Shadrach, Meshach, And Abednego Series

And you've got to understand these guys are defying somebody who is the ultimate authority in the land according to what people believed. This guy had major, major power. And in the text you see that it lists all the people, the magistrates, the prefects, all these people. It is listing them over and over and over again to show you how powerful this man was, and how amazing it was that these three guys go and defy the king. If ever there was peer pressure, there was peer pressure in this situation, because anyone who was anyone was there. Okay? So in the midst of this, they say, "We are going to stand up." And it's unthinkable that they would stand up and say, "We are not going to bow. We're not going to do this. We are going to stand up and say what we believe in."

And it's interesting that in verse 8 it says that people came to the king and reported that they weren't bowing. Have you ever noticed that when you stand up for God, people report it? They report it. In Daniel Chapter 6 it talks about Daniel not bowing down in another situation, and it says people went and reported it. People will always report it. You stand up for God, and they are like, "Hey, they are not doing it."

I can remember people, when we were using the school our church used to be in a school, and we'd set up and tear down and we had portable church. And I can remember somebody calling the school district saying, "Hey, I don't know if you know this, but there is a church that meets in the school on Sundays, and I thought there is separation of church and state, and I wanted to call and let you know that they are in the school."

And they are like, "We know they are there. They pay us rent."

But they had to call. They had to make sure they let it be known, like, hey, hey, they are out there doing that.

Maybe you pray at your workplace and you pray over your lunch. I guarantee you somebody would go, "Hey, hey, they are praying. Can they pray?"

"What are they doing?"

"They are praying over their lunch. Is that legal in our company?"

"Well, it's their lunch. Did they force you to pray?"

How many know, people will say it. "I don't know. Can they do that?"

So that's what's going on. They are saying, "Hey, they're doing this. They are doing this. And we noticed they are standing up. They are standing against the crowd."

Now, it's interesting, it's interesting, if you're older than 30, 35 years old, you grew up at a time where if you stood up for God, it wasn't really that noticed. It was the norm. How many know what I'm talking about? It was the norm. You grew up. It was just assumed that you were a person of faith. It wasn't abnormal that you would believe in the things of the Bible and you'd want to stand up for God. But now today if you stand up for God, it's something that stands out. You are noticed. If you have conviction, if you have belief, if you have a stance on anything, it will stand out, because the world is coming against anyone that wants to stand up for the things of God.

I'm telling you, if you don't believe that, ask Pastor Louie Giglio who was invited to pray at the president's inauguration and said yes, and then people, people started looking through his old sermons and said, "He said this, and he said that. I can't believe you're going to have a guy like that, a pastor that would actually preach that from the Bible pray at the inauguration. Uninvite him. Don't let him pray." Because people came around and reported it. So he has to step back.