Daniel 3

Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast.

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We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today.

I think there's a lot to, I think there's a lot to pull that's accessible and readily available.

I think there's, I think what I would say is, as I was reading this right away, there were things that I felt like, wow, it's inspiring, but what do we do with it?

The goal of the lesson this morning is that we know what to do with the inspiration that we're going to find from our brothers in Daniel three, we're going to, we're going to just pick it up.

And as you guys understand, we'll start in verse one.

First of all, it says we're, we're jumping a little bit.

So you know, try to follow along as best you can.

So it says King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, 60 cubits high and 60 cubits wide.

That's about 90 feet and set it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Verse four, then the herald loudly proclaimed nations and people of every language.

This is what you are commanded to do.

As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.

This some of the astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews in verse 12, but there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who pay no attention to you, your majesty.

They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.

And so this is the start, this is the plot of what's happening in this section.

You guys would understand actually if you were at house church last Sunday, there was a dream that this guy had and the dream was that there's this image that, you know, basically it has a bunch of different, there's some that's metal and there's some that's wood and there's some that's clay and there's some that's gold and Daniel just proclaims this is what God is talking about actually.

And this king says, praise be to God, this is the most incredible thing that I've ever seen for whatever reason he forgets what was told to him.

And so it's interesting because instead of deciding what I'm going to do then is I'm going to worship and honor God, he says, well, instead of this dream that I had that has some, you know, this different materials, let me just make it all out of gold.

And so that they can worship and honor me.

Uh, this, it doesn't make an awful lot of sense, right?

This, this immediately should open our eyes to what is God trying to do?

What is he trying to teach us?

Uh, and, and really what we should, I think how we should feel is that this is not totally dissimilar to how you and I can be.

Uh, I bet you that there's been times when God has spoken to you or somebody spoken to you and from God and said, you've got to change the way that you're living.

This is, this is not right.

Or maybe you just honestly had a great quiet time, great time with God.

And you realize why am I, why am I doing this?

Why do I value this person's opinion so much?

Or why, why am I searching for love in this spot?

Or why am I trying to find security in a place that I know I will not find security in?

And you felt that.

And I felt that.

And then there's been times where we've walked right back.

Maybe the next day, maybe hours later, walked right back into the situation where we felt like we're going to overcome, we're going to persevere, we're going to trust God.

And then what's happened is we kind of forget about what, what God has told us, or we forget about what has been told to us by somebody who we really trust.

And we, we ended up falling in and sometimes even worse and trying to manipulate God or manipulate our, our vision of what is to come or what is to happen.

And, and so in, in so many ways, certainly we're not, we're not the one saying that we're going to throw Christians into the fire or Jews or God's people into the fire, but we can, we can live like that in some ways, right?

You work with me here.

We can some way, shape or form, throw ourselves into the fire, understanding it with, without any, any faith in God, or really maybe we bow down instead of going into the fire.

We're going to see what we can learn from, from prayer though, or what we can learn in our prayer life from, from these men.

First, you know, I thought this was, again, it was something on Wednesday that we looked at.

I think it's really, I think it's really powerful that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were, were not known by those names though.

And, and if you guys read some of the Jewish literature, actually, you'd see that the names are that they, they call them Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

Like they don't even refer to them as these you know, these Babylonian names.

This understand what we said, or what our takeaway is, is what we're not saying is that you can't have any, you need to make these lines so rigid in the way that you, that you interact.

And it needs to be something that we're going out of our way to act so spiritual about stuff that God really isn't super clear on.

I think the stuff that God is clear on, we need to be clear on as well.

The stuff that is neither here nor there.

Well, then I think just like these men, they didn't say that, okay, God named me this.

Don't you dare call me something else.

I'm not going to serve you.

If they would have said that they wouldn't have been in charge of very much.

They wouldn't have had the authority that they had.

They maybe wouldn't even be written about in this text.

You know, it's so powerful as well.

If you guys read this, we were like, where's Daniel in the story?

There's a lot of thought that Daniel in this story is like so far above all of the astrologers that they're like, he's untouchable.

We're not even going to try to, to, to condemn this guy because we know that the King's not going to mess with this guy anymore.

Well, they, they different King, but they were wrong about the King, not messing with Daniel that we'll read about again, you know, as in the coming, coming weeks.

But Daniel was so far above.

And again, if he wasn't such a great, if he wasn't such a great employee, work with me here.

