Worship | Pastor Rick Wright | The Church at CW

Happy Sunday.

Why don't you take your Bibles and turn them to Daniel chapter 3?

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

And this week, I think this is the eighth sermon in this friendship series that we have been on.

And I have a few more to go.

But today's topic, and if you hadn't caught this, they all have a ship this week is the friendship in worship.

And that's going to be important for you.

And important in your life.

There in Daniel chapter 3, we're going to jump right in.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

I want you to see verses 1 through 5 as we jump into this and see the situation that's brewing.

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dorah in the province of Babylon.

And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather the satraps, administrators, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image of which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So all of those people came together for the dedication of the image that he had set up, down to verse 4.

Then Herald cried aloud to you, It is a commanded, O peoples, nations, languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp lyre, psaltery, and symphony with all kinds of music, you should fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

So here is the situation.

Nebuchadnezzar doesn't set up a worshipful environment.

This is a real situation you're gonna find.

Everyone is there in this situation like this.

What happens when you feel different from the rest of the crowd?

And in social situations, what happens if you have a godly friend?

A godly friend does not remove the pressure of a situation, but helps you withstand that situation.

We're gonna find out about that.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, we love you.

We are thankful, God, today, uh, Lord, for your presence here at CCW.

We're thankful for every person and those who may be a guest today.

We're thankful for those who are faithful.

God, we're thankful most of all for this word.

Um, God, I believe that every person here has a word ready for them from you.

And I pray that you would speak that to our hearts, open our hearts, no matter what our week has had or what's to come for these few moments.

Would you have our attention, God?

Speak in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Letter A, we see the image that is issued.

This image that's been issued of Nebuchadnezzar.

If you tried to figure out what Nebuchadnezzar's problem was, if you were his counselor, you would say this, I imagine.

You, sir, have a pride problem.

He says, we're gonna have this big event, and I'm gonna unveil a night, if you do the math on it, go back, a 90-foot tall, nine-foot-wide, golden statue.

Wait for it.

Of me.

We're gonna unveil the statue, we're gonna have a dedication.

I want everybody who's anybody, I want all of the council, all of the city leaders, I want all of the governors, I want all of the people that matter to come to my mini party, and we're gonna unveil the cloth, and then we got a theme song.

So when the song goes off, when the trumpets hit and the harp and the lyre and the song, all of it.

Can you imagine him thinking this up like a 15-year-old ready for his 16th birthday?

It's gonna be so me amazing.

He's ready for his big me party.

Benjamin Franklin said this perhaps not one of our passions so hard to subdue as pride.

Beat it, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases.

It still lives.

Even if I should conceive that I completely overcame pride, I would then be proud of my effort.

Nebuchadnezzar says, We're gonna have a dedication ceremony to me.

A pompous display full of himself.

In a community like ours, that doesn't always look like that.

It sounds like this.

I have worked for where I am today.

I know what I'm doing.

You don't need to tell me.

You see, quietly, we may not have a crown on our head, but we begin to believe the reasons that we are somewhere or we are someone.

Pride doesn't require you to think that you're better.

Sometimes pride just convinces you that you don't need somebody else.

You don't need God as much as you do.

And Nebuchadnezzar was full of it.

In psychology, what he does in this moment, it has a word called triangulation.

And that word means he is gonna call everybody who's important to a party, and everybody begins to get wind of this party, and when everybody starts hearing, they know I've got to be at that party.

So-and-so's going to the party, I gotta be there.

The magistrates, the satraps, all of them are going, so we must have to go to that party.

And when he gets them to the party, here's the triangulation.

When I get them here, they're all gonna see my image and they're all gonna feel compelled to clap and rejoice for what?

For me.

He's doing a social experiment with the people and falsely convincing them that he is the reason that they all have bonded together.

We've all come together on the subject matter of Nebuchadnezzar.

Joseph Stalin did this in his time, erected statues all throughout the city of himself.

And people came and saw that this was something we must bond over because other important people are clapping.

Cult leader Jim Jones sent gold-plated pictures of himself to his cult followers that they would put them at the doorstep of their house.

And so when they would come in, they would all be together on this bond of their savior, their hero.

Pride.

Pride does this.

Nebuchadnezzar had this thought.

How glorious must I be?

