What are you setting up?

Texas morning, we're going to be is Daniel chapter three, and would our

scripture reader come up and read that for us. Thank you all right,

Texas morning, is Daniel chapter three. King Nebukanezer made an image of gold

whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up

on the plane of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebukanezzer sent

to gather the say traps, the prefects and the governors, the councilors,

the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the

provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebukanezer had set up.

Then the say traps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors,

the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the

provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King nebekin Nezer had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebukinzer had set up, and the

herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded o people's nations and languages, that when

you hear the sound of the horn pipe liar trygon harp bagpipe, in every

kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that

King Nebekinezer has set up, and whoever does not fall down and worship shall

immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all

the people's heard the sound of the horn pipe liar trygon harp bagpipe, and

every kind of music, all the people's nations and languages fell down and worshiped

the golden image that King Nebekinezer had set up. Therefore, at that time

certain cald came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King nebekin

Nezzer, Oh King, live forever. You, o King, have made

a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn pipe liar trygon

heart bagpipe and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the Golden

Image, and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a

burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs

of the provinces of Babylon, Shadraq, Mishak and Abednego. These men,

O King, pay no attention to you, they do not serve your gods

or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebekonzer, in

furious rage, commanded that Shadraq, Mishak and Abennigo be brought. So they

brought these men before the king. Nebukonezzer answered and said to them, is

it true, oh, Shadraq, Mishak and Abendigo, that you do not

see serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up.

Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn

pipe, lyar trigon, harp bagpipe and every kind of music, to fall

down and worship the image that I have made well and good. But if

you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?

Shadraq Mishak and a Bendigo answered and said to the king, Oh nebekin Nezer,

we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be

so, our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the

burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, o

King. But if not be it known to you, o King, that

we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set

up. Then nebekin Nezer was filled with fury, and the expression of his

face was changed against Shadraq Mishak and a Bennigo. He ordered the furnace heated

seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the

mighty men of his army to bind Shadraq Mishak and a Bendigo and to cast

them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks,

their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were

thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent, and

the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up

Shadraq Mishak and a Bennigo. And these three men, Shadraq, Mishak and

a Bendigo fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebukenezer was astonished

and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not

cast three men bound into the fire? They answered, and said to the

king true o King, He answered and said, but I see four men

unbound walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt,

and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Then

Nebekinezer came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace. He declared,

Shadraq Mishak and Abennigo, servants of the most High God, come out and

come here. Then Shadrak Mishak and a Bendigo came out from the fire,

and the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered

together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of

those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were

not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebekinezzer answered

and said, blessed be the God of Shadraq Mishak and abed Nigo, who

has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside

the King's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god

except their own god. Therefore, I make a decree any people nation or

language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrack Mishak and a Bendigo shall be

torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins. For there is no

other God who is able to rescue in this way. Then the king promoted

Shadraq, Mishak and a Bendigo in the province of Babylon. This is God's

word. Who don't know me? I am pastor Rikam one of the elders

here at Crossway and Daniel three a lot to cover here. Have you ever

gone out needing to set up a piece of furniture in your house and you

come home with a box and then you open that box and all the pieces

come out, and you look for the instructions, and there may be stick

figures with probably words that you don't understand, or just like a single word

connect and you at that point you're kind of sucked in right like it's got

you, and you do your best to come up with a way on how

to put this these pieces together, and somehow, over the course of four

or five or ten hours later, you have yourself, you know, some

representation of the picture on the box. Right after several times for me,

of doing that is like, there's got to be a better way, right,

Like, there's got to be a better way to spend all this hours

than to set up a box like this. So I started kind of dabbling

into building my own furniture, crafting my own stuff, right, And you

know the thing that I noticed the biggest difference is one it was purposeful,

right, Like you had to have, you know, the right piece of

wood, you had to have all of the right connectors, you had to

make the right cuts and put it together exactly as it went. And So,

whether you're being purposeful or kind of being brought along by some directions,

you're setting something up. Right. What if I told you that is the

way in the nature of our own hearts, right, that whether we're kind

of being guided along by other things or we're purposeful and the things that we're

