Trust Series

The same thing happened in Tampa Bay for their Pride Night. Five of the players refused to wear the rainbow patches and received the same condemnation.

Whether it’s in the area of sexuality, business, ethics, or relationships, we all feel pressure to go along to get along. We don’t like to stand out.

I love the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases Romans 12:2:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, and develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:2, The Message)

August Landmesser joined the Nazi party in 1932 and was committed to the cause. That is until he fell in love with Irma Eckler, who happened to be Jewish.

[Side] This picture was taken at a 1936 rally. While everyone around him gave the Nazi salute, he stood there with his arms crossed. This didn’t go unnoticed by those around him. But he couldn’t salute a man who wanted to kill his beloved wife.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:

 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor.15:58)

[Slide] Martin Luther was called to the Diet of Worms and asked to recant his teaching about the Gospel. He was given 24 hours to pray and then he came back the next day and declared:

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me.”

When God gives you the opportunity to stand up, what will be your motivation?

To live fearless in Babylon, we have to remember God’s faithfulness.

These three Hebrew guys had been raised by faithful parents, given names that honored God, and had probably experienced their Bar Mitzvah before being kidnapped.

They had learned the Bible stories of God’s faithfulness. They knew the story of the parting of the Red Sea. They sang about the faithfulness of God to Abraham. They had memorized the promises of God.

But more than that, they remembered back to that night when Daniel asked them to pray that he could interpret the dream. It was a matter of life and death. And God answered their prayers and saved their lives.

They knew and trusted the promise of Isaiah 43:2:

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.”

Paul wrote of God’s faithfulness in what seemed like hopelessness:

“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:910)