Men, Wake Up To The Fight
6/19/2016 Daniel 3:1-15 Romans 12:1-2
Happy Father’s Day to all of you men out there who have served well as fathers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, sons, brothers, coaches, teachers, big brothers, mentors, and role models. I want you to know, somebody is looking at your life today, and
God wants them to see a piece of Him when they look at you, because you have been created in the image of God. You are special and unique. There is not another man on the planet that can do everything you do.
If you don’t remember anything else I say, remember that God has a calling on your life, and you need to discover it, before you get around to meeting God face to face.
Men whether you know it or not, you’re in a fight and the other side is determined to take you out. What happens if you’re in a football game, and you’re the fullback to go crashing over the goal line.
It’s 4th down and inches to go for a touchdown with three seconds left in the game and you’re down by 4. The quarterback says hike it on hut hut 2 but you were convinced it was hut 3. Everybody takes off but you. The quarterback is left holding the ball. You lose the game.
What happens if you’re in a basketball game. You have the ball, the other team is up by two with 2 seconds left, you have the way for an open 3, but you’re not paying attention to the shot clock which is now at 0 and you release the ball with nothing but nets. What could have been a victory ends up a defeat.
What happens if you are in the boxing ring, and you walk into the ring and forget the bell has sounded, you think it’s time to be introduced so you walk over with your arms up in the air. You get knocked out. You need to know what is going on around you.
We are in a society in desperate need of men who know what is going on around them. The stakes are much higher than the national championship, much bigger than the super-bowl, much more important than the Olympics, and even more critical than the NBA finals.
God is looking for men, who know what time it is and what’s going on. You don’t hear much about the tribe of Issachar in the bible, but the one thing you find out about their men is stated in 1 Chronicles 12:32, “the men of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
Men, there is a battle going on for our minds in our society. It is working through a spirit of deception and pressure to conform us to what it wants us to become. The problem is, many of us are not even aware that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle. We think our ideas are our own, our tastes are our own choosing, and the way we carry ourselves is under our own control.
But God says, no that’s not true, you are being forced and molded into someone’s pattern for your life. That is why we find in Romans 12: (NIV) 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. “We don’t understand God’s will, because somebody else has conformed our minds to their choice of pattern
In our Old Testament reading, the people of God had disobeyed God so many times, that God finally said, “look, you want nothing to do with me, I’ll let you have your way and face the consequences.” Men God wants to bless each of our lives, but God will not force us to do what we do not want to do.
Well the nation of Babylon was very powerful and bent on conquering the nations around it. God’s people were in Israel, and when the Babylonian army came against them, without God’s protection, they did not have a prayer. It would be like Jamaica taking on the United States in a military battle with no outside help.
Well the Babylonians removed the people of Israel from their land and resettled them elsewhere. But the smartest and brightest of the people were put in service for the king of Babylon. Now these smart people, knew that they lost their freedom because of their disobedience to God. So many of them, rededicated their lives to God.
They committed themselves to serve and bow down to the one true God. But here they are living in Babylon. The king of Babylon was Nebuchannezar. He had the biggest ego of anyone you could imagine and then some. He was a ruthless leader.
Nebuchanezzar made a huge image that was as tall as an eight story building and nine feet wide. It was not solid gold, but gold plated. Having conquered all these different kingdoms and various religions, King Nebuchadnezzar was probably trying to do something to unify his kingdom.
He had all the big name people, the government officials, the celebrities, and everybody who was somebody show up. He dedicated this statute in their presence. He declared that everybody everywhere, when they heard the sound of the music blasting, they were to drop whatever they were doing and fall down and worship the image of gold he had set up. Anybody who refused this offer was to be thrown in a furnace and burned alive.
This image was to be the god above all gods. So if you were praying, if the music was playing, you would have to say, “God, I have to go right now and worship the other god, but I will check back in with you when I am done.” God says, “But I told you, there is no other God, and you shall not worship idols and you shall not have any other Gods before me.” Can you imagine responding, “well, I don’t want to offend the king, and I guess everybody is entitled to their own beliefs. But I will be back.”
Don’t you think somebody ought to have said, “Look, we built that thing with our own hands. It’s not even pure gold. That thing is made out of sticks and stones, ropes and tar on the inside.” They knew the truth about the statute, but they went along with the lie, because they did not want to get in trouble.
Which of these three lines are the longest ? Asch did an experiment in which he invited 8 men to take this test with a series of cards. He had 7 of the men agree to give the wrong answer, but the 8th man did not know about the conspiracy. They discovered that 75% of the men would conform to the group when it was wrong at least once. Only 25% were willing to always stand alone with the right answer. They gave two reasons for why they went against their judgment; 1) they wanted to fit in and not look like a weirdo, and 2) they assumed the group must know what is better than they did.
Men our society today is telling us to reject what we know is true, in order to conform to the image of this world. How many boys are in this picture? Things that we knew to be true for years are now all of a sudden are wrong and subject to punishment if we try to hold on to those correct views.
