Daniel Ch.3: From Bad To Worse

Did not fail. That is the story of every single one of our life.

I think if we all look hard enough, we will find multiple times

where it looked hopeless, but God came through and He never fails. I

want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes, repeat this

prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart,

change my life in Jesus' name. Amen. I was meeting with a church

planner this week that I mentor, and as her and I were talking,

she just began to share how discouraged she was, how challenging this season of

church planning for her was. And I always described church the bell curve of

church planning, that it goes up, you're super encouraged, you're full of

vision, you're super excited. Then it peaks and then it gets creuddy.

And that is the story that every single church planner has. In fact adventure

we even have on our website. We call them when you have years of

suck and that's when everything goes bad. And so I got the opportunity to

encourage her and she shared a story. She said, I had to fire

this person, then this key leader quit and then this family moved out of

the area. And then we had an issue with the city that might cause

us to lose our facility, and attendance is down and finances are down.

And I reminded her that there is nothing in ministry more difficult than church planning.

I'm telling you, the fact that Di and I are celebrating night ten

years since we founded Venture Church next month is nothing short of a miracle.

This church planning is really, really, really hard. And at the end

of this she asked me, Brandon, seriously, can it get any worse?

I was like, yes, a lot worse. Then I started quoting

some Bible verses to her, because this is what we do. You know,

those verses that we love to quote two people, but we don't enjoy

having quoted at us. Here's one James one, two and four. It's

one of the first verses I ever memorized as a follower of Jesus. James

says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face

trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces

perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,

not lacking anything. Many times I've gone through a trial. This has

been quoted to me, and my response is I want to stay immature.

You see, oftentimes the devil tempts us to try to destroy our faith,

but God tests us because he wants to develop and toughen and strengthen our faith.

And I'll tell you, faith that cannot be tested shouldn't be trusted because

false faith, man, it withers when the pressure comes, but true faith

grows in times of trials. True faith will bring glory to God and make

Jesus famous in the middle of a trial. Another verse that we love to

quote but don't like having quoted at us is Firse Peter four twelve. Peter

said, dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery or deedle that has

come on you to test you. Peter's like saying, why are you shocked

when bad things happen to good people? And then he says, why are

you so surprised as though something strange were happening to you. I just love

this verse because it's so us, because we are completely prayerful and understanding.

When our friends go through stuff, We're able to step back see the big

picture, see God in the middle of the storm. All the things we

say, and then we go through something and we're like, what the heck,

It's not the way this is supposed to work. And so Peter's saying,

why are you acting when you go through a tough time as if something

strange has happened to you? And he says, but instead, you should

rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that

you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. So basically what Peter is

saying is he's saying, if you never go through difficult times, you don't

appreciate the good times as much. And if you never go through a difficult

time, you never get to celebrate when God brings you through the other side.

You never get to do what we just sang in the offertory song,

where we don't have a story. We miss out on the opportunity to have

a story that says, my God never fails, like I've been through it

all, and I will tell you and everything I've gone through, what ever

fails. If you don't go through anything, you don't you don't realize that

you have to go through. As a church planner, the years of suck

to appreciate this year on our staff. But I'll tell you overall, this

is the point that I want you to get today, is that times of

adversity oftentimes lead to opportunity. It's possible that James and Peter when they wrote

these letters, it's possible they were thinking about the story in Daniel chapter three.

Once you grab your Bible's turn Daniel chapter three, continuing this series through

Daniel. If you missed the first couple messages, not to toot my own

horn, but they were good and you need to go back and get them

and listen to them. They'll help you. Daniel Chapter three, Verse one

says King nebuke Nezar made an image of gold sixty cubits high and sixty cubits

wide, and he set it up on the plane of Dura in the province

of Babylon. So King Nebukanezer builds this huge golden image of his self.

We're told that it's sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. You're wondering,

what's a cubit. Uh. They tried to describe a cubit as going from

the tip of your middle finger to the bottom of your elbow. But that's

a terrible way to explain it, because we all have a different tip of

our middle finger to the bottom of our elbow. So what does that mean.

I sum it up by saying it's about a foot and a half.

