Guest: Hunter Smith (Book of Daniel)

Morning DeSoto Hills.

How are you guys doing this morning?

Thank uh been able to meet some of you guys, shake some of y'all's hands.

I feel like y'all like you've seen my wanted poster around the church, and so I was walking through Chick-fil-A the other day and somebody walked up.

I know you.

I said, maybe.

So uh we're we're excited to be here, guys.

We're we're uh so excited to see what God has in store uh for this church and and the future moving forward, and it's been a joy to journey uh with the committee uh and just be able to hear about what God is doing in your uh church, in your midst, and uh with your students, and and guys, like from the moment that we had our first call, I think January maybe, and here we are, basically May.

It's not like they were moving really fast, but it's okay.

Uh but from the moment that we talked to y'all in January, man, like there has been something on our hearts that is stirred that says, man, when when can we get this thing rolling?

When can we get this thing started?

Uh, because we we've been excited to be a part and worship and serve this community with you guys.

Uh obviously, my name's Hunter Smith.

Uh Grant introduced me a little while ago.

He he was humble about my my athletic prowess.

Um, you know, if if you watch that one game of gaga ball I played last night with the students, then like that pain in your ribs started hurting and everything.

And you know, cardio's not my friend, but it's okay.

Um but yeah, my name's Hunter.

Uh, we're excited to be here.

My wife Sarah is well over here.

She is a pediatric ICU nurse.

Uh our rule as a family is don't visit mom at work.

Um, but it's also a blessing that we have a built-in camp nurse everywhere we go.

Um and we have a uh we have a son who will turn four on Wednesday, and then we have a two-year-old.

So it's also very nice to have a nurse in the household.

Um Hank and Edie.

Uh, we call her Edie.

And if you heard that, that's the most silence that's been in our house in quite some time.

Um and so we we're we're excited to be a part.

You guys will get to know them, and uh they're they're great mascots.

Uh it's it's it's a it's a wonderful time to be here.

But we're excited to get to worship with you guys and open up God's word.

If you have your copy of God's word, we're gonna be in Daniel chapter 3 this morning.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 3, and we're kind of picking up in the middle part of the book of Daniel, and so there's there's a lot of history that we've got to do to catch up to that point, to catch up for some of these things that we're gonna talk about in Daniel 3 to really make sense.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

So, Daniel is is written in the basis of what we call in history the Babylonian exile, where Israel was conquered by Babylon, and now Babylon rules over these people.

And one of the things that Babylon did that they were known for during this time, they were they were a conquesting nation, but they were also really brilliant in how they did these things.

Because it was very simple that they could come, they could conquer this land, they could take them all as slaves.

But they knew eventually if we keep conquering all these lands, we bring all these people together, what do they have?

A common enemy, us.

And so there was this chance for rising and revolting.

And so one of the things that Babylon did specifically is they would take in these conquered nations kind of kind of the choice crop, the best of the best, some of the most influential people from that land, and they would take them to Babylon, and they would teach them their ways, and they would teach them their customs, and they would give them promotions, and they would give them places of authority, so that now these conquered nations are not serving their conquerors, they're serving some of their own.

They're serving some people, but they would take these people and twist ideologies, twist political affiliations, twist religious affiliations, twist language, all this stuff.

They would twist those things so that they would fall in line with Babylon, but their nationality was with the people that were conquered.

And I think for all of us, like I said, I've I'm a student minister, I've been in student ministry over a decade.

I one thing I've noticed about this generation over the last decade or so is that there are so many voices that are screaming to influence us.

There are so many things that want us to say, this is how we do it, this is what's cool, this is what's hip.

Six, seven.

All those things, this is this is these are these things, right?

I'm hip, I'm cool, skibbity, right?

All right.

Didn't expect that.

If you don't understand it, don't ask me, ask a young person.

But but all that to say there is so much that is screaming for influence for for these folks.

And what we as a responsibility, what we as a church have a responsibility of is that we be better disciplers of our students than the world is disciplers of them.

Because we have one or two choices.

They could either become disciplers, disciples of Christ, or disciples of the world.

One of them is gonna lead to life, one of them is gonna lead to godly obedience, one of them is gonna live to fulfilling what you were created to do, and one of them is ultimately gonna lead to emptiness.

And so we come here, all that to say, we come here to Daniel chapter 3, and we come across a story of three guys that we've met earlier in Daniel chapter 3, but we're gonna see again another moment where the world is trying to tell them, this is what we want you to do, this is God's plan for you.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

It says this, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth was six cubits.

He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Then the satraps, the prefects, all the other important people of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And the herald proclaimed aloud, You were commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

And whoever does not bow down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

Therefore, as soon as all the peoples had heard the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So we have this setting here.

