People of Grit: Week 2

Good morning, Welcome to Church of the Crossing.

And today we are starting our second week in our

Becoming a People of Grint series. Now, this series, you

can think of it as like this is a vision

series for our church, but in all actuality, it's a

vision sermon about you. It's what we believe God is

calling you to become. We are to become a people

of grint that brings glory and honor to God. And

so today we are gonna be continuing honor. We're gonna

be looking at Danel Chapter three. Can you pray with

me as we prepare our hearts today to be challenged. Father, God,

we give you pray today, and we thank you for

the opportunity to worship you, to seek You. But God,

most of all, God challenge us, help us to take

steps towards boldness, courage, and fearlessness. In the mighty name

of Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

I believe that God is already shaping the people at

the Church of the Crossing towards becoming a people of grid.

I just look back over just the last few years,

think about the pandemic. We toughed out the toughest days

of the pandemic, matter of fact, we are reaching now

more people every weekend than we were reaching pre pandemic.

And why it's because many people in our church stepped up.

Many people in our church helped start new ministries, dove

in and they also invited their friends. And God is

doing a work and a lot of you. You know,

when times got tough and things weren't going well, and

there was one person in this section, two people in

this section, three people in this section, you didn't say,

oh oh no, you stayed faithful to your church and God,

and God is honored at And we're talking about the

type of people we want to become. We want to

become a people at grit. Now, let me talk to

you real quick about when I think about people of grid.

There's a few things I think of. Number One, a

person of grit is someone who does what it takes

to get what matters done. In other words, we see

the challenges, it's tough, there's roadblocks. We just go ahead

and pole on through it. We do what it takes

to get done. Secondly, people of grit don't give up

when things get tough.

Oh by the way, if you.

Belong to a church, everything's not gonna go great all

the time, shocker.

And what most people do.

In America society is they love their church when everything's

going awesome. But then when there's a down season, they

go and they go find another church is doing awesome.

And then when that church is then they go again.

People of grit stick it out. Why because they love

their community. They love each other. Let me tell you something.

They're with each other through thick and thin. It's important

that the people you're in Sunday School, in a small

group with you're there for them when they get that

diagnosis someday, when they get that bad news someday. Why

because they need someone who's known them for twenty years

to sit beside them and say it's gonna be okay.

I'm with you.

People of grit, we stick it out when things get tough.

And today I'm going to be focused on this part

of being a people of grit. Of people of grit,

I believe they're fearless. And I love that word fearless.

I think a lot of us love that word fearless,

and it's something I think that we all would love

to have said about us. Oh James, he's a fearless man.

That'd be a cool thing for somebody to say that

about me. Please say that about me. But anyways, there's

a difference between fearless and reckless. Okay, you know a

few years back, I was driving down this highway in Pittsburgh,

and I was up at the elevated part, and it's

a very busy highway, cars going both ways, and all

of a sudden, I saw on this cliff on the

other side towards me, facing towards me, a huge buck. Now,

let's talk about this for a moment. How does a

buck become huge? A buck becomes huge by hiding. They

live in the shadows. You don't see them, and then

all of a sudden they emerge one day a huge buck.

Now bucks hide all year, they live in the shadows

except for two weeks a year. They lose their ever living,

loving mind. Why because biologically, all of a sudden they

notice the ladies. And when they find a good looking dough,

they can't handle it, and they will chase that dough

through thick, thin swamps, rivers, it doesn't matter even through highways.

And so I see this beautiful dough being chased by

this big buck, and they run across the highway, and

I'm like, oh my gosh.

This is gonna be bad. This is gonna be bad.

Somehow, like Frogger, they made it through to the medium.

Now I'm coming, I'm thinking, please don't run out in

front of me. I don't want to hit this deer.

And I'm thinking, sure, only an idiot would take off

again in this heavy traffic. Well, have you ever known

a man who is chasing a woman?

Do you ever know this? How they can be an idiot?