So this image that Nebucanzer made of gold of himself was about ninety feet high

and about nine feet wide. Here's what's fascinating to me. Daniel three takes

place twenty years after the events in Daniel two, So you'll remember we talked

about this last week. What happened in Daniel two. Nebeconizer had a dream,

and he had a dream about a statue, and this image tormented him

because he knew it had significance for his future. And he tried to find

somebody throughout all of Babylon that could interpret this dream, and he found out

that there was no one that could interpret it other than Daniel. And Daniel

this was the image, by the way, this was the vision that he

had, And Daniel explained that that head of gold, Nebucanizer, that's you.

But you'll notice that under that golden head are silver arms and silver shoulders,

and that is to show you that there's going to come a day,

your kingdom is going to be conquered by a lesser powerful, less influential kingdom.

So Daniel shares this entire prophetic word and it basically reveals about eight hundred

years of human history. So now you fast forward twenty years later, Nebukanezer

is building this huge image of gold of himself. What you need to realize

put the picture back up. No, the other one. This one,

This tormented Nebukanezer for twenty years. If for twenty years you were told the

inevitability of your conquest, what are you going to begin to think? You

are going to figure out any way possible to change this history. You don't

want this to be your reality. So over the next twenty years, nebican

Azer meets with his advisors. He meets with people to determine how do you

change the inevitable course of history. Nebuican Azer concludes, based upon the advice

of his advisors, that what you need to do is force loyalty and allegiance

to you and your kingdom. Force loyalty. So he builds this huge image

of himself. Verse two says he then summoned the sar traps prefects, Governor's

advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come

to the dedication of the image that he has set up. What is that

supposed to tell you? It meant the nebuican Azer brought every person that led

every area of every kingdom to come to his dedication ceremony. So every leader

of every other empire gathers six miles outside of Babylon to see this image of

gold that Nebukanzer has set up in the city of Dura. And this is

the image. Now you can show it that he built again once again with

the help of Ai, we have created this for you, Nebukanezer's image of

gold. Have you noticed it when anybody makes a statue of themselves, it

always looks something like that. So all of the leaders of all these nations

and peoples come forward. So the sat traps, prefects, governors, advisors,

treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial officials assembled for

the dedication of the image the king nebucan Nezer has set up, and they

stood before it. So thousands of years ago they were standing before this image.

Then the herald steps forward loudly proclaims nations, peoples of every language.

This is what you are commanded to do. As soon as you hear the

sound of the horn, the flute, thither, liar, harp, pipe,

and any other kind of music, you must fall down and worship the

image of gold that King nebukan Nezer has set up. They thought they were

coming to a dedication ceremony. Instead, Nebukanezer turned it into a worship service.

You see, he had concluded, the only way to avoid my eventual

future is total subjection of the people, total submitment. Submission of the people,

total commitment, and the only way to do that is fear and religion.

So he said, they can't just fear me, they need to worship

me. And then the herald comes forward with this caveat. He says,

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

You see, Nebukanezar plan to unify his entire empire through religion and fear.

Likely he'd been planning this with his advisors for years. As you stood

looking at this statue next to it, you'd see this furnace in the city

of Dua, which has been excavated, they found many altars, and they

found a huge furnace. So you're seeing this image of gold, and next

to it you were seeing a furnace. And the Bible tells us verse seven

that as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither,

lyre harp, and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples

of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebukanezer had

set up. Every nation, people of every language, everyone everywhere bowed down

before the golden image. Can it get any worse? Church, Times of

adversity are oftentimes moments of opportunity. At this time Verse eight, some of

the astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. That phrase astrologers, some of

your translations say Chaldeans. It's basically meant to be a generic statement that includes

all those that practiced witchcraft, occultism, all that. Basically all of Nebukanezer's

advisors are summed up in that word astrologer. Some of them came and said,

Nebucanzer, you need to be worried about those Jews. Do you remember

the Jews? They were the ones twenty years before that were ripped from their

homes in Jerusalem, that they were brought to Babylon and fully indoctrinated in the

Babylonian culture. They were given different food, they were taught a new language,

they were taught new history, they were taught to dress a different way.