trying to build, that we're setting things up in our hearts. See the

things in which we set up in life, they matter. What are you

setting up? So as we look at the Book of Daniel, we're kind

of jumping into chapter three here, I kind of have to start a little

bit before to kind of get some context, right, And so at this

point, the Israelites are in exile and Babylon, or at least some of

them, and a while back God had warned Israel, hey, look,

you guys are being unfaithful. You need to turn back to me or judgment

will come about. And they didn't turn back to him, and so Babylon

and King Nebukin Azer came and kind of destroyed Jerusalem and began to take exiles

back to Babylon for their purpose in his courts. And at the beginning of

Daniel, Daniel has this time where it's like, hey, I don't want

to eat the king's portion of food. I want to eat this stuff that

God has for me. And just bear with me, because if you give

me some time to eat that, you'll notice that I'll be just as good,

if not better than the food of those who are eating your food.

And the king sees, okay, yeah he is, and he kind of

gives him an elevated position. And then in the next chapter, chapter two,

we see King Nebukin have this dream and no one can decipher what that

dream is except Daniel comes again and deciphers the dream, and the king again

elevates Daniel's position because God has given him favor, and Nebekinezzer has started to

see instead of the unfaithfulness that Israel showed before, the faithfulness of a God

of Israel. And here we meet at chapter three, and we need to

recognize the tendency of our own hearts to set up idols and faithfully trust the

saving power of God. So as we kind of dig into this chapter here,

we're going to take it kind of have you ever read a book and

you read the beginning and then just wanted to sneak peek at the end,

only to go back and fill in all the details in the middle. That's

kind of how we're going to handle this today, is we're going to look

at the beginning, hit the end, and then fill in the middle.

So our hearts are drawn to set up our own images. So we see

in verses one through fifteen, see King Nebukandazar wants to show his power and

glory. So he sets up this golden image that's ninety feet high and nine

feet wide, and it's glory for everyone to see. And he invites all

of the people in the land, the governors, the military leaders, the

provincial leaders to come and observe the dedication and celebrate this great golden statue which

he is set up and see as part of that dedication. We're all probably

familiar with this story, right the music plays and they're supposed to bow.

We see here in the first few verses is it's this was an image that

King Nemicanzer set up. And five times in the next six verses it says

this. It says the image that nebukan Azzer set up. This was his

doing, This was his direction, This was his heart's inclination to set it

up. It was his doing. He did it. See, when I

was reading this passage, I realized that King Nebukanzer isn't all that much different

than you and I. Our heart's inclination is to set things up. Our

heart's desire is to set things up. See, we're all fallen humans with

hearts after our own desires, seeking to worship and lift ourselves up above all

else. And we see that in this story. Here, it's a story

of the huge in condition our hearts are drawn to set up our images of

worship above God. So I see this on display way too often in my

life as I interact sometimes with my kids, and it's really around the things

of comfort, convenience, and control in my life right like I'm doing something

that i really want to do, or it's bedtime and I'm ready to go

to sleep. My kids always have this ability to come and get me at

when I'm most comfortable or at the most inconvenient spot, or when I'm looking

for there to follow my control. And it's very noticeable when I'm in that

state, because my response is not gentle. My response is not yeah,

guys, I got you. My response instead is harshness and how dare you

into up the things that I'm doing? And they see my harsh responses.

And we'll see here that in this passage we see the same type of responses

from King nebukin Nezer. And we'll see two areas where we often set up

images in our own hearts, And the first one is in our heart attitudes.

Those comforts, the conveniences, the control, the pride of our lives

that elicit the greatest responses in our hearts. Those are our hearts attitudes.

See when Shadrack Nieshak and a Bendigo would not pay attention to the images of

King nebukin Nezer, he was enraged, how dare them not not bow before

the idol that I have set up? How dare them bring the before me?

So we can make this right right now? King then says, hey,

I'll give you guys a second chance. Is it true? Is it

true that you're not going to worship what I've set up? Are you really

not going to do that? See? King Nebkneszar could exact an edict of

life for not following his orders. Now we may not be able to exact

that same type of edict in our lives, but we are exacting some type

of edicts, whether it's through fury or making someone feel bad about themselves or

how they respond to us, or making people feel small or belittled. See

what are the edicts you're exacting? When your heart's attitude are pressed, your

comfort, your convenience are threatened, or the compliance of someone else is questioned,

what are you exacting? How does that look like in your life?