Well, this boy he took off and he chased her

all the way across the highway.

I don't know how. It was a miracle and they

made it.

And you know that that's not something that always happens

just driving around, especially this fall. You know that now,

being fearless is not the same as being foolish, okay,

And that's not the type of fearlessness we're talking about today.

The people of grit who are fearless. I'm not talking

about the people who blindfold themselves, stick their finger on

a stock and say I'm gonna invest all my money

here because the Lord is gonna bless it. No, that's

crazy and insane. That's not fearless, okay, or you know,

we don't quit our job with no prospects, are are having,

you know, nothing lined up just because we're like, oh

the Lord, it's gonna take care of me. Not for

a while, You're gonna be hungry for a while because

you didn't make plans. We're not talking about that type

of fearlessness. We're not talking about the type of fearlessness

that is kind of foolish.

Here's what I'm talking about.

When I think about the fearlessness of people of Grid,

I'm talking about. Being fearless means you put your eyes

on Jesus instead of your own situation. Being fearless means

that we walk in faith despite all the trials we're

going through. Being fearless means I'm gonna obey God even

when everyone around me is doing whatever their heart desires

and they're pushing me to do the same. Being fearless

means I know who holds the future. And because I

know who holds the future, I can walk in his

peace today. So today we're gonna journey to Daniel chapter three.

And here's what I want to talk about today. I

want to talk about two fears that challenge every single

person in this room. Towards our movement to becoming fearless

people of God, people of grit. Now, both of the

fears I'm going to talk about today, they happen to

paralyze us emotionally, okay, and they cause us to not

pursue God's promptings, the promptings that He calls for us

to journey towards in our in our work life, family life,

and our God given dreams. So here's what I want

to do today. I want to help you navigate through

these challenges.

Okay.

So the very first fear that challenges us, it keeps

us from being a fearless person of grit, is number one,

the fear of being unsafe. The fear being unsafe. Can

I just do a little survey real quick? Okay, you're ready.

I want this is all participation. Here locked your doors

at night? Raise your hand all right, bunch of sane people?

All right, hoot here locked your door before you left

this morning? Raise your hand all right? Who here has

an alarm system? Raise your hand all right. Now you

don't have to raise your hand for this, but just

wink at me. Whoon here has got a gun at

the house. Wink at me. If you got a gun,

all right. A bunch of crazy cowboys in this room,

you know.

And what we care about safety? We care about safety.

During Christmas one year, we're hanging out my grandma at

this time, she was about eighty nine years old, and

Gena and I started staying with her at Christmas during

the holidays, and so we were staying at Grandma's bunker,

I mean Grandma's house, and my grandma was so concerned

about safety. Every few hours she would say, no, no,

don't forget to turn the alarm on. I'm going to

bed soon, don't forget to turn the alarm on. She

kept doing this over and again. But when it came

time to turn our alarms on, we had to put

clubs on every single door in the house. And here's

the thing. If there would have been an emergency on

the inside of the house and the police or fire

department needed to rescue us, they couldn't have got to us.

We were in more danger inside of this bunker than

we were now. That same Christmas, I remember us kind

of teasing Mamma about that, and Mamma'll shared with us

that she had two guns and she wasn't gonna tell

us where they're at just in case we found one.

She wanted to make sure she always had one, you know,

just had a root and toot and grandma.

Let me tell you there's nothing wrong with precautions. It's

not what I'm talking about today. Trust me. I'm protected

at home. But we had this American obsession with safety,

and it bleeds into our spiritual lifestyle.

Now what do I mean by that?

We only want safe houses with digital safe to keep

our keepsake, but we want safe relationships, safe conversations, safe careers,

and matter of fact, our obsession with having these safe

conversations in safe places and never saying anything out of turn,

especially Heaven forbid share our faith.

We have shifted so far into political correctness that Christians.