Everything about them was to be culturally indoctrinated into Babylon. And then finally,

every one of those boys that was kidnapped twenty years ago, their names

had been changed. Now, back then, you need to understand the importance

of a name. Your name meant everything. When you grew up in a

Hebrew home. Your parents had met with their whole family, and they had

prayed and sought the will of God in what to name you. Your name

was like a prophetic word over your life. Your name was your essence.

Your name was your eventual deathline. These names meant everything, and they took

these names that had deep meaning, and their names were changed into Babylonian names.

So you remember that three of those boys, one of them, their

Hebrew name was Hannanaiah. When his parents named him Hannanaiah, they named him

that because they loved what it meant, because it meant God is gracious,

but the Babylonians changed his name to Shadrack, which means in Babylonian, a

coup is exalted. A coup was the Babylonian sun and moon god. Well,

there was another boy, Michael, whose parents intentionally named him Michael because

of the depth of what it meant. It means who is what God is.

But the Babylonians changed his name to me Shak, which in Babylonian means

who is what a coup is. And then finally there was a boy by

the name of Azariah. In Hebrew, i' mean telling me if you don't

want your name to mean this. In Hebrew, his name means the Lord

helps, but the Babylonians changed that name to a Bendigo, which means servant

of Nago. Nago was the god of the planet Mercury. So all of

these Jews had everything about them radically changed. Everything changed to become a Babylonian.

And now the astrologers are saying, Nebeconezer. We got a problem with

these Jews, They said, King Nebucanezer, may the king live forever.

Your majesty issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the music should

fall down and worship the image of Gold, and that whoever does not fall

down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. He said, But

Nebicanezzer, some of those Jews that we took from Jerusalem, whom you've now

set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. You see, all these

astrologers were jealous. They were jealous because twenty years beforehand, when Nebeconezer had

the dream of that statue, none of them could interpret it, but Daniel

could. When Daniel came and interpret it, the king made him incredibly wealthy

and then made him the prime minister over all of Babylon. And as this

first act, Daniel took his three friends, Shadrack, me Shack, and

a Bendigo, and he said, you guys are going to be over the

city of Babylon itself. So the other astrologers, basically all those occultists,

were incredibly jealous and for twenty years had been plotting the demise of Shadrack,

me Shack, and a Bendigo. And then he says, those guys that

you put over Babylon, Shadrack, me Shack, can a Bendi go?

They pay no attention to you, your majesty. They don't serve you.

They don't serve your gods or the image of gold that you've set up.

Well. Needless to say, this made Nebeknezzar very angry. In fact,

the Bible says he was furious with rage. So he summons Shadrack Meshak and

to bend to go, and he gives them one of these. Is it

true what I'm hearing about you? Are you truly not bowing down to the

image of gold that I've made? Think of everything I've done for you,

I've given you the best food, I've put you in charge of the leading

city in my entire kingdom. Surely I've misheard you. So here's what I'm

gonna do. I'm gonna give you another chance to bow down. But if

you do not bow down, your punishment will be just as I warned every

one else. And he ends this statement by saying, if you're thrown into

that furnace, what God would be able to rescue you from my hand?

Shadrack Mishak can a bend to go? First sixteen replied to the king,

King nebukan Ezer, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this

manner. If we're thrown into that blazing furnace, the God we serve is

able to deliver us, and he can deliver us from your hand. But

even if he does not, we want you to know that will not serve

of your gods or worship the image of gold that you've set up. There's

so many things about that statement that I love. I love. First off,

they're saying very clearly God can deliver us from this, like this is

such a piece of cake for God to do. The situation that we would

be thrust into God so much bigger than this. But I'm going to tell

you that if God chooses, in all of his sovereignty, in all of

his providence, to not rescue us, it won't matter, because we will

not bow. I think it's important to understand that God always rewards faith,

but he doesn't always step in and perform miracles. So if you're these boys,

who by the way, are now men, they were stripped from their

home fourteen fifteen, it's now twenty years later, they're in their thirties.

So all these images and pictures that you've seen of teenage boys in this furnace

is totally wrong. They were your age. They were men that had to

choose do I either bow or do I face this furnace. And at this

point Israel has been destroyed. Jerusalem has been destroyed. In the twenty years

that happened between Daniel two and Daniel three, Nebeknezar conquered Israel two more times.

