. Daniel 4 puts that tension on full display through Nebuchadnezzar, a king with unmatched power and a stubborn habit of missing what God is clearly saying. 

We walk through the dream of the towering tree, Daniel’s unsettling interpretation, and the warning that pride always carries a cost. Along the way, we connect the story to real life with an honest moment from a “day with God” that went sideways: I’m reading about being a better pastor, a man asks for help, and I miss the chance to show compassion while someone else steps in and does it beautifully. That’s the point of the chapter and the point of the message: spiritual formation is not just knowing the right things, it’s noticing God and responding with humility. 

The turning point is simple and unforgettable: “I raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored.” We talk about what it means to lift our eyes as an act of surrender and repentance, how God’s sovereignty reshapes our politics, our certainty, and our obsession with control, and why the real transformation is not beast to man but captive to free. We also explore why Daniel 4 reads like a public testimony and what it looks like to share your story of change with someone who needs hope. 

If you’ve ever felt your “beast inside” leak out under pressure, you’re not alone, and you’re not stuck. Listen, share this with a friend, and then subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what helps you lift your eyes when pride takes over?

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Transcript

Holiday Welcome And Series Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning. Happy 4th of July. Great to be with you this morning. My name is Ben Caruthers. I'm an associate pastor here. And before I get too far into it, I have to tell you that these are Sunday morning approved flip-flops. All right? I text Sonia yesterday. We're at the family cabin, and I forgot to bring appropriate footwear, and I didn't want to leave extra early this morning. So any issues with my footwear, please report that to Sonia, not myself. It's good to be with you this morning on our one gathering service. I love this when we I call it Unite the Clans. We come together, we worship on these rare Sunday mornings. It's fun to be here when we all come together like this. We are in our sermon series on Daniel called Pattern to Promise, and we are at Daniel chapter four. And we've called this Pattern to Promise because if you've been following along with us, we're three chapters in. Today we're on chapter four. You have already started to see a pattern in the life, maybe not of Daniel necessarily, but of this guy called Nebuchadnezzar. Right? You've seen this pattern of rebelling against God, but yet he continues to come back to the promises of God, and then he rebels against them and he comes back. And this morning is no different. This morning, the sermon title is called Lift Your Eyes. We'll talk a little bit more about that. You heard that in the scripture, but an important piece of Nebuchadnezzar's story comes when he raises his eyes to heaven. And thinking about the chapters that we've been in so far, I know it's the book of Daniel, and I know it's Daniel and his friends' story, and the people of Judah's story after taken out of Judah and brought to Babylon in captivity. I know that's their story. But for me, the first four chapters has been a story of Nebuchadnezzar. Probably because I relate much more to Nebuchadnezzar than Daniel. As much as I'd like to be a Daniel, when I read this stuff, when I read the pattern of rebelling against God and coming back to his promises, I see that I relate a lot to Nebuchadnezzar and in the fact that Nebuchadnezzar seems to miss it. He seems to have this gold given to him from Daniel of what God is doing and what God's going to do, and he continues to miss it right when it's in front of his face.

A Day With God Gone Wrong

SPEAKER_00 2:15

This past week I had what we call on staff a day with God, and we get these once a quarter where we get to go and just spend the day with God, whatever that means for you. And for me, that meant just going driving. I love just to drive and think and be with God there, and um, which is weird because if you know road rage and me don't go too well, so it's weird that I find God there. Uh, but I ended up out in Fridley at Panera, and I have a book called The Contemplative Pastor that Ryan gave me uh at my ordination. Uh, and so I told him I'm gonna have that thing read before he comes back. And so I started reading. And I'm reading it, and it's by Eugene Peterson, who wrote the message translation of the Bible, and he's known as the pastor's pastor. He's incredibly humble. I'm reading this book. Every time someone has a question, he has this incredible answer. And I'm like, this is the kind of pastor that I want to be, as I'm kind of molding and shaping of what that looks like in my life. And so I'm really engaged in this book about being a pastor, becoming a good pastor. And this guy starts talking to me, and I can't really tell what he's saying because I'm so engaged in what I'm reading. And all of a sudden I look up and he's there, and he asks me for money. And he didn't ask for food in the S fruits for money. And I said, Oh, sorry, man, I don't, I don't have anything like that. And I didn't realize my wallet was sitting right on the table with you could see a couple bills in there. And but what got me was immediately when I said, No, I'm sorry, I can't help you. A woman at a table across from me who was having lunch with a friend spoke up and said, What do you need? And he said, I need some cash. And he's like, She's like, I'm not gonna give you cash, but I'll buy you a meal. And he's like, I'll take that. And so she goes and buys this man a meal. And what struck me is I'm sitting here on my day with God, reading a book about how to be a good pastor. And this gentleman approaches me and I say, No thanks. And it just hit me hard. And I went to staff that next day and talked to people about it. And I'm just like, what did that look like? Here, this guy reading this book about being a pastor, and he just brushes this guy off. And I was so impressed by this woman who just said, I'll buy you a meal. I thought to myself, man, what what kind of conversation could I have had with this guy? It's not even about what he asked for, but it's about engaging in that moment, engaging that conversation, showing up when God presents, and I missed it. And it was that moment that I brought back to that's why I relate a lot to Nebuchadnezzar. Because I miss it even when God presents it on my day with God. So this morning, as we dive into chapter four, as we hear the conclusion of Nebuchadnezzar's story, Daniel's got a lot more to go, but Nebuchadnezzar ends here. Our prayer this morning is that we don't miss it. That we open up our ears and our eyes and our soul to hear what God is speaking to us this morning. So with that, let's pray. God, we give you thanks and praise for this morning, for this holiday. We thank you that we are combined together and in this one gathering. And for those watching online, Lord, we give you thanks and praise as well. Lord, our prayer is that we don't miss it this morning. We could be in a pattern of just showing up to church and singing the songs and hearing the word and hearing the sermon and then leaving off to our lives. So, Lord, we pray this morning you're gonna show up. You're here in this place, and we don't want to miss it. So open up our eyes and our hearts to receive your word. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream Of The Tree