Will not even share that they are followers of Christ

because there's scared to be an ostracized at church, at work,

They're scared of becoming the office Christian.

They don't want to be aultracized and left out of

the group.

Why because if we.

Keep things safe, say to safe things, then we don't

ever have to worry.

About anybody pushing in on us.

Anybody you know, running their mouth to us, are coming

at us.

What do we do. We play it safe. We play it.

You know, it's much safer just to remain quiet than

they'll live with fearless faith.

And I'm gonna tell you something right now.

As a pastor, I know this to be one hundred

percent true. Some of our households need to have conversations

about what it means to be a household that follows

Christ in all of our ways. But for the sake

of peace, we don't have these conversations because we don't

want to.

Upset the apple cart. But in order for us to

have a household that truly.

Honors Christ, we're going to have to have some unsafe

conversations about the way our household runs.

See, the fear of.

Being unsafe also keeps us from God given dreams.

There's some of you that God has.

Birth to dream in your soul, but you've stayed back

because you have this fear of failure.

You're worried that people might.

Doubt you, make fun of you, throw shade at you,

and you're afraid to take steps of faith.

So we keep it to ourselves.

Some of you in this room, God told you a

long time ago to go back to school, and you

haven't done it because you're afraid of failing. Some of you,

God has told you to take a new career path,

but you're afraid, so you play it safe. Some of you,

God has told you to go for that promotion, and

you haven't done it.

Say none. None of this is new.

And for centuries, people have always shied away from being bold,

even though they believe God, but they want it.

To feel safe.

When we get to this third chapter today, we're going

to see God's people, who, by the way, were deported

to Babylon after their nation was sacked. Judah was destroyed

and they sacked the city of Jerusalem. And the next

thing we know, they're in a new society under new rules,

new relation, new regulations, and a new king. And now

they're living in a completely different system. And then we

find three men, three young men who caught the eye

of the king. The king promoted them, the king exalted them.

And let me tell you something. These three boys they

hit and this might sound weird to you, but they

hit what I would say the immigrant lottery. Okay, let

me explain that throughout history, maybe one billion people have

been enslaved or conquered. Almost every one of them stayed

slaves or they were killed, and.

This is all throughout history.

But then you got three boys who were exalted, getting education,

they become officials.

They literally, I mean, there's no better way to say.

It than they hit the lottery when it comes to

being conquered.

So imagine these boys. They're living this life.

They can believe that even though they missed their home,

they can't believe.

How good God has been to them. God has blessed them.

It's undeniable.

It's it's crazy to think about how fortunate they are.

And then, well you'll see what happens. Things change. Let's

look at this Daniel Chapter three.

King Nebukanezzer made an image of gold sixty cubits high

and six cubits wide, and he set it up on

the plane Dura in the province of Babylon. He then

summoned the say traps, the prefects, the governors, the advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates,

and all the other provincial officials to come to the

dectication of the image he has set up. So the

say traps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all

the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the

image that.

King Nebukanzer has set up.

Oh, by the way, we don't think he set up

an m and of himself was probably just another god.

And so everyone stood before.

Okay, now, okay, just look at this historically, this is

not incredibly shocking.

Okay, being a dictator.

This is something that they would have done. Dictators all

throughout history did this. You want to make sure that

all of your officials, all of your leaders, everyone who

has power, we're on.

The same team and we're hitting towards the same fence.

This is normal.

By the way, we still see this in the Middle

East still today. Everyone's got to follow you know, you

got to make sure we agree on the leader.

The laws, the regulations, and the religion.

What happens in the Middle East to day if they

can't agree who the leader is, they can't agree on

the laws, or they can't agree on the religion, what

happens civil war, They blow each other up.

Okay, So even today they still follow this. So this

is all was going on.

He was again making sure he's bringing everybody onto the

same page. And now let's move on all right, here

we go, he says. Then the herald loudly proclaimed. Now

this is where the story changes. Okay, pay attention. He

goes from the officials, his leaders. Then he expands it.

