One Sunday on the way home from church a pastor was beaming with pride. He had just preached what he thought was his greatest sermon. After walking in the door, he asked his wife “Well dear, what did you think of the sermon this morning?” She was very non-committal in her response, “Oh, it was good.” The pastor wouldn’t let it drop so easily. “Mrs. Smith said on the way out of church that I must be one of the great preachers of our generation.” Still no response from the wife. The pastor pushed on. “How many great preachers do you think there are in our generation?” Without a moment’s hesitation she fired back, “One less than you think.”
Have you ever thought like that before? Have you ever just looked into a mirror and thought to yourself, “Man…I am awesome!.” Have you ever just thought that you were the best thing since sliced bread? All over the world, there are people who, plain and simple, think they are just SO good. We can all think of examples of this: from Oprah Winfrey to Donald Trump. The world is full of these people.
I truly believe, though, that none of the people you could think of quite compare to one man in history. Go back before the Caesars of Rome and back before Alexander the Great. Back before King Herod of Galilee and before the Pharisees of Jerusalem, there was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Now, this was a guy that thought a lot of himself. So much so, in fact, that he thought he could create a god!
And if you look in the book of Daniel chapter three, you can see that Nebuchadnezzar made a golden state that was ninety feet high and nine feet wide. This was no little Buddha statue. This statue the same height of fifteen of me stacked on top of the other and wider than I am tall. This was no ordinary pagan statue, it was massive!
So, Nebuchadnezzar builds this monstrosity and then summons all his satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the god he had created. And when all these people arrive at the dedication, they are commanded to worship the beastly idol when they hear the music play. So, the king puts on his music and everyone bowed down and worshiped the idol as commanded.
All except for three young men: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known to us as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They refused to bow down to this idol. And when Nebuchadnezzar caught wind of this he was absolutely furious! How dare they disobey the king!! So, they were brought to him and confronted, but the men stood fast, saying, “If you throw us into that fire, we won’t need to defend ourselves because God will come to our rescue. And even if he doesn’t, we will never bow down and worship your idol!”
We’ll pick up in verse 19: Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; 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 answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here.” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. 27 And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced a situation unlike any one that we may ever face. They were given a choice: worship the god of Nebuchadnezzar or be thrown into the furnace and burned alive. They were forced to choose between their faith and their lives; between the God of Israel and this god of Nebuchadnezzar.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego chose to Live their Faith No Matter What the Cost. And we can learn from their example. We may never be told to worship a 90-foot monstrosity under penalty of death, but in our lives as Christians we are going to face challenges. We will face battles. We will be confronted about our faiths. We will be attack and we will be threatened, and we need to know the answer to this question: Am I willing to live what I believe no matter what the cost? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were.
As we consider this question, there are three things that we need to remember when trying to live what you believe. The first step in living your faith is: know what you believe! Know what you believe!
When we first shared together, I introduced you to the idea of being a disciple of Jesus. We discussed that if we want to follow after Jesus as his disciples, that we needed to be people that knew the words of our Rabbi. Tonight, we are coming back to that idea.
You see, to be people who live their faith regardless of the cost are first people who know what they believe. As believers, we have been given the amazing blessing of having the Word of God laid out for us. And this word has been given to us so that it can envelope into every aspect of life.
It is meant to be assimilated into the very core of life. Psalm 119:11 puts it so eloquently, the Word of God is meant to be “hidden [our] word in my heart” so that we “might not sin against Him.” Later in the same chapter, the author shows, again, the importance of the Word of God, saying in verse 105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew exactly what they believed. These young men were among the best and the brightest that Israel had to offer. They would have been the kind of young men that would have been familiar with the words of the Torah, in Exodus 20, that says “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God”. They KNEW what they believed and were able to clearly see an affront to their faith. As a result, they were able to react to that affront and show their devotion to God.
As Christians, today, one of the easiest traps to fall into is the trap of not really knowing what we believe. As Christian, we are oftentimes not adequately equipped. You see, we are not only disciples of Christ, but we are also soldiers in the army of God. How can a soldier fight without being properly trained?
Oftentimes, we go about our lives thinking that we can handle things pretty well. We often act as though we can be self-sufficient. This is dangerous thinking, though. As a result of this type of thinking, many believers have a wishy-washy Christianity. In many cases, their faith is a hodge-podge of Christianity, humanism, and paganism.
As we already shared, the Bible puts it so clearly that we need to hide the Word in our hearts so we might not sin against God. We need to know what we believe; we need to hide His word in our hearts. And if we hide God’s word in our heart, then we will be able to thwart temptation to sin.
Even Jesus knew that. Look at his temptation in the desert. Three times Satan came to Jesus and told him to turn stones into bread, or to cast himself off the temple or to worship him, and each time Jesus responded with Scripture. Each time, Satan was defeated by the power the Word.
And this can be true for us today. If we know what we believe, and we know what Scripture says, then we, too, can fight off the attacks of Satan, we too can overcome temptation. We, too, can live the life of faith. Satan will attack us with all kinds of lies. If we know what we believe; if we know the truth, then these lies cannot hurt us. The darkness of these lies will be erased by the light of the truth.
We must know what we believe in our journey to live the life of faith no matter the cost, but not only must we know what we believe, but to live the life of faith, we must stand by what we believe. Stand by what we believe.