God clearly states that he created the human race male and female. He also states that all of us were born with sinful desires that are not to be celebrated, but to be put under the control of Jesus Christ. Let me ask you something, if just in the area of sex, everybody in the church gave in to the desires they were born with and started acting upon them, would our church become a more wonderful place to be in, or an absolute wreck.
Nobody was willing to challenge Nebuchannezar’s politically correct worship. That is until he ran into a group of men, who had character. They were three officials who served God in the Babylonian government. They had been brought as captives to Babylon when they were teenagers and because they were among the best and brightest, they had been educated in the king’s university and given high paying jobs in the government.
Many Babylonians were jealous of them, because these foreigners had jobs they had wanted for themselves.
These three men were named Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego. Earlier in their lives they had shown their true character when they would not eat the king’s food that violated the laws of their God. When all the other young men were going along with the crowd at the banquets, they held true to their character and what they knew was right.
It was reported to the king, “There are 3 foreign guys, whom you appointed and gave them top paying, good governmental jobs, who do not have decency to worship your god, nor will they bow down to the image that you have set up.” King Nebuchannezar took their actions as a personal insult to him and had them brought forward. He wanted to know if this thing was true.
Basically he said, “There appears to have been a misunderstanding but we are ready to move forward, as long as you guys bow down when the music starts to play, we are cool. You can go back to your jobs and do what you’ve been doing. But now I want you to know I mean business. Nobody dishes the king. When the music plays, bow down or I will throw you into the furnace.
These guys were in a fight for their lives. Do they conform to the image that the King was making for them in their way of thinking? Do they do it just this one time to go along to get along? Would God really mind them making this one compromise so that they could continue to do good for others in the kingdom? Surely God would not want them to die over something this small.
They could stay on top, if they were willing to cut corners. Just bow the knee once. Men how many athletes have we seen who stayed on top by cutting corners with steroids. How many have tried to fool us into thinking they were good husbands, yet they had a girlfriend on the side? How many have impressed us with their fine cars only to be discovered selling drugs or stealing from their jobs? You see what you do and what you have is not as important as how you did it and how you got it.
Your character is what the world wants to shape and to mold. But God wants your character molded in his image. If you come to God, He is going to mold your character into the image of the greatest heavyweight champion the world has ever known. This guy knocked out Satan himself.
We have a lot of young boys out there wanting to be professional athletes and they think all it takes is skill and desire. They don’t want to come to church, because they think it has nothing to offer them. They do not realize, that church is where their character can be formed in the right direction. Coach Tony Dungy, who has won a couple of super bowls in his time, said that in the NFL coaching ability or talent , can’t make up for a lack of character in a player.
He said, “Few things will knock a player out of consideration for the draft, but character is one of them.” He also said they have a category on a sheet when they scout players for the draft. It says DNDC. It stands for Do Not Draft because of Character. We found that out the hard way with Johnny Manziel and Josh Gordon.
Men it’s up to us to model what character is about. WE are responsible to tell these young men, that character is needed in their dreams of being professionals in anything including sports. No man is going to appear before God with a bunch of trophies, stats, championship rings, or bank accounts. But all of us will lay our character at the feet of God to be judged by him.
Winning is a short lived event. It’s a great feeling to win games. But it’s a still greater feeling to have someone tell you, that your character helped to change the course of their lives. When you get to heaven, which will mean more to you or even before die, on your death bed. The hole in one you scored on the golf course, or the testimony of boys and girls saying how you as their youth worship teacher or pioneer teacher demonstrated what a man should be like and it gave them a focus for the rest of their lives.
All eyes are on Shadrack, Meshak, and Abednego. They have been heroes in the eyes of the kids who had heard about them standing with Daniel years ago. I don’t know which of them spoke up, but it says the three of them replied to the king’s command. “ We are not going to stand down. The story you heard about us is true. If you throw us in the furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from your Majesty’s hand. But even if He does not, we want to you to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold which you have set up.”
To preserve your character involves paying a price. Most people are not willing to pay the price to follow Jesus. Jesus said, “If you try to follow me, the world is going to hate you.” There is no way of getting around that. You can’t serve a God who has standards and fit in a world with no standards and think that everybody is going to like you.
Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego had not been bothering anybody. They were doing their job with excellence. They were not complaining about the image the king had built. If people wanted to bow down, that was on them. They had no problem with tolerance and diversity.
But it was the king who insisted, that they not only had to approve of his image, they had to bow down and worship it as well. They would not violate the truth of the word of God, just so they king would be pleased.
The king became so angry, that he ordered the furnace to be heated 7 times hotter than usual. He wanted to make an example out of them. They tied them up, took some of his strongest soldiers in the army to throw them into the flames. The flames were so hot, the soldiers who threw them in were killed by the blaze. Their deaths did not phase the king. They were just collateral damage of his attempt for force his agenda on everybody.
You know what happened in Orlando this past week was truly a tragedy. 50 people lost their lives at a bar that caters to gay and lesbians at the hands of a terrorist shooter who claimed he was doing it for ISIS. Nobody’s life should be snatched away from them like that, and we should all grieve for those who lost loved ones in that shooting and pray for healing for those who survived. I am sure no one’s heart ached more than the heart of God over this senseless taking of innocent lives.