And the third time he went into Israel, he made it rubble,

He tore it to the ground. He went into the temple and destroyed the

temple, and he took all the valuable artifacts out of the temple and brought

them back to Babylon. He's now made this ninety foot image of gold.

You know how gold is scarce today, like you don't like dig it up

in your backyard, it was also scarce back then. So if you're gonna

make a ninety foot image of gold and gold is scarce, and you've just

taken a ton of gold from the temple in Jerusalem, odds are that there

were many items from that temple that were melted down and formed into that image

that Nebuzer had made of himself. The temple is destroyed, and the people

of God are spread all around the world. But with this statement, these

three men said, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the situation, regardless

of the trial or tests that I'm facing, Nebucanezer, we believe God is

able, belief that our story will be God did not fail us. But

nebu Canzer, beyond anything, we believe God is still on the throne.

The problem is, proud men don't like to be disobeyed. So Nebu Canezer

verse nineteen was furious with Shadrack, Mishak and a Bendigo. The Bible says

that his attitude change towards them. That's another thing you had to catch as

you read this. Up until now, he had a pretty good attitude about

them. He liked them. That was why he was willing to give them

a second chance. He had given them a high position. They'd probably done

a great job over those twenty years, and when he heard they weren't bowing

down to his image, he thought, well, they just need a slight

rebuke and then there be behavior will change. So he calls them in and

gives them a second chance. But now it says his attitude has changed towards

them. What does he do? You're wondering, can your situation get any

worse. Yes, it can. Unfortunately, if you were shadow acking me

Shocking a bend to Go, you'd be like, well, put the picture

of the furnace up just for fun, because you know what's super fun.

You're facing this and you're thinking, can it get any worse? When never,

Canezer's like, yes, make it seven times hotter. Then he finds

keep this image up. The strongest man in all of his army, and

he says, you guys are the ones that are gonna tie up shadrack me

shocking to bend to go. You're the ones that are gonna throw them into

the fire so that Shadrack Me Shack and a bend to Go get tied up.

They get brought to this furnace, and verse twenty two keep that up

there they can hear me, okay. Verse twenty two says the king's command

was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed

the soldiers who took up Shadrack me Shack and to bend to Go. And

these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace. Can this story get

any worse? Church? Times of adversity are oftentimes moments of opportunity keep the

image up. King nebukon Dezer leaps to his feet in amazement, looks at

his advisors. Weren't there are only three men in this furnace, and they're

like, well, shad rock me shaq, I bend to go. I

got three fingers. It's three Nebukanezar's one two three four one two three.

There's a fourth person in that furnace. He doesn't look normal. He looks

like one of the sons of the gods. It's just so cool this image.

There was a fourth person in the fire time out. Some of you

are thinking, well, hell, Pastor Brandon, the story of shout out,

can mech I can have been to go? This is just a really

fun story to let us know we're not alone. It's not true. This

is an urban ledgen. This is a myth. I hope you guys are

falling where I want to go next. I'm communicating with my media guy.

When they excavated Babylon, they found what is referred to as Nebuknezar's prisms.

So what they would do back then to record history they would etch on stone

the story. They'd make them as pillars. But when the town became rubble,

you know, centuries centuries later. These are now archaeological discoveries if they

find them. Pop up the picture and then we're going to go back to

that one. But this right here sits in the Istanbul Museum. This is

the prism that they found in ancient Babylon. It's called Nebukanezer's prism. And

guess whose three names are written on that prism? Shad Rack, me,

Shaq, and a Bendigo. Go back to the furnace. Why do I

share that with you? This is not an urban legend. This is something

that really happened. There was a fourth person in that fire. You aren't

alone. So you and your wife and a third person. In a moment,

we're in that doctor's office and you were anxiously awaiting what is an inevitable

bad report. There's another person in the room with you. When you feel

like you are totally alone and no one else is there, there's a fourth

man in the room. Nebekinezer doesn't know what to do, so he decides,

I've got to call those boys out of that fire. So he says,

shot Rack, can you hear me come out of the furnace and shout.

