Fearless - Part 2

LOL! I was just looking at the program from church and realized our Pastor titled it:
"It's Gettin' Hot in Here." That cracks me up. :D

Anyhow, our lesson today was continuing in the fearless series and we talked about the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The king had a program where he would bring in the best looking, smartest boys, give them new names that referenced the Babylonian God (because their old names referenced our God), and he would train them for the King's service. At the end of this 3 year program, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (who I will refer to as SMA from here on) were placed in charge of all the affairs of Babylon. You can find this story in Daniel 3.

The enemy wants us to hear what he thinks of us. Things like we are dumb, worthless, stupid. If we hear these things enough, we begin to believe it after time. But, God wants us to hear what He thinks of us, just like in the story of Gideon last week, when God told him that he was a mighty warrior.

So, in Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar creates a huge idol out of gold and he demands for everyone to fall to their knees and worship it when the music sounds. Anyone who does not, will be immediately thrown into the fire. So, the music sounds and SMA don't fall down and worship. Here were the guys in charge of all the King's affairs and they aren't doing what he says. So, some other guys told the King and he was not happy. He gave them one more chance, but they still refused.

A faith that's tested by fire is a faith that can be trusted. Can your faith survive great loss, failure of others, etc? If it can, that faith can be trusted. If we were SMA, would we have done the same and refused or would we have rationalized bowing down to the idol and just asked forgiveness later? There is danger in that kind of response, because it becomes easier to rationalize things each time and then you begin to live a life of compromise.

We have to obey God's commands instead of man's expectations. SMA had made up their mind to obey God. And here is my favorite part of the whole entire sermon today! I am going to try and remember this, every time I try and rationalize being disobedient to God. Sometimes, when we are trying to figure out whether to obey God or not, we make a pros and cons list. Sometimes the cons list will be very long and the only thing on the pro side is "obey God". But, disobeying God because of that long list of cons will lead to a life of compromise. I thought that was so awesome!! Even if the only thing in your pros list is that you will be obeying God, that should be enough!!!!

We have to believe God's truth instead of the facts. SMA served a God who was faithful and they trusted Him to save them. The truth is different from facts. The fact is that this was an impossible situation, but the truth was that all things are possible with God. We can't just look at the facts of a situation. The truth is God will reveal Himself in a way that will make you capable of ignoring the lies of the enemy. We have to believe what God says, not just what we see.

We must believe God, not just believe IN God. 90% of people say they believe in God, but not all of these people BELIEVE Him. Even demons believe IN God. We have to believe what God says, though, because that is the truth. SMA were faced with being thrown into the fire because they refused to worship an idol. They believed God would save them, but they told the King that even if He did not save them, they still believed God. That is the deepest form of faith, to believe God's promises, even if things don't go your way.

So, the King had them bound and threw them into the fire. And what happened? They could see 4 men in there, SMA and one other who appeared to be the Son of God. We may not feel God's presence until we find ourselves in a fire, but often an unexplainable peace will come over us in these situations because we're not alone. It was a miracle that SMA did not even have the scent of fire on them and not one hair was singed on their bodies.

It's not the size of your faith that matters, it's the object of the faith. Bad things don't happen to you because your faith wasn't big enough. You have nothing to fear when you place your faith in God!