Faith in the fire
During Vacation Bible School this week we studied about faith.. and one of the songs that the kids sang every day just before going home was Put your faith in action..
We are going to study tonight about three young men that we have all studied about before. This story is commonly used as a children’s story, but I feel like to often we overlook how important the message is that we are shown in this story.
I am going to start tonight by reading in the word of God from the third chapter of Daniel and starting in verse 13.
I am going to read all the way to verse 30.
Now most of you will recognize this story, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
We do not have time to read the entire history on these three men so let me first start off by giving you a little background on their lives.
King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon at this time, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Basically he took over.
He took over Jerusalem and anything he wanted, gold, silver, people, anything he wanted he took back to Babylon with him.
And one of the things he took back to Babylon was some of Jerusalem’s best and brightest young men.
The Bible says that he took young men, without any physical defect.
Men that were handsome.
He took these men to train to be his servants.
And among these men, along with Daniel, there were three of Daniels friends.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Now, because God had intervened in these men’s lives and had allowed Daniel to interpret a dream for the king, all four men were put in prominent positions of power in the kingdom.
Then the king made a statue of gold and demanded that everyone in the kingdom bow down and worship the statue. Anyone that did not would be thrown into a fiery furnace. Well guess what, Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego would not worship the kings idol.
Now, lets go to the word of God.
Read Daniel 3:13-30
Notice how boldly these three young men stood even in the face of death.
If you will think back you will remember that when Moses was alive, God gave Israel some instructions.
We call these instructions “The 10 Commandments”.
And in the first one of these commandments God said, You shall have no other gods before me.
Now God was giving these commandments to Israel but you know that they were also meant for us today.
God said “ You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
Then God went on to say that if someone has made an idol, you are not to bow down to them or worship them.
Well I think that just about covers anything we could come up with doesn’t it.
We are not suppose to make an idol of anything.
Now Smiths Bible dictionary describes an idol as an image or anything used as an object of worship in place of the true God.
We can look back in ancient times and see that people made idols pretty much out of everything.
People made idols out of wood, iron, gold, clay.
People have worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars.
People have worshiped fish, cats, other animals.
People have worshiped supposed gods that they just made up.
Now people in our day and time would not do that would they?
Would they?
Well, they do and we do all the time.
The Philistines use to worship a fish god that they called dagon.
Now, We would not do anything like that because that is just plumb silly isn’t it.
Well, I know quite a lot of folks that have an idol called fishing.
Now, I am not condemning fishing, but we are not to put fishing or any other activity in front of God. Remember, an idol is anything that is used in place of our worship of the true God.
And how often is it now that we hear about people wanting to worship “mother earth”.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think we should take care of the resources that God has given us but the Bible plainly says that we are not to worship these resources.
I’m sorry, I really don’t want the three toed spotted horned hoot nanny to become extinct either, but when we put peoples lives in peril and when we make people suffer to try to take care of an animal that we are not sure exists, we have missed something.
And when we have millions of people out there doing everything they can and putting laws on the books to save the dolphins while at the same time millions of American babies can legally be killed in their mothers womb, Something is wrong.
If America had everything in order and if we, as a country, had God first in our worship where he belongs, there would be no abortions in this country.
And then there are those of us that say, well, I am against abortion and I know I put God first in worship.
Do we really?
How many Americans spend extra hours at work just to make another dollar just so we can have that nice car or that nice house?
How many of us will happily spend all day Saturday watching sports on TV, then spend half the night watching movies, and then wake up Sunday morning and say, “I’m to tired to go to Church today”?
Is God first in our worship? Or is he way on down the line.
These three young men that we are talking about today were putting God first in there worship.
You say, “well how can you really know that Bro.Gene?”
Because of what there actions were going to cost them.
A decree had already been put out by the king that whoever did not bow down to his idol, whoever did not worship his idol, would be thrown into the fiery furnace.
You know, I find it real interesting that I could not find anywhere in the Bible where Shadrach, Meshach or Abednego ever said, “well we need to pray about this.”
They never said, “Give us a little more time king, we need to talk about it.”
They never said, “Well, surely God will understand, he does not want us to be killed, we can repent later.”
They never said, “Well, everyone else is doing it.”
No, They said to the king, “We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.”
How could they talk like that when they were facing death?
Because they put God first in their worship.
I see no hesitation on the part of these three young men.
In verse 16 they said we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
Now this decision did not come on spur of the moment.
The kind of decision that you make where you are facing death does not come all of the sudden.
I was at a promise keepers conference a few years ago and I will never forget what one of the guest speakers said.
Now, this is similar to some illustrations I have heard in the past, but I was there when this man told of this happening in his village.
This man was from another country, one of the third world countries where life is much harder than most of us in this country would care to see.
The man said that in his town or village, a church was having services one day when a group of men armed with automatic weapons burst into the building.
The men said that anyone that would renounce God should line up on one side of the church to have their lives spared.
Then they said that anyone that would not denounce God should line up on the other side of the church and prepare to be executed.