If it wasn't such, if he didn't honor the King, then he wouldn't be in this position.

Here we go.

We're going to read.

And again, we're going to pull stuff.

This was kind of the prelude.

This is like the meat of what we're talking about.

Uh, the question I want to ask you guys is, is what if God doesn't answer you?

You know, we're learning about prayer.

We're trying to grow in our prayer life and it ought to be asked, well, what if God doesn't answer?

You know, when, when our will aligns with God's will, uh, well it works out right.

When, or when rather when God's will aligns with, with our will is what I would say.

You say, well, I'm going to go to this school.

And if you get into that school and if it makes sense, it's a great financial aid package.

There's a, a college ministry.

However, it works out.

Then you're like, wow, my will and God's will.

They're aligned.

I didn't have to, I prayed about it and God answered the prayer.

But what happens when you pray about things or you want things to happen and they don't happen the way that you want them to, uh, do you still trust in God?

Good question, bro.

So, so, so Nebuchadnezzar sees that these men are not following him or following his, his edict.

And he's furious with rage.

Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

So these men were brought before the king and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold that I have set up.

Now, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, uh, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, all kinds of music, if you're ready to fall down and worship the image I made very good.

But if you do not worship it, you'll be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace.

Then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand.

In verse 16, they say, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serves able to deliver us from it.

And he will deliver us from your majesty's hand.

But even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty.

We will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

These men, you'd imagine there's an energy that that's, that's built up inside of this there.

It seems like they're pretty prepared, right?

They, they make, this is what you have to do.

You've got to bow down and you've got to worship.

I'd have to imagine that they prior to this, they're like, Hey, we're going to get, we're going to get found out, uh, that we're not, we're not going to worship it.

And so we are, we're going to get found out.

What are we going to say?

And I'm sure they, they drummed up different things.

This is what's going to be impactful.

And maybe we just say, we're not going to do it, but then it would maybe if we just say we're not going to do it and we give a reason why, then it maybe sounds like we got to give a defense.

And then they might say, well, you know, we're going to keep quiet.

And then they might say, well, that maybe that doesn't glorify God in the best possible way.

I'd have to imagine that they took a lot of time to consider.

I know this is going to get brought up and how am I going to respond?

Uh, you know what they could have done?

They, they, you read this and they could have probably quelled his anger with some choice words.

They could have just bowed down.

They could have said, they could have asked for time.

This is something that Daniel actually did.

And they could have said, you know, we need a little bit more time.

Let's consider.

But, but instead they chose the path of most resistance.

Didn't they?

They're talking to the King and they say, you know, we don't even need to defend ourselves.

Just so you know, we don't need to answer.

Uh, we, we, we don't need to answer you, but we're going to, you, you just asked a little, we're going to answer you.

We don't need to though.

You, you guys understand, right?

You've been in a dip or you've gone into a situation where you're like, I know this is going to be a hostile conversation and you've probably worked through what am I going to say?

How am I going to be prepared when they bring up this?

And I hope they don't talk about this because I, I've got them there.

And I, you've got it all worked out in your head, right?

How am I going to answer my boss?

How am I going to answer my sibling?

How am I going to answer?

I hope it doesn't go like this.

My spouse, right?

We've all been there.

Unless you're not married, then maybe you've not, uh, they've, they've, they've got it worked out.

And, and, and if you, uh, you take classes or you learn, well, what do you want to communicate this communication classes that will teach you?

You've got to, you, what can you control?

You control what you can control, what you say, how you say it, the way you say it, you can't control the person's response.

And so what, what's your goal in leaving the conversation?

You guys have probably talked to people, but when I talk to people, especially young people, they're in a kind of conversation.

I'm like, what do you want to leave communicating?

And okay.

I want to leave communicating this sentence.

Well, that's inspiring.

Why don't you communicate that first?

And then, and then everything else that happens is gravy, right?

It's icing on the cake.

That's what these men do.

The first words out of their mouth is we don't even need to defend ourselves.

It's pretty, it's pretty powerful.

They're talking to a King who's going to throw them in the fire.

They understand it's an inevitability.

It's going to happen.

And yet they say, you know what it's, I don't need to defend myself.

This is where I think it's, it, it gives us a little bit of pause.

I think we ought to pay attention to, because what they say is they say, God can rescue us.

We believe God will rescue us.

But even if we don't, we're still going to serve him.