I thought about this this week.

It is the original sin.

It is part of the nature of what sin is.

Being in the very presence of God, Satan and a band of demons, have this question for themselves.

And I want you to know this being in God's presence doesn't make you incapable of choosing against him.

Satan looked at God and Satan had this thought, how glorious could I be?

And it wasn't just him, because a band of angels, a band of demons followed Satan in that suit.

The original temptation at the garden was if you eat the fruit, how glorious could you be?

And so we see this going on and on.

Church, pride today is still hot on our trail asking you this question.

How glorious could you be if?

If you had just had one more, if one more person just followed you, if you just, if the world could see, and I want to today ask us if we could flip the script on that and ask this question prayerfully for a moment.

How glorious could God be?

Psalms 139.

Here's the problem, the crux of an issue for us.

Psalms 139, a glorious God said, I wonderfully and gloriously made you.

Marvelous are my works.

And we discount God's plan, which is a glorious plan.

He came with a plan for you, a purpose for your life.

And we discount that to say, but God, I hear what you're saying about the plan you have for me, and as glorious as that might be, what if I just took a twist?

Because I'm not settled with your plan, and I think maybe in my pride, what if it could look like this?

What if I could, God, I know that you are, God, you're above all, but what if I'm pretty smart?

How glorious could I be?

Is Nebuchadnezzar's problem.

Letter be.

That's the start of the party, that's the plan of the party.

Let her be the intimidation intensified.

Let's get everybody together, let's get them clapping for the me party.

We'll unveil the statue.

But look at verse 6.

He didn't stop at that.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

Nebuchadnezzar makes them a deal they cannot refuse.

If you were different in this atmosphere of a party, if you were somebody who felt differently, accusation, intimidation, consequences would be brewing in your mind.

And if you thought that this ostentious display wasn't enough, he said, when the music hits, you're going to bow down.

And when I see everybody bowing the knee, one after the other, bowing the knee, then I know that they will be bonding over the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar.

This is a picture, church, of the coming Antichrist that one day is going to set up a statue erected of himself in the temple.

And like Nebuchadnezzar had a herald who said, Play my music, he has a herald as well.

It's called the false prophet.

And one day, those two things, that pride is going to incite the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to show them who think they are glorious, real and true glory, as he wipes them out with the word of his mouth.

Here is the point.

The biblical point is this pride always comes before destruction.

Nebuchadnezzar said, if you don't bow to my 90-foot, nine feet wide statue of me, you will experience hell.

Church, the thing that keeps a person from going to hell is giving up the 90 feet tall, nine-foot-wide statue of my inner self.

I have to lay down myself and surrender who I am so that God can have me.

Here is the thing, the crux of it for you and me today.

Either you will be God or God will be God.

Either you will be glorious or God will be glorious.

Either you will worship God or you're going to worship something false.

How can a person reject God?

A person that rejects God has to look in the mirror of Romans 3.23, which says, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And the mirror of Romans 6.23, which says, For the wages of that sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life.

We have to look at that and look at ourselves and say, I'm okay without him.

And I want to submit to you this morning, you're not.

And neither has anybody in the history of mankind been okay without him.

You don't have one next breath without him.

And either this church, hear me, this is 1,000% truth or it's a lie.

So if it's truth, everything in it is truth.

And the way that you believe who God is and what he does for each person is either 1,000% truth or it's all a lie.

Oh, I'm not surprised that in your news feed, suddenly they're looking through and finding Noah's Ark.

I didn't need Noah's Ark to believe that this book is true.

I hope they do find it.

I hope it is real because it may change some people's minds.

But my mind's never needed an ark in Arat to be convinced that God is real.

It is true.

You cannot believe it, but that's like looking in the mirror and saying, I'm six foot two.

You believe what you want to believe.

People do it all the time.

God sent Jesus who took hell.

Nebuchadnezzar said, either you bow or you're going to hell.

You'll experience hell.

You'll experience fire.

And God said, I love you so much that if you bow to me, I'll take hell away from you.

Well, here's the good thing in the story.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they have a posture problem.

Second point this morning: a worship posture.

Look at Daniel 3, verse 12.

Daniel 3:12

There's always some jealous Chaldeans in the story.

Verse 12, it says, There are certain Jews whom you've set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Chadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, can you hear it?

