Life in the Suck

How do I handle the world?

Shad Rad and Benny were told that they needed to worship the statue that the king told them to.

What things is the world telling you to worship?

How do you know if you are worshiping something?

Here the three guys were told to worship something physical, a statue. For you it might be something different. Maybe it is a sports team, maybe a celebrity, or a video game. Maybe it is yourself. The world is trying so hard to get you to worship something other than God

What is worship?

The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration

Really anything that we devote our lives to is an act of worship. Anything that we place above God in our lives. We worship the things that we desire most.

“True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God above all things.”

So, the world is telling you to worship anything that is not of Him. It is the whole goal of Satan, to keep your eyes off of Him. This problem isn’t new. This is what Shad Rad and Benny are experiencing. This honestly is hard right? This becomes hard because you might lose friends over it, or social standing, or even have feelings of FOMO because of it. It sucks. And this is why we look at the question

How do I handle life in the suck?

English Standard Version Chapter 3

8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. 9 They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. 11 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

This is the suck that they had to go through here. They were being told that if they did not do what the king wanted they were going to be put to death. If that is not persecution, I do not know what is. But regardless, life is going to suck for them real quick if they do not bow down to what the king asks.

What suck are you facing right now? Is it persecution from the outside? Is it hard things in life that aren’t persecution, but feels like you cannot get out of?

Whatever it is, first, let me say that the Suck is real and I get that. God is much bigger than that suck though, and here is really how we get through it.

King Nebby was so mad that he called these guys in and told them that they must bow down no matter what. They are now face to face with the suck and how do they handle it?

English Standard Version Chapter 3

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

I love the NIV that they say “we do not need to defend ourselves”. Shad Rad and Benny first and foremost knew who the God they served was. They knew with their whole heart that God was going to save them no matter what, and even if He didn’t, they still were not going to bow down to the king because they were so passionate about their love for the Lord.

Their perception of God was that He was a God who would save them, who loved them, and even if He didn’t save them, there was a bigger picture in mind for His glory, and they wanted Him to get the glory.

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Who is God to you?

The answer here for Shad Rad and Benny was founded in the knowledge that their God is a God who can save, who has saved, and who will save. These three would have known the stories about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They would have known how He saved His people from the hands of the Egyptians, how He parted the see, the various wars that were won to keep Israel a strong nation. These men knew these stories and believed that God was who He said He was, and nothing was going to change that.

You and I have similar stories right? No matter how hard life gets, or how hard pressed we might be, we have the same stories and knowledge. In fact, we have more, because we know how the story ends after all of this. We know what comes after the OT, we know that Jesus comes and sets us free. That He has beaten death, hell, and the grave. That He gave us new life, and that nothing can take that away. Further than that, He gave us the Holy Spirit because He promised to never leave us!

So…do you believe that? I say believe because we have talked about belief vs understanding. Shad, Rad, and Benny knew who God was and believed it.

You have to know Him

“Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him.”

This is something that is really cool to me because what this means is that because God created us with His hands, breathed His breath into our lungs, He gave us the ability to KNOW Him. Not just know of Him, but on a deep intimate level know him.

English Standard Version Psalm 42

1  As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

2  My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

Our souls long to be near to Him. This passage goes on to talk about deep crying out to deep. Because He made us, we get to know Him, and our souls want to know Him.

How do we get to know Him?

You have to know Him

You have to trust in, hope in, and praise Him

This does not come without knowing the Lord first, but you have to trust, hope and praise. These three go hand in hand together, and sometimes this is something that you have to tell yourself to do over and over again, but we have to.

English Standard Version Psalm 42

5  Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation

The author of this Psalm here was displaced from their home in Israel and longed to be with the Lord, they are broken, living in the suck, yet they still knew they had to trust in and praise the name of the Lord.

Shad Rad and Benny were about to experience the suck, but they knew who their God was. Knew that He was able to save, but even if He didn’t that He was still God and that was enough for them. That even if God did not save them, they still knew that He was going to get the glory, that He still had a plan, and they just needed to trust.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

The awesome part is that all of this does work not only for you, but for those around you too. Nebby here knew who God was because of this. He knew that God was the true God.