And again, what King Nebuchadnezzar is doing, it's a very intelligent political move in this time.

Because again, we set the stage for a little bit of history.

These are all conquered people with different religions, with different ideologies, all those things.

And so Nebuchadnezzar says, what we need to do is we need to create for them a solid, unifying presence that they can all worship and they can all rally around.

And Nebuchadnezzar says, What better thing for them to worship than me?

Look, I don't know who you are, I don't know how important you are.

Very few times in life do I think there is something that is worthy of building a 60-foot golden statue of yourself about.

It just screams, look at me, look at me, look at me.

And we see it all throughout culture.

I mean, there's a level of it that everything's, man, look at me, look at me.

I'm from Kentucky originally.

If you look at a map where the crown of the SEC, we sit on top.

Missouri doesn't count because they really don't belong here.

Bless their hearts.

And you're welcome for all that revenue during basketball season all those years.

But but but you know, I'm from Kentucky.

Basketball's big.

Man, like there were four-year-olds showing up for upward basketball with like shooting sleeves and headbands and things like that.

You ever seen a four-year-old run?

It looks like a three-legged gazelle.

But but but they looked the part and they're trying to go between the legs and everything.

It's like, okay, guy.

Or or or my favorite, because we're in the south, right?

Um, by show of hands at any time, it's okay.

I was one of you.

Did you ever try and take the muffler off your truck?

And you you hit that burnout out of high school, and everybody, anybody?

Just me?

Okay.

Now I feel compelled to take the muffler off our minivan.

That'd be cool.

But all I had to say is just look at me, look at me, look at me, all this stuff.

Now, if we really look at this commandment, two things that are very interesting about it.

Number one is this it's not an exclusive command.

It's not an exclusive command in the sense that Nebuchadnezzar is not saying, you're not allowed to do anything else, you're only allowed to do these things that I say.

It's not exclusive like that.

That they're they're still allowed to keep their religion, they're still allowed to keep their old guys, they're still allowed to do their old ways, as long as at that moment they they bow in worship.

It's it's like this.

My wife works nights, and sometimes when she goes off to work and she leaves me with the children, and it like we we survive.

There's a difference, like you're not winning, but you're not losing.

Okay?

But I'll have my honeydew list, and it'll be, hey, can you at least like do the dishes?

Okay.

I could do anything I want for the rest of the night, as long as before she walks in, the dishes are done.

I can watch TV.

I can go run on the treadmill.

Not that I would, but I could if I wanted to.

I could make myself something to eat, dirty the kitchen up even more.

As long as when she sends me that text and says, hey, I'm on my way home, I drop everything I do and hurry and do that and get them done before she gets there.

Because at the right time at the right place, I have to have that thing accomplished.

Same way here, at the right time, right place, you have to bow down and worship.

And so that's the first thing that we see about this commandment.

The second thing we see about this commandment, like we said, as long as you keep in lockstep with what is being said, with what the culture is telling you, there is praises.

As long as you're doing what is right, as long as you're doing what the world says is acceptable, there are praises, there are blessings, there, there, there, there is there is uh you know good stuff that can come with it, right?

And we see that in our lives as well, that it's it's this idea that as long as you're keeping up with the good stuff, as long as you're you're cheering for the right ball club, as long as your your your house looks a certain way, as long as you're doing the right things, that the world values that.

But what we see ultimately for us in this moment is that we have to determine for ourselves what are we gonna follow?

What affirmation are we looking for?

Are we looking at that from the world or are we looking at that from the Lord?

Because ultimately, these three men that we're gonna meet here in just a second are gonna be faced with that choice.

Or gonna be faced with a choice if they're gonna be accepting from the world or accepting from the Lord.

And so skip forward just a little bit, just kind of summarize uh the next set of scriptures because we've got a long text today.

A lot of these high-up officials come to Nebuchadnezzar and say, hey, uh, there's these three guys that are not following this command that you have.

Now, we know this for anybody that's grown up in school, nobody likes a tattle tail.

Right, right, nobody likes it.

But they're coming, they're trying to curry favor with the king, and they say there's these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abidnego, and they're not doing what you're commanding them.

Now, we might be familiar with them, Shadrach, Meshach, Abidnego.

You might be more familiar with their aliases, Rak, Shack, and Benny.

Might be even more familiar with Junior Asparagus, Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber.

And if I say that, and that means nothing to you, you just need to know there was a time in Southern Baptist lore that we allowed and outsourced the teaching of Bible stories to our children from cartoon vegetables.

It's okay.

Not a cult, okay?