These men, O King, have not paid due regard to you.

They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you've set up.

Can you imagine, King?

The gall, the nerve.

I want you to hear this this morning, church.

To bow or not to bow is to bow.

I want you to think on that.

To bow or not to bow to the things that culture will hijack you unto is always to bow.

The kings of culture always demand a bow.

You'll be today, hear me, immeasurably inconsistent with the rest of culture if you don't struggle with bowing.

If you choose to stand where everybody else bows a knee, and that was these three guys, they chose to stand.

If they'd bow for them, it'd be breaking Exodus chapter 22.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

There shall be no other God except my God.

The first of the four commandments and the ten commandments are about God and our relationship to Him.

It says, No gods, no idols, don't take His name in vain, and honor His day.

But the robot majority, they say AI is coming.

AI is the robots have been here.

The robot majority will bow a knee.

But don't you want to stand?

Nebuchadnezzar gathered a room of robots, manipulated them, fear-mongered them.

He had an army of people afraid of being canceled, and he said, Now bow the knee.

The problem is many people today won't take a stand because they're busy sitting in the stands when we need them in the game.

And so people say, Well, Pastor, I don't want to get into all that.

Well, I want to submit to you, it is high time that the church of God got into all that.

If anybody's gonna get into all that, it's gotta be people who are wanting to stick out and stand up when the world around them is bowing the knee.

It's high time.

They said, I got knee problems, though, king.

Some things are not flexing at all.

They're stiff.

I don't know what to do.

I can't seem to get these knees to the floor.

Meshach, you, same problem.

And would not bend the knee.

Stiff as a board, king.

Letter A out.

Here's their response.

The Chaldeans tell King Nebuchadnezzar, you're gonna like this.

It's funny.

Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command: bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

This is verse 13.

So they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up?

Now, if you are ready, at the time you hear all of them instruments, you will fall down and worship.

But if you do not, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.

And who, listen to this question, is the God who will deliver you from my hands?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, verse 16, answered and said to the king, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Whew! That was a button, church.

Nebuchadnezzar's moment happens, right?

Imagine it.

He's been dreaming up his sweet 16, the big party of the statue, the moment the music hits all of them.

They're playing.

You can see the herald.

There's the harp, there's the lyre, the thing comes down.

And three men infuriate Nebuchadnezzar.

It says, rage and fury.

And this is kind of funny.

He can't see past his pride to believe that somebody would purposefully not bow the knee.

And so he begins to talk to them like they're kindergartners.

He says, I can't imagine, looking back at the triangulation that had worked, that any of you would go against this.

And he says, So this is what we gotta do, guys.

And he's in rage.

We're gonna play the music again, and we're gonna hit it, and at the time that he names all of them, when you hear this, boys, listen, dummies, you're gonna get down on your knees like the rest of everybody.

And then he says, he leaves them with this important question.

And who is the God that would deliver you from the fiery furnace if you don't?

Now, their answer is fantastic.

They said, Oh King, we have no need to answer you.

But go with me, church.

I wish they would have, just for a second.

He says, Who is your God that will deliver you?

Who is our God, oh king?

How about this?

Our God is the God that sent ten plagues over Egypt.

Who is our God, O King?

Have you heard of the Red Sea when it was parted?

Who is our God?

Oh King?

Have you heard of manna that was brought day and night to feed our people?

Who is our God, oh king?

Have you heard about the walls of Jericho when they came tumbling down?

Who is our God?

Oh King, have you a God that can make the sun stand still?

Because that is our God, O King.

Who is our God?

He is Jehovah Jira, the Lord that provides.

He is Jehovah Nisi, the banner that's been over Israel.

He is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals our people.

Who is our God?

King?

He is able.

He is able.

Who is our God?

I don't know what God you serve today, church.

But that God of the Old Testament didn't stop in the Old Testament.

He's still at work today.

And he is still able.

Y'all are getting excited.

They didn't even say that.

Look at verse 17.

If that is the case, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.

And he will deliver us from your hand, O King.

I need you to see something if you go back into Daniel for a second.

I want you to see something.

Letter B, as we jump back, is their allegiance is demonstrated.

These guys would not fall into a spirit of fear.

They would not fall into a spirit of intimidation.

They didn't have a spirit of flimsy Christianity.