He says, nations and peoples of every language, this is

what you're commanded to do.

Know the words. Everyone.

Now we're gonna get everyone in a nation on the

same page.

And he says, as soon as you hear the sound of.

The horn, flew zether, the liar, harp, pipe, and all

kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the

image of gold that King Nebuknezzer has set up. Whoever,

by the way, does not fall down and worship, here's

what will happen. Immediately, you'll be thrown into a blazing furnace.

All right, the king of Babylon, he says, up a statue.

At a certain time, when the musical instruments hit, everyone's

got to bow down to this false god. Now this

had a couple purposes. Once again, and you're noted the

people in the kingdom under one religion. But most importantly,

here's what it did. Most importantly, you have to understand

that once these people from all the other nations bowed

down to this other idol, it means that they had

to leave behind their old religion and their old identity.

This is a re education plan. This is a situation

where everyone who's been captured, they're now going to become Babylonian.

They're adopting all the people to become one nation. This

is an important thing. Now think about this. This might

sound strange to you, but if you just look back

to the eighteen hundreds here in America, we did this

same thing to the Native Americans. We captured a lot

of Native Americans. And what did we do. We put

them in suits, we put them in classrooms, and we

taught them how to be Christians. We re educated the

Native Americans. We did this in our own country. This

is a common thing that conquerors do.

Even today.

You look at some of the atrocities that are going

on over in China. There's a group of Muslims called

the Yugurs, and they are in a re education plan. Okay,

and they're doing some things that are really against the

humanitarian laws.

But we see that this has gone throughout history.

Will you re educate people so that everyone in the

nation is on the same page. So everything's going good.

They got the plan. We're all gonna get on the

same page. We're gonna have the same religion, the same leader,

the same rules.

But then the day changes. It's all good and Babylon

until here we go verse eight.

At the time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews.

They said, the king Nebeknezer, may the King live forever.

Your majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears

the sound of music must fall down and worship the

image of Gold, and that whoever does not fall down

and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. And

here's where the story shifts. But there are some Jews who,

by the way, King, you set over the affairs of

the province of Babel. In other words, you exalted them.

Shadrack me shack in a better go. And by the way,

they're not paying attention to you, your majesty. They neither

serve your gods nor worship the image of Gold that

you have set up. Now, by the way, this is

not a safe thing to do. Let me introduce you

to three men of Grit. Here's men who are fearless

in their faith despite their surfaces.

Now, what were they risking? What were they risking.

First of all, they were risking their jobs. What type

of job do you think a conquered person gets, who

gets exalted to become a high official in the kingdom,

and then let's see you spit in the face of

the king. What type of job do you think you get.

It's not going to be a good job. It's not

gonna be a good job at all. So they risk

their jobs, they risk their social circle because people don't

want to be around them, and mostly they risk what

they're very live. The king says, I'm gonna throw you

into this fiery furnace. Now, let me say something. I

think we have this thought here about Shadrack and me

Shack and have been to go that they they've been captured.

They're over here in Babylon and they're just waiting. They're

just waiting to stick it to Nebukonezzer.

I don't think so. I think those three boys were.

Brought over, taken care of, and I think that they

realize how lucky they are. I have a good feeling

that they respected Nebucannezer, that they were thankful for Nebucanezer,

and they did not want to upset Nebekanazer. Have you

ever had a boss, a mentor someone who really has

blessed your life and then they asked you to do

something you don't feel good about.

There's that temptation to do it, isn't.

There because you feel like you owe them. So this

is bigger than I shall not serve no other God.

It's bigger than just having this big moment of being

macho and saying I will not bound down.

It's like, no, this guy has literally saved our life.

There's mixed emotions here, but the boys, despite their mixed emotions,

they decide to do the right thing, and they knew

what it would cost them. They were fearless, you know,

as your pastor, I wish I had I wish I

had some stories here today about how awesome I was.