SPEAKER_00 5:42

So, Daniel chapter four, we have to talk about the story. So this happens much later. Remember, Daniel was taken into captivity by Babylon, probably as a teenager, 14, 15 years old. This part of his story takes place about 30 years later. So for 30 years, he's been a wise man or uh someone of King Nebuchadnezzar's court, a reliable source of wisdom for him, which puts him at the ripe young age of 45. It's a great year, let me tell you. Young, ready to take on life. So the king has this dream. We've seen this before in chapters one and two. He has this dream, King Nebuchadnezzar, that he has no idea what's going on. It's crazy, he can't interpret it. And so he calls upon his wise men. And of course, like before, none of them can help. None of them have any idea until Daniel comes into play. His trusted advisor for over 30 years, they've grown and built this relationship. Daniel shows up and he says, Tell me the dream. And he has this dream in Daniel chapter 4, verse 10 through 12, where it describes this big, beautiful tree, this life-giving tree where birds of the air are resting on it, where there's fruit on it, where the animals are taking shade underneath it. It's this big, beautiful, powerful tree. And then in those verses 4 through 10, it says that a messenger from heaven comes and destroys it. Oh, yeah, go ahead. You can go to the next one. Sorry about that. Thanks. Uh, but let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain on the ground in the grass of the field. Okay, so he the angel comes down, slices the tree, and it crumbles. And then something kind of weird takes place in his dream. So the tree falls down, this life-giving tree falls down. The stump is there, trapped in iron and bronze. And he says, This, the angel says, Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an animal till seven times years have passed. So this is a bit weird. The tree, okay, we get that. Cutting down the tree, we understand that. Matter of fact, in his other visions, he's seen great statues be destroyed and humbled. So this is a recurring theme again. But what takes place next is kind of bizarre. So this starts off with a tree, goes from a tree to a stump. The stump somehow becomes a man, and then that man somehow becomes like a beast of the earth. You can kind of see why Nebuchadnezzar woke up a little bit of a frenzy. This is crazy. I don't understand what's going on. But this is what happened in his dream. So he gives this all to Daniel, and Daniel, of course, interprets it. But before he does, we get a little glimpse of his relationship with Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel 4, 19, it says this. Then Daniel was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, Belshazzar, which is Daniel, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you. Belshazzar answered, My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries, this is showing us that over those years, Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar have formed some type of friendship, some type of bond. And the message that he received from God, what's about to happen to Nebuchadnezzar, is one that not just terrifies Nebuchadnezzar, but also Daniel. Because Daniel cares for this guy. They've built a relationship. So the king can see this that Daniel's visibly upset, and he says, Listen, just tell me the bad news. Tell me what it means. And so Daniel interprets in chapter 4, verses 24 through 27. It says this. This is the interpretation. O King, and this is the decree that Most High has issued against my Lord the King. You will be driven away from people, and you will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. The command to leave the stump on the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules. Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice. 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. So Daniel interprets this dream that seems something straight out of a Disney movie, one that we're all familiar with. Where this man turns into the beast of the fields and only the power of love can bring him back. It seems too Disney, it seems too far-fetched, it seems too out there to be real. But this is what the Bible tells us happens. That because of this king's pride, he is going to fall. Because of his pride, he is going to be changed. Daniel 4, verses 28 through 30 says this.