We're all supposed to be Christian doormats, never open our mouth, just let it pass, because that's the Christian way.

I read my Bible that says you can turn your cheek.

Well, that means you got two hits on me.

Are you assured today of who your God is?

Because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, He can, and he will.

And we see their allegiance demonstrated there in verse 17.

But I want, I said I want to take you back.

In Daniel chapter 1, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel had been kidnapped, they'd been hijacked, they'd been taken.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

The word in the Daniel 1 says besieged.

They were stolen and brought into this land.

And the king begins to tell them they're going to be educated, they're going to be given the king's choice food.

And Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have a problem with that because they were brought up a certain way and they didn't mince food with that which would be offered to idols.

And so they have a check in their spirit as teenagers.

And they say, What are we going to do?

We don't want to eat this food.

And so they present to a man that they had found favor with, one of the guards.

He said, Can you let them know this?

Can we give a challenge?

We'll eat pulse, we'll eat vegetables, we'll eat salad for 10 days, and you will see that our God will allow us to be fatter and fairer in the flesh than those eating the portion of the king's meat.

This I would call the fire that's coming is a test.

This I would call a quiz.

You need good friends in test for sure.

You're going to have a loss of a family member.

You're going to have a health trial that comes upon you.

You're going to get in a situation and you're going to hope and wish that you had made friends.

But I want to tell you also, in the quizzes, you need friends too.

This was a quiz.

Their life wasn't on the line yet.

They just said, I don't want to bow my knee in that way.

This is how this is our custom, how we eat.

And they allow them to take the quiz.

And together, these guys banded together, they prayed, they fasted, and in ten days, I'm going to tell you, I don't know how it happened.

If you give me porter house for ten days, I'll take that over salad.

But in ten days they were fatter and fairer in the flesh.

Why?

Because of their God, O King.

It says this that as they answered, this is a King James Version phrase, as they answered the king in verse 1718, it says we are not careful.

David Gusick, a commentator, said this.

Spurgeon said, What have we to do with consequences?

It is ours to do the right, and the results are up to God.

It is yours to respond.

How do you respond, church?

Hear me.

This is an important question because, man, we exist as a staff, as a church, we want to motivate and see people who want to go out for the kingdom of God.

That's what we're told to do.

Equip, edify the body.

So when God prompts you to do, what is your knee jerk?

What is your response?

These men were prompted by God in the quizzes and now in the test, not to bow the knee.

You know what's on the other side of the test?

Not an F.

A fire.

Well, that is an F.

How do you respond?

Can you feel their allegiance?

They say, let it be known to you, King.

I mean, I don't know if you can feel that, but I feel like these teenagers, they took some liberty that it would be scary maybe to take.

Let it be known.

The word known is Yeda, and it means certify my words, King.

You can certify, you can notarize, you can stamp what I'm about to say.

They say, certify this.

Are y'all buckled up?

What they say next?

They look Nebuchadnezzar in his eye.

Look at verse 18.

I love this.

He can and he will.

Verse 18, but if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship this image which you have set up.

They looked him in his eye and said, even if he doesn't, he can, and he will, we believe that's where our allegiance lies, but even if he doesn't, we not worship in this 90-foot, nine-foot-wide travesty.

Even if we have to burn from foot to crown, we will never worship a God who is not our God.

Does your faith have an even-if clause?

Even if it doesn't work out, even if it doesn't go how you've always heard it would go.

Even if your faith has felt like it's been shoved into the corner and you've got everything and the darts of Satan coming at you, you have an even-if clause.

I'm going to tell you, church, we live in a world today that will bypass the worship of God in God's house.

A whole lot of idols, a whole lot of fake gods.

The God of sport, the God of a boat, the God of a job, the God of a game, the God of rain, the God of too much heat, the God of the race, the God of the RV.

These men said, You can burn every inch.

And we still ain't gonna do any of that.

It says Nebuchadnezzar was in a rage before.

Get ready.

This week I got a text from evangelist Rick Gage.

And when I got the text, he said, pray for Brother Tim Lee.

Tim Lee is an evangelist.

He's preaching tonight in Aniston, Alabama.

And uh it took me back immediately to Tim Lee when I was 14 years old.

God allowed me to go to a camp, youth camp called Youth Alive.