Wouldn't that be cool.

If you guys can walk out of here to say, like, oh,

our pastor, he's fearless, He's awesome.

I'm sorry.

A few years back in Pittsburgh, I was invited to

a black tie event.

It was the opening of a new business.

It was a swanky party, and I was the guest

of one of my friends. And we get there and

hanging out for quite a while, and it's all executives

and it's this big you know, they had or dervs.

And I'm not talking, you know, pigs in a blanket. Okay,

I'm talking smokes simon with little other stuff. Anyways, So

I'm hanging out and I started this conversation with this

guy and we're talking. We're having a great, great, great conversation.

And then he asked me the dreaded question that I

always hate, what do you do for a living? And

I started dying laughing because I knew, oh, man, this

is gonna be good, because this guy has a PhD

in bulgarity, and I knew that he was gonna immediately

go oh. So I told him that I'm a pastor,

and immediately he gets emotional.

He starts crying.

And here we are in the middle of this event,

and I'm like, hold to yourself, this isn't a confessional.

Kind a black tie on, not a white tie. Come on,

this is not a confessional. And so.

He keeps talking, and here's what he confesses to. He

confesses who have an affairs. He confesses to doing cocaine

in the office. He was a high level executive at

one of the office buildings right there, gambling, alcoholism, cheat,

all this stuff, and he just keeps confessing and confessing,

and he's weeping and weeping, and I'm feeling like, oh, overwhelmed,

And let me tell you something. I kept trying to

stop him, but he just kept confessing and confessing. And

let me tell you something. I think every private investigator

should just tell people they're a pastor.

People will confess anything. Yeah, I.

Took the gold and I hit it out back, you know,

so they were confess anything. So finally I shifted the

conversation and I started telling him like, yeah, I don't

care what you've done. I started talking about Jesus and

the grit and the mercy of Christ and how much

Christ loved him, how Christ still have plans for him,

he could change his life, and man, by the end

of that conversation.

It was good. It was powerful.

Well, it's about midnight and we walk out and we're

walking in the streets of downtown Pittsburgh. It's dark, and

we always were walking some side streets don't look so safe.

And the guy that I'm walking with has worked in

Pittsburgh for about twenty five to thirty years.

That town. He'd always been downtown. And I said to him,

I said, you know what, when I walked.

These side streets, I always like to have protection on

me because I don't feel safe. And then, just in

the most kind, unjudgmental way, he looked at me and

he goes, oh my gosh, oh no, no, no no,

And he says, I love these people. This is my ministry.

I pray with these people all the time. I get

the mills all the time. I mean, this is my ministry.

And basically he's an urban missionary. And then he said

to me something that crush my heart. He says, I

can never imagine hurting.

One of these people.

Here I am coming from a black tie event, wishing

that I had a black tire iron in my hand,

and here's this other man who is looking for someone

who needs help, where.

I'm looking to get out of the way.

Of someone who needs help. Why I don't like to

feel unsafe?

And see the blessings of God, the hand of God

is it does not dwell in the unsafe places. Do

you hear that the blessings of God, in the hand

of God does not dwell in the unsafe places? And thankfully,

this guy who wasn't a pastor pastored me, you know,

so I pray for God. God give me a fearless heart.

I want to honor you. I want to bring you glory.

And so today I want you to consider what areas

of your life have you become too safe? And so

I'm gonna do something a little bit different. Okay, We're

gonna pray in the middle of the sermon, and we're

gonna take some time for God to search our soul

right now. And I just want you to talk to

Him and allow His grace and his mercy to speak

to you in a loving kind way.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I want you to

just look at what I have.

Here on the screen, and I want to ask this question,

what should these areas? Are you playing at safe in

when it comes to your faith, conversations with your family

or friends, or your coworkers, people you meet, are you

playing at safe? Are you sharing the gospel? I want

you to take a moment and talk to the Lord

about this. I believe God is speaking to you. Now,

let's look at this other area of our life. Let's

go ahead and throw up the next what about your

God given dreams? School, new career, ministry and new venture.