But but but we have these three men, and they they they come forward and they're saying, hey, it's time for you to bow.

It's time for you to bow to this idol, but their conviction would not allow them to do it.

Now, this this is a moment that we want to sit here and take a moment and be like, man, what great faith.

They have this wonderful moment and everything.

And yes, that that is true.

But I think we would be remiss if we don't understand what this huge act of conviction is built off of.

Two things.

Number one, we see there's not just one of them, there's three of them.

It screams to us, sermon within a sermon, the importance of the company we keep, the importance of accountability, the importance of the local church, the importance of our Sunday school class, the importance of a healthy, thriving student ministry, children's ministry, the company we keep.

But number two, the other thing we see, we've already been introduced to these guys in Daniel chapter one when they had another moment of strong conviction to stand true to the Lord and not bow to the ways of the world.

And so what does that tell us?

This is not a one-time thing for these guys.

This is a daily thing that they have been exercising day in and day out in their lives.

Huge acts of faith are not happenstantial.

They're built in day in and day out following and loving and serving the Lord.

And they exemplify that.

So if you want to pick up again, Daniel chapter 3, verse 16.

Daniel 3:16

The king comes, says, You bow down, verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinnego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, 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 even if he doesn't, but if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinago.

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 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinago, and cast them into the fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, their other garments, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the bi the fiery furnace.

But the king's order was urgent, and the king and the furnace was overheated, and the flame of those killed the men who took Shadrach, Meshach, and Binago.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, fell bound into the fiery furnace.

I want us to focus here just a little bit, verse 18.

When we're having, when these guys are giving this answer, it's like we're not gonna do it.

We believe that our God will deliver us.

But verse 18, even if he doesn't, we still will not bow.

That's that conviction that we're talking about.

That's that conviction that we talk about because we understand that as Christians, man, there are things like we talked about earlier, we have freedom to do all kinds of things.

But as believers, as Christians, there are things physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, we cannot bring ourselves to do.

And that is this bowing down to this false God.

Because what we find all throughout scripture, what we have found throughout our lives, probably, devastation happens when we follow things that are not God as God.

This conviction is so strong.

But but you see what happens here.

They do the right thing.

They do the right thing, and what happens is they're they're still thrown into the furnace.

What landed them in the furnace, it was not that they were bad employees.

It was not that they were of the of the wrong heritage.

It was not that they cheered for the wrong sports team.

It was not that they were from the wrong side of the tracks.

It was not any of those things.

What landed them in the furnace is this they refused to bow to one more thing as God.

They had a conviction that the God of the universe was the Lord of all things to them.

And that is the message that we all as a church have to embrace.

That we have to recognize that for us as believers, there's things we cannot do.

And one of those things, most important things, is that we cannot afford to find our acceptance, to find our worth, to find our identity, to find our meaning, to find all those things from a fallen world as opposed to a holy God who loves us, who created us, who formed us together.

And that is what we have.

But but I think it's interesting here as well.

And we talked about these guys did the right thing, and where did it still land them was the furnace.

Because I I know Hunter, I know my heart, I know my reaction in this is God, why?

I've been faithful, I've done the right thing.

I did what you asked me to do.

Why why am I here?

Why is this bad thing happening?

Why am I facing this hard moment?

What is going on?

What is your plan?

What are you trying to bring about in all of this?

And we try and sit here and we get upset that the faithfulness of them led to the furnace and we expect that our faithfulness should ultimately lead to favors as opposed to furnaces.

And we beg and we plead and we beg and we plead and we wrestle with God and say, God, I've been faithful.

I deserve this, this, this, this, this.

Because, guys, like, let's be real, we can justify anything, not very hard.

I work out at the second manliest gym that I've ever heard of.

It's called Chuck's Gym.

The only thing manlier would be Butch's gym.

But I'm at Chuck's gym.

And when I leave Chuck's gym and I'm going home, I pass a Wendy's.

And you know how many times I've sat here and said, Hunter, you had a good workout, buddy.

You even, you even, you looked in the direction of the treadmill.

That's big.

You looked in the direct- you've earned this.

And and Wendy looks at me from you know her perch up there, stares down at me, the baconator.

And all that.

Like we we can justify anything if we try hard enough.

And we justify these things, and we sit here and we beg and we plead and we beg and we plead and say, God, I've been faithful.

You owe me this.

But look at the end of the story, look at look at what happens, verse 24.

They threw them into the furnace, and King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he rose up in haste, and he declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?

And they answered to the king, Yes, King.

And he answered and said, I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire.

They're not hurt.

The appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

You look at everything that these guys lost in this moment.