How do you respond when your wife questions you or interrupts something that you think

is really important? How do you respond to your kids when they bring about

something that is not that great? Or your boss at work comes before you

and says, you know what I don't think you're doing that great of a

job, and you know you're putting your full effort in. Do you see

now the heart attitudes that you're setting up, the responses that are not what

God would want us to want it to have us for. So we've got

our heart attitudes, and then we also have got the things around us,

whether it be our work, our family members, our relationships, entertainment stuff,

all of these are things that we're setting our hearts on. Are you

in business? Have you set up a place of pride and self worship and

accomplishments that you strive for rather than striving for success and prominence in the office,

drive for faithfulness and working heartily into the Lord for his glory, not

yours. See, it's not that striving for excellence is bad. We should

strive for excellence. It's about re inverting that striving for excellence for our benefit,

not for the Lord's. That's the issue. Holms, have you set

your hope and your kids and found that the tiresome days are kind of they're

not worth it. Don't set your hope on the eternal external success of your

kids, their grades, their success. Instead, faithfully steward and disciple,

your children as unto laboring, as you're laboring for the Lord rather than your

laboring for your own glory in them. Be faithful and stewarding. I've talked

about this a little bit before Dad's How are you responding when you're comfort and

convenience and your authority is being challenged by your children? Are they met with

your wrath and rage or the tender gentle love of Christ singles? Are you

setting your hearts on finding a spouse which is compromising your gratitude and joy for

today? Instead, take advantage of the opportunity that God has you in now

and be faithful where you're at now God, faith is your heart set on

entertainment and comfort, that next vacation, that hunting or fishing trip, the

big game, that family entertainment thing that you're going to do next weekend?

See God wants us to enjoy all of those things. But again, don't

reverse that. Enjoy the things that God has given you and worship Him for

that, not worship the things that God gives us and then him and then

we always have the stuff right that new house car, the retirement of for

owin k See. God wants us to enjoy the things, but not over

him. So you may not have set up golden images like King Nebukanezzer or

set forth an edict that all must bow. But we have set up those

things that threaten. We are not observed by others in our own heart,

and people feel our wrath and our fury in a different way. And ultimately

we have set these images, these things in our own hearts and acts of

self worship and not worshiping God. See, there's only one we should be

setting up. We should be fleeing from the idols of our heart, and

we should set up Christ in his rightful place as number one priority of our

lives. King Nebucander was caught up in the same things that you and I

have been caught up in, and that's elevating ourselves and our interests over God's.

See, just like many see here today, we've been impacted by the

power of God. King dam was also impacted by the power of God.

In this story, many of us have had the same question at some point

in our lives. Who is the God that can deliver us? So now

we head to the end of the story to see kind of what God did

to rescue what that looks like. So God's rescue is seen by all and

draws others to him. As we head to verses twenty six through thirty see

nebuchan Azer calls out to Shadrack and Mushak and a Bendo. He goes like,

come here, I see you guys, are okay, Just come on

out. There's no effects from the fire, no singe. Their clothing isn't

burned. There's no smell of fire. If anybody has ever smoked meat,

you know that there's a smell. It's usually delicious smell. But but there

was no smell. There was no No one would have noticed if they had

just showed up there that Shadrack, Mishak, and a Bendigo had been in

a fire. They didn't know. But King Nebulcanazer sawves the amazing deliverance of

these men by God. It led him to praise God. He said,

blessed be the God of Shadrak, Nishak and a Bendigo who delivered his servants

who trusted in him. He praised the faithfulness of these men, their willingness

to stand at the expense of their very lives to serve God. See the

reason I wanted to look at the end of the story. In the back

of the books, so to speak, is the Book of Daniel is about

that, right, It's about a book of hope and how God is in

control of all things and He will eventually deliver all through Jesus Christ to the

redemption our sins. That directly in this passage we see nebuchan Azer influenced by

the power of God's miraculous work performed in front of many, to begin to

soften his heart as he sees God's power and the faithfulness of others who follow