Are there areas in your life that God has called

you to but you're playing it's safe in this area.

Take a moment, take a moment, allow the Lord speak

to you. Might not have been any of those. So

let's look at this next screen. Just ask God an

open question, God, wear my planet's safe that you were

calling me.

To take a risk.

Let's take some time and pray. God, we come to

you now, and we just say, God, we want to

be a people of grit, but God, it is just

so comfortable just to stay where we are.

Also, Lord, we're tired. We got so much going on

and heavy schedules.

And God, we can just get committed to so many

other things. But today we gather here to hear from you.

In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. All right, if you're

next to your spouse, go ahead and elbow them and

tell them to open their eyes back up. And if

you're not next to your spouse, just look at the person,

say wake back up. He's going He's at it again.

Now listen, you all only paid for one sermon.

Today, but I'm giving you two. All Right, here we go.

Let's talk about the.

Second thing that is a huge challenge towards us becoming

a people of grit that are fearless. And I believe

that is the fear of suffering. And let's just talk

about suffering for a moment. First of all, we all

want to be safe. None of us wants disease, none

of us want harm, none of us want failure or misfortune.

None of us want to live in a season of suffering.

And by the way, suffering is simply a byproduct of

our safety being violated. No normal person likes to suffer physically, emotionally, mentally,

no one suffering is a major fear by the way

of every human We're all on the same page there.

As a pastor, I've heard it said multiple times, pastor,

I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of suffering before

I die. You know, almost any disease is prefixed with

what they suffer from. No one wants to suffer from something.

So what do I mean by overcoming that fear or

to be fearless about suffering? Does it mean you just

don't care, like, oh, I got a disease?

Woof do you do? No? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Here's what it means.

I means despite the pain, the mental or physical agony

that we go through. Here it is we decide to

honor God through our suffering with our witness.

Now, how do we honor God with our suffering witness?

We do it two ways, with our words and with

our inner faith express through our actions. In other words,

I bring glory to God by what I say and

what I do.

During my times of suffering.

Whether we're suffering from relationship troubles, disease, excuse our financial troubles. Now,

let's look again at these three young men who honored God,

and they were willing to suffer.

In a way to honor God.

Here it goes now by the way Nebukanezzer, he's furious

at this point, says, furious with frage. Neb caanez A summoned,

shadrack me shack and have been to go. So these

men were brought to the king, and neb Canzer said

to them, is it true, shadrack me shack and have

been to go, that you do not serve my gods

or worship the image of God I have set up Now,

So I love this little moment here. He likes these

guys Okay, he's exalted him. He likes these guys. He's

for these guys, he.

Says, now, and just can I just dow this out?

Not everybody who tempts you to walk away from the

Lord is your enemy. Just won't throw that out. You

can chew on that for a little while.

Okay, Now, when you hear the sound of music, if

you were ready to fall down and worship the image

I made very good. But if you do not worship it,

you will be thrown immediately in to the blazing furnace.

And then he had to go here.

Oh man, you know when somebody says something so stupid

that is just like stupid stupid. This is stupid stupid

he says this, Then what God will be able to

rescue you? Now he could have stopped and just it

would have been a question. I'm curious what God's going

to rescue you.

He would have been fine. But then he did this.

From my hand, I don't know what was going on

in heaven, but I can't imagine God standing up going,

oh no, you messing with my boys, and you had

to bring me in it. Oh, this isn't gonna go

good for you, Nevick. Oh, Lord, oh Lord, all.

Right, so then it goes on.

He goes on, it says Shadrack, me Sha could have

been a good replied to him, keen Nebucanz. We don't

need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. And

then I love this the greatest faith you ever see.