Rack walks out of the furnace, and he says, King, with

all due respect, the name is Hannah and Ayah, and God is gracious.

Mishack, come out of that fire. Me shacks light. Hold on,

guys, I'll be back. And he says, King, I've told

you once, I've told you a thousand times. My name is misschi Hell,

and I gotta tell you who is what God is hapend to go?

Come here? I like to think he fist bumped Jesus. By the way,

the fourth man in that furnace is what's referred to as a christophane.

A christophany is the physical manifestation of Jesus in the Old Testament. So he

fist bumped Jesus. He walks out, and he says, nobody can pronounce

the name of Bendigo. Right, Let's stick with what mom and Dad called

me. It's as Riah and King God is my help. The next part,

the king notices that they're fully clothed. They don't even have the smell

of smoke on them. There's no burns on them. Their hair has not

been singed, their skin is not burned. The king looks at his advisors

and says, is it true? Did you know the only thing that burned

up in that fire were the ties that bound them? Charch, I'm telling

you, when you encountered Jesus, the only thing that falls off of you

are those the things that bound you. Nebukanezer sees all this is blown away,

needless to say, and then he declares this. He says, praise

be to the God of shadrack me shacking a bend to go, who has

sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him, defied the

king's commands and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship

any god except their own. So many things I could pause and say about

that in another sermon another. Therefore, I decree that the people of any

nation or language who say anything against the God of shadrack Me shacking a bend

to go neb Cazzer hasn't quite changed yet. Anybody feaks bad of their god,

I'm gonna cut them into pieces and make their houses like piles of rubble.

Salvation is a process. Old habits die hard, for no other gods

can save in this way by one act of faith, by three men.

They became witnesses of God to the entire Babylonian empire. Nebuc Are affirmed he

saw the power of God. Nebucan A affirmed the effectiveness of the faith of

these men, and nebuk Are affirmed these men are fully devoted to the cause

of Christ Church. We live in a challenging world. We do. I

filmed this weekly podcast, and I never know if I'm gonna get canceled one

week to the next. I never know what I'm saying, if it's right

or wrong. The other day, Dinah went to a movie. I had

to go change a seat to move to the other side of my wife,

and so I went up to the gal and she's helping me, and then

another gal stepped into help. It's around Halloween right now, right The girl

had in tennis. So I look at her and I say, oh,

kulle costume, what are you dressing ass Without missing a beat, she rebukes

me and says, this is how I identify if that is your kid,

you should have spanked her when she was a child instead of let her do

whatever she wants to do. This is a world that we live in right

now, This cancel culture boycott culture, tolerance culture. The furnace of opposition

is being heated up seven times hotter. The pressure to conform is gonna become

stronger and stronger. It's not gonna get easier. Takes courage to stand tall

for Christ while everyone around you bows to the images of gold that are set

up before them. Started with verses we love to quote, but hate to

have quoted at us. I'm gonna end with one. Jesus said this Revelations

two ten. He said, don't be afraid of what you're about to suffer.

He said, I tell you that the the devils, he is gonna

put some of you in prison to test you. Others You're gonna suffer extreme

persecution. But I'm gonna challenge you be faithful to the point of death,

and if you do, I'll give you life as your victor's crown. You

want to win the trophy. This is how you win the trophy. You

do not bow to the image of gold that is being set up before you.

I want to ask everyone to close your eyes. If you're here today

and we're looking around you follow in one of two categories. Number one,

you need to be reminded in the middle of what you're going through, that

there's someone else with you, raise your hand, put your hands down if

you're here and you would say passor brannitt. I need the strength to be

able to stand against all the pressure that's around me. I don't want to

give in to the pressure. I want to be able to stand and not

make business decisions because I'm afraid, and not make political decisions because I'm afraid,

not make all these decisions because I'm afraid, but I want to.

I want to do what's right. I want to be able to stand.

If that's you, would you raise your hand. If you raise your hand

for either one of those things, I want you to stand upon your feet

right now. Stand. I'm going to have our worship team sing this song

over you. And as they sing this over you, they are praying this

prophetically over you. So put yourself in a position to receive, and I

will comfortable God,