And it was run by Tim Lee.

I didn't know much about Tim Lee before that.

Tim Lee, when I got there, was a former Marine who had no legs, was in a wheelchair running this conference.

And I thought, I was just amazed by that, even at 14, as prideful and full of myself as I was.

There's a man preaching, faithful, running this conference.

And so I texted back to Rick.

I said, I'm praying for Tim.

You know, I surrendered at 14 at a Tim Lee conference.

And I said, it was the first time that I'd ever heard a man named David Ring.

And I thought that because I thought Rick Gage would know who David Ring is.

Surely he'll text me back about David Ring.

He never did.

But later that day, there's a picture I want you to see of a book.

I got a, you know how your feed goes, it reads your mind.

And so David Ring popped up on my feed, and this was his book, The Boy Born Dead.

When I went to that conference, David Ring got up in front of everybody.

I'm 14.

And at the risk of, I don't want to, I don't want to joke on how he sounded.

David Ring had cerebral palsy.

And he said this, go Google it, watch it.

It's much, it's a lot more heart-impacting because I'm not going to mock how he sounded, but he he said, God called me to preach when I was 20.

And he said, I looked into the heavens and said, I can't, and he couldn't say the words.

Me, God?

And he went on to say, I can't even say, I will say this, I can't even say Jesus.

And I've been impacted for years by the testimony of this man watching that he would be willing to give all of them.

He said, I'm in pain every day.

He said, every day that I wake up, I'm in pain.

And in this struggle of palsy, David Ring had every reason to be mad, sad, and disgusted.

But you know what he did?

At 20, he said, I am aligned with Jesus Christ.

And David Ring and Tim Lee, two people who are crippled by life, have taken their story, and you can beg to differ about this or not, but I imagine the ministry that God's given them started with a furnace.

I don't know if I know, or thousands or hundreds of thousands of people know the testimony of Tim Lee if he wasn't blown up by a landmine, or David Ring if he doesn't have cerebral palsy.

Let me explain.

Why don't you turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11?

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

You see, we like this story because most of us know how it ends.

What is your even if clause?

We like how this story starts.

If you started Hebrews 11 and you looked at verse 32 through 35, you would jump in and feel excited.

And what more shall I say?

For the time would fall, fail to me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David, and it goes through all of these stop the mouse of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, valiant in battle, and on it goes.

But then go to verse 36.

Through 40.

And we'd screech the brakes.

Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonments.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, slain with a sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

They wandered in deserts and mountains, dens and caves.

And all of these, the men before them and these men, obtained a good testimony through faith.

They all got an A on the report card.

It is one thing, church family, to get an A on the report because we had a route of escape.

We got a faith A because there was escape in sight.

It is another thing altogether to have faith that has to endure.

To be sick and to be healed is one thing.

To be sick and not be healed is another.

And they believed he can, he would.

But that's not where the story ended.

Even if he doesn't.

Even if he doesn't.

Now, church, you say, why doesn't he?

You can ask him one day in heaven.

God may not always deliver.

But what do you do?

You stand anyway.

You stand and you keep standing.

You don't bend the knee, you don't bow, you don't budge, you don't break, you continue to stand.

And if you can, you say this, even if, even if their allegiance was defined in their trial, and God used their trial.

I wish to have been somebody who existed in Shabbrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel's day to sit around the fire and talk the stories later.

God used their faith that we're talking about today, that they would not bow in culture.

Now hear me.

You and I may have to go through a fire.

You may have to bypass popularity.

You may have to lose friends.

You may have to stay standing when it seems that nobody else will.

And I want to tell you today, there were three men, and that was the minority.

Sometimes it's okay being a part of the minority.

Let's look at the third thing: a worship protection.

So what and how do we do this, Pastor?

Tell me about the what and the how.

The Bible talks of worship as a weapon.

It says in Psalms that the praise of God or God's spirit is inhabited by the praise of his people.

The scripture says, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

And so worship is spoken of as a weapon in the early 2000s.

We've got a, we may have a picture, but Mercy Me put out a song.

And Bart Millard and Tim Timmins collaborated, and this was the words of the song.

And the last time God had me preach this, I was preaching to a friend at their church, and they'd lost a hundred people.

And my heart was burdened and broken for my friend.