Well, the man went on to say that the pastor told his congregation that God would forgive them if they denounced him and they could live and repent later.
The pastor and some of the congregation lined up to denounce God and live.
Others in the congregation though lined up to stand firm in their faith, even to the point of death, and accept execution.
Well, after the church divided up, the gunmen looked and then started shooting.
The gunmen did not do what they said they were going to do.
Oh, they did execute some of the congregation.
They executed the pastor and all the other members that denounced God.
Just before they left, one of the gunmen looked at the people that stood firm and were willing to die for their faith. The gunman said, at least you believe in your God enough to die for him.
Even when death is a possibility or even a probability.
You must be steadfast in your faith.
This kind of decision comes from having a long term steadfast commitment to being obedient to the commands of God.
This type of decision comes from knowing in your heart that it does not matter what the outcome is, the only thing that matters is obedience to God.
And you must make this commitment now, before the moment of decision comes up.
Make the decision now before there are any questions later.
We can tell by reading this passage of scripture, that these three men had made the decision long before the moment of truth came.
Long before the Matter at hand came into play, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had already decided.
We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
As a matter of fact, if you decide to throw us into the furnace, the God we serve is able to save us.
Our God Is able.
Then they went on to say,
But, even if he does not.
Even if he does not, we want you to know, oh king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
I think the dream Daniel interpreted for king Nebuchadnezzar kind of went to the kings head.
The dream was showing that the kings empire was mighty and strong.
But, You see, these men knew who was Almighty.
These men knew who was the one and only supreme ruler, the superpower of all, the creator.
These men knew who allowed the king to have a mighty kingdom.
What faith, even facing the fire, these men would not bow down to the pressures of their day.
Well, this really made the king mad.
The bible says that this made the king so mad that he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than ever before.
Now, the hotter the furnace, the faster the death would come.
And the king wanted the furnace heated seven times hotter than ever before.
The king may not be able to force these men to worship his idol, but he was going to show them who was in charge.
It was the custom of that time to remove all of the cloths from a person before throwing them into the furnace, but the Bible says that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were fully clothed.
The king was not going to let any time slip by.
This shows us how fast the king acted.
He was not about to have some of his highest officials rebel and not do something about it.
He was going to act quickly to have this matter taken care of.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tied up and the king picked some of his strongest soldiers to throw them into the furnace.
The word of God says that the furnace was so hot, that the men that threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the furnace, these men were killed by the flames of the furnace.
Now that was hot.
You know, I don’t see anywhere in here where either one of these young men tried to back out at the last minute.
When it came to certain death, they still stood firm in their faith.
They knew that obedience to God was much more important than even life itself.
How many of us have that kind of faith?
Or how many of us are that obedient?
Is God any different today than he was in Daniels day?
No.
Is obedience to God still more important than life itself?
You bet it is.
So here they are.
The three young men were thrown into the furnace, They were ready to die rather than be disobedient to God.
And what happened.
The king thought he would have a look see and watch the men die.
The king thought he would prove his power over life.
But when the king looked in, we are told in the word of God that he leaped to his feet in amazement.
He said, “Hey, didn’t we throw three men into the furnace? I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed.”
The king wanted to show his power and his control, but instead, through the witness of these three men, God showed the whole kingdom, including the king, who was really in control.
Notice that the only thing on Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that belonged to the king, the rope that bound them, was the only thing that burned.
The rope burned off and the men were unbound, God freed the men and kept them safe.
The Bible says that not even a hair on their heads was singed.
Now, I know how easy it is to singe a hair on your head and most of you probably do to.
It just takes a little flame or a little heat to singe or burn hair.
This furnace was seven times hotter than it ever had been.
Soldiers died from the heat and flames just because they were chosen to throw these three young men into the furnace.
These men were fully clothed and their clothes were not harmed.
Their hair was not singed.
And the Bible says that they did not even smell like smoke or fire.
I can’t even get around my grille without smelling like smoke.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were completely faithful and obedient to God.
Even in the midst of the fire.
Even facing death.
And through this, God was glorified.
God was given honor.
Many people came to know the One true God, our God through the actions of these three men.
Even the king made a new decree; no persons were to say anything against God, the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
I wish someone would decree that in our Country today.
Now I want us to ask ourselves today, Do we have the kind of faith these three young men had?
God has not changed any since this time.
And, obedience to God and his commands is still more important than life itself.
Are we willing to stand today.
Can you say, yes, I know that God is able to bring me out of the fire, I know that God can save me from this situation that I am in,
But even if he does not, I will still be obedient to him.
Take a lesson from Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
No compromise.
We tried to teach the kids this week to put their faith in action… can we best teach them by our actions??
Put your faith in action….
And if you are here this evening and you do not have that assurance that God is able to bring you out of the flames,
If you don’t know that Christ is walking around with you, even in the fire,
If you have never accepted Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior,
then would you do that today.
As we sing a hymn of invitation would you come this morning and let me pray with you, and you to can have that assurance that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had.
Would you come?