So you think about for you just consider for a moment, what is, what is your deepest prayer?

What is the one that if it gets answered, you feel like everything else can go wrong.

And if this, if these few prayers get answered, I'm, I'm, I'm loving it.

It doesn't matter.

There's nothing that can touch me.

If these get answered, maybe it's your, your children becoming Christians.

Maybe it's your children coming back to the faith.

Maybe it's your spouse and your marriage being strong and powerful and something that is worthwhile.

Maybe it's, maybe it's getting married.

Whatever, whatever inside of you, maybe it's, I want to own a home.

I want to have, I know I never, I don't want to work a paycheck to paycheck for the rest of my life.

There's a stress that's inside that I cannot shake when I have to do that.

Whatever it is, whatever your deepest prayer is.

The question I want to ask is, are you content in God?

If none of your deepest prayers ever get answered.

These men were ready for it.

They were ready that regardless, we're going to serve him.

You know, for us, we understand this and we understand this is true that sometimes the questions or rather the prayers that we ask God later on, we're like, man, I, I'm glad that was never answered.

Right.

Maybe it was the person that you said, man, this is the one for me.

God, please, please, please, please.

And then it doesn't work out.

And, and later on, you're like, man, dodged a bullet there.

Right.

Thank, thank you God so much for that one.

There's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a movie.

That's what was probably made before Owen and Dayton were born.

It's called Bruce Almighty.

And, and this guy, you guys familiar with it, right?

The old heads in here understand.

Basically, this guy gets, I forget the entire plot.

Essentially though, he has the responsibility where he kind of, he becomes God and that he can answer prayers and do what he wants in this world.

And it's played by Jim Carrey.

And so you'd understand it's, it's just goofy.

He creates an E first.

He's like, man, I understand what everyone's praying.

This is overwhelming.

He creates this this, Hey, send him to my email.

And so then he gets this email and he sees there's millions of emails that are prayers.

And so what does he do?

He just responds.

Yes.

To all of them.

And you see the chaos that ensues.

And one of the news broadcast says in record time, there's 50 million, uh, Powerball winners and, and with a grand total of 32 cents or something to that effect.

And, and we'd understand, we know this, that our way is worse than God's way, right?

Like we, we know it's, we know it's true.

And yet we're praying and we say, God, I really want this to happen.

And it's not happening in the time that you want it to happen, or it's not happening seemingly at all.

The question is, are we still going to serve and honor God scripture?

It's Isaiah 55 in verse eight.

It says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Neither are your ways.

My ways declares the Lord as the heavens are higher than the earth.

So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

You know, I, I, I think for some, some of these things that again, we, we can reason our way out of it.

Well, maybe it's my lot in life to always work, you know, this day job day to day to day and always have this little bit, maybe, maybe that's my lot in life and I can feel okay about that.

I think it becomes really difficult though, guys, when, when it's something that we know that God wants and we really want it to, right?

Something you talk about people becoming Christians or people coming back to the faith or God moving powerfully and opening doors or people who we just have this heart for, we want to bring them out.

Can you please just meet my friends?

I know you'll love the church and I, and once you love the church, I know you're going to learn to love God and we can feel this.

This is stuff that God feels.

I think we relish in these times then these, this prayer that we pray, don't stop praying it and don't expect nothing other than God moving.

But we, we, we can grow our relationship with God as we are praying things that we understand God wants.

Say the Bible says he wills all to be saved.

He wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

And it says that he doesn't come back because he's, he's patient with us.

He's wanting everybody to come.

He's like, it just, just, I want to hold off.

I want to hold off.

I want people to come to a knowledge of the truth.

And so even in our day to day, we can grow in our relationship with God as we are praying things that we know that the Bible teaches that God wants.

We grow in our relationship with God.

We learn to see people how God sees people.

And this is, uh, this is part of this closeness with God.

And this is, uh, this is what we're going to talk about, about next, actually.

The second point for this morning is when you stand up, uh, when you stand up in faith, it's, it's easier to connect with Jesus.

We'll drop all the way down to verse 24.

It says then King Nebuchadnezzar.

So he throws him in this fire.

Uh, and it says then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?

They replied, certainly your majesty.

He said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed.

And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego servants of the most high God.

Notice him calling him the most high God.

Come out, come here.

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire and the Satraps, prefix governors, royal advisors crowded around them.

They saw the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was there a hair on their heads singed.