Pride On The Palace Roof

SPEAKER_00 11:25

All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar 12 months later, so a year has passed. So we'll give him a little credit. A little time has passed. Twelve months, a year has passed, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. 30 is the reference. That's I should have taken that out. I did the slide this morning. You can tell. He said, Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? So a year has passed where he's been given this wisdom from Daniel of this dream, telling him this is going to happen. And a year passes, and the king is up standing on the roof of his palace, overlooking everything that he has done. And Babylon was the center of the world, the most powerful nation the world had ever known. And he had done it. It was his kingdom. He had built this incredible thing. And scripture tells us right when he speaks these words, his mind is lost. And he runs out of the kingdom to live in the fields like an animal. Now, again, this is a pretty crazy story. But what's interesting is that there's actually documents that were found in the Dead Sea scrolls in the 1950s of a prayer of the last king of Babylon. His name was Nebonidus. And in this glass jar in the Dead Sea Valley or the Dead Sea area, they found this scroll of the prayer of Nebonidus, which spoke about a king of Babylon being struck by illness for seven years. So whether or not this is literal and his body changed into a big, hairy, scary beast, or it's symbolic, that his mind went a little crazy, something happened. Something happened to this king. He was transformed physically, mentally, whatever it might be, but his pride, which he was warned about as he was looking at everything that he had done and his majesty, at that moment God humbled him. And he left his kingdom for seven years or for some time. The beast on the inside was shown to everybody. Let me ask you this question. What

When The Beast Inside Shows

SPEAKER_00 14:20

if the beast on the inside of you was on the outside for everybody to see? What would it look like? There's been too many times in my life where the beast on the outside has been shown on the outside. But one of those, I shared the story many, many years ago, but I was reminded of it because I've been at the cabin with my family for a few days. Years ago, probably around six years ago at this time, we decided to pack up all six of us and go camping. And we I'm not an outdoorsman at all, right? I'm a great indoorsman, fantastic. But, you know, camping, I was a Boy Scout for a little while just to hang with the guys, stuff like that, but I didn't learn much, you know. Uh, but they really wanted to go camping. So we bought this giant tent off Marketplace, got a great deal. Uh, and we went up to Isle, Minnesota, and we uh we pack up our minivan and it is packed. I have jenga'd it perfectly and everything fits. Children are in there. We go, we unpack, we settle up, and it's pretty fun. It's not bad. We're hanging at the lake and we're having a good time. My youngest at the time is Ezzy, and he's maybe a year old, so that's kind of a little bit of a headache trying to camp with that, but it was okay. Then nighttime came, and we're in the tent and we hear the storm brewing. And so I checked my phone, and luckily I had some internet, and I noticed that, man, there are tornadoes about 10 miles north of us, and we are gonna get hit in a major storm. And so, sure enough, about 10 minutes later, the tent is blowing and raining, and the kids are crying, and little Ezie needs a bottle because he needs a bottle like every three hours at this point. We don't have a microwave. So, in the middle of the storm, I gotta go up in our little makeshift kitchen, boil some water, put the bottle in there. The kids are crying, they're making so much noise that the people in the next site over to us in the middle of a storm are so annoyed by how much noise we're making that they're packing up camp and leaving. I'm up there boiling water and I can see the dad like eyeballing me, throwing stuff in the back of his truck. And I'm like, dude, don't test me, man, right now. All right, don't even. They leave the site, the storm keeps rolling, the kids keep crying. The morning I wake up and the tent has somewhat collapsed, where right above my nose is the top of the tent because it's all water on the outside. And I wake up at five in the morning before anyone else is awake, and I start packing that campsite up as fast as I can. By the time everyone else wakes up at 6:30, 7 o'clock, everything is torn down except for the tent that they're in. And I almost just shoved it all in the car, anyways, and I was about to take off. And everyone wakes up and I just say, We're done. Pack up your stuff, we're out of here. And the kids were like, We want them to go swimming. We're going home. I was so angry at everything. My selfishness came out. And it took a long time for my kids to recover, man. Like, they were like, You want to go camping? No, we don't want to go camping, not with dad, anyways. Please leave dad at home. But the beast inside, my selfish desires, what I wanted, and how angry I was, took control over how everyone else was thinking or feeling. And the beast came out. What does it look like if the beast came out of you? Maybe a better question is some of us don't have to think too much about it, some of us know exactly what it looks like. For Nebuchadnezzar, it was pride. It was that prideful arrogance that he thought that he had done all of these things. That he had built this kingdom. That he had created the most powerful nation on the planet. His was pride. Mine selfishness among many others. What's yours? Anger? Greed? What is it? What's the thing that you are so lucky that we can't see? That's what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. And it brought him down. But this isn't the end of his story. And this is why I love the theme of this sermon series of pattern to promise. Because man, we could read this and we are in chapter four, and we have seen Nebuchadnezzar do the same thing over and over and over again. We have seen him go to Daniel and Daniel interpret the dream. The dream is of his downfall. Daniel's saying, don't do this or this will happen. Nebuchadnezzar says, okay, a few months go by and he does that thing. We can see that happen over and over and over. And yet the promise of God is still there for him. The promise of God is still there for me when my beast comes out. The promise of God is still there for you when your beast comes out. His time is not over. Daniel