I was mad at some of these people with him.

I have never unfriended a person in Facebook in my life.

But I was tempted.

When these people left my friend's church, I thought, why would you?

Okay, I'll be honest.

I'll, Lord, I unfriended one person.

Okay.

I can't lie to you today.

I said, how could they do that?

This person came and they took over all these ministries and were helping my friend and then left him without much of an explanation.

And God had me here, and this is what this song says.

Even if it only takes a little faith to move a mountain.

Well, good thing.

Because a little faith is all I have right now.

God, when you choose to make mountains unmovable, give me the strength to sing.

It is well.

Are you in the midst of a fire or a trial?

They said, I've determined in my heart to say, God, when it seems you've made mountains unmovable, I'm gonna say, it is well.

But even if you don't, my hope is in you alone.

Is that true for you?

Well, let's see what happens.

Look at verse 19 through 23, letter A, we see the furnace raged.

After they said all this to Nebuchadnezzar, it already says that he was full of rage.

They try to change, the writer tries to change the words best he can for us to understand.

Then it says, Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed towards Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

And he commanded certain mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their coats, trousers, turbans, and other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Therefore, because the king's command was urgent, and a furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of fire killed the men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound in the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.

It says he bent in rage, and now his rage took another level.

It says he contorted his face.

What does that look like?

He was mad.

Rage is a pretty strong description, and the writer's trying to tell us it was worse.

How many of y'all grew up getting spanked, paddled, whooped in the South?

You got a whipping.

Okay.

Some of y'all, I just need to find out who people are.

Did anybody they made you go pick the switch?

Evil, right?

We didn't have too much of that.

But my dad had a paddle, and our names were on it.

And it sat in the kitchen where we eat on the wall, like it was enshrined.

And I tell my kids this all the time, and it's the truth.

I got paddled every night for what seems like four years.

Say your prayers, get your bath, get your spanking.

I did something wrong every day, I promise.

I deserved most of it.

But that was dad.

Dad had a method, that's how he spanked, and he never really got mad.

He wants to have a talk everyone.

Nobody wants to talk to you.

You spanked me.

Well, this is why I did it, son.

I want to correct.

Just get out.

Spank me again or get out.

But mom, if mom spanked me, mom was real low-key with me, you know, like I'm the baby boy, I could do nothing wrong.

If mom spanked me, it's because she flipped out.

And she did flip out sometimes.

And you never knew what the weapon was gonna be.

It could be a spoon, it could be something laying there, it could be a phone book.

Mom grabbed a hold one time of a belt and she came after me.

And I was I was mouthing off.

I was old enough, I was mouthing, I was like 12, 13, running my mouth.

I'm like, what are you gonna do, woman?

And she's running after me, and she hit me and I started laughing.

She hit me and I said, I said, you are so weak.

And I'm laughing.

And she took up and I don't know what happened, but in in mid-air, I think the belt flip-flopped, and she hit me in the buckle, hit me in my mouth.

We was running around the dining room table.

She got me across the table, and that hit me, and blood started coming out, and she said, Get up, boy.

There's blood falling on my cocktail.

That's a lie, but I told that lie on her tons and tons of times, and my mom would get some daddy.

What happened?

It was an accident.

And I'm like, Yeah, you was beating me, and I saw the rage in your face.

But I had, she had a button I could make her matter and matter and matter.

Sharach, Meshach, and Abednego hit the rage button of all time.

You're gonna ruin my big day, my big me party, the music happened, everybody's seen it.

What do you mean?

Standing up when everybody's bowing.

He said, I cannot believe this.

I'll give you another chance, and he's just getting madder and madder and madder.

He says, Turn the fire up seven times.

I don't know what normal temperature was.

I spilled coffee 109 degrees on my finger the other day, and I said an Alabama cuss word.

I said, Dadum! Seven times, I don't know.

Is it 2,000 degrees?

We know this, the men who threw them, he didn't even care.

His servants threw them and died.

He didn't care.

They ruined his big me party.

Well, we need to see what happened in the fire.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished.

Finally, at something other than himself.

And he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?

They answered and said to the king, True, O King, look, he said.

My Bible has a great big exclamation.

Look! I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.

And the fourth man.

The form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

I want you to see two things about this and we'll be done.