Yet I knew, before 24 hours passed, we as Christians would be blamed for the tragedy. Sure enough a staff attorney for the ACLU attorney came out saying, this happened because Christians sponsored anti-LGBT legislation by which he means laws to protect religious freedom and bathroom bills. What is the connect. He claimed we created an atmosphere of fear which encouraged the gun man.
You will often here people calling for boycotts of Chick-fil-A because of their leader’s view of marriage being between a man and a woman. How many of you know that Chick fil-A in Orlando which is closed on Sunday, opened the store to cook and to take free food and drinks to all those who were lined up to give blood to the victims of the shooting and to the first responders on the scene.
That image of caring for the gay community did not fit into the world’s mold of forcing to put us all in a box of hatred and bigotry, so it didn’t get mentioned in the regular news. When you love Jesus Christ, you don’t hate anybody because you know that’s a person that Jesus died for and Jesus wants them to get to know him. He even wants to use us to give them the message.
Nebuchanezzar thought the moment he threw them in, this thing was over with, problem solved, whose the next fool who will dare to speak against me. The furnace was like a pit with most likely an upper and lower level. The top left open to lower people in it.
The bottom of the pit had an opening to take the ashes out. No doubt Nebuchanezzar went to the lower level to make sure they were burned to a crisp before going back to his everyday activities.
He happened to look through some kind of a window into the flames, and to his surprise instead of charred bones, he saw four people walking around in the flames. The fire had burned the ropes which tied them, so they got up and started walking around. He thought he was seeing things. He asked, “Didn’t you guys throw in 3 guys” They replied of course there were three.” He then said, “Well how come I see a four dudes walking around and one of them looks like a son of the gods.” Can you imagine how stunned they must have been at the king’s statement?
Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego, didn’t know what was going to happen to them when they hit the bottom of that fiery pit. They had no idea that Jesus was going to show up, hundreds of years before he was born in a manager. His presence kept their clothes from burning, kept them from burning, and even kept the smell of smoke off of them. That’s what I call full shield protection.
I want you to notice, that even though Nebuchadnezzar did not know who Jesus was, he recognized that even if he was King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Babylon, he had no authority over this fourth guy. He didn’t try to give him any commands.
He shouted out, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abenego, servants of the Most High God, come out, Come here. Whoever that fourth guy was, the king didn’t want him to come out the flames, because he knew he could probably turn his kingdom upside down.
Shadrack, Meshak and Abenego, knew they were in a battle. They were willing to go the distance. They were willing to pay the price. They would not allow their minds to be conformed to the king’s desire. They came out of that furnace stronger in their character than they had gone in. They understood that living and dying for God, was far greater than a great paying job with money and prestige.
Men we are in a fight and you need to wake up to spiritual reality. You have a soul that is going to exist long after you have died physically in your body. Nobody is more concerned about your soul than God.
Unfortunately, the fight you are in, you won’t win it by yourself. We all know that as great as Lebron James is, he can’t defeat the Golden State Warriors tonight by himself. He needs some outside help.
As great as a man as you may be, the word of God says even if you do your best, gain championship titles and rings, marry the finest woman there is, and produce great children, what does it matter for you to gain it all and lose your soul. Every man has been separated from God and needs to have that relationship reestablished.
Because every man without Jesus Christ is on his way to hell. Jesus was the Son of God, who came to this earth to show what character is all about and to reveal who God is. He lived, he died on a cross to pay for the wrong we have done, and He was raised from the dead to show we no longer have to fear death, and that He has paid in full the debt we owe to God for the wrong we have done.
You don’t have to understand it. You simply have to accept it. You do that by admitting you have done wrong, you need help, and you invite Christ in your life to take over. Christ is going to change you. He’s going to change your way of thinking. He’s going to change your character. He’s going to change you into one of the greatest men that has walked on this planet. You will be called a servant of the Most High God.
Don’t be more concerned about who will tonight’s game, than where you will be spending eternity. You might enter eternity, before tonight’s game even begins. If you’re not prepared, that will be a loss you can’t recover from. Today is the day of salvation.
(source for Christians being blamed)
Chase Strangio, one of the liberal civil rights organization's staff attorneys for its LGBT & HIV Project, works on "impact litigation, as well as legislative and administrative advocacy, on behalf of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV across the United States." His area of expertise, according to the ACLU, is the treatment of "transgender and gender non-conforming people" who are detained by law enforcement officials.
Sunday morning, he unleashed a tweetstorm about the Orlando attack in which he savaged Christians and conservatives. He first slammed a tweet from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), urging residents of Central Florida to donate blood by pointing out that homosexuals and transgender people are not allowed to donate.
Then, he made these tweets, in short order:
The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No. #PulseNightclub
You know what is gross - your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate.
My queer trans Muslim family knows that our fight is against the hateful people in power right here in *this* country. #PulseNightclub