If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we

serve is able to deliver us from it, and he

will deliver us from your Majesty's hand verse eighteen. But

even if he does not, we want you to know

your Majesty that we will not serve your gods or

worship the image of gold that you have set up.

Again. I'm gonna read that statement again. Even even if.

He does not, we want you to know your Majesty

that we will not serve your gods or worship the

image of gold that you've set up. In other words,

they're saying, hey, we believe that God can deliver us,

But even if God does not deliver us, that's fine.

We're with him through the end.

We're with him, whether we suffer, whether we have riches,

whether it's good times baptized.

Let me tell you what what it was like.

They're basically saying, hey, listen, nebu kinezzar, listen, We're with God.

Whether we're well fed or we're hungry. We're with God

whether we are sickered or in health. We're with God

in good times and the bad times.

This is covenantal language. And as Christians, we are called

into a covenant.

Now, many Christians, deep in their heart, they have contractual language,

deep in your heart. They say, I'm with God as

long as I'm fed and I don't go hungry. I'm

with God as long as I'm not sick and I

remain healthy. Or I'm with God as long as the

good times continue to roll and I'm.

Taken care of financially. I'm with God as long as

He takes.

Care of me.

That's contractual language. Covenant language says this. And here's what

a follower of Christ says. Here's what one who's been

washed in the blood of Christ say. They say this,

I am with God no matter what.

Is that your language? Are you with God no matter what?

Because let me tell you something, You're not gonna get

out of this life without some days that are gonna

rock your world. Are some seasons that's gonna rock your role,

not only will you suffer physically, but it'll wipe out

your accounts.

Will you turn on him.

Then and say, oh, I thought that being a Christian

meant that everything was gonna be great?

Or do you stand.

Before the fire in the furnace of your life and

you say he can rescue me. But even if he doesn't,

I am with my God no matter what type of

Christian are you, what type of faith are you growing?

What type of faith are you developing?

And then these boys just didn't run their mouth, their

bodies backed up their mouths. Let's look at this, it

says in these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing.

Furnace, so they're in there.

And then all of a sudden, Nevikanazar leaps to his

feet in the amazement and he asks his visors, weren't

there three of them tied up and thrown into the fire?

And then reply, certainly, your mag see he says, look,

I see four men walking around in a fire, unbound

and unharmed, and the fourth.

Looks like the son of the gods. Who is this person?

Some say it's an angel, many throughout history say it's Jesus.

I believe it was Jesus. Either way, here's what I

need you to know. God was with.

Them and they're suffering, and let me I thought a

lot about this this last week. If God didn't want

them to burn up, could he have just made the

boy's flame retardant.

Right? Or the rain could have came and washed the

fire out.

Or they could have had an incompetent fire maker like

me at camp sites where you just got to keep

lighting a fire every half hour.

No, No, here's what I believe.

I believe that when God saw the faith of those

boys and he saw that they were willing to die

for him, I believe that he just wanted to be

with them. I believe that He just wanted to hang

out with his boys. He was like, these are my boys.

I just want to go hang out with them. I

can't wait till they get to Heaven. I want to

go hang out with them.

Now.

Could you imagine their conversations, like how dumb Nebucannezza is? Man?

What a beautiful moment. God just wanted to be with them.

Why because they are willing to suffer and bring him glory.

And let me tell you something right now, when you suffer,

when you go through it when life is not going

your way, but you bring Him glory and honor through

your words and your actions. I promise you this God

is with you. And even today you might be going

through some really, really rough times. Here's what I want

to encourage you to do. Look over your shoulder.

He's with you. You're his child. He loves you.

And that's the big lesson we learned today is that

in the midst of the fire in our life, even

when things seems like there's no way out of this,

you need to know your God is with you. One

family that really encouraged me a lot and really invested

in me a lot when I first came to Christ.

Their name is the Crouchers and Jim and Elsa.

About thirty years ago, their daughter was dating a boy

and he was pretty abusive to her, and she was

in the youth group and the girls in the youth

group said, you need to get away from this guy.