him. Have you ever seen or been part of a rescue. We've seen

rescue missions that kind of stuff. I remember when I was thirteen or fourteen,

I was involved in a pretty serious car accident. We were driving in

the middle of nowhere on this mountain and ended up going off the road and

the truck that we were enrolled from one switch back to the next. I

was thrown from the vehicle. The rest of my family was unconscious and I

was the only one conscious at the time. I'm in the middle of nowhere,

stranded, no one to help, in need of rescue. It's a

scary time. A few minutes later, by the grace of God, a

couple drives up and we're in the middle of nowhere, not expecting anyone to

be there, and the rescue begins. First responders come. I save the

lives of my family and we're taken to the hospital and we were rescued.

See the rescue of God super important. See God's rescue is sparked by our

need for deliverance. I need a deliverance on that mountain. See the furnace

and King Nebacanesser's response to shadracking and a bendigo not bowing down. It necessitated

a rescue by God. See. Without the furnace, there's no rescue.

See is when we are in the furnace of our lives that we see our

greatest need for God. It's in the furnace of life that God grows and

shows us and others of their need for deliverance. See this is the condition

of man. We all need rescued from depravity. Romans three says all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The rescue we need is

from the sin that separates us from God. The rescue we need is from

the tendency of a heart to set up little idols instead of rightfully setting Jesus

in the place of worship of our hearts. See, the worst place to

be isn't a place where you don't think you need rescued. So, Christian,

let me ask you this. Do you need to be delivered from embedded

sin in your life? Do you need to see your need for repentance for

the things you have set up and draw to the only one who can rescue

Jesus. If not, look right now, he's calling and say I can

rescue you. Your sin is not too powerful for me. Sin. I

can free you. I can bring joy to your sorrow. I can rescue

from this or from that. I've done it time and time again. Just

look to me and call out to me. I'm here. So just the

shadrack, mishach and a bendigo need a deliverance from the fiery furnace. We

need deliverance as we find ourselves bound by our sin and our fleshly desires,

and there's only one rescuer. The second thing is God's glory is seen by

others and his rescuing. Are you recognizing that your furnace may be an opportunity

to display God's faithfulness through your life to others. There's been I don't know

how many furnaces of life that I've been through. I've been through financial challenges

and difficulty that God has rescued from me that I've been able to share with

others and encourage them. We heard a couple of weeks ago from Josh Collins,

who is in the furnace and has been in the furnace and shared his

walk with Christ with you and as I know, has encouraged others. The

impact that we can have on one another while we're either in the furnace being

helped by others or out of the furnace, or and needing help. It's

you can't describe the importance of being in someone's life when they're in the furnace.

We need to be the encouragement and the help of others through transparency and

mutual ministry. Right if people don't know we're in the furnace, how are

we supposed to get help? And if you see people in the furnace and

you're not willing to help, how are they supposed to get help? Tewod

Corinthians Chapter one says this blessed be the God and Father of our Lord,

Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts

us and all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those

who are in who are in any affliction, with the comfort with we which

we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in christ sufferings,

so through Christ we share abundantly and comfort too. Are you always looking

to get out of the furnace? Recognize that the work of God is doing

and how your response is being seen by others. Share comfort, encourage others.

As God works in your life, be bold and telling what Jesus is

doing, because others, just as nebuchan Azer saw and all the visions that

were, they saw the work that God did, and others will see the

work that God is doing in your life. As you are faithful, little

baby step by little baby step, see the Gospel of Jesus is for the

nations. Bring it and show them the good news. Shatick Mushak and a

Bendigo. We're in a foreign nation, and God used their placement where they

were for his purpose. You don't have to go far. It doesn't have

to be complicated. All you have to do is share your life, your

story what God has done. Be bold and share your life. And you've

been through the furnace, encourage those who are in it now. It's powerful

and gives God or gives glory to God and motivation to get through. For

the non Christian, if you're sitting here this morning and you've seen the faithfulness

and the power of God as he has delivered others from the furnace, it's

not by accident. God wanted you to see that. See what God can

do, and grab a hold of it for your own life. It'll be

worth it. So we've seen that we set up our own images and the

impact of God's rescue and deliverance. Now let's head back to the middle of

the story and see what led to this response that neb had and praising God.