Their robes weren't scorched.

There was no smell of fire on them.

And Nebuchadnezzar said, praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angels and rescued his servants.

They trusted in him and defied the King's commands and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any gods except their own God.

We'll stop here.

You know, this story is one that we read and it fills us with something, right?

That we know that this is the same God that we serve right now.

The same God, it doesn't make sense how these guys could go into the fire and not be burned, but it's the same God who we can stand up to our teachers or we can stand up to our professors or we can stand up to our bosses who somehow are okay with it.

They crumple back or they shrink back and they give us the extra hours that we ask.

They let us off on a Sunday morning or however you figure, this is the same God, right?

You know, when we say connect with Jesus, the incredible thing and most theologians will say, well, this is the pre-incarnate Jesus that's with them right now in this fire.

Consider for a moment how amazing it would be to be in the fire with two other of your best friends and then Jesus right there.

And you're like, man, this is happening.

Wouldn't it be something where you're afterwards, you're like, hey, Daniel, you really missed out, man.

I wish you weren't so popular.

I wish you weren't so well.

You missed out.

This would have been an awesome time for you.

You're going to have your time when you're old, but this would have been so powerful, wouldn't it?

It would be something I'd have to imagine.

I don't, again, I don't know if this is true.

I'd have to imagine the feeling of, man, at some point I've got to step out of this fire though.

At some point they're going to, they're going to call me to step out.

I don't want to step out.

I'm enjoying, I'm enjoying my time.

Me and Jesus, we're dancing.

We're hanging out.

He's encouraging us.

He's giving us faith.

What a powerful time.

And God is so powerful that it says they come out and it's, it's not just, they're not just like doing okay, but a little bit burned, right?

It's like, they don't even smell like fire.

Wow.

This is, this is the power of God.

When, when we decide to walk with them, it's just, it's easier to connect with Jesus.

Now, something that was supposed to cause them so much pain is one of the reasons why we gain encouragement and why we follow God, right?

It's, it's so, it's, it's amazing to consider that what was intended for harm has actually caused so much good.

This, this King again, proclaims, proclaims God as being the most high.

You know, but the idea though of something that, that you expect to happen, or you do something and you expect the result and something opposite happens is, is one that these guys experienced.

It's one that when it's really the story, I think of so much of Christianity, so much of God's people is trying to be thwarted or bashed or broken down and God deciding to work amazing things through it.

Um, there was a, so there was a daycare, uh, they provided, I read, this is a study that I read in a book.

Um, and it was, it was a sociology guy, but I thought it was really interesting.

Um, so there's a daycare, they provide, uh, after, after school care for children.

And so kind of from three 30 to about five 30 is the, the pickup time.

And these, these teachers were getting, or these instructors, however you call them were, they, they noticed, man, these parents are pretty late and there's like this consistent view of this group.

There's these few that are always late.

And so they thought in order to stop them from being late, what we're going to do is we're going to add an extra fee basically.

Um, and so if you're under 10 minutes late, there's no, no charge.

You're good.

Um, from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, it's$5 and from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, it's an extra fee of, of $10.

They thought that that with these fees, what would happen is the parents would say, well, it costs me a little bit.

I'm just going to pick up my kids.

Then what ended up happening is that more and more parents decided I'll be about eight or nine minutes late.

And, uh, cause then I won't get charged.

Uh, and even more decided, you know, 10 bucks here.

There's not the end of the world.

I'll just, I'll just use the whole 60.

Basically the, the intention again was to, the intention was, Hey, it costs me a little Go ahead, pick up your kids.

What ended up happening was they said $10 out of my pocket, but an hour of sanity is worth it.

You know, I, again, I, I bring it up.

The connection that was, I think this, this is a story of, of God's people.

This is what we, we have the opportunity to, uh, to do is that when things happen to us, that should cause us discouragement.

That should cause us pain.

That should actually thwart our faith.

We have the most opportunity then to trust in God, uh, in Hebrews, Hebrews 11 actually says something, uh, something similar, but it talks about, about these men.

Hebrews 11, uh, 32.

And what more shall I say?

I do not have time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword.

Here we go.

Whose weakness was turned to strength and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

Women received back their dead race to life.

Again, there were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.

Some face jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.

They were put to death by stoning.

They were sought into, they were killed by the sword.

They went about in sheepskin and goatskin destitute persecuted and mistreated.

The world was not worthy of them.