This is where knowledge becomes action. It is one thing to know what you believe, but there comes a point that your knowledge and words must become action. We all know that talk is cheap. Without actions to back them up, talk is meaningless. I could talk all day about how much I love my wife, but if I don’t have the actions to back that up, then my words mean absolutely nothing!
One day, three boys were playing together and over the course of the day, they began to compete about how smart their fathers were. One boy said proudly, “My father is a professor at Harvard University. When he is talking about nuclear physics, there are only fifty other people in the world who can understand him.”
The second boy said, “That’s nothing. My father is a world class brain surgeon. When he is talking about his surgery there are only 20 other people in the whole world who can understand him.”
The third boy, not to be outdone, countered with a comparison of his own. Beaming with pride, he declared, “That’s nothing. My dad is a Baptist preacher. And when he is preaching, nobody seems to understand him”.
My friends, without actions to back up your words, your words are utterly meaningless. You might as well be talking gibberish.
Look with me if you would at the second part of verse 18, when confronted with their refusal to worship the idol, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego respond, saying: “We will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
They did not back down when they were confronted by the king. It didn’t matter who he was or what he could do to them, they stood by what they believed. They believed what they believed no matter what the king would say or do. They even said, “You know what King, do whatever you like to us. We know what’s right and we WILL NOT go against that!”
To live a true life of faith, we need to stand by our faith when confronted. Have you ever had somebody mock you because you were a believer or you stood up for what is right? Have you ever just backed down or changed your mind so they would leave you alone? Isn’t it just easier to take that way out?
Well, as Christians, we are not promised the easy road. In fact, as I recall, we are told to “take up our crosses” and follow Jesus. We are going to be confronted about our faith. People will press us, we will be pressured, but we need to stand up for what we believe in. It doesn’t matter what the result will be. We need to stand up for what we believe in.
We need to risk being ridiculed, laughed at, and branded. We need to be willing to stand by what we believe.
As we continue our journey toward living a life of faith no matter the cost, we are reminded that the first step to the life of faith to know what you believe. We need to know what we know and why we know it. The second step to the life of faith is to stand by what you believe. We need to be stand up for what we believe. We need to be willing to do whatever is necessary to stay true to what we believe. And finally, the third step to living the life of faith is to sacrifice for what you believe. Sacrifice for what you believe.
This is a common theme throughout Scripture. As a matter of fact, we shared last time we were together about the importance of offering everything we have to Jesus. Sacrifice is the pinnacle of our calling to be disciples of Christ.
We are called in Scripture, as seen in Romans 12, to offer ourselves as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship”.
The willingness to sacrifice is the climax of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Theses men knew what they believed and stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar for their beliefs. They were willing to do whatever it took to stand for their faith. And now is the trial by fire. As they looked at the furnace, these men could have recanted. They could have begged for mercy. It’s one thing to say “You can do whatever you want to me, but I will never bow down”, but when you are looking a fiery furnace, it is not so easy. But these men were willing to sacrifice everything to stand up for their beliefs.
This evening, this is the call on our lives. We have not been promised a life of ease and peace. Jesus has called us to die for him. In Matthew 16:24, he declares: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Am I willing to endure the trial by fire for your Savior? Will I deny myself, take up my cross and follow Him?
We all know the story of Cassie Bernall. She was probably just like any teenage high school girl. She laughed, joked, learned, sang and prayed. But when she came to school on April 20th, 1999, she could never have known how real this principle would become in her life. This would be her trial by fire. On this day, two men carrying hand guns walked into the room she was in, pointed a gun at her and asked her a simple question: “Are you a Christian?” With no time to think; no time to contemplate her actions; no time to fully comprehend the consequences of her answer, Cassie said “Yes”. With that one word answer, she lost her life, and became a martyr for the Lord.
What a high calling: to lay your life down for your faith. This is our calling. This is our mission. Our lives become but a side-note as we fall deeper and deeper in love with Jesus, as we live a life of faith. We trust Him to be in control of our lives, no matter where that leads.
Am I willing to endure the trial by fire for my Savior? Now, we may not ever be called to endure death because of our faith. We may never have a gun pointed at our heads, or face a fiery furnace, but Jesus has said that since people persecuted Him, they will persecute us.
This evening, we have been given the amazing gift of salvation through the grace of our Lord Jesus. This is a gift that we must not take for granted. So many believers take the Word of God for granted. As a result, we see so many believers who believe in an easy-faith life. Too many people believe that Christians should be given a free ride; we should be given a ticket to bypass all pain, suffering, agony and strife. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), that is not how it has been laid out for us. We have been told that this journey is difficult. In Matthew chapter 7, verses 13-14, Jesus tells us to “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
But Christ did promise earlier in that chapter ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
The walk of faith is one that God will reward; both in this life and the next.
As we close this evening, I want to ask you to do something this week, even today. I want you to look at your own life and ask, “Am I willing to life the life of faith no matter the cost?” And if you are willing, make a commitment with Him. Verbalize your commitment. Tell Him “Lord, I commit from this day forward that I will not only know what I believe and not only will I stand by what I believe, but I will sacrifice for what I believe. I will do whatever is required by you in my life”. Write this down; write it in your Bible as a reminder to yourself of the commitment you have made to God. And with his help, we will be able to truly live a life of faith. With His help, we will be able to endure the trial by fire.