So she broke up with this guy.

A few days later, Jim and Elsa got a phone

call at work and all they were told was you

need to.

Come home immediately.

And when they got home, they discovered that the boyfriend

had come over the house. Tried to reconcile. When she

would not reconcile, he took her life and then his own.

Jim and Elson were devastated, the church was devastated, the

town was devastated. They grieved hard, but they also showed

their faith through it, and then they decided to do

something about it. They were fearless people of grit and

so they started a ministry call Citizens Against Domestic Violence,

and over the next twenty years they spoke to tens

of thousands of students all throughout the country, all at

the schools, and also many many youth groups. And not

only did they talk about the signs of domestic violence

among teenagers, well, they went in even.

Further than that.

They decided to have another branch where they would rescue

a abused women and children out of homes. And there

was multiple times that Jim would call me and my

buddy West up in the middle of the day. He goes, hey,

meet me here, the dad's gone for the next two hours.

We got to get this woman and this.

Child out of the house now.

And we would run over there, grab their stuff, grab

the women, grab the children, and you know, you're looking

over your shoulder the whole time because you're just hoping

this crazy guy doesn't come home.

I mean, they literally, literally were saving lives.

In two thousand and nine, the Ohio State Senate unanimously

voted on the Tina Act, which declared that all schools

in Ohio must have a training every five years to

look for the signs of abuse. Their life was devastated,

but these people a grit said, all right, Lord, even

in the midst of our fire, and let me tell

you something, they never got over it, never got over it.

But in the midst of that fire, they honored God

with their words, end with their actions. And that's what

people of grit do. All right, let's close up this message.

Let's see what happens at the very end. After Jesus

walks with these young men, says then Neba caan Azer said,

Now Nebic sees that the boys aren't burned up, and

he says this, Praise be to God, to the God

of Shadrack, me shacking have been to go.

I'm gonna repeat that again.

What does he say, Praise be to God, the God

of Shadrack, me shacking.

Have been to go. What just happened here?

The persecutor turned into a preacher. You don't see that

anywhere else. Their persecutor turned into a preacher.

This is like a Saul moment. And then what happens.

He says that the Uh who sent his angel and

rescue his servants.

They trusted in him and defied the king's command and

willingly give up their lives rather than to serve or

worship any God except their own God. All right, I'm

gonna close up today. God has calling us to be

a people of grit, a church of grit, and right

now we're working on developing ministries like Celebrate Recovery that's

going to help people with addictions all the way to

just some deep personal life.

We're looking at ways to help those.

Come into our country become legal by following the law

and help them to get things in order. We're looking

in ways to engage a homeless in our community. All

of these ministries take grit and fearlessness, and on top

of that, we're continuing to invest in the most fearful

ministry around. Listen, children in youth, hold on, let me

tell you why that's the most fearful. Okay, trust me.

Have you ever tried to change a diaper? With six

crying babies. That's scary. You don't know what's going to

be thrown at. You are doing an overnight event with youth.

Only the fearless can do that. Ah, I'm so proud

of our church. We're already becoming a people grit. Last

Monday night a study groups, I was in a group

with thirty people learning rudimentary Spanish. All of them just

wanted to learn Spanish so that they can help people

at the market. Our love on the kids who are

guested and those who are part of the Spanish ministry.

And by the way, there's many other areas that people

are diving into just to become the hands and feed

of Christ. God has calling us to be a people

of grit. But more importantly, you must become a person

a grit. In order for us to be a church

a grit.

Let us pray God. We call on you now. God.

We want to bring you honor, we want to bring

you glory, we want to exalt you.

God. We don't want to be casual Christians. There's enough

of those. We don't want to be Christians who come

to church only when.

There's nothing else on our schedule. There's plenty of those.

We don't want to be people who only do things

out of guilt. We want to be people who are

driven by your spirit, empowered.

By the grace of God.