Title: “When the Situation is Hot”
Text: Daniel 3: 17
Focus: “… able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace…”
When the situation is hot it fosters an assurance in God, it fosters reliance in God, and it fosters a trust in God.
Sermon: The vicissitudal nature of life causes one to experience situations that elevate the blood pressure, that cause the palms of your hands to sweat, that test your will power, and that frays your nervous system. Frank Sinatra would say that life, your are riding high in April and you are shot down in May.
I must state early that every situation is not a hot situation. I know the barometer in your life may say the temperature is over one hundred degrees. I’m not talking about a change in the atmosphere around you. I know some situations make you feel hot. That’s because of the unknown. That’s because there are consequences to your actions. That’s because there is an equation to life. That’s because the balance of power is always on the other side.
Let me pause and remind you from last week that the definition of hot is when you feel the presence of God, it’s when you walk in the purpose of God, and when you manifest the power of God.
Given that definition I would argue that every situation is not hot. Because every situation we find ourselves in, is not a Thou situation, it is a me situation. Most situations really is about you, and not about God. Be honest with yourself.
In life you will face five basic situations: tight situation, tough situation, terrible situation, tragic situation, and a truth situation.
Many of us face the first four and never get to the fifth. That’s because a truth situation is the only situation that is hot. It’s the only situation that is not about you, but is about God. We usually spend more time dealing with matters about ourselves, and little time dealing with matters about God. In other words we get in trouble for our wayward actions, but never get in trouble for God’s upward actions.
The operative definition for hot is the presence of God with your life, the purpose of God for your life, and the power of God in your life. As a result, a hot situation is one that manifests God’s presence, which demonstrates God’s purpose, and magnifies God’s power. I will argue that the only hot situation in life is a truth situation.
Five basic situations:
First) A tight situation is when the boundaries of life constrict you. When you find yourself with limited options, the preverbal issue of being between a rock and a hard place.
[II Kings 7:3-4 4 men with leprosy at the entrance to the City of Samaria, there is famine in the City, no food where they are, and the enemy ahead of them. If they do into the city they will die, if they stay where they are they will die, so let’s go to the camp of the Arameans and surrender, if they spare us, we live, if they kill us, then we die.]
Second) A tough situation is when circumstances overcome you. That’s when justice is truly blind and the scales do not tilt in your favor.
[Matthew 14 Herod had placed John the Baptist in prison, the daughter of Herodias dances for Herod and pleases him. Herod promises to give her anything she asks. Give me the head of John the Baptist. And John was beheaded.]
Third) A terrible situation is when forces seek to destroy you. That’s when demonic forces draw you into their demonic schemes.
[Luke 11:24-26 When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.]
Fourth) A tragic situation is when life overwhelms you. That’s when the interim nature of life becomes a reality.
[Job loses all that he has and he worships God and says naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.]
But a truth situation is when life presents a moral decision. That’s when you have to make the Joshua decision and say “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
Dr. Martin Luther King immortalized the words of James Russell Lowell.
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.
Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
[That what this text is about, a truth situation]
Four Hebrew boys: (Belteshazzar), Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Known as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
They where among the smartest, the finest, that most athletic of the Hebrew Boys and the King Nebuchadnezzar had given an order for all of them to eat food from the King’s table. But, they refused and requested that they not eat the King’s food, but vegetables for ten days and compare their results with what the others looked like.
Daniel comes to the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar because God gave him an ability to interpret dreams. He does that for the King and the King rewards him with a position of influence. Daniel asks for positions for his friends. The King grants that request.
The King wants totally loyalty and so he issues a edict that every one must bow down to the graven image when the music is played. Someone tells the King that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not bowing down to the image.
They stand before the King and the King tells them directly to bow before the image or be thrown into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand.
The boys reply: If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand. But even, if he does not, we want you to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
This is a truth situation, a hot situation, and when a situation is hot it fosters an assurance in God, it fosters reliance in God, and it fosters a trust in God.
The King has the boys hands tied and with their clothes on thrown into the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual.
The text says the King looked with amazement when he notices four people in the furnace. Didn’t we throw three people into the furnace and now I see four. And the fourth looks like the son of God. They King releases them and promotes them again.
If there is a problem in our modern day Christian culture is that we rarely address truth situations. If we could truly trust the power of God and know that if we stand for Him, he will stand with us.
Situations in the world would change, circumstances in our home would change; the predicaments we find ourselves in would diminish.
God is looking for us to be involved in truth situations. Because when the situation is hot. When the situation is about God, he will fight your battles.
I believe I have a witness in the house who can affirm that be not dismayed whatever be tide, God will take care of you. Beneath his wings of love abide, God will take care of you.
Let me close with this story. I went to see one of our members in a rehabilitation center. When I went in he was not in his room. He was receiving heat treatment on his knee. I could see that his knee was swollen and it looked painful. I sat beside him and begin to talk about God’s goodness. After a while he told me about his condition and it seemed that he was in a tight situation, a tough situation, a terrible situation and potentially a tragic situation.
But when the nurse came in to remove the heat lamp from his knee, she asked did he feel like walking over to his room. He hadn’t done it before. But I think because I was there he wanted to show me that he could do it. He grabbed his walker and slowly trodded to his room, one step at a time.
As he walked he used that time to tell me that he wasn’t going to stay there he was walking to make heaven his home.
NO matter what may be the test, whether it’s a tight situation, a tough situation, a terrible situation, a tragic situation, or a truth situation, God will take care of you.
God will take care of you. Lean, weary one upon his breast, God will take care of you.