Sanity Restored By Lifting Your Eyes

SPEAKER_00 19:27

4, verses 34 through 37 says this. At the end of that time, after the seven-year period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and with my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, What have you done? At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. 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, he is able to humble. This is what pattern to promise looks like. And from this point on, Nebuchadnezzar, it's believed, lives about another ten years. And he lives those ten years honoring God with his life. This is the end of his story. And what did it take? It took him lifting his eyes. Raising his eyes to God. Now we do this a lot. Sometimes we do it in worship or prayer, whatever it might be, but this is an act. It's not that we think that God is up in the heavens or where, you know, he might, whatever. That's kind of great, but also God is here. Sometimes when we do this, we think God is just up there. And no, God is here with us. But when we raise our eyes to God, it's an act of surrender. It's an act of taking your eyes off everything you see here in your life, maybe what you've accomplished, what you've done, and remembering that everything comes from Him. It's an act of repentance, saying, Yeah, I've messed up. The pattern of rebellion against you continues and continues and continues. So when you raise your eyes to heavens, it's this act of repentance, of saying you're sorry, of receiving that prayer. Promise once again. We take our eyes off the things of this world and focus them on God. Lifting our eyes perhaps means taking our eyes off our little cube of influence. Taking our eyes off of our political party. Taking our eyes off of the social media. Taking our eyes off the things that we believe to be true and the only way to do things. Taking our eyes off of that and focusing on God and maybe being vulnerable enough to admit or say, maybe I got this wrong. It's lifting our eyes to God to understand what true compassion and empathy is. Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes, and this incredible transformation took place. You see, we read this story and we think it's a transformation of a man to beast, but that's not what's going on here. This transformation is more of a man held captive by pride, missing out on the life God intended for him, the way that God was going to use this mighty king. He was bound and held captive by his sin. The transformation of the story is that now he is a free. He is free because of what God has done in his life. When's the last time you lifted your eyes to God? When's the last time you took your eyes off your life? The way that you do things, and focus them back on God. That's what it took for Nebuchadnezzar. And that's what it takes for us. I want to leave you this with this last thought. I think this idea of this transformation, not from beast to man, but from captive to freedom, really sums up Nebuchadnezzar's life, especially here when we come to an end in chapter four. But what I really love about this is the way that chapter one of chapter four starts. I

A Testimony Written For The World

SPEAKER_00 24:04

want to read you this of chapter one and just notice something. This is in the book of Daniel. This is how it starts. King Nebuchadnezzar, to the peoples, nations, and men of every language who live in all the world, may you prosper greatly. It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders, his kingdom is an eternal kingdom, his dominion endures from generation to generation. Here's verse four. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace content. And he goes on to tell you the story of his dream. What's interesting is Daniel 4 is not written from the perspective of Daniel. It is written from Nebuchadnezzar himself. What's even more interesting about that is the majority of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. It's the Jewish language. This part and a couple other parts in Daniel are written in Aramaic. Chapter 4 is in Aramaic, which was the language of the world. You see, Daniel is writing his testimony to the world. He is writing to the world and saying, listen to what God is doing in my life. Listen to the transformation that took place in my life. And he's writing it for everyone to hear. You have a story of transformation. You have a story of lifting your eyes. And if you think you don't, maybe today is that day. Maybe today is the day you lift your eyes and you surrender, you repent, you connect with God, or you have a story. And just like Nebuchadnezzar, your story is powerful. This is a story of a powerful king who time and time and time and time and time again failed. And time and time and time and time again, the promise of God returned to him. And he transformed from the inside out. Whether your story is one like Nebuchadnezzar's, where it's a constant pattern to promise situation, or whether it's a story of you being faithful your whole life. That's an incredible testimony. But you have a story to share. So, Central, today, as we lift our eyes to God and surrender and repent and reconnect to Him, let us be reminded of that story. A story that has the power to change lives. And I encourage you to share that story with someone today. Amen.