So the power of God and faithful obedience as we look from verses sixteen

through twenty four in the Fiery Furnace, see the last thing we looked at

from King Nebukandzar was his comment, who is the God who deliver you out

of my hands? The faithful obedience based on trust and the power of God.

Shadrack Mushak and a Bendigo answered with a firm trust in God's ability to

deliver, with an understand that it's God's prerogative not to right. God saved

them in this time, but he may not always. But they trusted that

it was worth giving up their lives if that was what God had for them.

See, they chose to trust God for the outcome. And then we

see King Nebukanezer's expression. He was enraged when they did that, and he

executed his edoch on them and said, it's going to cost them their lives.

But not only was in what King Nebukanzer thought was that it was going

to cost them their lives, it ended up costing some of his mighty men,

of his own armies lives. He was so upset. So Shadrack,

Mushak and a Bendigo are bound. They're thrown into the fiery furnace. And

so we see here that faithfulness is not the absence of trials or perfect responses.

See, it's a firm and unwavering trust and hope in God and a

life of repentance. The reason Shadrack, Mushak and a bend the ability to

stand was not because of their great ability, but God's ability to keep them

standing. We also need to understand that their faithfulness wasn't just right in that

moment, but their faithfulness was built in the consistent, small ordinary things of

life. Before the furnace came. Had the great opportunity to go to man

camp. It was a sweet time. And if you didn't get to go,

get together with one of your small group guys talk about it. It

was a sweet time talking about habits and how the habits of our life either

do one of two things, either pull us away from God by the currents

of the world, or they draw us to God. And this gentleman justin

early shared his story about how the habits of his life were leading him away

from God and it wasn't until that he realized that that was the case and

that he needed to work on the small, ordinary things of life that ended

up drawing him back to the Lord. How are you readying yourself for faithfulness

when it's time to face the furnace? See, this only comes by the

power of God's word, the encouragement in our walk, and the mutual ministry

of one another, faithful small group attendants being plugged in like there's a reason

why we call everyone here to small group attendants. There's a reason why we

call people here to be in your word, to be in prayer, to

be leading your family and family devotions. It's not just that we think it's

a good idea. We do, but we know of the impact that those

things will have on your life day to day, day to day. And

when that furnace comes, you may not feel like you're ready, but those

habits, that faithful time on Friday mornings at six am with another dude,

with another lady, become the foundation of faithfulness in the fire. Don't overestimate

the ordinary. Resolve today to ready yourself for faithfulness. The furnace solidifies and

refines our faithfulness, but it is built in the quiet and the ordinary.

Before we face the furnace of life. We see the power of God's protection

in the furnace as we look at verses twenty four through twenty six, it

says King Nebukunazar was astonished and rose in haste. He declared to his counselors,

did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered,

and said to the king, true, O King, He answered and said,

but I see four men bound walking in the midst of the fire,

and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the is like a son

of the Gods. We see the manifestation of God's protection and deliverance of Shadrack,

Mishak and a Bendigo. Right here a physical appearance of a fourth person.

Some commentators say it's an angel, some say that it's the appearance or

a manifestation of Christ. The important thing here is that this is a manifestation

of God's deliverance, of his protection and of his power. See Shadrack,

Mishek and Bendigo replaced in the furnace. They were bound, destined for death,

but they ended up unbound, save by the power of God, and

delivered for all to see. That's the power of God. See the same

is the case for us. Our hearts are bound by the images we set

up, bound by the currents of this world, and bound by sin.

However, through the work of Jesus on the Cross, we go from hands

bounds to the row and sin of death, burn by the deliverance of Jesus

Christ to the reason we need to see the end is that we remember at

the end it comes the final redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and that we

can push through the fullness of life with faithfulness knowing what the end is right.

The end gives us the focus and motivation of what is to come.

So we need to recognize these things. We need to recognize the things that

we've been setting in our hearts. We need to faithfully seek to put Jesus

in his rightful place. And as you share of God's deliverance to others,

encouraging them and their challenge and sharing with those who may not know, that

is faithfulness and a trust in the Lord