Number one is the cleansing that happens.

He said, Did we not throw three men bound?

They were bound.

They were fastened.

They were roped up.

If you look at verse 27, it says, The only thing the fire burned off them is what the world put on them.

Church, are you hearing me?

Your trial is not an accident.

It's not a mistake.

God says, gold is purified through the fire.

Tim Lee, David Ring, had a ministry to thousands.

Your trial is not some accident.

Your testimony is not an accident.

God allows a trial, and guess what?

He took off of them.

Only what the world put on them.

They didn't so much as smell like smoke, it says.

God uses fire.

Church, hear me.

We need this.

God uses trial and fire to unbind you from the world.

Sometimes you got to go through some stuff so that you'll say, God, I don't have it.

I don't have the strength.

I don't have the faith.

I'm not as good as I thought I was.

I actually am looking at the mirror now because my problems have got me so I've got to get unfull of me and see how to get out of this.

God, I'm not enough.

And the trial unbinds you.

If you're going through fire today, it's not flippant.

If you're going through a struggle today, there is a reason.

Well, there's a cleansing that happens through fire.

This is so important to the whole series.

And if there's a dynamic moment that pulls us together through all of this, here it is.

You need companionship.

Church, those people next to you, behind you, in front of you.

Don't flippantly think, you know what?

I'm enough.

I'm going to get by.

I'm not going to tell somebody.

I'm not going to pray with somebody.

I'm going to figure out.

I have always been able to figure it out.

I just, I'll make it to the next step, I want to tell you.

In the fire.

You know what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had before the fourth man?

They had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I don't know.

We don't get the story if one of them would have gone in alone.

I don't know.

What I do know is they had companions.

We know Daniel went to the lion's den alone.

But these three guys had each other.

There's a Greek rendering of Scripture, and they call it the Septuagint.

Listen, I'm careful not to add a word to this book or take away a word, but this is one that I like.

So I'll share it.

I don't know that it's accurate, but Jewish customs over the years, when they read through the Septuagint, they add 67 verses here.

And in it it says, in their custom, that these men were singing hymns, and that is what caused Nebuchadnezzar to turn.

They were singing hymns together, walking through their trial, hand in hand in their fire, got word of a disease.

Guess what?

Praise be to God.

Got word of a job loss.

You know what?

Praise be to God.

Haven't been able to talk to my friend.

God, praise me.

You know what?

You know why I believe that's possible?

Because in Exodus 15, as the Red Sea parted, you know what they took to doing?

Moses and Israel sang.

They said, God, look at what you've done.

2 Chronicles chapter 20, a coalition of armies was coming at Judah.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

And Jehoshaphat said, Pray, fast, and then he said, Send out the worshipers to the front of the army.

And as they got worshiping, the other armies got confused and started killing each other.

Their worship was a weapon.

You know what Paul and Silas did when they were bound in prison?

He said, Turn it to number 505, Silas.

When the roll is caught up yonder.

And they sang together, and God, through their worship, sent an earthquake that shook up the jail and set them free.

What'd they sing, Pastor?

I don't know.

Shabrach, Meshach, and Abedno.

Maybe they said, We didn't start the fire.

No?

Burn, baby, burn.

Maybe they had a prophetic song.

I know you're able.

And I know you can.

But even if you don't, my hope is you alone.

And after that, here's that verse, and we'll close looking at it.

Nebuchadnezzar said, There's four men.

And they're not hurt, and they're walking.

And hear this church, you going through your thing.

And the fourth, a pride-filled man, a man who was full of only himself, who served his own God, said the fourth man walking with them looks like the image of the Son of God.

Convicting.

Church, I don't know what fire you walked in here carrying today.

But I know who's in the fire.

And I'm here to remind you: don't be in it alone.

You may not know what God is doing.

You may not ever get to know why God is doing what he's doing at this point in your journey.

He may not reveal that to you, but I know this.

He wants you to have him.

He wants you to have a church.

He wants you to have a friend.

He wants you to have somebody near you.

He doesn't want you to clam up, get cold, and walk away from it.

That's never been his plan through fire or trial.

Let me just see if I can send them away from the faith.

That's not what God wants for you.

And if he's in the fire with you, isn't he worthy of worship in it?

I'm asking you to bow your heads and close your eyes this morning.