They wandered in deserts and mountains living in caves and in, and in holes in the ground.

They were all commended for their faith yet.

None of them received what had been promised since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Stop here.

No, we, we have an opportunity on a daily basis.

This is, it goes right along with communion to, to, to talk about our weaknesses, right?

The Bible, the Bible says that the weakness was turned to strength.

These, these men we read about, they're powerful.

They're, they're there.

It seems like they're excited.

Maybe they, maybe, maybe they were a little bit fearful though, right?

Before they're about to step in.

I, I have to believe though, that, that through this now we gain, we gain great encouragement.

We gain great faith.

This is, this is what you can do for somebody else though, as well.

You stepping out on faith gives God an opportunity to shine and your faith grows, but, but somebody else can look at your example and feel inspired by it, right?

You know, I want to, I want to close with a, with a prayer actually.

And, and this prayer is, is from the, it's, it's from the, this, the song of three men, three young men.

This is, it's in some Bibles.

It's not regarded as scripture.

And so I'm not going to read it as such.

But I think it's, it's powerful in the same way that a great quote in a book is very powerful.

And, and it actually, what, what it highlights though, is it talks about two, it says it has a couple of prayers in it.

One of them is the prayer of Azariah right before he's going to go, or purports to be the prayer of Azariah before he goes into the fire.

And then the other is them, them worshiping God as they're in the fire.

But I'm going to read just a little bit, a little bit of this prayer.

It says, blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers and worthy of praise.

And thy name is glorified forever.

For thou art just in all thou has done to us and all thy works are true and thy ways right.

And all thy judgments are truth.

Thou has executed true judgments in all that thou has brought upon us and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our fathers.

For in truth and justice, thou has brought all this upon us because of our sins.

For we have sinfully and lawlessly departed from thee and have sinned in all things that have not obeyed thy commandments.

We've not observed them or done them.

Thou has commanded us that it might go well with us.

So all that thou has brought upon us and all that thou has done to us, thou has done in true judgment.

Thou has given us in the hand of lawless enemies, most hateful rebels and to an unjust king, the most wicked in all the world.

And now we cannot open our mouths.

Shame and disgrace will befall on thy servants and worshipers for thy names sake.

Do not give us up utterly and do not break thy covenant.

Do not withdraw mercy from us for the sake of Abraham, thy beloved, for the sake of Isaac, thy servant in Israel, thy holy one to whom thou didst promise to make their descendants as many as the stars in heaven and as the sand on the shore of the sea.

For we, oh Lord, have become fewer than any nation and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins.

And at this time, there is no prince or prophet or leader, no burnt offering or sacrifice or ablation or incense, no place to make an offering before thee or to find mercy.

Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit, may we be accepted as though it were with burnt offering of rams and bulls and with tens of thousands of fat lambs.

Such may our sacrifice be in thy sight this day that we may wholly follow thee, for there will be no shame for those who trust in thee.

And now with all our heart, we follow thee.

We fear thee and seek thy face.

Do not put us to shame, but deal with us in thy forbearance and in thy abundant mercy.

Deliver us in accordance with thy marvelous works and give glory to thy name, oh Lord.

Let all who do harm to thy servants be put to shame.

Let them be disgraced and deprived of all power and dominion.

Let their strength be broken.

Let them know that thou art the Lord, the only God, glorious over the whole world.

Amen.

This can be said of us as well, that we have the opportunity to, on a daily basis, decide that we are not going to put God in whatever faith box that we have, but instead we are going to step out on faith and step out on faith, not for our own glory, not so people can be impressed by us and look at us and say, wow, you're amazing.

But so that we can point to God and give glory to him at every step of the way.

Amen.

This week, just make decisions to step on faith.

Make decisions to pray prayers that you're like, I don't know if he's going to answer it.

I want him to answer it and I'm not going to stop praying.

Make decisions to step on faith in your day to day.

Make decisions.

Maybe it's a tough conversation that you know you're going to have.

Make a decision to talk about God through it.

Make decisions to share your faith in your day to day.

With all of this, I think we'll have the opportunity one day to, it says that these guys' sacrifice is made perfect through you and I.

We have a responsibility and a role in this great biblical narrative to live out by faith and in doing so, we're going to be able to see our brothers and sisters who sacrificed their lives for us one day.

Amen.

Ultimately, we're going to be able to see Jesus too.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast.

If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected.

Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on.

In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.