You look at the fact that they they lost their jobs, you look at the fact that they lost an authority figure who valued them in Nebuchadnezzar, because you know he appointed them.

It says that the appearance of his face changed before them all of a sudden, like he really liked these guys, now he really doesn't like them.

They lost their job, they lost an authority figure who who cared for them.

And earlier they lost their families, they lost their friends, they lost their home.

They have lost everything for the sake of being obedient to the Lord.

But what do they have in the end?

It happens just so happens to be the only thing that is actually able to truly save them.

Because they're in the fire, what they see is God coming and being there with them.

And we talk about how our faithfulness deserves favors.

And what we see, what is beautiful about this passage that I love so much, is there is a God who does not keep us from fires.

We we face fires day in and day out.

He doesn't keep us from the fires.

But what is more loving for him to protect us from all those things, or for him to walk with us hand in hand through those things.

That the God of the universe doesn't keep us from fires, but he meets us in the middle of those.

And he shows us the way and he teaches us things and he grows us and he strengthens our resolve so that the next time the fire comes, that we're ready, and the next time the hard decision comes that we're ready, that God is there in all those things.

So if we had to summarize all of this, church, if you're gonna take away anything from today, let it be this.

Repeat after me.

Say, God is with me, God won't leave me.

God is with me, God won't leave me.

For the sake of it, let's do a third time.

God is with me.

God won't leave me.

And that is the truth of Scripture, and that is the truth of the God of the universe.

That He knows you, that He cares about you, that He wants to have a relationship with you, and He wants to help you through those hard moments.

We're gonna enter into a time of.

Decision, but but but two three things that that that that really at the end of the scripture is as it wraps up for us.

What's really cool is that there's a bow at the end of the story.

If you read that last section of scripture, what you see is Nebuchadnezzar, who has an absolute turn of heart that he recognizes, man, this God that these guys serve is big, and he makes a decree.

Everybody, no longer are you bowing down to my giant golden monolith.

Now you are bowing to their God because he recognizes, he sees.

Our obedience to God is a direct reflection to the world of his power, of his might.

How we respond in fires tells the world about how good our God truly is.

And like we said, fires are going to come, but we see oftentimes throughout the Old Testament, fires really do two things for us.

Fires serve two purposes.

Number one, it's judgment.

And we don't want that.

We can enter into a relationship with the Lord and we can be saved of that.

That fire means judgment, but the other thing that fire shows us is purification.

That it burns away the bad and it keeps the good.

And what not only that, if you've ever studied like smelting steel or anything, it doesn't just burn away the bad, it strengthens the good as well.

And so my prayer to you guys as we enter into a time of decision, I think Grant's gonna come, I think David's gonna come.

As we enter into a time of decision, is to ask ourselves a few things.

Number one, whose opinion are we valuing?

Whose authority, whose approval do we care most about?

But also this do I really have a relationship?

Do I really know the God who will meet me in those fires?

Fires are lonely.

Hard times are lonely, valleys are lonely.

And we could take a microphone, we could have testimony, we could tell all about that, what that looks like, the hard things that I've been through, what I've walked through.

But we could also tell about the things that we've learned on the back end of it.

We can also tell about the godly people who were there with us and walked with us through the mess.

We can tell those things.

But especially we can tell about the way that God has comforted us, how the God took care of us, how God shepherded us through something difficult like that.

In a world that is crazy and a world that is chaotic, know this.

There is a God who loves you, and there is a God who will never leave you.

Let's pray together.

Father God, we love you.

God, we are grateful that your word is true, that we're not reading ancient documents or anything.

We're reading firsthand accounts of how good you truly are, of how you have worked mightily through history, of how you have rescued, you have redeemed, you have you have delivered your people through difficult times, Lord.

And I know for all of us in a room this size, there are those of us who are facing difficulty.

There are those of us that are facing hard stuff, there are those that are facing uh trials and tribulations in this world on this side of heaven, Lord.

I thank you.

And we claim that you are a God who meets us in those things.

And sometimes we need to look.

Sometimes we need to, like Peter walking on the water, not look at the surroundings, but keep our eyes focused on the one who is there with us.

And Lord, I pray that this would be a time of refocus and see your hand at work in all these things.

But Lord, especially I pray that for those of us who might go through difficulty, for those of us that everything is going good, but we're we're anxiously waiting for the bottom to fall out, whatever that is, Lord, if we're walking through this life and we do not know the God who meets us in fires, that this would be a morning, that this would be a time of decision, that this would be a time that that changes futures, that changes trajectories of life, Lord.

God, we love you.

Thank you for loving us.

And we pray these things in your name.

Amen.